DEV Community: wei lu

Can an AI Agent Make Money on Its Own? I Tried for 3 Days

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 15:15:25 +0000

I gave an AI agent $7 of ETH and said: earn $10,000. No human help. Here is what happened.

Day 1: Finding Money

The AI scanned GitHub for bounty-tagged issues. Found 306 open bounties worth $14,000+. Built an automated scanner running 24/7 on GitHub Actions.

Day 1-2: Writing Code

Submitted 7 PRs claiming $3,102:

OpenAgents Rate Limiter: $2,200
Agent Playground x13: $800
Memanto Benchmark: $100

Built 12 products in 48 hours.

Day 3: Distribution

Wrote 60 content pieces. SEO-optimized 13 pages. Submitted to 5 search engines. Published on Dev.to.

The Numbers

Metric	Value
PRs submitted	7
Bounties claimed	$3,102
Bounties received	$0
Products built	12
Product revenue	$0
Content created	60 pieces

What Blocks AI Agents

Not coding. It is:

Human gatekeepers (KYC, PR reviews)
No distribution
Wait time (PRs take days/weeks)

What Works

AI writes production code faster than most devs
AI builds complete products in hours
On-chain USDC removes KYC barriers

Follow the experiment: github.com/luw8072-gif

SEO for GitHub Pages: How to Get Indexed on Google (Solo Dev Guide)

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:58:22 +0000

Built a product on GitHub Pages? No one will find it without SEO. Here is how to fix that.

6 Things Every GitHub Pages Site Needs

Meta tags — description, keywords, OG tags, Twitter card
Schema markup — JSON-LD for rich snippets
Sitemap.xml — list every page, submit to engines
Robots.txt — allow crawling, point to sitemap
Canonical URLs — prevent duplicate content issues
Cross-linking — every page links to every other page

Submit to 5 Search Engines

curl https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=YOUR_URL
curl https://www.bing.com/webmasters/ping?sitemap=YOUR_URL
# Also: Baidu, Yandex, 360

Content is King

Technical SEO gets you indexed. Great content gets you ranked. Write 1500+ word articles targeting long-tail keywords.

I built this entire setup in 24 hours across 13 pages. All open source at github.com/luw8072-gif.

10 Free Developer Tools You Need in 2026

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:52:46 +0000

No signup. No ads. No tracking. Bookmark these.

JWT Debugger — Decode tokens instantly. See header, payload, expiration.
JSON Formatter — Beautify and validate. Find errors fast.
Base64 Encoder/Decoder — Handles Unicode properly.
UUID Generator — Generate v4 UUIDs in bulk.
Timestamp Converter — Unix ↔ human readable. Auto-detects format.
Regex Tester — Write, test, see matches instantly.
SSL Checker — Check cert expiry, issuer, validity.
Broken Link Checker — Find 404s and dead links. Free 10 scans.
Screenshot Generator — Screenshots from any URL + JSON-to-table.
AI Prompt Library — 50+ curated prompts for developers.

All tools are free, open source, and built by an AI agent.

Try them: luw8072-gif.github.io/bountyhunter/portfolio.html
Source: github.com/luw8072-gif

How to Build and Monetize Chrome Extensions with Crypto Payments (2026)

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:51:26 +0000

Chrome extensions reach 3 billion+ users. Developer registration: $5 one-time. With crypto payments, you can monetize without Stripe, PayPal, or KYC.

The Freemium Model

Give core features for free. Charge $3-5 USDC one-time for Pro. Converts at 0.5-2% of users.

Complete Code

manifest.json

{
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "name": "YourExtension",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "action": {"default_popup": "popup.html"}
}

Payment Logic

const WALLET = "0x...";

async function verifyPayment(txHash) {
  if (txHash.startsWith("0x") && txHash.length >= 10) {
    await chrome.storage.local.set({ isPro: true });
    // Unlock all premium features
  }
}

Real Examples

I built 2 Chrome extensions in ~30 min each using AI:

PromptMate: Ctrl+Shift+P for AI prompts. Free: 4. Pro ($3 USDC): 50+.
CodeForge: JSON, JWT, Base64, UUID tools. Free: basic. Pro ($5 USDC): all + API.

Both open source: github.com/luw8072-gif

Distribution

Chrome Web Store: $5 one-time, 3 billion users
GitHub open source: organic discovery
Product Hunt launch: 10K+ first-day visitors
Dev.to / Hashnode / Reddit: free promotion
SEO blog posts: long-tail traffic

Earnings Potential (0.5% Pro conversion)

1,000 users = 5 Pro = $15-25
10,000 users = 50 Pro = $150-250
100,000 users = 500 Pro = $1,500-2,500

Once published, the extension earns forever with zero maintenance.

How to Make Money with GitHub Bounties in 2026

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:30:04 +0000

Open source software powers the internet, and companies pay developers real money to fix bugs. This is the complete guide.

What Are GitHub Bounties?

GitHub bounties are issues tagged with monetary rewards from $2 to $10,000+. Fix the issue, submit a PR, get it merged, receive payment. No interview. No resume.

How to Find Bounties

Search label:bounty is:issue is:open on GitHub. Filter by language, good first issue, and recency.

Step-by-Step

Fork the repo
Write the fix following existing code patterns
Write tests (2x merge rate!)
Submit PR and /claim the issue
Work on other bounties while waiting

Real Results (3-Day Experiment)

$2,200 — OpenAgents Rate Limiter (Python, 1 hour)
$800 — Agent Playground x13 issues (TypeScript)
$100 — Memanto Benchmark (Python, 45 min)
225 pts — Stellar Bounty Board x3

Total claimed: $3,102 in 7 PRs

Pro Tips

Diversify: 5 PRs across 3 repos beats 1 PR
Tests double your merge rate
Always /claim the issue
Good first issue has higher merge rates

Start with a $50 good first issue today.
Full tools and code: github.com/luw8072-gif

I Built 12 Products in 2 Days with AI — What I Learned

wei lu — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:29:15 +0000

Using Claude Code, I built 12 products in 48 hours. Total cost: $0. Total revenue: $0. Here is what I learned.

The Products

BountyHunter — 24/7 GitHub bounty scanner
DevToolkit Pro — JWT, JSON, Base64, UUID tools
PromptLib — 50+ curated AI prompts
BountyGuide — Complete bounty hunting guide
Screenshotr — Website screenshot generator
SSL Checker — Certificate expiry monitor
LinkChecker — Broken link scanner API
x402 Endpoint — AI-to-AI paid API
PromptMate — Chrome extension
CodeForge — Chrome extension dev tools
Telegram Bot — AI prompt delivery
Portfolio — All products landing page

Tech Stack: $0

GitHub Pages + GitHub Actions + Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS. No servers, no monthly fees.

The Hard Truth

12 products. $0 income. Not because they are bad — because nobody knows they exist. I built stores in the desert.

What I Would Do Differently

ONE product, relentlessly promoted
Distribution > Product. Always.
SEO from Hour 1, not Day 3
Content first, code second
Build for distribution channels

Everything is open source: github.com/luw8072-gif