This shorts video currently ranks number one on Google search out of 113 million results, and shows a large thumbnail at the top of the search results.

It’s my top traffic source out of all the other traffic sources, but YouTube says “for now, you can’t change the thumbnail on YouTube short.” When viewed on YouTube, YouTube just selects a vertical frame taken from your shorts video.

What’s the workaround?

In the video below, I’m going to show you 2 ways to upload or change a custom thumbnail for YouTube shorts so you can get more views.

Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.

Here’s how to upload or change a custom thumbnail for your shorts video
using the free Chrome extension VidIQ

Here’s my shorts video titled YouTube Shorts Tips, which currently has a vertical thumbnail, but I want to change that to a custom thumbnail.

• On the video details page, it says, “for now, you can’t change the thumbnail on your short”
• If you have the VidIQ Chrome extension installed, you’ll see beside the thumbnail, “create thumbnail.” So click on that.
• Click on “other image” T
• Here’s drop file here, or click to browse the files. So you’re going to “click to browse files“,
• Click on shorts tips,
• Click open,
• Now I’ve got my custom thumbnail called shorts tips.
• Click Next.
• You could create your own custom thumbnail just using this thumbnail editor, but I’ve already created my custom thumbnail, so I’m just going to click next.  
• And I’ve got YouTube search, Facebook and Twitter.
• Select YouTube search. 
• Save thumbnail.
• Now I’m going to refresh the page. 
• Click Reload.
• And here’s my new custom thumbnail that I uploaded for my YouTube shorts.

Here’s how to upload or change a custom thumbnail for YouTube shorts
using the free Chrome extension TubeBuddy.

Here’s another Shorts video titled YouTube Tips that doesn’t have a custom thumbnail.

• If you have the TubeBuddy Chrome extension installed, you’ll see this
  TubeBuddy icon under the Shorts thumbnail.
• Click on the dropdown.
• It says TubeBuddy tools.
• Click on Thumbnail Generator.
• It says, what type of background would you like for the thumbnail? 
• Select a still frame from the video, choose a solid color or image, or existing thumbnail.
• So I have an existing thumbnail so I’m going to click on that.
• I can choose from any of these suggestions from TubeBuddy,
  or I can click to upload your own image.
• So I’m going to click on that.
• Select shorts tips.
• Click open.
• Here it  is.
• Click continue.
• The great benefit of using TubeBuddy’s thumbnail generator is that it shows your custom thumbnail here at the top,  then all your competitors’ thumbnails below. 
• Click Save and publish.
• Are you sure you want to publish this thumbnail?
• Click OK.
• It says, please reload this page to see your changes.
• Click reload.
• And now you can see I’ve got the custom thumbnail uploaded for my shorts video.

Keep in mind that when you upload a custom thumbnail for YouTube shorts, it only appears in Google search, whereas on YouTube, it selects a vertical frame from your shorts video.

As you can see, when you view shorts on the short shelf from your mobile phone, it shows a preview of the shorts video, so your custom thumbnail won’t appear there but it will show a vertical frame

It also automatically shifts to the next Shorts video for you to watch. This means that the first few seconds of your Shorts video really counts if you want to get a good preview on your Shorts video for people scrolling their mobile phones. 

Recently, YouTube enabled Android users to choose a frame from their Shorts video to use as a custom thumbnail. Keep in mind, this is a vertical thumbnail that’s selected from one of the frames on the Shorts video, and it’ll be seen on YouTube as well as on mobile phones. It won’t be the same as the custom thumbnail that I created for you today.

Here’s what YouTube says about vertical videos.with 16:9 custom thumbnails.

“Vertical videos with 16:9 custom thumbnails will be replaced by an auto generated 4:5 thumbnail on the home, explore and subscription pages. Your custom thumbnail will still appear on the watch feed, watch history, and non-mobile platforms.”

If you want to grow your channel fast using YouTube shorts, watch this video for 10 Killer Ways to grow YouTube channel using YouTube shorts.

Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.

I made this Shorts video while I was out and about using the video editing tools from the Shorts camera app on my phone.

In the video below I’ll show you how to make a Shorts video right from your phone using the video editing tools from the YouTube Shorts camera app.

Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.

Let’s get on my phone to show you the shorts video editing tools from the YouTube app.

• Tap the YouTube app
• Tap the plus Sign
• Tap Create a short.
• Make your first frame count.
• You only have a couple of seconds to grab your viewer’s attention when they’re scrolling the shorts feed on their phones.
• Tap the red button to create a short.
• Hello there. I’m now recording a short. 
• Tap the red button again to stop recording.
• If you want to expand the short from 15 seconds to 60 seconds, then tap the 15.
• Now you’ve got 60 seconds.
• If you made a mistake, you can actually redo it by tapping on the undo.
• If you want to redo it, just tap redo.
• If you want to add a video from your camera roll, just tap the picture to the left.
• So I could choose one of these vertical videos.
• I can edit it by just move my finger from the right to the left or left to right.
• If want to undo that, just tap undo.
• This means you can pre-record multiple video clips that you can add to your camera roll then include them in your short,  when editing your shorts video. 
• To look at the video editing tools, just tap the arrow at the bottom.
• I can flip it so I can view my computer screen that I’m recording right now.
• If I tap this icon, then I can choose all these different effects.
• If I tap speed, then I can speed up my video 0.3 x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x.

You can now film hands free by tapping the timer button. So drag to change where the recording stops So I could start it at a certain time like this. Now I’m recording another portion of my video. If I want to go back and add another piece just tap this icon there.

Let’s check the rest of the tools.

So I can do a green screen. I could choose from one of these images. You can select any video or photo from a camera roll to use as a background for you short. Then I’ll select maybe this one here as my green screen. 

Looks pretty good.

Tap done. And then I’ll tap on the arrow again.

So if I want to retouch my images, I can choose filters. So I can choose any of these filters that are down below here.

Tap the align tool to make a perfect transition between two segments.

Here’s how to do it.

• If you want to hit that perfect transition between two segments, use align.
• To use it you’ll need to record a segment first.
• Then,  change up your background or throw a new look.
• And from within the camera, press align on the right hand side, which will show a transparent view of your last frame.
• This lets you line up your next shot with your previous shot.
• It’s that simple.
• When you’re happy with the result, press next in the top right and watch it come to life

If you want to adjust the lighting of your video, tap lighting.

If I tap trim, then I could actually trim my video if I wanted to. So I tap the thumbnail to edit it and then I can close the video editing tools.

Okay, so I tapped the check mark.  

I can add sound.
Now you can add up the 60 seconds of sound using the audio library from YouTube, which is free to use. So I can choose unstoppable.

I can also add text.
I can move this text around if I want.

I can also do a voiceover. 
Tap to hold to record a audio. Hey, this is a new video that I’m  going to make right now.
Tap again.

And then I can also do a timeline so I can choose where I want my text to be. You can use this feature to trigger different messages at different times in your shorts video, so I can choose it at the beginning.

I can add some more towards the end, etcetera. Tap done, and then a tap next. And here I can just add a title to my video.

I can check the visibility, so it could be, public, unlisted, private. I suggest making it unlisted initially so you can check if there’s any mistakes.

After you’ve optimized your Shorts video, just switch it to public.

If you want to schedule it, just tap schedule. Then you can select the day…time. Tap back again.

No It’s not made for kids. Yes, it’s made for kids. So select It’s not made for kids. You can save it as a draft by tapping save draft, or you can upload as a short by tapping, upload short and that’s all there is to it.

If you want to know how to upload shorts from your pc, watch this video how to upload shorts from your pc, which is updated for 2023

Click here to Get My New Video Course
“SECRETS TO AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT” You’ll discover how to hook your viewers’ attention, get them to spend more time on each video, and motivate them to watch more videos from your channel, so YouTube will recommend your content to other channels.