It’s been a long time since my last Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents.
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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I notice that you have no ads on your homepage and some ads on blog posts, or other places. Can you tell me why you’ve chosen to be sparse with your ads? And would you say that focusing on affiliate marketing is a better priority for monetizing a blog than focusing on ads? Or would you suggest even another monetization strategy to start out? Thanks!
I don’t like to take away from the reading experience on Making Sense of Cents 🙂
Yes, affiliate marketing is definitely a better way to monetize a blog.
My question is how do you get so many backlinks? What is your technique? Could you give me a link to my page https://startsavingmoneytoday.com/debt-free or any page you feel appropriate. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Douglas
I don’t have a technique- simply just good content 🙂
Hi Michelle!
What are some things you wish you had done differently when you first started you blog?
What are some tips for keeping a politically charged blog out there?
The top thing I wish is that I wish I would have started on WordPress. The second thing is that I wish I would have bought my own domain name. I waited so long because I didn’t have any goals with my blog in the beginning, so I never learned the correct way before I started.
I’m not sure if I understand your second question. How would this be different from a normal blog?
I’m a little overwhelmed by the business side of things. Do you have an LLC? Do all of your profits funnel into one bank account for your business? How do you pay yourself? What about taxes?
I highly recommend reading this for questions on the business side of things- https://fund-rise.live/2018/10/tax-questions-for-bloggers-and-digital-nomads.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Yes, I have an LLC.
I am a 65-year-old ex banker..I am not a multimillionaire but i don’t have to work if I count the dollars well. None the less I would like to remain engaged and make more money. The banking business is generally dying in Europe and so I thought I should go into something totally new…Something in service industry like telephone answering service or anything else..Would like your thoughts ..jp
Hey Jay!
If you’re interested, then why not?
I’m a widow who works her own business from home, and I’m having a hard time SAVING. I know how to buckle down when I have very little money coming in, and me and my kids will squeak through another month. But when I do have a surplus, I’m always tempted to live a little. It’s not living very “large” at all, but at the same time, it’s hurting me, as I need to save that extra money and create a true savings cushion of about $20,000. I typically have an emergency fund of $1,000, but we recently had a plumbing emergency, and I’m back down to almost $0 in that fund. So saving now has to be a priority. I have virtually no debt past some health bills that I’m paying off, and my house is paid for, but without any savings and with my desire to start having “nice things” again, I’ve been tempted to get credit again (so far, I’ve resisted the temptation and continue to live within my means). Any tips and advice regarding mindset, discipline, etc.? Thank you!
Hey Patricia!
My top two tips for you would be:
1) Pay yourself first. So, when you have some extra money coming in, put it towards your money goals first. You can learn more about this here – https://fund-rise.live/2015/12/pay-yourself-first.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
2) Find affordable ways to reward yourself. You say that you have a desire to spend money, and I completely understand that. But, I recommend finding more affordable ways to reward yourself instead of immediately jumping to spend the money that you just worked so hard for.
Another idea includes finding ways to stay motivate with saving and making money (maybe a vision board would help?).
You are such an inspiration! I have been wanting to start a blog for years but with 4 teenagers I just can’t afford it or have very much time. If you could suggest a cheap way to do this and how to automate some of it I would really appreciate it! Also what affiliate companies would you suggest for a first time blog that are not pay by click?
Hey Jen!
My tutorial makes it less than $60 to start – https://fund-rise.live/2014/08/how-to-start-a-wordpress-blog-on-bluehost.html%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E
You could start for free on Wordpress.com, but you’d eventually want to switch to self-hosted WordPress (like with my tutorial) so that you could start making money.
Good Mornin’, Michelle!
I have a personal finance question for you. When rebuilding a life after divorce and having no debt, how is the best way, and card companies, to acquire a credit card. There are no credit dings or bankruptcies and have the best credit score possible without having any credit cards. Cash or debit card has been used for the past several years, while following a budget.
I believe this is one of your areas of expertise but actually I am going through your Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course and absolutely LOVE it! What a blessing to have found you! Thank you!!
Hey LuAnn!
Thank you for your email. Have you tried applying for a credit card already? What happened when you tried?
1. how old is French
2. why is he so angry all the time? Is he hungry and just has hanger? Childhood issues?
3. how do you know how much food to buy for long trips on the boat? Is there a formula?
4. does Wes still have the foldy bike?
5. how tall is the pole thing on the boat?
1) Around 10 to 11 years old
2) Must’ve been puppy issues.
3) I just buy as much as I can. We haven’t been grocery shopping in about 3 weeks now, but we desperately need to go soon.
4) We both have folding bikes!
5) The mast?
Hello, I have a question about generating traffic. I literally just launched a few weeks ago. My blog is mostly geared towards those who are battling cancer or survivors. I focus on health, mental health, mindsets, and faith mainly- but also include some fashion and practical support for those affected by cancer. I use Facebook and IG, and just learning a little bit on pinterest.
There are tons of things you could be doing such as:
1) Guest posting
2) Being interviewed on podcasts or Youtube channels in your niche
3) Facebook and/or Pinterest ads
4) SEO
I go more in depth here – https://fund-rise.live/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi !! So after a couple years of deliberating , I’ve finally decided to start my blog. Ive done pinterest affiliate marketing a bit but I bombed at it however i was able to amass about 800+ followers from virtually nothing. Its not much but i felt like I worked really hard to earn that amount lol. Now that im ready to start blogging , I know Pinterest is a great way to get traffic to a blog but I’ve been reading that you should not use your “personal” account and just start afresh with just my pins leading to my blog as apparently ( I may have perceived this wrong) the amount of followers do not matter now. I have a good page with standard nice headers and everything, I would really just like to sanitize it a bit and continue using it with my blog . Do you recommend starting a fresh new Pinterest page for the blog and if so does Affiliate programs such as Awin etc pay attention to the number of Pinterest followers you have when accepting new bloggers etc in their programs? Lol I need to work on being brief ha ha!
Hey Gabby!
I don’t know much about the difference of using a personal account or starting a brand new business one. So, I don’t think I can help you with that question.
For your second question. I don’t know if anyone really pays attention to Pinterest followers. As you said, there’s not too much meaning in that anymore.
I would like to ask you if you could recommend some online jobs for people outside the USA. I am from Serbia and really struggling at the moment to find good online jobs which are also available for my country.
Kind regards
Hey Ina,
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any specific online jobs in Serbia. So sorry!
Hello Mrs Gardner
I have had several blogs over the last few years. Some made money some didn’t but all of them got hacked. The hacker or hackers would change content or post links.. Question is what is the best way to secure a blog or website from these pesky hackers?
Some things you could do:
1) A secure username and password is important
2) Something like Wordfence to protect your website
3) Regular backups of your website
Michelle, thanks so much for your inspiration and this Q&A opportunity! I’m in the development stage of my blog and my biggest knowledge void is in the legal department. Would you share the most important things you do to protect your blog and yourself personally (including personal privacy)? Do you retain an attorney to write/review privacy policies, disclaimers and terms of use. What about copyrights and trademarks? Legal requirements for referencing a post from another site? Have you had any big legal hassles since launching your blog? Any other legal nuggets of wisdom?
I’ll leave this to an expert who guest posted on Making Sense of Cents on this topic 🙂
https://fund-rise.live/2019/07/3-super-common-legal-mistakes-bloggers-make-and-how-to-fix-them.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Were you able to make money from your blog before you started teaching how to make money from blogs. It just seems like the only successful blogs that make really good money is if they teach how to make money.
Yes, I was making money on my blog beforehand.
“It just seems like the only successful blogs that make really good money is if they teach how to make money.”
– It only seems that way because those are the people who post income reports. Wouldn’t make much sense for someone who blogs about animals to share their income.