How My Blog Changed My Life

I am so happy to feature one of the first bloggers I ever followed, Tonya from Budget and the Beach. I think she is spunky, fun, so very talented and I simply love following her journey. She has also been such a great supporter and friend. We even shared some glasses of wine together during her last visit to Portland. Oh, and if you need a writer or video editor, hire her. Like, yesterday. She’s damn good at what she does!

More about her: Tonya is a beach volleyball-lovin’ video editor and writer living in Los Angeles. She chronicles her journey of becoming financially independent, and managing the rocky waters of freelancing, in her personal finance blog Budget & the Beach. You can follow her on Twitter at @beachbudget or on her Facebook page.

What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

We’re back with another edition of How My Blog Changed My Life. I know my blog has changed my life and I love hearing from others about how their lives have changed too.

What has changed in your life since starting a blog?

Today, we have a fabulous and inspiring woman who I had the pleasure of meeting at FinCon: Lauren from L Bee and the Money Tree.

Lauren Bowling is the blogger behind L Bee and the Money Tree, a finance site for career-minded 20-something women. She is also the creator and host of the award winning video blog series, Awkward Money Chat where guests discuss the most intimate details of their personal finances. Bowling is also a successful finance writer whose work has been published on Learnvest, Forbes, and The Huffington Post. By day Bowling works full time in marketing and resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

Prior to starting my blog, I paid off $10k in credit card debt while working for a hedge fund in New York City. This sparked my interest in Finance, but due to compliance issues I wasn’t able to blog publicly about my journey. When I left that job, I wanted to start a blog for someone like me: who knew a little bit about money but wanted to handle it wisely. I also wanted something that would appeal to the feminine aesthetic. The vibe of a fashion blog, but about finance.

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

I’m sure everyone who blogs and has a full-time job says that managing the two is the hardest part. Other than that, finding the motivation to keep going when things are going your way (readers, recognition, etc.) Blogging, especially in the beginning, can often be a very thankless job.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

Blogging gave me access to a completely new skill set. I leverage my blog when it first started to completely switch careers- from administrative assistant/actor to a full-time content manager. From there I worked my way up and I now work full-time as a content strategist, helping my company leverage content to drive sales.

On a personal level, blogging has helped my self-esteem immensely. It is the first thing I have ever built, maintained, and grew successfully on my own, without the help from anyone else. It is incredibly empowering! Especially when you start to have others reading your words and work. There isn’t a feeling quite like it!

4. What have you learned from blogging?

1) How to be organized. Blogging is a lot like work, but fun too because you are expressing yourself.

2) It has also taught me the importance of branding and publicizing your own brand. I used to think if you wrote something great enough, people would come. Now I know that’s not true. You have to ask for the things you want, whether it is someone to read your piece of content, or that next great raise. No one knew much about my accomplishments before I started blogging, now I tell everyone. Not to brag, because how else will they know about what I have going on unless I tell them?

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

Have a few blogs already before your site goes live. This will go a long way toward making you look like you know what you’re doing. Also, invest time in social media. This is where everyone starts with building an audience.

Thank you, Lauren!

Today, I’m super jazzed about the latest edition of How My Blog Changed My Life. If you are new here, I started this interview series after I realized my own life had changed tremendously because of my blog. Because my favorite part of blogging is the community, I thought it would be fun to interview others about how their blogs have changed their lives. These people are my inspirations!

Today, we have Stefanie who is insanely talented and someone I deeply admire. More about her: Stefanie O’Connell is a New York City based actress and freelance writer. She chronicles her struggle to “live the dream” on a starving artists’ budget at thebrokeandbeautifullife.com.

What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

I’m a professional actress by trade and a personal finance junkie out of necessity.  During one of my first tours I read Suze Orman’s, “Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke”.  From that point on, money became my hobby – “Millionaire Mind”, “Investing for Dummies”- I read anything and everything finance and became obsessed with tracking my own in my spare time.  When I saw how nonchalantly other actors would treat their limited funds, I shook my head in silence.  When I heard them subsequently complain about having no money, I decided to do something and start my blog.

What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

There are a lot of challenges surrounding blogging, more than I think most people realize, but I think the hardest is having no idea what I’m doing- seriously.  There are so many things that go into a blog that I never realized, it’s really overwhelming when you start out, and I’ve found it doesn’t really get any less overwhelming, but you get better at dealing with it.  There’s always some new thing to do or learn for the sake of your blog that you have absolutely no idea how to implement.  If you want to be a blogger you have to be a self-starter.

In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

I used to have to do things I hated just to get by- waiting tables, personal assisting, babysitting, trade show hostessing, pretty much any random side jobs you can think of- then I’d have to be up at the crack of dawn the next morning to audition.  It was soul sucking and exhausting.  Now my “survival job” (as we call it in “the biz”) is freelance writing- something I absolutely adore and can do on my own time.

It might sound like a minor change, but I’ve gone from being miserable and negative 99% of the time to feeling truly happy and content 99% of the time.  It’s the first time in my life where I’m not waiting for my next acting job to make me feel fulfilled.

What have you learned from blogging?

The more opportunities you create for yourself, the luckier you get.  As an actor, I’m all too familiar with rejection and how much luck matters.  Rather than focusing on what I can’t control, I’ve decided to empower myself through blogging — constantly creating more opportunities for success, even in the face of rejection.

What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

I do coaching for beginner bloggers so I could write pages on this, but if I have to narrow it down to one thing… know who you are, who you’re writing for, and what mission you’re serving.  Okay, that’s like three things, but the more clarity you bring to those fundamental answers, the more focused and effective you’ll be as a blogger.

Thank you Stefanie! I want to follow in your footsteps 🙂

Hey everyone! I’m at FinCon, so I have a special How My Blog Changed My Life for you. My friend Eric, who I met at the local personal finance blogger meet-up here in Portland, is “kind of a big deal” at FinCon. He runs the Ignite event at FinCon, which happens to be tonight. So whether you are at FinCon or not, meet Eric! He’s a blogging veteran and is so inspiring because he’s turned blogging into many lucrative side hustles.

Find out how Eric’s blog has changed his life…

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

I started my first blogs in 2006. I found it to be a fun way to connect and share information and thoughts online. Through those sites, I learned all about how blogs work and got a brief insight into how some blogs grow and make a little money. When I was working in a bank in 2007, I found that what I was learning as a bank manager might be useful to lots of people out there, and decided to share it with a new blog. I saw great sites I enjoyed like Poorer Than You and Fabulously Broke and thought to myself, if these girls can do finance blogs, so can I! So I started Narrow Bridge Finance on October 7, 2008. Six years later, I’m still here!

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

The most challenging part of having a blog is the hard work and many hours required to maintain the site, keep it fresh and up-to-date, and bring new and useful content to my readers every week. The blog has about 900 live posts representing countless hours of writing, a design that took even more time and a bit of money, and products like a book that I created as part of the business.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

In one way, I got to meet Melanie and write this post! But meeting Melanie is just a small slice of the friendships and opportunities that have come from my site (no offense Melanie, your part is pretty sweet). My blog has led to some of my closest friends around the world that I would never have met otherwise, great experiences and conferences like FinCon (the conference for finance bloggers and the media) and World Domination Summit.

The biggest impact, though, has been the income directly from the blog and from related services that I have begun to offer. I now make about 20% of my income online from Narrow Bridge Finance and my freelance writing, web design, and social media consulting business Narrow Bridge Media.

4. What have you learned from blogging?

Blogging has taught me so much that I can hardly scratch the surface here, but I’ll do my best. On the most basic level, the blog has dramatically improved my writing, website design, Wordpress development, graphic design, and business and project management skills. Beyond that, I have learned about topics as diverse as project outsourcing to workers abroad, online marketing, monetization, networking, building a brand, and kicking ass on the internet.

Being successful online takes a huge amount of work, a wide skill set, and business acumen. I didn’t have all of those when I started with this whole blogging thing, but I can confidently say that I have improved at all of those, along with personal finance, the topic of my blog, as I’ve gone along.

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

My biggest advice to new bloggers is to seriously consider the effort it takes to maintain a blog before you start and, when you do, treat your blog professionally. A blog is your personal online presence and the work it takes to blog makes it a big part of your life. If you really want to succeed, you can’t do it without really trying. Look at what you like and what works well and what it takes for them to succeed. If you think you’re up to it, follow their lead and see where it can take you. You might be surprised where you end up!

Thank you so much Eric for sharing your insights!

Welcome back to another edition of How My Blog Changed My Life! Today, I’m super excited about featuring Michelle, who is pretty much a legend in the personal finance sphere. She’s amazingly successful, good at what she does, and makes good money doing it. Essentially, she is an inspiration to everyone.

More about Michelle: Michelle Schroeder left her day job in 2013 to pursue a career as a freelance writer and website manager. She writes about many topics such as personal finance, entrepreneurship and traveling on her websites Making Sense of Cents and Diversified Finances. She has a popular extra income series in which she details how she makes over $10,000 a month by freelancing online.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

I started my blog in August of 2011. I graduated from college a little over one year earlier and I had a lot of student loan debt. I started reading personal finance websites such as DailyWorth so that I could get a better grasp on my finances. I then decided to start my own personal finance blog so I could talk about what was going on in my life and to track my progress. I quickly got addicted to blogging and the whole community and everything just grew from there.

I’m glad I started because my blog eventually led to me side hustling, and then my side hustling eventually led to freelancing full-time.

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

Oh yeah! Time for another How My Blog Changed My Life, this time from Shannon, the blonde bombshell finance expert over at Financially Blonde. I am so inspired by her wisdom, sass, and class and her star is rising fast! (I swear I didn’t mean that to rhyme). Watch out world, she is about to take over!

More about her: Shannon McLay is a financial planner who left a “traditional” financial services firm to start her own company, NextGen Financial, to help clients in their 20s and 30s get financially fit. Through her blog, Financially Blonde, her book, Train Your Way to Financial Fitness and her partnership with Money Saving Pro, Shannon is committed to making financial fitness fun, easy and accessible for others.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

The blog started as a mini rebellion following my 13 year career in financial services. For most of my career, because of regulatory requirements, I always had someone from compliance or management reading my emails and sculpting what I could and could not write. I understood the need for the control based on the size of my companies and the industry I worked in; however, I longed to write and speak my mind.

While I was working for a large wealth management firm as a Financial Advisor, I wanted to send a monthly newsletter to my clients that I would call “Financially Blonde” because my male co-workers frequently called me the “Elle Woods of Financial Services.” Elle Woods was the lead character in the movie Legally Blonde. This newsletter was of course struck down by compliance; however, I tucked it in the back of my mind and knew that I would dust it off one day when I could. Within a month of leaving to start my own company, the Financially Blonde blog was born.

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

For me the biggest challenge about having a blog is finding the time to devote to it because blogging is not my primary job. I spend most of my time working as a financial planner (or I call myself a financial trainer) helping my clients achieve financially fit and rewarding lives. I love what I do everyday and it frequently inspires many of the blogs that I write; however, I would love to spend more time working on my blog. I really enjoy writing and being a part of the pf blogging community, and I would love to make a number of improvements on my blog, but I just don’t have the time to do it all.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

Blogging has changed my life in so many ways that I am constantly shocked at how much it has. I wrote a post about this a few months ago, but the biggest way that it has changed my life is that it has introduced me to so many new friends. I was under the misinterpretation that when I first started blogging that it was an isolating activity since you accomplish it sitting alone in a room. I didn’t realize that through blog commenting and stalking that I would meet and become connected to so many wonderful people.

One of my blog friends actually introduced me to the team at AOL, and I am now the Co-Host of the Finance Hub at AOL Jobs. In this role, I am responsible for helping to guide and mentor men and women in financial services jobs. I can’t think of anything more cool than that. My blog has also led to other writing jobs as well as partnership opportunities like the one I have with Money Saving Pro.

4. What have you learned from blogging?

One of the best things I love about being a pf blogger is that I learn so much from other bloggers every single day. Even though I have a financial services job, and I have worked in the community for over 14 years, I am still learning new things all the time. Many of the tips and tools I have gotten from other bloggers, I incorporate in my client’s financial plans. I am constantly inspired by the personal stories and journeys of everyone with a blog, and I truthfully never expected to feel this way when I first started my blog.

I have also learned an important lesson about blogging that applies to most things in life, and that is the harder you work, the more you will be rewarded. Like most new bloggers, the first few months of my blog, I only seemed to be writing for my family and friends. I commented on other blogs, but not regularly. Then I decided at the end of 2013, that I would make an active commitment to my blog. I did not officially join the Yakezie Challenge; however, I put the same parameters around my blogging, and after a few months of working nights and weekends on the blogging efforts, I started seeing results.

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

I would tell someone who is starting a blog to plan to commit a solid six months of hard work and effort to building their blog and community around their blog. The first few months are frustrating and there will be many blogs that you will comment on that will not return the favor or not even post your comment for fear that you are not serious about your blogging. You have to take these rejections in stride and keeping working on building your community. If you work on it enough, people will come around. I have been blogging for almost a year now, and I love my blog friends and community. I look forward to engaging with them every day. Don’t let a fear of hardwork and commitment rob you from the gift of community.

Thank you, Shannon!

Hi friends! I’m excited to feature Kathleen from Frugal Portland on How My Blog Changed My Life. This series highlights the many ways that blogging can change your life and open up opportunities you never thought possible. This is extra special for me as Kathleen was the one who encouraged me to start my blog and without her guidance I might not be here today.

More about her: Kathleen O’Malley is the owner of Frugal Portland and For Profit Blogging. By day, she’s the blog manager for The Center for Sales Strategy, and helps companies determine their best business blogging strategies. When she can be pulled away from her computer, she enjoys spending time with her fiance Brent (though wedding planning is not her strong suit!) and their dog Stanley.

In Kathleen’s words…

Hi, I’m Kathleen. Melanie and I became friends when she asked if she could take me out to dinner one stormy night a year and a half ago. Her enthusiasm was magnetic and her dissatisfaction with her student loan debt consumed her. Since then, she’s been part of our little ragtag group of Portland bloggers, and if I’m lucky, I see her around once a month. Relationships like this wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the power of the written word online.

The Inspiration for Starting my Blog

I woke up on my 30th birthday, still in credit card debt. I’d made a series of bad decisions, and was tired of being broke. So I started reading personal finance blogs. At that time, there was a glitch in the Google universe and the people who were reporting their blog incomes were reporting 20 and 30 thousand dollar income streams every month. Shoot, I thought. I have a debt story, and I can write. I want a piece of that!

So, Frugal Portland was born. My blog grew traction just as Google was fixing that glitch, so I never saw that kind of money, but a funny thing happened. I started making friends with the voices inside my computer (and yes, in case you’re wondering, that is how crazy starts). Turns out, an excellent subsection of humanity exists online!

The Most Challenging Part of Having a Blog

What’s funny, I don’t think of having a blog as a challenge. I suppose it is, in that I picked a hobby that completely sucked me in and there’s no way out. I could have learned French, become an excellent tennis player, or gotten at least a green belt in karate given the amount of time I’ve put into blogging, but it doesn’t feel like a choice anymore. It’s a responsibility now. A way of life, even.

My Life Has Changed in Very Real Ways

I mentioned the happy hour group we have — those friends wouldn’t have existed without blogging. I have friends all over North America. In addition, I started writing for Babble as a freelancer — something I never thought I’d be able to do, and an opportunity that I would have never heard about, were it not for my home on the internet. My day job now is a direct result of starting a blog! I’m a blog manager for a company. It astounds me that I work in an industry that didn’t even exist when I was born. I’m learning all kinds of cool things, and I get to work from home!

I’m still not making $30,000 a month, and I’m not sure I ever will. That’s not my goal anymore. My goal initially was to publicly announce my get-out-of-debt plan. Once I got there, I danced around in my living room, then got to work on the next thing. Now, we talk about real ways to save money, minimalism, frugality, and fun things to do in Portland, Oregon. I started a new blog to help people understand how to make money on the internet. It’s called For Profit Blogging, and it’s aimed toward people who need a little help. I believe that anyone can make money with their story, and I’m teaching tools for foundations, tricks with fun plugins, and more. If you’re making money, any amount of money, on the internet, please contact me and I’ll feature you!

Top 5 Things I Learned from Blogging

1. People who write blogs are very friendly, and almost none of them think they’re better than you when you’re just starting out.
2. Blog conferences are excellent, and provide inspiration.
3. Hanging out with other bloggers rarely involves talking about blogging.
4. If you compare yourself to others, you’ll go crazy. People don’t share mediocre stats online. They only share the really impressive numbers.
5. I struggled with confidence early on, and for most of the first year of blogging. I was “just starting out” or I was “just a little blog” and those statements are both self-fulfilling prophecies and limiting. Fake confidence until you are actually confident. Tell yourself every day that you are a writer, or a blogger, or whatever title you want to give yourself that sounds silly. You’ll get there.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, I have seven pieces of advice (other than to read every post of For Profit Blogging!):

1. Start. Learn by doing. Get up in the morning and write, every single day. You don’t have to publish every day, and I don’t think you should. But start your day writing.
2. Make sure you pick a topic that sparks something inside you. You’re in this for the long haul, so make sure you can write about your topic 2-3 times a week for life. I tried to start a Paleo blog, but holy smokes did I not care enough about the Paleo lifestyle that it just withered on the vine.
3. Don’t worry about covering the same topic as someone else. Everything has already been written, right?
4. Find a group of people you can ask your questions to. There are groups in the personal finance world (such as Yakezie) and there are approximately one bajillion Facebook groups.
5. RESPOND to your commenters. Trust that there are humans behind those avatars, and that many avatars are actual representations of what those humans look like!
6. Don’t be afraid to reach out to bloggers you admire, but be specific when you reach out. And be human. Do you want to meet for coffee? Great. Do you have a specific question about blogging? Ask away! Make sure you’re not simply asking someone to “take a look” at your blog.
7. This one’s just for Melanie: don’t be anonymous! 🙂 Connecting with people is more fun when they have a name, a face, and a Facebook profile that can be invited to happy hour. Melanie’s note: So glad I’m not anonymous anymore!
   

Trust me, you can do this! 🙂

xoxo,

Kathleen

Melanie’s note: Also, check out this awesome new resource on blogging! My blog has completely changed my life and I wouldn’t have done it without Kathleen. Learn from her expertise with this ebook. (affiliate link)

Hi friends! I have another awesome edition of How My Blog Changed My Life. This time featuring MY GIRL Tonya from My Fab Finance. I met her a while ago on Twitter. I saw she lived in Brooklyn. As some of you know, I used to live there. So I thought I’d check out her site — I fell immediately in love with her site and her story. She is an inspiration and has been on quite a journey. Now she rocks the house by helping people turn their finances from drab to fab. We have connected in so many ways and I can’t wait to be friends with her “in real life” at FinCon! More about her:

Tonya Rapley is the founder and editor of My Fab Finance. She is your guide to becoming financially fabulous. After improving her credit score by 120 points in 18 months, she fell in love with personal finance. My Fab Finance promotes financial freedom by supporting financial behavioral change and offering relatable information that increases financial literacy. Tonya is a Certified Financial Educator and possesses a master’s degree in Urban Policy.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

I started my blog so that it could be my accountability partner during my journey to financial respectability. The site turned out to be a hit with my peers and I realized that they wanted to find out how I was improving my finances. A year and a half later I am now a Certified Financial Educator and looking to do My Fab Finance full-time by next year.

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

Well up until May I was also in graduate school. Plus I work full-time. So growing a blog with a regular blogging schedule while working full-time and attending grad school full-time was extremely tough. Managing my time was difficult and continues to be.

Also I am a Gemini and focusing isn’t really our thing. I’ve learned to focus on the mission of my blog but I have to constantly remind myself of something my mentor told me, she said “be a tree, not a bush.” Don’t try to do everything with your site. Do what you do well, become known for that, and then grow.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

I found my purpose in my blog. I always knew I wanted to change people’s lives, which is why both of my degrees are public service oriented, but I was not prepared for how clear this blog would make everything. I have never loved any endeavor I have embarked on as much as I do My Fab Finance. It sounds crazy but it’s my baby. I’m protective of its brand and integrity and think about it every waking hour (do I sound obsessed?)

I have met so many amazing people that I never would have met otherwise. I’ve learned how to effectively collaborate with others and see people in my field as assets not competition. My blog has also taught me about completion. Prior to My Fab Finance I was the type of person who talked about what they were going to do. Now, I do what I say I’m going to do. I have learned how powerful I am and have gained confidence in myself and my ability to achieve my goals. My Fab Finance has given me the opportunity to let my life speak.

4. What have you learned from blogging?

I have learned that consistency is essential and can overshadow talent. I have learned that relationships matter. I have learned how to use Photoshop a lot better. I have learned what type of person I don’t want to be. I’ve also learned how to share.

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

Make sure it’s something you reallllyyy want to write about. After that first year that topic you thought you had so much to say about starts to look a little skimpy. Also write write write. I have a stockpile of articles I write when I’m in that zone to pull from when I’m not in the zone.

Lastly, readers do not come overnight, it takes work to get them to the site, be patient and make sure you have good content to bring them back.

Thank you so much, Tonya!

Welcome back to another edition of How My Blog Changed My Life, my latest series showcasing awesome bloggers whose lives have changed because of their blogs. My hope is to inspire others and myself, while learning from these fantastic bloggers.

I know my life has changed from my blog, so I love hearing about how other people’s lives have changed as well.

Today I’m excited to feature Erin, from Broke Millennial. Erin is the founder of BrokeMillennial.com, where she uses sarcasm and humor to explain basic financial concepts to her fellow millennials. Erin lives in New York City and works for MagnifyMoney.com.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

It came to me over drinks with a friend of mine. She was complaining about her job and how she’d moved to New York to be an actress. I asked her why she wasn’t pursuing the acting dream for at least a little while? It’s easy to get side jobs in New York to sustain on for a year or two if trying to be a performer is your dream. She responded how she just was too stressed about money (even though she didn’t have any debt). I kept pushing a bit asking her questions and she admitted that she just would stick her head in the sand when it came to her finances and would hope she had enough to pay her bills month-to-month.

This conversation made it click in my head how many of my millennial peers behave this way when it comes to money. I decided I wanted to do something to change people’s relationships with money by talking about my own and sharing the funny stories about my own journey to financial literacy.

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

Continuing to come up with fresh, creative content. There are so many personal finance blogs out there that it sometimes seems like the same ideas just keep getting recycled over-and-over again. I try to put some different ideas out there and on occasion just like to write some opinionated pieces to get some conversation going.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

I’ve had the opportunity to do media appearances and be quoted by major media outlets that certainly never would’ve happened without my blog.

I’ve also leveraged my blog into not just freelance gigs, but a full-time job with a startup company called MagnifyMoney.com. I work as their brand and content manager, so I handle their social media presence and do a lot of writing on the blog as well as some basic public relations outreach.

If someone had told me two years ago that my life would change this much just because I decided to start writing a blog, I probably would’ve laughed right in his or her face.

4. What have you learned from blogging?

Just how many opinions there are out there about how to handle your finances and how to create a hybrid of some of these ideas to find what works best for you. As someone who has gone through life without any debt, I’ve really grown to respect the debt-bloggers (like yourself) who are working so tirelessly to crawl out of the red. It’s really impressive the lengths people have gone to generate more income, cut spending and change their lifestyles to prepare for their futures.

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

Find a topic that genuinely interests you because it will be really time consuming so you don’t want to waste time on something less than thrilling. Plus, it’s easy to spot when someone is writing just to try to generate a profit on their site.

Thank you, Erin! Check out her stuff at BrokeMillennial.com and @BrokeMillennial

I’m so excited for another edition of my new series, How My Blog Changed My Life. This time we have a badass rockstar who is changing lives, inspiring others, and not boring you to tears with old, tired financial advice. Who am I talking about?

J$ of course! J. Money blogs over at BudgetsAreSexy.com, a personal finance site that tries not to put you to sleep. A commenter once said he was “the Miley Cyrus of finance,” and while he’s pretty sure this wasn’t a compliment, he very much took it as one 😉 Jay also runs a project called Rockstar Finance where he scans over 150 articles a day to find the best three to share with people. It’s a great way to find tips and learn about other awesome financial bloggers out there. You can learn more about J. Money and all his projects here: jmoney.biz

I can personally say that J. Money has changed my life by featuring some of my articles on Rockstar Finance. In addition, he has been a great friend and support. And he’s just plain cool. So let’s see how HIS blog changed his life.

1. What was the inspiration for starting your blog?

I kinda had two: 1) To pay attention to my money more, and 2) To be more productive with my time. A few months prior I had gone out and bought a $350K+ house on a whim when I meant to rent a 2 bedroom apt (hah!), and at the same time I was really tired of wasting my time at work on sites like Youtube and MySpace (double hah!). So after stumbling across these so-called “personal finance” blogs and realizing they were just normal people online sharing stories and tips, I thought what the hell, I could do that too! So I just gave it a shot and now here we are over 6 years, and 7 million views, later still going strong 🙂

2. What has been the most challenging part of having a blog?

Probably that the more successful you are, the more time it takes to maintain everything. In the beginning I’d spend maybe 20 mins a day putting out an article and responding to my 1 fan (probably my mother), and then as the years and the blog grew, it slowly became an hour a day, and then two, and then 4 and now sometimes even 12. What started as a blog eventually became a business, and every small business owner knows you wear multiple hats to keep things going from marketer, to operations, to accounting, and everything else in between. And the bigger it gets the more *other* opportunities come your way as well. All good things for sure, but all things that still take up handfuls of hours, and sometimes away from your friends and family.

3. In what ways, direct or indirect, has your life changed because of your blog?

Oh man, I can’t even express to you how different my life has been because of this blog. I’ve learned more in these past handful of years than I have my entire life put together, and every single day I pray to the heavens above for giving me this opportunity – it’s been amazing. Here are a few of the most drastic changes due to my blog:

– I became self-employed
– I met every last one of my best friends and business partners online
– I co-founded a charity that raised almost $100,000
– I launched, sold, and shut down another 12-15 projects
– I’ve made somewhere close to a half a million dollars

To say I didn’t see any of this coming would be an understatement 🙂

4. What have you learned from blogging?

I learned that nothing’s ever permanent – for the good, and the bad – and that you have to take advantage of every last opportunity that comes your way as you never really know what’s around the corner for you. There’s been times I’ve made over $20,000 in a weekend with my online projects, and others where I only made $2,000 a month – that all has to support a growing family of 4 in an expensive part of the country ($2k is more than awesome as a side hustle of course, but not so much a job-job). So being able to manage your money is key in life, and especially when you’re out on your own.

I also learned that anything’s possible as long as you’re CRAZY passionate about it. It’s one thing to dream and wish for things, but a whole other to actually create a plan and then pour in the hours to make it happen. There’s a reason we’re not surrounded by full-time bloggers or business owners, or even millionaires all over – it’s hard as $hit to pull off! But it IS possible.

5. What advice would you give to new bloggers who are thinking of starting a blog?

Just do it!! Channel your inner Nike and make it happen TODAY. You may not fall in love with it, but the barriers to entry are so low that it’ll literally cost you nothing to find out, and maybe a few hours of your time.

The better question to think about is what opportunities you could be missing out on if you DON’T start your blog? In the beginning that’s all it will be – a blog about money (or whatever) – but it has the chance to be so much bigger and affect so many more people down the road. Not only yourself, but the hundreds/thousands/millions of others coming to you to learn and improve their lives with you. And that’s just what the blog itself offers. There are things that can happen outside of it too like friendships and collaborations and media requests, new blogs, new companies, new freelancing work, book deals, speaking gigs, and on and on and on.

It’s hard to imagine now because it seems so far off and you’re always thinking “it could never happen to you,” but I’ll tell you this much – it’s going to happen to *somebody!* So why the hell shouldn’t it be you?