- Do you feel like you're having trouble
getting your YouTube Shorts to go viral?
Whether you love them or hate them
and you've heard us say this before
you should be making YouTube Shorts today
if you're trying to grow on YouTube.
And this isn't just us saying this,
this is coming directly from YouTube themselves.
"Creators who are uploading both short and long form content
are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth
compared to those who are only uploading on one format."
Well, hey, that sounds promising
but if you're just starting out
things could feel a bit daunting or confusing.
You're trying to crack the code
and get people to actually watch your shorts.
And in fact, here at vidIQ,
we're also trying to crack that very same code.
And after studying hundreds of channels
we think we have some answers for you.
Beating the YouTube Shorts algorithm is possible
but it is going to take a brand new skillset
for those of you who are new
to uploading short-form content.
So it's time to take everything you know
about optimizing a long form video and put it aside,
because if you're trying to grow on YouTube Shorts,
we're gonna talk about
how this is gonna be a little bit different.
With YouTube Shorts, you have maybe about
three seconds or so to get them to stop scrolling
and give the rest of your short a chance.
And if they do give you a short a chance
and the viewer watches the rest of it
YouTube is much more likely to push that short
to even more people.
With that in mind, there is one thing you as a creator
need to focus on whenever you make a short,
and that is your hook.
Your hook could be some text on the screen
or something you do or say,
or maybe even a sudden camera movement
that somebody sees when they scroll to your short.
So as we go through these today,
actually let us know in the comments
what are some hooks that you've seen on shorts
that got you to stop scrolling?
Everything you do in the hook of your short
is all about raising curiosity.
Now, normally you would use a title
and a thumbnail to raise that curiosity,
but with shorts you don't really have that opportunity.
You kind of gotta think about it like acting
out this title in thumbnail in a YouTube short
in the first couple of seconds.
You've probably seen some examples of this.
One of them being, "Have You Heard About..."
There's always the tried and true,
"They don't want you to know."
- Do you know about the Black Baby Test?
No. Well, then let me tell you.
- Have you ever heard of the Region-Beta Paradox?
You might be suffering from it right now.
- And something that works on me all the time is,
"You've never seen anything like this."
These type of hooks can work really well
for any type of YouTube topic that you wanna cover
and gain a new audience for.
You're taking something
that a person wouldn't otherwise care about
and turning it into kind of an interesting factoid
on YouTube Shorts.
- This is a raw steak
and this is me putting that steak into the dishwasher.
Okay, trust me, check this out.
According to MythBusters,
dishwashers can get up to nearly 150 degrees.
- Now everything you do on YouTube Shorts,
is it going to need to apply to somebody
who's brand new to your channel
and perhaps brand new to your topic?
Going forward, keep those viewers in mind
as you record your shorts.
Anyway, back to the subject of raising curiosity.
You could get people to be curious about something
that specifically happened to you,
one of your own experiences.
Something like, "This is the most amazing product
I've ever seen," or "I would never do this and this is why."
- I never buy silk."
And this is the strange reason why.
As a kid...
- Just be careful not to give too much away
in the first few seconds so people feel like
they actually wanna finish watching the short.
- This is the most powerful charger
I've ever laid hands on.
- And there's still a ton more examples to go through here
for raising curiosity.
"I was today years old."
- I was today years old when I found this out.
It took me 19 years to figure out
news stands for notable events, weather and sports.
Never knew that.
- "Questions I get asked a lot."
(upbeat music)
"I asked Google."
- [Man] I asked Google what the longest jump in history is.
- "Three things I can do."
- Here are three things I do before every flight,
coming from a lawyer who travels six months outta the year.
- I'm sure by now as a seasoned YouTuber
or a YouTube viewer, or both,
you know the importance of a call to action.
We generally think of these for ourselves, right?
When we're trying to get someone to leave a comment
or subscribe or leave a like.
But with shorts, a call to action
can be the entire hook of a video.
Something as simple as, "Try this."
- Try this to get more views on your next YouTube short.
- Or "You gotta try this."
- You gotta try this with your phone.
Put your speaker on your mouth like this.
- Doing this gets people excited
that they're gonna learn something new,
maybe a new fact or new skill
as long as they continue watching your channel.
You could do this by opening
with a different kind of question such as,
"Did you know that?"
- Did you know that this book is poisonous
and this woman discovered it?
- Hi, NASDaily.
- Or maybe crazy facts.
- Crazy body facts that you probably didn't know.
Did you know that your brain
generates enough electricity just by thinking?
- You can also get people really thinking
about things they wouldn't have thought of before.
You've probably seen videos that start with
"Have you ever wondered?"
- Have you ever wondered
what the most viewed YouTube video is?
- We got "Let her go." Just Music, "Let her go."
- Or by asking the question, "Is it possible to?"
- [Man] Is it possible to feel high with pressure points?
Well, according to this doctor
- Let's shift gears a little bit though.
What if your channel is about reviewing products?
Well, you could keep it really simple
and just compare two products, X versus Y.
- Biggest smartphone versus smallest smartphone.
Which one's actually more practical?
- Or you could mention why you'd never try a product
and that kind of negativity
can get people to stop scrolling.
- [Woman] Why I would never style my Maxi skirt like this
and how I would change it.
- If you wanna push a service
or talk about things like fashion and makeup,
you can educate your viewers on the dos and don'ts
that they should follow.
- [Woman] Dos and don'ts of coat shapes.
Don't pair a perfect coat
with proper shoes like loafers or a ballet flat.
- Or simply how to do things themselves.
- [Woman] How to create festive outfits
if you're a minimalist.
Try pairing some sheer socks or tights underneath our jeans
to make them feel more evening appropriate.
- Everybody wants to feel included.
It's as if our brains are literally wired around FOMO.
So include your viewers in your life
and in your various experiments.
For example, "Today we're gonna see."
- Today we are gonna see how much water
this Scooby-Doo can hold.
- "I'm trying this so you don't have to."
- I'm doing this so you don't have to.
I've been hunting for the dumbest world record.
- "Watch me."
- [Woman] Watch me try to fix this squishy.
It's in really bad shape.
- "Today I'm going to."
- [Man] Today I'm gonna find out if a big lighter
really does burn for 55 minutes.
- And we all know there's a trick that works
for even long form videos, and that is to make a list.
These generally keep people watching all the way to the end.
And you can do this in shorts too.
For example, seven best.
- Seven tastiest smartphone cases.
Starting off with the Ice Lolly.
- "Five products you won't believe exist."
- Five Amazon products you won't believe are real.
Number five is the Sun Visor Fan Hat.
- "Top three."
- Top three YouTube mistakes.
- If you're trying to position yourself as an educator
on a specific topic, then hacks is a great way
to share something new with somebody.
Everybody loves a quick hack, and you can say that,
"This hack is gonna help you reach whatever goal
that is in three easy steps."
- How to become a mermaid in three steps.
First, go to a friend's birthday party and push her away.
- "Here's how to have the best blank of your life."
- Here's how to have the best sleep of your entire life.
Make sure your room is dark.
- There's always simple how-tos.
- Here's how to write an entire book using ChatGPT.
Step one, you say,
"Hey, I wanna write a book about this topic.
Can you give me five, 10 title ideas?"
- And then of course just outright
mentioning hacks themselves.
This could be your YouTube Shorts, a lot more views.
Another kind of cheeky thing you can do
is create some sense of urgency
as soon as people scroll to your shorts.
You could straight up ask people to stop scrolling.
- Wait, stop scrolling, straighten your back.
Why are you always slouching?
Do you see how tense your forehead is?
Relax it. Relax it now.
- Or you could talk about how,
"Doing this right now
is the most important thing of your life."
This is the most important decision you can make
on your YouTube channel, and a lot of people get it wrong.
You've probably stumbled upon a bunch of shorts by now
that talk about making more money.
Everyone wants to make a little bit of money on the side
and having somebody spoon feed that information to you
is pretty tempting
as you're just kind of swiping through shorts.
If you know a good way to make some money
you can give people a little bit of a monetary incentive
to stop scrolling.
You could talk about making X dollars a day
using a specific product.
- Here are four ways to make $800 a day using ChatGPT.
The first method is to sell birthday cards
with a poem on Etsy.
- Or going back to hacks,
"Hacks that will save you money."
- [Woman] "Art Hacks That'll Save You Money: Part One."
First up, we have these plastic food containers.
All you do is add a couple of paper towels to it,
spray it until it's damp, add your acrylic paint
like you normally would,
and this makes the paint not dry out.
- So there you have it
your ultimate guide to hooks that work.
What this really takes though
is getting out of your comfort zone
and beginning to actually make some content.
Creating content that gets people to stop scrolling
is a learned skill and it's gonna take you practice.
But of course, practice takes time
and you're probably here looking for a bit of a cheat code.
So check out this video right here
and maybe you'll pick up a thing or two.
Also, what do you think of my new studio?
I think it's coming along.
It's not fully done yet. We're kind of under construction.
Stay tuned.