I Tried to Build a Side Business With ChatGPT. Here Is What Actually Worked.

Everyone has seen the posts: build a business with ChatGPT, monetize it, quit your job. I spent weeks actually trying it, and the honest version is less glamorous and more useful than the hype. Here is what worked, what flopped, and what I would do differently.

What I actually built

Not a course. Not a prompt pack. A small library of installable AI skills: short, plain-English instructions you paste into your AI tool once, and it then does one job the same way every time. Examples: triage an inbox, prep for a meeting, shut down a Friday properly. One skill, one job, no jargon.

What flopped

1. Selling a big bundle on day one. Nobody buys a bundle from a stranger. Free first, paid later.
2. Posting only announcements. "New product!" posts get ignored. Posts that teach one small thing get replies.
3. Trying to be everywhere at once. Pick the channels where your buyers already hang out and show up there daily.

What actually worked

1. Free skills as bait. Give away a complete, useful skill. Put a signup next to the download. People who use the free thing are the only warm leads you have.
2. One free skill on a schedule. Same day, same format, every week. Boring beats brilliant when it compounds.
3. Real engagement over broadcasting. Answering comments and replying to other people's posts brought more profile visits than any launch post.
4. Distribution is the job. Building the product was maybe 20 percent of the work. Getting it in front of people was the other 80 percent.

The honest numbers

Zero sales so far, and I am saying that plainly because most "how I made money with AI" posts skip that part. The email list is tiny, the follower counts are tiny, and the work is daily. The bet is that a library of genuinely useful free tools, given away consistently, compounds into an audience that eventually buys. That is the experiment, and I will report the real numbers either way.

Try one free skill yourself

Pick the inbox triage skill: it sorts a messy inbox into reply now, reply later, and archive, in one pass. Free, copy paste, no signup required to use it. You can find the free skills here: https://github.com/lilnickyai/claude-code-skills-samples

If it saves you ten minutes, the signup link next to it is how you get the next one each week: https://lil-nicky-ai.kit.com/d26c1ccfd6

Closing question for comments

What is the one repetitive job you wish your AI tool just handled for you? I build the next free skill from the best answers.