To pick a faceless YouTube niche, I pick a broad topic, look up the top keywords in it, search those keywords on a fresh research channel, and check which faceless channels are already making money. My filters are a channel making at least $10K to $30K a month, that started within the last 6 to 12 months, in a listicle or explainer style. In the video I ran this live on psychology and found a channel I estimated at $30,000 a month in less than two minutes.
- Pick three to five broad niches to research at first, so you have a higher probability of finding something that's already making money.
- Keep the topic broad. If you're too specific, it's hard to find the money opportunities.
- Do your research on a brand new YouTube channel that you create just for that purpose.
- To estimate what a channel makes, take its views from the last 28 to 30 days, divide by 1,000 and multiply by about six.
- Look for channels making at least $10K to $30K a month that started within the last 6 to 12 months, in a listicle or explainer format.
- Picking the niche doesn't need to be a long process. After the filters, it's close to a coin toss between the good options.
Step 1: Pick a Broad Topic (or Three to Five)
The main thing is you just need to pick a topic for your YouTube channel. It could be basketball. It could be makeup. It really does not matter that much at this stage.
In the video I pulled up a list of 50 niches, but honestly you can just go into ChatGPT and ask: "What are some great faceless YouTube niches that I can do explainer or listicle style videos for?" It'll give you a list, and it's at the point where that list is pretty solid.
Two rules for choosing from it.
Keep it broad. Something like "business, money, luxury and wealth" is great. If you're too specific, it's hard to find the money opportunities. Going too specific is how you screw yourself over. (I cover this in more detail in how niche your YouTube channel should be.)
Don't pick on passion alone.
I usually recommend the people we work with pick three to five niches to research at first. That way you have a higher probability of finding something that's already making money.
That's the whole game. You want to find things that are already making money and copy them. That is what I do, and that is what other people do on YouTube.
Do a listicle or explainer channel. I'd stay away from meditation or sleep channels, at least for your first YouTube channel. Pick something that actually has a probability of making 10, 20 or 30 thousand dollars a month.
Step 2: Look Up the Keywords
Once you have a topic, you need the search terms that will surface channels in it. I used psychology as the example (geography is a little too easy to find channels in).
Go back to ChatGPT and ask something like: "What are the top YouTube keywords in psychology to look up to find explainer and listicle style faceless YouTube channels?"
It gave me things like human behavior explained and social psychology. I'd start with something very simple, like psychology facts or psychology explained. Nothing too crazy.
Step 3: Find Channels and See Who's Making Money
Set up a research channel
Create a brand new YouTube channel just for research. I called mine something like "psych research." The name really doesn't matter. Log into that channel and search your basic keywords.
Then sort what you see. Some results are obviously people on camera talking. Some are obviously faceless YouTube channels. Take the faceless ones, subscribe to them, watch the videos and check how much money they're making.
The math I use
Have a tool like vidIQ set up so you can see a channel's stats right on the page. You don't need anything fancy. You just need the views for the last 28 to 30 days.
The tool usually shows an estimated revenue number. I don't typically look at that. I look at views gained, divide by 1,000, and multiply by about six.
- Take the channel's views for the last 28 to 30 days.
- Divide by 1,000.
- Multiply by six.
It's a rough number. It's enough to tell you who is making money and who isn't. There's a fuller version in how to calculate faceless YouTube channel earnings.
What the Psychology Search Turned Up
These are the channels I found in a few minutes of scrolling, with the estimates I gave on screen.
| What I found | Views, last 28 to 30 days | My rough estimate | What I'd do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small psychology channel | 10,000 | Not making much | Skip |
| Animated explainer channel | 5 million | $30,000 a month | Use it as an emulator |
| Faceless psychology channel | About 111,000 | $600 or $700 | Skip |
| Psychology channel with cheap looking production | 1.5 million | Roughly $8,000 to $10,000 | A good example, not the most money |
| Another explainer channel | 7.6 million | About $45,000 last month | Probably the best one to emulate |
The first real hit came almost immediately. At that point I had been yapping for under seven minutes, and the actual work of picking a niche and finding a channel already making around 30K a month took less than two.
Sometimes you have to keep scrolling a little. If a channel isn't making any money, I wouldn't try to copy it. Maybe you use some of its videos as inspiration down the road.
Once you have an emulator, there are a few more things to look at:
- Style of production. How hard are these videos to make? The first channel I found looked pretty animated, so I'm assuming those aren't the cheapest videos to make.
- What's going viral in the niche. That channel touched on psychology and also on other very general explainer concepts. That tells you what you should actually talk about.
Running It Again on Internet Culture
Then you go down your list and do a different topic. I did internet culture. Same prompt: ask ChatGPT for internet culture topics to look up to find faceless channels. I started with internet mysteries.
| What I found | My rough estimate | What I'd do |
|---|---|---|
| Explainer channel that's been around about two years | Around $50,000 a month | A good one to look at |
| Another channel from the same search, at 13 million views a month | $78,000 a month | A good one |
| Small channel | A grand or two a month | Wouldn't copy it, but I'd keep it on the radar |
It was almost easier finding channels in this niche than in psychology.
Step 4: Decide, Using Three Filters
This is how I narrow it down.
| Filter | What I look for |
|---|---|
| Revenue | Channels making at least $10K to $30K a month |
| Timeline | Ideally started within the last 6 to 12 months |
| Format | A listicle (top 10, top 20, top 50) or an explainer, which is close to a video essay |
At this point it's a coin toss on which one you want to do. Psychology or internet culture. Both of those were great.
So the four steps:
- Pick something.
- Look up the keywords.
- Look up YouTube channels and see who's making money.
- Decide.
If I was starting today, I would do exactly what I showed here and pick the channel I found as my emulator. What comes after the niche (formats, keywords, team, packaging) is in how to make $30K a month with a faceless YouTube channel. And if you want a longer breakdown of the categories themselves, read my full guide to the best faceless YouTube niches.
Video Chapters
- 0:00Intro
- 0:30Ask ChatGPT for a list of niches
- 1:31Pick three to five niches to research
- 2:03Step 2: look up the top keywords
- 3:06Create a research YouTube channel
- 4:08Check what channels make with vidIQ
- 5:10Picking an emulator channel
- 6:13The four steps
- 7:15Production style and what's going viral
- 7:45The views times six math
- 9:18A better emulator at 7.6 million views
- 10:21Second example: internet culture
- 11:53My three filters
FAQ
How do you pick a niche for a faceless YouTube channel?
Devon Canup uses four steps: pick a broad topic, look up the top keywords in it, search those keywords to find faceless channels and check who is making money, then decide. He recommends researching three to five niches at first.
How do you estimate how much a faceless YouTube channel makes?
Devon takes the channel's views for the last 28 to 30 days, divides by 1,000 and multiplies by about six. In the video, a channel with 5 million views in that window came out to roughly $30,000 a month.
How much should a channel be making before you copy its niche?
Devon looks for channels making at least $10K to $30K a month that started within the last 6 to 12 months, in a listicle or explainer format.
Should I pick a YouTube niche I'm passionate about?
Devon's advice is to not pick a niche only because you're passionate about it. He says to pick something you think you can make money in, and to confirm that other channels are already earning there.
How broad should a faceless YouTube niche be?
Devon says to keep it really broad, with topics like psychology, internet culture or business and wealth. If you go too specific, it becomes hard to find the money opportunities.
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