When one dad-to-be built a book registry for his wife’s baby shower, he didn’t just solve a problem—he created a steady stream of passive income from Amazon.
Challenge
When Randy and his wife were preparing for their first child, they decided to do something a little different for the baby shower. Instead of traditional greeting cards, his wife wanted guests to bring children’s books. “Cards end up in a drawer,” she said, “but books last for years.”
Randy thought it was a great idea—until he realized there was no simple way to organize it. Guests were left guessing what books others might bring, and the process quickly got messy. A developer by profession, Randy couldn’t help but see an opportunity hiding in the frustration: what if there was a book registry, just like a gift registry, but focused solely on books?
Action
That weekend, he decided to build it himself.
Randy was no stranger to side projects. He had already created a small website years earlier that earned a bit of advertising income each month. He loved the idea of building something once and watching it generate revenue over time. So, he opened his laptop and began developing what would become BooksNotCards.com — a site that allowed users to create book registries for any occasion.
He designed it to work like any other gift registry: users could create a list of books they wanted, guests could claim titles, and every purchase would be completed through Amazon. To make it sustainable, Randy connected each transaction to his Amazon affiliate account, earning a small commission every time someone bought a book.
By Sunday night, the site was live. Within 24 hours, a stranger signed up — his first real user. That tiny success was enough to prove he was onto something.
Result
Within just two months, BooksNotCards had earned $500 in affiliate commissions. It started as a baby shower idea but soon expanded far beyond that. People began using it for weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, housewarmings, and even book clubs.
The concept resonated because it was both meaningful and practical — a way to give lasting, personal gifts while supporting authors and readers. As more registries appeared, Randy’s site gained steady organic traffic, each user bringing in another small but recurring income stream.
Even with a full-time job, a new baby, and multiple projects on his plate, the registry required almost no maintenance. It was the kind of business every side hustler dreams of — simple, automated, and quietly profitable.
Lesson
Randy’s story shows that great ideas don’t always come from boardrooms — sometimes they come from baby showers. By combining his technical skills with a genuine problem he wanted to solve, he built something that created value for others and income for himself.
The lesson? Pay attention to everyday inconveniences — they’re often your best business ideas. And when you find a solution that helps people in a small, meaningful way, it can lead to something far bigger than you ever expected.
Inspired by a true story originally featured on Side Hustle School by Chris Guillebeau. This rewritten version is independently produced and fully original.