It’s been a long time since my last Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents.
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
- Sailing
- Being location independent
- Business
- Making extra money
- 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.
Jay says
Are you still using Bluehost? If so, are you using dedicated hosting or the shared hosting?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
I have one separate website on Bluehost still.
Making Sense of Cents is on BigScoots. I don’t recommend BigScoots for a brand new blogger, though, as it is much, much more expensive and not needed for a new blog.
Brett says
I graduated high school in 2003.
From the sixth grade all the way until graduation day we were told “if you want to make a decent living, you have to go to college. If you don’t go to college, you will be stuck earning a low wage at a dead end job your entire life.”
These were often accompanied by charts showing expected incomes of dropouts, HS grads, and those with bachelors and masters degrees–from low to extremely high in said order. So….
If you had to explain to a high school senior class the differing career paths and expected incomes of blue collar jobs after graduation vs taking on “typical” student debt to get a “typical” four year degree, what would you tell them and why?
I’m mostly curious if you would touch on ACTUAL cost of tuition (after interest), personal savings rate, and investing vs decade(s) of student loan repayments.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Brett!
Great question. This would be better for a whole blog post, as it would be hard to do this question justice with the space that a comment allows.
But, I would tell them to look at all career paths, and not just only at a typical 4 year college. Are high schools these days still only pushing college? I feel that there’s a lot of studies out there that show that it’s not the best option for everyone anymore, and that there is a huge need in other areas, such as blue collar jobs, that aren’t being filled (but are desperately needed).
Karyth says
Thank you for the opportunity to ask you questions. I purchased a self hosted site via Bluehost in April. I’m struggling with the design. I received the Divi theme for WordPress for free as an incentive. Divi is not as easy as I thought and it’s not inspiring me to log on and work on my blog.
Shall I get rid of the Divi theme and purchase a WordPress theme on Etsy?
I have nothing to compare to because I started with WordPress straight out of the gate with Divi.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
If you’re having trouble, then I always recommend simply purchasing a premade design instead so that you can stop worrying and messing around with the design and instead actually get started blogging.
Karyth says
Thank you, Michelle. Do you have a recommendation of the best place to purchase a premade design?
Best,
Karyth
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Karyth!
My affiliate link for the one I recommend is https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/blogdesign
Jen says
Hi Michelle! I’m thinking of changing up my blog so I’m wondering if I can change the name of my existing website or would it be easier to just start from scratch? If a second question is ok, I’m wondering the best way to grow my audience. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated 😊
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Jen!
Yes, you can change the name of your website. I would look up “rebranding a blog” or something like that on Google to see others who have done so.
Traffic is a question that I’ve gone over a lot, so I hope you don’t mind that this will be the same as what I’ve said to others (as it doesn’t really vary much anyways).
There are so many ways to grow traffic such as:
1) SEO
2) Pinterest
3) Facebook
4) Guest posting
5) Instagram
6) Starting a Youtube channel or podcast and so much more!
I recommend reading this for more info: https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html
Stephanie says
Hi Michelle,
I’d like to know if you have any experience with nonprofits using affilate links to raise funds for their organization? I was thinking of only using links we have tried and tested and feel good about and that fit our mission. I’d love to know your experience or ideas. Thank you.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Stephanie!
I’m not sure if I understand your question. Would the nonprofit be selling something?
Andrew Koppenaal says
Hi,
I am beginning my own blog and am struggling to see money coming in from Display Ads. Are clickable ads the only income? Are there other things I can do to drive more traffic to generate income from the ads?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Andrew!
If you’re a new blogger, are you sure that you’re struggling? How long have you been blogging?
Andrew Koppenaal says
Struggling in my terms i guess…haha….My site has been live for about 2 months roughly. Maybe I am not struggling, but I expected more income early on. Maybe that was not smart on my part.
Jeremy says
Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this.
I have only been blogging for a year now and I have been using pinterest to drive traffic.
We receive anywhere between 500 to 1000 visitors a day from pinterest and our goal is to get to 10,000 a day from pinterest.
I believe your blog gets more than that a day from pinterest so this is my question:
Does it take longer than a year to get more favor from pinterest to be able to get more traffic from them? With your blog did it take a long time to break the 10,000 a day mark with pinterest traffic alone. Am I doing something wrong or should I expect to keep getting more push from pinterest if I stay steady and just continue to make better pins and get more saves and engagemnent?
Any advice would be helpful on this subject as I am beginning to wonder if I can succeed at my goal of 10,000 visitors a day with pinterest. Thanks so much for your time!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
That is awesome that you receive a good amount of traffic from Pinterest! Good job.
That being said, I definitely do not get 10,000 page views from Pinterest a day. So, I do not know if there’s a certain amount of time to see that or how exactly it would work.
Donald Langhirt says
In the beginning did you find it difficult to build your site,,,it seems to be very labor intensive,,,lol
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
It’s definitely work. If it were easy, then everyone would do it and then it would be a get rich quick scheme 🙂
Kat says
Do you have any personal finance tips or even RVing tips for single moms? For getting started and building up?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Kat!
I have tons of tips I could share – can you clarify a little more so that I know how to help?
Marsha Nicoll says
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for your posts. I’ve been following you for about 2 years now. I have a website and am thinking about enlisting a virtual assistant to help with some aspects of the site. My question is, do you use Virtual Assistants? If you do, how many do you have, and what roles do you give them to help with meeting your business goals?
Regards
Marsha.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Marsha!
I have a virtual assistant who helps me with my day-to-day tasks, such as emails, managing my Facebook groups, making images, and more.
Marsha Nicoll says
Thank you.
david says
Hello Michelle,
I am a relative beginner in an Affiliate Marketing program. I would like to know some good tips on how to drive as much traffic as possible to a website or to wherever people would find what your sponsor has to sell so you can get credit for it and thus get paid. Please respond whenever you can. Thank you. David.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Traffic is a question that I’ve gone over a lot, so I hope you don’t mind that this will be the same as what I’ve said to others (as it doesn’t really vary much anyways).
There are so many ways to grow traffic such as:
1) SEO
2) Pinterest
3) Facebook
4) Guest posting
5) Instagram
6) Starting a Youtube channel or podcast and so much more!
I recommend reading this for more info: https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html
skylar says
Are you pregnant or have any children? If so, how is boat life with them? What would you do with school and personal life such as having buddies?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
I have no children and I am not pregnant.
Katrina Adams says
Hi Michelle,
I’ve been thinking of doing a lifestyle blog. I have quite a lot of eclectic interests (personal finance being one) and wondered if by doing a lifestyle blog I could put these all in one place, or would I be better off breaking each topic into its own blog and then monetising from there?
Also, if I could be cheeky and ask another question – Do you think the market is already overly saturated with money making and saving blogs so it’s now hard to stand out?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Katrina,
1) If you’re going to include a lot of topics on the same blog, then I always recommend finding a way to connect them all, so that readers don’t get confused. For example, here on Making Sense of Cents, I talk about a lot of topics (such as money, travel, RVing, sailing, life tips, etc), but I always try to bring it back to money in some way.
2) I do not think it’s over saturated. There are plenty of ways to stand out and have your own voice.
Katrina Adams says
Thank you so much for your response. Do you have a list of recommended reading/courses that are helpful to beginners?
Jordan Beck says
Hi Michelle. Thanks so much for all your helpful advice. Just wondering how popular your blog was (eg. Monthly page views, social followers etc) before you started affiliate marketing? Really appreciate your insights!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
I actually didn’t have analytics installed in the beginning so I have no idea about page views in the very beginning, and I haven’t kept track of my social following over the years.
I would say probably about 100,000 page views a month about a few years in? That’s a complete guestimate though.
Sahibah Syed says
Hey, Michelle!
Thank you so much for this opportunity!
I would like to know how to increase traffic to the website organically. And how many times should I post in a blog when you just started it? Should I post on a daily basis or once in a week?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
I recommend publishing a new blog post at least once a week, so that you can be consistent.
Traffic is a question that I’ve gone over a lot, so I hope you don’t mind that this will be the same as what I’ve said to others (as it doesn’t really vary much anyways).
There are so many ways to grow traffic such as:
1) SEO
2) Pinterest
3) Facebook
4) Guest posting
5) Instagram
6) Starting a Youtube channel or podcast and so much more!
I recommend reading this for more info: https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2019/04/how-to-earn-money-blogging.html
Akr says
Hello Michaelle
Thanks for….. ask me anything …..campaign. I want to start a blog but i have not much knowledge about blogging. Plse tell me two things….
1… How to select blogging niche….I have no hobby, no passion and not clearity about my intersting area.
2…. How to write blog when i have no knowledge about topic much better….can we write from google
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Akr,
1) I highly recommend checking out my free blogging course as it’ll help you in these areas a little bit – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/freecourse
2) This may help you with your second question – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2018/05/editing-and-writing-strategies-that-will-take-your-content-to-the-next-level.html. I don’t know what you mean when you say “can we write from google” – if you mean taking other people’s content, the answer is no.
DNN says
Hi Michelle,
I admire you for doing the transformation work and achieving your Master’s degree. From the time you started the blog to the day you officially achieved side hustle millionaire status, how long would you estimate it took you to achieve that with affiliate marketing and blogging alone?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
I don’t share my actual net worth for privacy reasons, but you can check out how long it took me for each various income level here – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/extra-income
Sandra says
Hi Michelle,
What is the process to verify that your blog idea is good? Should I be using Long Tail Pro to verify that my topic has low competition and easy to rank?
What is your method to verify blog ideas?
Thank you,
Sandra
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
What I like to recommend doing is coming up with around 10 possible blog post content ideas and seeing if you’re interested in them and the direction you are taking. For me, though, I’m all about being passionate in the topic you are writing about, so that’s what I usually recommend.
Anisa says
Hey Michelle,
I have a blogging question for you!
I launched my podcast this year which explains basic money concepts to kids. I have two target audiences- the blog is for parents and it compliments the podcast which is for kids.
I recently found out that people who are finding my blog, don’t realize that the podcast is for kids (they thought the podcast was the audio version of my blog post!).
I updated my latest blog post for Episode 10, to make it a lot more obvious that the podcast is meant for kids. https://kidsmoneyandmore.com/smart-money-goals/
Do you have any other tips on messaging to make this clearer? Is my latest post obvious enough? In which case I will replicate that for my previous posts.
Also, which social media channels do you recommend are best to focus on? Right now I’m going with what I know- FB & Linked In.
I just started using Twitter as I thought the finance community there would be on board with my content, since they’re already interested in learning about money. It might be easier to convince them to teach their kids about money too…
I know I should use Insta and Pinterest, but I’m doing both the podcast and website by myself and find it a bit overwhelming!
If there is one more platform you would recommend I focus on, what would it be?
Thanks in advance for any advice! Truly appreciate it 😊
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Anisa,
1) I think the note you added to Episode 10 makes it pretty clear. Although, I can see how people would be confused without that note as I’m not used to blogs/podcasts doing that. Sounds like a good idea!
2) Wherever your audience is, which you would know best. I’d assume that Pinterest would be good as well, and probably Instagram as well. SEO never hurts either.
3) If there is only one social media platform I’d focus on, I would make it Pinterest probably. But, I don’t like limiting myself to only one platform so I’d do Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For the most part, a lot of it can be automated or scheduled anyways.
Ahmed Lemhar says
how can my blog bring me money i started my blog and wrote some articles and the visits are not that good please can you provide me with some advice on how to have more visits ?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
What are you currently doing to build your traffic?
Andrea Cohen says
Hi Michelle,
I’ve been an EBA student for awhile and am currently re-working my lead magnet to increase my email subscribers.
Could you share any insight that you may have regarding the process you went through and what you learned about finding a successful lead magnet for your target audience when you first started blogging?
Thanks so much!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Andrea!
I’m not a super analytical person, so I didn’t really go through a lot of steps in order to figure out what would be best. I simply ask my readers or brainstorm what they would like. And, then I create my lead magnets. I keep them up to date and improve them when I can.
Paul Symonds says
Hi Michelle, Followed your blog for 1 year now.
My question is where do you see blogging in 20 years time? Technology changes so fast (relatively speaking) and do you feel that blogging will be much different in 20 years time from how it is now?
You did say to ask anything and I’d be real interested to hear your answer!
all the best. Love your blog. Paul
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Hey Paul!
Great question. I’m not sure where I see blogging in 20 years time, but I’m sure it will have evolved in some way. It changes all the time and is definitely different from when I first started years ago. There are always new things to learn and ways to improve.
melissa says
Hi Michelle, I hope there is still time to ask a question. Do you think in light of the economic climate, that in the next 6-9 months or so… it will be more challenging, or at least take longer for a complete beginner to make money with a new blog? I was just wondering what you are seeing right now with people’s incomes from their blog’s this year since Covid and all.
Thanks for your time in being candid about your thoughts on this.
Regards,
Melissa
Deon Christie says
I started my first professional blog back in 2012. And boy have I been jumping through the SEO hoops! From Gutenburg to SEO and site load speed plugins. Readability and English writing skills. Adding target keywords, using subheadings and even adding LSI keywords for better content understanding. But my blog still struggles to rank in search engines. Why is that? And why am I not getting much search traffic? The only thing I can think of as being missing is more backlinks…
Valeria Symonds says
Hi Michelle. My question is what role do you feel that blogging can play in helping educators like myself to build their business? Do you feel that blogging can be used in any niche?
All the best
xx
Elena says
This is impressive. I just came across your blog. Thank you for this “Ask me anything”. Very grateful. Here is my question. “I want to live a life in which I experience fair exchanges. I feel I have given way more (money) than what I have deserved to receive (like when I file my taxes). I feel like I have been unfairly robbed my whole life. I want to reap full financial benefit, from now on, from all the work I put and have always put it in. What sentence should I think to be in a mental state in which I can make this happen?”
Winifred says
Hello, I’m winifred. Is it possible to have a conversation with you on a more private and one on one platform?
Alina says
Hello
Your blog is a great source of inspiration and motivation for me !
I have a Website that I was using occasionally to promote my books for kids.
After reading about your journey I decided to start a blog for parents on this site. I just finished my 5th blog post (in the last 5 days) and I realized how much I enjoy this.
The part that I find difficult is to keep the posting frequency, while I have a daily job and a kid at home. I do have a lot of inspiration, but it’s tough to find the time for writing.
Do you have any recommendations?
Thank you
Alina
Stefania says
Hi! I came across the blog by listening to a podcast (Choose FI). I am one of those people who is between Dave Ramsey and Choose FI. I have completed steps 1, 2 and 3 but I am unsure how to proceed and Dave’s plan is not specific for me. On the other hand, Choose FI is a little out of my league since they throw around such big words that it is intimidating for me. Where do you recommend that I go to continue on my Personal Finance journey? Thanks!!!
Erin says
Hi! I saw that you went to school for a Finance MBA. I’m currently deciding if I’d rather go the same route or pursue the CFP. I’d love to know where you went to school and your thoughts on MBA vs. CFP?
Thanks so much!
Lakeisha says
I want to start a home based business but don’t know where to start. Can you give me any advice ?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Here’s a great blog post to read on this subject – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2020/08/home-business-ideas.html