Blog Update: Second Quarter Of Existence – Still Going Strong!

This blog has been in existence in earnest for 2 quarters now. That is 6 whole months of blogging, responding to comments and spreading the message.

The Reason Why I Started This Blog  

This is a recap of why I started this blog:

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 poor to achieving a comfortable level of success as a deca-millionaire in my 30s.

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.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again!

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.

→I want to add a plan E for my income stream, especially in light of some uncertainty at my current corporate job.

• 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 = blog income

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. This seemingly small action might lead to a big impact for my readers. 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 Measures Of Success Haven’t Changed From Last Quarter

I’m taking a longer term view in order to measure my level of success for this blog. Ultimately, the measurement of success for me is how many readers and how many page views I get. My reach as you will. 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 one’s 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 6 rental properties with 18 units.

It also took me years to build a stock portfolio worth millions as well as a 7-figure retirement account balance.

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.

Second Quarter Accomplishments Compared To Goals Set At The Beginning Of The Second Quarter

During the first quarter update 3 months ago, I wrote a number of things I wanted to accomplish for the second quarter. I want to hold myself accountable on those goals and see how well I did on them.

Content is King! Continue to Post At Least Once A Week  [COMPLETED]

My goal set at the beginning of the second quarter is to continue to write and post at least once a week. Content continues to be king in my book and building content on this site is the most important thing for me now.

Mission accomplished on this one. I was able to continue to post at least once a week.

I was able to post 5 articles in April, 4 articles in May, and 4 articles in June. The total articles posted amounts to 13 for the quarter. This is 1 more than my goal.

I also listed a stretch goal at the beginning of the quarter to see if I can challenge myself on producing more content. The stretch goal is to produce 3 posts every 2 weeks. This would result in over 18 articles for the quarter.

Obviously, I didn’t hit the stretch goal. But I am still happy I was able to keep to a production schedule of 1 post a week. I have to say it was tough during a couple of weeks in this quarter, especially one when I was traveling on vacation with the family.

But I still kept at it. I still enjoy creating great content for this blog.

Surprisingly, I find writing to be enjoyable. If you told me a year ago I would actually enjoy sitting in front of my computer typing up a blog post and would not have a big issue getting to 2,000 words per post, I would say to you to stop joking.

Better Design For The Blog. Change the Word Press Theme. [DID NOT COMPLETE]

I wanted 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.

I also don’t quite like that there are not enough posts displayed on the front page. I would like to have links to a lot more posts on the home page. This would allow greater exposure for my previous blog posts and can provide my readers better assess to my articles.

If you visited this blog last quarter, then you know I didn’t change the Word Press Theme. I kept the same one I’ve used since the start of 2019.

I did, during the 2^nd quarter, review a few Word Press Themes that might be more suitable for what I want. I just haven’t had the chance to really experiment with them to find out which one is the best for this site.

I didn’t accomplish this goal but I hope to give it a shot for the next quarter.

Comment On At Least 30 Personal Finance Blogs [HALF COMPLETED]

I commented on about 10 personal finance blogs during the first quarter of 2019. My goal at the beginning of the quarter was to increase that number and my target was to comment on 30 personal finance blogs at least once every two weeks. This should hopefully result in new readers coming to my blog.

I was able to comment on over 30 personal finance blogs over the quarter but I wasn’t able to keep at the pace of at least once every two weeks. That is quite an undertaking.

I tried to be diligent for a month on commenting but soon felt overwhelmed with participating in so many different discussions. I decided in mid-May to just focus on the 10 or so blogs I frequent.

Providing comments on 10 personal finance blogs became a more manageable task and didn’t make it feel too much of a burden.

Grow Readership by Guest Posting Two Times [COMPLETED]

My goal at the beginning of the quarter was to continue to build my readership. A great way of doing that is by guest posting on other blogs. I wanted to be able to guest post on at least two different blogs.

I did two interviews on two different personal finance websites. While not quite two guest posts, I am still going to count them toward my goal.

Michael, at FinanciallyAlert.com, put together an interview series called Finding FI. He approached me to inquire if I would be interested in participating. I am a fan of his website. Of course I said yes. I answered a number of questions he posed for the participants of the series.

You can find my interview here. It provides insight into my background as well as my take on certain personal finance matters.

The other one is yet to be posted but is currently in the queue. I participated in the 10 questions post over at 1500days.com. I am currently number 7 on the queue. I would imagine it would take another 2 months before my post is published over at 1500days.com.

Ask 3 Personal Finance Bloggers for Advice [DID NOT COMPLETE]

My plan was to develop a relationship with at least 3 bloggers in my space and to seek feedback and suggestions from them.

Unfortunately for me, I did not do a good job in forming any new relationships with personal finance bloggers out there.

I do have my blogging buddy Mr. Hobo Millionaire who continues to provide valuable comments and insight here. I appreciate his participation. But otherwise, I haven’t done much with reaching out to other personal finance bloggers.

Summary Of My Second Goal Accomplishments

I set 5 goals at the start of the quarter and was able to accomplish 2, half complete 1 and didn’t complete another 2. This is a .500 batting average, great for baseball, not so great for building a successful blog.

Overall, I still feel good about my progress with this blog. Let’s move onto my blog stats this quarter and my goals for the next quarter.

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: 32 Posts including this one

Total Comments: 101 comments, 51 by me

Second Quarter in 2019:

Total Readers: 2,238 users
Total Page Views: 8,625 pages

First Half 2019 Total Readers: 3,047 users
First Half 2019 Total Page Views: 13,101 pages

Alexa Ranking: 1,848,738 (an improvement of 9.55 million)
Alexa Ranking US: 416,358

My Goals For Next Quarter (3^rd Quarter 2019) For This Blog

Continue to Build Good Content

I will try to tackle interesting topics for my readers and continue to write about personal finance based on my own experience.

I want to continue to build good content. My goal is to maintain my publishing schedule so far which is to produce 1 post per week.

If I can do more, then great. But I don’t want to put undue pressure on myself to have to produce. I would prefer my content to be high quality than high quantity.

Comment Frequently On 10 Personal Finance Blogs

I want to continue to be active in the personal finance blog space but I don’t want to overwhelm myself. Having a goal last quarter of commenting on 30 personal finance blogs became too much for me.

For this quarter, I want to be able to comment frequently and consistently on 10 personal finance blogs. Hopefully, by limiting the number of personal finance blogs, I can produce better value-add comments.

Take A Course On Marketing My Blog

Building good content is my number 1 priority. But I really want to learn how to build a following and more readers.

I want to commit myself for this quarter in taking a course on marketing my blog. I will work to follow the directions of the course to increase exposure for this blog.

Better Design For The Blog. Change the Word Press Theme.

Since I wasn’t successful in implementing a new Word Press design for the blog I want to have it as a 3^rd quarter goal. I still want a better look for the blog. But more importantly, I want to have more posts displayed on the home page.

I want to make it as easy for repeat readers, as well as new ones, to find posts which are interesting for them. Some of my earlier posts are buried now. I want to make sure I can breathe some life into them by having them appear on the home page.

Additionally, I want to re-design subscribing to my email newsletter. I don’t like the email subscription box. I think with a new design, I can get even more people signing up for the newsletter.

Actually Start The SportofMoney.com Newsletter

I have been so focused on my blog that I didn’t have time to start my newsletter. I have readers who have subscribed into my email newsletter and expect to receive quality content delivered to them periodically.

I’ve let them down so far. But this quarter, I want to set up my newsletter and send out at least 2 email newsletters to my subscribers.

Conclusion:

Blogging continues to be enjoyable for me. Hopefully, I can still say that after the end of next quarter.

I’ve had some highs and some lows this quarter. There were days when I saw very low traffic. There were other days when traffic spiked. Those spikes provided a rush but then the rush would turn into a lull again once the traffic went back to a normalized state.

I will continue to make progress on the blog in both design and marketing for greater exposure. But I will not forget my number 1 priority – to produce high quality content for you because your time is valuable and I want to make sure I provide that value for you!

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?

Related Posts:

Blog Update: First 3 Months – Great Success, 1,000,000 Monthly Page Views

SoM @ SportofMoney.com

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!