Picking a niche isn't just about what you're interested in. It's about finding the intersection of what you can create consistently, what people actually watch, and whether the audience demographic produces a high RPM, allowing you to get more for the views you get.

Get this right early and everything else gets easier.

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What Is RPM and Why Does It Matter

RPM stands for Revenue Per Mille, how much you earn per 1,000 views.

Two channels can both hit 1 million views in a month and earn completely different amounts. The difference is almost always niche.

• A finance commentary channel at $0.80 RPM earns $800 from 1M views

• A kids gaming channel at $0.05 RPM earns $50 from the same 1M views

RPM is determined by the average amount of money your audience demographic has. Advertisers run short-form ads and target certain audiences, the more people buy from or engage with those ads, the more you earn.

A channel mainly about kids content will produce a lower RPM. Why? Because kids don't have money.

Shorts RPM is significantly lower than long form, that's just the reality of the format. The money is made through volume. The more videos you post, the more views compound, and the more that adds up over time.

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What RPM Actually Looks Like on Shorts

Forget what you've read about long-form YouTube RPM. Shorts operates on a completely different scale.

• Shorts RPM ranges from roughly $0.05 to $1.00 depending on your niche and audience

• Most channels sit somewhere in the middle, around $0.20–$0.40

• A small number of high-value niches push close to or above $0.50–$1.00

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Here's what that looks like in practice across different content types:

~$0.05–$0.10 — Lowest RPM

• Kids content

• Gaming (Roblox, Minecraft style)

• General entertainment with a young audience

Advertisers don't spend much targeting this demographic. High views, low earnings per view.

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~$0.20–$0.40 — Mid RPM

• TV show clips (eg. Shark Tank, America's Got Talent, nature documentaries, old shows)

• General educational or factual content

This is a solid, reliable range for faceless channels built around archival or publicly available footage. Consistent and scalable.

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~$0.40–$0.60 — Higher RPM

• Podcast clipping, depends heavily on the podcast topic

• Military history, American history, patriotic content tends to attract higher advertiser spend

• Motivational and self improvement content
  
  

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~$0.60–$1.00 — Highest RPM for Shorts

• AI commentary on finance topics (eg. Investing, money, business)

• Podcast clips covering finance, entrepreneurship, or high-income topics

• Content targeting a professional or high-income audience

The closer your content is to money, business, and decision-making, the more advertisers are willing to pay to be in front of your audience.

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How to Choose Your Niche

Don't just chase the highest RPM. A $1 RPM niche means nothing if you can't create content in it consistently or it doesn't grow.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Can I create content in this niche without burning out? Consistency wins. Pick something you can keep producing.

• Is there a large audience already watching this type of content? Validate demand before you commit.

• Is the content replicable? Can you build a system around it or does every video require starting from scratch?

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The Faceless Channel Advantage

For faceless channels specifically, the best niches are ones where:

• The content can be built using existing footage, AI voiceovers, podcast clipping or commentary style editing

• The topic has a constant stream of new material to cover

TV clip channels, finance commentary, podcast clipping, and educational content all tick these boxes. These are the most common niches for successful faceless channels for a reason.

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In the next lesson we walk through exactly how to set up your channel correctly.