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Viral Shorts Guide: 3 Mistakes to Fix — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

How to Make Your Shorts Go Viral: 3 Mistakes to Avoid

0h 12m video Published May 25, 2026 Transcribed Aug 12, 2026 A Active Rahul
Beginner 4 min read For: Aspiring YouTubers and Shorts creators looking to improve video performance and monetization.
AI Trust Score 55/100
⚠️ Average / Some Fluff

"The title promises a 'sahi tarika' (right method) but delivers a mix of basic advice and affiliate marketing promotion, with some value but padded with examples."

AI Summary

This video explains why YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels fail to go viral, attributing it to three common mistakes creators make. The creator emphasizes the importance of viewer engagement metrics, creating story-driven content, and leveraging affiliate marketing to maximize earnings.

[00:02]
Viral Views Example

The creator shows a channel with videos getting crores (tens of millions) of views within 48 hours, contrasting with the viewer's lack of views.

[00:43]
First Mistake: Ignoring Engagement Metrics

In YT Studio, the 'How Viewers Engaged' section shows 63.8% 'stay to watch' and 36.2% 'swipe away'. Ignoring this is the biggest mistake; a high swipe-away rate (36%) and low average view duration (0.05) prevent virality.

[02:51]
Engagement Threshold for Virality

If the 'stay to watch' percentage increases to 70% or 90%, the video is more likely to go viral. The key is to make content engaging enough to retain viewers.

[03:22]
Second Mistake: Lack of Effort and Story

Creators often just open the camera and record with music, without a story or research. Viral shorts are based on a clear story and proper research, not random clips.

[05:30]
Story-Driven Content Examples

Viral videos like 'Tillu with a torch' (197M views) and 'Who will break the piggy bank?' (146M views) are built around simple, engaging stories with clear titles that describe the narrative.

[07:50]
Seasonal and Creative Content

Creating content around seasons (e.g., mango season) with a quick 30-40 second skit can attract views. Using your brain for content ideas is essential.

[09:04]
Third Mistake: Missing Affiliate Opportunities

Viral shorts often include affiliate links to products shown in the video (e.g., a mango slicer). This allows creators to earn commission in addition to AdSense revenue.

[10:16]
Affiliate Earnings Potential

For example, a shoe video with an affiliate link can earn 10-15% commission (e.g., ₹100 on a ₹999 shoe). If 1000 people buy, that's ₹10,000. This can be started with just 500 subscribers.

To make shorts go viral, creators must focus on engaging, story-driven content, monitor and improve viewer retention metrics, and explore affiliate marketing to boost income. Hard work and creativity are essential for success.

Mentioned in this Video

Tutorial Checklist

1 00:43 Open YouTube Studio and check the 'How Viewers Engaged' section for your Shorts. Aim for a 'stay to watch' percentage above 70%.
2 03:22 Create Shorts with a clear story or concept, not just random clips with music. Research what works and plan your content.
3 05:30 Use descriptive titles that hint at the story (e.g., 'Tillu with a torch') to attract viewers.
4 07:50 Leverage seasonal trends (e.g., mango season) to create timely, relatable content.
5 09:04 Add affiliate links to products featured in your Shorts to earn commission alongside AdSense revenue.

Study Flashcards (5)

What is the first mistake creators make with YouTube Shorts?

easy Click to reveal answer

Ignoring the 'How Viewers Engaged' metrics in YouTube Studio, which show 'stay to watch' vs 'swipe away' percentages.

00:43

What percentage of 'stay to watch' is suggested for a Short to go viral?

medium Click to reveal answer

70% or higher, ideally 90%.

02:51

What is the second mistake creators make?

easy Click to reveal answer

Creating videos without a story or research, just random clips with music.

03:22

What is the third mistake, and how can it be fixed?

medium Click to reveal answer

Not using affiliate links; fix by adding affiliate links to products shown in the video to earn commission.

09:04

How much commission can be earned from a ₹999 product with a 10% affiliate rate?

hard Click to reveal answer

₹100 per sale; if 1000 people buy, it's ₹10,000.

10:56

💡 Key Takeaways

💡

Engagement Metrics are Key

Explains the critical importance of viewer retention data in YouTube Studio for Shorts success.

00:43
🔧

Story-Driven Content Wins

Demonstrates that viral Shorts are built on simple narratives, not random clips.

05:30
📊

Affiliate Marketing as a Revenue Stream

Highlights a practical way to earn extra income beyond AdSense, even with low subscribers.

09:04

[00:02] crores of views in 48 hours. And I'm going to click and show you 60 minutes. So if you see, it is getting millions of views. And please check my reels video once. If you look at the videos that I upload on Facebook,

[00:17] views. The views go into crores. There are lakhs And your videos do n't get any views at all. Neither your shots go viral nor your reels videos go viral. know

[00:31] why? Because you guys make three mistakes in your shots on your reels video due to which YouTube does not recommend your video and Facebook does not make your video viral. Does not give reach. I am telling you the first mistake here.

[00:43] Here when you upload shorts, today I will not Here I have taught you in a video how to upload shorts. You can see it by watching this video. But today I will tell you

[00:56] how you take shots in the wrong way and upload them in the wrong way. When you upload shorts, here when you open your shots in YT Studio, What happens first? If you look first here, you will come down and you will

[01:11] see an option here. What is this option friends? Have you ever noticed this thing? What is the first mistake you guys make? See what was written here? 63.8% See what was written here? 63.8% stay to watch and 36.2%

[01:24] swipe away. Have you ever understood the meaning of these two ? You want to become a shorts creator , you want to become a YouTuber. Did you ever understand this? Let's see what is written here after this? How Viewers Engaged. This is the first mistake. This is the

[01:38] first mistake. This is the first mistake where you make the biggest mistake. You ignore this. What is this, here YouTube is telling that how viewers are engaged with your video, how the viewers to whom the video is going and

[01:55] who are watching your video are getting engaged, that is, 63.8 engaged, that is, 63.8 i.e. 64% are watching your video by stopping to watch i.e. 64% are watching your video by stopping to watch and 36.2% are

[02:07] and 36.2% are swiping away, that is, more than 36% of the people are not watching. Now here you have to think that why so many people are not watching my video and if 36% are swiping then

[02:23] what is your average view duration? Now look here, you might be thinking that 63% is too much since you are watching it after stopping, but if you look at the average video duration, then there is a 15% arrow down here. And what is written here ? 0.05

[02:36] more than usual. That means your video will not go viral. So you have to fix this. Now we have to think why people are swiping it. Now look there, how do views come from shorts? Obviously, how will views come from shorts? Will

[02:51] come from short feed. And if views come from short feed and if this percentage increases to 70%. and if this percentage increases to 70%. Suppose it becomes 90%, then what happens to your video if it becomes 90%? What will happen? Your video will go viral. Now

[03:07] here I have explained this thing to you. Now what is the second mistake? This is the first mistake. Now the first mistake is that you have to make your video engaging What do you guys do? You open your camera and after that, just by

[03:22] opening the camera, you make a video with some music. You And this is where you guys make a mistake. You should accept this thing. Think within yourself whether you make such short videos which

[03:37] are worthy of going viral? Never. You guys make videos in the wrong way and that is why your shorts videos do not go viral. Look, I have opened a channel. Now on this channel you will see shorts videos, please watch them carefully once. You look carefully, 197

[03:49] watch them carefully once. You look carefully, 197 million views, 173 million views and how did these 197 million views come in how many days? Came in within 5 months. And this is a shorts video. You will notice that none of these posts have any high quality

[04:03] thumbnails. Nothing was inserted. But here such a trick has been used, such a work has been done. If you also do the same thing then such views will come on your face also. Look at this 6 months ago 173 million views 2 months ago 150

[04:18] million views. Look at this, 146 million views 3 months ago. Look at this, 146 million views 7 months ago. Look at this, 144 million views 2 months ago. And similarly, if you And similarly, if you see, every video is getting 118, 114, 100

[04:32] million views, 98 million views, 98 million views, 92 million million views. Now in this way you can also get millions of views on your shots. But what mistake do you guys make that as I already told you one

[04:47] thing, I am first showing you how to play these shots. Listen to the flashlight. This is so much fun. There is so much blood inside my hand. Mom, please apply something on my eyes. Sister,

[05:02] Mom, please apply something on my eyes. Sister, show me here. Since when has he been shining the torch in my eyes? Don't go inside. You guys can also make such shots. No expensive cameras or anything here. Just two

[05:17] people making shots together. You can make such shots alone too, I will tell you that too. Now understand this thing carefully. Please viral with such shots ? So you will look carefully. All the

[05:30] videos that have gone viral have gone viral on one story. It has gone viral on the basis of proper research. It has gone viral in a way. What is written here? These are the first shots that I showed you, the first shots that I played in front of you, which have received around 197 million, almost 200 million

[05:43] views. Watch Tillu with a torch here. I mean, look at its title. What is the title of the shots you guys upload ? You put anything in. There is put some title. See what is written here ? Tillu with a torch. Here,

[05:59] a content has been created with Tillu holding a torch. What has been made that the torch is not burning? He messes around with the flashlight. The flashlight gets damaged. And his father says that the torch is not damaged. The cell of the torch is damaged. That

[06:11] means the battery of the torch is damaged. Changes the battery. The torch starts working. It is simple. See what is there here? Look again. Wait for end pasta or micronise this pasta or micronise pe video banaye. Watch Tillu Ka Billu

[06:25] and you can see Holi, the story behind every shot is shown here in the title. See who will break the piggy bank? Now look at this video, it has got 146 million views. Let me play this video once.

[06:41] Son, it seems your piggy bank is full. Break it. sister, I will break it. No, I feel like I will break it. But this is in my hands. Sister, stop Tillu,

[06:54] Tillu, run and catch him. me sleepless. I will tell you now. You see, this is how shots are made.

[07:08] And what do you people think that we will just pick up the mobile camera and after this we will After that our video will get views and we will beat our chest that our video is not getting views. We have to grow. Brother, you will never be able to grow. By

[07:23] making such shots, you can see that it is getting millions of views. I am just giving you an example by showing you one channel. people are working hard. I am growing. I am working hard, views are coming. If you do

[07:37] n't work hard, you won't get views like you people are doing. Like I mean if you are not putting effort into your videos. It is not hard work that you are uploading videos every day. anyone sees this video now, it is a funny video and

[07:50] he is uploading similar content regularly. And can you see this short super how to eat mango. Now look, I am playing this video in front of you. Now look, mango season is going on. Look at how they brought out the content during the mango season. Look look.

[08:03] Look at how they brought out the content during the mango season. Look look. Come quickly. Mom has come. Wait, I will stitch it. Hurry up mom, if didi, see, he created a content in just 30 to 40 seconds and

[08:20] that too with mango, so when you use your brain a little, if you use your brain then many content ideas will come to your mind. Now you are uploading videos of others as per your wish and you are thinking that

[08:34] I will earn money from YouTube. Brother, it takes hard work. It takes hard work to make a sh. And you would like us to just make a small clip like this and upload it in SSH. us turn our faces a little with such songs. So such content will not work in today's time. I used to go

[08:49] earlier when shorts came into existence. In today's time, it will work only if you upload proper content videos. And I am showing one more thing here. You are earning double here. You see here, this is mine, I have shown it. Now look, you can also see the thing with which he cut the mango, the

[09:04] shown it. Now look, you can also see the thing with which he cut the mango, the Now if I click on this affiliate, then look here in front of this product, see

[09:17] that I can buy from here. Now see, when I clicked on this, it took me to another page. Look, now if I buy ₹241 from here, they will get some commission from it. Now see who cut those mangoes? I used this to cut the mango into

[09:32] small slices. Now see, in this way, by making two videos in one way, they are earning money in two ways. From affiliate links. Ok? Look here, the affiliate can see here that you are earning commission in this way. That means the money that is coming from Adsense of Shorts

[09:48] and the money that is being earned from Ailiate is also there. So there are more ways to earn money than affiliate. Suppose the amount of views received on these shorts, the income from ads will be fine, it will be a little, but the income from affiliate is much more

[10:00] and you can start it with 500 subscribers. I have can go and watch this video to see how affiliate work. Now you will see this on every video, on every shorts video, you will see that they are adding links like this.

[10:16] You look at this one, look at this one, if you want to eat then come quickly. I am showing you here in 1 minute. I have brought something for you. Now look here, look what he did with the shoes. he has put the affiliate link of the shoes. So the

[10:30] method of uploading shorts is not that you just make a small shorts. Added two or three from here and there. Copied from somewhere and did it from somewhere else. YouTube also sees your hard work and gives you results according to your hard work.

[10:44] Now look, here he made a video of the shoe and put the affiliate link of the shoe here. Now here you will see the shoe. Now whoever buys this shoe shoe. Now whoever buys this shoe for ₹999, he will get 10% or 15% commission out of it, say ₹999 or

[10:56] ₹1000, i.e. ₹100. If a man bought ₹100 commission was received from a man. If 1000 people bought it then make it 100 * 1000. It became ₹10,000. So think in this way and work well. If you want to

[11:11] earn money from YouTube, then you will not have to just follow the simple method, that is, once you have done it, you will have to find new ways like in the old times.

[11:23] your short videos go viral. Your long videos will go viral. Your Friends, my main purpose of making this video was to make you understand that no matter how well you upload your shorts. make you understand that no matter how well you upload your shorts.

[11:37] , there is no engaging content, your video is not good , then no matter how well you upload the shorts video, your video will not go viral unless you make that video in a good way. So

[11:50] if you understood well what I want to say then like this video , comment and tell me whether you understood this video or not and Comment below. I will make a video on it.

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