Why You Should Become a Personal Finance Blogger

Writing about personal finance will definitely help you learn about money. Lazy Man lists ten ways personal finance blogging has helped him with money. Here are thirteen lucky reasons, in no particular order, that you should become a personal finance blogger:

1. You can answer your friends questions at work about their 401k investments.
2. You can win financial “discussions” with your spouse.
3. You know what the news guy means when he says the DOW and NASDAQ are up.
4. You can hold your own when people discuss stocks at cocktail hour.
5. You will have the best rewards credit card there is.
6. You won’t fall for the car salesman’s tactics next time you buy a car.
7. An emergency fund will actually be something you starting contributing to instead of just reading about.
8. You still won’t read all the fine print on financial forms but you’ll have an idea what they say.
9. You’ll learn enough about saving and investing that you can explain the concepts to your friends, family, and random people you meet on the bus.
10. If you practice what you preach you’ll have a better financial plan and more financial security than before you wrote about money.
11. You’ll make extra money by selling advertising on your website.
12. You will meet cool people all across the country who also like to talk/write about money.
13. A Google search for “personal finance blogs” only returns 124K hits. The world needs more personal finance writers, there just aren’t enough!

What Do These Ladies Obsess About?

I failed to pass the torch in my recent post covering the things I obsess about so I’m rectifying that now. I read Amanda’s post on the gender salary gap and thought I’d help spread the awareness of the continued inequality by choosing several different sites run by women.

So I’d like to know. What do these ladies obsess about?

• One Frugal Girl @ One Frugal Girl
• Amanda @ Young & Broke
• Dawn @ Frugal for Life
• Wendy @ eMoms at Home
• DH @ Debt Hater
• Prlinkbiz, Kimber, Fast Track Girl @ No Limits Ladies

The Great Big Lie About Personal Finance Blogging – A Response

An entry in the most recent carnival of personal finance by makingourway talks about people’s expectations of making money by writing about personal finance online and questions whether these efforts are worth it. If you want to know what I think about the article then read on.

Adding Value
I’ll begin with a point that I agree on. Like makingourway, the sites I value the most are ones that offer unique insights into personal finance, not just regurgitated articles from the mainstream media. However, I do think discussing articles published by financial sites can offer value to readers.

In some cases people may not have seen the article in the first place. If it really is a great article then discussing its strengths may inform someone that might have missed it otherwise. We can offer alternative viewpoints than the author, just flat out disagree, or provide personal experiences that help illustrate the point of the article.

Hollywood or Bust
One of the main topics of the article is summed up with these two paragraphs.

“My point in this posting is that many people think they can or will escape the rate race by becoming personal finance bloggers; i.e. the advertising and related income from their personal finance blog will be enough to replace their day jobs and day income.

Except for those with very limited needs, demands and lots of time, this is a pipe dream. It’s fairly easy for me to identify a small number of financial successful PF Bloggers because there are so few!”

I look at it kind of like all the people that rush off to Hollywood to become a star. Many of them that make the trip to Los Angeles hoping to make it big never achieve that huge break. However, the effort becomes part of their life story and makes them who they are. The people they meet and lessons they learn along the way are invaluable to their future and may create opportunities they never would have even considered.

I think writing about personal finance in your life and the world around you has a lot of the same benefits. Plus, if everyone gave up the Hollywood dream where would the next big actors and actresses come from? If people gave up on self-publishing online think of all the talent and insight the rest of us would miss out on.

Alternative Income
I have an opinion on the closing question as well:

“But for many, there is an important question - should you spend more time thinking about how to succeed in your job and less about starting a side business? Should you spend more time saving what money you have and investing it carefully than starting a side business to live up to your income?”

I think earning money on the side is a valuable skill that everyone should learn. We often talk about the importance of diversification in personal finance. How diversified are you if all of your income comes from a single source? If that income source goes away for whatever reason, what will you do?

I don’t think people should quit their day job with hopes of becoming a six figure blogger. If you’re thinking about it, Yaro Starak has a series on blogging as a sustainable business model that you should read first.

However, I think creating income streams in addition to your primary job is a smart thing to do. In addition to the financial benefits, it helps hone skillsets you may not use in your daily job and helps you network with others. These skillsets and networks can come in handy if your main income suddenly dries up and blows away.

Thanks
The great thing about the personal finance blogging community is that there is always something new to learn and people are willing to share and discuss important topics that affect the quality of our lives. Thanks to makingourway for bringing up this topic and to the readers for the amount of deep thought I’m sure you’ll put into it.

Writer’s Constipation – Personal Finance Blockage

When you have so much to say but just can’t get it out!

That’s how I describe my personal finance writing over the last several months. Around one hundred documents representing unrealized articles are languishing in the ideas folder, eagerly waiting to jump onto the web.

Fortunately not everyone has this problem. Some people are blessed with writer’s diarrhea, and I mean this as a compliment. I would love to have the gift of ever flowing content, to be a Robo Blogger.

Perfectionism to a Fault
I blame my high school and college English teachers. I feel the need to write, re-write, read, re-read a post to get it just right, and then maybe tweak it some more.

We have something similar in the software industry known as analysis paralysis. You never complete the project because you spend your time over-analyzing or reworking every aspect of the system.

It’s also found in personal finance. Fearful of doing the “wrong thing” we do nothing at all, which over time is usually more costly than losing some money, learning from it, and trying again.

Free Flow of Ideas
Writing, software, and personal finance are different areas but the problems described can end up having a negative effect in all. The software industry came up with a solution to the lengthy waterfall methodology with shorter iterative processes such as “extreme programming”.

I don’t know what the answer is to inactivity due to fear in personal finance, perhaps personal finance bloggers!

My answer to Writer’s Constipation is going to be a concerted effort to “loosen up” a little with my writing and allow more of those ideas to flow out onto the Web. If you reduce quality control, you may get more junk but as long as I can keep the junk to insight ratio pretty low hopefully it will be less frustrating for me and more beneficial for readers. If you’re looking forward to the free flow of ideas signup for daily updates!

I Wonder What lifehacker, problogger, & copyblogger are Reading Today

You could find out not only what your favorite bloggers are reading but also what they think of it if only they used a cool tool called coComment!

The Comment is the Blogosphere
Okay, without blog posts there could be no comments, but without comments, how do you know anyone is reading your stuff and what value it is bringing to them? coComment lets you track the comments you leave on other blogs and then list them on your own blog so your readers can see what you’re reading and your thoughts.

End of the Link Dump?
Think of it. You wouldn’t have to take the time to aggregate and summarize your favorite reads of the day. If you enjoy a blog post, leave a comment, tag it with coComment, and your readers will take note. Of course you wouldn’t get a coveted link from an A-lister but if you write good stuff I imagine the comments will keep coming. The traffic they bring should result in links a plenty.

Boon for Comments
As a new blogger I’ve learned that a large part of it is reading other people’s stuff. I’m often disheartened when hours of reading and commenting on blogs has passed and I have no new content on my site! Now with coComment I can interact in the blogosphere while feeding my blog at the same time. Maybe people that use coComment will be more likely to take the time to add their thoughts to the blogosphere.

Blogroll 2.0
It seems to me that a blogroll is “so web 1.0″ and that coComment is sort of a Blogroll 2.0. Instead of a static list of links, you provide a dynamic directory of what you read. Specific recommendations of a certain post on a certain site and what you think of it seems to add much more value to your readers and the blogging community.

Leave a Comment
I’m sure as a new blogger, there is something I’ve overlooked or oversimplified in my analysis of how coComment could change the way we blog. If that’s the case, leave me a comment and let me know.

Check It Out
See the bottom of my right sidebar for an example of coComment in action. Given the nature of this post I should probably move it to a more prominent position but it’s the middle of the night and I don’t want to break my blog theme right before you let everyone know about this great article!

Personal Finance Reviews and Previews

Check out the following reviews and previews from personal finance sites submitted to a recent group writing project held by Darren at Problogger.net:

Investor Trip reminds us to shop for lower prices and redeem rebates immediately in Stupid Ways to Lose Money.

The Money Tortoise talks about avoiding financial porn, lowering your investment costs, making your planning easier in “Set It & Forget it” For the Future.

Broke-Ass Student encourages us to find courage to take bigger risks in life with
Finding the Courage to Fail - Even as a Broke-Ass Student .

The Simple Dollar offers some insightful trends in blogs and money for the coming year in  Blogging and Money: Six Trends For 2007 .

A new site that I’ve never read before, Living the Life as a SAHM talks about being a
Financially Savvy Stay at Home Mom.  This looks to be a great resource for single moms that hopefully we can all learn something from.

My contribution How Christmas Letters Can Make You a Happy Millionaire! rounds out the personal finance entries.

Please let me know if I overlooked anyone.  Unfortunately, none of us came away with a prize but I am happy to have discovered some new and useful blogs.  Check out the other submissions and find some treasures yourself!

Blogging is Costing Me Money, But I Don’t Care!

This chart is not the trend you want to see when you’re trying to build your net worth:

I stumbled across the personal finance blogging community in September and started Money Smart Life the next day. You can see an obvious correlation between pfblogging and my decrease in eBay sales. eBay hasn’t posted a November numbers summary yet in the Sales Manager but let me tell you, the slide continues.

No Worries
As I mention in the title, I’m not too concerned with the slump. I know once I put the time into procuring and listing inventory that sales will rebound. Of course I need to get on it relatively soon so my wife can stop stressing about all the inventory piled up in the garage and office.

Blogspiration
As I’ve said, using money to live our lives, instead of living our lives around money is something I’ve thought about my whole ?adult? life. The time it takes to share my tips and experiences is well worth the good it may do others. I’ve discovered that it does take considerable time and admire robo-bloggers like Free Money Finance and The Simple Dollar that crank out the posts with super human ability.

Calling All Readers
Thanks to those that read a Money Smart Life, please let me know any specific thoughts on how I could the spread the money smart life mantra more effectively

If you’re a first time reader subscribe today, I have big plans for the future! Now if I can just get my eBay store back up to speed, my job slows down, and the baby stops crying I’ll have time to realize the plans!

And lastly, thanks to Henry at Binary Dollar for being the first to add me to his Blog Roll! I have favorite sites I’ll add once my new theme is up. Yes, I’m just as excited to get rid of this boring theme as you are!

Batting 1000 in Personal Finance

One small step for me, one giant leap for personal finance!

Okay, I won’t get ahead of myself.

1000 Served
I passed my 1000^th visit yesterday, whoopee! I know 1000 is not very many but everyone has to start somewhere. Getting started is the hardest part but also the most crucial to success

Providing Inspiration
Based on the standard personal finance metrics, I feel I’ve done pretty well living a money smart life to date. The next obvious step to me is help inspire others to be money smart and talk about how to “keep it real” when it comes to a money/life balance. One thousand visits is almost 1000 times more of a difference I would have made without this site. The Internet is a wonderful thing, thanks Al Gore :).

Thank You
My favorite spot on SiteMeter is the “By Referrals” page. Very interesting and useful to checkout where people are flooding, or trickling, in from. Thanks to those of you that point readers my way. Also, thanks to those of you offering comments, I think discussion is a great way to learn and grow.

To Infinity and Beyond
“If you want to talk the talk, then walk the walk.” I guess if I want to inspire others to save and invest I need to talk about where I’m at in my personal finance journey. One thing I need to do next is publish my financial standings as so many others have done.

Henry over at BinaryDollar.com let me know he didn’t think much of my site’s look and feel but was adding this site to his blogroll anyway. I thanked him for the link and assured him a new theme is in the works. Once it arrives, let me know what you think.

I have some other cool ideas (at least they seem cool in my head) that I’m working on that will hopefully broaden the discussion and awareness of personal finance. I can’t wait to share them with you!

Thanks for reading and joining the journey for a money smart life!

How to Build Wealth by Creating Urgency in Others!

CopyBlogger wrote a recent article discussing the best ways to create urgency in your readers. While his topic centered on generating urgency to create a sale, I think the need for urgency applies to personal finance sites as well.

Getting the Message Across
The importance of starting to plan, save, and invest as soon as possible is paramount! As we write about the topic of personal finance the more quickly and effectively we can convey this urgency, the more we can help others.

What are We Selling?
I’ve never thought of myself as a salesperson but I think one of the keys to writing about personal finance is selling others on why they should be concerned with personal finance. If we can illustrate the “why” then people will want to know more about the “how”, they’ll be eager for countless juicy personal finance tips. We are selling the urgency of getting started TODAY!

How Can We Sell?
Set an Example
Offer Advice
Encourage the First Step
Create Inspiration
Be Transparent
Give a Wakeup Call
Review Helpful Products

Building Wealth
Okay, so the title of the article is “How to Build Wealth by Creating Urgency in Others!”. Where does the wealth come in? It is built, one article and one comment at a time. Each question we answer, topic we cover, and person we help strengthens our grasp on personal finance in our lives.

As we’re creating urgency in others and evangelizing healthy personal finance we’re holding ourselves accountable, thinking through financial decisions, getting feedback, getting book deals (well, maybe just Ramit), and reminding ourselves to stick to the basics. For me, building personal wealth by empowering and motivating others is quite a rewarding concept and something I can look forward to on a daily basis.

Giving Thanks for Blog Juice

Which would you rather have with your turkey dinner, gravy or Blog Juice?

My contribution to the personal finance blogosphere on Thanksgiving was the post
What Can You Learn About Money From a Turkey Dinner? To my delight, the Bloggers Blog ran across the article and included it in their Blogging Thanksgiving 2006.

As a new blogger, I watch my Blog Juice, or lack thereof, pretty closely. Every visitor, every link is a quite an exciting event. So for me, Blog Juice tastes much better than gravy this Thanksgiving!

Thanks to the Bloggers Blog for the mention and thanks to those of you who check in here now and again. Keep coming back, we’ll figure out together the best ways to live a money smart life!