A little while ago I wrote about how my smart home hobby turned profitable when my other blog, SmartHomeReviewer.com started making money.
After posting it, I spent some time deep in thought about investments and passive income. I wanted to know how I could find other ways to create passive income streams that spun off as much money as my website, roughly $275/month. I quickly realized the return from my blog, little as it may be, was comparatively amazing.
My website costs me about $180/year in hosting and domain fees. The only other investment is a little of my time, which amounts to about two hours per week, usually while I’m doing my full time job. On average, my $180 investment earns me $3120/year before taxes (and the taxes aren’t much with a good accountant).
In order to make the same return in something like CD’s or bonds at current rates of 3% and 4% respectively, I would need to commit over $100,000 for 5-10 years. To guarantee that kind of return from a rental property, I’d need to own a $150-200k property, with all of its associated down payments and maintenance issues. To earn just $275/month in the stock market, I’d need at least $40k invested and returning upwards of 7%/year. To make this amount of money working a side job, I’d need to earn about $17.20/hour working away one entire weekend of every month. (*I’m using round numbers here but these are close estimations to the real amounts required)
Some months I don’t have any time to dedicate to the website, but it still makes money. Some months I go on a tear and pump out two to three posts per week. Either way, the money keeps flowing in. The more I write, the more I see increases in the monthly average income.
Turning a profit from a blog is no easy thing. You can spend ages researching SEO and trying to game the system so that you can start making money fast, but it’s a full time job doing that and there are no guarantees. You could go the other way with it, and just keep posting and hope for the best. Either way, it’s unlikely you’ll see returns on investment for at least a matter of months, if not years. This is why it’s not for everyone. It’s also why it’s no substitute for sound investments. The other danger to putting your faith in internet income is that it could dry up at a moment’s notice. For now, though, I enjoy knowing that my smart home addiction pays for itself and then some!
Freed by 50 