My first €70 online came from a silly fan project. It changed everything.
BUILD STORY
Back in 2018, I had no clue what SEO really was. I’d heard of it, sure, but I wasn’t doing keyword research, analyzing SERPs, or monetizing traffic. I was just a developer who liked to build random stuff on the internet.
One day, inspired by a cult sci-fi series from Spain (about time-traveling government agents),
I had a dumb little idea: What if fans could create their own “official” Ministry of Time ID cards?
So I bought a domain, built a simple page with a form, and let people upload a photo, pick a job title, and choose their "year of origin." Then it would generate a custom digital ID. No sign-ups, just fun.
Before launching, I added a Google AdSense banner next to the “Generate ID” button (I still don’t know if that was strategy or luck).
Then I posted the link in a few Facebook fan groups and it blew up.
People were sharing their cards like crazy. That day, the site made €70 from AdSense clicks alone.
It may not sound like much, but for me, back then, it felt huge.
The traffic didn’t last more than a few days. And the site itself? It was basically useless.
But something clicked: A silly, zero-budget side project had driven real traffic (and real money).
That tiny win sparked my interest in digital entrepreneurship. I started learning SEO, building niche sites, experimenting with monetization... And years later, this is now my main income stream.
Would I have ended up here anyway? Who knows. But that goofy little ID generator opened the first door.
Lessons learned?
- Build even the dumb ideas, they might surprise you
- Share them with the right audience
- Every experiment teaches you something
- And sometimes, €70 can change your mindset forever
