Lamenting the Lost PR

Oh woe. That's what I get for abandoning the blog for a year. It took me less than 3 months to get up to a google page rank of 3, and now here I am, down to a 1. Why do I care? There's a competitive streak in me somewhere.

Why Did I Stop Blogging?

About this time last year I stopped updating my blog.

I'd only been writing for three months, but it had suddenly become like a full-time job. For some reason I felt compelled to keep up with what the other bloggers were saying, to comment on their articles, to submit my posts to carnivals... and I didn't even know why!

I never intended to make a big thing out of this blog. But my fourth post EVER got mentioned on one of the MSN money blogs (wha....?!). That little bit of attention was fun but then it set up a pattern of trying to keep that up.. and that was no fun. Yuck.

So, one day last March I just went back to writing in my paper journal, with my ball point pen, for me. Much better.

But maybe now I'll start posting again. I probably won't go back to commenting on other blogs or submitting to carnivals. And I don't know if I'll have any readers. But that's ok. Nice and slow and mellow.

If you happen to be reading and feel like leaving a comment, go for it. I may or may not respond. If you leave a complimentary comment, it will be much appreciated (who doesn't appreciate some flattery?); if you leave a neutral comment just sharing your thoughts, I will ponder it; if you leave a negative comment blasting me for something I've written, then I may ignore it or delete it.

I'm going back to using this blog for its original purpose! A place for me to play around with my ideas about money. How to live with it. How to love it. How to leave it. How to make more of it. How to give it away. How to experiment with it. How to make it a science. How to make it an art form. Yes, sounds good.

February 2008 Blog Statistics

Statistics from my second month of blogging:

Age of the blog: 57 days

From February 1st to 29th

Number of Posts: 12 (pretty lame, sorry)
Number of visitors: 1539 (yesss! blasted past a thousand!)
Pageviews: 2262
Average pages/visit: 1.47 (this is dropping, we were at 1.82 last month)
Bounce rate: 79.08% (yikes! lots of tire kickers... that's ok, I still love you)
New visitors: 64.46% (nice, over 35% of visitors came back, last month was 25%)
Subscribers (that I know how to track): 24 (this has fluctuated quite a bit over the month, people come and go)

Most visited page (other than home): 382 page views What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget?

Highest single-day traffic: 130 visits on February 12th mostly to What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget? (almost identical to last month..., obviously many are interested in other people's shopping habits)

Top Traffic Sources (thank you!!)
Lazy Man and Money
Frugal Hacks
pfblogs.org
The Financial Blogger

Organic search: 124

Blog expenses: $0
Blog income: $6.32 The Inbox Dollars referrals are still giving me a little kick back and now I have a few Adsense Google ads on the site. Hope they're not too annoying.


Noteworthy

• I began experimenting with advertising on the site. It's slow going for now. When I manage to make a penny a day I am pretty thrilled. Don't ask me what a fool I make of myself when someone actually clicks on an ad. :blush:

Thank you all for reading!

March Madness on Free Money Finance

Oh man, how come so many people write so well?! I'm starting to get an inferiority complex here.

Hurry on over to FMF to read and vote for the latest and the greatest posts from the past few months. I submitted my Minimum Wage post and would love to get your vote! (In fact, I would really really really love it. Thank you!)

Some of my favorite picks from Round 1:

• Saving Money by NOT Changing your Own Oil - Many people believe they are saving money by changing their automobile's oil themselves. Are they really? Others believe they can only be sure the job's done right if they do it themselves. What's the truth? Let's find out...
  

(Yay! Someone's giving me a financial reason to avoid learning how to do that!)

• Your First Million Dollars - To plan to be rich, it takes just that . . . planning. Becoming rich is hard work that requires a great deal of self discipline, basic money management skills, goal setting, focus and diligence. This post breaks down in very simple terms how to build wealth in an easy to follow step-by-step process.

(The charts here got me all excited. Compound interest rocks.. specially after you hit a million dollars!)

• A little-too-late advice on building wealth - Well, we're all stupid. Some of us stupider than others, but mama always told me stupid is as stupid does. If you can read this list and you haven't messed up all of these points already, you may find a way to destupidify.

(When I can admit I'm being stupid, I will happily take advice to destupidify. I have much to learn.)

• Personal Finance Is Like Learning to Ride a Bike- There are a lot of extended analogies in personal finance writing - budgeting is like dieting, money management is like football, debt reduction is like a snowball rolling down the hill - but I haven't seen one comparing personal finance to learning to ride a bike. Both personal finance and bike-riding are intimidating to newbies, but everyone can learn how by starting with the basics. This article draws parallels between basic biking skills and basic personal finance principles, hopefully making personal finance more accessible to everyone.

(Outstanding post! Analogies are great and this is one of the best I've come across.)

Help me get to the next round dear readers! And be sure to visit all the other great bloggers I haven't mentioned here.

January 2008 Blog Statistics

Being new to the blogging world, I am very intrigued by the history of other blogs I visit. I usually dig into the archives and read their first few posts. I also hunt down any posts about how their blog has grown.

I have no idea where my little blog is headed. I began it on January 4th because I was feeling inspired by my financial goals for the year and thought it would be nice to write them down. I had never been a regular reader of a blog before. I had heard of blogs and read a few posts here and there but really didn't know much about the world of blogging. And what a world it is! I have learned SO much in the past month and continue to be amazed by the quality and quantity of blogs out there.

In case my blog continues to grow, and I continue to feel like writing, I think it will be nice to have a record of where it has come from. And if not, it might still be of interest to the curious readers like me out there!

So here is the first in a series (hopefully) of posts about my blog statistics.

January 2008 Blog Statistics

Age of the blog: 28 days
Number of posts: 19

The data below is from January 7th- January 31st unless otherwise noted:

Number of visitors: 954 (thank you ALL for visiting!)
Pageviews: 1741
Average pages/visit: 1.82
Bounce rate: 68.45% (yikes!)
New visitors: 72.85% (nice, over 25% of visitors came back!)
Subscribers (that I know how to track): 14

Most visited page (other than home): 324 page views How Would I Live on a Minimum Wage Income

Highest single-day traffic: 111 visits on January 23rd mostly to What Can I Buy on a $200 per Month Grocery Budget?

Top Traffic Sources (thank you!!)
Frugal for Life
pfblogs.org
Moneycentral on MSN
Early Retirement Extreme

Organic search: 35 (I'm surprised I showed up at all!)

Blog expenses: $0
Blog income: $0.33 (yes, that's 33 cents) from Inbox Dollars referrals. This was a nice surprise because I didn't come into this with any thought of making money... but now, who knows? Every penny counts, right?


Noteworthy

• Got mentioned on Moneycentral! (Thanks to Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme for bringing it to my attention)

• Almost got a thousand visits this month... maybe if I'd had a full 31 days I may have hit that milestone.

I have never considered myself a writer- quite the opposite in fact. I am very surprised that I have any visitors at all. I like these statistics! Hopefully these numbers will keep me motivated about posting.

Many thanks to all of my readers!