Tag Archives: blogging

Self-Improvement Benefits of Blogging

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My Blog Beginning

Like many others bloggers out there, I started blogging because I wanted to share the techniques that I”ve used to achieve a degree of financial success.  I honestly thought that I was going to write so that the average person would get encouraged by read some of my articles and think “Wow, that would work” and give it a try.

I wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that I was perfect, just that I had a better way of approaching finances.  While I still believe I have a lot to share, I never took into the account the self-improvement piece that was involved with blogging.  I was arrogant enough to believe that I was going to be the teacher, and I would be selflessly helping other, and reinforcing what I’ve learned over time.  Lately, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that it’s really a two way street!

The Self-Improvement Surprise

What I didn’t expect was the constant learning and self-improvement aspects of blogging!  I’m going to create a short list of ways that I’ve become both more creative and my self-improvements that have and are happening to me.

  • The Calm:  Since I practically create a blog post every day, I’ve learned that if I slow down and remain calm, I can get a decent post created.  Sometime going slower is really moving faster…
  • Organization:  I now have organization skills thanks to blogging.  In my prior life, I would just fly by the seat of my pants… no more!  Blogging has done wonders for the way I organize and track things.
  • Communication:  Compared to where I started, my communication skills now rock, not just in written form either!  Since I started blogging, both my written and oral forms of communication has improved.  This has been a very welcome and needed surprise in my life!
  • Continuous Learning:  Since I read other blogs and do research on topics, I learn something everyday.  Sometimes its earth shattering, but some times it’s small but interesting (it’s all good).  The point is that I’m not longer stagnant and just doing my time in life until I retire.
  • Virtual Friends:  I now have friends in remote location that I’ve never seen, but that I care about and who I’m rooting for.  We can all rise in the blogosphere!
  • Engaging in Conversation:  Commenting on so many other blog sites has enabled me to engage in verbal conversation in my real life more easily.  Whereas I’ve been an introvert for a good part of my life, now I’ll reach out and start the conversation instead of waiting for people to speak to me first.  I’ve since learned that prior to blogging, some people thought I was stuck up (to use a high school phrase), but this has never been so!  Now that I’m more sociable, they now see my true friendly colors.
  • Improved Writing Skills:  This is obvious, with practice comes perfection.  While I still have a long way to go to achieve perfection, at least I’m heading down the road instead of parking on the side of it.
  • Subtle Confidence:  While I don’t walk around saying that “I’m the man“, I do have a certain degree of increased confidence knowing that I’ve improved myself because of all the bullet points above.  It’s a great feeling!

 Why I Recommend Everybody Trying It

Obviously, I recommend it because of the benefits that I listed above! 

If you are going the serious route, consider going with a hosted service (hostgator.com, bluehost.com, etc), but if you just want to improve yourself and have don’t have a goal of creating side income from it, then consider one of the free sites like blogger.com or wordpress.org.

Surprisingly, I do make a little bit of money from blogging on the side.  While I didn’t start out with that as a goal, it has been a very welcome and pleasant surprise. 

Not sure if you want to try blogging or not?  Check out some of my previous articles on blogging called: Pros and Cons of Blogging, and the 15 Advantages of Blogging.

Good luck, if you decide to take the blogging plunge!

MR

Pros and Cons of Blogging

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My Pros and Cons of Blogging

After a full year of blogging, I’m going to discuss the Pros and Cons of Blogging!

Let me start out by saying that blogging isn’t as easy as some bloggers make it sound (at least not for me).  I figure I spend at least 3 to 4 hours a day, everyday, blogging and doing blog supporting activities.

Blogging Pros…

  • The major reason I blog is for the freedom of expression of thought!  It’s a liberating experience!
  • Blogging allows a tighter focus and re-enforcement of the learning about your blogging topic.  For me, this is personal finance.  It allows me to hone in on the topics and obtain a mastery that would be difficult to accomplish without blogging about it.
  • Free books on your blogging focus.  I get to re-enforce me learning by authors asking for a review of their book.  So far, all the books I’ve read have been pretty good!
  • A great unrealized side benefit was the continual improvement in my writing and communication skills.  I’ve improved both my writing and speaking skills via blogging.
  • I continually learn things everyday by researching topic, and by reading other great blog sites.
  • There is a little bit of money to be made.

Blogging Cons…

  • There is a little bit of money to be made.  (no, this isn’t a misprint of the last Pros sentence above).  While there is a little bit of money to be made, for the amount of hours worked, its way below minimum wage rates (at least so far).  For my first 5 months I only made $5.00.  That said, I really didn’t know what I was going for at least 3 of those months!
  • Without support from other bloggers, the first few months can be lean and discouraging.  I almost gave up a few times.  If it wasn’t for another beginning blogger that would visit and comment daily at my site, I would have quit a long time ago.  Unfortunately, her non-blogging world got busy and she had to quit blogging herself.
  • There is also a never-ending amount to learn!
  • The stress from outages!  I continually check my site to make sure it is up and working.  This is a necessity because various networking parts external to my site can and do go down!
  • The addicting “statistics monitoring” activities.  This may drive you crazy if you are a constant stats checker!!!
  • Writer’s block!  Quite a few times I would be blogging at 2:00, 3:00 and sometimes 4:00am…  Augghhh!
  • Reading other blogs and commenting.  This is a mixed blessing!  I was an avid reader of blog sites before blogging for many years.  But after you jump in the blogging world, you discover that there are a ton of quality blogs that should be read and commented on daily.  This is a huge chuck of my blog supporting activities, even if I do love it!
  • Prioritizing blogging and family.  I’ve seen some great blog sites have to be shut down because of family turmoil!

So there you have it, for me the Pros (while less in number) outweight the Cons

If you are a blogger, how has your experience been?  Do you have any additional details on the activities of blogging?

-MR

Creating An Entrepreneur Snowball

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A while ago, when I was still in college, for a short stint of time I was a computer consultant.  So I was an entrepreneur for a short stint of time (not even a full year).  I could have continued with this route, but I decided I would be better off getting a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

Four years ago, I got the entrepreneur bug again.  But this time I didn’t have the free time or money to start such an endeavor.  I didn’t have the free time because I had a full-time job, not to mention spending time with my kids.  I didn’t have the money because I was still paying the mortgage on my house.

So what I did I do?

I decided to start a small  business selling merchandise on eBay.  My spin was I bought the product online and would end up selling it on eBay where it would be bided up to a 50 to 100% premium over where I bought it.  I didn’t have time to sell many units, so I limited myself initially to two products a week.  Later, after I got comfortable with the process, I was selling four to five units a week.  I was fun, exciting and fresh!

I stopped selling stuff on eBay because the supplier I use to buy from discontinued selling the product I was selling.  I couldn’t find the product anywhere else for such a bargain price.

Next, I took some of the money from selling my product on eBay and started this blog (www.moneyreasons.com).  While not making as much as I use to make on eBay, it’s still a lot of fun, and by far the best hobby that I’ve ever had!  I will keep blogging for years, and any money that it generates will help fund future entrepreneur activities.

I’m not sure what the next entrepreneur activities I will be involved with.  It might be a simple expansion of my blogging activities with the creation of additional blogs, or it might be something all together different.  I may even use the money from blogging to help with the down-payment on real estate, if blogging starts to take off.

For the next few years though, I hope to continue to refine my writing and develop a following.  We’ll see, time will tell 🙂

Do you have any entrepreneur plans in the near future?

-MR

What I Have Learned To Date From Blogging!

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First, I’ve learned that blogging isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Yeah, I could blog about my driving home or having lunch at this and that restaurant. I could blog like blogging was traditionally… an online diary. But instead, I decided to follow my passion for personal finance and blog about that topic

Why?

Well for one, I find that personal finance blogs are interesting, and I wanted to create such a creation. It’s not being a book author, but kind of close, and I think that that in itself is pretty cool.

Blogging and reading fellow pf blogger’s sites helps me to keep my focus on my own personal finance strategy.

The world is expanding for me. I joined a few clubs, but it’s the Yakezie Challenge that has really been mind blowing. The group includes some incredible talented pf bloggers out there! Both the old stalwarts and the saplings, have some incredible content!

International Blogs, I read blogs such as the monevator.com and www.canadianfinanceblog.com both site offer a unique insites of their country from their eyes. It’s very cool to be learning about each of their countries.

Secondly, I’ve learned that there are more than one way to get to a solution.  It’s kind of like mixing colors to create the color green.  So while I may have slowly added all colors in perfect proportions, another blogger may choose to add 1 of the colors more quickly and in more quantity, then later get the proportions correct to make the same color green.  And then you have other bloggers that choose to go with a different shade of green altogether.

Part of blogging is self discovery, I’ve learned a lot about how I think, what I believe in and the end goals that I want to accomplish.

Blogging is also providing me a rought draft for how to get there.

Thanks for the great ride,

MR – Don