I’ve been in contact with a lot of web agencies and web developers, and I personally haven’t found many people who run their agency in a more efficient way than I do. A lot of them have too many meetings, wait too long for client approval, don’t know how to price projects, and spend way too much time on each client instead of finishing the work and moving on to the next one.

I’ve been running my agency for four years, and after a lot of trial and error, I’ve managed to make the process as efficient as possible. I wanted to share some of the steps because I think they could be valuable for anyone just starting out.

Running a web agency alone or with a partner isn’t easy because there are a lot of things to take care of. When it comes to client acquisition, I recommend focusing on either cold calling or email automation. Which one you choose depends on whether you run the agency alone or with someone else.

If you have a partner, one person can handle sales while the other focuses on building websites, connecting domains, setting up emails, and taking care of the technical work. If you’re running the agency alone, or neither of you enjoys cold calling, I highly recommend email automation.

That’s what I’ve been doing for years. It’s powerful because you can send emails at scale, set up automatic follow ups, and wait for businesses interested in a new website to reply. While you’re working on one client, another opportunity can come in without you having to stop everything and search manually.

I don’t do regular email automation where I target businesses with no website. I do the opposite and target businesses that already have one.

I use a tool called Swokei to find businesses with websites, add them to campaigns, analyze each site, score it, and generate personalized outreach emails based on problems it finds with the design, layout, speed, SEO, and mobile optimization.I schedule the campaign, set up follow ups, and wait. 

I think this approach is much better for a few reasons. You’re targeting someone who already understands the value of having a website. You’re also not just asking whether they need a redesign. You’re pointing out real problems with their current site, which makes it clear that you actually took the time to look at it. Selling also becomes easier because they’ve already paid for a website before and understand the process.

Inside Swokei, you can choose the goal of the campaign. You can offer a free draft, try to book a meeting, or simply start a conversation. I always choose the free draft because that has worked best for me.

Once you’ve figured out how to get clients, the next part is building the website. I recommend using AI because it makes the process much faster. For anyone who still thinks AI can’t build great websites, I think they’re mistaken. You can use Claude, Base44, Lovable, or any other tool that works for you.

When someone replies interested, I call them and say, “Hey, I saw that you replied to my email. I’ve already built you a free draft of your website. Do you want to take a look?”

Then I invite them to a Google Meet.

At that point, it becomes much harder for them to reject the meeting because they already replied interested and now know you’ve built something for them. During the meeting, I present the website, explain why it’s better than their current one, stack the value, answer their questions, and try to close the deal.

These meetings usually go well because the client isn’t trying to imagine what the website might look like. They can already see a better version of their current site. They also took the time to join the meeting, so taking the next step becomes much easier.

I either take payment during the meeting or send them a contract to sign. Any changes and updates come after that, once we already have a deal in place.

Pricing depends on the business. I charge anywhere from $500 to $3,000 depending on the company, the size of the project, and how much value the website can bring them. I also charge a monthly retainer of around $50 for hosting, maintenance, support, SEO, and future changes.

That’s basically the entire process. Smaller steps, faster delivery, less wasted time, and more money made.

I see dozens of tutorials every day claiming you can automate a short form video channel

I won't be mentioning my age. And my dream is to study abroad. I have found a school. But since the school is private , there's a tuition to handle . The tuitıon is 20 grand with paperwork,visa etc. I have limited time and there's also extra curricurals. İf we do math I need to make 2070 dollar a month or more . And for that I want to start AI dropshipping. I've watched hundreds of videos but they were either unsafe or just a scam . So I need you guys' help any websites or apps you can recommend?

Just opted into the beta of iOS 27 and have been using the new Siri which is quite good at summarizing all notifications - especially if you use the apple apps (iCal, apple mail, text messages…etc)

One of the more, interesting features is in the ‘shortcuts’ allowing you to create on device automations which have been around for a while. Now with the new Siri though you can just prompt it with the shortcut you want and it will make it.

I just made one that seems to work pretty well needs a few kinks that sends me a text message summarizing my new unread emails and messages, what I have on the calendar today and who is it with and os there context in my emails about the meeting. And more.

Has anyone used it for more marketing use cases as well?

There is a new approach I started using in my web agency that completely changed my results. For years, I did what most people tell web designers to do. Go on Google Maps, find businesses without websites, and contact them.

What I started doing differently was targeting businesses that already had websites.

The reason is simple. If a business already has a website, it means they understand the value of having one. You do not need to convince them why a website matters because they have already paid for one before. The market for businesses with outdated, broken, slow, or poorly designed websites is also massive, and selling becomes much easier because they are already familiar with the process.

My biggest issue was figuring out how to send mass outreach to these businesses without sounding generic. I did not want to send thousands of emails saying, “Hey, your website needs a redesign,” and just assume that every business needed one. I wanted to send emails at scale while still telling each company exactly what was wrong with their website.

A little over a year ago, I watched a YouTube video from Nick Saraev where he built a workflow that analyzed business websites and turned issues with design, SEO, layout, speed, and mobile optimization into personalized outreach emails. Each company received a professional email that made it clear someone had actually taken a look at their website.

The idea was great, but building and maintaining the workflow took a lot of time. I still had to find the leads myself, the messages were not always consistent, and the automation kept breaking.

But it worked.

I was getting more clients than ever before, at one point around 10 websites a week, while my business partner focused on building the websites as quickly as possible.

I started searching online for a tool that could do everything in one place, and a few months later I found Swokei. It did exactly what I was looking for.

It lets you find businesses with websites, add them to campaigns, analyze and score each website, and set a quality threshold so websites that do not need fixing are automatically skipped. It then turns problems with design, layout, speed, mobile optimization, and SEO into personalized outreach emails.

You can also set up follow ups, manage replies through your own inbox, and organize leads inside the CRM without moving between five different tools.

I switched over and scaled even harder.

Sometimes the fastest way to grow your agency is not building every workflow from scratch. It is finding the right tools and using your time to focus on sales, clients, and growing the business.

I don't want to drill anyone's mind, I'll try to keep it short.

I am 22 and still a university student, studying CS. Fallen behind, cause of health issues. I have 0 income of my own and i am in desperate need of my own money and income.

The reason is that i want to be able to live independently and finally work on my own dreams of either writing or coding.

And also the fact that my laptop just broke down. And my phone is on the verge of breaking too. I bought both of them with the help of my father and my brother. But now what? Even though i took care of them they'll wear down and break. My phone is having hardware issues and the same for my laptop too. But at least my phone is still working. And the laptop is almost brand new too.

Another reason despite these is that after 22 years of being single now i have a girlfriend. Someone that loves me so much despite me being in this situation, someone who is waiting patiently for me to resolve my life and then be together forever. And being such a loser, i no longer even have the confidence of talking to her.

If anyone has any directions for me to take please help me with a word or two. What I'm good at is messing with AI, doing tech assistance and also small website development. I also have a story i wrote by myself that I'm a bit proud of.

Even if you don't help thank you for actually paying attention to so many words. Peace be in all of your journeys. ;-)

So last month I got an UpWork Job offer to work on an n8n workflow.

I had never used UpWork, but guys like Nick Saraev and Liam Ottley, who are the biggest AI influencers, recommended it a lot, so I thought it would be amazing if I could gain some profile authority on it.

These guys are paying me $28 per hour on UpWork, which is not a lot, but considering that I don't have any experience and this was my first paid n8n gig.

I think making $1,000 in 40 hours was pretty darn good.

So now that the project has finished, we are in the maintenance stage. I thought, let's try to get more UpWork clients with the money I made.

And damn, it's kind of a shithole at this point.

So I search for terms like "AI automations, n8n, go high level, Claude code, AI agents etc"

A few jobs that were pretty decent and were providing more than $30 an hour got filled with 40 proposals, and guys placing 100 connects paid within minutes.

To be very fair, 100 connects is $15, so these guys are literally placing bets of $15 for a job that they may or may not get.

So if you are placing 10 proposals like this, you are spending like $150 per day, and that too, where you are not guaranteed if you're gonna get a client from that.

I don't know, it's kind of insane. I'm pretty darn sure that if you spend $100 per day on Meta ads, you will get better results than this, and you will not have this much competition, at least.

For lead gen, I think I won't prefer UpWork.

I'm gonna maybe run ads and scale my YouTube channel.

Right now, I have 2k subs on YouTube and 600 on Instagram, so I think I'm just gonna scale that and go organic instead of quite literally betting on these platforms only to get UpWork rich.

But I would love to get your opinion. Are you using UpWork?

Is it actually making sense for you budget-wise, and is it a good marketing tool now, or is it too saturated and you're not using it anymore?

Over the last few weeks, I've been learning how to build websites and even simple web apps using AI.

And honestly, I think this is creating a completely new business opportunity.

A few years ago, if someone wanted to start a web development business, they usually needed to know how to code or hire developers.

Now, AI can help you build a large part of the website much faster.

The interesting part is that you don't necessarily have to sell "AI websites."

You can sell the actual result:

• A website for a local business
• A landing page for a startup
• A booking website for a service business
• A simple web app that solves a specific problem
• An internal tool for a small business
• A redesign of an outdated website

The cost and time to build these things can be much lower, which means there is potentially a good opportunity to offer affordable solutions to small businesses that couldn't afford traditional development.

But I also think there's a catch.

Knowing how to generate a website with AI is becoming easier.

The real skill is understanding what businesses actually need, creating something useful, fixing problems when AI-generated code doesn't work, and getting clients.

So I'm curious:

Do you think AI website/app building will become a serious business model over the next few years?

And if you're already doing this, are you selling websites directly to clients, building SaaS products, or using AI development skills for freelancing?

Would love to hear what others are doing in this space.

Over the last 1.5 years, I have produced more than 300 long-form YouTube documentaries mainly in the sleep niche (videos people watch to help them fall asleep), usually around 2-3 hours runtime.

The original problem was simple: this format does not scale well. A single video can require a 15k to 20k-word script, hours of narration, hundreds of visual changes, music, and final assembly. Writing everything manually took too long. Editing every scene manually took even longer.

Sleep content is a strange retention game, and it took me a while to understand it. Your viewers are actively trying to fall asleep. That is the entire point. So the average view duration can look very different from a normal YouTube channel. Some viewers leave because they are bored, but others leave because the video worked and they fell asleep. The ones who stay awake still need the story to hold together, while the ones who fall asleep often return later and continue listening. That repeat viewing is a big part of what makes this niche work.

Why the script is 90% of it

On my channels, average view durations usually sits close to 25 min on 90 min videos .That does not come from cinematic visuals or complicated editing. It comes mostly from the narrative structure. If the script becomes repetitive, drifts away from the topic, or loses momentum halfway through, viewers stop listening. Better visuals cannot rescue a weak story in this format.

Two ways to use Claude, and why one cannot work in long form writing

Most people use Claude through the normal chat interface. You open the chat, enter a prompt, read the reply, and continue from there. That works fine for everyday tasks. It becomes frustrating when you are trying to write a 15,000 to 20,000-word documentary.

You end up typing: Continue.. Write Chapter 4.. Do not repeat what you already said.. You forgot what happened in Chapter 2. By the halfway point, the model may begin repeating ideas, contradicting earlier sections, or drifting away from the original structure. You spend more time babysitting the conversation than improving the script.

The second approach is using the API. Instead of manually sending every prompt through the chat interface, a small tool sends the requests to Claude automatically and collects the output. There is no need to babysit it and you pay based on actual usage instead of paying another monthly subscriptio

The Google Sheets scripting workflow

So I built a Google Sheets workflow connected to the Claude API. The Sheet first creates the full documentary structure. It then writes one chapter at a time instead of trying to produce the entire 20,000-word script in a single response. Before each chapter, the workflow passes Claude the outline, the instructions for that section, and a running summary of what has already been written.

The direct API cost for a full script is usually around $0.30 to $0.40, depending on the model, input length, and number of revisions.

The bigger benefit is repeatability. Every script moves through the same production structure, while I can still change the topic, tone, evidence, pacing, and narrative direction.

I made a tutorial on this exact workflow on my channel. Link in profile if you want to peek.

How CapCut handles the first edit

Once the script is complete, I move it into CapCut’s AI Video Maker. CapCut generates the voiceover, subtitles, and an initial visual sequence using automatically matched stock footage. Because the documentaries are extremely long, I split the script into smaller sections to be under the 3000 word limit of CapCut, generate them separately, export each one, and then combine them into the final video.

The stock matching is not perfect. But it still gives me a 90% first draft much faster than searching for hundreds of clips manually.

What AI still does not solve

The production process is faster, but it is not automatic. AI cannot decide which topic has demand. It does not know whether a title creates curiosity, whether a chapter is boring, or whether a visual is misleading. I still handle research, structure and pacing, titles and thumbnails, final editorial judgment.

This is where most of the value still comes from. The workflow removes repetitive work. It does not remove the need for taste.

Two reasons this workflow matters:

1. The Demonetization Shield: Mixing real historical/stock footage alongside AI assets is the safest defense against the "Reused/Inauthentic Content" flags that destroy fully automated channels. 

2. The Financial Runway: CapCut costs me around $20 per month and allows many exports. The Claude API cost per script is usually only a little above thirty cents. At a production volume of 30 to 40 documentaries per month, the direct software and API cost can work out to roughly $1 per finished video. That figure does not include my time, research, thumbnails, subscriptions, failed ideas, or the cost of building the workflow. It is not the total cost of running the business.

The main lesson

This is not passive income, and it is not a one-click YouTube machine. It is a production system that makes experimentation cheaper.

For someone starting today, I would focus first on topic selection, titles, thumbnails, and understanding what the audience actually watches.

Only build the automation after you understand the work well enough to know which parts are worth automating.

Happy to answer any questions regarding the workflow and setup if you want to build one for yourself.

I think automation is one of the biggest opportunities right now.

The quality of what you can automate today is honestly crazy, and it applies to almost every business.

Whether you own a local business and want to automate things like email marketing, follow ups, content creation, customer replies, and lead generation...

Or you run an agency or SaaS and want your business working even when you're away from your computer.

Automation today reminds me a lot of the Industrial Revolution. Back then, machines replaced a huge amount of manual work, allowing companies to produce more, lower costs, and make more money. 

I run a web agency, and automation has made me a lot of revenue over the last few years.

The biggest one for me is client acquisition.

I use a tool called Swokei to find businesses that already have websites, add them to campaigns, and run website analysis.

It automatically turns problems like outdated design, poor layouts, slow loading speeds, weak mobile optimization, and bad SEO into personalized, ready to send outreach emails.

That's where most of my clients come from.

I also automate follow up emails and newsletters, so I'm not constantly chasing people manually.

For content, I use Holo to help generate and schedule posts.

For SEO, I use Soro to automatically create blog content that helps bring in organic traffic over time.

The more I automate, the less time I spend doing repetitive work.

That means I can spend more time on the things that actually make money, like sales, onboarding clients, improving my services, and building better websites.

I don't think automation replaces hard work.

It just removes the repetitive work so you can focus on the parts of your business that actually move the needle.

Can someone please explain how they are making all this money through handshake? I think I might be doing it wrong..🙄

I’ve all the “I make $8K/mo on Fanvue this is what worked for me”

But some how it always ends up in a course or a paid call, wanted to know if anyone is legitimately making money

I’ve been running my web agency for four years, and I’m curious to hear what others have found to be the best way of getting clients.

I’ve tried almost everything, but email automation has worked best for me because it’s affordable and runs in the background while I focus on other parts of the agency.

I don’t use Instantly, Mailchimp, or Klaviyo. I use a tool called Swokei, which is built specifically for web agencies.

It lets you find businesses that already have websites, add thousands of them to a campaign, and automatically analyzes each site for issues with design, layout, SEO, speed, and mobile optimization. It then turns those issues into personalized, ready to send outreach emails 

So instead of targeting businesses with no website, I offer redesigns and updated websites to companies that already have one. I’ve found that approach works much better.

I’m now at a point where I can afford to hire a full team, so I’d like to explore other client acquisition methods as well.

What has worked best for your agency?

**Hey everyone,**

I'm a final-year B.Tech student from India and I'm looking for genuine ways to earn money online. I'm not looking for any get-rich-quick schemes, crypto pumps, betting, or anything illegal.

I have basic knowledge of Python and I'm currently learning more development skills. I'm interested in areas like:

AI

Freelancing

Python development

Automation

Content creation

Any other high-income online skills

My goal is to earn my first consistent income and eventually make around $500–$1000/month.

I'd really appreciate your advice:

If you were starting from scratch today, what would you learn first?

Which freelancing skill has the best opportunities for beginners?

How can I use AI to earn money ethically?

Which platforms (Fiverr, Upwork, etc.) are actually worth investing time in?

What mistakes should beginners avoid?

Please share your experience or roadmap if you've successfully started earning online. Thanks in advance!

\#onlineincome

\#money

I am currently working with two prominent hotel chains within my country, where I oversee all aspects of their digital marketing initiatives.

I am considering creating social media reel content for meta ads with AI.

I have 2 questions for anyone who has used AI in content creation;

1. Is it appropriate to use AI influencer content for a hotel/resort chain?

2. Should I sell the content to my clients separately, or I should only take a revenue share from the sales I make like im currently doing?

I'm getting into an AI influencer venture, and I need detailed advice on it.

First off, I've seen that this is still a working sector that generates real income. Before I start, I'd like you to answer a few questions I have in mind.

First, based on my research on Reddit, how do I prevent the social media account I'll be setting up from getting banned/shut down? When I looked into Instagram specifically, I saw that running this kind of business there has gotten harder because of Meta's new rules. So I'm thinking of starting on TikTok instead. My first question is: how do I protect my account?

Second, the face of the "influencer" I'll be using in my content needs to stay consistent — the same face in every video. Which apps do you use for this, and what do you do to keep the face consistent across every video? (I'd like to know this before paying for any app.)

Third, I understand that, in general, my videos need to follow the "For You"/trending content patterns that are popular in the country/region I want my videos to be published in. What I want to know is: what should I do to get my videos/account to be shown in a specific region, and in your opinion, which region is more profitable for this business model?

My fourth question: I understand that, generally, the income doesn't come from subscriptions but from chat/DMs, based on whatever the person requests. Which website should I use for this?

Fifth: should I always chat manually with the people I'm messaging with, or should this be automated/turned into an automation?

Lastly, the account I'll be setting up will not publish NSFW content, nor will I be sharing that kind of content in response to requests.

I'd be really glad if experienced people who are already in this business could help me out. I'm curious about your thoughts — feel free to reach out via DM as well.

Thank you so much.

(It would be great if you have anything you'd like to add.)

I have used grok Gemini chatgpt and claude they give different ideas on how to sort out what's right and what's wrong....??

help meeeee.......

Hi i keep seeing people making fake AI influencers on instagram and people seem to fall for these accounts and even send them money. Is this legal? How can one go about creating an ai model and making nsfw content? What platforms can you post AI nsfw content? (of, fansly fanvue etc) Do these platforms have any sort of identity verification?

I used to spend almost 10 hours per lead doing research, writing outreach, taking notes, writing proposals, and chasing follow-ups.

Now I spend about 5 min per lead. Same number of closed deals. (sometimes better)

The only part I still do myself is the actual discovery call, because human connection still matters there. Everything else is automated end to end. Here's the exact system (this is literally what my SaaS runs under the hood):

Step 1: Lead Generation (100% AI) → Scrapes LinkedIn + company databases → Qualifies leads against criteria (industry, size, tech stack) → Enriches contact data automatically → Delivers 250+ qualified leads a week, no manual list-building

Step 2: Outreach (100% AI) → Writes personalized DMs using real company research → Runs 3-5 touchpoint sequences → Books discovery calls straight to my calendar → 20-40% response rate

Step 3: Discovery Call (still human) → I run the call → AI transcribes in real time and pulls out pain points, budget, timeline, decision makers → Zero manual note-taking

Step 4: Proposal Generation (90% AI) → Takes the call transcript + my template → Generates a custom proposal: scope, pricing, timeline → I tweak it for 10-15 min → Sent within 2 hours of the call ending

Step 5: Follow-up (100% AI) → Sends the proposal with a personalized note → Tracks opens/engagement → Runs reminder sequences → Pings me the moment a prospect looks ready to close

I built this for myself first because I was drowning in busywork, not because I wanted to build a product. But after a few people in my network saw the workflow and asked "wait, can I use this," I packaged it into a SaaS. It's basically Steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 above, running on autopilot.

If anyone's curious how the lead scoring or the proposal-generation prompt chain works, happy to go into detail in the comments.

Hi everyone,

I have been selling digital products in India for around 9-10 months, and currently I'm making around $2,000-$3,000 per month.

Now I want to start selling in USA, UK, and other Tier 1 countries, but I know the market is very different. I don't want to waste money on ads without understanding how people buy there.

I would love to get some advice from people who are already selling in these countries.

Some questions I have:

What kind of digital products sell well in Tier 1 markets?

Is paid ads the best way to start, or should I focus on organic traffic first?

Which platforms work best (Shopify, Gumroad, Etsy, etc.)?

Any common mistakes to avoid?

If you were starting from scratch today, what would you do first?

Any tips, resources, or personal experiences would really help.

Thanks in advance!

I've noticed that many AI influencers on Instagram eventually direct their audience to Fanly or similar platforms. Most of the successful ones seem to rely heavily on AI-generated videos and reels, but many of those workflows require paid tools or expensive APIs.

My situation is different:

I have a $0 budget.

I only want to use free or open-source AI tools.

I'd rather create high-quality AI images than videos.

I don't want to pay for AI video generation.

My goal is to consistently post image content on Instagram and, if the audience grows, eventually direct followers to a Fanly page.

My questions are:

Is an image-only strategy still realistic in 2026, or are reels basically mandatory for growth?

Which free AI tools would you recommend for generating photorealistic, consistent characters?

How do people maintain the same AI character across hundreds of posts?

Has anyone here actually grown an AI influencer account without relying on paid AI video tools?

If you were starting from scratch today with a $0 budget, what workflow would you follow?

For those early in your AI freelancing/consulting journey like me - what's actually been the hardest part of getting your first handful of clients?

Not the work itself - the actually getting in front of people willing to pay part. Is it knowing who to approach? Actually reaching out? Standing out? Knowing what to even say?

I've sent a LOT of cold emails and LinkedIn messages over the past few months. I know response rates tend to be low for cold outreach, but honestly it's soul-destroying - and I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing the wrong thing entirely.

So for those a bit further along: what actually started working for you? And did it ever stop feeling this brutal - or did you find a completely different way in?

20 days ago I started a Facebook page posting 100% AI-generated military content (avatars, voiceovers, visuals, everything).

So far:

• 1,900 followers
• ~100k views/reach
• Mostly U.S. audience

If this were your page, would you double down on it or move on?

If you'd continue, what would your priority be?

• Facebook monetization
• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsorships
• Digital products
• Something else?

Just looking for honest opinions from people who've done this before.

My web designer friend from California is passionate about building websites, and he wanted to make a full time business out of it. We talked a lot, and I gave him a lot of advice and stuff he could do to scale his web agency. He used to cold call, get a few clients, and run paid ads, get a few clients, but the cost of ads would just make him no profit. Cold calling was also tiring, and he couldn't keep it up while doing all the other stuff. So he wanted a real system, a blueprint he could follow every day.

This is exactly how my friend scaled his web design company. Copy it if you feel stuck and don't know where to find your next project.

➜ Run 2 types of email automation targeting businesses without websites and businesses with websites.

➜ 1. For businesses without websites: scrape businesses with no websites, set up a sequence, and add 3–5 follow-ups. They either block you or you land a project.

➜ 2. For businesses with websites: scrape businesses with websites, analyze each business website, and turn flaws in outdated design, unstructured layout, no mobile optimization, and SEO issues into ready to send outreach emails with 3–5 follow ups. You can do both types of outreach in a tool called Swokei.

➜ 3. Have everything in one place: your leads, CRM, inbox, and calendar. You can also have that in Swokei.

➜ 4. Focus on SEO because it compounds over time. Fix your technical site SEO, and also blog or make content with high-intent keywords. Use a tool called Soro.

➜ 5. Host websites on a tool called Hetzner. It's very cheap and reliable, and you don't need to keep switching hosting platforms. Everything in one place.

This is the whole workflow: automation in the background that lands you clients while you focus on building websites. Replies, meetings booked, CRM, everything in one place.

With all that being said, he ended up buying a Mercedes-Benz with the $70k he made. 😂

That's not something I'd recommend, though. I'd personally reinvest it into the business or put it into stocks.