Around Christmas of 2020, I decided to start my own personal finance blog Finance Throttle. My objective with this blog was to help people accelerate their net worth and learn more about personal finance along the way. Within a week, I created the blog and website through a Bluehost referral link and published the site on December 31st, 2020 for a January 1st, 2021 reveal. I started off publishing a new blog post EVERY DAY. This wasn’t easy since I had a full time job and a family. After a few weeks, I felt that the quality of my posts were suffering from the daily post schedule. I decided to change up my blog post schedule to three times a week. I posted on Monday’s, Wednesdays, and Friday’s. Half way through March of 2021, I decided to reduce my weekly posts again with a new post every Monday and Thursday. Now that Christmas of 2021 is here, it has been one year since I started blogging on Finance Throttle.
Advertising and Page Views
Facebook and Pinterest are still my only sources of traffic and advertising with Pinterest leading the pack by far. Though I have not yet paid for advertising with either Facebook or Pinterest. My New Years Resolution may include paying for advertising to see if it makes a noticeable difference. For most of 2021, I have been still sticking to two posts per week on Mondays and Thursdays @ 9:00 AM EST. From my 6 month update to my 9 month update, my Pinterest monthly page views grew by 25% to 8200 per month and my blog traffic increased by 50%. Now at my one year update, my Pinterest monthly page views has grown by 24% to 10,100 per month though my blog traffic increased only by 10%. On my Finance Throttle Facebook Page I continue to post twice a week. If you don’t want to subscribe for a monthly newsletter, consider liking my Facebook Page to stay up to date.
According to Google Analytics and Monster Insights, the majority of my readers are based in the U.S. with Canada being 2nd. As of December 2021, approximately 72% of readers access FinanceThrottle.com from their cell phones and the remaining access the site from their desktop computer or laptop. This is down from the earlier updates where 83% to 89% accessed Finance Throttle through their cell phones.
Throughout the year, my posts on Door Dash were the most popular posts on my site. However my post on Pigeon Loans and trying the Mega Backdoor Roth Conversion are among my most read non-Door Dash related posts. The popularity of my Crypto content has seen a noticeable decrease.
My Blog Now and Going Forward
To summarize, I have published a total of 136 blog posts in 12 months. My post popular blog post by far is My Door Dash Spreadsheet. Next is Top 10 DoorDash Driver Hacks. My third most popular post was on Paying taxes in 2021 as a Door Dash driver. As you will see throughout my posts, my wealth building strategy revolves around paying off debt with velocity banking and long term investing in retirement and real estate. Visit my Recommendations Page to learn about some of my favorite Fin-tech apps, Door Dash must-haves, and books.
While I have seen constant growth, the growth is starting to slow down. Just before I posted this one year update, I made changes to the site’s categories and menu’s. These changes reflect my plans for 2022. I will be continuing to provide updates on my 6-7 year mortgage pay off journey here on this page. I will also decrease the number of blog posts and focus a bit more on quality over quantity. After all, I currently post more than most finance blogs out there and I already have more blog posts than some 5 year old finance blogs. Maybe I will go down to one blog post per week rather than two. I will also try to focus on publishing new content on cars 95% of my posts have been Finance rather than Throttle. This is reflected in the new “Car Talk” category on the menu bar with new posts on winter driving and upcoming cars.
Spread Sheet Templates
I just finished creating a new Net Worth Tracker Spreadsheet and a Contribution Limit Tracker Spreadsheet. The Net Worth spreadsheet is great for tracking your net worth with annual net worth statements. The Contribution Limit Tracker helps you keep track of your annual contribution limits, helping you to avoid IRS penalties. Interested in a Budgeting Spreadsheet, F.I.R.E Spreadsheet, Amortization Schedule, Door Dash “Dasher Tracker”, or my Full Throttle Spreadsheet? All of these spreadsheets just went through an upgrade. You can now request these spreadsheets through my Shop.
If you want to see a certain kind of template. Let me know and I will try to create it.
Blog Earnings
I didn’t expect to make any money in the first year. It could take years for bloggers to start making $100 per month or $2000 per month. I signed up with Bluehost to host my site during a promotional period where I paid only $2.95 per month for the first year. Sign up with Bluehost using my referral link to get the $2.95 monthly offer.
In total, I have made $104 in 2021 or an average of $8.66 per month. Here is the breakdown:
- Google Adsense = $30
- Affiliates = $15
- Spreadsheet Sales = $37
- Referrals = $22
In addition, I made well over $500 in experimenting with different apps, credit card strategies, and more for the purpose of providing more content for the blog. So far I have made over $25 just by taking surveys once a week. You can do it too with the app 1Q. I was also able to save money on gas using the BPme Rewards app, earn money with the micro-savings app Stash, and earn way more cash back using my new Chase Freedom Flex card.
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