Glossary
Formats over ideas
A repeatable format beats a one-off story, because the audience can guess what comes next. Repeat it until it becomes a show.
Why does it matter?
People want to guess what your next video looks like. A format repeats, so the audience comes back for it, and the team can make it without starting from zero.
How does it work?
- Name the format before the topic: the set, the structure and the length.
- Run two formats that are never up for testing, every day.
- Spend 80% of the output on formats that work and 20% testing new ones.
- Judge a format over weeks. One video tells you very little.
Where has Tom used it?
At TheBurntChip, the top 3 most watched videos on the channel are one format, the 24 Hour YouTuber Race: 12,790,765 views across the three. For Sam Stoffel, the three formats Tom found are still the ones he runs.
Related terms
- Outlier: A post past three times the median views of the last 30. The outlier is the brief for what to make next.
- Selfie video: Phone, front camera, one argument. The top of funnel format and the spine of the content engine, also called a yap video.
- Creator Therapy: The hero long form format: a real creator brings a real problem and it gets taken apart properly, problem, diagnosis and fix.