7 Things I Stopped Doing That Made Me Rich From YouTube

Let’s be honest

Most people make YouTube way harder than it needs to be

They overthink the niche

They overthink the tools

They overthink the strategy

They watch 47 videos about “how to start”

Then somehow still never start

And I get it

Because I did a lot of this too

But after scaling multiple YouTube channels to millions of subscribers,

Making many four and five figure months from ad revenue

And helping students build four and five figure per month channels, I’ve realized something pretty simple

A lot of my progress didn’t come from doing more

It came from stopping the things that were slowing me down

So today I want to walk you through the 7 things I stopped doing that helped me make real money from YouTube automation

Let’s dive in

1. I stopped searching for the perfect niche

This is probably the biggest one

So many people waste months trying to find the “perfect” niche

They want the perfect RPM

The perfect audience

The perfect content style

The perfect monetization path

The perfect level of competition

And before they know it, they’ve spent another year doing nothing

• No channel

• No videos

• No data

• No income

Just a bunch of ideas sitting in a notebook somewhere

The truth is, most niches can make money

Some are obviously harder than others

If a niche has copyright issues, targets kids, or has limited monetization potential, then yeah, you probably want to be careful

But outside of that, a lot of niches can generate at least a few thousand dollars a month if you actually know how to execute

Because the niche is only one piece of the puzzle

You still need good topics

Good titles

Good thumbnails

Good scripts

Good voiceovers

Good editing

And good analytics review

A “perfect niche” with bad execution still won’t work

But a decent niche with strong execution can absolutely make money

So instead of searching forever, validate the niche

Look for faceless channels that are already growing

Look for channels that are monetized

Look for signs of affiliate offers, brand deals, paid promotions, products, newsletters, communities, or anything else they can make money from

And most importantly, ask yourself:

“Can I realistically make this content every week?”

Because if the niche requires daily uploads and you’re a busy parent with a full-time job, it might not be the best fit

Not because the niche is bad

But because the strategy doesn’t match your life

2. I stopped ignoring my analytics

A lot of people upload a video, check the view count, and that’s it

If the video does well, they’re happy

If it flops, they’re sad

Then they move on to the next one

That’s not a strategy

That’s just vibes

Your analytics tell you what’s actually happening

They show you where people are clicking

Where people are leaving

Where people are getting bored

Where people are staying engaged

And where your video is losing money

The big things I like to look at are:

• First 30-second retention

• Click-through rate

• Average view duration

• Retention dips

• Retention spikes

• Overall impressions

Because each metric tells a different story

For example, if you have low impressions but a strong click-through rate, the title and thumbnail may actually be decent

YouTube just might not have found the right audience yet

But if you have a lot of impressions and a low click-through rate, then the issue is probably your title, thumbnail, or topic

People are seeing it

They just don’t care enough to click

That’s a very different problem

And if people click but leave early, then your intro probably needs work

Maybe the hook is too slow

Maybe you took too long to get to the point

Maybe the video didn’t deliver what the title promised

But you won’t know unless you look

This is why I started reviewing my analytics every week

Not to feel good or bad

But to find the fix

Because once you know what’s broken, you can actually improve

3. I stopped doing everything myself

This one was hard for me

Because I’m naturally the type of person who likes to learn things myself and keep costs low

And honestly, that can be useful at the start

You should understand how your channel works

But eventually, doing everything yourself becomes the thing holding you back

Because let’s be real

You probably aren’t the best scriptwriter, editor, voiceover artist, thumbnail designer, strategist, and analytics person all at once

And even if you are decent at all of those things, you only have so much time

Especially if you have a job

Or a family

Or a business

Or literally any life outside of YouTube

When you do everything yourself, your output is limited

Maybe you can get one video out per week

Maybe two if you’re really pushing

But then life happens

Someone gets sick

Work gets busy

You have family stuff

And suddenly your upload schedule disappears

That’s why outsourcing changed a lot for me

When you hand off the right tasks to people who are better at them, your job becomes simpler

You focus on:

• The strategy

• The niche

• The ideas

• The packaging

• The analytics

• The direction of the channel

That’s where the owner should be spending time

Not fighting with an editing timeline for six hours

But you can’t just hire anyone

You need to do some basic due diligence

Look at their job success score

Look at how much money they’ve earned

Look at how many jobs they’ve completed

Look at their samples

Make sure they can actually deliver

Because a bad freelancer doesn’t save you time

They create more work

One little pro tip I like is using an A team and a B team

Let’s say you want to upload once per week

Instead of having one team make all four videos per month, have Team A make videos 1 and 3, and Team B make videos 2 and 4

Now each team has two weeks to deliver each video

So if one team is a little late, you still have breathing room

And if one team quits, you still have another team producing videos

You’re not spending more money

You’re just building a more reliable system

4. I stopped ideating blindly

This is where a lot of money gets wasted

People pick video ideas because they “sound good”

Or because they personally find them interesting

Or because one competitor made a somewhat similar video two years ago

But YouTube doesn’t care if you like the idea

The market has to care

That’s why the idea behind the video is everything

A bad topic with great editing is still usually a bad video

You can have the best script

The best voiceover

The best thumbnail

The best editing

But if nobody cares about the idea, the video is probably going to flop

So instead of guessing, I started looking at supply and demand

Demand means people actually want to watch this topic

Supply means how many other videos are already competing for that same topic

And longevity means whether the topic can keep getting views over time

That last part matters a lot

Because if you’re busy, you don’t want to build a channel where every video dies in 24 hours

You want videos that can keep getting views for weeks, months, or even years

Those are digital assets

One way to find these ideas is to look at videos in your niche that are still getting views per hour even after they’ve been out for a while

Not brand new videos

New videos can spike just because they’re new

You want to find videos that are older and still pulling attention

That tells you the market still cares

Then you check how much competition exists

If there are already 300 videos on the exact same story using the exact same format, it may be hard to break through

But if there’s strong demand and not much supply, that’s where the opportunity is

This is how you stop guessing

And start making videos based on evidence

5. I stopped relying only on ad revenue

Ad revenue is great

I’ve made a lot from YouTube ads

But if I’m being honest, ad revenue should not be your entire business model

It should be the tip jar

Not the whole business

Because if you only rely on ad revenue, you need a lot of views to make serious money

Sometimes millions of views per month

And for most people, that’s not easy

Especially in lower RPM niches

But once you add other monetization methods, everything changes

Now your channel can make money from:

• Affiliate offers

• Brand deals

• Sponsorships

• Digital products

• Coaching

• Communities

• Newsletters

• Software

• Services

Whatever makes sense for the niche

This gives your channel way more leverage

Because now a video doesn’t just make money when someone watches an ad

It can make money when someone clicks a link

• Joins your list

• Buys a product

• Books a call

• Or signs up for something you recommend

That’s when your channel becomes a real business

So when you’re picking a niche, don’t just ask:

“What’s the RPM?”

Ask:

“What else can this channel sell?”

Are brands already sponsoring these videos?

Are creators using affiliate links?

Are they selling courses?

Are they promoting tools?

Are they building communities?

Are there real problems in the niche that people pay to solve?

That’s the stuff you want to look for

Because the more ways your channel can make money, the easier it becomes to turn it into a profitable asset

6. I stopped copying bigger channels

This is such a common mistake

You find a big channel in your niche

You copy their topics

You copy their thumbnails

You copy their video structure

You copy their style

Then you wonder why they keep winning and you don’t

But the problem is obvious

You’re trying to beat them at their own game

And they already have the advantage

They have more subscribers

More trust

More data

More experience

Probably more money

And often a better team

So why would someone watch your copy when they can watch the original?

This is why differentiation matters

You don’t need to reinvent YouTube

But you do need to bring something slightly new to the market

A new format

A new angle

A new visual style

A new character

A new type of storytelling

A new way of explaining the topic

A new way of packaging the niche

This is how smaller channels break through

Not by being a worse version of a bigger channel

But by becoming something different enough that people actually notice

This is especially important if you’re on a budget

Because if you can’t outspend your competition, you need to out-angle them

You need a reason for people to click your video instead of theirs

That reason is usually differentiation

7. I stopped trying to figure everything out myself

This one probably saved me the most time

Because YouTube is simple in theory

But not easy in practice

You really only need three things:

A good strategy

Good videos

And consistency

That’s it

But getting those three things right can take years if you’re just guessing

In my early days, I was consistent

I’ll give myself credit for that

I kept uploading

I didn’t quit

I kept putting in the work

But I still wasn’t getting the results I wanted

Why?

Because my strategy wasn’t good enough

My topics weren’t good enough

My videos weren’t good enough

And even though I thought I knew what I was doing, I really didn’t

That’s why getting the right information matters

Whether it’s learning from someone who has done it before, getting direct feedback, joining a program, or simply surrounding yourself with better strategy, it can save you a ridiculous amount of time

Because the right feedback can stop you from spending months on bad topics

It can stop you from wasting money on weak videos

It can stop you from building in a niche that doesn’t fit your life

And it can show you what to fix before you waste another year guessing

That’s the biggest lesson here

You don’t need to do more random stuff

You need to stop doing the things that are slowing you down

Stop searching forever for the perfect niche

Stop ignoring your analytics

Stop doing everything yourself

Stop guessing your video ideas

Stop relying only on ad revenue

Stop copying bigger channels

And stop trying to figure the whole thing out alone

Because once you remove those bottlenecks, YouTube automation becomes a lot simpler

Not easy

But simpler

Pick a viable niche

Make videos people actually want

Package them properly

Review the data

Build a team

Monetize beyond ads

And keep improving

That’s how you turn a channel from a random side project into an actual asset

And you can do that in a much easier why by using this free training here. 

Until tomorrow,

Adam