I REGRET Making YouTube Shorts — Transcript

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1. 0:00Short-form content is all the rage, and
2. 0:02everywhere you look, it's another video
3. 0:03or success story propping you to make
4. 0:05YouTube Shorts. But, if you are a small
5. 0:07YouTuber trying to grow your channel,
6. 0:08don't make YouTube Shorts. At least, not
7. 0:11until after watching this video. If you
8. 0:13are anything like me, you've been told
9. 0:15by countless friends and YouTube gurus
10. 0:17to make YouTube Shorts. For quite some
11. 0:19time, Shorts have been touted as a cheat
12. 0:22code of sorts for getting new
13. 0:23subscribers, getting your content in
14. 0:25front of lots and lots of people,
15. 0:26especially if you're a small YouTuber,
16. 0:28which is an itty-bitty little audience
17. 0:30of your own. And yes, the idea of
18. 0:32getting tons of new subscribers and
19. 0:33views sounds great. I mean, of course it
20. 0:36does. Who wouldn't want that? But, in
21. 0:38reality, it's not quite as
22. 0:40straightforward as it seems. And in
23. 0:42fact, making YouTube Shorts may actually
24. 0:45be a big mistake if you fall under these
25. 0:47two conditions. The first condition is
26. 0:50if you're relying on YouTube Shorts to
27. 0:51bring new subscriber growth. What? I
28. 0:53thought conventional wisdom was that you
29. 0:55Shorts made it easier to get
30. 0:56subscribers. Isn't that the whole point?
31. 0:58Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But,
32. 1:00instead of relying on conventional
33. 1:01wisdom, let's take a look at the data.
34. 1:03And if you want data, look no further
35. 1:05than Paddy Galloway. If you're
36. 1:07unfamiliar with Paddy, he is a brilliant
37. 1:09YouTube strategist who's worked with top
38. 1:11YouTubers like Mr. Beast, Ryan Trahan,
39. 1:13and Noah Kagan. And just a few months
40. 1:15ago, he analyzed 3.3 billion views
41. 1:18across 5,400 Shorts to decode the
42. 1:21YouTube algorithm. In his analysis, he
43. 1:23took a look into subscriber conversion
44. 1:25rates. And what he found is that
45. 1:27long-form videos still convert
46. 1:29subscribers better than Shorts. On
47. 1:31average, long-form videos converted 22.7
48. 1:34subscribers per 10,000 views, while
49. 1:36Shorts converted only 16.9 subscribers
50. 1:39per 10,000 views. When I saw Paddy's
51. 1:41research come out, I was a little
52. 1:43skeptical. I mean, I had heard so much
53. 1:45about how YouTube Shorts were the hack
54. 1:48for getting new subscribers. And I had
55. 1:50just started this brand new YouTube
56. 1:51channel from scratch. I was determined
57. 1:53to get to that 1,000 subscriber mark for
58. 1:55monetization as fast as I could. So, I
59. 1:57still gave it a shot. I was curious to
60. 1:59see if Paddy's research still held up if
61. 2:01you had the zero subscribers. So, for
62. 2:04the first month of having this YouTube
63. 2:05channel, I uploaded one YouTube short
64. 2:07per day and one long-form video per
65. 2:10week. After 30 days were up, the results
66. 2:12were in. And unfortunately,
67. 2:15Paddy was right. In that one month, I
68. 2:17brought in 4,500 views for my long-form
69. 2:19videos, which resulted in 118
70. 2:22subscribers gained. With my daily
71. 2:23shorts, however, I more than doubled of
72. 2:26my long-form videos, but those near
73. 2:2810,000 views only converted 17
74. 2:31subscribers.
75. 2:34And it kind of sucks because I was
76. 2:36really hoping for that subscriber cheat
77. 2:38code hack to be real. But if you're at
78. 2:40the point where your main focus is
79. 2:42subscriber growth, especially if you're
80. 2:44at the stage of trying to hit that 1,000
81. 2:45subscriber mark for YouTube
82. 2:46monetization, you are much better off
83. 2:49just focusing on long-form videos. But
84. 2:52let's say that you don't care about the
85. 2:53subscribers. What if you're just trying
86. 2:55to make more money from YouTube? Well,
87. 2:56that brings us to the second condition
88. 2:58when YouTube shorts are not worth it if
89. 3:00you're relying on them for revenue. See,
90. 3:03Paddy also looked into the revenue
91. 3:05potential of YouTube shorts after the
92. 3:07new shorts revenue sharing model was
93. 3:09introduced in February. What kind of
94. 3:11money can you see from YouTube shorts? A
95. 3:13grand average RPM of 6 cents. That means
96. 3:17for every 1,000 views your shorts get,
97. 3:19you get 6 cents. So, even if a short of
98. 3:22yours brings in 1 million views, you
99. 3:24only get 60 bucks. To put that in
100. 3:26comparison, let's say that you had a
101. 3:28pretty average long-form YouTube RPM of
102. 3:31$2.50. In order to make that $60 that
103. 3:34you would need 1 million shorts views
104. 3:37from, you'd only need around 24,000
105. 3:39views on your long-form video. Now, yes,
106. 3:42it's definitely possible for a short to
107. 3:44blow up and break a million views, but
108. 3:46if you look at most of the YouTubers who
109. 3:48are consistently creating both long-form
110. 3:50and short-form content, their long form
111. 3:52videos actually consistently bring in
112. 3:54more views than their shorts. So, by now
113. 3:57you may be asking, "If YouTube shorts
114. 3:59aren't great for subscriber growth and
115. 4:01they're not great for revenue, then why
116. 4:03are people making them?" The thing is,
117. 4:05YouTube shorts serve as a great addition
118. 4:07to long form content. You can see this
119. 4:09especially for YouTubers with teams.
120. 4:12Take the My First Million podcast for
121. 4:14instance. Sam and Shawn devote a lot of
122. 4:17time to their weekly podcast. They
123. 4:20research, come up with ideas, and show
124. 4:21up on the pod ready to educate and
125. 4:24engage. With their shorts, however, Sam
126. 4:27and Shawn don't have to do anything.
127. 4:30Instead, their team just takes some
128. 4:32clips from their long form videos, adds
129. 4:33a little bit of editing, and boom, a
130. 4:35short. For them, shorts are a great way
131. 4:37to consistently bring in more views
132. 4:39without any additional effort from them,
133. 4:42especially when their team can easily
134. 4:44repost those shorts to TikTok and
135. 4:46Instagram Reels. But, ultimately, if
136. 4:48you're a small solo YouTuber who's
137. 4:50trying to grow with no team to help you
138. 4:52out, you're better off just focusing on
139. 4:55the long form videos. And before anyone
140. 4:57yells at me in the comments, yes, I know
141. 4:58that there are always exceptions. But,
142. 5:00let's say that you do get lucky. One of
143. 5:02your shorts blows up and gets a million
144. 5:04views. Then what? If you're already
145. 5:06monetized, you're $60 richer, so there's
146. 5:09that. But, at least from my own
147. 5:11experience and from what I've seen from
148. 5:13other YouTubers, viewers from shorts
149. 5:15aren't typically the highest quality
150. 5:18viewers. Most of the rude comments that
151. 5:20I've seen on YouTube have come from
152. 5:22YouTube shorts. And many shorts viewers
153. 5:25just treat YouTube like TikTok, hopping
154. 5:27on primarily for short form content
155. 5:29while ignoring any long form videos. In
156. 5:32those cases, unless you are consistently
157. 5:34uploading shorts, all those new short
158. 5:37subscribers serve is to decrease your
159. 5:39click-through rate as your long form
160. 5:40videos gets put onto their home pages
161. 5:42and never gets clicked on. Look, if
162. 5:45you're thinking about YouTube shorts
163. 5:46from purely additive standpoint where
164. 5:48you can post them consistently without
165. 5:50affecting your long-form content, then
166. 5:52by all means go for it. But, if you're a
167. 5:54smaller solo YouTuber, especially at the
168. 5:57stage where you're just trying to get
169. 5:59monetized, they're just not worth it.
170. 6:01What should you do instead? Well, I'm
171. 6:03currently on day six of a challenge to
172. 6:05get this YouTube channel monetized
173. 6:06within 90 days. I'm still figuring it
174. 6:09out. But, if you want to follow along
175. 6:11the journey and learn with me as I try
176. 6:13new things, then check out this video.
177. 6:15Otherwise, thank you so so much for
178. 6:18watching this video. I really appreciate
179. 6:20it, truly. And I'll see you in the next
180. 6:23one.