How to make money in 2026

I spent the last 365 days ruining my sleep schedule, draining my savings, and nearly destroying my sanity to solve one equation: What is the actual "S-Tier" way to make money in 2026?

Most people think the "S-Tier" opportunity right now is AI wrappers. They are wrong. I lost £3,000 figuring that out. But the actual S-Tier method? It didn’t just fix my bank account; it bought my freedom in 48 hours.

If you want to survive the economic shift this year, you need to know which tier you're playing in.

And, If you are doing what I did in Tier C, you need to stop immediately.

Let's start at the bottom. The basement.

One year ago, I was desperate. My freelance clients had evaporated, replaced by AI tools. I had panic attacks every time I opened my banking app. I needed cash, and I needed it yesterday.

I saw the gurus screaming about "Easy AI Money." So, I jumped into the trenches.

I became a digital scavenger. I used AI to scrape trending topics—celebrity breakups, political gaffes, viral memes. I churned out 50 articles a day.

I got 200,000 views in my first week. I felt like a king. I was ready to put a down payment on a house. Then the payout arrived.

$24.50.

That is Tier D. It is the hamster wheel. High effort, high stress, poverty wages. You are renting attention, not building a business. I realized if I wanted to survive, I had to stop chasing trends and start building tools.

I moved up to TIER C.

The logic was better here. "Don't dig for gold, sell shovels." I used Cursor and Claude to build a writing assistant for Podcaster. It took two weeks of sleepless nights.

I launched it.

It actually worked. I got 50 users paying £10/month. That’s £500 MRR. I felt like I had escaped the matrix.

But Tier C has a fatal flaw.

I woke up one Tuesday to an email from Google. They released a new update Google Gemini Gems. My entire software, my entire business, was now a free feature in Gemini.

My income evaporated in 4 hours. Tier C is Technical Russian Roulette. You are building a castle in someone else's sandbox.

I was crushed. I realized I couldn't rely on "wrappers." I needed to sell my expertise, not just code.

So, I climbed to TIER B.

I stopped building software and started building instruction. But not a generic video course. I created a "step by step" checklist system. Which tells exactly what you need to do in order to get certified and become a Scrum Master in IT Industry in UK. And it worked. I pushed it with some meta ads on Facebook. And It started getting traction.

I sold it for £97.

I made £5,000 that month. This is where most people should start. Tier B is the first tier where you can actually quit your job.

But there was a problem. I wasn't free. I was trapped in my DMs. "Ash, how does this work?" "Ash, can you help me?"

I had created a high-paying job, not a business. I needed to remove myself from the equation.

I needed leverage. Infinite leverage. That brought me to TIER A.

This is the "Silent Factory." I used n8n to connect script generators to image models to voice synthesizers. I built a machine that made Bed Time Stories while I slept.

The money was incredible. $8,000 a month. 90% profit margins. No customers to talk to. No support tickets.

I almost stopped here. I almost declared Tier A the winner.

But deep down, I knew I was still vulnerable. I was relying on YouTube's algorithm. If they tweaked the code, my factory would shut down. I wanted something nobody could take away. An asset.

I looked at the top of the board. The S-Tier.

The one everyone says is "too hard." The one that requires "real skills."

I looked at the market. Who is the most tired, desperate demographic on earth? Parents. What do they need? Sleep.

It wasn't just an app.

I took my Tier A money and built "Story Genie." App.

This is where things got interesting. I used n8n to connect script generators to image models. I built a machine that generated SEO articles and social media posts on autopilot.

I used the Viral Hooks from Tier D to make the ads. I used the Coding Speed from Tier C to build it. I used the Automation from Tier A to run the SEO and social media pages that drove traffic to the app. And inside the app? I used AI to generate personalized bedtime stories where the kid is the main character.

I launched it.

I realized something. I had this massive engine build, automated SEO, automated social distribution, And the fact that I was pointing it at... my app

So you see everything I learned from my failed experiments before was helping me out in this tier.

The traffic started pouring in. My automated accounts were growing. The distribution was solved.

I was making £100/month from ad revenue. And more than £300/month with subscriptions

I looked at the top of the board. The S-Tier.

I didn't need to learn a new skill. I needed to combine the ones I already had.

For the first time in my life, I wasn't just "hustling."

When a parent downloaded the app, typed in "Sophia," chose a "Space Adventure," and watched their kid fall asleep listening to a story written just for them... I wasn't tricking an algorithm. I was solving a problem.

That is when I felt it. The shift.

"I am running a business."

It wasn't about the $50k ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), though that was nice. It was about Asset Ownership.

In Tier A, if YouTube changes the algorithm, I die. In S-Tier, I own the customer list. I own the code. I own the brand.

You might be watching this thinking, "I can't build a Story Genie app."

You're missing the point. I didn't start with the app.

If I hadn't failed at Trend Hijacking, I wouldn't know how to market it. If I hadn't failed at Automations, I wouldn't know how to run the backend cost-effectively.

S-Tier isn't a magic trick. It's the sum of your failures.

So, here is the official ranking.

• D-Tier: Trend Hijacking. (Teaches you Attention).

• C-Tier: AI Wrappers. (Teaches you speed).

• B-Tier: Action Courses. (Teaches you Sales).

• A-Tier: Automated Distribution. (Teaches you Systems).

• S-Tier: Native Utility Apps. (The Synthesis).

I used to think "Passive Income" meant doing nothing.

Now I know the truth. Passive income comes from building an active solution that works so well, people pay you for it while you sleep.

The Story Genie didn't just give kids good dreams. It gave me mine.

If you have an audience right now, whether on X, Instagram, or YouTube, and you're stuck in Tier D or C, you are sitting on a goldmine you can't see.

We created a tool that analyses your follower count, niche, and engagement to calculate exactly how much you could be making if you launched your own Tier S product or Tier B community. Monetize Your Followers

It’s completely free. Click the link below, plug in your numbers, and see what your "S-Tier" potential looks like.