State of the Blog, Year 1
It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging for a little more than a year. I launched Freedom Through FI on Memorial Day 2019. Today, as many bloggers do on the blog anniversary, I’d like to talk about the state of my blog and plans moving forward.
Statistics
Here are some statistics of the blog over the last year. These aren’t groundbreaking numbers compared to other blogs, but considering I knew nothing about blogging when I started, and the fact that I haven’t heavily marketed my blog, I don’t think it’s too bad. Over the last year there have been:
- 62 blog posts published
- 3,303 visits to the blog
- 8,268 individual page views
- 73 subscribers to the blog
My Most Popular Posts
These are the top 5 most popular posts on my blog. If you haven’t read them yet, check them out by clicking on the links to see why they caught people’s attention.
#5: Top 10 Terms You Should Know About Retirement Plans & Accounts, Part 1
224 page views
This was not unexpected, since so many people are thinking about and planning for retirement. Part 2 and Part 3 weren’t nearly as popular, maybe because I went into too great a depth on this subject, but my hope is that it will serve as a resource for people in the future if they want to learn more about retirement plans and accounts.
312 page views
No real surprises here. People want to know what my blog is all about when they first visit the site. This is the first link in my Start Here category, so visitors to the blog checked this post out a lot.
#3: 5 Unconventional Choices for an Unconventional Life
337 page views
This was one of my earlier posts and I really didn’t expect it to be as popular as it was. In fact, until the COVID-19 pandemic, this was my most popular post. I recommended 5 financial choices you could make that are different than the typical mainstream lifestyle most people follow. And because they are different choices, they give an unconventional life result.
#2: COVID-19, Understanding the Federal Stimulus Package
388 page views
My hope with this post was to help people going through a difficult time navigate the federal stimulus package. Since many people were looking for information, it became my second most popular blog post.
#1: COVID-19, My Thoughts on the Road Ahead
859 page views
This has been by far my most popular post in the last year. I wasn’t ever even planning on writing about COVID-19, but I thought I had a unique perspective on the situation as a physician, a personal finance blogger, and as a local church leader. I can’t exactly say this went viral, but compared to my other blog posts, it kind of did. I received a lot of positive feedback on the post. Many people told me it helped them and their families better understand the situation when they heard the perspective of someone they trusted, who also happened to have some background knowledge of medicine and finance.
Goals of the Blog, And How I’ve Done
When I first launched Freedom Through FI, one of my original posts was Why Am I Writing This Blog? In that post I listed my primary three goals for the blog:
1) Empower you, the reader, to take control of your own financial life, which will give you more control over your own destiny and future. This will help you find the freedom that comes from moving towards FI.
I believe I’m accomplishing this goal. I’ve tried to write about the many things I’ve learned that have helped me take control of my own financial life. I’ve tried to outline the 12 steps I recommend people take to move towards FI. I’ve tried to help people increase their financial literacy through my FI Top Ten series of posts. I’ve also tried to go a little more in depth on certain subjects like insurance, taxes, and real estate under my FI Topics posts.
My thought is that if I can help people increase their financial literacy, it will give them the confidence they need to take control of their personal finances. This has the potential to completely change the trajectory of their lives, allowing them to ultimately live their best life, finding freedom through FI.
2) Share my own path towards FI so you can learn from the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned (and am learning!).
I’ve primarily shared my story through the My Path to FI series of posts. I’ve documented some of my early experiences with money, our current financial plan, and many of the parts in between. I’ve also shared some of my personal experiences and lessons learned throughout many of my other blog posts.
3) Develop a stream of passive income.
At this point I haven’t monetized my blog. I just haven’t felt the need to do so yet. So far, it’s been much more important to me to share the information I’ve learned than it is to make a few extra bucks. I know that seems counter intuitive to the central message behind the blog (e.g. maximize your income, develop passive streams of income, etc.), but it’s the truth. My blog has fulfilled a need I’ve felt to teach others the things I’ve learned, as well as scratch a creative itch I’ve had for some time. I’m not sure when (and if) I plan to change this . . . time will tell.
What I’ve Learned
I have learned so much throughout the process of creating this blog. It’s funny how you set out to teach others, but in the process end up learning more than teaching.
First, I have learned a lot about creating a website/blog. Before creating Freedom Through FI, I really didn’t know anything about website design. I decided to create the blog in late 2018. Over the next six months I learned about purchasing a domain name, website hosting, and navigating WordPress (the software I use to create the blog). I’m continuing to learn about Google analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), and bringing more traffic to the blog.
Second, I’ve learned a lot more about personal finances, taxes, insurance, investing, etc. It really forces you to learn more about a subject when you have to try and teach it to others. I’ve spent a lot of time reading books, listening to podcasts, searching the internet, and reviewing the IRS website (who does that?) to fill in the gaps in my knowledge base.
Finally, I’ve learned that blogging is a huge time commitment. Although I enjoy writing and find blogging very rewarding, it certainly doesn’t happen quickly. I would estimate that on average it takes me 3-6 hours to research, write, edit, and publish each blog post, which is why I only publish one post per week. For me, with my many other commitments and busy schedule, I don’t think it would be possible to publish good quality content more frequently.
Plans Moving Forward
My personal goal in year one was to put out a lot of content and establish a foundation for the blog. My goal was to publish one quality post every week for a year. With 62 published blog posts under my belt, I consider it a significant personal victory that I’ve stayed true to my commitment without ever missing a week.
Now that I have a good foundation of content, one of my goals in year two is to bring more readers to the blog by increasing marketing. I am looking to expand the blog’s presence on social media sites and improve my search engine optimization.
Another goal I have is to expand into other forms of media. Right now I am researching podcasting and YouTube videos as other ways to share content.
This means I will likely be writing less in year two. I am going to ease up on my self imposed mandate of one blog post per week so I can focus more time on these other goals (since I only have so much time I can devote to this). Of course I will continue to write and publish blog posts, but it will be a little less frequent than it’s been in the past.
What Would You Like Me to Write About?
Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with topics that people will find interesting and want to read about. I’d like to get some ideas from my readers regarding topics for future blog posts.
Some of my ideas for future blog posts include:
- Back to the Basics, which would be posts about simple but often overlooked aspects of personal finance, like checking accounts, savings accounts, and credit cards.
- More FI Top Ten posts to increase financial literacy on subjects like home mortgages, bonds, life insurance, and real estate investing.
- Continued updates on our progress towards FI in the My Path to FI series of posts
- More reviews on my favorite books, apps, blogs, and podcasts
Please think about your own personal finances and leave suggestions in the comments below. Or if you don’t want it to be public, just click on the envelope icon under my picture on the home page and send me an email. I won’t disclose who suggested a topic unless you want me to.
How You Can Help Grow the Blog
Each of you can help me get this message to more people. If you do one or more of the following things, it would help me immensely:
Share Blog Posts
You can easily share blog posts that you like on your social media pages. At the bottom of each of my posts there are three small icons for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you just click on one of those icons, it should link to your social media account and you can share the blog post in your feed for others to see. This is probably the most effective way for me to reach new people.
Subscribe to the Blog
It also really helps me if you subscribe to the blog. You can do this by entering your email address on the Subscribe widget I have on the side and bottom of the webpage. You will only get emails notifying you of my new blog posts. I promise not to share your email with anyone else.
Leave Comments
Leaving comments helps engage other readers and gets people more involved in the blog. This could include questions you might have or helpful insights for other readers on the path to FI. It’s under the Leave A Reply section at the end of each blog post.
Explore Other Platforms
If I ultimately decide to branch into podcasting and/or YouTube, it would help mw out if you would check out those other platforms, leave positive reviews, subscribe, and share it with others. I will announce and link any of these future forms of content in the blog so you can easily find them.
Conclusion
It’s been quite a year. I have learned a ton, and hopefully you have too. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported my blog as I share my journey towards financial independence. I am excited for what the future will bring.
Thanks for reading. I hope you are doing well in your progress towards reaching FI. If you have any questions or comments that might help other readers, please list them below. In the meantime, keeping working towards Freedom Through FI!
If you enjoy this content, please support the blog by subscribing below (the only emails you will receive are my weekly posts). You can also share this post through the links below to your social media accounts. Both these actions increase the blog’s rankings in search engines, which helps me reach more people. Thanks for your support.
