A Field Guide to Vibe Coding

Easy street…

Imagine for a moment you have a programmer friend. 

This guy is so good that he can code anything, program anything, any language or computer problem he can solve…and he wants to!

Never complains.  No job is TOO much.  And he’ll do it for free or at a laughable price when compared to other programmers…

…and at a speed  the likes of which you’ve never seen!

In fact it’s this guy’s life ambition to bring into creation any crazy idea that you have, regarding apps or software or video games…

Now…

If you didn’t know how to code, but you had a lot of crazy ideas, then this kind of scenario might just be the golden ticket.

A catalyst for your wealth creation ambitions…A pot of gold at the end of your proverbial  rainbow…

You might just think……your “state-of-the-art cruise” ship (that was out to sea for many years) has finally come in.

Welcome to the crazy world of “vibe coding.”

It’s a world where largely the only limit is your imagination with what you can create on a computer.

It’s a world where countless entrepreneurs are already getting wealthy…

…a world where ANYBODY can literally start their own app or software empire by themselves (no help needed…)

So what am I talking about?

The world of vibe coding holds infinite possibilities.

But to get started, let’s define this so that we’re on the same page. What is “vibe coding?”

Vibe coding is essentially where you ask an “AI agent” to program something for you. You come up with the idea, and AI makes it a reality.

You don’t have to know anything about programming languages or coding.

You don’t have to pay some sketchy programmer a bunch of money to wait 6 weeks and hope he doesn’t rip off your idea…

Nope.  With vibe coding, all you have to do is have an idea and ask the AI to create it for you.

Now in full disclosure, I’m writing this as a layman. I do not know how to program computers. I have no idea how to code.

I’ve never programmed or created an app in my life by myself.

I couldn’t tell you the difference between HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any of these other tech savvy computer gobbly guck languages.

I don’t know about it. I have never really known or wanted to know about it.  I’ve always just wanted to achieve the goal that I wanted to achieve. 

So if that means there is a tool that will help me achieve my goals without me having to learn some language that will probably be outdated in another year…

… or having to trust some shadester programmer…

Then you can sign me up.

And that is why I think vibe coding is so powerful.

It empowers people with real problems, the ability to express solutions that would solve those problems, just by simply being creative.

And it does it very quickly.

So that’s what vibe coding is generally. It’s about using A.I. as your software developer. Instead of learning to program yourself or hiring a programmer…

Vibe coding offers you the ability to create things that you otherwise would not have been able to create on your own.

And I think this is very powerful because some of the solutions that the layman might come up with to solve problems might not have occurred to the average programmer or coder.

So that’s basically what vibe coding is. If you want to know where it came from, well I’ll tell you it’s not too old.

It was a term introduced by Andrej Karpathy in a social media post early in 2025.  I’ll quote him here:

“There’s a new kind of coding I call “vibe coding”, where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It’s possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good.

Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even touch the keyboard. I ask for the dumbest things like “decrease the padding on the sidebar by half” because I’m too lazy to find it.

I “Accept All” always, I don’t read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it. The code grows beyond my usual comprehension, I’d have to really read through it for a while.

Sometimes the LLMs can’t fix a bug so I just work around it or ask for random changes until it goes away. It’s not too bad for throwaway weekend projects, but still quite amusing. I’m building a project or webapp, but it’s not really coding – I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works.” – Andrej Karpathy

So that is essentially where it came from.

Example 1…

Before I really bother getting into how to do it with you, I want to give you a few examples of what other people are doing WITH it.

Justin Brooke is a guy who “vibe codes” simple websites for people.  He literally goes online and looks for local businesses who don’t have good websites, or ANY website for that matter…

…he then “vibe codes” a simple website for them, which takes him very little time.  He then calls them and offers to sell it to them for $250 to $500 bucks.

It’s a very simple process and you can find him being interviewed about it on YouTube by Nic Conley.  The video is titled “The Easiest Way to Make $500/Day with Replit AI.”

Conley came back a couple months later with a follow up video entitled “How to Build and Sell Replit Websites To Local Businesses (Full Tutorial)” which is a more comprehensive guide on how he did it.

One of the key differences is that Conley focused on continuity in the sale, while Brooke, in his original model, was just focused on a one time sale.

But regardless, both of these videos focus on using Replit to build simple websites that you can flip extremely quickly.  And they are an excellent next step if you are interested in using “vibe coding” in this way.

Now…

…Flipping websites is just one way you can do it.  A really simple way.  However, there are others.

Example 2…

Rexan Wong is 17 years old.   He’s a highschool student from Hong Kong. 

He created a simple app called Text Behind Image.  And essentially what it does is allow you to upload an image, and then add text behind images in the image.

So imagine you take a picture of a train, and behind the train there is a blue sky and a sunset.

This app lets you add writing to that image, and it will be positioned behind the train yet in front of the sunset.  It’s a very cool effect.

You can explore it for yourself at: textbehindimage(dot)rexanwong(dot)xyz

But it’s free to use, with a PRO version that’s 7 bucks a month.  This simple app is making Rex a cool $1,000 a month at the time of this writing.

Now…that might not be job quitting money, but Rex didn’t spend very long creating that app either.  He “vibe coded” it in 3 hours.

Why couldn’t you do something similar?  Just a concept of creating an app around one simple function.

Example 3…

Pieter Levels is a guy who built a simple flying game 100% with vibe coding and AI.  He is currently making $70k a month from running ads on that game.

You can see the game he built here: fly(dot)pieter(dot)com

But I mean…listen…I am no video game designer, and if you are reading this…you probably aren’t either but…

…we’ve all probably had an idea or two that we thought might make a pretty cool video game.  Well…

…now, as of right now, because this is fresher than wet paint as I write this to you…

…vibe coding can make that happen.  It’s pretty insane when you think about it.

And the stories?

The examples?

I could give you more, but I bet you are already starting to think about the possibilities.  And again…

…let’s not kid ourselves here.  The more people know about this?  The less barriers to entry?

The harder it will be to make money with it.  That’s how it always is in matters like this.  So consider this opportunity and if you are interested in it, don’t wait too long to get started.

How do you even DO this?

So I’ve given you some examples of people making some pretty good money with Vibe coding.

And I think it’s cool because a lot of these people have no idea how to program or code in any way shape or form.  They are just average people with no programming skills…taking a chance.

They are simply taking advantage of the tools that are in front of them.

So today I want to delve into how you can actually do this for yourself.

As of this writing there are a lot of platforms that let you “vibe code.”  The two that come to my mind immediately are Replit(dot)com and loveable(dot)dev.

Now keep in mind that things change over time, and in the world of AI things seem to change fairly rapidly. But like I said, at the time of this writing, these are two platforms that both have free plans…

…and can have you getting started immediately with vibe coding.

And you might think, “Well, what’s the difference between using something like chat GPT and using one of these platforms you are talking about?”

I’ll tell you. 

The way I look at it is this.

ChatGPT is a talker.

Platforms like the ones I mentioned above, are doers.  They are AI agents that actually take action and do YOUR bidding for you.

Their goal isn’t necessarily to just communicate with you. Their goal is to follow your instructions and build things based on those instructions.

They problem solve when things aren’t working the way they’re supposed to be working.  They never get tired, and they never complain, and they never steal your ideas.

And I do believe this is a pretty big difference.

What I want to do is give you some homework now.

Go sign up for a free replit(dot)com account.

And then go over to lovable(dot)dev and sign up for a free account there as well.

See if you can create something very simple on each of these two platforms. Something like a calculator, or a simple meal tracker.

Familiarize yourself with how these two platforms work.

A couple of predictions…

I’m going to make a couple of predictions here based on the homework I gave you.

Prediction One) First, when you went over to Replit and Loveable yesterday, you probably didn’t go as simple with your designing as what I suggested that you do.

That in turn had the AI making a lot of adjustments for you, corrections for you, iterations on your app, etc.

Prediction Two) And second, you probably used up all your free credits for the month on both platforms.

Bummer.

However that does bring up a really good point that I wanted to make about vibe coding.

Although, it’s far cheaper than hiring a programmer to create apps and software for you, and a lot faster…

It’s not 100% free. Not when you want to start making all your ideas and visions for tools and apps a reality.

As of this writing, these platforms cost between $25 and $30 a month it seems like on average and that’s not for unlimited usage. You generally get only so many credits per month.

And for more usage it costs more money.

So now that you know that, it’s important to try to make maximum use of what you have whether it’s the free plan or you’re on the low tier paid plan.

What I have found works really well is to start with a very simple concept, and then slowly add features. 

Another thing that is helpful to understand is that these AI agents are capable of copying and modeling pretty much anything you can give them.

So if you take a screenshot of a website, paste the screenshot into the chat window with AI, and tell it to model your app after what this site looks like, the AI will have no trouble doing that.

But I found that you can use these concepts of starting with a very simple foundational app that you can build upon…

… as well as giving the AI examples of things that already exist…

… work well at getting what you want faster and cutting down on adjustments, iterations, extended problem solving sessions.

And I don’t have to tell you that’s going to ultimately save you money.

Okay, more homework today.

Try building another app using one of these platforms, and this time start with a very simple concept. I’m talking minimum functionality here.

Additionally try going out on the world wide web, and taking a screenshot of someone else’s thing, whether that be a page design or a button functionality, whatever…

… see if you can get AI to model it in your creation.

Master these two techniques so that you can get better at doing more with less adjustment.

Greenback stacking Pt1…

Up until now in this series of “vibe coding” we focused primarily on what this technology is, how other people are using it, and how you can use it.

But today I want to focus on the financial aspects of vibe coding. That is to say…

…how the heck can you make money with this stuff?

I want to make two points on this, and then we’ll continue into some more specific points:

One) Amplification – Think about the business you already operate or the business you would like to start online. Now ask yourself, “Can I use vibe coding to create an app that will speed up my process?”

Remember, being able to vibe code is like having a team of software developers on standby ready to create anything you want. And they’re going to do it dirt cheap.

That has to be worth something to whatever business you wanted to start or whatever project you’re running right now.

So sometimes the answer isn’t, “let me use this to create an app that I can sell for a million dollars” but instead, how can I use this to amplify what I’m already doing.

Two) Stomp boxes – In the world of musicians and guitar players, they have these things called stomp boxes. And essentially these are single function guitar pedals that are designed to create one effect when you click it with your foot.

The idea is that you can play the guitar with your hands and then when you stomp on this effect pedal, it’s going to change the sound of your guitar as it comes out of the amplifier.

But the point is they’re very simple. Each stomp box does one thing. This one creates a distortion effect on the guitar. That one creates a chorus like effect on the guitar, etc.

I think that when you approach vibe coding, and your newfound power to create whatever piece of software you want, it is very easy to overcomplicate things.

When I look around at some of the examples I see of people making money with this right now, they have used this tool to create simple pieces of software or apps that essentially do one or two things.

These aren’t swiss army knife style pieces of software…

… they are stomp boxes. 

They solve one annoying problem and because of the simplicity, people gravitate towards these pieces of software much like some guitar players gravitate towards stomp boxes.

Are there more complicated solutions? Of course.

Do those more complex solutions offer far more options and ways to use them? Absolutely.

It doesn’t matter. People are drawn to simple Solutions. Remember that.

People like easy.

People like simple.

People like fast and uncomplicated.

And often people will pick the simple solution that only does one thing versus the more complicated solution that does a lot of things…

…simply because they do not want to take the time to learn how to use the complicated thing.

This is something you can take advantage of with your vibe coding.

Can you think of a piece of software out there that’s really kind of hard to learn how to use, but it has one or two features that are really awesome?  I know I can.

You have to wonder if you might not be able to make a standalone app with vibe coding that just does that one thing. 

Greenback stacking Pt2…

I made a couple points for you about how you can use vibe coding to make money, but I want to expand upon that with a sort of “lightning round.”

I just want to give you several ways that you could use this technology to create some income for yourself fairly quickly.  So let’s get into them:

One) Freelance Development – Offer no-code or AI-assisted app building on platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. Clients describe what they want, and you use vibe coding tools to deliver it fast.

Two) Template Marketplace – Create reusable website, app, or automation templates using vibe coding and sell them on marketplaces like Gumroad or Etsy.

Three) Productized Services – Offer specific services like “AI-built portfolio sites” or “custom dashboards” with fixed pricing. Use vibe coding to quickly build and customize for each client.

Four) AI Course Creation – Teach non-tech people how to use vibe coding tools via simple online courses or eBooks.

Five) Startup Prototyping – Use vibe coding to rapidly prototype apps and validate ideas. Sell the validated prototypes or bring on cofounders/investors once traction is proven.

Six) Internal Tools for Businesses – Offer to build small AI-powered tools or dashboards for local businesses who don’t have technical teams.

Seven) YouTube or TikTok Content – Create short, engaging videos showing how fast and easy it is to build something cool with vibe coding. Monetize via affiliate links or creator funds.  Already seeing people do this.

Eight) Niche SaaS Tools – Use vibe coding to quickly launch small, subscription-based tools for specific audiences (wedding planners, personal trainers, or real estate agents).

Nine) Automation-as-a-Service – Offer to automate repetitive business tasks (email sorting, form responses, spreadsheet updates) using AI-generated scripts.

Ten) AI Plugin or Extension Development – Build lightweight browser extensions or VSCode plugins that solve small but annoying problems, and monetize through sales or donations.

Eleven) Custom AI Chatbots – Use vibe coding to create tailored chatbots for businesses (customer support, lead generation), then sell them as one-time or recurring services.

Twelve) Interactive Web Content for Creators – Help influencers or educators build interactive experiences (quizzes, calculators, games) for their websites or newsletters.

Thirteen) Internal Dashboards – Many small teams or solo founders need simple dashboards (metrics, sales tracking, customer info). Use vibe coding to deliver these affordably.

Fourteen) AI-Powered Portfolios for Others – Offer a service where you build dynamic portfolios for artists, freelancers, or professionals – fast turnaround thanks to vibe coding.

Fifteen) White-label Tools – Build customizable web tools like invoice generators, habit trackers, then license them to others who want to rebrand them.

Sixteen) Lead Magnet Builders – Help marketers create simple free tools (calculators or quizzes) that they use to collect emails – then upsell integration services.

Seventeen) “Build Your Idea” Workshops – Host paid, small-group Zoom workshops where attendees describe their app ideas and you build them in real time with vibe coding tools.

Okay, that ‘s 17 additional ways to use “vibe coding” to make you money. 

Negatives of vibe coding…

 Okay so I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about something like this without also discussing the negatives involved.  Everything has cons and vibe coding is no different.

I think it’s important to approach topics like this as a realist. You want to see both sides of the coin. That means seeing the pros as well as the cons.

With vibe coding there are a few things that I think it’s very important for you to understand.  They aren’t deal breakers, but still you need to see the whole picture.

So what are they?

One)  Copyright – As of this writing you cannot register copyright on anything that was created with AI, unless there was significant human input.

That essentially makes most of the things that you create with vibe coding non-copyrightable. That’s pretty much right next to the public domain.

So when it comes to any kind of a moat, or protection over your intellectual property…

… you aren’t going to find a lot of that here. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a bunch of money with apps and software that you create with vibe coding, but it does mean that other people can copy you very easily.

Now some would argue that’s already a problem that’s out there right now. People are already doing that. And while that might be true I just want to make sure you understand the negatives.

AI is simply not respected in the world of copyright registration.

Two)  Security –  Do you know how to put special little algorithms and coding languages in place to keep your software safe from hackers?

I know I don’t. So if you’re using vibe coding to create an app or software…

… you have to ask yourself how vulnerable you are to hackers.

Especially if you’re creating an app taking on subscribers or members and they’re entering their credit card information. You have some responsibility to keep those people’s information safe from weirdos.

If you’re vibe coding, you don’t really know how good the code is as far as security.  And if you have access to the same vibe coding platforms that everybody else does…

…it stands to reason that those hackers are going to know exactly how the vibe coding AI agent creates things with its programming…

… and potentially know how to hack into the app.

Now, is this a problem that can’t be solved? No, of course not.

You could literally teach the AI agent how to protect the code using some kind of documentation that you find online even if you don’t understand how to use it, yourself.

Alternatively, you could hire a programmer to go over the code and make sure that it’s safe and not easily hackable.

But essentially what we are talking about here is the vulnerability of not understanding everything you are dealing with.  And that is something you cannot ignore.

There’s always a way, and honestly this isn’t something that would scare me off. A few barriers to entry are a good thing, but it’s definitely something you want to address.

Three) Expense – The third and final con that I want to point out when it comes to vibe coding, is expense. While not as expensive as hiring a human programmer or coder to do your bidding, it still costs money.

So that means you can’t be the kind of goofball who just creates a bunch of stuff and then never does anything with it. If you do that you’re just going to lose money.

You want to create with the intent to execute plans and launch projects.

From my standpoint these are the three big ones. And in my honest opinion, I don’t think any of them should stop you from using this technology.

Okay…

If you’re reading this right now and you’re thinking I’ve missed a big one, I understand. Let me address the one you’re probably thinking about…

Four) Ethics – Is it ethical to use AI to code software when it’s probably starting to already put a lot of coders out of work?

Listen, this is about educating you on an opportunity. It’s not an ethics class. You’re going to have to make your own decisions about what you think is ethical or not ethical…

… especially in the world of artificial intelligence.

I think that more and more, as artificial intelligence advances, it’s going to become less about what artificial intelligence is capable of…

… and more about what you’re comfortable with artificial intelligence doing.

That is to say it won’t be a question of if AI can do it or not, but instead are you comfortable letting AI do it.

Like with everything else in life there is good and bad when it comes to artificial intelligence.

It’s absolutely already taking people’s jobs away right now.  Much of that is being done in a “hush, hush” kind of way, but it’s happening. 

It’s absolutely already disrupting multiple industries, including mine.

The one thing that is similar to many other times throughout human history, is the fact that no matter what revolutionary technology is invented….

… we as humans have to learn how to adapt and thrive in a world in which that technology exists.

There have been many ethical issues over the decades that have changed the way we have done things. From child labor, to hunting certain kinds of animals….

Ethical ideas have most definitely shaped the way our world has advanced.

But let me ask you this question…

Throughout our history can you ever remember a time where a new technology was invented, that we stopped using because it made too many people lose their jobs?

Me?  I cannot.

Industries get disrupted and people move on.  Find new things to do.  Ways to survive.  They adapt.  It’s not fun.  Nobody is happy about it.  But it has happened time and time again.

It doesn’t mean things won’t change in the future. Maybe AI will disrupt so many industries and take so many people’s jobs, they’ll start some kind of affirmative action for humans…

“EVERY BUSINESS MUST HAVE 10 HUMANS!”

Or maybe some kind of “UBI.”

That’s “Universal basic income” to the unindoctrinated

I don’t know.  I believe that if any of that were to happen, things would have to get a lot worse before they did.

And what that means is that a whole bunch of ambitious, hungry, outside-the-box thinking entrepreneurs…

… will probably already have made a ton of money by the time it does happen.

So let me end this about negatives, by just reiterating the fact that everyone has to draw their own line in the sand when it comes to ethics.

This is an opportunity. Will it exist two years from now? Probably not.

Not in its current form.

But to pretend that there are no ethical concerns around the use of AI would not be very transparent. I think we all understand the ethical concerns around artificial intelligence.

Decide for yourself.

Amplifying the process…

All right so we’ve talked a lot about using vibe coding to create simple pieces of software or apps that can make you money.

But what happens if you don’t have any good ideas?

What happens if you’re not very creative?

Well one thing you can do to come up with some interesting ideas to use for vibe coding, is to make use of ChatGPT or your favorite LLM.  Here is a simple prompt to get you started…

Simple prompt:

I want to create a simple app that solves a very basic problem that a lot of people experience in the [Insert niche here] niche.

Can you give me a list of your 10 best ideas. Make sure they’re all very simple and only solve one problem. And then also give me a second list of 10 ideas that you think are the opposite of helpful.

This prompt is going to have ChatGPT giving you two lists of ideas.

One of those lists is going to be more standard and full of things that ChatGPT believes are helpful to people in whatever niche you picked.

The second list is going to be very counterintuitive.   It’s going to be full of ideas that ChatGPT believes are NOT very helpful.

But there is a method to the madness of that second list.

The reason is because often you can push ChatGPT into this polarizing position of creativity when you ask it to do things that are the opposite of helpful.

Most of the ideas on that second list are probably not going to be relevant to you, but a couple of them might be diamonds in the ruff.

So in this way you can use ChatGPT to be sort of a sounding board for you. A way to come up with some interesting potential ideas for apps.

So a little homework today.

Head on over to ChatGPT or your favorite LLM, and try the prompt that I gave you above. See what kinds of ideas it can come up with.

Challenge yourself to start building a new app based on one of these ideas. Remember to keep it simple.  Think “stop box.”

And then…

As you become more familiar with vibe coding, what you’ll start to notice is that although the AI agent is fairly easy to communicate with, almost like you’re having a conversation…

…you’ll start to find that being able to convey what you want in a way that gets the best results with the least amount of adjustment possible, is going to cost you less money.

So that means the more efficient you are at prompting (aka talking to A.I. in a way that it can understand you well) the cheaper and faster you’re going to get your projects done.

As of the time of this writing, Replit has a great library of tutorials that you can find at: Docs(dot)replit(dot)com/tutorials

This is a place to continue to build on the foundation that we’ve established right here in this report.

If I could point you in one more direction, then I would tell you to check YouTube for tutorials on the subject of vibe coding.

The thing about YouTube that I will say is that there are a whole lot of people at various levels of computer programming ability…

…who are using these AI agents to vibe code, and you have to be careful who you’re listening to because you can get a little confused.

Especially, if you’re somebody like me who doesn’t really know a lot about coding or programming to begin with.

And that doesn’t just go for YouTube, it goes for anywhere you’re seeking tutorials about the platform or AI agent you’re trying to use to vibe code.

Seek tutorials that are at your level of knowledge regarding the subject. 

Enough said.

Well, well, well…

That brings us the end of our series on Vibe coding. We’ve talked about the who, the what, the when, the where, the why…

All that’s left…

… is to figure out how you fit into this opportunity.

Only you can answer that question.

The fact of the matter is you can think about this report, file it away under “interesting information that I might use one day…”

And we both know exactly what will happen if you do that.

Nothing.

Or…

You can give it a shot. Roll the dice. See what happens.

Because the bottom line is you never know. And nobody who’s ever done anything great…

Nobody who’s ever changed their life for the better in a massively significant and different way…

… has ever accomplished it by doing nothing. They had to take a shot. They’ve all had to roll the dice.

They’ve all had to say to themselves, “Screw it. This might not work but let me try it anyway.”

So you decide.

Tomorrow we are moving on, and I wish you the best in all that you do!

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