"I don't care, because the people are reading," he said. "At 22, I was earning more than someone [in Macedonia] will ever learn in his entire life."

He claims to have earned up to $2,500 a day from advertising on his website, while the average monthly income in Macedonia is just $426.

The profits come primarily from ad services such as Google’s AdSense, which place targeted advertisements around the web. Each click sends a little bit of cash back to the content creator.

Mikhail says he has used his profits to buy a house and put his younger sister through school.

The former law student claims that he once had 15 employees — including two writers in the U.S. — churning out stories and engaging with fans. His last website had around 1.5 million Facebook followers, mostly in the U.S.

That site was blocked a few months ago after Facebook and Google started cracking down on fake news sites. Mikhail is now retooling his operation, with his sights set firmly on the 2020 presidential election.

"My primary goal is to prepare a site like I was having before, to be ready for the next election in America," he said.