I... DON'T Recommend YouTube Shorts to Most Creators Right Now. Here's Why.

KZbin Shorts aren't playing well with growing on KZbin right now. Here's what's happening.
PERSONALIZED HELP 📈:
My strategy for winning on KZbin: • Welcome to KZbin 202...
Business/personal consulting: radicalyt.com/
IDEATION 💡:
My SEAS method for picking winning ideas: • How to Pick KZbin Vi...
AI-backed customized-to-channel ideation + titles: vidiq.com/nate...
RUNNING A CHANNEL ⚙️:
The free template I made (and recommend) for running a KZbin channel (ideas, production, timeline, goals): clickup.pxf.io...
RECORDING 🎙️:
Microphone I use in videos (I rarely do any audio processing, and the room is only lightly sound-dampened): amzn.to/47PBzvz
Mic arm for the above: amzn.to/3GjdYYi
Lav mic I've used for hundreds of videos: amzn.to/3utYCgV
Lighting really good for talking head videos: amzn.to/3uBbZw0
I also share more outside KZbin 🧡:
Instagram (behind the scenes): / thatnateblack
X/Threads (thoughts): / thatnateblack
#youtubeshorts #growonyoutube
BE RADICAL

[@ThatNateBlack]

Here’s that strategy (watch this next): kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJTEZppjhKebjZYsi=w6BRCGIrjEJVpebz Tell me more of what your experience with Shorts has been so far!

[@DoggyU]

I strongly dislike shorts. It's a totally different skill set and with dog training, I hate leaving so many important details out (which is why I chose long form content in the first place!). I'm putting out 3-5 shorts per week because I feel like I have to, and they do get watched, but it's not the work that I want to be doing. It's a big bummer.

[@Coach_DJ]

Even though I have published a good number of videos on my channel, my long form videos are still weak, IMO. Nearly ALL of my views and subscribers are coming from my shorts, which is great, except for the fact that it appears they are not the audience I am trying to reach. :( I'm striving for views & subs to grow my community and channel, but I feel like I'm reaching the wrong audience with shorts. I'm not trying to reach kids scrolling shorts, but the adult soccer coaches who I feel I can truly help.

[@MOONOVERMIAMI]

Hello great video information and now they are pushing live streaming on the KZbin short shelf I think if you make a short it has to be on what you’re channel is about and not just a short of random stuff Nate

[@DiabeticGameGuy]

I started a shorts channel in entertainment space on September 10, 2023. In 5 months 4 days (today), I will cross the 1 million view mark. I have 6.8k subs and 5k watch hours 99% of videos are shorts. I found using related video from a short to a long to be a disaster. When I link short to short, I get a 10% boost in views. I test this by linking to an older short that's not been in the feed to track its views. When I link from short to long, the AVD of the long plummets. When my AVD drops from over a minute to a few seconds, the views on the video just dies. Good luck, -=DGG

[@denalidtx]

I play games, which are horizontal; it just doesn't translate well to vertical. Besides that, though, I don't shorts because they aren't long enough to say anything of substance. Of the few shorts I've made, the best have been like my long-form content, but not long enough for a full episode.

[@BasicallyHomeless]

I recently deleted 50M shorts views. I had one short getting thousands of views per hour, absolutely ballooning my subs per day. That was awesome until I realized all those new subscribers are from a completely different demographic than the audience that watches my long-form content. I gained about 150k subs in a few months, and found that it negatively impacted the CTR and retention of my longer videos. The new subs from shorts were getting served my long-form videos and not clicking them. Because like you said, that’s the wrong audience. That shorts audience has a different behavior. I’ve concluded that “shorts” is almost like its own niche on the platform. I’ve thought about what the solution might be for so long- I think it may be separating shorts subs into a different metric like “followers” or “shorts subscribers.” That seems so convoluted though. Great vid! Thanks for all the info you provide

[@WheretoNextOverland]

Yep, that was almost EXACTLY my experience with Shorts as well. I did 30 Shorts in 30 Days about 9 months ago. I found a formula that worked well (story-telling and chopping up bits of my long-form videos) and I had multiple Shorts hit over 1 million views. My subs climbed from about 2K to 15K in the span of 4 weeks. Cool, right? Nope. Far from it. My CTR on long form videos took a massive hit and seriously killed the momentum I had gained with the long form videos I pour all my time into. Ended up deleting all the Shorts, but my long form videos have struggled ever since. Very unfortunate. I wish I could go back and have a do-over 😂

[@BorSam]

Yes, shorts and long-form audiences are completely different.

[@Resol26]

Those are practically Tiktok audience. 😆😆

[@ThreeTwentysix]

Such a good point. I hadn't considered checking my click-throughs for long form.

[@BorSam]

@@thrift272 Yes, the shorts are good to earn subscribers, but they are not really interested in long-form videos unless your short video convinces them to watch long videos.

[@John.Harper]

I deleted my shorts. I followed all best practices but at the end of the day the results weren't worth it. I made shorts that aligned with my long form that blew up, but the conversion was either poor or not worth it. And so what if you get a short with a million views and 10k subs earned. Those 10k subs will never contribute to your long term success unless you want to pump out high quality shorts to give KZbin HUNDREDS of millions of views for pennies on the cpm/rpm. Shorts only line KZbin's pockets, they get a huge boost in stats while paying virtually nothing. Meanwhile you're artifically pumped and excited over the vain success from a piece of content that will never result in higher authority or more money.

[@Mindstormer]

I did the same myself for the same reasons, also after doing it youtube started to share my main content more like its doing it instead of pushing shorts which is really interesting. Now i have same views and so much more watch time.

[@Spunnerd]

I get the point that it's not worth it when you were looking for conversion of your shorts viewers to long-form, or either some kind of way to "promote" your long-form content by doing shorts as well. But what if you actually intentionally want to serve two different audiences, both long-form and short-form on one channel? I think it may not be best practice in most cases, but like what you say, if your shorts are 100% in-line with your long-form, but rather the shorts are just very quick and shorter storylines without the deeper narrative of a long-form, and thus they are specifically made for a "shorts" format? So not like just cutting out long-form content to short-form, but rather make specific versions that are meant for the shorts audience, and the long-form ones with deeper narratives for your long-form audience? Would you keep that seperated on two different channels? Just curious.

[@STREETFOODJOURNEY5]

KZbin Shorts really destroyed entire ecosystem on KZbin. When i have 90K Subscribers, my channel easily make $15.000/month from long from videos, now my channel 1.4 Million subscribers, i only make $4.000 monthly on average. Since youtube launched shorts, youtube no longer push long form video. That is the fact. That's why you see lots of big youtubers decided to retire 😂

[@byStunt7]

Makes sense. My videos got way less attention in the past weeks or smt. The quality got better btw but they just got showen to way less viewers.

[@TudorTurcanuOfficial]

It might be because you are making youtube shorts on the same channel. You can check if this is the case by looking at your CTR on your long form videos. KZbin is showing your long form videos to your subscribers and since a lot of them come from shorts and they are not interested in long form videos your CTR is dropping and you get less views. Your average retention also might be affected by it. I guess a way to fix it is to start a new channel where you make only long form videos and leave the current channel for shorts. This is definitely not an ideal solution, but since you are already good at making videos I think you can grow pretty fast.

[@Sharivari]

Over 500,000 subs, making less than 5k a month. When I was at 200,000 I got more views and more money.

[@afor_ayush]

​@@Sharivari You got it right Sharivari. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@earthangel6858]

@@afor_ayush Hi. I would love to learn more.

[@pentagrammotorsport]

At the same time, TikTok is trying to push us to make “full screen”, long format videos. Yet they get no traction because they simply aren’t what the audience goes there for.

[@Faiza_Hassan]

True that! It doesn't make sense to introduce long format on TikTok.

[@NamesWithSteph]

TikTok is trying to be both Amazon and KZbin now 😩

[@geo.polaris]

Depends, if you make a good long format full screen on tiktok that people engage with it can work well, I manage to make a 8min long with 470k views in tiktok while it did "only" 170k on youtube!

[@the-999-asmr-tarot-art-show]

Is TicToc store the new Temu? ​@@NamesWithSteph

[@the-999-asmr-tarot-art-show]

Is TicToc worth the effort? I have been thinking about uploading my content to another platform. I was considering TicToc.

[@SelfServingSkillet]

I think KZbin should separate the platforms. As a long form content creator that has 0 interest in watching or filming shorts, I'd love to either: get them on to a platform called KZbin Shorts, or if too much damage has been done already, create another platform called KZbin Classic where all the long form content creators can transfer their stuff. They can sync the two sites so that a creator can do both if they want, or completely ignore one or the other. Thanks Nate for all that you do!

[@goldenbard]

Thats not a half bad idea,problem is its youtube.They dont do things for the people,they want the $

[@CheapPickle]

I think I am one of the people you are talking about who has done very well with shorts and it hasn't hurt my long form in anyway but rather helped me out. I gained almost a million subscribers on my channel within a month and my shorts feed into my long form vids since they are the same content but in a longer form. My niche is gaming and I usually play minecraft.

[@SagaDaGamer]

As a Minecraft creator, this is generally the same thing most Minecraft creators say. Your audience is significantly larger than that of the average gaming content creator. Compare Minecraft to anything-World of Warcraft, Palworld, anything-and the searches are significantly higher. So, of course, it doesn't affect you, but for most creators, they're not seeing the same results

[@ThatNateBlack]

that's solid - super good to hear! Now you've got me considering what would make minecraft audience convert between two formats so well (vs others)

[@CheapPickle]

none @VibingHumanity

[@JimJame03]

Oh my god its cheap!

[@BillyRybka]

Crap dude, you literally came out of nowhere 6 months ago and got over 1M subs! Most of which came to you in the last 30 days. Good job! So does your shorts drive most of your views and subs?

[@sean-ortiz]

The only person I have seen integrate shorts and long form symbiotically is Ryan Trahan. He has made a ton of shorts that are just cut up versions of his older long form videos and he leaves the shorts on a cliffhanger, therefore pushing the short audience to the longer video. It's genius. But yeah for the rest of us plebs that don't have a team of editors, a think tank and videographers, we gotta stick to one format

[@CEDtalks85]

I’m starting to get traction. I film, write and edit my videos for one minute increment sets. Therefore I can turn a video into 6 shorts

[@sean-ortiz]

that's awesome! So you you make your long form with the intent of cutting them up into shorter bite sized chunks. That's something I should try to incorporate in the future. @@CEDtalks85

[@Grisha_VR]

The biggest thing for sure is making sure your shorts attention span match the same as your long form attention span… that way someone who watched your short, then goes to your long form and sees something of the same pace and speed. This means if you’re going for long form AND shorts, you would have to keep the pacing on your shorts the same as the pacing on your long form video.

[@afor_ayush]

You got it right Sean. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@your_spirit_guide]

one of the forex traders guru make shorts out of her long form videos. Some audience will not like it when we make shorts out of long form videos, but most content creators will not care. They just want their shorts to attract viewers for their long form videos

[@kevinbparry]

Can absolutely confirm. I'm so much more of a short form creator and generally struggle with long form. Have brought in millions of subs to my channel through Shorts but there is zero conversion to the long form

[@ThatNateBlack]

interesting to hear that! maybe we should do a deep dive sometime

[@JennyHansenLane]

What if you did BTS of your viral shorts? Hidden pattern fruit

[@kevinreezygaming]

Create a new KZbin channel for the long form and promote it with the KZbin shorts one redirect your shorts audiences to your new KZbin channel

[@afor_ayush]

You got it right Kevin. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@blackpearl_2024]

@kevinbparry I watched some of your shorts and long form videos. You're really talented! You deserve that million subscribers. Also, that 500 drawing basketball flip book was really nice. And yeah, I just hope I can be as patient and creative as you in doing contents.

[@Kensconsin]

You nailed it...shorts don't convert. Short form viewers don't watch long form content. It may create some new subscribers (I have 20 from a short yesterday, first short I've done in months) but they usually don't join your Livestreams or watch your long form content. I'm glad to finally hear a "KZbin coach" say what I've been saying forever.

[@beautifullybakedbybonne8099]

I’m so bummed. At a last ditch effort to get my channel going, I made shorts. The idea was to just start (which seems to be the hardest part for me). The first short I made went viral and hit 1.1M in the first 3 weeks. It also gave me 1500 followers. That’s great and all but they aren’t my people! I’m almost 100% confident they aren’t interested in what I really do and create. Hoping I haven’t shot myself in the foot here. Your videos I find so helpful and I really enjoy your personality and appreciate your special touch on everything. Just wanted to say thanks. 🙏 ❤

[@investingissimple1642]

That's tough. I had a similar experience on one of my channels last year but with a long form video. It was the first long form I posted on that channel and it got 450k views in a month and over 3k subs but I quickly realized that I was kind of screwed because those people weren't the right audience for the content i wanted to create. In the next month I posted 2 more videos both of them didn't even reach 1k views. As an experiment I posted one of them on a brand new channel as I thought it was a good video and it could get a decent amount of views but it just wasn't being served to the right people because of the first video that went kind of viral. And i was right a month later the video on the new channel with 0 subscribers got just under 20k views and on the other channel with 3k+ subscribers it's still sitting under 1k views.

[@beautifullybakedbybonne8099]

@@investingissimple1642 wow. I wish it didn't have to be this complicated! I'm determined to be in this for the long haul. I'll just keep learning from people like Nate and a few others I've grown to like and listen to. Good luck to you!

[@ImmersiveReactions]

If anything try to uncheck notify subscribers when you post a video. KZbin sends your content to subscribers first. If your subscribers don't engage with it KZbin tends to kill it off. Essentially like even your subscribers don't want to see this. We don't know who will. Type of thing. So try unchecking that box. Post your uploads on social or wherever your die hards are to notify them your video is up. But it might be best to do it that way until you find your new people.

[@BlackBearForge]

As I saw my shorts doing better, my long form content started to do worse. Last year, I deleted all of the shorts and within a month my long form views and related revenue started going back up. Shorts seem to attract a different audience that doesn't watch long form video when the algorithm recommends it. That tells the algorithm that these "regular viewers" aren't interested in my latest videos.

[@ThatNateBlack]

This appears to be one of the biggest issues KZbin is facing with the two formats right now, agreed. Also, great to see you again @BlackBearForge!

[@the-999-asmr-tarot-art-show]

You have a good energy on your videos. I hope you do well

[@FOXTheCutestDogintheWest]

I think you should not have deleted them but just stop making them…you really never know who will be interested…👍🏻😃🥰🦊

[@Justyna-dg4hs]

So do I have to delete them? I only have like 4

[@FOXTheCutestDogintheWest]

@@Justyna-dg4hs never delete a video if you can help it. Just leave it…

[@MrThinkImPossible]

I stopped making KZbin shorts 4 months ago. My channel has grown significantly since then.

[@Tchibazz-TV]

Wow Really? Well,i just have 1 short on my channel😅

[@Tchibazz-TV]

And yea,I just subscribed to your channel... How is the fashion business going? And you have great views too from what I can see❤...all the best

[@MrThinkImPossible]

@@Tchibazz-TVshorts for me have a false sense of success. You can get thousands of views from a short. Gain 30 subscribers. Then post a long form video and get 40 views. Unless you are trying to focus on shorts. I think shorts can absolutely destroy a newer channel.

[@MrThinkImPossible]

@@Tchibazz-TV ayeeee , thanks for tappin in. Things are well. I don’t have to struggle with video ideas. I still have to be creative and provide value. But in the fashion world my 💡 is the next sneaker coming out and if I can get my hands on it.

[@Destroyahh40]

Interesting. In that time when you were uploading shorts. Were you seeing low impressions on your long form videos?

[@Stanimus]

For most cases yeah shorts can be in the way of long form. But if the shorts and the long form are the exact same content, it's a great match. Just be real about where long form views and short form views are coming from. Think of them as two different audiences that need to be built independently from each other.

[@AfshinsFreund]

probably these short should just be a preview of the highlights of the video so people get a nice overview if they want to watch the long one and the other creators should get the hell on tik tok. I mean there is a reason why Mark Zuckerberg removed the fund for short creators, since the audience is completely distracted and lost. This destructive forces are a lose lose for everyone

[@investingissimple1642]

My opinion on short-form content has always been that if you are looking to build a strong community, shorts are NOT the way to go. That's why I stayed away from shorts on most of my channels. However, when KZbin introduced the related video option, I got excited and started posting shorts on this channel as a way to keep the channel active while I am working on a big project. I was hoping that with the related video option, the short-form viewers would move over to my long-form content. But I couldn't be more wrong. I posted about 10 shorts that targeted the same audience as my long-form content, and the 10 videos got around 40k views combined. Out of these 40k views, the related videos got just 13 views, and in total, the channel got less than 15 subscribers from shorts. In comparison, the least watched long-form video on this channel is sitting on just under 700 views, and it brought in 16 subs. I don't want to say long-form is better than short-form as both have their pluses and minuses, but it's important to know what we want to achieve with our content before making decisions on the format.

[@Mr.Rhombus]

Have you noticed any effects on how many impressions your video received in relation to posting shorts?

[@craftingwithpaula]

Very helpful info, tks

[@Living_Life_With_Lisa]

It is very tricky! Thank you for sharing!

[@investingissimple1642]

@@Mr.Rhombus I haven't noticed any increase in impressions for long-form videos while I was posting the shorts.

[@afor_ayush]

@@investingissimple1642 You got it right Blurio. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@PhilFlock]

I have a healthy shorts and long form strategy rn. I do vfx tutorials in my long form and just the final results in yt shorts. So they work on their own. But also together. Took me a while to figure that out

[@InTheKitchenWithMommaMel]

Very interesting... I have seen a significant drop in impressions shown for my new videos and even my community posts, especially since the beginning of the year. I have researched, changed titles, thumbnails and had come to the same conclusions - shorts are eating up the recommendations on the home page. I have made very few shorts (none recently) and have noticed a spike in views of my shorts as late as Monday 🤔 But they never translate to my long form content. Just yesterday I had begun making plans to film every recipe in my next video in a way so it woukd be possible to cut it up and make a short for each one to go live at the same time my long form video went live in an effort to connect the audiences. NOPE! Not wasting anymore of my time and head space on this game. I'm a long form, building a community type of creator and I'm not giving the milk away for free, gotta buy the cow 😂 Thanks for EVERYTHING you do for this community here, you always just seem to address exactly what we are all dealing with in such a helpful and clear way. 😊

[@afor_ayush]

You got it right Mel. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@OchoVerde]

Great video, Nate! I got lucky with millions and millions and milliuons of views from shorts in 2023. There has been very little crossover to long-format videos. When they do watch, its only for a minute or less and that seems to hurt more than help. I've even used shorts previews for long videos and that didn't seem to work either.

[@ThatNateBlack]

super interesting to hear your experience! And thank you!

[@DoseofDirt]

Thanks for sharing this. I had wondered if shorts would help push people to my channel. Sounds like that hasn't been your experience. I'll keep ignoring shorts for now.

[@HaldorkCosmico]

Lo traduces. TEngo una media de 8 millones de views al dia en mis shorts. Y solo vinculando 30 shorts a un video de formato largo, este video pasó de 1200 views (3 semanas de publicado) a + de 200K views en 28 días. Recomiendo que salgan de su zona de confort.. dejen de quejarse y trabajen para complementar y unificar todo con las herramientas disponibles.

[@frenatfarms]

Wow.. It does not work like that for most people

[@cooltrainerpat_tcg]

Half of my subscribers come from shorts, but the related video link benefit has been marginal to non-existent. My audience ratio is 41% shorts only, 29% videos only, and 30% both. Not sure what I should make of this.

[@JamesH97Gaming]

Mine are similar seeing thousands of views in December from shorts with a good few subs but from the related videos link I see either zero views from it or below 10 views. There's no benefit in shorts and actually hurt my channel instead and now I'd rather do 1 or 2 shorts from a charity stream to promote that instead.

[@VioletEmerald]

​@JamesH97Gaming I'm a little confused. If it hurts your Channel why do you want to do 1-2 shorts at all?

[@JamesH97Gaming]

@@VioletEmerald Cause it's from my LiveStreams and to promote my fundraiser for Make A Wish to more people especially in the arma 3 community. When it comes to my videos what I said above and I'm only livestreaming more recently too.

[@themirrorbeauty]

I'm in the beauty niche, and KZbin shorts work well for most creators here. You can share an instant makeup transformation lip synching to a fun song and direct the viewer to a longer tutorial, makeup compilation or product review. The conversion is still low, as you say, but I'm okay with that, since I enjoy doing KZbin Shorts on their own, and I would be doing them regardless. I also do already make most of this content for TikTok and Reels, so it doesn't take a lot more time to get it ready for KZbin Shorts. For some of my successful shorts, views don't just come from Shorts feed, but a lot come from search or sound pages, aka people are actively choosing to watch that video.

[@jeriheggie]

Maybe I am too new to even say but I have posted 12 videos and 9 shorts since Dec 30th and in my analytics it tells me that 60% of people are finding me through my shorts feed. I try to relate my shorts to my long form video topics and I do have people using that link. In all honesty I truly believe you can post either and eventually you will see it be picked up. Not every topic is going to be a massive immediate hit. Some will be more slow and steady. VidIQ hit it on the nail when they said you have to play the long game. Plan for posting for three years before expecting real success. That’s what I’m aiming for. Slow and steady 😅

[@trinasyoutube]

My subscribers are finding me via shorts too according to my analytics!

[@mommybreakdown]

I do long form videos where I react to Supernanny/parenting techniques and then I chop them up to make shorts. I’ve had a crossover where some do watch the short and then click the “related video” link. Interesting information!

[@ThatNateBlack]

Good to know! I like hearing what’s working. What do you feel is working best for you?

[@mafolux7464]

@mommybreakdown, I just wanted to start doing comments on a personal development channel .Would you mind share what App is working for you to do the commentary? Thank you

[@mommybreakdown]

@@ThatNateBlackI feel like combo of shorts and long form together are working for me. Maybe it is because they are the exact same content?

[@mommybreakdown]

@@mafolux7464hi! I use OBS which is free. I pull up KZbin and then use my phone for the reaction view. I hope that helps!

[@R1ch4rd74]

i make both forms of video. the shorts are faster and easier to make. my longform content is a bit boring as i am just learning to edit videos. it is trial and error. my biggest challenge this year is to master editing so i wont have to shop it out. (aka fiver) like i said it all takes time and effort. it won't be the same for every creator. good luck everyone.

[@poorkidjp]

I have been studying Shorts and the effects on long content channels. Since they started taking over my subscribers home pages, my views and earnings got reduced by more than 50%. I tried getting my content into short form to remind my viewers I still exist but this just got me followers who don't know me and ask for the full video concluded in 1 minute. As a result many of the creators I analyze and myself are forced to look for other platforms and ways to recover outside of KZbin. Resulting in less time to provide quality content for KZbin. 😢

[@BoRaXiN72]

Shorts FTW. My channel is 13 yrs old. It took me 12 yrs to reach 100k subs with long form videos but when I started the shorts my channel reached 4.5M subs in less than a year.

[@vegastocali]

Thank you for your feedback. Congratulations 🎉hard work pays off! 👏

[@BoRaXiN72]

your welcum homie@@vegastocali

[@smetlogik]

The problem with shorts is they boost the subs, but then the ratio of views/engagement on a reg vid compared to total subs can be extremely low (i.e., % of views to total subs can be less than 1%). If I have 100K subs and my vids are only generating 50-100 views per vid. Eh.

[@jhc3studios]

bro literally all of your shorts have young women in bikinis as the thumbnail. No wonder you are getting so many views. that’s just lazy and gross

[@Rationalytic]

@@smetlogikshorts is 100% click bait. It’s the only thing that matters. It’s what this guy who posted this does

[@Bobert-Rob]

Funny, I've stopped seeing the shorts feed on my homepage. Seems like KZbin's already adjusting things with their Shorts sharing strategy. Probably just to curb everyone's desires for custom thumbnails on the things. And in regards to the related videos link, I think that's a double edged sword. When that feature works, I've heard it actually hurts the retention of the short itself, which then damages that short's spread. I use related videos constantly, as I'd rather people watch the longform because the storytelling is just better. But then if people click off the short before it's over, the retention gets worse and the shorts spread suffers. It'd be nice if there was an option to delay the showing of the link so the short's less likely to be hurt by the related video itself. Also, can we talk about the annoying "Swipe up to continue" screen? Anytime I test my shorts on the phone, that dark screen shows up and disrupts the loop. I don't know if that's how it is for everyone, but that could be a huge disadvantage to people who make perfectly looping shorts.

[@davidharveyvideo]

Hey Nate, I love your videos. You've always given great advice. I used to make YT shorts because I felt like I had to supplement my long content. The last time I made a few shorts was just for fun. Of course the recent comedic goofy shorts won out over the others and I had a blast making them. The shorts created from long content felt like a chore and didn't perform well. I guess my point is I think everyone should just make content they have fun making whether its short or long.

[@DetroitNinja]

I create mostly KZbin shorts. It takes a few minutes to record, edit, and upload to KZbin. Some of my KZbin shorts have gone viral in the millions and I've earned in the several of thousands of dollars ($) in a few weeks. Also, my subscriber count has rapidly increased. Lastly, with the new vertical live streaming, it's a great transition feature from shorts. Its's a WIN for my channel.

[@ThatNateBlack]

Love to hear it!

[@classicaljg]

KZbin Shorts are perfect for History channels like mine. History videos take hours of research but don’t need massive amounts of editing. Shorts take a fraction of the time, I just find one interesting tidbit and explain it to camera and the whole thing can be done and dusted in under an hour. My viewership is roughly 50/50 Shorts only/both forms, almost none of my viewers only watch long form videos. Sometimes just a little tidbit is all the history you want! So I think Shorts and long form in combination works really well for the History niche.

[@DistortionsUnlimited]

We don't like KZbin shorts thus far and have not seen any benefit on our channel or other channels we manage. We don't pursue them anymore. We have seen much more community engagement with short content on Facebook and Instagram. Engagement that converts to sales, growth, comments etc. It feels like it was a strategic mistake for KZbin to step back from long-form content and the creators that make it and push so hard on shorts. I understand that peoples viewing habits can change, which platforms, on what device, lengths etc. But isn't it the case that there are other platforms that do verticle short video better? Now perhaps there will be an opening for another platform to become the space for long form.

[@renflowergrapx]

Everytime I try to add shorts i see my stats falling down. Especially when long formats starts running better, only one single short can kill that strike.

[@Justyna-dg4hs]

Exactly. That's why my video has 500 views then I added a short and new long video has 10 fucking views

[@johnylukesplayer]

The fact that you don't recommend shorts doesn't mean that someone couldn't get an audience with it... the only difference between a video and a short video is the audience is divided into 2 groups, those who prefer shorts and those who prefer long videos... personally I've never been for long videos, prefer shorts

[@GlamGirlGabi]

Hey Nate! I agree with you completely. The viewer behaviour AND the skill set in creating an effective short are very different. My shorts on Instagram very often go viral but in YT, it’s painful how badly they perform in relation to my long-form content. What my team and I have noticed is that there is not a lot of overlap between my long form and short form audience. They’re almost entirely different audiences. The reason I’m still publishing them is because I am creating them for Instagram and tiktok anyway so they’re already done and because they do add to my subscriber base. I am consistently gaining subscribers from them which looks good when I’m negotiating brand deals. It’s bizarre to me how they repeatedly fail even though they get hundreds of thousands of views on Instagram. So bizarre.

[@VactorVerse]

I've had the exact same experience. Gained a lot of followers which look good to brands but none of them watch my long form stuff.

[@GlamGirlGabi]

You have the opposite problem! My viewers watch my long form but not my short form@@VactorVerse

[@TheFlytrapGarden]

Hey Nate just thought I'd let you know my experience is similar. As my subscriber count grows, each long video I upload does worse than the previous simply because the audience is completely different. After speaking to a few other creators, it makes sense to make a separate channel for all of my new long videos because they are unrelated audiences even if the videos are on the same topic.

[@Daniel_Batal]

Great insights, Nate! While I tend to disagree with a lot MatPat's suppositions when it comes to Shorts, you presented a really well thought-out conversation about why someone might not want to embrace them. I personally have been loving Shorts because of how undeniably impactful they have been for educational/resource/utility channel discovery and reach. What I've been extremely discouraged by is how poorly Creators have been embracing content strategy when it comes to short-form videos. More often than not, they treat them like repurposed, disposable content and (no surprise)... their audience responds accordingly. Maybe one of these days we should catch up and compare notes! Love what you do, pal ☮❤

[@jinraigami3349]

My beloved DR tutorial channel is here as well. What's your strategy for the Shorts to help boost the Long Form Contents?

[@tarantulacollective]

I am glad to hear this because I have been feeling crazy concerning shorts. I put all this work in creating them and there is no return on the investment. I cant get a fraction on the views on a short as I do a long form video.

[@GeoTactics]

Great video... Nick. 😆 I've only found shorts provide a very short term dose of viewerships and sometimes subs, but don't think any of these are translating over to watch the full length videos. I've removed all my shorts... from KZbin that is.

[@Fancylooks]

Nobody sees the link to the other video, it is not clear, even if you tell them in the video to click there, the don't see it, they say they don't have the link. KZbin needs to make it a lot viewbable, maybe just in the last seconds of the short.

[@AloneRacecar]

So I’m one of the few cases where I do like the KZbin shorts and an even rare case where the right kind of KZbin Shorts has helped me build my confidence within my channel. HOWEVER, recently I’ve been doing shorts as a way to see as both of a bite size action bits for my longer content as well as strategize on the two as different demographics while still staying loyal to the main theme of my channel(s). At least that’s how I see it.

[@GRUBB-MUDD]

Look bro.. yt shorts helped my channel 20 fold. It aint everbody, but the related video option is trash. We need pinned comments again but unfortunately *JACK DORSEY* RUINED IT

[@BudgetLawns]

Geez, you're really taking this personally. Chill.

[@GRUBB-MUDD]

@@BudgetLawns well he did... Pinning only fans link in the comments. Links were way better than related video... Im just hoping some1 from yt sees my comment. Related video option is trash. Im a shorts and long form creator

[@GRUBB-MUDD]

Then u got this guy deleting my comments that are real! Im off this page. Yall have fun

[@BudgetLawns]

@@GRUBB-MUDD I agree, the related video option is worthless.

[@NomadOverNormal]

So I experienced this YESTERDAY. I was close to 10k subscribers, and sort of wanted to get me over the hump. So I cut together a pretty okay (not great) short, to experiment with what might occur, and hopefully get me over the hump. I haven’t posted a short in months, long before I started growing, and figured why not experiment? Well. The short bombed. Like 25 views in 6 hours. And then my VPH for my video taking off went from 40-100 per hour to 21vph. Is it correlated? I don’t think so per se, i made sure to uncheck “notify subscribers” cause I didn’t want this to go to them. But it was weird for me. Really weird. No more shorts for me, even though I used shorts for 2 years to grow other channels I’ve worked closely with for years. Good video, wish I saw it yesterday:/

[@CarolineEstelle]

I was left blind sided when I moved to long form content. I don’t know what to do it’s like I’ve ruined any chance 😢

[@ElementaryBrewingCo]

I’ve been hesitant to make shorts but I will say that I have found myself looking for shorts first when trying to learn something because I just want a quick how too. But I primarily go for long form because I enjoy that format better.

[@AlainaMartinLe]

Same

[@kevin_24x7]

It seems like most KZbin shorts viewers are unaware of how the linking solution works. KZbin hasn't done much to inform and educate the creator and even less to teach viewers and users of the platform.

[@derryXDINES]

Nate, I actually started making shorts based on your advice almost 4 years ago now, and I think you made some good points here. The biggest difference between youtube proper and shorts is culture. There are little pockets where I can see some overlap, but in general, the audiences and experiences are very different. It's true that what you need to do to get a response is different for both, but fundamentally, the skills needed in terms of video making and community interaction are the same. This is why I enjoy creating for both. When the grind of ideation and implementation of thumbnails burns me out, I mentally switch to shorts and it helps me to recenter.

[@Charlesperalo]

I’ve had over 900 million views off shorts, but so far my long form content has failed miserably, where some don’t break 10,000 views. I don’t actually think this really is a pro or con to shorts, because of the community page. I had the most active community page on KZbin last year, with 1.9 billion impressions and every day reach several million people there. The overlap between shorts and community is under 10% for sure, with many in the community not knowing I do shorts and vice versa. My gut feeling is going forward for long form content, I’ll eventually do well, but just haven’t done enough long form.

[@DrSusanneKurz]

As audience, I sometimes like to just watch a few shorts to get little nuggets or entertainment/good feelings from them (so, that's essentially coaching/spiritual tips, comedy or just something nice like cute animals). BUT some of these shorts are clearly snippets from a longer video that did spark my interest in the longer video and I've been frustrated that there wasn't an easily visible link to the full video - now we finally got that! Obviously, I won't watch it right away, but it goes to my "watch later" list where I will revisit it later. So, as I'm excited about this from the audience POV, I also like to use it in my own shorts that are taken from long form videos. I don't have enough of an audience to have an idea how high the percentage of people is who're functioning like me, but I always assume there must be SOME. 😄

[@davidrichmusic121]

must admit I have found shorts have helped subs and some do go over to long-form but I am a small channel and my niche is I do music so very different from many big channels in the comments. The shorts I do are just clips of my long-form songs so they then go and listen to long-form sometimes that's not always. It may change with bigger channels and they have more room to adjust but initially, especially in music, subs are a big barometer especially when getting booked for gigs. Great video as always Nate. Also stop being so happy I am used to singing miserable sad songs if ever you want to bring some misery to your viewers I am your man😢

[@LikeAMathClass]

I've got an education channel with a couple breakout videos (for me), but most still have a low view count. My videos are primarily long form, but I also do "tips and tricks" with shorts. The shorts are an offshoot of my long form videos and usually support the long form or other things I know my viewers will need at some point. Generally I get waaay more views with my shorts, but they are also bringing in some subscribers and also get some crossover to my long form. I would like to focus on just one, but I feel like I still need both. I'm also hopeful that this will help grow both, but it is indeed very tricky.

[@AlainaMartinLe]

Yeah I get more views on my shorts on Yt and on TikTok I get just a 100 more than usual (310 views vs the 200 everyone be stuck at) so I’m tryna see what I should do I like making both… but to get monetized on YT with shorts is a lot but so is the 4,000

[@afor_ayush]

You got it right dear. It is actually true that the audience attracted via shorts doesn't get converted to long form content. But since I am a video editor myself and also run an end-to-end content management services agency, I have observed a pattern and co-relation between both shorts and long form that is performing better and results in much more conversion. We usually push shorts and long form separately on the same channel, rather if we could start strategizing and optimising shorts as per our long form content, that leads to better reach of the channel and ultimately gets better long form traction. I am more than happy to share more details to someone who is interested.

[@adventurearchaeology]

KZbin shorts are the worse thing to happen to the platform. It’s created vanity subscriber metrics. These subscribers are much different and not loyal. Also by creators being so excited to make shorts basically for free it’s inevitable that KZbin has noticed. Why should they pay $5-8k per million when they could just pay $55 per million and clearly people will keep creating 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@DarkDollyz]

True, focus on long form video is more valuable. Extract portion to become shorts as teaser

[@tobias-steinert]

I think they should release a 2nd App for Shorts only. It would help long and short form content a lot. You can‘t be an all in one App.

[@OldIronAcres]

I make what I call "CHAOS SHORTS" (*Boop, Trademarked by me) - - I take my Long Form content and chop out 8-12 segments, which adds up to 12-22 seconds of Big Reaction Statements or Actions, then I shuffle them out of order. Slap on some crazy music, and Go!! They are entertaining, fast to make, and really.... don't tell a story at all, yet they kinda do, but you've got to go to the LF content to understand it. - - They are like teasers to my LF content. They seem to have some success and the "Short Attention Span Peeps of the World" seem to like them. They frequently have a high view duration. - - - Keep up the great videos Nate. Appreciate them! - - J.Andre. / Old Iron Acres

[@BrickHouseBuilds]

Oh man this is actually reassuring as I thought I was going crazy. My content is long form with heavy focus on information and I am simply not an entertainment based channel. Shorts just didn't work for me and only caused unsubscribes and lost time as I had to focus on recording in vertical. Double the work with negative results.

[@ThatNateBlack]

really good to hear that it's helpful for you! Also, sweet channel!

[@BrickHouseBuilds]

@ThatNateBlack Thanks Nate! Been watching and trying to use your advice for a few years now!

[@trumpetbob15]

Stumbled on this video and can't agree more. As a viewer (non-creator), I watch Shorts not because I want to, but if you pick and choose, you generally don't get ads on the KZbin app. (Long form videos are so over-loaded with ads that they are nearly unwatchable on the app.) I am different, though, in that I don't endlessly scroll within the videos; instead, I only look at the ones from people I subscribe to or I may stumble on a short on the home page and check out others from that creator. I will also agree that in most cases, a creator's work is best in one or the other. The best counterexample of this would be a science channel that does a Short with a cool science reaction, but then has the longer video explaining WHY it happened. (Give the quick snippet that most people want to see - an explosive reaction! - but then have the deeper dive for the more curious viewers.) Most channels I watch are much better as long-form video and Shorts are an after-thought.

[@Destroyahh40]

So the question is, if I stop uploading shorts alongside my long form videos, will new uploaded long form videos start to gain impressions again? Shorts has killed my impressions for my long form videos recently.

[@tannermartin9895]

I’m here as a KZbin Shorts success story. My wife’s channel completely blew up from shorts (30K to 500K). The idea that shorts can’t build up audience loyalty or translate to long form views in the long term is completely false. The key is create shorts that bring back large amounts of returning viewers over and over again. The more time they spend with you (even on shorts) the more loyalty you build. Before shorts we could barely crack 1K views per long form. Now getting 80K-100K per long form (all returning viewers from the shorts audience that was built).

[@AkhtarReviews]

As a creator: It's more exhausting for me to create shorts compared to long videos. As a viewer: I rarely watch long videos of creators whose shorts I'm watching regularly. Shorts has a different kind of energy.

[@nikhein]

I never did a single short, and I never regret that. Channel is doing ok, as I feel it. In my niche and with my core audience, shorts don't seem to have any value to me. Honestly, I don't watch them myself )

[@ExtremeTourname]

Is true, after the invention of shorts. My views completely dropped. Because more people are going for shorts and not choose to watch long form videos. I made shorts too but I hope youtube stays a platform for only long form videos.

[@JoelYoungMarketingOnline]

You may have saved me a lot of time and frustration. Getting ready to ramp up my channel with long form, but also trying to figure out how to incorporate shorts in there... somewhere... to find the time to learn all the ins & outs of doing both. I was getting information overwhelm and wondering if I really wanted to do this. Now I know. Thank you!

[@Justyna-dg4hs]

Two separate channels I guess.

[@BWFMEDIA]

They just need to get rid of KZbin shorts it’s not translating at all and when it does, Translate, you you get a huge spike then it drops off after that your views are dead

[@kirkmangaming]

Nate, I love your insight. I think KZbin fears that if you had access to all of their data you would become too powerful. haha I started this channel partly as an experiment for my high school video production class to show students the analytics side of YT. It has since started to really take off so I’m taking it more seriously. Lately I have been creating a short and a long form video simultaneously but I am seeing that they draw in 2 very different audiences even though the content is from the same source footage! In terms of the road to monetization, one might bring in the subscribers but the other grows at a totally different rate to bring in the watch hours.

[@lenkakmakeup]

That makes sense as I’m getting the subscribers mainly from the shorts and the long videos are just not picking up and to be honest I’m getting burnt out bc I am have been uploading one short every day and one long video per week But it helped me to get the subscribers and now I can live stream from my phone and I really enjoy this vertical live stream option as I can connect and engage with people so live streams are the best for me now ❤ Thank you for amazing content How you do it that your video is so sharp 👌🏻 love it

[@RondellKB]

Google needs to take shorts tf off of KZbin and make a separate platform. I hate short form with a passion.

[@wellnesswithjon]

amen

[@Cats4nelson]

I think it depends on the niche for mine "cat videos." Shorts, longs, livestreams the audience translates. Also for cooking it's easier to watch a short than a 10 minute video. Thanks for the video though ❤

[@MadeOnTape]

Nate, I've recently dedicated more time and effort to publishing shorts, and it's been going very well for me. I feel lucky because all I need to do is pull out little pieces of my long-form content (with some tweaks), so it's very rare that I actually focus a filming day on "shorts/toks". Maybe it's my niche, but there are always good little nuggets in my content that I feel can be distilled down from my longer videos. ...in terms of payment, yeah it sucks. I feel like i'm still in the "audience-building" phase of growth, and I'm stoked that people are even paying attention. Thanks as always, Mr. Nate.

[@JonAutomates]

I'm curious if I should delete my shorts. I've done pretty well with them, but my long form has significantly suffered.

[@MagentaOtterTravels]

Shorts have only been a huge distraction for me... lousy views, few subs, and no $$... Just not relevant to my brand 😉

[@TheLASTHowl]

That hair tho

[@TheVeganiz3r]

...whatever

[@quizwell]

It would be good if the related-video-link on shorts could be linked to a video on another channel. If that was the case we would set up a separate shorts channel and use that to drive viewers to our long form channel. But for now we don't feel shorts and long-form co-exist well on the same channel. As many others have said they are two different audiences.

[@bbreak]

We used shorts a LOT to grow the channel.... For nearly a year we posted shorts almost daily... And it did wonders for our subs numbers. However, very obviously, the audience that came to our shorts didn't watch the long-form all that much. But it still did help a lot in growing the channel. So for that I would still advice every new channel to include a shorts strategy. Even if you're more of a long-form channel. Now that we're at over 2K subs we will do shorts a LOT less... We will continue with shorts, but it will probably just be 1 or 2 each week. On the other hand, we will also produce less long-form. We're going for more quality, less quantity because our focus now is watch hours, no longer (just) reaching as many people as possible... The next goal is monetization, and it's still a LONG, LONG way to go for that.

[@littlebluestravelingzoo4344]

I agree 100% with you and had the same experience. Shorts allowed me to get subscribers, I reached 1000 in a year, but that audience was not watching my long form. I am in the same boat trying to catch up my watch hours now.

[@bonjourtasty]

Your comment was super helpful. I’m going to start posting more shorts now because it’s taking so long to get subscribers. It looks like you have a really good strategy in place!! Hope you get monetized this year😊

[@bbreak]

@bonjourtasty glad to hear that!! Good luck with your channel! It looks amazing. We might try out one of your gluten free recipes in one of our videos some time (and obviously mention where we found it). Any suggestions which one we should really really try?

[@KeishaJones]

But the question still remains… can the short form subscribers make fertile soil for long form content..? Will your channel be able to grow long form videos if the foundation is built on short form videos. I understand the race to 1000 subs… but does this cost you on the back end?

[@bbreak]

@KeishaJones obviously that depends on many things. But feel free to just check the numbers of views on my long form and how they did climb together with the number of subs climbing... So, while it is still a work in progress, I'm tempted to say it does really work to grow a sustainable long-form-focused channel

[@eddieonthegotravel]

I’m glad this video was the first one that popped up when I opened the app. I’m going to stop wasting my time on creating Shorts. I have seen some of mine get into the thousands, but I suspect it is hurting my long form.

[@dynamicphotography_]

I hate shorts. I hate making them. When I make shorts (this is going to sound bad), I feel like I'm pretending to be stupid for stupid people. Yes, that sounded worse that my intention. I feel like I'm making a crappy version of what I should be making. It's cheap......and it's cheap views. It does not translate to success in any capacity. I feel like an idiot posting childish editing in the shorts. People's attention spans are basically obliterated at this point.

[@Precious_Tyrone_Learn_Play]

Very true, I am also getting highly affected by this KZbin shorts has slowed down my growth!

[@MrThinkImPossible]

I’ve noticed shorts gave me a false sense of success. I would get thousands of view on shorts and the 50 views on long. That was a reality check for me. Shorts don’t convert to long. So I’m done with shorts. It’s good for getting views and subscribers. But it was a false sense of progress for me personally.

[@pastorrandy]

As a teacher, the challenge for me is being thorough while not being boring and causing people to lose interest. I don't get into sensationalism but I try to be informative. It seems to me that shorts almost demand sensationalism. My most successful shorts have been on a trending topic or a very highly ranked keyword. For me, the challenge is creating videos I believe the viewer needs vs. videos they want to watch. I try to bridge this but as I said, it is a challenge.

[@sietch_gaming]

As a tiny channel, I'm torn, tbh. The shorts drive my subs and views on my long forms. I create my shorts from my long forms 99% of the time and tie my shorts to the long form through the "related video" option. So, where I'm torn is: shorts are driving the channel but is it "short"ing my long forms? (then again, it's hard to get true analytics as my channel is niche even in the gaming sphere.)

[@DiggingCanuck]

Posting YT shorts got me subscribers but they don't watch my longform videos. My channel is based on longform treasure hunting videos.

[@PuzzleStrats]

I definitely don’t mind if my shorts don’t do too well. My hard work goes into my long videos, and my niche is definitely focused on long form. But since my channel is kid friendly, I feel that not doing shorts would exclude the younger generation because shorts has made their attention span that of a gnat. (Also my channel is new, pls don’t judge it because I am still learning how to make videos 😅 advice I will always accept if anyone peeps it) Edit to add: My experience with shorts has converted a handful of views to my long form videos, with some of them viewing multiple times. So I’d say spending 10 seconds per short for that was worth it for me so far. I hope it continues, but if not, that’s okay. I love what I make and am not necessarily in it to get huge views but rather find like minded people who enjoy the same thing as me 😁

[@Tarapeutic]

You should make a video on Vertical/Shorts livestreaming. That's the biggest trend right now in my niche, and I do fear a little how it will long-term affect a channel. It seems to rake in the subs but the view duration is severely lacking. These vanity metrics from shorts - are we sure they negatively impact long-form content? The top comment on this video from a 1.9 million sub channel seems to think so. I would really like more insights at this point! I've been wary of Shorts from the start - but I've been Shorts form livestreaming for a bit now and the subs gained is great!

[@DougsDharma]

Yeah I'm seeing the same on my channel. Shorts do bring in more views, but no significant additional watchtime, revenue, or subscribership. At the moment I'm only using AI curated short clips of my longer videos, cross-posting to a couple of platforms. Still very much on the fence about whether they are useful or just a waste of my time. Thanks as always for your good content, Nate.

[@catfishpatrol]

I generally unsubscribe from channels when they start posting shorts daily. I watch mostly from my tv and shorts just overload my subscription section because it shows long-form and shorts all together. If im gonna take time out of my day to watch a video its definitely gonna be more than a minute (or less) long. Shorts is gonna kill youtube, thats not why ppl are here.

[@SALCAPANO]

Shorts are working for me. But you got some excellent points.

[@AaronStrawn]

I don’t know why, but my shorts get WAY more dislikes than my long form. I’m about ready to give up on them

[@dadandsondoitall]

Great video! We struggle with our shorts strategy. It has helped create subs over time but it takes so much time and we really enjoy long form so it seems like work. We are trying a new Shorts strategy moving forward and will see what the results are over the next couple of months. Appreciate you and all our best!

[@SWAT.GAMING]

I feel this man. Cant get any long traction since using shorts, mind you, most of my content cant find an audience since I basically have KZbin ADHD... thinking of making another channel just for long and keep this as a shorts playground... cheers.

[@ClairenParkerontheRoad]

I stopped posting them because I could not emotionally handle the fluctuations of subscribers it brought.

[@randomdeveloper6456]

Shorts are FULLY recommended to small channels, in my opinion. They help to grow faster than long form content. Btw, this is not my channel's account. My channel is over 5K subs, and it never grew as fast as it is since November 2023, when I started to upload shorts every single day. So, my honest advice for you guys with a small channel: DO SHORTS!

[@crazyadventuresandreviews]

I hate shorts, I did shorts at the beginning and got a lot of subs from it and then started doing long minute vids I started loosing subs fast and still am I deleted most of my shorts but my watchtime minutes have been going up fast but gaining subs is very slow I gain and then loose some subs. People that watch shorts have no attention span they will hurt your channel. Stay away from shorts they are a different breed of people there idiots.

[@underoneking]

So, you are my favorite of all the youtube advisers out there. Not because your VidIQ flashyness edits, but because you drop the FACTS. Nothing else really matters. That's what my channel is about. Now, you or others may be bias towards my channel because of the content type, and that's OK. I get it. But before you judge, know that Faith comes by hearing and when you hear and then see reality play out with using these facts, just like using fact based advice, as based upon someone with Authority in the subject...It no longer matters what anyone else thinks because you have something nobody can ever take from you. So cutting to the heart of the matter is what I do as everything else is wasteful of time. I would like to thank you for your research and advice regarding my setting up my channel. At times, I hate youtube as I KNOW it censors and bans certain topics they don't like and for this it is very frustrating to me. (and the content I do is ripe with it as I use the "removed" scriptures most modern people have never heard and is why modern "religion" seems like a fraud...because it is!....anyways.... So, I started in October, signed up last December but never posted because I was in training. Tried using my laptops 720 x 480 webcam and was pathetic!...So, for 9 months or so, I researched all the materials, hardware, knowhow, saved up and bought all the stuff... and finally went for it then. So I had zero activity on my channel until October 22, 2023 (I think). Today, I have 830-ish subscribers with 80ish thousand views. (I feel really crummy about this for all the effort I put in and it is all on my own dime, which that part is GREAT as that is my sacrifice) I want subscribers for the sake of outreach and youtube (from what I hear pushes you out way more if your a partner) so that is my purpose. I actually NEVER EVER EVER want to mention money or donations or affiliates or sponsors, as this would POLLUTE the pure message and that is what gives my subject matter a BAD NAME. So this is a very unique situation as my only goal is to reach more people, not for clicks sake, but for a greater purpose. TRUTH. I have been using your advice to "play" the system as my longform videos usually bombed (single digit), (although the few I scripted out did using your thumbnail and title first method) but then the shorts I cut out of them would rip subscribers, 10 here 30 there, until present day. Until I stopped posting them one after another (basically at the same time) and then post them at the key activity for whatever day that was, and staggered them every few hours starting around 4:30. Now I tried concentrating on making better longform videos...to limited success but usually some of the shorts would snag few thousand then just STOP. Then, I would post a long-form...it would do TRIPLE DIGITS...but then just flat out DIE after a set amount of time, which youtube ALWAYS stopped pushing it. So I had definitely put more attention on my shorts as I then took the ones that did really good and re-did them, making them better. They still get almost the same views down to few hundred. The shorts algorithm is stacked against you. Unless you get a 80% click through rate and over 50% complete watch time, youtube will cut off your short and not really ever post it again. If I was doing this for monetary gain, I would say youtube is set-up to essentially scam people out of free work and the "social status" and dopamine hits from our conditioning is the only reward? Anyways, sorry to be longwinded, and all over the place, as I added thoughts to not forget anything, but wanted to share this experience to where now, my strategy is to do long-form as usual, making better each time and then making 3 or 4 shorts from them (as more is NOT MERRIER) until I get 1000 subs, then, seriously concentrate on my long-form as my watch hours are over thousand...but DON'T COUNT because most of it is from shorts. But hope you can use this also in your data and help others based on this. I have been carefully analyzing what goes on and thank you for the free info you put out there. I for one appreciate it.

[@ThatNateGuyOnYouTube]

This is a great video. Shorts have been excellent for growing my sub count, but horrible for everything else. Shorts are fun to make, and open up a completely different creative freedom for me, but have almost zero payoff, and the longer I posted them, the more it destroyed my long form content performance. Shorts revenue is absolutely absurd as well, and have no rhyme or reason. I have shorts with 1200 views, getting .12 cents per 1000 views, and shorts with 45 MILLION views, literally getting .01 cent per 1000 views. I had to break the "shorts sub addiction" and stop posting them altogether, to let my long form content take the lead again so I don't crash and burn.

[@WideCutSawmill]

This pops up as I open my app to make a short lol Thanks Nate! 100% agree. I have literally only made shorts to gain subs….

[@AuntieDanaReads]

I use shorts as an intro in reaching more viewers. They are, for me, commercials that let people know my channel exists. They do help my subscriber count go up a few every time I post one. I can agree, however, that shorts/commercials are not super helpful at bringing me closer to the 4,000 watch hours. As always, thank you for your perspective.

[@SuperStupidPoop]

Shorts WILL grow your channel way faster...it will make you extra money off of existing long form videos by breaking them into multiple shorts, and yes, a lot of those shorts subscribers will also watch your long form videos. YT has two audiences...shorts viewers and long-form viewers. Having both is very beneficial.

[@McBadgersDad]

91% of my Shorts views come from the Shorts Feed / New Viewers. My content gets pushed right up till 2,500 views then it's cut off. If I go beyond 2,500 views it comes from Search. Soo weird but also soo predictable

[@Bobert-Rob]

Shorts have become a double edged sword for me. Thanks to shorts, I was able to help a longform video of mine become viral. Over the course of several months, but still, I've yet to get another 1 million+ viewed video (Well, I had two videos around the same time get 1 million+ views, technically, released within 2 months of each other). Which was only possible because I had like 5 shorts themselves go viral at the same time. Some of which still get hundreds of thousands of views in a 48 hour period. Granted, it's not always like that, but it seems if you have just the right viewing data on specific shorts, they have a tendency to have views that become sine waves. In that, it'll flux up and down between specific numbers over months. No guarantee it'll always be that way of course, but my channel became monetized back in the fall of 2022, so it's been consistent so far. The problem comes from the longform. Now I have a specific audience of viewers that come for shorts and only shorts, despite my efforts to make my longform content appealing to them. Before the viral push, I had maybe 40k subscribers. I'm sitting at half a million now. That's 400k+ subscribers from shorts. Now, the huge problem is most of those subscribers have since moved on or don't try to keep up due to the habit of general shorts viewers who only want one specific thing from their viewing habits. Think about it: The short they watched could only have so much in it. The shorter the short, the better it generally does (in my experience). So there can't be much topic shift within. Well, unless you're copy-pasting your video topics in each short, that viewer isn't going to stick around. Or they subbed out of habit and because it was only 15 seconds of one specific joke or skit, you didn't make a lasting impression on them so obviously you're forgotten. Now I have all these basically empty subscribers I earned legit, but that are useless because their shorts viewing habits just don't line up with an actual audience. But sadly, I can't really just say "Welp, guess I should just abandon shorts". I still make money off the dozen shorts that still regularly get between 40k - 150k views every 48 hours. It's a sine wave by itself, but removing shorts from my strategy removes that income. Without it, I'd be back to basically making nothing. I still don't make a living wage, but thanks to shorts it's at least a little closer to that. Still, I devote all my time every day to making content, both longform and shorts. Every day I'm trying to release something.

[@ChristianIce]

It's all true, but it presupposes something that is also a "change" in youtube format. First youtube videos were short, and you had to be a partner (ort whatever it was the food chain at the time) to upload videos longer than 15 minutes. It was not the "Original KZbin" pushing for longer videos, that's something that came after, with a series of string attached. You had to be frequent in uploading, you had to fill up Google's hard drives with tons and tons of stuff. That, in my opinion, ruined KZbin long before the "shorts" thing. That said, promoting inflation of contents and then pushing shorts to compete with TikTok, shows that on top of the system there's somebody that has no idea how this thing works. P.S. I really, REALLY want an option in the settings to top showing shorts.

[@rrdcreates]

I get a bunch of views on shorts, then none of that view time counts towards anything for regular monetization - and I'm not getting 10M views anytime soon so it seems useless lol