6 Weird Niches That Are Crazy Profitable on YouTube
Chapters15
The video introduces a channel that blends English and Japanese calligraphy, highlighting its unique style and audience appeal.
Weird, niche YouTube channels can be wildly profitable through smart monetization, not just AdSense.
Summary
Shane Hummus breaks down several unlikely, highly profitable YouTube niches and how creators monetize beyond basic AdSense. He spotlights Takumi, a Japanese-English calligraphy channel, noting monthly earnings between $50k and $150k and a 3-billion-view career with affiliate links boosting revenue. The piece then expands to other channels like The Critical Drinker and Markiplier, illustrating how big audiences can fund ventures beyond traditional ads, including product launches and sponsorships. Shane argues that many YouTubers leave money on the table by under-monetizing and shares his own experience: AdSense is only one piece of a larger income puzzle, often yielding far less than ancillary streams. He emphasizes practical steps and promotes a free live workshop—Make Money with YouTube YouTube Secrets—where viewers can learn to pick niches, content ideas, and monetization strategies. The message is clear: you don’t need millions of views to profit if you optimize monetization and leverage audience-specific offers. Shane also highlights retirement-focused channels and older-audience dynamics as an underused growth lever for higher CPMs.Overall, the takeaway is actionable guidance for creators at any scale who want to maximize revenue across multiple income streams while exploring unconventional niches.
Key Takeaways
- Takumi's English-Japanese calligraphy channel earns an estimated $50k-$150k per month, with a 4-year-ago viral video that reached 55 million views and $42k in earnings.
- Most YouTubers dramatically underestimate monetization, often earning far more from affiliate links and second channels than AdSense alone.
- Shane underlines that a smaller, niche audience can monetize effectively with the right offers, exemplified by his own second channel making over $4,000 per 10,000 views.
- Promoting live workshops and AI tools (Niche Validator Pro 2.3) is part of a broader strategy to scale revenue beyond ads, applicable even for channels with modest view counts.
Who Is This For?
This video is essential viewing for aspiring YouTubers who want to monetize smarter, not just more aggressively: creators with large audiences seeking higher CPMs and business owners looking to scale via YouTube, affiliate products, and coaching.
Notable Quotes
""This channel right here blends English and Japanese calligraphy. So, his videos are literally back and forth between English and Japanese, and sometimes it even blends them together.""
—Introduces Takumi channel and the core niche combination.
""And he's likely making tens of millions of dollars from this channel.""
—Cites overall revenue potential from high-views channels.
""Most YouTubers are terrible when it comes to monetizing their channel. They're literally leaving like millions and millions of dollars on the table every single year.""
—Central claim about monetization gaps.
""I make about $20 per 1,000 views from AdSense on this channel, and about $400 per 1,000 views from all other sources of income.""
—Illustrates split between AdSense and other revenue streams.
""Click the link in the description and the pin comment below to attend the live workshop.""
—Promotes the workshop as a monetization resource.
Questions This Video Answers
- How can I monetize a niche YouTube channel beyond AdSense?
- What are effective monetization strategies for creators with mid-size audiences?
- Can older audiences yield higher CPMs on YouTube?
- What is Niche Validator Pro 2.3 and how can it help my YouTube growth?
- How did Markiplier leverage his audience to launch a movie and monetize?
YouTube monetizationAffiliate marketingAdSense alternativesNiche validationContent strategyVideo ideasChannel scalingShane HummusTakumi Japanese calligraphyThe Critical Drinker
Full Transcript
This channel right here blends English and Japanese calligraphy. So, his videos are literally back and forth between English and Japanese, and sometimes it even blends them together. And he makes 53 to $158,000 a month. This channel, in my opinion, is a bit weird, but they're still absolutely crushing it. And today I'm going to be going over this channel and other channels and how they're getting views, what video ideas they're picking, what niches they're picking, and how they're monetizing their channel. And this is meant to be educational, but also motivational and inspirational to you. With that being said, I do want to always preface this and have a disclaimer that most YouTubers do not make money, just like any other business out there, right?
Most people who try just about any business out there do not make money. most businesses fail. And that's why I make these videos to give you examples and case studies of successful YouTube businesses from somebody who's grown my own successful YouTube business to 8 figures. And I've also taught over a,000 people how to do the same. And not only do I teach you for free on this channel and give you all kinds of awesome, amazing education completely free, but I also do completely free live workshops. And my next one is happening this week. So click the link in the description and the pin comment below.
And on this workshop, I'll tell you exactly what to do to build a sustainable channel, what not to do, which is probably even more important. I'll give you a step-by-step guide to get started. I'll help you to pick your niche and pick your video ideas. And then at the very end, I'm going to answer any question you have about YouTube for as long as necessary. It's literally like a workshop. It's a Zoom call where you will see me. It will be a live workshop. Super excited to have you there. So, click that link in the description, the pin comment below.
Do not miss out on it. Okay, so back to the Japanese calligrapher Takumi. He's making about $50 to $150,000 a month according to Vid IQ. And his most viewed video, which was a very short video, only about 5 minutes long, and it was called print and cursive handwriting with pencil neat and clean, was about 4 years ago. That video got 55 million views and made $42,000. Now, his channel probably had its heyday quite some time ago. It's probably on the decline a little bit, but that still doesn't mean he's not making a ton of money from it cuz he has nearly 3 billion views, guys.
I cannot describe like 3 billion views is an insane amount of views. So, he has likely made tens of millions of dollars from this channel. And if you look in his about section as well as his description, he does have a lot of affiliate links as well. So, he's likely making a lot more than just from AdSense alone. With that being said, I have found time and time again that most YouTubers are terrible when it comes to monetizing their channel. They're literally leaving like millions and millions of dollars on the table every single year. And I've helped so many YouTubers.
For instance, Sean, he was making about $30,000 a month. I helped him get to over $500,000 a month just by properly monetizing his audience. And just to give an example of this, you know, I make about $20 per 1,000 views from AdSense on this channel. AdSense are the ads that show up on the channel, and that is the primary way that most people think that YouTubers monetize. But I make about $400 per 1,000 views from all other sources of income. And this is a mass market channel, meaning it does get millions of views a month, and it's designed to appeal to a bit of a broader audience.
However, I have a second channel that's designed to appeal to a very niche audience, basically just business owners or advanced YouTubers who are trying to scale their YouTube channel. and that channel makes over $4,000 per 10,000 views. So, if you're monetizing correctly, whether you have a big channel or a small channel, you should be making way more money than just AdSense alone. And that's something I see a lot of YouTubers messing up on the aggregate. Like, YouTubers are leaving billions of dollars on the table by not monetizing correctly. And you can actually monetize with a very small channel if you do it correctly as well.
And that is something we will be covering in the live workshop called Make Money with YouTube YouTube Secrets. That's this week. So, click that link in the description in the pin comment below to attend. Oh, and by the way, this is a onetime live workshop, and we're also going to be giving away an AI that makes the entire process significantly easier called the Niche Validator Pro 2.3. So, click that link in the description in the pin comment below to check that out, too. And if you see this in the future, still click the link because there's a good chance that we'll be doing workshops in the future as well, and it'll tell you exactly when the next one is.
All right, next channel is The Critical Drinker. and this is a very sort of sarcastic movie review channel and he makes about $23 to $70,000 a month. Now, this channel came up when I was checking out the Iron Lung movie review. So, well done Markiplier. You took a gamble and it paid off. Big congrats to Markiplier for launching Iron Lung. It was a massive success. I think that is absolutely amazing how YouTubers are basically kind of taking on Hollywood right now because in my opinion Hollywood movies have not been very good lately as well with the exception of Sinners.
Sinners was excellent and a few others here and there. But yeah, Critical Drinker, you know, I I agree with some of the stuff he says on his channel. Basically, just Hollywood movies kind of suck these days. I I think a lot of people would agree and that's why the movie industry is kind of on a massive decline right now and decentralized media like random YouTubers are able to make movies that are disrupting Hollywood. But yeah, he's making about 23 to $70,000 a month. According to view stats, he's making even more about $35 to $98,000 a month.
And his most popular video was why Ghostbusters 2016 failed, a scene comparison. It tries and fails to improve on the original without really understanding what made it so effective in the first place. That got about 8 million views and made about $42,000. All right, so speaking of Markiplier, he's always been a bit weird. Let's be honest. I love him, but he's definitely a bit weird. He He doesn't post as much as he used to. He probably doesn't take YouTube nearly as seriously as he used to as well. but he's still making about $70 to $200,000 a month basically just semi-passively from his YouTube channel.
It's not even his main focus. He's also launched a bunch of businesses from YouTube as well. For instance, Cloak brand. I'm sure he's got lots of sponsorships and lots of other stuff going on as well. So, he's crushing it on his channel. But the most interesting thing is that he was able to launch this movie Iron Long and it launched on January 30th and it was actually number one in the box office for a short period of time. I think it ended up being number two after a little bit but still it had an unbelievable amount of success and they say that it made at least seven times what it costs to produce which is pretty insane in a world full of movies that are actually losing money when they launch.
And he's just getting started. This is just the launch, so I'm sure a lot of people are going to end up buying it on DVD and like all that kind of stuff, too. But yeah, what a massive W for Markiplier. Big shout out to him. Like what a talented guy, first of all. One of the goats of YouTube, undoubtedly, and also someone just paving the way for other YouTubers, right? Like imagine being able to have such a big audience that you can actually launch a movie, make it a really good movie, and then it ends up being like number one or number two in the box office.
and make seven times more than what it costs to produce. Unreal. So, huge shout out to Markiplier. Awesome stuff. And this just shows the power of YouTube. YouTube is totally taking over traditional media. Like, it's just completely disrupting it and it's not stopping anytime soon. So, this is one of the things we'll talk about um in the live training. Attend that live training. Click the link in Completely free. Uh just lots and lots of value, completely free. So, attend the live training. Now, if you're watching this and you're thinking, Shane, this is only for channels that get millions of views and it's only for young people.
Actually, you're totally wrong. Let me give you an example. Retirement Survival. This channel started very recently. Oldest video was about 7 months ago, and they're making about 7 to $21,000 a month. They're not getting a million views a month. Their most popular video was about 1 month ago. It was 1.8 million views, but typically they don't get a million views a month. Today I'm going to talk about how much YouTube paid me for my small channel. And he's absolutely crushing it, making a ton of money. And he's making these super super simple videos as well.
Literally just probably recorded with a phone. No extra fancy stuff. Maybe a mic, a phone and a mic. That's it. No scripting, no editing. Just record with the phone for 6 minutes, 10 minutes, 9 minutes, etc. Post that video up and he's making 7 to $21,000 a month. Now, one of the big reasons for this is because that YouTube is currently having basically a renaissance right now where either artificially or just naturally they're recommending older people, right? They're recommending an older demographic likely because they want to attract an older demographic that advertisers will spend more money to get in front of.
And so, we're seeing this very simple, very basic content blow up from older creators again and again. Let me give you some more examples. R.J. Hey, the unretired is one of my clients. One month after starting his YouTube channel, in his second month or so, he made $28,000. And the reason for this is because YouTube tends to pay more money to get in front of older audiences, and older creators tend to attract an older audience. So, he's absolutely crushing it. You know, 1.3 million views was his most viewed video. That was about 4 months ago.
Know this, 64% of retirees file early. And if you look at his view stats profile, it says that he made about 6,000 from that video, but I actually have access to his profile and I know he made far far more than that. So these tools are always guessing how much people are making. But for educational content, you make a higher amount. For older audiences, you also make a higher amount. So he's making far far more than this. And like I said, in the second month on his channel, he made around 20 to $30,000. And if that wasn't enough, Zach of all trades, my own brother, 50 years old.
The other channels I showed you, one of them was about 70, 80 years old. R.J. is around 60some years old. Zach is 50 years old. He started on YouTube. Basically, he spent his whole life in the trades. Made a really good income, but it was starting to get really tough on his body. So, he came to me, he's like, "Shane, how can I make money without, you know, sacrificing my body?" He thought I was going to tell him to do a remote job or something like that. And I was just like, "No, do YouTube." He was very skeptical cuz he's not techsavvy.
He's never made a video in his life. He just doesn't know how to do YouTube at all. He's not even really a YouTube person. But he listened to me. His very first video that he posted blew up. Got over 800,000 views. Everyone out here is talking about the same damn trades. Completely changed the game for his channel. One month after posting his first video, he was already making $214 in a single day just from AdSense alone. Plus, he's making money from affiliate marketing, etc. less than six months after starting his channel, he was making like $500 something dollars a day just from AdSense alone.
So yeah, absolutely crushing it with his channel. He's going to end up making a ton of money in his first year on YouTube. And he might even show up to the live workshop we're doing this week. So click that link in the description in the pin comment below if you want to see him or if you just want to see an update on how he's doing. Now, additionally, Zach of course worked directly with us and that is how he got results. We have a select type of client that we will work with one-on-one to get results for, but we only accept about 18% of people who apply.
So, listen very carefully to see if you're the right type of person. One, business owners who want to grow and make money on their YouTube channel. So, they want to get more leads and they want to scale their business with YouTube. These are people who want to start right now and they're long-term focused. If you're somebody who wants to get rich overnight or just like you expect to just, you know, go from zero to, you know, doubling or tripling your business overnight, we do not want to work with you. But business owners who are long-term focused and they want to start right now and they want to use YouTube as a way to get more leads.
That's the type of person we like to work with. Two, YouTubers who are getting a lot of views, they're making some money, but they're not monetizing correctly and they want our help with monetization. Three, YouTubers who are absolutely crushing it already and they want to crush it 10 times harder. They want to scale their YouTube channel. That's the type of person we love to work with as well. And then four, people who really want to take YouTube seriously. Usually, these are people who have skills in their life. They're kind of professionals already and they just want to share those skills on YouTube and they're willing to treat it like a business and they want to take it seriously and they want to start right now.
So, if you're any of those types of people, go ahead, apply directly to book a call with us in the description in the pin comment below. If it's not down there, it'll also be in the about section of the channel. On this call, we'll figure out where you are right now, where you want to be. We'll make a plan to get there, and we'll see if we're a good fit to work together or not. The call will be valuable whether or not we end up working together. Oftentimes, we help people really dial their niche in on the call, but only book it if you're very serious.
This is an example of one of our clients who did book that call and did work with us and he ended up absolutely crushing it. Click right here to check out more.
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