How I Created A $36K/Year Mental Health Blog

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I’m Hugo Huijer, and I run Tracking Happiness, an online media company that publishes helpful content surrounding mental health topics. We’ve published hundreds of articles on happiness, journaling, mindfulness, and self-awareness.

We generate most of our revenue from display ads, but I’m constantly trying to diversify this. Most recently, we’ve launched our first digital course, which is the first step in diversifying into an income stream we have 100% control over.

Tracking Happiness generates around $3,000 per month, of which 80% comes from display ads.

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I have a background in offshore engineering, particularly offshore pipelines, and cables. But after some years in the field, I found my true passion by sharing positive content with others.

Let’s back up a bit:

I started a daily journaling habit over 10 years ago. As part of this journaling habit, I included a bit of personal data tracking. More specifically, I tracked my happiness (and the factors that influenced it) daily.

I found out that this habit was super powerful for me. First, I love playing around with data, but more importantly, it made me super self-aware of how certain decisions impacted my happiness.

They say 40% of your happiness comes from your state of mind. But it makes a massive difference if you’re self-aware of your subconscious mind. I found the combination of journaling and tracking my happiness powerful.

So, I launched Tracking Happiness in April 2017, hoping to share with others how much this habit has helped me. At the time, I had to Google everything, from “what does CSS mean” to “what is shared hosting.”

But at the start, I was hyper-focused on building a helpful resource, so I learned everything I needed to know through Google, Reddit, and YouTube.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

I launched…