Niall Doherty's Blog, page 24
March 17, 2025
Influencers Are In Trouble Because Of This AI Tool
el.cine tweets an impressive video with the caption…
influencers are in trouble.
HeyGen just dropped UGC AI avatar, you can make them say anything with realistic expression and body movement
no one can tell this is AI now…
With hundreds of realistic, UGC avatars, you can create ads easily and add text, graphics, music, and even edit everything directly
HeyGen has a limited free plan you can play around with 
Master this tool (or a competitor) and you can run endless UGC campaigns for clients.
And you’ll become the first type of person Marc Andreessen talks about…
There will be two kinds of people in the future: those who tell AI what to do, and those who are told by AI what to do.
Related 
Tech + Africa + Newsletter = $100,000+ Per Year
Caleb MaruFounder of Tech Safari $100,000+ annual revenue
From a recent State of Email Newsletters report…
Tech Safari is a beehiiv newsletter focused solely on the tech world in Africa. [Caleb] Maru and his team have been able to grow to over 15,000 subscribers and six figures in revenue by sharing the latest news, trends, tools, and events in the African tech space.
According to another report, they launched the newsletter ~2.5 years ago 
Sounds like they’re mainly monetizing via paid editions…
where we use storytelling just to unpack one company — kind of like a deep dive into a company or an idea and that’s been so good.
Also monetizing with…
Other niche + place + newsletter success stories
Perhaps this formula could work for you, too.
Related: 5-step process to build a fast-growing, successful newsletter
$40K Per Month Helping People Quit Vaping
Steven CravottaFounder of Puff Count $40,000 monthly revenueCheck out Puff Count, an app to help people quit vaping.
YouTube interview with the founder, Steven Cravotta
Looks like he’s still in his 20’s and he says he’s not a coder…
It’s a lot easier than a lot of people think to get into [app development] with no-code tools, and with [hired help from] Upwork you can build these apps in less than a month.
Sounds like Steven came up with the idea for his app because he was vaping himself 
Then to validate the idea…
I did market research, I looked at Sensor Tower, looked at other quit drinking / quit smoking cigarettes apps… saw that they were crushing it.
I looked at Google Trends, saw that vaping was on the rise…
Probably the most important part… I looked on TikTok and saw that vape videos were going super viral
Check out TikTok’s Creative Center to see what’s trending there now 
Keep an eye out for trends that reveal problems you could solve with a product or service.
She Earns $1200/Month Working 4 Hours (Or Less) Per Week
Jewel TolentinoAmazon Influencer $14,331 revenue in 1 year
Vancouver-based Jewel Tolentino published this video last June…
Turns out she earned $14,331 in her first year posting review videos on Amazon.
If you watch one of her reviews on Amazon – see them all here – and make a purchase, Jewel earns a commission 
She uploaded 800 videos in her first year, says she spent “at most 4 hours a week” on this side hustle…
99% of the time I’m filming with my cell phone. Most of my videos are less than 1 minute long…
95% of the time I’m not on camera and it’s just my voice and my hands doing the product review.
I don’t do any fancy editing and I keep it super simple.
Jewel rarely buys the products she reviews, instead reviewing products she already owns, or that she finds at friends’ houses or in Airbnbs she stays at 
It’s like a fun side project for me that I actually earn income on… this essentially is affiliate marketing at its easiest
She has a playlist on YouTube with lots more tips if you want to try this.
March 13, 2025
His Weekend Project Hit $1000 in Revenue, Almost No Marketing
Matthias GabrielFounder of Exploding Communities $1000 revenue
Matthias Gabriel writes on Reddit…
My weekend project hit $1k in revenue, almost no marketing
The project: ExplodingCommunities.com
It’s basically a database of fast growing online communities to help you identify business opportunities.
The idea is this: discover small but fast growing online communities, build products around them, make money.
I built this on a weekend, launched it on ProductHunt (which was a complete failure) and didn’t do any marketing since then.
Looks like he launched it back in 2021
So not a big success story, but some nice passive income for something he built in a weekend.
Is there a “database” you could compile in a weekend and sell to a particular audience? 
Alternatively, you could fork out $49 for Matthias’ database and find a community to build a product for.
Simple Business: You + Student + Notebook
From the book Anything You Want by Derek Sivers…
Let’s say you have a vision of making an international chain of enlightened modern schools.
You picture it as a huge, world-changing organization, with hundreds of employees, dozens of offices, and expensive technology.
But instead of waiting for that, you start by teaching somebody something this week.
Find someone who will pay to learn something, meet him anywhere, and begin.
It will be nothing but you, a student, and a notebook, but you’ll be in business, and you can grow it from there.
With that in mind: what do you already know that you can teach someone?
Start with that.
Examples of people making good money teaching what they know
$30,000 Per Month From Their Mobile Doggy Daycare
Teddy TawilCo-founder of Happy Tails $30,000 monthly revenueCheck out this article
The business is Happy Tails, based in NYC. They come to you, pick up your dog, take them on adventures 
Started during the pandemic…
Our vision was simple: to provide pets an opportunity to socialize and have fun outside of their home…
We purchased a 1994 Dodge Caravan for $6,000, gutted the inside and started going door to door to pick up lucky pups and take them out of the city to go on hikes and explore new areas.
Sounds like Instagram was key for getting the word out 
They grew fast and bought more vans…
From the start, we had consistent monthly revenue… On average, each van was generating over $10,000 a month, and our expenses were gas/tolls and staffing.
Reminds me of that $16K/month flower truck lady, taking a traditional stationary business and making it mobile 
This kind of business could thrive in many places.
Charge Companies $1K Per Employee For This
Safwaan tweets…
Someone should release a course on “How to get the best out of Cursor/Windsurf”
– 48-hour sprint, cohort-based, over a weekend
– Charge companies $1k per employee
If you can turn a 1x engineer into a 2x engineer, this is a no-brainer for employers
Cursor / Windsurf = AI-powered development tools 
Really, there could be a course like this for every popular AI tool or platform.
Recall that 
French-language AI school that took off recently…
If you’re more of an AI generalist than a specialist, pick a niche and tailor all your free and paid training accordingly.
For example, AI productivity tips for
This Paid Community Earns At Least $1.75M Per Year
Mike WilliamsFounder of Everything Marketplaces $1.75 Million estimated annual revenueStumbled across Everything Marketplaces the other day, a paid community for marketplace founders and leaders
Founded in 2020 by Mike Williams, who previously “built, launched, & scaled two marketplaces to successful acquisition.”
Everything Marketplaces has 2500+ members paying $99/mo or $699/year = at least $1.75M annual revenue
I reckon there will eventually be a successful paid community (if not several) for every professional industry.
Smaller example: Geekout PRO, a paid WhatsApp community for social media managers.
522 members paying $6/mo = $3132 monthly revenue
Sounds like this is fairly easy to pull off – especially with platforms like Skool or Nas.io – if you already have an audience that values your expertise.
If not, try partnering with someone like that 
You set up and manage everything while they focus on adding value to the community.
Genius Idea: Start This Agency Without Any Skills
In a recent video, Chris Koerner reveals…
Your ticket to starting a profitable cash flowing business in 2025…
You’re going to start a short-form video editing agency without any skills. You’re going to charge less than everyone else but make more than everyone else because you’re going to use automated software…
Go to this website [opus.pro], grab a YouTube link from any creator in any niche, and do exactly what I’m doing right here. Generate 5 to 20 clips, DM or email them, and say, “Hey, I did a thing. I edited this video for you.”
The truth is, AI did it for you with just a few clicks—but they don’t care.
You can say, “I know you normally pay $50 to $80 per short-form video, but I’ll do it for $30. It will look better and be faster because I use AI”…
You pay a one-time small flat fee for the software, and then you charge $20 to $80 per video. You can create 10 videos with just a few clicks. It is an extremely asymmetric bet.
Looks like Opus isn’t a one-time fee any more, but they do have a free trial and a limited free plan.
Or you can probably find an alternative with a lifetime deal on AppSumo (aff link).
