What I Do to Get $1.5k Each Month in Passive Income at Age 22

I never thought I’d make a dime from writing online.

I have never taken a course, never studied writing in school, never had a mentor—anything. There were no detours along the way for me.

However, here I am, earning $1.5k per month while writing on the internet about whatever I please. It's the world's greatest sensation. Therefore, if you're contemplating getting that, let me share my journey to get here with you

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 about escaping the rat race, finding freedom, and 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 five 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 sneakers, 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 it, I post it and that would be that.

Then came the hard part, 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 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 on:

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 realize that once 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 shebang. It wasn’t planned. I did stuff, reflected, and realized that there were better ways to do it. So I made 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:

As much learning as possible. I enjoy learning. I've come to the fact that learning new things is what makes me happiest. I've concluded that I get bored and unmotivated when I'm not studying 20% of the time.

Should enjoy yourself as much as possible. Opportunities to write for other people have presented themselves along the line, but after trying it, I determined it wasn't for me. If I had said yes, I could have been making more money but not as much fun. I'm not going down that road.

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.