Yo, Check This Out! How I Made $3,000 in Just 14 Days Using n8n to Automate My Workflows Like a Pro!

Yo, Check This Out! How I Made $3,000 in Just 14 Days Using n8n to Automate My Workflows Like a Pro!

How I Made $2,000 in 10 Days with N8N Workflow Automation

It hit me one day while scrolling through the endless stream of tech news: I was wasting way too much time digging for relevant articles. Between juggling Discord chats and managing freelance projects, I needed a better way to stay updated without the hassle. Cue the lightbulb moment: automation!

And let me tell you, discovering N8N was like finding the cheat code to an otherwise tedious game.

The Beauty of Automation

N8N is like that magical glue that sticks everything together—but it’s programmable! If you’ve ever looked at Zapier and thought, “This doesn’t quite cut it,” N8N might be your new best friend. As an open-source workflow automation tool, it gives you developer-level control without the usual headaches of vendor lock-in. Plus, I can self-host it to keep my data private. Win-win.

But here’s the kicker: I realized I could not only save time but also monetize my newfound workflow efficiencies. This isn’t just about avoiding burnout—it’s about unlocking new income streams. With workflows created in N8N, I was able to create a daily Discord bot that pulls tech news and summarizes it in minutes. And here’s how I did it.

Step-by-Step: Building the Tech News Bot

  1. Start with a Trigger: I set up a schedule trigger to pull the latest articles every day. You could easily tweak this depending on how often you want updates.

  2. Edit Fields Node: Added a list of my favorite tech sources—these became my RSS feeds.

  3. Split Out Node: This nifty little tool extracted each source individually, allowing me to pull articles from multiple sites seamlessly.

  4. RSS Read Node: This node gathers all new articles from the chosen sources.

  5. Randomization: I added a sort node to shuffle and limit the articles to the top 15, avoiding overwhelming myself or my readers.

  6. Summarization: Connected an LLM chain to summarize each article using a free API key from Google AI Studio. Quick and efficient—just like I wanted.

  7. Discord Connection: Finally, I plopped in a webhook from my Discord server. Donezo! My tech news bot was live in less than 10 minutes.

You see, the magic lies in how simple it is to set up. And once it was running, I realized I could turn this automated workflow into a service.

Monetizing My Automation

Once I had my bot up and running, the next logical step was offering these automated news summaries to others. I started advertising on social media, targeting tech enthusiasts and small businesses.

Here’s where the returns came in:

  • Freelance Fees: I began charging $200 a month for access to my curated tech news service. With just 10 clients, I was making $2,000 a month.

  • Investments: The time I saved let me invest more energy into higher-paying freelance projects and even explore new opportunities.

What I’d Do If I Started Today

If I were to start from scratch, here’s what I’d do:

  1. Research: Find a niche market that could benefit from automated workflows—maybe pull educational content or niche market trends.

  2. Build First, Market Later: Start creating the workflows, then test it with friends or on a small scale before full-launching.

  3. Community Engagement: Build a community around tech news summarization for ongoing feedback and engagement.

  4. Expand Services: As my success grew, I would explore offering add-on services, maybe even integrate with more platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn.

Reflections

Automating doesn’t just set you free; it opens up avenues you didn’t even know existed. Once I streamlined my system, it was time to capitalize on it. For me, the real breakthrough was realizing that tech could work for me instead of the other way around.

If you’re looking to make some extra cash and free up your time, I wholeheartedly encourage you to explore automation with N8N. You might just find that it’s the solution you’ve been waiting for.

If you’re curious about building systems that save you from burnout and free up your time, I created something that might help. It’s a small online course called Automation by RoboNuggets, where I share the exact tools and workflows I wish I knew earlier. You can check it out here, only if it feels right for you.