Viral shorts ruin channels?

I've been having a ton of success with making YouTube shorts go viral - but it seems like no matter what I do, I can't seem to get views on my longform videos.

Though, I recently stumbled upon a video claiming that viral shorts can ruin your channel. It sounded like main solution in the video was to create a new channel (specifically for long form).

Is this true? And/or would you guys have any other suggestions on what I could do?

Creating a new channel just for long-form content might be a bit extreme at this point. Before doing that I'd explore some other options. Think about your audience. Are the people watching your shorts interested in longer videos? Are you clearly directing them to those long-form options within your shorts? Make sure you are. Another thing to consider is the content of your long-form videos themselves. Do they align with the interests generated by your shorts? Are they engaging and well-produced? Are you experimenting with different formats and topics to see what resonates? Try optimizing your titles thumbnails and descriptions specifically for search and discovery. You could even try creating a playlist of shorts that lead to a long form video.

Viral Shorts can bring in views but often don’t convert into long-form viewers, since that audience is just browsing quickly. This hurts retention on long videos and limits reach. If your Shorts and long-form content share the same niche, keep them on one channel; if not, consider separating them. You can also use Shorts as teasers to drive traffic to long-form content. Make sure to optimize thumbnails, titles, and viewer retention to improve long-form performance.

r3algaminghd said:

Creating a new channel just for long-form content might be a bit extreme at this point. Before doing that I'd explore some other options. Think about your audience. Are the people watching your shorts interested in longer videos? Are you clearly directing them to those long-form options within your shorts? Make sure you are. Another thing to consider is the content of your long-form videos themselves. Do they align with the interests generated by your shorts? Are they engaging and well-produced? Are you experimenting with different formats and topics to see what resonates? Try optimizing your titles thumbnails and descriptions specifically for search and discovery. You could even try creating a playlist of shorts that lead to a long form video.

Click to expand...

It doesn't seem like my audience likes longer videos. It's not just the longform videos. I'm getting millions of views, but even for shorts, if I make a short that's 1-2 minutes long (or even 45 seconds), it does not do well at all. I mean yeah, it gets likes and a bit of views, but never gets much traction...

What I started doing recently is... if my short is going to be more than 1 minute, I make it as a longform video. Then make a super short version as a youtube short, sort of advertising the longform version with a related video and text suggesting to watch the full video.

But even then, views are only in the hundreds, the average view duration is between 15% and 55% which I'm assuming is pretty bad?

Anyways, I would say "yes" to all the other questions you've mentioned. My mindset has been that I need to get better at making longform videos, and I've been doing all sorts of experimenting (unsuccessfully) to try and find something that works.

I've only been at it a couple months (and only 5 longform videos ) so maybe I need to give it more time. Also I'm sure maybe I need to get better at making thumbnails since I'm assuming my 1% - 5% CTR isn't very good (I've been trying though).

But it's really thrown me off after I seen a video titled "Watch this if your channel was ruined by shorts", and people apparently having the same issue after their channel blew up with youtube shorts.

If I understand correctly, the logic of the video was: Any longform videos you post will immediately die off because the average view duration will immediately crash from it first being recommended to your shorts audience. And then suggesting to create another channel

Best Agency said:

Viral Shorts can bring in views but often don’t convert into long-form viewers, since that audience is just browsing quickly. This hurts retention on long videos and limits reach. If your Shorts and long-form content share the same niche, keep them on one channel; if not, consider separating them. You can also use Shorts as teasers to drive traffic to long-form content. Make sure to optimize thumbnails, titles, and viewer retention to improve long-form performance.

Click to expand...

They are the same niche, but the watchtime is shot whenever it comes to any long videos (including longer Youtube Shorts). I seen a video suggesting that the shorts audience is shown your new videos and it basically kills off your video with the low watchtime. Is there any solution for that? Or just keep trying to make better and better videos? ... hoping to combat that low watch-time and hopefull grow a non-shorts audience?

Yeah bro I feel that. Shorts go viral super easy but getting those views on long videos is a whole different story.

The people who watch Shorts mostly got a short attention span. They just scroll for quick dopamine. Getting them to sit and watch 5 or 10 minutes is hard unless the Short made them really curious or there’s some kind of connection. If they can’t interact or feel something personal they just move on. No reason to check your channel or sub.

That’s why I’d personally run two separate channels. One for real content and one just for Shorts and reach. Whether YouTube punishes mixed content on one channel, no one really knows. Depends a lot if you’re showing your face and building a personal brand or just posting random clips.