In partnership with
I want to say something upfront that I wish someone
had told me before I wasted three months on the
wrong idea.
AI is not the income.
You are.
Most people treat AI like a slot machine. Put the
prompt in, pull the handle, wait for money to come
out. That's not how it works. And if you go in with
that mindset you'll be frustrated for a long time.
I was one of those people. I thought if I found
the right tool, the right prompt, the right system,
something would just start working on its own.
It didn't. Not until I understood what AI actually is.
AI is a speed multiplier. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I'm a tradesman on the East Coast of Australia.
Long days. Physical work. When I get home the last
thing I want to do is spend three hours writing
content for a side income I'm trying to build.
AI fixed the time problem. Not the income problem.
The time problem.
Once I saw it that way, everything got simpler.
Here are the five tools I actually use every week
to keep a $2,000 a month side income running while
I'm still doing my day job.
1. ChatGPT — where I do my thinking
Most people use ChatGPT to write their content.
I use it to find the idea inside my rough thoughts.
Every week I dump whatever is in my head into it.
Half-formed observations. Stories I want to tell.
Points I want to make but cannot quite land yet.
Then I ask it questions. What is missing from this?
What would make this more specific? What is the
version of this that actually helps someone?
It does not write for me. It helps me think faster
and clearer. That is a very different thing.
If you are new to AI tools, start here. The free
plan is enough to get going. Learn to use it as a
thinking partner, not a ghostwriter. That one shift
changes how useful it becomes.
2. Claude — where I write
When something needs to sound genuinely human
I use Claude.
Not polished or corporate. Actually warm, direct,
and real.
My process is simple. I write a rough draft first.
Messy, too long, probably not landing the way I
want it to. Then I paste it into Claude and ask
it to tighten it up without losing my voice.
The difference between content people ignore and
content people actually reply to comes down to
one thing most of the time. It sounds like a real
person said it. Claude helps me get there faster
than anything else I have tried.
I use both ChatGPT and Claude every week. They do
different jobs. Both are worth having open at the
same time.
👉 claude.ai — free plan works well to start.
3. Beehiiv — where I build the relationship
Every week I send this newsletter through Beehiiv.
Here is why an email list matters more than social
media, and why most people do not realise it until
much later.
Social media shows your content to whoever the
algorithm decides. Some days that is a lot of
people. Some days it is almost nobody. You have
no say in it.
Email is different.
When someone gives you their email address they
are saying they want to hear from you directly.
No algorithm deciding if you show up today.
Just you landing in their inbox every week.
That relationship is what eventually turns into
income.
My affiliate commissions come mostly from people
who have been reading this newsletter for three
or four weeks. Not from random strangers who saw
one post once. People who know me, trust what I
say, and clicked a link because they were ready to.
That is what an email list does. It builds trust
slowly, at scale, without you chasing anyone.
Beehiiv is where I host and send it. Clean, simple,
and free up to 2,500 subscribers.
4. Canva — for everything visual
I am a tradesman. Design is not in my skill set.
But I have learned that people do not read things
that look like they were not worth someone's time.
A thumbnail that looks like someone cared about it
gets clicked. One that looks thrown together gets
scrolled past.
Canva gave me one template I use every single week.
I swap the text, keep the layout, and it takes
about ten minutes. Looks consistent. Looks like
a real brand.
For anyone building a newsletter, a digital product,
or any kind of online presence, Canva is the tool
that makes you look more credible without needing
any design skills at all. Start free. Upgrade when
you are actually using it consistently.
5. Systeme.io — where the money actually lands
This is the one most people have not set up yet.
And it is the one that matters most if you actually
want this to pay you.
Systeme.io is a free platform where you can host
a digital product, create affiliate links, and
receive payments. All in one place.
Here is how it works in plain terms.
I have a product called the Digital Toolbelt. It
lives on Systeme.io. When someone finds it through
my content and buys it, Systeme handles the payment,
delivers the product, and records the sale.
I get a notification. That is my part done.
I also have affiliate links set up through Systeme.
When someone signs up to a product through my link
I earn a commission automatically. No chasing.
No invoicing. The platform tracks it and pays me.
This is the piece that makes everything else
actually convert into income. You can use every
other tool on this list and do it well, but
without somewhere for the money to go, nothing
pays you.
Set this up early. Free to start.
The part most people skip over
The gap between someone making zero online and
someone making $2,000 a month on the side is not
a secret tool.
It is not a better prompt.
It is not a smarter strategy.
It is the fact that one person built a simple
system and stayed consistent with it long enough
that it started to compound.
AI tools cut the time it takes to build that system.
They do not do the building for you. That part is
still yours.
The people I have watched build real second incomes
from scratch all have one thing in common. They did
not quit in month two when it felt like nothing was
working. They kept posting. Kept sending. Kept
showing up. And somewhere around month three the
system started paying back.
That window, the one where nothing seems to be
happening, is where most people stop.
Do not stop there.
Want the full system?
If you want to see exactly how I put all of this
together, from the affiliate setup to the content
routine to the daily checklist that keeps it
running without taking over your life, it is all
inside the Digital Toolbelt.
One of my favourte tool is hubspot. It Turns website visitors into customers without the manual work. HubSpot helps you capture leads, automate follow-ups, manage contacts, and grow faster with one simple platform built for business growth.
The GTM bets that shouldn't have worked, and did
One grew revenue 50x after half his team quit over the strategy. One brought in 50K signups in a single day with no paid budget. One generated 100M+ views from a stunt that took 50 hours to conceive. One asked every prospect to demo the product themselves instead of demoing it for them.
None of them followed the safe playbook. They treated GTM like an experiment, moved before they had proof, and made bets most founders would never get approved.
HubSpot for Startups documented all 6 stories in the free Bold Bets Playbook. The risks they took, why it was risky, and what it returned.
I love this tool. 75% of my idea comes through Wispr Flow. It turns your voice into accurate text instantly, helping you write emails, content, messages, and ideas faster while staying focused on your work.
10x the context. Half the time.
Speak your prompts into ChatGPT or Claude and get detailed, paste-ready input that actually gives you useful output. Wispr Flow captures what you'd cut when typing. Free on Mac, Windows, and iPhone.