I’m a Self-Made Millionaire: Here’s the Lightbulb Moment That Led to Making My First Million
Written by
Martin Dasko
Edited by
Ashley Barnett
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“Lightbulb moments” are big revelations that can change your life — either personally, professionally or both. Many entrepreneurs have shared such situations that they remember vividly.
We spoke with a self-made millionaire about the epiphany that helped him make his first million.
Turning a Hobby Into a Business
Jim Wang, the founder of Wallet Hacks, had his lightbulb moment while working on his first blog, Bargaineering.
“I started in 2004 as a fun journal and never thought about it becoming a business,” Wang shared. “No one started a blog in 2004 thinking they could make money; it was just a hobby.”
Wang thought he would use a blog as a journal to document his thoughts without realizing that this would turn into a life-changing business opportunity.
Wang elaborated on the early days of his blog: “In the beginning, my friends would ask what credit cards I used. I would refer them to the same credit cards and make some advertising revenue from it — $50 here, $100 there. It got so frequent that I thought I’d write a post about it and send that to my friends, thinking it would save me time (which it did).”
The Moment of Truth
The blog started getting traffic from Google, and this was the main lightbulb moment for him because he realized other people were also asking the same questions about credit cards all the time.
Wang added, “I use Google for search, too, but I never put two and two together. But after the fact, it was so obvious.”
Turning the Blog Into a Business
“People with questions use Google to find the answers, and sometimes my blog would show up, which meant I could make advertising income off my blog,” Wang noted. “It seems silly in retrospect, but it changed the trajectory of my life.”
Wang’s life changed when he discovered he could create helpful content on his blog that would reach people worldwide. In return for his helpful reviews and advice, he was able to turn to affiliate marketing and evolve the blog into a legitimate business.
The First Million
“When I realized that the hobby could make money, I started spending more time writing content and treating it like a magazine rather than a personal journal,” remarked Wang. “I started researching different ways to get traffic, make money and produce sharable content.”
“That led to more traffic, higher earnings, and after a few years, I quit my full-time job to work on it as a business,” he continued.
From the moment Wang decided to take his business seriously, it took him a little under a year to accumulate his first million in total earnings from the site. He also added that it took four years to get to this level and that things accelerated when he finally left his full-time job.
This lightbulb moment is a reminder that you never know when your hobby can turn into a profitable business venture that could change your life. This is why it’s crucial that you get into the habit of testing out new ideas.
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