How I Built A $100K Side Hustle Around One Blog Post With AI (And Some Real Work)

The Origin Story

I built a six-figure business off of one really good blog post. 🚀

This isn't one of those "I made millions while sleeping" fairytales. It's a case study about Music Made Pro, a business I started about two years ago built on a simple concept: changing the lyrics of any song while keeping the original voice.

People are surprisingly willing to pay for this service—especially for weddings and business purposes. Yes, there are legal questions surrounding it, but like most AI creative services, the responsibility for appropriate use falls on the end user.

Finding The Right Keywords

It all started with keyword research—which admittedly could be done by AI now, but wasn't back then. I began by researching topics in AI music after launching my first service, which helped people create original songs featuring famous artists' voices.

But here's the interesting part: customer feedback alerted me to an opportunity before keyword research did. This is a CRUCIAL lesson for anyone entering a new market. Getting in front of customers early gives you a direct pulse on what people actually want—often before it registers as a keyword with significant search volume.

Eventually, "change song lyrics with AI" began registering as a keyword in tools like Ubersuggest and Google Keywords. But I would have missed this opportunity completely if I'd relied solely on existing keyword data.

Why Customer Feedback Beats Keyword Research

My first request for lyric swapping came from a customer who wanted to modify a scene from Full Metal Jacket, changing the soldiers' chant to a birthday song for his friend. I initially told him it wasn't possible—but that request was the precursor to what would become our most profitable service.

After multiple similar requests, I added a simple page on Shopify where customers could place orders for lyric modifications. Then I wrote the article that would change everything.

How One Article Generated Tens of Thousands in Revenue

By this point, I was getting better at writing articles—even though most didn't perform particularly well. The volume of content I created helped me improve my process and understanding of AI writing tools.

Many experts preach that volume is the key to content success, but the real benefit isn't that one piece will eventually hit—it's that creating volume helps you refine your process and understand your tools better. 💡

The magic happened when I published "How to Change Song Lyrics with AI." Despite targeting what seemed like a low-volume keyword, this article demonstrated my expertise in an underserved niche. It positioned me as the absolute master of this topic before anyone else claimed it.

When a competitor later tried to rank for the same keyword with similar content, they couldn't match my position because Google recognized my article as the original authority. Even though my competitor AI Music Service tried to swoop in and create a similar article, they're not ranking as high as mine because they effectively copied many of the same points I made originally. Google detected this and recognized I did it first.

This one article drove thousands, eventually tens of thousands of views to my site. While many visitors weren't immediate purchasers (lots of people expect AI services to be free), changing song lyrics remains harder than most people realize, even with the latest generative AI tools.

Why Generic AI Content Won't Cut It

A vital theme here: you won't rank for anything unless you truly know what you're talking about and can provide unique insights. This is where most AI-generated content fails.

Pure AI systems typically scrape existing content without adding anything new or conducting original research. They won't develop innovative strategies or perspectives that truly help readers.

While some might get lucky with low-competition keywords, developing subject matter expertise and a unique perspective remains fundamental to sustainable ranking success. If you came here hoping to generate hundreds of articles without putting in ANY work, you'll be disappointed.

As Neil Patel and other SEO experts confirm, pure AI content systems generally don't perform well for generating meaningful traffic. The right approach uses AI to amplify your expertise, not replace it.

My Actual AI Writing Process

Here's my real process for creating content with AI: I use a Python script (built with Claude's help) that takes my spoken thoughts as input. I simply talk for 10-20 minutes about a topic I know well, using my Google Pixel's auto-transcription feature to capture everything.

This generates a transcript that I lightly edit before feeding it into my Python script. The script then creates a prompt that I can feed into Claude or another AI model to transform my raw thoughts into polished content.

Could I automate this process completely? Sure, but I've found that fully automated systems always have issues. Instead, my approach reduces friction between my human expertise and a publishable final product.

You don't necessarily need a Python script for this. Claude's project folders work well too—you can set up a Blog project with your formatting rules and style guidelines, then start new chats using that template for consistency.

The Right Way to Use AI for Images

Many people try to automate image generation alongside their articles. I use Midjourney for my blog images and have found it produces excellent results—but there's a catch.

Midjourney still doesn't have an official API, and for good reason: AI frequently generates images that don't make sense or contain obvious errors. Publishing AI-generated images without human review is risky.

Services like DALL-E and Flux offer APIs, but the quality isn't consistently reliable for professional content. The human review step is minimal effort compared to writing the article but makes a massive difference in quality perception.

Key Takeaways

What previously took four hours now takes about one hour with my AI-assisted process. This dramatic efficiency improvement doesn't sacrifice quality—in fact, it often enhances it by letting me focus on strategic elements instead of mechanical ones. 🔄

The formula for success isn't just "use AI to generate content." It's:

• Develop genuine expertise in your niche
• Create systems that transform your expertise into content efficiently
• Focus on underserved keywords where you can be the definitive authority
• Use AI to reduce friction, not replace your unique perspective
• Maintain human oversight for quality control

This approach has built a six-figure business for me, and the principles apply across industries and content types.