TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide
TubeTalk tackles the questions that real YouTubers are asking. Each week we discuss how to make money on YouTube, how to get your videos discovered, how to level up your gaming channel, or even how the latest YouTube update is going to impact you and your channel. If you've ever asked yourself, "How do I grow on YouTube?" or "Where can I learn how to turn my channel into a business?" you've come to the right podcast! TubeTalk is a vidIQ production. To learn more about how we help YouTube creators big and small, visit https://vidIQ.com
TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide
How To Turn Breaking News Into High-Quality Videos Fast
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We break down how Robert Benjamin uses AI to move from breaking news to a polished YouTube upload fast without sacrificing trust. We also dig into the practical guardrails, platform strategy, and mindset shifts that help creators grow views while doing less busywork.
• turning X into a research engine for YouTube topics
• using AI to make content higher quality faster, not to outsource your whole brain
• building a repeatable script workflow with Grok and Claude
• adding a confidence-level requirement to reduce AI errors
• avoiding “AI slop” by aiming for 10x depth
• using AI for B-roll and production support while keeping creative control
• reducing demonetization risk with clear AI disclosure in settings and descriptions
• comparing TikTok growth speed with YouTube search and long-term monetization
• starting a new channel with search terms, competitor analysis, and views-per-hour
• adapting to algorithm shifts like stronger niching and search-based Shorts
• thinking through live shopping and where it fits across platforms
• choosing monetization paths that match your values and your audience
• building your first 1,000 fans by replying to comments and asking for subs
• playing the long game so your back catalog can compound
If you're new here and you're all the way at this end, you should probably go ahead and hit that like button. You know you already love it, so why not do it?
X News To YouTube Speed Edge
SPEAKER_01Things happen on X first in terms of news and breaking news. I'm then turning that into video content for YouTube as quickly as possible with AI, and that's kind of the uh the arbitrage that I have. I could do a video now like script, idea, thumbnail, editing, recording in like 90 minutes. It would have been absolutely impossible to do like even a year ago. I think AI should be used to create a 10x piece of content instead of creating 10 pieces of really poor content.
Welcome And Meet Robert Benjamin
SPEAKER_00Hey, welcome back to the OnlyPodcast is here to help you get more views by doing less. I'm Travis, and I'm here with a very special guest today, Robert Benjamin, who's here to help you grow your channel in so many different ways, including telling you how to automate your stuff. He's been on YouTube for a while with over 900,000 subscribers and 88 million views. He is the man when it comes to figuring out how to automate things. Welcome to the show. Awesome. Pleasure to be here. It's super excited to chat. If you're new here, this is what we do every week. We uh tell you how to grow your channel in different ways. If you're listening to the audio-only podcast, there will be links in the show notes and here on YouTube in the description
From TikTok Waves To AI Creator
SPEAKER_00below. All right, Robert, for people who don't know you, um tell people like what you do, what kind of content you do, and uh, you know, a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so at the moment I actually have two YouTube channels. Um, so the social media stuff I've been doing since 2019, before getting started on YouTube, uh, I actually worked for Gary V, which I used to talk about a lot more, you know, back in the day, but now I don't really talk about it as much because it was like 10 years ago now. Um, so I worked for Gary, saw that TikTok was starting to get really big. TikTok was like the first thing that I spoke about on YouTube. Um, saw a lot of success with that. Well, before that, I struggled. I tried to talk about everything uh that I was doing at the agency. I tried to talk about Amazon, tried to talk about all these different things. Essentially, though, what that channel has now evolved into, though, is talking about TikTok, talking about Instagram, talking about YouTube. Um, I really wrote three big waves, one of them being TikTok, the next one being Instagram coming out with reels. And then on YouTube, it was really YouTube Shorts is really what I was known for. Um, today I also started an AI channel, go by Rob, the AI guy. Um, kind of just did that as an excuse, like for me to be able to spend time learning about AI and feeling like I wasn't wasting my time, you know. Like I'm sure a lot of people feel like, you know, keeping up with AI, the news, all of that is a full-time job. So it's like, okay, how can I uh get something out of this? Not necessarily get something out of this, but like, how do I uh do what I like to do, which is learn about things and then teach people about things on YouTube? Um, so I started to do that, and now I'm also exploring starting other channels because of AI and how easy it makes doing things now.
AI As A Partner Not A Crutch
SPEAKER_00So, what do you think is the thing about, I mean, of course, the AI is very kind of uh polarizing at times, right? I mean, to be honest, it's polarizing. Some people love it, it's like, oh my god, it's made things so much easier. Some people are like, oh, it takes away the artistic uh you know capabilities of YouTubers, which I don't I don't agree with that aspect of it. I mean, sure, there are pros and cons to each, but um, what is the one thing you think um people who aren't using it are missing out on the most?
SPEAKER_01Um, I I think what AI really allows you to do, if you're using it correctly, it allows you to create things that are higher quality faster, right? If I think about like the struggle that we used to go through to try to edit a video, to try to create B-roll for a video, um, to try to write a script for a video, to try to do research for a video, even to create a thumbnail for a video. Um, it used to take so long to do those things. Like I look back six months ago, 12 months ago, like it used to take an entire day to make a YouTube video. The type of content that I create, educational content. I could do a video now, like script, idea, thumbnail, editing, recording in like 90 minutes. Um, which it it would have been absolutely impossible to do like even a year ago. Um, and what I really think people are missing out on is I think people like just hear the terms AI, and I I think there are basically three camps that people fall into. Like one camp of people is, and I think that this isn't the right way to go about it. They just bury their head in the sand. I don't want to do anything about it. Uh, the second camp of people, I think what they're doing is kind of just outsourcing everything to AI, which I also think is like not the way to go about it, right? Um, I think it should be a partner, I think it should be a tool, but like the same way that, you know, a computer, like it it made people faster. Excel made people better at things. Photoshop at one point was a new technology, also, right? Which seems crazy to think about. Um, I think AI is just an accenture to that, not something people should be scared of, not also not something that like, you know, it's not God. It's not a genius. It it'll the same way that a human might tell you something and they'll say it confidently, and it's like, oh, like that person lied to me. AI can do the same exact thing. Um, so I think that's how people should be approaching it and should be thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00What do you what do you like uh of all the things that you use AI for? What's the one thing you now can't go without? Like if everything else stopped working, this is the one aspect of your life. No, no, that I would never let that go. Uh, script writing, I think.
SPEAKER_01Um, a lot of what I do, especially on the AI channel, a lot of it is like uh, you know, a new tool comes out. Like, for example, GPT 5.6 got released like an hour ago. Um, I could very easily go to, I like to use grok for this personally for like stuff like that, because you uh grok is trained on X's data and has access to X's data. So like I'm able to get a ton of different opinions, a ton of different use cases, a ton of different cool ways that people are using this tool. And then I could, you know, export all of that. Usually I do it in Claude where I'm taking all of that, bringing it into Claude. I have a skill for my scripts, and I get a script made in my format with like all of the relevant information that people are talking about on X and kind of the uh the space that I'm falling into.
Turning X Research Into Scripts
SPEAKER_01I I don't really like to give out like super secrets like this, but I am translating like things happen on X first in terms of news and breaking news. I'm then turning that into video content for YouTube as quickly as possible with AI, and that's kind of the uh the arbitrage that I have.
SPEAKER_00That's that's I mean, that's really the research and script writing portions are really uh clutch. They definitely come in clutch. Uh but you do point out some really important things, which is uh the accuracy sometimes. I I'll usually just I'll tell an AI to double check itself, and frequently it will find errors in itself, right? And then you're like, well, what part can I believe? I've I've found that the double check tends to be the accurate portion. Like the the original uh has maybe a 70% accurate, 80% depending on what you're asking it for. And then the double check, in my experience, has been over 90%. Is that do you have like guardrails in place for that sort of thing?
Accuracy Guardrails And Confidence Levels
SPEAKER_00I do.
SPEAKER_01So actually, one thing that I've set up that I would strongly suggest that everybody sets up. If you it doesn't matter what LOM you're using, you could be using Gemini, Grok, COD, ChatGPT, it doesn't matter. They all have custom instructions that you could put. I put one very simple line included in those custom instructions that every response that it gives me, I want to know its confidence level on that response. Um, so at the end of every you know, chat or every message that it sends me, it tells me its confidence level and why it feels that way, which kind of gets it to double check itself. And then I could very easily see, like, okay, it's a 40% confidence, 70% confidence, 98% confidence. Um, and I found that to be a really unique and cool way to be able to kind of have it do its first pass.
SPEAKER_00What what was the if you can remember, what was one of the more ridiculous things that it told you that just was not true? Oh, or something you're like, oh geez.
SPEAKER_01So I I found a lot of times, so uh again, for the audience that doesn't know, a lot of the information that LOMs are pulling is coming from Reddit. Um, and a lot of times that could be super outdated information. Um, so it will confidently tell you something that like is a real-time event or you know, a real-time number or statistic, and like it's just pulling something completely wrong.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I again uh they're great tools. Make sure you double check them. What are some of the things you're seeing in YouTube that content creators are using that appears to be like the new thing that creators should be aware
Better Workflows Without AI Slop
SPEAKER_00of? I mean, for some people it's like, okay, well, thumbnails are not faster and some of AI, but like in general, what type of techniques are you seeing and what type of uh workflows are you seeing that seem to be working well?
SPEAKER_01A bunch of things. What what I would say I still think we're super early on. Let's start with that. I think like AI avatars and replacing yourself with that, I still think we're probably like six to eighteen months out from the technology being where it needs to be for that to actually happen. Uh, I feel very similar when it comes to editing content, especially like if you're an existing creator, uh, I think you're gonna have a lot harder time getting AI to edit the way that you specifically want it to edit. Uh, I think if you're a new creator, that could be an advantage that you have, which is like, how could I get AI to do this? And like it's quote unquote good enough for what the audience wants. There's enough variance. I think that that is like something very unique that you could hop on. Um in terms of like mistakes and things like that, that I think a lot of people are making. Uh, one, I think it's kind of like AI should not I know the AI, the term AI slop is like super overused, right? Like, I think AI should be used to create a 10x piece of content instead of creating 10 pieces of really poor content. Yeah, um, so I think it should be used to go deeper. One really unique way I uh that I think people should be using it more, in specific Claude. Uh, I don't know if most people know this, but so on Claude, there's they have design is a new tool that Claude has come out with. Uh, you could feed your scripts to your YouTube content into that, and it is like very, very, very good at creating B-roll. And like, not just like a static image, like animations that you know pop up with like the three things. If you're talking about three points, um, it is really, really good at that. The one downside to that, and again, if you're a a new creator, this might uh be an impedance to you doing this, is like it does get pretty expensive very quickly, depending on how much content you're putting out. Um, but again, I think that over time those costs are just going to come down. So I think being aware of that, using it to some degree that you can without like blowing the bank or blowing your budget on that. Um, I think that having those skills, understanding how to prompt it, understanding what you're getting differently from it, I think will just be incredibly valuable in the future.
SPEAKER_00What
Demonetization Risks And AI Disclosure
SPEAKER_00uh have you been seeing uh some of the uh demonetization that's been going on around uh YouTube in general? I'm I assume you have, like it's hard not to see it. Um we've seen a lot of different channels become demonetized. One of the things that uh I've just kind of become aware of recently are some of the sleep channels. I've actually talked to a couple creators in this niche, um, and there's even some creators who are making tools to create these videos, which is basically you know an AI voice uh that's super long form with a lot of slide images and stuff. What are you seeing it's specifically getting demonetized? What do you think creators are doing wrong in that in that way?
SPEAKER_01So a few different things. Um, one, first and foremost, I uh so I've been on YouTube since 2019. I don't like, I've I've seen so many trends come and go, right? I don't like the idea of like if you're especially a new creator or somebody that's thinking about starting a channel, I would not build your channel on quicksand, right? Which would be like, hey, I'm seeing people get demonetized for this. I'm gonna try it anyway. I wouldn't recommend doing that, right? Um, just my my personal preference, because I think that what that leads to is like at the end of the day, just a huge waste of time, right? And it's incredibly discouraging if you get demonetized or uh something along the lines of that when you're trying to build this thing, you're trying to sustain this thing. What I think is also like especially scary is like again, if you're gonna become a full-time creator, at some point you're gonna have to make the decision to quit your job. I think quitting your job if you've built this house on quicksand is a bad idea, right? Um, and then you're gonna be on Reddit, you're gonna be on X, you're gonna be freaking out on YouTube. And it's like, well, actually, you just probably shouldn't have done that thing. You know what I mean? Like you knew that there was some consequence that could happen there. That being said, what I would strongly, strongly recommend everybody do that is using AI is one, disclose it in the video. Um, the other thing that I also think makes a lot of sense is disclosing it in the description of the channel. Um, and then also disclosing it in the actual description of the video. So the first disclosure would be like the literal setting on YouTube where you're clicking, yes, you know, this was generated with AI. And I know that they have like three super generic things there, right? I think it's like uh did you make somebody appear to do or say something? It's like very generic things. And I think a lot of people are like, nope, that doesn't apply to me. Even if you used AI, not to script write, but like if you're using a voice, you're using an avatar, something like that, I would mark that as yes anyway. Um, I just I think two things. One, it's going to decrease the odds that you get demonetized by YouTube. But then also, secondly, I think that also just like builds way more trust with your audience is like disclosing that up front, like this is what it is. It might in the short term feel like you're taking a step back, but I think in the long term you'll build more trust with your audience and YouTube.
TikTok Growth Versus YouTube Longevity
SPEAKER_00Which short form platform is easiest to grow on? Uh Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube? I think TikTok. Why?
SPEAKER_01Um I think TikTok because I think like first and foremost, they they just push out your first like you know, five to fifteen videos. One, two, uh I've seen like you could post like 30 times a day on TikTok. Um I haven't seen that be as successful on other platforms. And then the third thing too, I just think that uh their algorithm is like really focused on like news-based and like interest-based topical things of the day. So I think in every niche, it's pretty easy to find that and tackling that. I think it's super easy to grow on that platform. That being said, I like if you want to build a career and build longevity and real monetization, YouTube all the way.
SPEAKER_00What is something someone who maybe has been somewhat successful on TikTok or Instagram need to know the differences of for like YouTube, especially if they're doing short form right off the bat? What what are kind of the differences?
SPEAKER_01I think YouTube has a lot more uh of a search-based algorithm. So I on TikTok, things predominantly just break out into like what is trending, right? On on TikTok and Instagram, predominantly is just like what is trending. On YouTube, I think trending definitely, well, I know trending definitely works. You also have search, and then the third thing that I would put into that is like there is real longevity behind content. Um, I have several videos that have millions of views that are incredibly old that I haven't thought about. In fact, my most viewed video um on YouTube, and it's funny to think about this, is a video that I recorded in an Airbnb when I was like about to go to Yellowstone, and all I wanted to do was finish this so that I could go to Yellowstone, right? That was the only thing I was thinking about. And uh it ended up being my most viewed video, which I think is just crazy because again, like if you're a small creator, I think a lot of times you tend to overthink like, you know, what you're going to be doing, what you're gonna be putting out. Where I would strongly suggest and advocate to people that like don't do that. Yes, you want to lead first with quality, you want to put your best effort in. But the way that I've kind of approached my career is like, I'm gonna make another video tomorrow. So I'm not gonna harp on the video that was made today or the video that was made yesterday, because it's kind of just a waste of energy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I also think it um if you you should definitely put in a good and best effort on videos you make, of course. Let's be clear. But sometimes saying enough is enough and it's good enough to ship is the hardest mental thing for a creator to overcome. Um, do you have uh safeguards in place for that too? Or do you just know that at a certain time every day, that's it. It's a wrap, it needs to go.
SPEAKER_01That that's kind of how I approach my life. It's like it's a wrap, that's it. Like again, I I love YouTube, I love social media, I love creating content, but it's not the only thing in my life. Like when I started this, I was single, I was 22 years old, I had nothing else to do except for this. Now I've got a fiance, we've got other things going on. I'm older, I can't just like sit in front of my computer all day, which I'm sure a lot of the audience relates to, which is why I would just approach it. It's like, hey, I'm going to put in a solid, real effort, right? Whatever that means to anybody. It could be 30 minutes, it could be a few hours. Um, and then that's it. You know what I mean? I did the best that I could do. Like, you don't get a six-pack or you don't get in great shape or lose a lot of weight by like not leaving the gym, right? It's being consistent over a long period of time, trying to get better. Um, even the trying to get better piece, I feel like so many people spend so much time and so much energy like thinking about that and trying to communicate that to other people, where it's like really just a feedback loop of like, okay, what can we do better next time? Let's get to next time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Starting A Channel With Search Research
SPEAKER_00What does it look like? Let's say, for example, today you were to start a new YouTube channel, knowing everything you know now. Um, what talk us through your mindset and what you would do in order to create that channel, what type of content you would make for it, and how you would research all of this stuff to make sure that it was as successful as it possibly could be.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so the first thing that I would do is I would go to you where I'd probably go to ChatGPT today, right? And say, I'm interested in getting started in XYZ niche. What are a bunch of search terms that my audience might be interested in? Um, from there, I'm gonna grab all those search terms. I'm going to take that into vidIQ. Um, from there, I'll go through, I'll type in the search terms one by one on vidIQ. All of the channels that come up that I'm seeing consistently, I'll then add those as all my competitors on vidIQ. Um, from inside of my competitors, I'll then be able to filter that for like this week, this month, all time. And then what I like to personally do is look at the views per hour of a video. I think that it's like an incredibly underrated metric. Um, I think it's the most important metric on vidIQ personally because it allows me to have a proxy of what are people interested in right now, right? And really what I'm looking for is uh, and I you kind of discount the views per hour if the video is like one or two days old because it's mainly just a creator's audience seeing it. But like the sweet spot that I'm looking at is like what topics are there that somebody posted about one week ago, up to years ago, that are still getting a high number of views per hour. And then what I'm gonna look for is how can I insert myself into this conversation about this topic in a new way? Uh, that might be making a short about it. That might be making a new version about it. For example, um, anybody that's seen my content like has probably picked up on the fact that I have a cadence in how I upload content. So, like the beginning of the month, every month I upload a video about the YouTube algorithm, the Instagram algorithm, the TikTok algorithm, all the things that I've noticed that have changed, right? That then brings novelty into that. So like if you look up YouTube algorithm, it's an incredibly popular topic for the YouTube niche, but I'll make a video that's YouTube algorithm July 2026 update. So now I'm taking advantage of that keyword, I'm taking advantage of this thing that the uh the audience is interested in, but I'm making it new, I'm making it novel, and I'm making it timely.
Algorithm Shifts Niche Down And Shorts
SPEAKER_00From the perspective, just something you just uh talked about, I want to touch on. From the perspective of what you've noticed over the last three to four months, what type of changes have you seen in the YouTube algorithm that people should know about?
SPEAKER_01A bunch of different things. So one, I think it's incredibly intelligent, if you have the bandwidth to be able to do this, have multiple YouTube channels. Um honestly, any social media platform, be it Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, I would have multiple pages. Because at the end of the day, if you're gonna be competing with people, might as well be competing with yourself, also, right? Um two, uh a huge shift that I've noticed on YouTube is that they want you to niche down way more than they have before in the past. So, like I had mentioned, my channel, I uh I talk about growing on YouTube, growing on Instagram, growing on TikTok. Uh, YouTube's algorithm used to be really good at separating those three things. Now I feel like it's not as good at separating those three things or finding those three individual audiences. Um I would really, really recommend that like if somebody's gonna start a new channel. That you do niche down. You want to make sure that that niche is large, right? And that there's a lot of things inside of that niche that you could talk about. But you want to kind of hone in on that one thing. Like I've noticed on my own channel, like when I upload, so of the three, the way that it breaks out today is like YouTube has the highest interest, TikTok has the second highest, Instagram has the lowest. Um if we go back to 2020, 2021, TikTok was the highest, right? So that has constantly changed over time. Um the third thing that I've noticed is uh long form content, you want to be longer, right? And shorts content, I think uh there's a huge arbitrage right now with every single niche of like search-based YouTube shorts content because YouTube is beginning to recommend way more than usual shorts inside of the the search feed. Um, so I think that that's a huge thing that people could take advantage of.
SPEAKER_00Do you think the uh let's say that we could go back in time and stop short form content from being made? Would that be a mistake or would that be a good thing so that long form could succeed? I think it's obvious that it has had an impact on long form. But if you have the power to go back and Thanos snapped short form away, would you do it or would you try to actually make it even more powerful?
SPEAKER_01I would do it, yeah. I did what I personally I think would have done if I was, you know, the CEO of YouTube, uh, I think I would have made a shorts only app. And I would have kept Yeah, I would have kept YouTube long form, just like what it is, because the the way that it sits right now, I think YouTube is like trying to be too many things at once, and it doesn't allow it to quickly do the next thing. Like, for example, like live shopping is a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge trend right now. Uh where does that fit on YouTube, the way that YouTube currently sits, right? Um, even like live streaming, I think YouTube's great for that, but like where does that fit right now? It's like there's just way too many things going on when you go to YouTube. I I especially with like how many social media platforms there are now, I think that it would be great to like go to YouTube Shorts to get this specific experience where you know most people go to Snapchat to get a specific experience. You go to Facebook to get a specific experience and Instagram to get a specific experience. I think YouTube like had the chance to just have another app and have a different experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree with this very strongly. I think having a separate app would have been really amazing and would have just it's a more diversification for them. Um, I mean, I understand they want to have you be able to go one place to get everything, and and YouTube is kind of that, but also it's serving so many masters, so to speak, that it's almost hard to be truly excellent at any one particular thing. It's nice to be all in one, I suppose. But yeah, I mean, like if it was separate, that'd be pretty pretty amazing. And it would be hard to, with all their knowledge and all the information they have, it'd be hard to doubt that that would be a very successful app in and of itself.
SPEAKER_01I totally agree. So I I think they could have even taken like the thread and Instagram model where it's like you can kind of port your followers over there. I think that would have been genius.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was one thing that Threads did really very smartly, is that uh when when Thread started, um, you got all your followers and stuff from Instagram as right off the bat. So it didn't feel like you had to start over necessarily. Um, that was a very smart strategy that I'm surprised no one else has really kind of considered. Um, when you look at YouTube itself, do you feel like this is still just as good a time any or worse time than any to start on YouTube? Because things are different, especially with AI, like everything's way different.
SPEAKER_01I think that it's the best time that you have available to you to start, right? I I don't think it's worth it to like reminiscing on the past. Um, I don't think it's worth it. Yeah, like you want to think about the future to some degree, right? But like if you're trying to build a sustainable career on social media, not even just like a career on social media, you could be trying to grow your business, like YouTube still today is by far the number one way to do that. You just you build a way stronger relationship with your audience than any other platform. Um I still think it's like easy to grow on YouTube, right? I again it it it it the hardest part is like getting out of your own way and saying, I'm going to serve my audience, not my audience is here to serve me, right? Which I think is like really the biggest unlock that people need to understand is like uh you need to be creating for your audience, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_00It's it's hard as a creator to sometimes
Live Shopping Opportunities And Where They Fit
SPEAKER_00remember that. Uh, you mentioned earlier live shopping. For those who don't know, explain that and tell us where the opportunities are.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So live shopping is there's it, it breaks out in multiple different ways, right? So like a what a lot of companies are doing right now is like kind of liquidating inventory with live shopping, right? So like if you have a bunch of different retail locations, uh nobody's going into the retail locations right now for whatever reason. They go live. It's happening predominantly right now in the US on TikTok and on uh whatnot. Um what I think is like really powerful about it is one, you're able to show off the thing live, right? And then the other thing too is like there's a uh sense of urgency in it, right? So like if I was gonna sell this water bottle right now, what I'd say is like, you know, this is a 101 water bottle, right? You have 15 seconds and then it basically gets auctioned off. Um, it's really popular with collectibles, it's really popular with uh clothing, it's really popular with uh just like household items. So like another thing that a lot of people are doing is like they're buying pallets of things from like Amazon or eBay or all these places, and then that let's say that they pay $500 for the palette, they now get a hundred items and they auction them off, and they're able to make a profit by auctioning those off. Um and then on on top of that, also, uh, a lot of people will do like launches on live or things along the lines of that. But uh predominantly where I really think the opportunity is like whatnot and TikTok shop. I know YouTube is trying to get more into this. Again, I just I this might be pessimistic of me. I don't see where that currently sits, like in the YouTube ecosystem.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Um, it would be, I think they could do it well if they can really truly get there. They do have like the floating ad things and the auto tagging of products and videos, but it just feels kind of tacked on rather than a like a truly polished product.
Monetization That Stays Authentic
SPEAKER_00Um what is the the most missed monetization opportunity for creators right now?
SPEAKER_01Honestly, I so I think about this a little bit differently than most people. Um, I think however you're gonna monetize as a creator needs to match who you are and where you are at that point in your life, right? So um if we go back seven years ago, I made the far majority of my money from courses, right? I don't I don't think I'll ever have another thing that matches that. The the TikTok course that I sold, like 350,000 people bought that, which is a lot of people at a great price point. Um I don't think that opportunity exists today, though, right? Um the two things that I see a lot of people doing is like uh having a low ticket strategy and having sponsors, and then that that's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is just focusing on like high-ticket things. Um what I would suggest that people do is one, like find what is authentic to you, two, find what really uh provides value to the end consumer. And three, like what is the most long-term thing that you could do, right? Um, like on my channel, the the Robert Benjamin channel, I think I have like four sponsors and I've had them all for years. It's products that I truly believe in. It's long term, it's beneficial to both parties. I think that that is like way more important than just chasing like the latest and greatest thing and coming up with a new thing all the time. Um, those are my main thoughts around it. Again, I know that wasn't a direct answer, but I think it's it it's really just finding something that's authentic and that actually provides value to the end consumer, not just like the latest and greatest of the day. Like a lot of the again, I have the a unique advantage point of like from consulting with so many people, like gambling is huge today. I don't think what do you mean? What do you what do you mean like like gambling sponsorships and things like that are huge today? But I don't think that that's gonna end well, right? I think that that's probably going to end in like an FTX scenario, the same way that like everybody was pushing crypto in 2022. Um, that might seem like an enticing idea, but I do not think that's a good idea if you want to do this long term and want to build a genuine audience and a real community.
SPEAKER_00Do you see any niches that have more or less died? I mean, it's it's so rare, and it I it almost never happens, but I feel like there's been a couple that have really seen some devastation. Have you seen any?
SPEAKER_01I I think honestly, every niche on YouTube has gone through a a quote unquote death of like what it looked like during the pandemic and what it looks like today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh also, uh, I think like again, you have to think about your audience and like how has their interest changed? Like, one thing that's been really unique for me is like watching uh creating the AI channel and like the number of comments that I get that are like, you were the TikTok guy, you were the shorts guy, you were the Reels guy. And it's like, again, if we reverse that, it's like, oh, you were the guy that was interested in TikTok, and now you're interested in AI. So again, I think it's finding a way to insert yourself into what your audience is going to be interested in over a long period of time, because it it will change. Another thing that I've also seen is like uh like in the YouTube growth niche, most of the views now come from shorts and not long form content, right? What used to be like a 10-minute long form video where you put five points in, you'd get way more views if you made five short shorts with those, you know, each of them covering one of those points. Um so again, I I don't see it as much of a death as like a this is the new version of what this looks like.
AI Starter Kit VidIQ Claude MCP
SPEAKER_00What would be the starter kit AI uh for someone who's just starting YouTube? Like which which is there a particular LLM that you like the most for like a starting person who maybe has not really dealt with AI before? Uh, and then what type of things do you immediately do to set it up if you're just starting a channel today?
SPEAKER_01The at the at the bare minimum, I would have VidIQ. Of course. Again, it might seem like weird, or like I'm not just saying that because I'm here. You can look up how many times I've mentioned vidIQ on YouTube. Um just because it's it's AI tools that now, again, predominantly becoming a suite of AI tools that are specifically built for YouTube. ChatGBT, COD, Groc, Gemini, they are not built for YouTube. You need to, so again, if you want to get started on one of them, I would honestly um I would probably pick Claude at this current moment. I have so many people like Claude. I've heard I hear this a lot. Why? Yeah, so for two reasons. One, uh, they invented MCP, which is basically how you connect an LLM to other tools. So like VidIQ has an MCP. We do. Um, your your favorite uh stock website probably has an MCP. If you use a CRM, they probably have an MCP. Um, so it allows you to connect Claude to all of these different tools so that you could set up automations and you can do things. Um, in addition to that, I think that Claude has the best skills feature right now out of all the platforms. Essentially, what a skill is is you can create an SOP. So, like let's say that you're chatting with Claude and you like the YouTube script that it created for you. You can simply just say to it, hey, can you turn this into a YouTube script skill so that we could create videos in the same format, you know, multiple times. Um, those are probably the two that I would start with. I would add in there, um I believe it's uh Riverside Podcast Editor or one of the podcast editors, um, they have uh like a voice fix feature that is incredible. Um, like a lot of times I record on the road. So like I'm in a hotel or I'm in some rental house or some random place, and it doesn't matter, right? Or if like the landscaper is, you know, landscaping outside, that used to ruin my day, you know. That used to be like the end, like, all right, I have to wait hours now, but you don't have to do that anymore because you could just fix your audio. Um, a lot of those tools are free also. So I strongly recommend doing that. Um like I was saying earlier, in terms of video editors, I don't edit my own content. I've never edited my own content. Um, but if I was starting out, I'd probably use like a cap cut.
SPEAKER_00And which is a great piece of software. Uh, I think finally, I just have a couple questions about growing on YouTube specifically.
Community Mindset And Consistent Shipping
SPEAKER_00Uh, if you had the again, if people had to start today, forget about the you know using uh any AI tools, which by the way, um to a case to your point where you said earlier, uh the the AI tools that we have are trained on YouTube information because vidIQ has had uh YouTube information for years. Like we've had all this data. Every other uh platform has to kind of look from the outside and guess. We actually have information that can plug into an MCP or whatever. So, like that's one of the reasons why uh ours works so well. And if you're interested and you have it signed up, links in the description, so make sure you check those out. Um, but what are some of the things that people need to remember going into YouTube? Because I feel like when someone is a viewer of YouTube and goes, I want to do a YouTube channel, this looks super easy. I can say exactly what that guy said in a better way. What are some of the things people need to know when starting their YouTube channel?
SPEAKER_01So several things. One, uh, this is not a one-way street, right? This is a relationship for years, years and years and years, I responded to every single comment that I got on YouTube. And not like an emoji or a thank you, like a real reply, right? And I would encourage that. In my videos, ideally like on the long form content, in the first third of the video, if you have any questions, leave a comment below. If you feel some type of way about this, you want me to look at your channel, do you want me to do this? You want me to do that, leave a comment below. Um, I I am like really big on like the building your first thousand fans, right? I think that you do that by, you know, it again, if it's not on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, replying to your DMs, replying to comments, building a real relationship. What social media allows you to do is build real relationships at scale quicker. Um, so I would do that. Uh, the second thing that I would do, I would ask people to subscribe to your channel. Again, not in a cheesy way, but like, hey, I'm gonna be uploading content about how to grow on YouTube. If you want to make sure that you don't miss the next one, hit the subscribe button. Um, it's incredibly underrated. Like creators that do that just grow faster than creators that don't do that. Again, do it in a way that that is authentic to you. Um, secondly, or third rather, your audience doesn't know everything that's in your head. You have to tell them that. Um I have the the amount of conversations that I have of people that want to get started on social media, and I'm sure the audience is probably thinking this right now, where like, you know, uh, who whomever your competitors are, they don't know what they're talking about. They're a fraud. I know way more than them. Well, nobody knows that you know way more than them, right? So you need to express that, you need to put that out there, you need to prove that, not just say that. The fourth thing that I would say is I would try to, again, like what is the audience interested in? How do you provide them more value? I would look at the stuff that's already being created in your niche and not think, uh, how do you copy it? Right. You again, there are some things that you should copy that just like clearly work, but you can't just regurgitate what somebody else said, right? Uh, for two reasons. One, the audience isn't going to be interested in that, right? And two, uh my personal belief is now that YouTube has implemented so much AI, they know that you're just saying something that somebody else said, and they're not going to give your video views, and they're not going to, you know, uh push your video to a larger audience, or even, you know, pull your video to a larger audience. Um, those are the biggest things that I would focus on. And then again, I think like that's the YouTube portion of it. I think that the other 50% of this, the same way that like if you're an athlete or trying to do anything at a high level, is the mental game of like don't over-exhaust yourself over this, right? Like, this is a long-term thing, getting better over a long period of time. Because the the other reality, too, is um, are you familiar with who Russ is, the rapper?
SPEAKER_00Uh, sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_01So he's a an independent rapper. I think he released like 10 albums before he blew up, and then he finally had one that blew up. And he talks so much about how that's the best thing that ever happened to him because now people have 10 years of music that they were then able to go through and discover, right? But it was old. I think about social media the same way. You don't want your first post, your 10th post, your 20th post to be the one that blows up and puts you on the map. You want it to be your 50th or 100th post because then you have that whole entire back catalog that people could go through. Um, and again, I think that that also is just like a huge mindset shift of like, oh, this is part of the process. This is how this is supposed to feel. This is how this is supposed to look.
SPEAKER_00I love that that idea of not wanting your first couple to blow up because it's very true. Like, think about the last person you saw that you're like, oh, I really want to watch this person's content, and maybe they only had a couple videos because they're brand new. You might forget about them later, but if you're someone who you know, like their hundredth video blew up, you can literally sit there and binge all day. I've done this multiple times where I and then now I'm invested in that creator because like I've been watching them so much because they had so much content. Super clutch piece of advice there. I love that.
Closing CTAs And What To Watch Next
SPEAKER_00If you're new here and you're all the way at this end, you should probably go ahead and hit that like button. You know you already love it, so why not do it? And in the show notes for the audio podcast and in the uh description for the YouTube channel, you will see information about Robert Benjamin and all the stuff that he does on his channel. If you want to check out more, I have another video for you literally right here. You should probably watch that one because it's amazing. And I'll see y'all in the next one.