Greetings again to my amazing and loyal subscribers and to my new and fresh subscribers :). This post will be marking a new beginning for the Student Money Adviser blog and I am super excited to share with you what happened over the past few months with challenges, opportunities, new goals, priorities, projects, and an overall change of my character.
Firstly to mention, the blog never stopped providing support and help with useful articles and posts that can be found in archives and since I have taken a pause on new blog posts and instead focused on updating the content I have had a record number of new visitors. It was quite unusual as you would expect any business to go down in downtime, Student Money Adviser had almost 700,000 impressions in google search – resulting at 94,000 clicks in a matter of just 6 months.
What are those numbers? Well, impressions mean that Student Money Adviser Blog had appeared on google search or in google’s definition: “it is how many times a user saw a link to the site in search results”. Clicks mean how many times a user clicked in search results out of the ^impressions^ I talked about above.
All of this means a lot to me, but particularly what is so close to my heart is the part that people are finding the content of the blog useful and are able to gather knowledge or a simple review I have shared with you. So, a HUGE THANK YOU goes out to every and each one of you whether you are just sliding through “another blog post” or you are one of my amazing longtime subscribers and thought what might have happened.
So, What Happened?
A lot. No, really a lot. It all started out as a typical spring semester of 2020 and I was already expecting it a rather difficult one due to classes. Then, events started to unveil as you heard with COVID-19 which quickly in just a few months in of school shifted to completely online and yes it is for the better for everybody! Then, where it all started to sort of break down. I am not an online learner and never liked the online way of learning, I just can’t do it, but with circumstances that was just the best way to do it and thankfully my school and especially amazing professors that made this transition midway through semester possible.
Then, things as a result of closures I’ve had planned for months in advance started to accelerate faster than anticipated. It was all on top of school and all the other responsibilities. Then, everything sort of got out of order and I had to start getting everything back piece-by-piece while still managing my classes. I know for a fact these difficult times affected most of the people all around the globe and I would love to hear your experiences in the comments section or even emailing me your story and I promise to respond to everyone. (Unfortunately, when making comments I have to filter out the spam, but will approve yours quick)
What am I Up to Today?
As the semester ended I was able to have some more time to think about my past, present, and future. Most importantly, I have been trying to reflect on everything. I think these difficult times pushed me to hit a reset button in my life and to evaluate who I really am and I can’t say it is done and it is new me, it might take me more days, weeks, months, or even years to finally figure out the true me and what really makes me happy. But today I am a step closer to the better version of myself.
Today, I am in a beautiful Montana town called Red Lodge and spending time with my amazing and supportive family. I’ve learned that it is very healthy to get out of your comfort zone and explore a new life. It is difficult but is healthy. Getting stuck in the same place for too long in anything is not a best way to go about life I am learning when there is so much out there for you. Coming from very different part of country as many view called Orange County, California and living there for the past 12 years to a small town of about two thousand people is a heck of a change to me in every level personally and I do miss it. Even though it might just be for the summer, I was able to learn a new aspect of life which I believe everyone should be able to experience. It could be an internship in a different state or even a country, it is healthy to take on new challenges outside of your comfort zone and thankfully I have been able to.
What’s Going on with the Blog?
Nothing is going away, but as you have already most likely noticed there has been a complete redesign of the blog and is still not complete and will be adjusted throughout the next days for the better experience for everybody. In other words, as I am hitting refresh on myself, everything is coming along with me 🙂
The content is not changing or going anywhere. I will still be targeting Student Finance Articles but now with some additions along the course of the next month and more as I hear more feedback from you. Here’s the first thing I am rolling out soon:
-
- ONLY BEST Deals Page – No, not the deals page I have above now, but more of a deals page that will be updated every day and trust me it will only be deals that are affordable to us students and also other amazing deals that really can’t be beaten. One thing as you might have learned about me is that I love saving money on things, surely maybe I buy them for no reason, but I bought it for 90% off or maybe even got it for free. I do have a passion for this and would love to turn it into something where you will be saving money just as I do. You will be notified via I will make a bigger announcement as this project is complete.
- Giveaways – How can I be actively talking to students and not do giveaways? This is something I thought about before, but now it is coming to reality. Hold tight as I work with sponsors trying to figure out the best giveaways everyone can enjoy.
- Youtube – Remember the reviews I was doing backpacking the world? Well, I will be expanding that part to Youtube soon and yes I will be the one in different countries with the camera seeing and doing fun things and I think you will absolutely love what you will be seeing. It has been a dream of mine to share the fun and experiences as I travel around the world for some time now. This is currently my major project and I am taking applications for Video Editor and Creator. I am very excited about this and looking very much forward to the launch.
- There are many more projects I am working on and stick with me as I am making them a reality and I will be sharing with you the whole way 🙂
- My plan is to start updating most if not all articles posted here with most current information which I will get on top of this week 🙂
Summing Everything Up 🙂
I truly hope you have enjoyed reading this post and as excited as I am for the well-needed refresh. To sum everything up then it is to say that my life have turned for the better if looking at it for the long term and I hope you got the time to see yourself for the real you and learned something about yourself. Again, I am looking very much forward to your stories, please feel free to share.
There will never be politics or reference to politics discussion whatsoever on this blog, this activity will be strongly prohibited and will be filtered out. I will never touch the politics subject on here unless it is only beneficial like a new act passing or something particular benefiting students. Thank you for understanding 🙂
“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” – Jim Rohn
Richard Barnett is a student majoring in finance, entrepreneur, marketer, content writer, budget traveler, and financial blog “Student Money Adviser” owner. You can read more about me here.