Want to make money blogging? Here are more thoughts on how to start an online business.

With the recession causing so much unemployment and the threat of job loss looming over many heads, people have been hunting for ways to make up for lost income. Some of us have become proactive by developing a business on the side in order to mitigate the risk of job loss, even while we still have jobs. I think that even a small profit from a side venture can help quite a bit.

Image by teampenning.org

Online Business Startup Costs Are Cheap

So I wanted to write a little about online business, since it happens to be one fairly easy way to try to create an income stream apart from your day job. What’s great about an online business is that it doesn’t take much to get it started: it doesn’t require that much money. You can run a business for under $100 a month, and more often than not, it’s much cheaper than that!

In my case, I started out using all the free tools I could get (but of course!), but over time, I realized that “free” wasn’t going to sustain a business indefinitely, nor would it make it easier and less frustrating for me to handle any growing pains that may come. In some respects, there are still a lot of things you can get for free in this business, but with a small outlay, you can set up a site, no sweat. So how about we discuss what it is you need to get started on your online adventure?

How To Find The Best Web Host For Your Online Business

If you want to go the free route to start with, you can. Just sign up with Blogger.com or Wordpress.com and set up a blog on the spot. You’ll get a built in community there that can send you a bit of traffic your way.

If you’re looking for more flexibility and the ability to brand your site, then you should consider going “independent”. Perhaps you’d like to start your own recipe blog, or would like to build your own t-shirt site. Maybe you’re interested in setting up a site to represent your professional self online, and may want to leverage this somehow. Or you could simply be looking for a company that can provide you with email hosting services. Either way, you’ll need to choose a web hosting provider that’s affordable, easy to work with and reliable.

What’s great about cheap web hosting services is that they can offer quite a lot for the money. Take a look at some of the features you’ll get for under $10 a month (as an example):

• Free domain name or domain transfer
• Instant set up
• 1 click installer for over 50 website scripts
• Diskspace and bandwidth
• Free site building tools with templates
• 99.9% network uptime guarantee
• Customer support
• Easy cancellation process
• Domain registration and hosting, email accounts and email hosting services
• E-commerce services, which are tools to help you launch your online store
• Online marketing services such as SEO and link building services

Here are some things to determine before you sign up for any service:

1. What’s your budget? Can I swing this for less than $100 a month, or should I expect to pay more? Based on the pricing structure, you may find that one web host will work better for you than others. Take for instance Microsoft Office Live Small Business: the plan offers many free services but will charge you a bit higher (than other web hosts) for the use of additional resources.
2. How much space do you need? Are you putting up a website with thousands of pages, or can you get by with less space? Although it doesn’t hurt to get more space than you need now, you don’t want to pay extra each month for 500 GB you’ll never use.
3. Does the web host give you the tools you’ll need to build the website, or do you need to make the pages on your own? These days, you can simply choose free or low cost templates and skins to build your site, although some people prefer to hire professional designers to do this job for them.
4. What are your hardware requirements? You’ll need to know if your existing hardware can work with the web hosting provider. For instance, if you’re using a Linux machine, then you can’t really sign up for Microsoft Office Live Small Business, which requires you to work with a Windows or Mac OS X platform.
5. What about your domain name? Does the web host handle this service or should you find a domain registrar?
6. How is the customer service? This is actually the achilles heel of many hosting companies. Many of them find it tough to stick to a 99% network uptime guarantee (hello, Dreamhost) and fall short of their promise to keep your site up most of the time. So find out what you can about a company’s reliability before signing up with them.

The Best Web Hosts Come Highly Recommended

Before you commit to a web host, take a look at several of them. You might like the tools and services of one provider over that of another, even if it costs a little more. You can check out our list of cheap web hosting services for a comprehensive list! Here’s a sampling:

As far as web hosting providers to avoid, there are a few, including HostGator, Web Hosting Pad and Fat Cow. I’ve had a few friends complain about their lack of customer support and professionalism, so be wary of dealing with these services.

Starting with a few key decisions about pricing and the size of the site you intend to build, you can create an implementation plan for hosting and developing your site. So if you’re an online entrepreneur, I’d love to hear about your experience with setting up your own business and how your web host has been treating you!

Find The Best Web Host For Your Online Business

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Lots of people have been hitting the books lately. Not in the way you expect though. I meant that many people I know both online and off have been participating in some exciting projects, and have decided to become published authors.

Everyone’s A Writer: A Family of Authors?

Here’s what I mean. In my family alone, I have TWO people who have written books in the last year. My dad is working on self-publishing a book on trivia and general facts ala Cecil Adams. We just received some samples from the publisher and it looks really good. Now, the question is — will it sell? We shall see.

Another close family member has been circulating his “racy” novel online. He’s still working on how to monetize it but it’s been getting some front page action on Scribd.com. It’s a novel about Silicon Valley and wealth, and how money can corrupt. Now where better to mention this book than in our own blog about Silicon Valley and money, but unlike the book, we give the subject of money a much more positive shake.

I have to say that this book I’m referencing is a little shocker of a novel, and contains graphic imagery and strong language, so download at your own risk (or desire) . It’s called “The Peninsula” (as in, the Bay Area peninsula). Here are some colorful snippets:

What’s important is that my bloodline shimmers with a million shares of Oracle, Intel, Sun, and Google, and that they open every door in California. Those were the companies his children started, but my father is dead three years, and his fortune is in the hands of Michael Medine.

….

I learned early on that the effect of wealth is apathy, particularly towards women, towards sex — and this apathy, which paralyzed the defendant, also paralyzes me.

….

I am twenty-one and a senior at Stanford University, where with all my peers I worship technology and depucelate as many virgins as passes the time.

Okay….? I don’t know many twenty one year olds who speak or write like that, but hey, the protagonist attends Stanford University!

Wise Bread’s “10,001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget”

As for the personal finance space, there have been a few published authors who have emerged from the world of blogging. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how successful some bloggers have been going down this route.

That said, I’d like to give you a heads up on Wise Bread’s 10,001 Ways to Live Large on A Small Budget whose launch date is sometime in May. I was truly impressed by the Wise Bread team for putting together these neat pages dedicated to the book, which also nicely acknowledges the authors who contributed to the content you’ll find in this package. The book is a collection of tips and tricks from Wise Bread’s site and also contains articles from other prominent bloggers like J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly and Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar.

And since I write for Wise Bread, I was fortunate to find myself in their author list along with other names in the blogosphere. Congrats to Wise Bread on this project! I’m planning to review this book in more detail when it formally launches.

Bestselling Books By PF Bloggers

If that isn’t enough, you must also check out these awesome books by popular bloggers — among them are several bestsellers! A lot of people have been pretty busy. Some notable and successful bloggers turned writers whom I am familiar with:

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich has written a very popular book of the same name, which is selling like hotcakes. If you haven’t already, you can check his book out in Amazon and Scribd.

Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar penned a couple of books that were published over the last few months. Check out 365 Ways To Live Cheap and Ways To Make Money If You Dare.

Sharon Harvey Rosenberg of The Frugal Duchess wrote a finance book called How To Live Well and Save Money that is also autobiographical in many respects. I’m a huge fan of Sharon’s writing and I count this frugal memoir as one of my favorites in my finance library.

And there are many others who have come up with e-books galore: for instance, the foxy lady from SquawkFox came up with this ebook on Frugal Food and Fitness. I’m sure there are many more wonderful pieces of work out there, so if I missed anyone (my apologies), please let me know about what you’ve published!

So who else is out there ready to pen a book? I imagined traversing this path myself someday, but ultimately, I’m not seriously contemplating it. Then again, I’ve been threatening to come up with a tell all book about the financial blogosphere that will divulge everyone’s secrets. Mwahahaha!

Personal Financial Articles

• Loose Change: Crunching Some New Numbers on Retirement Savings
• Free Money Finance: Save Money by Finding a Knowledgeable and Fair Sales Person
• Five Cent Nickel: You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself: Debt Collection Via Embarrassment
• Lazy Man and Money: Need Money Epic Fail
• The Sun’s Financial Diary: Index Mutual Funds Are Still Not Popular, But
• Brip Blap: Why I Spend
• My Dollar Plan: 16 Second Quarter Financial Tips

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Debt Reduction: Thanks to Mary from SimplyForties for designating our post about Priceline’s Name That Price option as an Editor’s Pick!
• Carnival of Personal Finance
• Carnival of Pecuniary Delights
• Festival of Frugality: OUCH!

Book Authors Among Us: Finance Books By Bloggers

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I wasn’t really paying much attention to this, but it suddenly caught my eye — my traffic statistics are showing me that this blog has hit an awesome milestone! This site has finally registered its 2 millionth unique visit (and close to 3 million page views), and wow, that’s just something that really cheered me today.

Keep on truckin’!

So I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to our site, and those who’ve come by to visit and check us out throughout the years. This blog is around 2 and a half years old…. born by accident, but I’m glad to know that I’m still here able to nourish it on a daily basis (well, almost).

Looking back, I’m just awed by all the people I’ve met through my blog, and excited about the things I’ve learned over the last couple of years. What were some of these things I’ve picked up?

Few Things I’ve Learned As A Blogger

1. Passive income on the web is hard to come by. At least for me, it takes a humongous amount of work. Even more than I spent working “for the man”, but it is pretty fulfilling.

2. You can give up your day job if you want to. I did it because I had to make a choice — I couldn’t juggle everything and I was burning out. Other folks are able to carry on with several jobs and a family life at the same time, but I couldn’t. So I quit my job and decided to blog full time to try to replace my lost income. So far, it’s turned out to be the right choice for me.

3. You have to like what you do. So you can keep on doing it. If you enjoy what you’re doing, it will increase your chances of longevity at your chosen field, activity or business.

4. There’s so much to learn. But, it’s also a lot of fun. For many years, I’ve pigeonholed myself as someone who did one thing (software development), and I built my professional identity on that long-term career — one which I went to school for. I’m changing those notions and my professional profile now, by taking on stretch goals and projects that are redefining who I am in a whole different business and “career”. And so I’ve discovered personally, that there’s life beyond the nine-to-five that we’re used to living.

Anyway, I’m excited about getting to this point. So here’s to more sharing, education, information and growth (in terms of our community here, and our personal finance learning) over the years. Till the next milestone!

Learning About The Blogging Business, Thanking Our Blog Readers

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Want to make money blogging? The more optimized your blog, the better your chances!

If you’re not interested in reading about the world of blogging, please feel free to skip this post. But for web publishers out there who are curious about how to juice up your blog, then you may be interested in learning about a service that a fellow personal finance blogger has put together to help you out with your online efforts.

Pinyo, who’s the guy behind Moolanomy (a top personal finance blog), is also recognized as a pretty experienced blogging expert and has been running a site called Blogthority. One of the main services he offers is a personalized blog optimization report that has the following features:

• Design and Usability Report that includes personalized feedback about your blog’s overall appearance, branding power, consistency, readability, image usage, and article quality.
• Search Engine Optimization Report that includes key statistics and personalized feedback about your metadata, headings usage, sitemap, robots.txt, keywords analysis, and cross-linking practice.
• Monetization Report that includes personalized feedback about your revenue channels and ad placement.
• Code Validation Report.
• Personalized Improvement Checklist.

Here’s what a sample report looks like.

How To Order the Blog Optimization Report

The regular cost of this report is $49.95, but you’ll get it for $10 less ($39.95) by entering the discount coupon code “SVB819″ when you order the report here. Pinyo will tailor this report to your site: he’ll review your blog and provide specific suggestions about what you should do to make improvements.

There are other such blog coaching services out there as well, that range from free to more expensive, but I’m sure that each service provides their own value.

So if you’re serious about blogging, and looking to get your blog to the next level, it may be worth the small investment to have another set of (experienced) eyes review what you’re doing.

A Blog Optimization Report To Increase Your Web Traffic

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Well, I’ve finally gotten around to it. My braces and glasses are now gone . As you can see, I’ve just rolled out a new look for this blog using a new blog theme (yay Thesis!) and a new custom logo design, courtesy of some awesome logo designers — David Clearwater of Logo Design Shopper, who provides helpful logo design resources, and Andre, the actual graphic artist who designed my header and logo and who runs Biz-Logo.com (see his profile).

A fresh look at Ugly Betty!

A few days ago, I had hoped that you (my dear readers) could help me pick a new logo design and I was glad to have received such a great response! So I’d like to thank everyone for their votes and now you all know which logo won!

It took some work to do this port and I had to rely on my stalwart husband to lend a hand in the process because it took a lot of time to sort out the mess I had going with my old blog theme. After all, I’d been living with my old theme for over TWO years now, and I desperately needed to “get with the times”!

I wish I could have done this earlier, but the stuff behind the scenes and under the covers just grew and grew and got very ugly. The PHP code, CSS layout, templates were a mess and needed to be cleaned out. You know how it is — much like clutter we accumulate over the years, it becomes tougher and tougher to take the time and break the inertia to focus on clearing things out and changing things up, so we end up growing piles of more clutter (or crazy code) over time. Aaargh!

Well, I’m happy that things are so much cleaner now and I can join the ranks of many bloggers out there loving and appreciating their Thesis theme. I’m also truly grateful for the help I got from those who contributed their time to this end result — the digerati spouse and the awesome logo design duo — David and Andre, and well….all your opinions helped tremendously. I can’t thank you all enough.

I shall also be grateful to those of you who can report any problems and issues with the new site design, as I am sure there’ll be glitches hiding here and there. Do pass me your thoughts via email at thedigeratilife [at] gmail [dot] com or drop me your comments below. I’d love to hear your feedback! Many thanks in advance everyone!

New Thesis Blog Theme, New Custom Logo Design, New Look!

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Dear friends, would you help me pick a new logo design for The Digerati Life?

Oh yeah, I need a new look! Photo by Image and Style News

Though I’ve always wanted to give this place a cosmetic face-lift over the years (goodness knows how much The Digerati Life needs it ), I’ve been unable to do so, because of time constraints. I’m still hoping I’ll have the opportunity to make changes — maybe a little bit at a time when the schedule allows. One fun thing I was able to work out though, was the chance to find a great logo designer to give my rather dull text logo a bit more personality.

So I was fortunate to find a couple of folks who’ve offered to help me in this regard. David Clearwater has a site called Logo Design Shopper, a nice resource which compares custom logo design deals from top company logo designers. He’s come up with an inventive way to work out a new logo design, which involves a voting process.

I thought his proposal was quite fun, actually, so I’ve taken him up on his offer. He subsequently got me in touch with Andre, a graphic artist who’s behind Biz-Logo.com (see his profile), who was willing to come up with some nice designs for The Digerati Life. And here’s where it gets interesting — David’s voting scheme will allow the wonderful readers of our site to select their favored design. We’ve narrowed down some ideas to a handful of design concepts, which we’d love for you to review.

So here’s where you come in — I am hoping to enlist your help to pick out a logo design for our header!

Those concepts are now in this voting page, where you can rate each design.

A heartfelt thank you to David and Andre for your awesome ideas, this interesting proposal and the cool voting page you came up with. And many thanks to everyone else in advance for helping us select a new logo!

I personally cannot make up my mind which design to choose, so here’s looking forward to what you’ve got to say. Please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think.

That was my exciting news for this weekend. So how about seeing what others around the financial web are up to?

Personal Finance Reads

• Mighty Bargain Hunter: This Is How We’re Tracking Home Prices
• No Credit Needed: The Financial Sky Is / Is Not Falling
• Blueprint For Financial Prosperity: The One Sure Fire Way To Fail Miserably In Your Finances
• Rich Credit Debt Loan: Planning For Retirement Late in Life
• Lazy Man and Money: Why Does Black Friday Exist?
• Brip Blap: Do You Need A Bailout?
• Frugal Dad: Six Strategies To Reduce Your Technology Bills
• Gen X Finance: Prospective Home Buyers, This is an Opportunity of a Lifetime – Don’t Screw it Up
• Million Dollar Journey: Ask The Readers: Advice During A Bear Market?
• Online Savings Blog: Can Credit Ratings Be Trusted?
• My Two Dollars: How To Cut The Attachment To Your Plastic
• M is for Money: Mission Accomplished!
• Green Panda Treehouse: Do You Pay Your Mortgage Or Your Medical Bills?
• The Financial Blogger: What I Have Learned About Home Renovation
• The Dough Roller: Do You Follow The 50-50 Rule of Fund Investing?
• Plugged In Finance: Cyber Monday Shopping and Some Holiday Hacks
• Think Your Way To Wealth: Great Leftover Turkey Recipe- Turkey Bone Gumbo

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Financial Planning
• Carnival of The Vanities

Help Me Pick A New Logo Design?

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Additional casualties and signs of economic recession: laid off bloggers and your favorite web sites for sale.

Do you see what’s in store for you next year? Well, I’ve peeked at my crystal ball and can see the same thing you’re all seeing, an ugly 2009 as the economy continues to contract. Still no relief in sight (or maybe just a little, with Obama stepping in with a pep talk, an action plan) and the promise that each of us will receive a coveted stimulus check in the form of a tax cut.

Still, the tremors reverberate in the blogosphere.

More and more bloggers are reporting that they’ve been laid off, or are afraid that they will be. Some of the ones I know:

• Trent Lapinski’s Blog: Dear Barak Obama, I’m 22 I Just Got Laid Off, and I Can’t Afford College – Please Help (ugh! This was hard to read.)
• Amateur Asset Allocator: I Was Laid Off Yesterday
• Finance Your Life: Job Security: I Am Safe….Right?
• Shaun’s Real Estate Adventures: This is Why I Want Passive Income
• The Smart Passive Income Blog: Nevermind. I Just Got Laid Off

Judging by the dates on these posts, changes have been coming fast and quick! I’ve also mentioned that TechCrunch has this layoff tracker while Gawker (the online media name that bloggers look up to ) is selling off The Consumerist, and Valleywag (what!? one less Silicon Valley blog?) and trimming its staff. You can see how the online world has been taking its hits.

The trends have been reflecting reality for a while now, so when are they announcing that we’re officially in the dog house?

I’ve also talked about how we’re coping with the recession in Silicon Valley, but whatever else I’ve got to say about this can fill a book. Anyway, it’s been the subject of deep conversation between me and my close friends and family these past few weeks.

More Signs of Economic Recession Where I Live

Just to see how widespread the financial pain is, I’ve polled the people I know for their stories and concerns — here are just a few:

• A couple of people I know have been laid off in the last two weeks. These are people who work at smaller companies that are now embarking on cost cutting measures. With the VC spigot closing off, startups that aren’t solvent will be forced to cut back heavily or close down completely. Startups are living on borrowed time. These events are reminiscent of massive layoffs in Silicon Valley in 2000 during the tech bust, so it’s not new to me. I should get used to this happening every 5 to 8 years, I guess.
• Friends of mine who are consultants are experiencing delays in payments. Uh oh. They’ve done the work, but there’s some worry they’ll end up on a long list of creditors waiting to get paid.
• Too close to home! I never thought it would happen, but someone I know pretty well actually is in the process of losing their house. The story is complicated — he was a victim of a drawn out scam that got exposed by the housing downturn. And I’ve heard rumors of acquaintances going on short sales on expensive homes they purchased only a few years ago (and which I had the pleasure of visiting during house-warming parties galore way back when).
• I heard about how there are scores of luxury cars just sitting on Long Beach right now, with no takers. I got this story from a guy who’s well insulated from the crisis because he’s sitting on a huge pile of cash (he’s very conservative with his savings). Yet, he’s concerned about the effect of currency exchange on his international business.
• Some of us self-employed folks are seriously thinking of joining the many out there who’re already chasing what few jobs are around. I read that Cisco’s job listings have dropped by 93% in one week, from many thousands of openings to a trickle of a few hundred.
• I miss “happy” news. Could this be capitulation? Or close?

Break Open Your Emergency Funds

For many whose lives have been viciously upturned by the forces of the economy, it sure feels that this recession isn’t “normal”. But the reality is that this is probably what a “true” recession feels like. The waves of an economic downturn are much like dealing with the effects of an impending tornado. The tornado spares some while it devastates others. You just pray it doesn’t hit your household when it comes, although you can expect it to do a number on your landscape.

This has become a time of emergency for many. Our situation clearly emphasizes the importance of having enough insurance to cover ourselves when such a “disaster” hits — and when I mean insurance, I am referring to emergency funds and enough liquidity to tide you over during the storm. Does this mean we should have at least 1 years’ worth of expenses in cash? Maybe so, especially since nasty recessions can last that long! If you’ve got unemployment benefits covering you for 6 to 9 months plus a one year stash of cash, you could get through this nail-biting ride.

So let’s hunker down in the basement and see if we can ignore the angry winds out there for now. I’m doing it by starting the ball rolling on some portfolio rebalancing efforts (gah!) and selling off investment losers.

So let’s check what else is on the minds of our favorite financial bloggers, shall we?

• Consumerism Commentary: Take Control of Your Finances Part 5: Build A Better Budget
• Five Cent Nickel: Ted Turner on The Economy
• Free Money Finance: Is Your 401k Dying?
• Credit Karma: Are You Financially Prepared For Disaster?
• Rich Credit Debt Loan: Getting Rich By Leveraging Debt
• Lazy Man and Money: Oil’s Well That Ends Well
• Brip Blap: The Results Oriented Work Environment
• Frugal Dad: Looking For Happiness In All The Wrong Places
• Gen X Finance: Is an Extended Warranty on a Used Car Worth It? The Good, Bad, and Ugly of These Service Contracts
• Million Dollar Journey: Common Job Interview Questions
• One Mint: Can You Take A Loan On A Simple IRA?
• My Simpler Life: Fitting In Household Chores
• The Personal Financier: Thoughts on Citi in Trouble, Market Swings, Stock Charts

Notable Mentions Around The Web

• MSN Money Blog mentions our post on 10 signs of a stock market bottom.
• WSJ’s The Wallet Blog mentions our post on last minute gift ideas.

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Financial Planning
• Work At Home Blog Carnival
• Carnival of The Vanities
• Money Hacks Carnival

Signs of Economic Recession: Laid Off Bloggers, Web Sites For Sale

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Can you make money blogging? Apparently so, as these top bloggers can attest!

These days, when I bump into other mothers on play dates, or when I see people I haven’t seen for sometime, I get asked how and what I’ve been doing lately. I pause, then tell them that I “blog”. That of course, inspires a lengthy discussion about the subject of “blogging”; I tell them why I do it and why I’ve traded my almost 20 year old career in technology and software development for this new-fangled activity.

Blogging is one of those “cheap hobbies” that turned me into an accidental entrepreneur. It’s work that I find enjoyable, that is sufficiently challenging, that allows me to keep learning and expanding my knowledge in so many ways (and not just in the area of finance). It’s something that I can actually earn money from while affording me the ability to set my own hours and work on my own terms. What more can you ask for in a “job”?

Then again, it may not be for everyone: it can make you fat (I believe) and for some people, it’s even a health hazard! But if you’re interested in giving it a go, here are the basic steps to get started:

How To Start Blogging

1. Learn the basics using a free blogging platform such as Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. Now there may be limitations with how you can monetize a site if you use these platforms. More serious bloggers actually decide to get their own domains and self-host their blogs to have full control of their web properties.

2. Register your own domain and sign up with a hosting plan. As I mentioned, serious bloggers who want to monetize their sites fully will benefit from hooking up with a solid and cheap hosting provider. I initially used Dreamhost and Web Hosting Pad but then they gave me too much downtime and poor service, so I switched to Hostmonster, which has been awesome! Some other great and cheap choices are: Bluehost, Lunarpages, and 1 & 1 Hosting. As for domain registration, I’ve been using GoDaddy.

3. Download and set up the Wordpress application in your hosted environment. Your web host provider may be able to assist you with this.

4. Be patient as you learn the ropes. There’s a lot to learn, but the best way to get inspired is to see how others have done it!

Here are a few enthralling details about successful bloggers that I sourced from BusinessWeek. These profiles can inspire you to pursue your online aspirations:

Top Bloggers and The Money They Earn

These bloggers did not count on making big money; they sound like they all became unexpected successes in the world of content publishing. Note that these statistics and earnings were taken sometime in the past — as a snapshot in time — so I suspect much higher traffic and MUCH healthier revenues for these bloggers today. In fact, I know very well that smaller blogs in some great niches make pretty good money along these lines.

BoingBoing.Net

Launched: January, 2000 Stats: 2.6 million unique visitors and 22 million page views in one month Advertising Rates: $350 for a small ad button for one week $2,000 to $3,000 for banner ads sold through the Federated Media ad network Posting Frequency: 20 to 40 times a day by 4 authors Revenue: Over $1 million per year

All I can say is WOW! Although I’m still trying to grasp what it is they write about.

I Can Has Cheezburger?

Launched: January, 2007
Stats: 500,000 to 1.5 million page views a day
Advertising Rates:

• $500 to $5,400 a week through BlogAds
• Unknown earnings from Google AdSense and Adbrite

Revenue: $5,600 per month

Behind this site is Eric Nakagawa, another software developer turned accidental entrepreneur. The blog allows you to submit cute pictures of furry animals and other critters, with fun captions. For the number of page views this site has, I believe their earnings are vastly understated. Plus, according to the Wikipedia, some investors “acquired” this site for a cool $2 million around a year ago. Is that for real? Just ask their nine salaried employees.

ShoeMoney

Launched: October, 2005
Stats: 20,000 unique visitors a day
Revenue: $12,000 a month

Okay, Shoemoney’s blog revenue accounts for 3% of his company’s total revenue, given that he does a lot of other online ventures. How we all want to be this guy! Being such a big name in the internet realm, he’s worked on a program to help others in their quest for online success. You may be interested in checking out his ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Tools to give your internet business an edge.

Kottke.org

Launched: March, 1998
Stats: 250,000 to 300,000 unique visitors a month
Revenue: $5,300 a month from a single, exclusive ad

Jason Kottke hasn’t monetized his site much but I read that he’s also receiving donations from “micropatrons” in order to devote himself full-time to his site. Like a few of us financial bloggers, he’s quit his real job to do the online thing.

Perez Hilton

Launched: September, 2004
Stats: 4 million unique visitors a day
Post Frequency: 24 posts on an average day, 40 posts on a very active day
Revenue: $111,000 a month based on ad rates

Perez Hilton aka Mario Lavandeira is a celebrity in his own right — I’ve seen him featured in a number of shows (Janice Dickinson, anyone?). Some confessions: I’m attracted to the salaciousness of his site, like I am of any train wreck. I also occasionally fight the passing urge to revive my old pseudo-celebrity style blog that I shelved in favor of this PF blog. .

TechCrunch

Launched: June, 2005
Stats: 5 million page views a month
Ad Rates:

• $300 per week, for a small text ad
• “Thousands” for banner ads

Revenue: $200,000 to $240,000 a month

In our very own backyard is this premiere Silicon Valley blog that introduces us to new startups 24/7. When there’s a digerati party, you may find Michael Arrington making the rounds.

“When I started the blog, it was just a hobby,” says Arrington. But, after a while, “It was pretty clear that I could make more money blogging than from anything else.”

Go Fug Yourself

Launched: July, 2004
Stats: 3.5 million unique visitors a month

Ad Rates:

• $60 for a simple text ad
• $3,000 for fancier banners

Revenue: $6,240 a month

These lovely ladies are making great money with their blog, but with their traffic, they can probably make a lot more!

Problogger.Net

Launched: November, 2004
Revenue: Over $100,000 a year

The original problogger. Out of the entire list, Darren Rowse’s blog is the one I keep coming back to….for good reason.

As you can see, there’s a lot of opportunity in blogging… It’s the perfect type of work for creative types who can wear many hats. If you’re a jack of all trades who enjoys spending some amount of time in front of the computer, then this could be a great way to increase your income, to pick up extra income or to diversify your income streams. For more on just how profitable blogs can get, check this out!

 
Image Credit: Valleywag, Adpulp, SFGate, The Sydney Morning Herald

Make Money Blogging: Top Bloggers And How Much They Earn

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It’s our birthday.

We’re “One Year Old” This Week!

I’m very excited to say that this week marks the first blog year anniversary of this site! In reality, I started blogging on the last day of July last year with no idea what I would be doing. I simply wanted to try an intriguing application out called “Blogger” after reading people’s blogs for the last several years. I was searching for some business ideas to work on in the realm of blogging and by trying out “Blogger”, I thought I would get a better feel for the activity. But come mid-October of last year, I decided to join the personal finance bandwagon after realizing that I should actually be writing about one of my oldest passions — finance — which is a topic I enjoy studying, learning about and discussing with others. So I relaunched the blog in this new light and started to post more frequently.

So what have we achieve in a year? Here are the latest stats for this site.

Number of visitors thus far: 330,000 and counting
Number of feed readers: 1400 or so
Number of domain hosts used: 2
Number of posts: 360
Number of comments: ~3,000
Number of spam comments caught: 96,734 (yikes!)

I never thought this experiment would turn into such a long term commitment. I’d like to truly thank all the readers who’ve come by to visit, those who’ve allowed me to use their images on this site, as well as fellow bloggers and other webmasters who’ve supported this site through their link backs. I thank you for your helpful material, comments, discussions, and our online friendships too. Here’s to more years of rambling, musing, ranting and sharing.

Now onto the details of our anniversary giveaway. I have a few things to give out! Most of them should help pad your pockets even a bit!

What We’re Giving Away

#1 A $50 I-Tunes gift card

#2 The Complete Tightwad Gazette paperback book

#3 Rational Investing In Irrational Times hardbound book

#4 and finally, a Mystery Prize (yep, it can be *anything*).

Here are the rules of the giveaway:

#1 Please post comments either at the end of this post or at the comments section of this earlier post I wrote on “My Silicon Valley Job History”. Tell us anything you’d like about your job, business, occupation or any other work you do. Anything goes — rants, raves, funny stories, feelings, etc.

#2 I will be selecting random winners from the comments given in these two posts. I will contact you via email and work out details to send the prizes to you.

#3 If you’d like additional entries, you can write about this giveaway then linking here, or write a post that links back to “My Silicon Valley Job History”. Make sure your trackbacks work so I can count them in my comments section; otherwise you can also let me know about your post and I will include an entry here for you.

#4 I can only count one comment entry per person but if you have a blog or site where you provide a link to either this post or to “My Silicon Valley Job History”, you garner another entry, as your link automatically registers a trackback to these posts.

#5 I’m expecting to keep this running for at least a week, but comments and the contest will stay open based on interest.

That’s it! I hope you avail of this event and share in the fun.

Note: Contest is over. Thank you! Winners were announced here.

 
Image Credit: Old Recipe Book

Yet Another Finance Giveaway! Enter Our First Year Anniversary Prize Giving Event

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

What do you think of personal finance blog rankings?

In February of this year, we’ve had some informal blog rankings and lists done by various finance bloggers as a way of taking the pulse of the blogosphere and discovering who else makes up the financial community space. It’s a handy way for the general reading audience to find out about the personal finance blogs out there and I’ve enjoyed going through these lists to discover quality blogs I may not have come across before. Well, from what I’ve noticed, it’s been a while since the last list and now more than 6 months later, we’ve got another informal list up, thanks to Fire Finance.

I applaud their efforts for coming up with this; I can just imagine how time-consuming it can be. Plus, this stuff always invites a lot of feedback as people wonder what considerations were given to the endeavor. If you’re a blogger and a stats fan, it can certainly be a fun thing to delve into. It may not be as fun if you’ve been left out (as I’ve been on various occasions, but it’s all cool!), which could be for many reasons such as technical issues (no domain, stat tracker not publicly displayed, etc), or arbitrary rules that list-makers come up with, or your blog may be too new to be considered.

I wouldn’t put serious stock on where blogs stand in these rankings since the traffic or statistics gathering process is a work-in-progress and isn’t perfect. But it tells me “who’s out there”. Of course, I also do such discovery by checking out pfblogs.org religiously.

At any rate, if you own a personal finance blog not in this list and feel you were missed, you can make your presence heard to the list creator. Otherwise, by joining in the pf community and making enough noise, you’ll soon find yourself in some other listing. Or you can also do as others have done and make your own! Keep up the great work and I’m sure I’ll find you in the next mondo ranking project. And if you’re a reader, I’m sure you’ll find a few favorites from these lists.

If you want to sound off on these points, you can leave me a comment!

 

Image Source: Grow A Brain

Thoughts On Personal Finance Blog Lists

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