The Amateur Financier

My friends, much as I had hoped to avoid doing anything this dramatic, my current situation compels me to do so: I’m taking a hiatus from The Amateur Financier.  For the rest of August, I’m taking a break from regularly updating my blog and posting new articles.

I’m not disappearing completely (at least, not yet).  I will continue to respond to comments made on the four hundred plus entries I’ve already posted, talk with any readers, and read and post on other blogs, as normal (perhaps more often than I have been doing lately, actually; I’ve been doing a lot less blog reading than I used to, one of the things I hope to change during this hiatus).

The ‘Why’

There’s several reasons I’m doing this, but most of them boil down to one thing: time.  I have been feeling short on time for a while now, having trouble keeping up with everything I need and want to do.  I’ve tried to cope by cutting down on what I’ve been doing; in the blogging realm, that’s meant reducing the number of blog entries I publish each week, reading fewer other blogs, and commenting much, much less than I would prefer.

Even with all of those measures, I’ve still been struggling to keep up with my blog in intact.  From moving in with my fiancee in January and taking on the role of official dishwasher/laundry washer/dog walker (along with having my computer occasionally kidnapped by said fiancee, while her own is in need of repairs) to getting a job in May, I’ve been increasingly having trouble keeping up with my blog on top of everything else going on in my life.  I’ve been trying my best to keep up, but as you might have noticed, there’s been more than a few times when I’ve had to back date posts or try to cram in an article during the wee hours of the morning.

August promises to make things even worse; in less than three weeks, I will be starting grad school, which means that I need to register for classes (yes, the way things have worked out, I’m not registered for classes yet), relearn organic chemistry, find a place to live, move in, visit with family members (both mine and my fiancee’s), AND finish my stint of work at Wal-Mart.  There is a good chance that I will not have enough time over the next few weeks to keep up with my blog and everything else I need to do; unfortunately, when it comes to choosing between school work, family, and my blog, my blog unfortunately will always lose.

At the end of the month, things get even more complicated; that’s when I start graduate school, and will likely have even less time to spend online.  (Although, I’ve had semesters during my undergraduate career where I had so much spare time it wasn’t even funny; if something similar happens, perhaps all my worries will be for naught.)  There is a good chance that I might not be able to continue this blog while going to classes at the same time; part of the reason for this hiatus is to give me a chance to build up a reserve of posts for when I’m at school, or at least, figure out a way to bow out of my blog gracefully.

What Happens Next

As mentioned, I’m not trying to disappear completely, simply get a little more breathing room to get things done in the real world.  I’ll still be around if you need me; if I manage to get things under control, I might even be back to posting regularly well before the end of the month.  As for what happens once grad school begins…That I honestly do not know, yet.  Again, if time allows, I might be able to resume blogging by the end of this month without any serious problems; on the other hand, I might not be able to continue with my blog at all, at least while I’m attending classes (a major portion of time for the next two years). In any event, this is not the last you’ll hear from me; I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on my progress, and to provide a final answer about what will happen with The Amateur Financier soon.

Before I go, though, I’d like to say one final thank you to all my readers for spurring me on, asking thought provoking questions, and challenging my post; you’ve helped to make this blog all worthwhile.  Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.

Your Amateur Financier,

Roger Raby

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The one year anniversary of when I started the Amateur Financier is coming up rapidly.  (It’s this Sunday, in fact; has a year really gone by this fast already?)  As I look back on my blogging career, short though it might seem, I can’t help feeling that I could be doing much better in my blogging career.

So, it was with great interest that I read about the Financial Samaurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge.  (For those who don’t really get into blogging and the intricacies thereof, Alexa is a site owned by Amazon that analyzes websites and ranks them according to their impact; the smaller the number, the higher the ranking, and the more influence and impact the blog has.  Google, for example, has a rank of one, while my own humble blog has a rank around 580,000; check the badge to right to see the most up to the date number.)  FS’s challenge is simple: improve your ranking, improve your blog, and work to promote and support others as they attempt to do the same.

This sounds like a simply wonderful idea; it’s something I’ve been trying to do now for quite a while, but with more support, a ring of friends to help (and from whom to receive help), and tangible goals to meet (for me and my blog, that means getting my ranking under 200,000 by July 4th), I feel even more energized and motivated than ever before.  Plus, as an added bonus, he’s attempting to form a group called the Yakezie from everyone who can meet their goal, and that just plain sounds cool.  Look at their symbol:

The Yakezie Symbol

So, just how am I, Roger the Amateur Financier, going to break into the top 200,000 in Alexa rankings and become a master blogger?  I have a few thoughts on that issue already:

-Post 4-5 Good Entries Each Week: Too often, I’ve been in a big rush or otherwise unmotivated, and didn’t put quite as much time and effort into my blogging as I wanted.  No more; if I can’t come up with something worth writing, I’m simply not going to post anything. If I’m not forcing myself to come up with an entry each day, the ones that I do post should be of even higher quality.  And speaking of not posting each day…

-Take at least one day each week off from posting on my blog: Besides allowing me some time to enjoy life rather spending it in front of a computer, I’ll have a chance to catch up on blog reading, build up a buffer of ready to be published blog entries, and otherwise make things easier for me down the road.  Currently, I’m thinking of taking Saturdays off and moving my weekly collection of other personal links to Sunday, leaving the weekdays for ‘real’ blog entries and possibly guest posts.

-Try to write at least two entries each day: Why two?  That will allow me to publish one here on the Amateur Financier while having one in reserve for a buffer, for guest posts, for submitting to freelance writing sites, or any number of other purposes.  Plus, if I only achieve half of my goal, I’ve still written one post for that day, which isn’t too shabby.

-Write more guest posts, and accept more on this site: I’ve been reluctant to let anyone else post here, mainly for personal reasons.  From this point on, I’m going to try to accept one guest post each week (if anyone is wants to bask in the Amateur Financier’s glory) as well as submitting AT LEAST one guest post per week to other blogs.  I think my main targets are going to be the fellow would-be Yakezie members; after all, one of FS’s conditions for getting in is supporting each other, so why not start here?

-Read and comment on others’ blogs: I’ve been bad about this lately, and getting worse.  Besides building up some comment karma (that is, I comment on others’ blogs and I get comments in return), it’s not a bad way to put myself out there, get the name Amateur Financier on a variety of blogs, and maybe get a little traffic as a result.  Plus, I first got into financial blogs by reading, and I kind of miss being able to spend a whole afternoon just going through back posts on some of my favorite blogs.  Now that I’m not trying to write blog entries on Saturday, that will be a perfect day to go out and read some good blog entries.

There, that’s a pretty solid set of rules to follow; if I can do all that, I should be in very good shape, and will be a member of the Yakezie by mid-July.  Luckily, the Financial Samurai has assured us that nobody is going to remove any joints from our fingers; that would take a lot of the fun out of it.

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As you might know, from any of the times I’ve mentioned it on my blog or via my Tweeter account (@amateurfinance, just in case you’re curious), I recently hosted the Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances.  It was an interesting and even, dare I say, fun experience, but it was a little overwhelming.  Since it was the first blog carnival I’ve ever hosted, I had little idea what to expect.  So, for anyone looking to host a blog carnival of their own in the future, here’s some of what I learned from my experience, which I now pass onto you:

First, get an early start on making up your post.  I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a bit of a procrastinator at heart (especially now, when I’ve got a night job that throws off my schedule both on work days and rest days), and tend to push things off as long as I can.  You might be tempted to do the same thing with your blog carnival; after, you’re just going to be cutting and pasting a bunch of blog posts’ names and web addresses, right?  But doing a good job requires more than that; you should read all the posts, get a feel for what they say, try to organize them by topic or type (maybe even picking out a few as your favorites and calling them the best of the carnival) and write a short blurb for each one.  Done right, a decent blog carnival can take just as much time and effort as a good blog post  (and perhaps even more, especially when there are a large number of entries and/or you decide to go really over the top with your presentation).

Which brings up my second piece of advice: go all out with your carnival blog.  It’s tempting to look at a carnival as a freebie post; other people write all the interesting stuff, you just put it all together, slap on a few personal touches, and watch as you get all sorts of traffic from the contributors, their readers, and anyone who happens to mention the carnival in the future.  But that’s exactly the opposite of how you should be thinking.  If you’re going to drawing all this traffic to your site (and to this one blog entry in particular), you want it to stand out and be memorable.  Show the visitors to your blog (some of whom are likely seeing it for the very first time) some of your wit, charm, and intelligence, as you try to impress them and convince them to become dedicated readers.  It’s like a first date, so put your best face forward and give it all you can give.

Your Goal: Make your carnival more amusing than this

Third, choose a good theme for your carnival.  A strong and unique theme can help you stand out from the crowd, provide you with plenty of ‘color commentary’ you can add to carnival, and even help you decide how to organize the posts you receive.  (My theme of anime fit pretty well with dividing the posts by topic, while the previous host choose a Major League Baseball theme that worked well with how he ‘ranked’ the articles.)  Try to pick a theme that you really like, that isn’t too close to the topic of the carnival (besides seeming uncreative, you might end up stepping on someone’s post), and that doesn’t conflict with the advice in the posted articles (if you’re hosting a weight loss carnival, don’t post pictures and recipes of your favorite desserts with comments about their delicious taste and aroma.)  Also, unless your blog specifically covers more ‘risque’ material, themes like your favorite pornos or types of drugs should be avoided.

Fourth, follow the golden rule: treat the contributors as you would like them to treat you when you submit to a carnival.  Read through their work, comment if you have anything useful to add to the conversation, write to them if you have any questions or comments, send a quick email letting them know they were included when the carnival has been posted; anything you can do to make the whole carnival seem easier and more fun can help make it that much more popular.  Besides encouraging others to act the same way, you’ll also help to increase the chance that blog writers will link back to the carnival and visit it themselves, all of which will help to drive some traffic to your site.  (Which is at least part of the reason you’re doing this, right?)

Finally, have some fun with it.  Yes, a carnival is a lot of work, hours of time spent reading blogs you might not care about, organizing them, adding comments and pictures, and generally making the whole package that much more presentable.  But there’s fun to be had, as well; choose a theme you’ll enjoy, add clever quips to your descriptions of the contents, even drop a few jokes into the post.  All this will make it much it much easier to handle all the reading and other work you’ll need to do, and can let you add a personal touch to the post, as well.

That’s all there is to making a good blog carnival post.  So go out there (there being the BlogCarnival page, in this case) find a good carnival related to the topic of your blog, and start the hosting!  It’s definitely a fun time.

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“Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t want to be a richer man”

Actually, unlike David Bowie, I WOULD like to be a richer man.  Also unlike Bowie, I can’t issue ‘Bowie Bonds‘ in order to raise money.  Instead, I’m trying to monetize my blog more effectively.  I’ve actually approached Mrs. Micah through her BlogCrafted site in order to make a number of changes to my blog.  Some will be cosmetic (like putting up a new theme) and some will be more functional (changing how I go about monetizing my blog, so I can start to make more of a profit from my efforts).  The end result will be a more interesting, more useful, and more profitable Amateur Financier.

The big change over is currently scheduled for Sunday, so watch this space for a new look and feel to my blog.  Onward now to my financial report:

As you can see, I’ve also switched up how I’m doing my weekly update posts.  Rather than type out my finances each week, this way I can put the new numbers in a spreadsheet, and have all the calculations I want to run done for me.  Spreadsheets are always fun.

There’s not much change this week; I added my more money to my savings and my investments went up, for an overall increase in my net worth.  Given the current financial environment, I didn’t get much of a boost from interest payments on my savings,but with any luck, that will change soon.  I’m happy with the progress I’m making.

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Dang you, ROI!  I’ve been tagged by My Life ROI to do a meme covering seven things you don’t know about me.  I suppose I can’t put all the blame on him, though, as he was tagged by the Weakonomist.  Ah, well, I haven’t exactly been shy about sharing things on this blog; what’s a few more factoids floating around out there?

“7 Things You Didn’t Know About Me” Meme Rules

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.

2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.  Yeah, this isn’t going to happen; I think ROI got to everyone I would tag anyway, so if you’re reading this and want to do it, just let me know, and I’ll post a link to your article in one of my weekly round-ups.

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.  Kind of hard to do when I don’t know who to tag; again, let ME know if you do this.

Here are my 7 things:

1. I was on the forensics team in college, which, contrary to what you might suspect, actually involved giving speeches (Forensics comes from the Latin for ‘related to the law’ (or so I’ve been told), which explains why shows like CSI cover ‘forensic science’ and why making your case to a group of judges is part of a forensics competition.)  My best event was After-Dinner Speeches (ADS), humorous speeches that are designed to inform and amuse.
2. I won the Pennsylvania State Title in the ADS category in my junior year, for a speech on the differences between men and women.  Part of my appeal was the ‘visual aids’ that I utilized.  (Get your mind of the gutter; I had two pipe-cleaner figures, one a blue pipe-cleaner boy, the other a pink pipe-cleaner girl complete with small pink bow.  I think the pipe-cleaner people were more popular than me.)
3. I managed to get a tuition-free ride through college thanks to my high SAT scores.  It was kind of nice, and is one reason why my student loans weren’t too outrageous when I graduated.
4. Among my many hobbies and interests is drawing, and I actually am pretty good.  (At least when I have time to practice; lately, all my free time has been spent blogging).  Here’s one of my pictures, of which I am particularly proud:
   

   A 'chibi' style girl I drew.

5. My biggest spending vice is buying manga and anime (Japanese style comic books and animation, respectively).  Luckily, I’ve joined an anime club, which enables me to borrow some of the club’s materials and cut back on my own spending.  I still occasionally splurge, though…
6. I love Organic Chemistry.  For whatever reason, it just clicks with me, whereas most of other people (including virtually of the students who come to my review sessions) seem to struggle endlessly with it.  In fact, if and when I get far enough ahead with this blog that I can I turn my attention elsewhere, I’d like to start up an organic chem blog/site (yes, I am that big of a geek).
7. I hate April Fool’s Day with the firey passion of eighty-two thousand red giant stars.  I’m not a huge prankster, so I tend to be the victim more than the pranker.  Yesterday, I ending up getting my rump wet because some joker put water on one of the computer chairs in the break room.  Darn You, April Fool!

Well, there you have it, seven things you didn’t know about me.  Once again, I’m not tagging anyone else, but if you want to do this, feel free and let me know.

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Hello and welcome.  If you’re reading this, it means that you found your way here from my old blog.  Or that you happened to stumble across this in your other travels throughout the internet.  In any case, it’s good to see you here, and I hope you’ll find some worthwhile and interesting information.

I’m still in the ‘moving in’ stage of this process.  I hope you’ll be willing to bear with me; this move will ultimately make this blog better, and allow me to make this site better and more interesting for everyone.  If you have any ideas you’d like to share, please feel free to reach me at theamateurfinancier AT gmail DOT com.  I look forward to providing you with a great blog experience!

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I have some good news to share with you all; I’m going to be moving! Well, my blog is, anyway.

Yes, after reading up on blogging tips and advice at the Money Blog Network, I’ve decided to get my own domain and make a more serious effort at blogging as a serious endeavor. I’ve already set up the weblog at www.theamateurfinancier.com/blog/, and as soon as I get things up and running (probably this weekend, as I’m making a concerted effort to have this switch-over complete by Monday), you’ll have a brand-new Amateur Financier site to read and enjoy!

I’m letting all of my loyal readers (or at least, the two people currently following me on RSS feeds) know about this change-over to express a couple of concerns. First, to paraphrase Doctor McCoy from Star Trek, I’m a biochemist, not a webmaster. There might be some quirks and other problems in the transfer that prevent me from doing a seamless transition from Blogger to Wordpress (hosted on Dreamhost, for those who want all the gritty details), and I just want to give you all fair warning.

Second, I’m not sure how this move will affect those of you following me using RSS feeds. I hope that the transfer options on Wordpress will allow me to adjust everything from my end, so that you can continue to receive my words of wisdom on a daily basis. But to ensure uninterrupted bulletins from my blog, you might need to update your feeds. (And if you are linking to my blog elsewhere, I ask you to please adjust your links when the new blog is up and running.)

Third, this move is part of a larger effort on my part to make this blog more relevant and interesting to you, my readers (and, I won’t deny, more profitable to me). So, please, if you have any advice or suggestions, on issues from the appearance of the blog to the specific subjects I should cover, let me know. This is a good time for making changes to my blog, and any feedback I can get will be given all due consideration.

Finally, thank you to everyone who is watching me; I hope that I can continue to entertain and inform through my writing.

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For those of you who read my post last Monday, you know the college where I am working had Spring Break last week. Since that’s currently my only job (although, hopefully not for too much longer *crosses fingers*), I effectively had Spring Break as well. I spent most of it out visiting my girlfriend, and had a great time.

Unfortunately, though, it’s left me behind in my blogging. I’ve managed to get the last two entries out during this rather busy weekend, but I’m getting stuck about what I should write this week. Luckily, I have a few ideas of how to break my mental block:

1) Catch up on my PF blog reading – I’ve got over two hundred entries to read in my RSS feed, just from the few writers I follow regularly. Reading, digesting, and possibly commenting on all those articles should certainly spark an idea or two.

2) Reading more PF books – I’ve been falling behind on my reading to learn lately; between my job, my blog, and my personal life, I haven’t had a chance to read some of the books I’ve really wanted to read. Besides sparking some ideas for related posts, it might even be worthwhile to consider putting up a few book reviews.

3) Engage the PF community – I’m currently a member of the Money Blog Network forums, where a lot of PF bloggers gather and discuss various issues. More than a few of the topics I’ve read through made me think, ‘hum, this might make a good blog entry’. Now all I need is some follow through.

4) Write to teach myself – There are plenty of personal finance and money topics I’d like to learn more about; making an effort to identify, study, and then write about those topics would be an excellent learning experience, and would probably provide enough material for years worth of posts.

5) Consider a different blog – I like personal finance, and love writing this blog. But, as they say, variety is the spice of life. Perhaps cutting down on the 7-10 entries a week I put up on this blog and starting another blog for one of my other interests could help to keep me motivated.

Just some thoughts on how to break my Monday ‘Blah’ mood and start writing again.

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I came across an interesting post on Slate regarding a court case over online links. Essentially, a real estate website called Blockshopper was being sued by Jones Day, a multinational legal firm, because of how Blockshopper linked to some of the lawyers employed by Jones Day (in the context of real estate transactions involving the lawyers). Jones Day made the argument that such links were a form of trademark infringement, in the sense that the links might imply that there was an affiliation between Jones Day and Blockshopper.

Numerous groups appealed to the judge to dismiss the case, including Public Citizen, the Electronic Freedom Foundation, the Citizen Media Law Project, and Public Knowledge, but ultimately, Blockshopper settled. The terms of their settlement dictate that they reference lawyers at Jones Day by posting the full URL (aka, http://www.jonesday.com rather than Jones Day).

‘What’s the problem with that?’, you might ask. Well, as the Slate article goes on to describe, at issue is not just Blockshopper and Jones Day, but the broader issue of how, when, and in what fashion bloggers and other online publications can link to supporting documents. It presents a slippery slope, where companies can demand what link text is used to reach their sites, as well as the other information that is incorporated in the linking text, leading online publishers to either dispense with links altogether or have to deal with any number of different requirements from the linked sites.

And sadly, there have even been recent efforts to stop people from linking to public sites altogether, as in the case of Jennifer Reisinger. At issue is whether she could link to the Sheboygan police department’s web page. If she’s unsuccessful, it could have the effect of decreasing the willingness of websites to share links and other information.

I’m not certain how this case will end, but being a new blogger, I’m interested in how things shake out. If this case and other similar cases currently pending end with rulings in favor of allowing websites to control how other sites link to them, the internet landscape could look much different in a few years; much more barren and less of a web, only positive comments being readily accessible. I know I don’t want that kind of legal landscape; I’ll have to see what (if anything) I can do to support the cause of allowing free linking to public sites, regardless of the content of the linking site.

Disclaimer: Given the subject of this blog post, I feel I should mention that I am in no way affiliated with any of the groups, corporations or websites associated with the links in this post.

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