I used to consider YouTube as a social media space for my podcasts but now I'm starting to look at it a live, organic portfolio space. One with great discoverability and connection potential.
Recently I started experimenting with using YouTube shorts to drive attention to my various projects, some podcasts and some newsletters. This page shares the main advantages of using this method AND how I can help you in your own YouTube journey. The channel below has been active since November 2022 but with lukewarm viewership. Until this experiment.
Recently I started experimenting with using YouTube shorts to drive attention to my various projects, some podcasts and some newsletters. This page shares the main advantages of using this method AND how I can help you in your own YouTube journey. The channel below has been active since November 2022 but with lukewarm viewership. Until this experiment.
First things first, can you guess when I started this YT shorts journey for this channel?
Yes, it was July 2024. July 10, 2024 to be exact. That's when I started uploading YouTube shorts.
Why YouTube shorts?
Because just optimizing my podcast videos was not getting me the results I wanted. I'm not greedy, I don't need to go viral. But I do need to reach the people I'm trying to connect to in these projects. I feel like YT shorts is off to a very promising start to reaching this goal. Look at the progress I made on this channel from July 10, 2024 to August 27, 2024.
You can still do this with static image videos. Curious how? let's talk.
Not new to YouTube
A YouTube channel and a podcast are what I dove into in early 2017. I had a lot of free time and needed a creative outlet.
They were two different projects at the time:
-the podcast was about expat life
and
-the YouTube channel was a Mandarin Chinese language learning companion. The hanzi characters were so visually interesting for me that an audio podcast would not suffice, so I started a YouTube channel instead. I added videos to the channel feverishly from 2017 to 2020, when we left China.
Here's an overview of how the channel did from when I started it in 2017 to now in 2024.
They were two different projects at the time:
-the podcast was about expat life
and
-the YouTube channel was a Mandarin Chinese language learning companion. The hanzi characters were so visually interesting for me that an audio podcast would not suffice, so I started a YouTube channel instead. I added videos to the channel feverishly from 2017 to 2020, when we left China.
Here's an overview of how the channel did from when I started it in 2017 to now in 2024.
It never went viral. I mean, do we expect a language learning reflections channel to do so?
But I did build a strong network of fellow language learning folks online with this channel. Some of them you'll see in the interviews that I did on Changing Scripts.
And even though I have added so few videos to the channel since 2020, here's what traction the channel has gotten in the past 90 days (basically June-August 2024-four years after adding regular content to the channel).
But I did build a strong network of fellow language learning folks online with this channel. Some of them you'll see in the interviews that I did on Changing Scripts.
And even though I have added so few videos to the channel since 2020, here's what traction the channel has gotten in the past 90 days (basically June-August 2024-four years after adding regular content to the channel).
If you need help getting your audio podcast on YouTube, let's talk.
Back to 2024 and YouTube shorts
When I first started making YouTube shorts in July 2024, I spent a long time trying to make polished videos. But the video ideas I had were too strong so to get them published quicker I tried out talking head videos with some added music and text on the screen. These went well. Many of the videos went above 400 views in a day or two.
Some takeaways:
1. the main videos that YT let me connect to the shorts are gaining views. Not on a 1:1 basis but it's adding traction that the longer videos did not have before.
2. the audio episodes are gaining downloads, especially Geopats Podcast. I'm guessing because that one is the easiest to search for in podcast apps. Podcasts with "podcast" or "podcasting" that are not charting are notoriously difficult to search for in apps. They get smooshed down to the bottom of the list when listeners search for them.
3. MOST UNEXPECTED BENEFIT: It's helped me rethink my goal for each of these projects. In fact, because of doing so many of these 30-60 second big takeaway moments in shorts form, I have opened up AI and Podcasting to more than podcasting and less AI tools, focusing on ChatGPT, which is what I was mostly doing anyway. It's now Chatty and Me: My ChatGPT Exploration.
4. It's made me smile. The two main shorts that are consistently getting the most views and likes are the ChatGPT one and the #menopause one. Considering the menopause one is currently a Substack (not a podcast or YT video series), I was surprised by this. But I'm pleased with this. A lot.
5. As I'm adding on all of my projects over the past 8 years the 75 percent male/25 percent female YouTube audience gender ratio is drastically changing. It's almost split evenly already and I've got heaps more projects to pull into the channel.
Some takeaways:
1. the main videos that YT let me connect to the shorts are gaining views. Not on a 1:1 basis but it's adding traction that the longer videos did not have before.
2. the audio episodes are gaining downloads, especially Geopats Podcast. I'm guessing because that one is the easiest to search for in podcast apps. Podcasts with "podcast" or "podcasting" that are not charting are notoriously difficult to search for in apps. They get smooshed down to the bottom of the list when listeners search for them.
3. MOST UNEXPECTED BENEFIT: It's helped me rethink my goal for each of these projects. In fact, because of doing so many of these 30-60 second big takeaway moments in shorts form, I have opened up AI and Podcasting to more than podcasting and less AI tools, focusing on ChatGPT, which is what I was mostly doing anyway. It's now Chatty and Me: My ChatGPT Exploration.
4. It's made me smile. The two main shorts that are consistently getting the most views and likes are the ChatGPT one and the #menopause one. Considering the menopause one is currently a Substack (not a podcast or YT video series), I was surprised by this. But I'm pleased with this. A lot.
5. As I'm adding on all of my projects over the past 8 years the 75 percent male/25 percent female YouTube audience gender ratio is drastically changing. It's almost split evenly already and I've got heaps more projects to pull into the channel.
YouTube is more than just YouTube shorts
Don't get me wrong, I have not stopped using YouTube optimization techniques while experimenting with YouTube shorts. Quite the opposite,
I'm doing all the things like:
-adding a strong yet concise title
-making eye catching thumbnails
-adding end screens (below)
-including timestamped chapters
and so forth.
But shorts is getting the most bang for my attention buck right now, thus sharing the progress that I've seen in less than 2 months.
I'm doing all the things like:
-adding a strong yet concise title
-making eye catching thumbnails
-adding end screens (below)
-including timestamped chapters
and so forth.
But shorts is getting the most bang for my attention buck right now, thus sharing the progress that I've seen in less than 2 months.
