Building a YouTube Shorts channel

Hey, I’m Dan. For the last 12 days, I’ve been attempting to build a YouTube Shorts channel and sharing my progress on my Twitter page. In this video, I’ll share what I’ve learned so far. (This article is created using the transcript of this video)

Content Strategy

• I’ve been using the classic approach of taking popular, interesting clips and adding commentary with captions.
• It’s not groundbreaking, but channels like “Daily Dose of Internet” have built million-dollar empires with this format.
• While it may not be the most creative approach, it’s a viable strategy I’m exploring.

Hashtag Usage

I’ve experimented with hashtag placement in three areas:

• Title
• Description
• Tags section (during upload)

My current strategy (Day 12):

• Two generic tags in the title (e.g., #short #shorts )
• A few relevant tags in the description

Channel Setup

• I used an aged account that I previously used for cross-posting from a TikTok channel (9,000 followers).
• I deleted all old videos, changed the name, and updated the branding.

Video Production

• Video length: 7-12 seconds
• Audio: Removed original audio, added a low-fi chill track
• Commentary: Recorded in a relaxed tone
• Currently working on creating a hook at the start of each video

Performance Analysis

First Video

• Views: 11.25K
• Likes: 478
• Like ratio: 99%
• Comments: 6

Subsequent Videos

• Performance varied greatly
• Some videos performed well (10K-19K views)
• Others underperformed (17-57 views)

Key Metrics

The most important metric seems to be the swipe ratio:

• Good performing videos: ~75% watch vs. 30% swipe rate
• Poor performing videos: Lower watch-to-swipe ratios

Conclusion

I’ll continue to update you on my progress, possibly making this a daily update series. Future updates may include more detailed stats on subscribers and other metrics.