Part 2: I Quit My Job For These Side Hustles (+Earn $1.1K/MTH)

Hey SideNerds! 🚀

Today’s newsletter goes out to those clocking into gigs they're “meh” about, while earning less than their potential.

Change is coming...

Last Friday, the 13th I shared about quitting my full-time job to go all in on two side hustles.

Hustle #1? An AI Photo Generator I’m super bullish on 🎯

Hustle #2?

⚒️ Niche: AI Email Translator (turns your passive aggressive emails into one’s that won’t get you fired or kicked off an email thread)
🚀 Opportunity size: 80% gross margins
💵 Initial cost: $1,000
🧩 Difficulty: Low
🏆 Competition: Medium/Low

The meat & potatoes of this hustle 🥩🥔

I’m a big believer in taking calculated risks, and this hustle checked off a lot of boxes for me:

✅ It was cheap: This beauty of a side hustle cost me just $1K. To buy, not build.
✅ There’s early signs of growth: Since August 2023, the site has attracted a whopping 269K hits. A solid sign for future growth to make this thing profitable, fast.
✅ The unit economics are killer: So to run the side hustle which uses OpenAI’s API, it costs around $0.02 for each API call (basically each time someone uses the translator). If I start charging users $1 for 1,000 API calls, it’d only cost me $0.20, pulling in a profit of $0.80. That's a gross margin of 80% 😎💰

Breaking down my growth plans 🌱

🚀 Turbocharge Organic Growth with Paid Campaigns: Casting a wide net of ads on high CPM (Cost Per Thousand Views) low CPC (Cost-Per-Click) platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. These channels commonly deliver the lowest CPAs (Cost Per Acquisition).

🤝Affiliate & Partnership-Driven Marketing: Planning on building a flywheel other people promoting the product through affiliate and partner marketing. This can be a super easy, repeatable way of driving sales, without having to do a ton of work outside of the initial set-up.

Diaries of a Full-Time Hustler 🚀

I’ll be sharing updates on my wins and fails from each hustle here and there.

More to come… soon.

How You Can Earn $1.1K/MTH With Your Own App

Here’s a side hustle for y’all to consider to start earning $$$.

Danky Dunk — it’s marketed as “The Hyper-Casual Game for Everyone - Kids, Grannies, Athletes…”

🚨The app is up for grabs on Tiny Acquisitions for only $2,500 USD.

🚨The asset purchase includes the In-app purchases available once the user downloads the app (which is likely how they’re monetizing the app now since it’s free to download)

🚨Best of all? The app already has over 60K downloads between both the iOS and Android stores! So you already know there’s a demand!

Is the juice worth the squeeze?🍊🤔

• Monetization Potential: Let’s say you continue to average 2.2K downloads per month across the App and Google Play Stores and you decide to start charging $4.99 to download the app and your conversion rate is 10%, you’ll earn even $4.99 for the app, and assuming continued monthly downloads of $1,107.78 per month for an app you didn’t have to build!... And that's just scratching the surface!

• Paid Ads FTW (For The Win): paid ads could be an untapped gold mine for bringing in even more users to the app, thus making you make money to live out your days tweeting (or X’ing🤷‍♀️) to Elon from a remote beach in Thailand 🇹🇭.

But, before you get too excited consider these

Before committing to anything, reach out to the seller to get answers to the q’s:

• Do they have an email list of users or customers? This’ll come in handy to promote new features, upsell add-ons, etc.

• Can they provide detailed analytics of the website or product? Photoshop can do wonders. You’ll need to see the data first-hand.

• What are the recurring operational costs: things like servers, web hosting, etc.

And, since you're considering a tech investment, here are some additional q’s to ask:

• What's the breakdown of active users?

• What’s the tech stack? Any deprecated technologies or dependencies?

• Are there any pending or potential legal issues, especially around IP?

Points to Ponder 🤔

A couple of potential roadblocks to watch for:

• Cost of Acquiring Users: The average cost per acquisition for iOS apps varies based on genre and region. However, on average, it can range from $1 to $3. A game's success often depends on fine-tuning this CPA while maximizing user lifetime value.

• Scaling Challenges for iOS Apps: Many app founders have pointed to challenges such as fierce competition in the App Store, the constant need for updates to match OS upgrades, and navigating Apple's strict app guidelines. Ensuring sustained user engagement amidst a sea of competing apps can also be an uphill battle.

Be sure to dive deep, ask the right questions, and validate before you invest.

Happy Hustling! 🎮🚀