This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Language Nerd builds fake language creation kit. Hey friends, what's up? Welcome to Cytos School. I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. Welcome as well to a brand new month.
This is episode 3166 of the podcast. It takes place within the framework of our segment known as First $1,000. How in fact does somebody get going, make their first $1,000 from a new idea? What are the steps that they take? How do they go from idea to income?
And in this specific story, we're gonna hear how a linguistics graduate, like a linguistics guy, he studied linguistics in university, I believe, but we'll hear more about that. Whatever it is, he turns his love of invented languages, like made up languages basically, into a digital toolkit for writers and gamers. Why might you want to actually make up a language? Well, if you think about "Game of Thrones" or the whole sci-fi/fantasy world, or various environments in which artists or creatives are kind of making something new. I mean, it's a small market, but it is a market nonetheless.
We're all about small markets. Basically this guy finds a way to profit from it. So with a simple Gumroad listing and a few community posts, he reaches $1,000 in just a few weeks. Let's hear more about this from him. He's gonna describe it much better than me, I'm sure.
His name is Deepak, gonna pass the microphone to him. I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
I've been obsessed with languages since I was a kid. In college, I majored in linguistics. And while I love the academic side, I'm just as into the creative side, especially what's known as conlangs, or constructed languages.
I've dabbled in making fake languages for fantasy worlds, personal projects, even just for fun. One day, while helping a friend named Towns for their Homebrew RPG, they said, I wish there was a guide for making this stuff up without sounding dumb. That stuck with me. I started drafting a workbook that walked people through the basics, designing sound patterns, making a small set of grammar rules, inventing naming conventions, and even creating a few everyday phrases or slang. I wanted it to be structured but playful, more like a creative tool set than a dry academic guide.
I formatted it as a 30 page PDF workbook plus a pack of 50 randomizer prompts. Things like, what's the word for magic in your world? Or how do people greet strangers versus friends? I bundled the whole thing and called it the conlang creation kit. I listed it on Gumroad for $15.
To promote it, I posted it in three places. A subreddit for conlang enthusiasts, a couple of Discord servers for world builders and TTRPG players, a Facebook group for indie fantasy authors. I didn't have a big audience myself, but I made sure to present it clearly. Not an expert guide, but a fun, structured tool for writers and gamers to make their own languages that honestly seemed to resonate. The first weekend brought in $120, eight sales.
The next boost came when someone in the Facebook group tagged me in a thread asking about language resources for world building. That alone brought in $400 over the next two weeks. By the end of five weeks, I'd made just over $1,000. A couple of small details held. I included a printable version for people who like working on paper, and I added a sample file with one partially built fake language to show how the system worked.
I also allowed buyers to pay extra if they wanted. About 10% of them did, with one person paying $40 in writing. This is going to save me so much time. Since then, I've been working on two expansions. One specifically for naming places and characters, and one focused on cultural phrases and idioms.
I'm also thinking about making a short video tutorial, since a few people asked for more hands-on guidance. What's most satisfying is knowing I'm helping other creatives bring their worlds to life. I never thought my nerdy love of fake languages would make money, but it turns out, I'm not the only one who enjoys inventing new ways to say hello. Thanks for letting me share my story. Deepak, thank you so much for bringing us this story.
I appreciate it. We've been making the podcast for a long time, and I continue to hear of new ideas, new markets that I had never imagined before. I think this fits into the category, invented languages. If you want to get your own invented language, I mean, you could do it yourself maybe, but why not just buy it from Deepak for, what does he say, $15 or so? I think he's raised the price since then.
Hope this story gives you something to think about today, maybe not this particular idea or market, but there's something out there that you can do, even if it seems a little weird or kind of out there, because most likely there are other people who are into whatever that thing is. So think about that. Much more is coming up. Of course, complete archives available for a free download on the website and new episodes out every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
