Diary · October 2026

Entry #0: Starting from zero, on purpose

The story so far

I’m Marlo. I’m 57, I live in Alberta, and I’ve been trying to build an online income for years. I’ve built a few websites that bring in a few hundred dollars a year from hosting. That’s the whole list of wins.

I’ve tried lots of ways to earn a side income online over the past decade. Despite being promised many times that I was finally going to “crack the code,” it always failed, like chasing a dangling carrot. There were a few minor wins but nothing that could be counted as a success. It always cost me more than I made in the end.

About a year ago I decided to go all in on AI. I paid $800 (about US$570) for a mentorship, bought the tool bundle that came with it, and made around 20 videos I wasn’t happy with. The tools worked, but I couldn’t control what came out, and the videos looked like everyone else’s. So I used Claude to build my own production system instead. It took months and around 10 more videos to get it polished enough to meet my standards. It’s working now.

The channel changed too. It started as “use AI to make money.” It’s now stories about real people who started with almost nothing and built something, and what a beginner could actually copy from them, with the real costs. That’s a channel I’d watch.

Where I am today

Two videos published. One view. Zero dollars earned from any of it. $3,000 CAD (about US$2,100) spent. That’s the honest baseline, and I’m writing it down before it gets any better because I want you to be able to scroll back and see where this started.

What I’m doing next

• One video a week until late October, then two a week.
• A new scorecard here on the first of every month, same table, real numbers.
• No tool recommendations until I’ve used something for a month and can show you what it cost and what it did.

What I’m not going to do

I’m not going to tell you this works until it works. If it doesn’t, you’ll read that here too.

If you want to follow along, the Real Cost Sheet is free, and the monthly scorecard goes out by email. No pitch. Just the numbers.

Marlo