What's your pet peeve? What's your passion?

Turn your passion into a business.

I've been into energy efficiency and renewables for decades - since I built my first model water wheel at the age of 13, and my first wind generator at the age of 15.

But somehow I wound up holding down an office job for 25 years. The pay was good and the work interesting. But did I feel passionate about it?

Well, how many passionate office workers have you met?

Last July, my wife and I both took a year's leave of absence, and headed to Costa Rica with our kids. I wanted something to keep me busy while our kids were in school. I enjoyed writing, so I thought: why not try to write for the Internet, and make some pocket change?

I did some research, and discovered that most people who start their own blogs or websites lose money and give up within a year.

Then I stumbled upon an article that explained how you could make money by writing online. How with the right topic - something you care passionately about or are an expert in - and the right tools, you could create your own website, drive traffic to it, and monetize the site. All without needing to know a thing about 'Search Engine Optimization' or server administration or even HTML!

Within a couple of weeks I had decided to create my own energy efficiency website. I went looking for keywords (the terms people search on) that were in demand - many people searching - and in short supply - not many pages containing those keywords. Write pages on those keywords, and you get instant traffic. I started writing, and publishing web pages - two or three a week.

Traffic trickled in at first - one or two visitors a day the first week, ten a day by the end of a month. Then the snowball started growing month by month: 30, then 70, then 140, then 220 visitors a day. Now (June 2008) I get over 1,000 visitors a day, and with the advertising I host on my site, and the Amazon and other products I sell, I'm making over $1,000 a month, with a 20% monthly growth rate.

A friend of my brother's spent $10,000 developing a website on a topic he was passionate about, and after six months he'd made less than two dollars in total on ad revenue!

I spent about $300, and now earn several times that every month.

The difference? I used a process and tool set that ensures that you get traffic that can be turned into money.

If you feel passionate about something - a cause, an issue, a hobby, anything - you can turn it into a viable online business. You can set your own hours, build your own website, and feel the fulfilment that comes from doing something you know will make a difference.

I used to lie in bed wondering if my work was making the world a better place. I don't do that any more. I know I'm making a difference, and I'm making money at the same time. I've made the transition to work I feel truly passionate about!

Find out how I turned a passion into an income, or check out my review of Site Build It, the process I used to build my website.