I hope everyone had an outstanding Christmas! We’re really digging having the week off.
I couldn’t believe how quickly the holiday flew by. Didn’t we just buy all those presents? This was the year of the Lego sets for my kids. They got just a ridiculous amount of them. Does anyone else’s kids have those Monster Fighter sets? They’re kind of cool …
My Blog Updates:
You would NEVER guess it, but I’ve been really busy behind the scenes working on My Money Design. Here’s a few of the things that have been going on:
• Cleaned up all my W3C coding errors.
• Cleaning up all the broken links I can find (scan, check, and repeat). Again, it’s somewhat sad to remove the links to blogs that are no more.
• The Passive Income Ideas section was re-written and revamped. This has been on my to-do list for a while since it is a section of my blog where I think readers could gain a lot of value. I intend to keep adding to it and updating it with more personal information as I get better at developing my own passive income streams.
• The “Easy Money” section was completely removed. This was a section of my blog that just went dead and really didn’t need any more. It was originally supposed to be a place where I could post awesome deals or quick cash ideas. But as time when on, my blog just really wasn’t going in that direction anymore and very few things ever got posted there.
• I’ve been spending a LOT of time going back and optimizing old posts that received little or no attention for new keywords. Doing this over the Christmas break is somewhat of a poor litmus test to see how effective the changes are since there seems to be a lot less blog traffic during this time. I’ll give it a month and see if some of these new keywords make a difference.
• While I’m doing my keyword research, I’m also making note of a few new keyword ideas that would make good topics.
• And finally, does anyone know how to put together an eBook? I’ve been drafting some material and I think I’m ready to take this to the next level …
Blogs You Should Check Out:
In case you missed them, here are a few great stories you should check out this weekend:
- Outlier Model – DISCARDING TOXIC PEOPLE FROM YOUR LIFE
- Blonde on a Budget – Twenty Twelve: The Year I Changed My Life
- Savvy Scott – The Sky is the Limit in 2013
- Enemy of Debt – Pssssst, I’ve Got Something Really Cool To Show You……
- Money Master Mom – Should toddlers be using high tech gadgets?
Carnivals & Mentions:
My Money Design was featured on the following sites this week:
- Making Sense of Sense – Yakezie Carnival
- Evolving Personal Finance – Weekly Update 44
- The Frugal Path – Eighth Edition of The Money Carnival
- Money Soldiers – Money Soldiers Blog Carnival No. 4
- Frugal Rules – Frugal Friday: Posts That Ruled This Week, Christmas is Over Edition
Thanks to everyone for linking to my site and enjoying my posts. I really appreciate your support and hope you continue to visit!
Posts This Week:
2) My Stocks with High Dividends Income Report – December 2012
Image Credit: Unknown
Mike@WeOnlyDoThis... (11)
John S @ Frugal R... (8)
Kim@Eyesonthedollar (8)
Martin (7)
Todd @ Fearless Men (7)
Integrator (6)
KC @ genxfinance (6)
Matt Becker (6)
Canadian Budget B... (5)
Chris @ Stumble F... (5)
I’m contemplating some big blog updates so it’s nice to know I’m not the only one.
Pat Flynn has a great e-book on e-books. I read it recently and it’s free on his website:
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com
NoTrustFund recently posted..Year in Review: Popular Posts of 2012
Thanks for the tip! I will go and check that out!
those are blog tasks I keep postponing and it is becoming more and more work every week…def not the fun side of blogging!
Pauline recently posted..Friday recap, a lost turkey and a Christmas miracle
I had been procrastinating those tasks for far too long. Knowing I had some time off over the Holiday break, there really wasn’t any excuse not to.
Haha I need to do some blog maintenance too… maybe one day, or maybe i’ll hire it out!
Lance @ Money Life and More recently posted..Personal Finance Round Up, Mentions and Carnivals #36
What’s funny is I did try to hire out a few of tasks but I had no success. I ended up getting impatient and just doing everything myself.
It always feels good to clean things up and get organized on the blog. I’m curious about the ebook too. I’m taking part in a group ebook partnership, but am starting to get curious about doing my own maybe this year. LMK what you find out!
Budget & the Beach recently posted..Link Love/What Would You Do?
Good luck with your efforts! I’m sure I’ll post about whatever I find.
I like your passive income section. Unfortunately, P2P lending isn’t available in Canada yet, I’ve been really wanting to try Lending Club for a long time!
Brian recently posted..Discarding toxic people from your life
Thanks Brian. I’ve been collecting material and putting a lot of work into the passive income ideas section for a while. I was not aware that P2P lending isn’t available in Canada!
Wow you definitely did a lot with your blog! I need to do the same.
Michelle recently posted..A Jar of Pennies…Planning My Future Budget
Thanks Michelle. I’m just trying to catch up to your success! I’m hoping that all this effort will finally reward me with something higher than a PR2.
Sounds like you have been busy working on the blog during the holidays. Cleaning up broken links is tedious but well worth the effort. I also need to go back to the very beginning to optimize some posts. As for the e-book talk to Glenn at monsterpiggybank he might be able to help you out. Cheers Mr.CBB
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted..New Year’s Resolution:Canadian Debt and Tackling Personal Finances
I need to give this some time and see if some of my older, re-optimized posts start getting some attention from organic searches. If they do, then I’ll know that my efforts were worth it.
Hey thanks for including my post. Glad to hear you got those broken links cleared up. Happy New Year!
Mandy @ MoneyMasterMom recently posted..Getting Better Sleep just got REALLY XXX-citing!
Happy New Year to you too Mandy!
What have you been using to identify/scan those broken links? Because that’s a major thing on my to do list, too. LOL on the graphic, by the way. Would be lying if I said I didn’t completely identify.
femmefrugality recently posted..Play with Free Virtual Makeovers
I have a two part system. I’ve been using the Broken Link Checker plugin to catch a lot of the obvious ones. I also have been using Xenu to do a more deep and thorough scan. Unfortunately a lot of the broken links come from old comments left by bloggers who are no more.
Yeah, I thought the graphic was pretty suiting for the Christmas break
Thank you!! Unfortunately I have a feeling that’s where most of mine are too.
femmefrugality recently posted..Guest Post on Snark Finance
[...] My Money Design [...]
Good for you, MMD. You have been busily cleaning house, I see. It is so interesting to read about the ‘quick, cheap money’ section going kaput. I love when creative projects veer off and evolve in their own unique direction.
Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy recently posted..Resolutions for 2013.
Thanks Jennifer. The Easy Money section started off as a good idea, but my blog became more about long term investing rather than just grabbing quick one-shot signup deals. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t still publish a few of them every now and again in the future as I find them!
It flew by for me too. I love the picture, I have totally done that. I was thankful to avoid the Lego sets this year. I like them but putting them together isn’t always as easy as you would like it to be.
Shane recently posted..Why keyword negatives are important
Those Lego sets are getting more and more complicated, aren’t they? However, I will say the artistic quality of the sets is also becoming remarkable! I remember as a kid everything being very box-y and not really looking like much of anything. Now they have all kinds of special bricks and colors to really give the sets a special look and feel.
2012 has been a great year for MMD blog, and I wish you continued success in 2013, my friend!
Shilpan recently posted..How to Tap Dance to Work
Thanks Shilpan! I wish the same to you and your blogs as well!
I too did some blog maintenance and some SEO on old posts over the holidays. (I think I’m already seeing a slight uptick as a result). Feels good right??
eemusings recently posted..The elements of a perfect bank
Good for you to do some house keeping! It does feel good to make some improvements. I can only guess that optimizing my old posts will do good, right? I believe the number of search queries that are bringing up my blog is improving as a result. Now all I need is to become number 1 for those keywords …