So I jumped into short-form content because honestly? Everyone else is doing it and I felt left out. Grabbed my phone one lazy Tuesday and thought, “How hard can this be?” Spoiler: pretty damn hard at first.
First Attempts Were Rough
Recorded random stuff around my apartment – my coffee brewing, birds outside, even my messy bookshelf. Threw on some generic music and uploaded. Got like 12 views. Half were probably me reloading the page.
Realized fast that nobody cares about my boring daily life. Started scrolling through top creators’ pages. Noticed they all did two things differently:
- Hooked you in the first 0.5 seconds – explosions, falling, screaming noodles, whatever
- Ended with “WAIT FOR IT…” moments
My Testing Phase
Stole my kid’s slime (don’t tell her). Filmed me smashing it with a hammer at 0.25x speed. Added “POV: Your brain on Monday” text. First semi-viral clip – 5k views.
Went full science mode after that:
- Trend-jacked food fails: Dropped toast to test if it always lands butter-side down (it does)
- Used trending audio immediately – even when it made zero sense with my video
- Posting 3x daily for a week straight like a maniac
What Actually Worked
After 87 failed experiments:
- Hooks MUST shock or confuse: Started videos with me fake-screaming at pineapples
- Text overlays > voiceovers: People watch on mute!
- Weirdness gets shares: My video of socks dancing in the dryer did better than my “professional” content
Biggest Surprises
Got 20k followers pretending to be a potato giving life advice. Algorithm loves potatoes apparently. Also learned:
- Quantity beats quality early on: My rushed, sloppy videos often outperformed the ones I spent hours editing
- Comments = rocket fuel: Started asking dumb questions like “BLUE or RED?” on color videos
Now? I batch-record when ideas hit – keep a running list of dumb concepts. Stopped overthinking transitions and fancy edits. Just slap on text, trending sound, and pray to the algorithm gods. Still weirded out that people want to watch a 40-year-old man rap about laundry.
