Interested in not just starting but also “monetizing” (ugh — hideous neologism!) your own site? You need this week’s giveaway.
It’s a copy of “How I Make Money Blogging: The Beginner’s Guide to Building a Money-Making Blog,” an e-book by Crystal Stemberger. The author, who owns or co-owns eight sites, offers how-to advice on everything from choosing the right title to how much you should charge for ads.
I don’t know what I was thinking when I booked a 6:15 a.m. flight to the Financial Blogger Conference, which starts this afternoon in Denver. Why, oh why, didn’t I travel yesterday?
That will teach me to make flight plans while I’m in New Jersey. Apparently the combined impact of heat, humidity and Tastykakes prevented me from thinking clearly.
(This post is part of the “Life Insurance Movement,” created by Jeff Rose of Good Financial Cents. Just as with his “Roth IRA Movement,” more than 100 PF bloggers committed to write about a single issue on the same day to raise awareness.)
About six years ago I was a midlife college student and in debt after a divorce that had dragged on for two years. During that time I’d been helping my daughter as much as I could as she waited for her disability claim to be approved. (That took two years as well.)
After the divorce I figured to finish my degree on $12,084 per year – a mix of short-term alimony and leftovers from scholarships and grants. I was also determined to keep helping my daughter, since her disability payment covered rent and utilities but not much else.
One evening I had the radio on while I studied. An insurance commercial came on, one that I’d heard before. This time, it clicked: What would happen to Abby if I got hit by a bus tomorrow? I have no savings to leave her.
Thanks to the support of friends, readers and business associates I made it into the finals of the PF Olympics. Each of the finalists were given the same topic to write for the final judging:
“Which golden rule of personal finance have you abandoned since the recession, and why?”
For some reason I thought these would be judged by a panel of experts. I was wrong. Once more, it’s Internet voting. Argh. And once more, I’m asking for your help.
Thanks to a lot of support, I am currently poised to make the finals of the PF Olympics, a writing contest that’s part of the Financial Blogger Conference. But I admit it: I’m worried that some other contestants will produce a surge of late votes that knock me out of the running.
That’s where you come in — I hope.
For the second year in a row I’m speaking at the Financial Blogger Conference. This year there’s something new going on: the “PF Olympics,” a competition for the best personal finance writing.
The competition is kind of like being on “Dancing With The Stars”: It doesn’t really matter whether your footwork is as good as the other couple’s. As with just about any Internet-based contest, the determining factor is how many votes you get.
An element of skill is involved, if you get to the finals. But I’m not there yet, so once again I’m asking for your help.
This is what happens when you don’t allow enough time to breathe: You turn blue, albeit in a vaguely artistic way.
I haven’t posted much lately, mostly because I was in Alaska. Meeting deadlines and spending as much time as possible with friends and loved ones sucked away most of my hours and all of my energy.
Last week I was so distracted that I never even posted a giveaway. More on that below.
I’m a little tardy in recapping what I’ve been doing lately, and I’m sorry about that. But I won’t be for long.
Yep, I’m over it. That’s because I re-read my June 5 piece at Get Rich Slowly, “The statute of limitations on regret.”
Bring your money queries to the table on Thursday, June 14, when Kiplinger.com hosts a live web chat with a trio of experts from the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).
The session is part of Kiplinger’s “Jump-Start Your Financial Plan” series. Here’s the beauty part: It’s free.
My biweekly gig at Get Rich Slowly took on the pulpy plague of phone-book bundles. What to do with directories you didn’t ask for and won’t use?