Wow, I just started my personal finance blog. I can’t believe the level of success I have with it already. It sure didn’t take long for me to reach 1,000,000 monthly pages viewed. I don’t know what the fuss is all about needing to invest time into a blog.
Blogging is so easy. Next stop, 1,000,000,000 page views per month. This might take me another 3 months to achieve. I will share with you my secret for massive readership explosion in just 3 months.
Wait, is it April 1st? Sorry for the Fool’s Day joke and the click bait title. I really want your attention on this post regarding the state of the blog after the first 3 months.
First Start Back in 2016 But Lost Steam
I have a passion for personal finance and often find myself reading personal finance blogs online. Because of this passion for personal finance, I found myself exploring the idea of starting a personal finance blog back in 2016. I even attempted to write a few posts back then.
Even though I didn’t particularly enjoy writing back in 2016, I felt I have something to offer the personal finance blogosphere. I can bring my own experience of growing up financially with very little to achieving a comfortable level of success as a deca-millionaire.
I also enjoyed sports and believed there were a lot of lessons from sports we can apply to bettering our own financial situation.
I tried my hand at writing a few posts back in 2016. I wrote 7 posts in total and published them on the blog back in 2016. But at the time I was not able to power through and continue on with producing more posts. I stopped working on the blog.
My energy was spent on my family, management of my investments including my rental properties and on work.
Objectively, I was a failure on this front back in 2016.
I Am Back With A Renewed Focus in 2019
I’ve decided late last year to give this personal finance blog a second chance. But this time, I’m determined to make it work.
Here are my reasons why:
→ I still have a passion for personal finance. Therefore, I feel I can add value in this space for readers. I grew up in a poor household and am able to achieve deca-millionaire ($10+ million) status in my thirties. The America Dream and opportunity for success are real and available to anyone! I am living proof.
→There seems to be more uncertainty at work given the change in leadership at the company. With new senior management in place, there are questions on how to move forward with the business and how the business should be organized. This level of uncertainty is unnerving for someone who has been loyal and stayed with the company for over a decade. It makes sense to have a plan E for income stream.
- Plan A = work at my corporate job
- Plan B = my wife’s corporate job
- Plan C = rental income from my real estate portfolio
- Plan D = investment income
- Plan E = creation of blog
A successful blog should afford me the opportunity to live a work LITE life.
→ I really want to contribute to the personal finance world and help make a difference in people’s life. Sometimes, people who want to succeed might just need a bit of guidance or information. I would like to provide my own perspective and experience to help them along their financial path to success.
→ I want to begin another journey and open myself up to new experiences and relationships. Online blogging can help me learn how to create an online business, build a website, write better, market my content, retain an audience, and meet new people.
→ If the blog becomes successful, I might be able to branch out into ancillary services or verticals. This can lead to other adventures and can stretch my abilities and satisfy my curiosity. The opportunity for growth feels limitless.
My Measure Of Success
I’m taking a longer term view in order to measure my level of success for this blog. The measurement of success for me is how many readers and how many page views I get. The number of returning readers is also another key measure of success because this is evidence that I am contributing something valuable in order for them to want to come back.
The page view statistic also provides an indication of the value of the content provided. If one of my posts adds value to a reader, the reader will no doubt want to go to another post to get information. This will drive up the page views.
Taking The Long Term View
From what I gathered in the personal finance blog space, I give myself 1 to 2 years to see if this blog can be a success. It takes time to hone ones writing skills and style. It also takes time to build out a name and reputation. Additionally, it takes time to build an audience and a following. I am willing to invest that time into this blog.
I’ve always taken a long term perspective and patient approach on all my professional endeavors and investments. I have been in the corporate world for about 20 years and worked my way up the corporate ladder from the very bottom.
I started investing in real estate 10 years ago and have built an investment portfolio of 5 rental properties with 15 units.
It also took me years to build a stock portfolio worth millions.
My financial nest egg did not grow to be 8 figures overnight. It took time, discipline and effort to get there. I am willing to invest my time and effort into this blog. I am also willing to give it a couple of years to see if the endeavor is a worthwhile one.
My Mindset Working On The Blog
Be Positive
I believe I can be successful in building a blog which can educate and entertain at the same time. That is my mindset. I go in knowing there will be ups and downs. But if I continue with my dedication, I WILL be successful.
Constantly Learn and Improve
There is so much to learn for me when it comes to blogging. I want to continue to learn as much as possible about different areas in running a successful blog including the technical aspect, content generation and marketing.
At the end of the first quarter of 2019, I started being mindful of the writing style in addition to generating good content.
I noticed I enjoy reading other people’s blog posts with sentences which are straightforward and simple. Those posts also contain only two or three sentences in each paragraph. I will try to adjust my writing going forward to eliminate long, complicated sentences and to try to keep my paragraphs shorter.
Make Technical Progress
Back in 2016, I signed up with a hosting company, acquired a URL, and put up Word Press. I set up my email account and played around with the Word Press functionalities.
During the first quarter of 2019, I opened up an email marketing account with Mailchimp, set up a PO Box in order to receive physical mail, tried out a few Word Press themes and set up my Google Analytics account.
I also installed a few new plugins and added in the ability for readers to subscribe to comments on a post or for the readers to be notified on a new post.
My Approach Going Forward For This Blog
I will try to tackle interesting topics for my readers and continue to write about personal finance based on my own experience.
Continue to Build Good Content
I want to continue to build good content. I published 12 blog posts including this one in the first 3 months of 2019. I want to continue to at publish at least 1 blog post per week.
Increase Readership
I also want to get this blog’s name out and increase readership. I started commenting on other personal finance sites I follow in February. I tried to add value in my comments and not just post generic “nice post” comments.
I started commenting on FinancialSamurai.com, Retireby40.org, RootofGood.com, and a whole host of other blogs. This led to an increase in readers back to my blog.
Additionally, readership also increased when I signed up to be included in the directory of personal finance blog maintained by Rock Star Finance. You can check out the directory here: https://directory.rockstarfinance.com/blogger-net-worth-tracker
Work To Optimize SEO
I haven’t done much from an SEO standpoint. In the second half of March, I installed the Yoast SEO plugin in Word Press. I am not sure how effective it is since I just started using it.
Goals For Next Quarter
There are a number of things I want to accomplish for next quarter. I want to hold myself to those items in order to continue to make progress.
Content is King! Continue to Post At Least Once A Week
I want to continue to build the content on the site. I plan to post at least once a week. By the end of next quarter I should have published at least 12 posts.
If I can really get into a rhythm, I want to see if I can do either 3 posts every 2 weeks or maybe shoot for 2 posts per week. However, 2 posts per week might be too ambitious though.
I will probably shoot for 3 posts per 2 weeks in order to not make it too tough on me to continue on with the blog. I don’t want to fail a goal too early on and put undue pressure on myself to perform.
Better Design For The Blog. Change the Word Press Theme
I want to find a theme that looks better than the one I have now. I don’t particularly like this Word Press theme, especially the limitation to picture placement on the post and the look of the word font.
Grow Readership by Commenting On At Least 30 Other Blogs
I currently comment on about 10 personal finance blogs. I want to increase that number drastically in the second quarter. My target is to comment on 30 personal finance blogs at least once every two weeks. This should hopefully result in new readers coming to my blog.
Grow Readership by Guest Posting Two Times
I want to establish the content on my blog first. But with already 19 published posts, I feel that I have enough content on my blog now for new readers to keep busy and to get a feel for my style and topic.
I want to be able to build readership by guest posting on at least 2 other personal finance blog.
Ask 3 Personal Finance Bloggers for Advice
As previously mentioned, my mindset right now restarting my blog again is to look to learn and improve. What better way is there to learn and improve than to ask other successful personal finance bloggers for advice?
I plan to develop a relationship with at least 3 bloggers in my space and to seek feedback and suggestions from them.
I already have 1 blogger who offered me help. Dom from GenYFinanceGuy.com provided me useful links to posts which detailed how he was able to grow his blog. He also suggested for me to add in a subscribe option for readers to get notified of any new post or any new comment.
My Blog Stats
Since I’m in finance by trade, as well as, in the personal finance blogging space, I have an affinity for numbers. See below for a few stats about this blog:
Total Posts: 19 Posts including this one
Total Comments: 24 comments, 12 by me
First 3 months in 2019:
Total Readers: 867 users
Total Page Views: 4,476 pages
Alexa Ranking: 11,416,910
Total Internal Links: 806
Total External Links: 91
Conclusion:
Blogging has definitely been more enjoyable than what I remember it to be back in 2016. I didn’t expect to be able to publish 1 post per week but I have been very consistent at keeping that pace.
The more I think about personal finance, the more topics pop into my head. I didn’t expect coming up with topics to write about would come this easy.
Additionally, I expected writing 2,000+ words per post would be a challenge. But when I sit down to write, I find that hitting 2,000 words isn’t really that hard. Sometimes I find myself limiting the word count because some of my posts are closer to 2,400 words. I even split the Millionaire Budget into two posts because of the length.
All in all, blogging has been fun for the first three months of 2019. Hopefully, I can say that at the end of next quarter.
To the audience: What do you think about my goals for next quarter? Is there anything else you think I should add? If you are a personal finance bloggers, what advise do you have for me as I continue to blog?
Many people work hard to better their physical and mental health. What about their financial health?
I started this blog back in 2019 to help people better their financial health as well.
My financial journey began with tens of thousands in student loan debt. Over the span of 20 years, I am close to achieving financial independence.
I truly believe anyone can get to strong financial health. Hopefully, this blog can help you on your financial journey to greater wealth and financial independence.
You can read more about me here.
Thank you for visiting. Come again soon!
I have no doubt you will be a success if you approach blogging with a long view. Thanks for the shout out!
Dom
Thanks Dom for the encouraging words and really appreciate your feedback and help so far!
Your first 3 months seemed pretty good Rich! As a new blogger myself, I’m not sure I have much to add to your exhaustive list other than that I hope to see more of your personality and “back story” shine through your posts. You seem to have a great self-made story and there’s no way I could have known reading some of your recent posts! I know I could learn personal finance from reading books but the little life details of bloggers make reading PF blogs so much more fun. I’m sure the life of a deca-millionaire surely can attract a lot of curious eyeballs. I admire you for not struggling to write 1000+ word posts and I unfortunately have a hard time with that. Keep going and good luck!
Thanks for the feedback. I am still trying to get my feet under me on content production for now. But I will work harder in the future to incorporate more of my back story.
I do find it a lot easier to write 1,000 words than 2,000. That’s for sure. I like reading your posts. They are shorter and easier to digest.
That’s pretty good for 3 months worth of work.. 850ish readers! not bad at all! Beats my 5 or so
I’m not going to lie, it does feel great to have some readers! I especially appreciate repeat visitors because they are the true testament to finding value in this blog and in the content. Good luck on building readership for your blog.
You’ve got an interesting story to tell, Rich! With consistency, I’m sure you will grow the blog. Wishing you all the best.
Thank you Michael for your support. I will try to get my story out to as many people as possible.
Great story and it helps put things in perspective for my own new blog I’ve started recently. Commenting on other blogs definitely helps. I’m finding that it takes a lot of time to thoughtfully read all the great blogs out there day after day. I find myself spending hours just to read a few articles and provide comments. I have learned a lot though.
Yes, I think the same way. It is time consuming to read new blog posts and to come up with an appropriate comment. I try to stick to the blogs I find the most interesting and try to be as active as possible on those. There are some blogs I visit once a month because of the frequency of the posts. I’ve started to lay out a calendar of ones which post bi-weekly or monthly and then visit those blogs once a month.
I’m also in the process of completing a couple of online interviews. Hopefully, those can expand my reach as well.
At some point, I’ll like to do one or two guest posts but I’m scheduling those for later in the 2nd quarter.