This article was first published on my site: https://resume.tensorview.cc/blog/outsource-ai-side-hustle-part-2.html
Sequel to part 1. What web/mini-program gigs I actually shipped, how I used AI to move fast, and two jobs that drained me. Personal notes — not a playbook, not a rant.
Part 1 mapped Taobao middleman groups and cuts. This one is the doing: what the jobs looked like, rough income, which clients were fine, and which ones left me with one rule — don’t take that kind of job again.
1. What I actually built
Most were compact full-stack web jobs: software download sites, API relay/proxy stations, Reddit-like forums, WordPress trade sites, tutoring-school landing pages. Mini programs too — e.g. Coze-backed Q&A, and a construction-vehicle monitoring app.
AI wrote most of the code. My setup was plain: a monthly AI Pro plan bought on Xianyu, plus Cursor — enough quota to push simple gigs through a month. My job was scope, edges, and getting to acceptance — not typing every line from scratch.
2. Rough income
In a normal month of these simpler jobs, an extra ¥3–4k side income felt common. With luck — first-hand work, thin middle cut — ¥8k in a month is possible. High variance; don’t budget on the ceiling.
Think of it as side-hustle leverage: talk, ship, collect — stack other gigs and you might approach full-time income. That needs decent jobs. Taobao-agency handoffs crush the rate; I covered that in part 1.
3. Two jobs that really hurt
Not every job was painful. Some shipped, got accepted, and felt clean. Two stuck with me hard enough to write down.
1. A two-day HTML site that stretched nearly two months
One client wanted an app download site. Objectively a one-to-two-day static page. It ran nearly two months — not because the page was hard, but because their app wasn’t ready, and each build meant another Qiniu upload from me. Easy work, calendar owned by them; effective rate tanked and it felt awful.
Lesson: if delivery depends on the client’s own product cadence, lock how many update rounds, how time is billed, and what happens when they slip — or you’re their unpaid upload clerk.
2. Rush job + a crawling server: never take “must ship in a week”
Another was a relay/transfer station with a one-week deadline. That taught me: skip rush jobs when you can. They can ping by the hour; WeChat opens to a wall of messages, and their anxiety owns your calendar.
Worse: we were on the agency’s server, painfully slow. Build on GitHub, upload, deploy — each step crawled; a tiny tweak could eat half a day before you saw it live. The client kept inventing tiny changes, rushed me daily, barely pushed the middleman — who still took the fat cut. In that setup the developer loses twice, and it barely makes sense.
4. Smooth jobs still cost attention
Plenty of jobs were fine: clear enough scope, ship, accept. Even then, many clients know neither tech nor product — so you still eat empty talk and shifting asks. Light work, heavy mental overhead.
As a true side hustle — not another full-time stress layer — it can feel okay: fingers, voice, ship. Stack other gigs and you might near full-time income. Source still matters: prefer first-hand, thin-cut work. Taobao middleman boards stay a bad deal long-term.
5. Rules I’m keeping
- Skip pure rush jobs: a one-week hard deadline plus hourly pings usually means scope creep and no evenings.
- Don’t bind to an unfinished client product forever: cap or bill upload/release rounds up front.
- Avoid agency server + agency cut together: bad env, thin pay, half-day deploys per tweak.
- AI speeds coding; you still set boundaries: Cursor writes code — it won’t stop a client’s change loop.
- Prefer first-hand channels: side work can be pleasant — not inside the thickest cut forever.
Closing
Still personal. Web gigs plus AI can add real cashflow; whether it feels good hangs on where the job comes from, how loose the deadline is, and whether the env lets you iterate fast. For the pipeline and cuts, see part 1. If more traps are worth writing down, there’ll be a part 3.
Original post: https://resume.tensorview.cc/blog/outsource-ai-side-hustle-part-2.html
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