A Solo Dev Turned Xiaohongshu Virtual Goods Into a 20% Monetization Rate in 10 Days Using AI Skills

Hello everyone, I'm Xiaofeichang, a former programmer working hard to run a one-person company. My Xiaohongshu training camp has been open for 10 days, and about 10 members have already closed the business loop. Excluding those who are just watching without taking action and the coaching team, the number of formal participants is close to 50. That means within 10 days of opening, the action camp's monetization rate is 20%. There is still one month until the end, and my goal is to have the monetization rate exceed 50% and push toward 60% by the time the camp concludes.

In the past couple of days, I found a pretty good category in the virtual goods space: fuse bead patterns. I used the product selection Skill to search, and sure enough, there's something to it.

Members in the camp also voted to add another category tutorial, so after a few days of research, I built this fuse bead pattern Skill and integrated it into the workbench. It supports text-to-pattern generation and image-to-fuse-bead-pattern conversion.

1. A Good Category for Virtual Goods — Fuse Bead Patterns

I stumbled upon this category by chance. At first glance, I just thought the data looked good, so I made a mental note and specifically searched for it on Xiaohongshu. Wow, it's really a potential product. The cost of this product is just a bit of computing power and API image generation, so I decided on the spot to add this category to the current Xiaohongshu virtual goods training camp.

Initially, I wanted to make a fuse bead pattern mini-program, and it is currently under review. Considering everyone's need for customization, I simultaneously built a fuse bead pattern generation Skill. It supports text-to-fuse-bead-pattern and image-to-fuse-bead-pattern, and I integrated them all into the workbench for easy use.

The benefit of delivering it as a Skill is that everyone can expand the fuse bead pattern specifications according to their own needs.

2. Technical Overview of the Fuse Bead Pattern Skill

This Skill supports two methods: text-to-pattern generation and photo (image)-to-pattern generation.

Text generation first uses AI to create a pixel art image suitable for fuse bead crafting, then converts it into a grid pattern. Photo generation identifies the subject, removes the background, then performs pixelation and fuse bead color matching.

The entire process includes:

Subject Identification → Background Processing → Pixelation → Color Matching → Outline Optimization → Output Pattern

Ultimately, you can get a printable pattern with grid and color codes, a pixel preview, a fuse bead quantity list, and an SVG file. Everyone can refer to this approach to make this Skill. This Skill has been included in the mentoring group's resource library, and group members can directly reuse it.

3. Some Feelings About Doing Virtual Goods Over the Past Few Months

Since June, I have led group members on the journey of Xiaohongshu virtual goods, and now at the end of August, it's considered the second phase. My biggest feeling is that virtual goods are a side hustle project with a very low barrier to entry. I have run quite a few projects: public account comics, Xiaohongshu picture books, comic dramas, physical e-commerce. Xiaohongshu virtual goods can be said to be the project that gets positive feedback the fastest.

Take wallpapers and fuse bead patterns as examples: use the product selection Skill to find a niche subcategory, then use the wallpaper Skill and fuse bead pattern Skill to produce the output. The core of running through the process still relies on Skill support. The full-stack notes Skill helps me find benchmarks, analyze comments, build a topic library, and write notes; the product selection Skill helps me screen which categories are viable, and then it falls to the backend wallpaper Skill and fuse bead pattern Skill to produce the virtual goods.

Even someone like me, who previously knew nothing about Xiaohongshu and virtual goods, could run through the entire process using this set of Skills I built. This also indirectly shows that AI has brought more possibilities. I plan to look into AI-driven livestream selling at the end of the year and put the flag I set at the beginning of the year into practice. That's it for today's article. Thanks for watching, see you next time.