How to Make Money on Youtube Without Showing Your Face

Today I'm going to tell you how you can make money on Youtube without showing your face.

Is this possible? Absolutely.

More than likely you reading this because you would love to have a Youtube channel but don't want to show your face on camera.

Am I right?

If you're too shy to go on camera, don't have the right equipment, or lack the expertise to create good quality videos, you can still make money with your youtube videos.

Here are some ways you can make money on youtube without making videos by showing your face.

How to Create a Youtube Channel Without Showing Your Face

In order to make money on YouTube with this method, you are going to set up your channel.

The good news is that anyone across the world can create one. It's free to set up an account.

You will need a Google account first. If you have a Gmail email account already, then you are all set.

1) Choose a Niche

The first step is to decide what niche to create your channel in. It would be good to choose something that interests you. This makes it easier.

Some great niches to choose from are:

There are MANY different niches to choose from in creating a YouTube channel.

Keep in mind that some niches pay more than others. This comes down to advertisers. 

For example, the automotive niche is one of the highest-paid niches because companies in this sector pay a lot of money to Youtube for ads.

If you have an automotive channel with a big audience, these companies will want to have ads on your channel which is going to make you a lot of money.

There are many profitable niches to choose from, not just the automotive industry.

2) Choose Your Channel Name

There are a few things you should keep in mind when choosing a name for your channel.

First, consider what type of content you'll be creating.

For example, if you're focused on gaming, consider using a funny or clever pun. Once you've decided on the general tone of your channel, it's time to brainstorm some specific ideas.

You can start by thinking of related words and phrases, then combine them to create something unique. If you're struggling to come up with ideas on your own, try looking at other YouTube channels for inspiration.

Just make sure it's not vulgar and is easy to pronounce. Short, simple and catchy names work best. Try to keep it to 3 words or less.

Keep it relevant to your niche as well. It can be original but should match your topic somehow.

Your channel name represents your brand. This is why you need to choose wisely. Your channel name has a huge impact on how your channel will be received.

3) Creating Your Youtube Account

After you decided on a niche and channel name, it's time to open your youtube account.

There are two types of channels you can start:

Personal Account

If you start a personal account, your Google account name will also be your channel name. I don't advise you to do this. You'll want to set up a Brand Account which is much better for business.

Brand Account

Since you are making a faceless Youtube channel, you should be choosing a Brand Account. This way you'll be able to use the name you already picked for your channel. It also gives you more flexibility because you can open multiple channels this way. There's no cost for this and it's a much better option.

4) Uploading Videos to Your Channel

There are a few things to keep in mind before you upload your content to Youtube.

Make Sure it's in the Correct Format

In order for Youtube to process your video, it needs to be in the proper format. Currently, there are 16 different formats to choose from. Your format will depend on what video editing software you are using. Some of the popular formats are MOV, MPEG, AVI.

Once you've identified your format is acceptable, just click on the top right the movie icon labeled "create" and then click "upload video".

It will look like this. You can either drag your video to this space or choose "select files" and then navigate to where your video is.

Choose Between Public or Private

Obviously, you will want to make your videos public so they can be viewed. However, if your channel is new and you don't have any videos, it's best to make them private first once you have at least 5 or so. You can make them all public and link the relevant videos together with end screens.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails can make or break your channel. You will want to create some eye-catching thumbnails that entice people to click. You can create these yourself, get someone to create them for you, or use some type of software like photoshop

Set Your Title, Description, and Tags

Your title should be catchy but also convey what is in the content. Don't use clickbaity titles. Write a good description explaining what the video is about. Think of it as a summary of your video. You can also include links here to relevant content or to give credit to other creators where you've used their content. Include relevant tags as well. All this will help with Youtube SEO.

All these things are the techy part of setting up your channel. Next, let's get into how you will leverage other content.

Different Ways to Make Money on YouTube Without Showing Your Face

There are a few ways that you'll be able to leverage other content for your channel so you don't have to turn on your camera and make videos yourself.

Your niche will determine what type of content you will need. Not all of these will work with your niche so you have to decide what method is best for YOUR channel.

An easy way to do this is to see what the best-performing videos in your niche look like on Youtube. You would then use content to make similar videos to theirs.

Here are different ways to find content:

1) Free Stock Footage and Images

If you see other channels doing great with images and stock footage, you can get similar content for free. Most of these are royalty-free and no attribution is required. You will need to check this before using it on your channel.

For example, on Pixabay, look for this:

Here are some other sites you can find free stock footage to use:

All these sites will have similar content but some might have unique as well. So you'll have to go through them all to find something that suits your channel.

These sites have also images and music that you can download for free. There's many of them and these three are just an example.

2) Paid Stock Footage and Images

You'll likely have a much better selection by using sites that have paid stock footage and photos. Generally, these are better quality and are not used as much as free content. This will make your content look more original.

There are many different sites that offer paid footage. One example is Storyblocks. For $30 a month you get unlimited downloads. Included is HD & 4K Footage, music & sound effects, photos, vectors & illustrations.

Envato Elements is another good example of paid footage.

3) Use Videos From Other Content Creators

You can also get your content by using other people's videos.

However, you have to be careful with this strategy. As long as you give attribution to the owner of the video in your description and you do a voice-over, only use a 15-second clip of the video, etc., you should be ok.

I'm not a lawyer so I can't give definitive advice here, but just Google "fair use" and you'll understand the process more.

Many big channels use this strategy - there's no reason why you can't but here are some tips on doing so:

Fair Use - Guidelines When Downloading Other Channel's Videos

So what is fair use? Fair use is when you use other people's content in a transformative way. This means that you'll add commentary, research, teaching, or news reporting on top of the footage you downloaded.

Here is what Youtube says about Fair Use:

Why it's important to follow fair use guidelines:

• If you don't you could lose all the money you've been generating with your channel due to a copyright strike

• Some or all of your videos could get claimed by the claimant - which means they get the income - not you.

The main thing to remember here is that you have to make the content that you borrow from someone else transformative. In other words, add to it with a voice-over, add a script, and use multiple clips from different sources, not just one. In a sense, you'll be creating original videos this way.

By following these rules, you should have no problems.

Creative Commons Video Content

Content creators may post videos that contain a Creative Commons license. What this means is that you can use this content in your videos. However, the person who created the content still retains ownership.

There are some rules to follow and it is subject to the terms of the license.

This is what Youtube says about Creative Commons:

How to Find Creative Commons Videos

1. Go to Youtube
2. Enter a search query in the search bar. For example, "cats"
3. Click on "filter" at the top
4. Under "features" click on Creative Commons
5. The results will show only the Creative commons licensed videos

These are the three ways you can find content for any Youtube video. Just be sure to see what the competition is doing and replicate it. Just make it better!

How do These Faceless YouTube Channels Make Money?

There are two ways.

The first is through the Youtube partner program. You will need a Google Adsense account for this which is free.

This is where Youtube PAYS you when people simply WATCH your videos.

Your channel will need to be monetized first. 

To get monetized you will need more than 4,000 watch hours on your channel in the last 12 months. You also need to have 1,000 subscribers or more.

Some channels get monetized in less than a month - others take longer.

Secondly, you can monetize your videos by promoting products via affiliate marketing.

Typically there would be a link in the description below the video. If someone buys from your affiliate link you will earn a commission.

You would only promote products that are related to the niche your channel is in. 

So if your channel is about dogs, don't promote a course on bitcoin!

How Much do These "Faceless Channels" Make?

Let's take a look at "top15s" - a YouTube channel that doesn't make their own videos:

Here, I popped the channel in Socialblade to get some stats:

If you look where I circled, you'll see what the channel is making per month and yearly.

You'll notice there is a big gap in earnings for each. This is because it depends on some channels making more than others depending on what niche it is in. 

More on what niches make the most money later...

So to estimate, you'd take a mid-range of these numbers.

So for their monthly earnings, they are making around $15,000 - $20,000 per month. For yearly earnings, I'd say it's around the $200,000 range.

That's a pretty big chunk of change. How would you like to make 200K a year without creating videos yourself?

How to Make Your Youtube Channel a Success

In order for the best chance of success, you need to do market research. If you get this wrong, you'll be wasting your time. Don't put effort into a niche that won't pay off.

See what other popular channels in your niche are doing. You'll be able to get some inspiration from them. 

Don't copy what they are doing - just make something better.

You also need to do keyword research.

The best tool for this is VIDIQ - I use it myself and you are going to need this tool to give you the best chance at success on Youtube. 

It's going to help you find easy keywords to rank for, give you a ton of video ideas and also see what your competition is doing.

You can find keywords manually, but it will just take more time. You can find keywords by typing something in the search bar and Youtube will automatically provide suggestions you can use.

Make Your Youtube Videos With Video Editing Software

You're going to need to put all your clips together and there are many video editors available.

I personally use Camtasia, but there are free ones like Openshot.

If you're not familiar with how to use these, don't worry there's plenty of training available and even on Youtube. 

It's really not that difficult!

Voice-Overs vs Text

You are going to need to convey your message in your videos and you can do this either by a voice-over or just text.

A voice-over will have more impact, but it also depends on your niche.

If the videos themselves can do the talking, then you might be fine with just putting a text script somewhere in the video.

If a voice-over is needed, you can do this yourself.

Or, you can hire someone on either Fiverr or Upwork to do this for you. You should be able to get someone rather inexpensively but you'll have to do some research here.

Are There Courses That Teach How to Make Money on Youtube Without Going on Camera?

Yes, there are. Since many YouTubers have a lot of success with videos where they don't have to show their face, it's no wonder some courses have been created as a result.

One course I actually bought was Tube Mastery and Monetization by Matt Par. You might even be aware of Matt Par because he runs 9 channels himself, most of which are channels that don't show his face.

I even reviewed Matt Par's Course after buying it so you can see what it's all about.

Option number two.

Another course that I got is Bye 9 to 5 by Jordan Mackey.

You can read my Bye 9 to 5 Review here.

Both of these courses are great, however I felt that Matt Par's course offers more value.

You can also check out my article on the best YouTube Courses. This list includes other courses that require you to go on camera, just in case you're open to showing your face. 

Conclusion

I hope that you got something from this guide on how to make money on Youtube without showing your face. You can use all the actionable steps I provided to go and start your own Youtube channel right now.

Just be mindful if you are going to use other people's content. This will be your biggest challenge. However, if you do it right and follow all the guidelines, you won't get into trouble.

There's a lot of money to be made on Youtube. So get going and take a piece of that pie!

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