Niall Doherty's Blog, page 22

This Daily Challenge Newsletter Earns $20K Per Month

Derek KolstadFounder of Daily UI $20,000 monthly revenue

From an interview with Derek Kolstad, founder of Daily UI…

Daily UI is a design challenge meant to help designers build their portfolio and get exposure for their work. There are currently over 450,000 subscribers and it’s growing by 10k subscribers per month. Averaging $20k/month in revenue!

It’s essentially a daily newsletter with design challenges, monetized via sponsors.

Got me thinking: what other daily, challenge-style newsletters could you create?

Maybe one for…

Overcoming shynessBuilding strength or flexibilityImproving a skill like copywriting or sketching

Another way to think of it

The tagline for Daily UI…

Become a Better Designer in 100 Days

Fill in the blank for your niche…

Become a Better ________ in 100 Days

Earning $60,000 a Year Doing Absolutely Nothing

Boujee_ItalianFranchisee $60,000 annual profit

Entrepreneur recently announced their top 500 franchises for 2025.

37 of them require an investment of $50K or less, including a few that you can start for only $1-2K…

Dream VacationsCruise PlannersBuildingstarsJazzercise

Key takeaways from Entrepreneur

Part-time franchise models allow new owners to test entrepreneurship while maintaining a full-time job or other commitments.

These top-ranked Franchise 500 brands offer proven systems, low overhead and flexible operations.

Pros and cons of becoming a franchisee in this Reddit thread.

One commenter…

I bought a small franchise and I’m netting roughly $60k a year doing absolutely nothing. Manager does literally everything. It’s nice for some side cash but nothing spectacular. The real money comes from owning multiple franchises.

This Clever Hack Validated His $10M/Year Business

Wesley TianFounder of Aragon.ai $10 Million annual revenue

Wesley Tian is the founder of Aragon, an AI headshot generator.

Launched 3 years ago, it’s now pulling in $10M per year

How Wesley validated the idea…

With $15k-$20k in savings, I started launching apps full time to see what people wanted. I soon had a site with 12 “apps” with waitlists. People liked the apps where you could change your appearance.

So he didn’t actually build out any of those 12 apps initially

Instead, he set up simple landing pages where people could sign up for a waitlist if they liked the sound of the app.

Few signups = nobody wants thisMany signups = shut up and take my money

Use the same approach to test out your own ideas

You could also try offering this as a productized service: build out landing pages for other people’s ideas, drive traffic, collect emails, report back.

He Earned $23 Per Hour Playing Games on This App

Jay JenkenSide Hustler $1310 revenue in 1 month

Jay Jenken posts on Reddit…

Earnings report for March: £1197

Works out to about $1310 USD.

He’s doing lots of small and simple side hustles, reports his earnings every month.

His best earner for March was Freecash (affiliate link), a site/app that pays you for testing apps, games and surveys.

Jay earned £392.40 total profit in 20+ hours, which works out to about $23 USD per hour

He writes…

I did both the puzzles and chaos and the War Path ace commander offers on iOS (iPad)…

For Puzzles and Chaos I spent £120 and gained £208.40 leaving me with £88.40. War Path had an insane offer rewarding me with £672 for getting to 10 million within 30 days (with checkpoints at 1, 2, etc million). I had to spend £368 to get there though so £304 profit.

So he could have kept playing for free and earned less, but chose to spend some money to unlock higher earnings overall.

That can be a slippery slope, so be careful if you try this

Started Taking Facebook Seriously, Now Earns $12K/Month

AntoinetteHair Stylist $12,000 monthly revenue

Video interview with the Florida woman behind Braids by Antoinette (970K followers)…

She makes $12K/Month as a Facebook Creator…

Antoniette was a full-time hair braider, working 6-7 days a week and barely seeing her kids

She started taking social media seriously ~2 years ago, posting about hair braiding multiple times a day on Facebook…

posting multiple times a day, I was able to take off… then once I took off I just never stopped… I was gaining 10,000 followers a week

She makes money via in-stream ads on her Facebook videos, plus paid online classes where she teaches hair braiding.

Average earnings = $12K/month

Copy Antoinette’s approach to build up and monetize your own Facebook page.

Or partner with someone who has a skill that looks good on social media – perhaps another hair stylist – and help them grow and monetize

Copy This Silly Project & Monetize With Affiliate Links

Check out Postal Arbitrage by Riley Walz

A stamp for a letter costs $0.73 in the United States. Amazon Prime sells items for less than that… with free shipping! Why send a postcard when you can send actual stuff?

I found all items under $0.73 with free Prime shipping — screws, cans, pasta, whatever. Add a free gift note. It arrives in 1 or 2 days. Done.

You’re not only saving money. It’s about sending something real. Your friend gets a random can of tomato sauce with your birthday note attached. They laugh. They remember you. They might even use it!

Then there’s a list of products on Amazon, no affiliate links.

Why not build your own version of this site with affiliate links?

Sure, you’ll get tiny commissions on such low-priced items, but you also earn commissions on ALL items someone buys within 24 hours of clicking your link.

Once built, the site could run on autopilot

Over time, develop it into a more comprehensive gift ideas site, like these…

He Built This Site in 8 Hours and Sold it for $2500$1.2 Million Part-Time Affiliate Site

Build This to Help People Find Jobs on LinkedIn

On Reddit…

LinkedIn hacks that improved my job search efficiency

The #1 tip

Find jobs posted on LinkedIn in the past 1 or 2 hours instead of 24 hours

1) Search for your desired job and filter by “Past 24 hours”

2) In the URL, change from 86400 to 3600 or 7200 — 86400 represents 24 hours, 3600 is 1 hour, and 7200 is 2 hours.

It effectively increases the chances of my resume being seen, without any extra effort!

Based on that, Honey Syed would like to see a Chrome extension that shows jobs that have been posted in the last hour on LinkedIn…

Hack to getting a job:

Only apply to jobs that have been posted in the last hour to get in front of the line.

Sounds like a quick and easy extension to build, especially with AI

Recession Brunette, Tahini Lattes, Financial Advice

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt once said…

Find a way to ride the wave and be part of it, rather than trying to create the wave yourself.

With that in mind, it’s worth keeping an eye on Yelp’s monthly Trend Tracker, which highlights emerging trends from hundreds of categories.

Three trends for April

A viral tahini latte is stirring up interest as Yelp users search for local cafés putting their own spin on this savory coffee…

“Recession Brunette” is on the rise, as Yelp users lean toward lower maintenance hair colors… and cut back on frequent salon visits… while more users opt to buy beauty supplies for a DIY alternative…

searches for wealth managers and financial advisors are rising—especially as tax season ends and many consider how to invest their refunds.

More trends and insights from Yelp here.

From $0 to $1,000,000 in 434 Days

NickFounder of Baked Design $113,700 revenue in 1 month

Nick tweets that he earned $113,700 in March from Baked Design, his unlimited design service

Looks like he only launched it in mid-2023, after quitting his job at Meta.

Pete Codes wrote about Nick’s success in his newsletter…

I’d say doing a productized service like design, ghostwriting or any other kind of marketing is one of the easier ways into entrepreneurship.

Another tweet from Nick…

$1M baby

Feb 04, 2023: $0
May 11, 2024: $1,000,000

434 days

House Cleaning Business → Virtual Assistants → $9 design kit → $50 landing pages → Baked, it has been a hell of a journey!

What’s stopping you? Take the plunge.

Used His Own Apps To Get to $2K/Month in 6 Months

Alex DerocqFounder of CheckMySEO $2000 monthly recurring revenue

Alex Derocq is the founder of CheckMySEO, which has grown to $2K MRR and 1500+ users since starting last October

He told me via DM…

Social media has been a huge driver. Twitter and Reddit brought in a lot of traffic early on. But SEO has been just as important. 

My own tool has been a big asset, consistently pulling in organic traffic. 

I also leveraged PostWatch, another tool I built, to track and engage with people actively searching for terms like “SEO audit” or “Semrush.” That helped me reach the right audience at the perfect time.

If there’s one key to growth, it’s consistency. Posting regularly, engaging with people, and most importantly, asking for feedback non-stop. Even if it annoys some, it’s the best way to refine and improve.

Here’s the idea: use CheckMySEO and/or PostWatch to boost revenue for client projects

Very inexpensive to start. 

You could even do a free trial for a couple of clients to build trust and get referrals.