How would you save Yahoo!?
I have been thrown back into using Yahoo! services lately, since they took over Flickr, which is a favorite site of mine, and also Associated Content (now Yahoo! Contributor Network), which is a website I've written a few articles for over the years.
Yahoo! has just fired their CEO, who was supposed to revamp the whole company's image but failed to do so during her 3-year tenure.
We all know Yahoo!'s issue . . . it's just not "with it" (aka "cool"). I mean, they have a ! in their name. That is so 1990's.
Personally, I associate Yahoo! with the times where we weren't allowed to use internet sources and had to use books. Now that it's okay to use the internet for research, I never think of Yahoo! as the place to turn, but go to Wikipedia and Google instead. Basically, Yahoo! hasn't managed to keep up with the changing web, and despite switching CEOs a couple of times in the last 5 years, they haven't captured the spirit of being new and fresh and up to date.
So if you were to take over Yahoo! what would you do to make it more appealing to the internet users of the 2010's? How would you bring Yahoo! out of it's funk as a throw back to the 1990's?
Here are some of my ideas, but please post any of yours in the comments!
Social Media/Blogging
I remember being all about some Yahoo! Geocities as a kid. Man I loved having my own website. But there weren't a ton of design tools provided with the free option. Today, such a limited supply of free tools would be ridiculous. Look at WordPress's free platform, and all the beautiful themes you can choose from.
Where is Yahoo!s answer to WordPress and Blogger? Sure it's already been done, but it had already been done when Google took over Blogger too, and it seems to be doing extremely well with Etsy artists and other folks who want a free, easy to manage blog.
I'd say there's room for Yahoo! to get people on a blogging network, and offer some sort of different features. Maybe some kind of good categorization system, so people who are all blogging about a particular topic are all easy to find and rank? Ideas for a new free blogging platform alone could be a whole 'nother post (or even series.)
Acquisitions of existing cool sites
Yahoo!s acquisition of Flickr and AssociatedContent got me logging back into things with my Yahoo! user name now, which makes me that much more amenable to exploring other Yahoo! services, since I'm already logged in. However, Flickr was around and established for a long time before Yahoo! stepped in to take over. How about acquiring some sites that aren't quite established yet, are "up and coming"? (Like my up and coming neighborhood?)
Of course, Yahoo!s negative coolness could backfire on developing sites and cause them to lose any cool reputation they were building . . . But I'm sure there's a way they could make it work.
Provide features that are useful to businesses or schools
When people are obligated to get a Yahoo! account for work or school, they may be more likely to use other Yahoo! services. (But if the features they're using in the first place are frustrating, they will just hate it.) We used Google Docs quite a bit in college when working on group projects, which forced the few holdouts in the class to get a Google account and start discovering the wonder of Google. There is plenty of room for improvement in shared work sites like this too, so Yahoo! could capitalize on that.
They could provide an easy way to set up a password protected web page if a teacher wants to use it for a class project and have only students in the school able to access it. There are tons of possibilities.
Start something new
Google isn't the only one who can hire creative engineers. Yahoo! needs a way to encourage their engineers to spend time thinking of new ideas and have a good system set up for those ideas to be communicated, evaluated, and rewarded.
This article I read explained that Yahoo! falls short on maintaining reader attention. Plenty of people access the site, but they don't stick around and spend much time on it. If you had Yahoo!s formidable resources to draw on, how would you convince users to stay on the site longer?
The 7 Links
I was tagged by FirstGenAmerican to complete the "7 Links" game.
Here are my 7 links:
Most Popular Post
My most popular posts by far are those that talk about daily life of auditing. More specifically, my number one most viewed post is Big 4 vs Regional Firms Part 1. I'm not sure how many regular readers are interested in this kind of thing, since my most "vocal" (commenting) readers tend to be from the Yakezie personal finance crowd, but I know that you accounting readers are out there, even if you're quiet! (Case in point - that post has been viewed more times than any of my others, but has only a couple of comments.)
I am continuing this series as I learn more about this interesting world of public accounting. One of my goals for this fall, once tax season dies down, is to attend some meetings of our local chapter of the CPA society, and expand my horizons on what it's like to work at other CPA firms.
Most Controversial Post
I tend to avoid controversy whenever possible on this blog . . . What that says about me, I'm not sure, but this is a fun project for me, not an exercise in defending my views. Additionally, I don't hold too many strong opinions on things, since I feel like I am still very much in a "learning" stage of my life (and may be forever?)
Most Beautiful Post
I'm not sure that I would describe any of my posts as beautiful. A big milestone post for me was on Christmas, when my Alexa ranking dropped below 1,000,000! (Don't click on that link, all it says is that my Alexa ranking dropped below 1,000,000 - I promise. Also there is a picture of a candy cane.) Just this week, my Alexa ranking dropped below 500,000, so woo hoo! We're making progress!
Post that I am most proud of
I like this post I wrote on Weddings and Wages, back in December. I would like to write more posts like this, that consider how statistics (like the wage gap between lesbians and straight women) may have come about, based on our social norms. I think this kind of stuff is really fun to ponder 
.
Post whose success surprised me
My post about the number of Women in Accounting continues to get views from search engines every month. The post is about a specific situation I encountered when I first started working, that highlighted the issues that still exist for women trying to network with men who like to go off and do "all boys activities" so I'm not sure that the post provides the information that these searchers are looking for. I'd like to include some more posts about this topic, since people seem to be interested in reading about this.
Most helpful post
This is a choose your own adventure topic - you tell me which posts you thought were most helpful!
Most underrecognized post
I wrote a post about a friend of mine who is struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life - but she is putting all careers on hold until she finds "the one" career for her. I wrote a post about the advice I gave her, and asking readers to share their own wisdom. I wish I had gotten more response from my more experienced readers here, as I think this is an interesting topic for young people these days, especially high achievers who think that they need to have a "perfect" job to be happy.
5 bloggers to post 7 links
I'm supposed to tag 5 other bloggers to carry on with this links project, but honestly, I think most of the bloggers I follow right now have already been tagged!
Instead, here are 5 links to other bloggers 7 links!
Is your side hustle interfering with your day job?
There are two ways to save more money: spend less, or earn more. There are a bunch of great posts out there on how to earn extra money, in addition to what you bring in at your regular job. Looking for ways to make income on the side can be a great way to help you diversify your income sources, and to occupy your free time with an income-producing activity, rather than with high-cost hobbies.
- See Frugal Dad's post on Why Everybody Needs a Side Hustle
- Read this motivating guest post from My Journey to Millions on getting started with earning income on the side.
Believe me, I'm a serial hobbyist, and any hobby has the potential to be incredibly expensive once you get absorbed in it.
- This post from Get Rich Slowly gives some tips on how to make money from your hobby
The problem is, making money from your hobby almost always requires a bigger time commitment than you are currently making to the hobby. For example, I like knitting, and spend quite a bit of money on different yarns and patterns. However, in order to make much money from knitting, I would have to sit down and knit every night, instead of a couple of times a month.
Could you be spending that time improving your performance at your day job?
If you are just starting out in a fast-paced career, spending that extra time becoming the best employee at your new job could easily reap larger monetary benefits than any side income you earn. If you have free time when you want to be productive, spending more time reading industry-specific news, teaching yourself more advanced skills, or simply getting more work done could help you get raises and promotions much faster.
The guy moving fastest through the ranks at my current firm is not spending his evenings figuring out how to make $100/month from a blog. He is spending all of his work effort on his current career.
Is your side income intended to replace your pay check?
If I focused on making money from blogging, or from selling crafts on Etsy, I could probably make a few thousand a year. Making enough to replace even my starting salary (plus cover the extra taxes that come from self employment) is highly unlikely.
However, if I had a plan to launch a blogging empire that could surpass my earning potential in my current career, then focusing all of my extra attention on my entrepreneurial endeavor would be far more worth it.
When is pursuing side income a good idea?
If you are in a stable job, but with no room for advancement, it will be more efficient for you to work 9-5 at your day job, and devote your extra hours to developing side income. If you are starting out in a career where the top performers can expect a rapid promotion, then it may be more efficient for you to focus on your career first. (Especially because at very competitive companies, low or average performers may find themselves out of a job completely.)
OR If you run out of "mental energy" to put into your day job, but find that you have plenty of mental energy, or even feel more energized, from your hobby, like many of us bloggers have found, then trying to get some money out of that hobby may be a smart idea. This is generally my view regarding my blog.
If you're going to do it anyway, you may as well make money
I like writing. I like my blog, and sometimes I write some paid articles for Associated Content too (Yahoo! Contributors Network now.) I have a couple of ad blocks, and make an effort to find additional readers, so that stuff I have already written has a better chance of earning me a few dollars later.
My blogging isn't going to make me thousands, or even hundreds of dollars a month anytime soon, but I figure if I can get $50/month, it'll be an extra $50 in my savings account that I would not have if I spent my evenings watching TV instead.
What do you think? Do you think that focusing on side income can jeopardize your career, or do you think a really motivated person could do it all?
Page rank update and thank you referrers!
Photo by guitargoa via sxc.hu
June was a good month for blogging statistics for AccountantByDay! I am close to getting under 1,000,000 on Alexa again, my traffic is up about 25% from last month. In addition, after reading this Yakezie.com article that mentions that Google updated page ranks, I went and checked the page rank for AccountantByDay, and as of now the page rank is 4!! (MozRank is 3.84 according to OpenSiteExplorer.org)
I wanted to thank some of the great sites that have links coming in to me, which I believe contribute quite a bit to this page rank, and also to any Yakezie members linking to me and visiting my page, which helps a lot with the Alexa rank.
According to Google Analytics, my top 10 referring sites are:
1. Careers-in-accounting.com
This website is a really cool list of links to various accounting articles and blogs. For those accounting-oriented readers out there, I strongly recommend checking this webpage out to get some links to some new accounting blogs and other interesting articles.
2. "Look at Last Year's File"
This is one of my favorite CPA/CA blogs. Written by someone with a few years of experience under there belt who is happy to answer questions from new folks like me.
3. "The Saved Quarter"
A personal finance blog that never fails to have some interesting topics under discussion. Check out her post on the July Food Stamp Challenge, which is a little challenge we could all try where you feed your family for a month on the amount of money that would be allotted to you if you used food stamps. Tough, but The Saved Quarter is great at it!
4. CPA Zone
A blog dealing with all aspects of the CPA exam. Glad this is behind me, but websites like these can be super helpful and inspirational if you're in the midst of trying to pass the CPA exam.
5. Mortgaged Life
This is a fascinating blog written by "The Borrower" who has FOUR mortgage payments a month. There's a lot of cool stuff on here, especially for those of us interested in have a mortgage or two. Also, some information on earning money online through taking surveys, etc.
6. A Counting School - Krupo.ca
Krupo is another experienced CA who has a ton of great stories to share about the life of a public accountant. His most recent post also falls into the money-saving category about renting bikes to ride to client offices instead of taking a cab! (Ok, that would be a terrible idea in Atlanta right now, since we'd all arrive dripping in sweat, but it sounds like it worked out okay for him!
7. The Summa
Professor Albrecht has some great posts/thoughts on being an accounting professor. This is a possible future career path for me, and if anyone else is thinking about becoming a professor of any sort, I'd recommend checking out this blog to get some insights.
8. I Want to Be a CA
A few accountant writers on this website that deals with becoming a CA and working for a public accounting company. Gee, there are a lot of Canadian chartered accountants blogging out there and linking to me... where are my American CPAs in all of this??
9. Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
A great personal finance site and a member of the Yakezie network. Crystal is also planning to become a full-time blogger, and has a lot of handy services available to fellow bloggers, like helping them organize their advertisers and set up blogs. When I get more traffic, I'll definitely be looking to hiring Crystal for some help figuring out how to handle advertisers.
10. The Cooking Accountant
A great blog that combines two pretty different topics - accounting and cooking! I totally understand having 2 or 3 major topics that you want to blog about that have nothing to do with each other, but the Cooking Accountant pulls it off with grace. Check out her blog for some great recipes AND CPA exam study tips!
11. Retire By 40
Okay, I know I said Top 10 referrers, but RetireBy40 is number 11, and I'm a big fan. Check out RB40's blogs to follow along as he invests in rental properties, raises a baby on a budget, and figures out how to quit his day job by age 40.
How’s it going, 2011?
We're half-way into 2011 now (wow, just realized how close election year really is!) and I thought I'd take this chance to look back on everything that's happened so far.
Work
Snow outside our client's offices in Boston
I made it through my first busy season at work, and now I'm only 3 months away from being able to apply for my CPA certificate! Things are a bit slower now, but I'm excited about my next busy season, when I'll know a little bit more about what I'm doing!
Sunrise - during busy season I had to get up to walk the dog so early, that this was the closest I could get to seeing any sunshine. Beautiful.
Student Loans
My student loans were $17,600 at the end of 2010, and today they are at $14,500. My goal for 2011, as laid out in my "2011 Goal Setting'" post, is to get the principal balance under $10,000. I will need to step up my payments from $500/month to a little over $750 per month to do that by the end of 2011. I may have to relax on this goal - while it would be nice to get them to under $10,000, I think that my emergency fund and saving to go to our little family reunion in Spain next year are a little more immediate.
My best drive from our golf charity event. My first round of golf ever!
Blogging
I set all kinds of blogging goals, like sticking to 3 posts per week, which didn't happen at all! This is why I don't have my heart set on making it as a professional blogger - I don't want to have to blog when I'm not inspired to say something. I have enough required work to get through from my job!
However, when I compare June's stats to December's stats, things are looking good! My visits during June were 1,639 (up 73% from 949 in December.) My page views were 5,268 (up 105% from 2,567 in December.)
My Alexa rank, which was well under 1,000,000 when I first put up my Alexa widget, is now back over 1,000,000. I believe this is because I'm not targeting only Alexa users right now, but have a lot of CA and CPA (and aspiring CAs and CPAs) who are regular visitors. The Yakezie challenge is going to take a lot longer to beat, but I think that this way is really for the best!
Sunset in Hilton Head - first vacation of 2011 was great
Art
Over the past 6 months, I have done almost no art. In between work and my dog, it's hard to find time to let myself get lost in a new project. In the past few weeks, I have picked up the pencil/charcoal/carving tools quite a bit more, and it feels good to be back!
Your Turn
How is 2011 going for you? Have you accomplished your goals? Have you decided that some of your goals aren't so important? Are you happy with how far you've come?
Blog Statistics – January 2nd
I'm hoping that this time next year, I can look back on a story similar to Bucksome Boomer's with my subscribers jumping to over 300 from something... far less than that!
What I can celebrate now is that my Alexa ranking dropped below 1,000,000 in the last couple of weeks (right now, it's just under 700,000!). Also, my net worth is finally positive! I will still have the student loans at the end of next year, and maybe the year after, but they will be gone soon after that!!
In the meantime, I haven't had a stats update in a couple of weeks, because the last one would've been on Christmas. So here is the run down for the last 2 weeks.
Blog Stats for the week of 12/18/2010 through 12/24/2010:
Average visits per day: 32.86 visits/day - up about 2.5 since the prior week.
Average page views per day: 104.86 pvs/day - up about 8 from the prior week.
Blog Stats for the week of 12/25/2010 through 12/31/2010:
Average visits per day: 28.86 visits/day - down about 4 from last week.
Average page views per day: 95.71 pvs/day - down about 10 from last week.
Lesson: The holidays are not the best time to get page views and visitors! Many people are too busy to turn on their computers, or are having a nice holiday somewhere sans laptop.
Thank you for adding to those page views! Now I'm going to write some real content for you to read . Happy New Year!
2011 Goal Setting
What are you financial goals for 2011? Check out the poll in the sidebar to the right to participate!
It's the time of year where we review our past year and set some goals for the next year. I have many goals that I would like to list as New Years Resolutions, but goal-setting is generally more effective with fewer, specific, measurable goals.
2010 in Review
During 2010, I graduated with my Masters of Accountancy, worked part time over the summer as a bookkeeper, worked part time as a research assistant for accounting professors and PhD students, passed my fourth and final part of the CPA exam, and started a full-time job in public accounting.
What lies ahead in 2011
In 2011, I'll work through my first busy season as a full-time public accountant. I will, almost unavoidably, learn a huge amount about auditing and taxes. I should be eligible for my CPA license by the end of 2011.
What I will accomplish
Professionally - Accounting
In 2011, I would like to learn to become a better accountant. I will certainly learn during busy season, and I hear that I remain mostly confused until my second busy season has passed, but I hope that I will end the season with some feeling of competence at least.
As a blogger
I would like to get AccountantByDay.com to an Alexa rank below 200,000 and make it into the Yakezie network! In order to accomplish this, I plan to post a minimum of 3 times per week, but ideally more. I will strive to improve my writing, and choose topics to write about that my readers find valuable. I also plan to devote plenty of time to building relationships with other bloggers.
As an artist (and a blogger!)
I recently opened a store on Etsy.com to sell some of my artwork. I also have a blog that goes along with this venture (CeciCooper.com). This blog is pretty much at ground zero right now, so I have a lot of work ahead of me to network with other craft/arts bloggers and build a readership. As with AccountantByDay, I will focus on posting frequently, writing quality, valuable posts, and creating relationships with other bloggers in that sphere. As for the art, I hope to keep adding various products to my Etsy.com store. Apparently having at least 100 products nets you much more interest, so one of my goals is to reach 100 listed products over the next few months.
Later on in 2011, I would like to launch a new site: HandmadeEntrepreneur.com. The viability of this website is somewhat dependent on my success as a seller of art, but the basic idea is to create a website for beginning sellers of handmade goods online to introduce them to the world of blogging to market their crafts. Soon I'll be looking for a talented photographer to write some articles about taking better photographs of arts and crafts. My current goals for this website include: writing at least 25 pillar articles in various categories before launch, and also successfully building the readership of CeciCooper.com so I will have an audience to start with when the blog is launched.
Financially
I would like to:
1st: Establish an emergency fund that will cover 3 months of expenses.
2nd: Reduce my student loans to $10,000 (At 17,600 right now.)
2rd: Put 60% of my paycheck towards my net worth (paying down debt, increasing investments, savings. Anything except spending.)
Accountability
Once a month, I plan to post updates on these goals here. Checking in with goals once a year is not enough to keep me feeling accountable!
I noticed that many of you have blog posts about your 2011 goals and plans. Let's all keep each other updated on how well those goals are doing. With accountability and encouragement, I think that we'll all be happy with how well we stick to our goals in the new year!
Little House in the Valley: 2011 Goals Part 1
Frugal Zeigeist: New Year Resolutions: Finances 2011
Financial Samurai Goals and Resolutions for 2011
Consumerism Commentary: Goals and Resolutions for 2011
Saving Money Today: My Goals for 2011
PF Firewall: My New Years Resolution: Declaring 2011 the Year of Loose Ends
Briana Ford: 2011 Resolutions
Twas the night before Christmas and BAM!
'Twas the night before Christmas and BAM! my Alexa ranking dropped below 1,000,000!
What a lovely Christmas present to wake up to!
Merry Christmas to All!
Fun Personal Finance Blog Posts
To finish out the week, how about a round up of some fun personal finance posts?
How Frugal Are You?
Take FirstGenAmerican's fun quiz to see how frugal you are. Do you make some effort to save money? Or do you take it to the extreme and pinch every penny? What was your result?
Like Tiny Houses?
Little House posted a great collection of links for tiny home plans. I've seen a couple of these before, and thought that they were a really great idea. Of course, I would have the tiny house and then a huge garden shed for my artwork!
Songs about personal finance? You betcha!
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff has a great post about the top 5 songs about personal finance. Neat idea!
Kevin at Thousandaire.com made a gingerbread house
Check it out - you won't be sorry! And maybe you can help him out with some tips for next time . . .
Hope everyone had a great week! Happy Holidays!
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Are you fatty and spacious?
Every now and then I take a quick glance through the comments that people (or bots) try to post that caught by the spam blocker. Sometimes legit comments get caught in there, but most of the time it's either a bunch of different "commenters" saying the same random comment, and all linking to different commercial websites, or it is comments that appear to be written by a non-English speaker using a really bad translator. Pretty much every key word, rather than the "correct" word, is some synonym that does not work at all in the same context.
I read one of my favorite spam comments so far today:
Well? Are you!? Fatty and spacious? Because I know this great service that can manual you to shrug that off!
Meanwhile, how about a roundup?
First Gen American reminds us that our lives are happening now, not at some point in the future when some goal or another is accomplished. And KrantCents asks a related question (in that both posts reminded me that time is a'ticking!): When did I get old?
Thousandaire's Yakezie membership post outlines his plans for making personal finance videos that will reach young people.
No Debt MBA discusses the full costs of attending a wedding - something I am looking forward to paying for in August!
Young and Thrifty mentioned a post this week that she thought did not get enough attention when it was posted, and I agree. Why isn't Generation Y saving any money?
Buck Inspire proposes that eating out is cheaper than cooking. I disagree, but that's assuming you are comparing frugal meals out to frugal meals in. Buck makes a good case that a dinner out can be cheaper than a fancy dinner in.
Krupo writes about Bixi, a bike rental service that sounds a bit like Zipcar for bikes, and how he made his team bike to a client the other day. Talk about saving the client some money and saving the environment!
Money Mamba comes out with some fightin' words about Dave Ramsey and his new book - which deals with running a successful company, rather than a successful household budget.
101 Centavos has a spot-on post about acquiring cheap/free high quality education through your workplace.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!