How I started Blogging

Would you like to know how I started blogging? OK I think this story should be told by all the bloggers out there in the blogosphere. It establishes how each of us got started in the crazy journey to reading an insane amount of posts and then eventually writing another thousand posts. The time frame was 2007 and I had some debt I wanted to get rid of, I read the Dave Ramsey book called,The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness and this gave me a better direction for my money goals. But my thirst for more didn’t end here, in early 2008 I searched in Google for money and debt articles, I believe the site directed me to Get Rich Slowly. Talk about having good SEO. I started to see that this blog was the real deal, not only do they have 100 thousand followers on RSS, the site gets a ton of comments.

Then a few weeks later I did a search in Bing and entered Best Budget Templates, I was directed to Budgets are Sexy. After reading the first post, I was hooked on how J. Money and his writing style got me to read more and more. His writing style is funny, easy to follow, and not too obsessively long. If you hit these three marks you are guaranteed to have a stampede of RSS followers. I became a regular commenter at this point. After this I stumbled upon Free Money Finance, a great site tailored to get you to think smart in all aspects of money management. He likes to write about how the calculations of math can give you an insight to how good you are doing financially aka your Net Worth. He also likes to give the readers an abundance of on point information daily and makes it look so easy.

Another year or two past and I was randomly searching for retirement stories and found Mr. Money Mustache and Early Retirement Extreme aka ERE, they both have posted extensively on how to retire early. Around this time frame Mr. ERE was actually posting about going back to the work force and taking a sabbatical with writing. While Mr. Money Mustache was taking all his readers for a ride with his no-nonsense writing style on how to live frugally while saving obscene amounts to retire early . He has a unique writing style that grabs a hold and doesn’t let you go until you realize you’re done with the post. They are usually funny and long at the same time, but you never miss the point or lesson behind the post.

I started setting up my blog in August 2011, and did not go live until September 2011. I will admit that I rushed it before I even got the hang of blogging and before I was able to establish some draft posts for the pipeline. I will admit that I started blogging because I was a reader of all the other blogs. I felt I could add something to help my readers, because we all have a different take on money issues. I desired to share more of what I am doing right and wrong with money management strategies.  There are many PF bloggers online that I visit from time to time, some are in my blog roll and others are not but I must admit most bring something unique to the PF world. It would be awesome to read how they started blogging too.

Now I have about 150 posts under my belt and have a few in drafts that I can share with my readers as time progresses. What did I learn along the way, that blogging is not easy? It takes up your time and it is hard to get recognized into the community of bloggers.  I also learned that comments are the blood of your blog and without them you cannot engage with the readers. I am still working hard to elevate my site to the next level, while trying to balance writing, family life, and a full-time job.

Comment if you like the story of how I started blogging?

Rich Uncle EL