Creator glossary
The words YouTube, TikTok and creators use, explained in a sentence or two, with what each means for your channel.
All terms
Inauthentic content
Inauthentic content is YouTube’s name, since 15 July 2025, for mass-produced or repetitive videos that look made from a template, with little change each time.
OpenReused content
Reused content is YouTube’s name for videos that repurpose material from YouTube or elsewhere online without significant commentary, changes or added value.
OpenYouTube Partner Program (YPP)
The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is how a channel earns from YouTube, through ads and other features, once it meets the thresholds and YouTube accepts it.
OpenRPM (revenue per mille)
RPM (revenue per mille) is what a creator has earned for every 1,000 views on YouTube, after YouTube’s share: the number that turns views into money.
OpenCPM (cost per mille)
CPM (cost per mille) is what advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions on YouTube, before YouTube’s share. It is not what the creator earns: that is RPM.
OpenFaceless channel
A faceless channel is a YouTube or TikTok channel whose creator never appears on camera: narration over footage, pictures or animation tells each story.
OpenHook
A hook is the first line or first seconds of a video, written to make people stay for the rest: a question, a surprising fact or the start of a story.
OpenAudience retention
Audience retention is how much of a video people watch. YouTube Studio shows it as a curve over the video’s length, with average view duration beside it.
OpenCTR (impressions click-through rate)
The share of people who saw your thumbnail and title on YouTube and clicked to watch.
OpenAI disclosure (altered or synthetic content)
YouTube’s rule that creators say when a video contains realistic altered or AI-generated content that viewers could mistake for real.
OpenB-roll
B-roll is the footage or pictures shown over narration or an interview to illustrate what is being said, as opposed to the main shot of the speaker.
OpenEvergreen content
Videos about topics that stay relevant for years, so they keep getting views long after they are posted.
OpenYouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts are vertical or square videos of up to 3 minutes, watched in a feed people swipe through and paid from a shared monthly pool.
OpenWatch time
Watch time, counted in watch hours, is the total time viewers spent watching your videos. YouTube uses it to rank videos and for Partner Program eligibility.
OpenContent ID
Content ID is YouTube’s system that checks uploads against copyright owners’ files and, on a match, blocks the video, monetizes it for the owner or tracks it.
OpenNiche
The one topic a channel is about, and the audience that comes for it.
OpenThumbnail
The still image that stands for a video before anyone clicks it; with the title, it decides the click.
OpenVoiceover
A voiceover is narration recorded or generated apart from the picture and played over a video, so viewers hear a voice without seeing who speaks.
OpenAspect ratio
Aspect ratio is a video’s shape, width to height: 9:16 is vertical, as on TikTok, Reels and Shorts; 16:9 is wide, 1:1 square and 4:5 the tall feed shape.
OpenContent repurposing
Turning one piece of content into others: a long video cut into short clips, a podcast into Shorts, a video into another shape.
OpenCopyright strike
What YouTube gives a channel when a copyright owner has one of its videos removed with a legal takedown request. Three active strikes end the channel.
OpenEngagement rate
How much people interact with a video compared with how many saw it: likes, comments, shares and saves divided by views, or by followers.
OpenText-to-speech (TTS)
Software that reads written text aloud in a generated voice: how most faceless videos get their narration.
OpenYouTube algorithm
The recommendation system that decides which videos YouTube shows each viewer: on the home page, next to other videos and in the Shorts feed.
OpenEngaged views
Engaged views are the YouTube Shorts views that count for money: plays where the viewer kept watching instead of scrolling past. Shorts views count every start.
OpenShorts Creator Pool
The Creator Pool is the share of Shorts feed ad revenue YouTube sets aside for creators each month, split by engaged views. Each channel keeps 45% of its share.
OpenFacebook content monetization
Facebook content monetization is Meta’s invitation-only program that pays creators for how their reels, photos, text and stories do. It replaced in-stream ads.
OpenTikTok Creator Rewards Program
The Creator Rewards Program is TikTok’s program that pays for original videos over one minute, in 8 countries, from 10,000 followers and 100,000 views.
OpenInstagram Gifts
Virtual gifts viewers send on your reels with Stars they buy. Instagram pays US$0.01 per Star, in 49 countries, from 500 followers.
OpenSRT file
An SRT file is a plain-text caption file: numbered lines, each with a start and end time and the words shown then. YouTube takes it as a basic subtitle format.
OpenClosed captions
Captions kept apart from the picture: the platform draws them over the video and viewers can turn them off. Burned-in captions are called open captions.
OpenFair use
Fair use is a rule of US copyright law that allows some use of copyrighted material without the owner’s permission. A court decides it, case by case.
OpenQualified view (TikTok)
A qualified view is a view TikTok counts toward Creator Rewards payments: one of an eligible video, over one minute long, that TikTok accepts as a real view.
OpenDiamonds (TikTok LIVE)
Diamonds are what a TikTok creator gets when viewers send Gifts, mostly during a LIVE. TikTok uses them to measure popularity and states no rate per Diamond.
OpenSpotlight (Snapchat)
Spotlight is Snapchat’s feed of public short videos, recommended to people who do not follow you. Ads within Spotlight can share revenue with invited creators.
OpenSnap Star
A Snap Star is a Snapchat creator whose public profile Snap has verified by hand. It is one of the conditions of Snap’s Monetization Program.
OpenStars (Facebook)
Facebook Stars are virtual gifts fans buy from Meta and send to creators on lives, reels, videos, photos and text posts. Meta pays US$0.01 for each Star.
OpenReels bonus
A Reels bonus is money Instagram or Facebook pays invited creators for how their reels perform. On Instagram bonuses are invitation-only and time-limited.
OpenPublic domain footage
Public domain footage is video no longer, or never, protected by copyright, so anyone may use it without permission. It is not the same as free stock footage.
OpenClips channel
A clips channel is a channel that posts short vertical clips cut from longer videos, such as podcasts, interviews or streams, often for their creator.
OpenCommentary video
A commentary video is one that shows someone else’s clip or work and adds the creator’s own voice: explanation, criticism, context or an argument.
OpenSafe zone
The safe zone is the part of a vertical video that the app’s buttons, captions and profile name do not cover, where text and faces should stay to be seen.
OpenCaptions vs subtitles
Captions write out a video’s speech and key sounds for people who cannot hear it; subtitles give the speech in a language the viewer reads, often a translation.
OpenVTT file (WebVTT)
A VTT file (WebVTT, Web Video Text Tracks) is a text file of timed captions for web video. It starts with WEBVTT and can carry position and styling.
OpenBurned-in captions
Burned-in captions, also called open or hardcoded captions, are part of the video picture itself, so everyone sees them and no viewer can turn them off.
OpenDubbing vs subtitling
Dubbing replaces a video’s speech with a recording in another language; subtitling keeps the original voice and shows the translation as text on screen.
OpenVoice clone
A voice clone is an AI voice made from recordings of one real person, so a text-to-speech system can read any script in that person’s voice.
OpenAI narration
AI narration is a voice-over read by a text-to-speech voice instead of a person: you write the script and an AI voice reads it with pauses and stress.
OpenAI short drama (micro-drama)
A micro-drama is a scripted vertical series in very short episodes, often about a minute each, each ending on a cliffhanger. AI ones are made with AI tools.
OpenSeries (episodic shorts)
An episodic shorts series is a set of short videos on one topic or story, posted as numbered episodes so each one leads viewers to the next.
OpenRemix (Clip-Short)
A Remix is Clip-Short’s researched commentary video built around one clip: the AI looks up the story behind it and narrates it around the clip’s own sound.
OpenAI Clipping (Clip-Short)
AI Clipping is Clip-Short’s tool that finds the strongest moments in a long video and cuts them into vertical clips with captions, keeping the speaker in frame.
OpenReframe (Clip-Short)
Reframe is Clip-Short’s tool that changes a video’s shape, such as wide 16:9 to vertical 9:16, with the crop following the subject in each shot.
OpenClip pack (Clip-Short)
The Clip pack is a one-time Clip-Short purchase: US$5.99 for 120 minutes of AI Clipping, every clip of those videos with no watermark, and 3 remixes.
OpenYour next video starts with an idea
Write it, and in a few minutes you have a video ready to post.