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Micro jobs. Picoworkers is just one of the many micro job platforms out there right now. We've interviewed 11 Picoworkers participants so far (they earn via small tasks like social media engagement, sign-ups, and more) and they've reported an avg. hourly rate of $1.25. Oof. Not good.

Check here for more micro-task platforms.

Have you tried any yourself?

• Ways to Make Extra Money
• Hustle Finder

5 failed side projects over 6 years. $0 earned. Seeing success stories is nice and all, but it can feel discouraging when all you read about is people succeeding. Don't get it twisted! There are plenty of failures out there that you don't hear about. If you're working on something that hasn't quite taken off yet, you're not alone. 

Here's a thread where Krzysztof breaks down 5 projects they built over the last 6 years that have all brought in $0. 

The main lessons I can pull from the thread are these:

• Do your market research before building. The first failed product Krzysztof built was an iOS game. That's an extremely tough market that most likely requires a lot of ad dollars to penetrate.
• Release fast. Krzysztof spent over a year building the iOS game mentioned above before releasing it. Might have been better to test a less polished version of the game before going all in.
• Have a marketing strategy. Some of the products Krzysztof built looked great but the market strategies he used seemed to fall short. 

Remember though, even though these projects didn't bring in any money, the creator learned a lot of new skills along the way. That's a win.

Building a software as a service business in 24 hours. I found this Twitter thread from the article above. It details Sam Thompson's process of building and launching a SaaS business in 24 hours.

He built HeyCasey, a service that connects you with an anonymous friend that you can talk to about anything you want. Sort of like therapy, but cheaper and simpler.

The project cost Sam a total of $215 to start, with $100/month of recurring expenses.

It's on pause atm (website is still up), but the real value here is seeing Sam's process of building and launching so quickly. If you have a SaaS idea that you want to launch, give it a read.

Sam also has a pretty interesting thread on how he built a different business to a $1.2m valuation in 42 days.

Building a microblading side hustle to $7k/month while working a full-time job. This is a great story. Emily started learning microblading (basically tattooed-on eyebrows) while working full-time and she now makes triple her original income.

Her top tips?

1. Create a business plan. Research your market, startup costs, competitors, etc.
2. Consider temporarily working for free. This is a controversial tip, but it can really work wonders if you don't have any testimonials or portfolio pieces. Just make sure you get some other value out of the customer (Emily gave them a gift card that they could give to a friend). Oh, and she marketed on the Nextdoor app, which is super underrated for businesses!
3. Find something you enjoy and are good at. Emily already had experience and talent with makeup. And she enjoys it. That's a combo that rarely loses.
4. Work hard and make sacrifices. When you're just starting out (and even later on as an entrepreneur) you might have to work late, cut leisure time short, or live on a tighter budget for a bit.

Get free Siteground hosting for 3 months. If you're looking to launch a website soon, check out this Siteground offer. I've been using Siteground since I started Swift Salary and I've had a great experience with them. 

Free Thanksgiving with Ibotta. If you're in the US and planning a Thanksgiving dinner come the 25th, be sure to download Ibotta. Their Thanksgiving campaign includes free Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, frozen vegetables, and more. Pretty awesome. Learn more here.

Learn how to automate your finances. Automating parts of my finances has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I never stress about missing a credit card payment anymore or investing money each month because it just happens automatically!

Here are 3 steps to help you get set up properly. In short:

1. Make sure your paycheck is auto-deposited
2. Automate your savings and investments
3. Autopay recurring expenses

Take the time now to set these things up and you'll save yourself a bunch of time in the future.

🔮 Crypto: Crypto total market cap gained a little under $100 billion in the past week. Bitcoin, however, did not contribute to those gains, ending the week slightly negative.

Here are some highlights:

• Solana is up over 21% for the week and is gaining a lot of attention. With faster transaction times and lower fees, it's a viable Ethereum competitor. Still, it's not perfect. In September the network suffered a 17-hour outage due to "resource exhaustion".
• Gaming cryptos are heating up. The Sandbox and Decentraland, two of the largest gaming tokens, are each up over 100% this week. If you want a quick intro to crypto gaming, watch this video.

Data is as of 9 PM PDT.

📈 Stocks: Major indexes ended in the positive this week, with the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Dow Jones hitting new all-time highs.

On a related note, in the last 10 years, the S&P 500 has dished out double-digit returns in 8 of those years. That's a pretty compelling reason to invest your money! It's also a bit scary that we haven't seen a sustained bear market for so long.

Headlines:

• Fed to start dialing back bond purchases later this month. (CNBC)

Be careful out there. There are a lot of headlines showing huge investment gains recently. Just remember there's a loser (or multiple) on the other side of each of those big wins.

Last thing you want to do is chase "quick and easy" returns only to end up like this guy:

Want to invest in real estate but not deal with tenants? Check out this list of REITs (real estate investment trusts) in all different sectors. These can be a great way to generate some passive income.