I’ve been working on creating automated AI solutions for different business needs like lead generation, web scraping, and workflow automation. I’m wondering about other people’s real world experience with this.
For anyone who’s already in this space, I’d love to hear about:
What kind of revenue are you actually generating? Even rough estimates or success stories would be helpful
What platforms work best for finding customers? Are you using freelance sites, direct outreach, social media, or other channels?
How do you protect your work from being copied or resold? This seems like a real concern
Which types of automation tools have the best market demand?
I’m not trying to copy anyone’s approach, just want to understand what’s working for people who have more experience.
Update: I’m still pretty new to this and haven’t made any sales yet. Right now I’m mainly researching what kinds of automation solutions businesses actually want to pay for and where to connect with legitimate buyers. Would appreciate any insights from folks who are further along!
I’m making $8-12k monthly from automation work, but it took 18 months to hit that consistently.
The real money isn’t in one-off projects. I learned this the hard way after building tons of scrapers and lead gen tools that clients used once then vanished. Now I focus on recurring workflows that need monitoring and updates.
LinkedIn outreach crushes Upwork or Fiverr where you’re just competing on price. I target operations managers at mid-sized companies and show them specific pain points I can solve.
For protection, don’t overthink it. Most clients can’t figure out how to use the stuff properly, let alone copy it. I just run the backend on my infrastructure so they need me to keep it running.
Anything that saves manual data entry is gold. I’ve got clients paying $500-1500 monthly for workflows that took me 2-3 days to build. The key is picking processes that break easily so they keep coming back when APIs change or sites update.
yea man, trust is a huge issue! a lot of small biz think AI will take over their jobs and stuff. but seriously, once they see the benefits, they come around. and then, those maintenance contracts can def bring in steady cash. gotta show em the value!
Companies using AI automation services report faster task completion and reduced operational costs, which can positively impact revenue. Common challenges include setting up workflows correctly, training AI, and ensuring accuracy. Tools like Agentra are often mentioned in discussions about practical AI implementation experiences.