Profiting from AI: $100K Strategies for Side Hustlers

16 Sep 2026 · 6 min · 3 chapters

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

How to make money with AI-driven print-on-demand (POD) using timely, pop-culture/election-related designs and paid Facebook ads, despite POD’s “bad rap” from past failures.

Guest backgrounds

No guests are mentioned; the host speaks solo.

Key claims

POD can work again with the right strategy; timing matters in election/pop-culture cycles; create many design variations; use AI image generation (mentions Chachiwiti as best, or create in ChatGPT then upload); distribution via Facebook ads is essential because organic traction won’t be fast enough.

Notable examples

Detroit Lions AI-generated merch during a strong season; election-year candidate art; ads targeting supporters vs opponents based on ad copy; seasonal themes like Halloween/Christmas and major 2026 pop-culture figures.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Exploring Print on Demand

0:32 to 1:39

Discussion on the potential of print on demand as a side hustle.

“Today, we're talking about a side hustle that you could use with AI and make potentially tons of money this fall and winter season.”

Creating a Winning Strategy

1:39 to 4:59

Steps to successfully engage in print on demand using AI tools and timing.

“So basically print on demand is dead for the most part, but there's a lot of people who are doing it really well.”

Closing Thoughts and Community Engagement

4:59 to 6:07

Final thoughts on the print on demand hustle and encouraging community interaction.

“to people who are in support of that candidate or against that candidate if the copy is against that candidate.”
Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:28Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chumba! on 21 plus terms and conditions apply. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're talking about a side hustle that you could use with AI and make potentially tons of money this fall and winter season. And that is print on demand. Now, print on demand has a bad rap in the AI community because so many people tried it. They started a Etsy shop, you know, with custom t-shirts and it didn't work out. Well, while that may be true, there's a strategy that I believe will work moving forward this year, being in an election year. There's always things happening in pop culture.

1:01And so today I'm going to talk about a strategy that you could use to potentially make lots of money doing a AI print on demand business. Before we get into that, I want to quickly mention our school community, AI Hustle. If you haven't checked that out yet, you need to get over there and check it out. It is a amazing community of over 1300 members. We have all different types of side hustles you can do with AI that we have courses on over there. Anything from AI music streaming to AI podcasting, AI consulting, and much, much more. So we'd love to have you be a member. It's only$19 a month. So go check it out at least and see if you're interested and we'd love to have you be a part of it.

1:38But let's talk about print on demand. So basically print on demand is dead for the most part, but there's a lot of people who are doing it really well. And there's opportunity now for you to get into this being, I believe, in an election year. So let me explain that. The whole idea of print on demand is that you're making custom designs that can be printed on t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc. So the first step to doing this would be going to a website like Printful or Printify and opening a store. And then from there, you need to be able to plug in your designs through an MCP. So what you would do then is use, I believe Chachiwiti is probably the best option right now because they have the best image generator, but you could actually just create your art right inside JGPT and then upload it to your store and go from there.

2:25But that's only a small part of this business, right? The trick is to get to design art that people really like. And so I'm going to share an example. Last year, the Detroit Lions, or a couple of years ago, the Detroit Lions were doing really well and it looked like they might go to the Super Bowl. and that was huge news for us as Michiganders because the Lions have been a really terrible team for many years so we were very excited about that so there was lots of Detroit Lions merch going around and I found one on Facebook I really liked it was like a hand-sketched picture of a lion it had like a beanie on and sunglasses looked really cool but it looked like a very custom piece of art but it was just generated with AI so but I believe that person sold a lot of those because of the timing and so timing is really everything with a lot of these and so what you can now do is make hundreds of variations of different items depending on who you want to reach.

3:20So for example, it's election year. So no matter what side politically you fall on, there's lots of content you can make around each candidate, right? And so if you come up with a clever drawing or painting representing that candidate in support or against, you could then put that on your print store. And then this is the next part that's really important, and that is running ads. So you're going to have to run some Facebook ads to get people to actually see this. Otherwise, your store is never going to get seen. So by the time you actually gain some algorithmic traction with your website or your Etsy shop or your print-on-demand site, the moment is going to be passed.

3:58So the Lions are going to lose and not be in the Super Bowl, or the election's already going to happen. So you need to get things created and pushed out instantly, which is why ads are a huge part of the strategy. So here's kind of where I'm going to put you on game and where I think there's a lot of opportunity, but that would be basically creating these custom artworks depending on, you know, not just political, but, you know, we have Halloween, Christmas coming up. If you could take somebody from pop culture that was really significant this year, 2026, and create art around them and run an ad on Facebook, you know, I think there's a chance that that's going to really take off depending on how creative and how well done it is.

4:36So yes, there's going to be lots of slop, but if you can come up with a pretty clever design and push it out, I think there's a lot of potential here. And Facebook now has very, very selective targeting depending on what your copy and creative says. So if you have a ad for a certain political candidate, and I know I'm going back to that, but it's only going to show those to people who are in support of that candidate or against that candidate if the copy is against that candidate. So it's going to match really well. And I think you're going to be able to target the right people with the right ads and then the right creative, or in this case, the right art with your print on demand.

5:14So if you try this hustle, please let me know and write in the school community how it worked out for you because I think there's a lot of potential. I have never personally wanted to put the time or money into this, but there's people who do it at scale and are very successful at it, which is why you see a lot of content around it. But if it's not done right and if you don't have the distribution, it's going to flop. So again, if you have the time to put into the side hustle, please reach out to me and let me know how it goes for you. But thanks for listening to the podcast. We really appreciate ratings or reviews wherever you're listening.

5:46And we're trying to get to 200 reviews. And Jaden is not here today, but he would say we read every single one and we appreciate those. So thank you for continuing to support us. And then again, check out the AI Hustle School community if you want to learn how to make money on the side or grow your business with AI. We share a lot of non-saturated hustles over there. So we'd love to have you be a member. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

From the publisher

In this episode, we unveil $100,000 strategies that side hustlers are using to profit from AI this winter. Discover the tools and tactics that are making waves in the gig economy.

  • Our AI Hustle Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustle
  • Get the top 80+ AI Models for $8.99 at AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.ai
  • Get the AI Chat Daily Newsletter: https://www.aichatdaily.com/newsletter
  • More from AI Hustle: Make Money with AI

    All 178 episodes
    Profiting from AI: $100K Strategies for Side HustlersAI Hustle: Make Money with AI · 6 min
    Listen in VO