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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What are needed steps in personal branding?
How did you walk them?
How would you do it better?
I don’t know if I’ve taken any steps towards personal branding. Just being yourself and being personable?
Sailing Questions!
Do you have any internet while underway (e.g. Iridium Go)?
How do you balance work with boat tasks?
Do you watch any of the popular YouTube sailing shows (e.g. Sailing SV Delos, or Sailing La Vagabond), and would you consider doing such a show yourself?
Hey John!
1) We have an InReach for now. We have plans to get an Iridium Go maybe later this year once we’re sitting still again for hurricane season. I have Google FI now, so as long as I’m within about 10 miles from land, I probably have service.
2) I try to work ahead as much as I can. I took most of 2019 off from work in order to focus on the boat as much as I could. Boat tasks come first, and work second.
3) I interviewed SV Delos here – https://fund-rise.live/2019/12/sailing-sv-delos.html%3C/a%3E 🙂
I don’t watch a lot of sailing shows, I mainly just follow a lot of them on social media.
I don’t think I’ll ever document our travels past Instagram, as I already have a lot to focus on.
Thank you for doing this! I just recently purchased your course.
What business structure do you use as a blogger?
How long do you think is reasonable to blog before you start seeing a profit of you’re posting?
Do you recommend business insurance as a blogger?
Hey Shannon!
I have an LLC.
I don’t think there’s any set amount of time. It all depends on many different factors.
Legally, I can’t advise you on tax or legal matters. I can refer you to two blog posts though:
1) https://fund-rise.live/2018/10/tax-questions-for-bloggers-and-digital-nomads.html%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> 2) 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
I’m struggling with getting views on my blog. I’ve taken your course and my blog has grown since then but I’m struggling to make consistent amount of income.
What are some tips you can share with me to get more eyes on my blog? I use Pinterest and YouTube
There are tons of other things that you can try such as:
1) Guest posting
2) SEO
3) Instagram
4) Facebook
5) Advertising, such as on Facebook and/or Pinterest
I go into more detail on each here – https://fund-rise.live/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hey!
I’ve read a lot of your posts, but I’m sure not all, so I’m sorry if I missed something.
But I’m kinda curious about what you did to get started. I know you started not intending on making money from it, but do you maybe remember any of your stats when you did start to monetize?
Like your monthly viewers, and I think you said you started emails later in the game but I can’t recall for sure…
I’d also really like to just do affliates, I’m not even too crazy about ads. I’ve considered your course but I’m nowhere near ready to apply anything yet so I’ve been holding out.
My questions are a little scattered, I’m sorry! I guess I’m really wondering what I should be looking for on my stats before I can even start affiliate marketing.
Thank you!
Sorry, I don’t think I had Google Analytics installed for about a year or so when I first started, so I don’t remember what my exact stats were. They weren’t super high though, as I don’t think I even had social media for my blog.
I am really curious about how many affiliate program you are working on. Do you only promote Bluehost as a main affiliate program or have more than 1 affiliate program. Because I am thinking should I do more than 1 program or I should stick with only 1 and only. What are your thoughts about this? Thank you!
I promote a lot of different affiliate programs. If you look at my income reports before December 2018, you’ll see them listed in each income report.
Michelle:
I am thinking about blogging on the following two things:
1) RV life and pulling or driving a motorhome.
2) Heroin since our daughter passed away Aug 10, 2019. I mentioned this in previous emails to you.
I was reading about blogging and someone said that people are more interested about gaining information from someone who is not an expert with a particular blog.
I know you said there is no right or wrong answer. I think this is possible. I am familiar with the right and wrong things to do with travel trailers. I am also familiar with pulling a 5th wheel but that would be one that I would have to further research.
Regards
Randy
Hello William,
I recommend blogging about whatever you want to blog about. I recommend determining what your passion is, and then coming up with a list of a possible 10 blog post topics to see if it’s something that you would be interested in.
So I’m new here, as well as to the whole idea of blogging. After being recently laid off from work, I’ve come up with an idea to start a blog. I typically have many interests and passions, which is why I’m having a difficult time deciding what to start writing about. I want to start doing this as my main source of income, I’m well aware it could take a while before that’s a reality. So I will have to find a regular job again in the mean time. Anyway, what would be your recommendation on brushing through all of your ideas and passions that would you like to write about, and come to a real life conclusion on something that could actually turn profitable?
Many thanks in advance!
-Carlos
I was wondering if you could recommend a few good WordPress themes for blogging? The intent (besides looking good and professional/modern) would be to easily capture email addresses, as well as have room for marketing ads, etc. Thank you Michelle.
Hi Michelle,
My partner and I are toying with the idea of living on a boat. (We have zero boat experience… just 1 night spent on a sailboat. We LOVED it and want to find out more.)
Anyway, I was wondering if you could point me to some resources where I can start learning the basics… for example, what types of boats can you live on full-time, how to care for a boat, where to find marinas where you can live aboard, etc..)
Thanks!
Jenny
Hi Jenny. Your questions bring questions. Where are you planning to live on this boat? What state? Do you have any mechanical knowledge? Do you know when batteries need to be charged? Were you planning on having solar or wind power? Water supply is easy but taking a hot shower….I am speaking from experience and have lived on a 40 foot Beneteau sailboat since 2009. I now own a marine chandler in St Thomas and have people spend oodles of money in my store. B.O.A.T. bring on another thousand….You can send me an email at marlene @luvmilife.com to get more info.
Hi Mam
I am a blogger. I want to ask you
How to get traffic to my blog?
I can writ hundreds of articles but since I am not getting traffic. It discourages me a lot.
How can I get visitors?
How are you doing?
How long did it take you to see healthy income from your blog until you were able to quit your day job & live off of your blog income full time?
You can see all of my income reports right here in a nice list – https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thanks Michelle! 🙂
Hi
Do you have a specific mindset to be a blogging entrepreneur. Do you tell yourself affirmations, do you use vision boards or other woo woo techniques
Nope, I don’t do anything, ha!
Hi Michelle, I’ve been reading your posts for a long time; I am amazed that you publish your income reports, and it appears you are doing very well. I was wondering what your expenses are, or what is your month gross after expenses?
Hey Susan!
My expenses have always been very low. They are usually around 5-15% of my monthly revenue.
how do you get the images on your blog?
Hmm can you clarify what you mean with your question? Like, where they come from? How I make them? Or, how I add images to a blog post?
Hi Michelle! Thank you so much for doing this Ask Anything! I am a blogger and I am struggling with growing my blog. What was the main way you grew your blog? How did you start gaining subscribers?
Hey Alexa!
I talk all about the different things I did here to grow my blog – https://fund-rise.live/2017/04/how-to-make-money-blogging-online.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I don’t know if there was one specific main way. It was a mixture of a lot of different things such as: high quality content, being active on social media, taking part in interviews, and more.