How I’m Using ChatGPT and AI to Make Money Online

3 steps I took to generate passive income with AI in 2023.

In the past year alone, I’ve scaled my online content to reach over 100K readers, created my first Udemy course, launched a YouTube channel, and have even published an e-book on improving productivity with ChatGPT.

All while working a full-time job in tech.

And no, I don’t work 12–14 hours a day. Neither did I hire anyone.

All I did was learn to leverage ChatGPT and generative AI tools to create and grow my one-person business, which has more than doubled my online income in 2023.

In this article, I will tell you exactly how I did it.

But first…

Here’s Why I’m Building an Online Business

1. To create things that scale

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I have a 9–5 job.

I’ve also been freelancing since 2020, and have built a portfolio of recurring clients I work with on a regular basis.

Recently, however, I have grown to realize that trading my time for money was not the most effective way to build wealth.

I did not want the amount of money I made to be proportional to the number of hours I was working.

I saw my income significantly decline when I took a ONE month break from freelancing, and the pressure to keep taking on more work was mounting.

Also, there wasn’t much joy in building things I didn’t own and adhering to strict deadlines.

So I decided that instead of continuing to take on paid gigs, I was going to:

• Create a source of income that grows non-linearly
• Build things that scale
• Own my work

2. To build my personal brand

Most of my paid gigs are in programming and tech writing.

With the rise of generative AI, it dawned on me that the demand for human-written technical tutorials was going to decrease.

Evidence suggests that programming jobs are at risk too, since language models like ChatGPT are bringing an unprecedented amount of efficiency to these roles.

I quickly realized that relying on a company's decisions to determine my bank balance was akin to shooting myself in the foot, especially in the AI era.

And that’s why I’m working to build a personal brand.

An online presence opens up countless ways to make money, and it isn’t something that can easily be replaced by AI.

You see, regardless of how good AI gets at content creation, there will always be a demand for human stories.

People long for personal connection.

It inspires us to hear the success stories of others who have tread a similar path.

It is also why we form parasocial relationships with media figures we barely know.

Personal branding is powerful.

It opens doors to opportunities you wouldn’t otherwise get.

In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, even if AI matches the quality of industry leaders, it will not displace them.

For example, customers are willing to pay a huge premium to buy a painting created by the renowned Rembrandt — although there are far cheaper pieces in the market that look the same.

But I digress.

You came here to read about how to make money with AI, and I shall not make you wait any longer.

Let’s get into it!

The 3 ways I’m using AI to make money online include:

1. YouTube

I started my YouTube channel 3 months ago, on July 31, 2023.

Ever since then, I’ve published 5 videos and have accumulated over 40K views.

And while this might not sound like a large number compared to other, bigger creators, it is a huge milestone for me — a complete Padawan to the video creation space.

In the past few months, I’ve had to teach myself to edit, design, and film videos while also juggling a full-time job.

These skills take a lot of time to learn. I simply did not have the time to watch hour-long tutorials on SEO, filmmaking, and video editing.

Instead, I turned to ChatGPT for assistance.

Here are some ways in which I used ChatGPT to help create my YouTube videos:

Research

There are just so many elements involved in creating a YouTube video.

Wrapping my mind around the sheer number of things I had to do before I could publish my first video was overwhelming.

Plus, I was getting contradictory advice from everyone I spoke to. Some people recommended filming with my smartphone, while others insisted I invest in a professional setup.

To free my mind from all the noise, I just went to ChatGPT and asked it about the factors that mattered most.

How do I get started with creating high-quality YouTube videos today?

Here is ChatGPT’s response:

I then went back and forth with the chatbot, asking about the pros and cons of filming on my smartphone, affordable high-quality microphones, and the best editing software for beginners.

And I learnt so much more in 30 minutes with ChatGPT than I did from consuming an endless number of blog posts and videos on the topic.

In fact, my entire YouTube setup now consists of gear (lighting, camera, and mic) recommended by AI.

Image and Video Generation

Canva’s text-to-video AI tool has been a game-changer for my YouTube content.

Instead of scouring the Internet for generic stock footage, I can now simply type a prompt like this into Canva:

Canva AI generated this video in less than a minute:

And voila!

The resultant 4-second clip is specific to my requirement — allowing me to create high-quality footage tailored to different segments of my video.

You can also use image generation software like DALLE-3 and Midjourney to make your YouTube content stand out.

If you don’t know how these tools work or how you can use them, here’s a link to a comprehensive tutorial that will help you get started.

Video Editing

Video editing is a skill that takes years to master.

Although I can afford to outsource this, I have decided to edit my own videos for now.

Here’s why:

1. Video editing is a high-income skill. I enjoy learning new things, and I figured that the hours spent honing this skillset would pay off eventually.
2. Many successful YouTubers have their unique style of storytelling and editing, which becomes part of their personal brand. I wanted to explore my creative freedom and develop my own editing style — since nobody understands the message I’m trying to convey better than I do.

ChatGPT has taught me everything I know about video editing.

In fact, I learnt to use a visual effects software called Adobe After Effects in less than a week to create motion graphics and animations for my latest video.

These are fairly advanced effects that I’d see in other YouTube videos, but never thought I’d be able to replicate without hiring a professional.

Of course, I am by no means an expert at any of these techniques yet, but ChatGPT has taught me just enough to create an engaging video.

ChatGPT’s new vision feature, in particular, has been a game-changer when learning video editing.

Whenever I need to accomplish a task, such as creating a new animation, all I do is upload a screenshot of the tool and ask ChatGPT for guidance:

Thanks to ChatGPT, I went from not knowing a thing about video editing to learning advanced skills like creating motion graphics.

In fact, in just 3 months of creating my small YouTube channel, I have tech companies reaching out to me and asking if I’d be able to create and edit videos for them.

Unknowingly, the time that I put into learning how to edit my own YouTube videos has taught me a high-income skill that people are willing to pay for.

And I have generative AI to thank for it.

SEO-Friendly Content

SEO can make or break your YouTube videos.

It is also one of the most overlooked aspects of doing well on YouTube.

For example, if you are creating a video titled “5 Passive Income Ideas in 2023”, it is likely that your target audience is also searching for videos related to make money online, side hustle, freelancing, and investing:

You must include relevant keywords that people are searching for into your video titles, descriptions, and scripts.

This way, your video will not just be shown to people who are searching for “passive income ideas” on YouTube.

It will also be recommended to users looking for videos related to that topic.

Jasper AI is a tool that can save you hours of research on SEO and content generation.

It can create a compelling hook, title, and SEO-friendly descriptions for your YouTube channel in minutes.

You can also use it to generate an entire script for your YouTube video by simply entering a title and clicking on “Generate:”

And voila!

In just seconds, Jasper AI will generate an SEO-friendly script for your video. All you need to do is tweak the content and read it out in front of a camera.

Personally, I don’t use AI-generated content for my YouTube videos.

I use tools like Jasper AI solely for ideation, titles, and SEO research, since I prefer creating my own scripts that draw from personal experience.

However, other creators appear to be making a lot of money by using AI-generated scripts for their YouTube videos.

2. Digital Products

Here is an online course I published on Udemy over two months ago:

I also am working on releasing my first e-book before the end of this year.

Digital products are great ways to generate passive income.

You only need to create them once, and they are on the Internet forever.

As long as the topic is in demand, you can continue making money from a digital product for the next decade or so.

If you have a high-income skill, it has never been easier to package it into a digital product and get paid for it.

Here are some ways in which generative AI helped me create my online course and e-book:

1. Topic research

First, I used ChatGPT to give me topic ideas for my online course.

Although this might sound like something I could’ve easily come up with myself, you’d be surprised at how many people struggle with ideation.

For instance, when I decided to create an online course, I came up with topics that just would not have worked (think “Intro to Digital Marketing”, or another subject that already has been covered in thousands of courses).

I wanted to create something unique.

So, I took a step back.

I made a list of all my subject matter knowledge, which was primarily in the fields of data analytics, digital marketing, and programming.

Then, I asked ChatGPT to generate some topic ideas based on my areas of expertise:

After getting some topic ideas from ChatGPT, I did some competitive analysis.

I pasted the topics into Google and tried to find other courses that were already created on the same subject:

Subsequently, I followed up with ChatGPT.

I asked the chatbot for ideas as to how I could differentiate my course from existing material available on the Internet.

What value could I add that other courses aren’t already teaching?

This way, I could give my digital product a unique value proposition, setting myself apart from the competition.

After going back and forth with ChatGPT for a couple of hours, I finally decided on:

• What course to create
• What topics I should cover to set my course apart from others on the Internet

2. Course structure

Once you have identified a topic for your digital product, you need to actually start building out the content for it.

This isn’t easy.

My online course, for example, contains 2 hours worth of video content.

The script was approximately 15,000 words long.

People are going to get confused and inevitably give up on the course if it isn’t structured properly.

Nobody wants to sit through 2 hours of incomprehensible information being thrown at them.

This will lead to bad reviews and low engagement.

You’ve got to take your audience through the very basics of the topic and build on top of their knowledge as you go along.

ChatGPT and Jasper AI have been really helpful in creating a course structure:

All you need to do is describe your topic, the subjects you’d like to cover, and your target audience.

With Jasper, you can even go a step further and explain the tone of voice and relevant keywords you’d like to include.

The AI will give you a step-by-step breakdown as to how you can structure your content.

3. Constructive feedback

I often use ChatGPT as a sounding board when creating digital products.

The probability of making mistakes when writing a 15,000 word script is high.

And since I am a one-person team, I didn’t have anyone who could read through 2-hours worth of course content and give me feedback.

So I turned to ChatGPT.

The model told me when I was being too wordy.

It reminded me to avoid using too much technical jargon since my course was supposed to be accessible to beginners.

It then rephrased my sentences and helped me “dumb down” my content.

This made me feel like I had my very own personal assistant — a second pair of eyes to help me create better content.

3. Automation

One way I’ve been using AI to indirectly generate revenue is by automating mundane tasks.

I’m currently juggling a full-time role and other side businesses, and tend to get overwhelmed with the amount of communication involved.

In fact, I’ve even missed out on a brand sponsorship deal once, since the messages went straight to my “Promotions” folder.

I found out about this months later, and after spending some time stewing over it, decided that I needed a more effective method of managing communications.

I’ve been using ChatGPT for some time, and have lately discovered an email assistant tool called Superhuman AI that has helped me better manage my communications.

Superhuman is a Chrome extension that lets you go through your inbox quickly, ensuring that you don’t miss a message.

This tool can draft entire emails for you from a simple prompt. You can also use it to shorten, simplify, or elaborate on a message:

And the feature I found most useful: keyboard shortcuts to sift through your inbox quickly!

If I can’t get to an email now, I can simply press a shortcut, asking Superhuman to remind me about it later.

I can even ask it to set a reminder at a specific time and date, ensuring that I don’t overlook important communications:

One drawback of Superhuman AI, however, is its cost.

This service costs around $30/month, which I find a little pricey for a tool that is built solely to automate email communications.

In comparison, a ChatGPT Plus subscription costs $25/month — and this gives you access to the GPT-4 model, the new voice and vision processing features, and DALLE-3 for image generation.

If you find yourself on a tight budget and can only invest in one AI tool, you will get the most bang for your buck by subscribing to ChatGPT Plus.

Honestly, creating a one-person side hustle can be an isolating experience.

I have to create content, build my digital products, figure out how to market them, etc.

Every decision is mine to make.

The consequences of those decisions are also mine to bear.

Generative AI makes me feel like I have a support system.

It acts like a mentor — guiding me through difficult decisions, helping me learn new skills, and validating my work at every step.

And in doing so, my productivity has skyrocketed, allowing me to focus on the creative aspects of my job without burning out.

If you’d like to learn more about using ChatGPT to automate your workflows and skyrocket productivity, you can read my book, which serves as an extensive guide to mastering ChatGPT Plus.

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