Since I began this blog in early 2007, I’ve resisted the offers of advertising as I felt I wanted to remain objective in my presentation of investing content without being compensated for what I post or how often. Simply I haven’t liked the terms many have offered where I wouldn’t have control over where, what and how ads would be advertised. As a nurse, I obviously wouldn’t feel comfortable indirectly supporting ads for unhealthy products/services or anything that would take away from the fundamental investing principles that I feel are important for any DIY investor.
Recently I received an email from an editor at Forbes.com inquiring about my interest in joining a program their developing on their website titled: The Business and Financial Blog Network.
Their interest is in promoting two articles I’ve written on passive investments and index fund trailers. Although I feel there are articles on the blog that hold a much higher quality of content, I do understand that they appear to be targeting a more introductory audience to investing and generating ad revenue from prospective clients.
I do like the fact that they’ll give me complete control over approval of ads and their placement on the blog so that content and format aren’t altered in any meaningful way. I don’t anticipate the revenues to be anything meaningful as I average ~30-50 hits per day, but you never know what might come out of it unless you try something. I have the option of terminating the agreement with 30 days notice and I don’t see much downside currently to discourage me trying it out for a period of time.
In anticipation of these changes coming I’ve decided to get a little more blog savvy and include an option for frequent visitors to subscribe to new articles through email or a feed reader of their choice. As of this morning 3 have already subscribed and I would encourage other readers to do so as new posts can be immediately viewed through your email or other program.
I’ve simply noticed of late as the blog traffic has increased that some readers are visiting on a daily basis looking for updated content. Unfortunately I don’t have the time in my schedule to post that often and I’ve always focused on quality instead of quantity, which I hope shows in the content I present. I’ve also included a search function for the blog so readers can search keywords more easily on past posts instead of attempting to find them archived by date and have labelled each old and new post by category.
As always, comments or suggestions are welcome on the posts and through email if any changes become negative for readers.
I continue to enjoy documenting my thoughts, practices and investing philosophy for myself and others. Due to the quality of content I present gaining access to a larger audience through Forbes will be a learning experience and good knowledge as a still novice blogger.