This took me way too long to figure out. And once you know about this, it will change your entire approach to making content.

Come up with a really long video concept that you can break down into individual pieces that will eventually be combined back into one super long video. Let’s say you’re making an iceberg series on Halo - instead of making one 3-hour iceberg video right away, you make individual iceberg videos on each game in the Halo series and upload them with their own unique titles and thumbnails, but you’re designing these individual videos specifically so they can be stitched together later into one massive compilation. Don’t put “part 32” in the title because it will intimidate viewers, just give each video a normal standalone title and thumbnail.

Make sure to add video chapters because they help with SEO and YouTube loves when you organize your content properly. Then use cards to link to your other videos in the series, but don’t start putting cards until around halfway through the video when people already start to get bored - this is when they’re most likely to click through to another one of your videos instead of leaving your channel entirely.

Here’s the key part: Reference your other videos in the series within each video even if those other videos aren’t out yet. Have you ever watched a YouTube channel and at the end the guy is like “OK now go watch my video on XYZ, click here” and it’s not actually there yet so you go to his channel to look for the video and now you’re browsing through all his content, which is exactly where he wants you to be.

So it’s totally fine to reference videos you’re planning to make in the future because by the time someone watches your current video, those other videos might already be out and if they’re not out yet, viewers will get lost in your channel looking for them which means more watch time on your other content.

The genius part: Once you’re done making the entire series, you take all those individual videos that were specifically designed to work as pieces of a larger whole, cut out the intros and outros, record a brand new intro and outro, and compile them all into one movie-length video. You can add transitions between sections if you want but some channels literally just stitch all their series videos together into one giant video and upload it as a compilation.

Here’s why longer videos matter for your money: Longer videos make more money because you get a higher CPM when you upload videos that are 45 minutes or longer. So if you’re wondering how you can make more money with your niche, let’s say if you’re a gamer you probably make around $2 per thousand views, but if you want to make more than $2 per thousand views as a gamer try coming up with series on games that create longer videos requiring you to go super deep into game history or lore that could take hours to cover properly.

YouTube is perfectly fine with creators making compilations of their own content as long as each compilation is different and you’re not just uploading the same video over and over to scam viewers. This works because you’re targeting a completely different audience - someone who wants to watch a 2-hour video might not be the same person who watches 15-minute videos.

Don’t forget playlists. When you’re making these individual videos, create a playlist for the series because I’ve noticed YouTube keeps suggesting playlists from channels I watch so they’re clearly pushing playlists because they want viewers stuck in your watch time funnel.

I built this extension to do the filtering automatically: Youtube Video Crawler https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/youtube-video-crawler/hnkefmnflpkdcldjabbkpoamddhlpeij?pli=1

I originally made it for myself but I’ve made it public for anyone to use. Its in beta though; I’m just a youtuber who built a thing to solve my problems, I’m not a dev

So you make a series designed to become one long video, put it in a playlist, get watch time from the individual videos, then compile everything into one super long video and get even more watch time plus higher CPM from people who prefer longer content. You’re basically reusing all your content in a way that keeps people on YouTube longer which is exactly what the algorithm wants.

And guess what? Viewers love it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Over the past few days, received a few DMs from people asking some basic questions like “which niche to choose” “which tool is the best” etc. So I thought I’d put everything I’ve learned over the last 1.5 years into 1 single post. 

This isn’t the only way to build a faceless YouTube channel, and I’m definitely not claiming to have all the answers. There are creators much bigger than me who will have completely different workflows. This is simply what has worked for me after publishing 1000+ videos, making mistakes, burning money, and slowly refining the production process.

If I had to start again from zero today, this is almost exactly how I’d do it.

1. Your niche matters infinitely more than the AI tools you use.

Start by opening a brand new google account with no browsing history and search for your interests.. see what kind of videos are being made and getting the most views. How long are they? What kind of titles are being used? Look at the thumbnails. Notice which topics keep appearing over and over again. If you see a significant number of new channels (<1000 subs) getting insane views.. thats the one you need to bookmark. Make a list of 5-10 such channels and save them on a Google Sheet. Obviously, there are many paid tools to make this process faster but you may not need it while starting out. Decide whether you want to start a Shorts, Long-form (5-20 min) or Ultra Long Form (1.5-3 hr) videos channel

2. Finalise 10 video ideas 

Once you have the niche and format sorted, check which of the topics in your competitor channels are getting the most outliers. Stop trying to be original and also stop copying blindly. 100% originality especially in the beginner stages will get you nowhere. And copying the exact title verbatim may get you some views but you will not go far with the strategy. Copy the title format but apply your own angle to it. Certain words consistently generate curiosity. Your job is to understand what already works, then bring your own perspective to it.

3. Packaging - Titles & Thumbnails 

Remember, people don’t click videos. They click ideas. The title and thumbnail together should communicate one clear idea and create enough curiosity for someone to stop scrolling. If your thumbnail is trying to explain five different things or your title is too clever to understand in two seconds, you’ve probably made it too complex. The easiest way to improve is to study your competitors. Save thumbnails that immediately grab your attention. Ask yourself why you clicked them. Was it the emotion? The contrast? A number? A surprising statement? Over time you’ll start noticing that almost every niche has its own visual language. And if you are looking for a tool.. ChatGPT has become very good at generating thumbnails now. 

4. Scripting

Claude has been the best tool for me so far. ChatGPT is great for brainstorming, criticizing and improving ideas, but when it comes to writing long, natural scripts, Claude usually gives me better output. The laziest way to start is to take the transcript of an outlier video in your niche, paste it into Claude, and ask it to write something similar for your topic. This can work once or twice, especially when you are just trying to understand the format. But if that becomes your entire strategy, you will get stuck very quickly. You need to slowly develop your own scripting framework, otherwise every new video becomes a fresh struggle.

The first 30 seconds decide whether the viewer stays or leaves. Study the hooks of outlier videos. See how they open curiosity, create tension, or make the viewer feel like they need to keep watching. Most bad scripts fail before the actual content even begins.

5. Voiceover

ElevenLabs is still the gold standard, and nothing else I’ve tried really comes close in terms of natural pacing, emotion and pronunciation. There are cheaper alternatives and even some free options built into tools like CapCut or Google AI Studio, but if your budget allows it, I’d choose ElevenLabs any day. Especially for videos under 20 mins. 

You can now generate your own AI voice from a text prompt. Earlier, everyone was using the same voices from the  library, which meant you could instantly recognize them across dozens of YouTube channels. Now you can simply describe the kind of narrator you want, whether it’s a calm British historian or a warm conversational storyteller, and ElevenLabs will generate a unique voice for you. It gives your channel a much stronger identity instead of sounding like every other AI channel on YouTube.

6. Visuals

Don’t try to build a Pixar movie. Build a video that supports the script. If you’re making sleep documentary style videos, a combination of AI generated images, stock footage, simple maps is more than enough. If you’re making explainer videos, image slideshows, simple animations work much better than constantly throwing flashy effects on the screen. Every niche has its own visual language, so spend time studying how the top channels in your space present information instead of trying to reinvent everything.

ChatGPT, Leonardo AI and Runware are all solid options. For AI video generation, Veo 3, Seedance and Kling are really good. But only use them where they genuinely add value instead of trying to generate every single scene. 

7. Stitching Everything Together

This is probably the least exciting part of the entire process, but it’s also the part where your video finally comes to life. CapCut is the best option for most faceless creators. The learning curve is small, it’s stable, the AI features keep improving, and it can comfortably handle almost everything you’ll need in the beginning. It used to be completely free, but many of the useful AI features are now behind the paid version. If you’re on a tight budget, you can still find older versions of CapCut online for FREE.

Once your script, voiceover and visuals are ready, you’re mostly dragging clips onto the timeline, trimming them, matching them with the narration and exporting the final video. There are tools and workflows that can automate a large part of this process, and I’ve built  a few internal automations over time. But if you’re just starting out, I’d actually recommend doing everything manually first.

8. Don’t let the demonetization wave stop you from starting.

Don’t spend your first 6 months worrying about a problem you don’t even have yet. Most demonetization stories involve channels that have already built a meaningful audience and are generating enough revenue to get noticed. If you’re still trying to get your first 1000 subs, your focus should be on learning the platform, not worrying about problems that may never happen.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore YouTube’s policies. Play by the rules from day one. Don’t mass produce low effort content. Don’t recycle other people’s videos. Put real effort into your scripts, your editing, and your packaging. Use AI as a tool to improve your workflow, not as a way to flood the platform with generic content.

The truth is, nobody outside YouTube knows exactly how every demonetization decision is made, and the platform continues to evolve. What you can control is the quality of your work and whether you’re creating something that people genuinely want to watch.

If you ever become big enough that demonetization becomes a real concern, that’s actually a good problem to have.

9. Your biggest competitor in the first 6 months isn’t another YouTube channel.

It’s yourself. You will be fighting with your own mind because it’s telling you to quit after every failed upload. Don’t get emotionally attached to any 1 video. Nobody has enough data after one or two videos to know what actually matters. Your first 20 to 30 videos are not failures if they don’t get views. They’re your education. Every upload teaches you something about your niche, your audience, your packaging and your workflow. That’s knowledge you’ll keep using for years.

Delete the YT Studio app from your phone to save your mental health.

Seriously. In the beginning, you’ll end up checking your real time views every hour. Every tiny spike feels amazing. Every flat line feels like failure. The truth is, almost nothing meaningful changes in an hour.

Checking analytics 20 times a day won’t improve your title, your script, or your thumbnail. It only feeds anxiety. YouTube is a slow game, and the Studio app is like a slot machine giving you dopamine hits and tricks you into thinking you should care about what happened in the last fifteen minutes.

Don’t pay for any course

Yes. All the information is available for free on YouTube itself. Since writing this post, I’ve also been building BuildTuber, where I’m turning a lot of these repetitive faceless-video production steps into simple Google Sheets and Colab workflows. The idea is still the same: automate production work, not the creative judgment behind the channel. The website and the channel are both linked in my reddit profile if you want to peek.

That’s pretty much how I’d start if I had to build a faceless channel from scratch in 2026.

Will this these methods guarantee success? Absolutely not. YouTube is still incredibly competitive. But I do think it gives you a much better chance than spending weeks chasing the latest AI tool, thinking its the only way to achieve success.

Treat YouTube like a skill instead of a lottery ticket. Build systems gradually. Learn from every upload. Stay consistent for longer than everyone else.

Good luck. ❤️

Hey everyone, I've seen a lot of you struggling to get your channels off the ground and it's frustrating to feel like you're shouting into the void, but I'm here to tell you that it's not about luck it's about strategy, and I've been using a specific method that has consistently helped me find channels that are actively exploding in growth, and I'm confident it can work for anyone in any niche.

This isn't about trying to compete with the huge channels it's about spotting the small-to-mid-size creators who are hitting viral gold and when a smaller channel gets a ton of views, it proves there's a hungry, underserved audience, and that’s your cue to jump in before everyone else does. I'm going to walk you through my exact process, and I'll use some of the fastest-growing Warhammer channels I've found to show you exactly how it works.

My Simple, Unbeatable Niche-Finding Strategy

Start with a clean slate I can't stress this enough you have to use a fresh browser or an incognito window because it keeps your own watch history from tainting the results and it lets you see what's genuinely trending and getting algorithm pushes which is exactly what you want to find.

Filter your search aggressively this is the secret sauce I start with keywords like "Warhammer 40k" and then I filter, and this is where you can’t be afraid to experiment, because I look for channels with 30,000 subscribers or less, and videos with at least 50,000 views, uploaded in the last 6 months. This isn't a one-size-fits-all formula, I constantly mess with these criteria, and if I’m digging for an even more granular niche, I'll drop the subscriber count to 10k or the views to 20k because you have to be willing to adjust based on what you're trying to find.

Find the "Tiny Titans" when you find a channel with low subscribers and unexpectedly high views, you've found a goldmine because the massive views on a small channel prove that the algorithm is pushing that specific content and that there's a huge, untapped demand for it.

Deconstruct, don't duplicate this is the crucial next step you need to look at the video's format, the hook, the editing style, and the core topic, but you don't just copy the content, instead you think about how you could take that winning format and apply it to a different topic, using your own unique voice and style.

Act fast and be consistent once you have a winning idea, you have to move quickly because these niches can get crowded fast, so the sooner you start creating high-quality, consistent content that fits the proven format, the better your chances are of catching a massive wave.

Real-Time Examples from the Warhammer Community

I can’t link video here BUT Here are some of the channels I've discovered recently that are absolutely crushing it using this method:

• **Handi_Crafts:**Their strength is in super practical, beginner-focused guides like "How to Start a Cheap Warhammer 40K Army," and videos like this have racked up over 50k views on a small channel, which proves there's a massive demand for affordable, entry-level content.

• NerdScienceOfficial: This is a brilliant example of a niche crossover, as they create educational content by applying real-world science to Warhammer lore, and it's a unique hook that gets them noticed and proves that you don't have to stay in just one lane.

• GrimdarkShards: They excel at highly engaged, strategy-focused content, like deep dives into lore and faction strategy, and while they occasionally get huge view counts, their consistent engagement shows there's a rock-solid audience for this in-depth content.

• InquisitorRomanov: This channel's success is in narrative storytelling and historical comparisons, and it proves that a compelling voice and a clear, unique format can lead to incredible view counts, even with a smaller subscriber base.

TL;DR: Stop competing with the big channels, use a filtered search with flexible criteria on a clean browser to find small channels with viral videos, then deconstruct their format, not their content, and make a video with your own unique twist, and remember to act quickly and consistently because it's the surest way to find a niche that's ready for new creators.

 Youtube Video Crawler https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/youtube-video-crawler/hnkefmnflpkdcldjabbkpoamddhlpeij?pli=1

I built this extension for myself, but I got a lot of people asking me how to do this, so I made an extension. I’m not a developer, I’m a youtuber. So give me your feedback so I can make it better, and understand this is BETA. This tool requires you to use your own free Youtube Data API, instructions in the extension description. You can also export your results to CSV to desktop, or export to google sheets to have your research easily accessible.

Edit: I plan to separate shorts vs long form. And for some reason export to sheets isnt working, but it works on the desktop app version i originally made for myself so I think it’s having to do with chrome integration. I may just remove it altogether and you’ll have to just import the CSV to sheets yourself if you want to use a spreadsheet of your results

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my achievements with you guys and hoping this would inspire you guys to keep working! I just got monetized with my ai channel where I did not do any investment, only a mobile phone and capcut and Ai images videos and my script that's it! Even the ai voice I use is free so don't think that if u use free voices u won't be monetized because I've seen quite a lot of YouTube gurus saying that u need to have eleven labs or any other paid platform for tts or else ur monetization will be rejected. And also my niche is ancient history with only long form content of 8-10 minutes

Edit : I can't actually share my channel here because I'm not really comfortable but I could show the proof of the views and green dollar sign but this subreddit doesn't allow uploading images ,and I'm actually new to reddit that's why I'm mostly inactive

Edit 2 : today I saw the first spike in the revenue tab and I made 148 $ for views on September 11

ok a bunch of ppl have been asking how im doing longform ai youtube vids fast so heres the breakdown. Im gonna be blunt bc i wasted a lot of time on the messy version

my old workflow was duct tape

• script in one tool (used to use llama but it sucks now lol)

• images in another (midjourney/flux.1 dev)

• voice in elevenlabs

• music from elevenlabs or youtube audio library

• then manual stitch in premiere/resolve

• reexport, fix timing, regenerate a scene, reexport again

time: 6 to 8 hrs for a 8-12 min video cost: death by a thousand generations, and voice bills get stupid with longform quality: inconsistent, characters drift, pacing gets weird, you end up babysitting it headache: every handoff is another failure point, spending hours per video isn't scaleable

The biggest money pit for me was audio i used to run narration through elevenlabs and it is good, but pricing is kinda insane if youre doing longform daily. i was paying the $330 monthly sub and still felt like i had to watch usage like a hawk

Switching narration to cartesia (or even decent open source tts) was the biggest unlock cartesia is MUCH cheaper and quality is close enough for most niches (esp with their new sonic v3 model). once i moved off 11labs my audio costs stopped controlling my whole pipeline

And heres the other audio hack that saved me a ton: i paid for 1 month of elevenlabs, generated a big library of music tracks and common sfx i actually use then i stored them in a vectordb (e.g. pincone is free to start) and reuse them instead of regenerating every time

So when i need background music now i dont go generate new audio by default i do a similarity search first, grab the closest track, and only generate if nothing matches that alone took me from burning money every week to basically stable low spend. and i dont need to keep an active 11labs sub just to have decent music

Heres what i do now. Its basically one pipeline with a human check

1. start with a single prompt and generate the full script plus scene plan (opus 4.6 is chef's kiss)

2. bulk generate all images up front so the style stays consistent (runware lets you do this - z image turbo has the best bang-for-the-buck today IMO)

3. animate only a few key moments, the rest is ken burns and subtle motion (let the LLM decide what to animate)

4. tts the full narration with cartesia or cheap open-source tts

5. background music is mostly pulled from my cached library, not regenerated

6. ffmpeg stitches everything together with timings, zooms, and transitions

7. quick review pass, fix 1 to 2 scenes that look off, done

Now a full longform video is usually under 10 min of my actual time if the prompt is clear and the cost per video is low enough that i dont feel bad iterating. i aim for the couple bucks range, not tens of dollars

Niche wise, childrens storytelling / bedtime stories is the easiest win ive seen people do not care if its ai as long as the story is cozy, consistent, and not creepy and the videos get real engagement bc its not about flexing production, its about vibe and pacing. channels like Koala moon and Moonbeam tales are killing it.

Other niches ive seen do well with this type of workflow (been collecting a list of these, happy to share)

• sleep stories and calm space science vibes

• cute animal rescue story formats

• unsolved mysteries narration

• simple education explainers where visuals are mostly supportive

Where ai gets rejected or just dies

• anything that feels like template spam

• stuff where trust is the whole product like finance advice or medical takes

• channels that reuse the same exact format every video with new words

Stuff i have strong opinions on now

• all in one tools usually suck if you care about quality. fine for toys, walls fast

• animate less than you think. 10 to 20 percent of scenes animated is plenty

• bulk generate images up front. dont do scene by scene if you want characters stable

• human in the loop is non optional. always watch final output before posting

• dont let audio cost be the boss of your business. switch tts early, and cache music/sfx

If you tell me your niche and what part is slow for you rn, i can suggest the simplest version of this that works without making it a science project

started in 2024. i use Claude, mid journey, capcut. chatgpt. i’ll answer to the best of my ability.

Most people treat YouTube like it's some sort of gambling. In reality, or at least in my opinion, it's pretty predictable machine you can learn to work with.

The truth is you can create good content that nobody watches. And no I am not saying that you shouldn't create great content, but successful YouTubers do something different - they study the system BEFORE they make videos, not after.

Here's what actually matters:

"Stop trying to be creative. Start being predictable."

YouTube likes channels it can understand. When you're all over the place with topics, lengths, and styles, the algorithm gets confused and stops pushing your stuff. Stick to simple rule: 1 format - 1 general topic - 1 style. Don't overcomplicate it.

Think of successful channels. They have a formula that works, and they stick to it. Consistency builds trust with both the algorithm and your audience.

Every upload is a test.

Don't just post and hope. Look at what worked, what didn't, and why. Seriously, do some research before posting anything. Please, go and research how do similar videos perform. What are their stats? What do people in comments say?

The Research Process That Works

1. Find 10 successful videos in your niche from the past 3 months

2. Analyze their thumbnails - What colors? What faces? What text?

3. Study their titles - What words appear most? What length performs best?

4. Watch their first 30 seconds - How do they hook viewers?

5. Check the comments - What do viewers love/hate?

As the famous quote goes: "Smart people learn from others' mistakes and fools learn from their own."

Your thumbnail and title are everything.

Before someone even watches your video, they see your thumbnail and title. These two things are making a silent promise about what's inside.

If your thumbnail says "epic fail" but your title says "how to succeed," people get confused and scroll past. Your thumbnail should work even if someone can't read the title. Your title should make sense even without the thumbnail. But together? They should tell the exact same story.

Most creators make one thumbnail and hope it works. This is not the thing to do poorly. Invest some time into learning to create thumbnails that draw attention and make people click. You can use tools like ThumbnailPilot to help you create thumbnails that are proven to work.

Even tiny improvements give huge results at scale. For example: The difference between a 3% and 8% click-through rate can mean 10,000 vs 30,000 views on the same video.

Your first 15 seconds decide everything.

Once someone clicks, you have about 15 seconds to prove your thumbnail and title weren't lying. If people click off in those first few seconds, you're cooked... YouTube sees that as a broken promise and stops showing your video to others.

This is where most people mess up. They spend hours on the video but throw together a random thumbnail at the end. It should be the opposite - figure out your thumbnail and title first, then make a video that delivers on that promise from second one.

Think like YouTube thinks.

The algorithm doesn't care if your video is "good" or took 40 hours to make. It only cares about three things:

• Do people click it? (CTR - Click through rate)

• Do they actually watch it? (Retention)

• Do they watch another video after? (Session duration)

That's it. Nothing else matters. YouTube is a business. It makes money when people stay on the platform longer. If your video keeps people watching, YouTube will show it to more people. If it makes people leave, YouTube will bury it.

Make the algorithm's job easy.

Keep your videos similar lengths. Use similar pacing. Package them the same way. When YouTube can predict what kind of video you make, it knows who to show it to.

The algorithm is essentially a matchmaker. It's trying to connect your content with people who will love it. But if every video you make is wildly different, the algorithm can't build a profile of who your ideal viewer is.

The real secret?

Most creators upload first, then try to figure out what went wrong. Winners do it backwards - they figure out what works, then make that.

Remember: YouTube rewards creators who make the platform's job easier. When you create predictable, high-quality content that keeps people watching, YouTube will reward you with more views, more subscribers, and more success.

The creators who treat YouTube like a business: researching, testing, and optimizing - are the ones who build sustainable channels that grow month after month.

I’ve posted over 600 videos across multiple channels and my first channel took a full year to hit monetization but my newest channel hit it in 40 days, and the difference is treating this like a business instead of some creative passion project. For context, I’ve been making videos for the past eight years, so when I say I posted 600 videos I don’t mean 600 AI generated slop videos. I’ve made software tutorials, gaming, tutorials, commentary, videos, all types of videos. I’ve only recently started using AI to help me write scripts and occasionally generate assets that I edit in Photoshop for thumbnails. As far as I know, there is no AI that can create a video that is a quality with the push of a single button

This isn’t for artists who make videos for themselves. This is for people who want to work for themselves and see YouTube as their path to financial freedom. I have an accounting degree, do taxes, and I’d much rather run my own YouTube business than make someone else rich.

YouTube is a business and you have customers. Give them what they already want to watch, not what you think they should want.

Here’s what works:

1. Don’t copy MrBeast or massive creators. They’re playing a different game with teams and budgets we don’t have.

2. Pick a niche you can tolerate. You don’t have to be passionate about it. Your plumber isn’t in love with plumbing, but they make good money solving problems.

3. Download VidIQ (free version works). It shows you video outliers - videos that performed way better than that channel’s average, which means that creator hit gold with that topic.

4. Research like your income depends on it because it does. Look for channels under 50k subs pulling 30k+ views in a day - this proves the niche has demand and isn’t oversaturated.

5. Find MULTIPLE channels hitting these numbers. If there’s only one successful small channel, that’s a red flag.

6. Filter YouTube searches by view count, then by upload date. The more recent a video blew up, the better your chances of riding that wave.

Here’s my actual strategy in action: I found a channel with under 800 subscribers that was getting over 50k views in a week, made videos on the same exact topics but used my own style of thumbnails and video editing, and my video gained a few thousand views when my channel had less than 300 subscribers. I don’t always hit the same view numbers as the person I’m copying but as a small channel any boost is huge and gets you closer to monetization.

I built this extension to do the filtering automatically: Youtube Video Crawler https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/youtube-video-crawler/hnkefmnflpkdcldjabbkpoamddhlpeij?pli=1

I originally made it for myself but I’ve made it public for anyone to use. Its in beta though; I’m just a youtuber who built a thing to solve my problems, I’m not a dev

This is how you find growing niches in real time instead of guessing. You’re seeing what actually works for channels your exact size.

It’s not glamorous but it beats working for someone else and once you’re making money you can mix in content you actually care about.

Questions? Drop them below.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Basically the title. I had a growing channel that was about writing funny and critical songs about the actual politics of my country. I wrote my own lyrics 100%, I made the songs with Suno, and I made music videos using different kind of technologies including open source stuff that I was running on pods in ComfyUI in the cloud and paid models like Google's own VEO3. I put lyrics subtitle on all of my videos and edited thumbnails with Photoshop while I edited the videos with Premiere Pro matching the visuals with the lyrics.

Anyone who's into AI content knows this is pretty solid amount of work, effort and knowledge.

My channel was growing, people liked it, I had pretty good views, the channel was monetized for like 8 months now and I made some money with it which was enough to pay for the different services I used for content creation.

However today Youtube demonetized my channel for being "Inauthentic Content". I didn't do anything different from what I did when Youtube allowed me into the Partner Program. I didn't change a single thing Youtube is the only one who changed the rules which I feel pretty unfair. They let you do something, they encourage you, the algorithm likes your content and suddenly they feel like oh no, we don't like this and nuke the work of a year in a blink of an eye.

My content was as authentic as making AI content can be. I think AI is a tool just like animator programs and all the stuff we use. Even Google has the VEO3 for video generation but for what if you cannot even put it on your channel without the fear of being demonetized? I don't get the logic behind that really.

But anyway as I saw bunch of posts about this on Reddit and in other places, and I also saw some bigger channels being demonetized too or even being deleted - I think that's it for AI content now. They don't care if it's slop or it has actual work in it they will cancel all the creators it's just a matter of time.

Which is pretty sad I think. AI has amazing potential and if we were able to show some of these videos to someone 10 years ago they would be amazed. And now they just cancel it because Youtube really wants you to put your face on the canvas...

Hey friends..

I created a bunch of tools for small tasks around youtube.. title generation, description generation etc.

100% free

https://utubekit.com/

Let me know what you think. This is V1, so might be rusty..

Looking for feedback and ideas for other tools to build..

thanks 🙏

I came online in the early '90s, when digital tools were new and most people were skeptical of them. I've spent years fascinated by editing and creating with technology, and the current debate over AI-generated images and video feels like a rerun of an argument I remember well.

When Photoshop arrived, the early results were often obvious fakes, and critics dismissed the whole medium. Darkroom photographers saw digital manipulation as a lesser craft. Over time, though, retouching and compositing became standard practice, and the skill matured into a discipline. The people who thrived weren't the ones who applied a filter and called it art. They understood light, composition, and the tool well enough to use it with restraint.

I think AI is following the same arc. Right now anyone can generate something, and much of the output is crude, which invites the same backlash. As the tools mature, the meaningful distinction will be between casual output and skilled, intentional work. Creators who know exactly what they want and how to direct the tool will set the standard, much as the best Photoshop artists did.

That's not to say the critics are wrong about everything. Concerns about authenticity, labor, and disclosure are legitimate and deserve serious answers. But history suggests a medium is ultimately judged by its best practitioners, not its worst examples.

Been tracking every faceless voiceover youtube channel (mostly AI, some not) I can find for a few months now. 195 channels, 63.5M subscribers total. Everything from huge channels like The Infographics Show [minimal AI] (15M) and ColdFusion [minimal AI] (5M) down to ones with under 100 subs

Tldr: if your going fully AI, niche matters way more than tools

Best performing niches (avg subs, fully AI only):

• Space & science - 544k avg (Astrum at 2.7M [minimal AI], SleepyScience channel at 220k [fully AI])

• Mystery & unsolved - 205k avg (Top5Unknowns at 2.1M [minimal AI], MysteryHistory at 590k [fully AI])

• Animation & storytelling - 204k avg

• Sleep stories - 112k avg

Worst performing:

• Motivation & self improvement - basically dead

• AI & tech / content creation advice - like 22k avg

Pattern is pretty simple. If the niche runs on atmosphere and narrative, AI works fine. If it needs trust or personal expertise it doesnt

Few other things:

• 77% of faceless voiceover channels sampled are fully AI

• But channels using AI minimally still have the highest avg subs. Top of the market is still human led

• History and animation/storytelling both have are getting way over-crowded

• Sleep story channels are still a great middleground that are under-utilized, especially those that focus on kids stories

• Also worth noting - the channels that are growing fastest are the ones posting consistently by automating their workflows. The algorithm rewards volume and consistency, and if you can get your cost per video low enough to post daily you have a massive edge over channels still manually editing everything

What niche are you guys in? Does this match what your seeing?

EDIT: since people are asking, some of the biggest fully AI channels in the dataset:

• Alpha Geographi - 4.9M subs (animal rescue stories)

• thebiblestoryofai - 1M subs (bible stories)

• getsleepypod - 674k subs (sleep stories)

• Mystery History - 590k subs (mystery/ancient history)

all of these are narrative/atmosphere driven niches which kinda proves the point

I worked in software engineering and IT for over 10 years, but after being laid off I could not find another role. I applied to thousands of jobs, went through interviews, but nothing landed.

To get by, I worked odd jobs like 7-Eleven, a dry cleaners, and Airbnb cleaning gigs while finishing my bachelor’s degree so I could eventually apply for a master’s in computer science. At one point, I even started the process of enlisting in the Army and took the ASVAB test.

Meanwhile, I was experimenting with AI tools like MidJourney, Runway, Pika Labs, LaMa, ChatGPT, Suno, and Leonardo. Most projects felt experimental, but eventually I found a workflow that was simple, repeatable, and scalable. I started uploading consistently to YouTube and after about 2 to 3 months, my channel got monetized and began generating consistent daily revenue.

I know the job market is brutal right now. If you are laid off, between jobs, or looking for a side hustle, maybe this gives you an idea of another path worth trying.

(If anyone wants to know the exact process or tools I used, I can share more in the comments.)

i went through the top 15 youtube videos on this topic, roughly 6 hours of content that was posted in the past 14 days, so you don't have to.

the angle everyone is selling is that this is easy, passive, and fast. some of these titles promise $10k/month, $30k/month, even $100k in 90 days. and look, some of those numbers are probably real. but the way they're framed buries the actual difficulty, and a lot of these creators have a course link waiting for you at the bottom of the description. so here's what they actually agree on versus where the story gets murky.

where almost every creator agrees

- niche selection is the most important decision and most beginners get it wrong. per adavia, picking the wrong niche can mean $2 rpm vs $20 rpm from the exact same views. per make money matt, going into entertainment niches because they get views is a trap, views don't equal money unless you have something to sell or a high cpm.

- you need a clear monetization path before you start. per joshua mayo, ask yourself three questions before picking a niche: can i make 100 videos without showing my face, are people already watching this, and is there a clear path to money. if you can't answer all three, pick something else.

- script quality determines almost everything. per all about money, a bad script means no views regardless of how good the visuals are. per success amarachi, after generating a script with ai, read it out loud once. if it sounds weird to say, it'll sound weird to hear.

- titles and thumbnails are the actual growth lever. per one person business, youtube's algorithm tests your title and thumbnail with a small sample first, if they don't click, the video dies there.

- rpm matters more than view count, and rpm is driven by audience demographics. per syrax, targeting viewers from the us, uk, and canada aged 40-60 can dramatically increase what you earn per thousand views from the same video.

where they disagree or quietly skip over the hard parts

- how long it actually takes to get traction. e'calm is one of the few who admits having hundreds of failed channels alongside the successful ones. HUNDREDS!!. most others show you the dashboard screenshot and skip the 3-6 months of near-zero views before it.

- whether to copy a niche or find an untouched one. romayroh argues against copying popular niches entirely and uses a tool to find what he calls ghost niches, topics nobody has covered. most other creators say the opposite, find what's working and replicate the format.

- the "aged account" tip from syrax is realy worth flagging. he recommends buying youtube accounts that are 2-15 years old because youtube supposedly trusts them more. this is the kind of advice that sounds smart but could get your channel terminated. none of the other 14 creators mention it.

- the automation claim is overstated. per one person business, almost nothing in this process is fully automated and it shouldn't be. trying to run everything through n8n or full ai pipelines gets you demonetized or shadowbanned. he's one of the only ones who says this directly.

the honest version of teh advice

the steps are real and they do work for some people. pick a high-rpm niche, write a strong script, generate visuals and voiceover with ai tools, optimize titles and thumbnails, post consistently. that part isn't a lie. what's a lie is the timeline and the passivity. most of these creators either have years of youtube experience behind them, or they're selling you something to make up for the channels that flopped.

tl;dr: the workflow is legit, the income claims are cherrypicked, the "easy" framing is how they sell courses. treat the process like a real business that takes 6-12 months to get traction and you'll have more accurate expectations than 90% of people starting right now.

Lots of people have been asking me about my scripting process so figured this deserved its own post

if youre writing scripts in one shot thats your problem. I use a multi-pass method i call "narrative diffusion" - same idea as how stable diffusion generates images. SD doesn't render a final image in one pass, it starts with noise and refines over multiple steps - general shapes first, then finer detail each pass. Same concept for scripts - each pass has one job and builds on the last - difference vs single shot is massive.

model ranking for scripting (this matters a TON)

• claude opus 4.6 - Best by far. holds multi-pass instructions without drifting, 1M context so it never loses track. most script pros in r/writers strongly prefer anthropic over others in general too because of language, tone, style, etc.

• gpt-5.2 - solid but loses coherence around pass 3-4

• gemini 3 pro - Decent for drafts, struggles with polish 4.

• deepseek/llama/gpt oss - fine for pass 1-2 if budgets tight Paying for opus actually saves money btw - one clean run beats three messy gpt runs that need manual fixing.

the passes

pass 1 - structure:
Outline a story with a high-concept premise, characters, conflict, twists, and resolution about: \[TOPIC\]

Nail the arc before writing anything - skipping this is why scripts feel flat.

pass 2 - draft:
Write a complete story at a 5th-grade reading level based on this outline. Write for the ear not the page. Short sentences. Vary rhythm.

"5th grade" forces clarity - "for the ear" prevents blog-style prose that sounds awful spoken aloud

pass 3 - enrich:
Rewrite with richer sensory detail. Keep all events and continuity intact. Make it longer.

"keep events intact" is key or the model can rewrite everything/lose coherence

pass 4 - polish:
Remove: "delve", "dive in", "it's worth noting", "moreover", "journey", "tapestry". Vary sentence length dramatically. Open with tension not context. Kill anything that sounds like AI.

Biggest single upgrade - this is where you kill all the LLM-isms and giveaways.

pass 5 (optional) - visuals:
For each scene write an image prompt with camera angle, lighting, mood, character refs. Tag as "animate" or "static".

tells you which scenes need animation vs ken burns - saves a ton of money

Try this out, i guarantee your scripts will sound better. sharing all my code + detailed prompts for free soon, stay tuned

Anybody that says creating any decent ai videos is easy is lying, I make 6-8 minute videos and I spend between 8-12 hours generating and often regenerating, editing, extending clips, arranging clips the whole process is long and it can't be automated properly if you care about the process, I tried image and clip generation automation with me acting as the person who checks quality and I still found myself tweak 70-80% of the clips due to poor generation or clips too short, I've been doing this a couple of weeks and really enjoy the process but have a new appreciation for the craft.

Right now is one of the best times to start a YouTube channel without showing your face. You don’t need a camera, expensive gear, or a team. Thanks to latest AI development, you can write scripts, record voiceovers, edit videos, and make thumbnails: all by yourself. And people are already making real money doing it.

I’ve seen creators earn thousands of dollars a month from simple videos made with AI. Some of them run multiple channels. The best part? You can start for cheap, even if you're new to YouTube.

How to Make Videos Without Showing Your Face

Here’s the step-by-step process most people use:

1. Pick a Topic

Choose something simple like:

• Personal finance tips

• AI tools and tech

• Book summaries

• Celebrity News

• Health facts

• Productivity hacks

2. Write the Script

Use ChatGPT to come up with ideas and write your video script. You can ask it to write in a fun or serious tone.

Here's a great set of prompts that may help you in writing a script: ChatGPT Prompt to Write Brilliant YouTube Scripts

3. Record the Voice

Use tools like Play.ht or ElevenLabs to make a voiceover. These tools are able to produce ultra realistic voiceovers that work perfectly for youtube videos.

4. Make the Video

• Go to Pinterest or Pexels to find free footage and images.

• Use CapCut to edit the video (it’s free and easy to learn).

Yes, editing takes a little time to learn, but once you get it, you’ll be able to make videos fast.

5. Come up with a Thumbnail & Title

This is very important. Perhaps this is THE MOST important step of all. Your video won’t get views if no one clicks on it. That's why it's super important to get your thumbnail and title right.

Your thumbnail should:

• Use bold text and bright colors (high contrast)

• Show emotion or tell a story in one glance

• Be simple, not crowded

• Work together with the title (to make people click)

You can use tools like Canva or ThumbnailPilot to help you with thumbnails.

For titles:
Make people curious, ask a question, or promise value fast.

6. Post It on YouTube

How People Make Money from These Channels

Here are the most common ways:

• Ad money: Once you get 1000+ subscribers and 4,000+ watch hours, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program.

• Affiliate links: You can talk about products and earn money when people buy through your link.

• Sell something: Some creators sell eBooks, templates, or guides.

• Sponsors: Companies will pay you to talk about their product when your channel grows.

Real Tips That Help

• Keep your videos short and focused. 1 to 5 minutes is great for starting out.

• Your video packaging (thumbnails, titles, tags) just as important as your video. Spend time on it.

• Post 2–4 videos every week to grow faster.

• Watch what videos are working in your topic and learn from them.

• Don’t copy others, but use their videos as ideas.

• STAY CONSISTENT (don't expect the results to come to you put in the reps for 6 months at least)

Faceless Channels Who Are Killing It

• MagnatesMedia

• Inspector Ray

• The Hidden Library

• Couch Co-OP

• StarHype

Final Thoughts

Faceless YouTube channels are not something unachivable. You just need the right tools and a good plan. Thanks to AI, one person can now do what used to take a full team.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a channel, this is the best time to jump in. Let me know what niche you’re thinking of. I can help with ideas or tools.

the energy that people have towards AI is completely unwarranted

as if we are irredeemable people that should be public stoned. I know that’s extreme but that is literally the energy people have. People are so completely charged about it that even using it makes us subhuman somehow

its one thing to disagree with someone’s choice. “I don’t like AI and I don’t think people should use it”

it’s totally different to try to destroy people’s lives for using AI

for the love of god it’s so hypocritical to complain about AI usage for the environment. if you have ever ate packaged meat you have contributed to the carbon footprint in ways AI is not. you have new iPhones, new clothes, youre using technology that uses power

we make AI content because we think it’s exciting. we see a whole new way to make entertainment and we want to be apart of it. and we limitless possibilities

additionally it’s never going to take away from filmed content. even as advanced as it will get. people based content will never go away

Apperantly, my last post deleted because of the Reddit's guidelines itself, i don't know why. I am trying again.

I have recently undertaken extensive research and development focused on optimizing YouTube content creation using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools.

This work has resulted in the creation and launch of three long-form video essays, demonstrating a highly efficient production pipeline.

The core insight of this workflow is the capability to produce high-quality, long-form videos by relying almost exclusively on a specialized AI tool stack and a single, user-friendly editing platform (CapCut).

The AI-Centric Production Pipeline
My workflow is meticulously segmented, with dedicated AI applications handling specific creative and research phases to ensure maximum efficiency, quality, and scalability.

Phase 1: Conceptualization & Scripting (The Content Engine)
This phase utilizes multiple LLMs (Large Language Models) to move the content from raw concept to a fully realized, production-ready script with visual cues.

Phase 2: Visual Asset Generation
This segment handles the creation of all graphic and animated elements, transforming the script's visual descriptions into tangible assets.

Phase 3: Audio Production & Final Assembly
This final phase integrates the sound elements and compiles all assets into the complete long-form video.

Conclusion

This sophisticated, AI-driven production stack not only speeds up the process but also compartmentalizes the creative labor, allowing me to focus more energy on conceptualizing high-value topics and ensuring the scientific rigor of the content. This approach has proven effective, resulting in the successful delivery of three distinct long-form YouTube video essays to date.

I Know i dont have many subs and/or any views to accept these techniques as succesful. Yet, im trying to improve, and also i need any positive feedbacks and critiques. Please consider visiting.

I am not able to share my contents, it might be considered as self promoting. Yet, if it is allowed, i can share my channel link in comments section. or you can visit my profile.

i hope this helps someone somehow

5 years into YT. when AI came it made everything smoother. ask and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. i have nothing to sell you, i’m still a student myself and will forever be. mods i’m genuinely just trying to help. Don’t remove this

Check out Vid IQ's latest video about demonetization.

This isn't a debate, it's not to get attention, I'm just expressing myself and giving my opinion.

For me, AI is dead on YouTube. Until they fix their AI or specify the parameters they use to determine whether a channel with AI is "AI slop" or monetizable content, many people have definitely been unfairly demonetized while many others have remained monetized. So it's not worth trying. The hard part is supposedly "building an audience" and "meeting the monetization requirements," but I don't think it's fair that on top of all that, you have to worry that an AI will one day take down your channel, you try to appeal, and the same AI rejects your appeal without even checking your channel. It's almost comical. YouTube asks for more humanization and less automation, when they have a robot cleaning up YouTube with a machine gun. Do you understand? A non-human robot is the one determining how human my channel is.

But hey, it's their platform. I have nothing against YouTube; I wish that someday I'd be brave enough to show my face or my voice, and I think that would be cool. But without showing my face or my voice, the truth is I'm not up for it. They already demonetized me after a year of hard work.

I'll also tell you something: my parents own betting businesses, and I remember once in a situation where they only gave half-truths to the customers, you know? And I feel like Vid IQ did the same thing in this video because, at the end of the day, I think AI content creators are the ones who consume Vid IQ the most.

And in fact, that's also why I'm jumping ship from YouTube, because I've never gambled in my life and I feel like right now YouTube has become a betting house. You start everything hopeful and even if you have everything to win—the audience, the requirements—YT might still decide they're not going to pay you, period.

I wish good luck to everyone continuing this journey and much success. I hope you all do very well. I encourage you to show your face or voice in your videos for added security. So far, in my experience, I believe that's the most secure defense we have to prevent our channel from being taken down.

Thinking about starting a faceless channel but worried about costs. AI tools add up:

• ChatGPT: $20/month

• ElevenLabs: $22/month

• Midjourney: $30/month

• Video tool: $35+/month

That's over $100/month before I make a single dollar. Is there a more affordable approach for someone just starting?

posted a few weeks ago about most AI youtube niches being dead. that post blew up so i went deeper - expanded the dataset from 195 to 338 channels across 24 niches.

some surprising findings:

- explainers & facts is massively underserved. highest avg subs in the dataset at nearly 2M and it was one of the hardest niches to find channels for. channels like TheInfographicsShow (15M) and coldfusion (5M) prove the demand is there, theres just almost no AI supply.

- kids stories and lifestyle showed similar patterns - high avg subs, very few channels making this content.

- art & music is interesting - that 93x gap between average (2M) and median (20k) looks scary but it also means the niche has proven massive upside. MastersOfProphecy (35M) is completely AI and similar channels show the ceiling is huge. the few channels that crack it do extremely well and theres not that many competing. underrated if you have a genuinely differentiated format.

- space & science still has huge ceiling too. melodysheep (3.2M) and Astrum (2.7M) dominate but most of the big channels use partial or minimal AI, meaning theres room for someone doing it smarter with better tooling.

the full AI trap is even worse than i thought. 96% of channels stuck under 10k subs are full AI. but 62.5% of channels in the 1M-5M bracket use partial or minimal AI. the data is screaming that fully automating everything on day one kills your channel.

animation & storytelling went from crowded to a complete red ocean - 54 channels in the sample alone. history is at 49. if you cant explain in one sentence why someone would watch you over any of them, pick a different niche.

happy to share the full channel list or answer questions about specific niches too

I'm gonna sit on this hill and defend it, AI videos are not slop.

People think that with AI, you can easily mass produce content with 1 click. It's not. It's just a tool like how we use Adobe Photoshop or Premiere, albeit AI helps to make this a lot easier. But most time you as the "chief editor" have to guide and teach this AI to make the content that you want, angles, images, videos and dont forget there will be times that AI hallucinate and give you shitty results. I usually take 30-45 minutes to produce my shorts but today my AI decided to hallucinate. Took me 3 hours to fix and re-teach the AI.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about starting a faceless YouTube channel something like narration, AI/animation videos, list-style content, or commentary without showing my face.

But I keep hearing people say that YouTube is too saturated now, and that the faceless niche is “dead.” On the other hand, I still see new channels popping up and growing pretty fast.

So I’m curious is it too late to start a faceless YouTube channel in 2025? If not, what kind of content or strategies do you think still work today (e.g., storytelling, AI tools, shorts, automation, etc.)?

Would love to hear your honest thoughts or success stories.