💡Money Making Ideas - Where to find them?

How do you find new profitable business ideas?

Chasing trends?
Asking people?
Solving your own problems?

These are all legit ways to find new ideas, and I’m sure there are many more.

But it’s hard to know if an idea will actually make money or not.

There’s a simple framework you can use to figure this out.

You must have heard this - if you want to make money, help someone -

Make money
Save money
Save time

This is great advice, but how do you actually apply this?

Where do you find people to serve with your product or service?

Today we’ll look a simple method you can use to find new ideas for products and services.

And a 2 part framework that you can start applying immediately.

But before that, I have an Important Announcement for you.

I've just opened up registrations for the May cohorts of Indie Masterminds.

It's my 8 week flagship program to help you mastermind with like-minded solopreneurs and build a profitable independent business.

Lock in your seat

Tell me this -

Do you feel stuck in analysis paralysis?
You’ve taken every course out there, but you’re still unsure of what to do next?
You don’t how do you kickstart your journey of solopreneurship.

You don’t need more “content”, you need clarity.

And you need to take action 💪

That’s what a mastermind helps you do.

Do you feel like all the advice you get on social media platforms is too generic, and doesn’t apply to you?

Or at least, you’re not sure how you can actually put it into practice?

Like, what should be the first step you take, what’s the 2nd step and the 3rd one?

And when do you know an idea is validated, and you should double down on it? Or maybe it’s invalidated, and you should move on to something else.

Look - time is precious, you don’t want to waste it by working on something that has no legs. As your mastermind group, we will call out your bs, and let you know when something is wrong in your approach, idea or execution.

We will give you honest unfiltered feedback, we will keep you accountable towards your goals, and we will support you when the times are tough.

Come join us

Prasanna just joined last month and already called it one of the best things he's done for his business.

Trust me, you won’t regret your decision 😄

Now, let’s go -

Marketplaces - Where money is always changing hands

The easiest way to make money is to go where money is already changing hands and try to get a slice of it.

The best places where money changes hands are marketplaces.

Marketplaces are where buyers meet sellers.

There are 2 ways you can make money from marketplaces -

Become a seller - Every marketplace has buyers, figure out what they need, and sell it to them.
Enable the sellers - Every marketplace has sellers, figure out what their challenges are, solve them, and help the sellers sell more.

Let’s see this with an example -

Amazon

Amazon is THE top marketplace in the world.

So it makes perfect sense to explore Amazon.

Become a seller

Figure out what people are searching on Amazon, and start offering products and services around it.

You already have validated demand there, find ways to cash in.

For example, selling KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) books on Amazon is a nice low stakes way to leverage the marketplace.

My friend Greg Lim does this brilliantly! ($170K with 18 books!)

You research the marketplace, figure out the demand based on what people are searching and what types of books are getting sales, and then you write a book to fulfil that demand.

Enable the sellers

Carrying on the same example, creators like Greg who publish a series of books on Amazon, want to do keyword research on the platform to figure out which topics have high demand and low competition.

So that they can write books only on those topics.

So it makes sense to build software tools to help these creators get marketplace insights. (Helium is a good example of this)

Another version of “Enable the sellers” is to create books and courses to help beginners become sellers on a platform.

This is great if you don’t want to build a software product.

But you must have the expertise yourself before you begin teaching it to someone else.

So to go this route, you need to master the marketplace, or at least some aspect of it. (read more in the power of transformations)

More Marketplaces

This simple framework can be applied to most marketplaces you interact with online -

Etsy
eBay
Udemy
Fiverr
Upwork

Some niche marketplaces to look into -

All of these marketplaces let you filter products by topics and popularity.

So you can figure out what type of products are getting traction, and can find ideas for products or services from there.

Again, anywhere you see money changing hands, there are opportunities to make money for yourself.

By becoming a seller, or enabling other sellers.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

📢 Recommendation of the week

My wife Aditi, just launched her book this week.

It’s called - “Switching Careers: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Resume That Gets You Hired in a New Domain: Write a winning Resume that Stands Out: Proven Tips, Samples and Templates from the Pros”

You can get it from this link from Amazon.

It’s free for the next 2 days.

You will get practical advice and actionable tips for writing a standout resume that will help you get noticed by hiring managers and recruiters.

Especially useful if you’re changing industries and are not sure how your current skill set and expertise can be useful in the new job that you’re applying for.

Get it for yourself, or share it with a friend who might need it.

(And do leave a rating/review, your support matters a lot 🙏)

🔗 Super Links

Useful links you don't want to miss -

The G/B/B pricing framework (last week’s post)
Powerful insight from James Clear you shouldn’t miss. H/t Thomas Frank.
“Dark forest”, “Cozy web”, or “Dark Web”, where do you see yourself on the internet? I’m in the Cozy Web. Thanks for sharing Arvid 🙏
Is “Build in Public” a trap? Solid points from Josh Spector
Extraordinary story of finding “AI - Market Fit” with pure hustle. And reaching $1M ARR in 7 months. Read article with my annotations

Get the Next Gen Logo Design Tool

My friend Hua launched her next gen logo design tool on Product Hunt this week.

Big fan of Hua and her visual design sense, no wonder the landing page looks so good.

As a subscriber, you can get 50% discount on their plans with the code - “AYUSH”

Check out Typogram.

Podcast Feature

I was featured on The “Me” Bet podcast last week.

20 months ago I took a bet on myself and quit my corporate job to go solo. The journey so far has been incredibly fulfilling.

Listen to my story.

Also, listen to the other episodes as well, if you want to take a bet on yourself, this podcast is great for inspiration.

Hope you found this useful.

If you’re new, then make sure you don’t miss the next one.

And if you’re already subscribed, consider sharing this post with a friend, it will only take a moment.

Thanks

Ayush 🙏