This is the story of P_ who is pursuing passive income [assets] through websites/blogging. Blogging is often suggested [by bloggers] to be a good way to passive income. In terms of making money, blogging is easy and it’s hard. There’s no barrier of entry, which makes it easy, but on the other hand, there’s no barrier of entry which makes it hard because you have an enormous amount of competitors. In order to make money you site needs traffic and in order to get traffic it must do some aspect of blogging better than anyone else (for instance, ERE has a diverse amount of original pf ideas you won’t find in many other places). You must write a lot. Think of it as writing on high school length essay on pretty much the same topic every single day for the next three-four years. If you can do that without losing your mind, you can be a successful blogger. P_ has written more than 1 million words! In comparison, I guesstimate the ERE blog to have about 500,000 words—the book itself is about 100,000. In addition you need to be interested in monetizing. This may be fun for you or it may not. If it isn’t fun to you, you’re not going to make much money. In general, a great monetizer who’s a decent writer will make far more than a decent monetizer who’s a great writer. This is something to keep in mind. Okay, I’ve ranted enough … onto the guest post.


I was in my late twenties, working a full time job as a nurse aid, and I spent my free time playing expensive video games. It was then that I sort of woke up one day and thought to myself:

“Is this really it? Am I just going to keep working for most of my life, then mindlessly consuming media to entertain myself?”

I could not accept that answer so I decided to investigate the idea of creating another stream of income in my life. I wanted a business, and one that was largely passive.

I sold my video game systems and devoted all of my spare time to creating websites. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, and nothing worked or made me any money at all. In fact, I lost small amounts of money at first.

But I was determined to create an online income, even if it meant going through several failures. After wasting some time, money, and effort creating a few money making schemes that did not pan out, I finally hit on a formula that worked for me: I created an authority website from scratch, and I poured my heart and soul into it.

It took me years to build anything of worth. At times I got discouraged and quit publishing articles altogether. But I kept returning to my little project, and I kept working sporadically at growing the website.

Income came slowly at first, very slowly. But I persisted, and ended up publishing over a million words on the website over the next 4 years.

The income from my business increased to a respectable level. I was able to pay off my student loans and was living very comfortably thanks to my full time job that I still held.

Eventually, the monthly income from my website exceeded my day job income, so I quit my day job. This was only possible thanks to having found the ERE philosophy and drastically cutting my expenses.

Then, after focusing exclusively on my business for a few months, a buyer approached me, offering $200,000 for the website.

I took the deal.

Now I write freelance articles, follow ERE principles of frugality, and live mostly on investment income.

I have another online project in the pipeline that I hope to sell off one day as well, adding another chunk to my nest egg. Or I may just let it create monthly income to help cover my expenses.

That is how I escaped the tyranny of the day job–through hard work and building something with real value. Keep in mind that “blogging for income” sounds great in theory, but it is a really tough gig. I published over 1 million words on my website before being approached with such a lucrative offer.

Originally posted 2011-12-01 07:49:34.