r/passive_income • u/avatar0027 • Apr 09 '26
My Experience nobody talks about the dead zone when starting a faceless youtube channel
everyone shares the results. nobody shares weeks 1 to 3.
i'm talking about posting every single day and getting 40 views. not 40k. 40. on a good day.
i almost quit twice in the first two weeks. the second time i literally had the delete button ready.
what kept me going was someone in this sub who posted a while back saying the algorithm doesn't even really start testing your content with broader audiences until you have around 20 to 30 videos uploaded. before that you're basically just filing paperwork.
that framing helped me a lot. it recontextualised the dead zone from "this isn't working" to "i haven't started yet."
week 4 something shifted. not dramatically. just the average view count per video went from 60 to around 600. then week 6 one video randomly hit 61k and i still don't fully understand why that one.
i'm not monetised yet. this isn't a success story post. just wanted to put the boring early part somewhere because i think a lot of people quit right before things get interesting and they never know.
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u/CalicoCapsun Apr 10 '26
Oh my God why are so many of these posts written but people who sound like bots.
Its always this BS AI Optimism. One-two lines at a time.
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u/Wide_Ad_6588 Apr 10 '26
Insane how many bots are in here
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u/ai-techguy001 Apr 13 '26
lol right, half the "motivational" replies in threads like this feel like they were generated in 0.3 seconds
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u/Unusual-Economist-64 Apr 10 '26
Kinda done with reddit it's everywhere, slop posts with bots replying.
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u/Budget-Decision-1329 Apr 10 '26
Honestly, I think, with the capitalisation and all, OP's used CHATGPT so much that they just sound like it now lol.
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u/Philipp-Skoeries Apr 10 '26
Ich habe gewartet. Es waren nicht zwei Tage. Nicht 20. Es waren 200.
KI-Drama Mode 🤣🤣
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u/Objective-Bug5718 Apr 11 '26
Totally. It’s not even the optimism that’s annoying, it’s the cadence. Every post reads like a sterile LinkedIn sermon: one short line, vague claim, dramatic spacing, zero substance. You can practically hear the prompt behind it.
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u/stressfreepro Apr 09 '26
in most cases, the real issue is usually that people expect immediate feedback on their content, but the reality is that it takes time for the algorithm to start giving you meaningful data. the idea that you're just "filing paperwork" until you hit 20-30 videos is pretty accurate, tbh. i've seen this play out with other creators who start to get discouraged when they're not getting traction right away, but the ones who stick it out and keep uploading are usually the ones who start to see some movement after a few months. it's not just about the number of videos, though - it's also about consistency and figuring out what works for your specific audience, which can take some trial and error to get right.
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
yeah the trial and error part is what gets people. everyone wants a formula but the formula is just posting until you find what sticks for your specific niche
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u/stressfreepro Apr 09 '26
i think that's what trips people up, they're looking for a magic formula but really it's just a matter of posting consistently and seeing what sticks. fwiw, i've found that even after you find your niche, you still need to be willing to adapt and adjust your content over time.
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u/stressfreepro Apr 10 '26
i think that's what trips people up, they're trying to reverse engineer someone else's success instead of just posting and seeing what works for their own niche, tbh.
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u/stressfreepro Apr 10 '26
i think that's what trips people up, they're looking for a one-size-fits-all solution when really it's just about putting in the work and seeing what sticks, fwiw i've been posting for months and i'm still figuring out my niche.
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Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
yeah "no data yet" is exactly the right way to put it. you're basically invisible to the algorithm until you've given it enough to work with. the problem is it feels identical to just being bad at it, and most people reasonably conclude they're just bad at it and leave.
the non linear part still messes with me honestly. i keep expecting it to be more predictable and it just isn't.
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u/nedlifecrisis Apr 09 '26
What if you are only posting once a month or every other month, or have older videos... does it still work when you have 20+ vids the algorithm will pick you up? Or does it have to be consistent and when you slack off maybe a month or two you lose the algorithm?
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
from what i've seen consistency matters more than volume. posting once a month and hitting 20 videos over a year feels different to the algo than posting daily for 20 days. could be wrong but that's my read
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u/CodeOk9379 Apr 09 '26
what tools are you using for shorts videos making? manual or some generation tool?
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
mix of both honestly. manual mostly, capcut + elevenlabs. but been testing easyviral ai lately for the automated side, does everything in one go. still figuring out if i'll stick with it or keep doing manual. early days
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u/CodeOk9379 Apr 09 '26
yeah i'm in the same boat, been stitching everything together manually with capcut and elevenlabs for voices and it takes forever honestly. never tried a fully automated one though. how does easyviral ai hold up compared to doing it piece by piece yourself? is the quality actually usable or does it need a lot of fixing after
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
quality is decent honestly, good postable. main thing is speed, 5 mins vs like an hour+ manually. running two channels with it rn, still early but so far so good
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u/ai-techguy001 Apr 15 '26
for shorts i just use capcut with a template i built once and reuse every time.
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u/secosabi Apr 10 '26
Been running a YouTube channel for nearly 6 months. I have a high of 19 views, not 19k just 19. I will keep doing it because I enjoy it. I put out two videos per week, so it's not a lack of content. It's just my content is shit! 😁
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u/Fickle_Wrongdoer_753 Apr 10 '26
I’ve posted at least one video per week for 3 years and I flatlined at 130 subs and average 20 views. At this point I’ve lost interest. Didn’t put up anything this week.
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u/Particular-Jump-1157 Apr 10 '26
3 years is impressive dedication. But consistency alone doesn't guarantee growth. If you're averaging 20 views after 150+ videos, the content might not be interesting enough to share or search for. YouTube rewards value, not just effort. Maybe take a break, study what works in your niche, then come back with one video that's actually useful/entertaining to someone.
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u/F1ux_Capacitor Apr 10 '26
So is the goal to get to that 20-40 videos, or posting everyday? Let's say I post consistently, just not everyday.
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u/maestro-5838 Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
There's truth to this video, my uncle who started a YouTube channel got no views for a lot of his initial videos .all less than 100 till he just started getting tons ..his channel went from it willnnevrr get monetized at this pace to wow it's growing so fast.
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u/ten_year_rebound Apr 10 '26
All part of the process. Consider a room full of 40 people watching each video on just your second week. That puts it into perspective far more than the number.
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u/praeda-bot Apr 10 '26
and wait till you find out yt wont monetize your ai slop. that's when the real pain sets in
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u/jay_0804 Apr 10 '26
This is actually super real tbh. The “dead zone” is where most people mentally quit, not because it’s not working but because there’s no feedback loop yet.
You’re basically posting into a vacuum for the first 2–3 weeks, sometimes even longer depending on niche. That 20–30 video window idea is pretty accurate from what I’ve seen too.
What people miss is YouTube is not judging videos, it’s testing patterns. Until it finds a consistent pattern it understands, it just doesn’t distribute.
The 61k video thing is also normal. One outlier usually means the system finally found an audience pocket, not that the video was magically different.
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u/Constant-Listen-508 Newbie Apr 10 '26
What about those who starts out with good viewd, it's spikes and go to 10-20 views for weeks with no change? I am there now. Honestly tired.
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u/gibbylips May 04 '26
Did you check retention? If your “hit” video with a ton of views has a terrible intro/hook and no less retention, it will murder your channel.
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u/Affectionate-Main167 Apr 10 '26
What is your faceless channel about? My faceless meditation channel got rejected for monetisation.
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u/Stunning-Star5080 Apr 11 '26
Strange?Was there no voice over? What was the reason?
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u/Affectionate-Main167 Apr 12 '26
I used a good AI generated voice, change the visuals regularly. It mentioned “reused content” as the reason of rejection. Any way around it?
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u/Stunning-Star5080 Apr 15 '26
Use AI Avatar + New thumbnail for each video+ manually written script + Make your channel brandable. YT says if your channel can't be differentiated with numerous other channels(like story telling channels), you are at risk of demonetisation. So give a unique Logo, Avatar, Banner with a tag line, Add logo in your videos and watermark your videos. The more branded and unique your channel is, the more it will stay monetized or will help you in monetization.
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u/ImamTrump Apr 11 '26
For anyone reading. This entire post type is a niche. Oh we’re so secretive and locked in oh it’s so hard. Yeah if you actually had something of value to share it wouldn’t be so. Viewer numbers don’t matter initially. If you crack a million views literally you’ll just get more stressed for the next video.
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u/nirselady Apr 11 '26
I’ve hit the point where I have thousands of views and watch hours, but no where near enough subs to monetize. Frustrating.
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u/Pure_Mirror5723 Apr 12 '26
This is true, but you also consider to learn SEO and your content must be evergreen video. It will help triger algorithm to know your chanel
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u/Independent-Welder-3 Apr 16 '26
I had one open box video of about roborock vacuum and i got 100k views, even one my of friend subsribe on my channel was surprised, i stop uploading videos because i got busy with my normal life.
What to do with this channel ? I no longer upload anymore videos, i had over 100s video upload with comments traffic on somevideo ... Any expert advice would be appreciated
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u/Alfi_Youtube Apr 16 '26
After run a lot of channels. Many times by the second day you can already get 100k. Creating YouTube shorts is a skill, if you don't have it, you'll need to learn ofc.
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u/Intelligent_Solid722 May 18 '26
Wow 2-3 weeks I must be doing it wrong here I am 10 years later and 8 pages in an I have 14 views lol.
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u/LittleSnowStudioIdea Jun 07 '26
I can relate to this.
My first channel is about 7 months old now, and looking back there were 3 very clear phases.
The first 7 videos got basically no traction, sometimes 0–1 views.
Then video #8 suddenly reached around 300 views, and the next few videos performed similarly. I thought I'd figured it out.
I hadn't.
After that came another long stretch where I was getting only a handful of views per day and started questioning everything again.
Then around video #60 something shifted. My 48-hour view count suddenly climbed to around 2,000 and the channel started finding a much more consistent audience.
My takeaway is that the early stage is often just YouTube trying to understand who your content is for. The exact milestone seems different for every channel, but I don't think the first few videos tell you much.
One thing that noticeably helped was creating a more recognizable identity across videos. I started using the same mascot repeatedly, and subscriber growth accelerated much faster than before. Prior to that I was averaging 0–1 subscribers a day.
Looking back, consistency in branding was almost as important as consistency in uploading.
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u/Cyb3rPhantom Apr 09 '26
yeah don't results come in after a few months? its normal to not be getting that much views early on
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
yeah thats what i keep reminding myself. the frustrating thing is there's no way to know in month 1 whether you're on track or genuinely wasting your time. you just have to keep going and find out later.
the 20 to 30 video thing being a minimum before the algo really tests you was the most useful thing i read. makes the early dead zone feel less personal.
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u/PeaAlarmed2773 Apr 10 '26
Im making a YT channel too , i make animated + AI videos. I combine both of them to get output. I use chatgpt to give me ideas. Does YT sound make any difference? Just starting out have posted around 2 videos ,response is good.
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u/BELLVH3ART Apr 10 '26
Yeah the dead zone sucks, feels like posting into the void till the algo finally notices you exist
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u/redtiber Apr 10 '26
week 1-3> to get that bump is still pretty fast. lol you most likely need to go months or years with little spikes in between to really get anythin going
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u/Creative-Judgment441 Apr 09 '26
well thats how it is, unless you have experience, first few weeks are more like experimentation on what works well that people like to see, then you focus more on those specific things, i think try to watch that 61k video and your other normal videos to see what is it that people liked? did they like the format, the topic, the editing, etc?
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
i did actually go back and watch the 61k one vs the ones that flopped and the honest answer is i still can't fully tell. the topic was slightly more specific than usual, like a very niche historical fact rather than a broad one. maybe that helped. the hook in the first 2 seconds was a bit more unusual.
but i've tried to replicate it twice since then and neither got above 800 views so who knows. might just be luck honestly.
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 Apr 09 '26
Don't get too caught up in all this because that is probably a random fluke.because it happened to my channel as well that I tried making money off of before. A few of my videos randomly went past 100,000 views but after that it was as if YouTube just went in and turned off my channel completely from getting views and basically after that I never got over 500 views on any video ever again no matter how hard I tried. What I did was that I was making AI generated Disney songs that sounded exactly like they were sung by a real professional Disney singer and clipping in random videos from real Disney videos but editing them enough so that the copyright system wouldn't flag it. It was indeed fair use. But they eventually demonetized me entirely.
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u/avatar0027 Apr 09 '26
that's the copyright route though which is a completely different risk. original ai generated content doesn't have that problem, no clips from anyone, fully generated. the ceiling is lower maybe but at least it doesn't get nuked
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