Gather Little by Little

This week was a much quieter and less stressful week than the last. We had a winter storm move in from the north and blanketed our mountain area with 3-4 inches of snow and it was beautiful. We hunkered down and enjoyed just spending some time at home relaxing.

One thing I did realize this week is that I need to spend less time on the computer and more time with my family. I spent some time looking really hard at all of the things that were taking my time and decided to cut anything that wasn’t worth the time spent or things that I couldn’t devote 100% to. Mostly this involved shutting down 2 blogs that I enjoyed writing on, but just wasn’t able to spend any time on: Saltwaterblogger.net and reviewmommy.com. Both are now gone. I am now devoting 100% of my internet time to Gather Little by Little and my new blog consulting and coaching business, Empty Cabin Media. I also stopped participating on Entrecard. While a great idea, I just found it fairly useless for generating any type quality traffic.

I have a bad habit of having far more ideas than I have time and frequently way over commit myself and that is exactly what happened. With the changes, I’ll be able to spend more time working on Gather Little by Little and growing Empty Cabin Media. For those of you that visit Gather Little by Little, you’ve may already noticed to fruits of that additional time: a revised header, and new graphics in the sidebar promoting my Money Saving Monday Series, our Ask The M-Network series, free magazines, and zero percent balance transfer credit cards.

Important Stuff

• Free Blog Analysis Reports – I’m still offering free blog analysis reports over at Empty Cabin Media. If you aren’t sure what this is, it’s basically a very professional report that I’ll write up for you about your blog. I’ll tell you what you’re doing well and what you’re not doing so well. Areas addressed are: overall look, monetization, SEO, usability, and content. So far the responses from the 15+ reports I’ve written have been very positive.
• New picture! I’ve updated the picture on the main Empty Cabin Media page with a picture of me. If you want to associate a face with the name Glblguy, head over. I don’t take very good photos, but this one is definitely one of the better ones. You’ll even learn my real first name (no it’s not really Glblguy)!
• Simple. Organized. Life – David, from My Two Dollars has announced a new blog called Simple. Organized. Life. Head over and check it out.
• Larry Winget needs your help – JLP posted an article the other day about Larry Winget writing a new book and looking for input to help him out with a few chapters.
• Ask the M-Network – The M-Network has had such a huge success with the Ask the M-Network series, that we’ve decided to continue it as an ongoing series. Have a personal finance related question you would like to ask us? Just contact me. I’ll share it with the other M-Network members and post your question with all off our replies as an article.
• Win $50 – Pinyo of Moolanomy is offering a change to win $50 by sharing your favorite personal finance site. Head over and submit yours

The Gathering

Here are my favorite personal finance articles this week from the M-Network and other blogs on my blogroll:

• You Know You’re A Mom When”¦ @ 2 Working Parents – Not personal finance related, but oh so true and hilarious.
  
• Life Insurance and Medical Information Bureau (MIB) @ Moolanomy
  
• 5 Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make When Buying a Car @ Gen X Finance
• A Big Announcement – My Wife and I Are Expecting! @ Cash Money Life – Congrats Patrick! That is so exciting. I you need some practice in advance, just let me know. I have 6 you can borrow!
• 7 money lessons learned during 7 years of marriage @ Mighty Bargain Hunter
• Drawing A Line In The Sand @ Paid Twice – I’m right there with you. Let’s hold each other accountable. I did the same exact thing starting on the 1st.
• Save More Money: Automate and Separate Your Savings @ Prime Time Money
• Surviving a Recession: Lessons From Our Ancestors @ Being Frugal

Photo by: By Me. You can check my photos on Flickr. Have a Flickr account? Would love you adding me as a contact!