A TRAVEL expert has turned his hobby into a lucrative side hustle that rakes in almost £10,000-a-month.
Dad-of-one Michael Donovan, 32, runs a number of websites from his five-bed mansion in Worcestershire.
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His most successful, StayNewEngland, rakes in £2,500-a-month.
But he started off desperately working away from his parents’ dining room table, with friends doubting whether he’d make it.
He told Sun Online: “It was a side hustle, vying for attention amidst my day job’s demands. My friends considered it amusing.
“They were sceptical but it made me more determined to succeed.”
Michael creates travel plans for those willing to pay to have the stress of organising taken away.
His website features blog posts on popular activities and hotels visitors can stay in around New England in the US.
He added: “The fulfilment of curating unforgettable journeys for others is far from a dull task.”
When Michael lost his tech day job he decided to dedicate all his time to his website.
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Now he has a full-time job but says the combination of his real-life income and side hustle is “too good to walk away from”.
He added: “If I can get to where the side job make comfortably way more than the collective; then I’ll quit the day job.”
Michael soon decided to create a number of websites.
Another he runs is called The Flexible Worker, which offers tech support for those working from home.
The website chooses common tech problems and explains how to resolve them.
He added: “I knew I could create new sites, because the first site I started did well. I followed influencers on Twitter and built a site that grew really well, mostly via organic Google traffic.
“That site had a six-figure exit – over £80,000 ($100,000), when the resale market was hot.
“It’s cooled a bit since then, hence the new sites and us trying to grow the portfolio.
“In terms of actual earnings per month across my two public-facing URLs, it’s over $10k per month, net.”
Michael’s websites make money from adverts and “affiliate links”.
He added: “We get paid every time a user is shown an advert, and when people click on our affiliate links.
“Flixible Worker is mine, but we position Chelsea Ashbrook as the forward facing expert, she is the writer but is also highly qualified.”
He revealed having someone else writing the blog posts “helps with Google EEAT and allows us to achieve higher rankings and search traffic”.
It comes after a woman turned her side hustle into a full-time job paying £10,000 a month.
And a man who was “broke and lazy” says his easy side hustle made him thousands per month.
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