The one year anniversary party will be held in Las Vegas! Just kidding – maybe the 10 year??? ;)
It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the first post went up on Young Adult Money. Over the past year I have stuck with a 5+ posts per week blog schedule, met some truly awesome individuals, and have built a blog that I am truly proud of.
Today I would like to share some of my accomplishments, goals, and “thank you’s” from the first year of Young Adult Money.
Accomplishments
- Posted 5+ times a week consistently since day one
- Have made some great friends and developed a community of readers and a support system of other bloggers
- 500+ RSS subscribers, 1,500+ Facebook fans, and 2,400+ Twitter Followers
- Created a new side income through monetizing of the site
- Hired my first staff writer
- Consistently increased traffic month-over-month
Goals for the next 6 months – 1 year
- Hire a second staff writer and/or increase the current workload of my current staff writer
- Redesign the site – Content is king so I have been putting this off for a LONG time. I will probably start by tweaking my current theme further which will help me learn more about CSS, PHP, and Design
- Continue to publish great content that provides real value to readers
- Create a Google+ and start utilizing it. Continue to build up my Twitter follows, Facebook likes, and RSS subscriptions
- Host more giveaways – I think giveaways are a win-win for everyone involved. They are a great way to reward readers and get exposed to new readers. If the giveaway is sponsored by a company, that company gains exposure and SEO benefits. I’d love to host giveaways more often in the future.
- Post 5 times a week – if anything I’d like to increase the number of posts per week
- Create more Excel downloads – Excel is one of my stronger skills, so I would love to create more Excel files for people to download. An example of an Excel download I posted in the past is my coupon database.
Thank You!
I would like to specifically name a few people who have supported my site pretty much from day one and continue to comment on my posts day-after-day or support me in other ways:
- Club Thrifty
- Frugal Rules
- Eyes on the Dollar
- Debt Roundup
- Making Sense of Cents
- Reach Financial Independence
- Tackling Our Debt
- Bible Money Matters
- The Free Financial Advisor
I could easily list 50+ more bloggers that have supported Young Adult Money…there’s so many of you, and I truly appreciate your comments, tweets, and collaborations!
Thanks to everyone who has supported Young Adult Money up to this point. I especially want to hank my wife who has supported me every step of the way. I can’t wait to see what next year brings for Young Adult Money!
____________
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Congrats on the 1 year gloggerversary DC! I really enjoy coming to your site. I like the current layout what do you plan on changing with the site? You are doing a great job and I hope to we where you are in the next 10-11 months. You have a lot going on if I remember correctly like another 1-2 projects – how do you manage. I think the giveaways are a great idea and both sides benefit. Everyone is so helpful in the community is makes it easy to succeed if you are willing to work hard. How is having staff writing working for you?
Not sure if I am going to monetize my site or not. Kinda just want to make my money from side hustles and keep my site free but thats my thought for now we’ll see what the next few months bring.
YourDailyFinThanks! The changes I have planned are relatively small and won’t be super noticeable. I might switch from Livefyre to regular commenting, change some of the link formatting, change the summary view, etc. Nothing huge, but definitely will take some time. I do some other stuff (and this is on top of my full-time job!) but I’ve pretty much solely focused on this site for now since I’m getting the most out of it. I definitely have enjoyed taking part in giveaways and having a staff writer has been one of the best decisions I’ve made.
I wouldn’t be able to justify the time I put into this site if I didn’t monetize it. I’m hoping to monetize it enough where I can have staff writers doing at least 1/2 the posts while I can work on launching another site.
Your site is doing awesome. Congrats on 1 year! I want to work on utilizing Google+ also because I keep hearing about so many benefits of it, I’m just a slow learner/adapter.
SenseofCents I also am somewhat of a slow adapter but I’d rather be that way than to jump from thing to thing and never really fully utilize things.
It certainly doesn’t seem like a year already. I’m right behind you on August 1st, and have many of the same goals for the future. I think we can give you the title of Giveaway King, and I look forward to more! Thanks for the mention.
EyesonthedollarIt’s great to have others in my “support network” who are at the same place! Haha yes my wife and I are quite addicted to the giveaways and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon!
Big congrats DC! It’s hard to believe how quickly a year goes by – isn’t it? You’re doing a great job DC and I have some of the same goals for my site. I was hesitant at first to start with G+, but once you start with it then it becomes fairly easy to manage. Thanks for the mention, I really appreciate it!
FrugalRulesThanks John! I definitely would like to use G+, just haven’t gotten around to it and only post on my personal account once in a while haha. I’m sure I’m missing out on some SEO benefits from it as well as connecting with others, similar to how Twitter has been a big tool for my site.
Congratulations! posting 5 times a week is the biggest accomplishment, it takes time! I like your theme but you’ve been talking about Thesis since last year haha. I just hired a VA and she is going through my procrastination list at light speed, that is so awesome.
RFIndependence I might have to get a VA I’ve heard really good things!
where are my manners, thanks for the mention!
Congrats on making it a year! It’s always helpful to hear the success stories like yours. Gives us noobs something to work for.
Matt @ Mom and Dad Money Haha it wasn’t too long ago that I was a “noob” : P
Happy One Year my friend. You have done some great work and I am happy to come here everyday. I appreciate you helping out with DR as well. Maybe you and I should team up to create some crazy excel download database that will blow people’s minds!
I appreciate the mention DC and I am happy to help. If you have any questions about HTML, CSS, or PHP, please let me know.
DebtRoundUp Thanks for the offer! I seriously might need some help with the design stuff, but I also am learning quite a bit which is great.
I would love to collaborate on some sort of Excel download, it’s just a matter of thinking of something awesome we can throw together!
DC @ Young Adult Money Well, of course it has to be awesome. We wouldn’t put out a download that wasn’t right?
DebtRoundUp Haha of course not.
Congrats on one year!! I love seeing people celebrate milestones on their blogs, it’s motivating to see how far people have come! Sounds like you have awesome plans in the works. I wouldn’t mind seeing more Excel action, either. 5+ posts a week on a consistent basis is admirable.
JourneytoSaving Thanks a ton! Yeah I definitely need to start planning some new Excel tools for people to use! The 5+ posts thing has taken a ton of time and work, but definitely has been worthwhile.
Congratulations on all your success, DC! You work so hard, and it really shows. I love reading the site, and I’m honored to be a part of it. I hope we can work together for a long time. :)
BudgetBlonde Thanks for the kind words, Cat, and I hope we can work together for a long time as well!
Congratulations on your Blogiversary! You have obviously done an awesome job!!! I cannot believe that it’s already been a year.
Holly at ClubThrifty Thanks so much! I can’t believe it either!
Congratulations DC ! Your blog has been a huge success :-) Wow… you have so much to celebrate this week. How cool. Again, Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great time. Thanks very much for the mention. You are definitely one of my top supporters as well. :-)
TacklingOurDebt Thanks! Yes it is quite the week: 2 Birthdays and 4th of July : )
I’m new to your blog DC but congrats on a very successful one year! Posting 5x a week? You must be a machine ;)
girlmeetsdebtHaha idk about a machine :P My wife does most of the work for Friday’s post and I have a staff writer who writes once a week, but it takes a lot of planning and discipline for sure.
Happy one year DC!! You’ve had a lot of great successes with your blog…impressive! Hope the good fortune continues this next year. Are you going to Fincon? If you ever hire another stuff writer I’d be interested! :)
Beachbudget Thanks so much! I am NOT currently going to Fincon, but I may change my mind. I will definitely consider you when I do get around to hiring a new writer!
Woop! Congrats man, glad to hear things are growing! Well done on making it through year one! Statistically, you’ll be around forever now. :)
iHeartBudgets Haha yes I like that statistic.
Great job DC! I find it really impressive that you have been posting 5 times a week for the entire life of your blog! Most weeks I have a hard time posting 3 times per week. I’m glad you are enjoying such success from your hard work!
P.S. I may be looking into starting up some freelance writing, so if you decide you want another staff writer maybe we can work something out. ;)
ayoungpro Yeah it takes a lot of discipline and time commitment to write 5 times a week.
I will keep you in mind if I decide to hire!
Congrats on the big day, DC. Doesn’t it seem like yesterday that you started? I still remember thinking, “This blogging thing looks fun.” What planet was I on? Those must have been good drugs…..
AverageJoeMoney Haha! You seem to be enjoying blogging quite a bit – you like it so much you have two sites now!
DC @ Young Adult Money AverageJoeMoney Ha! I think people think I’m more involved at FFA than I am….although I still own half the site, I’m barely involved there. It’s all Stacking Benjamins for me!
AverageJoeMoney No I definitely noticed less posts by you. That site really put you on the map and you really developed that site well. I hope you can leverage it to your benefit!
I can’t believe it’s only been a year. You’ve been such a rock in the pf blog community since I started blogging. Congrats on so many accomplishments and thanks of course for your comments and support as I’ve worked on building my little blog. Here’s to Vegas, year two!
StudentDebtSurvivor Thanks so much for the kind words : ) I would seriously consider taking a Vegas trip next Summer if I reached certain goals.
Congrats!!I can’t believe you’ve only been at it a year!! I hope to be half as accomplished at you :)
PlungedinDebt Thanks so much : ) I’m sure you will be MORE accomplished!
Congrats, DC! You have set the bar pretty high for what you’ve accomplished in a year! If I am half as successful as you are by a year mark – I’ll be a happy camper!
I run monthly giveaways and have found them to be a great opportunity to interact with readers in a different way and give something back to the community. It’s a really great tool to introduce new people to your blog that wouldn’t normally have come your way. Some will leave when the giveaway is done but a lot stick around to and become followers! Nicely done buddy!
LindseyatCents Thanks so much for the kind words Lindsey! I think I will participate in at least one giveaway a month. I’ve had such good results from them and people just love them.
I would like to congratulate you for the job well done and for your blog progress. Are you full-time working with you blog? I know a lot of your readers learned and enjoyed your articles/ post. More power and keep posting.
MyDesire4 I am not a full-time blogger. I do it in addition to my full-time job working in corporate finance. Thanks for the kind words!
Congrats DC!! It looks like you’ve had an amazing year and many great years ahead of you. :) Happy 4th of July
TheHeavyPurse Thanks so much Shannon : ) Happy 4th to you as well!
Congrats DC for a successful first year and all the best in your future goals too.
BorrowedCents Thanks!
Congrats, DC, on all of your accomplishments during the last year! Your blog is most certainly doing well and helping others – great job :-)