YouTube Shorts ideas: 30 formats and how to find yours

Short answer: the most reliable YouTube Shorts ideas are ideas that already beat their own channel's usual views in your topic. Find a few of those by hand, write down the shape behind each one, and fill that shape with your own example. The 30 formats below give you shapes to start from.

A list of a hundred random ideas feels useful and rarely is. You read it, nothing fits your channel, and you are back where you started. A method that finds proven ideas in your own topic keeps working after the list runs out.

Where do good YouTube Shorts ideas come from?

From three places, in order of usefulness: videos in your topic that beat their channel's normal, questions your viewers already ask, and your own videos that beat your normal. The first is the richest, because someone else has already tested the idea on real viewers.

Views alone do not tell you much. A large channel gets big numbers on almost anything. What tells you an idea worked is the jump: a video that got several times what that channel usually gets. Our post on why outliers beat trends explains the reasoning in more detail.

How do I find Shorts ideas that already worked in my topic?

1. 1List 5 to 10 channels in your topicPick channels a bit ahead of you that post Shorts regularly. Skip channels with only a handful of uploads.
2. 2Open each channel's Shorts tabWrite down the views of the last 20 Shorts. Keep Shorts apart from long videos; they usually get very different numbers.
3. 3Find the medianSort the 20 numbers and take the middle. That is the channel's normal.
4. 4Circle the jumpsAny Short at about 3x the median or more goes on your list. That threshold is our rule of thumb, not an official number.
5. 5Write the shape in one lineFor example: "mistake, then the fix, then a question". The shape is what you reuse, not the video.

If you want to check a single Short quickly, the free check takes a YouTube link and returns its real multiplier against its channel, plus three reasons it may have worked. Creativital's paid board does the same across all the channels in a topic. Both are optional; the spreadsheet method above works fine.

Which Shorts formats can I reuse?

These are shapes, not scripts. Each one has a one-line example in a different topic to show how it carries over.

Teaching formats, for when you know how to do something:

• One tip, one result. Gardening: the one pruning cut I make on every tomato plant.
• Three mistakes. Photography: three mistakes that make phone photos look cheap.
• Do this, not that. Fitness: do this squat, not that one, if your knees hurt.
• The 30 second tutorial. Excel: build a dropdown list in 30 seconds.
• Tool of the week. Woodworking: the €8 clamp I use on every project.
• Myth check. Coffee: does the water temperature really matter? Test on camera.
• Step-by-step in real time. Makeup: a five minute work look, no cuts.
• Explain it with an object. Finance: compound interest with a jar of coins.
• Cheat sheet on screen. Language learning: 5 phrases for ordering at a café.
• Fix a viewer's problem. Guitar: a viewer's buzzing string, fixed in one take.

Story and proof formats, for when you have results or experiences:

• Before and after. Cleaning: a stained grout line before and after one method.
• Day 1 vs day 30. Drawing: the same portrait on day 1 and day 30.
• I tried it for a week. Productivity: a week without checking email before noon.
• What I would do differently. Small business: what I would change in my first year of selling online.
• Behind the scenes. Bakery: what happens at 4am before the shop opens.
• The process timelapse. Pottery: one bowl from clay to glaze.
• Price breakdown. Travel: what a weekend in Prague actually cost.
• Storytime with a twist. Pets: the night my dog learned to open the fridge.
• Results reveal. Gardening: the harvest from one small balcony box.
• Expectation vs reality. Home baking: the recipe photo vs my first attempt.

Opinion and community formats, for when you want comments:

• Ranking. Snacks: rank five supermarket crisps from worst to best.
• Cheap vs expensive. Tech: a €30 vs €300 keyboard, blind typing test.
• Unpopular opinion. Running: why I stopped using a running app.
• Reply to a comment. Cooking: a viewer says my pasta is wrong; I test their way.
• This or that. Fashion: two outfits, one jacket, viewers vote.
• Pro reacts. Fitness: a coach rates gym advice from the comments.
• Guess the price. Interiors: guess what this room makeover cost.
• Questions people are afraid to ask. Skincare: is it bad to sleep in makeup once?
• Common sense that is wrong. Money: why "never use a credit card" is not always right.
• Challenge with a rule. Cooking: dinner from only what is left in the fridge.

What are good faceless YouTube Shorts ideas?

Faceless Shorts work when the hands, the object or the screen carry the video. These formats need no face on camera:

• Hands-only process: cooking, crafts, repairs, unboxing, filmed from above.
• Screen recordings: software tips, spreadsheet tricks, app settings.
• Voiceover over your own footage: a walk, a commute, a workshop.
• Text on screen over a simple shot, with the story told in captions.
• Point-of-view camera: cycling, hiking, a barista's station.
• Timelapse of a build, a clean-up or a drawing.
• Object close-ups: one product, one detail, one comparison.

One caution. YouTube's monetization policies, in YouTube Help, cover "inauthentic content" (renamed from "repetitious content" in July 2025), which includes content that looks made from a template with minimal variation, and "reused content", which covers repurposing material already on YouTube or elsewhere without a meaningful difference. Faceless is fine. Mass-produced clips with no voice, story or own footage are what the policy is about.

How do I know if an idea was good?

Measure it the same way you found it. Compare each Short with the median of your own last 20 Shorts at the same age, for example one week after posting. Ideas that beat your normal more than once are the ones to make more of. Note the shape of each one next to its result, so after a month you can see which formats work for your channel and not just for someone else's.

Questions

How many Shorts ideas do I need?

A backlog of ten or so is enough to never start from a blank page. A short daily routine, like the one in our 20 minute routine, keeps it topped up.

Are viral YouTube Shorts ideas worth copying?

Copy the shape, never the video. Take the structure of a Short that beat its channel's normal and fill it with your own example, words and footage.

What if my topic is small?

Look at channels in neighbouring topics too. A fitness format often works for cooking or money, because the structure carries over even when the subject does not.

Can faceless Shorts be monetized?

Faceless is not a problem in itself. YouTube's policies target repetitive, template-made content and reused content without a meaningful difference, so add your own voice, footage or commentary.

Should I follow trends or outliers?

Trends tell you what is popular everywhere this week. Outliers tell you which ideas beat expectations in your topic. For a small channel the second is usually more useful.