My Wife Quit Her Job (Blog & Course)

Steve Chu was working full-time as a director of engineering, designing microprocessors with an MSEE from Stanford, when he decided to build an e-commerce business on the side with his wife. Rather than keep the learnings to himself, he started blogging about his experiences at mywifequitterjob.com in 2011, documenting the problems and solutions he encountered daily. The blog name itself became a cultural touchstone—a statement of intent that resonated with his audience.

Starting with organic blog content and SEO, Steve gradually built an audience through consistent, valuable writing. By combining his analytical engineering mindset with his wife's creative abilities, he created complementary business lines: the blog (with affiliate offers, CPM ads, and courses), an e-commerce store selling personalized wedding linens at bumblebelinnings.com, and eventually a podcast. The online course—Profitable Online Store—launched with a $1,100 lifetime membership model, rejecting the monthly subscription approach after researching that most competitors saw customers only pay for four months before churning.

Steve built a 70,000-person email list through years of consistent blogging and content creation. His growth system relied on organic traffic through SEO, strategic Facebook ads (only $1,000/month spent across multiple campaigns), and a carefully orchestrated monthly webinar funnel. To fill each webinar, he used email blasts, blog posts, podcast mentions, and Facebook retargeting of website visitors. This generated approximately 1,700 signups per webinar, with about 40% attending live (600 people).

The monthly webinar became his revenue ATM. With 80% of attendees staying to the end and 10-13% converting at $1,100 each, Steve generated $40,000-70,000 per webinar. He invested $500 in Facebook retargeting ads per webinar week—a 100x return on spend. He rejected monthly subscription models after discovering lifetime customer value was less than half his $1,100 upfront price. The course repository grew to over 500 videos, continuously updated, creating a moat against competition. His e-commerce store achieved an exceptional 60% net margin by targeting emotional high-value purchases (wedding linens).

As of July 2016, the blog business had generated $500,000 in 2015 and was on track to do $700,000-800,000 by mid-year 2016—projecting over seven figures for the full year. With approximately 2,000 total course sales accumulated since 2011, and prices increasing from $1,100 to $1,200 twice per year, Steve had built a predictable, high-margin business while maintaining his full-time engineering job. His wife's e-commerce store, while not publicly sharing numbers, was generating more total revenue than the blog, though with lower profit margins. Steve's strategy embodied the power of patience, list-building, and systematic conversion funnels rather than viral growth or paid acquisition at scale.