I'm BEGGING you to look up what YouTube pays per 1,000 views in different niches before you pick what to make videos about
This is the single most important number in the entire YouTube business model and almost nobody checks it before starting
Entertainment: $2-4
Gaming: $3-5
Vlogs: $4-6
Reactions: $3-5
Now look at the niches nobody wants:
Medicare supplements: $44
Estate planning: $38
Commercial insurance: $35
Business tax strategy: $32
HVAC repair: $28
Assisted living: $26
Septic and well water: $24
Farm equipment: $22
That's not a typo. $44 per thousand views vs $3 per thousand views. The exact same platform. The exact same algorithm. The exact same upload button
A gaming channel needs 1,000,000 views to make $3,000
A Medicare channel needs 68,000 views to make $3,000
And the Medicare channel has maybe 12 competitors in the entire United States while the gaming channel has 45,000
But this is where it gets stupid:
The $44 CPM is just the ad money. The viewers in these niches are about to spend $5,000-$200,000 on the thing you're explaining to them. The ad revenue is a tip. The real money is what happens after they watch
A roofer with 3,000 subscribers who answers "how much does a new roof cost" gets calls from homeowners about to spend $14,000. Every video is a free sales rep that works at 3am
A financial advisor with 5,000 subscribers who answers "should I do a Roth conversion" gets appointments from retirees managing $400,000+ portfolios. One client is worth $5,000-$15,000 a year in advisory fees
An HVAC company with 2,000 subscribers who answers "heat pump vs furnace" gets calls from homeowners about to spend $8,000-$15,000. Those viewers aren't subscribing to an HVAC channel. They're panicking because their furnace died in January and they need someone who knows what they're talking about
The leads close at 2-3x the rate of ad leads because the buyer watched you explain their exact problem for 15 minutes before they called. The trust was built before the conversation started
How to find these niches yourself in 10 minutes:
1 → Open Google Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ads account you never have to fund). Type any service. Sort by "Top of page bid - high range." That column shows what advertisers pay per click. $50-200 per click = that niche pays $20-44 CPM on YouTube. The correlation is almost perfect
2 → Search that topic on YouTube. Count how many serious channels answer it. If there are fewer than 15, you have almost no competition for an audience advertisers are paying $50-200 a click to reach on Google
3 → Check the comments on the few channels that exist. Every question asked is a video idea nobody made yet. Every complaint is a positioning opportunity
The uglier the niche sounds the emptier it is and the higher it pays. This has been true for 8 years straight and nobody talks about it because making videos about septic systems and Medicare won't get you likes in a group chat
I build channels in these niches. The ones that sound like pamphlets in a doctor's waiting room. Because that's where the checks clear
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