this started because i got laid off from my marketing job last may and had about 6k in savings. instead of immediately job hunting i decided to give myself 4 months to try building something online. spoiler: it took longer than 4 months and the results were… mixed but interesting.
the idea came from noticing how many travel tiktok and instagram accounts were just stock footage with voiceovers and text overlays. figured i could do that but with a more personal angle, like a fictional travel blogger persona who visits places and gives tips. the twist was i didnt want to be on camera myself. partly privacy concerns, partly just not comfortable with it.
first two months were rough. i tried using basic stock footage and canva templates. got maybe 200 followers total across platforms. the content felt generic because it was generic. people could tell it was just repurposed clips they’d seen elsewhere.
month three i started experimenting with ai generated visuals. the landscape changed a lot in late 2023 and early 2024 with all these tools popping up. i tried midjourney for location shots which worked okay but the people always looked off. like the face would be slightly different every single generation. one image she’d have a rounder nose, next image it was more pointed. eyes would shift from hazel to straight up green between posts. followers notice that stuff even if they cant articulate why something feels wrong.
spent probably three weeks testing different platforms. artflow was decent for video stuff. tried APOB for the portrait consistency thing. runway for some motion effects. honestly they all had tradeoffs and i ended up using a combination plus manual photoshop touchups for anything that looked slightly off. the key was getting a character that looked consistent enough that followers wouldnt notice the ai aspect immediately.
by month five i had a system. my fictional persona was a 28 year old woman who travels solo and focuses on budget destinations in southeast asia and eastern europe. i was posting 2 reels per day on instagram and 3 tiktoks. each piece of content took about 25 minutes to make once i had the workflow down.
the growth was slow but steady. hit 3k followers on instagram around month six. tiktok was more volatile, had one video randomly get 89k views about visiting georgia (the country) on 40 dollars a day. that brought in about 1.2k followers overnight but most of them didnt stick around.
month seven i tried monetizing through affiliate links for travel gear and booking platforms. this is where reality hit. made exactly 127 dollars that month. not nothing but definitely not quitting your job money. the issue was engagement. people would watch the content but the trust factor wasnt there for clicking through and buying stuff.
the moment that really crystallized this for me was when someone commented asking if she could do a live q&a about solo travel safety tips. had like 40 people agree and ask for it in the replies. obviously i couldnt do that. i just replied something vague about being too busy with an upcoming trip and the comment thread died. but it stuck with me because thats exactly the kind of engagement that builds real community and i fundamentally couldnt deliver it. another time someone asked her to collab with their small travel account and i had to ghost the dm. felt bad about that one.
month eight, which was last month, i pivoted slightly. instead of trying to be an influencer account i repositioned as a travel tips and hacks page. less focus on the ai persona, more focus on useful information with the visuals just being illustration. engagement actually went up. made 340 dollars in affiliate revenue which still isnt life changing but the trajectory feels better.
current state: still running the accounts as a side project while job hunting. total investment was probably around 800 dollars in software subscriptions and some paid promotions that didnt really work. total revenue so far is just under 600 dollars so im still in the red but learning a lot.
biggest lessons from this whole thing. first, consistency of a virtual persona matters way more than i expected. even small variations in appearance made comments start asking if this was ai. second, the trust gap is real. people engage with ai generated content but converting that to purchases is harder than with real creators. third, the tools are genuinely impressive now but theyre not magic. you still need good ideas and execution.
not sure if ill keep going with this or try something completely different. the faceless content model works for some people but i think i underestimated how much parasocial connection drives creator economy businesses. without a real person to root for the ceiling might just be lower.
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