A financial advice blogger talks about how he turned his hobby into a full-time job.
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Robert Farrington is the founder of the College Investor, a website for millennials about student loan debt and investing. He talks with financial advisor Jeff Rose about starting his blog, transitioning his side hustle into his primary source of income and how to succeed as a content creator.
Farrington talks about starting his financial advice blog in 2009 while employed full-time at Target. He says it took him 16 months to earn any money from his blog but that he continued writing posts.
Farrington says that he began to achieve greater success due to two factors: connecting with other bloggers in his area of expertise and focusing his content on addressing his audience’s needs. Within a few years, he was earning between $2,000 and $3,000 a month from his blog, which helped him achieve his financial goals of paying off debts.
By 2016, Farrington says, he was making more from his blog than at his full-time job as a Target store manager. He decided to focus on his blog business and leave his day job. When that happened, Farrington entered what he described as a weird phase when his blog was taking off, but during which he struggled with work-life balance due to the lack of structure his full-time job provided.
Farrington’s advice for those who want to follow his path is to deliver quality content that helps people, consistently and over time. He says that the more you do it, the better you’ll get, and that the work builds on itself. He says the rewards of hearing readers’ success stories based on what he advises are worth it.
Related: 9 Ways to Build Wealth Fast Your Financial Advisor Won’t Tell You