{"id":323517,"date":"2026-06-05T15:13:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/dipiazza-23700-month-freelance-solopreneur-tips-2026"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:13:43","slug":"dipiazza-23700-month-freelance-solopreneur-tips-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/dipiazza-23700-month-freelance-solopreneur-tips-2026","title":{"rendered":"Daniel DiPiazza Earned $23,700\/Month Freelancing: Solopreneur Tips for the 2026 AI Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TL;DR:<\/strong> Daniel DiPiazza<\/strong>, founder of Rich20Something<\/em>, earned $23,700 in four weeks<\/strong> designing websites and said, “If you change your mindset, you can make money with anything.” His three tips were simple: (1) secretly research your competitors, (2) analyse the results and find the gap in the market, (3) approach the client personally and stand out with a 90-second video. In 2017 those tips were enough on their own. In the 2026 solopreneur + AI era<\/strong> the logic is the same but the mechanics changed: Claude and Perplexity now map competitors in minutes, AI drafts the pitch, the intro video runs on Loom with auto-captions \u2014 and the crucial difference is that the successful freelancer no longer sells hours<\/em> but a productized service<\/em>. This guide keeps DiPiazza’s original three steps and adds the 2026 AI tool stack, the freelance-to-product transition, the Turkey TL\/dollar reality, a 2017 vs 2026 comparison table and 7 FAQs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 2017, “making money freelancing” meant writing proposals on Upwork, sending emails and chasing clients. DiPiazza earning $23,700 in four weeks was unusual for the time, because most freelancers competed by cutting prices. By 2026 the picture changed: the one-person business owner (solopreneur) maps competitors with AI in seconds, comes prepared to the first contact, and increasingly stops selling hours<\/em> the way Pieter Levels (Photo AI, ~$150K MRR), Brett Williams (Designjoy, ~$1M ARR) and Marc Lou (~$80K MRR) sell a packaged product or service. DiPiazza’s 2017 instinct was actually the first version of today’s solopreneur logic. Below we keep the original three steps and bring them to 2026.<\/p>\n

\n

1) Who is DiPiazza and how did he earn $23,700?<\/h2>\n

Daniel DiPiazza is the founder of Rich20Something<\/em>, a platform aimed at young entrepreneurs. The appeal of his story was that he started with zero capital: he took an existing web-design skill to the freelance market and earned $23,700 in four weeks<\/strong>. His thesis fits in one line:<\/p>\n

\n

“If you change your mindset, you can make money with anything.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 2017 that read like a motivational slogan. In 2026 it is the core premise of the solopreneur economy: skill + distribution + the right package = income. Skill is cheaper than before (thanks to AI), distribution is easier than before (LinkedIn, X, growing indie communities), so the only remaining variable is the right packaging<\/em> and the right client selection<\/em>. DiPiazza’s three steps focus on exactly those two variables.<\/p>\n

The overlooked but most critical point in his story is this: he was not technically the best in his field. There were better designers and faster developers. What set him apart was his ability to reduce the uncertainty in the client’s mind. When a client hires a freelancer they are really buying down risk: “Will this person deliver on time, at the quality I expect?” DiPiazza’s entire method aimed to lower that risk. In 2026, as AI makes production cheaper, the fact that the real thing being sold is “trust,” not “hours,” becomes even clearer \u2014 which is why his method has not aged.<\/p>\n

2) Step 1 \u2014 Research competitors (manual in 2017, AI in 2026)<\/h2>\n

DiPiazza insisted you must know your competitors before starting. His own method was creative: he created a fake job posting<\/strong>, reviewed the offers that came in, and learned how rivals priced and pitched themselves. That was a smart “covert research” move for 2017.<\/p>\n

In 2026 we reach the same insight ethically and faster. No fake posting needed; AI tools collapse competitor analysis into minutes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Claude \/ ChatGPT:<\/strong> A prompt like “summarise the top 10 freelance logo designers in Turkey, their price ranges and positioning lines” gives a competitor map.<\/li>\n
  • Perplexity:<\/strong> Current, sourced market scans (who sells at what price).<\/li>\n
  • Niche community scan:<\/strong> Instead of Fiverr\/Upwork, the income and price data that “build in public” solopreneurs openly share on X and LinkedIn.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The outcome is the same: knowing what the competitor does. But work that took days in 2017 finishes in an afternoon in 2026. What matters is not collecting data but turning it into positioning<\/em> \u2014 still a human job.<\/p>\n

    3) Step 2 \u2014 Analyse results and find the gap<\/h2>\n

    DiPiazza’s second step: analyse the data and pin down the gap in the market. His example still holds \u2014 clients who post freelance jobs tend to prefer working with someone who speaks their native language<\/strong>, so either pick your client segment by language or use the foreign languages you know at an advanced level.<\/p>\n

    In the 2026 solopreneur world this “find the gap” logic is called niche selection<\/em>. Instead of being a generic “web designer,” being “the person who builds Framer landing pages for SaaS startups” both lowers competition and raises your price. Pieter Levels’s repeated principle applies: rather than selling a small thing to a broad audience, sell big value to a narrow audience.<\/em> DiPiazza’s “native language” example was the 2017 version of this niche logic.<\/p>\n

    The Turkey reality adds this: moving from a TL-based client to a dollar\/euro-based client means, thanks to the exchange rate, 5-10x the income for the same effort. This currency arbitrage is the strongest structural advantage of freelancing from Turkey.<\/p>\n

    4) Step 3 \u2014 Approach the client personally and stand out<\/h2>\n

    The third step, the one DiPiazza emphasised most: standing out in the crowd. The first thing you must do is show the prospect you understand them<\/strong>. Your approach should be warm and sincere, and the client should feel special:<\/p>\n

    \n

    “Nobody wants to feel like the 573rd person that day.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    To achieve this, DiPiazza recommended studying three points in the client’s profile:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Purchase history:<\/strong> A profile with regular payments shows the client is serious.<\/li>\n
    • Feedback:<\/strong> Reviews of past freelancers reveal what they like and dislike.<\/li>\n
    • Personal details:<\/strong> Name, interests and location let you build a more personal approach.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      And the final move: instead of long proposal letters, record a mini intro video of up to 90 seconds<\/strong> and send the link. It sets you apart and shows how much you care about the work.<\/p>\n

      In 2026 all three are amplified by AI: Claude summarises the client research, AI drafts the personalised first message (you edit it), Loom records the 90-second video and adds auto-captions\/transcript. The logic is DiPiazza’s 2017 logic; the tools are 2026’s.<\/p>\n

      5) The real 2026 lesson: stop selling hours, sell a product<\/h2>\n

      DiPiazza’s three steps still hold, but the 2026 solopreneur economy adds one more: the freelance \u2192 productized service transition.<\/strong> A freelancer who sells hours caps income by the number of hours. A solopreneur who sells a productized service sells the same work again and again at a fixed price and decouples income from time.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Freelance model:<\/strong> “$50\/hour, 60 hours a month = $3,000.” Ceiling fixed.<\/li>\n
      • Productized model:<\/strong> “$4,995\/month flat for unlimited design requests (the Designjoy model).” Brett Williams took this to ~$1M ARR alone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        DiPiazza’s “change your mindset” line means exactly this in 2026: move from selling money-for-time to selling money-for-package.<\/p>\n

        6) 2017 vs 2026: how the DiPiazza method evolved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
        Dimension<\/th>\n2017 (DiPiazza’s original method)<\/th>\n2026 (solopreneur + AI era)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
        Competitor research<\/td>\nFake posting, manual review (days)<\/td>\nClaude + Perplexity sourced scan (hours)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Pitch writing<\/td>\nLong proposal by hand<\/td>\nAI draft + human edit (minutes)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Standing out<\/td>\n90s YouTube video<\/td>\n90s Loom + auto-captions\/transcript<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Client segment<\/td>\nNative-language preference<\/td>\nVertical niche (e.g. “Framer site for SaaS”)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Income model<\/td>\nProject\/hourly<\/td>\nProductized service \/ subscription (MRR)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Payment currency<\/td>\nMostly one market<\/td>\nTL cost + dollar\/euro income arbitrage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        Scale ceiling<\/td>\nPersonal hours<\/td>\nIncome decoupled from hours via AI + templates<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

        The table shows one thing: DiPiazza’s instinct<\/em> was right, and 2026 simply automated it and made it scalable.<\/p>\n

        7) A practical 30-day plan<\/h2>\n
          \n
        1. Week 1 \u2014 Niche + competitor map:<\/strong> Pick a vertical (e.g. “Notion systems for dietitians”). Use Claude to extract 10 competitors, prices and positioning.<\/li>\n
        2. Week 2 \u2014 Package design:<\/strong> Price a package, not an hour. One “starter” plus one “pro” package is enough.<\/li>\n
        3. Week 3 \u2014 Showcase + 90s video:<\/strong> A simple Framer\/Carrd page, a Loom intro, three sample works.<\/li>\n
        4. Week 4 \u2014 Distribution:<\/strong> 5 personalised messages a day (AI draft + manual edit), “build in public” on LinkedIn\/X. Global platform + direct outreach for dollar\/euro clients.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          This plan keeps DiPiazza’s four-week rhythm and only updates the tools to 2026.<\/p>\n

          8) The 5 most common mistakes in the freelance-to-product shift<\/h2>\n
            \n
          1. Still selling hours.<\/strong> The most common mistake. Saying “my rate is X per hour” instead of “a package price” chains income to your time again. Fix: define a fixed-scope package at the first opportunity.<\/li>\n
          2. Doing everything for everyone.<\/strong> A profile that says “web design, logos, social media, consulting” is memorable for nothing. Being an expert in a narrow vertical raises price and eases sales.<\/li>\n
          3. Pricing too low.<\/strong> Many people working from Turkey undersell to the world market out of TL reflex. A dollar\/euro client often reads a low price as a low quality<\/em> signal. Price by value.<\/li>\n
          4. Building no process.<\/strong> Doing every job from scratch makes scaling impossible. Bind repeating steps (brief, draft, revision, delivery) to a template and, where possible, an AI flow.<\/li>\n
          5. Neglecting visibility.<\/strong> Cold outreach alone is exhausting. A small but consistent personal brand turns cold messages into warm demand over time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Avoiding these five is the threshold that moves the DiPiazza method from “occasional freelancer” to “predictable-income solopreneur.”<\/p>\n

            Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)<\/h2>\n

            1. Is DiPiazza’s $23,700 still realistic today?<\/strong>
            \nThat figure in four weeks was exceptional, even in 2017. But because AI now speeds up research and pitching, reaching a few thousand dollars a month with the right niche and dollar\/euro clients is more accessible than in 2017. The method matters, not the number.<\/p>\n

            2. Does freelancing still make sense in the AI era?<\/strong>
            \nFreelancing is one of the areas AI strengthens most<\/em>. As AI takes over routine work, clients still need humans for direction, strategy and taste. The key is shifting from selling hours to selling a product\/package.<\/p>\n

            3. What is the difference between a productized service and classic freelance?<\/strong>
            \nClassic freelance sells hours or projects; income depends on time. A productized service sells a fixed-scope, fixed-price, repeatable package; income partly decouples from time and scales.<\/p>\n

            4. What do you need to earn dollars\/euros from Turkey?<\/strong>
            \nA global platform or direct outreach, English communication, international payment infrastructure (Wise, Payoneer and similar) and a vertical niche priced in dollars\/euros. The TL cost + hard-currency income gap is the biggest advantage.<\/p>\n

            5. Does a 90-second intro video really make a difference?<\/strong>
            \nYes. Most text proposals are eliminated unread; a short, personal video gives the client a “this person gets me” feeling. In 2026 Loom + auto-captions make it doable in minutes.<\/p>\n

            6. Which AI tools should I start with?<\/strong>
            \nClaude\/Perplexity for research, Claude\/ChatGPT for draft copy, Loom for video, Framer\/Carrd for a simple showcase. Win work first, grow the stack later.<\/p>\n

            7. Is a personal brand mandatory?<\/strong>
            \nNot mandatory, but an accelerator. A visible personal brand turns cold outreach into warm demand.<\/p>\n

            References<\/h2>\n
              \n
            • Daniel DiPiazza, Rich20Something: Ditch Your Average Job, Start an Epic Business, and Score the Life You Want<\/em>, TarcherPerigee (Penguin Random House), 2017.<\/li>\n
            • Cal Newport, So Good They Can’t Ignore You<\/em>, Grand Central Publishing, 2012.<\/li>\n
            • World Economic Forum, “Future of Jobs Report” \u2014 freelance work and skill-demand trends.<\/li>\n
            • OECD, “The Future of Work” reports \u2014 independent\/freelance work and automation analysis.<\/li>\n
            • ILO (International Labour Organization), digital platform economy and independent-worker statistics.<\/li>\n
            • Anders Ericsson, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise<\/em>, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Rich20Something founder Daniel DiPiazza earned $23,700 in four weeks designing websites and gave three strategic tips: research competitors, analyse results, and approach clients personally. In the 2026 solopreneur + AI era those three steps still hold, but the mechanics changed: Claude and Perplexity do the research, AI drafts the pitch, the 90-second intro video is now Loom with auto-captions \u2014 and most importantly the freelancer no longer sells hours but a productized service. This guide keeps DiPiazza’s original three steps and adds the 2026 AI tool stack, the freelance-to-product transition, the Turkey TL\/dollar reality, a 2017 vs 2026 comparison table and 7 FAQs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basari","category-is","category-strateji"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceotudent.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}