Yeah I feel you on this. The "AI side hustle" stuff is so oversaturated right now.
What's actually working for me (pulling in ~$2-3k/month consistently):
AI-assisted content writing for niche blogs - I write for 4 SaaS companies in the dev tools space. Claude helps me draft but I heavily edit for accuracy and add real examples. Takes me 3-4 hrs per 2000 word piece, clients pay $400-600 each.
Prompt engineering consulting - Sounds weird but small businesses don't know how to get good outputs. I help them set up custom GPT workflows for their team. Charge $150/hr for setup + training sessions.
AI video repurposing - Take client podcasts/webinars, use Descript to auto-transcribe, then Claude to create 5-7 social clips with captions. Way faster than doing it manually. $300-500 per video depending on length.
The Fiverr AI consulting thing is brutal yeah. Too many people racing to the bottom. I found clients through cold outreach on LinkedIn and Twitter actually - targetting people already talking about AI but clearly struggling with it.
Key is not selling "AI" but selling the outcome they want (faster content, better engagement, etc.) and just using AI as your backend tool.
