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How We’re Doing

Jonathan Clements

WHEN WRITERS SUBMIT their latest article or blog post, I often thank them for “feeding the beast.” While tiny by internet standards, HumbleDollar has indeed become something of a beast, larger and more time-consuming than I ever imagined, but also—I like to think—occupying a unique place in the financial world’s ongoing conversation. This, I tell people, is the place where money grows up.

Here’s a look at what happened at HumbleDollar in 2021, as well as a glimpse of what lies ahead in 2022:

  • Last year, the site garnered 4.4 million pageviews, up from 3.6 million in 2020, 2.6 million in 2019, 1.7 million in 2018 and 900,000 in 2017, which was our first year. Our free weekly newsletter now goes out to more than 16,000 readers, up from 12,000 a year ago, and has an open rate of over 70%, more than triple the average for business and finance newsletters.
  • We made five notable website enhancements in 2021. The biggest was the introduction of shorter blog posts in July. These let the site tackle topics that don’t warrant a full-length article, while also allowing the site to be a little nimbler, covering recent developments in the economy and financial markets. The addition of blog posts has meant more editing than I could handle on my own. To help with the crush of copy, Greg Spears—onetime journalist and a longtime Vanguard Group employee until his mid-2020 retirement—has taken on the role of deputy editor.

Earlier in the year, we introduced the Voices section. It’s garnered a healthy number of comments, though not as many as I’d hoped. If you have a few minutes to spare, please check out the 118 questions, and perhaps share your financial wisdom and experiences with your fellow readers. Not sure how to comment? Click here.

What were the three other enhancements? We categorized all articles by financial topic, so readers can more easily find what they’re looking for. We introduced writer’s pages, so you can check out all the articles and blog posts by your favorite author. Finally, we introduced a ticker that scrolls across the top of the homepage. In good HumbleDollar fashion, it focuses on 12 exchange-traded index funds rather than individual stocks, giving you a quick read on what’s happening each trading day in a dozen key market sectors.

  • Some 50 writers contributed to the site in 2021. Atop the leaderboard sits Adam Grossman, the Cal Ripken of HumbleDollar, who continues to churn out great pieces every week and has now penned more than 200 articles. Dick Quinn and Dennis Friedman come next, with over 100 articles and blog posts each, while Rick Connor, Kristine Hayes, John Lim and Mike Zaccardi are at more than 50, and Jim Wasserman is almost there. Some of these folks work for free, some accept payment. But even the payments are just token amounts—though, bowing to inflation, I’m increasing them in 2022 to $60 per article and $30 per blog post.
  • Many of the site’s contributors have committed to writing essays for a new book titled My Money Journey: 25 Stories About Striving for Financial Freedom. Each essay will get an initial airing on HumbleDollar. Look for the first one next Saturday. I hope to have the book available for purchase by late November.
  • As I noted in last year’s report to readers, most online forums are a contentious cesspool, but discussions on HumbleDollar are almost always fairly civil—and I intend to keep them that way. I look at every comment and I occasionally delete one. When do I decide something has crossed the line? In the words of Justice Potter Stewart, “I know it when I see it,” though he—of course—was referring to hardcore pornography, not unnecessary internet snark and political buffoonery.
  • These days, half of HumbleDollar’s revenue comes from donations and half from advertising. Many, many thanks to those readers who support us financially. The revenue we garnered in 2021 just about covered our costs. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can put HumbleDollar on a more solid financial footing, so it could endure without my minimally paid labor.

Early in 2021, I explored turning HumbleDollar into a nonprofit, but soon realized that I had no appetite—and not nearly enough spare time—for the fundraising and administrative work that would be involved. As an alternative, I’ve been pondering whether HumbleDollar could partner with a larger website, which could then drive enough traffic in our direction to make the site a viable business. But that’s tricky.

As things stand, we eschew many of the revenue “opportunities” exploited by other financial sites, including sponsored articles, sponsored links and affiliate marketing relationships. But if we’re to survive long term, we may need to bend a little. I’ll keep you posted.

Jonathan Clements is the founder and editor of HumbleDollar. Follow him on Twitter @ClementsMoney and on Facebook, and check out his earlier articles.

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Gary Palmer
3 years ago

I re-read the original edition of Malkiel’s A Random Walk. Its amazing to me that after decades of evidence which support his findings, Wall Street is still drinking the Cool Aid. Worst of all are the chart technicians. They just don’t get it, no matter how many times they are convincingly wrong. They will tell you that conditions changed. Do they believe that they wouldn’t?

Gary Palmer
3 years ago

Great job Jonathan. Much appreciated. I enjoy reading. My investing philosophy matches yours very closely. I note that stock pickers keep saying that THIS is [finally] a stock pickers market, but alas, every year, it isn’t. I shudder to think of what happened to those heavily over weighted in, for example, Moderna. One holding like that and all of your correct gains in other stocks wiped out.

SCao
3 years ago

Hi Jonathan, congratulations for building and growing HD! I think it is quite a legacy you are building here. I told several family and close friends that finding this website has been the best thing happened to me the last few years to learn about personal finance. By the way, I am just finishing up Mr. Charles Ellis’ “Winning The Loser’s Game” (8th edition). It is really cool that humbledollar.com is listed on the Recommended Reading.

Sunil Sharma
3 years ago

Dear Mr. Clements,

I have been reading your writings for over two decades, starting with your column in the WSJ and continuing with your books and now this website. I feel utterly unqualified to offer any advice about the future direction of this website to someone of your stature. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions that I would humbly like to proffer.

In financial planning, as in many aspects of life, less is more. Given our busy lives, we have limited time to devote to financial planning.  It is better to focus on the few key aspects of financial planning lest we get overwhelmed by less important aspects and inadvertently neglect the key aspects. Moreover, too much information can be overwhelming, and may lead to paralysis and suboptimal decisions.

Over the few years that I have read articles on your website, it seems that the number of contributors and the number of articles have increased significantly. This increase in content creates the risk of overwhelming your readers and submerging important articles and information.

The most important content on your website is the online financial planning guide. Articles by great thinkers such as Charley Ellis, William Bernstein and yourself are immensely valuable. Articles by Adam Grossman, based on his experience as a financial planner, are very insightful. No disrespect is intended to any names that I have excluded. Many of the articles by other writers provide useful information.

Even though I am retired, I am unable to find the time to read all of the articles on your website. The content has become overwhelming. I am afraid that important articles might get lost in the midst of all of the new content and that I might overlook them. 

I would appreciate it if you could please give some thought to reducing the amount of new content on your website by limiting it to those articles that provide significant new insights and timeless advice. Reducing the amount of content might make the website more financially viable and more effective for your time-pressed readers.

Thanks very much for maintaining this website. It is an invaluable service to the community.

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Sunil Sharma

Thanks for the thoughts. I try to be guided by readers’ behavior. The additional content that the site has added is well read, so I assume it’s appreciated. But I’ve also learned that some pieces are appreciated more than others. For instance, despite all the chatter about ESG investing, those articles simply don’t attract many readers, so I’m in no hurry to publish more on the topic.

Kevin Madden
3 years ago

Jon, this site is fantastic and I love the daily blogs. Thanks to you and the many writers! I tell anyone I have a personal finance conversation with about it. Would you be willing to share the average amount being contributed by your patrons or a range or something to guide those who already contribute or are looking to contribute? Also, do the writers take topic requests?
Thanks again!

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Kevin Madden

I’ve had donations as little as $3 and as much as — on one occasion — $2,000. The typical onetime donation is $25 to $100. And, yes, I’d happily take topic requests. You can post them here or write to me at jonathan@jonathanclements.com

Marc Braun
3 years ago

Jon: My preference is that you ask the readers who are financially supporting you to increase their financial support before you partner with another organization that could change what you have created. I love the focus of the newsletter and the website articles and blog posts. I currently am contributing $6 per month on a quarterly basis. How do I increase this amount? Click the “donate” link? It’s not too clear.
Thanks. Marc
PS: How do I go about submitting a potential blog post or article to you?

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Marc Braun

If you’d like to increase your donation, the best way is to cancel your current donation — which you can do by emailing me — and then signing up for a higher amount. Also email me if you want to write an article or blog post. My email address is: jonathan@jonathanclements.com

Thanks for both your past donations and your interest in writing!

Marc Braun
3 years ago

Thanks. I will send you something “soonish” which means most likely 1-3 months. (I have learned because of my ADD that I have a pet GILI monster – Great Intentions, Lousy Implementation. And the best way to keep GILI chained is to set a semi-loose time commitment and put it on my Google Calendar).
I will boost my subscription this month. Thank you very much for this website, which is the best vehicle I have found for informed, intelligent, sensible information and discussion about investing.

medhat
3 years ago

Thank you Jon! Your articles and those of the contributors have brought welcomed perspectives to the already vast financial planning discourse. I think a notable difference is simply in the quality of the insights, which (thankfully) vary by opinion and outlook, thus avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to the topic. Looking forward to continued growth and insights!

Olin
3 years ago

It was Jonathan’s books that brought me to this site. I enjoy reading HumbleDollar along with many other sites with similar financial wisdom. Jonathan’s writings truly expound on the meaning of being humble, while a few writers I’m not so sure… even though I will take away something from their words.

Congratulations to Greg Spears being tapped as “deputy editor.” His writings sincerely reflect this recognition.

Paul Wolgemuth
3 years ago

Thanks so much for your work and that of the contributing writers. This has become my “first go-to site” every morning. There is always something to learn. My “financial notebook” has five columns from your Sunday Wall Street Journal days in 2004-2006.I still find them relevant and enjoy reading them from time to time so I have appreciated your work for many years.

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Paul Wolgemuth

Thanks for the kind words — and I’m glad you found us!

AnthonyClan
3 years ago

Given the success of this blog, one would think it would be earning more. Have you done a blog on “blog economics”? Would be an interesting read.
Happy New Year!!!

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  AnthonyClan

The site could make a lot more money — if we accepted sponsored posts and sponsored links, and had affiliate marketing relationships. That’s what most financial sites do. But all create conflicts of interests and could potentially bias the site’s writing.

mytimetotravel
3 years ago

If by “affiliate marketing relationships” you mean that you would get a small payment if I clicked through to Amazon and bought a book, I don’t have a problem with that. (Although I very rarely do it.) Sponsored posts and links are a whole different animal, thanks for resisting them.

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  mytimetotravel

Yes, making a little money from Amazon is relatively innocuous. But what if the site is getting a kickback (let’s call them what they are) for promoting particular credit cards or brokerage firms? I read other sites where the content is clearly written to get people to buy certain financial products that kick back money to the site in question.

Tinted Life
3 years ago

I’ve been a reader of your material since first discovering “25 Myths You’ve Got to Avoid If You Want…” at a goodwill back in 2011. Ever since reading that book i’ve been sounding the trumpet of indexing, and encouraging friends, family and acquaintances to think about the their larger financial landscape. There’s no surprise that your site has grown so well, especially with the more common understanding that indexing outperforms actively managed funds over the long term and costs a lot less to boot. The latter becoming almost general knowledge to many has alot to do with your writing (especially Humbledollarholics). Thanks for all of your fantastic material as well as the material from other contributors. I am looking forward to the new book, and recommending your site to more people!

Jonathan Clements
Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Tinted Life

Thanks for the kind words. HumbleDollarholics? I like the sound of that!

kristinehayes2014
3 years ago

Congratulations of the continued success of HumbleDollar. I’m so proud to be a small part of the HD community and I look forward to many more years of reading, writing and learning more about personal finance.

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