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 don’t know if you have answers for this question, but I starting a proofreading business. Do you have any tips, tricks or advice to give me?
Hey Ann!
I have two helpful blog posts on how to start a proofreading business that you may enjoy:
1) https://fund-rise.live/2022/03/online-proofreading-jobs.html%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> 2) https://fund-rise.live/2020/03/how-to-become-a-proofreader.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Michelle,
I have been blogging for almost 2 years and I am growing slowly. I am blogging once a week but my traffic is really low like 20+ views a month. Any tips for me?
What are you currently doing to grow your blog?
I am on Pinterest and using Tailwind which has been a gamechanger. I am on all social media channels, I do guest hosting and have been on a few podcasts.
I also have a newsletter with a mailing list that is growing.
Have you tried pinning manually instead of using Tailwind? That may be something new to try.
Are you also doing any SEO for your blog?
Yes I used to do manual pinning but can try it again. I also use SEO, I use Keysearch and also do keyword research before I write a blog post.
Hi Michelle,
I would love to restart the blog I’ve had but now I’m in a different industry and feel I would help more people in paying off their debt. While this is something I’ve learned to do now, it makes more sense to me to be able to help people, like you have, learn how to pay off their debt in less than half the time, while building cash. Without spilling everything in 5 sentences, how do you break it down to make the information more believable? These are legit resources and programs, tax free but how do you male the information available without giving away too much?
Hey Lissette,
Thanks for reaching out.
I’m not sure if I understand. Why can’t you give away too much info? Are consumers not signing up for something through you? What do you get in return?
Hi Michelle! I was so inspired by your success and how you made $1 million in just a year with your blog, that I sent it to my wife to read and learn from you!
My wife is a personal finance blogger like you, with sizeable traffic in Singapore, but does not make anything close to that so we are looking at how we can grow and monetise more effectively. She built a solid brand reputation for her in-depth research and tips on localised, personal finance, which helps in our country where the costs of living are realllly high.
Questions:
1. How can we monetise beyond our home country, without diluting the original brand / losing our base of local followers?
2. Her sponsors pay for content on her media channels, but here in Singapore the clients are very pragmatic and pay based on follower count, so she’s often underpaid as they compare to lifestyle / beauty / travel influencers, who have 10X more followers than her. Problem is, her clients always get more conversions with my wife than with these popular influencers, but she’s paid lesser because here in Singapore almost everything is pegged to superficial metrics of follower count. She has tried to get case studies and testimonials from past client successes to prove this, but still has not been successful in negotiating for higher rates as everything keeps coming back to follower count. It is frustrating!
3. She has tried affiliate marketing before, but many of the local affiliate marketing programs in our country do not pay well (unlike the US ones like Bluehost, etc). How can we grow this, or should we just turn our attention to something else?
Looking forward to your response Michelle! Love that you’re doing this.
Hey Nic,
1) To monetize beyond your home country, you’d have to get readers that are outside of it. That may mean writing content that targets people in other countries, specially or overall. I’m not an expert in this area but you may want to look for other blogs that are similar to what you are looking to do, in order to get a better idea of what works and what does not.
2) Is there any way to get paid per sign up, sale, or lead, instead of by follower count?
3) When you say they don’t pay well, is that because the amount is low, or is it because it is hard to get conversions? I promote many, many low amount products. It’s more about your conversion rate and the amount of conversions you can get instead.
Hello!
I’m from Ukraine. Now here is war. I’m lost my job and looking for some methods of online money earning. Could you please recommend how to start from “0”. I’ll be appreciate for any advice.
Hello,
So sorry to hear this. I have a lot of content on how to make money online. I recommend starting here – https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Here’s another helpful article to read – https://fund-rise.live/2022/02/stay-at-home-jobs.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hello Michelle,
my question is, how long it took you to make 10k net a month with your blog when you firstly started it?
And how long it took to reach the 100k on site views on your blog?
Thank you very much in advance for your reply.
Hello,
I have all of my income reports here – https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
It took me around 2 years to see $10,000 a month from my blog. I haven’t really done a good job tracking page views, but I think that took around 2 years.
Hi Michelle,
I’m 25 and want to have kids some day. I feel I have a greater amount invested than the average 25 year old but I also think it could be way better. My question is how much should I have in my pocket when I decide to have kids.
I live in California.
This is a tough question, as there are so many factors that go into it. Preparing for a baby is great and all, but there’s no one easy number to give you.
I recommend doing a Google search for questions such as “how much should I have before I have kids”
Also, I have listed most of the baby gear we bought here in this blog post – https://fund-rise.live/2022/08/best-baby-gear.html%3C/a%3E. But, babies don’t really need all of that. They just need food, clothes, a place to sleep, and love 🙂
My question is… Can I use AI tools to write my blog articles or will it have a negative impact on my blog in the future?
I have tried AI tools and I didn’t really enjoy them, but I know others who like it. I think you’ll just want to make sure that you make it readable still (many times, AI tools spit out things that don’t actually make sense). I think once you realize that then you can use AI tools to your advantage. You don’t want to just take what they give to you and call that a complete blog post.
Have you ever been to the Bahamas? If you have time, you should sail over there and meet Lauren Landers. I watch her You tube Channel. She is very personable, and makes her living off of Yacht Charters, You Tubing and Affiliate Marketing. She lives on her boat as you do, so here is her You Tube Channel —> https://www.youtube.com/user/laurenalanders
I have spent some time every year for the past 5 years in the Bahamas 🙂
I recommend checking out my Instagram here – https://www.instagram.com/michelleschro
I am looking to start a new blog. Do you use wordpress or something else to create yours. I see your site is very simple is that a trend? Should you add a logo or just make it very simple?
I use Wordpress for mine. You can find my tutorial here – https://fund-rise.live/2014/08/how-to-start-a-wordpress-blog-on-bluehost.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I see nothing wrong with keeping it simple 🙂
Love these Ask Me Anything posts Michelle! One day maybe you’ll do a video format where questions are fed to you real time, I think your audience would love that!
What your stance on advocating for your values through posts to your audience? I know now you write whatever you like, so for someone growing their blog, do you think they should focus on keywords or what they think their audience should be reading based on the theme?
For example, I’m big on sustainability, public infrastructure, and philanthropy.
Haha maybe! 🙂
I’m a big fan of writing what you want to write about. If you can fit in some keywords, that’s great as well. Of course, SEO is a great way to grow a blog, so writing for both SEO as well as what you want to write about may be a good mix. That’s what I do.
Hi Michelle – Do you outsource any tasks (ie. design, content, SEO, etc…)? Or is everything done in house, or rather on your boat (which is so awesome!)?
I have a virtual assistant and an editor. I also outsource other tasks such as the technical side.
Good morning, Michelle!
Question 1: Is there a reason why you choose GoDaddy over others for purchasing a domain name? What about NameSilo or NameCheap–would these be comparable? I realize you are an affiliate for GoDaddy but just curious if you think the above-mentioned names are comparable, or does it even matter?
I’m one who is having a hard time deciding on a name for my blog, and it is holding me back. I do have a long list started by brainstorming, however. I want to cover a few topics or possibly several.
Question 2: For new bloggers, do you recommend starting off with an older version of WordPress or diving right into the newest release?
Thanks so much!
Hey Cindy!
1) I don’t believe I’m an affiliate for Godaddy but I could be wrong. They’re all pretty similar, so I don’t think it really matters.
2) I’ve honestly never been asked this before. I haven’t researched what the newest release is. Have you heard bad things about it?
I believe the new release is 6.1. I’ve heard that it has less bugs in it and is more secure, but I’ve also heard that if you’re a beginner, there may be a bit more of a learning curve. So, I’m humming and hawing around with that. I am in the process of getting that WordPress skill, though, but with WordPress 5.9, so we’ll see. I do enjoy it!
Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it.
Hi Michelle,
I’m wondering how you decide what to write about, within your topic area? Do you just choose topics that you think readers will find of interest, or do you take into account reader feedback?
Also, do you ever promote books through your blog? I would think that would be a good way to earn some affiliate income.
Thank you,
Ethan
Hey Ethan!
Great question. I answer this here – “How do you think of ideas for new blog posts?” in https://fund-rise.live/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Here’s a copy and paste of that:
“I have published around 2,000 articles on Making Sense of Cents. And, I’m not running out of ideas any time soon.
I currently have a few hundred blog posts ideas that are just waiting to be written and published. Plus, nearly every single day, I add at least one more to the list.
This makes me laugh, because if you would have told me just seven years ago that I would really, really enjoy writing and that I would write millions of words for a living in the near future, I would have called you a liar!
I just didn’t enjoy writing when I was in school at all.
But, it’s pretty much one of my most favorite activities today.
Two questions that I receive quite often from readers include: 1) How do you come up with ideas for new blog posts and 2) How are you constantly coming up with new blog posts after several years of blogging?
One of the most difficult parts of blogging is creating new content, and sometimes you may feel that you have hit a brick wall and can’t find any inspiration.
For me, though, I have a system that has worked quite well, and due to that, I don’t think I will EVER run out of ideas for content.
So, how do I still have things to write about after several years of blogging?
I find topics to write about through:
– Life experiences. Here on Making Sense of Cents, I generally only like to write about topics that I have experience with. I think this is what helps set me apart from others. I also receive the best motivation and inspiration from taking financial topics that I personally come across in day-to-day life and turning them into fun and engaging content.
– Reader questions. I receive a ton of emails and comments each day from readers, and most of them are questions, like the topic of today’s post – is it possible to earn money blogging? If I feel like I have something valuable to share, then I like to turn questions into blog posts. This way, I can share my knowledge and expertise on a subject, and I also help a reader by diving further into a subject than what I could say in a simple email. Plus, if one person has a question, I know that many other people probably do as well! Turning questions into posts is also great because the next time I receive the question, I can easily send the link over to the reader.
– Research that I’ve done and articles that I’ve read. I read a lot of articles every day simply for fun, and sometimes I come across something that I feel should be expanded upon, a topic that I think the average person doesn’t understand, things that boggle my mind, and so on. For example, if I see a crazy statistic that I find interesting, I may turn it into an article.
– Brainstorming. Occasionally, I will simply sit down and have a little brainstorming session. While I do have a long list of possible content ideas, I like to keep my list fresh and update it often. Some of the things I do in my brainstorming sessions is that I may read older content of mine and see how I could possibly expand further on a subject to make it better, think of new blog posts that I could write about on a subject that is popular on my site (I may look at Google Analytics or Pinterest Analytics to determine this), and more.
– Survey readers. Sometimes I ask my readers what they want to read more about. This always leads to a ton of ideas for blog posts and can be a very quick and easy way to add to your content list.
As you can see, there are many ways to come up with new blogging content.”
And yes, I promote books often. Here are some blog posts:
– https://fund-rise.live/2020/03/best-money-books-for-young-adults.html%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> – https://fund-rise.live/2021/03/best-money-books.html%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> – https://fund-rise.live/2021/08/best-early-retirement-books.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E