by Tricia
I received a comment from a visitor who is looking to reduce debt and was wondering how she could start a blog. A fellow personal finance blogger wrote an excellent article on how to do it, and you can find her article here.
A few things that I will note is that I started my blog on Blogger.com. This is a free service that is owned by Google. The only problem with using a free site is that there is often times you cannot get into to your blog and you are limited with the things you can do.
I did recently move my blog to my own domain name and obtained very reasonable hosting. Depending on what company you use and the offers available, you can obtain hosting from $4.00/month to $12.00/month. The company I host with actually has an easy installation available for one of the most popular blogging platforms, WordPress. WordPress also has free hosting for blogs.
I believe that starting this blog was the best thing for me to do. I feel accountable because my words are out on the internet for anyone to read. When I have the urge to purchase something, I now think about my blog and my readers. Do I want to let them down?
If you decide to start a blog to help you reduce your debt, please let me know. Support is so important when making a big change in your life. In addition to this blog, I also am a member of the No Credit Needed Network. Even if you don’t have a blog, you can sign up over there and NCN will make a nice chart for you showing your starting debt and your progress. He’s also a great motivator and if he sees you straying from the path to become debt-free, he will send you an email showing his concern.
If you have any other questions, please let me know. I will do my best to answer, or provide links to information that will help you.
Hi Tricia,
I read about your site in Scott Burn’s article today. Your site is amazing. Keep up the great work. You have inspired me to post my net worth at networthiq.com. I am under TexasYankee. Best of luck reaching your no credit card debt goal; I bet you will accomplish it before May 2009. Thanks again.
Chris
Excellant post for newbies
Cool post Tricia! I think starting a blog is one of the best decisions I’ve made. Not only am afforded a chance to be accountable for my finances, I can get back to writing. I’ve sorely missed writing…
Chris – wow, I am flattered I inspired you. I checked out your profile and you’ve added over $6,000 to your net worth since January. That’s awesome!! 🙂
~Dawn & Freedumb – thanks for the compliments. Kira did such a good job of explaining almost everything so I just added a few things from my experience. As for writing, I can definitely see that you enjoy it Freedumb. That’s why I often visit 🙂
I love being part of NCN’s Network too. I was definitely able to stay on track with his reminder emails. Now that I have an automatic savings plan too, I can regularly update him with my savings progress. (Of course now I have changed it to a debt reduction plan!)
I did exactly the same thing recently. I actually was learning about creating websites for an education website idea I have, and, realized that what I’ve been doing lately — fixing up the family finances, is really what I want to write about. I use a Mac, it took me four tries at website programs before I found the one I like, Sandvox, and I got the website up. I’m being hosted by “itsamac” because I called them to ask a bunch of questions and they answered them all so nicely and are just generally helpful. So, I signed up with them. I’m having trouble with getting my site indexed with any of the search engines — but, I guess that will just take time. (I had the idea, wrongly, that indexing was about content — stupid me). I’m so pleased to find that there are so many people out there who are doing, or attempting to do, what we are — it doesn’t feel like a waste of time. All of work so far has been work, but, I do believe that my family will have a better financial future as a result of it. So, good for you (and me too, I hope).
mapgirl – you did awesome with the savings and I’m looking forward to seeing your debt reduction now 🙂
Donna – it feels wonderful to write something you feel passionate about. I am actually a VERY slow writer but I enjoy doing this so much.
Some great advice and helpful links!
I too decided to start a blog to help with my saving for retirement and you know what, it’s the best thing I did too. Being accountable to yourself and more importantly, your readers is a very powerful force to contend with. I’m sure I wouldn’t be in as good a position as I am now if I hadn’t started a blog about it.