Making Money With API

In today's tech world, making apps and services development has moved from "building" to more of "assembling." This change is due to the many open-source tools, a big 1.3 million NPM packages, and many APIs that let you use different data.

Let's talk about API marketplaces. These online places let developers find ready-made solutions or share their own. One big name here is RapidAPI.  Let's see how one can make money on this platform.

A short story about this marketplace: In 2015, Iddo Gino was busy with coding events and saw a problem – there wasn't an easy way to find a list of APIs for quick coding. This idea led to creating a big group of APIs named Rapid. Now, it's a big marketplace with:

• 4,000,000 developers actively looking, checking, and testing the solutions.
• 14,000 ready-to-use APIs in a collection.
• 400,000,000,000 requests handled by the platform every month. 

With these numbers, and knowing that 20% of APIs on the platform are for Social uses, we can guess the earnings of 2022's most popular API: TokAPI. Made for fast TikTok search and use, one request costs at least $0.00001. Following the 80/20 rule and how popular things get more attention, it's likely that the top API gets 50% of all Social requests. This means about $400,000/month for the best API.

The numbers show it! There's a good chance to earn money here. To grab it, do this:

1. Think of a special API idea
2. Make it quickly using a low-code platform
3. Publish your API on RapidAPI and start monetizing it.

Starting with an Idea

Finding a good idea for your API is key. Here's a plan::

1. Look at the list of the best APIs. This helps you see what people want now. Think if you can make something like that or maybe a better version. For example, the top 50 APIs of 2022.
2. If you know a lot about a business area, you probably know its problems. Finding these problems can help you create tools that many businesses in that area need.
3. Maybe you have many ideas but lack tools or skills. The good news is that today, even if you don't know a lot of coding, you can make complex tools.

Start small, choose a part, see its demand, and go for it. The big number of requests shows that people want new solutions. It's your chance to join in.

Streamlining API Creation

API development has changed a lot. In the past, you needed to buy servers, write complex code, set up databases, and fix errors. But now, with platforms that use the cloud and need less coding, these hard tasks and growth concerns are things of the past.

Let's explain this with an example. Think of making an API that collects news about green energy from specific sources and shows it in one easy news list.

The best way to make this idea real is by using tools like Integromat, Make, Bubble, and n8n. With a tool that you can see and use, you can connect parts, set their order, and there you have it, your automatic setup is ready. For this example, we'll use the Latenode platform  – Currently in its Beta phase, it's entirely free, But Latenode still offers strong tools for making these services.

1. Webhook: Start with a Webhook, a special web address, that takes in the API request. This web address should be easy for Rapid users to understand and use, not some random system-made one.

2. HTTP request and Headless browser: When getting a signal, the process starts, leading to the HTTP request and the Headless browser.

• With the HTTP request, you talk to big media sources that have their API keys. This makes sure you get content lists directly. Make this automatic by using an example from the guide and putting it in Latenode.

• Headless browser is used when there are no API keys, or they don't work well. This part works with a script made for automated tasks, which acts like a user on the website. It finds, copies, and sends needed website parts to us. "Headless" means there's no usual screen view, which these tasks don't need. If you need help making the script, ChatGPT is here to help with the code.

3. JavaScript: The next step is changing the collected data into a format you want. Here, the JavaScript part takes the results from the earlier step.

4. Webhook response: This is the end of the process. Using the earlier steps, it sends a list of green energy news to our API user, like a green energy news editor. Finally, turn on, launch, and finalize the process.

After doing these steps, you're ready to share your API on the Rapid marketplace.

How to Add Your API to Rapid

Starting your listing is easy. Go to My APIs and click on "Add API Project". Fill in the basic fields:

• Name
• Description
• Category

Next, make sure you provide the correct basic URL that connects with your Webhook. In Rapid, use the URL from Latenode but leave out the part that can be changed.

Then, you need to set up a Rest Endpoint, Here's how:

The main task is to set the endpoint's path using the base URL. For our example, this path matches the changeable part of the Webhook URL on the Latenode platform:

After you've set everything up, make your API public and agree to the Terms of Services.

Great! Your API is now on the marketplace Now, check if everything works from the user's view, set up how you'll make money, and, if possible, tell specific groups about your new service.

Conclusion

Using Latenode's simple platform, ChatGPT's coding help, and the RapidAPI marketplace makes creating different automatic tasks easy for everyone. For experienced developers, these tools make a great space for work.

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From what you've learned, with some effort, you could earn about $3,000 every month with your new business tools. It's not just possible, but very likely. Think, build, and launch your ideas, all while using the growing power of automation! If you have problems making APIs or other tasks, the Latenode expert community on Discord is ready to help.