Ask Me Anything

In October of 2017, I published my first Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents. That went super well, so I decided to make it more of a regular thing! Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Written By:

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 24, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

In October of 2017, I published my first Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents. That went super well, so I decided to make it more of a regular thing!

Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:

  • Personal finance
  • Blogging
  • My life
  • Travel
  • RVing
  • Being location independent
  • Business
  • Making extra money
  • My favorite TV show
  • Questions about my dogs

And so on, and so on.

Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate or creepy. I’ll let you be the judge of what is creepy, I guess, haha!

All right, go for it, ask away!

 

P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.

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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Roberta

    Hi Michelle, I’m stuck unable to even customize my wordpress page. How did you learn how to navigate that?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Roberta!

      I learned just through trial and error, and Google searching everything I was stuck on. If you’re having a tough time, then you may want to look at purchasing a premade theme.

      Reply
      1. Roberta

        I’ll keep trying a little longer and if I can’t make it work I’ll have to throw the towel and get it made for me. Thanks for inspiring me to start one though! You make it look easy when it’s truly overwhelming 🙂

        Reply
  2. TJ

    Hi Michelle-
    2 questions:

    1) I have some credit card balances that I have transferred at a low promotional rate on a card I already had. However, I took out a debt consolidation loan about a year ago that has still has almost 2 years left to pay on. Would it be more beneficial for me to pay off the loan first and keep an eye on the promo times for the others (saving on interest)? Or knock the debt out with the general Snowball method (lowest balance first)?

    2) Would it be smart/financially responsible to get another CC w/ a promotional balance transfer rate and transfer what left of the consolidation loan to it saving a ton of interest? Or is the hit on the credit not worth is (score currently in the 720s)?

    P.s. I just launched my blog/website after years of procrastinating. Thank you for the inspiration.

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey TJ!

      I’m definitely not an expert at debt consolidation. If you have credit card debt, though, I’d personally want to pay it off as quickly as I could. If there are ways to save on interest, then it may be something for you to look into. Personally, this is something I’ve never really read about, but I have heard of people doing things like this.

      Reply
  3. David

    Hi Michelle!

    I have never had a blog before but I love writing. I have no idea as to a niche, so my question is this, can I write about several different topics from humorous to educational, or is this not advisable?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey David!

      I talk about this a little in the Featured Question here – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2018/04/how-i-made-241649-in-march-2018-blogging.html.

      There’s really no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s more about what you want to do.

      Reply
  4. Staci

    Hi Michelle!

    I am struggling getting started and knowing where to start. Literally, what was your first two steps?

    Thanks!

    Staci

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Staci!

      I’m not sure if you know my story of how I started my blog (you can read it here – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2017/04/how-to-make-money-blogging-online.html), so I’m not sure if you mean from the very beginning of when I started my blog, or from when I learned I could make money blogging.

      If you mean the very beginning, I can’t remember what my very first two steps were but they were probably just create/design a blog and write a blog post.

      Reply
  5. Taylor O’Halloran | Not Quite an Adult

    Hey Michelle,

    Just thought I’d throw you an easy question: What’s your favourite colour?

    Mines purple!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      You know, I think you’re the first person to ask that, haha!

      I really love light green and coral 🙂

      Reply
  6. Tawnya

    Hello Michelle,

    I’ve been a fan of your blog for several years, and my friend and I recently started our own finance blog. Would you be interested in us doing a free guest post? No pressure, but it would be absolutely amazing to see our work on a blog I’ve admired for so long.

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Tawnya! I’m not currently accepting guest posts as I’m super full with them. You can send me an email in a few months (with topic ideas) and I can see if I have room.

      Reply
      1. Tawnya

        Awesome, will do!

        Reply
  7. Janet

    Hi Michelle,

    Huge fan of your blog.

    I saw that you’re transitioning into yacht life now (which is awesome!)? Why the change? What are your plans for the near future?

    Janet

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Janet!

      We’ve been interested in sailing long before we even started RVing. Lately, we’ve had the sailing itch so we decided to just jump into it and get started. We absolutely love RVing but we’re ready for our next adventure 🙂

      With the nomadic life, it’s hard to make any plans so what I’m about to say will most likely change. Our plans for now are to hang out on the east coast for the next 5-6 months and get comfortable with the transition, and hopefully then go to the Bahamas for about 6 months.

      P.S. This will be a whole blog post in a few months (already started working on it but I’m a few months out scheduling-wise)!

      Reply
      1. katie

        Speaking of scheduling, how do you go about scheduling your content calendar and when do you start working on the different posts? I imagine it would be quite hard to talk about a big life change like going from RVing to Sailing so I’m curious how you decide that you’re going to talk about certain topics months down the road?

        Thanks!!

        Reply
        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          Hey Katie!

          I usually am around 1-3 months ahead in content. Since I travel full-time, I always like to be ahead since I don’t always know when/if I can work.

          My content is usually evergreen so there’s never really a problem. If I want to squeeze something in sooner, I can just change the dates and rearrange the schedule.

          Reply
      2. Janet

        I love sailing too and I hope I can do that one day. Thanks for the inspiration and I’m looking forward to this post!

        Reply
  8. Erina

    Hi Michelle, may I know how did you find people to interview?
    Do you have to know them well enough first?
    Do you conduct the interview in person or just via email?
    What kind of questions to ask so that they accept your interview?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey Erina!

      1) Most people contact me, but I have contacted a few people after I heard their stories.

      2) Not necessarily, but networking always helps.

      3) Just via email.

      4) It all depends on the type of interview you are wanting. You can see the exact questions I ask in each interview.

      Reply
  9. Phil

    I’m considering starting a blog. I’ve looked at both Bluehost as well as GoDaddy for domains and hosting and am wondering why you recommend Bluehost. GoDady’s price is about the same, they offer free domain names with hosting, and have a ton of extras included as well. What is it about Bluehost that makes you such a big fan? I’m just wondering if I’m overlooking something. Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Bluehost has a free domain and other free extras too 🙂

      They’re pretty much the same.

      Reply
  10. Davis

    I just can’t figure out what to start a blog about. On one hand, if I choose a subject I love, such as anything music related I get stuck trying to figure out a direction to go and then how I could monetize it, create products that I could make money from. If I chose self-improvement since I am reading books on this subject I get stuck in the same rat race of trying to look far enough ahead to see product potential. How do you just get out of your own way? I’m 50 years old and wanting to create a side hustle. Thanks

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      You just have to get out of your own way! I know that’s easier said than done, but many people who are thinking about blogging have the same problems. You just have to make the leap!

      Reply
  11. Ayrin

    Hi Michelle,
    I have started a blog and would like to include other’s bloggers/websites on mine as resources for others and am wondering what the proper procedure is. For example, if I wanted to list something from your site as a resource on my resource page, how would you prefer it to be done? I’m not sure if I need to always get the bloggers permission first or what the proper protocol is.
    Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      It depends – how do you plan on listing this resource? Just linking to my website or something else?

      Reply
      1. Ayrin Harris

        Thank you for your response. So for example, if I wanted to refer to one of your articles in your Make Extra Income Series or one of your other series or promote one of your courses. If I said, “Michele Schroeder-Gardner says on her website Making Sense of Cents…” or “Go to Making Sense of Cents to learn more about…” and then included a link. Would that be okay? Another consideration would be on a resource page where I have topics such as working from home, earning extra income, starting a blog. etc. If I listed a link under the topic title, would that work?
        This is all new to me so I want to make sure I am following proper procedures. Thanks for your help!

        Reply
        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          You can link to something on a website, but you cannot copy and paste sentences, paragraphs, or full articles.

          Reply
          1. Ayrin

            Okay, sounds good, thanks for the clarification! Best of luck on your boat living!

            Reply
  12. lydiah

    Hi Michelle,
    I hope I am not late.
    My concern is I have taken your short free course on how to start a blog and I really appreciate it very much. However, in your short course you don’t talk about how to set permalinks the necessary plugins and google analytics. I have heard about this things but I have no clue on how to set them on my blog. Your help will be much appreciated.

    Reply
  13. Jen

    Hi Michelle,

    Your post always have a lot of good well researched information. How long does it take you to write content for a post, editing included? Thanks!

    Reply
  14. Crabapple Pie

    Hi Michelle 🙂

    Love your blog and your amazing RV life!

    My question is related to blog traffic. My blog currently gets fewer than 1000 pageviews a month (I’ve been blogging properly for only three months now, tho the blog is way older), and I’ve made a few dollars on Amazon through sheer luck. Now I’m trying to figure out how to turn that into a deliberate strategy!

    So, my question: Do you think there’s a minimum traffic threshold that is required to bring in money? If so, what might that number be?:)

    Thanks! Keep up the brilliant work!

    Reply
  15. Raja

    Hi Michelle,
    Your journey is an inspiration to all new bloggers. I have a quick question for you;

    What platform do you use for your courses on site? Do you host videos on wordpress site itself or there’s some kind of plugin involved?

    Appreciate your response on this. Thanks

    Reply
  16. Elizabeth

    Do you have blog insurance?

    Did you pay an online website to help write your disclosure statement and privacy policy?

    How do I know what kind of statements I need in my disclosure statement?

    Do you have to have 100,000 views for all ad places?

    Is there a section on how to write to affiliate companies to ask them to promote on your website?

    Do you have a step by step entry for starting a blog?

    Reply
  17. zara

    Love your blog, it’s so inspiring! I have a blogging question: I am a fine art photographer and started a blog last year, to be perfectly honest, just to have one more space online where people can find me, and also so that I could Pin from it and use Pinterest to market my art. I don’t post regularly partly because I don’t have the time and partly because I hate writing. I really struggle with it, a 300 word post takes me an entire day to write. The vast majority of my posts are announcing my latest print series (so I don’t really want readers to click on anything else than the images in the post, which are linked to my store), but I’ve been thinking that maybe I am not using the blog as “smartly” as I could be. Maybe I should put more effort into it and see if I can get some affiliate income from it as well? My question is: If you were me, what would you do with my blog? Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!

    Reply
  18. Pam Jensen

    I enjoy your blog, and really admire what you have accomplished. I have procrastinated starting my blog because I am really not good at figuring out computer things. I can learn but I need a patient teacher. How would I go about finding someone knowledgeable who could give me one on one lessons via Skype or FaceTime?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Perhaps reach out to bloggers that you like and see if they offer coaching?

      Reply
  19. Michaelle

    Hi Michelle,
    I stumbled upon your website when I was highly desperate and burn out. I am almost a Junior in college and I am planning on graduating on 2.5 years while working and doing other activities. I have read your blog on how you graduated in 2.5 years and found it it really helpful. However I was wondering if you have some tricks, or advice that you could give me to help me in my journey.
    Thank you
    Michaelle 🙂

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hello!

      I give all of my best tips and tricks here:

      https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2014/08/how-i-graduated-from-college-in-2-5-years.html

      and

      https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2014/09/how-im-a-work-life-balancing-master.html

      Reply
  20. Myranda Black

    Hi Michelle,

    I have been brainstorming and collecting my thoughts as it pertains to starting my blog, I was wondering would you recommend starting a blog without content to simply ensure no one takes or uses my domain name? Or should I wait till I have content to start my blog?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      You can buy your domain whenever you want, if you are worried about it. It’s really just up to you. I’d buy it sooner rather that later if you have something that you really like.

      Reply
  21. Sunil Bhuyan

    Hi Michelle ,
    Are you still avilable for AMA? if not when are you scheduling the next AMA? I have lot of questions/queries to ask.

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
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