Hey,
Today is a new 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
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.
All right, go for it, ask away!
If you haven’t yet, please follow me on Instagram.
Here are links to common questions I’ve received in past Ask Me Anythings:
- How To Start A Blog Free Course – With this free email course, I will show you exactly how to create a blog, from the technical side all the way to earning your first income and attracting followers. Each day for seven days, you will receive an email in your inbox that will help you create a successful and profitable blog.
- 10 Best Things I Did To Build A $5 Million Dollar Blog – I have earned over $5,000,000 blogging over the years, which still seems so unimaginable to me. Here are some of my best tips.
- 29 Best Stay At Home Jobs (#1 Is My Full Time Job!) – Do you want to work at home or work while traveling? Here’s a list to get you started.
- What It’s Like Living In An RV? – We lived in an RV full-time for several years. Here’s what I loved about it!
- Living On A Boat – The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful – We have lived on our sailboat for over 4 years. Here’s what we like and don’t like about boat life.
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 am really struggling with my blog traffic. I am active on Pinterest and SEO is also not bad but still not getting enough traffic….
Any suggestion?
Hey Lelita,
Thanks for your question. How long have you been active on each?
I looked at your blog, and you have a lot of display ads on your homepage. I found it difficult to scroll through that and find things that were actually your homepage. If your blog posts are like that as well, it could be hurting your user-friendliness.
Here are the blogging resources that I recommend – https://fund-rise.live/2021/07/best-blogging-courses.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Michelle
Thanks for the reply. I have been active since 2021, 1 year
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but when I click on your social media buttons on your blog, it doesn’t take me to your social media accounts.
Hi Michelle! I’ve been a LOOONG time follower and always love getting your emails, too!
I’d love to find out how I can write a post for you and your blog! I’ve been blogging since 2011 and it’s a “bucket list” item I have, to say the least. 🙂
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!
Hey Jessica. I’m currently taking a short break from accepting new guest posts, as I have a few in the works. In a few months, if you could email over some guest post ideas, that would be great. I recommend looking at past guest posts to get an idea of what works. Right now, I am really only accepting personal stories with actionable tips, such as How I Paid Of X In Debt, How I Retired Early, How I Do X As A Side Hustle, etc.
That sounds wonderful and I’ll do that! Thank you so much!
Hi Michelle, I’m looking at relaunching my personal finance blog and I’m just wondering if you had to start all over today what would you do differently?
Hey Chris!
I wouldn’t change anything about what I’m doing right now, but in the past I would make sure that I was on self-hosted WordPress, that I was focusing a lot of time on growing my email list, and I would probably focus on a trending platform such as TikTok.
I could easily be location independent if I had excellent internet, what’s your internet setup?
Thank you for your help,
Sue
There are many great internet choices, so I wouldn’t let that stop you. We usually either get a local sim card if we’re in another country, an AT&T or Verizon internet hotspot plan, and we also have Google FI for our phones. Starlink is also another popular option right now.
Hi Michelle! I am having a hard time with connecting links to a blog post (ebook link) and setting it up for email subscribers to receive the link when they subscribe. I’ve tried using convert kit and can’t seem to figure it out. Any suggestions or advice? I was thinking maybe I should try using the optionmonster plugin instead.
thanks so much!
Hey Ashley! I think I understand your question. Have you tried including the link to the ebook in the first email that your subscribers receive after they subscribe to the ebook?
My wife and I both work remotely and have been thinking about moving to our sailboat fulltime. She is expecting twins in December. What was your process for determining when it’s safe to sail with a newborn and what tips do you have to keep them safe when sailing, especially as someone that lives on a sailboat fulltime? Thanks.
Congrats on the twins! We already lived on our boat full-time as well, so it was an easy decision for us since we were already most comfortable on our boat. My baby, Marlowe, moved onto our boat the day she came home from the hospital.
We didn’t set out for our first sail, though, until just a few days after she turned 2 months old. One thing we quickly learned, as well as pretty much every sailor with a young family that we’ve talked to – one parent will most likely be handling everything on the boat, and the other will be on full-time baby mode. My husband did a lot of sailing by himself this season, and I would simply help with docking and taking a very short watch. I’m exclusively breast feeding, so I have to spend a lot of time on that, so this arrangement made most sense for us. Of course, he still helps a ton with Marlowe, but when we are moving the boat, we each have roles that we were doing. I’m sure things will change a little more now that she’s a little older and more mobile, and I will get back into taking part in more boat responsibilities again.
After this hurricane season, we will have to baby proof the boat more, which may include adding netting and baby gates.
One of the harder things was probably planning where she would do her future appointments, as they have so many in the first year. She has been to a different pediatrician for every appointment so far, but none of the doctors have thought this was an issue thankfully.
Where is your boat currently and where do you sail?
Also, you can see some of the baby gear we have here, such as the life jacket that we use – https://fund-rise.live/2022/08/best-baby-gear.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thanks for taking the time to reply and provide some really great insight.
We have a 33′ sailboat is located in MD in the Chesapeake. We are exploring the feasibility of upgrading to something a bit larger, moving onto the boat full-time and relocating to St Pete to be closer to family, friends and the Caribbean. I’ve also been doing some online research to discover others that have made the leap to living on the water full-time with newborns. It’s a big leap of faith to take in general, and becomes much more difficult with two little ones on the way.
Thanks again!
Sounds great! We’ve sailed up to the Chesapeake and we have also spent a lot of time in St. Pete.
Yes, two newborns would be more difficult. Wish you the best of luck!
Thanks. Do you have any advice for living aboard in St Pete? I would imagine you are limited to a mooring with a catamaran, no?
There are a few marinas that can fit a catamaran. We liked the Harborage in St. Pete. We stayed there for two hurricane seasons. There is a great liveaboard community there!
I want to start several side gigs. What’s the best way to get legal and pay taxes? It all seems overwhelming.
Unfortunately, I can’t really give legal and tax advice as that could get me in trouble. My best tip would be to find an expert local who can you help you in this area.
I’d love all your wisdom on serving your email list and email marketing ❤️
Great question! I think your email newsletter provider plays a big part, as they can make it easier (or harder) to send out your newsletter. I like Convertkit (here’s my affiliate link – https://fund-rise.live/convertkit%3C/a%3E%29 and I have been using them for many years now. I use Convertkit to segment my readers (for example, not all of my readers are interested in saving money, blogging, making money, etc. and Convertkit allows me to segment them into their own interests), send freebie optins, and more.
For newsletters, I simply just try to send an email like I’m writing to a friend. I include questions, helpful content, and send at least one email a week so that everyone remembers me 🙂
How many blog posts did you have on your blog when you became a fulltime blogger?
After what time/after how many blog posts did you made a steady income of 1k?
Thank you!
Lisa
Hmmm I am not sure. I was blogging for around 2 years, though, when I started full-time blogging. I had no idea what I was doing before then, so I don’t think the exact number of blog posts really means anything, haha.
You can actually find all of my income reports here – https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I have a word press blog but when it gets to big it is hard to not have on independent server. What is best company to make your website. I know when you keep adding posts it can be a problem. Any help would be appreciated.
Hey Lisa – Are you self-hosted?
I’m on BigScoots. You can simply just upgrade your hosting as you get bigger. Starting out cheaper when you’re new is usually a good idea as you can save a lot of money. For example, Bluehost is only $3 a month, whereas my BigScoots plan is $50+ a month.
Hey Michelle what would you say about cookie banners and how critical are they? I’m struggling with the autoblocking portion before consent is given. Do you have a plug-in that does that automatically? Thanks
This is kind of hard to talk about just in a simple comment. I recommend doing some Google research on the topic as experts would be better at explaining this than I would. Also, if you use a display advertising company such as Mediavine or Adthrive, they may have resources on this as well as it is something that they have had to deal with.
I’m a designer looking to branch out to become an agency. I currently have zero clients, but I am designing my agency’s website at the moment. I am thinking about a subscription design service pricing structure. What do you think of this idea and do you think it will work for me? I would like an idea or two from you (a different POV) on how I could make additional income that is related to the design industry but is more “passive” once I do the work once>?? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!
Hello,
What services would you be offering for the subscription design service pricing structure? This isn’t something I have any expertise or knowledge in so I’m not sure if I would be of any help.
A more passive idea would be to create a premade design that you can sell, such as on Etsy. There are many on there.
Hi Michelle,
My husband and I are interested in buying a yacht, what was your process for buying one? Did you start by renting first? Or did you always own? Are you still in the same boat you started with? Did you buy it in your company name, since it is essentially your place of business? Thanks!
Hey Shannon! Great questions.
We did a 10 day charter in the BVIs, but that is all. We own our boat and it is the same boat that we started with.
We did not buy it in my company name.
I’m just getting started on adding a blog to my existing website. What is or was your daily schedule that you used to be the most productive and time efficient? And how did you use Pinterest to drive traffic? Thanks 😊
I don’t really have a set daily schedule now, but the main things I try to do during the day include answering emails, writing a blog post, working on partnerships, finding ways to grow my blog, sharing my blog on social media, etc. I try to always be several months ahead in content, and that is my best tip for being most productive. That way, I don’t have to ever worry about content, and I can instead focus on other work tasks.
For Pinterest, I highly recommend taking a course on the topic as it would be hard to teach everything in a comment. The blogging resources I recommend can be found at https://fund-rise.live/2021/07/best-blogging-courses.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Some Pinterest tips:
1) Always have a pin-worthy image for every blog post
2) Create new pins for older blog posts all the time
3) Test out different titles for your pins
Hi Michelle! Very inspired by your success! My question is as follows:
I started a beauty blog in 2013. It was getting over 3,000 visitors a month at one point but was not monetized at that point. Well – marriage and babies happened, and the blog was dormant for 7 years. In April, I restarted and renamed the blog as theblushingpoet.com. My traffic had diminished down to 300 visitors a month in April. I’m 4 months in now, and now having 600 visitors a month. Better but note here near the traffic I had before.
1) How long do people usually see increased traffic with regular posting? 6 months in? 8 months in? And does this change if you are rebranding and restarting an old blog?
2) I am in the 6 month trial period with Amazon affiliates. I had made 1 sale so far – 2 months in. Is it worth it to even do affiliate marketing at this point?
Thank you! Any advice would be welcome! I enjoyed your free blogging course!
Hey Mary Beth!
1) I don’t think there’s an average number. But, I will say that many bloggers quit just 6 months in because they aren’t seeing traffic or money. So, I’m assuming the number is after 6 months 🙂
2) Yes, for sure! You simply want/need more traffic in order to see more sales.
What are you currently doing to grow your blog?
Thank you so much for responding, Michelle! I am currently posting on Pinterest as well as Facebook. I am trying to use SEO as best as I can, although I confess I don’t understand it that well. Listening to the “Stupid Simple SEO” free course right now. I’m also going back to my old blog posts and trying to add cross-links. Any suggestions to further grow traffic? Especially with an aged domain that lay dormant for several years? I currently have 98 posts on my blog; 12 since April when I started posting again.
Hey Mary Beth,
Thanks for sharing this. Do you have an email list? Have you tried guest posting on related blog? Perhaps even starting a TikTok or an Instagram account? Are you publishing at least once a week?
SEO is definitely a good next step. There’s a lot to learn with SEO, but there is so much room for growth in that area.