- Dec 21, 2024
- 657
- 35
Help me. Will a short channel be better for documentary videos? Or will a long video upload channel be better?
I want to work on documentary videos.
- Thread starter StoreVccHelp
- Start date
Killswitchs
BANNED
- Mar 14, 2022
- 466
- 302
go long if u got deep story, yt pushes watchtime hard. but shorts can bait traffic into long form. best run both. shorts build subs, longs build hours. stack both
better to make longer videos. you can use AI. monetization on shorts is shit.
pascaltchuen
Junior Member
- Jul 22, 2025
- 103
- 31
You can go with a hybrid approach.
Start with a small, high-quality channel to build your credibility.
Then, gradually add shorter, more varied or complementary videos on a regular schedule.
That gives you the best of both worlds: authority + reach.
garrolouss
Junior Member
- May 19, 2025
- 105
- 39
It depends on your goal and audience.
Consistency + quality = success. Choose what you can produce best!
- Short videos (under 5–10 mins) work well for attention-grabbing, mobile viewers, and building quick engagement. Great for starting out or summarizing big topics.
- Long videos (10–30+ mins) are better for deep storytelling, watch time, and monetization. YouTube rewards longer retention.
Consistency + quality = success. Choose what you can produce best!
mathunwitting
BANNED
- Dec 15, 2023
- 136
- 55
Depends on your style and audience. Shorts can help you grow fast, but long videos are better for deeper storytelling and watch time. Maybe mix both?
doubledreams
Registered Member
- Jul 9, 2025
- 58
- 36
long form, so you can then chop it up & recycle into shorts, might as well stone two birds at once IMO
globalvena
Newbie
- Jul 25, 2025
- 3
- 1
Generally, long videos is what pays the bills on YouTube. YouTubers makes money through ads, if you're doing shorts, you have to wait till you hit a million views.
Now, let's talk about documentary. It would be extremely difficult to summarise history or facts. Work with long videos of between 10- 25 minutes.
In between, I am a YouTube script writer. We can work together.
BalticProxy_Eu
Senior Member
- Mar 8, 2018
- 1,024
- 481
Can be both. Personally, if I'm the audience I would love documentaries to be long so they can be more informational. But posting short vids can help promote it.
Box Phone Farm
Regular Member
- May 10, 2024
- 202
- 115
Hi,
If you want to make documentary videos, here’s a simple way to look at it:
- Short videos (Shorts) are great for grabbing attention fast. You can use them to tease your full documentaries or share quick facts. It helps your channel grow faster in the beginning.
- Long videos are better if you want people to really watch and understand your story. They also give more watch time, which helps your channel’s ranking.
Hope this helps! Let me know how it goes — I’ve seen others grow using this method.
- Dec 26, 2024
- 106
- 76
Learned this the hard way running history docs - shorts will spike your subs but murder your watch time. YouTube's algo now treats shorts and long-form viewers as completely separate audiences. After testing both approaches, here's what stuck:
Start with long-form first, even if it grows slower. The algorithm types your channel based on early uploads - we got stuck in shorts jail for months because our first 5 videos were vertical. Once you've got 3-4 proper docs up (12+ minutes works best for midroll placement), then use shorts as teasers.
Take your strongest 60 seconds from each long doc, add "Full story in bio" captions, and space these repurposed shorts 2-3 days apart. Our retention on long videos jumped 40% when we stopped posting original shorts and only used clipped content.
Under 8 minute docs get crushed by the algo now. Our 7-minute test videos earned 62% less RPM than 12-minute cuts of the same content.
Start with long-form first, even if it grows slower. The algorithm types your channel based on early uploads - we got stuck in shorts jail for months because our first 5 videos were vertical. Once you've got 3-4 proper docs up (12+ minutes works best for midroll placement), then use shorts as teasers.
Take your strongest 60 seconds from each long doc, add "Full story in bio" captions, and space these repurposed shorts 2-3 days apart. Our retention on long videos jumped 40% when we stopped posting original shorts and only used clipped content.
Under 8 minute docs get crushed by the algo now. Our 7-minute test videos earned 62% less RPM than 12-minute cuts of the same content.
- Dec 21, 2024
- 657
- 35
Thank you for your opinion.
- Dec 21, 2024
- 657
- 35
I'm doing that now and can see some issues that are frustrating me.
- Dec 21, 2024
- 657
- 35
Is there a minimum number of short videos I can upload before I can move on to long videos?
- Dec 21, 2024
- 657
- 35
I started with a few long videos but they don't get many views or subscribers.