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Get paid to participate in behavioral science studies | $100k ARR in 9 months as a solo founder | Ultimate startup guide for aspiring entrepreneurs | Fiverr's top search trends of Q3 Money personalities | How to protect against inflation | The best investment strategy
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Disclaimer: This email may contain affiliate links. Learn more.
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Hey everyone, hope you're having a good weekend so far. I've noticed recently these newsletters are getting too big, and they're being cut off in the inboxes. I'm working on a solution but may just need to shorten these things if I can't come up with anything.
If you have ideas, hit me up!
Today:
- Get paid to participate in behavioral science studies
- $100k ARR in 9 months as a solo founder
- Ultimate startup guide for aspiring entrepreneurs
- Fiverr's top search trends of Q3
- Money personalities
- How to protect against inflation
- The best investment strategy
Psst...New here? Start here.
If you're not feeling the newsletter anymore, you can unsubscribe here.
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Make Money |
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Gig / Extra Money Ideas 💵 |
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Have some extra storage space you're not using? Why not make some extra money -- passively! -- by renting it out? You could share some extra space in your garage, attic, shed, you name it.
To get started, if you're in the US, you can use Neighbor to easily create a storage listing and start making money. If you live elsewhere, you might need to get creative. Let me know if there are any similar apps to Neighbor where you live!
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Fill surveys or test products on YouGov. Available internationally to users as young as 14 years old, YouGov has been around for quite some time now. Of the 6 users we've surveyed, some reported earning up to $5/hour with this site, although the average sits at $2.02. Overall rating is 3.9/5. Try it out yourself.
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Write for Trends.vc, a popular newsletter for entrepreneurs. I read in a recent newsletter of theirs that they're looking for some new additions to the team. You can sign up here for any updates.
I'm positive the application process won't be easy, but if you end up being a part of the team, it'll be a fantastic opportunity.
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Boldly remote executive assistant. Hiring in the US and UK. Part-time. Learn more here.
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Remote customer service advisor for Nelnet. Hiring in the US. Full-time. Learn more here.
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Business Ideas and Stories 💼 |
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$100k ARR in 9 months as a solo founder. That's the impressive statistic Damon, founder of Testimonial.to, shared in his recent Indie Hackers AMA.
He was able to hit that revenue number by creating a subscription-based solution that makes it easier for creators to get testimonials (either in video or text format) from their customers.
In the AMA, Damon says he acquired his first customer from Twitter via a lifetime deal they used to offer. Lifetime deals are a great way to validate your idea.
What's really interesting is the fact that Damon had launched five other apps within the same year, and even though they didn't work out as well as Testimonial.to, he was able to reuse old code to create his MVP faster.
Takeaways? Build in public, launch quickly, and when you find something that sticks, go all in.
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The story of Jotform: 10 million users with $0 funding. If you're interested in creating your own business, this guide from Jotform is a very worthy read. It goes over tips on how to get an idea, how to grow sustainably, when to quit your job, fundamental skills for founders, and much more.
Just be prepared: it's over 60,000 words. The fact that it's on the web for free kind of blows my mind.
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Fivver's top search trends for Q3. If you're trying to come up with Fiverr gig ideas, you might want to check out this report. Top search trends include Twitch emotes, social media management, photoshop editing, voice-over, content writing, and NFTs.
Keep in mind, since these are the most popular searches, they'll be competitive. As always, try to put a unique spin on the main keywords in order to stand out. You could also take these service ideas to other platforms (like Upwork) and see how they perform there.
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Lessons from a failed puzzle company. If you've ever thought about starting up a puzzle company, read this story. There's more thought that goes into a simple jigsaw puzzle than one might think.
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Manage Money |
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Personal Finance 💰 |
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Do you know your money personality? Each of us has one. And there are always pitfalls to every type of money personality.
For example, I'd say my money personality is a frugal saver. I like to find deals, save money, and avoid debt. This has a couple of pitfalls:
- Sometimes I forget to enjoy my money
- Since I don't like losing money, sometimes I don't take enough risk, and this causes me to miss out on big gains.
It's useful to identify your own money personality as it can help you balance yourself out. Check out this article and see if any of the personality types stand out to you.
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Credit cards vs. debit cards. I’ve talked about this before, but I came across this Youtube video of Frank Abagnale and thought a refresher couldn't hurt.
Here's the quick rundown: Credit cards build credit, earn rewards, and reduce your liability. If you can manage them responsibly (i.e. pay them off every month), they’re 100x better than a debit card.
ps. if you didn’t catch it in last week's newsletter, check out Credit Karma or Borrowell to check your credit score for free.
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⚡ Summary: Total crypto market cap increased from ~$2.28 trillion to $2.48 trillion since last Friday. BTC surpassed $60k USD, and ETH was just short of $4k USD.
Here are some of the main headlines supporting the increase in prices:
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Bitcoin futures ETF is set to begin trading in the US next week. There was no formal approval from the US SEC, but they haven't blocked the listing either. The downside of this ETF being futures-based is that you don't get direct exposure to BTC, the price may not reflect the actual cost of BTC, and there will be additional costs involved.
Overall, if you want to invest in BTC, it seems much better to just go to the source and buy it directly. Still, this could bring more investors into the market, so it's better than nothing!
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Want to get into buying and selling NFTs? It's not as easy as it sounds, but if you're decent at internet research and can spot up-and-coming projects, you can definitely turn a profit. Use NFTCalendar to track upcoming drops. It doesn't have every project on the web, but it has a lot of them.
ps. an upcoming project I'm pretty excited about is called Plush Fight League. It looks hilarious and has play-to-earn features. Check out their Discord to learn more.
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Speaking of NFTs, Coinbase is getting involved. They announced plans to launch their very own NFT platform to compete with other platforms like OpenSea. To start, users will be able to mint, purchase, and showcase their NFTs on the platform.
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Cool tech: a North Vancouver crypto mining company is going to provide heat to the city. Using their "digital boilers" (which supposedly recover more than 96% of the electricity used for mining), they'll be providing heat to commercial and residential buildings. This is an awesome look at how mining will become more and more eco-friendly in the future.
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⚡ Summary: The S&P 500 ended off the week up 1.96%. A solid start to Q3 earnings season seems to have provided a nice lift to the markets!
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The International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast from 6% in July to 5.9%. The cause for the 0.1% decline? You guessed it: supply chain issues, inflation, and the pandemic.
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How to protect against inflation. There’s a good chance that inflation is going to persist at least until the pandemic is completely over and supply chains have returned to normal operations. This is a great article that breaks down the options you have when it comes to hedging against inflation (and the pros and cons of each).
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Is dollar-cost averaging the best investment strategy? This analysis compared 4 different S&P 500 investment strategies, with the benchmark strategy involving investing on the 1st of every month no matter the market conditions. And even though it was the simplest strategy, it produced the highest returns in the end.
That being said, if you receive a large sum of cash all at once (think: a $10k lottery win), statistically, it's best to invest that money all at once. Interesting, huh?
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Hope you enjoyed this week's letter!
Which part was your favorite? What do you want to see more or less of? Hit reply and let me know!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
- Dylan
PS: Past letters if you missed 'em: #63, #62, #61, #60, #59.
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How do you feel about this weeks newsletter? |
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