$1,000 RPM from a faceless YouTube video

In yesterday’s email, I asked y’all what side hustle topics you want me to write more about.

Every option received more than 10 votes, which I love to see! Guess that means I can write about any of these and make at least some people happy.

The topic with the most votes was faceless YouTube channels.

I didn’t expect this, since my newsletter is about websites, not YouTube. But, so many people are pivoting to new business models that rely less on Google’s algorithm. So I can 100% understand the YouTube hype.

I’m personally hyped up by the opportunity on YouTube, so I’m excited my audience is too.

My history with faceless videos

I published my first faceless YouTube video back in 2019. I think that was before the recent “faceless video” hype.

(in case you aren’t aware, “faceless videos” are any video where you don’t show your face - GREAT if you’re camera shy or don’t want your face out there for the world, and AI models, to see and train on!)

My first faceless videos were “best of” compilations (like “5 best [type of product]”). I put affiliate links to Amazon for each product in the video description.

I only made three of these. It took about 9 hours total.

Combined, those videos generated nearly $800 in affiliate commissions. Not bad for the amount of work that went into them.

Why didn’t I publish more?

The truth is these videos felt a bit scummy to me. They were essentially compilations of the best sellers on Amazon, in video format. Some people find nothing wrong with this (and I see their point of view), and others find it an incredibly scummy cash grab especially since you haven’t tried the products yourself. I land somewhere in the middle, maybe closer to “scummy”. If someone asked what I do for a living, I’d be embarassed to say. So, I stopped publishing those videos and focused on more fulfilling projects instead.

To each their own. I’m just sharing why I stopped, that’s all.

Fast forward to 2021…

I was about to sign up for a particular business service, when I realized.. why not record a video showing the whole sign-up process?

I didn’t know if anyone would watch it, but I figured there was a chance it would be helpful to some people, since I thought it would be helpful to me. The service I was signing up for had TONS of forms to fill out and a few confusing sections.

Best of all, the service would pay a $60 commission for every person I referred. Not bad! I figured, why not capitalize on the opportunity? It was worth a shot.

I’m glad I did.

The video started getting a trickle of views right away, and people were actually signing up through my link in the video description.

$1,000 RPM!?

The video eventually hit 1,500 views. I tallied up my commissions up to that point, and they added up to $1,500. Those were my take-home commissions, not the revenue I generated for the company. Revenue generated was quite a bit higher.

That video was earning a $1,000 RPM (revenue per thousand views).

To put it into perspective, a $30 RPM is considered good for most niche sites.

And $30 per 1,000 views with YouTube AdSense is extremely high.

What was the secret?

Affiliate marketing, high commission rate, and high purchase intent.

People watching a “how to sign up for ____” video are literally on the verge of signing up. You can’t get a higher purchase intent than that.

Combine that with a product/service that offers massive commissions, and that’s how you get $1,000 RPMs.

The only drawback is that those types of videos generally get very few views. Not many people are searching for videos about signing up for something.

So personally, the $1,000 RPM is cool, but kinda meaningless if the video doesn’t get many views.

I put MUCH more stock in earnings per hour of work.

I’d rather have 100,000 views on a video with a $10 RPM than 1,000 views on a video with a $1,000 RPM if they both took the same amount of time to record+edit.

Yes, the earnings would be the same. But, YouTube is fantastic for growing newsletter subscribers and building an audience you OWN. The more views you get, the more people will sign up for your newsletter.

And, the more views you get, the more subscribers, and the closer you are to receiving a YouTube play button. 😄 

Alrighty, time to talk about good faceless YouTube channel niches.

Faceless YouTube channel niches with high earning potential

1. Business software/tools

Things like beehiiv (if you sign up to promote it, please use my affiliate link lol 🤗 you’ll get a 30-day free trial that way!)

Or Semrush. Or Elementor. Or Link Whisper.

There are THOUSANDS of business software tools that pay hefty commissions. 30% recurring is pretty common.

Make videos like “beehiiv review”, “ultimate guide to using beehiiv”, “beehiiv vs convertkit” (and vs other newsletter platforms), “newsletter platform tier list”, or “how to make money with beehiiv”. There are lots of videos you can make about beehiiv that target people who are looking into beehiiv but haven’t signed up yet.

The same is true for other popular business software products.

As far as HOW you go about making these videos, at the most basic level, use a screen recording tool such as Loom (free account lets you record 25 videos up to 5 minutes each).

You can also use an open source tool like HitFilm, which is free and doesn’t have limits like Loom. However, there’s a bit more of a learning curve. Just watch some YouTube videos on how to use it! (This is proof that software tutorial videos work lol).

2. Tutorials for common software tools

With this approach, you’re targeting a broader market and make most of your income through AdSense. For some of these tools, there will be plenty of affiliate opportunities (if you do WordPress, there are tons of paid themes and plugins with affiliate programs).

Publish tutorials on massive software tools like: Excel, Canva, Airtable, Zapier, ClickUp, Notion, WordPress, ChatGPT, GitHub, Photoshop, Loom, HootSuite, Shopify, etc. etc.

Pick a tool you’re familiar with (or want to learn). Start publishing tutorials on how to use it. Bank.

This type of channel is perfect because it mainly relies on YouTube SEO, meaning more consistency (you’re not so much at the mercy of the recommendation algorithm), and it can easily be outsourced since people aren’t watching it for your personal perspective.

There’s actually a YouTube channel that does this for sale on Empire Flippers right now. The owner spends 4 hours per week on it.

By the way… you should listen to the seller interview. He drops several nuggets. 😎 

3. Mass-market, broad appeal

Another approach you can take is to publish videos on random news and entertainment topics, or stuff like “10 signs you have ADHD”, “10 wild facts about Amazon you’ll wish you didn’t know”, etc.

These types of videos will have low RPM, but can potentially rack up millions of views which makes up for it.

Lots of people are having success in this market with AI video creation tools. Enter a keyword, edit as needed, and publish straight to YouTube.

Lazy, yes, but it can work for stuff like “10 signs you’re super intelligent” where you don’t need specific images or B-roll, and where facts are murky.

There are a lot of YouTube short creation tools, such as AutoShorts and ShortsFaceless. AutoShorts allows you to create one video for free so you can test it out. ShortsFaceless is cheaper and allows a bit more customization, but doesn’t allow you to create a video for free.

I’ve heard of people having great success with these tools, so they’re worth trying out. I may do a case study on this if there’s enough interest. Reply and let me know if you’re interested in that. 👀

4. Niche market and appeal

Of course, you can also niche down a bit to something more specific.

Like chess, for example.

I play a bit of chess and watch some chess YouTubers. There are a few faceless chess channels with 100,000s of subscribers and millions of views.

The same is true for other games, and many random niche topics. Maybe something you’re interested in fits the bill.

Just because it’s “niche” doesn’t mean it can’t be lucrative. As long as some videos are getting millions of views, it can absolutely work.

Wrapping it up

My favorite thing about YouTube is that your videos can start ranking and earning income right away. This is VERY unlike Google, where ranking a site in a few months is considered good!

The other nice thing about YouTube is that you can enter just about ANY niche without worrying too much about the competition.

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is personalized for every single user. And, YouTube’s search results are generally much less static than Google’s. YouTube SEO is a lot easier than Google SEO, where backlinks reign supreme.

If you couldn’t tell by now, I love the massive potential and opportunity that exists on YouTube. It’s like the wild west, even though it’s pretty saturated. Despite the saturation, anyone can start a channel and grow it to 100K or a million subscribers relatively quickly, even in niches where multiple large channels already exist.

So… what are you waiting for?

Go start a faceless YouTube channel. It’s not as hard as you think.

Thanks for reading,

Ian

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