My First Dollar

Rob Hallam
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Every week on My First Dollar, one expert breaks down one specific playbook for making your first dollar online. Same focus every time: take something that actually worked and explain it clearly enough that someone with $0 and a laptop could start today. The exact steps with the real numbers. Past guests have covered a MacBook-slapping app that made $44K in 60 days, an app portfolio doing $1M a year, cold email that lands paying customers, and SEO that compounds over time. If you're a founder trying to get to that first dollar, you're in the right place.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Why ChatGPT Recommends Terrible YouTube Videos

    Rob Hoffman has built multiple millions in revenue across three bootstrapped companies, almost entirely off the back of one SEO playbook. In this episode he reframes SEO as "search everywhere optimization" and breaks down how to get your product cited by ChatGPT and Claude, not just ranked on Google. He walks through the real cheat codes: how a single LinkedIn post outranked their own website, how a 100-view YouTube video gets cited by AI, the first keywords every new founder should target, and why content written entirely by Claude Code will never rank. He pulls live examples from his own tools the whole way through. If you've shipped something with Claude Code or Codex but nobody can find it, this is the episode. Follow Rob Hoffman: X: https://x.com/RobHoffman_ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@the-rob-hoffman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-hoffman-ceo Chapters (0:00) The SEO playbook that made millions (2:52) Why ChatGPT converts 17x better (4:19) How AI finds you (8:23) LinkedIn is the #2 cited source (14:03) YouTube is a hidden SEO cheat code (20:10) The first keywords a new SaaS needs (23:47) Why your AI content won't rank (34:19) Write the way LLMs read (45:01) What he'd do tomorrow from zero New episodes of My First Dollar drop weekly. Builders going from zero to their first dollar of revenue. Follow if that's the direction you're going. 🔗 Newsletter (My First Dollar) → https://getmyfirstdollar.com 🔥 SuperX (grow faster on X) → https://superx.so 𝕏 Follow me on X → https://x.com/robj3d3 📸 Follow me on Insta → https://instagram.com/robhallam_

    48 min

  2. 2d ago

    How He Built a $2.5M Company With Cold Email

    Romàn runs a $2.5M/year SaaS called Gojiberry and he built it on cold email, the channel most founders refuse to touch. In this episode he breaks down the exact playbook that took him from manually selling lead files for his first $10K, to $1M a year in 8 months. The big idea: stop asking for the demo. Send a blueprint instead. Romàn walks through the documents he sends, the leads he targets, the infrastructure he uses, and why his 1% reply rate at scale generates more inbound than most founders pull off social media in a year. If you've got something to sell and no audience, this is the episode. Follow Romàn: https://x.com/romanbuildsaas Chapters (0:00) Intro (0:45) The $250 refresh on a $2.5M dashboard (3:45) Why cold email is the fastest B2B test (4:54) Selling files of leads with no product (5:45) The 3 things every cold email needs (8:59) Why everyone gets demos wrong (10:03) The blueprint that flips outbound to inbound (20:09) The 0.8% reply rate that prints millions (24:42) What to do tomorrow if you're starting New episodes of My First Dollar drop weekly. Builders going from zero to their first dollar of revenue. Follow if that's the direction you're going. 🔗 Newsletter (My First Dollar) → https://getmyfirstdollar.com 🔥 SuperX (grow faster on X) → https://superx.so 𝕏 Follow me on X → https://x.com/robj3d3 📸 Follow me on Insta → https://instagram.com/robhallam_

    27 min

  3. 2d ago

    I Made $44K From an App That Moans When You Slap It

    Toni made $44,000 in 60 days from a Mac app that moans when you slap it. He coded it in two days, posted two Instagram reels, and got over 50 million combined views, all while working a 9-to-5. In this episode he walks me through the playbook: - How he trains his Instagram algorithm to surface viral app ideas - The refund mechanic he engineered to turn customers into a free marketing army - His one big piece of advice for anyone trying to go viral with their app If you've shipped a serious app and it's not moving, or you want to ship something silly that prints, this is the episode. Follow Toni: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonnozfpv/ X: https://x.com/tonnoz Chapters (0:00) The $44K moaning Mac app (1:21) $0, a laptop, 60 days. How does Toni do it? (3:22) Two reels, two days of code, $44K (6:07) Where the idea actually came from (9:49) "Don't try to go viral" (13:07) The hidden cost of going viral (15:11) When your boss texts you on Slack (17:53) Talk to users, test before buy (19:10) The refund hack that engineered the virality (21:28) The full $0 and a laptop playbook New episodes of My First Dollar drop weekly. Builders going from zero to their first dollar of revenue. Follow if that's the direction you're going. 🔗 Newsletter (My First Dollar) → https://getmyfirstdollar.com 🔥 SuperX (grow faster on X) → https://superx.so 𝕏 Follow me on X → https://x.com/robj3d3 📸 Follow me on Insta → https://instagram.com/robhallam_

    24 min

  4. 2d ago

    From DoorDash to $1M/year With Apps (the UGC playbook)

    Ernesto Lopez built a $1M/year app business by 22. He used to do DoorDash just to buy enough time to figure this out. In this episode he walks me through his entire UGC playbook. The one he used to get his first app to $20K in 30 days, and the one his current app is using to sit at #34 in the App Store right now. If you've got an app idea or you've shipped one and it's not moving, this is the episode. Follow Ernesto: https://x.com/ErnestoSOFTWARE Chapters (0:00) From DoorDash to $1M/year (1:12) You have $100 and a laptop. What now? (2:32) How Snapout did $20K in 30 days (6:52) The UGC playbook (reactions vs talking head) (10:08) Where viral ideas actually come from (13:34) The repost trick that beats the algorithm (15:02) AI influencers and the 18yo making $10K/month (20:02) The $0 and a laptop full breakdown (24:00) Hitting $1M ARR (25:47) A message for anyone in the trenches New episodes of My First Dollar drop weekly. Builders going from zero to their first dollar of revenue. Follow if that's the direction you're going. 🔗 Newsletter (My First Dollar) → https://getmyfirstdollar.com 🔥 SuperX (grow faster on X) → https://superx.so 𝕏 Follow me on X → https://x.com/robj3d3 📸 Follow me on Insta → https://instagram.com/robhallam_

    27 min
  • 4 Episodes

About

Every week on My First Dollar, one expert breaks down one specific playbook for making your first dollar online. Same focus every time: take something that actually worked and explain it clearly enough that someone with $0 and a laptop could start today. The exact steps with the real numbers. Past guests have covered a MacBook-slapping app that made $44K in 60 days, an app portfolio doing $1M a year, cold email that lands paying customers, and SEO that compounds over time. If you're a founder trying to get to that first dollar, you're in the right place.

Information

  • Creator
    Rob Hallam
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Rob Hallam
  • Show Website
    My First Dollar