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Went from 300 views to 24k by fixing these 6 mistakes
Posted by on December 4, 2025 at 11:02 amI've been insanely obsessed with short form video for the past two years. Like genuinely unhealthy levels of obsessed. I'm talking 12 hour days breaking down viral content, testing hooks, rewriting scripts, trying different editing approaches, the entire process.
Why? Because I'm convinced short form controls the future of everything. Marketing, growing audiences, selling products, building opportunities, it all depends on whether you can capture someone's attention for 30 seconds.
But here's what nearly destroyed me: despite grinding every single day, nothing was landing. I'd invest 6 hours into a video just to watch it stall at 300 views. Tested every approach from every coach. Bought courses. Followed "battle-tested frameworks." Still stuck.
I was genuinely starting to believe some people just naturally get it and I don't. Like maybe I was born without the viral gene or something.
Then I had this realization where I understood, I'm putting in effort, but I'm working blind. I don't actually know what's failing. I'm just hoping and guessing.
So I stopped trying to decode some hidden viral formula and started tracking real metrics. Reviewed my last 50 videos frame by frame, monitored every single dropout point, and identified 6 patterns that kept wrecking my retention:
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Vague openers get scrolled past instantly. "This is wild…" gets skipped instantly. But "100 squats every day made my knees make weird sounds" stops the scroll cold. Specificity destroys vagueness.
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Second 5 is where they decide. Most viewers leave between 4-7 seconds if you haven't shown it's worth their time. I was creating suspense like an idiot. Now I deliver my best visual or fact right at second 5. That's your real hook.
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Any dead space over 1 second destroys you. Genuinely tracked this, anything longer than 1.2 seconds and viewers assume the video stopped. What feels like natural pacing to you comes across as "dead air" to someone scrolling. Edit way tighter than seems right.
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Pattern breaks matter more than anything. If your footage stays the same for more than 3 seconds, people check out. I began rotating camera positions, inserting b roll, shifting text locations, whatever creates visual movement. Went from dropping 50% at halfway to holding 70%.
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Rewatch rate carries more weight than you'd expect. Videos people watch twice get boosted way harder. Started including rapid text that's tough to catch, quicker edits, tiny details you spot on second watch. Rewatch rate jumped from 8% to 31% and views took off.
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Bad lighting kills credibility before you even speak. Your information could be perfect but if lighting looks cheap, people scroll without thinking twice. Everyone's feed is too clean now for poor lighting to pass. Quality lighting builds trust immediately. Amateur lighting triggers instant exits.
Honestly the biggest transformation was ditching the guessing game and actually tracking what was happening second by second.
Found a tool that doesn't just show where people drop off, it actually tells you why and how to fix it. That's when things really changed. Went from 300 average views to 15k in roughly 3 weeks.
Platform analytics show you people are leaving. This shows you the exact moment, why it's happening, and what to change next video.
If you're posting regularly but can't hit 1k views, it's not that your content is terrible, you just don't understand what's actually performing vs what you assume is performing.
Look, I'm sharing this because figuring out the algorithm was genuinely one of the hardest challenges I've faced. I really wish someone had just explained exactly what I needed to change back then. Would've saved me months of frustration and doubt. So I'm doing that now for whoever needs to read it.
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1 Reply
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Ai.
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I agree with the insights but for me, the bottom line is the way you tell a story and how authentic you are.
What you described are technical ways to keep users engaged, but ultimately content has to be interesting, genuine and authentic.
Beyond copying the best practices, you need to try something new every video: a new angle, different lightning, anything, really.
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Just started a job in social media and this is super helpful, thank you! Curious about any tips on how much you should be posting? Of course I’m posting ads and my boss is putting out two video ads a day. I’m worried it’s too much, but I know consistency is key.
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