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HUMBLEDOLLAR JUST marked its seventh birthday. I didn’t set out to launch a site that would devour endless hours of my time and derail my plans for something that looked like a normal retirement. But I have no regrets.
The site hasn’t been a huge success. Still, I find running it to be hugely satisfying. It’s the reason I typically crawl out of bed before 5 a.m., and do so happily. Here are five key lessons I’ve learned from my first seven years running HumbleDollar—lessons that I suspect may be useful to others, no matter what their avocation:
1. “Most overnight successes take 10 years.” That was a comment I saw online perhaps five or six years ago, and it’s stayed with me. Just as lottery ticket winners and soaring individual stocks make us think that success can come quickly and with surprising ease, the same can appear true of business ventures.
Yes, some companies do indeed suddenly take off. But as with investing, most businesses succeed by folks trying to do the right thing day after day, even when faced with discouraging short-term results. In the case of HumbleDollar, progress has been especially slow in recent years.
My measure of success isn’t advertising revenue or donations, but rather pageviews. Like most writers, what I care about most is getting read. After explosive increases over the first five years, HumbleDollar’s growth has slowed to a crawl, with 900,000 pageviews in 2017, 1.7 million in 2018, 2.6 million in 2019, 3.6 million in 2020, 4.4 million in 2021, 4.7 million in 2022 and 4.8 million in 2023.
Based on those numbers, I think it’s safe to say the site has probably peaked, and that’s fine. As long as a reasonable number of folks stop by the website each week, and they continue to find it useful, it’ll be my privilege to keep HumbleDollar going.
2. Building your own business is an enormous amount of work. “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week,” quipped Shark Tank star Lori Greiner.
I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur. But I’ve always chafed at taking direction from others, as my various bosses would no doubt attest. That’s why I’ve loved building HumbleDollar, nurturing a community that simply didn’t exist before, and I love the fact that I get to call the shots.
That doesn’t mean I’m accountable to nobody. Everybody has a boss and, in my case, it’s you—the readers. If you don’t like what the site is serving up, HumbleDollar would soon shrivel away. Moreover, if folks stopped reading and commenting, the site’s writers—who don’t get paid—would no doubt quickly decide they had better things to do with their time.
3. Don’t assume you know what will succeed. Over the past seven years, I’ve introduced a host of new features and published all manner of articles, sometimes with success, sometimes not.
For instance, the site’s web developer suggested I solicit donations, given that I’d balked at the unseemly blogger game of affiliate marketing, sponsored links and sponsored articles. I was skeptical, but it’s proven to be a success. Similarly, the “Second Look” feature, where we serve up older articles at the bottom of the homepage, has also been surprisingly popular. The best personal-finance articles tend to be timeless, and it seems readers find plenty of value in articles that might be three or four years old.
The Two-Minute Checkup, which was launched in 2022 thanks to the coding skills of HumbleDollar contributor Sanjib Saha, has been used some 47,000 times. That’s not bad. But I must confess, I had dreams that the Checkup would go viral, and that hasn’t happened. Meanwhile, my goal was to turn the Voices section into a repository of reader wisdom, but it’s been slow going. Got financial insights you’d like to share with fellow readers? Try answering a few of the 133 questions.
That brings me to 2023’s biggest change. I like to think I’m attuned to what readers want, but it took me years to embrace the obvious. I’d long known HumbleDollar’s readers were older and keenly interested in retirement issues, and yet it was only last year that I made retirement the site’s explicit focus. I’m still happy to run almost any well-written article that touches on the subject of money. But retirement—preparing for it, generating retirement income, making sure your post-work years are fulfilling—is now the site’s bread and butter.
4. It’s hard to maintain a civil community. Spend time perusing the comments on other websites, and you’ll quickly realize that many folks feel free to say utterly appalling things online—things they’d never say to your face. It’s sad that this is the way humans behave when they have some anonymity and know they won’t be called to account.
HumbleDollar—thank goodness—is different. I’m not sure how we avoided becoming another internet cesspool, but it seems this is one time when the herd mentality is working well. When commenters are too acerbic, others often express their disapproval, either with their down votes or their replies.
Not that everything is hunky-dory. An example: Last year, the site had a commenter who was almost pathologically negative. The final straw: He posted a comment asking whether a writer’s daughter was a drug addict. I deleted that comment and arranged for all of his future comments to go directly to trash.
5. You get locked in and inflexible. Folks often complain about government bureaucracy and about the terrible service from phone companies, cable providers and other large corporations. But I find it easy to understand how these organizations became so unresponsive.
Even HumbleDollar—tiny as it is—is now burdened by its own history. In the early days, I could change the site’s design, the styling of individual articles and how content is categorized with a few hours’ work. But now that the site runs to some 5,000 pages, making major design changes is almost unthinkable.
In my update in early 2022, I mentioned the site’s flagging advertising revenue and donations. Things turned around in late 2023, with donations up 13% from 2022’s level. Many thanks to all those who donated over the past year.
HumbleDollar wouldn’t exist without its large crew of unpaid writers, who not only give of their time, but often also offer intimate financial details along with their money insights. When you write an article—especially an article where you discuss what you do with your own money—you open yourself up to criticism. Make no mistake: HumbleDollar’s many contributors deserve applause for the courage they display.
In running the site, I get editing help from Greg Spears. Without his assistance, there’s no way the site could publish a dozen or so articles each week. I also have a secret weapon. Retired newspaperman Joe Kiefer often sends me emails pointing out spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in the latest articles. I won’t tell you how often I get emails from Joe—because, well, it’s a little embarrassing.
Jonathan Clements is the founder and editor of HumbleDollar. Follow him on X (Twitter) @ClementsMoney and on Facebook, and check out his earlier articles.
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Great work, Jonathan.
Keep it up.
But take your Social Security ASAP😁.
Thanks for your 7 years of providing great content. Congratulations. And on your point of the comment section. You are so right about the negative vibe. As many of your readers do, I read your former employers’ newspaper. The comment section on some of the articles is downright nasty. Consequently, I no longer read them. Continued good health and success in 2024
Here’s at Humble Dollar, civility rules ! (yes, I have bitten my tongue a few times to tone down my comments).
Thanks Jonathan to you, the writers and (yes!) the commenters too for taking all the time with the site. I am a newbie on the site…few months but try to check in once a day and find the info very informative and enjoyable. Thanks again to you Jonathan and all the contributors!!
Congratulations to you and a wonderful team of writers! You have something great going here!
Congratulations on seven years. I think we’ve all enjoyed the ride (although we’ve done much less work that you have).
You mentioned the “civil community” and that’s something I’ve really enjoyed. The comments are thoughtful and provide a perspective I hadn’t thought of. I’ve learned a lot.
Jonathan, congratulations and many thanks for all the work you do and all the information this vehicle delivers.
I would contest your description of this project’s growth as “slowed to a crawl” or “peaked” — growth isn’t a straight line, and I’d be willing to bet yours will continue. What you’ve already achieved here is amazing and your growth curve would be the envy of most corporations.
Finally, my profound apologies for not previously donating. I will remedy that oversight immediately.
And a shoutout to the entire team.
Keep it up, Jonathan. You are a mensch!
Congratulations Jonathan, and thanks for getting up early! I especially appreciate the moderation – I’m a volunteer moderator on another site, and I know how much time it can take. (At least so far the AI is easy to spot…)
Hi Jonathon & all other writers! Please keep up the heartfelt good vibes you folks are all sending our way. We’re out here . . . believe me. 🙂
Lots of Aloha Gang, & Happy 2024!
Jim Anderson HCD
I would like to take this oppotunity to celebrate the huge success of Jonathan and the Humble Dollar.
Jonathan-You not only taught me (and us, I assume), you also entertained, shared so much of financial wisdom that I must say I got a lot of financial knowledge from you and from all the other writers. I read slowly and I have never missed any comments so I work hard to catch up with your production. I hope you would understand I appreciate the hours that all of you put in to transfer your knowledge and share your story!
I THANK You! and wish you will be always in good humor, excellent health and inspired whenever you sit down writing for us.
Humble Dollar is a gem. It started right around when I notified my boss I would be retiring and it’s been a go-to source of reading, learning and entertainment since for me in semi-retirement. There is nothing quite like the personal stories and the comments that follow. Sometimes the comments are just as as interesting as the articles-I enjoy occasionally tossing in my 2 cents. It’s the combination of expertise, personal experience, diversity of opinions, honesty and humor that I enjoy. I also frequently refer folks to the site. Thank you to Jonathan, the contributors and all the folks who make it work.
I find your articles with genuine intent. I read one the other day about simplifying your investment as you get closer to retirement. That article resonated with me since I am less than 5 years to retire. Congratulations!
Jonathan I have been reading you since the WSJ days. I appreciate your work and find it invaluable as a 63 year old dealing with living and planning realities of life in the 3rd act.
This site came to my attention by way of Clark Howard’s recommendation via his podcast a couple of years ago. He spoke very highly of it and since becoming a regular consumer of the Humble Dollar’s offerings, I am so grateful that he did. Thank you for all that you and your team do to foster this community and congratulations on seven years!
Congratulations Jonathan on 7 years. Humble as always. I’m grateful I found this sight and even more grateful (and surprised) I’ve become an occasional contributor.
Observation related to my comment below: this fantastic article by Jonathan has received what may be a record number of likes, but its Twitter page view count is currently a relatively modest 1.5K. I wonder how it will end up doing in the official page view metric that Jonathan maintains? Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Back to my spreadsheets. 😄
@Jonathan Clements – Would you consider providing insight into the spectrum of financial donations offered? I have procrastinated but would like to finally make a well deserved investment in HD. I know the textbook response is anything helps but any data you’re comfortable sharing? Thank you.
In the first year that the site received donations, I calculated that the average amount was $40. Since then, the average has likely climbed — maybe it’s $60 these days. But I’d hate for folks to benchmark off that sum. The site has received $3 donations and, over the years, it’s also received a handful of $1,000 donations. As you say, every little bit helps, plus I view the fact that many folks donate — even though there’s no requirement — as a sign of how much HD differs from other sites.
Jonathan, congratulations on HD’s 7th birthday! Your modesty aside, by any important measure it’s been a huge success.
As to your lesson #4 and a civil community, your vigilant moderation is key. As you alluded to, many good web forums have been ruined by gratuitous insult and ugliness. HD has definitely benefited from a much more civil than average readership, but your zero tolerance for bad actors has set the tone.
Thank you for this and for all you do to make HD the great resource that it is.
In some ways, I see a parallel between the disappointing number of viewers of this site, and many high-quality programs on TV or streaming services which were not renewed due to insufficient viewership. Quality versus quantity. I’ll renew my financial support now as a show of gratitude that you care enough to keep this valuable resource available to us 4.8 Million and growing viewers!
Jonathan, thanks for 7 great years of knowledge, insight, and enjoyment. You not only educate so many with your experience and expertise, you have provided a forum for many of us to discuss our views and experience. I look forward to many more years of HD!
“The site hasn’t been a huge success”? Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” one more time.
Hi Jonathan, I saw you on WealthTrack one time and also bought your book. This site has been a great “extra”. Thanks for starting and maintaining it. The articles are good and a lot of times I learn just as much from the comments.
I’ve recommended HD to so many people who have questions about financial planning – and in some cases unsolicited to people I think should. It’s fantastic.
Happy birthday, HumbleDollar! 🎂
Many thanks to Jonathan, Greg, Joe, Sanjib, and HD’s many contributing writers.
I am a new retiree and look forward to your newletters each week. The best part of your insightful articles is that they get me thinking! I’ll find myself reflecting on an idea a day or two later and discussing it with friends or fine tuning my goals.
The synergy of your 4.8M readers who are engaged and leave meaningful comments are a tribute to the quality of HD articles, but no pressure. 😉
Congrats Jonathan.
HD’s readership should know that the underlying secret sauce to HD’s success is due to Jonathan’s consummate writing and editing skills. What the readers don’t see is that Jonathan spends countless hours slogging through each article to ensure the writing is clear, concise as well as accurate.
He makes HD’s content and take-aways readable and relevant in just 600-800 words (2 to 3-minute read). This tight writing combined with the contributors’ real-life experiences is where HD excels compared to every other rambling financial blog.
AMEN!
I enjoy the site, which is one of two that I get and always read. (Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense is the other).
I’ve picked up some useful ideas and advice, but to be honest the real pleasure comes from the confirmation-bias. <grin>
I am one-year into retirement and 14 months from taking social security. For me 2023 and 2024 are the years for making Roth conversions right up to the top of my tax bracket.
Maximizing that means no taxable distributions until next year, so I’m living off money stashed in an online savings account for just this purpose. So far so good, and counting my blessings.
Portfolio about 50/50 stock indexes and short-term bond fund.
Thank you to Jonathan and all HD writers and commenters…the site has become an indispensable resource for me as I move toward retirement in the next two or three years. I subscribe to the newsletter, but now I find that I don’t wait until Wednesday and Saturday mornings to check in … I’m here most every day. I’m trying to remember … I think I first become aware of the site via Twitter maybe three years ago or so. I maintain a “FinTwit” list there of people and sources that I follow, and HD is in the top tier of my go-to sites. I only really started getting dialed in to financial literacy about five years ago, so I didn’t read Jonathon back in his WSJ days, but I wish I had.
One of my pleasures with the site is to recommend it to others, and not just those in the pre-retirement/retirement space. I have shared articles with my young adult daughter and others. I’m grateful to have this resource, along with others like the Bogleheads community, to learn from and to share ideas and experiences with. I hope HD has many more years of success.
Almost five million reached? That sounds like success to me! Helping others in so many ways – now that’s success! The main thing is to find your passion, that activity that energizes you and makes you look forward to getting up every day. Not everyone “in retirement” has found that key to a rewarding life. You have found yours and we are all the better for it!
I couldn’t have said it better. Must also add my congratulations.
Jonathan, This site is definately a success! I’ve been an avid reader for years; the site’s diverse articles helped prepare me for transition to another of life’s stages. You and the group of assembled writers share insights, financial knowledge, and opinions that are invaluable. Futhermore, as a relatively new writer, HumbleDollar has given me purpose as well as a sense that I could accomplish new goals during retirement. Thank you.
Jonathon,
Thank you, and all your great posters, and my fellow readers/commenters for making this a very pleasant stop on the internet!
Please continue your excellent “work”!!
Kudos to ALL your writers; they’re why I keep coming back.
“The site hasn’t been a huge success.”
Gee Jonathan, define success? This site is an amazing community. Thank you for all your hard work.
Website operators are notoriously boastful and untruthful — I compare them to teenage boys talking about their sexual experience and middle-age men talking about their investment performance — but my sense is that HD’s traffic is tiny by internet standards. If I said that HD was a pimple on the backside of the internet elephant, I believe that would constitute boasting!
Hi Jonathan. If I had a website that:
1-Had nearly 5 million page views last year
2-Provided incredibly valuable and accurate information about investing and much more to its readers, I would be screaming for joy and extraordinarily proud of what I had accomplished. To tell you the truth, I would be happy with 500,000 page views.
I have been teaching an investing class to seniors for many years, and I tell all my students that your website is fabulous. I am not aware of any other site that comes even close to offering everything that your site does. And there certainly isn’t a free site that offers what you do.
Thank you very much for what you have given all of us.
Millions of page views sounds impressive to me! That’s millions more than read what I post.
Two points:
This second point is key if you ever want to expand HD’s audience: there are big generational differences in how media gets consumed. Podcasts and video channels attract a huge millennial and gen Z audience vs blogs, books, and written news.
Jonathan, thank you for the great site and the work you do.Your ability to keepe the sites comments civil yet still fostering a variety of viewpoints is impressive.
Keep up the great work
Hi, I read almost every article in my RSS reader. I’m guessing that doesn’t count in your page views. I’ve found the site very helpful and helped move my wife and my retirement plans into what looks (as of today) to be a successful transition in a few years.Keep up the great work.
Hi Jonathan, this is Chris. I don’t comment often, but read HD every day and subscribe to the newsletter so I don’t miss anything. I have read HD since the beginning. I have learned a lot from you and the other writers through the years. My spouse and I are retiring with dignity as of Jan 1 and part of the reason is because of what I have learned from HD. We were not taught about finances from our families and it took many years to catch up when we did learn. We are just regular middle class people, and you and the other writers really helped us. I did take note of you mentioning the comments sections of the articles, and I will leave more comments in 2024. I hope they will encourage you and the other writers, because I do appreciate what you all do.
Happy next chapter, enjoy!
Thank you Jonathan and all of the HumbleDollar community of writers. Although hard to quantify your site is impactful and greatly helps those of us who spent a lifetime working but are lacking in financial acumen.
Whenever I’m asked about financial newsletters, I always recommend HumbleDollar. Learned of it from PBS’ WEALTHTRACK and would feel a loss were it ever discontinued. It’s smart money.
Thank you, and keep up the great work! Humble Dollar provides valuable perspectives to its readers.
Thank you for your important work.
Thank you Jonathan for this terrific site.
As I have written previously I am a newsaholic but this is the first thing I read on Wednesday and Saturday ams. This is the only “social media” site that I am engaged with. I always learn something and hope that on occasion I might provide a few investing nuggets from time to time with my comments. Because of your editing prowess monitoring the site I feel this is a safe place to opine on different subjects.
BTW my sister in law was visiting during the holidays and is struggling in regards to what her upcoming retirement will look like. In the past I have mentioned that the Humble Dollar touches on many matters she is comptemplating. This visit when she would mention something such as being concerned about what she will do in retirement I would simply say Humble Dollar. Must have said it a dozen times during her visit. As you can imagine I can be persistent, er a pain in the a..
Your persistence is appreciated!
Jonathan—Humble Dollar is a remarkable resource. I am one of those who made an OK living but never focused specifically on retirement planning beyond making sufficient 401k contributions to get the match. Then my spouse died at 63, right when we started thinking about this odd concept of retirement. We/now me had no plans and little knowledge. I took a class in retirement planning and Humble Dollar was listed as a resource. I now read the newsletter and refer to the Guide twice a week. You and your kind contributors add so much to my ongoing quest for knowledge. I learn something every week and I pass on the articles to friends and family. I especially enjoy Humble Dollar over coffee on a Saturday AM. Thank you to you and everyone who contributes. You are all heros in my book of life
I expect there are some coffee related stock holdings in VTWAX which make my Saturday morning Humble Dollar reading over my coffee even more enjoyable. I doubt I would be aware of the VG world global stock equity fund without the HD guide, articles and comments which motivated me to change from a all S&P 500 index (best low cost fund available in my available 401(k) investment options) to include a large portion of the world equity index when I recently rolled over my former 401(k) to my tIRA. I noticed that Mike Piper has recently announced he changed his personal portfolio to owning the entire world equity market for the equity part of of his investments.
Thanks to all for the open dialogue in Humble Dollar!
VG? Perhaps you meant VT.
I should have spelled out Vanguard rather than use “VG”. Yes, VT is the global equity EFT but I am using the Vanguard global mutual fund VTWAX. Yes I know the expense ratio of the EFT is lower than the mutual fund but the mutual fund platform (no bid ask difference, single price at the end of the trading day) suits my needs better and the expense difference is immaterial to me.
Sorry I was not clear. Best, Bill
Thank you and your writers for the hard work and dedication to providing useful unbiased content. I enjoy reading all of the articles and gaining personal finance wisdom.
Thank you for your work! I look forward to each Wednesday and Saturday reading the articles. Your insights here are interesting and, as you said, relevant to other endeavors. While the HD’s focus is on financial topics, especially retirement, I enjoy that many articles touch on other topics relevant to living a full life. I also appreciate the civil tone of most comments, thanks to your active management.
Even though I’ve contributed a few articles, I’m first and foremost a reader. I appreciate the steady effort that you and your team of writers put forth to keep good articles on these pages. As a writer, I’m very thankful to the readers, who take their time to read and comment, and make HumbleDollar the community it is. Thanks to all!
Ditto Edmund. I’ve only had the privilege of publishing two articles and found the comments on those very thoughtful and helpful. This is my go to site on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
As one of the writers for HumbleDollar, I found this article to be fascinating. Although my new hobby is not lucrative, it has been satisfying for me. I use a different metric than Jonathan to measure the “success” of my pieces. I keep track of ‘likes’ for my articles. For the 23 articles I have had published thus far, the likes have ranged from 45 to 183. Some of my personal favorites have received the lowest likes. I have had a few articles that made it to the ‘Top Hits’ for the month, but my three most-liked articles were not among them. I figure that even if less people clicked on those articles, a higher proportion of those who did read them found it a worthwhile use of their time.
Let me guess—you created a spreadsheet to track it.😁
😀 Put $ on it!
Jonathan, thanks for all your hard work keeping this site going. I look over the new articles practically every day. The authors are very generous with their knowledge too.The community of readers are civil and offer insightful comments that add to the articles. You need to get one of your old comrades at the WSJ to put a mention in an article or two about the site! They would be doing the personal finance community a real service. More folks need to be aware of all the great articles and advice on HumbleDollar.
Jonathan –
THANK YOU! I have been reading your articles since your days at the WSJ. I even reread some of them that I clipped out and saved in my retirement files. Old school, I know. I look forward to reading the articles every Wednesday and Saturday morning with my cup of coffee. Please know that your efforts are very important and appreciated by many even though you may not hear the positive feedback enough. The content you have shared, is one of the reasons why I am on solid ground with my retirement plans.
THANK YOU!
I have enjoyed reading your articles from the time you were a Wall Street Journal columnist. Am so glad you continued your career as a vital journalist for the financial and retirement space. There is always something useful in each weeks selection of articles. I often forward relevant stories to family and friends. Hope you keep it going for a long time. THANK YOU.
Jonathon: I would like to thank you for all your efforts with HumbleDollar but also congratulate for its success. I have been retired for almost 7 years and have remained an interested reader for all that time. I will note that over that time I have unsubscribed to many blogs and sites, mostly because I wasn’t learning much that was new.
Here the strength lies in the vast diversity of opinions by “non-experts”. A few days ago, I listened to a talk by Mike Piper at the recent Bogleheads Conference on involving your spouse in financial matters. Even with his vast knowledge and expertise, he frequently learned things from his wife that he had just never considered because she just had a different perspective or lens with which she viewed such things. I feel that is what HumbleDollar gives me: multiple ways to look at retirement and financial information.
Please keep up your great work and thanks again.