Our First Blogiversary and Income Report (2024)

It’s amazing how time can zip by. A little over a year ago I decided to take on a new challenge. With no knowledge of the internet (seriously before this past year my internet surfing consisted ofGoogle and a few other sites), I bought a course on how to build an internet website/business.With the help of this course I was able to find my strengths and figure out what I was truly passionate about.

Personal finance

There is really only one thing that I am passionate about, and that is figuring out the puzzle. Personal finance is the puzzle that keeps changing and unravelling as you learn more about it.

As soon as you figure out how to budget. Boom! You getto figure out investing.

When you figure investing. Shazaam!You can move on to optimizing your spending to not be as wasteful with your money.

The chances to improve are always there. It’s a never ending journey.

Then all of a sudden a year passed. It was just a year ago that I published my first post. How to pay off your mortgage in as quickly as 5 years.

A Year’s Worth OfNumbers

I was looking back on my 6 months of blogging report and I’m happy I did that post. Having the numbers somewhere was great to refer back to. So here are some more numbers for you at the one year mark.

Please feel free to like and follow the links below:

Facebook Likes 178

Pinterest 806

Instagram 111

Twitter 6365

Posts 120

Comments 433(Thank you to everyone who comments, I love the interaction) One of my goals is to comment more on blogs out there. There are so many good ones it’s hard to know where to start.

My Alexa ranking today is233,000 in the USand 15,944 in Canada, it changes everyday but the stats are good motivation to keep writing daily.

This site has been viewed in 128 countries and 3,433 cities, which was a reach I never could have anticipated in my first year.

It feels like there is a number I am missing. Oh yeah!

First YearIncome Report

The income for this blog in the first year was:

$738

This income came from a variety of sources including adsense, affiliate income, book sales and guest posts. This next year is shaping up to be even better with the acquiring of several clients for freelance writing, social media, website strategy and a variety of other online business aspects.I’m very optimistic and excited about the year to come.

All of these things wouldn’t have been possible a year ago .

To get started with the course that gave me a start in the online income world you can check it out here

If you are wanting to learn more about starting a website you can check out my post here.

Already have a site and are wanting to start earning money on it? I would highly recommend Michelle’s course on Affiliate Marketing. Check out the course here.

Costs Of Running This Site

Of course it wouldn’t be fair to just give my online income earrings and not give you my costs.

Hosting: I use BlueHost for hosting this site. I pay $2.95 a month

Domain: $14.95 a year,

Email: For sending out emails I use Aweber. It is a great service but it comes at a cost of $19.99 a month. This price is pretty steep, but it’s the most expensive of my costs and there are free services like MailChimp that you can use.

Tailwind: $89.99/ year. I just started using Tailwind. It is a servicefor automatingthe times you post to Pinterest. It has been very very useful so far. Since using Tailwind at the beginning of October I have seen my traffic soar to the point where Pinterest accounts for 25% of my traffic. Last month it barely registered. They have a free program that will suit most people. Check out the free version of Tailwind here.

I am also going to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference next month so those costs are in this year but they were completely optional.

Really you could start a site with hosting and a domain name and be fine, but the email list is just as important.

The Great

The best part of this whole year has been getting to know you the reader, and getting to know the personal finance community. I feel like I have only met a handful of people, something I would love to improve on, as everyone is so helpful and genuine.

We are all trying to figure out this money thing together. It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey, what matters is that you are on it and moving forward. Read lots of sites, the new guy may have a lifestyle just doesn’t gel with you, but that is what makes personal finance so amazing! The difference of opinions and ideas

Some people will make you smile and even laugh out loud. Others will make you shake your head and think “Nope”. That is all a part of finding your financial self.

It’s a journey, as the saying goes, and you need to enjoy it.

The Greater

There have been some amazing moments that have come from sharing my story, the biggest one was being in MoneySense Magazine.

One thing about that I’d like to clear up, if you have seen the picture from that article I find it to be a little embarrassing. That picture took 2hours, and I swear I have never made that face before or again. I’m actually very humble with this stuff and the photographer didn’t have much to work with.

Sadly, me looking like a scored the game winning goal in the Olympics was the best I could give him.

A Surprising Moment

One of the biggest moment for me this year is when an old student reached out to me and told me of her success from following the money system I had shared with her 5 years ago.

This system completely transformed her families’ finances and I am deeply touched to have played a part. If you are looking for more information about this system you should absolutely sign up for our mini our mini course that will walk you through the details of this simple, yet powerful system.

The Greatest – Thank You!

There are so many wonderful people to thank. First my wife and kids. They are the only ones in my family that really know what I am doing. I don’t share with my friends and family about this site since taking about money isn’t for everyone. It’s been great to have them say “go to work” on those days where all I want to do is sit on the couch and veg.

Thank You To My Masterminds

A very special thanks to my Mastermind member, Domenica at Easy Sewing for Beginners. Domenica and I met through Internet Business Mastery.She’s a veteran in her industry and has been very supportive of my naiveness of all things web related (she has explained Pinterest to me at least 5 times before I “got it”)

Dom, thank you our weekly mastermind meetings are what keep me on track.

I also want to thank my newest mastermind group, I like to be in a few at once, they are sooooo good for your improvement,Des from Half Banked and Alyssa from Mixed up Money, thank you for being willing to meet with every month, it’s been great getting feedback and helping each other.

Thank You to These Awesome People

In no particular order I want to thank the following people for their help, encouragement, and support.

J Money from Budgets are Sexy and Rockstar Finance, Jessica Moorhouse, Jim from Wallet Hacks, Cait from Cait FlandersandRockstar Finance, Melanie from Dear Debt, Michelle from Making Sense of Cents, Carl from 1500 Days, Julie from Money Sense, Joe from Retire by 40, Michael from Stretch a Dime, Vic from Dad is Cheap, Thias from It Pays Dividends, Michael from Financially Alert,Bola from Clever Girl Finance, Jeremy from Modest Money, Pamela from My Money Counts,Mel from brokeGirlRich,David from Finance Superhero,Jaymee from Smart Woman,Kristin from The Wild Wong,Physician on Fire,Garrett and Claudia from Two Cup House,JW from The Green Swan,Penny from She Picks Up Pennies,Britt from Britt and the Benjamins,Steve from Think Save Retire,Jen from Frugal Millennial, Kate from Kate Savesand everyone who participated in the Behind the Screen Interview.

When I reached out you not only replied, to my shock, but gave me sincere advice and I truly appreciated the advice, and put what you said into action.

I’m sure I have missed people, over a year there are so many interactions and I have enjoyed all of them. To me there is nothing better than getting to know new people and learning about how they do things.

The Greatest Of All – Thank You For Reading

I’m so happy I have started this path. It’s been a surprising year. There is no way this time last year that I could ever have imagined anyof the things that have happened from starting this site. If you are on the fence about starting your own site I strongly recommend that you do it. (You can get started here)

Thank you for being the amazing reader you are and for lending me your eyes and your time. My promise to you is thatI will keep improving this site and helping you along in your financial journey.

If you could do me a favour and leave a comment to help celebrate, it would be the best thing ever! Thank you!

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