My Shorts Didn't Get Views Till I Discovered This Secret

Summary

The video script details a creator's journey to YouTube Shorts success, emphasizing a shift from quantity to quality. They reduced Shorts production from four to one or two per week, focusing on passion and creativity. The script discusses the importance of storytelling, viewer perspective, and editing for maximum impact. Key storytelling tips include crafting hooks, building tension, and ending with a hook to retain viewer interest. The creator also suggests using Shorts as a separate content format, not just as a promotional tool for longer videos.

Takeaways

• 🔥 The creator experienced viral success with YouTube Shorts after a shift in strategy, emphasizing quality over quantity.
• 📅 Initially producing 3-4 Shorts weekly, the team felt exhausted and focused more on quantity than quality, leading to a decrease in creativity.
• 💡 They decided to reduce production to 1-2 Shorts per week to focus on passion and quality, which improved the content significantly.
• 🎯 The importance of storytelling in Shorts was highlighted, with a focus on hooks, tension, and viewer perspective.
• 🤔 The team questioned the effectiveness of their rigid schedule and decided it was stifling their creativity, leading to a change in approach.
• 📉 They discovered that Shorts with a high 'Viewed versus Swiped Away' rate (70-90%) tend to perform better, indicating strong audience engagement.
• 📹 The first few words of a Short are crucial as a hook to capture immediate attention and prevent viewers from swiping away.
• 📈 The 'but so' method in scriptwriting was introduced as a way to create tension and maintain viewer interest.
• ✂️ Editing should be ruthless, with the aim of maximizing retention and viewer engagement, often resulting in higher view counts.
• 🔁 The last line of a Short can act as a hook to keep viewers engaged to the very end, similar to cliffhangers in TV shows.
• 👀 Including actual interview clips or relevant B-roll in Shorts can increase engagement and make the content more authentic.

Q & A

What was the initial strategy of vidIQ in producing YouTube Shorts?

Initially, vidIQ was releasing about three to four Shorts per week, adhering to a strict schedule regardless of circumstances.

Why did vidIQ decide to change their Shorts production frequency?

The team at vidIQ felt exhausted and creatively stifled by the rigid production schedule, leading to a focus on quantity over quality.

How did reducing the number of Shorts per week benefit vidIQ?

Reducing the Shorts production to one to two per week allowed the team to focus on quality, research better, and create more engaging content that they were passionate about.

What was the concern of the team when considering reducing the Shorts production?

The team was anxious about the potential impact on viewership and whether maintaining the status quo would be better despite the creative toll.

How did vidIQ ensure that their Shorts were still connected to their brand?

VidIQ made sure their Shorts felt connected to their brand by flipping the perspective from creator to viewer, making the content relatable and engaging for a broader audience.

What storytelling technique did vidIQ adopt to make their Shorts more captivating?

VidIQ adopted a storytelling technique that involved creating tension and using 'open loops' to keep viewers engaged and watching for longer.

What is the 'Viewed versus Swiped Away' metric and why is it important?

The 'Viewed versus Swiped Away' metric shows the percentage of viewers who watch a Short before swiping away, indicating how well the content captures attention. A high viewed rate is desirable as it suggests strong audience engagement.

How does vidIQ use hooks in their Shorts to increase viewership?

VidIQ uses hooks such as posing a question or focusing on a relatable subject like a 'college student' to spark curiosity and make viewers want to continue watching.

What is the 'but so' methodology and how does it help in storytelling for Shorts?

The 'but so' methodology involves introducing twists or turns in the story that build drama and momentum, keeping viewers engaged by creating a sense of anticipation and curiosity.

Why is the last line of a Short important according to vidIQ?

The last line of a Short is crucial as it can serve as a hook to keep viewers engaged to the very end, preventing them from leaving before the video concludes.

What editing tips did vidIQ share to maximize the impact of their Shorts?

VidIQ suggests including interview clips if available, being ruthless with cuts to maintain a snappy pace, and ensuring every second of the Short contributes to the overall engagement.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Revamping Strategy for Viral YouTube Shorts

The speaker discusses their journey in creating YouTube Shorts, transitioning from a high-volume, low-quality approach to a more focused, quality-driven strategy. Initially producing three to four Shorts weekly, the team felt exhausted and creatively stifled, leading to a decision to reduce output to one to two Shorts per week. This change allowed for more thoughtful content creation, aligning with passions and interests, and treating Shorts with the same seriousness as long-form videos. The speaker emphasizes the importance of creativity over a rigid schedule and suggests that this shift in strategy was crucial for reaching a broader audience and achieving higher view counts.

05:00

🎬 Crafting Engaging YouTube Shorts Through Storytelling

The paragraph delves into the art of storytelling for YouTube Shorts, highlighting the need for a strong hook at the beginning to captivate viewers. It introduces the 'Viewed versus Swiped Away' metric as a key indicator of content engagement. The speaker shares scriptwriting strategies such as creating tension through unresolved story threads and using the 'but so' method to build momentum. Editing tips are also provided, suggesting the use of abrupt endings or seamless loops to retain viewer interest. The importance of including interview clips or B-roll for engagement and the necessity of ruthless editing to maintain a snappy pace are emphasized. A bonus tip encourages treating Shorts as a separate entity from other content formats for optimal results.

Keywords

💡YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts is a feature on YouTube that allows users to create and share short videos. In the context of the video script, the speaker discusses their experience with Shorts, highlighting the importance of creating content that can go viral on this platform. The script mentions how the speaker's Shorts have achieved millions of views, indicating the effectiveness of their strategies in leveraging the Shorts feature.

💡Viral

Viral refers to content that spreads rapidly and widely on the internet, often through social media platforms. In the video, the speaker shares their process for creating viral YouTube Shorts, emphasizing the significance of understanding what makes content popular and shareable. The script outlines various strategies and creative approaches that have contributed to the speaker's Shorts gaining over a million views.

💡Quality over Quantity

This concept is central to the video's message, where the speaker discusses the shift from producing a high volume of Shorts to focusing on fewer, more thoughtfully crafted pieces. The script illustrates how reducing the number of Shorts produced per week allowed for more creativity and passion to be infused into each video, leading to higher quality content that resonated with viewers.

💡Passion

Passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion or feeling. In the script, the speaker reflects on the importance of discussing topics that genuinely excite and interest them, rather than just fulfilling a production quota. This shift towards passion-driven content creation is presented as a key factor in the success of their Shorts, as it leads to more authentic and engaging videos.

💡Storytelling

Storytelling is the art of telling stories, which is a crucial element in the video script. The speaker emphasizes the importance of storytelling in making Shorts captivating. They discuss various storytelling techniques, such as creating tension and using hooks, to keep viewers engaged. The script provides examples of how the speaker has applied these techniques to their Shorts to achieve high view rates and viewer retention.

💡Viewed vs Swiped Away

This metric, mentioned in the script, measures the percentage of viewers who watch a YouTube Short in its entirety before swiping away to another video. The speaker uses this metric to demonstrate the effectiveness of their storytelling and editing techniques, aiming for a high 'Viewed' rate as an indicator of content that successfully captures and retains viewer attention.

💡Hooks

A hook in content creation is a device used to attract and maintain the interest of an audience. The script discusses the importance of crafting an engaging opening for Shorts to act as a hook, drawing viewers in and encouraging them to continue watching. Examples from the script include using intriguing questions or relatable scenarios as hooks to start their Shorts.

💡Tension

Tension in storytelling refers to the suspense or conflict that keeps an audience engaged. The speaker in the video script talks about creating a rollercoaster of tension in their scripts, using techniques like opening loops and twists to maintain viewer interest and prevent them from swiping away from the Short.

💡Editing

Editing in video production involves the selection and arrangement of video segments to create a coherent and engaging final product. The script highlights the importance of editing in maximizing the impact of Shorts, with tips on how to use clips effectively, cut ruthlessly to maintain a snappy pace, and end with a hook to keep viewers watching until the last second.

💡Cliffhangers

A cliffhanger is a plot device that ends a segment of a story in a suspenseful manner, encouraging the audience to continue watching to find out what happens next. In the script, the speaker suggests using cliffhangers as a technique to keep viewers engaged until the end of a Short and to potentially entice them to watch more content from the creator.

💡Ruthless Cuts

Ruthless cuts refer to the aggressive editing process of removing any content that does not contribute to the overall impact or pacing of a video. The script discusses the importance of being ruthless with cuts to ensure that every second of a Short is engaging and that the video maintains high viewer retention throughout.

Highlights

Achieving over a million views on YouTube Shorts is possible by replicating the strategies outlined in this video.

Reducing the Shorts production schedule from four to one or two per week improved content quality.

Cutting down on quantity allowed for more time to focus on passionate topics and better scripting.

Quality of Shorts is as important as long-form videos and should be taken seriously.

Creativity suffered under a rigid production schedule, leading to a change in strategy.

Storytelling in Shorts should be different from long-form videos to engage accidental viewers.

Shifting perspective from creator to viewer helps broaden the audience.

Every second of a Short counts, emphasizing the importance of a strong hook.

High Viewed rate indicates that content is engaging and not being swiped away.

Using relatable hooks like 'This college student' makes the content more appealing to a wider audience.

Creating tension through story loops keeps viewers engaged and watching for longer.

The 'but so' methodology is a simple way to build drama and momentum in a Short's story.

The last line of a Short should be a hook to keep viewers engaged until the end.

Including interview clips in Shorts makes them more engaging and directly involves the creator.

Ruthless editing is crucial for maximizing impact and retention in Shorts.

Shorts should be treated as a separate content format and not just as a promotional tool for long-form videos.

Jenny Hoyos is recommended for further Shorts tips, as she consistently achieves high view counts.

Transcripts

- I've now had several of my YouTube Shorts

go completely viral, getting over a million views.

So today I wanted to walk you through my process

for getting those Shorts millions of views

after years of struggling to figure out

how this Shorts platform works.

I believe that the things I did

can be replicated by anybody making Shorts.

So let's go back to about a year or so ago from today.

At this time we at vidIQ were releasing

about three to four Shorts per week.

And that was a schedule that we were holding ourselves to.

We decided not to break from the schedule no matter what.

But about halfway through the year,

we realized we were exhausted.

It got to the point where we felt like

we were just churning out content

for the sake of churning out content.

Quantity over quality.

So we all sat down

and started asking ourselves some difficult questions.

What if we slash production on these?

Would that hurt our viewership?

Would it be better to just keep doing what we're doing?

'Cause we're at least getting some views on these things?

The thing is though,

that rigid schedule was hurting us creatively.

We weren't talking about our passions

as much as we were just talking about things

out of obligations.

So we took a big leap.

And we went from four Shorts per week,

down to one to two Shorts per week.

This made some of us on the team pretty anxious.

But at the end of the day, it had to be done.

Cutting down the quantity gave us two huge advantages.

One is that we were no longer pumping out content

and we gave ourselves the time to sit down

and actually think about things

that we were really passionate about

and topics we really, really wanted to discuss using Shorts.

It was decided that the quality of our Shorts matters

just as much as the quality of our long-form videos,

and they should absolutely be taken seriously.

We can now research better,

we can come up with better scripts and ideas

and ultimately make a Short that was better.

And number two is that our quality went up

because now we were excited about the ideas

and our editors weren't bogged down with so many videos

they had to make every single week.

Creativity is not an on-demand thing,

and that rigid schedule was killing us,

which is exactly the kind of thing

we would warn you guys about in one of these videos.

Don't do that to yourself. I'm serious.

We need to normalize this across YouTube

as a whole, honestly.

You do not need to be making content on a schedule

if it's killing you creatively.

Anyway, changing our posting strategy wasn't gonna mean much

if we didn't really crank up our ideation of this content.

One of the things that we discovered was really missing

from our Shorts is that we can't just make Shorts

that are exactly like our long-form videos, right?

These videos, like the one you're watching right now,

are typically full of tips and strategies,

and when you see them,

it's probably 'cause you're in a moment

where you're thinking,

"Yeah, I do wanna get better at making Shorts.

What can I know about them?"

This kind of tactical advice doesn't work super well

on a YouTube Short when someone kind of finds it

by accident.

But what do we do then?

Do we just make behind the scenes comedy sketches

or something?

How do we make sure that these Shorts are gonna be viewed

and still make sense for the vidIQ brand itself?

Because of the type of channel we are,

we wanna make sure that our long-form videos,

our live streams and our Shorts

feel like they're all connected in some way.

With a long-form video,

you sit down and it's like looking at a menu

on a restaurant.

You get to carefully scroll around

and decide what it is you wanna watch.

But with Shorts,

it's like you're trying to sit in the restaurant,

but the chef keeps coming up to you

with spoons full of samples

and just shoving them in your mouth.

So in order to make Shorts that made sense for our audience,

but also captivated new viewers

who weren't really asking to watch them, we had to do this.

Instead of speaking from the creator's point of view,

we flipped the perspective

and spoke from the viewer's point of view.

What that means is instead of saying,

"Here's how Jenny Hoyos blew up her channel,"

we shifted their perspective to say,

"Here's how this creator can make anything go viral."

So even if you're not a YouTuber,

and even if you don't know who Jenny Hoyos is,

you may still watch this content, 'cause likely,

you know what a creator is,

and you know what it means to go viral.

Another example is a wholesome story

where a creator helps somebody else who's struggling.

Once in a while, everyone loves a good story

that kind of starts to rebuild their faith in humanity.

What was really cool is that this shift in perspective

helped to broaden our entire audience.

We're now reaching more and more people at this point

and we're no longer confined

to just giving tactical YouTube growth advice.

That's a huge win,

and we would've never known that was gonna work

unless we kind of took a step back from our upload schedule.

But the best ideas don't get super far

unless you start to get better at storytelling.

Fortunately for us,

this was something we now had more time to look into.

Some of the best YouTubers in the world have been going out

and giving their advice on how to tell a good story

on YouTube.

These creators have grown exponentially.

But how did we actually find these secrets

in the first place?

Well, for us, it kinda helped that we were kind

of interviewing already storytelling professionals.

We learned a ton from those interviews.

But for those of you who don't have that advantage,

and still for us, we went out,

and we looked at more YouTube Shorts

and we took notes on things that were standing out to us

when it came to the stories being told.

We wrote down our favorite techniques

and we borrowed our favorite ones for our own content.

And these three key storytelling tips

were what we like to use in all of our Shorts.

The first one is that every second counts.

If the intro of your video is five seconds,

but you have a 20-second Short in your hands,

that's like a huge percentage of your video.

So it's imperative that the first two or three words

of your Short is the hook and it gets people right away.

And this might be a really good time

to talk about a very specific metric YouTube has given us.

When it comes to YouTube Shorts,

which is the Viewed versus Swiped Away metric.

This shows the percentage of people

who actually watch your short

before just swiping away onto the next one.

A high Viewed rate means that your content

is grabbing people's attention

and they're not swiping away from it

before they actually manage to watch a good chunk of it.

We have seen some evidence that Shorts

that hit about 70 to 90% Viewed do very, very well.

I'll give you a couple examples of these hooks.

So one we like to use is,

"Everyone keeps asking me this question."

Right away, this headline is sparking curiosity,

'cause the viewers now sitting there thinking,

"Okay, yeah, what question? Tell me more."

Another one we really like is "This college student."

We specifically chose to say college student,

instead of creator.

This makes the video inherently more relatable

to a wider audience,

who may not really care about what YouTube creators

are up to.

Now they're just curious as to what happened

with this college student.

So after that first sentence is when you hit them

with the second script writing strategy.

The tension from your scripts

should always feel like a rollercoaster.

Up and then down and then up again.

The pros are really good at this

and it's this concept of opening a loop.

These are story threads

that are intentionally left unresolved

for a limited amount of time

to keep people watching the video for longer.

He was two days away from becoming a dad,

and he'd just spent all his money on a brand new house.

And then the unthinkable happened.

You really wanna know what happens next, right?

That's because your brain is literally wired

to be frustrated when it doesn't have an answer

to an open question like this.

You waiting for that answer

is what's gonna keep you watching that Short for longer.

But just when that expectation

is about to be fulfilled for a viewer,

hey, that's a great time to throw in another twist or turn

in the story.

These are the developments that keep people interested

for longer.

And a simple way to achieve this, if you wanna practice,

is using the "but so" methodology.

- I was at home, but I got bored.

So I ended up going for a walk, but it started raining.

So I ended up trying to figure out what to do.

I was looking for an umbrella, but I couldn't find one.

So I had to go back home.

Every time I say "but", it stops someone from scrolling.

It's like, "But what?"

- This is a structure that builds drama and momentum

in a story.

Just as things start dying off,

something is said to reel you right back in.

And the third trick is for the editing of the video itself.

Remember, every second in a Short counts.

That's why the last line of your Short

could be a hook unto itself.

Because if people know you're about to end the video,

then they leave.

They leave before it's over.

So you want to make sure that you're keeping people engaged

to that very last second.

To do this, you can have a very abrupt,

but satisfying ending to your content

that just inherently gets people

to wanna watch more from you.

Think about cliffhangers in a TV show.

When you find a really good one

and it leaves on an epic cliffhanger,

you're likely to sit down and just binge watch

the whole thing in one night.

You could also try what a lot of creators do,

which is that seamless loop strategy,

which usually gets people to watch a Short maybe again,

or at least watch a Short past that end point

to where you're getting over 100% retention

from that person.

Speaking of editing,

we also should talk about editing the actual Short

for maximum impact.

When it comes to any video,

it's really that idea and that topic

that gets people to stick around.

So if your editing isn't the best, that's okay.

Practice as you go.

And with that in mind,

Shorts are a great way to practice editing,

'cause there's more and more tools every day

where you can edit these things on your phone really easily.

Anyway, here's some editing tricks

that we believe have pushed our Shorts

to over a million views.

So when we make a video that highlights a creator,

we like to see, if we've interviewed them anyway,

if we can include clips from that interview

in the actual short.

We did it with this creator here.

First, we interviewed him for a long video

and then we featured parts of his story

and footage in a Short.

This got them directly involved in the Short

and it made it more engaging.

But in cases where you don't have an interview,

it's okay to dig into someone's channel

and maybe pull a little clip or two for some B-roll.

And the next tip is probably the most important one of all.

You need to be ruthless with your cuts.

It's not just about keeping it snappy

throughout the entire video.

It's about being really ruthless

when it comes to cutting out things

that just don't need to be there.

Like, okay, look at this retention chart

for this Short we have with 1.3 million views.

A solid 80% watched until second 37,

and then literally it just falls off of a cliff

in the last two seconds.

Imagine if we went into our YouTube editor

and just cut off those two seconds.

How much higher would our retention be?

And how many more views could this possibly have?

I also have a quick bonus tip for you.

I know it's overwhelming to try and figure out not one,

but two completely different formats on YouTube,

especially if you're a smaller channel.

But the truth is, even as a larger channel ourselves,

we treat Shorts like a separate thing.

We do not try and use them to push people to our videos

or our live streams.

We certainly have tested to see if we can move people

from our Shorts to our longs,

but we've had very little success there.

But if you're really looking for some more Shorts tips,

then I recommend this video right here

from the Queen herself, Jenny Hoyos,

who can basically close her eyes

and get 10 million views on any Short she makes.

Really, like not, I'm not kidding about that.