Let me tell you why 99% of faceless YouTube channels fail and how you can be in the 1% that succeed. But before we get into it, let me explain why you should even be listening to me in the first place. See, I started creating faceless YouTube channels in 2017.
Since then, I've grown over 20 faceless YouTube channels; some have failed, and some have blown up to millions of views. From two of the channels, I've made over $100,000. So, in this video, I'll share what I've learned over the last six years so that you're not in the 99% that try and fail.
You've probably heard of faceless YouTube channels, but if you haven't, picture a YouTube channel with no YouTuber in the videos. That's it; that's all they are. The first thing you need to know about why 99% of them fail is that people come into it thinking faceless YouTube channels are an easy way to get rich quick online, and that's probably because there's a ton of YouTube videos out there telling you that that is the case.
People will tell you to outsource everything: go to Fiverr, get a scriptwriter, a voiceover artist, a video editor, a thumbnail designer, and you'll start making $10,000 per month in no time. Now, while that $10,000 per month is definitely possible, it's not going to happen in no time. A lot of people have the expectation that they'll post a couple of videos on YouTube that they wouldn't even watch for themselves, and all of a sudden, they're going to be making $10,000 a month.
If that's your expectation, feel free to hop off of this video because that's just not the reality of it. As much as I'd love for it to be, it's not. Faceless YouTube channels need to be treated like any other big business to make them successful.
You have two choices: either you can put a lot of work and time into doing every part of the video-making process, or you can spend a lot of money outsourcing each component of the video-making process, which we will talk about in a little bit, so stick around. But just know that simply going to Fiverr and hiring a couple of different people to put some videos together for $10 is not going to get you any success on YouTube. Growing a faceless YouTube channel takes just as much effort as if you were growing a channel with you in the actual videos.
The algorithm that you're facing is the same one that took Mr Beast four years to get his first 1,000 YouTube subscribers. It took me almost 20 videos to get monetized on YouTube, and to get those 20 videos made, it took about $800 out of my own pocket before I even saw my first dollar. Even after I saw that first dollar come from YouTube, it still took me multiple months to become profitable because the amount of money that I was paying to get the videos made was less than YouTube was actually paying me on a monthly basis.
It took me until eight months to actually be profitable with my first faceless YouTube channel, so don't expect to go out there and start making $10,000 a month or even just a couple hundred a month for at least six to eight months. The next reason that most faceless YouTube channels fail is twofold: people try to outsource everything from day one, and they don't actually understand how YouTube works. Let me explain.
See, in order to actually make money from YouTube, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, or 10 million short views. If you were to post ten 10-minute long YouTube videos, and people watched 30% of the way through each video—which, believe it or not, is actually pretty difficult to do—each video would need 8,000 or more views in order to reach monetization eligibility. There are so many people out there just saying to outsource every aspect of the video-making process, but in reality, if you were to outsource everything, it would cost you about $100 to $150 per video.
For ten videos, that’s $1,000 to $1,500 in total, and on average, it takes about 30 to 50 videos to get monetized on YouTube. That's anywhere from $3,000 to $7,500 just to get enough videos created to possibly make your first dollar on YouTube. So, there's a lot of money that you will need upfront to start making money if you outsource everything from the start.
But there is another option, which a lot of people don’t talk about, but it's definitely the best way to get started, and that's to do everything yourself. I know that sounds terrible—doing all the work—but hear me out. Putting the videos together yourself will allow you to learn the YouTube algorithm and make better decisions on video ideas, titles, thumbnail design, and feedback on editing for when you do ultimately outsource the video creation.
Most faceless YouTube channels fail because people don't actually understand the YouTube platform, and if you create all the videos yourself at first, you will actually understand the YouTube platform—and not only just the platform but the YouTube analytics, which is the most important part of the YouTube platform. They show you exactly who is watching your content, what titles people like, what style of thumbnail works, what other videos your audience is watching, and if you understand how to read the YouTube analytics, YouTube is essentially screaming at you how to get more views. Once you're monetized and have a good understanding of YouTube analytics and the algorithm and how the platform works, guess what?
You are 99% ahead of any other person who's trying faceless YouTube channels. It's time to start outsourcing; when you do outsource, you'll need to hire a scriptwriter. For the script, a voiceover artist for the audio, a video editor for the visuals, and potentially the music and sound effects too, a graphic designer for thumbnails; and again, this is going to cost you anywhere from $100 to $150 per video, especially if you're making high-quality videos.
If you're not making high-quality videos, no one's going to watch your videos, you're not going to get subscribers, you're not going to get growth, and you're not going to make any money from YouTube. So, make high-quality videos, please. But you don't have to outsource every part of the YouTube video-making process at first.
You can still write the script and make the thumbnails while hiring a video editor for, say, $50 and a voiceover artist for, say, $20. Or you could use an AI tool which allows you to put in one prompt and spit out a monetizable full-length YouTube video with the voiceover, editing, visuals—everything done for you. You can even tweak the script afterwards, or you could replace the visuals with ones that work better, and ones that you like more, or you can change the voiceover to your liking.
You can customize it however you want, but using an AI tool like InVideo AI, for instance, will help you a lot in the process. But either way, if you're outsourcing to people or to AI, you don't have to do it all at once. You can go slowly and gradually move closer to fully automating your faceless YouTube channel, because remember, the goal of your faceless YouTube channel is to make money.
If you're throwing a ton of money out without bringing any in, then unfortunately, you're not really doing it right. And that brings me to the number one reason that 99% of faceless YouTube channels fail: they don't actually understand how to make money on YouTube. They rely solely on AdSense, and when they put a couple of videos out and they're not making any money and their channel's not monetized, then they quit.
Ninety-nine percent of people will quit. But you can actually start making money from your first video that you put out on YouTube. You can do that through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is when you talk about or show a product or service in your videos, and if a viewer uses a unique affiliate link that you put in the description to purchase that product or service, you make a commission off of the sale. Let's look at Top Tech now, for instance; it's a faceless YouTube channel that does tech reviews. This is a great way to make money outside of AdSense.
They might do a review on, say, a $500 tech product, and they might have a 20% affiliate commission. If they get one sale from one viewer—say 10 people view the video, but if one person goes to the link in the description and buys that product, they get $100. That's $100 from one video.
People don't understand that you can make a lot of money, and you'll probably make more money than you will from AdSense through affiliate marketing. To find affiliate deals, there are affiliate networks like ClickBank or PartnerStack, or you could go to the websites of products or services that you like, and most importantly, that align with the content that you're actually putting on your channel. You scroll down to the bottom of the website, and usually, you'll be able to find a link to sign up as an affiliate.
Once you sign up as an affiliate, you'll put your link in the description of your videos, and if someone buys, you'll start making money. You will not be relying solely on AdSense. See, this whole thing is about setting your expectations ahead of time.
If you understand that faceless YouTube channels won't get you rich immediately, outsourcing from day one is not the best method, and understanding how to make money outside of AdSense is crucial for success. Your faceless YouTube channel will not be in the 99% that fail. I really hope you guys got a lot of value out of this video.
Make sure to hit that subscribe button, because this is the first video of a series of videos on faceless YouTube channels, where we're going to talk about everything from how to start them, how to monetize them, how to grow them, and how to get multiple channels going so that you have an army of faceless YouTube channels making money for you—everything you need to know about faceless YouTube channels. So hit that subscribe button. Thanks for watching, and we will see you again soon in another video.
