October 26–November 2: ¥297,399 from a month of AI stock images, $436 from letters strangers send, and −¥462 after launching six new sites
Nine first-person side-hustle reports published October 26–November 2, 2026, ranked by barrier to entry and reported payout, from ¥297,399 in a month of AI stock images and $436 from a letter site to ¥462 lost after launching six new projects.
Nine side-hustle reports were published between October 26 and November 2, 2026. This issue ranks all nine by how hard they are to start and by what they paid.
October closed this week, and with it came the numbers that are worth the most to a reader: four of the nine state a whole calendar month.
A stock-image producer in Japan published October line by line: 2,275 downloads and $1,883.47 1. A letter-writing site published eight monthly figures since February, ending at $436 for October 2.
A marketer in Japan published a month that lost money: ¥6,334 of sales and ¥462 short after costs 3.
The week at a glance
- Low — a reader could begin this week with a phone, a free account, or spare time.
- Medium — the work needs stock, a kit, a skill, or a route you can drive.
- Higher — capital, or months of building before anything can be paid.
| # | Experiment (place) | Barrier | Reported money | Clock it was earned on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrift-store resale (place not stated) | Low | $125 for a shirt that cost $5.49 4 | four days |
| 2 | A site for "open when" letters (place not stated) | Low | $436 2 | one month (October 2026) |
| 3 | A zero-budget product challenge (place not stated) | Low | $0 after 48 cold emails 5 | six days |
| 4 | Laser engraving at events (place not stated) | Medium | about $34,000 profit 6 | three events in 2026 |
| 5 | Concrete sealing and coating (place not stated) | Higher | about $73,000 7 | one season, April to October 2026 |
| 6 | A games, apps and content portfolio (India) | Higher | about $13,210 8 | one month (October 2026) |
| 7 | AI-generated stock images (Japan) | Higher | ¥297,399, or $1,883.47 1 | one month (October 2026) |
| 8 | A resale-value app for sale (place not stated) | Higher | €158 9 | 28 days |
| 9 | Six new websites and tools (Japan) | Higher | −¥462 3 | one month (October 2026) |
Low barrier — start this week
1. Thrift-store resale (place not stated)
A flipper walked into a local Goodwill on a Monday and found a 1990s Lauren Ralph Lauren equestrian-print button-up marked $5.49 4.
It sold on the Thursday for $125 4.
Four days, and $119.51 more than the shirt cost. Fees and postage are not stated, so that is gross 4.
The same thread carries the same shape at other prices: 11 Skylanders figures bought for $45 and sold for $123, and a sealed 2007 NECA horror figure bought for $9.99 and sold for $113 10.
Startup cash: $5.49. The work is knowing which second-hand labels and sealed figures resell, and checking sold prices before paying 11.
2. A site for "open when" letters (place not stated)
Someone built OpenWhen, where you write a letter, seal it, and the other person opens it when the moment comes: open when you miss me, open when you can't sleep 2.
Writing a letter is free. A one-time $3.99 upgrade adds photos, voice notes and nicer envelopes 2.
Revenue by month: February $17, April $29, May $48, June $70, July $111, August $280, September $355, October $436 2.
The builder credits three things. Showing up in places where people already talk about missing someone. Keeping writing free and charging once for extras. And ChatGPT, which now sends a real share of visitors to the letter page 2.
Two things did nothing. Printables on Etsy sold zero, and a month of ads produced zero orders 2.
Facebook and Instagram bring visits, but almost all of those people are opening a letter that someone sent them 2.
Startup cash: not disclosed. The stack is Next.js, Supabase, Stripe and Vercel, built solo with AI coding agents 2.
3. A zero-budget product challenge (place not stated)
A builder gave themselves 30 days and $0 to make the first dollar online. Day 6 is the report 5.
Four things are live: an AI receptionist script pack for dentists and HVAC firms, a holiday social-post pack for local businesses, a missed-call to SMS playbook, and a free tools site built to pull traffic 5.
The count so far: about 48 cold emails to agencies and local businesses, no replies, two bounces, around 40 product views, best day 21, and $0 in sales 5.
The diagnosis in the post is about who buys playbooks. Busy owners want the problem solved for them 5.
So the offer changes to a done-for-you missed-call text-back setup at about $97, with shorter emails that lead with one free, specific fix 5.
Startup cash: $0, by the rules of the challenge 5.
Medium barrier — a kit, a skill, or a route
4. Laser engraving at events (place not stated)
A grocery-store employee runs a laser engraving side business and sells at events 6.
The first event in 2025 cleared $3,000 in profit 6.
Three events in 2026 came to about $34,000 in profit, after the business went "semi viral" 6.
Monthly overhead is a storage unit and a phone bill, with nothing else fixed until June 2027, when rent starts at 50/50 6.
Startup cash: not disclosed. The constraint is time. Stock runs out, events get skipped, and merchandise gets prepped overnight around full-time shifts 6.
The reader is also $13,000 in credit card debt, down from $27,000, none of it from the business 6.
Higher barrier — capital, or months first
5. Concrete sealing and coating (place not stated)
An operator started sealing and coating concrete in April and has run 30 jobs since, for about $73,000 7.
The work is grinding, coating and sealing concrete that already exists, with no pouring and no tear-out 7.
The crew is him plus one man he splits coating work with 50/50. That partner owns all the equipment and took about $20,000 out in six months 7.
On some jobs the partner earned more than the operator did, on the operator's leads and ad spend 7.
Startup cash: not disclosed, and the equipment is the reason. The operator brought jobs, estimates and ad spend; the partner brought the machines 7.
The season is now ending, and cold months do not suit coatings. The questions in the post are what to do December through March, and whether a day rate plus an equipment fee is the normal split 7.
6. A games, apps and content portfolio (India)
A developer in Vadodara, Gujarat, reported about $13,210 for October, or ₹12.5 lakh 8.
Games brought about $6,800, apps about $2,800, content about $2,660, and freelance video work about $950 8.
The games money came largely from browser game licences. His newest web app, gameskit.ai, took about $800 with basic marketing 8.
The content line is the X creator programme, Medium and sponsorships across X, Medium and LinkedIn 8.
He calls the freelance video work income he would rather not count, because he wants the money to come from his own products 8.
Startup cash: not disclosed. The build took four years. He lost a game-producer job in Germany, came home, and experimented until apps and content compounded 8.
7. AI-generated stock images (Japan)
Junpei sells AI-generated images on Adobe Stock and posts the month's numbers 1.
October brought 2,275 downloads and $1,883.47, which came to ¥297,399 at October's average exchange rate 1.
He added 12,468 images during the month, for 48,944 in total 1.
His best weekly rank was 248th, reached on October 31, up from 314th the month before 1.
Adobe raised the monthly submission cap from 1,000 images to 5,000. Even so, in his words, revenue barely moved 1.
Costs run monthly. An app that generated titles and keywords cost about ¥22,000 a month and now costs about ¥2,000, after moving that work into Claude Code. Claude Code and ChatGPT together cost about ¥20,000 a month 1.
He cancelled Midjourney once the back catalogue was large enough, and restarted ChatGPT image generation after six months away because its rejection rate was low 1.
Startup cash: not disclosed; the ongoing cost is the tooling above. His target is ¥500,000 a month 1.
8. A resale-value app for sale (place not stated)
Reselo is an iPhone app: photograph an item, get a resale value from real sold prices, and receive an AI-written listing for eBay or Vinted, with the background removed from the photo 9.
Its owner is now trying to sell it. Six active subscriptions, €51 in monthly recurring revenue, and about €158 over the last 28 days 9.
Since the first sale in June 2026 the app has taken about €315 gross 9.
The only paid push was a €100 Meta ads test from October 24 to 31. It fell short of break-even and is paused 9.
Startup cash: €99 a year for the Apple developer account, plus small pay-per-use AI API bills 9.
He has taken a full-time job and cannot market it. The sale includes the Swift source code, the App Store listing and transfer, the website, the social accounts and the ad creatives 9.
9. Six new websites and tools (Japan)
A marketer at a foreign company in Japan runs web projects on the side and publishes monthly accounts 3.
October: ¥6,334 of sales, ¥6,796 of costs, and a loss of ¥462 in about 46 hours of work 3.
September had been better on both lines, with ¥9,708 of sales and ¥3,518 of profit 3.
Page views rose to about 31,600 from 23,000, while sales fell 3.
Five existing projects produced most of the money: the note account at ¥3,420 and a blog at ¥2,874. A tourism-events site with 8,651 views earned ¥40 3.
He also shipped six new projects in the month: three websites, an Android app, a YouTube channel and a spreadsheet add-on for sale 3.
Startup cash: not disclosed. Costs of about ¥20,000 a month go on Claude Pro, a keyword tool, a server, a domain and Gemini API, split evenly across projects 3.
One database site took two to three hours to build. He spent about 90 minutes a day after work talking to Claude Code 3.
Three rules this week left behind
- Charge for the add-on and keep the door free. OpenWhen lets anyone write a letter free and charges $3.99 once for photos and voice notes; October paid $436. The zero-budget challenge sold $0 of playbooks from 48 cold emails, and its fix is a $97 done-for-you setup.
- The entry price and the running price are separate numbers. The shirt cost $5.49 and sold for $125. Reselo costs €99 a year to keep on the App Store, and its one €100 ad test fell short of break-even. Junpei's stock-image pipeline carries about ¥20,000 a month in tools before any download.
- A season ends on a date, so plan the closed months. The concrete operator ran 30 jobs from April to October and is now asking what December through March looks like. The laser engraver loses sales to a full-time shift and will add rent in June 2027.
Side Hustle Lab reads newly posted, first-person side-hustle reports from around the world every week. The next issue covers November 2 to November 9.
References
- 1
- 2
- 3note.com — 【副業決算】2026年10月号（第2回）
note.com
- 4r/Flipping — Flip of the Week Thread\
reddit.com
- 5
- 6r/smallbusiness — When do i quit my job\
reddit.com
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10r/Flipping — Flip of the Week Thread
reddit.com
- 11r/Flipping — Flip of the Week Thread
reddit.com
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