Passive Income Plan August 2012 to August 2013

My previous posts on Financial Freedom really explained why I wanted to escape from the daily routine of 9 to 5, it also outlined where I am at the moment so I could really quantify the steps that I need to achieve my goal of £800+ per month. Now that I have a clear picture of how I feel and where I am at I can really plan effectively for my passive income goal, whenever I get distracted or demotivated I can read these posts so I can get my act together.


Last month in July I earned £579, this was a fantastic month however not all months are the same when it comes to passive income. Depending on what you write about you will perform better in some months compared to others. I write a lot on finance and therefore as the summer approached I expect to take a hit on my income. I have realised that as well as diversifying for the sites I write for I need to diversify the topics too. With passive income you will find that you learn something everyday and everything you need is available on the internet


August  2012


Target £500
Articles 60


I'm planning on publishing 2 articles per day. The articles will be published with diversification in mind and as follows: 15 articles on Infobarrel, 15 articles on Hubpages, 30 articles on Seekyt. Most of the articles that I will write will be on the articles topics that have previously done well for me and will provide an invaluable backlink too. I will also spend this month researching into seasonal topics so I diversify my content.


September 2012
Target £550
Articles 60


October 2012
Target £600
Articles 60


November 2012
Target £650
Articles 60


December 2012
Target £700
Articles 60


January 2012
Target £750
Articles 60


February 2012

Target £800
Articles 60


March 2012

Target £850
Articles 60


April 2012

Target £900
Articles 60



May 2012

Target £950
Articles 60



June 2012

Target £1000
Articles 60



July 2012

Target £1050
Articles 60



August 2012

Target £1100
Articles 60

12 Month Plan For Financial Freedom - Month by Month Breakdown

What can you achieve in 12 months if you put your mind to it every day and dream about it every night? When you become obsessed with your dream and want it so bad your determination will ultimately see you through! Some people might say Rome was not built in a day but I bet it took many people who thought like this to see the great city rise.

In my previous post I outlined my dreams for financial freedom and even quantified it with a figure of £800. Having sat down and really thought about my income and expenditure I was able to arrive at this figure by subtracting my income from my expenses. Before I did this I did an exercise in shaving my expenses of needless and pointless excesses.

So how can I generate £800 per month without doing any work? the answer is passive income. For me passive income and financial independence go hand in hand. For me passive income is income that comes in regardless of whether you put in any work or not, the real work was put in at the beginning. For example just imagine you build a house from scratch on land you own, you may have put in a years work at the beginning but now that the house is finished you can rent it out a receive passive income in the form of rent.

There are many forms of passive income that you can choose from! renting out your property, writing for a revenue sharing site or blogging like I'm doing at the moment! you could even look at dividend investing to generate income. The main obstacle is finding the time to educate yourself and then putting the effort in at the beginning.


I have given myself a minimum target of £800 and a maximum target of £1600 per month in passive income, now that I have my target I really need to think about where I am at the moment and how I intend to get to my target within 12 months. I really believe that if I spend the next year with this passive income goal as my main priority then it is within my reach.


This goal may seem aspirational but I have been researching passive income since 2008 and have come to a point now where I want to really knuckle down and earn some money and make some use of it. I have accumulated a lot of knowledge and have become quite knowledgeable in the areas that I need to make this passive income goal a reality. Although this has taken me 4 years I know that it can be done in a month if you really put your mind into learning something.


My Current Passive Income Revenue


Ok, so where am I at the moment and how did I get here? Well since February 2010 I have been writing for a revenue sharing website called Infobarrel.com. I have been writing quite steadily and consistently and have managed to publish 395 articles, I have also written for Seekyt.com and currently have 87 articles. I have also written for Xomba.com and Hubpages.com. Here is a breakdown of the articles that I have under my belt.

Revenue Sharing Website                    Articles To Date (05/07/2012)

Infobarrel                                                      395

Seekyt                                                         87

Hubpages                                                     4

Xomba                                                         10

Total                                                            496

It's been about 17 months since I started and I have written 496 articles in that time, the majority I've written and some have been outsourced (I will discuss later). Therefore in that time I have written on average 1 article per day. My earnings have been growing the same way my articles have been steadily increasing. Here is a breakdown of my earnings since the start of 2012.

Month                                                         Earnings


January                                                        £76.17
February                                                       £101.82
March                                                          £124.87
April                                                             £181.84
May                                                             £271.80
June                                                             £352.06
July                                                              £579.08


I've been happy with the way that my income has grown, as I have learnt more and more about keyword research and selecting topics which are profitably to write about the more I haves seen my income grow. For me it's really about educating yourself in your chosen field and then applying yourself so you can achieve that goal.


Previously before 2012 my income was languishing between £20 and £30, there were two reasons my income started to grow. The first reason for the increase was investing in a ebook which really blew my mind away in terms of passive income success. It was actually written by an Infobarrel author who is earnings around £1800 per month from Infobarrel alone, his name is Jason Mayer and goes by the username JCMayer777. His book was absolutely fantastic and explained in detail keyword research and search engine optimisation. Whilst before I was writing 5 articles per day to get 2/3 views after reading the book I was able to write 1 article and get 10-15 views! You do the maths. If you are serious about giving passive income a go by writing online then I would definitely recommend this book! take the plunge and see how far you can go! If I can do it without any major writing or literary skills then everyone has a chance.


The second reason for my success was outsourcing, I have employed someone to do most of my writing for me by reinvesting most of the income I generate into purchasing more articles. I do the keyword research and provide the title and they keywords I want in the article and receive them on a daily basis. Once I have them in my possession I publish them as soon as possible. My overall goal was not to spend the money as soon as I earn it but to reinvest it into writing more articles to generate even more income. Once I reach my goal I can ease off and then use a certain percentage of my income to be reinvested into writing more articles.


Ok so now you know where I am at and how I got here it's time to plan for the future and try and achieve my goal of £800 per month in passive income. Anything over this amount will definitely be saved or invested into generating more passive income.


Passive Income Plan For The Next 12 Month


Other than generating £800 per month in passive income I really want to diversify my risk and insure my contents. Having so many articles on one single site is quite risky, if Infobarrel were to reduce their revenue share from 75% to 50% it would be disastrous for me in terms of income lost. I really think it's prudent to diversify the sites which I write for. I have already started to write for Seekyt and I will be branching out to other sites like Topicspotter.com and Whizzly.com. Another target for me is to outsource more and more, I confess I am not the best writer in the world and you probably found countless spelling and grammatical mistakes on this post. It makes sense for me to pay a more seasoned and eloquent writer to help me. By hiring quality writers I will ensure that I have a consistent level of output and the quality will also ensure that my articles are ranked well and receive plenty of natural Backlinks. So without further ado here is my plan for the next 12 months.

Passive Income Plan August 2012 to August 2013

My Story So Far - Living on Credit, Financial Destruction Looking For a Better Future

Unfortunately my life has not turned out the way I imagined (I'm looking to turn that around), and like so many people I eventually accepted the fact that happiness was something that was out of my reach. Ever since I can remember I've felt trapped and out of control, it's as though other people were dictating my every step. I have come to a point now where I really need to change the way I think and feel about myself and life (I can't go on like this any more). This weblog was born out of my frustration with my current lifestyle which I will discuss later, the bolg will hopefully give me an opportunity to try and get myself to a better place where I will be happy and content and can lay the foundations for others to follow. I know there's others like me who feel trapped under the burden of debt/mortgage, who feel sick at the thought of going to work not because they hate the job but just because they feel restricted. 

My Lifestyle & Why I Need to Change This

At present (27/07/2012) I am a 30 year old man who's been married for 3 years, I've been lucky enough to find a life partner who is supportive and have been blessed with a 2 year old son, my wife and son are the best part of my life which keeps me going. Unfortunately I like many others there are many negatives in my life that keep my awake at night. 

I remember after taking my high school exams how optimistic I felt about life and all the financial rewards that I would eventually have. This feeling did not last long and I was financially reckless! I accumulated a mountain of debt at university which I finished in 2003 but am still paying off (a sickening feeling). After securing a mediocre job in the bank after leaving university I lived a life of excess, I spent far more that I was earning and the only happiness I got was through retail therapy buying needless items. Suffice to say I got myself into a mountain of debt! my position and trouble was further compounded after I foolishly bought a house with a mortgage which I am now struggling to pay off. 

Thankfully now I am in a job that pays well and I am able to pay off my debt and mortgage bit by bit from my wages. Some might say that I am in a comfortable position and better off than those who can't find a job, and should stop complaining! But for me I feel trapped and really don't fancy the thought of working for another 20-30 years to pay off my debts. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of people out there who would be happy to be where I am but everyone's not the same and I don't think I have it in me to work for a wage for another 30 years only to pay off my debt and mortgage and live 'comfortably'. 

I have been a optimist and have always dared to dream, I love the thought of being free and doing what I wan't to do as opposed to dancing to the tune of others. What I really want in life is financial freedom to do what I want to do and leave behind the grind of 9 to 5 and start living my life and enjoying my time with my family.

What I Want & What This Blog is About

For the first time in my life I sat down and really thought about what it would take for me to be happy. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier (maybe because I was scared). After spending a considerable amount of time soul searching I came to the conclusion that there were 4 factors or changes that would really make my life better!

Financial Freedom - For me financial freedom is being free from the wage. If I earn £1000 per month then I have to work 160 hours a month. If I sleep for 8 hours and work for another 8 hours including 2 hours for travel per day then in real terms I only have 6 hours to myself to do what I want to do by which time I am too tired. Ideally I would love to be in a position where I could be earning passive income, income that comes regardless of whether you work or not. To me passive income is like renting your property that own outright and earning income from it, whatever happens I will always get rent providing I have tenants. 

Early Retirement - I can't picture myself working until I am 70! another 40 years of going to work really makes me feel as sick as a parrot. Don't get me wrong I work for a great company and the people are marvellous, it's just not something I see myself doing in the long run. I want to be in a position where I have enough proceeds to enable me to stop working. Having time for yourself and your family is the best feeling in the world, waking up in the morning and not get ready for work is a feeling that fills me with joy and excitement! imagine it, try it, dream it if you dare! you might just like it.

Healthy Living - If I were to retire early and have a lot of time to myself I would probably spend most of it with my family. If I could tare myself away I would work on improving my health and diet. I love exercising and remember in my youth how happy I use to feel after accomplishing a personal goal. 

Location Independence - Having the freedom to roam around the world without worrying about money would be a dream come true. If I had a sufficient stream of passive income and was able to rent out my property I would be able to travel the world without or decide to relocate somewhere where I would be happier. Living in London is expensive so it makes financial sense to move somewhere cheaper where I would be happier, I mean is there any point paying over the odds and living somewhere where you complain about the climate day in and day out.

Ok, so there you have it! my formula to a happier life! I know where I am at the moment and know exactly where I want to go! now I have to find a way to get there. For me this blog is like a journey from the depth of despair into a place where I can truly be happy. The journey may last a few years or even more and my intention is to document everything that I learn and leave a blueprint for others who feel like me can follow. I would really love to hear your thoughts on my idea and would appreciate any comments that you want to share. Thank You.