Many ways to make money with YouTube automation exist and there is some serious profit potential with the business model. In fact, some YouTube automation channels rake in over $1,000,000 per year! Whether you want to start a YouTube automation channel to make money from ad revenue or just promote your own services, you have many options to monetize your channel. 

In the following article, we take a closer took at YouTube youtuautomation, go over 12 foolproof ways to make money with YouTube automation, and discuss how much money you can make with the business model. We also give you 3 fantastic tips to scale your YouTube automation channel rapidly so you can start making money much faster than normal, provide some tools you can use to help automate your business, and help you decide if a YouTube automation channel is right for you or if you should go with another passive income online business model like local lead generation. 

What is YouTube automation for beginners?

YouTube automation outsources YouTube content creation and channel management to create a revenue stream from YouTube without active intervention in the business. The goal of investing in a YouTube automation channel is to generate enough revenue to cover all expenses and leave a profit for the channel owner each month.

How do YouTube automation channels work? 

YouTube automation channels work by choosing a niche and hiring a team to create consistent content for that niche to build an audience. You can hire freelancers to make your YouTube videos from remote freelance websites like Upwork and Fiverr. The more time people spend watching a YouTube channel’s videos, the more frequently YouTubes’s algorithm shows the channel's content on the platform and the larger the audience grows. As the audience grows larger, the channel makes more money and becomes more valuable. 

YouTube automation channels are faceless YouTube channels that usually incorporate stock videos or animations as the visual content. Therefore, there is no YouTube content creator getting screen time in the videos, which means the success of the channel is not based on a single person. The aspects of a YouTube automation channel that you need to outsource are video topic research and optimization, scriptwriting, video editing, voice over, thumb nail creation, and channel management. 

How do you make money from YouTube automation? 

Advertising revenue from ads running on your channel content and brand deals are the most common ways you make money from YouTube automation. However, they are far from the only methods you can use to monetize a YouTube automation channel. Below are 12 foolproof ways to make money with YouTube automation so you can diversify your income streams and optimize your profit potential!

12 Foolproof ways to make money with YouTube automation

1. Ad revenue

The standard primary source of income for a YouTube automation channel is advertising revenue from participation in the YouTube Partner program. In the YouTube Partner program, you receive 55% of the ad revenue generated by letting ads run on your videos and YouTube takes the other 45% as their cut. However, YouTube doesn’t allow just any channel to join the program. The minimum eligibility requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program include:

It's also worth mentioning that your revenue potential in the YouTube Partner program is heavily based on the niche of your YouTube automation channel. Channels that operate in high-value niches, like personal finance and technology, attract more advertising dollars to their content, as advertisers must pay more to access the highly demanded space.

2. YouTube Premium revenue

YouTube Premium revenue is your cut of the revenue that YouTube generates from your subscribers that are YouTube Premium members. YouTube Premium is a $11.99/month service that allows for advertisement free video viewing. Instead of getting paid for ad revenue like you typically would, when a subscriber that is also a YouTube Premium member watches your video, YouTube compensates you with a cut of their membership fee. 

3. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is promoting products for brands to earn a commission. With affiliate marketing, you usually earn a percentage of the sales your marketing efforts drive. To do YouTube affiliate marketing, you need to get your own custom affiliate links. When potential customers click on your affiliate links and buy the products you’re promoting, you make money.

You can find brands to work with and get affiliate links by going to any popular affiliate network, such as CJ Affiliate or JVZoo. If you can't find a specific brand that you want to work with through affiliate networks, you can also try visiting their website directly to see if they host their own affiliate program. For your affiliate marketing efforts to be successful with YouTube automation, you need to be sure to find products that are ultra-relevant to the channel niche. Then, briefly mention those products in your videos to direct your audience to the video description to click on your affiliate links. 

4. Sponsorship deals

Sponsorship deals are when brands pay you a flat rate to have an advertising spot within your content. A brand will usually reach out to you for a sponsorship opportunity if they have an allocated marketing budget for them. However, you can also directly reach out to the specific brands you want to work with to assess the potential of a deal.

Sponsorship deals are governed by contract, which outlines in which ways you can talk about the brand and payment terms. Here is the typical process for YouTube automation sponsorships. 

1. Review and sign sponsorship contract
2. Create a video concept for the brand to approve by giving the brand a rough ideation of the video title and some bullet points of what the video content will be about. Show the brand how they fit within the video content. 
3. Once the concept is approved, create your content and promote the sponsor for the agreed upon time as outlined in the contract. 
4. Submit video to the sponsor for review and perform any necessary revisions they request. 
5. Schedule video for publishing after receiving final approval from the sponsor. 

Pro tip: The timeframe between concept and approval can take a while. Therefore, it’s best to plan out your sponsorship content far in advance in case your sponsor requires many revisions before they approve the content. This helps you avoid scrambling to make revisions before content publishing deadlines. 

In order to use sponsored content to monetize your YouTube automation channel, you need to: 

5. Print On-Demand

Print on-demand is a business model where you work with a white label supplier, such as for T-shirts or tote bags, and customize those products with your own designs. In the case of a branded YouTube automation channel, you can add your logo or your channel slogan to the white label products to sell.

The best part about print on-demand is how convenient it is. Just like with dropshipping, you don’t need to hold any inventory when doing print on demand and your supplier handles everything from digital printing to order fulfillment and shipping after you make a sale. Some of the most popular print-on-demand suppliers to work with include:

6. Digital products

Digital products are imperishable goods like online courses, e-books, music, stock photos, or pre-made templates you create once and can sell unlimited times. The type of digital product you’ll want to sell depends on your channel niche and content. For example, if you have a YouTube automation channel that reviews and shows people how to use popular accounting software tools, you can sell ready-to-go accounting spreadsheets that some of your audience may prefer over expensive accounting software. 

7. YouTube channel memberships

Channel memberships are an option on the YouTube platform where your audience can become a member of your channel for a monthly fee. Through channel memberships, your audience gets access to exclusive perks like badges, emojis, and members only videos. If your channel is eligible, you can turn on channel memberships on the “Monetization” page in the YouTube studio. Then, you can set up from one to five membership levels with various perks and pricing for your audience to choose from. It usually takes around a day for YouTube to review and approve your membership offers, after which they will notify you by  email and set your channel memberships live. 

Word of caution: Once you set a membership level live, you cannot change the pricing. You can delete an active membership level and create a new offer with a new price, but that will automatically remove all active members from that subscription level. Therefore, it’s best to thoroughly think through your pricing strategy before setting your channel memberships live. 

8. Sell a service like coaching or consulting

If you have a coaching or consulting business, you can use a faceless YouTube channel to promote your own services. For example, say you make money online as a business and entrepreneurship coach. You could create a YouTube automation channel that people interested in starting their own online business would be attracted to, like videos around online business models, motivational tips, or storytelling the lives of successful digital entrepreneurs. In your YouTube content, you could take time to discuss the benefits for the viewer of working with a business coach and refer your audience to check out your own business website.

Selling a coaching or consulting service requires extensive knowledge of YouTube automation. Hence, joining courses like the YouTube Business Academy will equip you with ample knowledge to start your own coaching program.

9. CPA marketing

CPA marketing, or cost-per-action, is a form of affiliate marketing where you earn a fixed commission by instigating a variety of customer actions to occur through your promotional efforts. Just like affiliate marketing, this YouTube monetization strategy entails briefly referencing the brand or product in your video and then pushing your audience towards your description for the affiliate link so the brand can track your performance. Some examples of audience actions beyond sales that can get you paid with CPA marketing include:

10. Super Stickers and Super Chats

YouTube Super Stickers and Super Chats are available during live streams and Premieres to let your audience stick out by purchasing highlighted chats and animated images for the live chat. Because you don’t live stream with a YouTube automation channel, Super Chats and Super Stickers can be used by setting your video to publish as a Premiere with live chat enabled. YouTube Premieres let you and your viewers watch your video premiere in real time together. The more money your audience pays to have their comment highlighted, the longer their Super Chat or Super Sticker gets pinned to the top of the comments board for other members to see.

You can even create buzz for your Premiere ahead of time and make sure to get a large audience involved to increase your chances of them buying Super Stickers or Chats by setting a video reminder. Similar to the YouTube Partner Program and Channel Memberships, your channel needs to meet Super Chat and Super Sticker eligibility requirements before you can turn this feature on.

11. Off-platform memberships

YouTube memberships are not the only way to build a member-only audience segment with a YouTube automation channel. You can also leverage the benefits of an off-platform membership platform like Patreon. The benefit of using an external platform like Patreon is that once you bring your audience there from YouTube, your money making ability from those members is not at risk of demonetization from YouTube.

12. Sell the channel 

If your YouTube automation channel becomes successful enough and has a proven and stable stream of monthly revenue, you could sell your channel to an interested buyer for a large sum of money. There are many people out there looking to buy fully functional and autonomous internet businesses, and even media investment companies like Valnet Inc. that purchase internet properties with established traffic. YouTube has no rules or policies regarding the sale of a YouTube channel so it’s completely legal and allowed.

Can you make money with YouTube automation?

You can make money with YouTube automation if you have the right expectations and resources. It's essential to set a long-term goal for your YouTube automation business and surround yourself with a high-quality team to automate the work for you. 

How much money can someone make from YouTube automation?

You can make $1,000 to $10,000 per month with a YouTube automation channel if you choose a winning YouTube automation channel idea and publish consistent content for around one to two years. However, there are also YouTube automation channels making substantially more money per month, even in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, while many others don’t even make a penny. 

How many views on YouTube do you need to make $1,000?

YouTubers make $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views on average. Assuming you average $5/1,000 YouTube views, you would need 200,000 views to make $1,000. Therefore, one million YouTube views can make you around $5,000 on average. 

3 Tips to rapidly scale a YouTube automation channel 

1. Choose a low competition niche

It may be tempting to go with a high-value niche like personal finance where you can make more money per YouTube view, but those niches are also much more competitive and it can be difficult to get your content seen. Therefore, if you want the best opportunity to grow your YouTube automation channel quickly, it’s better to go with a slightly lower value, lower competition niche.

Even though your channel views will be worth less, you can develop a large audience much quicker and make money faster. What would you prefer? Averaging $10/1,000 views and only getting 10,000 views per month in a competitive niche, or averaging just $5/1,000 views but getting 100,000 views per month?

2. Promote with YouTube Ads

If you have some extra money, promoting your YouTube videos with YouTube Ads can get your video content in front of more eyeballs much quicker than relying on YouTube SEO and waiting for YouTube's algorithm to push your video. You can easily promote a YouTube video by going into the YouTube Studio, pressing "Options" on the specific video you want to push, and then choosing “Promote”. You’ll then be prompted to log into your Google Ads account, where you can set up your video advertisement.

Note: YouTube Ads are run through the Google Ads platform. 

3. Use YouTube Shorts

According to Social Pilot, YouTube Shorts can help you attract substantially more subscribers than traditional long-form video content. Although long-form videos are where your YouTube automation channel will generate the majority of your revenue, YouTube Shorts have some serious viral potential to generate brand awareness much more effectively. You can easily create YouTube Shorts by repurposing the content you have already paid to have created for you by simply piecing together small clips as teasers to viewers to your full video content. 

Does YouTube support automation tools? 

YouTube does support YouTube automation tools and, as a YouTube creator, you have many tools at your disposal. TubeBuddy and VidIQ are two of the best YouTube automation tools for helping you and your team optimize your YouTube videos for success on the platform. If you need a YouTube automation tool that helps you manage your team, check out either of the workflow management tools Asana or Trello. If you need an automation tool that helps you efficiently repurpose your content for YouTube shorts, Repurpose.io will do the trick.

Should you start a YouTube automation channel?

You should start a YouTube automation channel if you have a solid YouTube niche idea that you spent time researching and you have money that you can afford to invest into your channel. 

What are the perks of making money on YouTube?

Making money on YouTube has many perks, like location and time freedom, being your own boss, the ability to work on something you’re interested in, and uncapped income potential.

Is YouTube automation worth it?

YouTube automation is worth it if you don’t need to make money quickly and you have money to hire a high-quality team. If you don’t have money, you’ll be stuck with a substantial amount of work like research, script writing, and video editing. It’s quite a workload! If you have just a little bit of money, you're still better off with another online business model because hiring low-cost, low-quality talent will only result in poor quality videos that are a waste of money. Even though there is considerable profit potential with the business model, you won’t start making good money from your videos until at least a few years of consistent content production so you won’t be able to pay your entire team from revenues until then. 

Is YouTube automation possible without making videos?

Yes, YouTube automation without making videos is definitely possible. This is especially good for those who have don't want to show their faces on their channel. It does save you time, as you are not making the videos yourself. Though some drawbacks include the fact that there are a lot of competitors since a lot of creators are aware of this already.

Conclusion

There are many ways to make money with YouTube automation and starting your own automation channel can provide a stable passive income each month once established. However, because of the extended timeframe needed for a YouTube automation channel to become profitable, it's not the best opportunity for a bootstrapped entrepreneur looking to make money in less than a year. An alternative online business for passive income I strongly recommend is local lead generation. A local lead generation business has very low overhead costs, and you can start generating hundreds to thousands of dollars in passive income with just a few months of work. 

The most important tip for becoming successful in online business is to take action! Too many people get caught up waiting for the perfect opportunity, and then never actually take the plunge. If you want to make your online business dreams a reality, do something today to start the process, like starting an SEO course or choosing a business model and making a plan.