I have been running a simple career site for Marines for the last 2 years, and have now slowly grown to capture about half the Marine Corps monthly. It slowly drags in $400 a month and has been creeping up to the 5k mailing list mark. I work on it about a day a month, if that.
It went through a couple iterations, and settled on this one. Technically it only took a couple hours to make, and I spend about 2 hours a month actually providing the service. But, as with any side project I tinker with it a couple times a month.
I guess the articles take some time too. I find blogs and websites aren't that bad. It's physical products that are the worst!!! But also really inherently rewarding :)