---
title: 'The New Way to Do YouTube Automation in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=TvJhpOxFRsE'
video_id: 'TvJhpOxFRsE'
date: 2026-08-09
duration_sec: 1339
---

# The New Way to Do YouTube Automation in 2026

> Source: [The New Way to Do YouTube Automation in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TvJhpOxFRsE)

## Summary

The video argues that traditional YouTube automation strategies are outdated and ineffective in 2026, costing creators money and time. The presenter introduces the SMART system, a five-part framework focused on strategic niche selection, monetization-first thinking, AI leverage, revenue diversification, and targeting high-intent viewers. The goal is to build a sustainable business using YouTube as a traffic source rather than relying solely on ad revenue.

### Key Points

- **Outdated Strategies** [00:01] — Creators are still using 2020 strategies in 2026, wasting money on freelancers and chasing viral content, which are vanity metrics.
- **The Broken Old Approach** [01:25] — The old approach of picking random entertainment niches, hiring freelancers, and hoping for virality is broken. Example costs: $190 per video, $2,280/month for 3 videos/week, requiring 1.5 million views/month to break even at $5 RPM.
- **Introducing the SMART System** [03:33] — SMART stands for Strategic niche selection, Monetization first, Automation with AI, Revenue diversification, and Targeted traffic. It focuses on building a business outside YouTube while using YouTube to benefit it.
- **Strategic Niche Selection** [04:01] — Views are a vanity metric. Choose a 'problem-rich' niche where people have expensive problems they'll pay to solve. Categories: money, health, relationships, travel, and [missing]. Sub-niches like calisthenics or cruise tips are better than broad categories.
- **Monetization First** [06:37] — Don't wait for YouTube Partner Program. Use the 'symbiotic system': each video leads to a long video on your channel that sells a paid solution, keeping viewers on YouTube and increasing session time.
- **AI Workflow** [08:36] — Use AI tools: Tube Magic for scripts, Eleven Labs for voice-overs, vid.ai for video creation. Costs drop from $190 to $10 per video. AI is an assistant, not a replacement.
- **Emergent for Product Creation** [12:59] — Emergent is an AI tool that builds apps without code. Example: a niche research scorecard app. You own the code and can monetize it.
- **Revenue Diversification** [16:10] — Primary revenue: high-ticket affiliates or own courses ($100-$500/sale). Secondary: software affiliates (recurring commissions). Tertiary: AdSense ($3-$20 RPM). Bonus: sponsorships.
- **Targeted Traffic** [17:57] — Use the 'buyer intent algorithm' to target viewers already looking for solutions. Example: 'Why 90% of people stay broke' vs '10 amazing facts about money'.
- **Implementation Strategy** [19:06] — Steps: Choose a problem-rich sub-niche, find a high-ticket affiliate product, set up AI workflow, implement symbiotic system, create 2-3 videos/week, focus on one niche first.

### Conclusion

The SMART system offers a more sustainable and profitable approach to YouTube automation by focusing on solving problems and building a diversified business. It is algorithm-proof and less dependent on viral success.

## Transcript

creators are still following 2020 strategies right now in 2026 and it's costing them thousands of dollars and potential months of wasted effort. And honestly, it's kind of painful to watch. I see people hiring expensive
freelancers, chasing viral content as if that's what's going to actually help gotten millions of subscribers and billions of views across my channels, but that's not what matters. Those are simply vanity metrics. And I see people
to save them and they're just going to wake up one day to getting millions of views and they will have arrived and they will have made it. Let me tell you, I'll explain to you what I mean by that and how you can make YouTube into a real
business because smart creators who understand what's really happening are building sustainable, profitable, and long-term businesses with YouTube. Now, bunch of different YouTube channels. I work with a community of over 11,000
$10 million. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm to make $10 million if you watch this video, but I've seen exactly what works changing YouTube faceless channel landscape. So, at this point, you're
probably asking, "Okay, Matt, then what has changed? I thought YouTube videos and hoping that they go viral. Isn't that the whole thing?" And that's exactly the problem. That old approach is completely broken. And I'm going to
show you the exact system that's working right now in 2025 and going into 2026. people are still doing with faceless YouTube channels. They pick a random entertainment niche like top 10 scary places or celebrity gossip. They hire a
script writer for 50 bucks, an editor for $100, maybe a voice over artist, or still either way, it's probably a voice that everybody else uses or they're which is not good. And then they're hiring a thumbnail designer for $15.
That's $190 per video before you've made a single dollar from your channel. And if we're posting three times a week like most gurus recommend, that's $2,280 a month in expenses. And here's the
brutal math. To break even with AdSense at a $5 RPM, you would need roughly 1.5 at a $5 RPM, you would need roughly 1.5 million views every single month. That's 50,000 views a day. That's a lot. It takes time to build a channel up to that
point. But based off of my personal experience running tons of different discovered. 99% of channels never even come close to those numbers. And the reason for this is because
they're playing the wrong game entirely. They're competing for attention instead of solving problems. They're building YouTube's business this point you might be saying, "Matt, I don't believe you. How in the world is
that even possible? I've seen channels with millions of views making tons of money." Well, here's what those success stories don't tell you. They're the exception and not the rule. And even when they've succeeded, they're
completely dependent on the algorithm's mercy. One policy change, one demonetization, one algorithm update, and their entire business collapses overnight. And later in this video, I'm going to show you how an AI tool called
Emergent lets you build your very own AI products without having to write a single line of code. But more on that in a bit. So, let me introduce you to the new way, which I like to call the SMART system. Now, SMART is an acronym and
letters mean, and it's completely different than anything you've probably seen before. And when you implement this correctly, this gives you the ability to build a business outside of YouTube while using YouTube to benefit that
business massively. So, let me break down each of the components in the SMART system so you can see exactly how this works. Starting with S, which stands for strategic niche selection. And this is where most people go completely wrong.
Traditional YouTube automation teaches you to pick an entertainment niche they're just trying to copy what's already got the most amount of views. But, here's the secret that most people don't understand. Views are a vanity
metric. They literally do not matter. I have channels that get a thousand views a video that make more money than channels with a hundred thousand views a I want a lot of views, so I want to run a channel like that." Let me just say,
you can feel free to do what you want. If you prioritize views over money, that is your prerogative. But, personally, I value building a very big business as well as helping tons of people in the process way over views at this point.
And I have gone down the road of growing tons of different channels with millions metric road. And let me tell you, you YouTube does have built-in monetization, unlike other social media platforms. I
accounts who've made literally nothing from them even though they get ten With YouTube, at least you're getting paid for the views. However, you're getting paid such a small amount compared to what you could be getting
paid from the views. So, the new way of doing YouTube automation right now is to pick what I like to call a problem-rich niche. These are niches where people have expensive problems that they're willing to pay to solve. And the best
problem-rich niches fall into five categories, and I want you to screenshot this because this is incredibly important that your channel is in one of these categories. You have money, health, relationships, travel, and
Now, you might be saying, "Matt, this sounds great, but aren't these niches super competitive?" And the answer is yes, they are competitive, but what most people miss is that competition validates demand. Would you rather
compete in a a restaurant district where people are spending money or have no wants to eat. And I don't recommend choosing one of these niches as like one of these broad categories. Instead, you want to choose a sub niche within one of
of just doing health as a broad category, do calisthenics or body weight Dude, which is a faceless channel that pulls millions of views per month. Instead of just doing travel as a broad thing, do specifically tips and tricks
for going on cruises. This sounds so niche, and it sounds like you could not build a huge channel out of this, but you actually can. Check out the channel Cruise Like a Pro. They literally do exactly this, and they absolutely crush
it on YouTube. Now, let's talk about the letter M in the SMART approach. That stands for the monetization first approach. And this is probably the most important shift to how we're doing YouTube automation right now compared to
in the past. Most people post videos first, and then they hope to make money later through the YouTube Partner Program. They wait for 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time, and then they celebrate when they're making $100
from AdSense, which is cool. Don't get me wrong. I was so excited when I started making 3,000 a month back when I was 15 years old from AdSense. But, doing, and I wish that I could have spoken with my future self from today
completely changed my strategy, and instead of graduating high school making 30,000 a month, I would be making 300,000 plus per month at that time. But, here's what smart creators are doing. They monetize from day one using
something I like to call the symbiotic system. And let me explain to you how this works. Every video you create naturally leads the viewer to a paid solution. Now, this does not mean that every
description, and it sends people to the description to click a link, because you get people off of YouTube, then YouTube's going to penalize your video. So, how do you do this? What you do is instead of linking in the description to
something outside of YouTube where you link to like a high-ticket course or an digital product. All of these are great things to sell from your YouTube channel. Instead of doing that, you instead link to a very long video on
your channel that then sells it. That way, you keep people on YouTube for a long period of time, therefore increasing your session time, keeping whole approach of doing affiliate marketing or selling your own stuff on
its head because you're keeping people on the platform, sending them to a super long video on your channel via end screen from every single other video on paid solution after that. So, the beautiful thing about this approach is
YouTube's permission to start making money. Now, the third component is automation with AI leverage. And this is where it gets really exciting for the because these are tools that I would have done anything for when I was
2014. Because the old way of doing YouTube automation was doing everything yourself like I used to do back in 2014 until I could eventually scrape together enough money to hire expensive
freelancers for everything. But AI has reached a point where it can handle most of the heavy lifting and it's getting better every single month. So, here's my current AI workflow that I use across all my different channels. For scripts,
I specifically built a tool for doing YouTube scripts better than anything else called Tube Magic. Now, it doesn't just generate generic scripts. What it does is it analyzes successful videos within your niche that you input as
context videos, takes the best information from those, and then runs templates. If you run faceless channels yourself, you know how important it is to have a really good hook, to use opening and closing loops to keep people
That's all built into Tube Magic. It does it automatically for you. Plus, you reliably do with any other AI tools. So, that alone saves you tons of time. Then for voice-overs, I use 11 Labs. The AI voices now are so realistic that most
between AI and human narration. And this AI for the longest time. So instead of paying $25 per video for voiceover work, it now costs $1 to $2 for an average video. But don't just use
the same voices that everybody else is using. Use either your own voice cloning voice for example, which is on 11 Labs if you search Matt, you can find it. And then for video creation, I built another tool called vid.ai, which can take your
script and then automatically generate a complete video with relevant visuals, transitions, and timing. And what used to take a freelancer minimum a couple days, can now be done in literally just a few minutes of AI processing. vid.ai
can produce perfect types of videos for channels similar to Cruise Like a Pro or channels like Brainy Dose or Passport Pro, which is a travel channel, or The Purring Journal, which is a cat channel, or Stoic Journal, which is a psychology
have in common is they use stock footage in the background of their videos, and that's what vid.ai absolutely crushes it at. Also a cool thing is that we are adding AI generated visuals as well, which will be added by the end of this
this point, you're probably asking, "Matt, doesn't this just create generic soulless content that viewers can easily tell is AI generated?" And the answer is is that if you're using AI the wrong
way, then it will. The key is using AI as an assistant, not your replacement. still choosing the topics, you're guiding the messaging, you're doing QC videos are actually providing value and tweaking things where they need to be
educational or entertainment value. But as we discussed, educational is much much better. So the difference is instead of spending $190 per video on freelancers, your AI powered setup will cost you $10 per video maintaining the
same quality level. But the main point of this is that AI will do all the heavy lifting for you, so you stay focused at a high level what's going on with your YouTube channel, and you just have to deal with the overall strategy of the
channel and the messaging and making sure that every video delivers true value for your audience. Now, obviously, you can still outsource different aspects of this as well, and I still have a team that helps me quality check
tools and everything else. And sometimes you might want an AI character like the character that you could go ahead and generate with something like Seed Dream, character, put it into something like HeyGen to make a full talking character
channel if you wanted. And if you want to do something like that, it will be a are different options. And by the way, if you want to get access to my personal content team, I have a program called Tube Accelerator, and in that program
you actually get complete access to my content team that I personally use on a bunch of my different channels. Now, you don't just have to use AI for creating videos. Yes, it's changing the way that we do create videos as YouTubers, but
it's also changing the way that we make money from those videos. And even the tools and products behind the scenes in our YouTube businesses. And something that I see all the time is that people get everything dialed in in terms of
content creation, which is great. It's a big part of doing this, but then they completely neglect having some way of monetizing that content, and that usually comes with having some kind of tools that they can offer their audience
offer. And those products could be a simple software, a calculator for their niche, a scorecard, a planning tool. And they hit a wall because they think, afford a coder. And plus, that would take weeks and thousands of dollars."
video comes in, which is called Emergent. And so, let me show you what going to do is jump right here onto Emergent, and I'm literally just going to type out, "Build me a a niche research scorecard where creators can
input their niche and then see an estimate of CPM ranges, competition level, and get an overall recommendation score. And watch what happens. All I literally have to do is click enter on my keyboard, and then I have a team of
AI agents building this exact app for me. And it's not just one AI working on building the interface, a back-end agent handling the logic, a database agent agent testing it all to make sure
correctly. So, it's basically like having a live dev team literally at your disposal whenever you want. And then boom, we have our application completely app that it made me right here. It's called Niche Score, and it literally
It even gives me a bunch of different niche options right there like personal finance, AI tools reviews. But let's just put in a niche like finance right here and see what it does. So, it gives me the niche, and it gives me a score
out of 100, and it says it's lucrative, but it is very competitive, which is definitely true for finance. And then it gives me an estimated CPM range right there. It's going a little bit high on the higher end of that. However, finance
is a higher CPM niche. It most likely be more in the 10 to $25 per thousand view range, but it also depends on the age of the viewer and other things. And then it competition. So, it's going out there and actually searching on YouTube and
finding the amount of competition for this individual niche. It gives a nice expert summary right there, and it gives content 12-month demand trend. And this a bunch of different profitable sub niches right here because this is going
to allow people to choose a niche that isn't too competitive if the overall niche of finance, for example, is. And then it gives the strengths and the different niches. Like here's one for AI tools right here. And overall, it made
an amazing app that I could charge money for. I could give this for free in return for somebody's email, build an email list, and then sell a course on the back of it and make tons of money. So, Emergent is incredibly powerful. I
them out. You also own everything you build. All the code that you generate with Emergent is exportable, and there are no strings attached. This is so incredibly valuable to us YouTubers because instead of just offering a
course or a community or some other way of monetizing your channel or hiring developers to make an app, you can generate one using Emergent in literally a matter of minutes, and then you can revise on it, make it better over time,
charge real money for it. And so, feel free to click the link down in the recommend it. And now, we're going to be getting back into the smart system. And the fourth component is revenue diversification. And this is what
an actual business rather than just a YouTube like a slot machine. They just upload tons of videos hoping that one of eventually takes off and they're able to make money directly from it from ad
revenue. But if you want to build a real YouTube business, having multiple ways of monetizing outside of just ad revenue that aren't dependent on any single platform is essential in my opinion. So, the revenue stack that my most
successful students and myself use are for primary revenue, we have high-ticket affiliate products or our own courses where we're making at least $100 to $500 per sale. Then as a secondary revenue source, we have software affiliate
This could also be your own software, but it's very expensive to develop. Like channel right now, I've developed Tube Magic and vid.ai, which I personally use of a win-win there. And eventually, if you can afford it, it's a good idea to
next best thing is being an affiliate for other people's software. So, like with my software, for example, vid.ai and Tube Magic, we give recurring commissions for life if people go ahead and promote them. Then we have tertiary
revenue, which is your YouTube AdSense revenue, where you'll make anywhere from $3 to $20 per thousand views. This should just be seen as an extra. It should not be your main business. And then you have bonus revenue. This could
vary widely. One month you might get a bunch of sponsorships, the next you control a little bit. So I really don't focus on it that much unless I really diversifying your revenue streams like this is that you're not then just
building YouTube's business, you're building your own business using YouTube as a traffic source. And lastly, the fifth and final component is targeted magic really happens. So traditional YouTube automation treats every single
view the same way. They optimize for watch time and they hope for the best. the right viewers, not just more viewers. And the secret is what I call the buyer intent algorithm. Instead of creating random viral content, every
video you make targets people who are already looking for solutions to expensive problems. For example, instead of making a video titled 10 amazing facts about money, you could make a video titled why 90% of people stay
broke and how to join the 10% who don't. Both videos might get similar view counts, but the second video attracts viewers who are actively looking to change their financial situation. These viewers are more likely to purchase
courses, softwares, or any services, or if you promote for example, an app that they're more likely to invest in that than if you created other type of content. And here's how this compounds over time. YouTube's algorithm learns
that your content attracts engaged, high-intent viewers, and this tells the algorithm that your content is valuable, and it'll lead to more recommendations, better placements in search results, and ultimately more qualified traffic. So
you might be saying, "Matt, this all sounds great, obviously, but how do I that's what I want to show you next. Here is your step-by-step implementation strategy for the smart system. Choose your problem-rich sub-niche using
earlier. Research what high-ticket product already exists in your space that you could promote as an affiliate. If it doesn't, go back to phase one. be tough to hear if you're already running an entertainment channel. That's
this new way of doing YouTube that you have a product that you can promote. You can also go to places like School to find products. You can join any of those communities, and then that
affiliate as well. Then set up your AI workflow. Get access to Two Magic for scripts, Eleven Labs for voice-overs, VidAI potentially for video creation. Labs if you just use VidAI. And then you can create your first video using this
AI-powered system. And then implement the Symbiotic System where you create piece of content that naturally leads viewers to your primary monetization Then you can launch your systematic content creation process. Plan to create
at least two to three videos a week that all funnel traffic back to your money video. And the key is starting out with one niche. Don't spread yourself thin a bunch of different channels. Focus on one niche, one monetization method, and
one AI-powered workflow. Master that system, producing at least three videos a week on your channel before you go ahead then and expand to additional channels or additional revenue streams. And the reason this works so much better
than traditional YouTube automation strategies because instead of competing commoditized with new AI tools that are coming out that allows people to just it becomes a race to the bottom. Whoever can just make the most amount of viral
AI slop videos. Don't compete in that game. That game is not how you build way that I'm showing you right now, it allows you to build real wealth think is the most important advantage is that this system is algorithm proof.
Even if YouTube changes their policies tomorrow, you built a real business with content. Plus, ideally you're building well. I talk about that a lot more in my program as well. And listen, I know this
sounds like a lot of work and that's because it is initially to set it up, become a lot easier. And to make it easier and to make this less overwhelming for you, if you do want access to my step-by-step system for
building profitable YouTube channels, including the exact templates, workflows, and scripts that I use, feel free to check out TubeXcelerator. You if you join that as well. I'll leave a link below where you can book a call
you're interested in. It's a complete system where you get access to all my proven templates and ongoing support and access to me personally if that's is down in the description, but I only want to work with people who are serious
business, which is probably you if you watched through this whole video right YouTube automation strategy a little bit more in depth, feel free to check out basically a free course for doing YouTube automation the new way right
get a ton of value from it. Basically a free course directly here on YouTube, free course directly here on YouTube, and I will see you there.