Can AI Provide Passive Income? Week 8 Insights
Today marks the close of the second month on my journey to explore whether AI can truly support the creation of passive income through YouTube.
If you’re curious about using AI to build income streams, keep reading because this month has been full of lessons.
The Targets Set for Month 2
At the end of Month 1, I set some ambitious goals to push my learning and output:
🎯 Produce & Release 21 Shorts
🎯 Produce & Release 1 Long-Form Video
The aim was simple: to increase publishing volume, refine my skills, and accelerate growth on the Faceless YouTube channel.
What Actually Happened
Here’s the honest progress for the key stats from Month 2:
- Shorts Released: 12
- Long-Form Videos Released: 0
- New Subscribers: +40
- Total Views: 137,053
- Total Watch Time: 677.7 hours
On first glance, it would be easy to focus on the gap between the targets and the output. But that’s not the full story.
Lessons on Setting Realistic Expectations
While I made a strong start, real life intervened — a holiday, getting ill after travel, and launching my own business at the same time. These aren’t excuses; they’re reminders of an important lesson:
🔹 Set your goals with a clear view of your calendar.
🔹 Ambition is important, but so is flexibility.
Trying to juggle too much can dilute your focus. True growth often demands both consistency and patience. - not frantic output.
Observations and Wins
Even with fewer videos than planned, the channel grew meaningfully:
- Views increased over 6x compared to Month 1.
- Subscribers tripled.
- Total watch time grew rapidly.
Each Short took around 1.5 hours to produce, and there were plenty of good reminders that even with AI support, there’s a very real time investment required in content creation.
Plans for Month 3
Looking ahead:
- Upload 14x Shorts.
- Trial a long-form video to begin progressing toward monetisation watch hours.
- Continue refining the production process to balance quality and efficiency.
This journey is just getting started and if the first two months have taught me anything, it’s that perseverance (and a willingness to adapt) are key.
Thanks for following along — if you’re working on your own AI projects, I’d love to hear from you!