I started blogging in 2020. Since then I have made several blogs and have ranked them on the first page of Google.
But do you know that most of them failed? All these happened due to regular changes in the Google algorithm.
One of my successful blogs used to get 60k views per month; it was affected by the March Core Update, and all my traffic went down, and so did my earnings.
That’s why I decided to try something new and profitable. And here is how I discovered the term YouTube automation.
Before you decide to start YouTube automation , you should know the unfiltered truth. I’ve noticed hundreds of gurus talking about all the money that you’ll make if you start on YouTube automation.
But none of them are warning you about the challenges and reality that you’ll face. The truth is that YouTube automation.
It can either be wildly profitable or a complete waste of time if you’re not aware of the risks that I have learned after starting a failed YouTube channel.
What is YouTube Automation?
You need to understand exactly what I’m referring to when I say YouTube automation.
When YouTube first started, most channels were attached to a person, meaning there was a real human live in the videos.
But one day some lazy genius decided to try posting a video without ever getting in front of the camera; instead, this lazy mastermind recorded his voiceover from his comfort and edited some stock footage that resulted in millions of views, and boom, YouTube automation was born.
It sounds fascinating, right? But there are hidden challenges that no one talks about, and I am sharing those challenges so that you can avoid the mistakes I made.
My Plan for a YouTube Channel
I love YouTube, and the word automation just sounds so easy and simple.
I have seen videos about channels that were getting millions of easy views and making thousands of dollars. So, I decided to test it out for myself by creating my own YouTube automation channel .
The first thing that I did was make a list of YouTube channel ideas, and after a week I had my channel idea, which was a mistake, by the way, but we’ll get to that later. My plan was simple.
I decided to make a compilation channel for the most viral memes on the internet. I chose that because I thought it’d be super easy to make videos.
Moreover, I posted a few memes on my Quora account that went viral and got several thousand views. So I thought the same would happen on YouTube as well.
And I’d get a ton of views relatively easily, so I spent a few hours editing that first video, hoping that it would go viral and I would start making money. Well, a week went by, and it got about 50 views.
My First Failure
The failure of my first video hit me hard.
So I went back to the drawing board. I found more viral clips that were all about a similar topic, and I made sure that the editing was super on point and posted the video. Another week went by, and I got about 7,000 views.
I thought I was on my way to buying my first supercar just like all the gurus promised.
But I was wrong. Everything seemed on track; my channel reached 4,000 hours, and I had 1,000 subs within a month, so I applied for monetization, and this is where I hit my first dead end.
I found out compilation channels are super hard to monetize since you’re repurposing content from other people; unless you transform the content, then it violates YouTube monetization guidelines.
So even though my channel had grown, it was pretty much useless since I couldn’t monetize it.
Luckily, though, I was still able to sell the channel which made me some profit.
My Second Failure
Now, again I was ready to try my luck.
This time I was more determined than ever since I knew that I had just gotten a bunch of views, but this time I was going to take the process way more seriously.
One of the main takeaways that I learned was that I needed to choose a niche topic for my YouTube automation channel that would have a high CPM.
CPM is the cost that advertisers pay to be in front of your audience, so after listening to all the gurus who told me that the best CPM niches were channels that talk about stuff like finance, real estate, and money.
I decided to start a channel about wealth and personal finance. The channel’s name was The Money Minded (it’s deleted now) since it sounded like something that would be good for YouTube.
But next, I needed to figure out the automation part. I went online to hire freelancers to edit the videos and design the thumbnails, and then I decided to use AI to script and narrate the videos.
You can hire expert freelancers from Fiverr for your video editing.
There are tons of professional thumbnail experts on Fiverr that can design viral thumbnails.
Since it was cheaper than having to pay someone, I spent a few days researching some of the most successful channels in our niche, and I decided that the best topic for our first video would be 5 signs that you’re doing well financially .
Then I just simply went over to ChatGPT and asked it to write a 6-minute YouTube script about “ The 5 Signs That You Might Be Doing Well Financially, ” and just like that, within about 30 seconds, I had a script. I remember thinking to myself, damn, this is starting to feel like automation.
ChatGPT produces quite robotic scripts that lack emotional connection. So you can try to hire a YouTube scriptwriter from Fiverr for better results.
I passed the script over to the editor, and he used it to create a video using an AI voiceover. Once the editing and thumbnail were done, we were all in for about $75.
Next, it was time to post the actual video, and this was where I needed to spend some more time and make sure that the right keywords and hashtags were being used so that we could get views from the right people. Once that was all sorted, I uploaded my next video.
This video didn’t get many views in the first week, but I was optimistic that it would get some views in the future because that’s kind of how my last channel went; after 30 days, this one still hadn’t gotten that many views.
The video seemed stuck at around 400 views, but then something magical happened: the video picked up out of nowhere, and over the next couple of months, it got over 20,000 views and 219,000 impressions, which drove in a couple hundred subscribers.
This caused me to start looking up how much Lamborghini cost again, but of course, that’s where everything fell apart again. I uploaded three more videos, and none of them were able to repeat that same success.
I didn’t understand because I was spending more time on the scripting, and we were improving the editing and the thumbnails. At one point I even tried using my voice instead of the AI to try to revive the channel and get some activity.
The Hard Realization
But nothing worked. Looking back on this case, this channel failed for two reasons.
The first reason is that I wasn’t doing anything to build a brand even though that first video got some views and had some good information; the viewing experience felt soulless.
Think about it. The robotic AI voice and the cheap editing didn't give the viewer any reason to come back or be excited about discovering my channel; it was far too easy for my video to get lost in the sauce of all the other content on YouTube.
The second reason is that, flat out, I just didn’t invest enough time or money into this channel.
In my opinion, the word YouTube automation is misleading because it makes this process sound so simple and easy.
But the truth is, it’s anything but that YouTube is competitive. If you want to stand out, then you need to have quality information, quality production, and a loyal following. To achieve that, you need to spend time.
Coming up with amazing video topics, catchy scripts, and edits that are going to retain the viewer unless you’ve already mastered all those skills.
You need to spend money on a quality editor and a good thumbnail designer , not to mention that you have to manage the entire team and quarterback the operation, which takes a ton of time and energy.
As you can see, YouTube automation isn’t really automated at all. The only thing that’s different about YouTube automation versus a normal YouTuber is that you’re not on camera, but you still have to manage everything else, and ultimately it’s totally up to you to make the channel successful or not.
My Learnings
Believe it or not, I’m so glad that these failures happened to me because I learned so much from them and got a master's degree and whatnot. To YouTube, both my wins and losses have helped me understand the workings of YouTube.
Since the education system is totally failing us, I would much prefer to have a degree in what actually works on YouTube than some liberal arts degree as a means of making money.
This concept of YouTube automation I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the days of starting a channel that just uploads rain sounds and makes hundreds of thousands of dollars are over.
That easy, low-hanging fruit has become way too saturated if you want to break through on YouTube.
Sure, you can make some crazy money on YouTube pretty quickly when you do it right, but it always takes effort, and it isn’t guaranteed right away; expectations are just resentments and disappointments waiting to happen.
It applies to everything in life, not just YouTube. If you haven’t gotten the point by now, the term YouTube automation was pretty much created by gurus as a way to make the business model sound easier than it is. The truth is that it’s anything but easy.
Final Words
If I were to rename it based on reality, I would probably call it YouTube management. It’s a much more accurate description, no matter what: YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint. If you treat it like a sprint and try to take shortcuts or chase quick, easy views, then you’re going to end up paying for it over time.
My goal for this article was to help you see the reality of YouTube automation so that you can make an educated decision before deciding to spend a bunch of time and money on something that you aren’t fully committed to.
If you are interested in starting an automated channel, then it is a wise decision to hire a YouTube Automation Expert from websites like Fiverr rather than figuring out everything on your own.
The process is very easy; you just need to head over to Fiverr , and then in the search bar, you need to type YouTube Automation Experts , and boom, all the experts are in front of you.
You are just a click away from living your dream life. You can start living your life here .