January 2026 Income Report (Double in 12 Months!)

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Hey guys,

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The first month of 2026 is done! Here’s the month’s revenue:

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  • Post-HCU niche site (Mediavine): $1,309.70*
  • AI Slop YouTube Channels (AdSense): $2,727.52*
  • Digital Products/Courses (YouTube Top of Funnel): $751.50

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January Total: $4,788.72

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*The post-HCU site and AI Slop channels are passive – I haven’t touched them in 6-12 months.

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Comparison to Last Year

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Last year’s January total was $2283.66. So I’m up over double.

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The YouTube channels have seen particularly strong growth:

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Channel 1:

  • Jan 2025: $308.66
  • Jan 2026: $306.40

(No new videos were published in the whole of 2025 – rankings are holding steady)

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Channel 2:

  • Jan 2025: $729.76
  • Jan 2026: $2,006.60

(No new videos since July 2025)

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Channel 3:

  • Jan 2025: $39.25
  • Jan 2026: $414.52

(No new videos since July 2025)

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There are three lessons here.

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  1. High Stability: YouTube rankings are incredibly stable. It’s why I’ve always loved the YouTube algorithm vs the Google algo
  2. It Works: Low-effort, high-quantity content works just as well on YouTube as it did in the niche sites space.
  3. It ain’t gonna last: This isn’t a “real” business model. You’re 100% reliant on YouTube/Alphabet to both RANK you and PAY you… at a time when they’re trying (and failing) to knock this content down. This is why I haven’t really committed much to this model. I want a ‘real’ business.

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YouTube-to-Product Project Update

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As a reminder: my goal is to build a course/product business off the back of YouTube. I’d like it to make at least $40,000 between now and May.

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Check out my funnel this month:

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  • Video Views: 5,396
  • Clicks through to landing page: 367 (7 in every 100 viewers clicked the link in video description)
  • Sales: 11 (3% landing page conversion rate; 2 in every 1,000 video viewers made a purchase)
  • Revenue: $499 / $45 AOV
  • RPM: $92.47 RPM

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The good news: That $45 AOV is WAY up from $25 in previous months. A bundle discount + urgency ribbon on the sales page have done the trick.

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Note: This product’s peak season hasn’t begun yet. I’ll be keeping an eye on how this funnel performs in March/April when I expect higher interest in the topic.

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My First YouTube Paid Ads Attempt (Fail)

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I tried to run YouTube Ads to my videos.

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I set it up so my video would be the “sponsored” video for certain search terms on YouTube.

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I set it to cap my cost per view to 14c ($140 per 1,000 views).

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In other words, I spent $140 to buy 1,000 views from Tier 1 country audiences.

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Results were:

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  • Zero sales. Remember: organic traffic delivered 2 sales per 1,000 views.
  • Lower average view duration from ads (2m 41s) than organic (3m) and direct/unknown (13m 33s)
  • My cap of 14c per view meant I didn’t get impressions for the most lucrative keywords / audiences – other advertisers were outbidding me.

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The takeaway: YouTube search ads are not viable at this time of the sales cycle. It costs too much to ‘buy’ the sort of high-quality view that could lead to a sale.

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I will try again when I’m fully in peak season and buyers are a bit more ready to purchase.

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Feel free to send me feedback, comments, questions, thoughts, etc. … or update me on your own projects.

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Happy February!

Chris.

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