TubeSum

Lazy Side Hustles Tested — Full Breakdown & Transcript

I Tried the Laziest Ways to Make Money Online

0h 13m video Published Apr 4, 2025 Transcribed Aug 9, 2026 Financial Wolf Financial Wolf
Beginner 5 min read For: Aspiring side hustlers and entrepreneurs looking for practical, low-cost ways to generate extra income.
AI Trust Score 55/100
⚠️ Average / Some Fluff

"The title promises 'laziest ways' but the video reveals each requires significant upfront effort—a classic bait-and-switch that still delivers some value."

AI Summary

The video tests the myth that hard work equals success by trying several 'lazy' side hustles, including AI-generated books, eBay drop shipping, vending machines, and Turo car rentals. The creator documents the effort and results for each, revealing that while some require minimal daily time, they all demand upfront work or investment.

[00:01]
Hard work myth

The creator challenges the idea that hard work equals success, especially in modern times with advancing technology.

[02:00]
AI book creation

Used ChatGPT to write two books in about 4 hours, covering trending topics like the polar vortex and Warren Buffett.

[02:43]
Amazon KDP publishing

Published both books on Amazon KDP, pricing the Buffett book at $4.99 and the polar vortex book at $2.99.

[03:09]
eBay drop shipping setup

Used AutoDS to import products from AliExpress and Walmart to eBay, with a 30-minute daily operation time.

[10:49]
eBay store results

The new eBay store generated $489.31 in sales with 167 listings after a week.

[06:47]
Crypto mining results

Crypto mining generated $18,321.79 in revenue with $7,828.90 in electricity costs over two years.

[09:12]
Vending machine revenue

Vending machines brought in $598.20 in revenue for the month, with 40-45% profit margins.

[10:08]
Turo car rentals

Turo business generated about $1,600 in monthly revenue with $300-400 in expenses.

[11:31]
Amazon KDP results

The polar vortex book sold two copies; the Buffett book sold zero, showing the importance of marketing.

[13:05]
Drop shipping profit

The eBay drop shipping business made a total profit of $252.63, a 26% profit margin.

Mentioned in this Video

Tutorial Checklist

1 01:07 Pick a trending topic using Google Trends.
2 02:00 Use ChatGPT to write a book on the topic.
3 02:29 Format the book and upload to Amazon KDP.
4 02:43 Set a price for the ebook (e.g., $4.99).
5 03:36 Create an AutoDS account and link it to your eBay store.
6 04:02 Import products from suppliers like AliExpress or Walmart.
7 04:29 Mark up prices and list products on eBay.
8 05:09 Monitor sales and adjust listings as needed.

Study Flashcards (10)

What are the four 'lazy' side hustles tested in the video?

easy Click to reveal answer

Selling AI-generated books on Amazon, eBay drop shipping, vending machines, and Turo car rentals.

00:53

How did the creator write the AI-generated books?

medium Click to reveal answer

He used ChatGPT to write two books in about four hours.

02:00

What were the sales results for the two AI-generated books?

medium Click to reveal answer

The polar vortex book sold two copies; the Warren Buffett book sold zero.

11:31

What is AutoDS used for?

easy Click to reveal answer

AutoDS is a tool for importing products from suppliers like AliExpress and Walmart to eBay.

03:36

What were the sales for the new eBay drop shipping store after a week?

medium Click to reveal answer

The new eBay store generated $489.31 in sales with 167 listings.

10:49

What was the profit margin for the eBay drop shipping business?

hard Click to reveal answer

The profit margin was 26% after fees and costs.

13:05

How much revenue did the vending machines generate in a month?

medium Click to reveal answer

The vending machines brought in $598.20 in revenue for the month.

09:12

What were the monthly revenue and expenses for the Turo business?

medium Click to reveal answer

The Turo business generated about $1,600 in monthly revenue with $300-400 in expenses.

10:08

How much did the creator invest in each side hustle?

hard Click to reveal answer

He invested $12,000 in crypto mining, $10,000 in vending machines, and $30,000 in Turo cars.

06:17

What were the revenue and electricity costs for crypto mining?

hard Click to reveal answer

The crypto mining generated $18,321.79 in revenue with $7,828.90 in electricity costs.

06:47

💡 Key Takeaways

💡

Hard work isn't the only path

Challenges the traditional belief that hard work alone leads to success, especially with modern technology.

00:53
🔧

AI-assisted book creation

Demonstrates how AI can drastically reduce the time to create a product, from weeks to hours.

02:00
📊

26% profit margin in drop shipping

Provides a concrete, realistic profit margin figure for eBay drop shipping after fees and costs.

13:05
⚖️

No free lunch

Emphasizes that every side hustle requires either upfront time or capital investment, debunking the 'lazy' myth.

05:48

[00:01] said that hard work is the key to success. Work, you will have it. My workload went up from about 70 to 80 hours a week to probably 120. I go to a week. I'll have to do that for a while. If we look to the answer as to

[00:14] why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth. It was because here in this land, we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. freedom and

[00:27] the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. Hard work and determination is what Americans have prided themselves on for centuries. And it's what took us from 13 original

[00:39] British colonies to the most powerful economy in global history with stunning dollar companies. But what if I told you that hard work equaling success isn't necessarily true, especially in modern times with rapidly advancing technology.

[00:53] that to the test, trying what many consider lazy ways of making money to first lazy way of making money we're going to try is selling AI generated books on Amazon. And to get started with this, we need to pick a topic for the

[01:07] to trends.google.com and clicking on trending now. Scrolling through, one topic that very recently had an absolute collapse, which is essentially when Arctic winds move south into the United

[01:21] States in Canada and cause extremely cold temperatures. I guess one's coming think this is a good topic to potentially write a book about and maybe I can talk about the biggest polar vortex scenarios in history up to today.

[01:33] And another topic that has been trending lately is the stock market. Especially right now, markets have been very volatile, which I think brings more gave me the idea to write a book with the help of AI about Warren Buffett, his

[01:47] life story, and his general rules for investing that especially apply to times have to put in some work to market the book, but for now, AI is going to do almost everything for us as we work with it to create two fulllength non-fiction

[02:00] proud. I spent 4 hours with the help of ChatGpt putting together two books for Amazon KDP I had a feeling could sell a lot of copies. Did you guys know that book actually finish it? Well, luckily in this day and age with modern

[02:15] much easier. In my opinion, both this Warren Buffett book about investing vortexes, which is a topic I had no clue really good. I also spent some time formatting both books properly for

[02:29] books that looks professional because just like with a YouTube video, if you people aren't going to click on the video in the first place and it doesn't that we have that done, we are going to download the DOCX files for both books

[02:43] and upload them to Amazon KDP along with the book covers. This entire process is both books, I'm going to price the Warren Buffett ebook at $4.99 and the Polar Vortex book at $2.99 since it's a lot shorter of a book and

[02:57] honestly, I know much less about that topic. But with both books published on generate any sales organically. And while we wait, let's move on to lazy side hustle number two, which is eBay drop shipping. This is a business that

[03:09] drop shipping. This is a business that in the last 31 days has generated me accounting for things like product cost, eBay fees, and credit card rewards, we made a total profit of $722. And this business only takes me

[03:23] around 30 minutes daily to operate. And here's how it works. The first thing some suppliers to drop ship from, like AliExpress, Walmart, or even Amazon. And AutoDS. They're one of the amazing

[03:36] And if you click the top link down below in the description, you can try them out for your eBay drop shipping business for 30 days for just $1. And once you create an account and link it to your eBay store, you guys can see AutoDS gives you

[03:48] you can drop ship from suppliers onto eBay and make a profit for every sale. Like these cartoon jellyfish lights or this retro handheld gaming console that once we import to our store will make us a profit of $15 for every sale. I spent

[04:02] about 30 minutes importing all 20 of the listed handpicked products by AutoDS. step further and begin listing products from supplier websites. Like on AliExpress right now, if I want to sell this Glass Bird Suncatcher, which is a

[04:15] other eBay page, all I need to do is copy and paste the link and then on AutoDS, click add single product, copy the link, and boom, it imports the item And all we have to do is edit it a little bit and mark up our price from

[04:29] $34, which is our cost, to $14.99. AliExpress or Chinese suppliers in margins when you're eBay drop shipping with them. But of course, they also have some downsides, like potentially lower product quality and of course longer

[04:43] notify your customers about this, shouldn't be too much of an issue. I then spent more time using AutoDS to import products from AliExpress, another section on their website where they identify trending products on eBay

[04:56] that you can drop ship from cheap suppliers along with data showing how every month. So, we might as well also import as many of these items as currently trending and have proven to sell successfully. Ladies and gentlemen,

[05:09] it is now the next day and after spending a few more hours last night and this morning listing products on the eBay store, we are now sitting at 100 original store just like I have been for the past few months, but I wanted to

[05:22] purpose of this video so you guys can see just how fast sales tend to build up when you're starting from scratch with the right strategy. Be sure to check out description to begin your eBay drop shipping journey. And we're going to

[05:36] check back in on this store later in this video as we continue listing much money we made. The first two side hustles I showed you could be done from anywhere in the world, whether in your home city or chilling in the Egyptian

[05:48] pyramids. They also both require pretty little money to get started up front as effort. You see, even in modern times, there's no such thing as a free lunch. money, you either have to put time in upfront or if you have some savings, you

[06:02] have some experience doing this as well throughout the last couple of years, vending machines, turo cars, and even Bitcoin mining to build up semi-passive revenue. Over the past 2 years, I've invested about $12,000 into crypto

[06:17] mining, $10,000 into vending machines, $30,000 into Turo cars, and a down all the investments I've made, the most mining. Because despite what you guys might think, most of my machines are not

[06:31] lowcost facility in rural Iowa, generating me passive income. Taking a look at the mining dashboard for my two Bitcoin miners worth about $5,000. So far, we've mined 0.21 Bitcoin all time since I started mining on March 6, 2023,

[06:47] which is over 2 years ago now. And at Bitcoin's current price, that's $18,321.79 in revenue. But over the last two years, I've had electricity costs on these machines of $7,828.90. So when we subtract the cost

[07:01] for the machines along with electricity spend, we made a profit of bought more on top of that. So if Bitcoin continues to increase in price,

[07:14] morning, guys. It is now the next day and our eBay drop shipping business just got its first sale. But this morning is all about another lazy side hustle, currently have two locations and honestly the hardest part about the

[07:27] business is finding new spots to put vending machines. I just went the route my area and also networking with business owners or other people I knew. And that helped me secure my two cash flowing spots. And so far it's been

[07:40] Sam's Club once or twice a month and buy all the drinks and snacks for the vending machines. And then every week to every other week, I go to the locations, and to the school at least, pay commission. And that's exactly where

[07:53] guys can see in my back seat, I loaded the car up with a ton of snacks and drinks to fill the vending machine up since I just got back from Sam's Club. the school from here. And we'll see how it goes because I have gotten a few

[08:06] complaints from people, meaning two complaints of either images or videos of is either not accepting bills or stole their money. I spent a lot of money on problem I can fix myself. And after making it to the school location, I went

[08:20] incognito mode filming on my phone. And after waiting for a few minutes, nobody answered. All right, guys. So, it looks like the school location is actually think it's spring break right now. So, it makes sense why no one would be there

[08:34] still have all the snacks and drinks loaded in the back of my car. So, we're location and collect the money. Now that the vending machine is fully stocked up, right here and take off the bill

[08:48] acceptor on the machine. I'm excited to see how much is inside cuz the machine was pretty empty to start. And boom. You guys can see we got a real nice stack of cash. Taking it all out. Holy smokes. That is a solid amount for 2 weeks.

[09:00] Counting up all the bills, we have $85 in cash. And then down here in the bucket on the machine, we also have a pretty good amount of change. And that change brought in another $9 in revenue. And now back here at the house, you guys

[09:12] both locations have brought in $598.20 in revenue. And we still have about a week to go until the month ends. Only about 40 to 45% of that revenue is profit. My margins used to be closer to 50%, but since taking on the new school

[09:27] location with 25% in commission, I had to both raise my prices and take a little bit of a hit on margin to expand revenue. Servicing vending machines or this video might seem like a lot of work, but you have to think spending 5

[09:40] still a pretty lazy way of making money. And even with my turo car business, half the fleet is currently rented out right now. Aka one of the cars with the Subaru making

[09:53] $178.52. And the Nissan Sentra is currently rented out right now on a trip $29512. For the month, the business is going to do about $1,600 in revenue. And to being on vacation myself, unfortunately. So, I wasn't able to rent

[10:08] the revenue would have been closer to $2,000. And I only have around $300 to $400 in monthly expenses since both cars I rent out are actually paid off. And insurance every month, a little bit of maintenance expenses, and Ubers back and

[10:23] time commitment in regards to Turo, I'm spending about 10 hours every single month between communicating with guests, dropping off cars, and cleaning them between rentals. And the best part is I really do enjoy the work. And as this

[10:35] said, "If you enjoy what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." And side hustles. But now, a week later, following up on both my Amazon KDP store and my eBay drop shipping businesses, the original eBay store I started in the

[10:49] beginning of this video in collaboration with my friend Tropic is now sitting at with my friend Tropic is now sitting at $489.31 in sales with 167 listings and orders I got were cheaper products I listed with AutoDS from AliExpress, but

[11:03] we also sold a TV from Walmart that is currently on clearance for 214 bucks for $259.99 on eBay. So, a big chunk of our sales came from that. And before we break down the exact profit on both this store and the OG eBay drop shipping

[11:17] Let's hop into the results for my Amazon KDP store. I haven't even logged into Amazon KDP since we got the two books listed about a week and a half ago. But for both books, you guys can see my book about the polar vortex collapse sold two

[11:31] copies, which I'm honestly pretty hyped about since it's a topic I knew nothing zero marketing. My other book about Warren Buffett, I guess, was not talking about his life story is copyrighted. But I think Amazon KDP can

[11:45] seen people build up tens of thousands of dollars per month in income selling right strategy and are willing to put in includes doing things such as running Amazon ads and enrolling your book in

[11:58] subscription on Amazon where you can essentially read unlimited books for all program. And for every person on this subscription that reads your book, you effective thing you can do as an author to start selling more books is to build

[12:13] an audience on Tik Tok, Instagram, or YouTube in the topic you're writing books about. Like for example, a few weeks ago, I saw a video on Tik Tok of a book signing at Barnes & Noble, but he was filmed by a stranger and that video

[12:26] quickly went mega viral. And through the support of the audience that watched that video, his book became number one on the Amazon bestseller list. On Saturday, I had a book signing at Barnes & Noble and all of a sudden, the Tik Tok

[12:38] me. Sometimes in life, you never know what good things could happen to you if flashing back to our original eBay drop shipping store, I've only put about 25 more listings on the page since the start of this video, and we got another

[12:52] $48612 in sales in the last 10 days or so. When you add up the sales for both eBay drop shipping pages, subtract 13% in eBay fees, add relatively high product cost, and also add in the 3% cash back I got on credit cards when

[13:05] buying all these products. We made a total profit of total profit of $25263 or a profit margin of 26%. If you making money, be sure to drop a like and check out the sponsor AutoDS at the top

[13:18] link down below in the description to start your eBay drop shipping journey. And on that note, I will see you guys all in the next video. Isa.

⚡ Saved you 0h 13m reading this? Transcribe any YouTube video for free — no signup needed.