The Benefits Of Personal Finance Blogging
After posting about The Happy Rock’s need for another writer, I began thinking why someone would be interested in becoming a personal finance blogger. That ultimately lead me to think about the benefits of PF blogging I have received after a year plus of running a blog. Here are my top five reasons to start/write a personal finance blog.
Accountability – If you are someone who is looking to get out of debt, achieve your goals, and you want support, motivation, and accountability, blogging is quite convenient. If you can’t find people in your physical proximity that share similar goals and dreams, it doesn’t take long in the online world. There is a connection that happens when you begin to watch others make strides towards their finance goals and post your own goals and progress for the world and your blogging ‘friends’ to see. It is the type of connection that spurs one another onto bigger goals and achieve them quicker than could have been accomplished alone.
Learning and Relearning – You learn on your own personal money journey and you post about that, but you also are taught by fellow bloggers along the way. There are also many situations and topics that I would have easily dismissed, forgotten about, or even avoided had I not been blogging. I personally enjoy the learning benefits the most.
Helping Others – This one is more about giving to others, but the motivation to help others spurs you on to greater and higer goals while also seeing others benefit from your own journey to financial success.
Extra Income – As more and more personal finance blogs come online, income will continue to be harder and harder to come by. I have been a little surprised by the income The Happy Rock has been earning of late, but it took almost 8-10 months with barely a penny coming in to get a enough money to even notice it in the check book. By no means would I suggest personal finance blogging as a great way to earn extra income, but rather one that can help you achieve your goals. If you happen to make a little money each month that is just icing on the cake. From my experience and knowledge of other blogs I would think a range of $0 – $200 after 6 months to a year would be common. With as many blogs that are out there now, it would take a special combination of skills, effort, and luck to really surpass the $200 a month mark in a reasonable amount of time.
Experience Running A Website – This will be my biggest benefit over my lifetime. With my MBA complete and my software development background I plan to leverage my experience in web design, search engine optimization, copy writing, and growth in understanding the web as a platform into other entrepreneurial opportunities. The amount of information that needs to be learned in this area to truly understand how to run a fully successful website can be daunting and without a passion for understanding it all it will be overwhelming. Things like choosing the write titles, keywords, revenue generators, and blog design and attributes are very important. I would personally suggest that great writers team with great internet marketers for a truly unique team. The is a huge benefit in letting people fully commit to the things they do best. There are very successful websites that haven’t really had much experience with this type of stuff, but that will be the exception not the rule going forward in the blog market.
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Great summary of benefits for being a personal finance blogger. I happen to agree with all the points made. I learnt so much over the past few months as a PF blogger myself.
As far as income goes, I agree that $200 mark is a good point to aim for. Personally, I am very lucky to be able to earn more than that from my blog, but I don’t think it’s normal.
@Pinyo – You have a great blog and crank out the very solid content on a regular schedule and are always looking for opportunities to grow, improve, and work hard that makes a big difference. That is the special type of mix that I am talking about. Keep up the great. You have grown at a much bigger and faster rate than me and you deserve it!
@Caveman – It took me almost a year to get my first $100 in adsense. Adsense isn’t always the best way for bloggers to make money especially when they are small with lower traffic. It is still probably 4th on my list of revenue.
Your list matches my beliefs pretty closely. The added accountability is the reason I post my net worth changes every month – so if I’m lagging behind, I have to explain myself to a lot of people, not just my wife.
As far as income goes, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t start blogging for money! I’ve made all of $10 and change so far this year through advertising – something I won’t see until I reach my $100 Adsense payout limit. (Of course, I won’t turn down that money, either!) 😀
Nice article.
I would also say that pf blogging ‘creates opportunities’ to market yourself and show off your skills to prospective employers and/or business partners.
@Curt – I agree completely. I haven’t leveraged that aspect of things since I don’t have a need yet, but I plan to when and if there is the right oppurtunity.
Those are some great goals for blogging. Once you establish your goals it helps to keep you focused and when others see your accomplishments it gives them motivation and inspiration to do great things as well
I agree! The personal accountability far outweighs what you may earn directly from the blog. I know that I wouldn’t be successfully paying down my debt now without blogging. In fact, I encourage everyone to start a blog or journal if they want to really change their financial habits!
It’s very impressive to see how you’ve turned your life around. I agree with you totally- there’s such a wealth of positive information and support here in ‘PF Blogger World.’ It’s like a debtor’s version of Alcoholic’s Anonymous. Thanks for a nice post.
Lisa
I started learning more about personal finance and I just started my blog a few weeks ago. Hopefully it is an enriching experience.
I am new to the blogging side of financial advice, but i find it a great way to give out advice and pick up tips. Keep up the great work guys.