Blogger Confessions #8: The Poor Swiss

Happy Saturday and welcome to the eighth episode of the 'Blogger Confessions' interview series on the blog. Today, I'm bringing in The Poor Swiss to talk about blogging and how they've managed to keep everything straight as a personal finance blogger.

The Poor Swiss, take it away.

Blogger Confessions with The Poor Swiss

1: In at least 100 words, describe the target audience of your blog.

The Poor Swiss is intended for all the people who struggle with their
money. I started this blog after I realized that my finances were not
as good as I thought. At this time, I was spending way too much. I
hope people can learn from my mistakes.

As I am sharing tips in improving my budget and my finances, I hope that people can learn from these.

So, the main audience of my blog is actually quite general. But since I am planning to retire in Switzerland and reach Financial Independence in Switzerland, I am also writing to Swiss people who want to save more money.

Switzerland is an incredibly expensive country. But there are many things on which we can save money. And a lot of people are not aware of this. I am writing to let people know how to save money in Switzerland.

2: What makes your blog different from other blogs in the PF blogosphere?

While not being unique, The Poor Swiss has several perspectives that
are different from other Personal Finance blogs.

I am living in Switzerland, one of the most expensive countries in the world. And I intend to retire in this country.

While several people are working towards FI in Switzerland, very few are thinking to retire early in such an expensive country.

Another thing is that my blog is starting at the very beginning of my journey towards Financial Independence. I think it helps a lot in transparency. I did start with a very small savings rate and a small net worth.

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

I have realized that it is not as easy at it looks to start a successful blog.

Most of my issues were that I read too many other blog reports. I soon realized that they are either incomplete or are not reflecting the majority of the blogs.

There is nothing more depressing than reading a blog report of someone who got more views in its first month than you in six months. These monthly blog reports make you think that it is very easy to start a blog. And they make you think that every blog is earning a lot of money.

After I stopped reading them and focused only on making my blog better, I felt much better about my own blog’s success.

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

Yes, I do publish my net worth. I update it every month.

I publish it for several reasons.

First of all, I believe that Personal Finance blogs should be as transparent as possible. There is no point in expecting people to believe your story if you are not transparent about it.

Secondly, I also publish my net worth online for myself. Having my net worth published every month is a good motivation factor for me to keep building it and works on it. I definitely see an improvement in my motivation since I started publishing it.

I really want to show a nice net worth graph on my blog. It is not easy but it is totally worth it.

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

I have not yet really monetized my blog. Why not? I do not have
ads on my blog. But I am using affiliate links for a few of the
products I recommend.

I have not yet received any money from my blog. For now, I prefer to focus on building my audience and not building my income from this blog. I hope I will be able to get some small income in the future.

But, this is not the main focus on my blog. I really enjoy writing on my blog and that is important. It is a hobby for now, not a side hustle.

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

I would like my blog to be both loved and hated and controversial at
the same time!

In the future, I would like my blog to become more popular. And something popular will always be both loved and hated. Once you start to get some haters, it is because you are starting to get popular.

I do not think one is possible without the others. For instance, there are many haters of the FIRE movement. But these haters are simply bringing even more audience to PF blogs. So we also need haters ;)

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

Nobody, really. Even though I blog anonymously for now, there is nothing on my blog I would be embarrassed to share with anybody else. Several people already found out about my blog and know I am behind it.

I probably will not blog anonymously forever. I believe in transparency. So I will probably reveal my identity on the blog at some point. If many people start to find out about it, it will not make sense to continue to be anonymous.

I am sure several people would be surprised if they read my blog.

But, I do not think it would bother them or it would change any relationships. I am generally quite open with my finances with my friends and family. So it would not really make a difference. In fact, it would probably make for some interesting discussions with them. I am pretty sure none of my friends know about FIRE.

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

This is a difficult question. Now that I have improved my writing
style and the quality of my articles, I am a bit embarrassed about the
quality of my early posts.

The very first post that was written on my blog (Birth of this blog) was really bad. It is still not very good. But I have improved since its creation. It is probably still the most embarrassing and least favorite of my posts. Some of these early posts did not have enough details and content. I do not really want to pull them out. They are a part of the journey of the blog.

I do not think I really have a most favorite blog post. One blog post I liked how it turned out is my post about seven reasons to become Financially Independent. It is one of these posts when you learn a lot when writing the post.

It really turned out well and I learned a lot about FIRE when writing this blog. I actually discovered new reasons to become FI that I did not know about before writing it. This is the kind of post that I really like. They profit both the writer and the readers.

9: Explain your writing process

I generally try to write a blog post in one writing session.

These days, I try to write long posts, at least 1000 words. The time to write a post is highly depending on how much research I need to do for it. If it is a blog post that does not require a lot of research, it probably takes me around 2 hours to write it. Some of the blog posts with much more research took me about one day to write.

But then, the job is not finished. I generally read the post once directly after I wrote it. Then, I review it once again a few days later. Generally, two reviews are enough for my posts.

I use Yoast SEO to check that the on-page SEO of the post is not too bad. When I am satisfied with the quality of the post, I schedule it on Wordpress. I always try to have at least 3 posts written in advance. Like this, it is more easy to keep my schedule of three posts a week.

As for post ideas, I generally keep a list of ideas of blog posts to write. When I do not know what to write about, I take an idea from the list and I go for it. When I read about something or when I have a new money experience, I generally want to write about it. So I add the idea to the list and I will write about it later. Sometimes, I really want to write about something and I directly start writing about it.

10: What is your favorite blog in the PF blogosphere (other than your own!)?

It is very difficult to pick up a favorite blog. I follow many money blogs and I have a few favorites. If I really had to choose one favorite blog, it would be retireby40.org. It is one of the first blogs I discovered and I was really motivated into trying to reach Financial Independence after reading his blog.

I really wish I will be able to retire early too. I also really admire the success of his blog. And his quest for passive income is also quite interesting.

On a side note, I also really enjoy his food pictures. Always makes me hungry ;)

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