A creator who says she's made $12M selling digital products walks through the five reel mistakes that turn away customers, and three things that don't matter at all.
Posted
1 years ago
Duration
Format
Tutorial
educational
Views
19.8K
636 likes
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
Reels don't fail to sell because of luck, looks, or trending audio; they fail because of five specific and fixable mistakes in footage, text, calls to action, bio links, and clarity that make viewers scroll away instead of buy.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You're posting Reels to sell a digital product and getting views but few or no sales.
You already have a call to action and a link in bio but conversions still aren't happening.
You feel stuck posting constantly with nothing to show for it and want a concrete diagnostic list.
SKIP IF…
You're building purely on TikTok or YouTube Shorts, where platform mechanics for bio links and CTAs differ.
You don't have a product to sell yet; this is about converting existing content, not building the offer itself.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Reels that don't sell aren't a luck problem, they're a mistakes problem. Five specific issues push customers away: grainy, poorly lit, static footage; oversized or multicolored on-screen text instead of simple white-or-black blocks; a hedged, soft call to action instead of a direct ask; a link in bio that routes to a multi-link hub instead of straight to a single product's checkout page; and confusing storytelling that makes viewers feel lost and swipe away. Each mistake also compounds through the algorithm: a negative reaction to a post trains Instagram to show it to fewer people, not just to fewer buyers. Meanwhile three things creators worry about, personal appearance and trending audio, don't affect reach or sales at all. The fix is mechanical, not aesthetic: clean footage, simple readable text, a direct CTA, a one-product checkout link, and a story a viewer can follow shot by shot.
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She validates the reader's frustration with content that doesn't sell before making her case for why she's worth listening to.
00:47 – 01:51
02 · Proof: the SamCart dashboard
A live screen-share of year-to-date and all-time digital product revenue, offered as credibility before the lesson.
01:51 – 02:46
03 · The free book pitch
She holds up her physical book on digital product sales and offers a free copy.
02:46 – 04:28
04 · Asking permission to be blunt
Sets up a tough-love frame: continuing to watch counts as consent to blunt feedback about what's not working.
04:28 – 05:44
05 · How reels punish or reward you
Explains the algorithm feedback loop: a negative viewer reaction doesn't just fail to sell, it gets the post shown to fewer people.
05:44 – 07:28
06 · Mistake 1: terrible video footage
Bad lighting, grainy quality, and flat framing read as amateur; she credits a consistent blue accent in frame as a view booster.
07:28 – 08:18
07 · Mistake 2: amateur text mistakes
Oversized, multicolor on-screen text signals amateur; simple white-or-black block text reads as professional and legible.
08:18 – 09:33
08 · Mistake 3: the weak-sauce call to action
Soft, hedged CTAs get ignored; direct, specific asks generate the engagement creators are actually trying to avoid losing.
09:33 – 11:17
09 · Mistake 4: link in bio doesn't go to checkout
A link-in-bio pointing at a multi-link hub kills impulse buys, illustrated with her own unplanned $47 purchase from a stranger's reel.
11:17 – 13:14
10 · Mistake 5: unclear content confuses viewers
Confusing storytelling makes viewers feel lost and swipe away; a gardening-content example shows step-by-step clarity instead.
13:14 – 14:43
11 · Three things that don't matter
Appearance, body type, and trending audio don't drive views or sales; clarity and structure do.
14:43 – 15:00
12 · Outro: watch this next
Points viewers to a follow-up video on how to structure reels that actually sell.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
A negative reaction to a post doesn't just fail to convert, it trains the algorithm to show that content to fewer people going forward.
Grainy footage, bad lighting, and static framing read as amateur before a viewer processes a single word of the message.
Oversized or multicolored on-screen text is one of the most common signals that separates amateur content from professional content.
White or black block text is the near-universal choice among high-performing creators because it maximizes readability, not because it looks better.
A hedged call to action, like offering to help instead of asking for a specific comment, produces the exact silence it was trying to avoid.
Direct, specific asks generate more engagement than soft language because they remove ambiguity about what the viewer should do next.
A link in bio that routes to a hub with five links and a freebie adds a decision step that most viewers simply decline to take.
Routing the bio link directly to a single product's checkout page removes the friction between a viewer being interested and actually buying.
Confusion produces the same reaction as boredom: viewers feel briefly stupid and swipe away rather than push through unclear content.
A viewer should be able to say what is happening in a shot at every single cut; if they can't, the content is too clever for its own good.
Physical appearance and body type don't correlate with view counts; viral creators exist across every body type and presentation.
Trending audio stopped meaningfully affecting reach; picking audio you personally like performs about the same as chasing a trend.
Takeaway
Five fixable mistakes are pushing customers away from your reels.
WHAT TO LEARN
Reels don't fail to sell because of luck, looks, or trending audio, they fail because of specific, correctable choices in footage, text, calls to action, bio links, and clarity.
05How reels punish or reward you
A post that gets a negative reaction doesn't just fail to convert, it actively signals the algorithm to show it to fewer people, compounding the loss.
A neutral post is recoverable; a post that makes viewers wince and scroll away trains the algorithm to suppress future reach too.
06Mistake 1: terrible video footage
Grainy footage, poor lighting, and static framing read as amateur within the first second, before a viewer processes a single word.
Consistently including one strong color in the frame's background or wardrobe is associated with higher view counts, independent of message quality.
Body language that looks uncertain or unpracticed undercuts authority as much as bad lighting does.
07Mistake 2: amateur text mistakes
Oversized or multicolored on-screen text is one of the clearest signals separating amateur content from professional content.
White or black block text is the near-universal choice among high-performing creators because it maximizes readability, not because it looks better.
Readability is a deliberate choice, not an afterthought; treat caption color and size as a legibility decision, not a design flourish.
08Mistake 3: the weak-sauce call to action
A hedged call to action, like offering to help instead of asking for something specific, produces exactly the silence it was trying to avoid.
Direct, specific asks generate engagement precisely because they remove ambiguity about what the viewer should do next.
Fear of rejection is the real reason most creators soften their CTA, not a belief that soft language performs better.
09Mistake 4: link in bio doesn't go to checkout
A link in bio that routes to a hub with five links and a freebie forces an extra decision most viewers decline to make.
Routing the bio link directly to the checkout page of one specific product removes the friction between being interested and buying.
Impulse purchases from short-form content depend on the path from click to checkout being one step, not three.
10Mistake 5: unclear content confuses viewers
Confusion produces the same reaction as boredom: the viewer feels briefly stupid and swipes away rather than push through it.
A viewer should be able to say what is happening in a shot at every single cut; if they can't, the content is too clever for its own good.
Teaching content that follows a literal step-by-step visual structure reads as clearer than content that tries to make a subtler point.
11Three things that don't matter
Physical appearance and body type don't correlate with view counts; viral creators exist across every body type and presentation.
Trending audio stopped meaningfully affecting reach; picking audio you personally like performs about the same as chasing a trend.
Time spent worrying about looks or trending sounds is time not spent fixing the things that actually move the needle: footage, text, CTA, bio link, and clarity.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
SamCart
An e-commerce checkout platform creators use to sell digital products and courses directly, without building a full website.
Link in bio
The single clickable link Instagram allows in a profile, often the only place followers can click through from a post to a website or checkout.
“How attractive you think you are does not matter at all.”
blunt reassurance, contrarian against common creator anxiety→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
The Script
Word for word.
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metaphorstory
00:00Okay. Can we be, like, so for real? Nothing is more discouraging than making content, like putting time and effort and energy into content and then it not making sales.
00:12It's discouraging. And if my reels didn't if I didn't make sales off of every reel I ever put out on Instagram, I would probably quit too.
00:21So I really wanna validate you in that discouraging feeling because it's I would be feeling the exact same way.
00:28But the good news is I not only do I get paid for every single reel that I post on Instagram, but I make hundreds of thousands of dollars, um, selling digital products with Instagram. I'm gonna pull up proof so you feel comfortable knowing that I'm the real deal.
00:43Let me show you. K. I wanna share my screen here to kinda show you what we're looking at.
00:47So this is my SamCart. Um, this is where I make sales.
00:52This was January. Let's skip to well, first, we'll do this year. We'll do this year.
00:59And you can see here this year, we're about halfway through the year. We've already done 3,200,000. This is not website sales.
01:04This is not YouTube sales that I make from a different platform on YouTube. This is just one of my platforms where I take money. I take money in other places, but this is the bulk of it, so I just like to show you this one.
01:14Last year, we did so we've actually we're on track to double last year because last year for the whole year, we only did 3,300,000.
01:22This year, we're we're halfway through, so we just got done with June. You can see here June was our biggest month ever.
01:30It'll load. Let me just show that one. Like, sign it.
01:32It goes, yeah, 3.2. So June was our biggest month ever at 620. And then I wanna show it will take a second, so bear with me, but I want to do all time.
01:44So it's gonna take a second to load because that's, like, a ton of data. But you can see here we've done over $12,000,000 in digital product sales.
01:52So I actually wrote a book on it. I highly recommend oh, you can't even see me because it's way too tiny. Hang on.
01:57Let's fix it. So I wrote a book on everything that you need to know about digital product sales, including, um, all kinds of just very helpful charts, some automations that you need to know.
02:10I will send you a copy of this book for free. I highly recommend you grab it. We're gonna go into selling digital products with reels and on Instagram and what to do if you're not getting views and you're not getting sales from it.
02:21Um, but if you want to go even deeper on all of this, um, I highly, highly recommend you get a copy of this book. I just put a ton of just, like, really important stuff in here including, you know, just, like, what should your marketing here's an example.
02:37Like, what should your marketing plan be, right, if you're trying to make a ton of money with digital products? So I'll put a link for it in the description. I'm gonna give I'm happy to give you a copy of it for free.
02:47Just some really, really good stuff like how to make your digital products go viral. Highly recommend it. I'm obsessed with it.
02:52I just published it, and I, like, published it last month, and then it immediately became outdated because we made a million dollars. So we went from, like, 11,000,000 to 12,000,000. So, like, immediately became outdated, but it's okay.
03:03It's fine. So most people put out reel after reel after reel, and they effort after effort after effort, and they see zero sales.
03:13And so I wanna validate that it's really discouraging, and I wanna help you fix it together. Okay?
03:18So we're gonna do this together. We're gonna fix it. And, basically, if it's okay with you, I review students' content all the time.
03:28I look at content all the time. I'm in the content world. I'm in the Instagram reels world.
03:32I know why your reels aren't getting views, and views equal sales. So when I say I know why your stuff isn't getting views, I also mean I know why it's not getting sales. And so I see a ton of content mistakes that are really costing you sales.
03:44They're it's it's keeping you stuck and essentially like burnt out hobbyist where you're making all this content, you're doing all these things, but you're staying a hobbyist. And so if it's okay with you, I would like to get your permission to be as blunt as possible so we can just fix the problem.
04:01So can I just tell you your content sucks, or can I just tell you why your content sucks, or can I tell you what you might consider to trying so your content doesn't suck? Can I just have your permission to be as blunt as possible so we can fix it?
04:14If that's yes, okay, keep watching. If you're watching past this point, I'll assume that you're okay with me telling you exactly why your stuff isn't making you money, why your reels aren't getting views, why you're not getting sales.
04:29There's basically five five things that you're doing that's causing your reels to push away customers.
04:37So basically, if you're doing content right, reels act like a magnet drawing in customers.
04:44That's how they are for me. Every reel I put out, make money, tons, thousands of dollars every time I publish a reel. That's because my reels are working for me and they're drawing in not just people but my customers.
04:53So your reels are probably doing the opposite where people see your reels and they literally have a negative visceral response and they don't want to buy from you. So it's not just that they're neutral, it's that most content that I see, the kind of content I'm gonna talk about here, it's not just that it's neutral. It's not just that people aren't seeing it.
05:12It's like when people see your stuff on the rare occasion they do, when people see it, it creates a negative visceral response in their body, and so they scroll away quickly. So then the it's like this, like, terrible domino effect because then the algorithm punishes you because people scroll past your content. Right?
05:27If your content isn't engaging and people swipe up, then they're less likely to show your content in the feed. So you get punished by pushing away customers, but you also get punished because Instagram sends your content less and less and less to people.
05:41So we really wanna fix it. Basically, all of that to say we wanna fix this. So what causes Rios to push away customers?
05:47There's five main things. I'm just gonna I have a little list that I printed off because I've been, like, doing YouTube videos today, so my lists are, like, looking crazier and crazier. Um, okay.
05:57One, terrible video footage. Nothing is worse. When I say terrible video footage, I mean bad lighting, grainy quality, not eye catching, um, doesn't look like you know what you're doing, like your body language is saying amateur.
06:15The lighting is terrible, that's like a big one, nothing's happening or nothing different is happening in the footage, you like, I'll give you like a really practical pro tip, put the color blue in your videos, Like a blue wall, a blue sky.
06:30If you go to my Instagram account, or I can just even like show you if we wanna no, just go to my Instagram account in your own time because I wanna stay focused. If you go to my Instagram account, which is just like at mariawent, you'll see that so much of my footage is, has blue in it.
06:44This wall, why do you think we painted this wall blue? Because blue gets views. I can't explain it, and you know what's really crazy?
06:50Hold on, let me just put my phone into sleep mode, I don't know how those came through.
06:58What's really crazy is that someone told me that that's apparent so I stumped this blue rule is an old marketing rule. I didn't even know that. It's an old marketing and video production rule that I didn't even know.
07:07I'd never heard of it. I just observed that when I put the color blue in my content, it got more views, and then I was sharing that tip to someone, and they corroborated it and said, oh, no.
07:18That's like a real I think it was a movie production thing. I think it was like a movie thing or a marketing thing. I don't remember.
07:24But it was, like, I couldn't believe it. So that's the first thing.
07:29Second thing is amateur text mistakes. So the font is too big. You've got too many colors.
07:34It's angled wrong. Right? So keep your text smaller on the smaller side.
07:41Pretty much always have white block, a white block and black text, or just white or black font.
07:48Don't do colors. Amateurs don't do like, amateurs do colors. Professionals don't do colors.
07:52Like, if ever look at the influencers you follow, their content is their text is pretty much always white or black for the most part. For the grand majority of the content creators you're following, it's white and black for a reason. Amateurs don't care about or don't think about readability.
08:07Pros care about readability, and so they're gonna typically just have a pee. Frankly, like on Instagram, it's white block, black text.
08:15If you wanna just play it safe, do that. Three, this is what I wrote down, a weak sauce call to action that beats around the bush.
08:23So what do I mean by that? You are afraid of getting rejected, you are afraid of saying comment x below to get the freebie or whatever it might be and then no one comments.
08:33So you're basically afraid to ask for the call to action, the thing you want them to do because you are worried that they won't do it. So instead of like opening yourself up for rejection and having no one comment or no one do anything, you say let me know if I can ever help you, my inbox is ready for you, I'm here to support you.
08:53You use soft language and then you create the thing you're so afraid of, which is no one commenting.
09:00It takes bravery to say, comment more down below if you or comment freebie down below to get a copy of my free guide. Comment I'm ready if you're ready to start working with me.
09:12It takes courage to put those kinds of comments out there because you're worried, well it's gonna be really obvious if I say that and then no one comments and it's gonna be really embarrassing, but the problem is, the flip side is, if you don't do that, you're never gonna get any engagement at all, so you have to be brave.
09:26So no weak sauce calls to action that beat around the bush. Just what do you want them to do? Tell them to do it.
09:33Four, if your link in bio isn't to your checkout page, change that immediately to the checkout page of one product, not your stand store linking to five products and a freebie, have go look at my Instagram and look at my link in bio.
09:48It links directly to one product, your checkout page of one product. Um, that you're gonna get sales just from doing that.
09:57Literally, if you could just do that, people will then click your bio, and I always use the aquarium lamp as an example because this is a real story that happened to me. This was about, I think, a year ago now.
10:07I think I've been telling this story for a year. I was on Instagram. I saw this reel come up, and it was like, POV, um, you bought your daughter a aquarium lamp for her as a gift.
10:20And it was this, like, retro aquarium lamp. And I was like, oh, I love that.
10:25So then I went to the account. It was really cute. It was like this little lamp where then the fish, like it's a horizontal lamp, and then the fish, like, swim and then loop and then swim and then loop, and then swim.
10:37It's very relaxing. And I have a three year old daughter, in case you didn't know. And so I was like, oh my gosh, and then I went to it, and the link in his bio was through the checkout page, and I bought this $47 lamp and now my daughter Ellie loves it.
10:50And I love sharing that example because that's exactly what's supposed to happen. People are supposed to see a reel. His call to action was like click my link in bio and purchase.
10:59So then I went to the link in bio and I purchased it and I love using that example because it's so random. That's exactly what happened, and he got his $47 order from me. My lamp came, like, I don't know, two weeks later, and we were all happy campers.
11:11That's exactly what should happen every time. Now the fifth one is a little bit more intangible, but I think it's really important. If your viewers are unclear on what's happening in the video, they are going to click away.
11:24They are going to swipe away. So what does that mean, unclear on what is happening?
11:30That means, like, I'm watching this reel and I'm really not sure what's happening or I'm really not sure what you're talking about.
11:38I'm confused. People don't like to feel confused because when people feel confused, they feel stupid. And so a lot of times when I watch new people's content, I just have no idea what the f is going on in their videos.
11:51So they're, like, trying to tell a story and it's not, or they're try they think they're making a clever point and it's just not landing, like, they haven't learned how to communicate via reels. It's actually a skill to to communicate well over short form content.
12:08So my advice, if you're in the beginner stage and you're like, maybe I am the one doing this or I'm like, I'm trying to be almost like too smart for my own good or too clever, don't do that because that's probably not landing and be very, very clear. If you are teaching people, let's just say, I'll use my gardening student as an example.
12:27Like, if you're teaching people how to garden in your backyard on a budget, just talk about gardening in your backyard on a budget. So make reels on how to grow a year's worth of vegetables for $5.
12:38Like, that would go viral. How to, you know, uh, like like, show I would do one where it's, like, you're harvesting all the stuff from your garden and then you, like, goes to, like, everyone eating the vegetables.
12:51Like, what's it's very clear what's happening in in a scene like that. What step one, we're picking the vegetables. Step two, we're serving the vegetables.
12:57It's very clear what's happening in each shot and each scene, and you need that level of clarity. So think about, like, ask yourself the question, will everyone understand what's happening in this in this reel?
13:09If not, make it more simple. You don't understand how many people you're losing because of that. Okay.
13:15Three bonus things, and then I'm gonna tell you what to do to make reels that make money. So three bonus things that do not matter at all. One, the way you look in the video at all.
13:25The shape of your body, how attractive you are. The proof of that is every viral content creator who looks exactly like you, and there are people who look exactly like you who have the exact same body type as you. You have I every one of my students thinks that that matters.
13:38The way you look in reels does not matter. People go viral all the time and they're in messy buns. People go viral all the time and they're in head to toe makeup.
13:46People go viral all the time and they're in the best shape of their life. People go viral all the time and they're in the worst shape of their life. It does not matter.
13:54How attractive you think you are does not matter at all. Now you can do things to make yourself feel more confident, that's fine, um, but that actually does not matter.
14:06Two, trending audio doesn't matter at all. You you see all these risk off words like, your video will go viral with this trending no, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.
14:14Trending audios have nothing to do with you don't get a single damn view. Maybe we'll give you one view if you're using one extra view, if you're, um, using a trending audio.
14:23It doesn't no one in 2025 is going viral because they use a trending audio. Pick the music you like, take three seconds on it, and just let it be. Same thing with other things that like used to work but don't anymore like hashtags.
14:34Right? Those kind of things, like, no. So the way you look in the video, that does not matter and the trending audio does not matter.
14:43Now now that you know what to do, sorry, now that you know what not to do, if you wanna learn the right ways to make your reels, so if you wanna know how to make reels that actually make money, go watch that video next.
She opens by validating the reader's frustration, not pitching them: making content that doesn't sell is genuinely discouraging, and she says she'd have quit too. Then she pulls up her own SamCart dashboard live on screen, over $12 million in digital product sales, before naming the five reel mistakes standing between viewers and buyers.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
04:33list
Five things that push away customers
Terrible video footage
Amateur text mistakes
A weak-sauce call to action
Link in bio that doesn't go to checkout
Unclear content
The five specific content mistakes she says are costing creators sales and reach on Instagram Reels.
Steal forany short-form video meant to sell a product
13:14list
Three things that don't matter
How you look on camera
Your body type
Trending audio
Things creators worry about that she says have no measurable effect on views or sales.
A self-made millionaire opens her real sales dashboard on camera, then lays out the exact five-step sequence she'd run if she lost her name, her audience, and her following overnight.
A 30-step, start-from-zero blueprint for turning one hyper-specific problem into a daily content habit, then a digital product, then a paid course upsell.
A student case-study interview: how a full-time stepmom with three chronic illnesses built a six-figure low-ticket business on 30 minutes of ads a day and a lot of repurposed content.
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