Clipping guides & playbooks
How to turn long podcasts, streams and VODs into short vertical clips that actually get watched: hooks, captions, cadence, and what the algorithms reward.
How to make your clips look like your brand, without opening an editor
Caption colours, your logo and @handle, a headline and one layout used every time. How to make short clips recognisably yours, for your own channel or a client's.
3 min readCaption styles for short clips: which colours and sizes hold up on a phone
How to pick caption colours, a highlight colour and a size for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, so captions stay readable on any footage and your clips look like yours.
4 min readThe best AI clip makers with no credits in 2026, and how the others charge
Which AI clip makers charge a flat price and which meter you by credits, minutes or clips. Plans and limits from each tool's own pricing page.
2 min readWill clips get demonetized? YouTube's reused content policy, explained for clippers
YouTube can refuse to monetize a whole channel for reused content, even with the creator's permission. What the policy says, what counts as adding value, and how to run a clip channel that passes review.
7 min readThe short-form video checklist: 14 things to check before you post a clip
Hook, length, ending, framing, captions, safe zone, sharpness, sound. Fourteen checks that take a minute per clip and catch most of what sinks a short.
4 min readHow to start a clipping channel: niche, accounts, footage and a posting system
A clip channel is a system, not an edit. How to pick a niche, set up accounts, get footage you may post, and turn one long video into a week of clips.
4 min readHow to make vertical gameplay clips for TikTok and Shorts without losing the HUD
A 9:16 crop keeps about 32% of a 16:9 game. The three layouts that work for gameplay on TikTok and Shorts, what each costs you, and how we choose between them.
4 min readHow to clip Kick streams into TikToks, Shorts and Reels
Kick's clip button stops at a minute and keeps the 16:9 frame. How to turn a whole Kick VOD into vertical, captioned clips, and the link mistake to avoid.
5 min readHow to make money clipping in 2026: real pay rates, 12 platforms and a step-by-step plan
What clippers really earn per 1,000 views, the 12 clipping platforms compared with their own published terms, and a plan from zero to your first payout.
9 min readWhy do my AI clips look blurry? Five causes, in the order to check them
A vertical crop keeps about a third of the frame, then scales it up. Add a 360p source or a platform re-encode and clips turn to mush. How to find which step did it.
4 min readWhat makes a podcast clip go viral: the eight hook types we look for
The scroll decision happens in two seconds. The eight opening shapes that survive it, with examples, and the one rule that matters more than any of them.
5 min readShorts vs Reels vs TikTok: the clip specs that actually differ, and the safe zone nobody checks
All three want 1080x1920. Where they differ is length, the on-screen UI covering your captions, and what counts as a short. One clip, three uploads.
4 min readHow to turn a YouTube video into Shorts, Reels and TikToks (without re-editing it)
Paste the link, get clips. What actually happens to a YouTube video on the way to a vertical short, what resolution you end up with, and what to check.
4 min readHow long should a short-form clip be? Why we settled on 20–45 seconds
Our first clips came out at 6 and 12 seconds. What the platforms reward, what the data on our own output showed, and why we settled on 20–45 seconds.
4 min readHow AI video clipping actually works: the four stages between a link and a clip
Transcription, moment detection, reframing, render. What each stage does, where it fails, and how to tell which one broke when a clip looks wrong.
5 min readFree AI clip generators: what "free" actually gets you on each tool
Most free tiers give you 60 source minutes, 720p and a 3-day expiry. One gives you up to 540 minutes, 1080p and keeps your clips. The free tiers side by side.
4 min readHow auto-reframe to 9:16 works, and why the first three versions of ours were wrong
A vertical crop keeps about a third of a widescreen frame. Where it sits is the whole problem. Centred, tracked, locked and per-shot framing, and what each got wrong.
5 min readAuto captions for short clips: what actually matters, and the one error nobody tests for
Word-timed, burned in, in the safe zone, spelled right. Where auto-captions fail on clips, and why a 98%-accurate transcript still misspells the guest's name.
5 min readWhy AI clips cut off mid-sentence, and how we measured it
Most AI clipping tools end clips mid-thought. The cause is a specific transcription limitation. We measured ours at 7 of 10 clips, then fixed it.
4 min readWhat clipping credits really cost: the arithmetic nobody does upfront
Credits, upload minutes and clip quotas sound generous until you map them to real source video. The maths on podcasts, VODs and client work.
3 min readWhy every AI clip scores 85: the score inflation problem
Our clip scores all landed between 83 and 89, useless for ranking. Why AI scoring collapses into a narrow band, and what we changed.
3 min read