Niall Doherty's Blog, page 85
November 16, 2023
Do You Mostly Produce or Consume?
Stoop Kid tweets…
there are many axes on which you can slice people, but my favorite is:
does a person have predominantly productive or consumptive tendencies?
productive: writing, athletics, cooking, building, studying
consumptive: TV, dining out, video games, leisure reading, shopping
It’s a simple framework and a useful lens for gaining awareness into how you spend your time 
Are your habits weighted towards productive activities that build skills and create value?
Or do you lean more towards consumptive activities? 
Consumption is fine in moderation of course. But it’s the productive tendencies that help you get ahead in life and business.
A reply to Stoop’s tweet…
Do social activities count as productive or consumptive?
Parties, dinners, etc. Most successful people I know spend a majority of free time on these.
Stoop replies…
Strongly agree though about socializing. It can be incredibly productive. You can view it as a long term productivity play, an investment. Just like studying is temporarily consumptive but long term productive if you do it well.
So there’s a lot of nuance here, and what counts as consumptive for me might be productive for you.
But a handy framework nonetheless.
$45K/Month Making PowerPoint Presentations
Aayush JainFounder of INK PPT $45,000 monthly revenuePublished November 16, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
Aayush Jain started INK PPT in 2015 
Officially it’s a “presentation design agency” but essentially they help clients make better PowerPoint presentations.
Several years on, the business has 30+ team members and averages $45,000 in monthly revenue 
Aayush shared the origin story in a recent interview…
The idea for INK PPT was born out of my own experiences [working at a big IT company]. I frequently found myself tasked with creating presentations for executives within the organization.
Aayush was a software developer at the company, but he really enjoyed creating those PowerPoint presentations 
So he decided to take it further…
To validate the idea and my abilities, I began taking on freelance projects in presentation design. The positive feedback and growing demand for my services reinforced my conviction in the field of design.
Then came a misstep…
INK PPT was started as a Presentation template marketplace offering $1 pre-made high-quality templates for anyone who needs them. The marketplace business failed to attract a lot of eyeballs.
So Aayush had to pivot…
After 3 months, I made all the templates free of cost and launched a custom presentation design service for brands…
Since then, we have been getting a great deal of work requests from Start-up founders, and Fortune 500 companies for custom presentation design & training needs.
In terms of getting the word out, Aayush says…
Our marketing and traffic efforts primarily revolved around organic growth. We did not rely on paid ads
SimilarWeb estimates that INK PPT now gets ~50K visitors per month 
Last words from Aayush…
Not being unique is okay, if you hold the position tight for a long time, competition may fade away.
I love that, reminds me of a statistic about the top 1% of all podcasts…
Your competition is not the 2 million podcasts. It’s the 20,000 podcasters who didn’t quit.
In other words, persistence is a big competitive advantage 
To wrap up here, think back to jobs you’ve had in the past. Was there a specific task you were really good at and/or enjoyed doing?
Aayush identified such a task and turned it into a $45K/month business.
Could you do similar? 
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November 13, 2023
Gamified Productivity App Earns $100K/Month
ForestProductivity App $100,000+ estimated monthly revenuePublished November 13, 2023 by Niall DohertyContributor: Fardeen Khan
Forest is a productivity app that incentivizes users to avoid their phones through a gamified system.
You basically open the app and plant a virtual tree 
which grows while you focus on a task. If you then stay off your phone for the duration of the timer, the tree fully matures.
But if you exit the app to use your phone, the tree withers and dies 
Launched in 2014, Forest has more than 10 million downloads on Google Play and the product description on the Apple App Store reads…
Top productivity app in 136 countries. More than 2 million satisfied paying users.
Last month’s revenue estimates by SensorTower (free account required)
I know, those download numbers don’t exactly vibe with the revenue numbers.
iOS customers will need to pay [$3.99] if they want to download the app which comes with premium features, while Android users can install it for free but they will receive the basic version. For more advanced options they will have to make in – app purchases.
SensorTower’s estimates aren’t perfect, of course, but I reckon it’s still safe to say that Forest is pulling in around $100,000 in monthly revenue
Some of that revenue goes towards planting real trees, 2 million and counting…
“Forest team partners with a real-tree-planting organization, Trees for the Future, to plant real trees on Earth. When our users spend virtual coins they earn in Forest on planting real trees, Forest team donates to our partner and creates planting orders.” (source)
Much of Forest’s success can be attributed to its use of gamification strategies 
Rabani Kharbanda wrote in 2021…
I credit [the app’s] success to effective use of gamification psychology. The app is fun to use because it appeals to certain Core Drives within us that motivate us towards certain activities.
Using something called the Octalysis Gamification framework, he goes on to break down the different features of the app that make it so appealing
One such…
Core Driver 5: Social Influence and Relatedness
You can invite friends and family members to the app. If any one of you exit the app when the timer is running, then the tree will automatically die. This shared experience helps people bond, at the same time drives competition. If you do succeed at not opening using your phone, while your friends fail, you get their envy and respect.
Might be worth giving this app a try yourself if you struggle to stay focused.
Also, if you’re a 90’s kid like me, Forest might remind you of Tamagotchi. It’s essentially the same thing, except with a Tamagotchi you were looking after a virtual pet 
instead of a virtual tree
And Forest tied their game to productivity, so it became a useful and enduring tool.
Always interesting to see old ideas succeeding in new ways.
Could some old tech from your childhood be the next big thing?
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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.
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Here’s how:
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How To Do Your Best
Shane Parrish writes about his son explaining away a low grade…
he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I did my best,” and walked away.
Shane sat down with him later that night to discuss the issue further…
Doing your best is as much about the position you put yourself in as the result you get.
I asked him what it meant to put himself in a good position for success on a test. He listed factors like sleeping well, eating a healthy breakfast, avoiding arguments with his brother, and studying effectively.
Too often, when people say they did their best, they mean they did their best at the moment with little regard for all the things within their control that came before. My son gave his best on the hour of the test, but by not preparing, he inadvertently chose to play on hard mode.
Whatever game you’re playing, are you choosing to play it on hard mode?
Are you putting in the prep work to give yourself the best chance of success?
Or are you setting yourself up for failure before the game has even started?
Last words from Shane…
Over the long term, the average person who constantly puts themselves in a good position beats the genius who finds themselves in a poor position.
What looks like talent is often nothing more than good preparation.
$20 Million Annual Revenue Thanks To Meetups
Lloyed LoboFounder of Boast $20 million annual revenuePublished November 13, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
From an interview on Mixergy…
Lloyed Lobo believes anyone could have founded Boast, a company designed to help businesses secure R&D tax credits. However, when asked about why he built it to tens of millions in revenue when others didn’t, he attributes it to community.
Apparently the business now does $20 million in annual recurring revenue, and Lloyed recently sold a chunk of it for a big payday 
From another interview…
Boast.ai was launched in 2017 after starting a services business in 2012 that helped larger company administer their R&D tax credits.
So essentially Lloyed started out as a freelancer, helping companies get those tax credits.
And then he “transitioned to an automated product over years.”
Back to the community aspect
Lloyed writes on his website…
If you build a community, you won’t become a commodity.
He explains in the Mixergy interview how Boast got traction…
We started hosting our own events and we had a coworking space. We could get a free meeting space there.
The first event we invited 10 people. I’m inviting Sarah, she just bootstrapped her company to a million. She’s going to talk about how she got her first hundred customers by doing X, Y, and Z. There’s going to be some free pizza. 10 people showed up.
We never stopped, we just kept doing these meetups… One day 200 people show up [for a meetup]
… meetups were the lifeblood of us building social proof… and getting warm client referrals.
Everyone prefers to do business with people they know and trust 
And there’s no better way to build familiarity and trust than by getting in front of people regularly.
What if you organized a regular meetup in your local area to connect with your target audience?
Or, if you’re a bit on the shy side, how about teaming up with an extroverted friend or acquaintance?
Last words from Lloyed…
Your companions matter the most. Loneliness is the number one killer in America.
And recently there is this concept of blue zones, the five places in the world where people live functionally to 100 [years old]. They have nine traits. Four or five of those traits have to do with human to human connection.
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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.
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Simple Software Tool Earning $8K/Month Within A Year
Chris BlakeyTag Parrot $8175 monthly recurring revenuePublished November 13, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
Tag Parrot helps your site get indexed on Google within 48 hours via Google’s Indexing API 
Founder Chris Blakey tweets…
October update for @TagParrot
He only launched the tool in February this year and looks like most of his initial growth was from tweeting about it and word of mouth (example).
The product started to gain serious traction around May-June thanks to…
Word of mouth and SEO kicking in.
Now, the business has reached a run rate of $100K/year 
Sounds like an overnight success, but Chris set the record straight a few months back…
About 3 years ago I started this solopreneur journey. In this time I have built 7 products only two of which are still alive and only one has actually made any money.
Working full time in a senior position for a very large company, while growing the family to 3 children doesn’t leave much time to work on side passion projects.
The important thing is to keep grinding away, finding an hour here and an hour there…
…If you don’t get any traction initially, don’t give up, but keep working at it, keep experimenting, keep pushing yourself and keep growing.
Tag Parrot is an interesting product idea that you might be able to apply to other scenarios.
You can spend hours manually requesting pages to be indexed in Google Search Console, one page at a time. Or spend that time concentrating on marketing and let Tag Parrot handle indexing for you.
What other tools force users to spend hours doing tedious tasks, instead of having a bulk processing option?
Could you create an add-on tool to help with that?
Or maybe a productized service?
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 19,458 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 onlineThere are many other ways to make money online, to work from home or anywhere in the world.
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November 9, 2023
No Code SaaS: $2000/Month After 1 Year
Minh PhamFounder of SEOmatic $2000 monthly recurring revenuePublished November 9, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
Minh Pham is an indie maker from France 
who shared in a recent interview…
I used to work in Finance for 7 years at big banks (JP Morgan, French Investment Bank, etc.) then left everything to learn programming at 42.
Sounds like he started learning to code in 2017.
Then he discovered the no-code tool Bubble.io during COVID, which allowed him to work much faster
Minh is now a freelance developer specializing in no code.
He also created SEOmatic, a software product that lets you “automate content creation with programmatic SEO and AI” 
About a year after launch, that’s now earning $2000/month.
The backstory
I learned about programmatic SEO by doing programmatic SEO for a freelance client… I’ve learned how to implement it by working with the Head of SEO from a French scale-up company.
We were creating thousands of pages to cover every running events.
And it worked. We were ranking #1 on Google for a lot of long-term keywords with more than 7k pages indexed and +18k visits/month.
He realized this could be a useful software tool for others and built the first version with Bubble in just one month
Then…
I got my first 10 customers by just showing my work and connecting with people I had zero followers back then.
You can see some of the “build in public” tweets Minh used to grow his business via this search.
It took him 5 months to reach $1000 in monthly recurring revenue
Minh’s marketing strategy…
I’m building an SEO-related tool so my strategy is 100% on SEO.
It can be Content Marketing I have a full blog that covers everything about programmatic SEO or programmatic SEO by creating integrations pages, alternative & comparison pages.
I’m dogfooding myself with my own tool, that’s the best way to create a better product!
Another key to growing the business…
I’ve also created multiple lead magnets (programmatic seo course, 50 programmatic seo examples, etc) to capture e-mails.
E-mails list is key when you are starting a business.
Minh’s advice for anyone starting a software as a service business
It takes at least 2 years to run a successful SaaS and start to get tractions.
Build in nocode, you save yourself a year easy.
And just to reiterate: Minh left a career in finance to learn coding and work for himself at age 42.
Now he’s doing well with freelance work and a growing SaaS business.
A lot can change in a few years if you put your mind to it 
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 19,368 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 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 19,368 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.
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Buying a Business With a Credit Card: The $15K/Month Pivot
Brandon PindulicOwner of Planet Compliance $150,000 approximate annual revenuePublished November 9, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
Brandon Pindulic recently tweeted about a business he bought 2 years ago…
At the time the business was doing ~$2k a month in revenue
Now it does about $15k a month
… I paid 3x revenue, $74k
I put $65k down on a credit card and the rest was an earnout
The business is Planet Compliance, a B2B (business-to-business) media site and directory that focuses on covering business regulations. They also offer listings for businesses.
Why Brandon decided to buy
I have spent my entire career in B2B SaaS (worked at/invest in SaaS) and previously started and sold a 7 figure B2B Demand Gen/Marketing Ops Agency that worked almost exclusively with SaaS companies.
So I know the market and opportunities here
But things didn’t exactly go to plan…
The business model was a membership site
Customers would pay ~$800 a year to access the content and community.
I assumed that I’d be able to scale this up and grow the subscriber base quickly
My goal was to go from $24k in annual revenue to $300k in 2 years
Turns out, my original thesis was wrong
The premium memberships were extremely difficult to sell
That forced him to pivot…
I spent time building up the newsletter, which is what I knew advertisers would value more than website hits
I partnered up with companies that wanted to advertise to the people in my community and charged them either a flat fee or by the lead
Now, 2 years later…
This year, Planet Compliance will do about $150k, with $115k or so being profit
While I don’t generally recommend going into debt to buy a business, there are some good takeaways from Brandon’s story.
A big one: it can be easier to buy and grow an existing business than to start one from scratch.
Brandon found Planet Compliance for sale via Acquire.com, which is free to join and browse listings. Last I checked, they had many businesses listed for $1000 or less 
Brandon tweeted after buying Planet Compliance…
The prior owner (now a friend!) was not spending much time on this asset. His HoldCo has bigger investments, businesses. Fair enough… this site drives ~100k pageviews/mo and is under-monetized & under-developed…
That’s the kind of opportunity to look for.
Mega bonus points if you already have some experience you can leverage to take the business to the next level
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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.
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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 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 19,368 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.
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65,000 Monthly Traffic = $1.1 Million Sale
Michael VincentFounder of Ludwig Van $1.1 Million sale pricePublished November 9, 2023 by Niall DohertyContributor: Fardeen Khan
John Bardos tweets…
Ludwig-van, a classical music and opera newsletter, sold for $1.1m to ZoomerMedia.
The website says they have 150k readers, but the press release says 65,000.
SimilarWeb says the site gets 59.9k visits per month.
I did some digging and it looks like the site was originally called Musical Toronto 
started in 2011 “by former Toronto Star Critic, John Terauds.” (source)
Then, according to the timeline on this page…
2014: Michael Vincent takes over a blog to write about the cool things happening in Toronto
2015: The dinky little blog starts getting popular and wins an award
Michael was also a music journalist working for the Toronto Star, but left that job in 2017 to go full time with the blog 
According to a press release, his mission with the site was “to keep arts coverage alive and change how media companies operate.”
Over the years, Ludwing Van kept growing steadily
Unclear what kind of revenue they were earning before the sale, but the advertising form linked from this page suggests their rates started at $1000 a pop, all the way up to $50,000
And while $1.1 million is a nice chunk of change – especially for a site with only 65,000 monthly visitors – it sounds like it took a ton of work to achieve that outcome.
Then again, I doubt Michael could have ended up with a $1.1 million payday if he’d stuck with his old journalism job at the Toronto Star.
Also encouraging to see that a blog about such a niche topic – classical music in Canada – can do well
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 19,368 legendary subscribers.
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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.
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November 6, 2023
She Earned $28/Hour From Google Maps (Starting From Scratch)
Laura LacurezeanuYouTuber $28 hourly rate from Google Maps experimentPublished November 6, 2023 by Fardeen KhanReviewed and edited by Niall Doherty
Laura Lacurezeanu runs SuperHumans Life, a YouTube channel with 270K+ subscribers…
We talk about freelancing and working from home, about career, success and happiness, about personal development and success habits, about work life balance and working from home.
In a recent video, she says…
My team just challenged me to make at least $800 as quickly as I could, but I cannot use any of the skills that I already have, and I have to do it in a way that anyone could.
After considering various online business models, Laura decided to offer a service helping businesses set up their for Google Business Profiles.
These are the profiles you see when you open up a business listing on Google Maps 
Since Laura was new to all this, she started off by taking this free 42-minute Google My Business course.
With that basic knowledge under her belt, she went looking for businesses to pitch her service to 
She searched Google Maps for plumbers and painters in small US towns that met certain criteria…
No claimed Google Business ProfileLow reviews and ratingsMinimal info and photosNo website(Worth noting that Laura is based in Switzerland 
but that didn’t stop her from working with businesses in the USA 
)
Laura found the contact details for ~20 companies that fit her criteria.
Then came the hard part: cold calling and pitching her service 
After more than 20 phone calls….
I managed to actually sell three. I was able to sell to two companies for $250 and to one company for $200 after some negotiation.
Laura talks about fulfilling those orders in a follow-up video…
Turns out she spent ~10 hours on the first…
It takes probably 3-4 times longer than it should because you’re just figuring things out.
But she got faster and was able to fulfill the third order in 3-4 hours.
In total, she spent ~25 hours on everything and earned $700, which works out to $28/hour
That’s impressive, especially given that Laura was cold calling and learning a new skill on the fly.
This approach could also work to sell other services, such as
The cold calling part is what will scare off most people, but if you can push through and get good at that, you’ll have a huge advantage over competitors.
There are some solid cold calling tips in this comment on Laura’s first video.
And check out Benjamin Dennehy’s 10 minutes of cold calling for more inspiration.
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