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Paid AI newsletter / column

The public books of 20 paid AI columns on Xiaobaotong: topics, prices, readers and when they stopped

Compiled from the 20 paid AI columns on Xiaobaotong, a Chinese paid-newsletter platform, in our library. For 13 of them, cumulative sales can be estimated as readers × the price the author states (grade A); the other 7 keep their price private (grade C, method only). Every number comes from the reader counts, the authors' own price text and the post dates shown on the column pages.

Compiled 2026-10-23

Key facts

13Cases graded A or B
7Grade C leads

Income ranges use cases graded A or B (grade B is the founder's own account, with no platform data to check it), in CNY; grade C leads are listed but not counted

See the steps

How the cases did it, step by step

Each step names the cases it comes from. Public sources give no reliable time data, so there are no weeks or hours.

  1. Step 1 Pick a specific topicTopics fall into two groups: one tool (ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Midjourney), or earning with AI on one platform or in one kind of job (Xiaohongshu, WeChat official accounts, WeChat Channels image posts, overseas markets, ghostwriting and résumés).Cases: Alchian Huasheng · Daquan · Liu Fei · Karl · Teacher Pite · Pao Ye · Jingshui Liushen · Fanfan
  2. Step 2 Set a one-off price and publish the price ladder19 of the 20 columns sell a one-off purchase. A common pattern starts low and rises with readers: 16.6 yuan rising to 28.8 yuan after 3,500 subscribers, or 99 yuan plus 20 yuan for every 200 readers up to 299 yuan.Cases: Feng Xiong · Sitin Peng Tao · findyi · Yihui · Daquan
  3. Step 3 Say how much you will publish, then deliverSome intros promise a number of posts: the Midjourney column promised at least 50 in a year and wrote 51, while the AI-coding course for non-programmers promised more than 50 and wrote 41. The column on earning overseas posts almost daily: 374 posts in two years.Cases: Liu Fei · Feng Xiong · Jingshui Liushen
  4. Step 4 Grow through platform affiliates and reader groupsXiaobaotong supports affiliate sales, and some columns give referrers 60% of each sale. Another common extra is a reader group or Q&A after purchase: a WeChat group, a Knowledge Planet circle, or course slides.Cases: Pao Ye · R · Xiaoqijie · Sitin Peng Tao · Yuan Liuwei
  5. Step 5 Decide whether to keep going or wrap upA one-off sale pays once. Of the 20 columns in our library, 18 have not posted for 9 to 35 months; the two still updating are the near-daily column on earning overseas and a weekly subscription newsletter.Cases: Jingshui Liushen · op7418 (Guizang) · Sitin Peng Tao · Liu Fei

At a glance

Ranges are the 25th–75th percentile of cases graded A or B, computed by script from the case data; both ends of a ranged figure are counted

Cases graded A or B
13
Cumulative income (cases with only a running total)
¥122,438 – ¥235,614

Skills involved

How many of the 13 cases graded A or B list each skill

Knowledge-product design13 of 13 cases

Breaking one topic into dozens of short posts: these columns published between 28 and 374 posts.

Pricing13 of 13 cases

One-off prices run from 10 to 299 yuan, and many authors publish a price ladder tied to reader numbers.

AI-assisted coding2 of 13 cases

Only two columns teach AI coding; the rest cover using AI tools and earning with them.

Key points

Price and readers

The single columns with the most readers are a 10-yuan column on earning overseas (16,526) and a 19.9-yuan DeepSeek primer (10,322); a 299-yuan advanced ChatGPT column has 683 and a 199-yuan AI-writing column 507. There are exceptions: a 16.8-yuan column on AI résumés has only 500.

  • Cheap columns have more readers but not always more sales: 683 × 299 yuan beats 16,526 × 10 yuan
  • Premium columns often lean on the author's background and a reader group (self-described, not verified by us)
  • Reader counts come from the platform; authors cannot edit them

Reading the estimates

A grade A figure is readers × the price the author states: an estimate of cumulative sales, not money received. Coupons, affiliate commissions, refunds and the platform's fee are not deducted. Price ladders give a low and a high figure; columns with no public price are not estimated and are graded C.

  • Some affiliate commissions reach 60% of a sale
  • “Original price” and “worth” figures in intros are anchors and are ignored
  • These are multi-year totals, not monthly income

When columns start and stop

In 19 of the 20 columns the earliest visible post dates from 2023 or 2024, just after ChatGPT took off. Of the 18 that have stopped, 15 ran for less than two years from their earliest to their last visible post. Column pages show only dates; the authors have not said why they stopped.

  • Earliest posts cluster in 2023–2024
  • No author has said why they stopped
  • Only two are still posting

Regulation and risk

Paid “earn money with AI” content is under regulatory scrutiny: in September 2026 the Cyberspace Administration of China's Qinglang campaign named “get-rich personas” that draw paying users through start-up courses and paid communities. Columns on the same topics are plentiful and easy to start.

  • Never promise income
  • Authors' own income claims are always marked unverified here
  • Many similar columns, low barrier to entry

Cases graded A or B

See them all in the case library →

Other cases in this project

Grade C leads: income not reliably confirmed; useful for how things were done, but not counted above.

Tools

Tools and platforms the cases mention. Every link goes to the official site, and we earn nothing from them.

ToolUsed forLink
XiaobaotongHosting, payments, affiliates and reader counts (all 20 columns)Official site ↗
ChatGPTThe most-taught tool: four columns on ChatGPT, plus a GPTs directoryOfficial site ↗
DeepSeekThe tool behind the DeepSeek primer columnOfficial site ↗
MidjourneyThe tool behind the advanced Midjourney columnOfficial site ↗
Knowledge Planet (Zhishi Xingqiu)Used by some authors for reader Q&AOfficial site ↗

Platform rules and compliance

  • Make no income promises such as “earn X a month”: the Qinglang campaign targets exactly these get-rich pitches.
  • Label AI-generated text and images as China's Measures for Labelling AI-Generated Synthetic Content (in force since 1 September 2025) require.
  • State delivery and refund terms; every column page we saw shows a 24-hour fulfilment commitment.
  • Get permission before quoting other people's articles or screenshots, and never republish whole pieces.

Compare

Compare: AI micro-SaaS (small tool sites and extensions)

FAQ

How much do paid AI columns on Xiaobaotong make?

For the 13 columns we can estimate, the upper bound of cumulative sales runs from 64,598 to 557,829 yuan. These are multi-year gross totals before coupons and affiliate cuts, not monthly income. The other 7 keep their price private and cannot be estimated.

How reliable are the estimates?

Reader counts come from the platform and cannot be edited by authors; prices come from the authors' own intro text. Coupons, affiliate commissions, refunds and the platform's fee are not deducted, and a price changed without updating the intro would change the result, so we give ranges and grade them A.

Subscription or one-off price?

Only one of our 20 columns is a subscription, a weekly AIGC newsletter, and neither its price nor its renewal rate is public, so there is nothing to compare.

Do I need to code or master many AI tools?

No coding is needed. All 13 grade A columns list knowledge-product design and pricing; only 2 teach AI coding.

Which column do you recommend?

We recommend and resell none of them and take no commission. The case pages only record public figures and methods.

Want more examples like these?

See them all in the case library →