YouTube Shorts are nothing new but it confused a lot of people who already had channels. Whether to start a separate channel for shorts or upload shorts to the same channel is a question that has passed through the minds of creators at least once.
YouTube Shorts are definitely handled by a different algorithm. It receives separate set of views. Behaves differently and confuses people immensely because of its unpredictability.
Here is my story about Shorts feature of YouTube that helped me to save my sinking channel, Newbie Helper.
The Story of Newbie Helper YouTube Channel
I started the Newbie Helper channel in December 2011. At that time the channel was named Newbie Helper Network(Hence the ‘N’ at both ends of the channel Logo). That makes newbie helper close to 12 years old.
If you prefer watching Newbie Helper’s YouTube Shorts Journey, Watch below.
I took a big brake from posting videos to the channel in 2014 when I went for my higher studies. When I posted my next video 6 years later in 2020, I received this heartwarming message.
Although I could not help him because my camera was damaged long before, my heart was filled with joy. The heart you see attached to the message was really from my heart. I decided to stick with posting more videos to the channel.
At first, things were staying same and most of my videos were not getting many views. Then after some time, things began getting picked up and channel got increased views gradually. By the end of 2022, the channel was well on track to become monetized but I made a mistake.
I took up some more commitments elsewhere and began getting less time to make videos. First, it was one video every week then it became one video once in a while and after November 2022, I did not post for a whole 2 months.
But by February 2023, the channel started having a sharp fall in viewership. The view hours suddenly dropped to below the threshold needed to achieve monetization
At one point the view hours reached 3957 hours and then dropped. I started posting videos in a hurry but nothing was getting picked up. I was starting to get frustrated and then
YouTube Shorts Came to my help
I had posted some YouTube Shorts earlier with some success but it contributed to only about 15-20% or total views (not view hours). This time, I posted a Short as a companion to a longer video and it got clicked. It was about selecting text using touchpad. Even though the earlier video on Laptop Touchpad for selecting copying and pasting text was posted earlier the Short was doing far better.
I posted some more YouTube Shorts and all of them did far better than the long form videos I posted this year. At least none of them faded into obscurity like many of the long form ones.
As Shorts steadily increased in views. I slowly began gathering more subscribers. My view hours for monetization continued to drop but total views are still climbing steadily.
My search performance was also at an all time high. Far surpassing my average from before.
When I started my channel, I wanted to help others with the knowledge I acquired. And each view is a fulfilment of that aim. Be it a YouTube Short or a long form video, I cherish each views as I am helping 1 more person with something.
I believe these YouTube Shorts helped to get my channel name out there. Even though the long form views are not yet up, I believe they will be increasing in due time.
Conclusion
I believe Shorts helped to spread the reach of my channel for which I am grateful to them.
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