u/Lower_Rule2043

I've been doing faceless short-form videos for about 8 months now. Two small channels, around $1k a month combined. Not life-changing but it's real and it grows.

The thing I wish someone had hammered into me on day one: when you make a video, it doesn't go on one platform. It goes on all of them.

Same exact video to YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels. Every single one. It's the same upload work, maybe 10 extra minutes, and you've just multiplied your chances of something landing by 4x. For months I only posted to YouTube and wondered why nothing moved. The day I started cross-posting, one video did okay on Facebook Reels that did nothing on YouTube. You genuinely can't predict which platform will catch it, so you cover all of them.

Other stuff that took me too long to figure out:

- Pick ONE niche and stay in it for at least 3 months. Bouncing topics resets you every time.

- Post daily, or as close to it as you can. Consistency beats quality early on, and your early stuff will be bad anyway. That's fine. That's the job.

- Put an affiliate link in your bio from day one. Platform ad money takes months to kick in (YouTube and Facebook both have monetization thresholds). Affiliate stuff earns while you're still tiny. That was most of my income the first few months.

- The first 2 months you'll make basically nothing and feel dumb. Everyone hits this. Most people quit right here, around week 3-6, which is right before it usually starts moving. Mine didn't budge until month 3.

That's it really. It's not fast and it's not magic, but it compounds because old videos keep earning while you sleep.

If anyone's starting out or stuck somewhere, drop a comment, I'll help where I can. Niche picking, what tools I use, monetization, whatever. No DMs needed, just ask here so others can see it too.

been doing this 6 months across 2 channels and ive seen so many ppl post in this sub asking "why am i stuck at 200 subs" and the answer is almost always the niche, not the content quality.

here iss what ive observed pulling data from my own videos and watching what hits in this space:

niches that consistently push past 100k views even with mid quality:

- scary stories (insane retention, viewers stay till the end)

- weird history facts (the "i didnt know that" trigger)

- mythology breakdowns (greek/norse/japanese)

- psychology and dark psychology

- conspiracy/mystery (cold cases, unsolved stuff)

- gaming lore and creepypasta

niches that look easy but are actually graveyards:

- motivation quotes (saturated to hell, low cpm, advertisers hate it)

- ai brainrot (yt shorts is actively killing reach on these)

- "did u know" trivia (too generic, no emotional hook)

- daily affirmations (zero retention, ppl scroll in 2 sec)

- generic productivity tips (no story = no watch time)

the pattern: niches that work all have STORY or MYSTERY built in. ones that fail are just info delivery.

heres my honest question for the sub - whats ur niche and what kind of retention/views are u getting? trying to gather some real data cause i feel like everyone is afraid to say what doesnt work.

bonus q - has anyone here cracked the gen z male "looksmaxing" niche or is it already saturated?

been spending way too many hours on tiktok search and yt shorts reverse-engineering what makes faceless content actually pop. wanted to break down the patterns i keep seeing across the top videos in scary stories, weird history, psychology, and mythology niches. sharing this for new creators cause i wish someone had laid this out for me when i was making my first 30 videos that all flopped.

1. the contradiction hook

"this isnt scary, its actually heartbreaking." "everyone thinks X happened. they're wrong." it forces the brain to resolve the contradiction which holds attention through the first 3 seconds. works in any niche.

2. the oddly specific date or number

"in 1472, doctors actually prescribed..." or "exactly 47 people walked into this room. only 3 came back out." specificity signals the story is real. round numbers feel made up. weird specific ones feel true.

3. the "they wont sell it" framing

"the cabin in vermont they refuse to sell." "the tape no one is allowed to watch." mystery + restriction = retention. the brain literally has to know why.

4. the familiar object turned wrong

"this is a normal bedroom. except for whats behind the closet door." starting with familiar then revealing wrongness keeps viewers watching way longer than starting with the weird thing already established.

5. the real-time survival framing

"its 3:42 am. the doorknob starts to turn." viewer is now locked into a present-tense experience instead of past-tense narration. drastically harder to scroll past.

what i noticed across all 5: none of them tell u what the video is actually about in the first 3 seconds. they all create a question the brain has to resolve. thats the whole game on shorts - keep the brain hanging long enough to hit retention milestones, the algo does the rest.

curious what hooks have been working for u. drop ur best one in comments, would love to see what ur niche is testing.