We measured 72 English-language YouTube channels run by founders and experts who sell a service or product, and the last 10 long-form videos of each, 720 videos in total. 45 of the 72 channels (62%) had no clickable link in the first two lines of the description in any of those videos, although 82% of all sampled videos had a link somewhere in the description. Per 1,000 subscribers, channels posting 1 to 6, 7 to 12 or 13 or more long-form videos in 90 days got similar median views, between 74 and 76.
By Menno Kater · Published 19 October 2026 · 72 channels · public data only
Across the sample, the medians are 33,050 subscribers, 1,043 views per long-form video and 7 long-form uploads in the last 90 days.
33,050
median subscribers (range 1,110 to 452,000)
1,043
median views of the last 10 long-form videos
7
median long-form uploads in the last 90 days
56 of 72
channels that posted Shorts in the last 90 days
Key findings
Five findings, with the numbers behind them
Finding 1 · Links above the fold
45 of 72 founder and expert channels (62%) had no clickable link in the first two lines of any of their last 10 long-form videos.
Channels by how many of their last 10 videos had a link in the first two description lines (n = 72)
None of 10
45(62%)
1 to 4
7(10%)
5 to 9
7(10%)
All 10
13(18%)
The links exist, they just sit lower down. 39 channels had links in their descriptions but never in the first two lines, and only 13 channels (18%) put one there in every video we sampled. Across all 720 videos, 27% had a link in the first two lines and 82% had a link anywhere.
The first lines are what a viewer sees before tapping "more", so a link further down is a link most viewers never see. That is why we put the one link at the top, as described in how YouTube sends viewers to your calendar.
Finding 2 · Where the first link goes
In 54% of the videos, the first link in the description pointed to the creator's own site, booking page or offer.
Destination of the first link in the description (n = 720 videos)
Own site, booking page or offer
388(54%)
Social profile, YouTube or podcast app
123(17%)
Affiliate, sponsor, tool or guest
79(11%)
No link at all
130(18%)
The rest of the first links went to a social profile, another YouTube video or a podcast app (17%), to an affiliate, sponsor, tool or guest (11%), or there was no link at all (18%). Per channel, 37 of 72 (51%) sent the first link to their own site or offer in most of their last 10 videos, and 21 never did.
Agency owners were the most likely to point the first link at their own offer (73% of videos), founders (40%) and doctors, dentists and therapists (37%) the least. A first link to Instagram or a sponsor sends the viewer to a page you do not control.
Finding 3 · How many links
The median channel had 3.15 distinct links per description, and 37% of all sampled videos had five or more.
Channels by average number of distinct links per description (n = 72)
Fewer than 1
13(18%)
1 to 2.9
22(31%)
3 to 4.9
13(18%)
5 or more
24(33%)
24 channels averaged five or more links per description, often a fixed block of socials, tools and offers under every video. 13 channels averaged fewer than one. Five links ask the viewer to choose, and five small click counts tell you less than one number you can follow every week.
We cannot see which links got clicked, because YouTube does not publish that. What we can say is that a menu is the norm in this group, not the exception. More on picking one destination in your channel is leaking clients, not your videos.
Finding 4 · Upload rhythm and views
Channels posting 13 or more long-form videos in 90 days had the highest median views (2,964), but they were also the largest channels; per 1,000 subscribers, the three active groups landed between 74 and 76.
Median views of the last 10 long-form videos per 1,000 subscribers, by long-form uploads in the last 90 days
No long-form video
15
1 to 6 videos
74
7 to 12 videos
76
13 or more videos
76
Long-form uploads, last 90 days
Channels
Median subscribers
Median views, last 10
Views per 1,000 subscribers
None
8
10,800
164
15
1 to 6
23
30,700
1,420
74
7 to 12
19
23,400
704
76
13 or more
22
55,550
2,964
76
The 8 channels that posted no long-form video in 90 days, only Shorts, had the lowest views per 1,000 subscribers (15). Between the active groups the difference was small next to the spread inside each group.
This is a correlation in a one-day snapshot, not cause and effect. Bigger channels can afford to post more, and a channel posting weekly has had less time to collect views on its latest videos. What it does not support is the idea that more uploads on their own bring more views per subscriber.
Finding 5 · Shorts next to long-form
56 of 72 channels (78%) posted Shorts in the last 90 days, and 32 of them posted more Shorts than long-form videos.
Channels by Shorts uploads in the last 90 days (n = 72)
No Shorts
16(22%)
1 to 12 Shorts
19(26%)
13 or more Shorts
37(51%)
37 channels posted 13 or more Shorts in 90 days, roughly one a week or more. The 16 channels without Shorts had higher median long-form views (3,236 against 833), also per 1,000 subscribers (78 against 49).
That does not show that Shorts hurt long-form. Channels may add Shorts when long-form is not working, and we did not measure Shorts views or what Shorts bring in. It does show that most founder channels now run both formats, so the question is where each Short sends people.
Also measured. Across channels, the median title length was 57 characters, and 33% of the 720 titles contained a number.
By group
The same measures, per type of business
Agency owners sent the first link to their own site or offer most often (73% of videos), founders (40%) and doctors, dentists and therapists (37%) least often. Each group has 12 channels, so treat the differences as directions, not rankings.
Group
Channels
Median subscribers
No link above the fold
First link to own site or offer
Median long-form uploads, 90 days
Posted Shorts
Median views, last 10
Founders
12
31,200
9 of 12
40%
3
9 of 12
18,110
Consultants and advisers
12
12,950
9 of 12
64%
5.5
8 of 12
272
Coaches
12
78,500
7 of 12
58%
7
8 of 12
531
Agency owners
12
18,750
3 of 12
73%
12.5
10 of 12
1,520
Lawyers, accountants, financial advisers
12
131,000
8 of 12
51%
13
11 of 12
6,582
Doctors, dentists, therapists
12
40,450
9 of 12
37%
4
10 of 12
575
What this means for a founder
Four changes you can make this week
Put one link in the first line of every description. Most channels in this study did not, so this alone sets you apart from most of the group. How to set it up, with end screens and cards: one link per video.
Point that link at your own page, not your Instagram. A booking page, a check or an intake, the step a buyer takes next. The full list of leaks around a video: your channel is leaking clients.
Measure clicks on that one link every week. Public data cannot show leads, which is exactly why you need your own number: how to measure if your content works.
Pick a rhythm you can keep, then fix the rest of the channel. Posting more did not mean more views per subscriber here. The channel page is the next place a viewer looks: your channel page is your second front door.
Methodology
How we built the sample and what we measured
The sample is 72 English-language YouTube channels with 1,000 to 500,000 subscribers, each fronted by a founder or expert whose business sells a service or product, and each with at least one upload between 21 July and 19 October 2026.
How the channels were found
We searched with the vidIQ channel search, filtered on English, 1,000 to 500,000 subscribers and a last upload on or after 20 July 2026, using eleven queries: founder sharing lessons on building and scaling a B2B company; consultant teaching business owners, book a call; agency owner sharing how to grow a marketing agency; SaaS founder sharing how they grow their software company; business coach for coaches and service providers; attorney lawyer explaining law, law firm owner; doctor physician with a private clinic educating patients; accountant CPA tax advice for small business owners, accounting firm; B2B marketing consultant, fractional CMO, demand generation; board-certified specialist doctor or dentist who owns a private practice, patient education; financial advisor or financial planner who runs their own advisory firm. We added vidIQ similar-channel suggestions for three channels from those results, one consultant, one accountant and one agency owner. That gave 456 unique channels from the searches, plus 30 suggestions per similar-channel lookup. In the end the search results alone filled every group, so no suggested channel is in the sample.
Who was included
A named person fronts the channel: the founder, owner, partner or licensed practitioner of the business.
The business sells a service or product: consulting, coaching, agency work, software, a consumer product, or legal, financial, medical or therapy services.
Recent long-form titles mostly in English, and mostly about the person's field.
At least one upload in the 90 days before 19 October 2026, and at least 10 long-form videos published before 5 October 2026.
Who was left out
Media companies, publishers, events, interview shows not tied to the host's own business, and brand channels without a named person.
Tutorial, review and affiliate channels, students and residents, and make-money-online channels such as dropshipping, side hustles and start-an-agency courses.
YouTube, video, content, social media and personal branding agencies, because they compete with us.
Any channel connected to Menno Kater, his clients or his outreach lists, and a second channel of a business already in the sample.
We sorted the channels into six groups: founders; consultants and advisers; coaches; agency owners; doctors, dentists and therapists; and lawyers, accountants and financial advisers, with 4 of each. In every group we took the first 12 channels that qualified, in the order the searches returned them, with search results before similar-channel suggestions. The screening was done by hand by one person, so it involves judgement. Every channel is listed in the CSV, so it can be checked.
What we measured, and how
Long-form and Shorts. YouTube keeps separate public upload lists for long-form videos and Shorts. We read both through YouTube's public RSS feeds on 19 October 2026. Live streams sit in a third list and are not counted.
Uploads in the last 90 days. Uploads published from 21 July to 19 October 2026. A feed shows the 15 newest uploads, so a count of 15 means 15 or more. That applies to 15 long-form counts and 35 Shorts counts, flagged in the CSV.
The last 10 long-form videos. The 10 newest long-form videos published before 5 October 2026, so every video had at least 14 days to collect views. Where the feed held fewer than 10 of those, we read the public playlist and watch pages.
Views. The public view count on the day of collection. Per channel we took the median of the 10 videos.
A link. A URL starting with http:// or https://. In spot checks of watch pages, YouTube did not make bare domains such as example.com or www.example.com clickable, so those are not counted.
Above the fold. A link in the first two lines of the description. What shows before "more" depends on the device and on line length, so this is an approximation.
Distinct links. Unique URLs per description, ignoring http or https, www and a trailing slash.
Where the first link goes. Coded by hand. Own site or offer: the creator's own domain, booking page, or their own course, community, newsletter, form or checkout on a hosted platform. Social or platform: YouTube, social networks, podcast apps, review sites and link-in-bio pages. Third party: affiliate, sponsor, tool, guest and news links, plus links we could not tie to the creator. Short links were followed to where they lead.
Subscribers and total videos. The public counts as reported by vidIQ on the day of collection. YouTube rounds subscriber counts.
Titles. Length in characters, and whether the title contains any digit.
In a spot check of nine videos, the descriptions in the feeds were identical to the descriptions on the watch pages. Channels without a public Shorts list were counted as having no Shorts; for one of them we confirmed on the channel page that there is no Shorts tab.
Limitations
What this data can and cannot tell you
This is a selected sample of 72 channels, not a census of founder channels, so the percentages describe this group and should not be read as exact figures for all founders on YouTube.
Selection bias. The channels came from one tool's search ranking and our own screening, with fixed quotas per group. English only, active channels only, 1,000 to 500,000 subscribers only.
One snapshot. Everything was read on one day. Views keep growing, and older videos have had more time to collect them.
Public data only. No click-through rates, watch time, traffic sources, clicks on links, leads or revenue. We cannot say whether a link above the fold brings more clients, only how many channels have one.
Correlation, not causation. Upload rhythm, Shorts and views move together with channel size, topic and age. No finding here shows that one thing causes another.
Hand coding. Link destinations were coded by one person. Mistakes are possible, and the CSV lists the exact videos so anyone can recheck.
Feed limits. Upload counts stop at 15 per format, and live streams are not included.
Get the data
Download the dataset and cite it
The full dataset is one CSV file with one row per channel, including the IDs of the 10 videos we measured for each.