how to actually go viral on YouTube shorts no intro no fluff straight into it some creators like this guy gets tens of millions of views posting simple AI history videos that he probably made on vsub for 20 bucks a month this guy getting hundreds of millions of views also to post medical videos 242 million views that paid him like $24,000 for a 10cent RPM what do they know that you don't quite simply this step-by-step game plan that will make you go viral on YouTube shorts effort l ly I promise you so let's get into it
number one the video idea this is the most important part on going viral if your video idea is bad you will not go viral no matter how good the rest of your video is I don't care how good the editing is I don't care how good the retention subtitling is ETC the hook is if your video idea is bad you will not go viral quite simply a good versus bad video idea is a difference between getting stuck on pretty much no views whatsoever and getting tens if not hundreds of millions of views it's a simple
as that the video idea is the most important part and it's where you should spend the most of time of your effort trying to create a viral video so let's talk through exactly how to get a viral video idea so there's two ways number one you brainstorm and research yourself so you do your market research you brainstorm ideas would this be a good idea would this be a good idea or number two you steal it now stealing has bad connotations but let's not make any mistake about it in every industry on this planet people are
stealing like an artist right you don't think KFC look over the over the bushes at what McDonald's are doing what promotions they're running and copying it you don't think Samsung do the same thing for Apple Etc Mercedes doing it to BMW in every industry people are looking at what their competitors are doing and stealing the good things and avoiding the bad things so you can do exactly the same thing on YouTube shorts and in your social media Journey this applies to YouTube Tik Tok Instagram any social media so the first one researching this is what
something like Mr Beast can do Mr Beast does this because he is a multi-millionaire with a multi-million dollar Corporation B Studios or whatever you call it right he can afford to spend time researching good video ideas doing market research if you're by yourself or one person Army that's working full-time or studying full-time like I was you've not got the time to spend all your time researching oh what would be the best potential video idea and trying to create a brand new one from scratch you've not got the time for that you've got to be efficient
with the time you've got on your hands so spending all that time researching is not worth it on the cont it makes more sense to actually look at what already is going viral and adapt off of it so this is what you do you identify three to five of the top channels in your Niche and this is in any Niche I don't want to hear you say that oh my Niche has not got any competitors yes it does this is YouTube there's billions of of viewers every well I I assume like what like hundreds of
millions if not billions of views every single year on YouTube like there's going to be every single Niche on here anything you can think of it exists on YouTube you can't tell me otherwise so you're going to find people that are in your Niche already posting content on it that's not a bad thing don't think of it as a saturated thing think of it as the opportunity for you to have market research there that you can exploit then what you're going to do is type in your Niche plus shorts so if it's football football plus
shorts or if it's basketball basketball plus shorts this exactly what you do this is live with me type in basketball plus shorts and then a bunch of shorts videos will come up click on any of them it doesn't matter which one just click on one of them then once you've clicked on it as you can see this video got 7.3 million views what you're going to want to do is watch through the short and then click on the channel now this channel here is actually a good one it's got 1.19 million subscribers 373 videos they're
posting short form content and getting millions of views this is a good channel to model off of if you are in the basketball Niche now one thing you do want to double check is check which videos are going viral you want to copy the videos that are actually going doing better than the normal Channel uploads but also check that the channel is still uploading recently so this video great it's uploaded on the 16th of January very recently it's not a channel that died back in 2023 or something like that so this is a sort of
step-by-step process you need to do you click on the channel you identify which of the videos are doing well and which of them are research for you you've got to understand right that when you're finding shorts to post you have got the market research on the app YouTube has all the answers for you if you're thinking otherwise then you're kind of thinking deluded because YouTube YouTube's got so much content already all the answers are there there's no point looking anywhere else you just got to find the right videos and identify which videos are breaking out
compared to others so here's what we need to analyze breakout videos the ones that are getting more views than the rest of the videos out there so if their channel is averaging around 40 50,000 views what videos are getting hundreds of thousands if not Millions those are the breakout videos then on those videos what is the video idea the who what where why and when the who Who's involved in the video if it's basketball is it LeBron James is it Victor W banana for example right the what what is being shown is it a dunk
is it a a three-point shot what is it where where is the video being shown why why is the video like being shown what is the reason for it is it because your an NBA player got embarrassed or an NBA player did a crazy dunk and then when when was the content was it recently was it was it a long time ago is it following viral Trend that sort of thing the who what where why when that we all studied back in school it applies to YouTube as well every short you see that does well
ask these fre five questions write it down who what where why when if you do this enough times you'll be able to identify a pattern of what viral video ideas exist then the video hook so this is super important right the first 3 to 5 Seconds what is being shown in that video and you should write down anything and everything what filter is being used what sound effects are being used what subtitles are being used what like animations are being shown everything anything possible in those first 3 to 5 seconds because if that video got
tens of millions of views there's a reason and a big reason for that is those first 3 to five seconds the video hook because if the video Hook is bad no one is watching the video I don't care what it is no one is watching it so you've got to make sure that that video Hook is perfect to keep people watching the content then like I said earlier any special effects or animations that are used any popular Trends copy this is a big one because a lot of times videos can get a boost in views
even if they aren't great in terms of the metrics but because they are following an already popular Trend YouTube likes pushing that content out same with Tik Tok same with Instagram right they follow the trends if someone likes watching cont content on fortnite if you start posting videos on fortnite even if it doesn't do really well it will still show that video to the fortnite viewer because they enjoy fortnite content if that makes sense and then also the video length that's important are they posting 15c shorts 60c shorts 45 second shorts because in your Niche
every Niche is adept at different video lengths there's some niches where you have to be posting 45 to 60c long shorts to get traction there's some niches where it's actually better to post 20 to 25 second ones so for your Niche what is the optimum optimal video length and then of course repeat this exact process with two to four other channels in your Niche so you have like your your five 3 to five leaders of the pack that you are just watching exactly what they are doing and you're just basically picking and choosing and cherry-picking
from these channels what video ideas that you are going to basically adapt off of and create your own content from and that my friends is your market research done for you simple as that no need to spend time hiring an R&D developer or anything like that or hiring someone to do the SEO for you this stuff your market research is there your 3o five competitors just follow exactly what they are doing see what breakout videos they have and go off of it now if they're not getting any breakout videos look for new creators or start
to actually think damn is my Niche dead because if your top 3 to five creators in the last 3 weeks are posting daily and not getting any videos break out I hate to break it to you but maybe your Niche is dying and maybe it's time to try something else out because if your Niche was growing you would be able to have breakout videos there's no two ways about it so if it's not growing that's a big problem to be complet honest with you guys okay a big big announcement I want to make I have
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all grow together we can bounce ideas of each other in the weekly live streams I can we can help do competitive analysis for each other and basic just a perfect place if you're a small Channel at an affordable price as well only £38 a month to grow together and grow our YouTube and Tik Tok pages is the perfect place if you are a small Channel check out and there'll be a discount code as well if you're watching this video in the link in the description and in the pin comment so yes let's get into it
the next part of the video the video retention so if you have got a viral video idea and it is viral it's been tested by other creators what is then the determining Factor whether your video will do well or not do well it is the retention and and in particular these two metrics your video swipe rate and your video retention so video swipe rate this is a an example of a good video swipe rate on my channel 84% of the people viewed the content this is the percentage of people that when your video is being
shown to them are they swiping off it straight away or they actually watching the video out now it goes without saying that if you're a lot a lot of people s off your content that's a bit of a red flag for YouTube to not push you out any further so you want to make sure a lot of people when they see the start of the video they're staying on it and that all comes with the hook the first 3 to 5 seconds or even the first 1 to two seconds to be honest you need to
hook attention instantly and then the second part is video retention so this video right here has got a 91.3% average percentage viewed 39 seconds on a 43 second short that's very good now if any of you watched my recent video about uh how to actually go viral re-uploading content you know I made a grave mistake of this video which was not ending it at the right moment which I'll talk about slightly later in this video as well which caused a steep decline right at the bottom here for my short which if I didn't have that
it would have been a basically a perfect flat line for the last 25 30 seconds of the short but look you live and you learn but the point is you want to make sure your video retention is good and if your swipe rate is bad you improve the hook and if your video retention is bad like let's say you've got a massive drop off here then you then you need to actually improve the the engagement throughout the video so if you do this right you your videos will get hundreds of thousands if not millions of
views if your average percentage is good if your swipe rate is good you will get a lot of views on your content no two ways about it so as I said before the hook the first 3 to 5 seconds if your if your video swipe rate is bad you need to improve that and then of course if the actual retention graph is bad let's say your Hook was good but then it dropped off at around 15 to 20 seconds into the short then your video story is bad you're not living UPS the expectations people had
when they clicked on the well if they clicked on the video if they did or when they saw the hook in the shorts when they consume the content so what you need to start doing this is super important it's going to adapt the whole way you think about YouTube shorts and about social media is start treating it like Netflix you see a lot of people they think of YouTube shorts like a story like a story graph you know what we did in school back in the day we'd have the in the beginning you'd have the
rising action you'd have the climax the falling action then the ending a really satisfying story people have watched the whole thing and they see a beginning a middle and the end we don't want to do any of that we want it to be like Netflix and what Netflix does every Netflix series abuses this and Mr Beast has been abusing it in his prime video um series is they always end the videos abruptly and on Cliffhangers to make you watch the next video that is what you need to do as well don't leave the video don't
leave the video where it's is ending slowly where it's tailing off it needs to rise up rise up rise up and stay at that level and as soon as it dips you cut the video right there do not do all this have a start middle and end it's like a perfect story it's a perfect story story Mountain don't do any of that right start middle end finished we don't want to do any of that we want ending abruptly as soon as the video has come to an end you end it right there and then right
so if you're making a video let's say you're making it on a race you're making on a on a on a race between two competitors like it's um Lewis Hamilton versus max V stappen and it's a crazy end of the race crazy end of the race as soon as one of them finishes the race end it right there and end right there and then end it don't try and then when once they've gone through the the through the Finish Line they're doing all their celebrations and stuff people don't care about that they care about what
they came to see as soon as the questions that that's was asked in the hook has been answered end the video there it's better to end the video after 35 seconds abruptly then end it after 40 seconds where you've waffled for the last 5 Seconds does that make sense you pose a question in the hook you answer it and as soon as it's been answered you end that video abruptly simple as that make someone feel unsatisfied make it feel like the ending was creeping up on the viewer they didn't see it coming I was watching
a short I was having a good time and it's just ended there and then Oh I thought there'd be more to it you see like that makes them rewatch the video again they've looped it and YouTube's eyes that is a green flag they're thinking did I miss something there's no way that's the end of the video that's what you want to do you want to make the ending creep up on the viewer so they did not see it coming right so do your shorts have a story I want you to ask yourself these exact questions
if you answer all these questions write them down if you need to this will be also a blueprint to help you go viral with retention editing so do your shorts have a story I see a lot of people they they write in my comments saying Dennis I'm I'm following these tips but I'm still suck on 500 to 1,000 views I click on their videos and I've watched the first 2 second of the short and I have no idea what's going on no like there's no reason for me to stay on the short don't assume the
viewer knows what you know about the short you might have the best editing and the best thing come up 15 seconds into the shore if they don't care about it in the first 2 to 3 seconds they're not they're not going to make those 15 seconds don't assume the viewer knows what you know as a Creator give someone a reason to keep watching does your short have a story does it have a reason for people to stay on the video be brutally honest right nothing beats good quality content you can complain about your videos not
getting enough views but if the quality is not there it will not get enough views simple as that next does a viewer need to see what happens not want to not okay I'll be nice to see what happens next do they need to see what happens next are they that compelled to watch the rest of the video where there's been such hook in the opening where people go damnn I need to see what happens next like did that woman survive did that person make that dunk did that person make money on their crypto trade what
happens next do they need to see do they feel compelled that my day does not move on until I see what happened in that sh because if you are not setting the story from this standpoint you're you're opening up a big big opportunity for failure right if you are doing this success is inevitable it's inevitable if you create shorts people need to watch you're going to get views and you're going to be successful no no two ways about it next does your video deliver on the promise so if the title of your video was why
the Titanic actually sunk your video needs to deliver on that promise now if you're saying why is why the Titanic actually sunk and you say it hit it hit an iceberg story over like everyone knows that like we need to actually think deeper than that what was the actual reason for it oh did something happen that we weren't expecting did did the Titanic actually did they want the engines turn off before it hit the before it hit the iceberg I don't know the point is did your video deliver on the promise did it create that
ending that the person had in mind when they clicked on the video do they feel satisfied that they've got the answer that they were hoping for cuz that will actually cause them to subscribe to your channel as well which will help you reach the a th000 subscribers needed to get into YouTube Partner program and build your dominance out if you've got more subscribers does your video end unexpectedly viewers should not see the ending coming trust me this is a big one don't make it so the viewer knows when the ending is there make it come
up come up on them unexpectedly still deliver on the video promise but make the video End come when they weren't expecting it like Oh I thought we'll get into another point so a lot of big creators what they do is they do a start middle end and then rather than like ending they do like another start but then they end it there so you're thinking okay cool like I'm going to get into the next point and it's just ended right there and then they bit and the viewers confused thinking what's going on I thought the
video was going to say more so end it unexpectedly and this is a big Point as well right if you've answered all four of those points you're on your way to go viral but what can happen is you can create amazing videos but they can still be stuck getting no views whatsoever like this channel I made on the left hand side I actually had to restart this channel because I was shadowbound from YouTube because none of my videos were getting posted on the shorts feed that's a big problem so if you're posting all your content
and it's not hitting the shorts feed whatsoever you're stuck on like zero views 10 views 20 views they're all just hitting search and browse then you are probably shadowbanned but don't worry I can fix it just check out the video right beside me and it'll detail exactly how to fix the zero SL low view problem that you will experience on YouTube shorts I'll see you right there
