He wanted to be a brain surgeon (and majored in neurobiology)
The next thing you know he was writing about credit cards (and made millions)
He was an exceptionally good student while attending Arcadia High School.
Always studying hard for exams.
And that effort showed up on his report cards.
You could say he was the perfect student.
Already living in California, when it was time for college, Johns Wu decided on the University of California in Berkeley.
His major was neurobiology, with the specific goal to become a brain surgeon.
But there was just one problem … it wasn’t his passion.
In fact, the deeper he got into the science, the more he realized how much he hated the subject matter.
So he signed up for a few other classes like computer science and business stuff.
But Johns was the kind of guy who “finished what he started.” So he continued to pursue a BA in his chosen field.
However that didn’t stop Johns from also pursuing his real passion: Writing.
And the subject he liked writing about the most was personal finance, including everything from savings and checking accounts to bank loans and interest rates on credit cards.
Seems like his dream of being a writer started as a young boy in middle school. He was drawn to the writing and publishing industry.
The Write Stuff
Johns interest in writing came from a newspaper article he read about Anand Lal Shimpi, an American businessman who retired at the age of 32 from the publishing industry to join Apple, Inc.’s hardware division.
Anand was the founder and editor-and-chief of the online computer hardware magazine Anandtech, which offered its readers in-depth reviews on motherboards, hard drives, RAM, and other computer components.
We’re talking some truly riveting stuff here Dear Reader.
Anand started his magazine in 1997 at the age of 15. Anything related to computers and Anand was your guy. Maybe because it ran in the family. His father was a computer science professor at St. Augustine’s University, located in Raleigh North Carolina.
At age three, Anand’s father enrolled him in a computer course. And by the time Anand was in the sixth grade, he had already built his own computer. Of course, when your friends know you can build one for yourself, they want one too.
Soon Anand was putting together computers for his friends. So writing about the inner workings of a computer was easy-peasy for him, which is why he started his magazine in the first place.
Seventeen years later, he grew the online magazine into a behemoth website drawing 50 million page views per month. It was one of the most respected websites for tech reviews.
In 2001, Anand wrote a best-selling book, “The Anandtech Guide to PC Gaming Hardware.”
The Cult of Bankers
Johns was so inspired by Anand’s story that while studying neurobiology, he decided to pursue writing as a side gig.
So in 2005, at the age of 21, he started a blog called The Bull Trader, which was all about investing and trading on the stock market.
He loved running his own website, being his own boss, and most especially blogging about stuff he enjoyed.
In fact one blog wasn’t enough for Johns. A year later in 2006, he started another blog on banking.
At first, this blog was just a way for him to share information he uncovered on banking related issues, like interest rates on loans and credit cards. He certainly didn’t expect it to be a “money-maker.”
In truth, the blog seemed like it was going to be a bit of a challenge. Even coming up with the name was a frustrating process. All the good websites names related to banking were already taken.
Johns had to think a little harder to come up with a name for his blog. And he figured it out while in a neuroscience lab waiting for one of his experiments to finish. He opened his computer, then logged onto a website that generates cool names for online businesses. It’s all based on the words you enter.
And when Johns entered banking, one of the suggested names that popped up was Bankaholic.
That name fit the vision he had for his new blog. Johns explains, “My idea was to create an online cult of “bankaholics” that would come to my site every day for the latest deals.”
One Small Check for Mankind
Back in 2006, banks were pretty aggressive with their marketing and advertising campaigns. And they were willing to pay a fee or commission to website owners that helped them get new customers.
And since Johns was writing about banking, this was like a match made in bank heaven
By letting banks place ads on the website for his blog, it’d be the perfect way to make money. And that’s exactly what he did. It wasn’t long before he received his very first advertising check for the whopping small amount of $50.
Although that was not a lot of money, that check meant his blog was getting enough traffic to make the whole thing worthwhile.
Shortly after graduating from college, Bankaholic became his life.
He was obsessed with growing his new blog. He even had tee-shirts printed up with the word Bankaholic on the front. He passed them out wherever he went, with the intent of getting more people to check out his website.
Remember the more readers of his blog, the more money he would make in advertising fees.
But the tee-shirt idea was a bust. It costs way more money to make than the traffic they brought in.
Desperately wanting to get checks with bigger payouts, Johns concentrated most of his free time on writing articles for his blog. Then he would optimize those articles with banking related keywords, which helped them show up at the top of Google’s search engine.
Johns got really good writing those articles too. In just three years, Bankaholic was one of the most-visited websites on banking.
They’re Watching You
Want to guess what happens when the blog you start from scratch consistently gets to the number one spot in your industry?
You get big time attention. Johns’ Bankaholic blog got the attention of the online finance company, Bankrate.
They liked the articles Johns was putting on his blog so much they wanted to buy his business. And buy him out they did!
In 2008, Johns Wu sold the blog he started from scratch for a grand total of $15 million. Bankrate agreed to pay Johns $12.4 million up front, with another $2.5 million over 12 months.
These days Johns is busy traveling. He’ll get back to creating something new online as soon as he gets the “travel bug” out of his system.
Johns’ idea and passion for writing a blog led him to become one of the country’s first blogging millionaires.
Editor’s Note: You know what Dear Reader, you could start your own blog too. And it doesn’t matter what level of writing experience you have … these days anyone can write a blog.
You might not make millions like Johns Wu, but you can certainly make a comfortable living doing it.
For instance, John Chow started a blog mainly by taking pictures of food. Then a friend suggested he add some comments to those photos. That made all the difference. Sometimes his blogs earns as much as $40,000 a month. Not always but enough money that he doesn’t work a 9-to-5 job.
Or there’s Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. She started writing about her journey of being in debt with college loans and finding a way out. She didn’t intend for to be a blog but that’s what it turned into. Her blog generates $100,000 a year. Pretty safe to say she’s no longer has all that debt.
If there’s the smallest thought in your head that maybe you’d like to start a blog, then check out this guide.
Awesome Quotes by Awesome People
“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” –Isacc Asimov