Niall Doherty's Blog, page 69
April 22, 2024
Boring Software in Competitive Niche: $500/Month After 2 Months
Vikash RatheeCreator of IDM URL Shortener $500 monthly recurring revenue Published April 22, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty 
Vikash Rathee recently posted on Reddit…
Apparently he built his shortener (IDM.in) mainly to test out some tech…
I keep testing new cloud infrastructures to see what’s new!
So the simplest I can think of is a URL shortener with analytics.
Just two months after launch…
it’s now making over $500 MRR via Stripe (subscription) + Google Ads.
That’s surprising, given that there are so many other URL shorteners out there, many of them well established and feature rich.
Vikash says…
Yes, there are 100s [of competitors]. But not very well maintained and run professionally with API, Team access, Reports and Analytics…
[My product has] Reports and API access in all plans. None of the other software provides plain click report access [IP address, device, location, etc.] for each click.
Three things he did to promote IDM 
1. Running one Google Ads campaign for targeting keywords
2. Launched on Product hunt (1 customer, 680 clicks on Launch day),
3. Submitted as Show HN on YC
For #1 Vikash targets keywords like…
URL shortener, Link shortener etc. with exact match and campaign goal as Conversion… [with a budget of] $8 to $10 per day.
That’s about $300/month spent on ads, which obviously cuts into profit.
But Vikash notes that the $500/month is recurring revenue. So his ROI should increase over time, so long as he can keep customers happy and paying their monthly subscriptions 
His advice for others building products…
Just ship something and start talking about it (marketing), someone in need will buy for sure.
Once you find your 1st customer, keep improving.
Here is a quick example to inspire you – Someone just subscribed to $7/m plan from this Reddit AMA as well
Vikash’s success goes to show that you can do well in competitive markets 
So don’t be discouraged if your business idea isn’t all that original.
There may still be plenty of opportunity there if your product or service does things just a little differently.
Another example of this is Tim Bennetto’s Pallyy…
From Locksmith to $74K/Month SaaS in 4 YearsPally is yet another social media post scheduler, but it stands out enough from competitors to provide Tim with a good income 
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,344 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you 
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,344 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
Built Her Talent Agency To $11M/Year in Only 3 Years
Adriane SchwagerCo-founder of GrowthAssistant $11 Million annual recurring revenue Published April 22, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Adriane Schwager is the co-founder of GrowthAssistant, a talent vetting agency that “embeds the best offshore Growth Marketers into your company.”
They vet workers from the Philippines 
and started in 2021.
In a recent interview, Adriane reveals…
Revenue reached a run-rate of $11M [annual recurring revenue]. We plan to grow to over $20M by the end of 2024.
What they do
We go through over 50,000 applications per year to find the top 0.5% offshore talent for our clients.
They don’t just match talent, they also manage them and charge clients starting at $3000/mo.
GrowthAssistant has positive online reviews from workers. Apparently they provide paid leave, health care and other benefits. That’s atypical, and surely helps them hire the best talent
As you might guess, Adriane has a background in HR…
I must have done 10,000+ interviews before I left [my corporate job] after 14 years.
How she got the idea for GrowthAssistant…
My childhood friend, Jesse Pujji, who had been doing very well with his digital marketing agency, Ampush…
We started a two-hour phone call by sharing business ideas from our lists.
Jesse outlined the vision for what would become GrowthAssistant. That call ended with me committing to building the offshore talent acquisition partner that had been on his list.
Jesse had a pretty big network and about 8k followers on X.
Along with Adriane’s HR skills, that was key to a successful launch…
$50k [monthly recurring revenue] in under 100 days.
Jesse’s network helped us A LOT initially. He knows so many people and opened so many doors. Most of our first customers came through it.
But hey, that was one of “unfair advantages” and I think we used (and still use) it quite well.
What unfair advantages do you have? 
Could be someone you know, a community you’re connected to, skills or experience you bring to the table, etc.
How can you leverage something like that to build your business?
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,344 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,344 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
Solved His Own Problem & Made $3100 in 2.5 Months
Vignesh WararCreator of Keep It Shot $3100 revenue in 2.5 months Published April 22, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Keep it Shot is a Mac app that “utilizes AI to automatically provide descriptive names for your images and videos” 
Founder Vignesh Warar …
[Keep It Shot] went viral and reached $3,000 in revenue with over $220 in MRR
How he came up with the idea…
I was building a video-based search engine for lecture videos… In the process of building it, I converted videos into images, renamed them using AI, extracted text, generated descriptions, and built a semantic index…
And I thought, wow, if I’m being honest with myself, this screenshot renaming thing provided more value than the video search engine.
So he quickly pivoted and built out the first version of Keep it Shot in only 10 days…
Once I finished the product, I quickly posted it on … my scheduled Product Hunt launch went live automatically the very next day…
the demo video was tweeted from [Product Hunt’s] Twitter account, which received 900+ likes, then was picked up by some big Telegram channels with millions of followers.
You could say Vignesh got lucky there, but really he put himself in a position to get lucky 
In particular, that slick 7-second demo video he created to showcase the app made it very easy for Product Hunt to tweet about it.
About 2.5 months after launch, Vignesh reported…
Users: 3000+
Revenue: $3,100+
MRR: $220
Last words from Vignesh…
Over the years, I have built numerous products, but if I have to choose the ones that truly made money, they would be the products designed to solve my own problems—something that did not exist in the market.
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,344 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,344 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
His First Course Earned $105,637 in 4 Days
Matt McGarryFounder of GrowLetter $105,637 revenue in 4 days Published April 22, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Matt McGarry has been publishing Newsletter Operator since January 2023.
It’s a newsletter about growing and monetizing a newsletter 
Off the back of that, Matt recently launched a cohort course called Growth System, which did quite well…
You don’t need a large audience to make money…
I had 13,230 email subscribers at the time [of launch].
The course generated $105,637 in revenue and we sold out of seats for the cohort in 4 days.
Some backstory…
I’ve been running GrowLetter, an agency that helps media companies and creators grow their newsletters for 2 years.
I talk to people who want help but can’t afford our services all the time.
The goal of Growth System is to be the “do it yourself” or “done with you” service option for people who can’t work with our agency yet.
In the course, I teach all the tactics we use to get clients more engaged newsletter subscribers and convert them into customers.
Plus, I share templates, examples, and case studies to make it easy to implement these growth tactics.
Pricing…
Cohort courses usually cost $800 to $1500 with some higher-end examples ranging from $2000 to $5000.
I decided to price my first cohort on the lower end of that and charge $999.
I limited the first cohort to 100 total students.
His reasoning for that limit
1) To give me enough time to share 1on1 feedback with each student (I also paid 3 coaches to help with student feedback + coaching)
2) To keep the first cohort small. It’s better to limit the first cohort to a small group. Improve it. Then share it with a larger audience later.
3) To make it easier to sell. Real scarcity and urgency make this much easier.
I especially like that last point
Another key thing for Matt was running free webinars, which he promoted via his newsletter and tweets like this (~16k followers on Twitter).
He writes…
I did 5 live webinars in December 2023 and January 2024…
At the end of the webinar, I added slides about the benefits of the course, the limited number of students, the start date, etc…
On the 1st webinar, my pitch was bad.
I only had about 10 slides for the course pitch.
Then with each webinar, I got better. By the 5th webinar, I had refined my pitch and had 62 slides about the course and 177 total slides.
This was Matt’s first course ever, and he hit it out of the park.
Worth considering something like this if you run an agency or some kind of service business: create your own paid training to share your processes and tactics with others
But, like Matt, the first step would be to build up an audience, doesn’t have to be huge.
Because it’s hard to sell a course if nobody knows you or your expertise.
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,344 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,344 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
April 18, 2024
From Depressed and Stressed to $150K in 1 Year
Nico JeannenFounder of Talknotes $150,000+ revenue in 1 year Published April 18, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty A recent tweet from Nico Jeannen…
Wow, I just realized I made over $180,000 in the last 15 months with all my apps.
We’ve featured Nico in this newsletter before…
Launched an App 3 Months Ago, Sold it for $65,000 (Mar 2023)His Unoriginal App: 13 Weeks to $2000/Month (Nov 2023)Back in 2022, Nico was a marketer who didn’t really know how to code.
Then he “bought a $20 course to learn Python on Udemy” and started sharing his journey of learning to code 
Now, in 2024, his Talknotes app is earning him $5000/month just a few months after launch.
He recently tweeted…
Me last year:
– Only one year of savings
– Living in a cheap co-living in Bali
– Can’t travel
– Depressed and stressed
– Can only afford $2 chicken + rice for every meal
– $150k+ in revenues
– Travel whenever I want to
– Live in a nice apartment
– Eat good tasty and healthy food
What changed:
I shipped 20 apps to learn the process. Most failed, but some took off. You only need to win once to snowball
He basically packed a ton of experience into a couple of years, picking up valuable new skills and learning how to build successful products.
It wasn’t glamorous by any means, but the results speak for themselves.
And it all started with a $20 course, plus the willingness to go through it fully and apply the materials
(Fun fact: most online courses only have a 5-15% completion rate. So if you complete that latest online course you signed up for, you’re ahead of the pack.)
Sharing the journey has also been key for Nico, resulting in a following of 26K on X.
Amazing how far a person can come in a short time if they go all in
Last thing: moving to Bali 
surely contributed to Nico’s success.
Because when your cost of living is low, there’s less pressure to earn big money right away, and you have more time to build new skills and experiment with different business models.
If moving is an option for you, Nomad List shows the best cities around the world to live and work remotely 
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,224 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,224 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
His Match Making Business Earned $430K Last Year
Behdad JamshidiFounder of CJAM Marketing $438,785 revenue in 1 year Published April 18, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Behdad Jamshidi is the founder of CJAM Marketing, self-described as a…
Match making service to find the right marketing agencies
They basically help companies find and hire marketing help. Companies use their services instead of writing up job posts, interviewing multiple candidates, etc.
In a recent interview, Behdad reveals…
I believe in slowly growing a profitable and sustainable business. From the first year through last year, I doubled revenue almost every year but I did it without taking a ton of risk.
Year 1 2019: $16,366
Year 2 2020: $ 84,232
Year 3 2021: $109,644
Year 4 2022: $280,006
Year 5 2023: $438,785
I’ve kept my costs low and built my business the old-school way: through relationships, community, and providing value. That was the focus for the first 3-4 years in my business, while I also worked my full-time job for stability. This allowed me the freedom to build slowly…
Last year, we were at $430,000 in revenue, with a 60% profit margin.
Sounds like he’s mainly grown the business via LinkedIn, with little focus on other channels…
We don’t have as much website traffic as I would like, and my email list has just about 340 people on it.
Check out Behdad’s Linkedin (6000+ followers) and the content he posts there
He writes…
People started reaching out to me because they saw me online adding value, which started my first level of growth.
But it was a tough road…
if I knew how hard this business was to build in the beginning I might not have built it!
I had no idea that I would have to talk to, interview, and vet so many agency partners to build the network that I needed to find good fits for my customers.
Also, I didn’t realize how fast marketing trends shift and how I would need to keep sourcing new partner agencies as that happens.
Behdad has some reassuring words for anyone still working 9-to-5…
There is a lot of value in working for a company — you can build skill sets and knowledge that most entrepreneurs have to learn the hard way.
So, if you are still working a traditional job, don’t worry that you are behind in business — you are learning things that will help you in your journey.
Behdad’s network is obviously crucial for his business, and I suspect he started building that in his old job.
What experience or connections have you gained as an employee?
How could you leverage those to start your own thing?
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,224 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,224 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
Built a $5 Browser Extension Without Knowing How To Code
From a recent post on Reddit…
I have no coding knowledge but have constantly shipped different products since I was in college. All my ideas usually were not tech focused but focused more on operations, expertise and physical products or services.
Recently… I decided to find a problem to solve and ship something even with my limited expertise.
I listed down all the problems I had and finally decided on one to work on.
Full disclosure, the first 3 failed with hardly any sales.
But with the 4th one, I just got my first sale!
It’s a chrome extension that helps you find and navigate to your desired Chrome tab in one click.
The extension is priced at only $5 for lifetime access, so not a huge success story
But it’s still impressive, especially considering this person – unclear if male or female – doesn’t know how to code.
So how did he/she build the extension?
I used Gemini Advanced and Replit to make it.
Got all my instructions from Gemini and followed it to the T on Replit.
It was a bit tedious as I had to keep coming back for each change I wanted and uploading the new version to my Chrome to check how it looks.
By the time I was done I had made over 20 versions of my extension.
Gemini = Google’s AI, basically their version of ChatGPT.
Replit = a code editor that works in your browser.
Now for the twist in the story
Redditors were quick to point out that…
Chrome already has this feature built-in. Click the down arrow on the top right corner
So yeah, not much of a future for this project 
But that’s besides the point.
Along the way, this person has learned…
how to leverage AIhow to build Chrome extensionspersistencewhat it’s like to make a saleThat’s a lot
And it makes his (or her) future projects way more likely to succeed.
How about trying something like this yourself?
Make a list of all the problems you have and then pick one to work on 
Alternatively, here’s a database of 33,000+ Chrome extensions that…
takes the guesswork out of deciding what to build next. See which popular extensions get bad reviews so you can create improved versions.
Find an idea there and use AI to build a solution
Or, if you have the budget, you could hire someone to build it for you, like Joe Davies did…
Started With $500, Then Earned $30K in 60 DaysApril 15, 2024
Their No-Code Tool Earned $60,000 in 6 Months
Sveta BayCo-founder of FounderPal $10,000 monthly revenue Published April 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Dan Kulkov and Sveta Bay are the founders of FounderPal, an AI-powered marketing co-pilot for your business
You can use it to come up with marketing strategies, user personas, business ideas, etc.
Sveta revealed in a recent interview that their main product…
Brings us around $10,000/mo via one-time payments…[and has] earned us $60,000 in 6 months.
She also writes…
We started Indie Entrepreneurship two years ago with MakerBox. After years of working with teams, we both wanted to spend less on communication and more time on building good products.
That’s how we started to sell digital products around marketing…
This led us to $5000/mo. But after months of experiments, we couldn’t go beyond it. We noticed that Founders prefer tools over educational resources.
That’s when we added a sprinkle of AI. We launched Marketing Mega-Prompts — a paid collection of 40 unique ChatGPT prompts. BOOM, the sales are pouring in.
The key insights for Dan and Sveta…
many Solopreneurs want to outsource marketing badly. However, current AI products only focus on generating cheesy email subject lines and spammy blog posts for SEO.
1. Solopreneurs need a strategic CMO, not a content marketing intern.
2. People prefer clicking buttons more than texting with ChatGPT
3. We know how to write unique mega-prompts
Those insights led to what is now their main product: Marketing Strategy Generator
So basically Dan and Sveta mastered AI prompting for a specific audience (marketers), then turned that expertise into a time-saving product.
Could you do something like this for your audience?
Being marketers, Dan and Sveta didn’t really know how to code.
So…
We built FounderPal with no-code to move fast. Instead of spending 3 months to learn basic programming, we pay Bubble $32/mo to ship in 3 weeks. This approach allowed us to work alone without any external funding.
The first version was very minimalistic and only cost us $150 in the first month (Bubble + OpenAI costs).
Looks like Twitter is a key marketing channel for them; Dan and Sveta have amassed a combined ~50k followers on there
That existing audience was also key to a successful launch on ProductHunt.
Sveta’s tips for PH
Focus on getting into the top 5. This will be good enough to get traffic and free features from newsletters (for example, AI newsletters monitor every AI-related tool).
If you can’t get past 100 upvotes [on PH], that’s a good sign to double-down on audience building.
Seems like an unfair advantage, having an audience like that.
But everyone starts with zero followers.
Start building your audience today and you’ll reap the benefits down the line
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,204 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,204 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
Quit His Frustrating Job and Built a $1.5M/Year Business
Jason YormarkFounder of Socialistics $1.5 million annual revenue Published April 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty Jason Yormark is the founder of Socialistics, a “social media agency that helps businesses turn their social media efforts into real measurable results.”
Per a recent interview, they’re doing $1.5M/year
Jason says…
I’ve been involved with social media marketing since 2007, and have pretty much carved my career out of that. It was a natural progression for me to transition into starting a social media agency…
I had to side hustle something long enough to build it up to a point that I could take the leap and risk going full time on my own…
This went on for about 18 months at which point I had reached the breaking point of my frustrations of working for someone else, and felt I was ready to take the leap since I had the wheels in motion.
To get traction…
I tapped into my existing network to get my first few clients. Then it was a mix of trade shows, networking events, and throwing a bit of money at paid directories and paid media.
This is really a long game. You have to plant seeds over time with people and nurture those relationships over time. A combination of being helpful, likeable and a good resource for folks will position you to make asks in the future.
If people respect and like you, it makes it much easier to approach for opportunities when the time comes.
Solid advice.
It’s also highly likely that you’ll find your first clients in your existing network; you just have to put yourself out there 
Jason adds…
I launched the agency about 7 years ago, so we are benefiting from the years of pushing out content regularly, so we have a decent inbound flow of leads.
Just like any other business…
Owning a marketing agency is going to have hills and valleys no matter what you do.
IMO, service businesses are an underrated way to earn a good living online.
That’s why I often recommend freelancing as the best way to start earning online
You start out selling your existing skills – or even skills you’re still learning – and you can evolve that business into an agency over time.
$1.5 million per year might sound unrealistic, but it starts with finding just 1-2 clients to work with.Use the three methods outlined here to find those first clients
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,204 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,204 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
$400K and 23 Countries From a $30 Plugin
Nishant AgrawalCreator of FormCraft $400,000+ approximate lifetime revenue Published April 15, 2024 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty FormCraft is a form plugin for WordPress that was launched back in 2013 by Nishant Agrawal.
Nishant sells the plugin via the CodeCanyon marketplace
The listing shows 21,000+ sales at $30 per license.
21K x $30 = $630,000
CodeCanyon takes a cut of that revenue, but even so it’s likely Nishant has earned around $400,000 from that plugin alone.
That income has given him a lot of freedom…
In 2013 I gave up my apartment to live a nomadic life, while working on FormCrafts. I have since been to 23 countries, and lived in 8 of them.
I tried out the demo version of Nishant’s plugin. It’s simple to use but packs in a lot of features.
However, browse the comments and reviews and you’ll see a lot of complaints and feature requests
One request that Nishant says isn’t possible with the plugin…
We want to created a web based form that will serve as a check-in kiosk for delivery drivers at a stationary iPad. They will need to submit information like name, number, tracking number but also the ability to take pictures of the delivery notice with the iPad camera without leaving the form page. Is this possible?
So clearly there are plenty of opportunities to build an improved version of FormCraft.
Or, better yet, to create a niche version that solves a specific problem like the one above 
Of course, you’d need to do some research to make sure there’s a big enough market there for a viable business.
Beyond this, you could browse CodeCanyon or similar marketplaces, looking for other long-time bestsellers with lots of complaints or feature requests 
First time seeing our Online Money Maker profiles? Click here for a quick intro.
The goal of our Online Money Maker profiles is to show you all the different ways people make money online. We strive to ensure that each profile is realistic – no hype, no scams – so you can see what it really takes to build each type of business.
If you'd like to hear when we publish new profiles, subscribe to our free newsletter below. Each edition is packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. We send it out every Tuesday and Friday to 22,204 legendary subscribers.
Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Insider delivered to your inboxHPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
See our latest profiles of Online Money Makers
Learn more about income claims and estimates on this website
Our goal at eBiz Facts is to give you accurate information about online business so you can gain clearer insights, make better decisions, and achieve your own success.
With that in mind, we strive to ensure the accuracy and transparency of the income claims and estimates that you see on this website.
Here’s how:
We treat all income claims we find online with skepticism.We don’t report incomes that seem especially controversial or unrealistic.We cite our sources and/or share our calculations so you can see where the numbers come from.If there are uncertainties about an income claim or estimate, we tell you what those are.If you see an income claim or estimate that seems off, please tell us so we can fix it.
Is this kind of business right for you?Check out our framework to see the 19 types and 6 levels of online business, and discover which is best for you.
Other ways to make money onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
Full list of ways to make money onlineMore profiles of online money makers Subscribe to eBiz Insider Every Tuesday and Friday we email 22,204 people like you with top tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business. No hype, no scams, no fake gurus. Sign up below to get the next one.
HPWe'll first send a confirmation email to make sure it’s you
Check out our privacy policy to see how we protect and manage your data.
