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Everything I did wrong my first 4 months creating content
Posted by on January 19, 2026 at 7:41 amIf I could go back seven months to right before I started posting, I'd tell myself to hold off and learn a few things first. I've been making content for seven months and I finally average around 21,000 views per video. But I completely wasted the first four months being totally clueless. I posted every single day, read guides, asked for feedback in communities. My views never broke 500.
I was convinced I picked the wrong platform or the wrong topic. That maybe I just don't have the personality for this. I was ready to quit around month four.
Then I stopped randomly trying things and figured out the real issue. If I started today knowing what I know now, I'd get to 21,000 views in a month instead of seven months. Not because I'd make smarter content. Just because I wouldn't waste four months working on problems that didn't exist.
Here's what I'd tell myself to stop doing.
Stop redoing your hook constantly. I changed my opening line twenty times per video thinking hooks were everything. My hooks were working. People made it through the first few seconds fine. They dropped off around second six to nine when I was still explaining background instead of showing them what they came for. I could have saved two months if I'd just looked at where they actually left.
Stop getting nicer gear. I bought a microphone and better lighting setup because people said quality matters. Spent 190 dollars. My views tanked. The videos that performed were sloppy phone videos filmed wherever I happened to be. My video with 44,000 views was shot in my garage on a phone with a cracked screen. The nicer gear actively destroyed my performance.
Stop following a posting schedule. I read that consistency means posting at the same time every day. Posted at 7pm sharp for eight weeks straight. Nothing improved. My biggest video went up at noon on a Wednesday because I finished it early and didn't want to wait. Eight weeks completely wasted on a schedule that did nothing.
Stop copying what works for other people. I watched creators with huge audiences and tried to replicate their editing style and energy. It bombed constantly because established creators operate under different rules. When you have no audience you need a totally different approach. I wasted a month figuring this out.
Stop trying every content format. I thought I needed to experiment to find what performs. Made educational videos one week, then storytelling, then trends, then q and a style content. Views stayed the same for everything. The format wasn't the issue. I was breaking something fundamental in every video and changing formats just covered up the pattern.
What I'd tell myself to do instead is locate where people leave and fix only that. Not the hook, not the setup, not when you post. Just find the exact moment they're gone and change what's happening right there.
It helped me a lot to use an app that explains what kills your videos. I use one called Tik–Alyzer and it tells you the exact second viewers drop off and what caused them to drop. Regular analytics just say 39 percent retention which is basically useless. This tells you people left at second eight because you paused for 1.4 seconds or your shot stayed the same for nine seconds. I would have saved four months if I'd started with this instead of finding it later.
Once I stopped obsessing over hooks and quality and started fixing the moments where people actually left, everything shifted. Went from 500 views to 21,000 in about a month. Same ideas, same way of filming. I just stopped fixing things that were fine.
If you just started posting you're probably making the same mistakes I made. None of the other stuff matters until you know where they're leaving and why. Fix that before you worry about anything else. Everything else is noise.
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1 Reply
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This is super honest and actually useful. Retention > hooks, gear, schedules. Fix where people leave and everything else clicks.
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