Idea Surfr

I made $200 in the last 2 weeks from mine. Proof in comments if you don’t believe me.

My goal is $2k/month by end of year. And no, I’m not going hard on this, I’m putting in maybe 1-2 hours a week. So that’s why it’ll take 10 months instead of 2. Slow and steady but basically passive so I’m not complaining.

Anyway here’s what I’m doing if you want to copy it:

Niche first

Finance pays the best CPMs but don’t just do “finance.” Go specific. Finance for single moms, stock market for complete beginners, that kind of thing. AI is also a solid bet right now, it’s genuinely exploding. Health, dating, local news — all work too. Just pick something and commit.

Build it like a company not a diary

Seriously don’t attach your name to it. You want something you could sell one day. A newsletter with your name on it is a freelance gig. A newsletter brand is an actual asset. Different things.

Platform

Substack is free and fine for starting. I use beehiiv. Better customization and they have their own ad network built in, which means you can monetize from day 1 without finding a single sponsor yourself. That alone sold me on it.

Getting subscribers

This is where most people get stuck. Options are:

Meta ads — reliable but expensive. beehiiv has a paid boost feature too where other newsletters basically send their readers your way. Both cost money though.

Free route is content. X, LinkedIn, Reddit. Reddit has been my main thing. I post about side hustles, people find value in it, they subscribe. Got around 150 new subs just last week from Reddit. This exact type of post is how I do it.

Sending issues

Just send consistently. AI helps a lot with organizing and formatting but you still have to know how to use it properly or the output is terrible. I use it as a tool not a ghostwriter.

(Writing this post myself by the way, hence the grammar crimes lol)

Money

Small newsletter? Use the beehiiv ad network. I’m at 2k subscribers and making $15-20 per issue from it. Not retiring off it but I’m sending the newsletter anyway so it’s basically found money.

Hit 5k and you can start going after real sponsors — $100 to $400 per placement depending on your niche. That’s when it gets genuinely interesting.

You can also do digital products or affiliate stuff on top of that. Multiple streams from the same audience.

Autopilot

Once you’re at 5k, set up a beehiiv boost at like $1.50-$2 per subscriber. Keep some budget running and you get new subscribers without doing anything.

For the actual issues, either get a VA or build out an AI workflow that does the heavy lifting. You just review and send. Sponsors tend to stick once you have a relationship going.

End result: $2k/month for a couple hours of work a week. That’s the goal anyway.

If you want to go bigger — $15k, $50k, $1M/month (yes those newsletters exist) — that’s a whole different level of effort. But that’s not what this post is about.

Started writing this thinking it’d be 200 words. Oops.

Drop any questions in the comments, happy to answer. Proofs going in comments too 👇​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

another batch of ideas from tracking reddit complaints daily. these are all from the last 2 weeks and none of them have a good existing solution.

1. a tool that helps small ecommerce sellers monitor competitor pricing changes in real-time. enterprise tools exist ($500+/mo). nothing for the solo etsy/shopify seller who just wants alerts when a competitor drops their price. found 11 threads describing manual daily checks.

2. a client portal for personal trainers. right now trainers are sending workout plans via whatsapp, tracking progress in google sheets, and collecting payments through venmo. every "fitness app" is built for the end user, not the trainer running a business. 9 threads.

3. a tool that turns customer reviews into social media posts automatically. restaurants and local businesses have hundreds of 5-star reviews doing nothing. pull the best quotes, generate branded graphics, schedule them. 8 threads from business owners saying they know they should do this but never have time.

4. a noise complaint logger for apartment buildings. tenants log complaints with timestamps and optional audio clips. building managers get a dashboard showing patterns. currently everyone sends angry emails or texts that get lost. 7 threads.

5. a simple inventory tracker for food trucks and pop-up restaurants. restaurant inventory tools assume you have a fixed kitchen with consistent storage. food trucks work completely differently — limited space, rotating menus, variable weather affecting demand. 6 threads.

all of these exist in the gap between "too small for enterprise tools" and "too complex for a spreadsheet."

which one interests you? and are you currently building anything you found from a complaint thread?

i spend most of my time reading reddit complaints across different communities looking for problems people are actually experiencing. not hypothetical problems. real ones where people describe their workflow and what's broken about it.

here are 5 i found this week that have real demand.

1. a medication tracker for pets. found 22+ threads from pet owners with animals on multiple medications. they're missing doses, confusing which med is which, and every health tracking app is built for humans. not a single good option exists for managing a dog on 3 different meds with different schedules.

2. a maintenance request tool for small landlords with 1-5 units. found 18 threads. every property management platform starts at $100/mo and is designed for companies with 50+ units. small landlords are using text messages and spreadsheets. someone could charge $15/mo and own this niche.

3. a scheduling app for trade contractors. found 14 threads from electricians, plumbers, and HVAC techs saying every scheduling tool is built for office workers. they need something that handles on-site visits, travel time between jobs, and last-minute cancellations.

4. a tool that converts meeting recordings into structured action items sorted by who's responsible. found 26 threads. transcription tools give you a wall of text. nobody wants to read a 45 minute transcript to find the 3 things they need to do.

5. a menu sync tool for restaurants. owners are manually updating menus across ubereats, doordash, grubhub, and their own website every time they change a price. 15+ threads describing spending 45 minutes per update.

none of these are "ai wrapper" ideas. all of them have people actively complaining and paying for bad solutions.

which of these would you build first? and what app ideas are you currently sitting on?