How Caleb Simpson Mastered YouTube Shorts

1 year ago, Caleb Simpson was working for NFT Now and was in year 6 of trying to make it on YouTube.?

Today, he has over 8 million followers across platforms and is making between $35,000 - $40,000 per month.?

You may not recognize the name, but you’ve probably seen him before, on TikTok or YouTube Shorts asking strangers “How much do you pay for rent?”?

This week on the Colin and Samir Show, we interviewed Caleb to talk about how he developed his format, how he monetizes shorts, and how he plans to sustain this momentum.?

Caleb gets somewhere between 300 to 500 million views per month through YouTube Shorts — in my opinion, he’s leading the pack in short-form content.?

Here are 3 takeaways from our conversation with Caleb?

1. He found a format.

After 7 years of experimenting, Caleb asked himself what kind of content he wanted to make: something that enabled him to interact with others, and take the focus off of himself. That’s how he found his format: asking people on the street “How much do you pay for rent?”?

This style is brilliant. It’s universally appealing. The hook is the rent amount, and then he immediately follows up by asking if he can have a tour of the apartment. Everyone wants to see inside someone’s home and there’s the added narrative of ‘is it worth the price?’?

It can be done anywhere — Caleb started with NYC because that’s where he lives, but can take his show anywhere around the world. And it’s scalable — Caleb can comfortably put out one Short a day.?

2. He focused on YouTube

From day one, Caleb knew his goal was to make long-form YouTube videos. But he understood that the key to building an audience is through short-form content. Caleb has pushed his Shorts audience to long from very well, by making longer videos about the most viewed Shorts, and making compilations. And if you take a look at some of his long-form video performance, it’s clearly working.?

This “trailer” strategy isn’t typically the right strategy on YouTube shorts, but the beauty of what Caleb is doing is that the shorts can live fully independently - they are valuable and entertaining on their own. The long form can also stand alone - and that, in my opinion, is the future of YouTube - The “Hybrid” creator - making both short-form and long-form content. The most important is that they cater to the same audience.?

3. But he still posts everywhere?

About $15,000 - $18,000 of Caleb’s monthly revenue comes from YouTube, and he just started monetizing there. His advice to creators is to make something that can be posted on every platform. The best part of his format is that it can be posted across all platforms. Just look at his tour of Barbara Corcoran’s apartment across all platforms.?

Check out the episode and Caleb’s content - and keep an eye out for what happens on February 1st when YouTube Shorts revenue sharing kicks off. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens when the checks start coming in.?