Welcome: A Blog Overview for 2008

Hi. Since I've been blogging for quite a while now I thought I'd create a resource page for new visitors...

First, I'm not even going to try to define frugality. It seems to mean different things to different people. Perhaps this is based on whether they are being frugal by necessity or frugal by choice. I'm betting that there are many shades of gray between the two though.

Fun Posts
Perhaps the best place to point you, the new visitor, is to some fun blog posts so that you'll get a good impression and come back for more:

• Beware the Anti-Frugal talks about how we get lured away from frugality.
• Ground Beef: Shock and Awe has nothing to do with politics.
• Sock it to Me will save you money on clothing expenses.
• Financial Risk Advisory System is both fun and serious.

It appears that I've been too busy to have fun recently, so I endeavor to have more fun in 2008!

Serious Posts
Frugality isn't all fun and games you know. Here are some posts that take a look at some larger issues:

• Broke Versus Poor considers how we draw the line.
• The Price of Oil predicts the success of a green revolution.
• The First Job points out where financial mistakes can start happening.
• Two Worlds of Frugality ponders necessity and choice.

The perspectives category will help you identify some other thoughtful posts.

Frugal Foods
Okay, enough fooling around, for those that need to save money, this is the real deal. Here are some frugal food ideas with thoughts about how to stay healthy as well:

• Extreme Frugality Meal Plan is the real deal.
• Rice Recipe Variations can help keep you happily eating rice.
• How To Stretch Ground Beef needs no explanation.
• The Freezer: Cooking for One works for one or many.

For even more meal ideas see the cheap food and recipe categories.

2007 In Review
On a personal note, 2007 was a big year for me. I met my significant other and we've settled down and started a family! Somehow Frugal Mom was able to put up with me and my frugal ways. Now that I have a family I'm planning to get a real job and work on building my Internet empire, but only in my spare time.

It isn't really obvious, but I'm the guy behind the Grokodile blog directory. Please add your blog, in your own city, and then edit your detail page. You're blog will be ranked in your community and as well by whatever tags you define on your detail page. How cool is that? Unfortunately, while cool, it's not cool enough to supplant the need for a day job. Sigh.

As a bit of a pointer for other people trying to monetize their blogs here are some potentially interesting facts:

• Frugality is not a good niche for revenue generation. My best performing post, in terms of Adsense eCPM, was titled Cheapest Personal Loan. Too bad it never got much traffic though.
• My traffic levels have been rising during the course of the year. I seem to be one of the top NN frugality bloggers, at least according to some lists that have been compiled, though I won't make any claims myself. I do know I have over 250 readers subscribed to my feed (it varies a lot).
• My efforts to monetize this blog have been endless. At one point I even considered using a pay per post company, but there was no way to take offers without destroying the nature of my blog. Just recently, I've put AdBrite on this site, but I don't have any results I can report on as of yet. I'm also looking into Ads-Click. I had activated their code but it didn't seem to work for MSIE.
• As far as I can tell, the post that earned the most Adsense revenue in 2007 was about my Diet and Weight Loss Results. The CTR was not very good, but it seems a lot of people are interested in dieting.
• The affiliate program that brought me the most revenue in 2007 was MyPoints. I simply review my own progress to date and present a link to their site. It's only a few dollars a month so I don't know if it's really worth it.

I'm not sure where the quest for monetization will take me in 2008. I do know that if traffic levels continue to rise I should eventually be able to cover my monthly food expenses.

Anyway, back to issues of a non-monetary nature. If you have any ideas, suggestions or questions, feel free to join the Frugality Steering Committee by leaving a comment. Of course, I'd be more than happy if you'd add your thoughts to any blog post -- that's the real reward for being a blogger.

Welcome to my world,
Frugal Guy

P.S. If you are curious, I've already posted my resolutions for 2008.