AI Summary
A creator shares the unfiltered truth of a 200-day journey into faceless YouTube automation, revealing the gap between guru promises and reality. They detail initial viral success, subsequent failures, and the hard lessons learned about building a sustainable audience.
Chapters
After trying dropshipping, affiliate marketing, and forex trading, the creator was drawn to YouTube automation by the promise of passive income.
Partnered with a friend, hired an inexperienced editor from Upwork, and launched a faceless channel. First two videos went viral, leading to monetization in 10 days and decent revenue.
Subsequent videos flopped despite higher quality. Realized they had chased viral hits instead of building a loyal audience, and the channel was a 'cash grab' with no long-term value.
Discovered that the real money in faceless YouTube is not AdSense but building an audience for long-term distribution and product sales.
Developed a system to identify markets with high demand and low supply on YouTube, using benchmarking and economic viability analysis.
Got distracted by a trend that failed the scorecard test, leading to a failed channel. Learned to focus on one idea and execute well.
Spent a month perfecting a video, only to have the editor disappear with all assets. Lesson: 'Done is better than perfect.'
1) Move fast and break things; 2) Focus on one thing; 3) Set strict deadlines; 4) Spend more money upfront; 5) Build an audience, not views; 6) Expect investment and resilience.
Faceless YouTube is a long-term game requiring significant investment and resilience, but the real payoff is building an audience for distribution, which is becoming increasingly valuable in an AI-driven world.
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85% Legit"Title promises the truth about YouTube automation, and the video delivers a raw, honest account of failures and lessons."
Mentioned in this Video
Study Flashcards (10)
What was the creator's first mistake in hiring an editor?
easy
Click to reveal answer
What was the creator's first mistake in hiring an editor?
They hired an inexperienced editor who was bought into the vision instead of an experienced one.
01:17
What two reasons caused the channel to stop getting views after initial success?
medium
Click to reveal answer
What two reasons caused the channel to stop getting views after initial success?
1) They chased new audiences instead of nurturing the existing 10,000 subs. 2) They didn't understand market dynamics and chased viral hits.
03:04
Where does the real money lie in faceless YouTube according to the creator?
medium
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Where does the real money lie in faceless YouTube according to the creator?
Not in AdSense revenue, but in building an audience for long-term distribution and product sales.
03:54
What is the 'white space' strategy for choosing a YouTube channel?
hard
Click to reveal answer
What is the 'white space' strategy for choosing a YouTube channel?
Identifying markets with lots of demand and little supply on YouTube, using benchmarking ratios and economic viability analysis.
04:37
What lesson did the creator learn from the failed 'false faces' channel?
medium
Click to reveal answer
What lesson did the creator learn from the failed 'false faces' channel?
A great idea with poor execution will do better than a poor idea with great execution.
06:00
What happened to the prototype video that cost β¬350 and a month of work?
easy
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What happened to the prototype video that cost β¬350 and a month of work?
The editor disappeared with all video assets, making the video useless.
06:27
What is the key lesson about perfectionism from the video?
easy
Click to reveal answer
What is the key lesson about perfectionism from the video?
It doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be done. Spend time making something good enough to test rather than perfecting.
06:52
List three of the six lessons the creator wishes they knew when starting faceless YouTube.
hard
Click to reveal answer
List three of the six lessons the creator wishes they knew when starting faceless YouTube.
1) Move fast and break things. 2) Pick one thing to focus on. 3) Set strict deadlines. (Also: spend more money earlier, focus on building an audience, expect investment and resilience.)
07:58
Why does the creator believe distribution is becoming everything?
medium
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Why does the creator believe distribution is becoming everything?
Because with AI advancements, tasks will become commoditized, making distribution (getting products to customers via communication) the key differentiator.
09:34
What is the hardest step in the faceless YouTube process according to the creator?
easy
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What is the hardest step in the faceless YouTube process according to the creator?
Finding the right idea.
10:13
π‘ Key Takeaways
Profit vs Revenue
Key principle: 'Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity' β a crucial mindset for faceless YouTube.
02:10Audience Nurturing vs Chasing
Explains why targeting everyone is the same as targeting no one, and the value of recurring viewers over viral hits.
03:04Real Money Beyond AdSense
Reveals that the true opportunity is building an audience for long-term distribution, not just ad revenue.
03:54Done is Better Than Perfect
A practical lesson from a costly mistake: perfectionism can stall progress.
06:52Distribution as the New Gold Rush
Frames audience-building as the modern equivalent of gold, oil, and data rushes, emphasizing its enduring value.
09:34Full Transcript
[00:01] 200 days and I think it's about time somebody tells you the truth let's go one I sat at my computer I was looking at ways to earn a bag I try Drop Shipping realized it's e-commerce for lazy people I try affiliate marketing
[00:15] realized it's litered with false expectations I try Forex Trading even pay the guru to trade for me but then I realized my dog performed better then I saw a YouTube automation pop up on my homepage the word automation caught my
[00:27] in your sleep I checked out some videos about it I saw these guys claiming to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars with these faceless channels channels where you don't need to be on camera and apparently you Outsource all of the work
[00:40] you that's enough for me I was in if only I knew what I was getting myself into [\h__\h] this is an unfiltered story of what happened for the next 200 days and we're not hiding anything here how much
[00:52] money we've spent how much money we've made and our biggest mistakes I made a list of YouTube channel ideas then I picked one I liked 5 minutes later later get to that later I asked my friend John if he wanted to do this with me together
[01:05] not a mistake if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go Fair go together he said yes we put up a jaob post on upor for an editor this was the jaw post we narrowed it down to one experienced guy who had loads clients and another
[01:17] guy who had barely any experience but was very bought into our vision I never a point of proof we went with the underdog we made our first video we expected it to take a week it took four notice out make video guidelines for the
[01:30] between video ideas scripting editing and packaging I realized this was far the gurus pitched this as a well-oiled machine that required barely any input in reality I realized that in this job you're just a glorified project manager
[01:45] damn we went ahead and launched our first video got no views damn launched our second video got eight views damn damn again but we weren't worried from took a long time so I was prepared to strap in for a long ride of earning my
[01:58] stripes that was my next mistake 2 weeks later both videos BW up we got monetized in the space of 10 days brought in millions of views and started making some decent money these were our total costs at the time so we were already on
[02:10] when you do faceless YouTube think in profit not revenue revenue is Vanity profit is sanity with this extra profit I made space in my wall for my gold play much a Bugatti cost then everything fell apart we launched another video it got
[02:25] they got no views not in comparison to the first two videos that went viral we didn't understand the new videos were higher quality how could they be getting did know was that I had to cancel my Bugatti order we were feeling pretty
[02:39] dejected so I went to the one place that always makes me feel better my home feed found wano's page read his tweets my mind was blown turns out I
[02:52] learned more from one tweet Storm from this guy than I did hours of watching so-called YouTube gurus on YouTube I consumed all of his content and realize why we stopped getting views there were two reasons reason number one instead of
[03:04] nurturing the audience of 10,000 Subs we had just built we chased new ones as a audience targeting everyone is the same as targeting no one reason number two we didn't understand market dynamics our Channel chased viral hits which is like
[03:17] hands there was no long-term value in going viral the value is in recurring viewers and after understanding this we realized this channel we started was nothing more than a cash crab one that used Trends face jacking and shock to
[03:29] get views great for going viral terrible for building an audience what a shame I to it someday it was time to reassess equipped with some industry credit we were now taking this very seriously more seriously because fa's YouTube turned
[03:41] out to be a much bigger opportunity than we thought bigger than the gurus were make money earned on YouTube much greater than what it actually is I fell for it too don't worry turns out they were actually thinking about faces
[03:54] not lie in AdSense it lies in something else but we'll get to that later now results that we got for the first two videos are quite unrealistic for beginners between all of us working on the team we had about five years of
[04:08] some industry credit built up the more you work in an industry the more credits you get you understand what actually works and what to avoid so if you're you're either going to take a lot of time and a lot of sacrifice to earn
[04:23] those credits or you can pay somebody to teach you and help you get up to speed I and more effective anyway let's get back began looking for markets on YouTube that we could launch a channel in we
[04:37] YouTube with lots of demand and little Supply launching a channel in a whit it's easy we developed a system for identifying these white spaces we did this by benchmarking ratios of various Channel figures looking for outliers and
[04:51] focusing on its economic viability if we found a white space that aligned with audience to a product we wanted to sell we were in business we even launched a these ideas we're finding if you're one of the first 100 people to subscribe to
[05:05] ideas instantly we eventually found an idea we liked it very much aligned with scorecard test so we went about to finding our Avatar our theory was that if every video was made specifically for our Avatar we would build a long-term
[05:20] audience we made a list of 100 video ideas we compiled a strategy and decided to execute on a plan we were ready to go but unfortunately I got diagnosed with syndrome I got distracted you see I saw a trend that was taken over YouTube
[05:34] white space but it failed my scorecard test against my principles we did it anyway that was a mistake we launched our competitor called false faces it inevitably we completely lost interest
[05:47] long-term economic viability IR ronic competition gave the channel away to this nice guy called Gareth not toelf avoid shiny metalogic syndrome focus on and do it well but we did learn something something the videos we
[06:00] created for this channel were for a better word bad but the idea was good hammered home that a great idea and poor execution will do better than a poor idea with great execution remember this for later back to our original idea we
[06:13] we went back to upwork to find a suitable editor we made a video would before we got a bit of a shock when we realized how much animation cost it eventually we found a suitable candidate it took 1 month and β¬350 to
[06:27] develop a prototype video it took some time to get it right but eventually we send the high quality version she didn't reply ever that was the last time we heard from her she disappeared like completely agenia if you're out there I
[06:40] hope you're okay she had all the video assets so no one else could replicate the work that she did our perfect video was rendered useless so now we were back to square one and a few months down the line with no progress frustration ensued
[06:52] doesn't have to be perfect it has to be done we spent 1 month making a video Perfect instead of making something good enough to test releasing it and seeing that lesson time to go hell for Lether we needed a reliable editor luckily we
[07:06] worked with on our first channel he was talented he was reliable and now he was take care of you recruiting is the hardest part of faceless YouTube when you make sure you hold on the team set deadlines we put ourselves under
[07:21] pressure and held each other accountable everybody on the team was incentivized managed to push things out quickly eventually we released one video then two videos and then three videos and now we're at today no virality yet no four
[07:34] fig earning days just slowly picking up Impressions on our videos the channel is picking up and I will continue to give you updates on that channel but truth be told given this amazing start we had to face this YouTube automation I thought
[07:46] we'd be a lot further along now than we actually are but this is the truth it's the reality a reality that a lot of people don't show you here are six things I wish I knew when I started faces YouTube number one I wish we moved
[07:58] faster and broke things I wouldn't be afraid to put out subpar content in the spirit of testing the market if anything if you post subpar content and it performs well it's more of a signal that there is demand for it lesson number two
[08:11] I wish we picked one thing to focus on and just focused on that from the very start because in any game I've ever played in the realm of business YouTube three I wish we were stricter on ourselves with regard to deadlines you
[08:25] were too lenient and deadlines are really effective number four I wish we spent more money earlier up until this point we've spent upwards of 7 to 10K and made back less than a fifth of that and initially we barely spent at all and
[08:38] in this game you really do get what you pay for if you are very stingy with your money from the start you will spend way more time hiring dealing with subir Freelancers and worrying about the wrong things hire once and hire well number
[08:52] five I wish we were more focused on building an audience from the start not wish I didn't go into YouTube stupid false expectations here are the face this YouTube with it's going to require lots of investment either time
[09:06] money or likely both regardless of how much money you have it's going to take a works and what doesn't definitely going to test your resilience and finally it's it's going to be worth it and it's not AdSense Revenue which is what all the
[09:21] much bigger and it would last much longer 100 years ago we had a gold rush 50 years ago we had an oil rush 10 years ago we had a data rush and today there is an attention rush and that's not changing anytime soon with the recent
[09:34] advancements in AI Industries are only going to become more and more commoditized meaning tasks that require 10 people today might only require one person in 5 years time and that means distribution is going to become
[09:46] everything and by distribution I'm talking about getting a product into the hands of a customer via communication it's marketing it's sales and by far the most effective way to do this in the modern day is through an audience and an
[10:00] audience can't be bought it can only be earned and those that put in the hair have all of the Power later the plan over the coming years is to create a multitude of brands that an audience can value and Trust that's why faces YouTube
[10:13] you're looking to do it from my experience the hardest step in this entire process is finding the right idea it's pivotal towards success that's why going to be probably the best thing you're going to do today I hope that's
[10:26] all for me we'll see you in the next one Salam