Do you have a blog? Are you planning one?

[surfhb]

Yup. Fairly popular one.  It's a huge part of my life. Tryng to figure out how to optimize it for long term satisfaction and helpfulness. It's one of my biggest mental struggles actually.

Your blog is my favorite place on the whole Internet.

Dude. You don't even know how much this made my day. Thank you.

Yes....I love your garden.    Peeing in the compost pile would be great....I didn't know that! 

Can I ask where you live?

[CashFlowDiaries]

When I first created my blog my original intention was just to keep track of my net worth online. By doing that it would keep me super motivated to make sure it keeps going up and as fast as possible.   As I started writing about my net worth and current assets I got super motivated to just want to help other people out that are in the same boat as me or want to be in that boat. So for now, im just going to keep writing cool articles for like minded people and see what happens with it.   I dont get a ton of traffic and im not making money off it, yet at least but I also think its fun to have one and I enjoy writing.  I'd rather be writing an article for my blog then sit in front of the TV for 3 hours a night you know what I mean?

[Numbers Man]

I started one a couple of months ago (see signature for the link) and have a grand total of two posts so far. I'll probably keep posting sporadically when I find something new to say, but I'm not going to commit to writing enough to build up a huge readership and following like MMM or anyone like that. Several people have said nice things about the two posts and shared the links, and it's great that people like what I have to say. That's my real reason for doing it. I put one Google ad in the sidebar, and I'll be thrilled if the thing pays for our web hosting account (that we already have for professional portfolios, domain registration, etc.).

Probably the best article I've read that fully explains Obamacare and the advantages of keeping MAGI low. Well done!

[perummm]

Hey OP, nice Blog!

I also recently started blogging (in spanish) at sommelierperu.com
It is a very basic blog, nothing fancy.

I am pretty sure that my blog is the only " Mustachian" wine blog in my country, where people spend enormoues (to me) amounts of money on wine, relative to the poverty of the country.

I post my own tasting notes for "inexpensive" wines ( most of them under $20 a bottle, some under $6)

If you can read in spanish, I would be honored to have you as a reader :)

[purplepear]

I recently started a food blog with my best friend/ former roommate. It started because she was diagnosed with Celiac when we lived together, and we're both vegetarian... so there was a big learning curve for us on how to cook healthy & cheap gluten-free, vegetarian meals. After a year, we realized that we spend enough time cooking and meal-planning that we might as well extend that hobby to blogging! It seemed like a really good opportunity to share some of what we learned about cooking GF & vegetarian. It's been really fun so far, but it's in the infant stages.

Now I like it because it makes it super easy to share recipes with friends. I can just point them to a website link :)

Also, some of my friends/family used to doubt that I could cook healthy meals for < $1/serving and fancy meals for < $2/serving. Now I have easily shareable proof. :)

Also it gives me an excuse/reason to learn CSS/HTML. And nerd out on learning web design and monetization stuff.

[KMMK]

I recently started a food blog with my best friend/ former roommate. It started because she was diagnosed with Celiac when we lived together, and we're both vegetarian... so there was a big learning curve for us on how to cook healthy & cheap gluten-free, vegetarian meals. After a year, we realized that we spend enough time cooking and meal-planning that we might as well extend that hobby to blogging! It seemed like a really good opportunity to share some of what we learned about cooking GF & vegetarian. It's been really fun so far, but it's in the infant stages.

Now I like it because it makes it super easy to share recipes with friends. I can just point them to a website link :)

Also, some of my friends/family used to doubt that I could cook healthy meals for < $1/serving and fancy meals for < $2/serving. Now I have easily shareable proof. :)

Also it gives me an excuse/reason to learn CSS/HTML. And nerd out on learning web design and monetization stuff.

Please share the web address. I'm also gluten free and vegetarian. For a while I had a site for this topic, especially for restaurant recommendations but had to give it up due to too many other commitments.

[purplepear]

I recently started a food blog with my best friend/ former roommate. It started because she was diagnosed with Celiac when we lived together, and we're both vegetarian... so there was a big learning curve for us on how to cook healthy & cheap gluten-free, vegetarian meals. After a year, we realized that we spend enough time cooking and meal-planning that we might as well extend that hobby to blogging! It seemed like a really good opportunity to share some of what we learned about cooking GF & vegetarian. It's been really fun so far, but it's in the infant stages.

Now I like it because it makes it super easy to share recipes with friends. I can just point them to a website link :)

Also, some of my friends/family used to doubt that I could cook healthy meals for < $1/serving and fancy meals for < $2/serving. Now I have easily shareable proof. :)

Also it gives me an excuse/reason to learn CSS/HTML. And nerd out on learning web design and monetization stuff.

Please share the web address. I'm also gluten free and vegetarian. For a while I had a site for this topic, especially for restaurant recommendations but had to give it up due to too many other commitments.

http://www.nomsfornoobs.com/

So there's only 4 recipes right now, but our goal is to put up at least 1 per week. So hopefully it will fill up soon. :)

I also plan to add meal-planning strategies, GF kitchen staples, etc to the blog. And collections of GF/vegetarian recipes from other food blogs that we LOVE.

[dycker1978]

I am starting a blog with my Transgender son to document what it is like from both his point of view and mine as the parent, being helpless most of the time.  I am hoping that it becomes popular, not from the monetary aspect, but I want to help people overcome this issue.  For some one to be trapped in the wrong sexed body for their gender is unfathomable to me. 

[KMMK]

I recently started a food blog with my best friend/ former roommate. It started because she was diagnosed with Celiac when we lived together, and we're both vegetarian... so there was a big learning curve for us on how to cook healthy & cheap gluten-free, vegetarian meals. After a year, we realized that we spend enough time cooking and meal-planning that we might as well extend that hobby to blogging! It seemed like a really good opportunity to share some of what we learned about cooking GF & vegetarian. It's been really fun so far, but it's in the infant stages.

Now I like it because it makes it super easy to share recipes with friends. I can just point them to a website link :)

Also, some of my friends/family used to doubt that I could cook healthy meals for < $1/serving and fancy meals for < $2/serving. Now I have easily shareable proof. :)

Also it gives me an excuse/reason to learn CSS/HTML. And nerd out on learning web design and monetization stuff.

Please share the web address. I'm also gluten free and vegetarian. For a while I had a site for this topic, especially for restaurant recommendations but had to give it up due to too many other commitments.

http://www.nomsfornoobs.com/

So there's only 4 recipes right now, but our goal is to put up at least 1 per week. So hopefully it will fill up soon. :)

I also plan to add meal-planning strategies, GF kitchen staples, etc to the blog. And collections of GF/vegetarian recipes from other food blogs that we LOVE.

It looks really great so far. I bookmarked it for future reference and will comment when I have more time. I'm quite obsessed with that type of food.

[surfhb]

I am starting a blog with my Transgender son to document what it is like from both his point of view and mine as the parent, being helpless most of the time.  I am hoping that it becomes popular, not from the monetary aspect, but I want to help people overcome this issue.  For some one to be trapped in the wrong sexed body for their gender is unfathomable to me.

You and your blog idea are QUALITY!!

[Cezil]

If you can read in spanish, I would be honored to have you as a reader :)

As someone who wants to learn Spanish (and is somewhat considering moving to Peru in a few years), I'll have to take a look when I get home. :)

[patrickza]

I have a combination blog and stock market challenge site, based around the South African situation, it's been running for about 2.5 years: http://investorchallenge.co.za/

The competition gets most of the page views, but I blog monthly, and have had some great feedback on the blog posts. Sadly neither bring in much money!

Pageviews for May: 18601 so far.
Pageviews for April: 21737
Pageviews for March: 17229

In total I get about $25 a month, so I'm not quite in the big league :)

[TheFrugalFox]

I have a combination blog and stock market challenge site, based around the South African situation, it's been running for about 2.5 years: http://investorchallenge.co.za/

The competition gets most of the page views, but I blog monthly, and have had some great feedback on the blog posts. Sadly neither bring in much money!

Pageviews for May: 18601 so far.
Pageviews for April: 21737
Pageviews for March: 17229

In total I get about $25 a month, so I'm not quite in the big league :)

But I thought you guys lived on like a dollar a day - so that just about covers your living expenses?





Kidding - Mr D here

[dycker1978]

I am starting a blog with my Transgender son to document what it is like from both his point of view and mine as the parent, being helpless most of the time.  I am hoping that it becomes popular, not from the monetary aspect, but I want to help people overcome this issue.  For some one to be trapped in the wrong sexed body for their gender is unfathomable to me.

You and your blog idea are QUALITY!!

Thank you.

[zinethstache]

I was a very, very early adopter, I ran 3 niche blogs, initially monetized with adsense. But then got the itch to "make" something for realz. I did that for about 7 years, turning my blog sites into more niche shopping. Now I've turned them all off and you know what, I like the quiet:) I now just post my little bit here on MMM, sans any link to it because it is more for me to use as a financial journey reference than anything.

FIRE is only a couple of years away and I need to be ready to embark upon a long RV journey with no strings attached!

Good luck all you bloggers out there! Write me great content to read while I travel:)

[MandalayVA]

I've had a neighborhood blog for a long time now. I get about 50,000 page views a month, and make a tiny bit of money...

What is a "neighborhood blog"?

Church Hill People's News, the blog for my neighborhood.  Come for the lost pets, stay for the bitching about fairy gardens.  :D

[CanuckExpat]

I found the nice impact of putting your goals out in public (even if nobody reads it) is that it keeps you accountable, if only to yourself.
The other nice thing I've found about writing is that it forces you to clarify your thoughts. If you have to explain what you are thinking to someone else, it forces you (hopefully) to make it succinct and clear. I've found this helps to clarify my own thinking on matters.

[Erica/NWEdible]

Yup. Fairly popular one.  It's a huge part of my life. Tryng to figure out how to optimize it for long term satisfaction and helpfulness. It's one of my biggest mental struggles actually.

Your blog is my favorite place on the whole Internet.

Dude. You don't even know how much this made my day. Thank you.

Yes....I love your garden.    Peeing in the compost pile would be great....I didn't know that! 

Can I ask where you live?

Thanks so much. Yeah don't let all that free golden liquid nitrogen go to waste. ;)

I'm just north of Seattle, in the 'burbs.

[milesdividendmd]

Yup. Fairly popular one.  It's a huge part of my life. Tryng to figure out how to optimize it for long term satisfaction and helpfulness. It's one of my biggest mental struggles actually.

Your blog is my favorite place on the whole Internet.

Dude. You don't even know how much this made my day. Thank you.

Yes....I love your garden.    Peeing in the compost pile would be great....I didn't know that! 

Can I ask where you live?

Thanks so much. Yeah don't let all that free golden liquid nitrogen go to waste. ;)

I'm just north of Seattle, in the 'burbs.

I just checked out your blog for the first time.

Wow!

What a beautiful blog and an even more beautiful garden.

[Retired To Win]

I found the nice impact of putting your goals out in public (even if nobody reads it) is that it keeps you accountable, if only to yourself.

The other nice thing I've found about writing is that it forces you to clarify your thoughts. If you have to explain what you are thinking to someone else, it forces you (hopefully) to make it succinct and clear. I've found this helps to clarify my own thinking on matters.

Same here.  And I find the comments feedback to be (usually) very helpful.

[Syonyk]

I've never understood the motivation behind blogs.  If it's to make money, that I can understand.  But otherwise, it just seems like a hey, look at me kind of thing.  Can anyone explain the motivation to me?

"Hey, look at me!" is pretty much the point, but as other people have noted, it's good marketing.  And, in some areas, it's just nice to share useful information.  I started my (current) blog recently because I was doing a lot of interesting stuff with electric bikes, and can't find useful information on the stuff I'm doing - pack teardowns/rebuilds, analysis of cheap Chinese lights, etc.  So part of it is to share & document what I'm doing to help other people, and part of it is to promote myself - I'm looking into the feasibility of doing pack rebuilds for profit, so being able to say, "This is my work, take a look!" to people is useful.  Also, if I know I'm going to be publishing photos of a process, I'm a little bit more concerned about keeping it neat and tidy.

[Jeddy]

I'm a longtime lurker, first time poster - this thread was right up my ally!

I started a blog with my wife as a way to hold ourselves accountable - we made some big changes in our lives (less instead of more, frugal instead of extravagant, healthy eating instead of anything goes, etc.) and by having our blog, we're forced to continually come up with new content - whether that's a frugal activity, a healthy meal, cost cutting, whatever - we have to continuously come up with content, which in turn means we're continually following the path of the changes we've made. It keeps us honest and holds us to the choices and changes we've made.

By having our own blog, we've also learned a whole load of new skills - blogging in and of itself, HTML/CSS, photography, social media 'marketing' - it also allows us to continue to improve in skills we already had - woodworking, crafts, and cooking.

It's also incredibly easy to get into a 'rut' in life where your days/weeks/months tend to follow the same path day/week/month in and day/week/month out. By blogging, we always on the lookout for new content - what could we do/try/make today that we could share on the blog? What is out there already that we could modify to fit our lifestyle? Things like that always keep us fresh.

Lastly - we enjoy it. Whether we have anyone reading or not, it's something we enjoy doing. We'd much rather have readers (and I'd love for it to someday generate an income - if only to pay the light bill each month!) as the conversation aspect is much more enjoyable than talking into an abyss, but whether anyone is reading or not, it's something we'll continue to do.

We're still working out the kinks - how often to post, how to generate more readership, how to monetize, etc. but it's been a great experience so far!

Any comments/critiques of the site would be wonderful as well - or if you'd just like to read an article, that would make my day too!

www.living-simply.com

As an aside - NWEdible - you're site (and more importantly your back yard garden oasis!) is a HUGE favorite of mine - it's incredible!

[Retired To Win]

I've never understood the motivation behind blogs.  If it's to make money, that I can understand.  But otherwise, it just seems like a hey, look at me kind of thing.  Can anyone explain the motivation to me? ...

From the time writing was first invented, people have written autobiographies, journals, essays and diaries.  Blogs are simply a modern extension of that tradition.  Many of us find value and satisfaction in externalizing who we are, what we think and what we've done.  It is a really, really ancient human drive.  (And, yea... that human drive IS "hey, look at me... I am here... I was here...)

[Calvawt]

I enjoy blogging as well.  Even if not 100% of ideas are brand new, things change or you can have a different take on things.  I enjoy it as a creative outlet for the most part.  With 2 kids under 3, I don't post as much as I would like!

Sometimes just putting it on paper makes me realize I missed something or even changes my view on the topic.  For example, I wrote something about Amazon prime and realized it was no longer a good deal for us.

I do read Retired To Win's blog, too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Erica/NWEdible]

www.living-simply.com

As an aside - NWEdible - you're site (and more importantly your back yard garden oasis!) is a HUGE favorite of mine - it's incredible!

Thanks very much. :)

I took a look at your site and I think you are doing great. The layout, mobile responsiveness, colors and everything are very professional. It's an EASY website to spend time on and that's key. Navigation is good, and your site isn't cluttered, which I REALLY like (I'm beginning to hate how cluttered my own site has gotten over the years.)

The only thing I'd recommend you think about NOW, while you are still in the growing stage, is your category structure. I get a little bit of a feeling you might be making categories as you make posts and realize you need one. (And I'm really sorry if that's not the case, but categories like, say, miscellaneous, are basically worthless. DIY and Hands-On to me feel really similar, so theres a potential area of confusion for the reader. I'd expect something like "Recipes" and then sub categories for GF and SF....that kind of thing.

That's really the only area I'd encourage you to look at - think about the main categories of your site as like sections of a bookstore. They direct your readers to the content they want, and should be rather fixed and well defined. I, unfortunately, have this thing where I HAVE to double categorize every single post with it's REAL category and "Recent" - but that's because of a weird quirk of the theme I'm using. Some things, like recipes, get multiple categories ("Soup" and "Fall" for example) because of the way the archives sort things. But, in general, if at all possible, try to keep your posts binned in a primary category.

And then with tags, you can go crazy and tag the hell out of everything if you want.

Oh, and get yourself a favicon uploaded. :D

LOVE the sig line with your names - adorbs!

So, those are my thoughts. Great work so far - really, it's a beautiful site and you guys should be proud. :)

[Jeddy]

Thanks so much Erica! That means the world to us!

We'll take your advice and start working on a more sensible/streamlined categorizing process - I think you hit the nail on the head with some things being 'what for?' (miscellaneous) and others being redundant (DIY vs. Hands-On) - my wife and I will sit and ponder a better way to categorize things. I love the advice about looking at it like a bookstore though - that's perfect

I hear you about the favicon! :) That was something that I really wanted from the start but we couldn't come up with a good symbol that represented our site - I was able to come up with and create the signature line and the banner, but the 'ah-ha!' moment for the favicon hasn't hit me yet. I'll have to keep brainstorming

Thanks again for the advice!

[Erica/NWEdible]

My pleasure! Happy to help. :)

[cerebus]

I've never understood the motivation behind blogs.  If it's to make money, that I can understand.  But otherwise, it just seems like a hey, look at me kind of thing.  Can anyone explain the motivation to me? ...

From the time writing was first invented, people have written autobiographies, journals, essays and diaries.  Blogs are simply a modern extension of that tradition.  Many of us find value and satisfaction in externalizing who we are, what we think and what we've done.  It is a really, really ancient human drive.  (And, yea... that human drive IS "hey, look at me... I am here... I was here...)

Yea exactly. It's not some kind of exhibitionism, it's just a way of communicating the things that matter to you.

[Spork]

I've had one since about 2006... though I've neglected it in recent years.

Mine mostly started as a way to keep in touch with friends when I moved away (before everyone was on Facebook).   It sort of turned in to the Seinfeld of Blogs -- the blog about nothing.