If I Was Struggling To Make Money On YouTube, I’d Do THIS

If you’re making less than $10,000/month with YouTube automation, you’re probably in one of three camps

Camp one:

You haven’t started yet

Which is fine

Everyone starts there

Camp two:

You started, but you picked the wrong niche

So even if you upload consistently, the channel is fighting an uphill battle

Camp three:

You picked a decent niche, but your planning, production, and packaging are weak

Which is just a polite way of saying your videos aren’t good enough yet

And I don’t say that to be harsh

I say it because this is actually good news

Because once you know what’s broken, you can fix it

Most people stay stuck because they keep guessing

They guess the niche

They guess the topic

They guess the title

They guess the thumbnail

They guess the script

Then they wonder why the channel isn’t growing

But YouTube automation is not really a guessing game anymore

Especially in 2026

There are tools, frameworks, and systems you can use to dramatically improve your chances of building a channel that actually makes money

So let’s talk about it

First, why even start YouTube automation in 2026?

Because in my opinion, it’s still one of the best online business models for busy people

Especially if you have a 9-5

Especially if you have a family

Especially if you don’t want to be on camera

I’ve been doing faceless YouTube for almost 10 years now

And the economics today are way better than when I started

Back then, production was expensive

Scripts cost more

Voiceovers cost more

Editing cost more

And if you didn’t have a decent budget, it was hard to compete

Now?

AI has changed the game

You can create videos faster

You can write scripts faster

You can produce voiceovers for a fraction of the cost

And if you use the right systems, you don’t need to spend all day making videos yourself

That means higher margins

And higher margins means more money in your pocket every month

But here’s the catch

Just because YouTube automation is easier to start does not mean it’s easier to win

In some ways, it’s harder

Because more people are entering the game

Which means you need to be smarter about what you build

And the first place most people mess this up is the niche

A bad niche can kill your channel before you ever give it a fair shot

You could upload 30 videos

You could spend months working on it

You could pay for scripts, voiceovers, thumbnails, and editing

And still make almost nothing

Not because you’re lazy

Not because YouTube hates you

But because the niche was never capable of producing the income you wanted in the first place

This is why I always look for two things when picking a niche

• High demand

• High monetizability

High demand means people actually want to watch the content

There are existing channels getting views

There are topics already working

There is proof that the market cares

High monetizability means the views can actually turn into money

Because views by themselves don’t mean much

A million views in one niche can be worth $1,000

A million views in another niche can be worth $10,000+

That difference matters

A lot

You also want to look for niches with more than one monetization method

Ad revenue is great

But ad revenue alone is not the goal

The best channels can make money through ads, affiliates, brand deals, digital products, exclusive content, coaching, or some other offer

That’s how you build a real asset

Not just a channel that depends on YouTube sending you checks

This is also why I like using tools like TubeLab to speed up the niche research process

Instead of randomly searching YouTube and hoping you stumble into something good, you can filter for faceless channels, monetized channels, income targets, RPMs, upload recency, and other useful criteria

The goal is simple

Find proof

Find channels that are already doing what you want to do

Find niches where people are watching

Find niches where creators are making money

Find niches where there’s room for you to enter with a better angle, better packaging, or better execution

Because the worst thing you can do is spend 6 months uploading into a niche that was never going to hit your income goal anyway

But let’s say you already have a niche that can make money

Now the question becomes:

Are your videos actually good enough?

And this is where most people don’t want to be honest with themselves

Because your niche might be fine

But your topics are bad

Or your scripts are boring

Or your voiceover sounds robotic

Or your editing feels cheap

Or your title and thumbnail give people no reason to click

And the annoying part about YouTube is that all of these pieces matter

You can have a great topic and a bad title

The video flops

You can have a great title and a bad script

The video flops

You can have a great script and a terrible thumbnail

The video flops

You need the whole system working together

This starts with planning

And good planning means you’re not pulling topics out of thin air

You’re looking for outliers

An outlier is a video that performed better than average on its own channel

That’s important because it tells you the market responded

It tells you people were more interested in that topic than the channel’s usual content

So instead of asking:

“What video should I make?”

Ask:

“What has already worked in this niche?”

That one question can save you a lot of pain

This is where tools like vidIQ can help (try it for just $1 for your first 30 days here - affiliate link)

You can look at role model channels in your niche and see which videos are still getting views per hour

That tells you what people are watching right now

Not what worked 2 years ago

Not what was trendy for 10 minutes

What people are actively consuming today

Then you take that insight and create your own version

Not a copy

Your own angle

Your own structure

Your own title

Your own thumbnail

Your own value

That’s how you stop guessing and start building from proof

Then comes production

This is where a lot of beginners fall apart

They think because they found a good topic, the video should automatically work

But the viewer still needs to be engaged

That means the script has to be good

The voiceover has to sound natural

The editing has to hold attention

And the video has to deliver on the promise made in the title and thumbnail

If your script is weak, people leave

If your voiceover sounds bad, people leave

If your editing is boring, people leave

And when people leave, YouTube stops pushing the video

This is why you need either a strong framework or the right tools

For scripts, I like using tools built specifically for YouTube scripts rather than just general ChatGPT prompts

Because longer scripts can get messy fast

You get repetition

You get hallucinations

You get boring filler

You get sections that don’t flow

And that can destroy retention

A tool like Subscribr AI can help because it’s built for YouTube scripting

It can study a channel’s style

It can help structure longer scripts

And it can make the writing process way faster

For voiceovers, ElevenLabs is still one of the best options

But don’t just pick the first voice that sounds decent

Spend time testing

Listen for pronunciation

Listen for pacing

Listen for whether the voice fits the audience

A bad AI voice can make a good video feel cheap

And for editing, be honest about your skill level

If you can edit well, great

If not, hire someone

But don’t hire blindly

Ask for demo work

Show reference videos

Make sure they can actually create the style you need before you pay for full videos

Because one weak part of the production chain can hold the entire channel back

Then we get to packaging

And honestly, this might be the biggest bottleneck for beginners

Your title and thumbnail are the door to the video

If no one opens the door, nothing else matters

Your script could be amazing

Your editing could be amazing

Your niche could be amazing

But if the title and thumbnail don’t make people click, the video dies

Most beginners make titles too long

Too vague

Or too boring

They don’t create curiosity

They don’t give clear context

They don’t show a real benefit

Then they make thumbnails that repeat the title word-for-word

Which is a huge mistake

The thumbnail should add to the title

Not duplicate it

If your title says “7 Toxic Mindsets To Avoid”

Your thumbnail should not say “7 Toxic Mindsets”

That’s wasted space

Instead, use the thumbnail to create more emotion, contrast, or intrigue

Something like:

“Trapped”

“Still Broke?”

“Stop This”

That’s much stronger

For long-form titles, I’d try to keep them under 50 characters when possible

Clear enough that people understand the topic

Intriguing enough that they want to click

And short enough that they don’t get cut off

For thumbnails, keep the text minimal

Four words or less is usually best

Make the image easy to understand

Make the emotion clear

Make the contrast obvious

And try to keep some consistent branding so viewers start recognizing your videos when they appear on the homepage

You don’t need to be a world-class designer

You just need to understand the job of the thumbnail

It’s not there to look pretty

It’s there to make someone stop scrolling and click

That’s it

So if you’re under $10,000/month right now, don’t panic

Just diagnose the bottleneck

Is it the niche?

Is it the topic?

Is it the script?

Is it the voiceover?

Is it the editing?

Is it the title?

Is it the thumbnail?

Because once you find the weak link, you can improve it

And that’s how this game works

You don’t need to be perfect from day one

You just need to stop guessing

Start using proof

Build repeatable systems

And improve each piece of the machine until the channel starts working

Most people chase shortcuts

But the real shortcut is learning how to do the basics properly

Pick a niche with demand and money

Find topics already working

Create videos people actually want to watch

Package them so people actually click

Do that consistently

And $10,000/month becomes a lot more realistic

Until tomorrow,

Adam