Ask The Digerati Life a question! (Women of Personal Finance Spotlight)

[Lynn]

For this entire week (8/10 - 8/17), SVB of The Digerati Life will be answering questions in this forum thread about blogging, personal finance, and entrepreneurship!

SVB is one of our favorite bloggers and we can't wait to ask her how she became so successful in such a short time.

At the end of the week we will pick some of the best questions and answers from this thread and publish it on the main blog.

Special bonus

We're also giving away a pair of tickets to So You Think You Can Dance shows on the 2008 tour (please note this is different from our other ongoing SYTYCD contest). If you're interested in winning the tickets, please put "SYTYCD" in your post when you ask SVB a question.

[Will]

Welcome SVB.

In February you quit your day job to pursue blogging and other business ventures full time. Was there a specific point in time when you realized "wow I can make a living blogging about personal finance"?

[Jason White]

Hi SVB--I'm a huge fan of your work on The Digerati Life. In fact, it was one of the first blogs I subscribed to when I began following PF blogs, and is still a daily read.

After you left the workforce to pursue blogging full time, how did you offset the loss of benefits such as insurance and retirement? Are there benefit options specifically available to bloggers/writers that are not available to other self-employed individuals? Thanks for your time.

[svb]

Originally Posted by Lynn

Special bonus

We're also giving away a pair of tickets to So You Think You Can Dance shows on the 2008 tour (please note this is different from our other ongoing SYTYCD contest). If you're interested in winning the tickets, please put "SYTYCD" in your post when you ask SVB a question.

I just had to put this in: I am such a HUGE fan of SYTYCD AND American Idol . Huge! And my favorite dancer of all is Mark Kanemura from the latest season. I sure hope I am eligible for this contest!

[svb]

Originally Posted by Will

Welcome SVB.

In February you quit your day job to pursue blogging and other business ventures full time. Was there a specific point in time when you realized "wow I can make a living blogging about personal finance"?

Will,

When I began blogging, it was really more of an experiment. My husband is involved in his own startup and had wanted to learn more about how web communities worked. I decided to pitch in and help by getting a feel for the blogging community by starting my own blog. Over time, the experiment grew into something more serious as I realized how viable blogging is as a way to earn a living. I found this out by working with other bloggers in the space who were very supportive about teaching others how to monetize their sites.

But what I didn't realize was just how much effort and time it would entail. Over time though, I realized that the growth rate of my earnings could eventually lead me to the point when I could replace my day job income with blogging. For some, it could take only a year (depending on the cost of living where they live or how much of their previous salary they'd like to replace) and for others, it could take several years. In my situation, I believe it'll take 3 to 4 years for my blog to reach that point when it fully replaces my previous corporate salary. For the record, my blog will turn two (years) by October. So I'm at the halfway point.

But what's amazing about blogging is that it also opened up other job opportunities for me. I was then able to secure some freelancing jobs and contract work through my blog, which allowed me to keep my schedule flexible.

I decided to get into this full time because of many reasons: I was burnt out from my commute to the city (it took me an hour each way), it was becoming more expensive to do that commute, and someone in my household needed to spend more time at home and with the kids. So it was a natural decision for me to begin developing a business around blogging.

[svb]

Originally Posted by Jason White

Hi SVB--I'm a huge fan of your work on The Digerati Life. In fact, it was one of the first blogs I subscribed to when I began following PF blogs, and is still a daily read.

After you left the workforce to pursue blogging full time, how did you offset the loss of benefits such as insurance and retirement? Are there benefit options specifically available to bloggers/writers that are not available to other self-employed individuals? Thanks for your time.

Hi Jason,

That indeed is a thorny question as that is what I found to be a great concern of most bloggers -- well, even myself! Right now, my household has COBRA from the job I left officially in February. We have 18 months from that point to keep the same medical benefits. Beyond that though, we are on our own.

For medical benefits, we are exploring some options. Since our incomes are lower now, our kids *may* qualify for very cheap insurance coverage in our county. We just discovered this program being offered by our local county, but we still need to investigate this possibility further.

Also, we see this as a temporary situation for us. At some point down the road (before the 18 months of COBRA is up) we're hoping to pick up group insurance through my husband's company at hopefully affordable rates. What I've seen to be the case for most "full-time bloggers" these days though, is that they are part of a household where one partner is employed with benefits in order to cover the entire family while the other earner is a blogger. In my case, both my husband and I are self-employed, so we're faced with a trickier situation. Ultimately, we will get our own insurance but it's a question of how affordable it is. It'll be insurance for us "small business owners".

As for retirement, there are some fantastic plans available for small business owners: SEP-IRA and Keough Plans among them. I wrote about them a little here:
I’m Self-Employed! Retirement Plans, Insurance and Tax Considerations are Afoot

I have a SEP-IRA right now, but may move to a Simple 401k later, but I'll have to study that option to see if it makes sense. I like these retirement plans because they can potentially allow you to shield more money than you would through your employer's plan, especially if you begin to make more self-employment income over time.

[mogden]

I notice that a lot of personal finance and product blogs are rather heavy on spammy stuff, with ads everywhere, affiliate links, etc. How do you draw the line between making money from visitors vs. annoying them? Has that changed over time? Thanks!

(SYTYCD)

[curlytreefan]

SVB -- I'm an avid reader of your posts and long-time subscriber to The Digerati Life.

I'm working at a start-up that is focused on helping shoppers save time and money. We don't have a blog yet. We've heard several anecdotal stories that investing in a blog may help us with customer acquisition, especially via organic traffic. I'm concerned though that it will take a lot of time and effort before we'll start to see a return on the investment. Is there a minimum time/cost per week that we should be prepared to spend before kicking off a blog?

CurlyTreeFan

[svb]

Originally Posted by mogden

I notice that a lot of personal finance and product blogs are rather heavy on spammy stuff, with ads everywhere, affiliate links, etc. How do you draw the line between making money from visitors vs. annoying them? Has that changed over time? Thanks!

(SYTYCD)

Yes, we bloggers have to make a living somehow I guess... I think it all boils down to what kind of blog you want to run and manage. Some audiences appreciate information they get on specific deals and products, while others don't. I think that a good blog will find the balance of both worlds.

Bloggers come in all shapes and sizes. Some will write entirely for their readers while others write for themselves. Others want to get their name out and build lots of traffic, while others prefer to just make money and will consider all measures that support that goal, regardless of impact on traffic. So you see, it all depends on your goals for your blog.

You'll also find that people will oftentimes experiment on their blog. One day, you'll see certain ads up, then the following month, they're gone. So blogs evolve over time based on the lessons we learn in the blogging process.

At one point, I felt I had too many ads up, so for now, I've taken down some of them and tried to declutter my site. I wish I had more time to devote to web design and cleaning up my blog a bit more, but alas, I function on a tight blogging schedule (since I have other things going on ) majority of which is spent working on my content.

[LazyMan]

Thanks for doing this SVB...

I have three questions for you...

1. I'm looking to find out more about tax liens... (on second thought nevermind)
2. Do you ever get bored writing about personal finance every day?
3. If you had to start another blog with an eye towards profitability first and foremost, what topic would you pick?