How Did This Even Start?

Never in my adult life had I thought I would be making a living online. I mean, I had a little DVD business going on eBay for a few years when I was in my late teens/early 20s, but I never really thought beyond that.

Fast forward 8 years or so. One day, I decided to start couponing. Little did I know how much that decision would do for me. Upon finding a few coupon blogs to help out my new hobby, I began to realize that these bloggers were making money doing this. I mean, of course they were! They were putting out 20+ posts per day — there had to be compensation. That’s when the wheels started turning.

A few months later, I decided it was time to try my hand at a coupon blog of my own. I went about 6-months before I even made any money, but I stuck with it — learning a ton of stuff along the way. I ran that blog for about 2 years on a mostly full-time basis. We’re talking every. single. day. for 8–10 hours every day. I mean, you couldn't be the deal blogger who missed a deal.

After a while, I realized that there were a lot of other ways to make money online. As I stopped being as interested in deal blogging, my wife’s blog began to pick up quite a bit of traction. I was then able to apply things on the business side of blogging that I had learned to her blog. All of the sudden, we were optimizing ads, using affiliate links, doing keyword research and maximizing her blog.

It didn't take long for me to realize that the grass was indeed greener on the other side. I knew that I didn't have to hunt for deals for 60+ hours a week just to make enough to scrape by.

It was right around this same time that my wife and I decided to do something really stupid. We quit our jobs and decided we were going to try and make things work online.

It’s amazing what putting your own backs against the wall did for us. We were forced to make things work. With this in mind, we were also always looking to the future. We weren't accepting every money-making offer willy-nilly. We were careful to try and make decisions that would benefit us 2, 3 or 10 years down the road.

So here we are today, about 5 years after I started that coupon blog. We are able to support ourselves (and our new son!) solely from our online income. My wife’s blog is the breadwinner and I make a few bucks from my own blog as well.

We spend our days at home with our son, mixing in work with play. It’s definitely wonderful and amazing but don’t get it twisted — it’s far from easy. We each work about 50 hours a week. Our future plans don’t see us working that much, but right now, that’s how it is. I’d choose this over anything though. To a point, we do what we want when we want. Today, in the middle of the day, we took off to do some shopping. Next week, we’re taking a day trip up the coast. Great? Of course! But it does mean that we’ll be busting ass late at night, while on the road or in lieu of our favorite TV shows. It’s a balance, but one that we love.

So, the next time you start something new — whether it’s picking up a new hobby, building a habit or even starting a business, be wide open as to where that may lead. You never know what could wind up being the ticket to spending more time with your family. And isn't that one of our ultimate goals?