Making money online is a dream for many people – and making a lot of money by spending only 30 minutes a week creating YouTube videos sounds even more like a dream, right?
This is what YouTubeSecrets.com promises to teach you – within a few months you will be able to make a full-time income on YouTube by just spending 30 minutes a week.
But can this really be true or is it a scam?
In this YouTube Secrets review, I will explain why you should be very skeptical before taking out your credit card – there are some things you definitely need to know about this program and how making money on YouTube really works, before you join.
YouTube Secrets at a Glance
Summary
YouTube Secrets claims t can teach you the secret trick to make a lot of money on YouTube by working just 30 minutes per week. The claims are not realistic, and they use unethical marketing tricks (e.g. fake testimonials) that make me question if you can learn anything of value on the site.
What is YouTube Secrets and what does it offer?
YouTube Secrets used to be called UtubeCash. For some reason, it changed its name but the program and sales page seem to still be the same.
But if you have heard about UtubeCash this is the same program and the same person behind it. And if you go to UtubeCash.com you will automatically be redirected to YouTubeSecrets.com.
Before starting I just want to make it clear that this is NOT a review of the book called YouTube Secrets by Sean Cannell and Benji Travis. This is a review of the platform on YouTubeSecrets.com.
It is a platform that claims to teach you how to make money by creating YouTube videos but without ever having to shoot any videos yourself.
If you join, you will get access to training in different formats: video tutorials, PDF tutorials, and one on one coaching.
When looking at the list of topics the tutorials will cover, there are definitely some important topics like for example thumbnail mastery, writing the right titles, and how to get more subscribers for your YouTube channel.
These are all very important topics, and I have myself taken courses in many of these topics through Video Marketing Insider, to learn more details about YouTube and how it works
However, there is one big red flag right from the start, when you read about what YouTube Secrets will teach you.
I will get more into some red flags and warning signs later, but this is one of the main claims YouTube Secrets is making, and I, therefore, want to mention it already now, so you know what to expect from the training.
YouTubeSecrets.com claims you can learn to make a full-time income by working less than 30 minutes a week – it sounds great and as a dream coming true, as we would then have so much time with friends, family, for traveling, etc.
However, this is just not the reality when creating an online income – there might be a few lucky people that are able to do it that easily, but for the majority of us, it takes hard work and effort to build an online income, like it does when building any other kind of business.
If you are looking for a quick way to get rich overnight, creating an online business is not for you – the people that promise this usually promise it to sell you a dream to make a living themselves.
So even though the training on UtubeCash might be able to teach you some fundamental things about YouTube, do not expect to ever be able to make a full-time income with more or less no work after joining it.
This is very important to remember if you want to make money online – it definitely is possible to create a good income but you have to be willing to work hard and be patient.
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Can you really make money on YouTube?
After reading you should not expect to make a full-time income on YouTube by just working 30 minutes a week, you might be wondering if it is even possible to make money on YouTube.
The answer to that is that it definitely is possible. Many people are making really good money on YouTube.
The most popular way to make money on YouTube is by creating great videos that get a lot of views, and then get paid for advertisements.This is also the way YouTube Secrets promises to teach you and the way the owner claims to make $10,000 per month.
Another way is to use YouTube videos to promote your products or services, or for affiliate marketing.
Some people are making millions on YouTube (see examples), and others are just making a normal good salary. However, there are also many that do not make any money.
The ones that are making a living on YouTube, are working hard and are producing a lot of original content – none of them are just working 30 minutes a week using other people’s videos.
So in one sense, the earning calculator you can find on UtubeCash can give you an idea about what the earning potential on YouTube is, but it is not the full story.
What you are not told is that it is not so easy to just choose the number of views you want.
So the calculator can give you an idea about what you can earn if you get a certain amount of views, but the way it is used on YouTubeSecrets.com makes it look like you can just easily get to a big amount of views, and that is not how YouTube works, so do not expect it to be so easy.
It would be great if you could just choose exactly how many views you want every day but that is, of course, not the reality. If that was the case, everyone with a YouTube channel would be rich.
To get a lot of views, it takes hard work and patience. If you are new it will take time to build up followers and views. It definitely is possible and can be a great way to make money.
But you need to do it with the right expectations. And if you choose to do this, there are several good reasons you, in my opinion, should find another place than YouTube Secrets to learn how to do this as I will explain below.
Why you should be skeptical about YouTube Secrets!
I have already mentioned several things that should make you skeptical about the claims YouTube Secrets is making. There are, however, several more red flags you need to be aware of and seriously think about before investing time and money.
Red flag #1 – You do not have to shoot any videos yourself:
One of the big selling points on UtubeCash is that you do not have to shoot any videos yourself – you can just create new videos using the YouTube library.
This claim shows a clear lack of understanding about how YouTube works, and therefore I would personally not trust any of the training given by YouTube Secrets.
YouTube is owned by Google, and in many ways, it takes the same to rank well on YouTube, as it does to rank well on Google. That means that one of the most important aspects is to create unique, quality content that people interact with.
It is true that YouTube has a library, where you, for example, can get access to free music and clips. But if the plan is to just make videos based on this stock material, there are very low chances you will ever get any real views on YouTube.
It is the same as if you have a website, where you just use other people’s content and change it a little – it might give you some results for a little while, but it will never be a good long term strategy to create a sustainable income online.
Red flag #2 – Only work 30 minutes a week:
I have already mentioned this before, but it is very important to be aware of the effort it takes to make a legit online income before you join any program.
It is simply just not realistic that you will create a really good full-time income online by just working 30 minutes a week.
Once you have a good business going, there might be weeks when you do not work at all, but creating an online business is like creating any other kind of business – it takes work, time and effort.
It can definitely be worth the effort, as you can make really good money online, and it can give you a lot of freedom to plan your own time, more time with your family, you can work from anywhere, etc. But always be very skeptical when a program promises, you can become rich with more or less no effort – it is just not the reality.
Red flag #3 – The owner is fake
In the video on the sales page, you see the owner Mike Williams telling about how he makes money through YouTube and he wants to teach you how to do the same.
The problem is just that Mike Williams is an actor from the freelance platform Fiverr.
So, in reality, you do not know who the owner is. And it is clearly a huge warning sign when someone tries to hide their identity and just hire an actor to pose as the creator.
You could then argue that maybe Mike is both an actor and the owner of YouTubeSecrets.com.
But if he was and really did earn this much money on YouTube, why would he then sell videos for $5 on Fiverr where he pretends to be the spokesperson for whoever pays him?
This is for me a complete deal-breaker.
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What about the positive testimonials?
On YouTube Secrets you have probably seen all the great testimonials from members, or you have maybe seen other reviews online that are a lot more positive and do not tell all the warning signs I am showing.
This can, of course, be confusing, and I, therefore, want to reveal a few things about these testimonials and positive reviews for you. You can easily test it yourself as well, so you know it is not just something I am making up.
Proof you cannot trust the testimonials:
There are many really great testimonials on YouTube Secrets from members that say they have made a lot of money by following the program.
Looking at the other claims that are made on the site and comparing it to my years of experience with online marketing, these testimonials made me suspicious, and I, therefore, decided to test them.
I took some pictures of the people that gave the testimonials and ran them through Google’s reverse image search (just Google for this, if you want to test it yourself). Exactly as I suspected, several of the images showed up in completely different connections as well.
The above search shows that one of the testimonials that say he makes more than $3000 per month is actually a previous vice president of the International Education Student Board for a school in New York. His real name is Jordan Park, while it on YouTube Secrets is Howard Cole.
And here is another example:
The picture of the woman that on YouTube Secrets is called Kristy Lynch is taken from a blog by a woman called Danielle. It is the exact same picture that she has used in a blog post about her moving to Dubai.
When testimonials are clearly fake, and when it looks like they have even taken the images of people without them knowing it, it raises a big red flag.
If YouTube Secrets had a lot of successful members, there would be no need to take random pictures and make up new names for the testimonials – they would just get testimonials from real members and use the real names and pictures.
What about other online reviews of UtubeCash?
Maybe you have seen other online reviews of YouTube Secrets and UtubeCash that tell you how amazing it is. The thing is that none of these positive reviews I have seen actually contains any actual evidence of the success of the program. They just repeat the claims from YouTube Secrets itself.
So why would they do this?
Well, YouTube Secrets has an affiliate program, where you as a website owner can get paid a commission to promote them. So if I, for example, included a link to YouTube Secrets here in this review, I would get a commission every time someone bought a membership.
This is a very normal way to make an income on websites, and also something I do myself. I however only promote products/services I truly recommend and are therefore not using a link to YouTube Secrets.
However, the problem is that some people get carried away with the promise of a good commission and do not care too much about giving in-depth and honest information, as long as they make a sale.
So that might be the reason you will see several positive reviews about YouTube Secrets that does not show the warning signs – but just remember to think about the warning signs I have shown you before making a decision.
What does it cost to join YouTube Secrets?
Now you have an idea about what you can expect from the training on YouTube Secrets. If you still want to join, let’s look at the cost of this.
The regular price is $27 per month, but you will be able to join for a 7-day trial for only $1.
Notice how it says, it is a limited offer. The so-called owner Mike Williams also says in his presentation video that he only accepts a limited number of people.
These are just sales tricks. When you enter the site, it will say that the offer is only valid for 3 days. But it is not true – the offer with a trial for $1 will not expire. And also do not expect the number of memberships to be sold out – it is just to create a sense of urgency and get you to sign up right away.
Even though $1 is of course very cheap for a trial period, I would personally not give my credit card details to a program that raises so many red flags.
Final verdict
As you can see, YouTubeSecrets.com is not a site I recommend.
But let’s sum up the pros and cons, so you can get a clear overview of why that is.
Pros:
- Low trial fee
- You might learn some basic stuff about YouTube
Cons:
- Exaggerated claims
- Is not honest about the amount of work it takes
- Uses fake testimonials
- Uses pushy trick to get you to sign up fast
- The owner is just an actor from Fiverr
In general, I think there are many warning signs about YouTube Secrets.
Especially that it claims that you can make a full-time income by just working 30 minutes a week, it uses fake testimonials, and you have no idea who the owner is as the one in the video is an actor.
This shows me that it is a site that I would never trust to teach me how to make a legit income online.
Therefore, if you want to make money online, I would suggest you to look elsewhere.
Is there a better alternative?
If you want to make money online, it is definitely possible. There are several ways you can do this legitimately.
In general, you should stay away from the programs that promise you huge earnings with more or less no work.
My personal favorite way to build an online business is through affiliate marketing. It means you can create an online income based on a passion of yours by creating a website about it, and then get paid a commission for products you recommend. It is great to be able to make money based on a passion and that makes it easier to put in the work.
Because to make affiliate marketing work, you have to be willing to make an effort. If you do, it has a huge potential, and it can make you a really good income. And it is not as difficult to learn as you might think, even if you have never worked with websites or an online business before.
You can check out my FREE guide where I show you the exact steps to get started and how I have been able to create a full-time online income myself.
If you have any questions, comments, or have any experiences with YouTube Secrets yourself, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
Hi Mikael,
Interesting article. Did you sign up for his trial and review the course material as suggested in their website? Was he really available to offer a one-on-one session as he suggests?
Thanks!
Hi Donald,
Before giving my credit card information to anyone, I always look for signs it is a bad idea. You need to give your credit card information to get access to the trial on UtubeCash, and when doing further research + looking at what claims it makes, I know with my experience from online marketing that the claims are crazy. So I did not sign up for the trial, as I do not want to give my credit card information or pay even a little to a program that uses fake testimonials and claims you can become rich on YouTube by just working 30 minutes a week.
I wrote this review to make people aware of these warning signs, and to make people aware that you should in general not believe systems that claim you can become rich online without any effort. So even if he did offer one-on-one sessions, I do no not think these tricks are worth learning.
All the best,
Mikael
Hello Mikael,
Am glad to read your long review on the UtubeCash. I must say that I like your honesty and ability to give a lot of detailed wisdom on this topic. We are living in times when people don’t want to work hard but want to earn a lot. People want to hear those statements of becoming rich overnight with no or very little effort.
I also don’t trust someone promising that I can earn from other people’s videos which they have tirelessly worked upon. I don’t believe that working 30minutes a week on videos that belong to other people can ever produce anything online. I mean,,,,it’s even unfair! These statements are actually too good to be true and they sound like a scam to me and so personally if this was sold to me I’d just label it “Scam!”
I like the option of the affiliate marketing and this is what I’m doing myself and am liking it very much.
Thank you for the great job.
Blessings
Paul.
Thank you very much for your comment and feedback Paul.
I completely agree that the programs that make claims that are too good to be true often have ulterior motives.
All the best,
Mikael
Mikael,
Thanks for the review. As someone who is always looking for additional ways to market and promote my website, this has been very helpful. I know that YouTube is a good platform for both making money and generating traffic to a website.
Do you have any suggestions for good training on the best uses of YouTube?
Hi David,
If you want to understand the whole process of how to tie video promotion into a website and get traffic to your website through this, I would suggest Wealthy Affiliate.
If you are more interested in just learning about YouTube, Udemy has many great courses about this. Just make sure to go for one with high ratings.
All the best,
Mikael