This post is inspired by the various channels that are using things like Python and other tools to completely (or almost completely) automate their channel.
I.e. think of the Reddit video channels that share top posts.
While I personally love creating content, have tons and tons of ideas to share, and will always be making my own works. I do think having an automated channel would be not only fascinating, but a great addition to your content ecosystem.
There may be a few reasons, from wanting to start a faceless channel, creating content automatically, to even just having a hobby on the side. Seeing if you can do it automagically.
For me I think it would be really interesting in two ways:
Creating a series for a once a week release, and that way I always have a consistency layer beyond my own personal accountability.
Creating a tertiary channel so that I can generate more income or traffic to my slower growing channels.
Think about having a series that is automated, so that your channel has plenty of real-person made videos, but also a consistency layer that the automation helps to upkeep.
Where I think a lot of people are failing to realize the potential of this, is that the lazy part of the brain takes over. Just like with ChatGPT people are being obsessed with this idea about it REPLACING jobs or work, or making it all easy. No. That isn't the purpose of the platform, but rather being a TOOL for you to use to accelerate your progress. Hence why I was using it to make a video game, but not having it code every line.
Same thing goes for this YT automation, as people are
Types of Automated Channels
Finding the right niche is hard even when you're the one making the videos, but what if you weren't the one? This is where having an automated channel comes in, as you don't have to necessarily be an expert on a subject to have a channel in that subject.
Even if you aren't monetizing, as YT has a clause for not monetizing automatic programatic channels, there are still reasons why you would do this. For one you can funnel the attention to your main channel, and create a flow of traffic. For two it can funnel into a course that would get you income.
This is the type that I personally think of when I hear automated YT, as the top Reddit posts video comes to mind.
I've seen them on YouTube and Tiktok alike, and the crazy part is that they are just purely automatic. Once you set it up, then all you really have to do is monitor your channel. Maybe change which subreddit, or change the frequency of posts.
Using just a Python bot you can create videos for a YT channel or shorts channel.
Translation Channels
I almost forgot about this one, as it is something only the big names in the space are doing. I.e. Gary Vee or Mr.Beast. Where they are outsourcing the translation of their videos, and posting to Spanish or Japanese versions of their channels.
A super good reason to automate a YT channel, as think of it this way. There probably isn't ever going to be a time where you learn that language well enough to rerecord your video for that market.
Dubbing and subbing will be the only way to do it. There are some auto-translate tools out there, taking your SRT file, and converting it. However the dub part is hit or miss, and so you may have to hire people to do this properly.
Note: There is a tool called VidScribe, that auto translates your content to other languages. I am not linking to it because it truly seems scammy, and I warn to stay away.
Well yes, this is rather obvious, if you have multiple team members for a channel they will automate certain aspects. Perhaps eventually the entire channel.
You don't necessarily have to hire full time people though, you could do a Fiverr gig once a week to get a video, or something like that kind of outsourcing.
This video goes more into the non-AI type of automation.
I actually did this sort of thing for a video, where I outsourced the production to a guy on Fiverr.
I'd say he did a good job too, but we had an issue where he thought it was about the Polymath cryptocurrency. Even when I explicitly said for Polymathy. haha
Tools to Help generate Content
Now lets start off with some basics. There are the well known VidIQ and TubeBuddy, that help automate certain aspects of posting a video or keyword research. They should not be understated how useful they are. Let's not forget SocialBlade as well. Here is a post going over the basic tools for any channel.
From there we have more of the actual generators, and I really don't have the space to list out every one. There are a lot of copy/written generators out there for example, so I'll probably just do the top two I can think of for now.
Here is a quick idea that no one is doing yet. A lot of people are using ChatGPT, and a lot of people are using Reddit to make Automated Videos. However no one is doing both in one. What if you took the writing prompts subreddit, and used the chatbot to add to the story in it's own way. Then creating completely unique content from AI.
Various Resources for Making an Automated Channel
These aren't really in any particular order, although I do try to put the more interesting links up towards the top.
While not EVERYTHING on YT automation, this list of links should be most of what is out there. At the time of this writing at least, Feb 2023, and no not hyperbole lol.