Long video · 16:9
Top 10 countdowns with a chapter per entry
Countdowns are easy to watch and easy to make badly. Heady gives each entry its own chapter, so viewers can jump to the one they came for, and keeps the facts per entry sourced, so the list says something a viewer can't get from the title alone.
Chapter 2
#10 Krubera Cave
Example
The 10 deepest places on Earth
Chapters
Example outline- 0:00How deep can we go?
- 0:45#10 Krubera Cave
- 1:50#9 The deepest open-pit mine
- 2:55#8 Lake Baikal
- 4:00#7 to #4, in quick succession
- 6:30#3 Mponeng gold mine
- 7:45#2 The Kola Superdeep Borehole
- 9:05#1 Challenger Deep
The hook
“The deepest hole humans ever dug goes down 12 kilometres. It isn't even in the top 3 of this list.”
Settings to start from
- Length
- 8–12 minutes
- Look
- Bold, high-contrast scenes that read on a phone
- Voice
- An energetic host
- Motion
- A stat counter per entry, a bar chart to compare them at the end
Tips
Making top 10 countdowns that work
- 1
Make the order mean something
Rank by one measurable thing (depth, age, speed) and say what it is in the first 20 seconds. Viewers stay for the countdown when they trust the ranking.
- 2
Give each entry a twist
Every entry needs one fact that surprises. If an entry has none, cut it and make a top 9.
- 3
Avoid the template trap
YouTube does not monetise mass-produced, repetitive videos. Vary the structure from video to video and write real research into each entry rather than reusing one script with new names.
Questions
Top 10 countdowns: questions
Do the chapters work on YouTube?
Yes. Each chapter of the script becomes a timestamp in YouTube's format, ready to paste into the description. YouTube needs the first at 0:00, at least three chapters, and at least 10 seconds each.
Can a countdown be a short instead?
A top 3 works as a short. A real top 10 needs room; it's usually 8 minutes or more.
More use cases