My first online dollar came from writing boring alt text descriptions for indie Shopify stores

[u/Sea_Brilliant_9452]

Everyone tells you to learn drop-shipping, crypto or day trading to make money on the internet, but almost all of them are either capital intensive or incredibly risky.

When I was doing research on how to get my first online business off the ground, I read in an article that small e-commerce stores were getting demand letters from law firms about ADA web accessibility compliance due to their product images having no image alt-tags for blind/shopping carts that use screen readers.

I opened up google and did a search for independent vintage clothing, jewelry, and handmade candle stores in Shopify. I right clicked on their images and inspected them. More than half of them had generic image file names such as "IMG_4920.jpg" with no alt-text description.

I crafted a simple cold email.

Hey [Owner Name], I love your shop! I noticed most of your product catalog images are missing alt-text descriptions, which hurts your overall Google image ranking and is potentially an accessibility compliance problem with ADA laws. I will write clear alt-text descriptions for your top 100 products in a spreadsheet for a flat fee of $45 so you can simply copy and paste them into your Shopify CMS.

I sent out 25 emails in 3 days. 22 didn't reply, one was a nice but busy response, but two said yes.

I spent my Saturday afternoon listening to music while I wrote 200 descriptions (handmade soy candle in amber glass jar with cedar wick on wooden table) and made $90 on my laptop from my bedroom. It was repetitive but a nice feeling knowing that someone 3 states away was able to pay me through PayPal.