A little over one year ago, 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
- Sailing
- Being location independent
- Business
- Making extra money
- 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 love your blog, and your life has inspired me. Thank you!
I just started a blog. I’m going to use your Bluehost link to make it official in just a couple of weeks. Then I’ll begin putting your affiliate marketing, SEO and all the other wonderful advice you’ve posted into effect. So far I’ve had a lot of fun creating the blog, and I hope to start making money from it.
Love and kindness,
Jessica
Hey Jessica!
Some suggestions:
1) Your posts are all uncategorized – you should have categories.
2) I recommend having a contact page.
3) You definitely want social media accounts.
Thank you for your time and advice!
Hi Michelle,
I am creating my blog and am ready to sign up for amazon affiliates. Should I use my blog email since I already have a personal account?
Thank you,
Amy
Using your blog email is good.
Good afternoon, Michelle,
First a comment: I would love to start a blog. However, my finances at this point are fairly pitiful—period! I had been a work-at-home employee and independent contractor for 20-some years but my field of work (medical transcription, quality assurance, and medical editing from my home) has fizzled out. The huge corporations have the monopoly on transcription now and the pay is horrible! So…
My question: If I do not have a business or something I am trying to sell, then who would read a blog of just someone blogging about so-called ‘stuff’ they happen to be interested in or may know something about, but not credentialed? I am not a doctor, a lawyer, a financial advisor, or someone selling products. I hold no credentials except that I received a diploma in medical transcription and medical billing certificate, the latter of which I had not pursed—not that I had no interest—but that I was working very hard at my main job.
I love dogs and the love of my life, little Jakie, just passed away last Wednesday, unexpectedly—7-1/2 years old—was not his time and it was not right!! I know medical—have been in it for over 20 years. I am a huge viewer of the news media, maybe a little addicted, having developed at disgust for politicians—the crooked ones! So…
Is there something here to blog about and who cares?
I talk about this here – https://fund-rise.live/2018/04/making-money-from-a-blog.html%3C/a%3E 🙂
Another question, somewhat related to the above question, is if a person should be an “expert” in their niche before they start a blog. I receive this question all the time and, due to that, I definitely think it’s something that needs to be discussed.
I don’t think you need to be an expert or have a degree, in most cases, when it comes to blogging.
I know many personal finance writers with blogs that track the financial mess they got themselves into. They don’t have financial degrees, but they are doing very well for themselves and help many people with their experiences. Many times, readers just want to hear from you, follow a real person’s journey, read about how a real person made it through a problem, and so on. This is a great example of why degrees are not always needed.
However, if you are wanting to give advice about legal or tax matters where you could get someone in a lot of trouble if you tell them the wrong information, then, yes, you should be an expert.
Hi Michelle,
I have a blog and it’s not really doing anything because I am scared that my age is a factor. Everyone is so young and …I am not. Is age a factor? I have so many ideas and just scared because I was born before the 1980’s I will never have an audience.
Age is not a factor.
Don’t let that hold you back.
Hi, I just wanted to congratulate you and wish you continued success. You came all the way from the bottom and have built an amazing business. Keep it up.
Thank you!
I want to know what I have to do to get more sailing pictures/stories/videos on this site… 😉
I know! I just realized that I haven’t posted about boat life in almost one year on MSOC!
Hi Michelle. I love your “ask me anything”. Thank you. I have asked you questions before and I really appreciate your answers. I am finally starting a blog. I am enrolled in EBA and am just beginning. My question is this. Do you recommend, if we can afford it, that we get someone to help us on the tech end from the beginning or just struggle through? I tried to create a blog two years ago and got so frustrated after way too many days, weeks and months that I gave up. It was the tech stuff that really stumbled me. If you do recommend that we find someone to help with the theme and getting it all up and running, do you have someone that you work with that you can recommend? Again, thank you!
I’m a recent widow (11 months). I’ve pretty much got my financial ducks in a row, but do you have any advice for me? Pitfalls to look out for? Tips to make the life insurance money last longer? Love your blog!
So sorry for your loss.
This is tough without knowing your whole life story 🙂 It depends on so many things, such as if you have a family, if you’re working, your age, your financial goals, and so on.
My top tip would be to find ways to make passive income with the life insurance money so that you can live the life that you want to live.
Hi Michelle! I’ve heard Pinterest and SEO are the best sources for traffic. Do you find that’s true for your website? If so, what’s your 3rd biggest traffic source? If not, what are your top 3 sources for traffic? Thanks!
They are both good for me 🙂
I also like email and referral traffic.
Hi Michelle! Thanks for opening up for a question!
I have a lifestyle/creativity blog. One side of it is the lifestyle part which discusses your typical lifestyle topics such as beauty, finance, recipes, organization etc. The other side is about creativity. How to get inspired, how to stay creative, different creative outlets etc.
Am I not being specific enough in my blog niche because I have two different sides to my blog? Is this a detriment or will this be successful for me? I have heard two different sides to this. One is that it is better to niche down and be specific. The other is that a broader niche is better in the beginning when you are just figuring it out.
Any help would be appreciated:)
I think the key here is to make sure that it connects. I talk about LOTS of topics here on MSOC, but I always try to make it connect.
I’d also like to know if you recommend getting professional help while monetizing my blog. I’m Tech-challenged, and started my blog a couple of weeks ago but haven’t gotten far! Thanks!
I’d recommend simply finding a course or two for learning how to do that.
Hi Michelle, I’m in the process of starting a blog, but like a lot of others, have become overwhelmed by all the steps it takes. My question is what would you say is are the elements of a blog you need to have ready to launch it? I feel like I will procrastinate the year away by trying to cover all the details that maybe aren’t that important at first.
Hello!
I have a long blog post in the works on this subject, but in short:
1) A good design
2) High quality content
3) Social media/marketing skills
Hi, Michelle. Thanks for taking questions again!
How do you optimize your site for speed? Do you do this yourself? I used the “Think with Google (Test My Site)” page to evaluate my site’s mobile speed on a 4G network. The results showed I was over 7 seconds.
If you use someone else to optimize your site, how did you find them? As of now, I do everything on my own, and I’m not sure where to find outside help.
Thank you!
I know nothing about site speed. It’s on my long list of things to do 🙂
I am like one person above, I sent you an email. Too much to put here. Thank you for caring about other people. When a person takes the time to help others, they will profit themselves.
Thank you 🙂
Michelle, where does one start when one is so buried in line of credit and credit card debt that the worry I carry around with me makes it next to impossible to enjoy life? I’d really appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks!
This is tough, as it depends on many factors. A good first set of steps would be to evaluate your budget, figure out why you went into debt, think about your financial goals, and find ways to make more money.