Long before the Internet gave businesses an easy way to sell themselves directly to customers, a business owner might best find their name in print by building a relationship with a reporter for the business section of the local newspaper. If the reporter was working on a story about the economy, for example, they may call the business owner for their take on it.

It’s a lot easier now to promote your business online. You can reach customers from your website, where you provide content that they’ll want to come back to again and again.

Or you could be cited as an expert source in a news story to run online or in a newspaper by answering a query on HARO — Help a Reporter Out — a site that connects reporters with sources. Other sites do this too, though I think HARO is the best out there.

However you connect with reporters, being seen as an expert source in your field can go a long way in giving your business free publicity.

A message gap

As a journalist, I’ve had the help of many sources throughout my career. As a freelance writer since 2008 who specializes in online personal finance content, I’ve found that most sources prefer a link back to their website in exchange for helping me as a source. I’m happy to provide the links (though that decision is in the hands of my editors), and I’m thankful for their help.

But too often, people who want to help as sources don’t do the best job providing the best information in the best way possible. There’s a gap between what they want to say and how they say it.

To help potential sources deal with that so that they’re quoted in the media and make the most of such opportunities, I’ve written a short book called “Sources Say,” with my best tips for being a great source.

Here are a few ways to be a great source and have reporters call you often:

Know your business like a pro

Everyone is an expert in something. If you’re an auto mechanic, then you can offer a lot of information about cars. If you’re a teacher, you’re probably a great source on education and changes in the field. Whatever your profession is, you probably know it forward and backward like a pro.

If you want to be a great news source, you read the news every day and keep updated on the latest happenings in your field. You spot trends in your area of expertise long before they happen, and have an idea when the conventional wisdom in your field doesn’t make sense anymore.

Be pithy

Reporters are on the lookout for great quotes when they interview people. A great source will be pithy and say something in such a short and sweet way that a reporter can’t help but use their quotes in the story. If you can say something much better than a reporter can write it, you’re gold.

What you don’t want to be is boring. Talking too long so you can hear yourself talk, or responding with a long email that doesn’t get to the point, and you may never hear from that reporter again.

More important than any of this, however, is the ability to speak expertly about your field and to be accurate in everything you say to a reporter. If you’re trying to wing it, then stay home.

Reach out

One thing that sources — or their public relations company — do that can be successful in promoting their business is to reach out to reporters and suggest story ideas based on recent news.

Pointing out a legitimate survey that your company just completed on a newsy topic could get a reporter’s attention. If the stock market is falling fast and you’re a financial advisor, you could come up with a tip sheet on why investors shouldn’t panic.

One downfall in this that I’ve seen often is when potential sources or PR people either send too many followup emails or call a reporter to see if they’re going to use the news tip. Reporters, like many people, have a full schedule and a full in-box, so responding to such questions could take up hours of their time each day.

If they haven’t gotten back to you within a few days of your query, chances are they’re not going to do the story.

If you’re smart in how you reach out to reporters and provide worthwhile information in a unique way, then it may not even seem as if you’re promoting your business by being an expert source. Promoting your business may turn out to be a byproduct of your desire to help a reporter out and help explain to the public how your industry works.

Be a Media Ninja and Promote Your Business for Free is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Here are my four favorite apps for running my business:

Unroll.me

I get dozens of emails every day, many from public relations firms pitching me story ideas. I also subscribe to too many emails from businesses, many of which I found it difficult to unsubscribe from.

Unroll.me takes care of this easily for the two email accounts I have. With one click on Unroll.me’s website or app on my phone, I can choose to either unsubscribe from an email, “roll it up” into an email that Unroll.me sends me every day and read in a digest format, or keep getting the email.

For my business email I’ve so far unsubscribed to 397 emails, rolled up 44 in its “rollup,” and kept 46.

The numbers are less impressive in my personal email account: 169 unsubscribed, 68 rolled up and 137 kept.

That adds up to 566 emails that I’ve unsubscribed to very easily. The phone app lets you do it with a swipe, kind of making it a game. That’s a lot easier than going through each email individually to unsubscribe, and the ones I want to keep getting but don’t want to read one at a time are sent to me in a daily email list.

I no longer fear opening my email in the morning. It’s easily one of my favorite apps.

Karma Go

This is less of an app and more of a physical product, but it’s so important to running my business as a freelance writer that it’s becoming invaluable to me. And I’m just starting to use it more and more.

Karma Go is a mobile hotspot. I’ve written about it before and haven’t been too pleased with how much sharing of WiFi it offers. But on a recent road trip we used it in the car at 70 mph and it worked perfectly.

I’m thrilled with the hand-sized device for many reasons, but mainly because it gives me reliable Internet access without paying a monthly fee. I bought the device for $150 and pay for WiFi access in bundles as I need it.

The Karma app allows users to monitor how many GB they’ve used, and which devices are connected to their mobile hotspot. While I don’t use the app much, the device itself is worthwhile and allows me to work away from home and avoid spotty Wifi at hotels and airports and get a strong signal on my own.

Hilton HHONORS app

I rarely travel for business, but when I do, the Hilton HHONORS app on my phone makes it incredibly easy to find and book a hotel room.

I’ve often used it to plan family vacations — where I can work for a few hours if needed — and have used the app to choose a room and check in to my room before arrival.

Everyone has their favorite hotel chain, and having a Hilton credit card that gives me reward points to use for free hotel stays is a major benefit. I’m a fan of its Embassy Suites hotels, which have a separate living room with fold-out couch for kids to sleep on.

If you regularly use a hotel chain, consider getting a credit card that offers rewards at your favorite hotel, and then using its app to search for rooms. It may quickly become one of your favorite apps.

Check deposit among favorite apps

This is something I wanted 20 years ago when I closed my Bank of America accounts because it wanted to charge me to bank online on a computer. I switched to another bank that offered free Internet banking, though I’ve since returned to BoA as a customer.

No matter which bank you use, Internet banking is an easy way to get things done. I recently upgraded to a new phone, allowing me to use the check deposit app on my phone for Bank of America. It’s one of my favorite apps.

I just sign the back of the check and write my account number on it, as I normally would, and then use the phone’s camera to take photos of the front and back of the check. I then hit “deposit” and the check is deposited into my account.

I know this mobile check deposit app isn’t earth-shattering news among favorite apps, but it’s a simple app and a simple task that makes my business life a lot easier. I no longer have to visit an ATM to deposit checks, giving me time for plenty of other things.

Other favorite apps

As you can tell from this short list, my favorite apps don’t include common ones such as Dropbox, Evernote and others. Why? While I occasionally use them, I operate a pretty simple workflow.

I keep almost everything on my laptop MacBook Pro, using the programs already installed on the Mac such as Pages to write and Numbers to keep track of income and expenses, that mostly sync with my other Apple devices. I also use a paper notebook to take notes — crazy, I know. I use Google docs and its spreadsheets to share info.

Since I’m a two-person team, with a lot of help from a fantastic virtual assistant, there isn’t a big need for a lot of apps to share our work. Email and some Google apps help solve most of it.

There are plenty of phone apps I use in my personal life, but they’re regular ones that are used by millions of people. They save me time every day, but don’t really have a business purpose for me.

I also use a lot of apps within WordPress on my websites, though I’m not expert enough to share them confidently.

What are your favorite apps for work?

4 Favorite Apps for My Business is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

As a reporter who worked for years covering personal finance for other websites, I was ready to start writing for my own website. Two things motivated me: To make money on my own as an entrepreneur with my writing, and to cover the topics I wanted to cover in a way I wanted to cover and write about them.

What I learned about money

It has been an interesting year for me and Add-Vodka. Financially, the site is doing well, though my goal in 2016 is for the site’s income to double. Income is a good thing for websites, because creating quality content takes time, and I like to be paid for my time working on this site.

I won’t go into the specific numbers because I want to keep them private, but after paying for the site and the expenses of a tech consultant and a virtual assistant, Add-Vodka turned a profit in November.

My plan was to put all of the income each month either back into the business by hiring writers, and to put the money that was coming in toward paying myself back for the money I took out of our savings account to pay for the initial purchase. The payback was complete in November, and I’m now focusing on increasing income and looking to hire more writers and keep my assistant busy.

Making money blogging

Before I bought Add-Vodka, the site made money with sponsored posts and didn’t have ads.

I’ve continued with sponsored posts, and have had limited success with advertisements on the site. Most of the ads on Add-Vodka are affiliate ads, meaning I get money if a reader clicks through on the ad and buys something.

These aren’t working too well for me, so I’ll soon be getting rid of the ones that don’t work. I think the site is pretty clean looking as it is, but fewer ads will make it look less cluttered. I also like to only run ads that I think will be of service to my readers and are related to personal finance.

By having sponsored posts, I’ve learned that it’s important to only have quality sponsored posts that are beneficial to readers and don’t go far off the mark of what Add-Vodka is about.

For example, months ago we accidentally allowed a sponsored post to run that linked to a gambling website. That’s not a personal finance strategy we support, so the post was removed soon thereafter.

Website changes

When I first got my hands on Add-Vodka, one of the first things I wanted to do was change the look. It looked a little dated and I wanted something that was easier to view and had a cleaner look.

A website crash created an opportunity to change the website theme, which a tech expert helped change.

While I don’t think the site is perfect, I like the cleaner look and think articles are easier to find and make blogging easier.

We’ve also expanded our use of Add-Vodka’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The Twitter page, in fact, is new this year and helps get the word out about what other personal finance bloggers are doing.

Given how popular our blogging slogan is — When Life Gives You Lemons, Add Vodka — we opened an online store in 2015 to sell shirts, bumper stickers, hoodies, coffee mugs and much more with our logo and slogan on them. We’re hoping to expand the store’s offerings this year.

Blogging topics

One of the biggest things I learned after a year of blogging and owning Add-Vodka.com is an obvious one: writing posts that matter.

Before I bought the site, it was a tale of the owner’s personal journey into her finances. That was something readers were really interested in, but as a new owner, I couldn’t continue her story.

My main goal was to use my reporting and writing skills to bring personal finance stories to the site that would help readers with their personal finances. I didn’t want the blog to be about my finances, but about money tips that could help people in their everyday lives.

The difficulty is coming up with unique content that isn’t repeated on every other personal finance website out there. I’ve tired to publish unique content that’s informative and interesting, but admit I haven’t always hit the mark.

One way I plan on doing that in 2016 is to write less often. In trying to find the sweet spot between too many posts per week and too few, I erred on the side of having too many posts, I think.

Some weeks I had three or more posts up. This can give readers a lot of options and a reason to come back often. But unless the posts are well thought out and full of awesome content, then they’re a waste of time. My goal this year is to only write when I really have something to say, and not just write for the sake of having something new posted.

Thanks for helping make 2015 a success, and please let us know how we’re doing and how we can improve in 2016.

What I Learned in a Year of Blogging is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

As a work-at-home dad who has been shuttling between working part-time from home while taking care of our daughter for the past seven years, among other tasks, I’m constantly on the lookout for things to make my work life better. A mobile hotspot is at the top of my list.

I’ll get into the reasons why in a bit, but the main reason is to simply get out of the house. We have great Wi-Fi at home, and I could work in the back yard if I wanted to and write all day while sitting in a comfortable and cushy lawn chair. But as anyone who works from home knows, the benefits of working at home (T-shirt, shorts and a chance to work on your own schedule) can feel a little cramped after awhile.

Mobile hotspot envy

Now, after waiting almost a year after I ordered a mobile hotspot called Karma Go, I’m awaiting delivery. After many delays by Karma, shipping is starting in mid-July to its first customers (me!) and my mobile hotspot should arrive soon. Yay!

As luck would have it, however, I’ll be away on vacation during the expected shipment time, so I won’t likely get the mobile hotspot until I return from vacation and will then have to track down a FedEx office to retrieve it. I’m supposed to get an email from FedEx whenever delivery is imminent, so checking my phone during vacation for a delivery I won’t be home for seems like some sort of cruel punishment that I’ll have to deal with.

When I finally get my hands on the Karma Go, I’m looking forward to trying it out far and wide to see how well it works and if the mobile hotspot will help me be more productive. I’ll follow up with a review in September, provided delivery goes as expected.

What I was looking for in a mobile hotspot

The reason I chose Karma back in October 2014 was because — on paper — it beat every other wireless hotspot for the features I was looking for. It didn’t come with a monthly or annual contract, the data I bought was mine to use forever, I didn’t have to enroll in a recurring payment program, and there weren’t extra fees tacked on.

Other mobile hotspots I was looking at back then didn’t allow unused data to be rolled over to the next month. With Karma, any data I bought was mine to use whenever I wanted to and didn’t expire.

Karma was also $100 when I bought it on sale, a $50 discount from the current price. So for not much of an investment, I could buy a mobile hotspot that would let me buy data as I needed it and work anywhere. 5G sells for $59.

Even before the Karma Go went into production, I was interested in its Internet service because it gave users free data if someone else nearby logged in and used their Wi-Fi signal — thus the “karma” in the name. Unfortunately, Karma wasn’t available in my area until a year or so later.

Will it work?

How reliable this thing will be is the big question. Its coverage map is pretty full in my area, but I won’t know until I try it out if it’s better than what I can get for free at my local library or Starbucks.

It has to be better than any Wi-Fi reception I’ve used at airports. I’ve never had luck getting good Internet connections at airports, and the Wi-Fi that airlines provide in the air is worse. Karma isn’t supposed to be used on an airplane, so I won’t be trying that out, but anywhere on the ground is open for a tryout.

Productivity expectations

My main hope with a mobile hotspot is that I’ll be more productive away from home, although being an ergonomic geek with posture issues, I’m fine in my home office with my desk and chair set up at a specific height and angle.

I like to write in peace, and get a lot of work done in the morning when the rest of the family is gone for their day of school and work.

But there are distractions: The dog. The dog barking when squirrels are out back. The dog barking when the mailman arrives. Laundry. Groceries. A weekly farmer’s market trip. School pickup. Keeping the kid busy. Reading the newspaper. Cooking dinner. More chores.

Some days, getting out of the house for a few hours seems like the best solution. I need somewhere quiet, but not totally quiet like a library so that I can conduct phone interviews if necessary. But not too noisy like Starbucks where the white noise would be a distraction. Do I sound like Goldilocks looking for a bed to sleep on at the bears’ house?

I’ve looked into renting a desk/cubicle at a nearby office center, but that seems like an extra expense that isn’t worthwhile.

So sometime in August — fingers crossed — I’ll have a mobile hotspot in hand and can go out in the world to see what working away from home is like again. It has been a long time, and I may come running back home.

I’ll return with an update in September. Until then, tell me your thoughts on improving productivity with a mobile hotspot.

Will a Mobile Hotspot Make You More Productive? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Hey all and welcome to the first edition of our Friday Faves!

Aaron and I thought it would be fun to put together a quick little post every other Friday to let you in on what else we’ve been up to (as far as writing goes), and let you know which articles by our personal finance blogger friends we’ve found to be helpful, enlightening, or just plain fun!

Without further delay, here are some of our fave personal finance posts from around the web.

How I plan to retire at 28 using dividend income – Canadian Budget Binder – This post was an eye-opener. It’s always amazing and inspiring to read about people who have such lofty goals and great plans to achieve them.

Update: January 2015 Budget & Goals – Blonde on a Budget – We love this post from Cait because she totally killed her January budget and goals! Who doesn’t love a post like that?!

Detoxing Your Budget – Plunged in Debt – Catherine talks about how she’s come to realize her spending triggers and tells us what she does to beat them and stay on budget. My favorite line: “If you have to justify a purchase, you probably don’t need it.”

Tax Tips for Self-Employed Workers – Diversified Finances – I pretty much love every post Michelle puts together for her site (probably because I’m working hard to have a diverse income myself). This one is packed full of tips to help you figure out what to do when filing your 2014 taxes.

What Would You Do With an Extra $470/month? – Frugal Rules – John tells us the average amount most Americans spend on a car payment is$470/month. By saving up and paying for you car in cash, or not always upgrading when you don’t need to, you can use this money for a lot of other things. What would you use it for?

Our Personal Finance Work:

Aaron and I aren’t slackers. Both of us are constantly working and writing for a variety of websites about personal finance. Here are just a few places you can find some of our latest works.

Being a Pack Rat is Expensive – Cash Smarter – A great post that lets you know just how much your clutter may be costing you.

Preparing your Kids for the Cost of Driving – Money Propeller – Educating your kids about how money affects everything in life is important. In this guest post, Aaron talks about the costs you should point out to your kids when they get ready to hit the road on their own.

Understanding the Health Care Reform – Budget Blonde – I try to de-mystify some of the confusion surrounding the Affordable Care Act in this post, but overall it’s still pretty hard to understand.

Another One Bites the Dust – Shoeaholicnomore – Another debt on my list is officially gone and two months ahead of schedule! I also talk about my debt payoff plan going forward.

That’s it for this week’s personal finance roundup. We hope you have a great weekend!

Friday Faves: Best Personal Finance Posts is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

What does your to-do list look like?

Nice and long?

Mine too.

It’s got laundry and dishes and filing and getting rid of a bunch of old clothes on it.  There’s people to email and trips to plan (fun parts!), and on and on.  On top of those regular tasks, there are a myriad of side hustle to-dos.  My side hustle is blogging.

The problem I find with blogging is that the list grows at a faster rate than I can get through it.  There are side bar image buttons to create, posts to write, advertisements to tweak, people to email, new projects to start, virtual assistants to pay, pages to update, images to make, links to add, social media to schedule, and more and more.  As soon as one little project gets crossed off of the list, I have identified or thought of a dozen more!

Other Side Hustles

With many side hustles, AKA ways to bring in extra dough beyond your main job, there is a very clear “X for X dollars” relationship.

Deliver pizzas?  You will be paid an hourly rate plus tips.

Work as a brand ambassador?  There’s an hourly rate or an event rate. 

Sell Tupperware?  You get a set commission.

Mystery shop?  Your experience is reimbursed and sometimes you make more beyond that.

Write freelance articles?  The terms are established; you provide a piece of work and in return receive payment.

That’s where freelance writing differs substantially from blogging – you know what and when you’re going to get paid!  With blogging, you have no idea what any particular piece of writing will bring in.  Unless, of course, it is a review or sponsored post. 

Heartbreaking Side Hustling

It is frustratingly common to pour your heart into a piece only for it to receive minimal love, as measured in page views and comments.  There are also posts you write that provide awesome content, beautifully packaged with affiliate links to products you love, and no one bites.  Other times, the thing you threw together in half an hour takes off. 

It often feels like rolling the dice for this side hustle.  No matter your superstitions, the blowing on the dice, the prep work, it’s all a matter of luck.  That is a stretch, of course, but it certainly feels that way some days!

All of this is to say, that the idea of “pump out a blog and get rich from the Internet” is a big ‘ol mirage. So, why do I persist with blogging as a side hustle?  It’s a tough side hustle.

Why Persist with a Tough Side Hustle?

For the words! For the chance to put my story and my ideas out there and find out that others relate to me.  For the reader emails, rare as they may be, saying that something touched them or caused them to take action, or they are relieved to know that someone else has experienced the same thing.

There is also the ability to go to any computer and pull up your site and know that you made it. There is a pride in that, having a finished product to call your own.  Getting to that point is a challenge, even if it is for a side hustle.

Pushing Yourself

Therein lies another benefit to persisting with blogging, the skills.  If we were to rewind two and a half years, I knew nearly nothing about the online world. Sure, I understood that there was writing to do and that some people had sites that looked better than others. There were people who were obviously more successful at this whole blogging thing than others, that was apparent enough.

But good golly was there a lot to learn, and there is still a ton to learn!  Just like with the to-do list, the to-learn list grows at a rapid pace.  I should know more about Google Adsense, Google Analytics, CSS, Facebook marketing, eStores, and a host of other platforms, plugins and programs.

Back to the beginning, though, I had to learn about cPanels, installing wordpress, choosing a host, changing nameservers, setting up social profiles I had never had before, how to drive traffic, how to network with other bloggers, how to add a tracking code to the HTML header of my site, SEO, pick logos, and more and more and more. 

Unfortunately, with blogging as a side hustle, a large portion of the learning is right at the beginning, making the whole process rather intimidating. After the first site, you have a vague idea of how to get things up and going, but there are certain things that you never touch again. 

Blogging for a Second Time

That’s where I ran into difficulties with Money Propeller, my personal finance site.  Sure, I “knew what I was doing” but boy oh boy did I go about it in an inefficient manner!  I started off alright, sure, but I kept discovering that I was missing steps.  It got to a point that I was so frustrated, I thought to myself, “I really need a start up checklist, of all of the steps, in the right order.” 

That thought stuck with me, especially when I went to make more sites, for non-profit groups I am in, for my brother’s Christmas present, and for future projects that I have up my sleeve.  So, I started to write them down.

Then, I asked a blogging friend of mine, Kathleen, if she wanted to help me write a book around this checklist and side hustle.  Kathleen also has a penchant for buying new domain names and had faced the same challenges.  In fact, between the two of us, we have started up 20 different sites, and counting!  We knew there was a faster way to do it, than bumbling through and fixing things as we went.  With both of us, and some test sites, we wrote everything down, to share it with the world.  That’s how we came to write our first book, called On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog!

It’s a road map to staking your brand quickly and efficiently, whether it’s your first blog or your 101st.

Get your blog and your brand set up, in order, so that you have a solid foundation, with no scrambling around for accounts.  AKA, benefit from our bumbling, and get yourself off to the blogging races with a sprint start in your side hustle.

Why I Persist Even Though Blogging is a Tough Side Hustle

Why do I do this, even though it takes a ton of time and sometimes money?  Even though there are emotional upsets and stress I bring on myself?

For the words!  For the chance to put my story out there.  For all the skills I’ve developed and friends I have made along the way.

Anne dreams of financial independence and is working her way toward it, whilst still enjoying life. She also loves money (who doesn’t?) and needed an outlet to discuss it, so she started blogging at Money Propeller. Getting that site up and running was an adventure that caused her to coauthor On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog! so that others would be off to the races with a side hustle a lot more quickly than her.

How Blogging is a Tough Side Hustle is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

First, the basics: I recently acquired the site from Sarah, who has gone on to other endeavors. I’m grateful for her confidence in me to continue the outstanding work she has done on Add Vodka. I’m also grateful that you, the readers, enjoy Add Vodka, and I plan on providing more personal finance fun.

You can read a little more about me on the About page. I’m a freelance journalist and I write for other personal finance websites on everything from how to teach your kids about money to real estate, auto insurance, life insurance, retirement, saving money and investing. I write for AOL, WiseBread, and a host of other sites.

With Add Vodka, I want to turn my knowledge of personal finances, along with input from expert sources, into stories that will help readers improve their money habits while enjoying a fun read.

My financial situation is a lot different than Sarah’s, so I don’t expect to offer as many first-person insights into my financial life. I don’t have a ton of debt. But, like many people, I struggle to pay the bills and I’m constantly trying to learn new ways to improve my financial life.

Growing Add Vodka as a personal finance site

Where will we go? Add Vodka will continue offering a look into how we can all learn from how different people deal with money. What I hope to expand upon is telling tales that go beyond what you can find at every other personal finance blog. Some of the basics will sneak in from time to time so that even people with a rudimentary understanding of personal finance will find something worth their time.

In the coming weeks and months, Add Vodka will be adding categories such as real estate, retirement, college and other areas of personal finance. We’ll also add more stories in categories that are a little sparse, giving readers a range of personal finance topics to choose from.

And when I say “we,” I mean myself and Kayla, the blog manager of Add Vodka. You’ll see her byline often. I’d like to have guest posts, so if you’re a good writer and you want to write for the site (for free for now; I can only offer a link in return), please contact me at aaron@add-vodka.com. If you have a business and would like to have a sponsored post on Add Vodka, please use our Contact form to do this type of advertising with us.

Even more than that, I’d be thrilled to hear from readers on what types of stories they’d like to see at Add Vodka. Please reach out to me through the email above, commenting on this post, our Facebook page, Google+, or our new Twitter handle, @AddVodkadotcom.

Where Add Vodka Goes Next as a Personal Finance Website is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Since that post went up, I have gotten a flood of support and emails from loyal Add Vodka readers who were sad to see the blog go, which makes me even happier to announce that Add Vodka will live on under new ownership.

Aaron Crowe, who you may know from his freelance writing in the personal finance community, is taking the reins this month and will continue writing on Add Vodka.

I’m sure he will serve you well and do the site proud.

If you want to continue following me, all is not lost. You can find me at Unsettle.org (which just launched today), on Twitter, or get in touch by sending me an email.

I hope you stick around and read along as Aaron gets to know you all.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Add Vodka Lives On: What to Expect From the Site Going Forward is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

In place of your regular Monday morning post, I have some pretty exciting news.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice two things:

1) I changed my username and photo. I am no longer a cartoon cocktail glass – I am a real person.
2) I have been Tweeting here and there about the launch date of a new and exciting project coming up.

The second point brings me to this:

After my wedding in July, I knew I wanted to make a change in what I was writing about.

Rather than the hybrid of personal finance and lifestyle that I’ve been writing about on Add Vodka over the past years, I had to face the fact that I am far more interested in lifestyle design – rather, redesign – than personal finance.

Over the past few months, I have been working hard behind the scenes to get a new site up and running. As I planned it and wrote for it and created my timeline for it, something kept nagging at the back of my mind: I needed to figure out what to do with Add Vodka.

So, after four and a half awesome years on this blog, I have decided that on January 5, 2015 (4 weeks from today), I will be shutting the doors of Add Vodka.

After January 5, you can find me at Unsettle.org, where I will be blogging about something I’ve been very passionate about for a long time: lifestyle redesign, online entrepreneurship, and starting and building something for yourself using the internet and the opportunities that it has afforded us.

Over the past year and a half or so, as I began to reveal more to my family and friends about what I do online and the businesses J and I have created, people became more interested.

I began coaching a handful of people on how to create websites and online businesses, and how to get in the mindset to pursuing online entrepreneurship. It’s been incredibly rewarding and it’s something that I will be pursuing full-time.

If you are interested in any of this, I’d encourage you to subscribe on the launch page of Unsettle, which you can find here.

It’s the end of an era for me. I’ve spent four and a half years on this blog, which is practically forever in the land of the internet. I’ve spent hours – probably an accumulation of weeks – writing for this website, and giving it up is like giving up my home for a new one.

This is bittersweet news that I’ve been nervous but excited about over the past couple of months, and I wanted to give you a very heartfelt thank you for reading along. Thank you for your emails, comments, and friendship even if you’ve been quietly reading along without ever having connected with me.

Sarah/Daisy

Exciting News & The End of Add Vodka is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

My pseudonym choosing process was not a complicated one. I saw a picture of my mom’s Yorkshire Terrier on Facebook that my mom had posted, and took her name for my own blogging identity. There was no other thought that went into the decision to use Daisy as my pen name.

For the record, here is Daisy, my pen-namesake:

I decided to be anonymous for three reasons:

• The subject matter (money) is highly personal and back then, I wanted to post real numbers
• I didn’t know how far my blog would take me
• The thought of my friends and family members reading my blog left me feeling highly vulnerable.

I blogged under the pen name “Daisy” for four years until I decided to put Daisy (the pseudonym, not the dog) to rest and start using my real name.

I wasn’t going to write about it, but there have been tweets, emails, and comments from readers and/or fellow bloggers asking about my decision.

Why I No Longer Want to Blog Under a Pen Name (aka the end of anonymity)

Over the past four years, my blog has evolved and changed, and so has the reason I continue to do it.

I started blogging when I was 21 years old. I was a student, a full-time employee and I’d just moved to the Vancouver area. I thought the blog was something that I’d just do for fun. I didn’t know yet that it would be so instrumental in my growth, or that it would become such a big part of my life.

Over the past year, my blog has grown into something that is ingrained in my identity. When people ask me what I do, my answer always involves my blog. I spend so much time on projects related to blogging, developing habits to make me a better writer, and connecting with readers, bloggers and online entrepreneurs that anonymity made me feel as if I was leading a double life.

Blogging has evolved from something that I did as an outlet, to something that I’m proud of. Something that I don’t want to hide from.

Blogging has connected me with places, ideas, and most importantly, people, which I never would have seen, considered or met had I not sat down and put fingers to keys.

Passion Projects

I am working on two projects right now that light a fire in me. These projects are badges that I want to wear proudly, that I am excited to put my name on.

One of these projects I’ll be working on with Cait (who is my favourite example of a friendship that never would have started if it weren’t for blogging), and the other is something that, if done right, will be my hard-earned ticket to time, location, and mental freedom.

The rockstars in my personal life will most definitely know about these projects, and in fact will be instrumental in supporting me and championing me through the inevitable tough times as I try to create something bigger than myself.

Both of these passion projects will focus in on giving back. Leaving a mark on the world and contributing is something that I want to do, and I’ve realized that anonymity will simply hold me back from meeting the objectives of the projects.

As I mentioned in my previous post, What’s Going on with Add Vodka?, I have been looking at everything that I do in my life and ensuring that it all is true to my values and helps me meet my goal to live my life in the best possible way that I can. Using my real name is part of that.

The End of Anonymity is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.