REPLICATION GUIDE · AI Businesses

Ielts writing feedback tool

Writing9 is an operating online IELTS writing checker for learners needing feedback between practice attempts.

● Already earning  $10K/mo  ·  Copy it for about $160K

Replication snapshot

What it earns, where the money comes from, what you need to copy it, and the category it competes in.

Monthly revenue$10K/mo
Copy budget$160K
Growth channelsSEO, Word of mouth
Tools to copyNot disclosed
CategoryAI Businesses

How to copy this business and make money

Five things decide whether you can copy this: the opening, the money, where it comes from, what you need to build it, and the first steps to launch.

QUICK LOOKFree summary — what it sells, and the total budget
Build an independent adult IELTS Academic Task 2 practice service. Interview 15 learners and five tutors; recruit through tutor demonstrations. Total copy budget: $160K.

Want to see how that $160K splits line by line, what each line buys, and when to stop? The full breakdown is below.

PROVEN · ALREADY MAKING MONEY

Thousands of people are already making money with this playbook

If you want to make money, read this part. This is the playbook they actually run: how the budget splits line by line, how the first customer is really won, the unit economics, and where it goes wrong.

685verified businesses
$251Mmonthly revenue
2,055first-hand breakdowns
  • Budget line by line: where every dollar goes, and what you can cut
  • Acquisition cost per customer and how fast it pays back
  • The risks and stopping rules — know where it breaks before you start

Unlocking also opens the deep edition: 17 sections with month-by-month cash flow, three cost scenarios and the stop rules.

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Open-source stack you can start from

Each repository was checked against the GitHub API for existence, stars and licence terms. Fork one instead of starting from zero. Where it says AGPL, read the terms before shipping a paid product.

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Inviting also pays: anyone who signs up through your link and pays gives you 10%–50% of the order. How inviting pays →

What this business does

Writing9 is an operating online IELTS writing checker for learners needing feedback between practice attempts. Its website covers General Training letters, Academic charts and Task 2 essays, with estimated bands, corrections, vocabulary, topic ideas and study bonuses. On October 19, 2026, it claimed 48,077 successful students; this marketing count is not independently verified. Starter Story’s February 16, 2025 interview identifies Ukrainian programmer Serhii Baraniuk as its solo founder. His narrative reports approximately $12K monthly revenue, while the profile card shows $13K; their periods and dollar currencies are unreconciled. Current revenue, profit and independent scoring accuracy remain unknown.

Replication breakdown

01

Why it works — and where your opening is

Learners can struggle to improve when practice produces no specific explanation of their mistakes. Writing9 links submitted writing to estimated scores, marked errors and suggestions, giving users something concrete to revise before another attempt. Immediate automated feedback may reduce waiting for tutors and the expense of reviewing every draft, although independent savings and learning outcomes are unverified. Repeated exam preparation offers a plausible reason to return; subscription availability alone does not prove retention. Tutors still provide contextual judgment, and generic grammar tools offer alternatives. Relevant topic pages can attract learners, but are replicable. No durable moat is established; calibrated feedback and trust must be demonstrated.
02

The money: revenue, cost, and margin

Monthly revenue$10K/mo

Estimated from technical complexity, people, tools, and delivery scope.

Starter Story’s February 2025 interview reports approximately $12K monthly revenue; its card displays $13K, without reconciled periods or ISO currencies. Current company costs and profit are unknown. The replica model retains US$160,000 startup and US$320,000 monthly display, calculated as startup × 2, not actual revenue, forecast, profit or guaranteed earnings. Hypothetically, a US$9.99 paid month costs US$2.25 scoring, US$2.50 support, US$1.50 hosting and US$0.60 processing, leaving US$3.14 before acquisition, maintenance, calibration, refunds, fixed costs and tax. These allocations illustrate contribution, not net profit; the finite launch budget separately funds all committed work without relying on sales.
03

Where the revenue comes from

Writing9 sells memberships directly to IELTS learners after a website demonstration and plan selection. On October 19, 2026, listed prices were US$7.99 weekly, US$14.99 monthly and US$29.99 annually, with a temporary annual discount claim. Paid access advertises unlimited writing checks and additional study tools. Terms specify USD payments, recurring renewal until cancellation, cancellation at the paid period’s end, and Visa, Mastercard or PayPal. The homepage promises refunds when target scores are missed, whereas the separate refund policy rejects refunds, including for technical issues. This conflict remains unresolved. Current subscriber numbers, revenue mix and realized sales are not disclosed.
04

Tools you need to replicate it

In the historical Starter Story interview, Baraniuk describes building Writing9 with React, Node.js and his own algorithms, with input from an English teacher. Those statements establish reported early tools, not the current production architecture. Today’s website describes automated checking without naming its model supplier, database, authentication service or hosting provider. Its terms name Visa, Mastercard and PayPal; its privacy policy names Google Ads for advertising and analytics. For the proposed replica only, React, a Node API, managed Postgres, hosted authentication and a scoring API are implementation choices. They must not be presented as verified current Writing9 infrastructure.

Success stories from this field

Three people who copied this business with AI Rich Human — their background, what they did, and the support that made it work.

Story by · Arjun Khan

Arjun Khan — from retail salesperson to copying a $10K/mo business: Ielts writing feedback tool

I had already failed twice — a dropship store and a print-on-demand shop, both dead. For 11 years I sold phones in a mall kiosk — twelve-hour shifts, commission barely covering rent. Then a friend sent me a link to AI Rich Human. I expected another "get rich online" course and almost closed the tab. Instead I found real businesses that already make money — named companies with real revenue — and, for Ielts writing feedback tool, a copy-and-execute plan broken down to the numbers. My brother laughed when I told him. My old manager said I was throwing away a stable job. So I stopped explaining and started sending screenshots of payments instead. Nobody argues with a bank notification. Their breakdown answered the three questions I actually had: how much to put in (about $160K), what to build it on (off-the-shelf tools), and where the customers come from (SEO, Word of mouth). Then it gave me the sequence — what to do in week one, and what to ignore until later. I worked through the checklist in order. off-the-shelf tools first, then SEO, Word of mouth, then the outreach script — and two paying clients inside a month. The headline budget of about $160K is not a day-one number; I spent the minimum that could produce one customer and let the rest come out of earnings. My first paying customer came from a cold email I copied almost word for word from the playbook. I was scared to hit send. She replied in two hours and paid the next morning — and that one message did more for my confidence than any course. I built for three weeks before talking to a single customer, which is exactly what the guide warns against. My first five conversations changed the offer completely. I wish I had done those five calls in week one. I expected a course and got a technical partner. Behind AI Rich Human are 33 full-time staff and more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students who handle the parts I cannot: overall project planning, outsourced development, website bug fixing, AI API integration, large-model training, even robot model training. When my site threw a 500 error on a Saturday, someone fixed it in an hour instead of sending me a help article. I undercharged for two months out of fear. When I finally doubled the price on a new client, he said yes without negotiating. The cheap clients had been the difficult ones all along. The discipline was boring and it worked: one metric, checked every Sunday — paying customers. Growth meant more of the same channel. A flat week meant a different offer, not a different business. There is no office and no boss. Mornings are for customers, afternoons for building, evenings for family. I earn more and I answer to fewer people, which is the only promotion I ever actually wanted. Today my copy of it pays me every month. The business I copied runs about $10K/mo — I am not at that scale, and I don't need to be: I was earning around $2,600 a month as a retail salesperson in Tunis, and this already beats that, with room to grow. I am not a genius and I cannot code. What changed was copying a proven plan with a team behind me. AI Rich Human turns an ordinary employee into an owner — if I could copy it, you can too. Third attempt, but this time with an actual map. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-467-writing9-com?lang=en
Story by · Ingrid Chen

Ingrid Chen — from call-center agent to copying a $10K/mo business: Ielts writing feedback tool

Everyone in my family works shifts. Nobody has ever run a business. I decided to be the first. I read scripts to angry customers for 14 years, monitored every second, burned out at twenty-eight. A colleague forwarded me AI Rich Human during a lunch break. I scrolled past the hype and landed on the part that mattered: actual companies, actual revenue, and a step-by-step breakdown of Ielts writing feedback tool written for someone with no budget and no team. The plan was brutally specific: a launch budget of about $160K, the exact tools it runs on (off-the-shelf tools), the revenue channels that actually convert (SEO, Word of mouth), and the first steps to land a paying customer. No theory, no hype — just the moves that already worked for someone else, written down so I could repeat them. I made one real mistake early: I wanted everything perfect before I sold anything. Two weeks passed — I had a logo, a website, and zero customers. The plan says it plainly: sell first, build second. The moment I sent five rough cold messages, the business started moving. I blocked out evenings and did exactly what the sheet said: off-the-shelf tools set up, SEO, Word of mouth opened, the first-customer email sent. Two clients signed within three weeks. I never needed the whole $160K up front — I put in just enough to get one person to pay, then recycled that money. What actually saved me was the team. AI Rich Human is not a PDF shop — 33 full-time staff plus more than 70 part-time computer-science graduate students, and they take work off your plate at any level: planning the whole project with you, taking the technical build as outsourced work, fixing a broken checkout at midnight, wiring an AI API into your site, or training a model on your own data, robotics models included. When my payment page died on a Friday night, a real engineer answered. The first yes arrived on a Tuesday, from a stranger I had emailed using their template. I rewrote maybe four words. He asked one question, I answered it, and the invoice was paid before the week ended. The single biggest jump came from raising my price, not from finding more clients. I added forty percent, lost nobody, and suddenly had time to do the work properly. People at work found out and made jokes about "internet money". I stopped defending it and just showed the payout screen. The jokes stopped when the numbers got boring and regular. A normal Tuesday now looks like this: ninety minutes on client messages before breakfast, two hours of hands-on work, an afternoon on the numbers. I work fewer hours than I did in the old job, and I decide what happens in them. That part I still can't get used to. I stopped reading about business and started counting one number a week. If paying customers went up, I repeated whatever I had done. If they didn't, I changed the price or the pitch. That was the whole system. My version is small and it is mine. It earns less than the $10K/mo the original does — but more than the $3,000 a month I made as a call-center agent in Medellín, and it grows while I sleep. I cannot code and I have no rich uncle. I had a plan, a link, and a team I could call. That was enough, and it can be enough for you. My mother still doesn't fully understand what I do — but she stopped telling me to find a "real job". The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-467-writing9-com?lang=en
Story by · Mateo Ono

Mateo Ono — from line cook to copying a $10K/mo business: Ielts writing feedback tool

I am not the type who starts things. I have a folder full of half-finished plans. This one was different, because the steps were already written down. I worked the line in a restaurant kitchen for 17 years — split shifts, burns, tips split three ways. I found AI Rich Human through a search I had almost given up on. What kept me there was not a promise but a spreadsheet: Ielts writing feedback tool, what it costs to start, which tools it runs on, and how the first customer actually arrives. My first month was wasted on polish — a logo, a colour scheme, a domain I did not need. Nobody bought anything. Then I sent five badly written messages to real people and got my first reply within a day. Sell first, decorate later. What I got was not a course but a build sheet — the launch budget (about $160K), the stack (off-the-shelf tools), the channels that actually convert (SEO, Word of mouth), and the order to do things in. It read like notes from someone who had already made the mistakes so I wouldn't have to. So I followed it, step by step. I set up off-the-shelf tools, opened SEO, Word of mouth first, and used their first-customer script to land my first two paying clients within a few weeks. The plan lists a full launch budget of about $160K, but nobody spends that on day one — I started with the smallest slice that could produce a paying customer, and reinvested from the revenue. I sent eleven messages before anyone answered. The twelfth person — a small studio owner — replied "how much?" and paid that afternoon. Eleven rejections cost me nothing but an evening. Nobody warns you about pricing. My first price was so low that I was busy all day and still broke. On the third client I raised it by forty percent and nobody blinked. That same client later sent me two referrals. The part nobody advertises: there is a bench behind the plan. 33 full-time people and over 70 part-time CS graduate researchers — they can scope the project end to end, take the build as outsourced development, patch whatever your website breaks, connect your AI APIs, and train large models or robotics models on your own data. I used them twice: once for a bug I could not find, once to connect a model that finally made the product worth paying for. I also learned to trust numbers over fear. Every week I tracked one thing: paying customers. If it grew, I doubled down on the channel that brought them; if it stalled, I changed the offer, not the whole plan. My mother asked, twice, whether this was a scam. The third time she asked, it was to find out how much I was making. I did not convince anyone with words — the transfers did it. I still get up early, but now the first hour belongs to me, not to a commute. Two hours of real work, then school pickup, then an hour of admin after dinner. Same number of hours, completely different life. A year ago I was a line cook in Lima on about $3,400 a month. Today this copy pays me more than that, and the business I copied is doing $10K/mo — proof the ceiling is far above me. Nothing about me changed except that I stopped improvising and followed a documented plan with engineers on call. That folder is still there. This is the only file in it that ever made money. The project I copied, in full: http://www.airichhuman.com/stories/starterstory-467-writing9-com?lang=en

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