Are You Ready for Some Money Hacks?
Friday, 2nd March 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Administration
For the past six weeks, I’ve been running a second personal finance site. Money Hacks offers one short tip most weekdays. I started the site in response to a post at 43 Folders. Merlin wrote:
Funny thing — in the last week or so, I’ve gotten email from three different people asking me which site I’d consider to be the ‘43 Folders’ of money management. By this, I think they mean they’re looking for some kind of framework and tips for understanding the role money plays in their life, and then trying to find the best and most practical ways to implement and maintain healthy financial change. As against fancy “wealth management,” I’m thinking more along the lines of “what tricks will help me get smarter about the day-to-day dollar leakage?” Money Hacks, if you prefer.
From this, Money Hacks was born. I started posting regularly in mid-January, but after six weeks, I’ve found that it feels odd to maintain two money sites. Every time I write something for Money Hacks I think, “I should really share this at Get Rich Slowly.”
Merging the two sites has one drawback: it would mean an additional small post most weekdays. How do you folks feel about this? I don’t want to flood your feedreaders and mailboxes. If I did move the content over here, I would probably create a new “money hacks” category.
What say you, gentle reader? Would you prefer that Money Hacks stay an autonomous entity? Or would you like to see it absorbed by its big brother, Get Rich Slowly? Some combination of the two? Don’t really care? Let your voice be heard!
Combine them. I’ve checked Money Hacks out and every time I read the site, I think, “why isn’t this just at GRS?” The short posts would nicely complement the longer ones.
I didn’t even know you had another site! So for me more content on GRS is always welcome, even if it is a short blurb.
My vote is to consolidate it with GRS. One less feed to follow on NetVibes.
The way I see it, GRS is about the big picture of living a financially-wise lifestyle, not the day-to-day “hacks.” The two topics are related, but not the same. If you mix the two, you risk diluting the GRS brand: it may be tempting to just post a “hack” about saving money today instead of a more insightful post about home ownership or debt elimination.
Instead, how about a weekly Money Hacks “best of” in GRS? This allows GRS to keep its identity and frees Money Hacks to go in whatever direction feels natural. Just my two cents, anyway.
Combine them, but offer a la carte rss feeds - one for both Money Hack and GRS, one for Money Hacks only, and one for GRS content.
At least that’s how I’d do it.
Saving a dollar or two here and there is a good way to get rich slowly
I would like to see you combine them. It seems like it would be more simple for the readers and would probably simplify the management of the site(s) as well.
While I agree with the comment about taking care not to dilute content here, I browsed Money Hacks and there’s not *that* much and it all relates to what we’re all reading GRS for. Great URL though…sad to pass on that, but having divided my attention between multiple blogs myself, trust me, until you get more writers one board, focus your development!
I wasn’t aware you had another site. Great idea implementing a money site based on the genius of Merlin Mann, and by extension David Allen. Please, combine them, that would be wonderful.
I vote for a merger. You’ve already got an external links section, so a daily hacks section would fit nicely into a similar scheme.
That’s one of the truly great things about this site…both the quality and quantity of the posts. I think the other component is the reader comments. They are most always well-thought-through and informational.
Combine, saves blog reading time for us and posting time for you……
The more posts the merrier.
I agree, please combine!
I agree - merge away (but keep the domain name! Like others said, it’s really cool.)
I’m subscribed to both; no strong opinion either way, I’ll end up reading them anyway…
However, it seems to me that the Money Hacks posts would fill a mid-length niche here — a middle ground between the quick-hit links and your longer, more essay-style articles.
As a GRS reader, I would like to see that data. However, if you really want to fill the “Money Hacks” niche, I would say keep it separate. I think the “Money Hacks” content could appeal to an audience that does not want to read all of GRS. Having separate sub-feeds would technically solve that problem, but I don’t think having just a separate sub-feed would allow you to develop the Money Hacks niche.
Talking from the webmaster/problogger perspective:
If Merlin Mann mentioned this site as the ‘43 folders’ of money management, I’d think twice before flushing it down my virtual bowl. BUT - If it feels that awkward, do what your heart tells you..
Good luck!
Allen.H
Please do combine the two sites!
I’m a fairly new reader, and didn’t know you had another blog, but I’d love to see that information here too.
Please combine them. I read both and would find it much easier to just look at one.
If Merlin Mann mentioned this site as the ‘43 folders’ of money managemen
No no no. I didn’t mean to imply that. Merlin was *looking* for the 43folders of money management and that inspired me to create Money Hacks!
Moving MoneyHacks over to GRS would be a good idea, if done properly. Just add another “category” to the blog called MoneyHacks and post under that. I think it would extra helpful to note what category each post falls under, especially if you add MoneyHacks to the mix.
I think the whole idea of “getting rich slowly” incorporates the concept of using tips and tricks, along with sound planning etc, so the idea of having a tip of the day (or week, whatever) certainly fits in just fine.
I say combine them.
I vote for keeping them separate, or at least seperate feeds. Overall I find the I find Money Hacks more useful. Although I look at GRS in my feed reader, it seems almost exclusively focused on debt elimination. I’ve never had any credit card debt but I’m trying to make my money work for me more effectively. Money hacks seems to work this angle.
I read both and I vote to merge them. It would be more convenient for everyone and saves precious time.
“you risk diluting the GRS brand”
*rolls eyes*
Allie: what’s the eye-roll for?
*raises eyebrows*
My two cents is these two blogs belong together in one blog. Besides, I’d rather read more of the money hack type things and less link fests on all the blogs.
Yes combine them please.
I enjoy both, but I would like to see them together!
I agree with the merge sentiments.
merge ‘em. It is nice to have a mix of shorter and longer content. I do like the “money hacks” brand. Maybe you could emphasize the content of your site as being three tiers (in terms of length of content, etc):
1. GRS articles
2. money hacks (pithy posts)
3. links
It can still all stream into our news readers sequentially, but the site archives could break it out into those broad content types
I say merge them. It would help break up the longer posts, and save time reading both sites.
I’m yet another vote for merge. I check them both everyday but it would nice to have them consolidated.
I’d agree with combining them. The two topics are really related and complementary.
I agree with “Him” above. I like the idea of a merged site but separate feeds.
I get them both anyway.
Go ahead and combine them
Get Rich Slowly is one of the 30+ feeds in my “finance-frugality” folder in Google Reader, which I rapidly skim once or twice a week. I’d never heard of your other site. I will not notice notice if you merge the two, unless not merging results in duplicate content, in which case it slows me down.
I’d say merge it.
I say combine them. If you really want to, you can create three feeds -GRS+MH, GRS, and MH.
I’d read GRS+MH.
But really, I’d just say put them together. If someone doesn’t want to read it, they can just skip over it. Nothing says they *have* to read every post.
Another vote for combining them - I’d like it all in one place.
I say combine them! One place to check instead of two!
From the reader’s perspective: It doesn’t really matter. Most of your regulars probably read the feed anyway, so adding the MoneyHacks feed is no big deal. Meaning it makes no difference if they’re on the same blog or not.
From the marketer’s perspective: Keep ‘em separate! Others have mentioned that each blog may hit a different niche. That’s it exactly! Over time, as long as each blog maintains a distinct feel, you’ll develop a broader readership.
There should be a way for you to keep ‘em as separate blogs, but grab the feed from MoneyHacks so that the posts there also appear here at GRS automatically… though they might have to appear in the sidebar or something. That would give you “the best of both worlds” without any day-to-day effort on your part.
One more vote for combining them
Combine them.
[...] I already posed this question to readers of Get Rich Slowly. If you responded there, please don’t respond here. You’ll mess up my [...]
Put the Money Hack at the end of each regular GRS post. I get them by email and would then read one email to get both tip sets.