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’m stuck unable to even customize my wordpress page. How did you learn how to navigate that?
Hey Roberta!
I learned just through trial and error, and Google searching everything I was stuck on. If you’re having a tough time, then you may want to look at purchasing a premade theme.
I’ll keep trying a little longer and if I can’t make it work I’ll have to throw the towel and get it made for me. Thanks for inspiring me to start one though! You make it look easy when it’s truly overwhelming 🙂
Hi Michelle-
2 questions:
1) I have some credit card balances that I have transferred at a low promotional rate on a card I already had. However, I took out a debt consolidation loan about a year ago that has still has almost 2 years left to pay on. Would it be more beneficial for me to pay off the loan first and keep an eye on the promo times for the others (saving on interest)? Or knock the debt out with the general Snowball method (lowest balance first)?
2) Would it be smart/financially responsible to get another CC w/ a promotional balance transfer rate and transfer what left of the consolidation loan to it saving a ton of interest? Or is the hit on the credit not worth is (score currently in the 720s)?
P.s. I just launched my blog/website after years of procrastinating. Thank you for the inspiration.
Hey TJ!
I’m definitely not an expert at debt consolidation. If you have credit card debt, though, I’d personally want to pay it off as quickly as I could. If there are ways to save on interest, then it may be something for you to look into. Personally, this is something I’ve never really read about, but I have heard of people doing things like this.
Hi Michelle!
I have never had a blog before but I love writing. I have no idea as to a niche, so my question is this, can I write about several different topics from humorous to educational, or is this not advisable?
Hey David!
I talk about this a little in the Featured Question here – https://fund-rise.live/2018/04/how-i-made-241649-in-march-2018-blogging.html%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E
There’s really no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s more about what you want to do.
Hi Michelle!
I am struggling getting started and knowing where to start. Literally, what was your first two steps?
Thanks!
Staci
Hey Staci!
I’m not sure if you know my story of how I started my blog (you can read it here – https://fund-rise.live/2017/04/how-to-make-money-blogging-online.html%3C/a%3E%29, so I’m not sure if you mean from the very beginning of when I started my blog, or from when I learned I could make money blogging.
If you mean the very beginning, I can’t remember what my very first two steps were but they were probably just create/design a blog and write a blog post.
Hey Michelle,
Just thought I’d throw you an easy question: What’s your favourite colour?
Mines purple!
You know, I think you’re the first person to ask that, haha!
I really love light green and coral 🙂
Hello Michelle,
I’ve been a fan of your blog for several years, and my friend and I recently started our own finance blog. Would you be interested in us doing a free guest post? No pressure, but it would be absolutely amazing to see our work on a blog I’ve admired for so long.
Hey Tawnya! I’m not currently accepting guest posts as I’m super full with them. You can send me an email in a few months (with topic ideas) and I can see if I have room.
Awesome, will do!
Hi Michelle,
Huge fan of your blog.
I saw that you’re transitioning into yacht life now (which is awesome!)? Why the change? What are your plans for the near future?
Janet
Hey Janet!
We’ve been interested in sailing long before we even started RVing. Lately, we’ve had the sailing itch so we decided to just jump into it and get started. We absolutely love RVing but we’re ready for our next adventure 🙂
With the nomadic life, it’s hard to make any plans so what I’m about to say will most likely change. Our plans for now are to hang out on the east coast for the next 5-6 months and get comfortable with the transition, and hopefully then go to the Bahamas for about 6 months.
P.S. This will be a whole blog post in a few months (already started working on it but I’m a few months out scheduling-wise)!
Speaking of scheduling, how do you go about scheduling your content calendar and when do you start working on the different posts? I imagine it would be quite hard to talk about a big life change like going from RVing to Sailing so I’m curious how you decide that you’re going to talk about certain topics months down the road?
Thanks!!
Hey Katie!
I usually am around 1-3 months ahead in content. Since I travel full-time, I always like to be ahead since I don’t always know when/if I can work.
My content is usually evergreen so there’s never really a problem. If I want to squeeze something in sooner, I can just change the dates and rearrange the schedule.
I love sailing too and I hope I can do that one day. Thanks for the inspiration and I’m looking forward to this post!
Hi Michelle, may I know how did you find people to interview?
Do you have to know them well enough first?
Do you conduct the interview in person or just via email?
What kind of questions to ask so that they accept your interview?
Thank you!
Hey Erina!
1) Most people contact me, but I have contacted a few people after I heard their stories.
2) Not necessarily, but networking always helps.
3) Just via email.
4) It all depends on the type of interview you are wanting. You can see the exact questions I ask in each interview.
I’m considering starting a blog. I’ve looked at both Bluehost as well as GoDaddy for domains and hosting and am wondering why you recommend Bluehost. GoDady’s price is about the same, they offer free domain names with hosting, and have a ton of extras included as well. What is it about Bluehost that makes you such a big fan? I’m just wondering if I’m overlooking something. Thanks!
Bluehost has a free domain and other free extras too 🙂
They’re pretty much the same.
I just can’t figure out what to start a blog about. On one hand, if I choose a subject I love, such as anything music related I get stuck trying to figure out a direction to go and then how I could monetize it, create products that I could make money from. If I chose self-improvement since I am reading books on this subject I get stuck in the same rat race of trying to look far enough ahead to see product potential. How do you just get out of your own way? I’m 50 years old and wanting to create a side hustle. Thanks
You just have to get out of your own way! I know that’s easier said than done, but many people who are thinking about blogging have the same problems. You just have to make the leap!
Hi Michelle,
I have started a blog and would like to include other’s bloggers/websites on mine as resources for others and am wondering what the proper procedure is. For example, if I wanted to list something from your site as a resource on my resource page, how would you prefer it to be done? I’m not sure if I need to always get the bloggers permission first or what the proper protocol is.
Thanks!
It depends – how do you plan on listing this resource? Just linking to my website or something else?
Thank you for your response. So for example, if I wanted to refer to one of your articles in your Make Extra Income Series or one of your other series or promote one of your courses. If I said, “Michele Schroeder-Gardner says on her website Making Sense of Cents…” or “Go to Making Sense of Cents to learn more about…” and then included a link. Would that be okay? Another consideration would be on a resource page where I have topics such as working from home, earning extra income, starting a blog. etc. If I listed a link under the topic title, would that work?
This is all new to me so I want to make sure I am following proper procedures. Thanks for your help!
You can link to something on a website, but you cannot copy and paste sentences, paragraphs, or full articles.
Okay, sounds good, thanks for the clarification! Best of luck on your boat living!
Hi Michelle,
I hope I am not late.
My concern is I have taken your short free course on how to start a blog and I really appreciate it very much. However, in your short course you don’t talk about how to set permalinks the necessary plugins and google analytics. I have heard about this things but I have no clue on how to set them on my blog. Your help will be much appreciated.
Hi Michelle,
Your post always have a lot of good well researched information. How long does it take you to write content for a post, editing included? Thanks!
Hi Michelle 🙂
Love your blog and your amazing RV life!
My question is related to blog traffic. My blog currently gets fewer than 1000 pageviews a month (I’ve been blogging properly for only three months now, tho the blog is way older), and I’ve made a few dollars on Amazon through sheer luck. Now I’m trying to figure out how to turn that into a deliberate strategy!
So, my question: Do you think there’s a minimum traffic threshold that is required to bring in money? If so, what might that number be?:)
Thanks! Keep up the brilliant work!
Hi Michelle,
Your journey is an inspiration to all new bloggers. I have a quick question for you;
What platform do you use for your courses on site? Do you host videos on wordpress site itself or there’s some kind of plugin involved?
Appreciate your response on this. Thanks