How I Automate 150+ Shorts, Reels, and TikToks Every Month (Without Hiring a Video Editor)
- rexautomaton
- Dec 11, 2025
- 10 min read
You're recording great long-form content, but you're watching competitors pump out dozens of short-form videos while you're stuck manually clipping, editing, and posting. Meanwhile, algorithms favor accounts that post daily, and you're barely managing once a week.
I partnered with a 100,000+ subscriber YouTube channel and built a completely automated system that turns every long-form video into around 150 Shorts, Reels, and TikToks every month. No manual clipping. No timeline scrubbing. No upload headaches.
Here's exactly how the system works, which tools do the heavy lifting, and how you can set this up for your own channel or clients.
The Problem with Manual Short-Form Content Creation
Let's talk about the real cost of doing this manually. If you're a creator or running a content team, you know this pain intimately.
Creating one quality short-form video manually takes about 20-30 minutes when you factor in finding the clip, trimming it, adding captions, exporting, and uploading. If you want to post daily across YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, that's 90 videos per month.
At 20 minutes per video, you're looking at 1,800 minutes or 30 hours per month. If you're paying a video editor $25-50 per hour, that's $750-1,500 monthly just for short-form content. If you're doing it yourself, that's nearly a full work week every month on repetitive tasks.
The channels winning on short-form aren't the ones with the best equipment or biggest budgets. They're the ones posting consistently, multiple times per day, across all platforms. You can't do that manually without burning out or hiring a full team.
How the 150+ Video Automation System Works
Here's the complete workflow I built. The entire system runs in the background after initial setup, and a single long-form video generates weeks of content automatically.
Step 1: Upload Your Long-Form Content
Start with any long-form video: podcasts, YouTube videos, vlogs, webinars, interviews, tutorials. The length doesn't matter much, but 30-60 minute videos typically generate 15-25 quality clips each.
For the channel I'm working with, every podcast episode they publish becomes the source material. One 45-minute episode easily produces 20+ short clips that perform well.
Step 2: AI Scans for High-Performance Moments
This is where the magic happens. Instead of you watching the entire video looking for good moments, AI analyzes the content and identifies sections with strong hooks, engaging moments, and viral potential.
The AI looks for several key indicators: topic changes, energetic delivery, questions being asked, strong statements, emotional moments, and points where engagement would naturally peak. It's essentially doing what a skilled editor would do, but in minutes instead of hours.
Tools like Opus.pro and Klap.app both use AI to find these moments, but they approach it differently. Opus tends to prioritize virality scores and social media engagement patterns, while Klap focuses more on conversational flow and natural breakpoints.
Step 3: Automatic Reframing for Vertical Video
Every clip gets automatically reframed from landscape to vertical 9:16 format. The AI tracks the speaker and keeps them centered in the frame, even when they move around.
This isn't just a simple crop. The system intelligently follows the action, zooms when appropriate, and ensures text or important visual elements stay visible. What would take 10-15 minutes per clip manually happens instantly.
Step 4: Auto-Generated Captions
Captions aren't optional anymore. They increase watch time significantly because most people scroll social media with sound off. The system automatically generates accurate captions with customizable styling.
You can set your brand colors, font styles, caption positioning, and animation preferences once, then every video uses those settings. The caption accuracy is typically 95%+ because it's using the same AI transcription technology as professional services.
Step 5: Automated Posting Across Platforms
Here's where it gets really powerful. The system can schedule and automatically post to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and even Facebook Reels without you touching each platform.
You set your posting schedule once (say, 3 videos per day across platforms), and the system handles everything: uploading files, adding descriptions, including hashtags, and publishing at optimal times based on when your audience is active.
I've tested both extensively, and here's the honest breakdown of where each one shines.
Opus.pro is better when you want maximum volume and viral potential scoring. It generates more clips per video (often 20-30 from a single source) and gives each clip a virality score predicting how it might perform. The AI is aggressive about finding moments, which means you get quantity.
The interface shows you exactly why it selected each clip, what the predicted engagement is, and lets you batch edit settings across multiple clips. If you're running a content agency or managing multiple channels, Opus handles volume well.
Pricing starts around $29 per month for the basic plan, but you'll likely need the $99-149 plans if you're processing multiple long videos monthly or running this at scale.
Klap.app excels at finding conversational, authentic moments. It's particularly good with interview-style content, podcasts, and educational videos where you want to preserve the natural flow of dialogue.
Klap generates fewer clips per video (typically 10-15) but the selection quality is higher for specific content types. The clips feel more like intentional teaching moments rather than just viral hooks. If your brand is more educational or relationship-focused, Klap often produces better results.
Pricing is more accessible, starting around $29 per month for standard use, making it better for individual creators or smaller operations.
For the 100,000+ subscriber channel I'm working with, we actually use both. Opus processes their main podcast episodes for maximum volume, and Klap handles their interview content where conversation quality matters more than quantity.
The Automation Workflow That Connects Everything
Having great clips is only half the battle. The real efficiency comes from automating the entire workflow so it runs without your involvement.
Here's how to connect the pieces using automation tools like Make.com or Zapier:
Trigger: New video uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube
Action 2: AI generates clips and exports them to cloud storage
Action 3: Clips get sent to scheduling tool (like Hootsuite, Buffer, or platform-native schedulers)
Action 4: Auto-schedule across YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok based on your predefined calendar
Action 5: Notification sent to you when everything is scheduled (optional)
The entire process from upload to scheduled posts takes about 15-30 minutes of processing time, but zero minutes of your active work. You can literally record a video, upload it, and walk away while the system does everything else.
Real Results: What 150+ Videos Per Month Actually Delivers
For the channel I partnered with, here's what happened after implementing this system:
Before automation, they were posting 2-3 short-form videos per week, manually created. That's roughly 10-12 videos per month. After automation, they're consistently publishing 150+ videos monthly across all platforms.
The engagement metrics tell the story. Their YouTube Shorts views increased by 340% in the first two months. Instagram Reels went from averaging 2,000 views per post to 8,000-12,000. TikTok, which they barely touched before, now drives 25% of their total channel traffic.
More importantly, their subscriber growth accelerated. They were gaining about 1,500 subscribers per month before. Three months after implementing automated short-form content, that number jumped to 4,200 per month average.
The algorithm rewards consistency and volume. When you're feeding platforms 4-5 quality videos per day instead of 2-3 per week, you're giving the algorithm more chances to find your audience.
Who This System Works Best For
This automation approach isn't for everyone, but it's transformative for specific types of creators and businesses.
YouTube Creators with Existing Long-Form Content: If you're already producing podcasts, tutorials, or commentary videos, you're sitting on a goldmine of repurposable content. Every video you've already made can generate dozens of shorts.
Agencies Managing Multiple Clients: The ability to process multiple channels simultaneously makes this perfect for agencies. Set up the workflow once per client, then let it run. You can easily manage 10-20 clients with minimal active time.
Business Owners Creating Educational Content: If you're recording webinars, training videos, or thought leadership content, this system extends the reach of every piece you create. One webinar becomes a month of social media content.
Coaches and Consultants: Your coaching calls, training sessions, and Q&As are perfect source material. With client permission, turn sessions into educational shorts that demonstrate your expertise.
Podcast Hosts: Every episode becomes 15-25 shareable clips. Your audio content now has a visual component working for you across video platforms.
The Cost Breakdown: Automation vs Manual
Let's compare the real numbers of automated vs manual short-form content creation.
Manual Approach (90 videos per month):
Video editor at $30/hour × 30 hours = $900/month
Or your time: 30 hours × your hourly value
Upload and scheduling time: 5-10 hours additional
Total cost: $900-1,500+ per month plus massive time commitment
Automated Approach (150 videos per month):
You're getting 67% more content for 75-85% less cost, and you're saving 25+ hours of manual work monthly. The ROI is obvious.
Common Mistakes That Kill Results
I've seen plenty of people try this and fail. Here are the mistakes that tank performance:
Posting Everything the AI Generates: Just because the AI creates 30 clips doesn't mean all 30 are winners. Review the virality scores and pick the top 60-70%. Quality still matters more than pure volume.
Ignoring Platform-Specific Optimization: What works on TikTok doesn't always work on YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels. The same clip might need different captions, hashtags, or hooks depending on the platform.
Not Customizing Captions and Styling: Generic caption styling screams "automated content." Spend 30 minutes setting up your brand's caption style, colors, and positioning. This small touch makes automated content look intentional.
Forgetting to Add Context: Some clips need a quick intro or outro added manually to make sense standalone. A 45-second clip about "this strategy" needs context about what "this" refers to.
Setting and Forgetting: The system should run automatically, but you still need to check performance weekly. Double down on what's working and adjust what isn't.
Setting Up Your First Automated Workflow
Here's exactly how to get started, even if you're not technical:
Week 1: Choose Your Tool and Test
Sign up for either Opus.pro or Klap.app (both offer trials). Upload one of your best-performing long-form videos and let the AI process it. Review the clips it generates and adjust the settings until you're happy with the output quality.
Week 2: Set Up Your Automation
Create accounts on Make.com or Zapier. Build the basic workflow: new video upload triggers AI processing, processed clips go to cloud storage, clips get scheduled across platforms. Start simple with one platform, then expand.
Week 3: Schedule Your First Month
Take your processed clips and schedule them across platforms. Aim for 2-3 posts per day on each platform initially. Monitor which times and types of content perform best.
Week 4: Optimize and Scale
Review your analytics. Which clips got the most engagement? What patterns do you notice? Adjust your AI settings to generate more of what's working. Increase posting frequency on platforms that are responding well.
The Content Multiplication Effect
Here's what most creators miss: every piece of long-form content you create has a multiplier effect when properly repurposed.
One 45-minute podcast episode generates 20 short-form videos. If each short gets an average of 5,000 views (conservative estimate), that's 100,000 total views from one source video. Your long-form video might get 10,000 views, but the shorts generated from it deliver 10x the reach.
Those 100,000 views drive subscribers back to your main channel. We've tracked that about 2-3% of short-form viewers convert to subscribers when the content is good. That's 2,000-3,000 new subscribers from one episode's worth of shorts.
Multiply this across 4 episodes per month, and you're adding 8,000-12,000 subscribers monthly just from automated short-form content. This is how channels grow from 100,000 to 500,000 subscribers in a year.
Beyond YouTube: The Full Platform Strategy
While YouTube Shorts is the obvious target, the real power is cross-platform distribution.
Instagram Reels: Same vertical video content works perfectly. Instagram's algorithm heavily favors Reels in 2024, often showing them to 3-5x your follower count. Cross-posting your best shorts here multiplies reach without additional work.
TikTok: The platform is still the king of short-form discovery. Even small accounts can hit millions of views if the content resonates. Your automated shorts give you dozens of shots at virality every month.
Facebook Reels: Often overlooked, but Facebook is pushing Reels hard and the competition is lower. The same content that might get buried on TikTok can pop on Facebook because fewer creators are there.
LinkedIn: For business and educational content, vertical videos are gaining traction on LinkedIn. Your automated shorts work here too, especially if they're educational or industry-specific.
The beauty of automation is you're not choosing between platforms. You hit all of them simultaneously with the same content, customized for each platform's audience and algorithm.
What This Means for Your Content Strategy
This isn't just about saving time or cutting costs. It's about fundamentally changing how you approach content creation.
Instead of thinking "I need to create 90 pieces of content this month," you think "I need to create 3-4 great long-form pieces and let automation create the 90 short-form pieces."
Your focus shifts from production volume to content quality and strategy. You spend your time on the high-value work: research, scripting, recording, and building relationships with your audience. The system handles the repetitive, time-consuming work of clipping, editing, and distributing.
For the channel I'm working with, this shift freed up their entire production schedule. They went from spending 60% of their time on editing and posting to spending 90% on content strategy and recording. The quality of their long-form content improved because they had more time to invest in it.
The Future of Content Creation Is Automated
The creators and businesses winning on social media in 2024 aren't the ones with the biggest teams or fanciest equipment. They're the ones leveraging automation to maintain consistent output while focusing on quality and strategy.
Tools like Opus.pro and Klap.app are just the beginning. AI video editing is getting better monthly, automation platforms are getting more powerful, and the gap between manual and automated workflows is widening.
Every month you wait to implement a system like this is another month your competitors are building advantages in reach, subscribers, and brand awareness. The algorithms favor consistency and volume, and you can't deliver that manually without burning out.
Your Next Steps
If you want to see exactly how I built this system step-by-step, watch the full breakdown video where I share my screen and walk through the entire workflow, tool configurations, and automation setup.
For business owners and agencies looking to implement this for clients or scale your content operations, this system is the competitive advantage you've been missing. One person can now manage content output that used to require a full team.
The question isn't whether automation will take over content creation. It already has. The question is whether you're going to use it to your advantage or get left behind by creators who are.
Start with one long-form video this week. Process it through Opus.pro or Klap.app. Schedule the clips across platforms. Watch what happens. Then imagine doing that with every video you create, forever, automatically.
That's how you turn one video into a month of content. That's how you compete with channels 10x your size. That's how you build a content engine instead of a content treadmill.
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