u/WashPsychological470

Been doing this 8 months. Took 3 months before I saw real money — not a get-rich-quick thing, but it compounds, and videos I made months ago still pay me today. Sharing the actual process because most "guides" on this are just funnels to someone's course.

How it works

Pick one niche. Make short videos without showing your face — visuals, voiceover, captions. Post across multiple platforms. No editing skills needed, AI handles most of it now.

Picking your niche

Most important part. Don't chase trending — pick something you can make 200+ videos about without running dry. What's working right now:

• Scary/mystery stories
• Sleep and relaxation
• Motivation and self-improvement
• Reddit stories
• History and conspiracy
• Animal facts
• True crime
• Financial tips
• Cooking recipes
• AI and tech news

Making Content:

1. Pick 7 topics for the week. I use ViralFindr for trend research, plus a running list in my notes app I add to whenever ideas hit.
2. Draft scripts with ChatGPT, then edit so they sound human. This part matters raw AI scripts get flagged now.
3. Build the videos in Bonzi Studio. I use a template I made that handles most of it generation, edits, captions.
4. Download all 7 and organize by day.
5. Done. Rest of the week is just uploading, ~10 min/day.

Where to post (do ALL of these)

YouTube Shorts — main money maker long term. Monetization kicks in at 1,000 subs + 10M Shorts views. RPM is low but volume makes up for it. Post 1–2x daily.

TikTok — best for growing fast. TikTok pushes new accounts harder than anywhere else. Use it to build an audience and funnel to YouTube. Post 1–2x daily.

Instagram Reels — repost the same videos. Engagement is lower but it's free reach. Post 1x daily.

Facebook Reels — most people sleep on this. Meta is desperate for short content right now and pushing Reels hard. Reach can be insane. Post 1x daily.

YouTube long-form — once you have a rhythm with Shorts, start making 8–15 min videos in the same niche. RPM is 5–10x higher. This is where the real money is.

What to expect (being honest)

• Month 1–2: basically nothing. Few hundred views. Where most people quit.
• Month 3–4: traction starts. Algorithm figures out your audience. $50–100/mo.
• Month 5–6: things compound. Old videos keep earning. $300–800/mo.
• Month 7+: if you stayed consistent, $1K+/mo across platforms is realistic.

These are my numbers. Yours could be faster or slower depending on niche and quality.

Mistakes I made early on

• Switched niches after 2 weeks because I wasn't seeing results. Don't. Commit for at least 3 months.
• Only posted on one platform. Cross-posting takes 5 extra minutes and doubles reach.
• Tried to make "perfect" videos. Done is better than perfect. Just post.
• Didn't batch. Making one video a day is exhausting. A full week in one session is way easier mentally.

The math

1 short per day across 4 platforms = 28 videos a week hitting different audiences. After 6 months, 700+ videos working 24/7. Some make pennies, some pop off it averages out to real money once the library is big enough.

Anyway, that's the full picture. Happy to answer stuff in the comments

I'm 23, based in Toronto, started this 4 months ago with no clients. Wanted to post the actual breakdown because every "I made $X online" post I see is either vague flexing or a soft pitch for a course.

The numbers

• Month 1: $400 (1 client, way underpriced)
• Month 2: $1,200 (3 clients)
• Month 3: $2,400
• Month 4: $3,000
• Total: ~$7K
• Average project now: $600–$900
• Best niche so far: small e-com brands (fragrance, skincare, supplements)and Local Businesses. They need constant ad creative and can't afford a real production team.

What actually worked

-Cold DMs on Instagram to brands with under 20K followers. I'd make a 5-10 second ad for their actual product/business first, attach it to the DM, and say "made this for fun, no obligation happy to make more if you want." Reply rate was around 60%. Close rate on replies was about 1 in 3.

-Positioning. I stopped saying "AI ads" because half the owners I pitched got weird about it. Now I say "short-form video ads for paid social" and only mention the AI part if they ask how I keep costs down. Closes way easier.

-Tool stack, around $90/month total. Bonzi handles most of it generation, edits, captions. Topaz for upscaling. Product shots I still film on an iPhone with a $30 light.

-Building a portfolio before having clients. I made 6 spec ads for brands I liked but didn't work with. I also created an Instagram account to showcase my work.

- Build an example Ad for the business then reached out with a short preview ad.

What flopped

Upwork and Fiverr. Just don't waste your time here it's not worth it.

Pitching big brands. They want production value AI still can't fake, and their procurement process takes months. Stick to founder-led small brands who can say yes in one call.

Charging hourly. Switched to flat per-ad pricing in month 2 and revenue doubled almost immediately.

Anyway, that's the full picture. Happy to answer stuff in the comments and share ad templates, here's an example:

https://reddit.com/link/1th5741/video/7oko8048dz1h1/player

Posted here a few months back about my first 4 months doing AI UGC ads ($7K total, small e-com and local brands). Got a bunch of DMs asking what month 5 and 6 looked like, so here's the actual update. Honestly what moved the needle this stretch wasn't anything I was expecting.

The numbers

Month 5: $4,200
Month 6: $9,600
Avg project now: $900–$1,400 (was $600–$900)
Client load: around 8 active, mix of retainers and one-offs

What I thought would move me up

Better hooks, tighter scripts, more outreach. I spent basically 3 weeks in month 5 optimizing stuff. Built a Notion CRM, an A/B setup for hook variants, a whole script library. Worked 12-hour days the entire month and revenue barely moved. The bottleneck wasn't anywhere I was looking.

What actually moved it

End of month 5, someone added me to a small Discord. Maybe 6 of us in there, all doing AI UGC for different niches. Couple weeks in:

One of the guys shared his pricing structure with me. Bumped my avg project ~40% almost overnight.

Saw 3 ad styles I'd literally never seen on Twitter or TikTok. Half my new winners come from those now.

Got feedback on my sales call deck and turns out I was bringing up price way too late. That alone fixed my close rate.

Someone mentioned a Bonzi feature for batch generating variations that cut my edit time in half. I'd been using the tool for 4 months and had no idea it existed.

Started splitting overflow with two of them. Made an extra $1,800 last month just from referrals between us.

Sounds kind of dumb to say out loud but the real lesson is that 6 months of grinding alone taught me maybe 1/10th of what 2 weeks in a room with other people doing the same thing did. Every "secret" I'd been digging for on YouTube and Twitter was just regular chat in that group.

Why nobody talks about this

Most of the AI UGC content online is course sellers or "winning ad" Twitter threads optimized for engagement, not for actually working. The real stuff stays in DMs and small private groups because the second it goes public, it stops working. I just got lucky someone randomly pulled me in.

What I did about it

The original group ended up getting too big and noisy, so a few of us spun off our own. Mix of operators, agency owners, solo freelancers, all running AI UGC. No course, no upsell, no paid tier. Just a place to post ads for feedback, share what's working, and not be grinding alone. Around 60 of us in there now.

Question for anyone running ads, freelance, or agency stuff: what's the thing that actually moved the needle for you? Pretty convinced "find your 6 people" is the most underrated piece of advice in this space, but maybe I'm just biased now.

I'm 23, based in Toronto, started this 4 months ago with no clients. Wanted to post the actual breakdown because every "I made $X online" post I see is either vague flexing or a soft pitch for a course.

The numbers

• Total: ~$
• Best niche so far: small e-com brands (fragrance, skincare, supplements)and Local Businesses. They need constant ad creative and can't afford a real production team.

What actually worked

-Cold DMs on Instagram to brands with under 20K followers. I'd make a 5-10 second ad for their actual product/business first, attach it to the DM, and say "made this for fun, no obligation happy to make more if you want." Reply rate was around 60%. Close rate on replies was about 1 in 3.

-Positioning. I stopped saying "AI ads" because half the owners I pitched got weird about it. Now I say "short-form video ads for paid social" and only mention the AI part if they ask how I keep costs down. Closes way easier.

-Tool stack, around $90/month total. Bonzi handles most of it generation, edits, captions. Topaz for upscaling. Product shots I still film on an iPhone with a $30 light.

-Building a portfolio before having clients. I made 6 spec ads for brands I liked but didn't work with. I also created an Instagram account to showcase my work.

- Build an example Ad for the business then reached out with a short preview ad.

What flopped

Upwork and Fiverr. Just don't waste your time here it's not worth it.

Pitching big brands. They want production value AI still can't fake, and their procurement process takes months. Stick to founder-led small brands who can say yes in one call.

Charging hourly. Switched to flat per-ad pricing in month 2 and revenue doubled almost immediately.

Anyway, that's the full picture. Happy to answer stuff in the comments and share ad templates, here's an example:

For those asking here’s the tools link:
https://www.bonzi.studio

I'm 23, based in Toronto, started this 4 months ago with no clients. Wanted to post the actual breakdown because every "I made $X online" post I see is either vague flexing or a soft pitch for a course.

The numbers

• Month 1: $400 (1 client, way underpriced)
• Month 2: $1,200 (3 clients)
• Month 3: $2,400
• Month 4: $3,000
• Total: ~$7K
• Average project now: $600–$900
• Best niche so far: small e-com brands (fragrance, skincare, supplements)and Local Businesses. They need constant ad creative and can't afford a real production team.

What actually worked

-Cold DMs on Instagram to brands with under 20K followers. I'd make a 5-10 second ad for their actual product/business first, attach it to the DM, and say "made this for fun, no obligation happy to make more if you want." Reply rate was around 60%. Close rate on replies was about 1 in 3.

-Positioning. I stopped saying "AI ads" because half the owners I pitched got weird about it. Now I say "short-form video ads for paid social" and only mention the AI part if they ask how I keep costs down. Closes way easier.

-Tool stack, around $90/month total. Bonzi handles most of it generation, edits, captions. Topaz for upscaling. Product shots I still film on an iPhone with a $30 light.

-Building a portfolio before having clients. I made 6 spec ads for brands I liked but didn't work with. I also created an Instagram account to showcase my work.

- Build an example Ad for the business then reached out with a short preview ad.

What flopped

Upwork and Fiverr. Just don't waste your time here it's not worth it.

Pitching big brands. They want production value AI still can't fake, and their procurement process takes months. Stick to founder-led small brands who can say yes in one call.

Charging hourly. Switched to flat per-ad pricing in month 2 and revenue doubled almost immediately.

Anyway, that's the full picture. Happy to answer stuff in the comments and share ad templates, here's an example:

https://reddit.com/link/1tg5qud/video/0j22dgvbbs1h1/player

I'm 23, based in Toronto, started this 4 months ago with no clients. Wanted to post the actual breakdown because every "I made $X online" post I see is either vague flexing or a soft pitch for a course.

The numbers

• Month 1: $400 (1 client, way underpriced)
• Month 2: $1,200 (3 clients)
• Month 3: $2,400
• Month 4: $3,000
• Total: ~$7K
• Average project now: $600–$900
• Best niche so far: small e-com brands (fragrance, skincare, supplements)and Local Businesses. They need constant ad creative and can't afford a real production team.

What actually worked

-Cold DMs on Instagram to brands with under 20K followers. I'd make a 5-10 second ad for their actual product/business first, attach it to the DM, and say "made this for fun, no obligation happy to make more if you want." Reply rate was around 60%. Close rate on replies was about 1 in 3.

-Positioning. I stopped saying "AI ads" because half the owners I pitched got weird about it. Now I say "short-form video ads for paid social" and only mention the AI part if they ask how I keep costs down. Closes way easier.

-Tool stack, around $90/month total. Bonzi handles most of it generation, edits, captions. Topaz for upscaling. Product shots I still film on an iPhone with a $30 light.

-Building a portfolio before having clients. I made 6 spec ads for brands I liked but didn't work with. I also created an Instagram account to showcase my work.

- Build an example Ad for the business then reached out with a short preview ad.

What flopped

Upwork and Fiverr. Just don't waste your time here it's not worth it.

Pitching big brands. They want production value AI still can't fake, and their procurement process takes months. Stick to founder-led small brands who can say yes in one call.

Charging hourly. Switched to flat per-ad pricing in month 2 and revenue doubled almost immediately.

Anyway, that's the full picture. Happy to answer stuff in the comments and share ad templates, here's an example:

https://reddit.com/link/1tfb7ra/video/zmjjb2crll1h1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1tf9sql/video/z6xa4xbk8l1h1/player

We started sharing Bonzi Studio on Reddit.

Some people gave us brutal feedback. Some people called out bugs. Some people told us the UI was confusing. Some people actually tried it, broke it, and sent us better ideas than anything we had planned internally.

Some of it hurt lol, but it genuinely made the product better.

6 months later and Bonzi Studio just crossed 10,000 users, and a huge part of that came from Reddit communities that gave us early attention, criticism, and support when we were still figuring things out.

So we wanted to give something back.

For Reddit users, we’re giving 20% off everything on Bonzi.

Use code: SAVE20

For anyone not familiar with Bonzi, the first platform where you can generate AI content, transform, edit, caption, and finish videos in one visual node based workspace.

We just genuinely wanted to thank the people who helped us get here. A lot of the best changes we’ve made came from people on here being brutally honest.

Appreciate everyone who gave us a shot.

https://reddit.com/link/1tcnewp/video/0fktyvd0611h1/player

Ask anything Ill help you out, here's one of the ads I made.

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

-50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in

-20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!

Hey everyone,

We’re Bonzi Studio, an AI video platform for creators making short form videos, AI ads, faceless content, UGC style creatives, and product videos.

We’re starting a small affiliate/ambassador program and looking for a few people who are already active in AI tools, video editing, short form content, creator tools, or digital marketing.

The program is pretty straightforward:

• 50% of the first paid month for every customer you bring in
• 20% recurring for 6 months

-We're also offering $500 bonus for the first 5 ambassadors who bring in 25 valid paid users

We’re pretty flexible on how affiliates get results. You can promote through content, tutorials, reviews, AI tool pages, newsletters, communities, short form videos, paid ads, SEO, email lists, or whatever strategy works for you.

The main thing is that the users have to be real, valid customers tracked through your affiliate link.

If you’re interested in joining, comment or DM me and I’ll send over the details and we can get you started!