This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's listener has earned some free money from opening a bank account. He got a little incentive when he went to open a checking account. I think it was two or $300. And he got him thinking free money is good. Everybody likes free money, right?
I'd like more free money. And might there be a way to earn even more by helping other people take advantage of these incentives? That's his thought process. I like where he's going with it. I have opened a lot of accounts over the years in response to various offers.
I get them in the mail or I see them online sometimes. Some of them can be $500 or more, which of course is fantastic. Although most aren't quite that large. Some of it depends on if you're opening a business account or a savings account versus a checking, et cetera. Still, the question is interesting because we have to figure out how to monetize the part where you're sharing the information, not just signing up for more accounts.
I mean, that's like an easy thing that a lot of people can do to get those bonuses. How do you share that information with people? Do you sell that information directly? Do you earn referral fees? Is there, I don't know, some kind of advertising model or something else?
What is the best approach to helping people learn about these different bank accounts you can open? Because a lot of that information is free now. So if you actually want to earn from it, you might need to get a little bit creative. But that's what we'll talk about in the episode. How to earn from a directory of bank signup bonuses?
It's a great question. It's coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Trevor from the Twin Falls and I've been listening to the show for a couple of years. I just earned 300 bucks from opening a new checking account at a bank. Looking online, I see there are more offers like this.
Is there anything wrong with applying for a bunch of them? I know you have to jump through some hoops to get the incentive, but for $300, it was worth it. Now, I'm thinking there's a business opportunity here to publish some sort of directory and update it with the most current offers. But how would I get paid? It doesn't look like the bank's offer much in the way of referral bonuses, or if they do, they have a cap on the number you can receive.
I feel like this could be a good project. What do you think? - Trevor, good for you on earning that 300 bucks. Well done. I've done this myself many times, signing up for various accounts to get the incentive.
So there's absolutely nothing wrong with your first question of, can I sign up for a bunch of different bank account bonuses? Well, of course. I mean, the banks are happy for you to do that. In a lot of cases, they're betting that you will become a lifetime customer. Of course, in lots of cases, you're not going to, but that's just how it works.
Like they're offering these incentives. You might have to jump through some hoops. As you said, with a certain number of deposits or whatever they do, minimum balance, et cetera, but it can often be worth it. So now for that part about how do we turn this into a business opportunity? Well, I think that the real challenge here is how to earn, which Trevor has already kind of identified, some of these banks offer referral bonuses.
So that's the most obvious starting point. If you can get a hundred dollar bonus for everyone you refer, that's great. But I'm pretty sure he's right that most of them don't offer the incentives, at least for referrals. And the ones that do tend to limit your ability to earn a lot of them. Like they might have a cap and so you can only do five referrals.
So that doesn't help very much if you're trying to build a directory to serve lots of people. So what does this leave us with? Well, you could provide that directory for free and partner with companies that offer affiliate programs for related products like credit cards or loan consolidation. It could be something else, but you generally want to stay on topic. You want to stay in that same industry of whatever your website or directory is.
You could also perhaps make a product and sell it. And I know these directories already exist in some fashion, but lots of people don't know that they can get a couple hundred bucks or sometimes more for opening a different account or signing up with a new company. So you could make a product and sell it. Essentially selling access to this directory. And I think if you're gonna do that, what you would do is you promise people, like you make a pretty clear guarantee, hey, you'll earn at least $300 in bonuses or your money back.
You know, if you can do that, I bet a lot of people would pay something like $25 to access the information. Would you pay $25 to get $300? You know, and if it doesn't work out, then you get your $25 back. As I said, the information is available freely elsewhere, but that doesn't mean that you can't provide the convenience of it. That could be worth, you know, at least $25 or whatever it is to someone.
So interesting idea. Definitely let us know what happens. I always appreciate and respect creative thinking and listeners, I appreciate and respect you too. Thank you for joining me today and every day on this journey. We've got more coming up.
So I hope you'll subscribe. I hope you'll share this with your friends. I don't have a referral bonus to offer you, but I'd be very grateful. It's also great if you can give the show a quick little five-star rating in Apple Podcasts, or of course, wherever you listen. Thank you once more.
I hope you have a wonderful day, wherever you are in the world. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
