11:17Gabe Bult - The Process · Essay
Why Boring Videos Are Taking Over YouTube
Gabe Bult argues that low-effort 'yap' videos aren't lazy content, they're a different format with their own rules for titles, hooks, and differentiation.
September 10thThe argument in one line.
Running three YouTube channels only works because each one is built around a monetization method its topic actually supports, so a 1,500-subscriber affiliate channel can out-earn an 863,000-subscriber channel because its audience already intends to buy.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You already run one YouTube channel and are weighing whether a second channel makes sense.
- You're chasing view counts and want to understand why some low-view channels out-earn viral ones.
- You're evaluating whether your niche supports a paid community, a coaching program, or affiliate income.
- You want a concrete example of high-ticket affiliate marketing working on a channel with almost no subscribers.
SKIP IF…
- You haven't gotten a single channel to consistent output yet — this is post-one-channel strategy, not a getting-started guide.
- You're looking for scripting or hook formulas rather than a channel-portfolio and monetization strategy.
The full version, fast.
A creator with three YouTube channels explains why he split them apart and how each one makes money differently. His 863,000-subscriber main channel, built on minimalism and frugal living, earns the least per view because that niche is hard to sell products in, so it leans on a paid community, AdSense, and sponsorships. His second channel teaches YouTube growth through a year-long coaching program. His smallest channel, at 1,500 subscribers, reviews saunas and cold plunges and has pulled in over $50,000 in high-ticket affiliate commissions, because its viewers arrive already deciding to buy. The takeaway: start a second channel only once the first is stable, never launch two at once, and build in a way to make money before chasing views.
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00:00 – 00:33
01 · Cold open: three channels, one income
States the thesis up front: three channels combined out-earn his old full-time job, even though the view counts look small because he doesn't monetize the conventional way.
00:33 – 03:04
02 · Channel 1: the main channel that earns the least per view
His original channel (863K subscribers, 500+ long-form videos) covers minimalism and frugal living, a niche that's hard to sell products in. Monetizes through a paid Skool community (about $7K MRR after three months), AdSense (about $13K/month), and sponsorships, the main earner.
03:04 – 05:46
03 · Channel 2: splitting off a mismatched audience
YouTube-growth content flopped on the main channel because it served a different audience than frugal-living viewers. He spun it into 'Gabe Bult - The Process,' raw and unscripted, monetized through sponsors and a year-long coaching program.
05:46 – 06:45
04 · The rule for when to start a second channel
Start a second channel only once the first feels stable and 'boring,' and never launch two channels at once as a beginner, both routes end in burnout.
06:45 – 09:46
05 · Channel 3: a 1,500-subscriber channel that made $50,000+
'Gabe Bult 2.0' reviews saunas and cold plunges. Started from a free-product UGC trade, it has generated over $50,000 in affiliate commissions plus about $20,000 in free products, because its small audience is already deciding whether to buy.
09:46 – 11:32
06 · The real numbers behind the AdSense myth
Walks through his own channel analytics: lifetime AdSense on the sauna channel is about $700 versus $50,000+ in affiliate income, and explains why click-to-view ratio, not raw views, is the real profitability signal.
11:32 – 13:13
07 · Landing a sponsor from a small channel, and the closing checklist
The 1,500-subscriber channel still landed a $1,500-per-video plus 15% commission sponsorship. Closes with three filters for starting any new channel: six-figure potential, genuine interest, and systems already in place.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A YouTube channel's view count and its earnings are only loosely connected: money follows buying intent, not virality.
- A channel with 1,500 subscribers generated over $50,000 in affiliate commissions by reviewing products people were already about to buy.
- A brand-new channel's first video, made in about two hours, earned an estimated $5,000-$7,000 because it matched high buying-intent search terms.
- On a general-audience channel a link might convert at roughly 0.2% click-through (200 clicks from 100,000 views); on a buying-intent channel the same kind of link converts near 10% (500 clicks from 5,000 views).
- A channel with only 1,500 subscribers still landed a $1,500-per-video-plus-15%-commission sponsorship deal because the brand cared about proven buyer intent, not subscriber count.
- Lifetime AdSense on a 1,500-subscriber product-review channel totaled about $700, while affiliate commissions from that same channel topped $50,000.
- Starting a second YouTube channel before the first one is stable and 'boring' typically ends in burnout and one of the two channels getting abandoned.
- Content that's hard to build a product around, like frugal living and anti-consumerism, tends to convert to money through community memberships and sponsorships rather than affiliates.
- A channel's monetization is 'set up wrong' if AdSense earns more than its combined affiliate, personal-product, and sponsorship income.
- The bar for starting any new channel has risen from needing the potential to make six figures a year to needing the potential to make six figures a month.
Money-per-view, not subscriber count, decides what a channel is worth.
MONETIZATION MATH
The channel with 863,000 subscribers earns the least per view, and the channel with 1,500 subscribers has pulled in more than $50,000, because the topic's buying intent determines the payout, not the audience size.
02Channel 1: the main channel that earns the least per view
- A niche built around not buying things makes it structurally hard to sell products, so income has to come from community and sponsorship instead of affiliates.
- A paid membership community reached about $7,000 in monthly recurring revenue within three months by selling accountability and challenges rather than information.
- AdSense revenue, even at roughly $13,000 in a single month, still isn't pure profit once editors, team costs, and taxes come out of it.
- A creator can shut down a monetarily successful product anyway if the quality doesn't match their own bar, treating personal pride as a valid reason to kill it.
03Channel 2: splitting off a mismatched audience
- Content aimed at a completely different intent than an existing audience will underperform even from an established channel, because the two audiences don't overlap.
- A second channel can run with far less production effort once its role is to share raw expertise rather than compete for view counts.
- The safest way to package deep expertise into revenue is a year-long, small-group coaching program with recurring calls, rather than a one-off course.
04The rule for when to start a second channel
- Start a second channel only once the first is stable enough to feel boring or 'easy,' not while still fighting for traction on the first.
- Running two brand-new channels at the same time reliably ends in burnout and one of them getting abandoned.
- A recurring signal that it's time for a second channel is having ideas you already know would flop on your first channel's audience.
05Channel 3: a 1,500-subscriber channel that made $50,000+
- A product-review niche works because viewers arrive already deciding whether to buy, not browsing for entertainment.
- High-ticket affiliate commissions, roughly 10% of $500-$1,500 products, mean a small, low-subscriber channel can out-earn a much bigger one per video.
- A first video for a brand-new channel, made in about two hours, can generate thousands of dollars if it matches a high buying-intent search term, not because it goes viral.
- A review channel can also collect free product inventory by trading a video review for a manufacturer's sample, the same arrangement brands run through Instagram UGC deals.
06The real numbers behind the AdSense myth
- On a buying-intent channel, roughly 10% of viewers click an affiliate link, versus about 0.2% on a general-audience channel promoting the same kind of link.
- Lifetime AdSense on a niche review channel can total a few hundred dollars while affiliate commissions from that same channel top tens of thousands.
- Chasing AdSense monetization before having a product, affiliate, or sponsorship plan in place means leaving money on the table even after a video gets 150,000 views.
07Landing a sponsor from a small channel, and the closing checklist
- A channel with a small subscriber count can still land a per-video sponsorship plus a commission cut because the brand cares about proven buyer intent, not subscriber count.
- A channel is 'set up wrong' if AdSense earns more than its combined affiliate, personal-product, and sponsorship income.
- Before starting any new channel, check it against three filters: real potential to reach six figures, genuine interest in the topic long-term, and systems already in place for scripting, ideas, and monetization.
Terms worth knowing.
- MRR
- Monthly Recurring Revenue: the total predictable subscription income a membership community collects every month, used here to measure a paid community's growth.
- Skool community
- A paid membership platform where creators host courses, challenges, and discussion behind a monthly fee, referred to on screen as 'The 1% Club.'
- High-ticket affiliate
- Promoting expensive products (here, $500-$1,500 saunas and cold plunges) for commission, where a small number of sales produces outsized income compared to promoting cheap products.
- Click-to-view ratio
- The percentage of a video's viewers who click a link in the description, used here as the real signal of a video's earning power instead of raw view count.
- VidIQ
- A YouTube analytics and SEO tool, visible as an overlay on screen throughout, that estimates a channel's subscriber count, monthly earnings, and view trends.
Things they pointed at.
01:40toolVidIQ
02:20productThe 1% Club (Skool community)
Lines you could clip.
00:06
“I currently have three separate channels that bring me in more than I used to make at my full-time job every single month.”
08:44
“If I get 100 views, I have a good chance of making $50.”
10:15
“It is literally the dumbest thing ever to try to get monetized in order to make money.”
11:31
“If I am not doing all of those then my channel is set up wrong.”
Word for word.
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story
I currently have three separate channels that bring me in more than I used to make at my full -time job every single month. Now, if you look at my views, it's going to look like I make almost nothing, but that's because I don't monetize the conventional way. So in this video, I thought I would break down why I have three channels instead of just one, because I get asked that quite a lot and then how I monetize them.
And then hopefully you can just rip off some ideas from me to either make your own channel or make a second channel if that's something that you're interested in doing. So I thought I'd start off here with my main channel. This is Gabe Bolt.
I started posting on here over seven years ago now. and I have made about 500 something long form videos on this channel. The estimation from BitIQ is that it makes $15 ,000 a month.
I'll show you my backend here so you can see, but that is not accurate. And pretty much with this channel, I started off talking about budgeting. I started talking about finance, stuff like that.
And then I started doing book reviews. I even ran a podcast on here for a while. So I didn't really know what I was doing exactly when I started.
But now more recently, we've had a lot more success averaging over 100 ,000 views per video. And it's really kind of dialed in and changed quite significantly. And so this is just to say that when I...
created this channel I did not create it the way I would create a channel now I have this whole like six figure run through that I do whenever I'm making or researching a new channel to make sure that it has the potential to make six figures a year and now even if I was to start anything else it would have to have the potential to make six figures a month in order for me to start this not saying it has to happen but if it's literally impossible for that to happen I don't want to start it but regardless this channel right here makes the least amount of money per view and the reason for that is because it does not have a great product to it i'm going to break down some different products that i've tried on here and how i monetize it but for instance minimalism is one of my top keywords another minimalism video we're not buying your crap this buy nothing rebellion series that i'm doing which is really talking about anti -consumerism it's also frugal living is a big keyword so when you're talking about don't buy anything frugal living don't buy anything anti -consumerism it's hard to sell things right so it's hard to have a good product i could make one but it's also just i don't love teaching personal finance in a way that i could charge a lot for it if that
makes sense so it's just not something i've really done i did make a financial minimalism course on here a while ago and that did i think it made like twelve thousand dollars maybe four years ago and then i just shut it down because it was the first product i'd ever made and i just wasn't proud of it so even though it was monetarily successful i just wasn't i didn't think it was there is enough and i like felt guilty because i'd never sold anything before it was like this whole thing anyways so that's that so right now the way we monetize this one is through this school community right here so we have this one percent club which is like building a life by design not by default So it's pretty much accountability weekly and monthly challenges.
And just so you can see on here, this makes about $7 ,000 a month MRR after three months, which is pretty solid for this. And I'm just continuing to try to grow and scale this. So that's one way.
It also makes money with AdSense. We'll look at the YouTube studio here. So like last month, it made about $13 ,000 in AdSense, which is good.
But ultimately, like I have editors, I have a bit of a team. So it's not like all profit with this. There's taxes.
Then I have sponsorships is the main way this one. makes money because I do get a lot of views on this channel. So this one's probably the per view.
It's by far the least. However, it still does make a very good amount of money, which is super blessed to be able in that position. So that's the back end of that.
Now, why did I start a second channel instead of keeping things on here? Well, a couple of years ago, I had these like how to grow on YouTube. Let me just type in Gabe Bolt YouTube.
I was making like some content about how to grow on YouTube. And a lot of the videos weren't doing well. This one did actually do pretty well.
But a lot of videos I was doing at the time on my channel were not doing great. I was talking about how to grow on YouTube because I had this five -hour YouTuber product because a lot of people were interested. But it was like 5 % of my audience maybe was interested in how to grow on YouTube.
So every time I posted a video on that main channel, it would flop. It would be a 10 out of 10. And then every once in a while, one of them would pick up.
But it was like really like save money, don't buy things, right? How to grow on YouTube. It was just like two separate niches, right?
So I started a second channel called Gay Bolt The Process to kind of separate this out because I had this stuff that I was interested in. I have these like ideas of investing into my business. I did a...
vlog a week in the life this is one of my favorite videos i've ever done another vlog and i realized i didn't like doing vlogs so i started to do like some behind the scenes youtube stuff and some of those started to click and do well and i started to like doing those so i kind of narrowed in to like let me just teach how to grow on youtube on this channel and so that has turned into this this is exactly just for entrepreneurs and people who want to grow on youtube that's all this is it's also built in a way where i can just like sit down and talk there's not a lot of editing it's just raw value giving there's no like big scheme i don't script anything there's no hooks written out this is just off the dome me being open and honest and vulnerable as successful youtuber who's done it in multiple spaces you know kind of sharing how i've done that so this is kind of where this channel has gone and now this is just monetized through some sponsors but the main thing that it does is i do year -long coaching for people where i break down the exact systems that have helped me run my other channel help me run this channel successfully help me run another channel successfully have helped like four or five hundred other people
through our program and it helps a lot of the people who actually do it and so that is the only way i monetize this is by just sharing as much expertise as i can for free through videos like this and then if people want me to get on like weekly calls with them we have like small group coaching calls and i'll get on weekly calls and i'll review people's channels i'll share things that i don't normally share on here then i would you know review their titles and thumbnails we have my strategists in there we have other full -time successful creators who are doing you know high six figures a year who are also coaches in there so that is through the five hour youtube So if you're interested in that, it's currently closed, but we open it up like a few spots a month.
So if you're interested, you can join the wait list down below. But that is the main way I monetize this one. And that makes the content different.
So another thing that you'll notice is the content is going to be different on each platform. These ones are more documentary style. not documentary but it's like kind of personal brand but also documentary also sharing things little tips stuff like that but it's very professional and kind of polished feeling whereas this one it's much more chill and like lower effort more realistic type of content just because of how i monetize it and then also like what makes this sustainable for me and so if you're thinking about like when do i start a second channel it would generally be when the first channel is so easy that you're getting bored then you start a second channel so if you're a month ahead and you're just like i have other stuff i want to talk about but i just know it's gonna be a 10 out of 10 on my channel it's gonna tank then you start a second channel i've talked to a lot of people like oh should i start two channels at the same time when they're just starting no you're gonna fail every single time like i've seen so many people try that all of them get burned out and quit one of the channels so i wouldn't do that another one that i have is this one right here gig bolt 2 .0 it's got 1500 subscribers but you can see look at this 1500 subs the last video i posted two months ago 36 000 views and then these ones did terrible but this one 250 000 views terrible 80
000 views crazy so i've got a lot of good videos on this one 300 000 so i have a lot of success on this channel but i'm sick of talking about asanas and cold plunges realistically i did realize that this has 22 videos so i'm averaging about two thousand dollars per video at this point which is kind of crazy that's over the course of two years not like immediately so this one does really well monetizing and that is because of the high ticket affiliate product so pretty much the reason why this one makes money is these are like 1500 products or 500 products or something and so before somebody buys them they want to go on youtube and check or have a real person tell them if it's good or not and then i'm going to be like yes this is great i really like it here's the pros and the cons if you want to buy it use my link get 10 off or something and then i would get 10 of that so that's how i make money on this and again it's generated i think over 50 000 at this point i haven't tracked in a while and then there's also like maybe 20 000 in free products as well so like my dad and my brother and my friends multiple friends everybody i know like gets a free sauna and cold plunge if they want it and whatever because i get a lot of them and there's
was started from zero like the first video here was pretty much i just saw that this sauna and cold plunge review video was doing well on youtube and i reached out to them on instagram and i was like hey could i get a sauna box and they're like no but what we do do is if we send you one and you film it we'll post it on our instagram that's like ugc and then they'll do that in exchange for the sauna box and i was like cool yeah i'll do that and they've done that with hundreds of people that's what a lot of brands do on like instagram and stuff so i did that but then i also took it and i made a brand new channel just like came up with this idea and like day made a brand new channel made this video in about two hours it's six minutes long just a screenshot for the thumbnail and this video has made i think close to five to seven thousand dollars just from this video first video brand new channel and it was able to do well because the search volume it's not like didn't go viral but everybody who watches this is thinking about buying one and so that's why a lot of these do well is these are very high value views and so that is the other thing you're like going viral doesn't really help that's why the main channel does the worst out of all of them like money per view is because
because every single person here is thinking about buying something. If I get 100 views, I have a good chance of making $50. relative really good chance as it goes more and more viral the quality goes less and less right you want people searching for whatever because they're more intent on solving their problem as opposed to when it gets fed to them they're less intent on solving that problem and so the main channel even though it gets a hundred thousand views the amount of clicks that i get would maybe be equal like an affiliate on that channel if i like did it eight tips to save me money and one of the tips was high yield savings accounts or whatever which is another affiliate i use on that channel but let's just say for round numbers i might get 200 clicks on that link but i just like briefly mention it or something as opposed to here with 5 000 views i'm probably realistically going to get 500 clicks or something like that the click to view ratio is incredibly higher and that's how you make money on youtube you don't make money from like adsense is okay sponsorship is okay but mostly you make real money when people take action based on your videos when people check out the link in the description they sign up for something down below they buy their affiliate they buy your product whatever it is that's when you're going to make actual money and so that's why going viral is not better again
the most money per view I'm pretty sure on this channel than any other channel and then second and third if you want to see me break down exactly how I make money in like an hour -long format I have a free live workshop coming up you can check it out link down below I teach that live answer Q &A at the end and it's really like broken down step by step how to kind of achieve some of these more in detail but if we just look at my analytics here and lifetime of this channel I have made $700 in adsense and again I've made over $50 ,000 from this channel so if you're relying on adsense you're trying get monetized you're trying to you know anything like that it's literally stupid like it is the dumbest thing ever to try to get monetized in order to make money i made tens of thousands of dollars before i got monetized because i had a way to make money and so unless you're trying to go viral and that's going to be your monetization strategy you're just passing up free money by doing that it depends on the type of channel that you want to make but just as an example this video right here most recent video 150 000 views great made 700 i paid 300 something to my editor
I have other expenses and stuff. Even if I was averaging 150 ,000 views per video or 100 ,000 views per video, I couldn't even make a living and support myself at 100 ,000 views for videos. That is the dumbest thing ever to try to land AdSense, to try to get monetized.
It doesn't make any sense. You need to have a product, you need to have affiliates, you need to have some type of funnel set up to make money from YouTube. And that is how my...
um you know let me just check show that we'll have to blur some stuff here but i have just one affiliate that i do on my second channel and like facebook that makes more than my adsense and i like hardly do anything so like adsense is always always always my lowest way i make money and if it is not my channel is set up wrong i should make more affiliates personal product and sponsorships than i do in adsense if i am not doing all of those then my channel is set up wrong That is just how it is.
Even like we go back to this Gabe Bolt 2 .0 channel, this channel with 1500 subscribers, because I've sold over half a million dollars worth of Sonos and cold plunges. But because of that, I was able to get one of these brands. I won't mention the brand to pay me $1 ,500 per video plus 15 % commission in order to post monthly videos on here.
So with this channel that wasn't monetized at the time, like a thousand subscribers, I could have been making a full -time income extremely easily if I didn't just want to focus on my other channel. more i got i got burned out with this one so if you're thinking about starting another channel make sure it has a way to make money make sure that you have the bandwidth for it you have editors in place because otherwise it's eventually going to burn out make sure it's something you want to talk about for years i kind of ran this channel here as a test because i don't want to talk about it forever but some of the other ones like i love making these videos right here like this is really fun to me i like making my main channel videos but this one really wasn't it for me however it did do well so just make sure that you have the potential to make six figures you enjoy what you're talking about and you have sis systems in place on how to run those and the general systems are going to be you can't script everything or you have to have help scripting you have to have a way to come up with good ideas consistently that are proven and gonna work you have to have a monetization system set up so that even if you're only averaging a few hundred views per video you can make decent money and then again you need like editors generally you know I could do this all myself but I like to work a couple hours a day not like eight hours a day so that would be a lot to edit all these myself but regardless that's what I do on this again all the
systems that I use to run a profitable YouTube channel in five hours a week, breaking those down live in a workshop I have coming up. So check those out. And if you have any questions, let me know.
I want to do like a Q &A answering video coming up soon. So I'll see you.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Three YouTube channels, three completely different monetization engines, and the one with 863,000 subscribers earns the least per view. The creator opens his own channel analytics to show why.
Named ideas worth stealing.
01:07concept
The Six-Figure Filter
Before starting any new channel, he runs the idea through a check for whether the topic could realistically generate six figures. He used to require six figures a year; now the bar is six figures a month.
Steal forDeciding whether a new content idea is worth building into a full channel or offer before investing time in it.
05:50list
When To Start A Second Channel
- The first channel is stable enough to feel easy or boring
- You have overflow ideas that would flop on the first channel's audience
- Never start two brand-new channels at the same time
A three-part timing rule for launching a second channel without cannibalizing the first or burning out.
Steal forDeciding the right moment to launch a second content vertical or product line.
09:15concept
Money-Per-View Over Virality
Search-intent, buying-stage content converts far better per view than viral content, because those viewers already intend to act (buy, click, sign up) instead of passively receiving the video.
Steal forPrioritizing which content topics to make based on revenue potential rather than view-count potential.
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
09:50link
“I have a free live workshop coming up, you can check it out, link down below.”
Soft verbal CTA dropped mid-explanation rather than a hard sell, then repeated once more in the closing seconds alongside a description link.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
