Does it pay?
X is full of people explaining how they make $10,000 a month. We take each scheme, do the sums, read what happened to people who tried it, and show our sources.
Tag @does_it_pay under a tweet to get the research.
Researched
11 schemesAffiliate marketing
Affiliate programmes can pay people who already have an audience, or who spend years building one. $10,000 a month at 30% of a $50 product takes about 667 paying customers every month. In one software vendor’s data, 1.28% of sign-ups made a sale.
AI automation agencies
This pays people who can build and who find clients in an industry they know. Of 43 established n8n partner firms, 42 say they accept no project under $1,000; one job board’s average bid was $102. Nobody publishes how many newcomers get a client.
Selling on Amazon with FBA
Pays a minority: sellers who last for years and can fund stock and advertising. About half of surveyed sellers sold $1,000 a month or less. “$25k a month profit” needs $125,000 to $250,000 of sales every month.
Self-publishing AI-written books on Amazon
Self-publishing on Amazon pays people with a catalogue, one or two hits, an advert budget and years; most checked successes were not AI-written. Newcomers should expect little at first: about 80% of surveyed authors with one to three books reported under $100 a month.
Paid content clipping
The $1 per 1,000 views is real, but a new account’s clip usually earns $1 to $3 or nothing. It pays clippers whose clips reach tens of thousands of views: top-three results over $1,000 had medians of about 130 clips and 61,000 views a clip.
Selling digital products direct to an audience
Selling a PDF or template you made pays people who bring their own buyers: an audience, an email list or expertise buyers trust. Of Gumroad sellers who sold anything in 2020, the middle one made $70 that year and about 4% made $10,000 or more.
Faceless YouTube channels
Faceless channels pay a small group well: 20 broker-checked channels listed for sale show a median profit of $4,423 a month, most made with paid freelancers. Even among small channels adding 52 or more videos a year, about seven in ten miss 1,000 subscribers.
Cold outreach agencies
A real service. The founders who report doing well had run a business or sold before and knew one group of buyers well. The one payment-verified agency under a year old took $41,069 in eleven months; larger sums are unverified or took years.
Small software products built alone
It pays a minority: builders who already reach their buyers, keep their customers and keep at it for years. About 1 in 22 subscription apps that charge reaches $10,000 a month within two years; the median earns about $72 a month after a year.
Polymarket trading bots
It pays programmers whose bots have an edge and bet millions, keeping about 2 cents per dollar; the one small operator’s wallet we checked kept $5,786 in nine months. In one nine-day count after fees, 34.4% of bot-run wallets finished ahead, against 37.8% of others.
AI and automated trading bots
Bot profits are real but go mostly to firms and funded operators with coding skill, low fees and years of record. Of year-old public trading pools on Hyperliquid, run by bot or by hand, 36.7% are in profit and the middle one is down 30.7%.
In the queue
48 schemes found, not yet researchedContent and audiences
- Faceless AI theme pages on Instagram/TikTok49
- AI influencers (brand deals and platform payouts)47
- Platform referral programs (Whop and similar)8
- Newsletters and email list monetisation6
- Fan subscription platforms (Fanvue/OnlyFans creators)5
- UGC creator brand deals4
- SEO niche sites and blogging3
- AI models on Fanvue/OnlyFans (AI OFM)2
Selling products
- Dropshipping29
- Etsy shop selling (physical goods)27
- Print on demand19
- TikTok Shop affiliate (incl. AI UGC videos)18
- Etsy digital downloads (printables, templates)5
- Reselling and flipping physical goods5
- Own-brand e-commerce (peptides and similar)1
Agencies and services
- Ghostwriting for founders33
- Freelancing and productised services14
- Remote high-ticket closing and appointment setting11
- Social media marketing agency (SMMA)10
- AI video and AI UGC ad services10
- SEO services for clients4
- Freelance sales copywriting3
- OnlyFans management agency (OFM)1
- Growth operator partnerships1
Trading and crypto
- Prop firm funded trading40
- Templated token 'airdrop' shill spam37
- Copy trading (mirroring traders and wallets)22
- Day trading systems and mentorships11
- Memecoin and speculative token trading8
- Trading signal and call groups5
- Crypto airdrop farming3
- DePIN and tokenised machine income3
- Crypto play-to-earn games1
- DeFi stablecoin yield1
- ASIC crypto mining1
Software
- Autonomous AI agents that earn for you5
- Selling custom GPTs, AI agents and agent tools4
Real-world businesses
- Airbnb rental arbitrage28
- Vending machines11
- Buying or starting boring businesses3
- Section 8 rental property1
Selling the playbook
- Paid communities, courses and paid access (Skool/Whop)12
- High-ticket coaching and personal brand offers8
- Network marketing 'copy my system' funnels3
Betting
- Sports betting picks and tipsters11
Investing
- Selling options for income2
- Dividend investing1
Small earnings
- Get-paid-to and rewards apps6
The number beside each scheme is how many tweets promoting it were in our first collection of about 2,800. It reflects what we searched for, not how common the scheme is.