Spent Hundreds of Hours Building an Automated Content System—Feels Like a Huge Waste
Three years ago, I was making TikToks manually, and some did really well (500K - 4M+ views). I wasn’t overthinking anything, just making content that I personally found entertaining, and it worked. I didn’t gain many followers (only around 5,000 total), and eventually, I got busy with other things and abandoned the account.
Recently, I decided to get back into content creation. After a handful of manually made videos flopped, I started looking for ways to streamline the process. I started with easy editors, scheduling posts, etc. One thing led to another, and I ended up building a fully automated system that generates content using an AI avatar, edits the videos, and posts them for me.
This took an OBSCENE amount of time. Hundreds of hours setting everything up, refining the workflow, and making sure it all ran smoothly. I was convinced that once it was running, I’d have a hands-off system that would let me grow effortlessly while freeing up my time.
Now, after 3 weeks of running it… it’s completely flopping. My videos are averaging around 1,000 views, engagement is low, and nothing is catching on. Meanwhile, I see other creators blowing up just by casually recording on their phones, and I’m sitting here wondering if I made a massive mistake.
At this point, I feel like I should have just stuck with manual content instead of getting caught up in automation. But at the same time, I still believe automation has long-term value, if I can crack the right content format. I don’t know if I am thinking logically, maybe I have just fallen in love with the system I have created. Maybe automating content creation is actually inefficient.
Has anyone else tried automating content and actually made it work? Is there something I’m missing here, or is short-form content just not suited for this approach? Would love to hear from anyone who has real experience with this or can just offer some logical/brutal criticism. I’m really lost :( and feel really guilty for wasting so much energy & time.
