28 YouTube Shorts Hacks That Feel Illegal To Know (How to Optimise YT Shorts To Get Views)

Summary

This video script offers 28 YouTube Shorts hacks to boost views and engagement. It covers techniques like seamless looping, adding captions, repurposing successful formats, leveraging trending music, and responding to comments. The script also advises on optimizing video elements like titles, intros, and thumbnails, and suggests analyzing viewer data for strategic content creation. It emphasizes the importance of unique content and stimulating visuals to retain viewers and increase watch time, ultimately aiming to convert short viewers into long-form content consumers.

Takeaways

• 🔁 Loop your YouTube Shorts to increase watch time by making the end and beginning transition seamlessly, potentially leading to over 100% audience retention.
• 💬 Add captions or subtitles to your shorts to boost watch time, utilizing apps that can automatically generate them for convenience.
• 🗑 If a short isn't performing well, consider deleting and reposting it later to give it a 'second chance' at going viral.
• 📈 Leverage successful formats by mimicking the titles and styles of popular shorts to capitalize on what's already working.
• 🎵 Use trending music in your shorts to tap into the popularity of certain tracks and potentially gain more views.
• 🔄 Reuse successful titles for new shorts that fit the title but offer fresh content, as long as it's not overdone to avoid spamming.
• 😠 Create content that evokes strong emotions, like anger, as it tends to perform better, but ensure it's done authentically and not just for shock value.
• 💬 Engage with your audience by responding to comments to increase engagement and potentially draw viewers back to the video.
• 📈 Ensure your short's topic is trending by using tools like Google Trends to identify popular subjects within your niche.
• 🚫 Avoid spoiling your short's content in the title to maintain viewer curiosity and encourage them to watch the full short.

Q & A

What is the first hack suggested to increase views on YouTube Shorts?

The first hack is to increase watch time by looping your shorts so that the end and beginning transition seamlessly, potentially leading to viewers accidentally watching more.

Why are captions or subtitles recommended for YouTube Shorts?

Captions or subtitles are recommended because they tend to increase watch time, which is beneficial for the video's performance on the platform.

What is a 're-kick starter' strategy for YouTube Shorts?

The 're-kick starter' strategy involves deleting a short that hasn't performed well and reposting it after a few weeks or months to give it a fresh chance at going viral.

How can leveraging successful formats help in creating YouTube Shorts?

Leveraging successful formats means identifying and replicating the patterns of popular shorts, such as using a similar title structure, to increase the likelihood of success.

What role does trending music play in boosting views on YouTube Shorts?

Trending music can help boost views because it attracts viewers to the shorts, and using such music might also lead to shorts being featured in the description of the official music video, leading to more views.

What is the SQL strategy mentioned for YouTube Shorts?

The SQL strategy refers to reusing the exact same title for a new short that is different from the original but still accurately represented by that title, to capitalize on its previous success.

How can evoking emotions like anger impact the performance of YouTube Shorts?

Evoking emotions, particularly strong ones like anger, can lead to better performance as it increases viewer engagement and the likelihood of the video being shared or commented on.

Why is it important to respond to comments on YouTube Shorts?

Responding to comments increases engagement by adding more comments to the short and can encourage further interaction, potentially leading to higher visibility and watch time.

What is the significance of choosing a trending topic for a YouTube Short?

Choosing a trending topic increases the chances of the short being discovered, as it aligns with current viewer interests and can benefit from the increased search and watch activity around that topic.

How can the YouTube audio library help in creating Shorts?

The YouTube audio library provides a vast collection of copyright-free music that can be used in shorts, offering creators a legal and diverse range of options for their video soundtracks.

What is the advantage of scheduling YouTube Shorts instead of posting them immediately?

Scheduling shorts allows creators to plan their content release to coincide with peak viewer activity times, potentially increasing views and engagement.

How can analyzing viewer drop-off points in a short help improve future content?

By identifying where viewers tend to stop watching, creators can adjust their content to retain viewer interest longer, improving watch time and overall performance.

Outlines

00:00

🔥 YouTube Shorts Hacks for Maximum Views

The paragraph introduces 28 hacks to boost YouTube Shorts' performance, focusing on increasing watch time by looping shorts' endings and beginnings seamlessly. It suggests using apps for automatic captioning to enhance watch time, and advises reposting underperforming shorts to trigger YouTube's reevaluation. The paragraph also recommends leveraging successful video formats, using trending music to increase views, and strategically placing shorts in music video descriptions for potential virality. Additionally, it covers the SQL strategy for reusing successful titles and the importance of evoking emotions, especially anger, to boost performance. Lastly, it emphasizes the value of responding to comments to increase engagement.

05:00

📈 Strategies for Compelling YouTube Shorts

This paragraph delves into strategies to make YouTube Shorts more engaging, such as avoiding spoilers in titles to maintain viewer interest, using bright intros to capture attention, and utilizing the YouTube audio library for copyright-free music. It explains how to optimize shorts on desktop by editing descriptions, adding tags and categories, and using hashtags strategically. The paragraph also discusses the importance of scheduling uploads during peak viewer activity times, as identified through YouTube Studio analytics, and the potential benefits of custom thumbnails to increase click-through rates.

10:03

📊 Analyzing and Enhancing Short Performance

The focus of this paragraph is on analyzing short performance through YouTube analytics, understanding where views are coming from, and identifying search terms that lead viewers to shorts. It suggests creating content around these search terms and using analytics to pinpoint viewer drop-off points to improve future content. The paragraph also highlights the ability to edit and optimize shorts on mobile, emphasizing the importance of uniqueness and stimulation to stand out among the vast amount of short-form content.

15:03

🎥 Converting Shorts Views to Long-Form Engagement

The final paragraph addresses the challenge of converting short views into long-form content viewership. It suggests creating mini versions or highlights reels of long-form content for YouTube Shorts and ending with a call to action directing viewers to the full video. The paragraph also mentions a video with further strategies for effectively promoting long-form content through shorts, hinting at the potential for significant viewer conversion with the right approach.

Keywords

💡YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts is a feature of YouTube that allows users to create and share short videos. In the context of the video, it's the central theme around which various strategies for increasing views and engagement are discussed. The script mentions several hacks to enhance the performance of Shorts, such as looping content for increased watch time and using trending music to boost visibility.

💡Watch Time

Watch Time refers to the total amount of time viewers spend watching a video. The video emphasizes that increasing watch time is crucial for Shorts' success on YouTube, as it's a key metric that the platform uses to recommend content. Looping Shorts is suggested as a strategy to keep viewers engaged longer, potentially leading to over 100% audience retention.

💡Captions/Subtitles

Captions or subtitles are text versions of the audio content in videos, which can make content accessible to a wider audience, including those who are hard of hearing or prefer to watch without sound. The script highlights that including captions can increase watch time, and it introduces an app feature that automates the addition of subtitles to Shorts.

💡Re-kicking Starter

Re-kicking Starter is a strategy mentioned in the script where a creator deletes and reposts a short that they believe did not perform as well as it should have. The idea is that YouTube might reevaluate the content, and the second time around, it could go viral due to changes in the algorithm or increased viewer interest.

💡Trending Music

Trending music refers to songs or tunes that are currently popular or gaining significant attention. The video suggests using trending music in Shorts as a way to attract more views, as it can make the content more appealing and increase the chances of being featured in the description of the official music video, leading to additional exposure.

💡SQL Strategy

The SQL Strategy, as mentioned in the script, stands for 'Same Content, Different Length'. It involves reusing a successful title for a new short that is different from the original but still accurately represented by the title. This strategy can help retain the interest of viewers who are drawn to the title and increase the chances of the short being discovered.

💡Emotion

Emotion plays a significant role in video engagement, as discussed in the script. Shorts that evoke strong emotions, particularly anger, tend to perform better as they create a reaction that keeps viewers engaged. The video suggests that sharing unpopular opinions can stir emotions and lead to higher engagement, provided the creator genuinely holds those views.

💡Engagement

Engagement in the context of YouTube Shorts refers to the interactions viewers have with the content, such as liking, commenting, and sharing. The script advises responding to comments to increase engagement, as it can lead to more comments and keep the conversation going, which YouTube's algorithm may favor.

💡Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool that shows the popularity of search terms over time. The video suggests using Google Trends to identify trending topics within a niche to create Shorts that are more likely to attract viewers. By aligning content with trending topics, creators can capitalize on current interests and potentially increase their Shorts' visibility.

💡Custom Thumbnail

A custom thumbnail is a unique, eye-catching image that serves as the visual preview for a video. The script highlights the importance of custom thumbnails for Shorts, especially when the majority of views come from places like the YouTube browse feature, where viewers have to actively choose to watch the video. An effective thumbnail can significantly increase the click-through rate.

💡Pattern Interrupt

Pattern Interrupt is a concept used in the video to describe the practice of frequently changing scenes or introducing new elements in a short to maintain viewer interest. By interrupting the pattern every few seconds, creators can keep the content stimulating and prevent viewer fatigue, which is crucial for short-form content where attention spans are typically shorter.

Highlights

Increase watch time by looping your shorts to create seamless transitions.

Add captions or subtitles to shorts to boost watch time.

Use an app to automatically add subtitles to your shorts.

Delete and repost underperforming shorts to potentially increase views.

Leverage successful video formats by mimicking popular titles.

Use trending music in your shorts to attract more views.

Remix trending music videos to appear in their descriptions and gain exposure.

Reuse successful titles for new shorts to capitalize on previous success.

Create shorts that evoke strong emotions, like anger, to increase engagement.

Respond to comments to increase engagement and viewer retention.

Choose trending topics for shorts to capitalize on current interests.

Avoid spoiling your shorts in the title to maintain viewer curiosity.

Use bright intros in your shorts to capture attention quickly.

Utilize YouTube's audio library for copyright-free music.

Edit shorts on desktop for more optimization options.

Add hashtags strategically to increase shorts visibility.

Schedule shorts for upload during peak viewer activity times.

Analyze where your shorts are getting views from to optimize promotion.

Create custom thumbnails to increase click-through rates.

Identify points in your shorts where viewers drop off and improve them.

Maintain uniqueness and an 'X Factor' to stand out among numerous shorts creators.

Research other short-form content platforms for inspiration and ideas.

Add frequent visual interrupts to your shorts to maintain viewer attention.

Repurpose long-form content into shorts with a strong hook to engage viewers.

Promote long-form content through shorts by creating a condensed highlights reel.

Transcripts

there are 28 YouTube shorts hacks that

feel illegal to know hack number one one

of the best ways to get more views on

your shorts is to increase the amount of

watch time each of your shorts gets and

a sneaky way to do that is to try and

loop your shorts in other words try to

record the end of your short and the

beginning of your short in a way that

they transition seamlessly so instead of

swiping down after watching your short

your viewer might accidentally watch

another half of your short which can

result in audience retention graphs that

are actually over 100 and that's really

really good for example do not touch

want to lose all of your fingers

possible thumbs and keep your thumb on

the Suva it'd be smart to tell your

friends do not touch a katana until you

watch this video hack number three you

might notice a lot of the big shorts out

there all have captions or subtitles

baked in and the reason they do this is

it tends to increase watch time which as

we talked about is a very very good

thing promise adding captions takes time

and that's where this legendary little

app comes into play Not only is this a

super powerful editor that will actually

let you edit your shorts on your phone

but it's got a super neat and very

accurate feature that'll allow you to

add these subtitles automatically the

next tip if you have a short that you're

sure is extremely good quality and that

you think should be getting a lot more

views than it is something you can do to

re-kick starter is actually delete it

and then repost it a few weeks or months

later often YouTube will then retest the

video and assuming you were just unlucky

the first time around on the second

upload you might go viral next tip try

and leverage successful formats for

example check out this channel look at

the titles of all these different shorts

three useful torbjorn techs three useful

Cassidy texts three useful reinhardts

three useful Soldier attacks see the

pattern and when you've found something

that works this is so much easier than

trying to brainstorm and come up with

new fresh shots every single time you

create one this next one is super ninja

so we all know that on platforms like

Tick Tock having trending music in your

video can actually help you get more

views but did you know the same can

apply on YouTube and let me show you how

basically on your YouTube homepage you

can just click on the little Compass

icon and go to trending in trending you

want to then click on music and you'll

see all the latest trending music and

music videos tend to get more views than

any other type of video on the platform

now why should you as a short Square to

care about this well if you click into a

music video say this one and you click

on more to the description if you scroll

down you can actually see that in the

descriptions of music videos you can

often see shorts that are remixing that

video in other words if you use this

music as background music in your short

there's a chance you'll shop in the

description of that official music video

and that can lead to a crap ton of views

especially if you're early all you have

to do is navigate to the music video on

your phone then click on this remix

button and then you want to click on use

sound here follow the prompts that music

will be in your background and again if

you're early enough you'll shop in the

description of the official music video

and get a crap ton of views the next tip

if you have a highly successful short

use the SQL strategy you can literally

reuse the exact same title and create a

new short that is different from the

original one but that would be

accurately represented by that title now

you've got to be careful repeating this

too frequently because your audience

might get bored or YouTube might see you

as spamming but as you can see with this

channel for example it can work really

well this next one's really interesting

so when me and my students did a bunch

of testing across a bunch of different

shots we found that shorts that make

people angry actually perform better

than those that don't which makes sense

because as we know I'm evoking emotion

from your viewers generally helps your

video to perform and anger is a pretty

strong form of emotion however going out

there and just blatantly doing things

that make people hate you might get you

a bunch of views at least based on our

testing but it's probably not a good

thing to do however what you can do is

if you have unpopular opinions that you

think a lot of people might disagree

with but that you truly believe in and

the other people if you share your

perspective might genuinely respect

those types of videos for some reason

and our testing do really well next tip

respond to every single comment you get

there are two reasons for this one when

you add a response that actually adds an

additional comment to that short AKA if

you get 10 comments and you respond to

all 10 of them all of a sudden you're

short now has 20 comments which is more

engagement which is a good thing and

secondly if you respond to a comment

sometimes that commenter will come back

to that video and respond to your

response which is even more commenting

engagement next tip for a short to do

really well we've found that the topic

that short is going to be created around

needs to be trending an easy way to get

a rough idea of what's trending is to

type in Google Trends and go to this

website then enter a search term broadly

related to your Niche let's say gaming

change this drop down from your country

to worldwide change from the past 12

months to the past seven days and then

change web search to YouTube search and

then if you scroll down here in related

queries and related topics you'll see

different breakout topics that are

currently trending within this

particular sphere now if you find

something related to your Niche that you

think you could create a short about go

for it next tip don't spoil your shorts

in your title unless you're short is

about something so outrageous that even

if people knew what it was they would

have to kind of see it to believe it try

not to spoil your short in your title

because then there's no reason for your

viewers to actually watch your shot

instead you could change this tile to

something more like this that is highly

related promise or value proposition of

why they should watch this short but

doesn't fully give away exactly what it

is and still requires them to actually

watch the short next tip a bunch of

YouTubers including Mr Beast did a huge

amount of experimenting something they

found is having a bright video intro

performs better than and having a dark

one and this is especially important in

shorts where someone can move on to a

new video with a simple flick of a

finger so if the footage you're using at

the beginning of your shorts is very

dark and there's really no way around

that very least to try and make it

brighter or add brighter elements to it

maybe like text or if you do have full

control over this just make sure your

scene is realistic yet still light and

bright next tip if you don't like the

idea of using trending music in your

videos from earlier you can find a ton

of copyright free music to use in your

videos using the YouTube audio library

so in YouTube Studio go to YouTube audio

library you'll find a crap ton of songs

in here you can play them by clicking on

this little icon to find out which ones

you like when you find one you like you

can hover over it click on this download

button that will give you the track

which you can then use an editing

program on your desktop and add that

music to your short or you can send it

to your mobile device and use an editing

app like cap cut to add it to your short

there next hack so you can actually

optimize your shorts far more than you

might expect based on the short upload

process on mobile so once you create a

short you can actually see go to your

YouTube channel on desktop find your

short in the list of videos then if you

hover over and click on this pencil icon

it'll take you to the short and you can

actually edit a bunch of things here

firstly you can add a description and

this is important because the algorithm

actually looks at your description to

help get an idea of what your shop might

be about if you scroll down here to more

advanced settings and for some of you

there might be a button here that you

have to click to access the advanced

settings but if you scroll down here

there are a bunch of other things you

can do as well for example you can add

your short to a playlist you can add

tags to your short for your long form

videos adding tags doesn't really do

much but I don't think there's been much

testing on shorts as to whether or not

it does much so I I mean given it's here

I'd recommend you add your tags in

there's no harm that could come of it if

you scroll down here further to category

you can actually click on this drop down

here and select what category your short

fits into which again is going to give

YouTube more information about your

short so hopefully it can push it to the

right people another thing is you can

also add hashtags to shorts which means

if someone goes to that hashtag and

clicks on it that I'll actually see a

list of all the shorts that have been

tagged with that so if someone has that

hashtag in their short and one of their

viewers clicks on it and you also have

that same hashtag in the description of

your short your short might show up here

and have the chance to get more views

it's a bit of a double-edged sword

though and that leads to our next tip

which is you want the benefit of being

seen in the hashtag shelf so when

viewers from other shorts or videos

click on that hashtag your content shows

up but you don't want your viewers

clicking away from your videos and going

to that shelf because then they might go

and find other people's videos and you

don't want that you want them on your

videos so when you're adding hashtags

add them to the very bottom of your

description so it's as unlikely as

possible that your viewers will actually

click on those hashtags speaking of

adding hashtags I've seen a lot of

people throw out these random numbers

like oh you can only add three hashtags

to your shots oh you can only add 15

hashtags if we actually look at what

YouTube have to say about this they say

if a video or playlist has more than 60

hashtags they'll ignore each hashtag on

that content and over tagging may result

in the removal of the video or from

uploads or search now I've been testing

adding 59 hashtags to a bunch of shorts

and videos and as long as those hashtags

are very related to the video topic it

doesn't seem to be classified as

overtagging because I haven't had any

issues with content being removed or not

showing up in search so at least at this

stage in my mind there's no reason why

not to do that next you can actually

schedule your shorts instead of posting

them right away so when you're creating

a short on your phone instead of

uploading it as public upload it as

unlisted then you can come to YouTube

Studio go to the content tab again and

in this little drop down you can change

it from unlisted to scheduled and then

you can pick the time and date that you

want your short to actually go live what

time and date should you be uploading

your shorts well that's the next hack in

YouTube Studio come down to this tab go

to analytics then go to audience then

scroll down until you see this little

bar here and basically the lighter

purple these bars are the more of your

viewers are online so for me for example

in this case I can to the Wednesday

Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday are

quite good times for me because at all

these times I have one two three four

five bars at the lightest color purple

and I can also see the times my viewers

are most active are usually between 2 am

and 6 a.m my time and so if I'm

uploading shorts I'm probably going to

want to schedule them to go live at

about 1am so by the time the majority of

my viewers come online my shirt is up

there and there's there's a chance it'll

be served to them next tip another

really useful thing you can do here in

YouTube studio is again if you go to

your short and then hover over it and

click on this analytics icon and then

come across to reach and scroll down

you'll see this little graph here and

this will actually show you where it is

your shorts are getting their views from

so ironically this short is actually not

getting the majority of its views from

the YouTube shorts feed it's getting the

majority of its views from browse

features you can see here 45 and

something you might find is your shorts

might not be getting views from the

shorts feed either they might be getting

views from Channel Pages browse or even

search and if you see a lot of your

shorts getting views from a search

another interesting thing you can do is

come down even further on the right hand

side here you can actually see what

Search terms your viewers are entering

into YouTube before they click on your

short so for example in this case I

might want to create a drinking the m m

potion at 3am short because 2.2 percent

of my viewers search that in before

clicking on my short

but if you are getting the majority of

your views from your shorts from YouTube

search and you find any interesting

Search terms in here you might want to

create individual shorts for those

Search terms now in the case of this

particular shot I'm viewing you can see

that it got 45 percent of its views from

browse meaning that people actually had

to click on this shot before they viewed

it unlike it on your YouTube short

showing up in the short shelf where they

just scroll straight directly to it and

so it can be beneficial to add a custom

thumbnail to your short to maximize your

click-through rate as much as possible

and the way you can do that is Again by

going to your studio clicking on the

pencil icon and scroll down here and

normally in this section here you'll see

a little option that'll allow you to

click on and upload a thumbnail to your

short unfortunately I can't do this for

this particular shot because I've

already uploaded a thumbnail apparently

but you guys probably won't have that

issue the next shorts hack requires us

to go back to the analytics of an

individual short you're going to stay on

overview scroll all the way down to the

bottom and here you'll see a graph that

represents how long your viewers are

watching for and when they click off

come in here figure out what points in

the video your viewers are clicking off

the short try to work out why it is that

point triggering them to click off the

short and then just don't do that thing

for future shorts the way you see where

viewers are cleaning off your short by

using this graph is to look for dips and

declines in the graph for example if I

had a graph that looked like this I'd

probably want to figure out what

happened at this point and not do that

again because as you can see it caused

me to lose a bunch of viewers next tip

though is you might not want to do all

of this stuff we just talked about from

your desktop maybe you create edit and

upload everything directly on your phone

and the cool thing is now you can

actually access a lot of these more

advanced features I just talked about on

your phone all you have to do is Click

over here and go to your library

assuming you're signed in then click on

your videos that'll take you to your

videos and then to get a lot of the

options we've just been over you can

click on these three dots and you can

click on edit you can see that let's

just open up our description add things

to playlists add tags and a bunch of

that good stuff the next tip because

shots are so easy to upload there are a

crap ton of people creating them and

because they're a crap ton of people

creating them stay standing out and

being unique is an even bigger Factor if

you want your shorts to go viral and so

having some sort of X Factor something

specific that people can recognize and

remember you by can be of great

importance next tip you should research

other short form content platforms to

get ideas for what styles and formats

are working scroll through Tick Tock

scroll through Instagram reels figure

out what kinds of videos what styles of

titles what types of intros are working

for those guys and then you can often

take those principles apply them to your

own shorts with your own kind of Spin

and that often does way better than

trying to guess at what your audience

might want next next hack earlier we

talked about how important retaining

your viewers and maximizing your watch

time is if you want your short to be

promoted by YouTube and one of the most

simple things you can do to improve your

attention is to make your short more

stimulating by adding more patent

interrupts in other words changing up

the scene or introducing new elements or

cutting to a new piece of footage

frequently now many of the best shorts

on the platforms introduce some sort of

pattern interrupt every two to three

seconds assuming of course you haven't

just got one piece of footage that is

incredibly engaging on its own but as a

rough rule of thumb if nothing new has

kind of happened visually in your shot

for at least seven seconds that's a

problem next hack so a lot of you guys

want to repurpose your existing videos

into YouTube shorts the problem with

this is that having an engaging intro

and hook is incredibly important for a

short and if you're just taking a

segment out of the middle of your video

and repurposing it as a short chances

are the intro to that segment doesn't

really grab people like a hook shirt so

a sneaky way to get around that is to

just record a very short hook kind of

summarizing your short and kind of

grabbing viewers and then just add it on

to the beginning of your repurposed clip

if you're really lazy I've even seen

creators use an AI voice to intro the

beginning of their repurpose clip for

example my first wall bang lineup on the

new valorant map lastly some of you guys

are creating YouTube shorts content not

because you want to become shorts

creators but because you want to promote

your long-form content so if we don't

take into account the amount of time it

would take to create this content and we

just look objectively at what is the

best type of content to create to

promote your long form content and how

do you do it basically what you want to

do is whatever your long form content is

condense it down into a video that is

less than 60 seconds and that might

sound hard but basically you're just

creating a mini version or a highlights

reel of your video and posting it as a

short and then at the end of that short

you can have a little call to action

telling people to check out the link in

the comments if they want to see the

full video then you want to add a

comment with a link to the full video to

your short and pin it so it's the first

thing people see when they click on the

comments section but if you want to

learn more ways to convert shorts

viewers into long form viewers check out

the video on screen in I talked to a guy

who's done a ton of experimenting with

this and has a shorts promotion method

that has allowed him to turn long form

pieces of content that were 10 out of

10s into one out of tens in just a few

days check it out