There is a wealth of information in such a large collection of blogs. Of course, it requires work to combine and distill the information. In February, I did such an exercise and wrote my most popular post so far. I compiled a spreadsheet containing the combined holdings of 20 publicly available portfolios, counting the number of appearances of each ticker. The 4 most popular dividend growth stocks, based on this composite view, were MCD, CVX, JNJ and KO.
I find that quick access to the public portfolios of other blogs is quite helpful when you just want to see what other bloggers are up to. For this reason, I include a link to public portfolios, where available, in my blogroll page. These links are marked ¶.
In addition, I'm highlighting active blogs that are at least one year old, providing a short description to tell readers what the blog is about. I hope this will be helpful, especially for those new to dividend growth investing. There are
To Advertise or Not to Advertise...
It would be great to get my reader's perspectives on this... especially if you have a blog and are serving ads. Which ad publisher are you using? Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher, Adbrite, blogadds, or Affiliation Advertisements? Another publisher? How about Text Link Ads? Any words of advise will be appreciated... and bonus points if you share what type of income you typically generate by serving ads. Of course, I'll welcome counterarguments, too!
Networking
I've been blogging for 20 months now and I feel it is time for me to network more actively with other investors focused on dividend growth investing. One way to do so is to publish original articles on sites with wider readership. To that end, I'm applying for Associate Membership of The DIV-Net, "a network of investors focused on dividend investing, value investing and a long-term buy and hold philosophy."
I'll also be submitting original articles to Seeking Alpha, a platform for investment research with broad coverage of stocks, asset classes, ETFs and investment strategy. Seeking Alpha has an extensive readership and more than 7,000 contributing authors. Contributing authors receive payment for articles and, of course, exposure to a wide audience.
Are you a contributor to The DIV-Net or Seeking Alpha, or any other sites with wider readership? If so, please share your experiences in the comments below!
Full Disclosure: Long CVX, JNJ
Hi Ferdi,
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Your blogroll looks very neat.
Thanks for the mention. Hopefully I'll be upgraded to the >1 year section in a couple of months :)
Good luck with your Seeking Alpha publications.
As my blog is relatively new, I don't run ads yet. Maybe later.
Best wishes.
DfS
You're welcome DfS! Please feel free to remind me when you're blog turns one year old, in case I don't notice it myself... about ads -- as I mentioned, I'm not convinced about doing them, yet. We'll see....
DeleteCheers
FerdiS
Really like the new blogroll page, and thanks for the inclusion! As for advertising, I think given your traffic levels, you will be able to make some bucks. By rounding out your writing to include original posts on SA, you will likely drive some additional traffic to your site by strategic links and putting your site in your author profile/description. I personally use a combination of Adsense and affiliate marking, both which have done reasonably well given my traffic levels. I stay away from text links as I find those visually outdated, and absolutely avoid general ads (Adsense) in the middle of posts. I think it detracts from the reading experience. If you have any other questions, let me know, be happy to provide some additional thoughts/input.
ReplyDeleteThanks writing2reality!
DeleteI also appreciate your perspectives on advertising. Personally, I get irritated by text links that pop-up ads when you (accidentally) hover over them, especially when they're obviously on words that have nothing to do with the topic of the post. I don't want to irritate my readers that way!
And I agree with your suggestion about avoiding ads in the middle of posts. I suspect those generate more click-thru's than other ads, though probably also more unwanted/accidental clicks. I've clicked on my fair share of these, sometimes accidentally, because the link looked like part of the post.
You're correct about the clicks on those in-post ads, and ultimately just not worth degrading the reader's experience for the extra income.
DeleteAgreed! I had a look at the way you're doing ads. Quite non-intrusive, I'd say. Thanks for the advice!
DeleteActually, I'd rather not. Please comment or pose a question here so other readers can benefit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding my site FerdiS. Regarding ads I use google adsense though it is not currently something I really care about on my site. I just want to learn more and document my progress.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to being a regular reader of your blog.
Cheers
Gareth
Hi Gareth -- thanks for stopping by and for the feedback on AdSense. We all learn more through sharing... certainly, I've learned a lot just by checking out what others are doing. Its an amazing community.
DeleteTake care!
Thank you for including me on your list! That is alot of websites to go through, I have to start checking them out!
ReplyDeleteRegarding ads and affiliates, I do have Google Adsence, and so far the total is less than a dollar, wahoo! But one off on the side so it doesn't interfere with reading and the other one on my bottom bar so it is rarely seen. My hope is that eventually they will cover the costs of hosting, but no rush on that. I also signed up for Amazon Affiliates, for a couple of reasons. One, when it is appropriate I will link to a product I have personally purchased or used as well as provide an image of what the product is. Two, it is another way to make a little income, but I have no intention of filling my blog with links to products, just on occasion maybe a book or the items I used in my Laundry Soap Experiment. Stuff like that.
You're welcome, Kipp! Yes, it took me quite a while to go through all those sites!
DeleteThanks for your perspectives on advertising and mentioning Amazon Affiliates. Affiliation adds an interesting possibility in that one can choose to include only items that you endorse. Looking at this issue in more ways than one is necessary... I guess blog traffic is a very big factor in determining income potential. I think my blog needs much more traffic to make that worthwhile...
Well, as of today I can no longer say less than $1.00 from adsense... It appears that I broke that mark yesterday! But keep in mind that I don't even have 2 full months of blogging in, and I can already see it picking up from basically nothing each day to at least something each day.
DeleteThat's cool! I think you'll get some nice income flows soon once traffic to your blog increases. Thanks for the update...
DeleteHello divgro!. Mine is one of those DGI focused blogs. It's in spanish but my portfolio covers quite a some of the greatest USA stocks. It's at http://www.dividendogma.com
ReplyDeleteRegards, Jose.
I added your blog, Jose! Thanks for making contact!
DeleteCheers
FerdiS