Top Ten Ways Personal Finance Blogging has Helped Me |
26 Comments |
10. I make money from advertising. Let’s get this obvious one out of the way. I do make some money and it’s almost to the point where it might start to match that of a part-time minimum wage job. However, I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon.
9. Running this blog is a hobby that makes me money. Not too many people can say that their hobby makes them money. I’ve had a lot of hobbies in the past and almost all of them ended up costing me money.
8. I force myself to practice what I preach. I have had a 401K to roll over for some time and I’m really starting to get it done. Unfortunately it’s not a quick and easy thing to do, but without this blog, I would have probably forgotten it long ago.
7. I’ve committed to something and I’ve followed it through. This is extremely rare for me. I’ve started so many things only to find that they didn’t provide lasting enjoyment to me. I believe that blogging is different as I always have new people commenting about new things. Even after a year of writing, it hasn’t gotten stale.
6. I’m learning about how to run a business. Even though I consider Lazy Man and Money a hobby, since it brings in money, I have to treat it as a business. Some of the skills I’m learning are bookkeeping, negotiating (with advertisers), dealing with deadlines (something I’m particularly bad at in my day job), and marketing.
5. I’m becoming a better writer. I cringe when I go back and read some of my early posts - some of them are very poorly written.
4. I’m getting better at networking. I’m a terrible networker in the real world. I have so much to learn. However, I talk with many bloggers fairly regularly and this network has helped me reach more readers and bring in more advertising dollars.
3. Learn about aspects of the web that I normally don’t deal with. As a software engineer, I know a thing or two (and that’s about all) about how the web works. However at my day job, I just write code to match the spec that the project manager brings me. By creating Lazy Man and Money, I’ve learned quite a bit about Search Engine Optimization, Google’s indexing algorithms, how to monetize a website, and site design. In short, I’m the product manager, project manager, and engineer.
2. I share what I’ve learned about personal finance. This has given me a sense of personal satisfaction.
1. I learn about personal finance. Writing about personal finances means that I have to read about what others have to say on the topic. It also means that I have to be accountable for what I say. This is a major driver for me to try to say at least reasonable well researched material. Readers, like you, are also ready to help out if I have a question or point out if I could be doing something better.
Now that you’ve read my top ten, check out how Personal Financing Blogging has helped these bloggers:
Here is another isolated tip from the below comments I liked:
- Everyday Finance - It’s driven me to research alternative investment strategies.
If you are a personal finance blogger, let me know how blogging has helped you. If you:
- Write a post on the subject and let me know… (or)
- Just tell me via the comment or e-mail
I’ll add to the list and link back to you.
Popularity: 4% [?]
This post deals with: ... and focuses on:Blogging
 Stumble
 Reddit
 Digg
 Del.icio.us
 PropellerNext: Weekly Financial Review #17
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:48 am
I agree with all of the above. Especially both #7s :).
Actually, #9 is a critical one. You’re right, most hobbies cost us money. We have to buy equipment, or pay dues, or whatever is required to partake in your favorite activity. This one is not only free, but makes us money. Gotta love that.
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:57 am
Good catch, LAMoneyGuy. I may need to start a blog on how to count. I’ve fixed the error.
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:00 am
Same here, blogging keeps me ” in the know” and aware of finances. The making money part is always a bonus!
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Blogging is definitely one of the most useful/fun hobbies I’ve ever had. Most other hobbies will cost you an arm and a leg, some are just plain ridiculous. With my blog I’ve been able to develop professionals, have fun, meet people, and make some spare change as well! It’s seriously sweet!
Brandon
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
hi,
i agree with all the points you have put up above..one more thing i would like to add is..blogging actually provides you with a yet undiscovered opportunity of being a writer..i am just an amateur at blogging having recently caught the trend..but i find it to be quite enjoyable and a pleasurable activity..and of course knowledge of personal finance dosent hurt either..
May 4th, 2007 at 6:57 am
I have written a post on why I blog that will appear on Monday, the 7th.
My number one reason for starting a blog on personal finances was to get all of my thoughts on paper! I am too scatter-brained to just sit down and put together an entire book on how-to personal finance, but I can do it one article at a time!
May 4th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hi, Maybe we could have a lazy competition - to see who’s the laziest guy on the web? My blog is about shares as I reckon that’s where the real lazy money is.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Hey Lazyman,
Good posting. I’ve also gotten some benefits out of being a personal finance blogger as well. The only thing I wanted to comment on was your first point, that blogging can make money. From what I gather, most people actually don’t make very much money from blogging at all. If anything its a hobby and people blog because they enjoy blogging, not because they are doing it for the money.
For example, I sat down and calcuated the amount of time my wife spent on our blog relative to the amount we had earned from it. Our hourly was something like 1.85. We’d be better off at McDonalds or Starbucks.
Best,
James
May 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Lazy makes you money, it sound good to me that is why I did not go to work today.
May 6th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I did the meme today
May 7th, 2007 at 1:38 am
I agree with #5 and #6 especially. Before I began blogging, writing was not an easy task for me. And I developed some bad habits like proscrastination and poor organization. These are still obstacles for me, however, blogging has improved my capacities in these two areas.
Fun meme. I’ll have to give it a go later this week.
May 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I have been a PF blogger for 4 months, but I am already tired of it. I have run out of ideas. I mean, I do have a lot of ideas, but everyone has already covered them. I have followed the PF blog trail for around 6 months, and everyone talks about the same things. I got a ton of major tips in the beginning, but I have learned nothing new in the past 2 or 3 months. I mean, there is only so much you can cover. My blog has since turned into random ramblings from myself, not money ramblings, as I would be talking about all the same things as everyone else.
I’m not saying any of you should stop, I have just lost interest in PF blogs. I may come back to them in a few months, but I will probably be reading the same things I did before.
May 7th, 2007 at 10:57 am
I started my everydayfinance blog a few months ago and it’s working out nicely so far. It’s driven me to research alternative investment strategies and other investment vehicles to differentiate me from the other blogs out there. If I can move up in the search rankings a bit, could potentially back off the frequency of the posts and bring in the same traffic/income. I agree with the cost/hr; not exactly lit up over those results, but from 9-10PM on a weeknight, i’d be watching tv instead. At least this outlet provides for some income and enjoyment (not to say watching IDOL with my wife ins’t enjoyable…hahaha, but there are only so many useful things to be doing in between putting the kids to bed and sleeping myself).
May 7th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hi! I posted a meme on my site as well. Blogging has helped me to hold myself accountable every day, not just once a month when the bills are due! Thanks for the link!
May 9th, 2007 at 11:48 am
You have to look at the cost per hour a little differently though when comparing it to an 8 hour a day job. Say you could put 8 hours a day into your blog, and come up with 4 or 5 decent posts every day. You would at least double your visitors, probably do even better than that. I know if I could put 8 hours a day into my blog, I probably could make a decent living off of it. The problem is, I only put 1/2 hour a day to it, so it is not nearly as good as it could be.
May 12th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
How has personal finance blogging helped me? It has given me the courage to discuss finances openly and honestly with my fiance and other friends. These discussions have helped me to discover new strategies (i.e. Roth IRA) and have helped support me in doing the right thing (live within your means, stop trying to impress the neighbors).
I emailed you for a linkback, but was ignored. If anyone is interested in following my journey, help yourself: http://zaphodforpresident.com/category/finance/
May 12th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Sorry Zaphod, I get at least 30-40 e-mails a day. Your e-mail probably got buried in there.
I’m not in the habit of giving links out until a site has at least 3 months of 4 personal finance articles a week. It may seem a little stringent, but anything less and I would 500 links and Google would probably ban me for being a link farm.
May 13th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I liked this topic and have posted on it at http://themoneydiva.blogspot.com/2007/05/ten-ways-personal-finance-blogging-has.html
MD:)
August 29th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
[...] last week, Lazy Man at Lazy Man and Money shared 10 ways personal finance blogging has helped him to get better financially. Looking back at the short history of this blog, I found myself also a [...]
September 10th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I mostly focus on a variation of #8. I blog so that I have to distill and analyze my thinking. When there’s many thoughts, some contradictory, floating in my head, writing forces me to become coherent. When I’m writing for an audience, I feel compelled to justify my thoughts with statistics of some kind, which requires me to do the diligence. And finally, the comments force me to confront differing opinions.
January 17th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
[...] Man has a good post on the top ten ways that blogging about personal finance issues has helped him and it got me thinking about the very [...]
June 7th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
So far, I’d have to say that I love how much I am learning about “Web 2.0″ - I still consider myself young but all the 2.0 stuff makes me feel much older:) PLurK? Is it really necessary?:)
I was amazed when I began to make some php changes that worked, so that I could change my own php code… that was a great feeling!
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I like the idea of creating a blog about a hobby you are passionate about. Then part of the expenses involved with the hobby then become tax deductible business expenses. I was just talking to a guy who is a golfer that takes 3-4 golfing trips a year. I imagine golfing keywords are pretty high paying keywords.Advertisers for something like that surely would not be that difficult to find.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:46 am
[...] interested on some of my slightly older (and more raw) articles. Specifically, I’d recommend what I’ve learned by blogging and, if you are interested in giving blogging a try yourself, Advice for New Personal Finance [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 am
I discovered personal finance blogs when I was searching for information about self-employed income. When I realized that most of the blogs were already very mature and were either heavily focused on debt reduction or already had significant wealth built up, I decided to start my own blog to force myself to learn about personal finances.
Id say I most identify with #1 and #2 as I started my blog to learn about personal finance and I hope others can benefit from my situation.
September 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Very good summary. For me as well the best way to learn something is to share it with other people.