In October of 2017, I published my first Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents. That went super well, so I decided to make it more of a regular thing!
Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:
- Personal finance
- Blogging
- My life
- Travel
- RVing
- Being location independent
- Business
- Making extra money
- My favorite TV show
- Questions about my dogs
And so on, and so on.
Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate or creepy. I’ll let you be the judge of what is creepy, I guess, haha!
All right, go for it, ask away!
P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.
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Hi Michelle
I have been following your blog for years. I have a blog that primary audience is Girl Scout Leaders, so no where near financial blogging but I have gotten so many ideas from you and it has helped me grow to where I am today. I finally reached 100,000 views a month so no have adthrive, I took your affiliate marketing course which has led me to making a decent income with a few affiliates that work with my niche. I have my own products and add new monthly. Now the next thing on my list of extra income is sponsored post and get people to want to advertise on my site. But I have no idea how to find people who would pay, how much to charge, where to start. Do you have any advice on that?
Thanks Jodi
Hey Jodi! I’m actually creating a course on this – sponsored posts. This would be difficult to cover in just a comment. But, I would start with products that you may already use or products that people in your niche may be promoting (that you want to start promoting).
Hi thanks for doing this 🙂
My goal is to earn $100k a year within 5 years.
I’ve just started a blog about backpacks, its into its first week. I dont know if this topic has the potential to reach my goal.I dont know if its too broad or not broad enough.
I dont know if I should have a more broad niche like Bags in general, that way I can cover handbags, messenger bags, luggage, designer bags, etc etc.
Or if my niche is not focused enough, and I should focus on say hiking backpacks, or school backpacks.
Do you think the niche of backpacks is enough to hit my goal of baking meaningful money in 5 years.
thanks 🙂
Hello Marco!
It would be hard for me to help in this area without me doing thorough research, as I’m not an expert on backpacks. Personally, I would think that covering all sorts of backpacks would be easier, as there would be more to cover.
Really enjoy your blog and thank you for all your great/relevant content.
-Do you guys ever plan to travel internationally?
-Have you ever thought about having Wes guest post on your blog?
-What’s your go-to dinner meal?
1) Yes. We do travel internationally now, but not a ton because we have dogs and don’t want to deal with the quarantine process, nor putting them on an airplane.
2) Ha, I’ve actually never thought about that!
3) Tacos, chili, stir fry, baked pasta!
You had mentioned a few times in the past about possibly starting a second blog. Is this still something you are considering doing?
I keep going back and forth on it. Right now, I don’t have the time to do it.
How many websites do you own?
Do you think there are too many blogs out there? I often feel everything I have to say is already on the internet and get discouraged.
1) I just have two right now. I don’t regularly update the second one (haven’t in over a year, I think).
2) I think there’s plenty of room for blogs.
Hey Michelle!
I don’t really have a question, but more of a request, and I’m hoping you can help! I’m in my mid twenties, and I’m trying to optimize my retirement options. (I’m active duty military, and I’ve recently opted into the Blended Retirement System.) A lot of people will say it’s still to early to concern myself with retirement, but I strive to build a multimillion dollar retirement nest-egg. Maybe you can do a post about saving for retirement?
Hey Jenna!
I do cover retirement on Making Sense of Cents – https://fund-rise.live/category/retirement%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
My question is how many hours do you put in a week? I know since I started giving my blog full attention on a regular basis I feel like my nose is always in the business of working or writing. I recently organized everything and set daily schedules so I hope that will help me get more done in less time.
Thanks
I work anywhere from about 5 hours a week to 100, haha. It all just depends on the week.
Thanks, guess I’m on the right track. Hard work keeps me out of trouble.
Hi Michelle!
I love your blog and I think you’re super inspirational 🙂
Question for you:
Do you hire someone to run your Facebook ads for you or do you manage them yourself?
Thank you Chloe!
I manage my Facebook ads myself.
Hi Michelle 🙂
Love your blog and your life seems amazing!
How long did it take you to earn your firs affiliate commission?
Did you affiliate income become consistent once you earned your first sale,or did it take some time for it to become consistent on a monthly basis?
Hey Aleshia!
It didn’t take long for me to earn my first affiliate commission once I actually tried. I can’t remember the exact timeframe, though.
It depends on what you mean by consistent. It continued to grow after I made the effort 🙂
I have a question about the different ways that you earn extra income. In particular, you list surveys and you receive a large amount. My question is this, most of the surveys that you list I also use and have been for a while. I make no where near the amount that you have listed. Does your earnings mainly come from completing the surveys or from referrals that sign up for them? I struggle to even get qualified for a survey.
The survey income is listed under “affiliate income” if you look again.
Hello Karen! I wrote about staying focused here – https://fund-rise.live/2017/03/how-to-stay-focused.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hey Michelle!
So last week I was trying to figure out my taxes since this is my first year with my own business and doing soley contract work. I was trying to see if I need to pay my first quarterly tax and after filling out what I think was the correct form I apparently didn’t have to file. The new single individual deductions for 2018 is $12,000. If you didn’t think you would make more than that you didn’t have to pay. I guess my question is, what if your situation changes and I see myself making more before the end of 2018? Do I get penalized? Do I just make an amendment on the Q2 taxes?
This would be a question for an accountant. Unfortunately, I cannot give legal or tax advice.
Hi Michelle,
How do you write your blog posts?
Do you use a structured outline? Do you do research and formulate your findings to your own words?
Thanks
I’m not a very structured person to begin with (I tend to just go with the flow). I usually just write and then attempt to put it all together at the end, haha. I do have an editor, so she helps make everything flow better.
Hey Michelle,
I am 15 years old and have just started a blog (I run other businesses on the side, and work as an independent product developer). In regards to posts, how many should I be writing before I try to really promote my blog?
Also, on Pinterest how often do you repin past posts? And when you do repin them, do you create a new design with the same link or just keep the old design?
Many affiliate programs such as Bluehost and Convertkit do not allow for people 18 and younger to join. Amazon Associates is the only affiliate program that accepts people under that limit I believe. Do you know any more that I could use, or should I be spending more of my time writing my own eBooks and making my own courses for monetization?
Lastly, do you have any tips to gain a small following? I am talking about how to get the first 100 pageviews and the first 10 email subscribers. Should I be guest posting, using Pinterest, or doing something else?
Sorry for the length of my inquiries.
All the best and thank you!
Hey Emet!
1) This is a very common question. Really, you won’t have a ton of readers in the beginning, so you really don’t need a ton. Just start with a few and regularly publish more from there.
2) It just depends. My top pins get repinned regularly. Yes, the same pins. I recommend taking a Pinterest course to really learn about this.
3) Unfortunately, I haven’t really ever kept track of that.
4) I go over my top tips here – https://fund-rise.live/2018/04/making-money-from-a-blog.html%3C/a%3E 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Love your blog, it’s so inspiring! I have a blogging question: I am a fine art photographer and started a blog last year, to be perfectly honest, just to have one more space online where people can find me, and also so that I could Pin from it and use Pinterest to market my art. I don’t post regularly partly because I don’t have the time and partly because I hate writing. I really struggle with it, a 300 word post takes me an entire day to write. The vast majority of my posts are announcing my latest print series (so I don’t really want readers to click on anything else than the images in the post, which are linked to my store), but I’ve been thinking that maybe I am not using the blog as “smartly” as I could be. Maybe I should put more effort into it and see if I can get some affiliate income from it as well? My question is: If you were me, what would you do with my blog? Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!
This is hard because you say that you hate writing. Have you ever thought about perhaps not writing your own content? You could have staff writers instead.
Well, I kind of feel like if the blog is supposed to help with the “know, like, trust” factor that hopefully leads to sales, it has to be my voice, by me.
Perhaps you can figure out why you hate writing? I know many people who hate writing, but enjoy blogging.
For me, I hated writing when I was in school, absolutely hated it. However, I really love blogging and writing here on Making Sense of Cents.
Perhaps, you could have an editor help you out? I pretty much just write whatever I want, and then my editor helps put it together better and makes it flow better. It saves me a lot of time and I don’t have to read the article 75 times, haha.
Hi Michelle,
How did you find an editor and what does it cost to have an editor edit per post?
Hey Courtney!
My editor is my sister-in-law. You can find her contact info here – http://arielgardnerediting.com/