My Personal Finance Journey

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Six Figure Blogging

Contributed by mm | October 20, 2006 8:50 AM PST

Darren Rowse coined the term "six figure blogging" to refer to those bloggers who make six-figure annual income from blogging. I am not there yet, but I achieved an important milestone of blogging this week by claiming the 100,000th dollar from blogging income. I have to admit it is very surreal -- when I started PFBlog back in January 2003, our family net worth was barely over $80,000. For many years, I only treated the blog as a personal record of wealth accumulation, and I never imagined one day the blog itself will become a meaningful source of wealth accumulation.

Aside from the boringly thorough documentary of our family finance over the years and the invaluable interaction I have with all the readers who consistently hold me accountable for better content, the money generation process itself is a huge source of satisfaction for me. Especially, I have been able to practice many skills I learned from running business in a big company to my small boutique site:

- Marketing: Many good initiatives of how to expand the audience and how to reach for potential advertisers.
- Pricing: All pricing tactics taught in the pricing class have been used: tiered pricing model, price discrimination, pricing psychology, effective price hike, etc.
- Negotiation: Some good experience of how to create a better proposal and cut a win-win deal.
- Merchandising: Many good tries to maximize shelf space and optimize value.
- CRM: Believe it or not, I rely on a home-made CRM solution on top of Microsoft Access to analyze my results and support the billing, renewal and upselling of my advertising inventory.

I am also able to refresh my best memories as a Computer Science college student and enterprise network administrator early in my career by putting my computer skills to good use. I have never been more knowledgeable on LINUX operation, HTML authoring and SEO.

All in all, blogging is the dream second job that I can never beg for more. I fully enjoy the marriage of my never-ending curiosity of personal finance knowledge with my business skills and computer know-how. Will I retire early? Maybe. But will I stop blogging once I hit my net worth goal? Most probably not. More and more, I can envision how blogging will play a very important part of my life in the next decade.

Readers and fellow bloggers: thank you for your patronage over the years! I'm committed to keeping making progress in this personal finance journey, and delivering more quality content. Please keep coming back!

More PFBlog Articles You Might Find Interesting ...


This Post Has Received 17 Comments. Share Your Opinions Too.


RSN Commented on October 20, 2006

Congratulations, mm! That is an amazing accomplishment.


Jane Dough Commented on October 20, 2006

Wow - that is amazing. Thank you for blazing the trail and staying the course! I am amazed at how much blogging has helped me in my financial life. I can't pretend to be even a fraction as successful as you, however I think I can understand your feeling of accomplishment. I look forward to reading you in the decade ahead!


Nagel Commented on October 20, 2006

Great job!

You look like you are well on your way to your goal.


Harm Commented on October 21, 2006

As in over $100,000? a year? from a blog?
I really like some of these blogs, like yours,
but forgive me for asking, "what for?" I apologize
once again, I'm not suggesting you shouldn't, but
I'm floored. For letting Google put occasionally
questionable ads in? Well, I DO think personal
finance blogs are a good thing, and I hope there are
always a lot of them out there, but I guess I
don't have to worry about the genre disappearing
anytime soon, LoL.


Gurus Commented on October 21, 2006

Congratulations!!! really impresive.


pab Commented on October 22, 2006

Harm, I'm not sure I understand your comment...

"What for?" mm has been demonstrating various disciplined ways of reaching his financial goals, and I'm sure that his blog is one of the ways that he keeps himself accountable for these goals since many readers frequently check in. Personally, it has given me more motivation to personally track my finances and net worth with more detail. Along the way, he brings light to different issues and ideas that readers like myself take into consideration and perhaps take advantage of the advice to increase our personal financial net worth.

Making his 100,000th dollar from his published journey? Instead of "what for," your question should be "why not?" mm deserves to be compensated for the time and efforts that he puts forth to maintain the Web site and publish money saving and wealth accumulation ideas, along with other relevant topics.

Advertisements and other revenues generated from the blog site are simply more examples of mm's determination to do exactly what he has set out to do: accumulate wealth to become financially independent. Why do companies pay for advertising on mm's site? Well, because many people (including you) come across his blog and read articles and post comments.

So Harm, if you have an idea of how we (pfblog readers) can earn an additional $100,000 in part-time, self-employment income for simply sharing our personal story without "questionable ads from Google" as you call them, then by all means please share... If not, I'm sure Web sites like pfblog, CNNMoney, SmartMoney, and Bankrate will continue to exist and generate income for the writers.


The Dividend Guy Commented on October 22, 2006

Congratulations to you on this success. $100,000 is a lot of coin. It is not too hard to make some money from blogging, the trick is making the big money as you are doing. People often talk about part-time blogging, but I am sure you are putting in a lot of hours on your blogs to earn that money. It is not easy. Thank you for your excellent sites!


Harm Commented on October 22, 2006

pab, in no way am I suggesting that any blogger
who makes a profit from said blog doesn't deserve
to, just surprise that advertisers consider there
to be enough eyeballs on the page to justify
paying that price. Again, I'm happy that the blogs
are there and making a profit, 'cause I and the
other readers benefit. I did take a bit of a jab at
Google, yes. Have you LOOKED at some of these ads?
Most are legit, but some are surprising to find
on blogs that promote financial awareness....
Pump and dump schemes, extreme risk investments
posing as CDs, and get-rich-quick deals. I can't
imaging letting some of those ads on a blog I'd
run.....


MM Commented on October 22, 2006

Pab/Harm, thanks for the discussion. Last year I wrote about putting ad at PFBlog which should explain where I come from:

http://www.pfblog.com/archives/1408_lets_talk_about_ads.shtml

Thanks for reading!


Jim Commented on October 24, 2006

Wow! I figured you were doing ok, but I had no idea you were making that kind of cash. How many hits do you get each day?


Lao Tzu Commented on October 29, 2006

Looks like you sold out to bunch of sponsors with no credibility nor decent product (featured sites...) Don't you feel responsible if readers end up getting screwed by one of these sites?


MM Commented on October 29, 2006

Lao Tzu, it is not uncommon for every USA Today paper to contain cheap land sales in Arizona and every NY Times to include envelope stuffing jobs. That's where the editorial independence ends.


The Frugal Law Student Commented on October 29, 2006

Congratulations! I'm always happy to see people make money off of blogging. It's the free market at work! I hope to make some money off my blog some day to pay off my crippling student loans. Thanks for the inspiration.


John Commented on October 30, 2006

advertising isn't about helping people first, its about making money!


Financist Commented on November 10, 2006

Congrats! That reminds me of old saying hard work and a more of hard work.


Sensei Commented on November 14, 2006

Congrats. Keep up the good work!


Debt Consolidation Union Commented on December 3, 2006

Congrats on your success with blogging. I have experience with other businesses online; however, I never got into blogging. I guess the best job is one that doesn't feel like one. Congrats Again.



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