Make money by uncovering secret stories

GM. This is Work "After" Work, the newsletter that finds hidden gems so good even Sherlock Holmes would be surprised.

Happy Friday Eve. Here’s the docket for today:

• 📖  Priceless stories

• 😂 Meme of the day

Have you always wanted to start investing in real estate, but don't have $100k lying around? Don’t worry you’re not alone…

I recently came across this company called “Arrived” -  they allow you to invest in real estate for a fraction of the cost. (Think $100 and you can own real estate!)

• They do all the work on finding profitable properties 

• They deal with all the maintenance, upkeep, cleaning, etc.

• They take care of all the legal jargon

All you have to do is buy shares of a home… kind of like a stock. And every quarter they’ll pay you on your investment!

It’s a great way to get exposure to real estate without having to put a lot of money down.  

Even if you’re not ready right now at least subscribe to their emails that way you can see potential deals that become available! (It’s completely free)

PRICELESS STORIES

If you know elderly folks, you know they have a story for everything!

My grandma visited last weekend, and as usual, she had a story from her youth that I’d never heard. I sometimes wonder if she's making them up - do grandmas lie? Please say no!

But after, I did some digging and found there are 703M elderly folks worldwide who probably have similar stories they want to pass down to their grandchildren

Is there a service for this?

Turns out, there is. It’s a company called Storyworth. They send weekly questions to your loved ones' emails to uncover long-buried memories.

What was a time you got in big trouble as a kid?

How was your upbringing and do you wish you were raised differently?

Think about all the stories you don’t know about your grandparents. What they did when they were teens. How they had fun. Why they got in trouble. These are all super interesting stories you’ve probably never heard before.

At year’s end, Storywoth sends your loved one a beautiful personalized storybook filled with all the prompts they answered, which can be passed down to future generations.

This TikTok explains it well.

Imagine reading this book as a bedtime story to your kids – how freaking cute!

I might just score some solid points this year with this as my Mother’s Day gift!

Here’s why I’m writing about it: People love thoughtful and symbolic gifts. Lemme hit you with two stats:

• 62% of people want to receive heartfelt and personalized gifts

• 50% of customers are actively searching for custom gifts to make their loved ones happy

Put these two together and you’ve got a business on your hands.

Last month Storyworth had 1.37M visitors to their site. I can’t find their revenue but with traffic like that, it’s gotta be in the millions.

Why is this an opportunity you should consider?

I’ve got two good reasons:

1. The market is huge. In the US alone, there are over 55M elderly folks whose loved ones struggle to come up with gift ideas

2. Older folks love telling their stories. It’s a way to show they were young and remind people of it

But you don’t have to limit your target audience to only older folks. This idea can work with kids so parents can keep it for oldtime sake. Or it can be as a gift for Valentine’s Day, an Anniversary, or Christmas.

And since it’s an emotional gift that focuses on bringing families together, you can count on return clients if you deliver an exceptional service.

If you don't believe me, check out this survey: 58% of participants said they would tell others about a personal and unique gift. Talk about free promo!

But my favorite aspect of the business is how big it could grow through subscription revenue.

Storyworth charges $99 for an annual subscription, which includes:

• Weekly story prompts emailed to your loved ones that you can customize

• A hardcover black and white book sent every year with the prompt replies

And of course, they charge for multiple books.

Now here’s the kicker: Companies like Storyworth that provide the same service at an equal or lower price point are hard to find.

You can differentiate yourself by offering the same features at a lower price… Or by taking a different vertical, like podcasting your family’s history. Something Artifact, a startup, is doing and secured $5M in funding.

But Storyworth isn’t perfect. They still get complaints. Here’s one about receiving repetitive question prompts.

You definitely want to avoid this. So, instead of Storyworth's 300 weekly prompts, make yours 500 or more.

Create some great questions: 

• "What was your favorite trip as a kid?"

• "Do you have any regrets in your life?"

• "What’s one memory that keeps you awake at night?"

You get the idea.

Here’s how I’d get started:

1. Build a website

Even though you’ll be sending these thought-provoking questions via email, you need a place where customers can buy your service.

You can find freelancers on sites like Upwork or Fiverr to help you create a simple design or use a service like Gumroad (they take 15%).

Or roll up your sleeves and use ChatGPT, it’s extremely good at coding.

2. Design your book cover

With AI, you don’t even need basic design skills to create beautiful book hardcovers. Just tell Midjourney or DALLE-3 what you want for little to no cost.

3. Fire up the printing press

Don’t forget you’ll have to print hard copies of these books and ship them to your customers. Check out Lulu’s printing services; they have a pricing calculator on their site to help you estimate the cost.

For a 50-page hardcover, it’s $10 - $15.

4. Calling all customers 🗣️

I looked through Storyworth's social media accounts to see where you should focus your marketing efforts.

Want to take a guess at where they’re the busiest? Instagram! And of course, Facebook comes next.

They have over 100 active ads running.. this is how you know they’re crushing it.

Run IG and Facebook ads since that's clearly where most of your potential customers hang out, but don't overlook TikTok.

Storyworth does no TikTok and somehow #storyworth has almost 3.1M views! That's incredible for a company with only 838 TikTok followers and no content.

But it confirms that people of all ages appreciate this gift, so get to work and find those customers for your business 👊

🧠 Test Your Money Knowledge (Part 4)
Here's this week's 7 question quiz to see how smart you are about money... Remember the first to get all 7 correct gets $10 😁 (hurryyy)

MEME OF THE DAY

In case you missed it, on Tuesday the SEC’s Twitter account got “hacked” and said they approved the Spot Bitcoin ETF. Everyone went crazy until Gary Gensler (the head of the SEC) said it wasn’t true. We even had the hacked account tweeting him 😂😂 

And funny enough, yesterday they officially approved the spot btc ETF!

That's a wrap! Enjoy the upcoming weekend :)

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.