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9:54 am
June 4, 2013
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savingadvice
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I'm starting a new thread for the summer 5000+ words per week challenge — Financial Samurai has set the following for the current challenge:
Financial Samurai said:
How's everybody doing on this Challenge?
With summer upon us, I fear the slacking bug is going to return! I'll be away for roughly five weeks overseas and need some motivation to stay focused. I firmly believe that grit and effort trumps talent any day.
Instead of reporting in weekly, which is kind of a PITA, I'd like for those in the 5K/Week Challenge to report in once on the first of each month and highlight two posts with hyperlinks which you think are your best work w/ Whale Post possibilities. Perhaps your post was highlighted in a major publication, received a huge amount of comments, or said something very unique in the community.
Also part of the Challenge is to work on and successfully launch one project before Labor Day Weekend.
Finally, in the monthly check ins, mention whether you wrote 5K words a week a month or not. If you didn't, please provide your excuses. One last point if you are looking for motivation based on a statistically significant sample set: revenue and viewership are surging higher for those who've committed to this content production challenge since last November, 2012.
The internet is a meritocracy. Game on
If you are up for participating, chime in here, make yourself public to help hold yourself accountable. I found the last one a great exercise in keeping me focused on producing more content and more in depth content and my guess is that anyone who participates and makes a genuine effort to reach the above goals will improve their blog. Hope to see a lot of participants…
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2:32 pm
June 4, 2013
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ayoungpro
| | Lehi, UT | |
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I'm not sure that I understand this part of the challenge:
"Also part of the Challenge is to work on and successfully launch one project before Labor Day Weekend."
Can anyone elaborate?
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2:48 pm
June 4, 2013
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savingadvice
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ayoungpro said:
I'm not sure that I understand this part of the challenge:
"Also part of the Challenge is to work on and successfully launch one project before Labor Day Weekend."
Can anyone elaborate?
I think it's pretty open to your interpretation — basically doing something that goes beyond your normal article writing. it could be a project to increase your social media followers, putting together an ebook for readers that visit your blog, putting together an app that helps your readers, etc. basically some project that will compliment your writing to hopefully increase your blog readership.
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3:05 pm
June 4, 2013
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ayoungpro
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Thank you, that helps. One more thing, what is the time frame for this challenge, or is it just an ongoing thing?
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4:37 pm
June 4, 2013
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savingadvice
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ayoungpro said:
Thank you, that helps. One more thing, what is the time frame for this challenge, or is it just an ongoing thing?
You can choose the length — some are doing it as an ongoing challenge while some limit it to a few months. I think the original was set to last 3 months, so June 1 – August 31 would be a good time period if you don't want to (or are unsure) if you want to do it long term.
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6:10 pm
June 4, 2013
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Edward Antrobus
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I'll push myself, but I'm not committing to 5k words. If my boss is able to pick me for her latest project, I'll be working 12 hour days with a 3 hour round-trip commute this summer.
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I'm looking for editors, beta-readers, and some demographic research for my upcoming novel, Once Upon a Saturn Moon. If you like reading soft sci-fi thrillers, maybe with a touch of romance thrown in, you can find more information at http://seampublishing.com/once…..aturn-moon
If You Can Read, You Can Cook – http://www.ifyoucanread.com | Think you can't cook? If you can read this sentence, then you can.
SEAM Publishing – http://www.seampublishing.com | eBook formatting and publishing service
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6:31 pm
June 4, 2013
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Pauline
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I'm in! My project is to start a new site on July 1st. Good luck all!
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11:19 pm
June 4, 2013
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maria@moneyprinciple
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I am in! My project is to build TMP further by guest posting on…well, you will see :).
Maria
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9:41 am
June 8, 2013
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savingadvice
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I know that the challenge only requires check in once a month, but I'm going to do it weekly to keep myself honest. The first week I had a total of 4874 words written which is just under the weekly goal. None of these were "whale posts" with the longest one being just over 1000 words. Although I technically fell short this first week, I'm not too disappointed because I also wrote an additional 1500 words for what will be my first whale type post (that article is about half done) that wasn't counted.
I hope everyone had a successful week of writing toward the challenge goals…
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10:15 pm
July 1, 2013
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savingadvice
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Not sure if anyone is still doing this, but checking in in case there are still people doing it. The month went pretty well for me. I ended up writing 32,256 words so well above 5000 a week after the first week where I just missed my mark.
My best post for the month was probably: 10 reasons you're not a millionaire which was picked up by MSN Smart Spending
The project I started was a new area where I can build content slowly over time and when I have just a few minutes to write (and not a block which I need to write articles). The first phase of it is a trash audit where people can search for stuff they throw away and it will show ways that they can repurpose that stuff. Right now it's pretty thin because I have just started to create the articles, but I can do it one paragraph at a time so I can be productive even when I don't have a lot of time. I also made it so anyone can add to the articles as well. While I'm not expecting that to happen, I hope that it eventually becomes popular enough so that others will want to contribute as well. This is also the area I'm attempting to try and create more traffic from social media sites like pinterest which I haven't done well to this point.
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4:46 am
July 2, 2013
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Financial Samurai
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Post edited 4:47 am – July 2, 2013 by Financial Samurai
June
5k words a week: check
New initiatives by Labor Day: FS Forum, private newsletter, survey of readers for improvement
Overcoming a hump: Finally wrote a post on how to correctly value and analyze rental property. It was a topic I've been needing to publish as a pillar post for referencing in my Real Estate category. Delayed for so long because it felt too much like work.
Random win: Kiplinger picked up The Dark Side Of Retirement post.
Life work balance: In second week of a four week vacation. Did not bring laptop only phone.
Hope all is well!
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Regards,
Sam
Financial Samurai - Helping you achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.
Yakezie Network Founder
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10:20 am
July 2, 2013
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Pauline
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savingadvice said:
Not sure if anyone is still doing this, but checking in in case there are still people doing it. The month went pretty well for me. I ended up writing 32,256 words so well above 5000 a week after the first week where I just missed my mark.
My best post for the month was probably: 10 reasons you're not a millionaire which was picked up by MSN Smart Spending
The project I started was a new area where I can build content slowly over time and when I have just a few minutes to write (and not a block which I need to write articles). The first phase of it is a trash audit where people can search for stuff they throw away and it will show ways that they can repurpose that stuff. Right now it's pretty thin because I have just started to create the articles, but I can do it one paragraph at a time so I can be productive even when I don't have a lot of time. I also made it so anyone can add to the articles as well. While I'm not expecting that to happen, I hope that it eventually becomes popular enough so that others will want to contribute as well. This is also the area I'm attempting to try and create more traffic from social media sites like pinterest which I haven't done well to this point.
Congrats on the MSN mention!
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10:25 am
July 2, 2013
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Pauline
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Well done Sam too!
June 5K words check.
Summer project Launched new site Make Money Your Way on July 1st, still a few things to check but it is live and running.
July goals get VA up to speed and guest post on one blog a week.
I think my biggest post was a Couchsurfing vs Airbnb review at 2160 words, for travelers looking for cheap and free accommodations while visiting a new place.
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10:34 am
July 2, 2013
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Financial Samurai
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Pauline, I liked that couch surfing post. No hits so far for me couch surfing in Switzerland, but it's for sure due to signing up late with no references. I'm sure that post will start doing very well in search over time!
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Regards,
Sam
Financial Samurai - Helping you achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.
Yakezie Network Founder
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10:50 am
July 2, 2013
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Pauline
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Thanks! I hope it gets some traffic, I have a couple more about Airbnb and how much money you can make renting your extra room to tourists that fare pretty well.
Finding hosts in July in Europe is crazy complicated. People already live in small apartments and having guests is really demanding when they just sleep on the couch in a 1bed 400sqft unit, so they tend to limit to one host a month, sometimes less.
Like a guest posting request, try to send something personal, with why you think the person is interesting, why you are visiting the city, what your visit would bring them (conversations about XYZ, etc.). You can also say you are not looking for a place to stay but would love to meet for coffee, some offer a place to stay afterward when they see you are not just after a free couch.
I like to see people have given something to the community, either by having their room for hosting as well, or by having shown their city to visitors, etc. so sure, a new profile with no ref is not ideal, but you can build it with a few coffee meetups.
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12:43 pm
July 31, 2013
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Pauline
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Time to close July, how did you guys do?
5k words for July check
Summer project: launch my new site, Make Money Your Way, check
July goal 5 guest posts. I guest posted on Budgets Are Sexy, Girls just Wanna have Funds, My Money Design, Bryan Maltier,
Stacking Benjamins, Frugal Rules, Club Thrifty, We Only Do This Once, Teens got cents, plus an interview on Frugal Portland.
A guest post is queued at Modest Money. 11, check.
Whale post: my average post is more around 1,200 this month, the most popular long post was
1,541 words comparing the costs of early retirement abroad and in the US, and if it was worth it.
August goal: 10,000 pageviews on Make Money Your Way, the first month was around 5,000.
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5:05 am
August 1, 2013
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Frugal Confessions
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Way to go Pauline! Your guest posting outreach is impressive:).
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5:06 am
August 1, 2013
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Frugal Confessions
| | Houston, TX | |
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Sounds intense Edward. Good luck!
________________________________________
Edward Antrobus said:
I'll push myself, but I'm not committing to 5k words. If my boss is able to pick me for her latest project, I'll be working 12 hour days with a 3 hour round-trip commute this summer.
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7:37 am
August 1, 2013
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Financial Samurai
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Post edited 11:38 am – August 1, 2013 by Financial Samurai
Happy August everyone!
Checking in for July:
* Launched FS Forum. Going slowly but surely and has helped the Forum community who have been paying attention make a good chunk of change in the stock market as we kept on top of SINA, BIDU, and RENN during their 20-50% ramp since May vs. a 5% gain in the overall markets. This is probably the biggest thing I'm excited about, slowly getting more eyes and ears on stocks so we find more opportunities. X Factor in a bull market where you can make a ton of money if you take some risks.
* Went traveling for four weeks with iPhone and maintained the 5K/words a week in July. Posted my experience on Yakezie.com.
* Got a 100+ comment post How Do People Live A Comfortable Life Making Less Than Six Figures In Expensive Cities. Fun to document travels through pictures and writing so I won't forget what happened.
* Planted seeds for a new business initiative that should have a soft launch by October.
Cheers
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Regards,
Sam
Financial Samurai - Helping you achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.
Yakezie Network Founder
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5:35 am
August 2, 2013
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Pauline
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Frugal Confessions said:
Way to go Pauline! Your guest posting outreach is impressive:).
Thanks Amanda, it was a busy month!
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