🚀Side Hustle Experiment #1: Can You Actually Make Money on X?

Welcome to all my new subscribers!

Seriously, I'm pumped to have you here. When I started this crazy experiment series, I wasn't sure anyone would actually care about watching me fumble through different side hustles in real-time. But here you are, and that means the world.

Here's the deal if you're new: Every month, I pick a side hustle that's been floating around the internet, build it from absolute zero, and document everything—the wins, the embarrassing failures, and all the messy stuff in between. No BS, no highlight reels. Just the raw truth of what it actually takes to make money online.

Every Friday, you get an update. Good, bad, or ugly.

If you've been here since the beginning, you already know the vibe. Let's dive into this week's chaos.

💰 This Month's Challenge: Growing & Monetizing an X Account

Okay, full transparency moment: I didn't start this on February 1st like I probably should have. I actually began working on it in the last week of January because I got impatient and curious. So yeah, I had about a week's head start before officially kicking this off.

I know, I know—not exactly "starting from scratch." But honestly? That extra week taught me more about what not to do than anything else.

📊 The Numbers (And Why They Don't Tell the Whole Story)

Started Posting: January 27th
Current Followers: 769
Timeframe: 8-10 days
Account Locks: 2 (more on this nightmare later)
Actual Engaged Followers: Maybe 20? If I'm being generous.

Those 769 followers look good on paper, right? Wrong. They're basically digital ghosts. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

🎯 The Strategy: Follow-for-Follow (And Why I Should've Known Better)

Here's what I did to hit 769 followers in just one week: follow-for-follow.

The concept is stupidly simple. You find posts where people are literally begging for followers, promise to follow them back, drop a comment, and then actually follow through. Rinse and repeat until your thumbs hurt.

See this guy? He's pulling in $1-2k/month doing nothing but posting follow-for-follow content. No value. No real content. Just "follow me and I'll follow you back" on repeat.

When I first saw this, I thought, "There's no way this actually works." But the numbers don't lie. This dude is making real money.

So naturally, my brain went: "If he can do it, how hard could it be?"

Spoiler alert: Pretty damn hard.

⚠️ The Wake-Up Call (Or: How I Learned X Doesn't Play)

After 8-10 days of grinding this strategy, I'm not gonna lie; I'm exhausted and a little defeated.

Here's what nobody tells you about the follow-for-follow game:

The work is absolutely brutal:

• You're glued to your phone for 3-4 hours a day, minimum

• Manually commenting "Followed! Follow back?" on literally hundreds of posts

• Following back every single person (and X rate-limits you, so you have to space it out)

• Checking notifications constantly so you don't miss anyone

• Zero actual engagement on your posts because these "followers" don't give a damn about your content

It's like being a digital door-to-door salesman, except the doors are infinite and nobody's home.

But here's the part that really stung:
X locked my account. Twice. In one week.

The first time, I panicked. I thought I'd lost everything. Turns out, X's algorithm flagged my account for "suspicious activity" (which, fair—I was following hundreds of people). I had to verify my phone number and wait a few hours to get back in.

The second time? Same thing, but now I'm genuinely worried. One more strike and this whole experiment could be over before it even gets started.

I'm slowing way down now. No point in speedrunning my way to a permanent ban.

🤔 So... Was It Worth It?

Honestly? I don't know yet.

On one hand, I got 769 followers in a week, which sounds impressive. On the other hand, my last post got Zero and Zero comments. From 769 people.

Do the math. That's a 0% engagement rate. Pathetic.

The engagement rate you see in the above screenshot is from the comments.

These aren't real followers. They're placeholders. They followed because I followed them, not because they care about what I have to say. And that's the core problem with this entire strategy.

I keep asking myself: "Am I building something real here, or just inflating numbers that don't matter?"

The answer, unfortunately, is probably the latter.

🔮 What's Next? Pivoting Before I Drown

The original plan was to grind my way into the X Creator Program, which requires:

• 500+ followers (✅ got that)

• 5 million impressions in the last 3 months (LOL, nowhere close)

• Consistent posting for 6+ months

Yeah... that's gonna take at least half a year of daily posting. Maybe longer. And I'm not convinced it's even the right path anymore.

So I'm exploring other ways to actually make money from this account:

Option 1: Build & Sell Digital Products

Create an ebook, a course, a template; something I can sell directly to my (eventual) audience. This feels like the most sustainable path, but it requires real followers who actually trust me. Which I don't have yet.

Another way is to borrow other account’s audience and maybe ask them to promote the products by paying them.

Option 2: Grow & Flip the Account

Some people buy X accounts with follower counts. Would 1,000-5,000 followers be worth anything? Maybe $50-200? I don't know. I need to research this more, but it could be a quick exit strategy if this whole thing goes south.

Option 3: Viral Clipping Content

This is what I'm testing right now. I started posting short clips from MrBeast videos—the kind of content that already has millions of views on YouTube. The idea is to ride the coattails of viral creators and hopefully pull in impressions that way.

I posted my first MrBeast clip two days ago. It got 240 views. Not amazing, but better than anything else I've posted so far.

Maybe this is the move. Maybe I should've started here.

💭 My Brutally Honest Take (And Why I'm Not Quitting)

Here's where I'm at mentally:

This side hustle is looking rough.

The follower quality is terrible. The engagement is non-existent. The risk of getting banned is real. And I'm spending hours every day on something that might not even pay off.

But here's the thing—and I need you to understand this about me:

I'm not a quitter.

I told myself (and all of you) that I'd try to make money from this experiment. And I will. It just might not look the way I thought it would a week ago.

Maybe the answer isn't follow-for-follow. Maybe it's clipping content. Maybe it's pivoting to a specific niche I actually care about. Maybe it's something I haven't even thought of yet.

I don't know. But I'm figuring it out in real-time, and you're here for the ride.

Some experiments fail. Some take longer than expected. But the only way to actually fail is to quit before you find what works.

So no, I'm not giving up. I'm adapting.

📅 Next Friday: Week 2 Update

Here's what I'm committing to for next week:

✅ Post 15 more MrBeast clips and track the analytics
✅ Test a new content angle (thinking about posting viral tweets from other niches)
✅ Research whether selling the account is even viable
✅ Actually engage with accounts that seem real (instead of just chasing numbers)

I'll report back next Friday with:

• How the MrBeast clipping strategy performed

• Whether I found any real engaged followers

• If this thing is salvageable or if I need to pivot completely

💬 Let's Talk

Got questions? Suggestions? Think I'm doing this completely wrong?

Drop a comment below. Seriously, I read everything. Some of my best pivots have come from subscriber feedback, so don't hold back.

And if you know someone who's actually made money on X (without selling their soul), send them my way. I need all the help I can get.

See you next Friday. ✌️

P.S. If this whole thing crashes and burns, at least we'll have a good story, right?