You voted for the monetization pillar, so here it is! All posts in October will be about money.
The first money I ever made on the internet came from a video game.
I’ll tell you which one at the end.
Here are 5 ways I’ve made money online after school, then after work, and how I’d turn them into projects with full-time potential today.
1. Teaching English paid fine until I ran out of hours
I taught English online, it was a side gig after my 9-5.
I was a tutor at a company that sells one-year (or longer) courses to corporations and individuals.
I was logging onto a platform, setting myself available and students could call me. I had a few regular students, the company provided materials, 100% work from home, I was playing Minecraft between calls.
Seems perfect.
One big problem though—not enough hours. The platform only got traffic late afternoon and the max I could do was about 3h/day.
Even though the hourly rate was good, it wasn’t enough. And I had to teach kids too, which I hated.
Income was hours times price, and both have a ceiling. Especially after work, I only had so many hours.
I genuinely enjoyed teaching, but it wasn’t scalable in that form—which was why I eventually stopped.
How I’d make it full-time:
I’d stop selling one hour to one person.
Groups first. 5 people paying half the hourly rate is 2.5 hours of pay for 1 hour of evening.
Then I’d go narrow, as English teaching is saturated. Say, English for Swiss architects aiming to work in the US.
Then something recorded, built from the questions students ask every week. Something created once that would be my flagship.
So, less focus on selling hours, more focus on selling a product which is recorded one time, then marketed in lessons and...
Traffic engine. My own place where students can find me, organically in the best case.
Instagram to newsletter, newsletter to lessons landing page, lessons to show the value of my teaching and point to the course.
2. Print on demand scales, as long as Amazon lets you stay
I did print on demand for a good few months, mainly on Amazon (Merch and KDP).
If you’ve never touched it: KDP lets you upload books to Amazon and earn royalties from them.
Every time someone buys your book, Amazon prints it, sends it to the customer and you get a cut. Merch is the same with t-shirts, except you have to apply first and wait to get accepted.
All you do is the design, the cover and the listing. Amazon handles the rest.
The catch is that pretty much everybody who ever touched a computer can create a simple notebook, and the get-rich-quick crowd floods Amazon with them.
You either land on the first page of a keyword or you’ll never be found, hardly anyone goes to the second page.
And one trademark you didn’t check will get you banned or even sued.
Amazon was about 90% of my earnings. Other platforms played a minor role.
It is scalable though. A design you upload once keeps selling without you touching it.
I had a YouTube channel about it too, and truth is, you can make more money teaching print on demand than doing it.
How I’d make it full-time:
Amazon first.
You can get banned for no reason. My Amazon account linked to KDP got banned for “too many returns”. I’d never returned a thing.
Once you get banned it’s over. Amazon treats customers way better than sellers.
All things considered, it’s still a hegemon and the only chance for decent organic revenue.
Second path is any POD platform (like Redbubble) + your own traffic. After all, it’s a very convenient business, the dirty job (dealing with customers) is handled by the platform.
This + creating content teaching it. If I have that knowledge anyway, why not package it into a course and sell it?
If somebody forwarded this to you: one post a Thursday, for people building something after work.
3. Fiverr album covers paid well for the minutes they took
If you’ve never used it: Fiverr is a marketplace for small freelance jobs. You put up a gig, one service for a fixed price, like “I will design your album cover”.
Buyers search and order, you deliver the file. Fiverr takes a cut of every order.
I mostly made album covers, I like designing, it was fun, paid... good for the time I spent on it. And I did 0 external promotion, it just lived its own life.
How I’d make it full-time:
It’s not the same as teaching. If someone pays you to teach them for 1 hour, you teach for 1 hour and can’t do anything else during that time.
An album cover is a file after all. The client doesn’t care if it took me 15 hours or 15 minutes to create. Surprisingly, most took closer to 15 minutes. 30 at most.
Priced well enough, it’s doable to hit a satisfying hourly rate.
Then again, traffic source. Necessary if we’re talking any money near full-time.
4. My music channel got views and couldn’t earn a cent
About 6 years ago I ran a music channel on YouTube.
It was slowing down popular songs and adding reverb, which had insane popularity for some time.
The problem was copyright. Doesn’t matter how many views I got, I couldn’t earn a cent from a video.
To be honest, I don’t know how it is now. I guess it’s saturated due to AI, anyone can generate an hour of music today.
And since July 2025 YouTube doesn’t pay channels built on mass-produced, repetitive content.
How I’d make it full-time:
I wouldn’t start this one today with music I don’t own.
I’d only use music I made or licensed properly, and once the channel got popular enough, it would charge for promoting other people’s music.
Alternatively, turn it into a “play it on TV as background noise/ambient” type of channel with an original twist.
Know somebody who wants their after-work project to start paying? Send them this one!
5. My first money online came from CS:GO skins
About 10 years ago, my first $ online came from trading CS:GO skins. I eventually lost everything on betting and roulette, glad I didn’t have a credit card back then.
I put it here more as a fun fact than an actual after-work project idea, but it was my first lesson in buying cheap and selling to someone who wants it more.
5 questions before you give a project a year
Assuming you want to monetize it.
Does the money stop when you stop?
Teaching did the moment I logged off.
A design on Amazon kept selling while I slept.Can it reach more people without more of your hours?
One-to-one tutoring capped out at 3 hours a day.
A course built once sells to 10 or 10,000 people for the same work.Could 10,000 other people start it this weekend?
Anyone who has touched a computer can upload a notebook to Amazon, and plenty did. Now the entry barrier is even lower with AI.Who can switch it off?
Amazon closed my account for returns I never made.
The music channel ran on songs I didn’t own.
If someone else holds the off switch, plan for the day they use it.Is someone already looking for it?
A musician releasing a single needs a cover, so they go looking for one. That’s why the Fiverr gigs sold, rarely, but without me chasing anyone.
“English lessons” is broad. English for a Swiss architect who wants a job in the US is a problem someone is already searching to solve, and they’re more than ready to pay you.
“Who am I to sell this?”
Look at the full-time plans above again.
2 of them end the same way. Take what I already know, package it into a course, sell it.
That’s the step where a lot of after-work projects stop, usually on one sentence:
“Who am I to sell this?”
Or
“What if I waste a year on this?”
Both are sentences that end side projects. Knowing where they come from is step 0.
That’s what The Builder Identity Install is for. 14 days, 18 minutes a night, $27.
Long story short: You find the sentence that ended your last projects, write your answers to it while you’re rested, and log the nights you did the work anyway.
The goal is to transform your identity into that of a person who does what you want to do. Right now, something stops you.
If you know what it is, great! If not:
If you do the 14 days and nothing moved, I’ll refund you.
Founding Builders, it’s already in your tier!
New here? AchievR is one post a week for people with a real job and a project they refuse to give up on.
Identity, systems, consistency, output, money: things you can use the same night.
The welcome email comes with the Pathfinder Template: a free starting point for picking a project worth your hours.
P.S. Want every deep dive plus the Builder Paths through the archive? That's the Hyper Achiever tier.
To read next:
I Automated My Investing. Not My Evenings.
Once a month I put the same amount from my paycheck into an all-world ETF.