I REGRET Making YouTube Shorts

[@Marcus-Jones]

0:05 look mum, it's meee

[@makariespe]

Your videos are SO HELPFUL. I feel like I’m learning from a friend… which is such a relief now that my KZbin algorithm is throwing every “how to be a successful KZbinr” video at me. You are by far my favourite teacher when it comes to KZbin. THANK YOU!

[@AprilynneAlter]

Awww omg thank you so much!! I really, really appreciate the kind words 💙

[@makariespe]

@@AprilynneAlter of course! :)

[@VioletEmerald]

​​@makariespe I agree! About to start a new KZbin channel that's monetizable (this one here I'm writing from is a vidding one so the music always means it's not). This type of stuff is so helpful. Aprilynne, your help is by far my favorite of quite a few in this niche.

[@Dr_Ayman_1]

00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Condition 1 02:51 - Condition 2 04:04 - When Are KZbin Shorts Worth It 05:00 - Other Downsides of Shorts

[@owayneallen]

And you’re doing absolutely amazing now! Btw. I post my long form videos, then cut clips and turn it into shorts, and that brings in a small portion of the revenue, and subscribers keeps coming in, that has been my method and its working

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

I can confirm all your findings and points. Also I will add that I have not really had much luck with converting shorts views to come to the long video, but chopping up long videos, like you mention is easy and good for other platforms.

[@PamelaCarey]

Oh my goodness girl I LOVE your videos. Your editing and techniques are great but most of all here for the insights you have that are unique and in your own voice. You really cut to the core of what we should be doing on KZbin with modern, up to date guidance. Just watched 3 videos, subscribed, and here for more :)

[@TheUnicornCousin]

Thank u for this! I felt a bit overwhelmed to have time to do shorts even if I want to focus on long form. So now I’ll skip shorts until further notice! You’re the best ☺️🥰❤️

[@LearnEasyGuitarTunes]

My channel is 10 days shy of 90 days and I have 1400 subs about 1800 watch hours. My videos are 4-10 minutes long and I post one a day along with a short of that long form. The short literally takes me 5 minutes to make. Since starting, I have gained 728 subs from long-form and 599 from shorts. Along the way, I have reworked all my thumbs, titles, and descriptions. I work hard at this. I am lucky enough that my full-time job allows me to work on my KZbin throughout the week. My schedule is Sunday through Wednesday are plan, research, write, and create thumbs. Thursday is filming day and Friday is editing and posting. Saturday I rest or finish up scheduling posts if they weren't completed on Friday. It is pretty hard work, but I plan to slow down to 3-4 videos per week come May so I can do more in my videos instead of keeping them basic. My subs like the 1 video per day and are spoiled so they will have to adjust to less content in the future. At one point, I was getting 30--40 subs a day but that has leveled off in the last week ranging from 5-20 a day. Your input would be welcomed!

[@ShatteredInsights]

I super burned out making shorts and stopped working on KZbin for like 2 months haha. It gave me some new subscribers, but I’m still not sure if they even watch my long form content. Interesting analysis, really liked this video. I’ll stick to making long form, especially because I am more passionate. In addition, I feel as though I can easily make 3-5 min long form videos (my average view duration on my long form videos , usually closer to 2-3 min tbh), and making shorts every day just burned me out like crazy 😂 My most recent long form video, even though audience retention is crap, it has gotten almost the most amount of views of any long form video on my channel! I think my next steps are to take what I learned from editing my shorts (sound effects, punching in punching out, text on screen, captions, music, cuts, etc) and apply that to my long form Sorry for the long comment, thanks again for another banger video 🎉

[@AprilynneAlter]

Hey, I love long comments!! Thanks for sharing your experience, and congrats on your most recent long-form! Hopefully this video gives you further validation that it's okay to focus on purely long-form content, regardless of what some of the "KZbin gurus" say 😅

[@CharlotteHarborFisherman]

Do you think the shorts hurt significantly the CTR since they are low value views? Just wonder if I should spend time with them. I do get a lot of subs from them but doubt wonder if they really stick around.

[@AloneRacecar]

This is a pretty nice video that you made. Definitely some nice points that you got there, but now here’s when I become the black sheep of the comments section… I actually really like YT Shorts as both a viewer and creator. They can be handy when you’re watching something on the go or when you’re at a place where you can’t settle down to watch a 20 minute something video. Oh yeah! There’s also the fact how you get to have freedom of choosing all sorts of music for your short, without any copyright issues (most of the time). Also in my experience, I’m actually a rare case where my channel actually benefited from the shorts! Especially when my full-video viewership has come up (to some degree) compared to when I first started this channel. Am I sounding crazy from a smaller channel right now? Probably. But it has gotten be a bit of confidence within my channel. NOW THEN… I am very much aware that YT Shorts aren’t the most profitable especially when bringing in subscribers who have a more shorter attention spans. And I get that’s why I hear so much about the downside of YT Shorts. However I’ve seen channels who have done well with keeping a balance between the two, and I tip my hat for those channels! As for myself, despite how everyone is turning away from YT Shorts. This doesn’t stop me from doing what I do to entertain people who like to watch my content/niche. But hey when I ever become more relevant within KZbin I will have to make a decision on the future of my channel. But of course I am not foolish, I know that I won’t let shorts dominate my channel. So that’s why I’m a firm believer in taking a balance to everything. 👍

[@iamlashawnda]

This video is GOLD. I wish more people understood this. I advocate this perspective so much!

[@ReiLorraine]

Would you recommend making shorts out of your long form content?

[@Gen-X-Memories]

I have found your videos to be very informative and educational. Thanks for this information on YT shorts. Frankly I'm relieved that I don't have to fool with them since I'm still in the early stages of growing my channel and its hard enough just trying to get long form content finished and uploaded on a regular basis.

[@NierAutomata2B]

Trust is built over time, Shorts are not enough time to build trust, hence low conversion to subscribers. I think shorts are only good for entertainment stuff and not good for educational stuff. People watch shorts for entertainment, not to work their brains.

[@AprilynneAlter]

That's also something I wanted to bring up, but it didn't really fit into the video. I think it's very hard for educational videos of value to do well in a Shorts format. The hook matters so much for the view vs swiped away ratio, and if you spend 20 seconds on a good hook just so people are convinced to watch, you only have 40 seconds left to impart value. In most cases, the real value-add educational Shorts don't get many views, and the Shorts that do blow up are the ones that don't impart a ton of value.

[@rafidhoda]

Your videos are amazing! You manage to pack so much info in all of them : )

[@Arikiranix]

Thank you so much for this video! I have a question: I used to post shorts and now I want to post long-form, how do I clear my channel of the lesser quality viewers? Pls help. Ty!

[@withlovebrinicole]

Your content is amazing! I love how you proved your naysayers wrong and your channel is scaling exactly like you show in your content 💜 this my friend is genius!

[@alex16808]

You go girl!! awesome content as usual

[@paulcable1550]

Thank you for making these videos April. Really valuable 💜

[@Marikyuun]

As someone who grew "exclusively" from KZbin shorts and got like 400k subscribers between March and November, YOU'RE SO RIGHT DON'T DO IT!!!!!

[@mattytwoshoes]

I am definitely yelling at you in the comments :D Great video! Yes, the data at first glance shows that Shorts are not good for subscriber growth. However, the data of new subscribers is only coming from where the user decided to click the subscribe button and doesn't consider the conversion path. My personal experience (in a niche, granted) has been that Shorts boost my channel's visibility to the extent that people then watch my other content and choose to subscribe. They wouldn't have found that content organically, so for me, this is a solid strategy. I would love if KZbin could report on this more deeply.

[@AprilynneAlter]

Interesting! How do you know they first find you from Shorts and then stick around and watch your content after? I wish there were numbers to back this up. Or maybe you could poll your audience and see if they first found you through long-form or Shorts? Would be really interested to see the results!

[@mattytwoshoes]

@@AprilynneAlter Oh, sorry this is my assumption based on my channel observations. It's impossible to know for sure, but I was doing 0-1 new subs every month (basically 0) before starting posting almost entirely YT Shorts content, now I am doing 30+. I dug around Analytics a bit but couldn't get the right view yet, but if I do find a way to check it I'll let you know for sure! My channel is too small to run a poll I think :(

[@charlottemakesbooks]

Thanks for this perspective!

[@JoeSixPackUSAOfficial]

What type of viewer ratio would a creator need to collaborate with with you or just run ideas back and forth?

[@dreamcars-nl]

Thank you for this video💙

[@humbleviewpoint]

Fascinating! Great presentation style too.

[@Marcus-Jones]

You're very charismatic on camera. Nice work.

[@frenk_expat]

The real reason is that KZbin will not create impressions if your subs from shorts don't watch long videos,so they hurt the channel badly,hence a separate channel for shorts is what most do.

[@VickyLashenko]

Omg 😂 I wish I saw this video before I spent two days recording content for shorts 😂😂😂 I’m itching to get back to KZbin but I guess this isn’t the way! Off to binge watch your other videos.

[@kevinreezygaming]

I have 21k subscribers on this channel I'm using rn and over 2 million views, and she right don't create shorts it's not worth, imagine having over 21k subscribers and not monetize, reaching 10 million views in 90 days it's soo impossible for most creators and people who will watch your shorts won't watch your long form videos, yes shorts is the easiest way to gain subscribers fast but that doesn't equal your watch time

[@davidthescottishvegan]

The majority of my subscribers are coming from long form video not the shorts. Thanks Aprilynne for this awesome video and love 🥰 your channel and love ❤️ Aprilynne.

[@TalhaGunduz_TG]

I'm also on the same journey as your in some days I have 740 Subscribers 400k Short views Now I decided I can upload 3 Long Form Contents per week and 2 shorts daily for next 3 weeks

[@kimberleylooijen]

Thank you so much! Thanks for sharing that KZbin only pays $60 for 1 million KZbin shorts videos. I didn’t know that. Yesterday I found out - as an artist - that 1 million streams on Spotify will only pay me €4. Even though KZbin pays so little it is still way more than Spotify pays artists. As an artist this also answers my question whether it’s still worth it to make official music videos nowadays (so the long form videos you’re talking about) After watching your video, I think it is… Well… If I ever hit 1 million views on KZbin thanks to my videoclip, at least I get paid more than on Spotify… That said - Thanks again for all your valuable info!❤ I landed on your “how to make a killer thumbnail” video first but then found out about all the other great videos as well. I just subscribed to your channel.

[@calmthoughtcafe]

Thank you so much for this.

[@OneMinuteFrench1]

Thank you so much for this video! Here is a question: how short can a long video be? Could a 1 or 2 minute video be considered "long" in order to be monetized?

[@SatisfyingTStories]

Yes, even if the video is 30 seconds long for as long as it's not vertical and posted in the shorts feed. It's a long form video😍

[@JumalAhmad]

Thanks for making this video

[@RoxiieSays]

New subbie! Love your channel!

[@AndyGray157]

How long did it take you to edit this one, just out of interest? Really impressive you're keeping the quality up with so many back to back videos in a short period!

[@AprilynneAlter]

It took me 9 hours 😭 it was my longest edit so far. The editing is definitely the hardest part of this whole challenge

[@BananaTVofficial]

You got a new sub from me! I have been off KZbin for over 5 years and now returning. I have 33K subs left but I’m not sure that means anything any more. I will be exploring your channel and all your advice. Great vids!

[@jannarkiewicz633]

Interesting framing. Not sure what the technique is called. I mean good video but I watch b/c Ms Aprilynne has mad video skills.

[@VedicSpirituality]

Fabulous content! Just not quite sure about the choice of background music... !

[@44Bdogg]

Shorts just seems to bring you views than subscribers according to my videos on my channel they watch my shorts more than long form videos which I am trying to convert my short viewer over to my longer videos an it’s reallly difficult maybe I should just start a brand new channel I might have screwed up on this channel idk 🤷‍♂️

[@carbonart7645]

I love your videos and your creativity. But ma, would it be possible for a channel video critique any time soon

[@AlandraLP]

Love the effort you are putting into your videos and still going for the 3 videos per week! I just noticed 2 things that you may consider for upcoming videos: 1. there is background noise from your mic. It is loud enough to hear and is not covered up by the music. I don't know what editing software you are using. Still, it might be worth a shot to get into the basics of audio improvement with in-built solutions (I use 3 filters in Davinci Resolve, and the results are amazing!) 2. The music is quite energetic. If you want to go with that vibe, Keep it! But, I felt the music did not fit entirely with your way of talking. I found it a little bit distracting. Hope my feedback helps you to keep up the good work and improve over time! Looking forward to the next video ^-^

[@AprilynneAlter]

I really appreciate the feedback! For background noise, I agree - I noticed that in the footage, and I have no idea how to fix it in post (I use HitFilm Express.) I was super bummed when I heard it, but I didn't have the time to re-record. I'll have to look and see if HitFilm has any post-production audio filters to help. That's the downside of living in a city - there's a lot of noise pollution from outside For thing #2, the background noise is part of why I picked this music 😅 I was hoping that the more energetic music would help mask the noise (slower music made the noise stand out more.) What did you think of the music in the last 2 videos? Do you think that fit more? Again, thank you so much for feedback! I truly appreciate it 💙

[@danielkostov9489]

​@@AprilynneAlter Hey, just saw your comment and can throw a couple tips here: 1) the mic noise is either from your preamp (if you use an audio interface) or from a ground loop (usually happens if you use a cord extender or if you devices' cables overlap physically). if it's the preamp it is either faulty or not gainstaged properly (crank that volume a bit). If it's the ground loop, try investing into better extenders and check your cables for overlap 2) if you end up with the constant humming noise, use something like Izotope RX 8 to clean that up. It is easy to use after a couple tutorials and will save you lots of time. You just choose the humming noise and it deletes it throughout your whole video, works like magic. It also cleans up reverb-y spaces too!

[@lolTalontedHei]

This is true I have a short video with 1.5K views but less than 20 views on my long videos crazy stuff 😂

[@RichsMowersNBlowers]

My findings: No money in shorts. But More Subs from shorts. Short watchers are really not long form watchers. Wait what. They are what I call finger flickers they have a fast fingers and want to move on to the next video. So short watchers are just that, short watchers. Don't count on them to watch your long form videos. What made them subscribe was somerhing simple and short. So your collecting the wrong subs. Unless you just want to be the shorts person. I would still try it for yourself. Dont get discouraged the algorithm will just kill your short as fast as it started. 0 to 2k views in 30 seconds then nothing. Dead in The water. Might get 2 to 10 subs or more. Per short, the shorter the better sick with under 10 second whe. Making a short. Just my findings in my niche

[@geeky_gamer007]

Yeah the 10 million view thing that you have to accomplish in 90 days is crazy!!

[@AprilynneAlter]

It really is! I mean it's not unheard of for a Short to hit a million, but you'd basically need many Shorts to "pop off" in order to hit that for the monetization threshold

[@alzbeta.stastna]

❤️❤️❤️

[@Disappears-in-light-mode]

1:32 is the conversion rate considering watchtime?

[@Disappears-in-light-mode]

2:21 I just checked and longform resulted in 2.14 subs per watchtime hour while shorts gained 2.92 subs per watchtime hour. I realize shorts is often higher effort to video length, but it is much lower effort per video. Even still I would assume there are far fewer first-time-viewer sub gains from shorts than on longform. Nevertheless you technically are gaining more subs from shorts, but those gains are operating over multiple shorts if you see what I mean. What I’m getting at is it seems there is certain amount of time with a person on average of them viewing your content in order for them to commit to subscribing and that amount of time still comes out as being less time with shorts than with longform. Awesome video btw. Keep it up!

[@MurphyKargesBass]

Just wanted to say your content is good. But in an effort to make 87 cuts every 30 seconds to not lose viewers, ok that’s an exaggeration - but it feels like it- I literally get dizzy watching your videos and I have to turn them off. Don’t be so insecure that you can’t leave the camera on a particular cut for longer. I know everyone is obsessed with ‘growing’ and ‘scaling’ KZbin channels but at what point do we make every decision only based on losing viewers? Is that the only gauge for good videos, is that what makes a successful video? Anyway. Just a thought. Again I think you have good stuff, imo I would just ease up on the cuts every once in a while.

[@carbonart7645]

She inspires me sir, but please sir, what are my doing wrong in my videos

[@SnowyBlizzard]

I love them XD

[@EuphonicElla]

@@carbonart7645thumbnails

[@lauravalenzuela2233]

I agree. Excellent information. But the cuts are unnecessary and I don’t mind you just talking. I would still watch. I’m not a Mr Beast type of person.

[@pdeakneam]

thank admin very important in build channel i love your content❤❤❤❤❤

[@AprilynneAlter]

Thank you! 💙

[@samurai_JD55]

Shorts got me to 1k subs quick but ultimately killed my channel because they didn’t watch my long form content.

[@dranipani]

Views != Reach.

[@zombiecraft6594]

yeah i tried KZbin shorts but they didn't create any loyal subscribers

[@AprilynneAlter]

Yep, I think they're overrated (especially if you're a smaller, solo KZbinr)

[@VijayBhaskarForYou]

Dear Aprilynne. This is very insightful. I wish your new channel gets monetized sooner. I wish the same for mine as well.

[@AprilynneAlter]

We got this!

[@moneystreams0]

Are you reading script? if yes please make a video on it

[@AprilynneAlter]

I do script out all of my videos! What are you curious about - my scriptwriting process, how I read from a script without it looking like I'm reading from a script, something else?

[@moneystreams0]

@@AprilynneAlter yes how you read your script ?

[@AprilynneAlter]

@@moneystreams0 got it! Maybe I'll include it in my next weekly update haha. But essentially, I just have my script on my laptop, which is out of frame but close enough for me to read, and then I'll memorize one sentence and say it into the camera, and repeat until the entire script is done. And then in the editing process, I cut everything together so you don't see when I look away

[@MyStepdad]

Who would ever leave negative comments on your videos??? Only jerks! You make great videos with great content. I'm learning a ton from you! Thank you!

[@BiteSizeNarratives]

KZbin short earnings are pathetic