Niall Doherty's Blog, page 5

Earning $10K/Month From His Local Media Side Hustle

Landon HusligFounder of Wichita Life $10,000 monthly revenue

Wichita Life is a local media brand about the city of Wichita (pop: 400K).

Started by Landon Huslig and his wife as a simple Instagram account back in 2017

According to a recent interview with Landon…

Now, Wichita Life reaches nearly 60,000 people on Instagram and 31,000 via newsletter — engaging a total of 120,000 across all platforms. In 2024, Landon hit his biggest milestone yet: $119,814 in top-line revenue.

“That was the first year I out-earned my day job. That felt big.”

Monetized mainly via sponsors…

to identify sponsors, [Landon] wrote down every billboard advertiser he saw in town.

Pretty cool that he’s been able to build the brand to $10K/month, and it sounds like he’s done it while working a full-time job as an engineer

I believe most cities/regions could support a scrappy local media brand like this.

People seem to prefer these outlets to traditional newspapers and radio stations nowadays.

Could you start one for your area?

Other examples

Earning a Living From His Local Newsletters in Only 2 YearsThis Local Newsletter Earned $52K Last Month (85% Profit)$6000 Per Month From His Tiny Local Food Newsletter$87,000 Last Year, Aiming For $500K by 2027

Yet Another Form Builder Already Earning $10K Per Month

DavisCo-founder of Youform $10,500 monthly recurring revenue

Davis …

Youform has crossed $10,500 MRR

Elsewhere he it took them “a bit over 1 year” to grow from $0 to $9K MRR.

Youform is yet another bootstrapped form builder.

Just like Tally From Failure to $100K/Month in 5 Years

Amazing to me that there are so many of these indie form builders finding success, competing with giants like Google, Typeform, Jotform, etc.

Another good reminder that you don’t need an original idea to build a successful business

And competition – even massive competition – is often a good sign.

Just gotta find your unique angle and put in the work consistently.

What’s a popular product or service you think could be better?

Or one that doesn’t serve a niche audience particularly well?

How about building your unique version?

$3.7K in 30 Days From a Single Digital Product (Weird AI Hack)

tchapito24Entrepreneur $3753 revenue in 30 days

tchapito24 shares how he recently earned $3,753 in one month with a digital product aimed at the Arabic market

The rub: he doesn’t know a word of Arabic.

His product is about how to sell digital products… I know, pretty meta. But his process could work for many niches

Here’s what he did…

Used ChatGPT to write scripts in ArabicElevenLabs for the voiceoversCanva to make “short, clean, educational videos”Posted them on a new TikTok accountGot better at writing hooks to get more viewsGrew account to 1000+ followers

Then he created his product

I used ChatGPT to help me turn my learnings into a short PDF guide in Arabic.

Designed the cover with Canva.

Uploaded it to Gumroad, priced it at $9.

Posted a link in his TikTok bio and started making sales

Now…

I’m planning to expand this model to other underserved languages and niches.

There’s way more room in this space than most people think.

Simple Side Hustle: $1K/Month in 10 Hours Per Week

Tilly MarksYouTuber $1000 monthly revenue

Tilly Marks writes that he struggled making money online for 7 years, until…

I finally made breakthrough and found a method that earns me about $1K per month (working only 10 hrs a week)…

I make YouTube videos in a certain niche and then offer a simple service…

I make videos sharing the insights / wisdom I get as I live life. Then offer 1-on-1 Christian Counseling for anyone who needs.

Videos usually ~10 minutes long recorded on an iPhone

Half my income is AdSense, half is from 1-on-1 Zoom calls…

This can work for anyone in basically any niche. And you don’t need a college degree or money to start but you do need to actually have a skill to offer that helps people and you have to make content that attracts those people.

For example, if you’re good at Fortnite

make Fortnite videos showing how to get solo Victory Royals 50% of the time. Higher than most players (I assume, I don’t play video games much)

End of each video: offer 1-on-1 coaching to help you double your Victory Royale percentage $50 – $200 depending on how good / popular you are

Couldn’t find the channel but elsewhere he says he has 13K subscribers

Solo Founder Earning $12K/Month From Exam Prep Assistant

Serhii BaraniukFounder of Writing9 $12,000 monthly revenue

Serhii Baraniuk writes…

I built Writing9 to help people improve their IELTS Writing skills.

IELTS = International English Language Testing System.

Back when I was learning English, I struggled with writing and wished there was a tool that could give real feedback – so I made one.

Writing9 checks essays, points out mistakes, and gives an estimated IELTS band score. It’s like having a personal tutor, but way faster and more affordable. Thousands of people use it every day…

Today, we bring in around $12K/month

Looks like he launched it in 2020 as a basic app which you could probably vibe code today

More examples of people earning good money by helping others prep for specific exams…

Her 3-Hour Crash Course Earned $1 Million in 7 MonthsNiche Study Guide Selling on Amazon = $8.7K/Month Profit

What exams have you taken in the past?

Might be an opportunity to create an app / course / study guide there

Or perhaps even start off as a one-on-one tutor.

How Really Dumb People Earn $2-3 Million Per Year

Words from Nick Huber, who has made millions from self-storage businesses…

Pick a business where you can win, and choose your competition….

We got in the self-storage business because we said, okay, where are all the really dumb people making money? Where can we be average and still win?

Do you want to go compete against the folks in Silicon Valley with $20 million of venture capital funding and computer science degrees and parents in country clubs?

Or do you want to compete against the person down the street who’s making $2-3 million a year but still has a fax machine on their desk…

All business is hard, but some are easier than others.

Nick is a big advocate of boring, bootstrap-able startups, and has a list of 200+ on his website

Including…

Lawn mowing / trimming / landscapingPest controlFirewood deliveryResidential PaintingPressure washing / concrete cleaning

Nothing fancy there, but as Nick says, there is likely someone “really dumb” near you earning $2-3 million a year with one of those businesses

One-Person Directory Website Earning $1M/Year

Chaz YoonFounder of Milled.com $1 Million estimated annual revenue

From a recent report

Imagine building a million-dollar business by simply organizing other people’s emails. That’s exactly what Chaz Yoon did with Milled.com

The site is a big database of e-commerce emails.

Marketers use it to see how big brands are doing email marketing

Chaz started it in 2012 and it has become…

A bootstrapped, one-person operation that generates $768K-$1.2M annually

It was initially monetized with affiliate links, but now mainly earns via subscriptions for pro features

Clearly Chaz got in early on this idea and that was a big part of his success.

And he’s been so successful that I’m thinking a niche version of this could also do well

How about an email marketing database for…

SaaS companiesNonprofitsHealth and wellness brands

$20K+ Per Month With This Swiss Army Knife Software

Jean-Michel MailhotAgency Owner $15-30K monthly revenue

Jean-Michel Mailhot writes…

After 4 years selling GHL as a service to my clients (organizing calls with a pipeline, setting up email intros/sequences/loops, sms intros/blasts, automations for billing, google reviews, fb/ig conversion api pixel events, etc)…

…I now make anywhere from 15k$/month to 30k$/month, every single month.

And that’s working part time — only around 20 hours a week, sometimes less — with zero employees, just me.

GHL = Go High Level (the same app I talked about on YouTube)…

It’s truly a “Swiss Army knife” of software, packed with tools you can use to offer real value to clients – and turn that into recurring income

In Jean-Michel’s case…

My top 2 selling services are running FB/IG ads, and email database reactivations.

I use GHL to set up both quickly — and easily manage client accounts down the line…

His advice to follow in his footsteps…

My best advice would be to use HighLevel to sell a service.

He Sold His Software Consultancy For $10M

Greg PoirierFounder of CloudKettle $10+ Million sale price

Salesforce is big enterprise software.

Greg Poirier launched CloudKettle, a Salesforce consultancy, in 2015

According to a recent profile, the consultancy…

…helps enterprises optimize and leverage Salesforce to increase pipeline and conversion rates and decrease churn. It also provides enhanced Salesforce security, an attractive feature for industries with high regulatory/compliance requirements.

About a year ago…

BCE acquired CloudKettle in an 8-figure deal.

That’s $10M+

Other examples of businesses that help clients get to grips with complex software…

$10K Per Week NetSuite Consultant$300/Hour HoneyBook and ClickUp Consultant$1M/Year Teaching People How To Use Software$200K in 3 Years Helping People With Notion

What complex software do you already know or want to learn?

How about building a consulting business off the back of that?

Trick To Get Dozens Of Warm Leads Weekly

Slow_Trash_3204 shares how their company is getting “dozens of warm leads weekly”…

Basically

Made a list of their competitorsFound which of them were running ads (via the Meta ads library)Made a list of all the adsHired a VA to check the ads each day for new comments

The VA then DMs each commenter…

Hey name, I noticed that you were checking COMPETITOR PAGE, we actually do YOUR CORE OFFER, often at much better PRICE OR RESULTS, do you want me to send more info?

Since these people were already interested in a service that we offered, we got insane reply rate, 30-40%

Two business ideas from this…

Build an AI agent that does the whole thing, sell access to companies.Hire and train VAs to do this and operate as an agency.