If you still want to participate, please send me an email (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com) with “Kids’ Project” in the subject line of your email along with your child’s age and answers to the following questions:

• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”?
• Would you consider our family “rich”?
• What job do you want to do when you grow up?
• How much do you think that job will pay?
• How much do you think a new house costs? A car?
• At what age do you think people retire?
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement?

I’ll include the responses as I get them.

Also, if you’re a blogger and you would like to participate, post your questions and answers on your blog and send me the link to your post and I’ll be sure to link to them. I hope to do more projects like this in the future.

Until last October.

Last October I noticed that my earnings were slightly lower than my estimated earnings. Every month since October, my earnings have been less than my estimated earnings. It was never more than a percentage point or so. Not really a big deal.

Until March.

My March payment was 18.3% lower than my estimated earnings! That’s a significant amount! The Adsense website says that the payment may be slightly lower than the estimated earnings. Eighteen percent does not seem “slightly” lower.

So, I’m wondering, fellow bloggers and website administrators…

How were your March numbers?

My other question is…

Where does this money that Google takes back go? Do they keep it? I’m not a conspiracy theorist but think about the number of websites that Adsense provides ads for. If they hold back a percentage or two (or 18.3%), we’re talking significant money. Where is it going? Back to advertisers? To Google’s bottom line?

It wouldn’t bother me so much if they had better customer service. As far as I can tell, there’s nowhere I can turn to get this matter looked at by Google.

I’m happy to report that things should be back to normal now and I should be back to regular posting tomorrow morning.

On a happy note, I got our taxes finished today (nothing like putting stuff off until the last minute). I’m thankful for tax software.

I’m hoping that AFM readers will go check out her new blog, Downs With Debt, and offer her some encouragement. If you’re a blogger, I’m hoping you might send her some link love.

Thanks for reading.

Today marks the 7th onniversary of when I started blogging. I started off with a .blogspot blog called AllThingsFinancial. I moved to a paid hosting site in August of 2005 and changed the URL to AllThingsFinancialBlog.com. Several months later I was sued by First Tennessee bank because they owned the phrase “All Things Financial” and they demanded I cease from using that name. So, I changed to AllFinancialMatters.com and have been using that name for well over five years now.

It’s been a bumpy ride over the years. The blog grew steadily from 2004 through 2008 and then kind of wavered since 2009. I grew tired of simply blogging about personal finance topics as I felt I had already covered nearly all the basics. So, I got more into politics, which I’m sure has alienated readers.

It’s also funny that when I first started bloggin back in 2004, it was a very new form of publishing. I was probably one of 5 or 6 financial blogs at the time. It was so new that main stream media gave bloggers some coverage. Some of them made fun of blogging. Yet, it wasn’t long before main stream media started launching blogs staffed with their own writers. There was a time when articles about “The Best Blogs” focused on smaller blogs. Now they’re almost all about either company-sponsored blogs or blogs that are5. written by well-known people. All of this means, it’s a very crowded field and it makes blogging all the more frustrating.

I have always tried to adhere to the following principles in my blogging:

• Always tell the truth. That doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes. But, I have never lied. That’s something I’m very proud of.

• I don’t allow sponsored posts UNLESS it is made very clear to AFM readers that the post is paid for.

• I don’t do affiliate advertising UNLESS it is made clear that I do in fact make something if someone clicks a link or makes a purchase. That’s why I always use the little “*” whenever I link to an Amazon book. Other bloggers approach this differently by saying, “Readers know I have to make money some way so I don’t think I need to tell them each time I link to something that makes me money.” I disagree but that’s just me.

• I tell it like it is. Yes, I’m a conservative and I hold conservative principles near and dear. I take a lot of flack for my beliefs. I don’t care.

• I have ALWAYS encouraged “adult” discussions. No name calling or childish behavior. Those comments that I deem offensive get deleted.

• I have ALWAYS published comments of those who disagree with me UNLESS the comments are offensive.

What does the future hold for AllFinancialMatters? I have no idea. I have been kicking around a few ideas to help the blog grow. I’m hesitant to do anything drastic because I like the general concept of the blog the way it is. I have considered bringing in different authors and going for a more “professional” blog. I’m not sure I want to go that route as this blog has always been very personal in nature.

All I know is that I’m not happy with my current stats and I think it’s ridiculous that this blog isn’t more popular than it is. This is my fault because I really don’t spend any time networking (sucking up) to bigger bloggers (most of whom I don’t like). In fact, I feel kind of cheated by the bigger bloggers who used this blog and other smaller blogs to build their base and then “forgot” about us once they reached the blogging stratosphere. Many of the bigger blogs no longer link to the smaller blogs and yet, the smaller blogs still link to the bigger blogs.

Frustrations aside, I do enjoy blogging. I have enjoyed meeting people over the years. I’m even facebook friends with several AFM readers. How cool is that? I’m very honored that I have readers who have been reading AFM for YEARS! Two readers I would like to highlight just because they add lots to nearly every discussion are BG and Jack. Their passion (they usually don’t agree on much…lol) makes for very interesting discussions. I have other readers who have contributed comments over the years. People like Stacey, Sam, Kitty, Russ, RA, Miguel, Dan, Traciatim, Evan, Jon, John, Harm, BD, and all the rest of you who make this blog worth reading. My readers are the best!

Here’s to another 7 years!

What (NEW) financial are you reading these days? Do any of them stand out to you?

Feel free to list a few in the comments. NOTE: I’ll have to approve each comment since they will contain links.

Apparently, the credit card I had tied to my PayPal account expired and I didn’t get the message because I never added the email address I have tied to my PayPal account to my new computer’s Outlook.

OOPS!

This was my first post.

This was my first “serious” post.

This was my first post at AllThingsFinancialBlog.com.

I went through my first nasty evacuation for hurricane Rita.

My blog and several other blogs formed the MoneyBlogNetwork (which lasted about 3 years before we decided to disband).

Things were great until I got sued over the blog’s name and url. With the help of Flexo, I changed the name and url to AllFinancialMatters.com and kept on trucking.

Blogging was fun until around 2008 when I started to get into a funk. It probably had something to do with my Dad’s passing, which was difficult. I’ll never forget the day he passed away and what I said at his funeral.

So here we are today. I’m back to trying to come up with new useful information and I’m trying to have fun doing it. I have met a lot of cool people over the years and actually count a quite a few of them as friends.

Here’s to another six years!

Stay tuned…the special blogoversary giveaway will go live at 7 AM (CST).