How to Generate Passive Income using ChatGPT (Part 1)
ChatGPT
What if I told you that there’s an insanely easy way to generate passive income streams – I’m talking minutes and hours instead of days and weeks. Sounds too good to be true right?
You’ve probably heard of ChatGPT. (If you haven’t, get out from under that rock)
Basically speaking it’s a chatbot – think of it like siri or alexa on steroids that you talk to by typing, instead of just giving you answers that already exist, using trillions of data points it can create answers based on it’s database. You can access it by going to chat.openai.com and creating an account.
You can do a lot of things with this, but we’re going to focus on using it to generating passive income using ChatGPT and increase your savings rate, specifically with coding. because seriously retiring early is like my main focus.
You can use this in many ways to brainstorm and generate passive income using chatGPT, today I’ll focus on one example of how to generate passive income with no initial funds.
Example: Create a browser extension that blocks distracting websites
I’ve chosen browser extensions because they’re relatively quick and simple, and an easy way to create passive income since writing and using one can be done in minutes and people are quite willing to pay for them.
You have to be very specific when you ask for ChatGPT to code things, just so there’s no ambiguity – though it can add things later and give you a whole new code base to just copy and paste rather than fiddling with it. (as long as you’re in the same conversation)
Prompt: Please write the code for a chrome extension that blocks distracting websites and helps users to stay focused.
ChatGPT response:
Here is the code for a chrome extension that blocks distracting websites and helps users to stay focused using ChatGPT:
manifest.json
{
"manifest_version": 2,
"name": "Block Distracting Websites",
"version": "1.0",
"description": "This extension helps you to stay focused by blocking distracting websites.",
"permissions": [
"declarativeContent",
"storage",
"tabs"
],
"background": {
"scripts": ["background.js"]
},
"page_action": {
"default_popup": "popup.html"
},
"options_page": "options.html",
"content_scripts": [
{
"matches": ["<all_urls>"],
"js": ["content.js"]
}
]
}
background.js:
// Load the list of distracting websites
const distractingWebsites = [];
chrome.storage.sync.get('distractingWebsites', function(items) {
distractingWebsites = items.distractingWebsites;
});
// Listen for changes to the current tab
chrome.declarativeContent.onPageChanged.addRules([{
conditions: [new chrome.declarativeContent.PageStateMatcher({
pageUrl: { hostContains: '.com' },
})],
actions: [new chrome.declarrativeContent.ShowPageAction()]
}]);
// Block the current tab if it is a distracting website
chrome.pageAction.onClicked.addListener(function(tab) {
if (distractingWebsites.includes(tab.url)) {
chrome.tabs.update(tab.id, {url: "about:blank"});
} else {
chrome.tabs.update(tab.id, {url: "about:blank"});
chrome.tabs.create({url: tab.url});
}
});
// Update the list of distracting websites when the options page is saved
chrome.storage.onChanged.addListener(function(changes, namespace) {
if (namespace === "sync" && "distractingWebsites" in changes) {
distractingWebsites = changes.distractingWebsites.newValue;
}
});
popup.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML>
<head>
<style>
button {
width: 100%;
height: 30px;
font-size: 16px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<button id="blockButton">Block</button>
<button id="unblockButton">Unblock</button>
<script src="popup.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
popup.js
// Get the current tab
chrome.tabs.query({active: true, currentWindow: true}, function(tabs) {
const tab = tabs[0];
// Block or unblock the current tab
document.getElementById('blockButton').addEventListener('click', function() {
chrome.tabs.update(tab.id, {url: "about:blank"});
});
document.getElementById('unblockButton').addEventListener('click', function() {
chrome.tabs.update(tab.id, {url: tab.url});
});
});
Options.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<HTML>
<head>
<style>
form {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: stretch;
width: 300px;
padding: 20px;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
input[type="text"] {
margin-bottom: 20px;
font-size: 16px;
padding: 10px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
border-radius: 4px;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
input[type="submit"] {
margin-bottom: 20px;
font-size: 16px;
padding: 10px
It has literally generated all the code needed for this to work, but if you’re like me I don’t know what to do with this code, so we ask the next question:
Prompt: Now what do I do next to make this a working extension
ChatGPT response:
1 Save the code for each of the five files (manifest.json, background.js, popup.html, popup.js, and options.html) to your computer. Make sure that each file is saved with the correct filename.
2 In Chrome, go to the extensions page (chrome://extensions).
3 Enable developer mode by clicking the toggle switch in the top right corner of the page.
4 Click the “Load unpacked” button and select the folder that contains the five files you saved in step 1.
5 The extension should now be installed and working. You can click on the extension’s icon in the top right corner of the browser to open the popup and block or unblock the current tab. You can also click on the “Options” link to open the options page and add websites to the list of distracting websites.
So, simple as that we have a working chrome extension, you can copy and paste this code and try it out for yourself. Now we could ask it for instructions on how to add more features to it or how to package and upload it to the extension marketplace, you could charge for it, or give away a limited free version and get people to “upgrade” for pro functionality (and get chatGPT to add it too!)
Once you have a product, you can also use the base to export this to other channels, you could easily ask “Re-write the extension to work on Firefox”, “safari” or any other browser that supports extensions and put them on that marketplace too and now you have 3 different passive income streams! Have you ever seen such an easy way to create passive income?
Feel free to use this code and use it to create and sell the extension – I would love to hear stories of how people come up with different features on top of this and create additional income streams.
This is just part one in a series of how to use ChatGPT to explore a new easy way to create passive income in each guide.
Did not find the 150 Act as Prompts
Hi Steve, I think the mailing form was blocked by your adblocker, but if you send me your email I can email it to you?
Me too. I’ve bought a book, and 150 prompts just aren’t present here.
Hey Marek – please email me on neil@retiredecadesearly.com