EXCITING NEWS: I was selected to deliver a national training in San Francisco this November entitled: Personal Finance Solutions for Busy Mental Health Professionals. This 3 hour workshop includes material from my upcoming eBook. Stay tuned to get first crack at the NEW EBOOK. And it’s FREE to my readers.
“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.”
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder offers some provocative advice. Are link posts in alignment with Wilder’s thinking or is this a stretch?
MAIN TOPIC: Help me out, please
I want your advice.
Yes or no, do you read link posts and find them useful or not?
Here is what I’ve been reading this week-end. There’s so much worthy info in the blogosphere, what do you think?
Would you prefer a typical article or do you enjoy the diversity of a link post?
How to Budget in Less than 20 Minutes a Week at Moolanomy
How many of you earn over $100,000/year It’s all about the comments! I Will Teach you to be Rich
Spending too much Money and Course Correcting at Financial Samurai
10 Money Lessons every College Student & Parent should Know at PT Money
Blogging Essentials at Free from Broke
How to Invest in Vanguard Funds using ETFs and Save Money while you’re at it at Invest it Wisely
Financial Automation at Dividend Monk
Gather Your Data: Debt and Net Worth at Eventual Millionaire Millionaire
Making Money Challenge at Aspiring Millionaire
Are Gen Yers Different? Do I Follow the Stereotype? at My Journey to Millions
ACTION STEP:
Get a notebook and label it: “(your name) Personal Finance” and keep it by the computer. Use it to keep all of your personal finance goals, thoughts, activities, and plans.
Spend a few minutes reading something which will grow your wealth.
image credit: Rachel Sian
RECENT PERSONAL FINANCE CARNIVALS & LINK ROUND UPS
I am honored to have my work showcased at these sites recently. Why not stop by and check out the fine articles?
The Yakezie Carnival at Aspiring Millionaire presented Reduce Money Stress; Get Rid of Dysfunctional Money Behaviors
Beating the Index published How to Design a Budget with Room for the Fun Stuff
YAKEZIE PERSONAL FINANCE BLOGS
After every article for the next several weeks, you will be introduced to several Personal Finance web sites in the Yakezie network. Each one has their own unique voice and style. The consistency in all is their desire to help others. Consider visiting a few each day!
Personal Finance Journey
Personal Finance Student
PF Firewall
Planting Dollars
Punch Debt in the Face
Rainy-Day Saver
Redeeming Riches
Retirement Investing Today
I definitely think link posts are useful, if you are highlighting the posts you really enjoy and that your readers will gain benefit from them as well!
I guess if a link post starts having more than 10 links, it’s hard to keep track, so perhaps the ultimate number is 3 to 5? Of course, the blogger you highlight will also be very appreciative too!
I try and visit every single site, comment, and help promote who were so kind as to link an article of mine.
Cheers,
Sam
I’ve found many interesting sites and articles through link posts, so I find them very valuable in that sense, but to be honest, I never check out every single link! Maybe Sam brings up a good point about quantity, but I do try to include at least those who have linked to me or left some good comments! At some point though if I’m ending up with 20+ links every week, maybe it’s too much.
P.S. Thanks for including my article!
I read them sometimes, if the links are to REALLY good posts. If it’s obvious the blogger is just linking to members of a networking group, I generally skip over them.
Links are moderately useful, especially if they are on interesting and unique topics. So much in the financial blogs is a repeat of advice found in books and other sources. I’m not really interested in reading about how to get a credit card or improve my credit score. Now if someone wrote an article about how to live a full and productive life without a credit card, I’d think that was worth reading.
That’s a pretty good point, Biz. I’ve sometimes wondered if I should cover more of the “Traditional” personal finance topics, but I don’t find them very interesting. One of my pet peeves has got to be posts like “5 ways to improve your credit score”, but that is only because I personally don’t find that stuff interesting. Maybe some of my readers would; I don’t know. I try to mix it up but most of what I write is something I find personally interesting; otherwise it would become like a job!
@Financial Samurai-Yes, I definitely think it’s important to include an article of value; not just filler. If the number of links is greater than 10 or so I also get a bit frustrated, it’s a bit overwhelming.
. I’ve also been introduced to some good stuff by checking out round ups. It’s a fine line between a few and way too many.
@Kevin-You’re causing me to think
@Funny-Well put; If on’e not genuine it shows!
@Biz-Someone once said the greates gift a blogger has is their own spin, from their own experience. If they are repeating the common jargon from a book-it gets old. As Kevin suggested, I also like to write about what I’m interested in and if it generalizes and interests others, I’ll find out!
Thanks to all for the thoughtful points.
My link roundups usually contain 3-4 posts max with backlinks to carnivals. I would add a little commentary to them as well.
When I see link posts with 10+ links, it just feels overwhelming and I end up not reading any. So, I took that into account and put up the few that I really liked. Add a few comments shows authors that I really took the time to read it rather than just linking to posts in a bunch of blogs.
If someone linked to my posts, I’d sure prefer them to do the same.
Simon, Thank you for your candor. I agree with 10 or less, I get overwhelmed too with more than that. Also, a brief description whets the readers appetite. I missed that one this time, although I promise, I read every article and only included one’s I enjoyed.
Thanks for the visit.
Roundups help introduce your readers to what you like and find interesting. It also introduces other sites to yours through pingbacks. There are so many great sites out there I sometimes for get about one then see a great article highlighted in a roundup and it brings me back to the site.
I like link posts personally and often click through if I see a good title. I like it when a blogger gives a description / opinion next to the link.
@Craig & Forest – More support in favor of link posts. The jury is unanimous about including descriptions too. I really appreciate your opinions. I agree that its easy to forget about sites we like(d) and the reminders are helpful.
I’m always balancing out how to offer intersting content without overwhelming myself and my readers!
Thank you for the insights.
Thanks for the mention. I like linkback posts – they actually tend to give you insight into the blogger, and what they like and find interesting
I like link posts because I often miss out on some great stuff! It’s also a great way to promote others (I need to do one of these myself this week!)
Wow, I just published a link article (I do one every week). I will only post an article that I think my readers will benefit from. However, it included 29 links (some sites had more than 1 great article), and I had to stop there because I didn’t want the quality to become overwhelmed. I think I still included too many.
Maybe I’ll just do a top 10 or something from now on. Also, as a fellow Yakezie member I do want to promote other bloggers, but only if they write quality articles.
Thanks for this post – it has really made me reconsider these weekly articles – as well as the comments!
@Evan-I never thought about the aspect of getting to know other bloggers through their selections. Thanks for making me think
@Little House-Yes, it can do some of the “work” for you, of uncovering interesting articles.
@Khaleef-Agreed on all counts. Too many gets to be overwhelming; and making sure to post something of substance is really important.
TALLY so far…ALL IN FAVOR OF LINK POSTS…. Keep the comments coming!
I enjoy the link posts. I put one up on my own site each Sunday, not just title and link, but my own comments and complements as well. Sort of a mini-review so my readers will know if they’d like to read that post as well.
Joe, You’re idea of a “mini review” is clever. It’s a bit of a twist on the typical link post. Think I’ll give it a try.
I’m with the others on the links – I don’t sign up to tons of sites for a variety of reasons – time being the most important and because there really aren’t that many sites that are at the PF stage that I’m at – retirement. I like to see links on the sites that I do read in case there’s anything I want to click through on and mostly love someone’s personal perspective on the articles – positive or negative.
Hi Jacq- Seems like there’s a common thread that other’s recommendations serve as a bit of an endorsement as well as a guide to sites one might have missed. The individual perspective is one of the best aspects of blogging!
People pretty much go to the web to search for information. When they reach an article they’re interested in, it’s possible that they might be looking for something more, hence the link posts. Whether they’ll read it, find it useful, or not, it’ll be great to have some options for the readers to have.
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