Gather Little by Little

Whew, what a week. Seems this week I just haven’t had enough time in the day to get everything done. I’m even late on this post, oh by about 10 hours!  Oh the life of blogger

Here are my favorite posts this week from the M-Network:

• ChristianPF shares the best money advice of all time
• Plonkee Money gives us the most important skill for personal finance.
• Being Frugal asks What do you need to be happy?
• Moolanomy tells us how he estimated his house value
• Financial Dominance asks What’s the 4% rule ?
• Single Guy Money wonders, What’s up with married couples and money?
• DebtFREE Revolution looks into whether Dave Ramsey is a cult leader or not.

Here are my favorite posts from my Personal Finance Feeds:

• Free Money Finance tells us to shop for the holidays now
• Money, Matters and More Musings advices we stop going crazy with kids birthday parties!
• NCN continues his 33 day series on how to save money
• The Dough Roller tells us how to evaluate a mutual fund in 60 seconds
• Punny Money says stop wallet leakage!

Now off too my son’s football practice, hope you have a blessed weekend!

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The Carnival of Financial Planning for September 6, 2007 has been posted over at the Skilled Investor.  I submitted by article DIY Financial Planning which was included in the Financial Planning category.

Make sure you visit and read through all of the great Financial Planning articles!

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I believe in getting maximum value out of my time. Some months back, I realized I was spending roughly 1-2 hours a day driving in my car listening to music. I had heard about podcasts, but never really listened to one. Once I did, I was hooked. I spent all of my time in my car, walking through the grocery store, walking from the parking lot to my work building. I try to listen as often as I can to my favorite podcasts (post of my favorite podcasts is in the works).

One evening while driving home, the joystick on my Cowon iAudio U2 MP3 player broke, I was devastated. My initial reaction was to purchase another one, after all they are one of the cheaper MP3 players; however the new frugal side of me decided to see what my options where.

I visited the Cowon webpage and discovered the warrenty on my player had expired. I then thought, what do I have to lose by asking? I utilized their online customer support. Within a few seconds I was talking to a Cowon customer service representative using their online chat interface. I explained the problem and was instructed to submit a repair request. I completed the repair request, expecting fully to either receive an estimate (which of course would cost more than a new player) or just be denied since it was way out of warrenty.

Within a day I received a reply that my repair request was received and approved. I was provided with instructions and an address to send the player to. I packaged it up as per the instructions and mailed it off. At this point I still expected to receive an estimate for the repair work.

Yesterday, just a few weeks later I received a box from Cowon. Inside the box wasn’t an invoice, or even a repaired U2 MP3 player. What was in there shocked me…a brand new player!!

I was shocked to say the least. This my friends is an textbook example of exemplary customer service. I have been telling all of my friends about it today, and figured I would share the story with you as well.

On my way home this evening, I listened to CNN CNet Car Tech (yes I know, this isn’t a good way to avoid temptation) where they did a feature on the new BMW Z4M. As my grandfather used to say, “I was happier than a coon in a corn field”!

If you are considering purchasing an MP3, I would strongly recommend checking out Cowon’s products. Not only do they make a high quality and easy to use product, from this example you can see the level of customer service they provide. I’m sold, and will purchase their product again.

Thank you Cowon for reminding me that good customer service does still exist in this world of rude store clerks, automated telephone systems, businesses charging for services not rendered, and companies that don’t back up their product. Cowon, you’ve gained a new and loyal customer.

If you are interested in the U2 player I have, it isn’t made anymore and is getting difficult to find. You might want to check eBay. Cowon’s newer version of the player is the Cowon iAudio U3 4GB MP3 Player. It’s a great player as well.

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Blogging has turned out to be much more than I thought it was going to be. One of the things I have enjoyed most is meeting people I would have never met otherwise. This includes my fellow M-Network bloggers, bloggers in the MBN Forums, and my favoriate blogging forum, the Authority Blogger Forum. It was there I met Skellie of Skelliewag.org.

The first post from her that I saw was her offer on the Authority Blogger Forum to guest post on member’s blogs. In hindsight I should have jumped all over this offer, but I didn’t. I did eventually send her an email, but I’m sure her list is huge by now.

Skellie blogs about blogging, and specifically creating great content. There are literally thousands blogging blogs out on the internet. Skellie however has managed to standout amoungst the crowd. She is active on the Authority Blogger Forum and is always willing to lend her advice and perspective to peoples inquiries or thoughts.

Her blog is in my opinion top notch. I am a big fan of simplicity and so is Skellie. Her blog is clean, very well written and uses some unique techniques to present her content (see her use of images for her featured posts).

Skellie has been recognized in the blogging community and was a guest poster on Darren Rowse’s Pro-Blogger website. She was also invited to be a contributing blogger on Daily Blog Tips.

Skellie, has offered her services via email to review and comment on sites to help simplify them. She is calling this a “Simplicity Review”. Not being one to make the same mistake twice, I immediately sent her email requesting a review. She replied that evening via email with a few suggestions, and even offered a cleaner revised logo for me (which you can see in the header). I immediately incorporated her changes, and sure enough it looks better.

I just wanted to take the time to thank Skellie for offering her services and expecting nothing in return. If you are a blogger, visit her blog and subscribe to her RSS feed, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks Skellie for your insight, and the logo rocks!

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August was a big month for Gather Little By Little. We became part of the M-Network, a group of personal finance bloggers focused on providing you our readers with high quality and well-rounded content. In addition to the four founding members (Moolanomy, Plonkee Money, Financial Dominance and myself) we added 3 new sites to the network as well. New member blogs in August were:

Being Frugal
ChristianPF
I’ve Paid Twice for this already

I’ve pretty much settled into a posting routine I am comfortable with, at least for the time being. I post a feature article daily during the weekdays and other miscellaneous articles off and on as I get inspired. I’m averaging about 5-7 articles a week. Monday is Money Saving Monday, Tuesday – Thursday is a variety of articles and Friday is The Friday Gathering where I feature my favorite personal finance articles from around the personal finance blogosphere.

As a result of the M-Network and due to links from other PF bloggers as well as participation in a number of Personal Finance carnivals, Gather Little By Little experienced a large amount of growth in August both in subscribers and in daily visitors.

This growth is particularly evident from the number of comments on my articles. I continue to be humbled by the compliments I am receiving about the blog and the content. What I most appreciate are the insightful, passionate and honest comments being made by you. I fully believe that the article itself is only half the value to my readers, the other half is your great comments.

Here’s a list of the top 5 commentators on Gather Little By Little for the month of August. If you are a fellow blogger, I’ve also linked to one of my favorite articles from your site.

Justin
Pinyo – 10 money wasters, are you guilty?
MITBeta
Erin – Why a little creativity will help you get out of debt
paidtwice – Balancing for Today and Saving For Tomorrow

Thanks once again for being a part of Gather Little By Little. I’m really glad to have you!

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