I have a couple of website I monetize through Adsense. It all started in 2009 (10 years ago) when my PhD candidate salary was not enough to make a living. I started earning around 300€ after six months. I was extremely happy with that as it gave me a breath of fresh air.
I managed to make around 1500€ after a year and a half. I quit my job once it reached 2000€ and reached 3000€ after a year. All traffic was coming from google search and was organic. I was focusing on ideas requiring very little update to the websites content.
That said, it is very difficult to run a one-person business working from home. You don't have colleagues, people to discucss with, people to ask when you have questions, or to learn from.
I was living in France by then and I decided to go back to my home country as I would live much better there with that income. I started working as an assistant professor (30% of my time) and hired 2 developers to grow the business. That didn't scale well as the success came from my ability of being fast developer, good in SEO while always trying new website ideas.
I ended up again with a one-person business. But revenues are dropping and I find it harder and harder to be motivated to continue working on my websites. So now I work nearly 0 hour a week on my website and I am fully dedicated to a corporate job (not in academia anymore) even though I make equal money from both jobs.
If I can have an advice : try not to quit your day job. Work is not only about money. It is also about having social life, a career and a common goal to achieve with you co-workers. Working in a good company keeps you up with new technologies and trends.
Running a one-person online business can be psychologically challenging. And once you earn enough money, the work to do can be become boring as no new challenges are there.
That said, it is very difficult to run a one-person business working from home. You don't have colleagues, people to discucss with, people to ask when you have questions, or to learn from.
I was living in France by then and I decided to go back to my home country as I would live much better there with that income. I started working as an assistant professor (30% of my time) and hired 2 developers to grow the business. That didn't scale well as the success came from my ability of being fast developer, good in SEO while always trying new website ideas.
I ended up again with a one-person business. But revenues are dropping and I find it harder and harder to be motivated to continue working on my websites. So now I work nearly 0 hour a week on my website and I am fully dedicated to a corporate job (not in academia anymore) even though I make equal money from both jobs.
If I can have an advice : try not to quit your day job. Work is not only about money. It is also about having social life, a career and a common goal to achieve with you co-workers. Working in a good company keeps you up with new technologies and trends. Running a one-person online business can be psychologically challenging. And once you earn enough money, the work to do can be become boring as no new challenges are there.