When I first opened ChatGPT, I was just curious. A friend told me to try Midjourney, so I played around with it, making random prompts and images. At that stage, money wasn’t on my mind at all it was just fun experimentation.

But over time, people started asking me for help. Someone wanted custom images, another needed short scripts, and eventually, I noticed people buying prompt packs online. That’s when it clicked: the same things I was doing for fun actually had value.

I didn’t start with a big plan. I simply followed the small opportunities that showed up. One project led to another, and before I knew it, those little experiments had turned into a steady side income.

The First $20 Changed Everything

The first time I made money with AI was almost by accident. A friend needed product banners for their online shop. They were short on time, so I used Midjourney to create a few drafts. It took me less than an hour, and when I sent them back, my friend insisted on paying me.

It wasn’t a huge amount, but it changed how I looked at AI. Suddenly, I saw it not just as a cool tool, but as a way to solve real problems for real people. From then on, I started noticing opportunities everywhere.

Discovering Tohju

One of my breakthrough projects came from a request for a red-themed visual for an event page. The client wanted energy, creativity, and movement the kind of image that felt alive.

At the time, I stumbled onto Tohju through one of its community challenges. I was curious because I had mostly been working in Midjourney, but Tohju surprised me. It wasn’t just a side experiment; it became a reliable tool, especially for projects where I needed both speed and flexibility.

That’s when I learned something important: clients don’t care which AI tool you use. They only care if the final result matches their vision. Tohju simply expanded my creative range and gave me the ability to say yes to more projects.

The Simple AI System That Made Me Money

After that first $20, I knew I needed a repeatable system something more reliable than waiting for random requests. I built three simple processes:

1. A Prompt Library – Every time I found a great prompt, I saved it and organized it by category: writing, visuals, marketing. Soon, I had a personal database I could pull from instantly.

2. A Quick Delivery Routine – Whether someone needed a blog post or a logo concept, I could generate, refine, and deliver within a day. People valued my speed as much as the work itself.

3. Visibility – I started sharing my experiments on social media and inside small online communities. Nothing fancy just showing what I was making. That visibility brought in strangers, not just friends.

Over time, I realized the projects that paid the most weren’t about AI itself they were about saving people time.

A business owner didn’t care about the creativity of my prompts they cared that I gave them a week’s worth of social content in one afternoon.

A startup founder wasn’t impressed by the tools they valued that I could turn messy notes into a polished pitch deck overnight.

The lesson: people don’t buy AI they buy results.

The Mistakes I Made Along the Way

Like anyone starting out, I made plenty of mistakes:

• I chased too many ideas at once courses, prompt packs, freelancing on multiple sites. Nothing stuck.

• I underpriced my work thinking cheap prices would bring clients. Instead, it attracted people who didn’t value my time.

• I hid behind the tools always talking about “ChatGPT” or “Midjourney” instead of the solutions I provided.

Those mistakes slowed me down, but they also forced me to get clear on what actually works.

What I’d Do If I Started Again Today

If I were starting today, here’s what I’d do differently:

• Pick one or two AI tools and master them deeply.

• Talk to real people freelancers, small businesses, creators and find the frustrations they’d pay to solve.

• Share my work publicly even small wins to build trust and attract opportunities.

• Keep it simple. AI is just the tool. The real skill is using it to make life easier for someone else.

 That’s how I turned curiosity into cash. Not with a grand plan, but by following small opportunities, building simple systems, and focusing on results instead of tools.