I don't freelance on Upwork anymore. Not because it stopped working. Because ONE proposal template worked so well it retired me. $147,000 in contracts (well, actually $159,000 now). From one basic structure that paid off over and over...so I rode that horse off into the sunset. Clients who hired me over 50+ other applicants. $12k retainers from people who'd never met me. Now, I hire people to push the buttons while I look at graphs and tell jokes on Zoom calls. In May, when we go to Japan for 2.5 weeks, other people will keep my machine running while I eat raw fish and nod at reports. This Friday, I'm sending over a proposal for another $5k to $15k retainer (depends) from an existing client--again, from Upwork--for 5 to 10 hours a week of extra work. All money from Upwork clients. Now... I've thought about how to sell this thing. I could bundle it into a course. Do a whole launch. But honestly? That sounds exhausting. And I realized most people don't WANT another course. So here's my dumb idea instead: A penny auction. Bids start at one cent. Bids can only go UP by one cent. If it sells for 31 cents, so be it. That's on all of you. Here's the thing though... I'm not doing this for just a handful of people. If I get enough PENNY comments below, we run it. If not, I'll find something else to do with my Tuesday. I'd rather go play on a plastic slide with my daughter than sit here like a sad sack waiting for comments to roll in. One more thing: The person who wins this isn't getting some dusty template from 2012. You're getting the exact proposal structure that pulled six figures out of a platform I no longer compete on. Which means ZERO competition from me using it. You're welcome. So here's what to do: You'd bid a penny? Drop PENNY below 👇 You think this is stupid? Drop BAN ME below 👇 Either way I wanna hear from you. Your acquaintance, Nick P.S. Is a penny auction stupid? We'll find out together.

Yes...what can you teach? I'm stealing this idea from @John Bejakovic and his Skool community, Daily Email House. For one, because I'm lazy. Two, because it's a fantastic idea. The idea I posted inside John's original thread got the most traction out of dozens, even though I ALWAYS downplay how awesome of an idea it is: Building a list of customers with a lazy ad funnel. In the spirit of laziness, and to give credit where credit is due, here's John's post...not copy-pasted, but rewritten juuuuuust enough that I can claim it as my own: ### What can you teach? What's something you can put a presentation about for people inside Funny Money? WHY would you want to put on a presentation for us? Here are a few reasons: 1. You can float an idea here to see if there's any interest (and no one will make fun of you, or I'll ban them) 2. If there IS interest, you can get my feedback, input, and help into organizing your presentation, or even organizing it into a PRODUCT! 3. If you do give your presentation, you can use feedback from the group to polish and improve what you're teaching, so you can then turn it into a paid offer or lead magnet to grow your own audience. 4. You can get ready testimonials or even case studies from people here, without jumping headfirst into running an ad funnel from scratch. 5. If you do end up making a presentation...and it's awesome...and I think my email list would benefit from using your offer...I may promote it to them and share the profits with you. Again, a source of "free" customers to seed your fledgling business. 6. Maybe by teaching something valuable yourself, you encourage others inside Funny Money to teach something valuable as well, which ends up benefiting you and everyone else down the line. (and especially benefiting ME. Who wouldn't want that?) So...can you teach? Comment below with your ideas. Brain dump 5 things you could teach below, or just post a couple of your favorites. Even if they seem wild, bizarre, completely nuts...there are no wrong answers.

I've got a travel Instagram account with over 10,000 followers that I haven't posted on in years. If you had 30 days to squeeze a thousand bucks out of this very very dead account, how would you do it? Anyone who makes a legit suggestion that actually drives revenue, I'll send you $2,500 out of my first $10,000 in profit. For realsies.

One super-easy source of "passive-ish" income I've ignored is one almost all of us can utilize: Becoming an affiliate for the tools and subscriptions you ALREADY use and therefore, probably endorse. I personally have an affiliate account set up for ThriveCart and BerserkerMail, yet I've never ONCE tried to sell these. Why? You probably pay for at least half a dozen SaaS products that offer affiliate programs. Yes, some of these products have "standards," like Canva's CANVASSADOR program (only accepts creators who regularly post Canva tutorials). But most of them don't. How to get started? Just search "my tool + affiliate" and get going. Applying usually takes a couple minutes. They'll provide you with a unique link. Best practices, you'd want to make a blog post, video, or some other piece of content AND offer something unique and valuable people can get ONLY if they use your link to sign up. For example, if I was actively promoting ThriveCart or BerserkerMail, what kind of bonuses could I make to entice buyers to use my affiliate link? Or, you could lazily post affiliate links scattered about the internet like this: 👉 Sign up for ThriveCart, the galaxy's BEST shopping cart software right here 👉 Sign up for BerserkerMail, the galaxy's BEST software for writing and sending emails Aaaaaannd listen to the money printer hum. This month, what's one affiliate program you could ENTHUSIASTICALLY jump into and start earning some passive dollars for the recommendations you're already making?

Earlier this year I joined a LinkedIn pod, which you can read about in one of my favorite emails of all time: LinkedIn Pods...A Whale Of A Time Essentially, you join a group of people who want to grow on LinkedIn and agree to post and comment on each others' posts at the same time. It's supposed to game the algorithm and get you more reach. I found that: 1. The reach I got was neglible 2. The comments I got were almost all AI written Related? 🤔 First of all, how lazy must you be that you can't even think of ONE UNIQUE AND ORIGINAL SENTENCE to write on someone's post? Second of all... If you're marching with us on our Social Blitzkrieg starting this Friday, would you want this 'feature?' Not as official and rigid as what I just described. But more along the lines of we agree to leave one brief comment on everyone's MAIN social media channel every day? Just one? Would you even want that? Cast your votes in the poll below, and let your decision echo through the halls of eternity.