Journey: From $0 to 100 Paying Creators — Starting Today

[QuietFortune]

alright finally making this thread. been lurking on bhw for years, reading everyone else's journeys, telling myself "ill post mine when i actually got something real to show" and today's that day


lemme give some background first cause i think it matters for understanding why im building what im building

so for the past while ive been working as a scriptwriter on upwork, worked with alot of different youtube clients over time - some channels that genuinely blew up, some that started from literally nothing, some that just never took off no matter what we tried. ive also managed a few channels directly for clients, so ive sat behind real analytics dashboards, watched retention graphs, seen what makes a video tank in the first 15 seconds vs what keeps ppl watching till the end. been in strategy calls discussing why one script format worked and another flopped completely. point is, ive seen alot of the youtube game from the inside, not just theorizing about it

and the pattern i kept seeing over and over with upcoming/smaller creators (the ones not already blown up) is basically 2 things killing them:

1. scripts/hooks that dont retain - alot of creators just dont know how to structure a hook or build retention into the script itself, they're either winging it or using generic ai output that reads like a wikipedia article
2. voice - if ur not doing on-camera or dont wanna show face, ur options for quality AI voice are either elevenlabs (which honestly is the best out there, no argument) or nothing. but elevenlabs pricing gets rough fast if ur trying to post daily or even weekly and consistently. alot of smaller creators just cant justify that cost yet, especially early on before the channel is making money back

so thats the gap im building into. a full suite that handles the research + retention-focused scriptwriting + voice generation + publishing side, made to actually be affordable enough that a creator can stay consistent without the cost eating them alive before they even grow

anyway, wont turn this into a whole pitch (yall already know what it is from my last post lol), just wanted to explain the "why" behind it properly this time. build itself is basically done, just crossing the t's and dotting i's now, looking at launching within the next 3-7 days

now the actual reason for this thread - i wanna use this as my live journey log AND get input from this community cause yall know outreach/growth better than most places online

my rough strategy so far for finding first users:

1. directly reaching out to youtube channels in the 5k-50k subscriber range (figure this is the sweet spot - established enough to be posting consistently and feeling the pain points, small enough to still be very cost conscious)
2. reddit - relevant creator/youtube subreddits, being genuinely helpful first before ever mentioning what im building
3. facebook groups - there's alot of youtube creator FB communities that are pretty active
4. linkedin outreach - about to grab sales navigator's 30 day free trial to target this properly

thats what i got so far but i know this community has cracked outreach in ways i havent even thought of yet, so genuinely asking:

• anyone here done cold outreach to youtube channels specifically? what worked, what got ignored/blocked
• best subreddits/fb groups for reaching creators without getting insta-banned for self promo
• linkedin sales nav - worth it for this kind of targeting or overkill
• and if theres anyone in this thread who's already been down this road and found real success with a similar outreach heavy launch strategy, would genuinely love to hear how you did it, numbers, what you'd do different etc. always got mad respect for the ppl who actually documented their wins here instead of just disappearing after they made it

gonna keep this thread updated as i go through outreach, whats working whats flopping, first paying users when they come in, all of it. this is meant to be a real discussion not just me broadcasting so drop ur thoughts/experiences below, especially if youve done youtube-niche outreach before

lets get to work

 

[Adult-HTML]

Hey, glad you decided to start posting. Wishing you all the best, and looking forward to seeing how things go for you.

 

[rodrimar]

This is a really interesting thread for me; I’m in a similar position and would love to know the best strategy for reaching creators.

I think sharing valuable content in Facebook communities—where you position yourself as a professional rather than a salesperson—could work well; you’d avoid getting banned, and some creators might even reach out to you directly.

You could try cold outreach by mixing DMs and emails: if they don't reply to your DM, try email, or combine the two methods. There are tools that handle this for LinkedIn, though I’m not sure about other platforms.

You might also want to check Skool to see if there are any free communities where you can connect with interesting creators.

Your service sounds like a great idea. I recently came across something similar involving specialized AI, and their unique selling proposition was something like this (in case it helps you): if we don't increase your reach, engagement, or follower count by 15%, we’ll refund your money.

 

[QuietFortune]

Hey, glad you decided to start posting. Wishing you all the best, and looking forward to seeing how things go for you.

appreciate it man! been reading this forum for years honestly, feels good to actually be posting instead of just lurking in the shadows lol. gonna keep the updates coming...

This is a really interesting thread for me; I’m in a similar position and would love to know the best strategy for reaching creators.

I think sharing valuable content in Facebook communities—where you position yourself as a professional rather than a salesperson—could work well; you’d avoid getting banned, and some creators might even reach out to you directly.

You could try cold outreach by mixing DMs and emails: if they don't reply to your DM, try email, or combine the two methods. There are tools that handle this for LinkedIn, though I’m not sure about other platforms.

You might also want to check Skool to see if there are any free communities where you can connect with interesting creators.

Your service sounds like a great idea. I recently came across something similar involving specialized AI, and their unique selling proposition was something like this (in case it helps you): if we don't increase your reach, engagement, or follower count by 15%, we’ll refund your money.

appreciate the detailed rundown, exactly the kind of input i was hoping for ngl. the fb professional-positioning angle makes sense, way better than showing up and just pitching right away, ppl smell that instantly. curious what tools you were thinking for the linkedin dm + email combo tho, if you got a couple names would love to check em out. Also hadnt even thought about skool at all, gonna go dig thru that today actually

that refund-guarantee angle is interesting too, hadnt considered tying it to a specific % improvement like that. def gonna sit on whether something like that could work for what im building. Appreciate you taking the time to write all this out, this is the kind of reply that makes posting here worth it


Progress update
been a busy day not gonna lie

so first thing, while i was running thru the full workflow again testing stuff, i actually found a bug that couldve been used for abuse ngl, like undetected abuse, the kind that wouldve been bad if someone found it before me lol. good news is i caught it n fixed it already before launch so we good there. always scary finding stuff like that this close to shipping tho.

Second thing - i went ahead and grabbed the sales navigator 30 day free trial like i mentioned, started actual outreach today. targeting solo youtubers specifically, not teams/agencies, cause figure they feel the pain point (script writing + voice cost) the most personally, no team to offload the work to...

plan for the next 5 days is just pure connection requests, aiming for 200/dayx5 days, not pitching anything yet. wanna see natural accept rate first before i even think about messaging cause if accept rate is trash then the pitch doesnt even matter, ppl gotta actually connect first.

Will update again once i got numbers on how many accepted / what % that ended up being, then move into the actual pitch phase after.

more updates soon...

 

[jakol]

alright finally making this thread. been lurking on bhw for years, reading everyone else's journeys, telling myself "ill post mine when i actually got something real to show" and today's that day


lemme give some background first cause i think it matters for understanding why im building what im building

so for the past while ive been working as a scriptwriter on upwork, worked with alot of different youtube clients over time - some channels that genuinely blew up, some that started from literally nothing, some that just never took off no matter what we tried. ive also managed a few channels directly for clients, so ive sat behind real analytics dashboards, watched retention graphs, seen what makes a video tank in the first 15 seconds vs what keeps ppl watching till the end. been in strategy calls discussing why one script format worked and another flopped completely. point is, ive seen alot of the youtube game from the inside, not just theorizing about it

and the pattern i kept seeing over and over with upcoming/smaller creators (the ones not already blown up) is basically 2 things killing them:

1. scripts/hooks that dont retain - alot of creators just dont know how to structure a hook or build retention into the script itself, they're either winging it or using generic ai output that reads like a wikipedia article
2. voice - if ur not doing on-camera or dont wanna show face, ur options for quality AI voice are either elevenlabs (which honestly is the best out there, no argument) or nothing. but elevenlabs pricing gets rough fast if ur trying to post daily or even weekly and consistently. alot of smaller creators just cant justify that cost yet, especially early on before the channel is making money back

so thats the gap im building into. a full suite that handles the research + retention-focused scriptwriting + voice generation + publishing side, made to actually be affordable enough that a creator can stay consistent without the cost eating them alive before they even grow

anyway, wont turn this into a whole pitch (yall already know what it is from my last post lol), just wanted to explain the "why" behind it properly this time. build itself is basically done, just crossing the t's and dotting i's now, looking at launching within the next 3-7 days

now the actual reason for this thread - i wanna use this as my live journey log AND get input from this community cause yall know outreach/growth better than most places online

my rough strategy so far for finding first users:

1. directly reaching out to youtube channels in the 5k-50k subscriber range (figure this is the sweet spot - established enough to be posting consistently and feeling the pain points, small enough to still be very cost conscious)
2. reddit - relevant creator/youtube subreddits, being genuinely helpful first before ever mentioning what im building
3. facebook groups - there's alot of youtube creator FB communities that are pretty active
4. linkedin outreach - about to grab sales navigator's 30 day free trial to target this properly

thats what i got so far but i know this community has cracked outreach in ways i havent even thought of yet, so genuinely asking:

• anyone here done cold outreach to youtube channels specifically? what worked, what got ignored/blocked
• best subreddits/fb groups for reaching creators without getting insta-banned for self promo
• linkedin sales nav - worth it for this kind of targeting or overkill
• and if theres anyone in this thread who's already been down this road and found real success with a similar outreach heavy launch strategy, would genuinely love to hear how you did it, numbers, what you'd do different etc. always got mad respect for the ppl who actually documented their wins here instead of just disappearing after they made it

gonna keep this thread updated as i go through outreach, whats working whats flopping, first paying users when they come in, all of it. this is meant to be a real discussion not just me broadcasting so drop ur thoughts/experiences below, especially if youve done youtube-niche outreach before

lets get to work

Can we see a sample of your scriptwriting? or a peice of your work in general? Thanks!