SF's road to mortgage freedom!

slowlyfading

SuperSecretSquirrel wrote: »

SF I don't understand why you're not monetizing your blog. A discreet ad or two won't do any damage, maybe a small banner between the end of the article and comments section? It might not earn megabucks right now, but a trickle of pennies towards costs is better than nothing, and if one day an article is linked to from somewhere huge and you get a massive spike you could be quids in!

I think I may start - just to cover the costs of domain etc., if nothing else!

If you worry that ads on a frugal blog would seem incongruent, remember us frugal people use things like uswitch, quidco, investment accounts, discount retailers, etc. There are ads that make sense to us. You can filter out unacceptable ad categories (payday lenders etc) yourself, from there google will take care of it - they have a knack for matching ads to content There's also the "thanks" factor to consider - grateful readers will click the occasional ad as they know it supports the author. Sucks for the advertisers, but I'm sure they price this into their bids!

I do worry it'll put people off....

Have you considered writing a "how to start a blog" article? I mean fully step by step, and UK centric? A self hosted wordpress blog with a domain name and the option to have ads is what most people would want. Worth looking into your hosting providers offerings, they may have an affiliate scheme? If you wrote a detailed how to get started article I would absolutely use your affiliate link to sign up, as I'm sure many others would. Interesting to note that those affiliate "*" links are what make a lot of MSE's revenue

I have thought of that, but then wondered if it would be really obvious that I'm using it to post an affiliate link in? The one I use does have an affiliate programme, so that's not an issue

pavlovs_dog

one thing that has struck me as someone who [STRIKE]stalks[/STRIKE] follows you via Bloglovin is that your posts always appear with the header picture of the squash in the basket, even when there are other pictures used in the post. From a Bloglovin feed point of view, it appears that you use the same one image on all of your posts.

slowlyfading

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

one thing that has struck me as someone who [STRIKE]stalks[/STRIKE] follows you via Bloglovin is that your posts always appear with the header picture of the squash in the basket, even when there are other pictures used in the post. From a Bloglovin feed point of view, it appears that you use the same one image on all of your posts.

Ooh, I don't have Bloglovin? And don't know how to change that will look into it - thanks for letting me know!

SuperSecretSquirrel

The affiliate link would be super obvious to most readers, so just go all out on the full disclosure honesty angle, that's so much nicer than feeling like someone is being a bit sneaky and taking advantage of you. Spell out that it's an affiliate link, that it benefits you and possibly the reader, and maybe even include a non affiliate link too for the people that would prefer it. The good will earned from your honesty on top of a helpful article would result in very few non affiliate link clicks I'm sure!

slowlyfading

After a stressful and emotional afternoon, spent at the maternity ward of our local hospital, I have never ever been so grateful for the NHS as I was today. Thankfully everything is fine, but for a moment, it looked like it might not be.

Everything else flew out of the window, nothing else mattered apart from ensuring that the new life growing inside me was okay, that everything within my power (and outside of my control) could be put right.

Me and DH have been out for dinner; somehow counting another NSD after the emotions of this afternoon didn't seem as important.

One very relieved, very tired, no-longer-crying, SF.

choccielover

Been there and it's a horrible place, biggest hugs to you and yours sweetheart x

edinburgher

Those sorts of days are absolutely awful and I'm so glad that you're alright. We have also been patronising our local hospital today, thankfully nothing too worrying, but so glad that they are there.

Karmacat

SF, I'm so glad you and little one are good ... and yes, after all of that, NSDs aren't very important. Hope you slept well

xx

Knit_Witch

Hugs SF, glad you and the potential mini SF are okay!

slowlyfading

Thanks everyone. I barely got any sleep last night so am flagging somewhat this evening. I shall probably make it til about half 9 then go to bed.

Not much else to report really; today has been a NSD, although I couldn't face eating my lunch which was a bit rubbish. I've made a pea and bacon risotto for tea and had a cereal bar for afters. After the ordeal of yesterday, I need to have a total overhaul of what I'm eating on a daily basis. I need to get more protein in my diet, as well as more food in general. I cannot believe that I am struggling so much with eating; my eating issues from my younger days are clearly not as sorted as I'd hoped...

It may mean that our food bills go up, as I'm going to try and up my game with lunch as well as evening meals, but I'm not too worried about that; the only thing I need to keep in mind now is that everything I am doing is to give bump the best possible start in life. I need to try as hard as I can to not worry about the weight gain/what my body looks like. Easier said than done but it's imperative I get my head around this.

I've done an OP of £100 today as it's an early payday for me this month due to the bank holiday being on Monday. Our finances are generally looking okay, but I'll do a bigger account shuffle next weekend, before the start of June.

Happy Friday everyone