20 BEST YouTube Channel Ideas to Make Money (2025 Edition)

All right, I just spent the last two weeks analyzing hundreds of YouTube channels to find out what's actually making money in 2025. And I got to tell you, most of what people think works is completely wrong. Like, everyone's still talking about gaming channels and lifestyle blogs, but the real money is being made in niches that most people have never even heard of. So, I put together a list of the 20 best YouTube channel ideas that are actually working right now in 2025. And some of these are going to blow your mind. I'm talking about channels making 5,000, 10,000, even over 50,000 or a h 100,000 a month in niches that have almost zero competition because nobody even knows they exist. And in today's video, I'm going to go through all 20 of these channel ideas, show you real examples of people making serious money, and explain exactly how you could start your own channel in any of these niches. And the best part is most of these don't require any special skills or expensive equipment. You literally just need to know what's working and how to do it right. So, with that being said, if you appreciate me making this type of content, let me know by gently tapping that like button. Let's jump into it right now. All right. First one on the list we've got is Faceless Jazz Music. And they're using AI to make these animations. So, you can see this channel, Barely Jazz, and you can see that in a lot of the videos there is some sort of girl. She's dressed in maybe, I don't know, 1920s outfit, 1930s. I could be completely off on that. Maybe it's like 1950s. I don't know. But the point is she's making around $2 to $7,000 a month with this channel. And all they're doing is they're probably using an app like SNO, which can basically create pretty good music. And they're making similar sounding music, and then using animation software to, you know, make her move the cigarette back and forth between her mouth. So yeah, super easy content to make. Like this is pretty close to being like real YouTube automation. There's no such thing as YouTube automation. that doesn't actually exist. Uh, in terms of like full 100% automation, anything that's like fully 100% automated is going to just be AI slop, but this is one of the closest ones I've seen to actual AI automation. Speaking of AI automation, let's talk about the second channel, which is the world according to AI. Now, this channel makes about 4.1 to 13K per month. It's a relatively new channel as well. Actually, the the one I just showed you is super new, too. Both of them came in the last few months. And it's about AI, of course. and it basically turns futuristic concepts into viral AI videos of a gorilla and it's just pure visuals, AI creativity and storytelling and people can't stop watching. The channel is basically like sci-fi meets automation and it's the only channel where AI writes, directs, produces and the human just hits upload. So very interesting channel concept. So according to them, this is just a completely AI generated channel. The human being basically just does what the AI tells it to do and it creates these funny, you know, gorilla looking creature Sasquatch thing videos. All right, quick break. Quick break. This Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, I'm doing a one-time only workshop where I talk about hybrid YouTube automation, which is YouTube automation that actually works. And at this workshop, I'm going to be giving away my oneclick script writer. This is a GPT, a piece of software that I've been working on. has been trained on thousands of hours of my teaching, my scripts, coaching sessions, etc. And you can make a script in as little as one click using this software. So, I'm going to be giving that away for this one time only at this workshop. So, make sure you show up, click the link in the description, pin comment below. Also, make sure to put it on your calendar, save the date, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, and I'll see you there. And also, you'll be able to ask me questions live. So, I look forward to meeting you. See you there Tuesday 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. And now, we'll get back to your regularly scheduled programming. All right. Next one is going to be commentary. So, I'm actually just going to use like a bigger channel for this one. So, someone who's very famous on the internet is Penguin Zero, also known as Moist Critical, also known as Charlie. And you can see that he's making about 95 to $39,000 a month on his channel. And all he does, he has a super crappy camera. Like, it's amazing how bad his camera is. and he literally just records himself reacting to random stuff that happens around the internet. Basically, just anything that he finds to be interesting. So, yeah, this type of content, I think everybody knows about it, but I thought I'd just go over it very quickly. Not going to spend too much time on this, but he basically just adds in kind of his own personality, his own humor. For instance, he has very dry kind of like monotone commentary. A lot of the time he's talking about games and culture, and he just uses like dead pan humor and sincerity, right? doesn't seem like he's reading off of a script or anything like that. And so he's basically built like a media empire from, you know, silent sarcasm and 30 minute reaction videos and his audience is fiercely loyal to him. Now, by the way, like a lot of these channels probably are monetizing outside of just AdSense, but AdSense is the only thing that's easy to see when it comes to their monetization. So there's many channels that are probably making far far more than what they're making from AdSense, just FYI. Now, there's tons of smaller reaction channels, by the way, that are still making like pretty good money. It's not just the Moist Criticals of the world. Um, but I'm going to go over another niche that I think everyone knows about, which is TechReview. Okay, TechReview is still really good. And the, you know, probably the king of tech review is Maris Brownley, and he's making like 59 to 165,000 a month, and he's probably making far far far more than that um from other forms of monetization, but that's just from AdSense alone. So, yeah, Tech Review is still really good. you probably want to niche down a little bit. Don't just do the same tech reviews that everyone else is doing. Try to do tech reviews in a niche. All right, next one is math and science tutorial videos. So, uh, the organic chemistry tutor is a great example of this one. And basically, he started off just doing organic chemistry videos and he solves the problem of unaffordable private tutoring that costs like $200 an hour versus just learning for free on YouTube. He does a really good job teaching people. And this video, for instance, right here, how to find the domain, he made $44,000 from. This is probably a video that took him like a few hours to make. And he made $44,000 from it. And on a monthly basis, he's making around $35 to $100,000 just from AdSense alone. And he's probably monetizing very well in other ways. For instance, he's got a Patreon where there's three levels of membership, $10, $20, and $50 a month. Next is educational geography. And the channel I'm going to talk about is Geography Now. So, this channel basically teaches world geography with humor and earns thousands a month doing it. And it says here they're making about 7.3 to $20,000 a month. Now, my experience uh basically being kind of like a YouTube coach and a YouTube consultant tells me that this is an education channel and so they're probably making more than what view stats is estimating here. Uh so with 9 million views a month, they're likely making somewhere between5 to $10 per 1,000 views. And so I would say they're probably making at least about $45,000 a month. This video, for instance, Geography Now Germany, they're making about $43,000 from a single video. Not bad. All right, next is What If Videos. And a great channel that does this is XKCD. And they mainly talk about what if videos, and they use animated stickman drawing videos. And they earn an estimated monthly revenue of 19 to 55,000. And the most popular video got over 6.9 million views and made $34,000. So basically, this channel turns absurd science questions into mustwatch videos and they absolutely rack up the views and the cash by doing it. What's happening guys in the editing process of this video and I have an opportunity for a select group of people. So these are people who are serious about growing their personal brand on YouTube. So basically we figured out recently how to grow a personal brand and combine all the upsides of a personal brand with the upsides of automation, right? Using AI, using things like this to basically grow your personal brand 10 times faster, which in the past used to take decades to do. And now you can do it significantly faster. And you can do this to get a better job. You know, we work with beginners that just want to get a better job with their personal brand. You can do this to make money as a side hustle. We work with a lot of people like that. We can do this to make more money. If you already have a side hustle or a small business or if you're already crushing it on YouTube, we can help you crush it 10 times more. We've worked with people like that as well. I mean, I literally can show clients at each level. People that we've gotten from zero to over 10K, zero to like over 30K, uh, from like 1K per month all the way up to 185K per month, from around 30K per month, all the way up to over 500K per month. So, literally at every single level, and it works for everyone in every situation. With that being said, we are only working with three to five people and they have to be people who are very serious, right? People who are dedicated to making this work. So, if you think you're that type of person, go ahead and apply down in the description and the pin comment below and you can be part of our group of 35 that we help. So, see you there. Have a good one. All right. The next one is absolutely ridiculous and this is Temponaut timelapse. This is one of the most ridiculous channels I've ever seen in my life. They literally just do time-lapses of things like ice cream melting. So, they just set up a camera, do a time-lapse on the camera, and record ice cream melting. And then they uploaded to YouTube. And guess how much they make from a video like that? $172,000. That's right. They got 121 million views and made $172,000 by doing a time-lapse video of ice cream melting. Okay, so that is absolutely absurd. And you might be thinking, well, Shane, there's no opportunities like that now. you know, that was only available like a few years ago when they started. Uh, no, there's still tons of opportunities, tons of untapped opportunities like this now. In fact, there's only going to be more and more opportunities. Think about it like this. Back in the day, let's say 50 years ago, there weren't that many shows on TV and but there were a few successful shows and they were making a lot of money. And I'm sure there were a lot of people back then. And it's like, ah, darn it. You know, I I was I could have thought of the idea for Star Trek or whatever, but somebody else thought of it and now I can't make like a a space travel TV show. Uh, since then there's been like hundreds, if not thousands of space travel TV shows, so obviously that was not correct, right? So, my whole point here is there's still going to be lots of opportunities for this type of content into the future. Just because one person did it doesn't mean you can't do it in a little bit different way or find some other idea or niche that's untapped. And oh yeah, they're making about 13 to $44,000 a month. And I bet most of their views come from older videos. All right, next is top 10 videos. So basically a really good channel that does this is Watch Mojo. And they just do top 10s on like everything under the sun. Top 10, you know, gangster movies, top 10 songs from Tupac or something, right? just like all kinds of random uh different types of top 10s. And this channel pulls $80 to $300,000 a month from ads alone. And they just pump out top 10 list daily. Uh they're basically turning pop culture trivia into bingeworthy content. All right, next is educational comedy and animated history lessons. So, uh an example of this one is Sam Onella Academy. And basically, they just do plain stick figure animations and he draws crude characters and visuals to explain topics. and he just covers quirky historical, scientific, and linguistic subjects, things like obscure inventions, bizarre human stories, and scientific names. And they say this channel makes about 1.2 to $4.1,000 a month. I would say based on how many views they're getting, they're definitely making at least 5 to 10K per month from this channel. Again, educational content, generally speaking, does tend to make more money. And there's other channels out there that are getting a lot more views than them that kind of do similar types of content, like Oversimplified. All right, next one is movie reviews. And a really good example of this one is Jeremy John's. He's an American YouTuber who does nothing but review movies. And he's been using the exact same very simple setup for more than a decade. And he's got a fun personality, and he avoids sounding edgy, and he earns up to $10,000 a month just yapping about movies with a red background in front of a camera. This guy is Mr. Consistent. All right, next one is horror and storytelling. And this is a super good niche. Just as an example, this channel right here, Mr. Nightmare, is making 38 to $107,000 a month. And basically, they just tell random horror stories, right? Uh this guy talks about horror stories and people's cases. And usually it's just like a slideshow with creepy background music and a really good voiceover. And yeah, he makes like $107,000 a month. And his most popular video made over $148,000. And that is three creepy true school lockdown stories. All right, next one is Dad Hacks. And this is a dad teaching basic life skills to people who grew up without a father figure, which I think is awesome. And his name is Rob Kenny. Now, the actual channel name is Dad How Do I, but he started his channel to be the dad that he never had. And his videos are focused on teaching everything from tying ties to fixing toilets. And yeah, pretty cool channel. For instance, uh how to tie a tie. This video earned $15,000. So, probably took him about 5 minutes to make this video and it earned $15,000. Pretty good. And he's probably monetizing a lot more from things outside of AdSense. All right, next one is skits. And a good channel for this one is Steven Heath. Emotional damage. And this channel focuses on making skits and adding variety uh in the perspective of an Asian or a Howwood Asian perspective. So, most videos are hilarious skits, often playing a caricature of a strict East Asian father and poking fun at immigrant parenting quirks and cultural stereotypes. Now, he earns about 20 to $56,000 a month. And his most popular video got over 64.7 million views and earned an estimated $323,000. Next is ASMR. Now, there's a lot of different ASMR channels out there. One of them is Gibby ASMR, and she basically does ASMR videos about almost anything. And she blends anime cosplay culture with ASMR roleplays. And according to view stats, she's earning $63,000 a month in revenue. And her most popular video generated over $314,000 with just ASMR and her costume. Absolutely absurd, right? This video got 63 million views and generated 314,000. Next is lockpicking. And there's actually a few people in this niche and they're making really good money. Now, one of them is lockpicking lawyer. And right now, apparently, he's earning about $6 to $19,000 a month in revenue just from AdSense alone. And he launched a website where he sells all kinds of different lockpicking devices, which he probably makes a ton of money from as well. So, this video for instance, um this is the real double wrench method. I guess it's to break locks. And, uh it got 36 million views and it was only a few minutes. and he earned $180,000 from it. Absolutely absurd. So yeah, super weird. Super niche. Just like picking locks on camera. I mean, just what a weird niche. And he's making tons of money doing it. All right, next one is Food Review. And there are a ton of channels on YouTube that are doing this. Uh, one of them is the best ever food review show. And this is an American expat based in Vietnam and he travels globally eating extreme or dangerous foods and he's a Webbby award winner and he eats sea penis and poisonous puffer fish for content. and he earns 48 to $134,000 in AdSense every single month by doing this. And his most popular video earned $320,000 and got 64 million views. And that's this one right here. African tribes try American candy. Guess which one they hate. All right, next one is Relax My Dog. And this is relaxing music for dogs. And this is a YouTube channel designed to help pets, especially dogs, relax, sleep, or stay calm through specially composed music and ambient visuals. So, it's just like music, but for dogs to keep them calm. Yeah. Like this video right here, 15 hours of deep separation anxiety music for dogs. Relaxation helped 4 million dogs worldwide. Knew that's kind of a terrible and super long title, and the thumbnail is not that good either. But guess what? got 59 million views and made $299,000 in revenue. Oh, and even though they barely post anymore, he's still making $4 to $11,000 a month. All right, next one is crochet and handmade crafts. And the example I'm going to give here is Lindsy Handmade. And this channel focuses on crochet and craft tutorials. Usually, it's like do-it-yourself or handmade fashion. And the videos are direct of her making crochet. Now, from YouTube, her AdSense, she's making around $3,000 a month in revenue, somewhere around there. Now, this is an educational channel, so like I said, usually around $8 to $10 per thousand views. So, this is usually a bit off for educational channels. So, I'd say this is probably making around $3 to $4,000 a month. But she also has an Etsy store that's attached to her YouTube channel where she sells the stuff that she makes on her YouTube channel. And this Etsy store has made over $500,000 in sales. So, she's using her channel to promote her Etsy store, which is pretty awesome. So, yeah, this is a great way and a great example of making money, and that's one of the things I help YouTubers do because most YouTubers are terrible at making money. And that brings me to the next one on the list, which is Sean Dolit, and he basically teaches people how to do Amazon KDP. So, basically, Amazon KDP is where you sell books on Amazon. And a lot of the times these are not even physical books, although they can be made into physical books, but they're designed to be on Kindle, like a Kindle device. And he makes the best freaking videos on Amazon KDP on the internet. And he's helped a ton of people make money from Amazon KDP. Now, when Seawn first came to me, he was only making around $30,000 a month from YouTube. He was ranging from like $10 to $30,000 a month, and he was stuck there for a long time. And after working with me for nine months, he scaled all the way up to over $500,000 a month. So, this is kind of what I'm talking about when I say I help YouTubers monetize their channels correctly. And then check out the interview I did with Sean where we talked about how he struggled and how he, you know, basically tried to get out himself for years before he actually just decided to work with a professional, work with a coach, and then how we immediately helped him to monetize his channel correctly by clicking right here.