I took my channel Across the Globe from an all-time low of about $2,000 a month (April was $2,700) to $16,000 in July, four months later. We rehired a lot of the team, moved the channel into geopolitics and geography, made the videos longer, and went through a testing phase where a lot of videos failed and got taken down. What turned it around was finding a few winning content series by only modeling outlier videos, then repeating those series with the same title and the same thumbnail style.
- Across the Globe peaked around $25,000 in a month, fell to an all-time low around $2,000 a month, and did $16,000 in July after the reset.
- We rehired a lot of the team, brought in stronger scriptwriters, and went from roughly 10 minute videos to 20 to 40 minute videos.
- For every video we produced, we came up with 20 to 30 ideas, 5 to 10 thumbnails and 3 to 5 hooks.
- We only modeled outliers. We weren't making a video unless somebody else already got at least 500,000 views with it, ideally a million.
- Out of about 10 content styles we tried, a few series hit consistently, like "Why living in the UK has become impossible."
- When I recorded this, the channel was on pace for about $24,000 a month. The goal is $40,000 to $60,000 a month in ad revenue, plus brand deals.
- The numbers: $2,000 a month to $16,000 a month
- How the channel got to $25K a month, then died
- The reset at the end of 2024
- The testing phase, and why we took videos down
- 20 to 30 ideas for every video we made
- We only modeled outliers
- The content series that blew the channel up
- The geography facts series: good money, wrong brand
- Where I'm taking it: the RealLifeLore model
- Video chapters
- FAQ
The numbers: $2,000 a month to $16,000 a month
The channel is called Across the Globe. Here's where it has been and where I want it to go.
| Point in time | Monthly revenue |
|---|---|
| The peak, in the travel era | About $25,000 |
| The all-time low | About $2,000 (April was $2,700) |
| July, four months later | $16,000 |
| The pace when I recorded this | About $24,000, if we keep it going |
| The goal, ad revenue | $40,000 to $60,000 |
| The goal, brand deals on top | An extra $40,000 to $50,000 |
We were already getting a lot of brand deal inquiries on this project when I recorded the video.
How the channel got to $25K a month, then died
We've had this channel for a good amount of time. I originally started it back in 2021. We made five videos, maybe 10, nothing was really hitting, and we stopped the project.
Then one day I realized the channel just kept getting views. Something like 50 views a day, years after we made the videos. So when I had more resources later on, I got back into it, and we figured out how to go viral.
The videos were very simple travel content:
- Why nobody lives in a certain place
- 10 cheapest places to live in Florida
- 10 states everyone is moving to in America
These were simple B-roll videos. We were finding clips on stock footage websites like Storyblocks.
The channel capped out. We were at $25,000 a month, and really the top channel in that space was doing about $30,000 a month. I think there was one doing $60,000, but they do it a little bit more as a personal brand.
It was a good niche and it worked well. It wasn't anything too exciting, and it didn't become a priority for me, because I was building out FCA and other businesses.
In 2024 we pivoted. The travel videos were doing okay, and we tried videos about immigration and places collapsing, which moved us toward more of a negative connotation. Personally I didn't feel best about making those. But we were finding a lot of channels making $100,000 plus a month off more geopolitical style content. I don't really care about politics, honestly. I do like money.
Between the management we had at the time and the content strategy, the channel died off, and we ended up at the all-time low.
The reset at the end of 2024
Around the end of 2024 my goal shifted. I started coming up with this vision of building a huge publishing company: a portfolio of channels, something I could sell for, let's say, $30 to $50 million. So I wanted these channels to be something really cool, something I can eventually sell.
From the end of 2024 into 2025 we did a major reset. We rehired a lot of the team and we switched up the content strategy.
| Before the reset | After the reset | |
|---|---|---|
| Niche | Simple travel, then immigration style videos | Geopolitics and geography |
| Production | Simple B-roll from stock footage sites | Increased significantly, with stronger scriptwriters |
| Video length | Around 10 minutes | 30 to 40 minutes on some, 20 to 25 at the least |
We're trying to get to where we post a 40 minute video almost every single day.
Longer videos do two things. RPMs go up, so you make more money per view. And you get a bigger share of the marketplace, because a lot of our viewers are actually on television. I go deeper on that in how to increase your YouTube RPM.
The testing phase, and why we took videos down
This is the phase that took us all the way down to $2,700 a month.
We pivoted away from the immigration style videos. They did well (the last one we did got 500,000 views). But we moved into more geopolitical and geographical content, and the results were all over the place. Some of them did good. Some of them didn't.
There were probably 10 more failures than you can see on the channel. We simply took them down, because they really weren't performing well. Over the span of those four months, I think we probably posted three times as many videos, and we took a lot of them down.
20 to 30 ideas for every video we made
This is the process I go through to make a new video series. First of all, you need a good idea.
So we increased the volume of reps in the production process.
| Part of the video | How many we came up with before picking one |
|---|---|
| Video ideas | 20 to 30 |
| Thumbnails | 5 to 10 |
| Hooks (the first 5 to 20 seconds) | 3 to 5 |
We'd probably put in about five hours per video idea. Then we picked from the best.
My full process for this is in how to find viral YouTube video ideas.
We only modeled outliers
This is the biggest strategy of it all. We always made sure we were modeling proven strategies. We never wanted to be original.
Any time we were original, we were taking a huge gamble. Most times we'd fail, because we didn't do enough research, enough ideation, enough studying.
So we set rules for what we were allowed to make.
| Where the original video is | Views it needs before we model it |
|---|---|
| Any channel | At least 500,000, ideally a million |
| A channel already getting millions of views on its videos | 5 million |
Those are what I call outliers. We had to find these outlier videos, and we only tried to model outlier videos.
The content series that blew the channel up
What really took the channel to the stage it's at now is that we found a few winning content series. I think we tried 10 different content styles.
One of the first that hit was this:
- Why living in the UK has become impossible
- Why living in Germany has become impossible
- Why living in France has become impossible
- Why no one wants to live in Sweden
It's basically the same format, and on the last one we just tried a different title. Some of those videos got okay results, but we were able to hit it over and over, fairly consistently.
Then we did "Why [country] is suddenly declaring war on immigration." Italy, Germany, Finland, Austria. Most of these did okay. The Austria one was more recent, about a month before I recorded this, and it got 300,000 views.
We tested multiple thumbnails on every video. Some of the thumbnails you see on the channel now weren't the original ones.
This speaks volumes about staying consistent with a specific content strategy. A lot of channels make a video on one thing, then another thing, then another thing. You look at the channel and it's a Frankenstein of 10 different video ideas. If you're constantly changing the variables of each video, this is what you're doing:
We used the exact same thumbnail style and the exact same title. That made it easy to win, because then all you have to do is make the rest of the video better. Better hooks, better content, better music and sound effects, better animations, better retention strategies.
You get good on any YouTube channel when you pick one strategy, or just a few, and get really good at perfecting those.
The geography facts series: good money, wrong brand
That's also where we came across the geography facts videos. These do really well and they make a ton of money, so we keep making them for right now. They've definitely grown the channel a lot.
The problem is that they don't align with the brand we want to build. I want us to be a geography channel. I don't really want to be a geography facts channel. It's a little bit too niche for my liking, and it corners us. I feel like it's very limiting if all we do is get really good at geography facts videos.
I'm thinking about doing a spin-off with them.
We probably could have grown faster if we only did geography facts videos. I'm looking at the bigger picture. (I walk through that series in detail in how to make $30K a month with faceless YouTube.)
Where I'm taking it: the RealLifeLore model
The channel we're really trying to model is RealLifeLore. I think they're doing at least $80,000 a month right now. Every single video that channel puts out gets millions of views. They were in a little bit of a lull when I recorded this, but if you go back a year or a year and a half, every single video is a banger.
I want a YouTube channel in that zone.
What I noticed is that almost half of their videos are one-off ideas. They take previous proven packaging, ideas, titles and content structure, but each video is kind of its own unique idea.
That's where I'm trying to pivot everything: a really strong geopolitical channel built on one-off, research heavy ideas, with a production built around them. If we can do those consistently and keep making the videos better, that's where we get 2 million, 3 million, 5 million views a video. And it's not going to get too heavily saturated, because the ideas are so well thought through.
Past that, I want to turn this into a full-blown brand. A website, a blog, a Facebook page, TikTok, Instagram, short form content. Something that can make multiple millions of dollars a year, where the brand is bigger than a single series.
Video Chapters
- 0:00From $2,000 a month to $16,000 a month
- 1:10Channel history: started in 2021, capped near $25K
- 2:37The 2024 pivot toward geopolitics
- 3:38The reset: new team, new content strategy
- 4:39Longer videos and TV viewers
- 5:05The testing phase and the $2,700 month
- 5:4220 to 30 ideas for every video
- 7:16Only modeling outliers
- 8:25The winning content series
- 9:21Why staying consistent stacks the odds
- 10:27The geography facts series
- 10:54The model channel: RealLifeLore
- 11:57One-off ideas and building a full brand
- 13:40Outro
FAQ
How do you revive a dead YouTube channel?
Devon Canup's approach on Across the Globe was to reset the team and the content strategy, test around 10 content styles, take down the videos that failed, and repeat the few series that worked. The channel went from about $2,000 a month to $16,000 a month in four months.
How much does the Across the Globe YouTube channel make?
Devon says the channel peaked around $25,000 in a month, dropped to an all-time low around $2,000 a month, and made $16,000 in July of the year he recorded the video. It was on pace for about $24,000 a month at that time.
What is an outlier video on YouTube?
In Devon's process it is a video that went viral. His team only models videos with at least 500,000 views (ideally a million), or 5 million views if the channel already gets millions of views on its videos.
How many video ideas should you come up with before picking one?
Devon's team comes up with 20 to 30 ideas for every video they produce, plus 5 to 10 thumbnails and 3 to 5 hooks for the first 5 to 20 seconds.
Why make longer YouTube videos?
Devon says RPMs go up when videos are longer, so you make more money per view, and a lot of his viewers watch on television. His channel went from roughly 10 minute videos to 20 to 40 minute videos.
Should you take down YouTube videos that flop?
Devon's team did. During the testing phase they took down videos that weren't performing, and he says there were probably 10 more failures than the channel page shows.
Want This Built With You?
Faceless Channel Academy is the coaching program I run for people building faceless YouTube channels: niche, formats, team, packaging, with an advisor and live calls. Book a free strategy call and we'll look at where you are and whether it's a fit.
Book a Free Strategy Call →Not ready to talk? Grab the free niche research template first.
