If you’re new to making content and not getting views, the fixes are usually small and practical. Here are the tips I come back to most, the ones you can use on your very next video without a big following or fancy gear.
What You’ll Walk Out With
- How long your videos should actually be
- The fastest way to lose a viewer (and how to avoid it)
- A ChatGPT prompt for writing better hooks
- The green-screen method for borrowing proven hooks
- A free 2-minute quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find what to build content around
Test Different Lengths
Don’t lock into one length because someone told you to. Test 7 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, three minutes, and see what works for you. And when people ask how long a video should be, the answer is: as long as it needs to be to make your point, and no longer. Padding it with filler to “keep people hooked” is the quickest way to turn them off.
Add One Clear Call to Action
When you make content, tell people what to do, because if you don’t, they won’t. One of the best is “save this for later.” Telling viewers to save and share gets them coming back, which the algorithm rewards.
Stop Waiting to Talk
Nobody is on the edge of their seat waiting for you to start. Get to the point. If you wait five seconds, people swipe at three, especially if they don’t know your face yet. Start talking before the camera even rolls so viewers join mid-sentence and feel like they’re catching something already in motion.
Not sure what to make content about?
The free 2-minute quiz at finder.platformproof.com helps you find the thing you should be known for, based on the skills you already have. Same email unlocks every other video’s worksheet.
Learn by Doing, Not Watching
You’ll learn more from making bad content than from watching another video about making good content. Go create. And when you mess up mid-sentence, don’t start over. Keep talking and edit it out later. The best creators take many takes and just cut the flubs, sometimes hiding the edit behind B-roll. Starting over is how you lose your train of thought and quit.
Use ChatGPT to Write Hooks
Paste a prompt like this: “Act as an expert in prompt engineering. Create the perfect prompt for writing hooks for vertical videos. The hooks must appeal to a wide, low-awareness audience, be scroll-stopping, use pattern interrupts, curiosity gaps, power words, and proven hook structures. Include three variations and a video outline. Before creating it, ask me any questions you need.” Answer its questions and it’ll hand you strong starting hooks you can refine.
Model Hooks That Already Work
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Scroll your feed with intent, not just to be entertained, and watch what hooks you in the first three to five seconds. When something grabs you, write it down and adapt it to your topic. The whole skill is finding the wheels that already turn and making them turn for you.
The Green-Screen Hook Method
A repeatable way to get more views, step by step:
- Find a video in your topic with at least 5,000 likes.
- Download it (search “TikTok video downloader”).
- Green-screen that video, let it play for the first 5 to 7 seconds, then add your own second hook over it, a negative one works well (“Everyone tells you what to do, but nobody shows you how”).
- Cut to a second green screen of a checklist or list on your notepad, and give step-by-step instructions for about a minute.
Follow it exactly and you give people a reason to keep watching.
Find Your Topic
Take the free 2-minute quiz at finder.platformproof.com. You’ll walk out with one specific thing to build your content around.
Read Next
Once the views start coming, make sure you’re set up to actually earn from them.
Read: I Wasted 2 Years on YouTube Before I Figured This Out: 5 Money Mistakes
Sources
- ChatGPT for hook generation
- CapCut and basic green-screen editing
- Free 2-minute Side Hustle Finder quiz: finder.platformproof.com
Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.