My passive income journey
My name is Michael Harlow and this is the story of my passive income journey.
I started this blog with the sole purpose of helping beginning entrepreneurs grow a new passive income in a variety of different ways.
My other blog, TheAdventureTravelers.com is my beginner blog, and I did so well with this blog that I was featured on CNN Business, SideHusl, ABC news 10 San Diego, and many more media outlets.
It took a while to get noticed and I had to learn some valuable lessons along the way. Now, I want to share with you, only the steps that worked.
What did I learn?
Well, the first thing that I learned was that I didn’t know what I needed to know about website SEO and no blog in the world is going to do well unless you have killer SEO.
I just winged it.
I wrote what I was passionate about; RVs, hiking, and sailing, however, my audience typically wanted me to pick one or the other. With this blog, I will hyper-focus on proven ways to make a passive income.
If you want to know about who I am and where I came from, read further.
I come from the school of hard knocks. When I was around five years old, I got my first job cleaning up parking lots for change so I can go buy my own candy bars.
Both of my parents worked, so if I wanted something, I had to get it myself. I am going to paraphrase from my very inexpensive book, “How to Make and Save Money While Traveling“, As a kid, I rode my bike everywhere and even became a pretty accomplished road racer. At age 16 I asked my parents if I could ride my bike from the Oregon border to Los Angeles, California and since I was a pretty responsible kid, they said, “Sure, but you have to pay for it yourself”.
Learning how to make and save money
I learned from that point how to make and save money so I can afford my adventure travel.
Needless to say, a whole bunch of stuff went wrong, and eventually, I was stuck in San Francisco with no money, no transportation, and no fun. I had to cancel the remainder of the trip to Los Angeles. The experience with so humbling that I made it my mission to always expect the unexpected when it came to money.
Make great decisions
When I was 18, I joined the U.S. Coast Guard, which is one of the best decisions I ever made. I was only in for 4 1/2 years, however, now I’m a veteran and I get great veteran benefits for the rest of my life.
World travel is in my blood
I traveled the world for a few years, worked odd jobs here and there, and eventually settled in San Diego, California.
Being a father changes everything
I eventually got married and we had a baby and that kicked me into high gear to get a good-paying job to support my family. Luckily, I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I was reading the Business section of the newspaper one day and saw a company that looked like it was going to go places. I immediately drove to the company headquarters and walked in and introduced myself to the owner and the president. I told them they needed me as their salesperson and I was hired on the spot.
I wish that story ended well, however, the owner wasn’t a very honest person and I quit after making several sales. The president felt so bad for me that he got me in touch with one of his good friends who offered me a job as a glorified computer babysitter. My job was to back up giant mainframe computers every night. Since the job was so easy and I had almost 8 hours to kill every night, I taught myself to code and how to make websites. Within a year, I was the boss of two other people that worked there for over 10 years. Then, I transferred to another division. Long story short, the same guy that got me that job in computers, then offered me another job as a salesperson for a parking company. I did extremely well there and eventually moved up the corporate ladder. I got divorced, then found my soulmate and remarried, blending her son into our family. I eventually became the vice president of a half-billion-dollar company.
Expect the unexpected – Recession
Things were going great until the recession of 2008. My wife, children and I had to downsize everything. We sold our house, had multiple garage sales, and moved into a smaller rental. My wife and I pivoted and changed our entire thought process about money. We saved, cut back on every expense, and lead much happier lives.
Living our dream
When our kids went off to college, we scraped together enough money to buy a boat and sailed through Mexico, the South Pacific, Hawaii, and then back to San Diego. We sold our boat and use that money to buy an RV and then travel around the United States, Canada, and Alaska. 
Our financial “Exit Plan”
We knew that the RV was going to be our exit plan and we would use that RV as a rental to make extra income while we started our lives differently. I will most likely make an online course showing exactly how I did this.
I was a Passive Income Beginner
I began blogging and soon started making a passive income doing affiliate marketing through our website. It is a fantastic experience when you wake up in the morning and check your stats and you find out that you made money while you were sleeping. this does not come easy, of course, there is a lot of work, but once you see the fruits of your labor, you never want to go back to a real job.
How making passive income has changed my life
I now wake up, play with the neighbor’s dogs, work when and where I want, and typically go on a one to two-hour hike each day with my wife. As we finish our hike, we look down from the trails and see all the people returning from their 9 to 5 jobs stuck in rush-hour traffic and we are thankful that we are not them anymore. I’m also grateful that I get to connect with nature on a daily basis and volunteer my time to help others. I volunteer with UrbanSurf4Kids as a surf instructor and work a variety of volunteer gigs with VolunteerMatch.org. I also have the ability to do side projects, such as YouTube videos and writing my own blog, able to spend time with my wife, go on a 21-day vacation each October, and do mini-vacations whenever we want. I’m living my best life ever!
The goal of this website:
This website, PassiveIncomeBeginner.com is my way to help other entrepreneurs that want to generate passive income. It is an amazing feeling not to have to drive to work and/or work for someone who may not appreciate you or what you do for the company. Being your own boss and making your own money is an incredible feeling.
Please join me and learn how to generate passive income as a beginner and eventually you will become a pro.