I Tried Making Money With a Free AI Art Generator

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7 Feb 2024

How To Make Money with AI Art

AI art is not anything new in 2024.
But whenever I mention AI art, people almost always think of AI art generators like Midjourney.
Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash
Now, Midjourney isn’t free.
It costs $10 Per Month.
When AI-generated art was barely believable, I couldn’t justify spending $10 per month on a subscription,
So, I resorted to using free AI art generators.
I wanted to see if it was possible to make money from AI art even without spending a dime.
Today, I’ll be sharing how that went and how a beginner with zero skill set can make hundreds of dollars in passive income with free AI art.

What Was This Free AI Art generator?

Well, the name is Leonardo.ai.
Leonardo Ai Home Page
And unlike Midjourney, Leonardo AI works in your browser and not in a Discord group.
It’s super easy to get acquainted with this art generator and I highly recommend it for beginners.
Just like any other AI art generators, I had to learn how to create high-quality prompts on Leonardo AI.
It took me days, if not months, but it was definitely worth it.
Now that we know the AI art generator in question, let’s discuss how I made money.
Photo by Vladimir Solomianyi on Unsplash

How To Make Money with Leonardo ai

Now, I’ve tried two of these AI side hustles and achieved success, the last is still on my to-start side hustle list.
Either way, I’ll be going all in and sharing all of these side hustles with you

1. Creating AI Clipart

This was the first and probably the most exciting of all the side hustles I tried with Leonardo.ai.
I’ve probably talked about this side hustle countless times and it’s because I can’t get enough of the concept.

Create cute Clipart with Leonardo.ai
Package them into a bundle and sell on marketplaces.

But what are clipart and why do people buy them?
Clipart is a collection of cute images created and sold for other creatives to use in their projects.
A Clipart Bundle I Created with Leonardo AI
These projects can include:

Invitation cards
Themed Templates
Presentation and Slides
Posters
Printables and more.

While these images are super easy to make, they can be very profitable when sold correctly.
Here’s a quick step by step guide if you ever want to consider selling Clipart
First, Ask ChatGPT for profitable Niches for Cliparts to sell.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Then ask for sub-niches within any of those main niches to narrow down your competition.
I chose the food niche for this example.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Now, ask ChatGPT for variations or ideas of clipart to generate for that bundle.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Finally, using Leonardo.ai, generate images for each of those ideas.
I generated a Cupcake Clipart with Leonardo Ai
And an Ice cream Clipart by Leonardo Ai
All that’s left to do now is package them into a bundle and sell on marketplaces like Creative Fabrica, Etsy, and Teachers Pay Teachers.
I sell on Creative Fabrica and have been able to build a following of 401 people, with over 2,472 product favorites, making me thousands of dollars every month.
Screenshot by Author
I also found a seller on Etsy with over 2,833 sales.
This shop sells just Clipart.
Screenshot of Etsy Shop
On average, each of their bundles are priced at a range of $2.37.
Meaning this shop has approximately made $6,714.
Imagine how many of these kinds of listings you could be creating with Leonardo ai to sell Etsy and Creative Fabrica.

2. Selling Recipe Books

Now, I don’t categorically sell recipe books for passive income, but I tried out the business model, so I’m sure it works.
The way this side hustle works is quite simple.
You create eBooks with the help of AI and sell them on large marketplaces like Amazon.
Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash
Amazon has a platform for authors and it’s called Amazon KDP.
This platform is completely free for authors and you don’t even have to apply to be accepted.
Simply head over to Amazon KDP’s website to sign up for your free account.
As for the books you’ll be selling, we’ll be making use of Leonardo.ai once again.
But why did I choose recipe books?
Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash
Well, it’s because the niches here are endless, and can be completely automated by AI.
And by asking just a question on ChatGPT, you can discover low-competition keywords to target on Amazon.
So let’s ask ChatGPT for recipe niche ideas.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Now, ask for sub-niches for any of these niches.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Once you find a book topic with fewer than 1000 search results on Amazon, it’s time to start creating.
During my research, I discovered a keyword that was in high demand,
Screenshot of Amazon's Search Bar
And had a very low competition with just 354 search results.
Screenshot of Amazon's Search Bar
It was perfect and I could get to work.
Now, for your recipe books, ChatGPT will handle most of the work, but Leonardo AI is still a crucial part of this side hustle.
So on ChatGPT, ask for the

Outline
Chapter page
and Recipe Content of your book

Then, go over to Leonardo AI to generate the images for your recipe book.
Your images will heavily rely on the recipes you need to create.
For example, a sugar free canning recipe book should have recipes like

Sugar-Free Berry Jam

Generated by AI

Stevia-Sweetened Pickles
Monk Fruit Preserves

Finally, on Canva, find an eBook template to compile all of these images and recipes into a complete eBook.
Canva's free template library
Remember to make the eBook cover attractive, then upload your eBook to Amazon KDP to immediately get access to their billions of sellers.
I used to sell books on Amazon KDP and made a good amount of money until I stopped.
Screenshot by Author
So yes, it works.

3. Selling Stickers

We all love cute stickers, don’t we?
They are pretty, and they make our gadgets and journals look a lot less boring.
Well, what if I told you it was possible to start your own sticker shop with the help of AI?
I haven’t personally tried this side hustle, but I know of shops that are making thousands of dollars selling stickers on

Etsy
Zazzle
Redbubble
Teepublic
and Pinterest.

Starting your sticker shop is pretty easy.
Once again, Ask ChatGPT for sticker niches and keep asking until you find a low competition keyword that sticks.
ChatGPT Dashboard
Then, on Leonardo AI, test and tweak different prompts until you generate a sticker image you’re proud enough to sell.
Here’s a sticker I generated using Leonardo.Ai
Image Generated By Me on Leonardo Ai
To illustrate the demand on Etsy for stickers, I found this sticker shop that sold panda stickers.
Screenshot of TheDigutalCraftCo
In this case, the sticker was sold as a digital product but still managed to garner over 7k reviews.
And at a price range of $2.66, this listing alone has made its seller at least $18,620.
Screenshot of my calculator
That’s five figures made just from selling simple images.

How To Start These AI Art Side Hustles

The thing about AI Art is that it works purely on the principle of garbage in, garbage out.
So when you input a low quality prompt into Leonardo AI, you’ll most likely get a subpar output.
Here’s an example of how the right prompt makes all the difference.
This first image was my first attempt at creating Clipart on Leonardo AI.
Image generated by Leonardo Ai with a low quality prompt
But then I tweaked my prompt and was able to generate a more high quality image of a bagel.
Image Generated By Leonardo Ai
So before you go on to generate a bunch of AI art on Leonardo.ai, you need to understand that it takes a level of expertise.
And you need to be ready to learn

how to create the perfect prompt for your images
and which of Leonardo’s Art models would suit the art style you’re looking for.

For this, you need to practice on Leonardo.Ai and play around with its tools.
That was exactly what I did, and in less than three months or so, I became quite proficient at generating images that were highly sellable.
You can also

skip the entire learning process
copy my exact AI art prompts (word for word)
and the AI model I used for each of them.

Just by downloading my Leonardo Prompt Bundle.
The Leonardo Prompt Bundle
With this bundle, you’ll get all of my best-performing prompts for generating images across all genres, including cliparts.
And, for an affordable fee, you’ll be able to download the exact prompt I use to generate my Clipart, as well as other sellable AI images.

You can click here to download the Leonardo Prompt Bundle.

Aside from the quality of your prompt, you need to focus heavily on using the right keywords.
Remember, it’s a struggle between you and other sellers for who gets the sale.
Hence, the best strategy for creating sustainable passive income by selling AI-generated products on marketplaces is to focus on

high-demand keywords
with low-competition.

Remember, low-competition keywords are those with fewer than 1000 search results on the marketplace you choose.

Conclusion

AI art is definitely a major shift in the art industry.
You no longer need to spend years becoming an artist or months creating a single piece of artwork.
Photo by Frankie Cordoba on Unsplash
By simply clicking the “generate button” on Leonardo AI, you can generate high-quality images that make you passive income.
Not only is creating art with AI highly profitable, it’s also a lot of fun.
So if you’re interested in any of these AI art side hustle, you should start improving your Leonardo prompting skills on YouTube
or get started right away with my Leonardo Prompt Bundle kit.