You know, I keep seeing these online creators
pulling in thousands, sometimes just from like
simple talking head videos. It's pretty wild.
It really is. But what if I told you a lot of
those people you're seeing, they aren't actually,
well, real people. Whoa. OK, now that gets my
attention. Yeah. Welcome to the deep dive. Today,
we're going to unpack something fascinating,
a whole new way people are making income online.
AI. micro -influencers. We'll explore exactly
what they are, how they're generating some honestly
really impressive income streams, and then we'll
walk you through the actual steps to build one
yourself. And you can do it using tools that
are pretty accessible, a lot of them even free.
Think of this as your guide. a shortcut maybe
to understanding this, this whole burgeoning
creator economy slice. We're gonna cover it all.
From crafting a character that looks totally
real to editing compelling videos, even scaling
the whole thing up. And the really amazing part,
you can do all this without ever showing your
own face or even using your own voice. It's a
huge shift, really. It is. So let's start right
there. What exactly are these AI micro -influencers
popping up everywhere? OK. So at its core, a
micro -influencer, they build this really tight
-knit audience, right? It's usually around a
super -specific niche. Think like conscious parenting
or maybe niche finance advice, something like
that. They're not after millions of followers.
Right. It's all about that deep engagement, really
cultivating a connection. And the AI twist, that's
the picker here. You're basically creating these,
well, fully realistic digital people. Exactly.
These characters deliver your content. They become
the face, the recognizable part of your brand.
While you stay completely anonymous, behind the
scenes, it kind of democratizes the whole creator
thing, doesn't it? Totally. It lets anyone jump
in, even if you're not comfortable being on camera
yourself. So if you had to boil it down. What's
the single biggest advantage of an AI micro influencer
compared to a, you know, a human one? Fundamentally,
it's the ability to build a brand and share real
value completely anonymously. You can build a
brand and share value without ever showing your
face or voice. Got it. And the money -making
potential here, I mean, it's genuinely impressive.
Let's talk about how people are actually turning
this into real income. Absolutely. Let's get
into the specifics. A big one is TikTok, right?
their creator rewards program. Yeah, that's huge.
It pays creators, but only for videos that are
one minute or longer. And the reports suggest
payouts can be, like, up to $1 .20 per thousand
views. Wow. So think about a viral video. Say
it gets five million views. That single post
could potentially pull in around $6 ,000. That's
serious incentive to make good, longer content.
And then of course there's YouTube. YouTube shorts
are a goldmine because you can earn ad revenue
and there's no minimum video length needed once
your channel is approved. Ah, okay. So even shorter
clips work there. Exactly. Even the short punchy
ones contribute. Plus they have a shorts creator
fund too, so that's another potential stream.
And we're also seeing folks finding real success
selling digital products. Places like Etsy. Digital
planners, templates. Yeah, exactly. Digital planners,
Canva templates, productivity guides, stuff people
actually use. There was one creator reportedly
running over $2 ,000 a month just from that.
Right. It shows that even a smaller niche audience,
if they trust you, they'll buy helpful stuff.
True. And affiliate marketing is super common,
too. Your AI character recommends products, maybe
software or books, whatever fits the niche. And
gets a commission. Right. Earns a cut. when someone
buys through their link. And then once you get
enough followers, brands start paying your AI
directly for sponsored posts. It becomes this
robust cycle. The real beauty, I think, is how
efficient it is. You can reuse that same AI character,
the same core content across tons of platforms.
Instagram reels, Facebook reels, Pinterest. Yeah,
exactly. You just multiply your reach and, critically,
your income potential. It's like stacking building
blocks, right? Building this bigger presence
piece by piece. Total leverage. So how does that
strategy, leveraging multiple platforms, how
does it really amplify the earning potential?
Reusing content across platforms like TikTok
and YouTube just boosts reach and income significantly.
It multiplies your efforts. Makes sense. OK,
so let's get practical. How do we actually make
these digital stars? It sounds kind of sci -fi,
but the tools are actually here and pretty accessible.
It really is kind of amazing. It all starts with
the image, right? The face. of your AI influencer,
Leonardo AI is a really powerful option. I've
heard good things. Yeah, it gives you free daily
credits to start, and they're, uh... their advanced
Flux model, it creates incredibly realistic photos.
Plus, it's pretty user -friendly, even for beginners.
OK, so first step, set up a free account there.
Then you go into image generation, pick a strong
model like Leonardo Flux, and choose that vertical
aspect ratio, like 9 .16. That's perfect for
TikTok, shorts, reels, all that stuff. Or fix
the phone screen. Now, here's where it gets really,
really crucial, the prompt. Ah, the magic words.
Exactly. This text instruction you give the AI,
it basically dictates the quality of your image.
You've got to be detailed. Like what details?
Describe the subject, appearance, age, nationality.
Then what are they doing? Their pose, maybe sitting
at a desk, looking right at the camera. And the
setting, like a modern home office. OK, subject,
action, setting. What else? Don't forget framing.
Something like selfie mode framing can make it
feel more personal friendly. Oh, good tip. And
lighting? Soft morning light, for example. And
critically, you need to add terms like realistic
skin texture, subtle imperfections. Why imperfections?
To avoid that creepy, too perfect, uncanny valley
look. That's what makes it feel real human. Gotcha.
So not just a woman talking. Right. Think more
like photorealistic medium close -up. 28 -year
-old Vietnamese woman, cozy, sunlit cafe in Hanoi,
long, dark hair, loose bun, simple light linen
shirt, looking directly at camera, gentle smile
like talking to a friend. OK, wow, that's specific.
Background, softly blurred, hints of plants,
wood furniture, selfie mode framing, realistic
skin texture, faint freckles on her nose, soft,
natural light from a side window. See? That level
of detail? That paints a picture. Okay, so you
generate it, maybe upscale it for more detail,
download it. What about making more videos later?
Do you start from scratch? No, and that's key.
Leonardo AI has an image -to -image feature.
You can feed it your first image and ask for
new poses or settings for the same character.
That maintains consistency. Ah, okay. Consistency
is crucial. It is, though I'll admit... I still
wrestle with what they call prompt drift sometimes
myself, you know, where the AI kind of slowly
changes the character's look if your prompts
aren't super consistent each time. Getting it
exactly right takes practice and patience. Yeah,
I can imagine. So wrapping up the image part,
what's the most critical thing for getting a
great realistic AI character image? A detailed
prompt packed with visual specifics and realism
details is absolutely critical. Detailed prompt.
Got it. OK, so you've got your character's look
nailed down. Now, the content starts with a solid
script, obviously. And since a lot of these AI
video tools work best with short clips, like
under 10 seconds usually, you've got to structure
your script that way. Think in little bites.
Makes sense. So you can use AI writing tools
for this. Like chat GPT or Claude. Yeah, absolutely.
Ask them to break your script down into small
chunks, maybe around eight seconds each. But
remember, if you're aiming for that TikTok creator
rewards money, you need the final video to be
at least a minute long. So you'll string those
eight second bits together. Good point. And how
do you make sure the AI writes in the right style?
Feed it examples, upload some sample scripts
from successful human influencers in your niche.
That really helps guide the AI's tone and style.
Smart. Always, always focus on delivering actual
value in every single segment. Even in just eight
seconds. Make it count. No fluff. Right. Like,
imagine a finance video. Starting to invest.
Awesome. But avoid these three common mistakes,
and then each mistake is its own little eight
-second punchy segment. Exactly like that. Keeps
the viewer locked in, moving from point to point
quickly. OK, scripts ready. How do you make the
character talk? Next up, bringing the character
to life. Google VEO is one of the top contenders
right now. I think VEO, okay. It's seriously
advanced for AI video generation. You can often
access it through Gemini Advanced, and they frequently
have free trials. Great way to test it out. Cool.
So what do you do? Upload the image. Yep. Upload
that character image you made in Leonardo. Then,
you write another detailed prompt, but this time
for the video action. Like what? For instance.
Create a photorealistic video of the women in
the uploaded image. Give her natural eye movements,
subtle head nods. Make her speak the following
words in a calm, sincere, friendly voice. First
mistake. not having a clear goal. Okay, so you
feed it the exact line of dialogue too. Exactly.
And consistency is vital here again. Use the
exact same photo for all clips in a video. Try
to keep the pumps similar in style too. Any tricks
for keeping the voice consistent? That seems
tough. One little hack. Try creating all the
clips for one finished video within the same
chat thread in VEO. Sometimes that helps it maintain
more consistent voice and look across the segments.
Ah, interesting. Good tip. So... Thinking about
this whole process, moving from the written script
to these actual moving talking AI clips, what's
usually the biggest challenge people run into?
Ensuring both visual and voice consistency across
all those short video clips can be a real challenge.
Consistency again seems to be the theme. It really
is. Okay, now we've got our raw video clips from
VEO, but they're not quite ready for prime time
right now. They need polish. Definitely. Time
to edit. CapCut is a fantastic tool for this.
It's free, it's AI powered, and honestly, it's
super intuitive to use. Yeah, I like CapCut.
And the key technique here for making these AI
videos look professional is using effective jump
cuts. Jump cuts. Explain that. You import your
VEO clips, zoom way in on the timeline, and just
meticulously cut out any awkward pauses, any
dead air between words or sentences. Ah, it cleans
it up. Exactly. It creates these clean, punchy
segments that flow really smoothly, keeping the
viewer engaged, no time to get bored. Smart.
What else in CapCut? Oh, definitely enable auto
captions. It generates subtitles automatically.
Huge deal since so many people watch videos,
especially on social, with the sound off. Paptions
are vital. Good point. Essential for reach. Then,
add some background music, CapCut have a library,
or you can use the YouTube audio library. Just
keep the volume really low, like 5 or 10 percent.
Just enough to add atmosphere, not overpower
the voice. Subtle vibe, okay. Yeah. What about
making it more visually interesting? That's where
B -Roll comes in. These are other video clips
or images that illustrate what your AI character
is talking about. Like stock footage. Yeah. If
your character mentions diversification and finance,
maybe pop up a quick pie chart graphic, talking
travel tips, a beautiful landscape. Sites like
Pexels or Pixabay have tons of free stock video
for this. Nice. Adds context. Okay. So edit,
captions, music, b -roll. Then what? Export.
Choose the highest quality, usually 1080p, 30
frames per second as an mp4 file, and boom, your
basic video is ready to upload. Okay. Basic video
done. But you mentioned voice consistency being
a challenge. What if VEO's default voice just...
isn't right or it keeps changing. Right, that
can definitely happen. That's where a slightly
more advanced but often worthwhile option comes
in. Okay. For a pretty small investment, like
maybe five dollars a month sometimes, Eleven
Labs offers amazing custom voice solutions. Eleven
Labs. Heard of them. How does that work? You
take your video from CapCut, extract the audio
track. upload that audio file to 11 Labs, then
you can either pick from their big library of
really professional AI voices, or even better,
create a totally custom voice using their voice
design feature. You basically describe the voice
you want. Describe it how? Super detailed, like
young female voice, late 20s. Standard American
accent. Voices clear, warm, maybe slightly low
-pitched. Needs to sound calm, trustworthy, like
a friendly financial advisor. Avoid sounding
robotic. Maybe add just a hint of vocal fry for
authenticity. That kind of detail lets you sculpt
the exact vocal identity you need for your character,
and it stays consistent. That sounds incredibly
powerful for branding. Okay, so you designed
this perfect voice. Eleven Labs generates the
new audio track based on your description and
the original script timing. You download that
new audio. And then back to CapCut. Exactly.
Bring the new audio file into your CapCut project.
Mute the original VEO audio track on the video
clips. Line up your new perfect Eleven Labs audio.
And then re -export the final video. Polished
video. Consistent custom voice. That's a big
step up in quality. Huge difference. Game changer
for consistency. OK, thinking about CapCut again
for a second. You mentioned auto captions are
vital because people watch with sound off. How
else does that feature specifically help this
AI micro influencer strategy? Captions ensure
engagement even for viewers watching silently,
significantly expanding your potential reach.
Wider reach makes sense. Mid -roll sponsor read.
Welcome back to the deep dive. All right. We've
covered creating the character, the videos, the
voice. Now let's zoom in on the platforms themselves.
We need specific strategies to really maximize
income and reach because each platform behaves
a bit differently. Absolutely. Yeah. Let's start
with TikTok and that creative rewards program
again. The requirements. 10 ,000 followers and
100 ,000 views in the last 30 days. And trucially
remember, only videos one minute or longer actually
earn cash. And each of those needs at least 1
,000 qualified views. OK, so the bar is kind
of high there. What's the strategy? Consistency
is king. Post valuable content regularly. Actively
engage with comments, respond to followers, and
definitely use relevant trending hashtags to
help people find you. Right. Now, YouTube. You
mentioned it has some advantages. Major advantages,
I think. Add money on shorts with no minimum
video length needed for those ads. That's huge
for this kind of short form AI content. Yeah,
that flexibility is nice. Plus, beyond ads, you've
got channel memberships people can buy, super
chat during live streams if you ever go that
route. And the entry point to the YouTube Partner
Program is lower now. What is it now? Just 500
subscribers and 3 ,000 watch hours in the past
year. Much more achievable for new creators.
OK. More beginner friendly. So strategy for you
two. Probably a mix. Yeah. Use those short. catchy
shorts to grab new viewers, pull them in. But
maybe also try some slightly longer videos if
your niche allows for deeper value, more watch
time. Optimize your titles with good keywords
so people find you in search. Organize videos
into playlists and always cross promote your
other social channels. Build that whole ecosystem.
Makes sense. And then there's Etsy for selling
digital products. Yeah. Another really powerful
income stream that pairs perfectly with an AI
influencer. Focus on things that sell well digitally.
Planners, templates, guides. Things that solve
a specific problem for your audience. Right,
exactly. Things that offer immediate value. High
converting items. So the strategy for Etsy, you
can't just drop links, presumably. No, you got
to build trust first. Yeah. Use your social media
content, your TikToks, your shorts to provide
free valuable information consistently. Establish
expertise. Right. Then create digital products
that are direct solutions to the problems your
audience faces. Show the benefits naturally within
your videos. Don't be overly salesy. Just demonstrate
the value. And price them competitively. Yeah.
Make sure it feels like a fair exchange for the
solution you're providing. OK, thinking about
the money side again, what's the absolute key
difference in how you qualify for monetization
between TikTok and YouTube for these AI influencers?
TikTok requires one minute videos for its main
reward program. YouTube shorts can earn ad revenue
at any length. Length requirement difference.
Got it. So looking long term now. To make this
sustainable. consistency and dare I say authenticity
are still vital, even with an AI character. Authenticity
with an AI, how does that work? It's about the
connection you build. But let's start with technical
consistency first. Visual consistency is key.
Save those successful image prompts you used
in Leonardo. Right, reuse them. And use that
image reference feature to generate new poses
of the same character. Keep the lighting similar,
the backgrounds consistent. Maybe even make a
simple little style guide document for your AI
character's look. Like brand guidelines, but
for an AI. Okay. Voice consistency too. Like
we said, try generating VEO clips in one session.
or, for perfect consistency, save your specific
voice settings in 11 Labs, or keep really detailed
notes on the voice design prompts that worked
well. Okay, consistency nailed down. How do you
scale this without burning out? Content batching.
It's a lifesaver. Instead of scrambling to make
one video every single day, plan out your whole
week's worth of videos on, say, Monday. Spend
a block of time generating all the images, another
block writing all the scripts, then a bigger
block editing everything together. Warping similar
tasks. More efficient. Way more efficient. Saves
a ton of mental switching costs. And then the
really big scaling idea, multiple characters.
Exactly. This is where the AI power truly shines.
You could have multiple AI characters, each targeting
a totally different niche. One for finance, one
for, I don't know, vegan cooking. One for minimalist
home organization. Yeah. Yeah. Beat. Whoa. Imagine
scaling that. Like a billion queries. Each AI
influencer reaching its own distinct audience
segment. The potential reach is just mind -boggling.
It really is. But you need to give each one a
unique personality, right? Absolutely. Develop
a distinct voice, style, and focus for each character.
And then there's that authenticity piece. How
do you engage authentically as an AI? You reply
to comments, but do it from the character's perspective.
Maintain the persona. Ask questions in your video
descriptions to spark conversation. Create content
based on what your audience asks for or suggests.
Use polls. Run Q &A sessions through the character.
It's about making the audience feel heard and
building that community connection, even if the
face is digital. So fostering community is still
key. What about troubleshooting? Things will
go wrong. Oh, for sure. Common issues. Inconsistent
voice. We cover that. Try VEO sessions or use
11 labs. Image quality not great. Get way more
specific in your prompts. Use reference images.
Try generating multiple options. Always upscale.
Iterate and refine. Exactly. And finally, the
legal and ethical side. This is all legal, but
transparency is good practice. Many platforms
now have labels for AI generated content. Use
them. Your focus should always be on providing
genuine value, not trying to trick people. Follow
the platform's terms of service, and above all,
prioritize giving helpful, accurate information,
whatever your niche is. Be a responsible creator,
even if you're using AI. Okay, so beyond all
the technical consistency... the visuals, the
voice, what's really the most vital human element
needed for one of these AI micro -influencers
to succeed long term. Building authentic engagement
and genuine trust with the audience is still
the most vital human element. Trust and engagement,
even for AI, it all comes back to that. Pretty
much. So let's try and wrap this up. What's the
big picture here? What does this all mean? I
think it means the AI micro -influencer thing
offers this really unique shot at building a
profitable online business, potentially, without
ever putting your own face or voice out there.
It fundamentally changes what it means to be
a creator. Yeah, it lowers the barrier in some
way. It's about combining these powerful AI tools,
many of them free or low cost, with smart content
strategy and knowing how to monetize. Right.
And the core recipe doesn't really change. Give
people real value. Keep your character consistent
so they recognize and trust it. And actively
engage with the community you build. This isn't
just about cool tech, then. It's about participating
in the creator economy, but completely on your
own terms, shaping your digital presence exactly
how you want. The tools are definitely ready.
The market seems eager for niche content. The
potential, honestly, for impact and income, it
feels pretty immense right now. So what's the
advice for someone listening who's intrigued
by this? Start small. Don't try to do everything
at once. Pick one character concept, one specific
niche you know something about, and maybe just
one platform to start. Master the workflow first.
Exactly. Nail down that process image, script,
video, edit, post. Get comfortable with it. Then
think about scaling up from there. Every successful
creator, human or AI driven, started with that
first video, right? That first step. And yours,
using these tools, could really be the start
of something significant in this evolving digital
world. Definitely. So maybe a final thought for
everyone listening. What part of this new frontier
stands out most to you? Is there a specific niche
you think an AI micro -influencer could totally
shake up or transform, something to chew on as
you think about this really exciting landscape?
Lots to think about. That's all for this steep
dive. Until next time, keep exploring.