Blogger Confessions #46: Gladice from Earn More Live Freely

Today, we're bringing in Gladice from Earn More Live Freely to talk about blogging and how she's managed to keep everything straight as a personal finance blogger.

1. In at least 100 words, describe the target audience of your blog. In other words, who are you writing for?

The target audience for my blog is people who are looking for ways to earn more and achieve financial freedom, just like I was in 2015.

Back then, both my husband and I lost our jobs because the company we worked for suddenly closed down. During that time, we also found out that I was pregnant with our first kid. As you could probably imagine, it was a very stressful time for us.

This painful experience made me realize the importance of building multiple streams of income and being in control of my income and my time. So, I started to get my hands on every personal finance book that I could find.

As I read more books and blogs on personal finance, I learned that the key to achieving financial freedom is to accumulate as many income-producing assets and reduce as many liabilities as possible. So, that's what I have been doing for the past few years. I started my blog to share what I have learned in my journey, because it has made a huge impact on my own life and I think it could do the same for others.

2. What makes your blog different from other blogs in the personal finance blogosphere?

I think that the main difference is that I use my blog to share exactly what I have been learning and doing to create multiple streams of income. I do this by putting together many in-depth beginners’ guides because I believe that it will greatly help people who are just starting out on their own financial freedom journey.

There are three main types of income I am focused on when it comes to achieving my financial freedom goal: earned income from my graphic design agency, online business income, and investment income.

About four years ago, I started a graphic design agency and hired a group of talented freelance graphic designers online whom I would pay on a per-project basis. I would market our graphic design services to local business owners and I would charge my local clients at a higher rate than what I pay my freelancers. I call this “Arbitrage”. On my blog, I wrote a very detailed post to share exactly how I started this graphic design agency from scratch.

Apart from running my graphic design business, I also put a lot of time into growing my online business, and sharing what I am learning along the way on my blog.

To make sure that I am doing things the right way, I have taken quite a few paid courses from successful people about how to productize my knowledge and earn passive income by selling online courses and coaching programs.

On my blog, I created a few in-depth beginners’ guides on how to create and sell online courses and coaching programs. Inside these guides, I shared exactly how I came up with my product idea and also exactly how I created and sold my first online product from scratch.

Building different sources of income is important to help me become financially free, but I understand that to achieve financial freedom and retire early, it’s not just about making money and saving money but also investing money wisely.

That’s why I have been studying a lot of investment books and also investment blogs to help me build a dividend stock portfolio. My goal is to have a dividend stock portfolio that can at least generate $2,000 per month.

You’ll find a lot of stock investing content on my blog because I use my blog to write down what I’ve learned, and to share my investing experience with people who are also thinking about building a dividend stock portfolio for passive income.

3. What’s the thing that you’ve struggled with the most since starting your blog?

The thing that I have struggled with the most since starting my blog is consistently publishing. With a child to take care of, I found it a bit challenging to balance blogging and other commitments.

I have found that, by planning my blog content at least one month in advance, I can stick to my goal of coming up with at least two high-quality pieces on topics such as creating an income online, investing, and saving money.

For all my blog posts, I like to include case studies and examples because I think it’s the best way to learn.

4. Do you publish your net worth on your blog? Why or why not?

I don’t publish my net worth on my blog. I don’t feel this is necessary because my audience gets more value from the actionable strategies and advice I share on my blog, rather than a net worth figure that doesn’t matter to them. Besides that, I also think that no two financial situations are ever the same.

5. Have you monetized your blog (ads, affiliate marketing, etc)? Why or why not?

My blog has been around for about three years. I just started to monetize my blog with affiliate marketing and sponsored posts, but before that, I have been creating and selling online courses and coaching programs through my blog for a few months now.

The reason why I am starting to experiment with more blog monetization methods is because I think it allows me to share my first-hand experience of making money with affiliate marketing, online courses, and coaching programs. For example, I have written a very detailed blog post about how to sell your expertise and knowledge by starting a coaching program online.

6. Would you rather be loved, hated or controversial? Explain, please!

I would rather be loved. I have seen how mean and unfriendly people can be on the internet. Some bloggers can just laugh it off and maybe even respond to their haters without getting affected at all emotionally. I am still learning how to handle haters and how not to take other people’s negative opinion of me too seriously.

7. Who would you be horrified to know read your blog?

I would be horrified to know that my friends and relatives have read my blog. So far, I have only shared it with a couple of close friends. They have a very different set of deep-rooted money beliefs than I do. I have a very clear goal of achieving financial freedom and retiring early. That’s why I have been reducing my expenses aggressively and accumulating income-producing assets. Most of my friends and relatives wouldn’t understand, and they would look at me differently if they read my blog.

8. What’s your most favorite, least favorite and most embarrassing post on your blog?

Here are my picks:

My favorite blog post is The Ultimate Guide (2019): How To Make Money As A Stay-At-Home Mom

My least favorite blog post is A Beginner’s Guide: How To Start Your Side Hustle NOW

My most embarrassing post is A Beginner’s Guide: How You Can Make A Full-Time Income Online (2019)

The reason why that is my favorite blog post is that it’s my longest blog post I’ve written so far. I didn’t start out with a word limit in mind, I just had a simple goal of making an epic blog post and giving as much value as I could.

The other two blog posts are there because I feel that I can still improve them and make them better.

9. Explain your writing process (how long it takes, how many edits, beg a spouse to proofread, etc).

First, I will identify the topic that I want to write about. This will involve a lot of research. For example, I will go to Quora and find out what kinds of questions are being asked very frequently in my niche. Based on my research, I will pick a topic that I can also offer a lot of value to them and also is of great interest to my audience.

Once I have decided on the topic, I will work out the outline of the blog post. This makes writing the entire blog post much easier, and it helps me save a lot of time because I already know exactly what to write.

Generally, I write my blog post in Google docs. It takes an average of 3 hours to complete one blog post. Once the draft is completed, I will edit it myself a few times. Then, I will ask my husband to proofread for me and also give me feedback on my blog post before I publish it.

10. What is your favorite blog in the personal finance blogosphere (other than your own!)?

That will be Mr. Money Mustache. This was one of the very first personal finance blogs I read. It totally changed the way I view money, and it also made me realize that there is an alternative to working my way to retirement at 65!

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