Updated My Reader List Page – Jan 4, 2008
For all of you interested in what sites I have in my Google Reader (Personal Finance related at least), you can check them out on my Reader List Page. I have 78 PF-related sites in my reader, down from 80 at my last update in mid-November. However, I have added a couple new sites (Calorie Cents and Frugal Dad, you’re in there), while taking out a few sites that haven’t been updating.
I’m also trying to keep partial feeds out of my reader, but I noticed a few sites have switched. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for now as it may just be a bug in their feed as it’s not consistent. But beware as I drop partial feeds! I give my readers a full feed even if it means 1200 fewer hits on my actual site per day. I figure “Hey, if that’s how they’ll read my stuff, then let them!”. Honestly, I don’t visit people’s sites either, and if I didn’t use an RSS reader, I never would read so much content.
As a note, I don’t make any money from people just browsing to my site (someone asked me today). Sure, it would help my traffic numbers if you stopped by more often, but it doesn’t register any cha-chings on a virtual cash register. Actually, now that I think of it, I guess Adsense does pay a couple pennies (like $.01 or so, literally) for every few thousand impressions, but it’s basically nothing so I’ll stick with my first statement.
I had considered writing up a post about how I make money on this site, but let me mull it over a bit longer. I know some of you are probably interested, but I need to consider what putting that info out there will do in the big picture.
I’m interested to know how you make money by your site. I like (so far) blogging on my site, and think monetizing it would be a good thing, but I don’t have a lot of time to put into it, so depending on what all is involved (aside from purchasing hosting and a domain as well as installing adsense), your decision to post may sway me.
I can pretty much guess how you make money from your site, and other than prospective or new bloggers, I’m not sure whether it would garner much interest, but on the other hand, people sure do like to be nosey sometimes so it might be popular.
Anyway, I’m another person who goes to actual sites only to comment and couldn’t live without my reader. Which means that I also dislike partial feeds, but not as much as I dislike partial feeds that are just post headlines. Especially if the said post headlines aren’t exactly that grabbing.
I definitely read a lot in the reader. But I’m such a commenter that they’re not losing my traffic by giving me full feeds.
Thanks you for subscribing to the feed…hopefully I won’t disappoint. I would be interested to find out how you have monetized your site because there are many of us newbies out here who have a genuine passion for personal finance and writing, but have a lot of debt, too. Anything I can do (morally/ethically) to generate some extra cash helps throw a little on the debt snowball.
Thanks for adding caloriecents to your reader list!
Frugal Dad, much of my revenue comes from text links, which is currently a hot issue among bloggers because Google seems to be slapping sites that sell text links. I haven’t been affected yet, and actually I’m selling even more links than before, but some bloggers argue the ethics of it (there’s excellent arguments on both sides though).
I’ve just recently started adding things to my reader and I must say it makes things a whole lot easier. I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t yet used one.
I too ditch partial feeds now. There is just too much content out there to consume and it takes far too long to do it outside of an RSS Reader.
That being said, I ‘star’ my favorite articles (Google Reader feature) for later use and I visit posts I really like in order to Stumble them (Stumbleupon.com).
As for monetization, I’m always happy to read those stories. I have given up monetizing my site for now, but I am working on plans for the future- which I intend to manage all myself. No sense in giving Google or TextLinkAds a chunk of my money anymore.