(screen beeping) - And if you do want
to create a massive channel in a very short amount of time,
just make Minecraft shorts.
- Whoa, whoa, okay, wait a minute, now.
I don't think I necessarily agree with--
(screen beeping) - oh what,
you don't believe me?
Check out Block Facts, 1 million subscribers,
over 300 million views, six months.
Jake Fellman, 5 million subscribers,
4 billion views, eight months.
- Oh. (screen beeping)
(bright music)
There's no doubt at all that YouTube shorts
is a great new way to grow a channel.
You could be at zero subscribers
and maybe just one short away from thousands of views.
And it's no doubt at all that "Minecraft"
is impossible to ignore here,
given that they obviously hold some kind
of substantial share of all the different shorts
and shorts views on YouTube right now.
However, just simply starting a "Minecraft' shorts channel
or a shorts channel around any popular game
isn't simply gonna grow your channel
and skyrocket it overnight,
especially now that the shorts competition
has heated up so much,
but I believe that even today,
it's still possible to grow a gaming shorts channel
that gets thousands of views,
and Block Facts is a great example of how to do this.
- [Block Facts] The first video
got about 7,000 views on its first day,
which is very high for a channel
that has never had any videos uploaded to it.
- Yeah. - Absolutely.
- [Block Facts] Over a few months,
it gradually built up with low amounts of views,
and then at around 20,000 subscribers,
it suddenly skyrocketed and got the next 80,000
in like a week and hit 100K very quickly.
- And from there, how long until a million?
- [Block Facts] It took a few months.
- Oh yeah, did I mention that we did a podcast episode
with Block Facts himself?
You should probably go check it out, it's linked down below.
We went deep on all things "Minecraft" gaming
and YouTube shorts.
So today, we're talking about how you
can potentially do the same thing on your own channel,
and Block Facts has laid some pretty interesting
groundwork here for you to follow.
- [Block Facts] Look at what's popular,
look at what's working.
Don't copy it, exactly.
Try and come up with a new idea.
I know it's very hard.
When I started, it took me a long, long time
to come up with Block Facts and the style of content,
but keep a consistent brand, consistent style,
and make sure it's professional and not just filmed
with your phone pointed at a screen.
- The idea behind this channel and each video
is simple but effective.
It's about the game you know and love,
and it teaches you something you may or may not know.
These short lessons on "Minecraft" blocks, mobs, et cetera,
are all very valuable to a "Minecraft" audience,
whether you're brand new to the game
or a long-time "Minecraft" veteran.
Something else that stands out about this channel
is when you take a deeper look,
you'll realize that Block Facts has not released
a video that isn't about two things,
"Minecraft" and facts about the blocks within it.
- [Block Facts] I teach people
about all of the different things
that you can find in "Minecraft"
that you might not know about, like all the different facts.
Each video, we tackle a specific block
and look at the different things
that you can learn about it.
- So channel name is very, very, very literal.
It is literally block facts.
- [Block Facts] Exactly.
- Block Facts is only doing the same exact things
we're telling any YouTube channel to do here.
Be original, be consistent, niche down,
and keep your channel focused.
And that same advice applies to channels
whether or not they do YouTube shorts.
In just a handful of months here,
Block Facts has grown a channel
to over a million subscribers by following
the same standard YouTube formula we tell any channel.
And now, if you're thinking, okay,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about me?
I do let's play content, for example,
how do I grow my channel?
And if that is what you're thinking right now,
then you should probably hear this.
- [Block Facts] A lot of channels
don't really follow conventions and study YouTube.
What they do, they obviously watch a lot of content
and want to be like that,
but they don't create content that provides value
to a "Minecraft" fan,
like people making let's play episode one
are not gonna do well compared
to people making specific content
based on what's already popular and following trends.
- [Dan Carson] Now that YouTube
is promoting short form content more and more,
viewers are being fed videos that simply fit
their preferred viewing habits.
- [Block Facts] My shorts have actually started
to change to about 75% browse features views,
and shorts is actually quite a small percentage now,
where it used to be like 90%, but it's so much smaller now,
so maybe if I started uploading longer videos,
they would do well.
- What does it mean when a shorts channel
starts seeing more views from browse features than shorts?
Well, it means that channel is building
a solid audience of returning viewers.
As such, it also means, in my opinion,
that it's time for this channel
to start testing long form content.
By the way, the stats you just saw on the screen there
were actually from a channel that I've been testing
for quite some time now.
It started out as a shorts channel,
but I noticed the same trend that Block Facts noticed,
and now, I don't need to post shorts
to see pretty explosive growth on every video.
I took this trend as a sign that people
were going to come back and watch my videos
whether they were on the short shelf or not.
These videos I was testing were still short in length,
but they were in the wide screen, 16:9 format.
And lo and behold, I was right.
Not only did my existing viewers come back
and watch this content,
but on a whole bunch of new people
discovered the channel as well.
When we spoke to him, Block Facts was planning
on trying out some long form content.
- [Block Facts] After this, I think I'm gonna start
doing longer videos, about 10 minutes in length,
focusing on a couple of hundred "Minecraft" facts,
or something along those lines,
or maybe I'll do something entirely different,
but I'm gonna try and transition out of shorts now.
- Well, since this discussion,
Block Facts actually did test his very first
long form video.
This video has opened up the door for Block Facts
to continue making long form content as long as he wants.
Now, Block Facts mentioned that these videos
could be up to 10 minutes in length, but keep in mind,
they're still gonna be focused on "Minecraft" facts.
The takeaway from this here is that Block Facts
doesn't have any "Minecraft" lets plays
currently on his channel or even on the menu in the future.
The channel will remain focused on making
the same content it always has,
and it may just test that in different types of formats.
For you, this really comes down to goals.
So do you just want a short channel
that has no plans to ever do long form content?
Then great, this is the right time to be doing that.
Or do you want a channel that maybe
starts growing with YouTube shorts,
but eventually pivots to long form content?
It's challenging, but in my opinion, it will be possible.
To do this, you'll need to cover a topic
that fits your unique personality and style.
Also, it helps if that topic has an existing audience.
Old games or outdated topics aren't going to work here,
at least not nearly as well.
You need the focus of this channel
to be clear and consistent, and by consistent,
I mean you need content like Block Facts did.
This channel is about "Minecraft" block facts,
and nothing else.
On the subject of consistency, though,
it also does help to have a consistent upload schedule.
You'll need to be patient and test out new ideas,
new titles, new editing styles.
You'll need to allow yourself to fail, too,
and then learn from each video that you feel underperformed.
If you do all of those things successfully,
then your shorts channel will start
to see more and more returning viewers.
And then when you notice the same trend
of your shorts being recommended in browse
before they even hit the shorts shelf,
it might be time to test some long form content.
And keep in mind, all of that advice I've just listed there
would work on any YouTube channel,
even if it never even touches shorts.
That's because YouTube shorts isn't magic.
It's still YouTube at the end of the day,
and YouTube's primary goal has always been
to get the very best videos in front of the right viewers.
By the way, I'm Dan, this has been VidIQ,
and I'll see you in the next one.