How I Make $1.5k Monthly Passive Income at Age 28
I never thought I’d make a dime from writing online.
I’ve taken zero courses, didn’t study writing at school, had no mentors, nothing. There were no shortcuts in my journey.
Yet, here I am making $1.5k a month, writing about whatever I want on the internet. It’s the best feeling in the world. So if you’re sitting there thinking ‘I want that’, let me tell you the story of how I got here.
The bumbling years (2016–2019)
For 3 years I was trying to get rich quickly.
I’d started a graduate scheme, was underwhelmed by office life, and couldn’t believe that this would be my next 50 years. I started looking for an escape route. For something more.
In January 2017, I consumed everything I could on escaping the rat race, finding freedom, building something for myself. It was all procrastination but at least it made me feel better.
By March, I started to take action. On the wrong things but that’s all part of it. I decided to start a sock store (yes like selling socks online, I have no idea what I was thinking).
I spent months building the website, got 5 sales and closed it. On to the next thing, the next thing, and then the next thing. What followed was a series of business ideas, failures, and an accumulation of stuff that I didn’t need.
At the end of 2018, I had a mug press, 600 jars, 60 pairs of trainers, a sewing machine, endless amounts of books, 7 websites and an expensive stand mixer. I’ll save myself the embarrassment and keep those side hustles to myself.
This is the cycle. I call it the business cycle of doom:
Have an idea → buy all the kit → work on it for 2 weeks → burn out → 2 weeks off.
Something had to give, I couldn’t keep doing the same thing over and over. It was losing faith.
Being curiosity-led and not rich-seeking (2020)
At this point, I was mad at myself.
I’d wasted 2 years going around in circles. I was upset. Embarrassed. Burnout and miserable. On top of that, my house was falling down. It was all a bit tragic.
It’s when I started writing.
In truth, I was having so many conversations in my head that I was bored of repeating myself. I was losing track of what I said yesterday. I decided to start writing to understand my thoughts.
I couldn’t keep going around in circles, I was too sad.
So really, I fell into writing. I needed a form of therapy. So I decided to write. I wrote because I needed to. It started small.
Just here and there. But then, over a few weeks, things started to feel better. The writing was helping me. So I did it more and more.
The consistency fly-wheel
A funny thing happens when you enjoy something.
You don’t need to think of productivity hacks, procrastination tips, or motivation techniques. I didn’t need it because I was enjoying myself. It was making me feel better.
I built a relationship with writing. One that I’ll be forever grateful for.
I found that after a few weeks, I’d unconsciously broken the business cycle of doom, and was now more consistent than I’d ever been. Those few weeks flew by. I’d write, I post it and that would be that.
Then came the harder bit, months 3–6.
Upgrading the thinking (2020–2021)
If you’re going to write on the internet my biggest hack would be this:
Unplug yourself from external metrics. Don’t look at your stats. Don’t pin your success down to the reach of an article. It’s the fast track to misery. Instead, focus on the fun.
After a few months of being a Debbie downer, because I was trying hard and I was getting 3 reads on my stories, I decided I would focus on something else.
So I did.
I would pick a topic each month to improve:
Headlines
Intros
Hooks
Voice
All of a sudden, it was 12 months later and I was starting to make some real money on the internet. When I started, I made enough money each month to buy a chocolate bar. Then it was a takeaway. But it felt like I blinked and I could pay the mortgage.
It’s pretty wild what happens when you focus on fun.
Writing on the internet + building a brand (2022 and beyond)
And then comes the shift.
The shift from thinking ‘hey this might be fun’ to ‘I think I could do this’. Self-belief is the most addictive feeling in the world. And you realise that you start to iterate, the process takes over itself.
All of a sudden, I’d built a brand, a content strategy, and systems for writing the whole shabang. It wasn’t planned. I did stuff, reflected and realised that there were better ways to do them. So I did them better and repeated the process.
Everything I have now was born out of months of learning.
My content plan:
5 articles a week
35 tweets a week
My monetization plan:
Selling digital products
Selling my books
Potential revenue sources:
Website affiliates
Newsletter subscription
More digital products
2.5 years, a whole lot of learning
In the last 2.5 years, there were two ideas that I put above everything else:
To have as much fun as possible. Along the way, there have been opportunities to write for other people but as I tried that, I realised it wasn’t for me. If I’d said yes I might have been earning more but enjoying it less. That’s not the path for me.
Learning as much as possible. I love learning. It’s a realisation for me that my happy place is learning new things. I’ve come to the conclusion that when I’m not learning 20% of the time, I get bored and unmotivated.
In truth, passive income isn’t passive. I’ve never worked harder writing online but I’ve never enjoyed my work as much as I am now.
I make $1.5k per month writing on the internet and honestly, it’s the most fun I’ve ever had.