Niall Doherty's Blog, page 83

How This Broke Backpacker Earns $50,000/Month

Will HattonFounder of The Broke Backpacker $50,000 estimated monthly revenue
Published December 4, 2023 by Fardeen Khan

Will Hatton is the founder of a travel blog called The Broke Backpacker

How it started…

The Broke Backpacker officially sprung into existence on January 30th, 2013. Before this, it had existed as an email newsletter to 40 or so friends at home who encouraged me to take it to the next level [to start blogging].

Our mission is to provide a blueprint for others to ditch their desks and discover the world. We want to show you that it’s possible to travel the world on a budget of $10 a day

In a recent interview, Will says…

[The site] was making about $1,000 in 2015.

I then launched a tour company which would give me cash injections of between $12K to $16K pretty easily while I was basically spending two weeks in the country leading a tour, and that enabled me to grow things further.

By the time we got to 2018 we were hitting $3.5K-$5K/month from all affiliates.

And then that just exploded… it quickly went to 5 figures and then it went to 6 figures [per month] and then it just kept climbing.

He got initial traction by…

[Writing] around a theme that really wasn’t being covered on the internet at the time which was extreme budget travel.

Elsewhere, Will writes…

As The Broke Backpacker gained traction and became one of HostelWorld’s largest affiliates, it was clear that there was an opportunity to use the success of the blog to create something truly special.

The idea of building the ultimate hostel for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital nomads to [begin] their online journeys had been a dream of mine for many, many moons

That eventually led to Will opening Tribal Bali in 2021. More on that here.

Sounds like the website is still the core of Will’s business, but the pandemic hit hard…

we’ve recovered to about 50% of where we were which is good money it’s not the crazy money we were on before

I’m assuming then that he’s still earning around $50,000 per month from the site

Mainly via…

Affiliate revenueDisplay adsMerch

However, Will thinks it’s a lot harder to start a travel blog nowadays

Travel blogging is the most visible digital nomad job, and it’s what most people think of when they think of creating some kind of online income.

It’s also one of the most competitive and one of the most difficult ones to actually do well in. It’s a lot sexier than doing local SEO for, I don’t know, a lawnmowing business, but you might be able to build that up much faster and get it onto autopilot much quicker.

… to do well on [as a travel blogger] you’re going to need to work for 2 years with no expectation of making any money, and you’re going to need to do something a bit different.

If you do start a travel blog, Will recommends niching down…

Go out somewhere special. Central Africa hasn’t been done properly, parts of South America still aren’t properly covered. There’s still opportunity out there for sure.

Or you could take on a big travel challenge

For example…

Get a motorbike and drive it from the top of the world to the bottom, people will love that.

Last words from Will…

Discipline eats intelligence for breakfast… Forge a strong routine that ensures you have dedicated work time each day and keep chipping away. It takes TIME to build anything worthwhile, be consistent.

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55-Year-Old’s Engraving Hobby = $200K/Year

Rodney MeltonFounder of Melton Memorials $200,000+ annual revenue
Published December 4, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Rodney Melton is the founder of Melton Memorials, which specializes in creating gravestones for pets

CNBC reports…

[Rodney] started his side hustle for two reasons. His friend’s dog Molly died, and he happened to own a $15,000 engraver for his stone-carving hobby. Molly’s concrete headstone turned out well, and Melton decided to open an Etsy shop in March 2021.

Apparently…

The store brought in $207,000 in 2022 revenue… About 65% of that was profit, Melton estimates.

But it was slow progress in the beginning, with each headstone taking Rodney about 5 hours to create…

At first, he could only fulfill 16 Etsy orders per month.

The extra cash was great, he says, but he wanted to shorten his lead time. After researching online, he discovered that his process was somewhat obsolete.

So…

Three months after opening his store, he spent $7,000 from his savings on sandblasting equipment, because an expert online told him he’d “be crazy” not to.

The equipment cut his production time down to 45 minutes. In the second half of the year, he brought in between $5,400 and $8,300 per month.

Then…

Melton invested [another] $38,000 — from both his savings and the previous year’s proceeds — in a laser engraver, further cutting down his production time.

In other words, Rodney invested quite a bit of time and money making his business more efficient, which laid the foundation for his $207K year in 2022

And now it’s become a family affair…

[Rodney] quit his job and enlisted his wife to help him make pet headstones full-time. Last year, he hired his daughter and daughter-in-law, too.

Rodney is based in Arkansas, and I expect there could be a market for this kind of thing in other areas.

It also reminds me of the guy in Slovenia earning $4000/month selling concrete sculptures online.

Seems less people want to work with their hands and craft physical products nowadays, but that likely means there are lots of opportunities there

Also, shout out to this article on Side Hustle Nation, where I first heard about Rodney…

10 Creative Side Hustles that Make Real Money – Part 6



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This AI-Generated Supermodel Earns Up To €10K/Month

Aitana LopezAI-Generated Influencer €3,000 average monthly revenue
Published December 4, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

(FYI: no nudity via the links in this story but it’s still borderline NSFW )

Aitana Lopez is an AI-generated influencer who has racked up 190K+ Instagram followers in a few short months.

Euronews reports…

Last summer, Rubén Cruz, her designer and founder of the agency The Clueless, was going through a rough patch because he didn’t have many clients.

Rubén says…

We started analysing how we were working and realised that many projects were being put on hold or cancelled due to problems beyond our control. Often it was the fault of the influencer or model and not due to design issues.

So…

They decided to create their own influencer to use as a model for the brands that approached them.

Aitana is monetized via sponsorships and Fanvue (an OnlyFans alternative)

Euronews again…

The virtual model can earn up to €10,000 a month, according to her creator, but the average is around €3,000.

As of this writing, Aitana has a link to sports supplement company BIG SUPPS in her Instagram bio. And here are two posts (tap on hair), which link to OLAPLEX, a haircare brand.

Rubén revealed a little more about the creation process…

In the first month, we realised that people follow lives, not images. Since she is not alive, we had to give her a bit of reality so that people could relate to her in some way. We had to tell a story.

She was created as a fitness enthusiast, determined and with a complex character.

It might have worked a little too well…

One day, a well-known Latin American actor texted to ask her out. This actor has about 5 million followers and some of our team watched his TV series when they were kids… He had no idea Aitana didn’t exist.

Euronews adds…

The agency believes this could help bring down market prices [for models] and give a boost to small companies that cannot afford big advertising campaigns.

I can easily see AI models and influencers becoming commonplace.

Could even be that real-life celebs will license their image to a company like The Clueless, which would then generate an AI version of them that posts regularly on social media

Also, how long before we see this for pets?

Imagine an AI-generated cat that’s a bit more expressive than the real thing  

That would likely sell a lot of kitty litter.

Also, I should mention the original AI influencer here. That’d be lilmiquela. She’s been around since 2016 and apparently earns more than $11 million per year

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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.

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How To Go From $0 to $1 Million

A recent video from Shaan Puri of the My First Million podcast

My $0 to $1 Million Guide – How I Would Start Over in 2024…

He starts by saying…

[You should] always have that 21y old mindset.

You should always have the belief that my whole world is in front of me, that my best days are ahead of me, that anything is possible and that I can reinvent myself right now.

Think of it like karate…

We want to make our way up to a black belt in the game of success.

To do this, Shaan advises getting busy and putting yourself out there…

You should be looking at how do I do more things, show up to more events, publish an analysis of something on the internet… maybe somebody smart will read it and think hey this guy’s awesome I would love to meet him.

A good example of that is the guy behind Cultural Tutor on Twitter, who we profiled recently

He basically got busy posting on Twitter and eventually had some posts go viral, which got him on the radar of some influential people and resulted in a remote job.

Back to Shaan, and if he were starting over, he’d build a service business…

I would go on Upwork or Fiverr, or I would look at other agencies that are already existing.

I’ll try to figure out what is an agency or consulting service that people are willing to pay 10K a month for on a retainer, on a recurring basis, that either I could do myself or I could hire people overseas.

The example he gives is a web development agency, but this could also work for copywriting, social media management, video editing, etc.

As for revenue, Shaan would be aiming high…

I would do some basic envelope math. I would say, well I want to have 10 customers paying me $10,000 a month.

Now $10,000 might sound crazy for a business to spend, but that would be my benchmark: 10 customers paying me $10,000 a month, that’s $100,000 a month.

Might sound crazy, but we’ve profiled several businesses like this…

$100K/Month Web Design Service$1 Million a Year Transcription Agency$100K/Month Video Editing Service$100K/Month Lead Gen Agency

Of course, you could start at a much smaller scale.

Could you use your existing skills to find one client who pays you $1000/month?

Four clients like that and you’re at $48,000 a year, with plenty of room to grow.

$45K/Month Sharing Real Estate Tips

Seth WilliamsFounder of REtipster $45,000 approximate monthly revenue
Published November 30, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Seth Williams is the guy behind REtipster

Tag line from his website…

Real World Guidance for Real Estate Investors.

In a recent interview, Seth shares…

After working as a land investor for a few years, in 2012, I discovered Pat Flynn.

After paying attention to him for a while, I recognized I could follow his example and create a similar online community for real estate investors, making epic content teaching everything I knew.

He adds…

[Pat] was a real person and he provided insane amounts of value without charging thousands of dollars for the information. At the same time, he was also managing to make a great income, even though it never felt like he was selling anything.

This prompted Seth to start REtipster as a blog…

After writing my first blog post and making my first video, I realized I loved the process. When I was writing about things I cared about, I had a newfound passion.

Most of my content ideas come from my own experiences in the real estate business.

Now ~11 years later, he says…

These days, our gross income fluctuates between $30k and $60k per month.

About 50% of this income is from the courses we sell.

30% is from affiliate sales for various products and services we review and recommend.

10% is from advertising revenue (YouTube, the podcast, etc.)

10% is from various one-off digital products we sell in our online store.

And…

As far as traffic goes, we get around 40k visitors per month.

At one point, we were getting close to 200k per month, but our traffic took a huge hit when Google updated its algorithm a few years back.

Interestingly, though, this drop in traffic hasn’t had much of a noticeable impact on revenue.

They tried ads but…

Content marketing is our one and only marketing strategy.

So that’s producing regular blog posts, videos and podcasts, then letting the algorithms do their work to build the audience

More from Seth…

I absolutely love what I get to do. That doesn’t mean there aren’t hard days.

There are plenty of tasks I have to do that are monotonous, difficult, or simply aren’t fun… but I’m still happy to do those jobs because they’re a small part of a much larger whole.

Best I can tell, Seth had only had 3-4 years of experience in real estate when he started REtipster.

Not a lot, but easily enough to help other people just getting started.

If you have a few years of experience in something, consider creating some content around it.

Do that consistently for the long haul, and you could end up enjoying $60k months like Seth

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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?

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$7000/Month Software In A Crowded Market

Harvey CarpenterFounder of Growform $7,000 monthly revenue
Published November 30, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Harvey Carpenter is the founder of Growform, a form builder which is earning $7K/month

The origin story, via a recent interview…

I was working in a marketing team. We were spending [$1000’s] on Google ads and Facebook ads. One day we hired an agency [to help] get more leads… and they basically split out our long boring form into multiple steps… this was like 5+ years ago… 

[I remember wishing] there was a form builder that just let me do nice multi-step forms and I kind of put that idea back in my head… three years later, when I actually knew how to code, I built my first form.

Harvey says his first customers came through Google ads…

I was spending a few hundred dollars a month just bidding on words like “form builder” and that was really valuable to collect those first few customers and learn some lessons.

And to be able to say… if I invest X amount, I actually have a kind of repeatable engine here.

I would definitely advocate that approach and If you know a little bit about Google ads or Facebook ads

Harvey was only earning about $500/month from Growform when he took out a $25,000 loan and quit his job

His reasoning…

If you’re building a form builder or a landing page builder or an email tool or something [complex] like that, you really do need 6-12 months to work on it.

So [quitting my job] enabled me to go full time and basically build the tool because you’re just constantly getting bugs in or it doesn’t do X, it doesn’t do Y. So it just let me build for a year or so.

A ballsy move, but it paid off

Sounds like the “repeatable engine” of Google ads > paying customers was a big factor there, giving Harvey the confidence that he could steadily increase revenue over time.

But the most amazing thing to me here: Growform has grown to $7000/month despite there being so many other form builders on the market.

And I believe Harvey only launched the business in 2020

He was asked about this in the interview…

Yeah, absolutely. That’s a really good point. And it’s kind of a valuable learning lesson for indie hackers, because you’ve had guests who are making good MRR from basically doing the same thing over and over again.

When you look at what those [other] form builders do…

Typeform does one question at a time very well. It is brilliant for surveys.

Tally is a really nice, clean, Notion-like experience.

Growform is great for lead generation.

So it seems the key is to focus on some functionality that bigger competitors are neglecting, and make that the core of your product.

With that in mind, keep an eye out for poor or missing functionality in popular software that you use. 

Could be an opportunity there

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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?

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$727 Per Podcast Episode With Only 2000 Downloads

Harry DuranFounder of the Vertical Farming Podcast $80,000+ revenue
Published November 30, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Harry Duran is the guy behind the Vertical Farming Podcast

Vertical farming is farming up into the air instead of along the ground. This image search will give you a quick sense of it.

From a recent interview with Harry…

Harry Duran launched the Vertical Farming Podcast in 2020, he had zero experience or connections in the industry— he just wanted to learn more about vertical farming.

Fast forward just over three years later, and the part-time project has generated over $80,000 in revenue.

While Harry was new to vertical farming, he did have solid experience producing podcasts.

His approach to monetization…

He reached out to initial guests like David Farquhar of IGS (Intelligent Growth Solutions).

After recording with David, he asked if IGS would be open to sponsorship.

David connected Harry with the CMO, Jeff. Harry pitched a 13-week “season” sponsorship for $9,000—about half the cost of a conference booth.

This secured Harry’s first $9,000 before publicly releasing a single episode!

Now, 3 years later, Harry has published 110 episodes and earned $80,000+ from sponsorships.

That’s about $727 per episode

If Harry had done the usual thing of selling ad spots based on download numbers – at a typical rate of $25 per 1000 downloads – he would have only earned $50 per episode.

Instead, he focused on securing high-value, B2B sponsors willing to pay premium rates to reach this niche but engaged audience.

New sponsors often come through introductions from past guests.

Harry adds…

I think what was interesting for me is how I went from zero visibility… to now being seen as someone that’s respected, that people are coming to for guidance on the industry…

I came at it from the perspective of an outside observer and a fan of something that I wanted to learn more about.

Two takeaways here

First, you don’t have to be an expert to start producing and monetizing content on a particular subject. 

You can take on the role of a curious beginner, interview experts in the space, and break down their insights so ordinary people can understand them.

Second, instead of monetizing the way everyone else does, explore other options. Harry was able to 14x his earnings by going a non-standard route

Last words from Harry…

Just keep moving forward, the universe rewards momentum as an entrepreneur. I fell down a lot [and] I really feel like you need to have those failures so you can quickly figure out what does not work…

Just keep moving forward, keep taking that imperfect action daily.

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 19,906 legendary subscribers.

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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 online

There 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

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300K Monthly Visits From Free Tools (Build With AI)

PallyySocial Media Scheduling Tool 300,000 monthly visits to free tools
Published November 27, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

We’ve featured Tim Bennetto in this newsletter before…

From Locksmith to $74K/Month SaaS in 4 Years

He recently tweeted…

Pallyy’s free tools get 300K visits/mo.

Pallyy is a social media scheduling tool, check out their free tools here

Free tools are a great way to get traffic to your product.

Tim shares how to go about it…

[To] Find keywords

I’ll be using AHREFS for this.

Next, enter a tool related keyword eg. “generator” and also a keyword in your niche eg. “instagram”

You can also use the * as a wildcard ending.

Other keywords you could try: “tool”, “convert”, “maker”.

(Btw, you could do this with any decent keyword tool, not just Ahrefs)

Tim continues…

Find low DR keywords

Look for keywords with a low DR, under 20.

Make sure it also has at least a few hundred searches.

Once you’ve picked a good keyword…

Build your tool

The keyword will be the SEO title of your page, so build a tool that does exactly that.

Can just be a very simple tool, usually I’ll spend 1 day max building it.

You could use AI to help with the build. Big advances lately with GPT-4 Vision

TLDRAW is a design canvas tool (OpenAI API Key required) that uses Vision. It lets you design your tool and outputs the code.

Ken Schumacher shows how he used it to build a ping-pong game just by drawing it

Back to Tim, and the final steps after you’ve launched your tool…

Submit [the URL] to Google Search Console.

Promote it.

Repeat

I’ve built over 20 free tools so far. The more the better.

You could add these types of tools to your blog / SaaS / agency / whatever site to get more traffic, leads and build trust. 

Or you could build a tools site and monetise with display ads

A couple of examples of that…

Free Conversion Website Makes $1 Million a Year$5K/Month Simple Tools Site



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Warren Buffett: 2 Questions And a $5 Billion Mistake

George Mack tweets…

In 2001, Warren Buffett gave a talk at the University of Georgia.

He asked them the most Warren Buffett question ever:

• If you could invest in a friend and get 10% of their income for life — who would you pick?

Once the students answered the question, he then asked this:

• Why would you invest in that person?
• What character traits do they have?

Now they have a list of character traits to adopt.

Shortly after this, Buffett asked:

If you could short a friend’s earnings, who would you pick and why?

Now you have a list of character traits to avoid.

I believe this is the full talk on YouTube

In that talk, Buffett also says at around the 29:30 mark…

The biggest mistakes I’ve made by far are mistakes of omission and not commission… it’s the things I knew enough to do, they were within my circle of competence, and I was sucking my thumb. Those are the ones that hurt, they don’t show up any place. 

I probably cost Berkshire at least $5 billion.

He’s referring there to a business they could have bought for significantly less than its value, but didn’t.

It was the inaction that cost them

Reminds me of that cliched old Mark Twain quote…

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Cliched, but true.

What will you likely regret in 20 years if you don’t take action?

His Unoriginal App: 13 Weeks to $2000/Month

Nico JeannenFounder of Talknotes $2000 monthly recurring revenue
Published November 27, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty

Nico Jeannen started building Talknotes a few months back and recently tweeted…

I reached $2000 MRR using vanilla HTML, CSS, JS…

I still have no idea what Typescript, Kubernetes and other alien technologies are

The blurb for Talknotes…

Turn hours of note taking into minutes. Just speak, and let the AI transcribe, clean up and structure your voice.

From Nico’s Blog…

Got the idea when trying to use Google Docs audio transcription, but it sucked. So, I made a quick prototype, then soft-launched TalkNotes.io on Twitter.

After his August launch…

I added it to every single startup [and AI directory] I could find. I didn’t even make a list, I just checked competitors’ backlinks + google + some I knew and spent 2 hours filling forms. Ended up with 1000 users from that + Twitter

But then…

I got super sick and was completely unable to work for a week. Still recovering. Made $1500 of sales in total. Not incredible but not bad.

Nico wrote elsewhere…

There were days I didn’t even want to get out of bed because it felt like crap

The #1 thing that helps me go through it is to do at least ONE little thing per day:

– Write one post
– Add one tiny feature
– Fix one bug

After reaching $100/month, he wrote…

I switched from one-time payments to a subscription model and raised the prices.

Sales took a massive hit from that, from $150/day to $0

But it was necessary to grow the app. Recovery is super slow, but now I have recurring revenues.

The strategy is to start with as little friction as possible to test the market, and push more to see how far you can go until you find the “balance point” between volume & price

We previously covered a similar app called AudioPen, which made $15K revenue its first month, built with no-code

Seeing Talknotes hit $2000/month I can’t help but think: you don’t need an original idea to be successful, the market is often big enough to support multiple businesses doing pretty much the same thing.

With that in mind: could you build your own version of a product or service that already exists?

Maybe put your own twist on it or target a slightly different customer?

Last words from Nico…

I’m someone who likes to move fast, so I had constant doubts about the app.

You can’t know if a product will work. But you can get some hints: If users are happy about the product, it’s a good sign. If they complain when the product crashes, it’s also a good sign.

HOWEVER: If you get absolutely 0 positive feedback, 0 user, 0 sales after working on the product for a whole month, maybe 1) It’s not a product for you 2) People don’t care. 

In both cases, it’s time to move on.

Btw, I should note that Talknotes was not Nico’s first rodeo. He previously built and sold an app for $65,000

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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?

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