In 2025, a strange truth is quietly emerging: AI isn’t just transforming industries; it’s consistently minting millionaires. And these aren’t all tech gurus or PhDs. Some started with a single tweet, others with a mere $69 investment, or even just a casual chat with ChatGPT. The result? They’ve made fortunes, ranging from six to eight figures, seemingly out of thin air. Curious how they did it? Today, let’s explore how people are genuinely turning artificial intelligence into cold hard cash.

Free, open-source, and the videos are so realistic they’ll make you question reality. # Google’s VEO-3 recently made waves by generating videos from a simple text prompt. But I’m about to drop an even more explosive piece of news: A free alternative has just emerged, and it might even be more powerful than VEO-3. It’s called “Hunyuan Video Avatar,” and unlike VEO-3, it gives you complete control: You upload an image, then an audio file, and boom – it generates incredibly realistic videos that will make your jaw drop. The lip-sync is perfect, full-body movements are present, and it even captures emotions.

“You didn’t hire a team?” my friend asked, astonished. “Nope. Just me… and a bunch of AI tools.” # Honestly, I had no business degree, no capital, and couldn’t write a single line of code. What I did have was curiosity, internet access, and a little help from AI. And guess what? I managed to turn those into a tangible income stream – even earning over $1000 in a single day.

A few months ago, I was completely stuck. I absolutely loved the creative aspects of my business. Things like chatting with clients, designing new products, and writing were my happy place. But for years, I’d been buried under repetitive, unavoidable grunt work. I’m guessing you can relate. I’m talking about lead generation, writing reports, sending emails, and follow-ups. The to-do list always won. My calendar looked like a Tetris game gone wrong. That’s when I started to wonder, with all the buzz around AI, could I automate these boring, repetitive tasks?

Google recently made a significant move by officially launching Firebase Studio! This is their bespoke development platform, created with the goal of competing with existing platforms like Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, and V0. For us frontend developers, when you hear “Firebase,” doesn’t your mind immediately go to, “Oh, that Google database thing”? Well, things are different now! It has undergone a complete transformation, becoming a comprehensive ecosystem that helps you build an AI application from scratch, even if you don’t know much code!

Don’t believe those online ‘gurus’ and their nonsense. Not everyone has the attention span of a gnat. # If there’s one thing I can’t stand in the marketing world, it’s those ‘case closed’ pronouncements. How about you? “SEO is dead. Facebook is for grandmas. No one watches ads anymore. TV commercials? They’re just background noise, completely ignored.” I say, Chad, none of those things are dead. It’s just that you don’t know how to use them correctly, or they don’t apply to your specific industry.

When our SaaS startup hit $10,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), everyone asked us about our “secret growth hack.” To be honest, there’s no such thing. No single magic bullet. What truly works is the systematic application of proven marketing frameworks—and the ruthless elimination of what doesn’t. After interviewing bootstrapped founders who achieved success without external funding, I noticed a clear pattern: successful founders don’t reinvent the marketing wheel. Instead, they consistently and diligently execute battle-tested frameworks, day in and day out.

The Truth Behind the Glamour of Remote Work # Over the past two decades, the digital nomad community has left its mark, both in the workplace and in broader cultural spheres. Ever since the advent of Tim Ferriss’s groundbreaking bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, coupled with Instagram’s rise to popularity, more and more people began desperately seeking ways to combine remote work with social media-worthy travel.

I know you’re a writer. Are you always wondering if there’s a new way to earn money, beyond client work, Medium read earnings, Substack subscriptions, or selling books? That’s why I want to introduce you to a new method for making money—right with Notion! Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to write an ebook or anything. As the title suggests, what you’re about to learn is a new way to make money using Notion, plus one complementary tool.

When the topic of making money online comes up, selling photos is often touted as one of the simpler methods. It sounds quite appealing, doesn’t it? Just snap some nice pictures, upload them to a platform, and then wait for the money to pour into your pocket. It sounds easy enough… but is it really that simple? Can you truly make a significant amount of money just by selling photos online? So, I decided to try it myself and investigate.

Hey everyone! It’s Yuma Ueno here, you can find me on Twitter at @stat_biz. I’m currently deep in the trenches, working on various products, and let me tell you, it’s quite the journey. My usual routine involves diving deep into the strategies of incredibly successful independent developers and entrepreneurs, distilling their wisdom, and then sharing it with all of you. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to a truly remarkable individual: entrepreneur Jack Friers! This guy is absolutely brilliant!

Rewind to 2016, and the term ‘boss babe’ was absolutely everywhere. Fast forward to 2025, and that tide has definitively turned. It’s almost as if the ‘boss babes’ ran so the ’laid-back millionaires’ could comfortably jog, or even nap. To be clear, I’m not saying this with any negativity; it’s more like the pure curiosity Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter) had for animals. But honestly, when the rest of us are knee-deep in the trenches, pulling our hair out over our ventures, watching others effortlessly rake in millions—or make bank just by posting cute dachshund videos—it does sting a little.

Back in 2020, I had a stable data science job at a renowned bank in India. Many considered it a “dream job”—high salary, good benefits, and impressive to list on LinkedIn. What they didn’t see was how often I’d wake up anxious, how my creativity felt walled off, and how every day felt like I was “renting out” my life by the hour, utterly out of control. I knew deep down I had to break free. But I didn’t want to just jump from one trap to another; I craved freedom. So, I began dabbling in freelancing—tentatively at first, then plunging in headfirst.

Reading them twice will help you elevate your thinking, hone your strategies, and sort out your entire system. Every time I re-read a book, I always unearth wisdom I hadn’t noticed before. This gradual accumulation allows me to see the path ahead more clearly, take more confident steps, and find ways to lead my business to where I want it to be more quickly. These books are especially suited for us solo entrepreneurs. The advice they offer is far superior to those MBA-style textbooks that always push you to scale up, hire employees, and expand your company to the heavens.

Let’s be brutally honest, no holds barred – ego (or arrogance) is the invisible killer of dreams. It’s not a lack of money. It’s not algorithm issues. It’s not even failure itself. It’s that little voice in your head constantly whispering: “I already know all this.” “I don’t need help.” “I can do it myself.” Especially in the world of online wealth generation, I’ve seen countless newbies miss out on so many incredible opportunities. It’s not because they lack talent or effort – it’s because they believe they don’t need guidance from others. They’re too proud to ask for help, distrust the wisdom of those who’ve gone before, and insist on going it alone, ignoring advice.

Introduction It’s safe to say, 2025 is shaping up to be the golden age of AI! It’s not just tech giants who are capitalizing on this; ordinary individuals can also leverage this booming technology to build wealth through smart side hustles. With the emergence of ChatGPT, Midjourney, Claude, Jasper, and countless other new AI tools, making money online has become exponentially faster and simpler, scalable to any ambition. If you’re aiming to earn $5000 or more per month part-time (or even full-time), then let me break down some of the most lucrative AI-powered side hustles. Most require little to no startup capital, allowing you to get started today.

No, this isn’t some 90-day quick-fix guide. # On one hand, I ghostwrite for company executives; on the other, I still have to ask ChatGPT to check my grammar before sending messages or emails. This doesn’t mean I’m incompetent; it simply shows that I’m still learning, and I plan to keep learning for the rest of my life. Three years ago, I started this journey not because I was a great writer from the get-go, but purely because I didn’t foolishly wait for that so-called “perfect moment.”

AI Is Not Actually a Technology # Historically, world-changing technologies didn’t devour industries with such speed. Consider the automobile, invented in 1886. The number of horses didn’t truly begin to decline until 1920. By the same token, the Wright brothers took flight in 1903, but commercial aviation didn’t truly become widespread until the 1960s. Even the internet was slow to spread. Early internet service providers like AOL became widely adopted around 1990, but by 2000, only about half of the North American population had internet access.

For years, I’d considered buying a first-class ticket one of the most pointless ways to spend money. Why shell out thousands, or even tens of thousands, for a seat when economy class gets you to the same destination at the same time? What’s the real difference in the end? I always told myself that if I ever had an extra couple of thousand, or even ten thousand, dollars, I’d rather spend it on a proper vacation – maybe a luxurious hotel stay, a gourmet meal, or more exciting experiences – than waste it on a few extra hours of legroom or a reclining seat.

In many ways, my life defies logic. They say only 10% of writers make a living solely from their craft, yet I earn over six figures annually without ever leaving my house. New York millennials have the third-lowest homeownership rate in the country, but I bought my home alone at 28. The odds of finding a literary agent are one in six thousand, yet I signed with one last October. I wake up before dawn every day and work incredibly hard — but the truth is, I’ve been manifesting my dream life since I was 12 years old.

Hey friends! The opportunities to monetize are closer than you think, and they work even if you don’t have a massive LinkedIn following. While there are many writing platforms out there—like Substack, Medium, X, and LinkedIn—when it comes to finding clients, LinkedIn is arguably the most effective. After all, your potential: Employers Readers Clients They’re all gathered there. So, why not give these methods a try? If they work, let me know how it goes!

You know what most writers are like, right? The kind who… Constantly check their blog analytics, just praying for traffic to skyrocket. Hope to make their first $100 on Medium. Wish the money they earn is just enough to pay the bills. Someone once said: “An unused skill is like a treasure buried in the ground. If you can’t make money from it, either the world is blind, or you haven’t dug deep enough.” Take a look at yourself now, are you barely using your writing skills?

This piece is not sponsored by WriterBay or any promotional program. I simply want to share my authentic experience with WriterBay. Here’s a screenshot of the highest monthly income I’ve earned from WriterBay so far, take a look 👇 This $599.28 income was earned in addition to my full-time 9-to-5 job – if you dedicate more effort to WriterBay, take on full-time assignments, and handle multiple jobs, earning over $1,000 per month is absolutely achievable!

Table of Contents The “Lie” My Misguided Path to “Earning by Reading” A Conversation with a Friend The Truth: How Does Reading Actually Make You Money? The “Lie”: I personally earn $100 every month. You probably saw a headline like that and thought, “Fake, right? Just clickbait.” If that’s what you’re thinking right now, you couldn’t be more wrong. I swear, you really can make money just by reading.

Earning money on Substack? That’s easy. And by ’easy,’ I mean earning a single dollar. All you have to do is humble yourself, write some articles, set up a paid subscription, and then toss your Ko-fi link at the end of every post (just like this). Someone will pity you eventually and throw a few bucks your way. But if you’re hoping to earn enough on Substack to actually live on? That’s pure fantasy, a complete waste of time, if that’s your primary goal.

The photo was stunning, quite possibly the best I’ve ever taken. I was perched at Summit One Vanderbilt, Manhattan’s new sky-high playground for social media enthusiasts. I’d somehow managed to capture my teenage son, Charlie, striking what he considered his most perfect pose. The light was magical, the backdrop spectacular, and Charlie looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine. Now, I’m no Annie Leibovitz, you understand. My photography skills typically hover somewhere between ’enthusiastic amateur’ and ‘dad with an iPhone’ – definitely leaning heavily towards the latter. But somehow, in that moment, with the sunset light streaming through the observation deck’s geometric glass panels and Charlie’s natural pose, it all just clicked.

A group of new angel investors approached me, asking for help evaluating some startups they were considering. They were stunned when I told them the company everyone saw as having the most potential actually had a problem. To be fair, the company had a lot going for it: a clear problem, a compelling solution, and a healthy number of early adopters. But the very thing they were most excited about was my biggest concern: the two founders. The company was started by two childhood friends. They were roommates at Stanford, still lived together years after graduation, came up with the startup idea together, and quit their jobs together. They were, essentially, the type of founding duo whose lives revolved around cheap burritos and all-night coding sessions.

Halfway through the flight to Australia, I felt it. Not fear, not excitement. Just a sadness I couldn’t quite name. The seatbelt sign extinguished, and the cabin lights dimmed. Around me, some watched movies, others poked at their in-flight meals. I just sat there, my tray table down, my coffee slowly growing cold. My mind kept drifting to my mother. The way she held me at London Heathrow Airport. Her fingers still hooked on my jacket, as if not quite ready to let go. She looked tired. I told her I wanted to travel, but the words felt rehearsed, as if it wasn’t my decision at all, but rather something I’d had to convince myself to accept.