My Blog Story (so far)

Over the last two months I have had several calls from fellow CFP® practitioners about this blog and I think that is exciting. To the best of my knowledge, if this blog was not the first blog written by a CFP® practitioner, it was certainly one of the first. Knowing that other professionals are interested in blogging as a professional medium only enhances the value of blogs to the reading public. Moment on Money had a quiet first "blogiversary" on May 10^th. With a year under my belt here is what I have learned from the process.

Goals – Before starting a blog, I encourage others to examine what it is they want to accomplish. Here are my blog goals and how it is coming along:

1. Being a Resource – I want to be a resource of value for clients and prospective clients. A year of writing has given me a library of information available to everyone. Today when someone asks about sales charges on mutual funds, I can refer them to A B C … It Really Is That Simple. Questions about Required Minimum Distributions for Stretch IRA's? Or want to know how Universal Life Insurance works? I can easily email a link to specific post and the reader can print off the page if they want.
2. Easy to Find – If you wanted people to find your service, you used to advertise in the yellow pages. Today, you need to be found on search engines. Writing a blog enhances how the search engines view me. Try searching for "Financial Planner Iowa" under Google. Today, I am the #1 non-sponsored listing. That is #1 on page 1. #2 spot is the Iowa Insurance Division. I can live with that. J
3. Standing out in a crowd – An article I read recently in a professional publication explored what has happened in the financial services industry. All financial advisors believe that they are different, but to the public we all look pretty much the same. We tend to talk the same, dress the same, act the same, and we all tell everyone we are different. Writing a blog has helped me BE different. Yes, I am knowledgeable, experienced, and honest. But so are other advisors. What sets me apart is my ability to communicate. Writing a blog demonstrates my communication. Actions do speak louder than words.
4. Media attention – In the first 15 – 16 years of my career, I was contacted by a reporter twice. In the last year I was quoted in a Dow Jones Newswire article, The Des Moines Register, and wrote for a Hewlett Packard newsletter. Every one of the reporters/writers said they found me through my blog. I have actually had to turn down other media opportunities for various reasons.
5. Growing my practice – Of course I always have room for one more client. I would not be much of a business person if finding new clients was not important to me. But I am only interested in working with clients who both need and want my services. My internet presence provides people a safe and convenient way to get to know me and my style. I could list several new clients over the past year who came to me as a direct result of my blog.

Traffic – At first I was overly fixated on my traffic statistics. I could not wait to see how many page hits I had, see my subscription counts, and track my technorati ratings. That was a mistake. Truth is, I get a lot less traffic than a lot of personal financial blogs written by non-professionals but I am not in competition to see how popular I can make my blog. It does not matter to me anymore if I have 10 readers or 10,000,000 readers. I measure the success of my blog with my goals as my measuring stick. (in fact, I checked my traffic counts a couple weeks ago after I had not posted in several days. Traffic had increased 15% during my silence. Hmmm).

Frustrations – Writing this blog has not been all peaches and cream. As a professional, I am held to a different standard than other blog writers. Rules and regulations require that my writing is reviewed prior to publication. That means I will probably never be the first to the net with a topic. I am also limited to what I can and cannot say. For example, I would love to write some product reviews and tell you all about the great and not-so-great financial products I see on a daily basis but those rules and regulations would require a FINRA approval on any product specific information. Getting those approvals takes several weeks and has a cost associated with it. I would never be able to write a post like the only 7 investments you need or Quantum Index Fund Review. I have learned to embrace the rules and understand the difference between my blog, and one that is produced by a non-practitioner.

Essentially, it comes down to this. There are three groups of people when it comes to financial planning:

1. The first group is Do-It-Yourselfers. They enjoy doing their own planning. They take the time to learn and study the field. For them, I hope my blog is a valuable resource.
2. The second group knows how to do-it-themselves, but they choose not to. Sometimes they just do not want to take the time. Some people just do not enjoy it.
3. The last group of people do not know (and often don't want to learn) about financial planning.

My practice is here to help people in the second and third groups.

Comments

[Aaron Stroud]

Congratulations on your anniversary. I've enjoyed following your blog the past half a year or so.

[Art Dinkin]

Thanks Aaron. I'm glad you enjoy my blog.

[fathersez]

Heartiest congratulations on your anniversary.

Even from far away Malaysia, I enjoy your writings.

Best regards

[Cory Garrison]

Art,

Congratulations on your first year! Keep it rolling!

[Nancy]

Nice work, Art!! Congrats on the year and meeting your goals. The blog is looking good.