A few months ago I posted about my top failures so far this year. That helped me to share with people my own struggles in trying to make a change for myself towards more discipline, embracing what I like doing and taking responsibility for my life and where it is going.

I have incorporated this site and building its following into my daily routine with the goal of growing it as much as I can. When I started Cash Chronicles in 2016, I was inspired mainly by personal finance bloggers now collectively known as the Financially Independent and Retired Early or F.I.R.E. community. There are many great things about this community mainly:

• It’s a community of people that share tips and experiences of saving as much as they can;
• Usually it’s members are avid investors and share tips on where and how they are investing, be it bank CD’s, index funds or real estate;
• They tend to espouse a philosophy of finding one’s fulfillment outside of money and day to day work, being retired gives them the opportunity to do this and at a young age.

In addition, many of them blogged about their experience and how they achieved early retirement which some of them turned into a job in itself. A few made hundreds of thousands or even millions from blogging. I consider my penchant for saving and investing to make me a bit of an oddball among most people, so it was great to see not only were there so many similar people but that some of them were really knocking it out of the park.

I also found some things I wasn’t so enthusiastic about on these sites as well:

• A lot of times after reading their writings collectively, it just started to come off as bragging, which was a big turn off for me. There’s a fine line between you can do it too and you should be like me, which for many people is just stroking their ego.

As this Times piece points out, many of the bloggers are just not relatable for a lot of people. Not only are many of them white males, but the successful ones seemed to have everything go right for them: stable job, stable love life, highly educated, no family to take care of etc. While at the same time, I haven’t really come across those that have more than 2 kids, are divorced, made a big investment that went bad etc. This is why it can come off as bragging much like people on social media: everyone is winning except you.

The lifestyle they espouse does not fit everyone, not just because it’s austere, but some people actually like their jobs or their jobs help give them a sense of purpose or structure. Not everyone wants to wake up, bike, blog for a few hours and then churn their own butter.

I will say though, that I agree with some of the commentary I have seen on productivity. Many bloggers claim that most normal people only have about 4 hours a day of high productivity, after that, our brains get tired and get distracted easily. Additionally, it’s interesting to read about people’s routine and see how they manage their productivity, whether it’s exercising at certain times in the day or getting up at 5am to get a head start on things. I have incorporated some of these tips into my daily routine as well. I now try to exercise regularly to maintain my energy levels, I get up earlier (I am by no means a morning person so this is a big feat for me), and keep up with my blog on a regular basis, posting Monday and Thursday nights (today is only the second exception in 7 months straight).

There is no Cookie Cutter Model

The model that everyone has for themselves takes time to build and it takes takes time to find out what is right for you. One of my first mistakes was to try to emulate someone successful. In the past I had thoroughly enjoyed reading Financial Samurai run by former Goldman Sachs employee Sam Dogen. I think that this blog still has a lot of the framework of that model.

What I quickly found though, is his model wasn’t what was best for me. Finance is interesting to me because it’s international, constantly moving and can relate to big geo-political topics or to individual people. I didn’t want to just write about how to refinance your mortgage or what funds to invest in. Although I do write about those things, there are times I want to focus on policy or psychology as opposed to the dry be more like me writing that I come across from many financial blogging sites.

So seeing as I am only about 8 months in to consistently writing again, I thought I would take a moment to share what has worked for me and what hasn’t in terms of growing the site, as well as the benefits I have derived from it outside of any monetary gain.

What Has Worked

Although not a comprehensive list, in both growing the site and exploring topics for writing, I have noticed the following habits or strategies have helped over the past 8 months:

• Consistently Writing – this is one of the hardest things, especially when starting out, but making it a habit and a mental exercise has greatly benefitted my self discipline and hopefully the readers like the consistency.
• Academic Sites – there are a number of research sites that cover a wide range of topics that can give you a good idea to start running with. In addition, running a blog can also make outlets consider you a journalist so I have registered with a few academic sites that I now have free access to as a journalist. The National Bureau of Economic Research or NBER and Pew Research are just a few of these. Keep in mind too, that much of the mainstream media you read is just journalists going on these same sites and summarizing studies in laymen’s terms. The most read post on this site is here and is a summary of a paper I read back in April I found interesting.
• Celebrating the Small Wins – I reached an all time high for monthly views this month (see below). This may be peanuts to many with big sites and even starter sites get 1000 views per month but it’s the growth and consistency that pushes me. Keeping in mind that how many views I get also doesn’t determine my success. I look at writing like making music now, you can be doing it for years and all of the sudden one song just blows up and gets big. The key is to enjoy the process and keep producing.

• Not Being Too Hard on Myself – There are times that things are going to go wrong. I may post late because of personal circumstances or spend a lot of time on a strategy that doesn’t pan out. If you focus on the negative aspects of whatever goes wrong you won’t move past it, you will keep dwelling on it and prevent yourself from moving forward. Letting things go and getting back up when you’ve been knocked down by something has been tremendously helpful.
• Taking the Time to Edit – I hate editing. I just want to put it out there and be done. I have had to step it up in terms of taking more time to edit my posts, fixing grammar mistakes and adding relevant links and pictures. This takes time but it’s worth it when it makes the post better.

What Has Not Worked

It wouldn’t be a learning experience if I didn’t also take a look at the things that didn’t work:

• Sticking With One Strategy – It may sound counterintuitive but changing it up is important. I have a habit of just setting a standard and doggedly sticking to that regardless of the outcome. The examples of this are focusing on writing the content and sticking to the schedule while not focusing as much on changing the layout of the site or engaging more with other bloggers. I have to catch up here.
• Social Media – I still post everyday on the IG page but have found the strategies to grow the following there very time consuming and monotonous. I have to balance spending time on social media versus spending time on the actual site and making that better. There are days when I actually spend way more time on social media than I do Cash Chronicles which kind of defeats the purpose. I reached about 460 followers at one point but that took a lot of time consuming work. It’s not to say it’s not worth it but I have to continue evaluating balancing my time and keeping the end goal in mind.
• Posting Twice a Week – Although I have been consistent, I think I need to start posting more. I aim to write about 1300 to 1500 words in length per post and at first this was very challenging. As I have done it consistently though, writing has become easier and I am able to churn out a 1500 word post quite easily now. In addition the process of thinking what to write about has become easier which cuts down on the time it takes. Given that I am progressing, I think it is time to step it up.

Conclusion

If anyone is reading this and thinking of writing themselves, I strongly encourage you to start. The hardest thing sometimes is to just push yourself to take action. Even though I have not really made any money through my blog I have seen enormous benefits in terms of the added knowledge around my job that researching some topics provide.

I am able to chime in during meetings or in discussions with clients with relevant industry facts and studies that had value for people. This only happens due to the research that writing for this site pushes me to do.

It also improves my own life in the sense that if there is a topic I am not sure about, writing about it provides research and a record that I can refer back to down the road if I forget something. This is true of a recent post on college savings, where I wasn’t sure of how much I should be saving for my son’s college fund. Taking the time to write about it helped me realize that I am on track and to not worry as much as I was about it.

Whatever your interest, I can guarantee that there are a group of people out there that share it and will likely engage with you. Blogging can establish your own online brand and help you find a community, this contributes to a sense of belonging and purpose. Whether it’s a podcast, website, YouTube channel or whatever, I encourage everyone to get out there and give it a shot, you may surprise yourself in terms of what you can do.

The information provided by www.cashchronicles.com is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice. You should consult with an attorney or other professional to determine what may be best for your individual needs. www.cashchronicles.com does not make any guarantee or other promise as to any results that may be obtained from using our content. No one should make any tax or investment decision without first consulting his or her own financial advisor or accountant and conducting his or her own research and due diligence. To the maximum extent permitted by law, www.cashchronicles.com disclaims any and all liability in the event any information, commentary, analysis, opinions, advice and/or recommendations prove to be inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable, or result in any investment or other losses. Content contained on or made available through the website is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice or investment advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed. Your use of the information on the website or materials linked from the Web is at your own risk.