For those that have been following Financial Slacker for a while, you know that I began with a soft launch in November 2015. I started posting a little more consistently as time went on. And around the second week in April 2016, is when I decided that this was something I was committed to.
I know 5 months may seem like a long time to commit, but for me that’s actually pretty fast. I like to take my time and I’m slow to decide on things. Sometimes that’s good, like when it comes to making big dollar purchases. Sometimes that’s bad, like when deciding to start investing your money.
But now that I have been running this site for a while, I have decided that I like it. I enjoy the interaction with other bloggers. I enjoy researching and writing about financial topics. And I even enjoy the technical aspects of the site (themes, plug-ins, analytics, etc.).
What’s Next for Financial Slacker?
Even though I enjoy running this site, and as much as I enjoy writing about personal finance and hopefully helping my readers solve their financial problems, sometimes I want to write about other topics. There are times when I don’t have enough hours or energy to create a lengthy, well-thought-out, well-written, highly informative financial post. There are times when I just want to share what’s on my mind. Maybe it’s something I saw on the internet. Maybe it’s something on television. Maybe it’s an interaction I had in the real world.
The problem is that I don’t want to disrupt the original intent of this site – to educate, to inform, to explore ideas in money management and personal finance from the perspective of 20 years in corporate America. And for readers who aren’t interested in listening to me ramble about non-financial topics, I don’t want them to be forced to decide if a post is an informative financial article or a Sunday afternoon sitting around drinking a beer talking about nothing in particular article.
So I am contemplating how to accomplish this and I had two thoughts.
- Create an additional site – a lifestyle blog, or
- Figure out a creative way to incorporate these other articles into Financial Slacker version 2.0.
Option 1 – Create a New Site
As far as creating a separate new blog, to be honest, that doesn’t excite me. I actually have a separate healthcare business with its own site and a consulting business with its own site. And between running those businesses as well as keeping Financial Slacker going strong, I’m not sure I have the bandwidth to add another blog into the mix. I am afraid if I get too many sites going, I may find it hard to dedicate enough time to each and keep up regular activity on all of them.
In fact, I am actually thinking about how to integrate all three businesses into one. There are tax advantageous as well as other efficiencies. So a new site seems to be taking me in the opposite direction of where I want to go.
But even though I’m not overly excited about creating a new site right now, there are some reasons to do so. The biggest reason I can think of to create a new site is the benefit of keeping Financial Slacker clear of distractions and non-financial articles. Those searching for solutions to their financial problems may not have much interest in hearing about my personal life, my travel, my weight loss, or whatever else I feel like exploring on the site.
But is that enough of a reason to justify the additional time, money, and energy required to set up another site? And if I do set up another site, will I miss out on synergies between Financial Slacker and the new site?
Option 2 – Financial Slacker 2.0
As for the second option – adding these new articles to Financial Slacker, that’s the direction I am heading. I’ve just started to pick up momentum with the site. The brand is getting recognized and I really want to build on that rather than start something completely new again.
If I go in this direction, the easy way to accomplish my plan would be to simply start posting these non-financial articles along with the traditional articles. But as I mentioned, I don’t want to detract from the true purpose of Financial Slacker. If my readers are just looking for solutions to their financial problems, I don’t want them to feel the need to sift through unrelated articles to get to what they’re looking for.
So here is my thinking. Rather than just intermingling posts, what if I add a new page to the site? Essentially, create two blogs in one.
The home page will remain the same. This is where you will find the long, research-supported, helpful finance articles. You might call this my office.
The new page is where you will find the other articles – my musings on all things non-financial. You might call this my home.
And just like in the real world, if you want to come visit me in my home, I welcome you. But remember, the formal stuff stays at work. At home, I’m a casual, relaxed, kick off your shoes kind of guy. And my new articles will reflect that.
Readers, what do you think of my idea? Should I create a new page on this site, or set up a new blog? Or am I over-thinking the whole thing?
[do_widget id=text-8]
I’d try your best to incorporate lifestyle topics into this blog. Hell, I do it on mine as well because I believe that finances isn’t just about the money. The fact is our lifestyles and the things that influence those lifestyles are very much contributing factors to how we manage dough. And personally, I don’t even think you need two pages on the blog – maybe just create a new category and keep things logically separated, but heck, I personally wouldn’t worry too much about the separation.
But that’s just my take – your mileage may (and probably does) vary. 🙂
Steve,
Thanks for your feedback. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Most of us who do PF don’t neglect the personal part. I would just incorporate the other posts and see how they land.
ZJ,
Thank you for the feedback.
I think would be interesting to know a bit more about your lifestyle to get a better idea how relate to your finances.
Starting another blog isn’t an easy task. There are study that show humans aren’t so great at multitasking as we think.
Thinki about the result you can achieve if you focus only on this website.
Thanks for your feedback, Rudy. That’s my concern. It’s hard enough keeping one site up and running with regular updates. I’m not sure I have the energy for another one.
I would definitely keep it in this blog. It’s hard work maintaining and building up a website, plus I think a lot of people would like to hear more than just the personal finance aspect about you anyway.
— Jim
Thanks for your feedback, Jim. I would like to incorporate more of my personal experiences into my posts. I agree, that’s what helps differentiate one site from another.
I agree with previous comments, keep it in one blog. There maybe be different ways to organize the site, but I try to keep mine clean by creating categories that allow people to easily find what they are looking for. It might result in many categories, but I think it helps.
Thanks for the feedback, Green Swan. I just recently started using categories to help organize the articles. When you first start out, it isn’t too difficult to navigate a site, but it doesn’t take long for things to get cumbersome after posting 3 or 4 times per week for a few months.
I vote to keep everything here on one blog. Money connects to almost everything, so you have a ton of latitude built into your primary subject area. And people will enjoy getting to know you, too, as they read about your financial ideas. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback, ONL. I agree that money does connect to almost everything in our lives. And incorporating my personal experiences into the articles helps me better connect with readers.
I think it would be great if you added more personal components to your site. When I am browsing PF sites, I often end up following the sites that draw me into the authors life in a long term manner. It turns the site from just an information blog to a personal journey, and that’s what gets me excited and keeps me reading! We want to hear about how your life affects your views, finances, and vice versa!
Thanks for the feedback, Andrew. I am the same way. There are many sites out there that just provide information. Understanding the author’s experiences and how the situations apply to them is what differentiates one site from another.
I agood idea to try and incorporate posts on lifestyle into your main site. I have learned that you get more interaction from readers hen they realize you are more than just a guy listing off reasons why investing is a smart idea!
Thanks for the feedback, Thias. Being able to connect and relate to the author is one of the primary reasons I follow most sites. And that’s exactly where I would like for this site to go.
Hey FS, I think it’s important to throw a bit of ourselves into our blog. Every blog out there has the pf messages, but it’s who we are that makes us unique and creates a unique blog.
We talk about IVF in our main blog, so it’s up to you what works best and what you want FS to be 🙂
Tristan
Thanks, Tristan. I agree. Hearing personal stories from the writers is what helps us connect.
As PF bloggers, most of us have realized that our goal is to work for money and to live our lives on our own terms, not the other way around – living to work. And often our money decisions are impacted by the choices we make in our personal lives. Sharing those stories helps our readers make better decisions in their own lives.
Based on the other comments, it sounds like you know what to do! I think incorporating the personal side to financial planning makes it easier on everyone.
Props to running three different sites at once, that is impressive!
Sounds like a consensus.
And thanks for the compliment although my other sites don’t really get much attention. I tend to bounce back and forth, but recently this site has been my main focus.