I remember how I met Rob Cubbon. I was trying to learn WordPress to build this website (my site was ugly as hell and it looked like it was 1993) and I was looking for a nice online course about it. For some reason, I ended up in Udemy and Rob had a course about it! I enrolled in one course, then another... then another... Soon I was trapped. I was reading his blog, reading his emails and studying his income reports.

I remember I had a question at the time and I wondered if I should write him. "After all, these great gurus are happy to have you on their courses, but they never answer back to you...", I thought. Still, I wrote him with my question. I was surprised to have a very nice and complete answer from him! And it was not a general, but a genuine, "done only for my case" type of answer.

I have been a huge fan since then.

I have followed Rob in his journey, read the books and took the courses. Most of what I know from building websites and earning passive income I have learned from him.

So I was exultant when Rob agreed to be interviewed in my little humble website.

So... without a bigger introduction... I give you Rob Cubbon!

Thank you for giving us this interview, Rob. I think you have gone through many transformations ever since you started as a graphic designer, up to your current incarnation as a kindle author, teaching people how to live a happy and productive life. Can you tell us about your previous life as an employee? How was it? What was the worst of it?

For nearly 20 years I was going to work like anybody else. I didn't enjoy it. I never settled down in employment, in fact, I was working as a freelance, casually, most of the time. I would be at a company for a couple of weeks and then go somewhere else. But it was boring work. A couple of times I escaped to Portugal and Brazil to teach English but the money wasn't enough to make that sustainable so I'd find myself back in London having to do these boring typesetting roles.

The worst thing about it was my reaction to it. I was completely resigned to this life and I became very negative. God know what would have happened had the internet not came along and saved me.

How did you discover the light? Did you have an “aha” moment? And if so, how did you went from there?

Several “aha” moments. I started putting together static HTML websites. Then one day someone suggested I install WordPress. I remember seeing that the header and footer could be edited once and changed on multiple pages and I could see how powerful that was.

Remember earning my first money online. I remember the first time I saw a friend make money on Udemy.

I know you publish your quarterly earnings for everyone to see how you are doing. For the people who are not familiar with your reports, can you tell us more or less how much you earn on any given month?

They are actually income reports for just my passive income, they don't include income I earn through client work. You can find them here: http://robcubbon.com/income-reports/ Luckily I started a long time ago so you can see a slow start as for years I didn't earn more than $2000/month. Then it jumped over $7000/month.

Most of the income comes from Udemy and other online learning platforms. But also there's e-book sales, affiliate commissions and advertising revenue.

You have several books, courses and resources in general to learn how to produce a living through passive income (SEE SIDEBAR). For a person who is just getting started on this, what would be your best advice?

Create free valuable relevant content. It's the best advice but the hardest thing to do. It's what you're trying to do here, Joe. It's hard at first because you think no one is noticing you. But, slowly, they come. It grows exponentially.

For a person who wants to learn how to create a passive income through your material, can you suggest what is the right order to take your courses? Where should we start?

Well, I have a pretty comprehensive set of passive income courses here: http://learn.robcubbon.com/how-you-can-earn-passive-income-from-ebooks-video-courses/ as you can see on this page the course is split up in to four stages (blog, email list, e-books, video courses) or you can get the whole lot in one: http://learn.robcubbon.com/course/earn-5000-a-month-passive-income-selling-e-books-and-video-courses/

I also have a course on running a web design business which sells very well. http://learn.robcubbon.com/course/make-money-running-a-web-design-business/

All these courses are also available on Udemy as well.

With all the changes in Amazon, Udemy etc. what is your prediction for the following years? Do you think this passive income niche will be profitable for many years to come?

I do. I certainly think that online learning will grow because that's been the trajectory. I think there'll be more opportunities with languages other than English (you'll be glad to hear that, Joe!) and there'll be lots of new avenues opening up.

One thing that's hard to predict is the future of Udemy. They're the market leader at the moment but they could get bought or a tech giant could move into the space.

There will be more creators creating content, so more competition.

The only thing I'm sure about is change. This space is very dynamic!

Any closing thoughts?

Thank you for having me on. I would just like to say that whoever you are, wherever you're from, that You Can Do It. You can sell your expertise and make passive income online. If I can do it anyone can! 🙂

Resources

Some books from Rob Cubbon

Free your thoughts. - Do you feel trapped sometimes? Do you want to clear your mind and find your purpose?

This booklet will add more freedom and happiness to your life. It could change your life too.

We are all freer than we think we are

But sometimes when you get up for work in the morning, freedom seems like a privilege reserved for the rich and famous. It isn’t. The freest people in the world aren't usually rich or famous. This book will show you how you can experience freedom now!

From Freelancer to Entrepreneur: Escaping work and finding happiness.- "Don't see yourself as a freelancer swapping hours for dollars; see yourself as a business!"

Rob was caught in a rut professionally, emotionally and mentally. He drifted from freelance job to freelance job, lived for his pay check and the less said about his spare time the better. Warning: the book contains language and situations of an adult nature.

Then the internet came along and changed his life – but not in the way that you think.

This book doesn’t center around one transformative life-changing moment. Instead, this book contains a whole host of them.

There's lots of advice here that can help you turn your life around and start a business online. And, if you'd like, Rob would love to help you do this.

Build a Brand, Create Products and Earn Passive Income. - This is a blueprint for online success. It’s everything Rob has learned during a decade of living online.

This is not a get-rich-quick book. However, if you do what it says, you will make money online.

You will also grow an authoritative personal brand, that will benefit both you and your businesses for years to come.

Enjoy Passive Income

This book tells you how to enjoy creating regular content that will be consumed by a growing community of adoring fans and how to unlock the secrets of social media and email marketing to ask them what they want. And then, how to create products (books, podcasts, videos) to sell to them and others.

Running A Web Design Business From Home: How To Find and Keep Good Clients and Make Money with Your Home Business . - You can run your own web design business from home – all you need is a computer and an internet connection.

Working for a design company? Freelancing? Underutilised, unappreciated or uninspired? This could be the book for you.

Would you like to build websites for clients directly instead of going through middlemen? Would you like to work when you'd like, on what you'd like, and with whom you'd like? This could be the book for you.

Are you currently running a web design business or doing freelance web design from home and not making as much money as you would like? This could be the book for you.

This book explains how to set up your business from home – the hardware and software you'll need. How to get clients – long term, quality clients that will recommend you and give you ongoing work. How to run web design projects. And how to diversify your business going forward.