Moolanomy’s First Birthday

By Pinyo • Jul 15th, 2008 • Category: Miscellaneous

It’s hard to believe that I have been blogging about personal finance for one full year. Overall, I have to say that it’s a success in many ways. Specifically, I was able to meet the three goals I had set for myself at the beginning:

To learn more about financial concepts and improve my finances
To supplement my family income
To improve my writing skills

But even better than meeting these goals are the chance to meet so many friendly and like-minded bloggers and readers along the way.

One Year In Review

About this time last year, my wife handed me the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It may not be the best book, but it inspired me enough to start Moolanomy. My very first RDPD-inspired post: Wealth Building Made REAL Simple went live on July 15, 2007.

When I started, I didn’t even know there are already thousands of other personal finance blogs. So it was a pleasant surprise when I discovered pfblogs.org and the MBN forums — the gateways to the personal finance blogosphere.

The M-Network

On August 9, 2007, I pitched the idea of starting a personal finance blogs network on the MBN forums. Fortunately, a few brave souls joined me and we formed the M-Network — thank you Brian, Gibble, Plonkee, and Paidtwice. On August 17th, the M-Network was officially announced by the Blog Network Watch.

Currently, the M-Network consists of 10 members:

Out of everyone and everything that was done, I felt that start the M-Network was the best decision I’ve made and the group is the biggest contributor to my success. They are a great bunch of people — very friendly and supportive.

The Breakthroughs

Based on my best recollection, the first major breakthrough for Moolanomy was when Trent from The Simple Dollar linked to my article: Market Slides, Investors Hang On Tight! on July 30, 2007. That was the first time that Moolanomy received more than 100 visitors in a day!

In addition, there were a few early supporters of Moolanomy that include:

They wrote about my blog and posts, which gave Moolanomy a huge boost at the beginning.

The second major breakthrough occurred on September 26th when JD at Get Rich Slowly published my guest post: 12 Investing Mistakes I’ve Made (and How You Can Learn From Them). From there, Moolanomy was highlighted by several high profile sites, such as, The Consumerist, MSN Smart Spending, LifeHacker.com, and Stepcase Lifehack. You can see the complete list on the about page.

However, I am even more humbled and honored the nearly 2,600 web sites and blogs that found my content worthy enough to link to. Thank you to each and everyone for your support.

A Special Thank You

Aside from the M-Network members and others that I have mentioned above, I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Larry Swedroe. Over the past few months, Larry has provided value-added service to Moolanomy’s readers by providing in-depth monthly questions and answers column. Thank you!

Here’s the complete list of all the past columns:

The Statistics

I love numbers, so here are some key 1 year anniversary statistics by the number (as of 9:30pm yesterday).

3 major theme changes
9 minor theme changes (and countless number of tweaks)
25 ranking according to PopTopRanks.com Personal Finance (lower number is better)
319 posts total (this one is #319)
1,739 subscribers
2,585 traffic sources
4,760 comments and trackbacks
8,339 ranking according to Technorati (lower number is better)
296,680 visits
513,023 page views

Top 5 articles by page viewed are:

Other Web Enterprises

In addition to and as a result of Moolanomy, I also have several other blogs and web sites that you may not be aware of.

Blogthority — This is a blog about better blogging. This is a place where several of my friends and I write about our experience with blogging and share some tips and tricks. Blogthority went live on January 23, 2008.
Money Hackers Network — This is a multi-faceted site that features: the Money Hackers Blog Network, the Money Hacks Carnival, and a small personal finance dictionary. Money Hackers Network went live on February 8, 2008
M-Network Blogs — This is the M-Network central blog. Originally we didn’t have a centralized home for our network, but the group decided that we should have a dedicated site for the network. M-Network Blogs went live on March 23, 2008
Personal Finance Buzz — After being part of the net for almost a year, I felt that there was a missing gap within the personal finance blogosphere. Although PFblogs.org does a tremendous job of gluing everything together, there was no social networking site dedicated to the personal finance niche. As a result, I started PFBuzz.com to fill that niche. Personal Finance Buzz went live on May 22, 2008.

To my readers and fellow bloggers, please accept my sincerest thank you for making Moolanomy what it is today.

THANK YOU!

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30 Comments

Emily, 15. July 2008, 5:34

Happy birthday, Moolanomy! It’s been really fun reading and learning and watching this site evolve. Happy day, Pinyo!
Lynnae, 15. July 2008, 5:51

Happy Birthday, Moolanomy!!!! I, for one, am very glad you started blogging, and extremely grateful to you for starting the M-Network. Here’s to many more years of success!
RC@Thinkyourwaytowealth, 15. July 2008, 6:02

Congrats and Happy Birthday to Moolanomy!

You have been very inspiring and helpful to many others, including many fledgling PF bloggers like myself, so your success is well warranted!

Thanks & Congrats, Pinyo!
FFB, 15. July 2008, 6:04

Wow! You have done a lot in one year! Definitely a source of inspiration for us all. Congrats! You deserve it. You have always been supportive of other sites around the blogosphere. I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for you.
PT, 15. July 2008, 6:24

Happy Birthday, Moolanomy! Great work, Pinyo. Keep it up.
Nicole, 15. July 2008, 6:44

Congratulations!
The Happy Rock, 15. July 2008, 7:20

Congrats, Pinyo. You have had quit a busy and very successful year! I know how much time and dedication that it takes. Great work.
Jimmy, 15. July 2008, 7:54

Congratulations Pinyo! Your statistics are very inspiring! I love to see success stories like these!
Curt, 15. July 2008, 9:44

You have done a lot in one year and perhaps have grown at the fastest rate within the pf blogosphere. So, what are your goals for next year? How are you going to continue to grow at this rate or are you going to slow down and enjoy the view?
Mrs. Micah, 15. July 2008, 9:54

Happy blog-birthday, Pinyo! Congrats on the amazing progress you’ve made this year and thank you for bringing all kinds of resources to your fellow bloggers—networks, PF Buzz, etc.
DebtDieter, 15. July 2008, 10:06

Happy Birthday Moolanomy, what amazing achievements in only 12 months.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with over the next 12!
MG, 15. July 2008, 10:40

Congrats on one year a great blog! I’ve recently started down the blogging road and hope next year this time I’ll have a similar post. Keep up the great work.
SV1, 15. July 2008, 13:17

Your third goal should be “To improve my writing skills” not skill. Happy Birthday anyhow.
David, 15. July 2008, 13:23

Happy Birthday Pinyo, and happy to be a part of the M-Network!
Fitz, 15. July 2008, 16:23

Happy birthday and more power! Your blog is such an inspiration, thank you.
Pinyo, 15. July 2008, 17:34

Thank you everyone.

@Lynnae — I am also grateful to have you in the network.

@Curt — Unfortunately, not the fastest, but Moolanomy did grow at a decent rate. I will be blogging about my goals soon.

@Mrs. Micah — It was my pleasure.

@SV1 — You’re such a good BIL. I can always count on you to point out my mistake in front of the crowd. Or is it mistakes…

@David — Glad you are part of the network!
Sara at On Simplicity, 15. July 2008, 20:10

Congratulations! I hope you do something to celebrate–that’s a ton of growth for one year.
Four Pillars, 15. July 2008, 20:32

Congrats and keep it going!

MBN eh? I guess I should have started reading that sooner!

Mike
The Digerati Life, 15. July 2008, 20:52

Hi Pinyo!

I just want to let you know that I admire your work and your blog A LOT. Your work ethic and your entrepreneurial spirit are just so inspiring! I don’t know very many people who can handle all the projects that you do all at once.

You have done so many great things for the financial blogosphere and I love your stuff. Keep it coming and congratulations on your milestone! May you keep on rocking!!!!

Thanks for all your help with Mint too!
Take care!
SVB @ The Digerati Life
theWild1, 15. July 2008, 21:46

Congrats on the 1 year anniversary
Art Dinkin, 16. July 2008, 4:31

Pinyo,

Time sure flys when you are having fun! Congrats, not only on a fine blog, but also for reaching the goals you set out to achieve.
Pete @ biblemoneymatters, 16. July 2008, 6:57

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. happy birthday dear moolanomy.. happy birthday to you..

You make it hard for all of us to keep up Pinyo with all your sites, etc. You and the rest of the M-network have been a huge inspiration for me, so thank you!

Oh, also, I still don’t know how to pronounce the name of your site!
Pinyo, 16. July 2008, 10:24

@Sara — What do you have in mind? Perhaps some sort of group project or giveaway?

@Mike — I would have invited you, but thought you were one of the big blogs. When you have only 10 subscribers and two of them are you, it kinda distorts the perspective.

@SVB — You are certainly one of the top 5 PF bloggers on my list, so it’s a big honor to hear that from you. Thank you.

As for additional projects, I am still think what else I could do…but I feel a bit stretch right now.

@Art — Thank you. It’s has been a long time.

@Pete — Thanks for the song. I have no doubt that your blog and network will be just as successful — if not more.
Patrick, 16. July 2008, 13:25

Congrats, Pinyo! You’ve accomplished a lot in year one, and I can’t wait to see how year two ends up! It’s a fun journey and I enjoy watching you on your way to accomplishing your financial goals.
Cathy, 16. July 2008, 17:01

Congratulations, and happy blogoversary, Pinyo! I wish you much continued success in year 2!
SingleGuyMoney, 16. July 2008, 20:08

Happy Blogoversary Pinyo. Great blog and I look forward to reading more in the future.
Fixemup Terry, 17. July 2008, 0:44

Pinyo,

From where I sit, you fill a big need that the public has for financial information by providing how-to content packaged in a compelling way, and by writing with great style.

Keep up the great work!
Andrea Coutu, 17. July 2008, 12:42

Congratulations! Was it Woody Allen who said that 80% of success is showing up? Well, many people wouldn’t be able to keep up a blog for a year and your persistence is no doubt part of your success. Great work.

Andrea Coutu
Become a Consultant Blog
Pinyo, 17. July 2008, 20:18

@Pete — Oh, I forgot to add. It’s pronounce moo-la-no-my

moola = money
nomy = knowledge about a particular field

Roughly transalate to “The Science of Money” or “Know Your Money”

@Patrick — You aren’t doing so bad yourself. There are things I wish I could do as well as you did.

@CFO — Thanks!

@SGM — Thank you for being part of the M-Network

@Terry — Thank you. That’s a very kind thing to say.

@Andrea — Yeah, blogging is tougher than most people think.
Tropper, 28. July 2008, 9:42

Congrats and Happy B-day….

As a novice blogger, I understand the hurdles you have to jump over to get your blog out there.

As a huge fan of your writing, I must admit, this site is one of the best out there.

Looking forward to another great year!!