Tag Archives | blogiversary

youngandthrifty.ca’s Two Year Blogiversary is Today!

By on November 28, 2011 in personal

What I have learned

I have learned a ton of stuff about personal finance, I have learned more about budgeting, about the personal aspect of personal finance, about money and relationships, about leadership.

In these two years, I have learned more than I would ever want to know about wordpress and plug ins and PHP, about social media and twitter (yes, I must admit I’m addicted to twitter now!), and about “pillar posts”  I still have a LOT to learn (still need to fix that commenting thing where the threaded comments don’t show up).  I’m planning to redesign my blog and make it look somewhat more professional but I will need to get the guts to do that.

I have seen many blogs come and go, and have learned to support the new blogs (especially new blogs I see that are really good) because I would have liked this when I first started out :)   Most blogs don’t make it past the 6 month mark and now I am way beyond the “critical point” so perhaps you’ll see me for another 10 years LOL.

I have also learned to time manage (I think) but I think I have my hectic school schedule to thank for this as well.

What I am thankful for

I am thankful for all the new PF blogging friends I have made in these two years.  The Canadian ones and the Yakezie ones.  Although I haven’t met you guys, I look forward to your comments on my blog, I look forward to reading your blogs, and I look forward to bantering on twitter.  I really enjoy the conversation, even though its not face to face.

I am thankful for the Yakezie who gave me this chance 1.5 years ago to expand my blog.

I think I have become a different person since starting this blog.  I am more accountable, I am more driven, more edumacated (thanks to other personal finance blogs), and I don’t procrastinate as much as I used to.  I am thankful for this blog because it gives me an outlet from my regular job and I really enjoy expressing myself on here.

I am thankful for the media coverage this humble little blog has generated, from being in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and very soon, Glow Magazine.  I am also thankful to all the publishers to send me books to review!  And I get to give them away, which is the best part.

I am thankful for the success of this blog that has allowed me to hire a staff writer from My University Money.

Of course, last but definitely not least, I am SO THANKFUL for the readers.  Thank you for reading my blog, thank you thank you thank you!  I look forward to the conversation that this blog generates and I look forward to reading your thoughts on my ramblings and on my journey with personal finance.  Thank you for reading via email subscription, via RSS, via facebook, via twitter, and directly!

When I first started

I remember when I first started, my family and BF laughed at me when I said I was going to start a personal finance blog.  They thought I was silly for thinking I could start a personal finance blog and have it be somewhat successful.  I admit, my thoughts were the same and at some points in the early months, and I had thought about quitting many times, but I slugged through and I’m here 2 years later.  I had never ever thought that I could be mentioned by Million Dollar Journey in his round up posts (he was my blogging idol when I first started), never thought I would be mentioned in newspapers, or be voted as one of the finalists for a Plutus Award.

I remember when I first started, the sadness of writing a post and have no one comment and I used to think “who am I really talking to? Myself??”

I remember the distinct moment when the Adsense started picking up (it was at $0.06 per month for a while) and I would be SO excited if I made $0.49 in a week.  I was checking my Adsense on crappy internet connection while I was in Nepal (that was about a year ago) and was elated to find that I was getting $3 in clicks a day.  It made my trip even better knowing that some sort of passive (??) income was being generated while I was backpacking.

So with two years of youngandthrifty.ca, what has this resulted in?

  • 329 posts
  • almost 20,000 visits a day a month!! (sorry this is what happens when you are sleep deprived-sorry!!)
  • almost 35,000 page views a day  (haha sorry I meant a MONTH!)
  • 324 pages of comments (love those comments) Continue Reading →
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Happy Blogiversary to ME! Youngandthrifty.ca Turns One!

By on November 29, 2010 in young and thrifty carnival

If you read about the blogiversary  bonanza giveaway a few posts back, you’ll know that today is cause for celebration!  Today officially marks “one year” that youngandthrifty.ca has existed in this internet realm.

I just want to say that I honestly cannot believe that my blog has survived for one year.  I remember when I was starting out, I would be excited if 10 people visited my site…in a week.  Now there is an average of 350+ people who stumble by my site in a single day!  Most importantly, through this blog, I have learned so so so much, about blogging, wordpress, html, coding (er.. maybe), personal finance, friendship, networking, social media etc. etc.  the list goes on.

Continue Reading →

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youngandthrifty.ca Blogiversary Bonanza! $250+ in Prizes

By on November 15, 2010 in young and thrifty carnival

In about two weeks, it will be officially ONE YEAR since I wrote my first post (you can see it here. As you can see, I was likely the only one who read that post lol).  I can’t believe that I have survived a year! It’s been great and I have learned so much (you can read me yammering on about how much youngandthrifty.ca’s grown with respect to what I have learned this first year of blogging on the actual blogiversary post in two weeks).

To celebrate this momentous occasion, the wonderful personal finance bloggers over at Yakezie (who are youngandthrifty’s heart and soul!) have generously donated some wonderful books and gift cards to celebrate this first year blogiversary (and hopefully not last, lol!).  I will be throwing in a VISA gift card as a first prize, too (just to show how much I appreciate you as a reader!).

How much do all these prizes add up to? Over $250+ in prizes to be won!!

FIRST PRIZE:

A $100 VISA Gift Card courtesy of moi!

This gift card should be able to be used in the United States, but will be $100 in Canadian funds (which works out to be about the same now anyway :) )  So my American friends please enter this contest too!

BOOK PRIZES:

  • Couple Money is generously donating a  subscription to Kiplinger’s personal finance magazine ($36 value cover price)

Elle has been blogging over at Couple Money on how she and her family handles their finances while building mobile income based on their passions.  She’s a really nice person to boot! One of my fave posts is 11 ways to save money at the grocery store.

Crystal over at Budgeting the Fun Stuff sees money as a tool that is used to provide for our needs, our future, and the fun stuff in between. :-)   She also has an allergy ridden pug too- which automatically deserves big props as I have one too.

  • Suba at Wealth Informatics is donating a copy of Your Money: The Missing Manual
    by J.D. Roth (a $21.99 value)

Suba strives to provide Information empowering debt reduction, financial planning, informed consumerism, savvy investing, fun & frugal living leading to financial freedom.  She also is a big fan of paying yourself first :)

  • Invest It Wisely is donating a copy of The Elements of Investing by Burton G. Makiel ($20 value)

Invest it Wisely is a both great Canadian and Yakezie read, one of his most popular posts is what you need to do to get out of the rat race and achieve financial freedom

  • Jesse from PF Firewall will giveaway a copy of I Will Teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi ($13.95 value)

PF Firewall will be used to track everything going in or out of his personal finance and he will try and provide any ways he has found to patch breaches in my personal finance firewall (awesome analogy!)

Evan, a lawyer, dad, husband to The Wife and personal finance blogger has great posts, including an explanation on our mutual love, dividends.

  • Sam from Financial Samurai is donating “How Rich People Think” by Steve Siebold ($16.99 value)

Sam is the guru behind the Yakezie and a fantastic writer with posts that are always thought-provoking. I have a ton of favourite posts from him, two being: his Samurai finance rules and How to Get your Super Motivated Boyfriend to Marry You

GIFT CERTIFICATES/ CASH PRIZES:

Maximizing Money runs my kind of blog- a blog focusing on financial tips on how to save money and earn extra cash be reaping the benefits of reward credit cards.

Frugal Zeitgeist lives my ultimate fantasy- living in Cairo, Egypt.  One of his popular articles is how to simply your life

Bucksome is a personal finance blogger writing from a boomer perspective.  She shares with us how her budget has changed over the last 12 years (us young’uns can learn from her experience)

  • Squirrelers is donating a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon

Squirrelers was launched to help Mr. Squirrel himself and others share thoughts on money, and help us reach our financial goals – while having fun doing it.  He has a fun series called “Squirreling gone wild”, in which the most recent edition was about The Extractor

Khaleef combines faith and finances is a fantastic and introspective personal finance blog.  He also helps people out in real life with budgeting assistance.

Here’s how to Enter in the youngandthrifty.ca Blogiversary Bonanza:

1 ENTRY: Subscribe by RSS (please comment below to show you have entered so I can get your email address- don’t worry it won’t be shared) or email subscription.  If you’ve already subscribed (thank you!) just comment below.

1 EXTRA ENTRY: Follow youngandthrifty on twitter and tweet:

youngandthrifty.ca BLOGIVERSARY GIVEAWAY thanks #Yakezie $250+ to be won! http://bit.ly/9KIwpc (via @youngandthrifty)

Contest ends Sunday November 28, 2010 at midnight PST.  Winners announced on Monday November 29.

The twelve winners will be picked by random.org (13! Good odds!)

One winner per prize (so you can’t win a $100 Visa Gift card AND a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate, sorry!)

Good Luck and thanks for reading!

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