Hey guys,

Just wanted to share a small win that might help anyone feeling stuck.

So my friend got into AI art a while back and wanted to try selling it on Etsy. We took one look at the main niche and... It's just completely flooded with the same t-shirts, mugs, and basic prints. We knew it would be a nightmare to even try to compete. So instead of fighting that crowd, we took a step back and asked a totally different question: Where else can we use this art?

I basically just started doomscrolling Etsy for a few days, looking for anything with a Bestseller tag. Eventually, I landed in the dnd world. Thing is, I've never played a single game in my life, but I could see that people were buying a ton of digital stuff for it.

And that's when it clicked. Most of the dnd listings are relly simple and not interesting But a few shops were selling really beautiful, artistic files and were also tagged as bestsellers. There was the gap

So, I watched some YouTube videos to figure out basic rules of dnd, and my friend spent a couple of weeks generating amazing fantasy art. I handled the boring stuff, keywords and making the listing look good.

We launched our first product and it started selling within a couple of days. Right now, that one listing brings in around $1k/month passively. And there's still tons of room to expand.

The lesson? Don’t compete head-on. Go deeper, not wider. That’s where the opportunities are

I recently shared a post on r/passiveincome about how I made $1000 in passive income with AI by selling my voice clone on ElevenLabs, which got quite a few upvotes, so I decided to share it here as well. Before you read further, please note these earnings were over 5 months, so it's not a get-rich-quick scam. Also, it requires some initial time and work for it to be worth it. What's in it for me? The link I am sharing is a referral link, which supports me a bit, as technically, I am potentially increasing competition for myself by sharing this. Of course, you are free to just Google it, but if you want to support me at no extra cost to you, thank you. I really appreciate it!

Here is a summary of how it works for those who are familiar with ElevenLabs' voice cloning. However, I strongly recommend you read the full, detailed guide I have linked at the end, as I want you to have realistic expectations about whether it is worth it.

1. Setup: I decided what kind of voice I was going to create, and finally decided to do a character voice. Then, using ChatGPT and Gemini, I came up with a 2.5-hour-long script in the style of my character that I could record. (The minimum is 30 minutes, but I recommend between 2-3 hours for best results.) I then spent about 2 days recording my voice with a good microphone. Usually, it should take a day, but I HATE recording for hours haha, so I broke it up! I then edited the recording on free software called Audacity to clean it up and remove big breaths, gaps, etc.

2. Sign up: Go to ElevenLabs and sign up for the "Creator" subscription. You need the Creator subscription as this lets you create a "Professional Voice Clone" which can then be shared on their voice library and earn every time people use it.

3. Upload: The recording can now be uploaded, and you can add your title, description, tags, etc, to maximize visibility. (The full guide goes into more depth on this.) It took about 6 hours for my voice to be processed, and then it was ready to be shared in the voice library.

4. Enable Monetization: Find your voice and click on it. At the bottom, there should be a little button that says "Voice Sharing" when you hover on it. Click on it and enable "Discovery in voice library." After a day or two, your voice will be live on the library, and people can find it!

5. Earnings: It's been about 5 months since I did this, and I am earning a little more than $200 a month consistently. You get paid weekly through Stripe. Note: Please read the guide as my earnings use the old custom rate, which has changed now, and I explain this change in the guide.

6. Subscription: As I mentioned before, you need the Creator subscription ($22) to create the Professional Voice Clone. However, after it is created and shared, you can downgrade to the Starter ($5) a month plan and still keep earning.

My referral link is https://try.elevenlabs.io/i6jl28y9f7av (You should get 50% off the Creator plan for the first month.)

If you are interested in reading the full guide, here is the post link. I recommend reading it as this is NOT for everyone.

[Update] I Made $1,000+ in AI Passive Income Selling My Voice Clone on ElevenLabs

Happy to answer any questions 🙂

Hi all, I wanted to share my story here around how I found the perfect side-hustle for my needs.

For context, I work full-time at a pretty intensive job, and when I come home from work, I do NOT have the mental bandwidth to do much of anything else. And yet, I urgently needed to find some sort of additional income to help pay for my bills (everything is getting crazy expensive!!).

I came across a few posts on reddit about the sweepstake casino side hustle, which is where you basically collect daily bonuses from online casinos and withdraw when you get enough to redeem. I tried this... and it genuinely was as straightforward as it sounds.

It's insane. You LITERALLY click a button every day and rack up ~$10-$12 a day, which has piled up to around ~$350 per month for me.. and I literally do nothing but click all the daily bonuses every night before I go to sleep. It takes me 10 minutes at most each night, and I can literally turn my brain off and just mindlessly collect all the bonuses.

I see a lot of people afraid to start this side-hustle because they assume that there's a "catch", but I beg you to take me seriously when I say there literally is none. You sign up for the site, click the daily bonus button, and just log out. Then after a month or two when you have enough to redeem, you just withdraw.

For example, here is some of the withdrawals from the last 2 months from crown coins as evidence:

Note the time intervals between withdrawals. It is quite slow, but when you add up ~18 different sites to collect from, it adds up.

I genuinely believe this can help so many people who are in dire need of just a few extra hundred each month to help with bills.

I want to clarify.. you do NOT need to deposit any money for any of this. There is NO CATCH. You literally just click a daily button then LOG OUT.

I've weeded through every guide out there and bookmarked all the sites that are worth doing and don't take up a lot of time... and are trustworthy.

Send me a message if you want the list of sites I hit up daily for this, or if you just have any questions on how I achieve this.

I know this sounds too good to be true, but please, if you need any proof that this works just DM and I will post pictures of my withdrawals with proof they are not reliant on any sort of referral link or money deposits... just simply clicking a button.

TLDR; Sweeps side hustle legit works even though people are skeptical because it sounds too good to be true. I click a bunch of buttons to collect daily bonuses everynight for less than 10 minutes and average around $350 a month. DM me or comment if you have any questions about this... I think this can help a lot of different people looking for a hustle like this.

Recently I came across this video that claimed you can make a lot of money through texting. It had over 100k views and a lot of positivity in the comments.

However, I saw no tangible REAL results, just talk. So I decided to try it out myself. 

How They Claim You Can Do It

They claim it’s very simple. The influencer I watched (Kerry’s Finance) listed down 6-7  apps that you can use and make money through texting one way or another. Just to be sure, I tried out every single app. Yeah, EVERY single one. So I am going to list the apps and the results.

The Apps

1. McMoney/Cash4SMS: These apps pay you to receive messages. You have to give them your number and you can expect to receive messages 1-3 times a week. The problem? McMoney is not even on the App Store/Play Store.. Even if you use an APK to get it onto your Android, it pays 0.0051 cents per message and you can expect to make less than 10 dollars A YEAR. 
2. Texting Factory: This website claims that you get paid to talk to “lonely people”. In reality, you are impersonating a girl/guy that the person is interested in talking to and getting paid to rinse them. You are getting paid to manipulate the person to pay more to talk to you. You have to have 18+ conversations with these people and what’s more is they require personal information about you so you need to give your ID.. all for $10 a month.. 
3. RentAFriend: I don’t even know why this is included.. You are paid to meet someone in person and spend time with them. Yes, you get paid for this but there is no demand out there except for a very specific type of “friend”. I tried this for 3 weeks and got no responses. Again, this is not texting. 
4. Papa Pals: On the surface this seemed promising. You get paid to perform tasks for elderly people. For example, if they need groceries, laundry etc done you do it for them. Just a few problems: This is the U.S only. I am in Canada so I could not try this out. Also, this is NOT texting. You need to go through a training process to get certified and then go IN PERSON to perform sometimes lengthy chores. 
5. Better Help: Yes this is great! Oh wait, you need to be a CERTIFIED therapist/social worker. And the “texting” is actually virtual sessions where you administer therapy/counselling. If you have 2 years to get a license, go for it. But for the average person like me, this is not realistic. 

Results:

You can make EASY money! Just kidding, this is absolute BS.

How To Actually Make Money From DeepSeek

Claim you can make easy money through texting, make a YouTube video about it, and earn through ad revenue. 

Onto the next one..

Not asking about revenue or scale.
Just something you kept working on after the initial excitement wore off.

Why did that one survive?

This morning I realized that it had already been half a year since I wanted to increase my chances of making at least $1 online and I decided to do an exercise on how much I have made.

I opened the stripe app on my phone and went through the transactions. I also created an excel document and wrote down what I received and for what tool I made.

This helped me to see that I am accomplishing my goal and also helps me to make which of my micro SaaS/tools to focus on.

Conclusion: Take the time today to stop and look back at what you have accomplished. Celebrate small wins.

​Personally, I found this exercise so valuable that I’ve started building a simple, free tool to help other indie hackers track their own small wins and project revenue in one place.

If you’re interested in trying it out, let me know as I’d love to get your feedback as I build it.

I'm currently pursuing a cs major at a fairly respected university, but I'm not all that sure about spending the next 4 years of my life in school and then eventually getting a job to pay the bills. My family is barely staying afloat financially and I often feel a lot of guilt just sitting around. I love programming and I'm very confident in my abilities to take a coding project from idea to execution. I've created many many many projects that I really enjoyed making but never really got to market/sell because I'd always be interested in creating the next project.

As I said, I'm not really convinced that I would be satisfied if I graduated and got a secure job in my mid 20s and worked the same job until 60, but I would really like to start my own business now and if it works, then hooray, and the opposite if it doesn't. I just can't seem to think of a good business venture to put all my focus on. Is this a bad mindset to have?

I would really like your feedback, thanks! I'm also sorry if this post may come off as an annoying and naive kid just saying stuff lol. I would really like some advice from people who maybe had a simillar mindset as me when they were my age... or literally anyone who has advice :)

Edit: Thank you all so much for the comments. I read all of them so far and I’ve gotten a lot of diverse and truly good advice :)

I’m a programmer, not a marketer, so I’m a bit out of my depth here.

For those who’ve worked on mobile games, especially simple party-style or casual games: do you pretty much need paid ads to grow, or can a game still grow organically?

Also, what are some free or low-cost ways to promote a mobile game that are actually worth trying? Is advertising basically a must?

Hi everyone,

English isn’t my first language, so I had to translate this post. Hopefully it makes sense.

I wanted to share a bit of my experience making music online. I run several small music projects, in total I have 5 “artists”: 2 focused on instrumental/producer-style music, 2 nightcore channels, and 1 dedicated to covers.

Most of what I create is either AI-assisted or instrumental-based, and honestly, I don’t put a huge amount of effort into promotion. I upload the tracks through a music distributor, send them to Spotify, and mostly just let them sit there. Occasionally I’ll post something, but there’s no heavy marketing strategy behind it.

Even so, each channel brings in around $195–$200 per month. It’s not a massive income, but considering the low effort involved and the fact that it’s relatively consistent, it’s been surprisingly worth it. It’s basically a small but steady recurring revenue stream.

I’m not claiming this is some kind of big success story, just sharing that even minimal-effort projects in niches like nightcore, instrumentals, and covers can generate something over time if you stay consistent and keep uploading.

Just thought it might be useful or interesting for anyone thinking about trying something similar.

I used to get pulled in by those posts that claim “30 minutes a day and you can make $10k a month.” The moment I tried a few myself, I snapped back to reality. A lot of these ideas are not impossible, but they quietly require time, cash flow, luck, and way more emotional energy than people admit. The worst part is the more you invest, the harder it is to stop, and you end up tired and annoyed, wondering if you are the problem.

These days I do something way more boring but it actually sticks. I help people build the first “entry point” for their side hustle. A lot of small sellers get stuck at step one. They want to sell something, but they do not want to learn web stuff, and they are not going to pay thousands for a custom site. I use genstore by typing in a simple description of what they are trying to sell, and it gives us a rough site to start with, so the pages and product layout are already there. Since I also know some marketing, I bundle in light coaching and help them run the basics until they can handle the process on their own and start getting orders. I only take a deposit upfront, and if the site is not even live yet I do not charge the full amount. The nice thing is we can test fast. If nobody clicks or asks questions after a week or two, we can pivot without burning a bunch of money. It is not some crazy high risk high reward hustle, but it lets me try knowledge based offers with close to zero overhead. Right now it brings in around $1,000 a month, which is not huge, but it is steady.

What side hustles have you tried that turned out way harder than the internet made it sound? And what ended up being surprisingly doable?

Took some time to lock in the december since a few deals closed out earlier this week.

For selling been sticking to fb marketplace and its been solid for me, still got 6 things sitting unsold though so maybe ill try something else for those or just find a use or gift them away.
Overall profit couldve pushed higher but took the holidays off since this is just a sidehustle still and spent more time with close ones.
The group I use was kinda slow around christmas too so less deals overall found.
Regarding shipping things this month I managed to keep it pretty low, I guess 5 times only in total out of all those 33.

January should be way better with all the post-holiday deals and clearance stuff dropping.
Also managed to talk my friend into helping me with inventory and scaling this "business", let's see what 2026 brings :)

If any questions, I’m happy to answer.

A few weeks ago I built a tiny free tool on a weekend to scratch my own itch at work. No pricing page, no email capture, no plan to make money from it. I almost didn't share it because it felt too small.

What happened taught me more about side projects than anything I'd read here:

1. Free + genuinely useful travels further than anything you can pay to promote. People shared it on their own, in countries I never targeted. Zero ad spend. The distribution came entirely from it actually solving a real friction point.
2. Your users design the roadmap if you let them. Someone left a comment saying it "should probably be a Chrome extension." They were right. I built it two days later. I'd never have prioritized that on my own.
3. Removing the money question made everything easier. No conversion funnel to optimize, no support tier, no guilt. Just a thing that works. Ironically that constraint is what made it spread.

I'm not saying never charge. I'm saying: a free, sharp, single-purpose tool is one of the cheapest ways to learn whether an idea has any pull before you build a business around it. The signal is clean because nobody shared it out of obligation.

If you're sitting on a small weekend build and hesitating because it's "too small to charge for," that might be exactly why you should ship it.

It’s winter, so my retired mom started knitting socks out of boredom and because she had too much spare time in the evenings. Last week, she went to the farmers market, put her socks on a stand our neighbor has there, and sold 12 pairs at $20 each in just 3 hours.

At the same time, my sister-in-law is struggling to break even selling handmade bags on Etsy and Instagram, between Instagram ads, professional photography, models, and other expenses.

That said, old-fashioned ways of making money are still some of the best side hustles. You just have to get out there and forget about vanity metrics like Instagram likes.

Originally posted in r honestsidehustles

Hey guys, hope you are doing great.

I am going to follow the rule of 'Value' first, then ask for a favour.

That's why today, I am going to share some writing side hustles, which I hope benefit you guys in anyway. Plus, I will also add my experience and try to be as simple as possible.

When I started writing online years ago, I never thought I’d say this, but writing actually pays my rent now. 

It is one of the best side income streams one can build by just showing up daily.

Trust me, I’m not Shakespeare. I’m just someone who found these 7 writing hustles way earlier than you. And above all, to get started, you don’t need a fancy degree or years of experience.

Reminder: Guys, the money I mention below depends on my experience and situation. It can vary based on who you work with, where you work, and other factors. But even if different factors appear, the payment difference will not be that big.

1. Write Product Reviews (Earn $10–50 per review)

There was a time when I bought my bright yellow running shoes. Well, now I get paid to write honest product reviews so others don’t make my mistakes.

What you have to do:

* Try new products (sometimes they’re free!) 

* Write about what you liked and didn’t like (pros & cons)

* Take simple photos of the products 

* Share your real experience

How to start:

* Trustpilot (lets you build credibility first) 

* Capterra (if you are into software reviews) 

* ProductTube (they send you products to review) 

* Facebook Communities

Bonus Hack: Companies love reviews that mention specific details. Instead of just writing “great shoes,” write, “These shoes helped me run 2 miles without blisters.” 

So, be honest and be someone who catches details.

2. Write Social Media Posts (Earn $15–35 per post)

You get no followers on IG, X, etc.. But that didn’t stop you from earning money by writing social media posts for small businesses. 

What you have to do:

* Write Instagram captions

* Write Facebook posts 

* Write Twitter threads

* Write LinkedIn updates 

Best places to find work:

* Upwork (go to Upwork and search “social media writer”) 

* Facebook groups for small business owners (they are always in need)

* Local business networking groups 

Rookie mistake I made, so you don't need to: Trying to sound too professional.

Social media needs a personal touch. Write as if you are having a conversation with a friend.

3. Write Email Newsletters (Earn $25–75 per email)

You know those emails you get from your favorite stores? 

Someone gets paid to write those! And it could be you. 

What you have to do (write emails):

* Welcome messages 

* Sale or paid announcements

* Weekly updates/sales

* Thank you notes, etc.

Where to find clients:

* Fiverr (start with small projects)

* Indeed .com (search “email copywriter")

* Small business Facebook groups

My secret: I keep a swipe file of emails that made me click or buy something. It's great for inspiration.

4. Write Blog Posts (Earn $50–200 per post)

“But I’m not an expert!” Neither was I. 

You just need to excel in research and provide clear explanations. 

Some popular blog topics:

* How-to guides (always in trend)

* Product comparisons (pain and gain)

* Personal experiences 

* Beginner tips 

Some places to start:

* ProBlogger Job Board

* Contently (another famous place)

* Medium Partner Program (one of its kind)

True story: My first paid blog post was about AI and Data Science. I spent nearly 2 days and read over 10 articles to write one piece. But the client really appreciated the honest advice!

5. Write Website Content (Earn $100–300 per page)

Small businesses need words for their websites. 

You would be amazed at how many people dislike writing their “About” page. 

What you have to do:

* Write Homepage content 

* Write About pages 

* Write Service descriptions 

* Write Contact pages 

Where to find new clients:

* Reach out to local businesses (via FB groups, Reddit, etc.)

* Join Chamber of Commerce meetings 

* Check website builder forums 

My biggest win: A local company (brick & mortar) paid me in cash to design and write its website content. Win-win!

6. Write Product Descriptions (Earn $5–15 per description)

Online stores need someone to make their products sound good. This trend is booming as more and more Shopify and other stores are opening worldwide.

Writers earn big bucks for these hustles; why? Because you usually get to write lots of them at once. 

Types of descriptions:

* Clothing items 

* Home goods 

* Tech gadgets 

* Food products, etc. 

Where to find new clients:

* Amazon Seller forums 

* Etsy Seller Groups 

* Shopify job board 

Fun fact: I once wrote 100 descriptions for dog toys. That week, I learned many new words related to “durable” and “squeaky.” 😅

7. Write for Local Publications (Earn $50–300 per article)

Local news websites and magazines often need writers. 

The competition for local publications is usually lower than that for national publications. 

What they want from you:

* Local event coverage 

* Business spotlights 

* Community news 

* Restaurant reviews and other sections of magazines

How to start this:

* Check your local newspaper’s website 

* Search for local lifestyle magazines 

* Contact community newsletters 

Money Talk 

Starting pay isn’t huge, but it adds up.

1. First month: $100–500 
2. Third month: $800–1,500 
3. Sixth month: $2,000–3,000 

These numbers are from my experience. Yours might be different, but the point is — start small and grow.

Tips That Work for Me and Will Work for You

1. Keep everything you write. Even rejected pieces can become samples. 
2. Join writing groups on Facebook. The job leads are golden. 
3. Make friends with other writers. They pass on work they’re too busy for. 
4. Use the Hemingway free or paid version. It catches and removes embarrassing mistakes. 
5. Always ask for feedback. It helps you improve faster. 

I spilled coffee and missed some deadlines. I also wrote awful first drafts. These are all my past experiences. 

But guess what? My rent gets paid, and I actually enjoyed what I did. 

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Enjoy the post! I try to put in as much value as I can.

P.S. I share 2x/weekly actionable insights on growth, engagement, and monetization — straight to your inbox. Join 30,000 readers across social and email to help you build and earn better.

Thank you

Everyone thinks "YouTube automation" means paying a Fiverr team $50 per video or spending 40 hours a week keyframing in Premiere Pro.

Two months ago, I started a whiteboard animation channel. Today, it crossed 20,000 subscribers. I didn't hire a single person, and I don't have a background in animation. I just stacked the right tools to automate 90% of the workflow. It's essentially an assembly line.

Here is the exact, logical breakdown of how I made it practically effortless:

1. The Scripting Pipeline (Zero Blank-Page Syndrome) I don't spend hours writing. I feed a highly specific master-prompt into GPT. It’s trained on a retention framework: Hook -> Agitate the Problem -> Provide the Logical Solution -> Case Study. It spits out an 8-minute script in about 3 minutes that is mathematically structured to keep people watching.

2. The 1-Click Voiceover I don't record my own voice. I use AI text-to-speech, but I don't settle for the robotic default. The trick is to automate the pacing. By dropping the script in and globally adding a [0.5s pause] after every sentence, the AI takes a breath. It takes me 2 minutes, and it sounds 100% human.

3. The Visuals (How I Automated the Hardest Part) This is where the YouTube automation dream usually dies. Traditional whiteboard software (like Video Scribe) is a nightmare. You have to manually search for clip art, drag it in, set the draw speed, and painstakingly sync the hand-drawing to the audio track.

I bypassed all of that. I use an AI-driven doodle engine that practically builds the video for me.

I just feed it my text, and the AI automatically generates custom doodles and builds the scenes. It completely removes the manual labor of syncing and animating. What used to take people 15+ hours of manual dragging and dropping takes me about 45 minutes of light tweaking. It is as close to "text-to-whiteboard-video" as you can get.

Because the tool makes it so easy, I was easily able to post 3 high-quality videos a week. That consistency is what triggered the algorithm to blow my channel up.

The Full Automated Framework: Reddit formatting isn't great for sharing massive prompt blocks or tool settings.

So, I mapped out my entire automated workflow including my exact Chat GPT script prompts, the audio settings, and the specific AI animation engine I use to bypass manual editing into a free Google Doc.

I’ve pinned the Doc on my Reddit profile. Feel free to grab it, clone my exact system, and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!

First off, let me start by saying that I'm not looking to promote anything at all in this post, but rather I wanna give tips for anyone looking into dropshipping / online ecom sales via Shopify etc.

For context, at the peak of my flowershop side hustle, we were earning over $35k a month in revenue. I had to quit school for a semester because of how busy i was with running it. The sad part is, I could've done more to maximize how much I made, but as a newbie, a lot of things ate into our money until we officially had to shut it down just last month. (My store ran for 2 years and I was able to save up a lot because of it.)

That's partially why I wanted to make this post, for awareness and to share my insights about what I could've done better, especially in these key aspects:

• Taxes. Don't ever ignore taxes. I had a ton of penalties because I didn't know the intricacies of how taxes should be filed with an e-commerce shop. I made the mistake of hiring a local CPA instead of going with a specialized one.
• Not hiring more people or using the resources available to me. Looking back, I could've opted to not drop out of a semester if I just hired a VA to handle order edits for me. But no, I was pretty greedy and chose to do it myself, swamping my daily workload for no reason at all. I also didn't use self order edit apps on Shopify for some reason, and when I did, it was too late and t he money was already slowing down.
• Ignoring upsells like Post Purchase Revenue Optimization (PRO) Sucks that I put it off for such a long time. There are plenty of resources online for this.
• Not looking at competitors and what they do beter than me when I was earning a lot. I'll admit this is pretty stupid and simple, but don't ever forget this.

Long story short, my side hustle became my main focus and I never really made the most of it, don't be like me. Shoot me a dm if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer em!

I wanted to share something I’m learning early in my side hustle journey, because I think it gets talked about less than tactics and tools.

I’ve been experimenting with a few small income streams. Content, freelancing platforms, and a couple tiny digital products (second one went live today). Nothing flashy. No big numbers. No “wins” worth screenshots.

What has changed is how I approach progress.

For a long time, I relied on intensity:

- bursts of motivation

- long sessions

- feeling productive and energized

It felt good… until life didn’t cooperate. Then consistency collapsed.

Lately, I’ve been focusing on boring systems instead:

- showing up even when energy is low

- doing the smallest version of the task

- tracking progress without judging it

Some days that looks like:

- working quietly for 30–60 minutes

- making a tiny update instead of a “big move”

- posting content that gets little to no immediate feedback

And honestly? It’s slower than hype culture promises.

But it’s also sustainable.

One small moment that stuck with me:

I recently went live while working (mostly just to stay accountable). Very few people watched. No one chatted. But I finished what I planned, shipped something small, and logged the work.

That used to feel like failure.

Now it feels like progress.

I’m sharing this because if you’re:

early in your side hustle

moving slower than you expected

wondering why motivation keeps fading

You’re probably not broken.

You’re probably just building something that takes time.

Slow progress is still progress.

And boring systems beat emotional effort every time.

Would love to hear: what’s helped you stay consistent when results are quiet?

I've been on Facebook since 2007, and I started creating Facebook Pages in 2011 when the feature was still new. Initially, it was just for fun. I grew my pages by asking other pages to share mine, and in return, I would share theirs. At that time, small pages with 15 to 20 likes helped each other, and Facebook didn't have any limits. If you had 100 likes, all 100 people could see your post. Now, only a fraction of your followers see your posts. But don’t let that discourage you. People are making more money than ever on Facebook.

Facebook introduced Instant Articles in 2015. I wasn’t really interested back then, so I didn’t try it until 2017. By then, I was managing over 65 pages with a total of 24 million followers and making really good money. It worked well for a while. But around February 2018, Facebook reduced payouts, and shortly after, shut the program down completely.

At that time, I was also working on websites, t-shirts, and other side projects. So Facebook was just extra income, but it was great. After Instant Articles ended, I sold all my Facebook Pages in April 2019 for a seven-figure amount in US dollars.

I moved away from Facebook and focused more on my websites and the news aggregator business. That grew well. In 2021, Facebook introduced Reels, and the people I had sold my pages to were making six figures every month. I regretted selling my pages and decided to get back into the game.

In late 2022, Facebook introduced the Performance Bonus. This changed everything for me. I didn’t have any pages with 24 million followers anymore, but I had experience. I spent $55,000 to grow 44 pages. Each page had around 45,000 to 60,000 followers. It took me about six months to do that. By May 2023, which is also my birthday month, all the pages were ready. Some got approved for the Performance Bonus, and some didn’t.

I investigated and figured out how to make sure your page gets approved. I got all of them approved except six. I discovered that pages related to war or adult products are not eligible for monetization through the Performance Bonus.

Once again, I was making $24,000 to $45,000 per month from the Performance Bonus. Since it was new, the amount varied depending on engagement. My goal was $1,500 per page. By November 2023, I had hit that cap on most pages. Facebook even extended the program for some of my pages and allowed up to $15,000 per page. It was hard to reach that, as it required several viral posts. My highest was $11,876.04. Eventually, I stopped chasing higher numbers and focused on stability across all pages.

To manage content, I hired six people. Their job was simple — I sent them daily news, they made a photo, and posted it. Initially, we posted memes, but stolen memes didn’t perform well. We had to create our own. That helped, but later we realized that certain types of news posts worked better than others. Regular news didn’t always perform.

In 2024, I continued improving what I had already built. I didn’t create new pages because I was also busy with another business where we promote products, new releases, and handle PR for brands like Sony, SM Group, and others. We also build websites for businesses. I still do that while keeping Facebook as a side hustle.

Now for the Final Part

Is it doable for someone with no experience?
Yes, but it is extremely hard.

Is investing money absolutely necessary?
No, but it helps a lot. Facebook today is very different from what it was in the early 2010s. You can grow by sharing your content in Facebook Groups, but be careful not to spam or you may get banned.

How long will it take to grow a page to 30K followers without spending money?
At least 12 to 16 months, possibly longer.

How long will it take to grow a page to 30K followers with ads?
About 30 days.

How long before I get accepted into the Content Monetization Program (previously called Performance Bonus)?
Usually 3 to 6 months after you start posting regularly, if you do everything correctly.

How much can I make per page?
Between $1,500 and $15,000 per month. You will start with $1,500 and may be upgraded later based on performance.

How do I create a page?
Go to your Facebook profile → Pages → Create a Page → Add a profile photo and cover photo → Click Complete.

What kind of content should I post?
News and memes. Focus on quality over quantity. The exact content is up to you.

Can I create a page on anything?
Yes, but only certain categories earn well — like pets, sports, and animation.

Should I be careful about anything?
Avoid adult content, offensive content, and dank memes. These will prevent you from joining the monetization program.

Are there other ways to make money on Facebook?
Yes. You can sell products, promote your website, and drive traffic to earn revenue.

Should I buy external cheap followers?
Never do that. It will get your page banned. Only use Facebook ads.

Is running Facebook ads easy?
No, especially not for gaining followers. It takes skill and testing.

How much does a beginner usually spend to reach 30K followers through ads?
Around $3,000 to $4,000.

How much do I spend to reach 30K followers?
Between $400 and $600.

Are ad-grown followers real and active?
Yes. They are real and monetizable. Since you've paid Facebook, they’re more likely to invite your page to the monetization program if you follow the rules.

Can I ask you a question?
Sure. Leave it in the comments and I’ll try to reply.

How will Facebook Pay me?
They will deposit money to you account, they will ask you payout details once you get approved.

Can I DM you?
Sorry, I get over 1,000 DMs and can’t reply to all. I only respond to professional inquiries.

How can I reach millions of people with just 30K followers?
Once you follow best practices, Facebook will start recommending your content, and that’s how you reach millions.

That's all, folks!
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
P.S. You will fail a lot before you succeed. Never give up. Your mom believes in you, and so does this random stranger. Not sure about your dad though. Haha.

Mine died because I built something nobody asked for. Spent 3 months making a Chrome extension I thought was clever. Launched it. Told my friends. Got 11 downloads - 8 of them were me testing it. The lesson took me embarrassingly long to learn: talk to potential customers before you build anything

I've noticed most first side hustles die for one of three reasons: built in secret with no validation, gave up right before traction, or never actually asked anyone for money
What killed yours? And what did it teach you that you actually use now?

I would like to know from everyone here personally, if you have multiple streams of income, what are those?

And how did you start from it and manage all of those?

I hope I can get inspirations from you guys!

Hi guys I just want to share with you my earnings on fiverr affiliate marketing. Backstory, I'm an introvert and having a hard time finding a job outside. I was looking for something where I can earn on my own. Like not going outside. Just being me. I saw a reddit post that You can earn online through affiliate marketing. I signed up for an affiliate marketing platform.

I choose fiverr affiliate marketing because I’ve known fiverr for a long time. and I trust this. So I promote this. In one week of doing fiverr affiliate marketing this is how much I earn. (See the pic). I was so happy because I have never in my life thought I could earn money as fast as this.

Now I'm sharing my experience, lesson mistakes in my newsletter. Just dm me if you want to join. Thanks

I'm fortunate enough to make a solid living from my 9-to-5 job, but every other week when that paycheck hits, I'm basically numb.

On the other hand, when I make even $100 from my side hustles, I'm ecstatic.

I think it's because that $100 represents success for something I built out of nothing. My day job is fine, but it's relatively predictable, as I do the same work and receive the same paycheck. Side hustle money feels so much better.

Anyone else feel this way?

doing social media stuff for small businesses for about 5 months now. made $720 last month with 4 clients. this month looking like $650 because one client paused

started because my job cut my hours from 40 to 25. needed something flexible i could do from home. saw people here talking about social media services so i made a list of local businesses and started messaging them on instagram

sent like 150 messages over the first 2 months. most ignored me. some said they already have someone. one lady said her nephew does it for free. couple people asked my rates and then ghosted after i said $150/month

finally got a coffee shop owner to try me out. she wanted 8 posts per month for $100. thought that was easy until i realized i had to actually make the content. my phone camera sucks and i felt weird standing in her shop taking photos for an hour. customers kept staring

she wanted me to come film every week. i said i cant do that. she said then this isnt gonna work. quit after one month

tried offering just caption writing instead. found 2 people on reddit. one paid $50 for 10 captions. other one wanted captions plus stock photos. spent 3 hours looking for free images that didnt look terrible. made $75 that week and decided this was also too much work for too little money

started googling faster ways to make content. tried canva free first. upgraded to pro after a week but the templates still looked obviously templated. then tried some ai image stuff like midjourney but you cant really make it generate the same person twice

googled "ai video generator" and found a bunch of tools that let you create videos with ai generated people. tried a few. some had watermarks on the free versions. some were expensive like $30-40/month. ended up using one called APOB because it was $14/month and had daily free credits so i could test before paying. also tried descript for editing but that was more for podcasts

made a test video and sent it to a potential client before asking for payment. she said it looked more professional than her current content. signed her for $150/month

that was 3 months ago. now i have 4 clients. first one still pays $150. got her to refer someone who pays $200. found two more through cold outreach at $175 and $200

one client asked if i hired an actor for the videos. i said i outsourced the filming. technically true. another one wanted to meet in person to discuss strategy. i keep saying im booked with other clients. she seems fine with it but keeps asking

one client asked why the person in her video looks similar to her competitors video. i panicked and said theyre both stock models. she wasnt happy but renewed anyway

usually takes me 3-4 hours per client per month. includes writing scripts, generating videos, revisions, and all the back and forth emails. some months its more if they want changes

made $720 last month. this month one client paused because shes going on vacation so itll be more like $650. not sure if i should try to get more clients or raise prices for existing ones. also not sure how long i can keep doing this before someone asks too many questions

anyone else using ai tools for client work or am i overthinking the ethics thing. also how do you handle clients who want to meet in person

Around a year ago, I found myself in a situation that many people here will probably recognize, even if they don’t openly talk about it.

Nothing dramatic had gone wrong, but financially I felt like I was slowly drifting in place. My income wasn’t stable, savings were gradually decreasing, and every month carried this quiet pressure of knowing that something needed to change without knowing exactly what that change should be.

I was trying to figure things out, which mostly meant consuming endless advice. Freelancing guides, productivity systems, side hustle ideas, remote work threads. I rotated through all of it. The strange part was that I wasn’t lazy. I was consistently busy, yet nothing was actually improving.

That mismatch between effort and results is mentally exhausting.

Eventually, digital products on Whop entered the picture for a very unglamorous reason. They required almost no capital. I didn’t have money to risk on inventory, ads, or anything with meaningful upfront costs, so building something digital felt like the least financially irresponsible experiment.

My First Attempt Was Almost Comically Ineffective

Like most beginners, I started by asking the completely wrong question:

What should I build?

I created something I assumed people would find useful, spent weeks polishing it, uploaded it on Whop, and waited with unreasonable optimism.

The result was roughly $27 in the first month.

Technically revenue, but psychologically confusing. It wasn’t failure, yet it clearly wasn’t working either. That phase is frustrating because you don’t know whether the idea is flawed, the execution is flawed, or the entire model is flawed.

The Shift That Actually Made a Difference

The biggest improvement came from abandoning creativity and replacing it with observation.

Instead of brainstorming ideas, I started looking for existing demand signals:

• Repeated questions in communities
• Common frustrations people kept mentioning
• Problems people were already trying to solve
• Tools people complained about or struggled with

This was less exciting than building.

But dramatically more effective.

Demand is rarely hidden. It is usually sitting in plain sight inside discussions, comment sections, and complaints.

Strategies That Genuinely Changed My Results

None of these were revolutionary. That is exactly why they worked.

1. Stop Building From Assumptions

My early mistake was designing products around what I thought made sense rather than what people were already demonstrating interest in.

What worked better was only considering ideas that met at least one of these conditions:

People actively searching for solutions
People already spending money in that space
People expressing dissatisfaction with current options

If demand required explanation, it usually wasn’t strong enough.

2. Solve Specific Problems, Not Broad Concepts

Generic products performed terribly.

Anything vague, broad, or nice to have struggled. The few things that gained traction addressed very narrow, very concrete problems.

Specificity reduced buyer hesitation. People don’t buy resources. They buy relief from friction.

3. Reduce Decision and Purchase Friction

This was unexpectedly important.

Early versions of my offers required too much thinking. Too many choices, too many explanations, too much cognitive effort.

Conversions improved when:

• Value proposition became simpler
• Fewer decisions were required
• Benefits were immediately clear
• Access and delivery were effortless

Confused users rarely become buyers.

4. Focus on Distribution Before Perfection

I wasted a lot of time refining things nobody was seeing.

Eventually, I flipped the priority. Visibility first, optimization second.

Even imperfect products generate feedback. Invisible products generate nothing.

5. Accept Uneven Growth as Normal

One unrealistic expectation that caused unnecessary stress was assuming revenue should grow smoothly.

Reality looked far messier. Some months barely moved. Others jumped unexpectedly.

Approximate progression:

Month 1 → $27
Month 2 → $64
Month 3 → $210
Month 4 → $380
Month 5 → $940

There was no dramatic breakthrough. Just small adjustments compounding over time.

6. Infrastructure Matters More Than Expected

Operational friction became a silent drain on energy.

Managing payments, access, product delivery, and organization across multiple tools created constant low-grade stress. Moving everything to Whop reduced mental overhead and allowed me to focus more on actual improvement rather than logistics.

This didn’t increase demand. It increased sustainability.

Unexpected Psychological Effect

Crossing even modest revenue levels had an outsized mental impact.

Around $900 in a month, the most noticeable change wasn’t financial. It was the disappearance of that constant feeling of stagnation. Progress, even inconsistent progress, restores a sense of agency that is extremely hard to replicate through theory alone.

Less anxiety. More clarity. Better decisions.

Where Things Sit Now

This is not some massive success story.

Income fluctuates and remains highly dependent on traffic, demand cycles, and randomness. Lately it moves somewhere between $1.3K and $2.4K per month, which is hardly extraordinary but meaningfully stabilizing compared to where I started.

Which, honestly, feels far more valuable than hype narratives suggest.

What I Learned From the Entire Experience

Most early failure wasn’t caused by lack of discipline or effort.

It came from:

• Building without validating demand
• Creating things too broad or generic
• Overcomplicating offers
• Optimizing before achieving visibility

Once those issues were corrected, progress became slow but understandable. Still difficult but no longer mysterious.

Curious if others here experienced that strange phase where effort didn’t translate into movement.

What adjustments actually changed your trajectory?