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“Rather than chase a large contract or chase larger sources of income, stick with the basics and find something that caters to your strengths. Find a way to build some kind of a base income from there. This gives you more flexibility and less stress when you move to the planning phase of things when you want to scale.”
Financial Blog Sprouts into $35,000/Month Money Tree
Investment advice is irrelevant for a lot of people. If you don't have any money to invest, why do you need to hear about the next hot stock you should buy? You really don't.
In today's story, two friends start an investment blog, and it doesn't work very well. Then they ask themselves, "What might be better?" After making a not-so-subtle shift to focus on what their generation actually needs, they start seeing improved results. How much improved? After earning a grand total of $29 in their first year, they're now making $35,000 a month.
Ben Huber, a registered nurse from Virginia, was worried about money. He began investing in stocks and poured over everything he could to learn about assets, liquidity, and other investment topics in between hospital shifts.
He knew he wasn't the only millennial concerned about his finances. More specifically, one friend, Jeff, felt the same way—and from these worries, a business idea sprouted.
Ben and Jeff created DollarSprout, a blog that gave them a platform to share their analysis and perspective on the stock market in a more accessible way. They set it up as a membership site that readers could pay a monthly fee to access. This first iteration was not a hit. They found themselves competing with large banks and advisory services with far bigger budgets, and it wasn't feasible to present themselves as real competition.
Unfortunately, it took them the better part of 12 months to learn that lesson. But when they did, they doubled down on a new blog format focused more on personal finance. Their target audience was millennials—because a lot of traditional investment advice doesn't apply if you don't have much money to invest.
They began churning out content that appealed to that group, with posts like "10 ways to make extra money" and "20 ways to save money." Once they did, they soon started seeing consistent monthly traffic rolling into their website.
It was tempting to give up after not seeing results for a few months, but they both knew that success wouldn't happen overnight. It helped that they loved what they were writing about and kept a laser focus on their traffic experiments, so they could ramp up what was working and quit what wasn't.
So, how did they go from earning a grand total of $29 in their first year to $35,000 a month? They focused on "low-hanging fruit," as Ben put it, so they could build a base that catered to their strengths. Jeff put it this way: "Find a way to build some kind of base income from there. This gives you more flexibility and less stress when you move to the planning phase of things when you want to scale."
When they first launched DollarSprout, their subscription model brought in no revenue. But once they switched and started bringing in traffic, they partnered with advertisers paying a commission for every purchase or click from the site. They also bring in money through paid content—though Ben was careful to note that they only review things they actually like and use. Their other main source of revenue is templates and worksheets: hot sellers like the Ultimate Finance Workbook and Daily Expenses Tracker are automated from creation to delivery.
Ben and Jeff only started making money in August 2016, but by end of year they'd made about $4,000. Their breakout month happened in January 2017—a great time for people to think about their finances—generating $7,000 in revenue alone. By the next year, they eclipsed $12,000 in monthly revenue. In September 2018 they made over $36,000.
Ben says the key to their success was avoiding "shiny objects" syndrome. They held out for consistency as they put in work and watched their status escalate as traffic grew. They've now both turned their side hustle into their full-time job and are hiring employees to help keep up with demand. They've got to keep watering that money tree.
The credibility issue matters: a guy who needs to make money probably shouldn't run a stock market advisory blog. The switch to focusing on earning and saving money was far more successful—and so was the switch to a better business model. They also switched to a better business model. Not all affiliate links are created equal, but when they are, the math works out.
