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Soccer Tournament Plus Odds and Ends for the Weekend

Sorry about not posting yesterday, but I had worked 50 hours during the week even with taking a half vacation day yesterday to pack and otherwise prepare for a soccer tournament in Kentucky today and tomorrow.  Between the work and everything else that I have going on, I was quite tired and didn’t have the energy to do much else.  But I did get almost 8 hours of sleep last night so I am feeling quite well.  I will also likely get some extra rest tonight as well since I have no major obligations.

Unfortunately, it is misting and about 46 degrees outside.  I was quite chilled this morning after the game so it is nice to have a few hours to warm up in the hotel.  I don’t think the weather will be getting any warmer today.  Maybe we can get lucky tomorrow and see a bit of sunshine like last weekend when it rained on Saturday but was sunny on Sunday.

The New Blog

I launched the new blog, Penny Thots, on April 1st.  So far, things seem to be going reasonably well.  I am a little disappointed in the level of traffic.  I was hoping that it might be better, but I really can’t complain that much.  It is starting to pick up and should only get better as time goes on.  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, feel free to do so at PennyThots.com.  Every day, new content is added so you may want to subscribe as well.

Carnivals

Here are the Carnivals that have featured my blogs the past few weeks (CFM = Cash Flow Mantra, GPM = Grand Per Month, PT = Penny Thots):

Launched the New Blog This Week

Well, I had the opportunity to launch a new blog this week along with several fellow personal finance bloggers and other contributors.  It is a collaborative effort where I hope to be able to publish daily content in the personal finance niche.  We have a wide range of individuals who have been submitting articles for publication.  We have all age ranges and many occupations represented.  We have professional writers and retirees.  It is quite a diverse group so I am sure that you will find something of interest no matter where you might be in life’s journey.

Be sure to stop by Penny Thots and give it a look.  Feel free to comment and subscribe as well.  I would love to hear what you think about the new site.  Also, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Goals for Penny Thots

1. My first goal is to not lose money.  I am paying the contributors based upon views and will be relying on AdSense revenue until such time as I might be able to get a few private advertisers.  But I can only make any advertising “no follow” since I don’t want to risk any Page Rank on the new site.  I think I should be able to break even with the revenue and the costs, but I really won’t know for sure until I get some time under my belt.
2. Second, I would like to get 2,000 total visits for each of the first two months.  That would exceed the traffic for my other two blogs during the earliest days and provided there is some growth in the third month, could surpass Cash Flow Mantra’s traffic.  It would seem logical that having multiple contributors with other blogs and daily content would make this feasible.  Again, time will tell.
3. Finally, I would like to keep the contributors involved through at least the end of 2012.  I have no doubt that circumstances will change and some might have to stop writing.  However, now that we plan on publishing daily content, I want to be able to keep up that pace.  This may end up being the most difficult of the three goals.  Again, I don’t know since I have never taken on such a project before.

I can tell you that the amount of work that has been involved has been more than I anticipated.  It may be just a matter of getting all of the systems in place and that it will get easier as time goes by.  I still have many articles to review and edit and the logo to design.  I have it in my head but just haven’t had a block of time to get that done.

I did manage to get all the functional aspects of the site done in time and will improve it as I am able.  The next most important part is the content, and like I said, I still have several articles to review and soon the posts for May will have to be edited as well.  My goal needs to be getting 2 or 3 reviewed per day for the next several days.  Then I want to get them scheduled into Word Press.  This week I have just been doing that each morning since I am off.  But I do want to get a nice queue formed.

Carnivals and My Blogs

These are the latest carnivals in which I was involved.  Melissa took vacation this past week so there is nothing recent, but since I get behind on posting the links, it is giving me an opportunity to catch up:

Cute Puppy

Distractions from PF Blogging (Had Some Puppies Today)

Well, I have been quite distracted from personal finance blogging for the past several days even though I am on vacation from full-time work and should be using the time for getting extra work done.  But I suppose that the break has been a much needed mental break as well.  There have been a few things that have kept me from fully taking advantage of the available time.

The Hunger Games

Two of my kids are prolific readers, namely they can finish a book in a day after it is purchased.  In fact, my 12 year old son is such a reader that he has his own Kindle and has read nine books in the past month.  I am sure that he would have read more had he been allowed to buy more books.  Well, one of the books that my readers borrowed and read was The Hunger Games.

My two boys have already been to the movie, but my daughter wants to go.  My wife ended up buying the series for the Kindle app on her iPad.  So, I have been reading it.  I started last week and read a few chapters on Thursday and Friday.  Then starting on Saturday, I finished the book and am now a few chapters from completing the third book.  Tomorrow we will go to see the movie.  So reading over 1,000 pages of fiction has been one distraction.  It has been good for me since it has been a long time since I have read a fictional work.

Had Four Puppies Today

The other distraction that has taken up most of the afternoon today and kept me from writing today’s post until late this evening was the fact that our Cockapoo had four puppies.  My wife thought she was breathing heavy this morning and she (the dog) sat beside me and just laid her head in my lap for about 45 minutes while I was watching some TV helping my daughter with a homework assignment.

It turns out that she (again the dog, not my wife) was in labor.  So about 2 pm, the first of the puppies appeared.  We now have 2 black and 2 golden little puppies about 1/2 pound each.  For some reason, my kids thought it would be fun to breed a couple of Cockapoos and this is the second litter.  The first one was a learning experience and I know the kids will be very careful around the puppies.

Anyway, I hope to be back to my regularly scheduled personal finance topics on Friday.  And maybe I can figure out how to get a few pictures of the puppies posted as well.