I made over $1.2 MILLION on YouTube. So can you.

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]I've made over 1.2 million dollars on YouTube over the last four years and there's nothing stopping you from doing the same exact thing. The five things are the idea, then packaging, the first five to 15 seconds, followed by value proposition, and finally, sustainability. Let's start with the most important, which is the idea.

[00:00:20]Imagine you had a magic wand and you could make it literally any video you can think of. What would you make? Let's drive this home with a thought exercise.

[00:00:29]Which video do you think would perform better? One where you watch grass grow in real time, or one where Trump and Obama are actually fist fighting each other? It's pretty obvious that the Trump versus Obama video would get a million times the views. That's because the idea of those two fighting is way more interesting than watching grass grow. The same applies to your videos.

[00:00:53]The best ideas are the ones where the simplest style of packaging, meaning the title and thumbnail, would make it impossible for someone to pass. Imagine how easy it would be to make the thumbnail and title for the Trump versus Obama video. You literally would just have to take a still of one of each of them landing a punch on the other, while making sure Trump's and Obama's faces are clear to see and the title can simply be Trump and Obama get into fist fight. Boom, that's it. Now imagine doing that with the grass video. There does not exist a combination of title and thumbnail that would get a fraction of the views of the Trump versus Obama video. It would be literally impossible.

[00:01:36]This is why the idea for video is by far the most important. The more impossible it is not to watch it, the better it will do. You always have to remember that the first thing someone sees from your video is the title and thumbnail.

[00:01:51]The better the idea, the easier it is to convey it. And now we get into the next most important thing, which is the packaging, also known as thumbnail and title. Once you've landed on an idea for a video, next you think about how to convey that idea to the audience with your thumbnail and title so that it's irresistible. The thumbnail is the thing that will catch people's eyes that are looking at YouTube. It needs to be something that's very different from everything else on the home screen. It very quickly conveys what the video is about and what it conveys is maximally intriguing, interesting, or shocking, ideally all three. So, for example, for the Trump versus Obama video, the format that would best convey this on a thumbnail is a close-up of Trump and Obama's faces while one is landing a punch on the other. Now, this specific thumbnail selection for the Trump and Obama video achieves multiple things.

[00:02:44]First, it makes it very easy for the audience to see that the video is about Obama and Trump because their faces are nice and big on the thumbnail. Obama and Trump together leads to massive interest because it's Trump and Obama. They are both basically known by every living person on the planet with access to the internet. And lastly, it conveys a shocking act, which is the punch. Good luck finding another thumbnail on the home screen or sidebar that conveys anything as remotely close to interesting, intriguing, or shocking. It is maximally differentiated. You have to remember that you are always competing against every other creator on the platform and the best way to separate yourself is by standing out with excellent thumbnail design. And that doesn't mean it needs to be complex. You have to remember that the average time someone spends looking at a thumbnail is less than a second. So, whatever you're trying to convey needs to be understood extremely quickly. This generally means having very simple thumbnails that have two to three core subjects at a maximum that are also maximally captivating and eye-catching. If someone is fully captivated by the thumbnail, then they will read the title. Now, the title needs to deliver on the thumbnail premise with a statement that makes it impossible for the person to not click.

[00:04:05]So, for the Obama versus Trump example, here are a few that would work. Trump punches Obama in the face, seriously.

[00:04:11]Trump punches Obama in the face, actually happened. Trump actually punches Obama, real footage. Do you see how easy it is to make a title for this video? Because the idea is so irresistible, simply describing the act makes it a no-brainer click. Generally speaking, the more complex or niche the video idea, the more time you have to spend on the title and thumbnail to drive home the point. The more no-brainer idea for a video, the lower the friction for incredible title and thumbnail. Now, if your goal is to maximize the number of people that will click on your video, then the thumbnail and title have to be as broadly understandable by the audience as humanly possible. Because the idea of Trump punching Obama is so incredible in this case, the amount of work and time we have to spend doing the packaging is barely anything. But again, the more complex, narrow, or niche the idea, the harder the packaging will be. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do complex or niche ideas, you just have to keep that in mind when you're crafting your title and thumbnail. You always have to keep in mind that YouTube vastly prefers videos that maximally increase the rate that people will click and watch because that gives YouTube the highest chance to show ads, which in turn makes YouTube the most amount of money. YouTube is a for-profit business. Its incentive is to make as much money as possible for its shareholders. And the better chance you give them to do that, the more money you will make. It's very simple. Now, let's go to the next most important thing, which is the first five to 15 seconds in a video. Now that a person has been fully captivated by your thumbnail and title and they had to click on your video, now you have to deliver on the premise of your title and thumbnail within the first 15 seconds. So, in the case of the Trump versus Obama video, if the first five seconds isn't Trump or Obama getting punched in the face, you have failed bigly. You have to carry that idea with you for every single video that you do. Within the first five to 15 seconds, you have to confirm to the audience that the video they clicked on delivers on the premise that you have presented on the title and thumbnail.

[00:06:26]And in the best case, it exceeds the premise. So, for the Trump versus Obama example, if you start off by showing Trump punching Obama in the face, but then you can show Obama getting his teeth knocked out and maybe freaking blood's coming out of his nose or something, you've hit the jackpot. Now, if you don't deliver on the premise of the title and thumbnail, people will simply click off your video because they clicked on your video expecting something and they got something completely different. They clicked to see Trump or Obama getting punched in the face. So, you better show them what they came to see. Otherwise, YouTube will not recommend your video to other people because it sends a signal to YouTube that says people are unlikely to stay and watch the rest of your video, which means YouTube will not be able to show as many ads as it otherwise could have with someone else's video. The more you deliver on the promise of your thumbnail and title, the more your videos get recommended, which means more views and ultimately more earnings. Now, let's cover the next one, which is value proposition. After the first 15 seconds, your job actually gets a lot easier.

[00:07:35]You've now done the work to get people to click, which is by far the hardest, and to stay, which is almost as hard.

[00:07:41]Next, you have to give people a reason to watch until the end of your video so that YouTube can serve as many ads as possible. The best way to do this is by giving the audience a valuable, helpful, and entertaining perspective that they cannot find anywhere else. If you're talking about something that they've already heard or seen somewhere else, then your chances to get people to stay for the video go down because most people, especially those that YouTube loves to show ads to, value their time.

[00:08:14]Put yourself in their shoes. How many times do you want to see the Trump punching Obama video as an example?

[00:08:19]Okay, maybe some of you want to watch that like freaking a million times, okay? But for most people, most normal people, maybe we're good after the third time. But by the 10th time, you're like, "Okay, I got it. I want to see something else or I want to see someone else getting freaking punched in the face."

[00:08:33]Even the most insane idea has a shelf life. So, your goal is to maximize the chance that every second you spend talking or showing something, that it's something valuable, helpful, or entertaining, and ideally all three at the same time. Again, this has the most durable effect of people staying and watching your videos, which gives YouTube more and more chances to show an ad. And the kicker is, if you do this with people that value their time, then YouTube's ultra-smart algorithm will kick in and will show ads that companies are paying a premium for to show on your videos, which means that your earnings per view actually goes up because ad partners are willing to pay more to show their ads to people who value their time. This is because people who value their time generally have a lot more money because they know how much their time is worth, given that time is the most scarce currency in the universe.

[00:09:30]Literally think about it. You can get more of anything you want except for time. We all die eventually, sorry to get dark, but the more you create content with this mindset, the more views you'll get and the more money you will make. And the last thing on this list, sustainability. This is the one that I rarely see get talked about. If you do not spend your time creating content that you want to make and are passionate about, then you will burn out so fast and so hard. You will hate making content. You will feel trapped.

[00:10:01]Every day will feel like a struggle because you are forcing yourself to do something very hard, which is content creation, on your own time on stuff you don't even want to talk about. This will cause you to quit well before you get good enough to become an elite content creator. The tried and true way to get elite at something is time plus repetition. If you don't get the reps in, you will fail and you will quit far too fast. You won't get the necessary reps to improve your craft. The inescapable tough moments that arise from doing something hard, like putting yourself out there on something that you deeply connect with, that then gets shat on by comments and replies on the worldwide web, are 10,000 times more difficult to overcome if you are not passionate about the content that you create. So, you need to guarantee to yourself, well before you make your next video, that the reason why you are making the content is because you love it, not because of the money or some other vain reason like views or becoming famous. That will chew you up and spit you out. Content creation is a cruel mistress. Do not mess with her.

[00:11:13]However, if you are passionate about what you do, then you'll give yourself a chance to stay in the content creation journey for the long term, which will allow you to hone in your skills, master your craft, and build up an increasingly valuable catalog of content that the YouTube algorithm will then resurface on its own when it senses that it will perform well with an audience. Now, here is my biggest lesson. If you are passionate about the content, are really good at coming up with ideas, are very good at packaging those ideas, very good at introducing those ideas, and very good at giving novel and unique insights, then YouTube will reward you in ways you never thought possible. The algorithm will be extremely happy to serve your content, including your back catalog. This will massively increase your reach over time, leading to more views and subscribers. Over time, sponsors will be tripping over themselves to pay you to promote their products and services on your channel.

[00:12:14]This is, of course, optional. You can use your content however you'd like, but as long as you execute on these five premises, your path to success is guaranteed and you will have an audience that loves you for it. This is why I've spent a ridiculous amount of time creating systems and processes around my content creation journey to maximize my chances of achieving all these things while removing as much friction as humanly possible from the second I discover an idea to the video getting published. Friction is the biggest killer of creativity. It prevents you from getting into a flow and flow is the biggest boost to creativity. My job as a content creator now is to eliminate every point of friction so I can enter a flow state as quickly as humanly possible, and I've created an entire system for myself that is now available at farzad.ai as an all-in-one content creation tool.

[00:13:09]It will learn how you think, talk, and present yourself from your existing content library. It will then automatically surface killer ideas, titles, concepts, and framing specifically for your niche and what you usually cover and will also make killer scripts and articles in your style. If you use the tool, you will notice that it's not like your usual generic chat GPT script. It will sound and read like you because it literally learns from you, and it will get better over time as you tweak things that you might do differently. The idea here is to remove 80% of the friction that content creators usually face and put that time back in your hands to actually create the content. It's great for both beginners and content pros, and I'm personally developing the tool in-house.

[00:13:55]I literally use it every day to make it as helpful as humanly possible, not just for myself, but for everyone. You will very quickly see that me and the team are ultra responsive to feedback and are constantly improving the product.

[00:14:08]Thankfully for me, my 4-plus years leading teams at Tesla taught me a lot of lessons around that, and we are applying the same lessons to everything we do, from content creation on this channel to tool development and beyond.

[00:14:20]Use code farzad10 for 10% off your first month or year, depending on the subscription you choose. I hope this video was informative and helpful, and we'll see you on the next one. Take it easy, everybody.

[00:14:31]Bye-bye.