Category Archives: Blogging

Morphing Of The Money Reasons Blog

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While I always wanted to talk about finances, the “Money Reasons” site primary purpose wasn’t intended for me to be a blog.

Yep, main reason for the existence of the website MoneyReasons.com was not to convey financial information to the blogosphere.  Hard to believe with a name like “Money Reasons” huh?

Back when I first started this site, it was an Apache server that existed in a virtual machine on my workstation.  Other than the domain name (which cost about $10 back then) everything else was free since it was hosted on my workstation at home.  I called the site Money Reasons because I wanted to talk about financial topics that I thought I excelled in and as a secondary reason because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on my little website experiment!

If has been both life changing and a fabulous success in my eyes.  While it might not have statistics like “Free Money Finance” (one of my favorite sites), it still has been a great little experiment and an incredible tools for learning about technology (which I’m still learning today).

But that all being said, I’m finding that I’m starting to be spread thin.  Originally, I was posting posts everyday, currently my goal is every other day, but now I’m throttling back to just a few times a week.  Life it too busy to be writing all the time for me at my current stage in life.

But on the other hand, that means that hopefully the articles that I do write provide more of a punch in the value perspective.

Enjoy the final days of summer!

Don

 

Can A Side Blogging Business Help You At Your Primary Job

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I didn’t start out wanting to improve my productivity and efficiency at my primary “employed” job by blogging on the side, but it seems to have happened that way.

This wasn’t so at first, in fact I felt a bit overwhelmed because its like working two full-time jobs instead of one, but now I’ve learned to pace myself and my ability to handle a greater capacity has increased too.  I liken it to lifting weights…  At first you can only press or curl small amounts of weight, but over time and if you stick to a schedule, your body adapts and is able to handle greater amounts of weight.  I believe the brain is like that too.  As I think more often and in different ways, why isn’t it conceivable that the brain is increasing it’s ability to think in quicker, stronger and different ways?

Just the other days, I was doing something at work were I followed path that I followed for years, when all of a sudden I though, why not try this different way instead?  I wasn’t looking for a new way to do the old task, but the new more efficient way just popped in my head…  This is happening more frequently lately, and things that were once intimidating for me are now getting much, much easier.

I think that my side business in blogging has caused these changes.  As yet another analogy, I think I was like a 6 cylinder car running on 5 pistons.  Yeah I ran, but my performance was just okay and I wasted a lot of energy…  With blogging, it seems like somehow that 6th piston has started working too, making me a more productive individual.

Getting Smarter?

In my case, my weakness was communication and writing, but I think that over the course of the past two years, my skill in both has increased!  As a bonus, it has really helped me with getting my routine work done.  Being on a blogging schedule also helps me with my organization skills at work.  It’s truly a win/win.

It’ll be interesting to see where it takes me over the next few years…

Bests,

MR

Eating Out Alone – A Blogging Experiment

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Last week was a bit of an anomaly for me in that I ate out every day for lunch and sometimes breakfast, ALONE!  I even went to a bar that had WiFi access on one of those days.

Now regular readers know that I”m frugal if not out and out cheap, so why would I do such a foolish, totally unfrugal, spendthrift thing?

Well, last week I was able to telecommute in to work the entire week, so that gave me a cushion in my regular spending to the tune of about $7 or $8 dollars extra a day that I saved on gas from not driving.  With gas hovering around $3.75, it’s easy to say that my dining experience didn’t cost me anything extra than typical that week.

Now some will say, “What about the time you spend driving to the coffee shops and bars“?  Well, I drive each and everyday at lunch when I’m onsite at work too.  If I’m not eating out, I’m driving to the library to borrow DVDs and books for free!

Still, what about the tip?  Basically I usually spend some money when I’m on-site at work for lunch, so I’m pretty sure the cost of a regular meal covers the tip, and with money left to spare.

Panera Bread

Panera Bread

Eating Out Alone Reasoning

Why eat out alone?  I was curious to see how my environment would help or hurt my creative process while blogging.  In the recent past, I also went to a few local coffee shops alone, so that I could see how it would affect my writing.  My success in the past was spotty at best.  Not so this time!

This time I went to “Panera Bread” to have lunch (and one day breakfast), and much to my surprises, I was able to crank out posts quickly and with what I considered some originality!  One such article was How Money Can Improve Your Life and Make You Happier.  This article lead to a composite article of all the comments compiled into a sister article the next day!  It was an incredible list that was built!

The point of the experiment was to get comfortable write while in the middle (or at least close in proximity) at a large groups of people.  Then to seek inspiration by feeding off my surrounding via the different types of people in the restaurant.  I had a lot of success when I went to “Panera Bread“!  A few days of eating alone at this restaurant made me realize that I was not so unique in eating out alone.  In fact, there were plenty (maybe 20%) of people just like me, with there laptops working on their own thing.  I also saw a lot of business being conducted at the restaurant.

It was an incredible experiment that gave me a better sense of what it would be like if I were blogging full-time at the ultimate mobile business.  I can see if I had a few posts scheduled to post in advance, how I could practically go anyway, totally unrestricted by location.

Thanks for reading about my little experiment,

MR

 

 

Blogging Tip 1 – Comment Strategies

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Today I decided to break out of the usually finance related topics and mention a new find that I just realized while trying to post a comment on a site that had the comment box a bit too small.

You see, I ended up writing a comment that was almost as long as the original post (which I rarely do), and I was having a hard time reading it.  As I always do (now anyway), to make sure what I typed made sense.

Comment Tip 1

So after getting frustrated, I noticed that in the lower right hand corner of the comment box there was a bunch of dots in a group.  Well the first thing I did was copy my lengthy comment (see Comment Tip 2 below) so I wouldn’t lose it by trying something I never did before.

So I hovered my mouse of the dots and my mouse changed into a diagonal double-headed arrow.  Such an arrow means that I can resize the comment box (Booyah!).  Since the comment too a long time to write, I opened a blank notepad session and copied my comment text into it, just to make sure (yes I got burned before)!

After resizing the window, it was a simple matter of re-reading my comment to make sure my minor comment masterpiece was golden, then clicking the submit button!

Comment Tip 2

I always press the keys “control-a” to select everything, then type “control-c” to copy everything

Comment Tip 3

Always fill in the link option in the comments settings area.  If you don’t, you’ll losing potential traffic.

Comment Tip 4

Write either an intelligent, witty or enhancing comment to the blog site that you are visiting.  By “enhancing comment” I mean a comment that adds additional information to help the readers.  But not an external link!!!

Comment Tip 5

Don’t embed a link in your comment (if you know how to).  I did this initially when I started because I didn’t realize it was wrong.  Needless to say, a lot of my comments were deleted…  Don’t make this mistake!

I hope you find these commenting tips beneficial!

Cheers,

MR