Blogging Update 2024

Hey Everyone! Today, I want to update you on the state of blogging at Retire by 40. First of all, thank you for visiting this blog! I appreciate your support over the years. This blog wouldn’t be here without you.

Second, I’m moving our email subscription service to Follow.it. If you’d like to get new posts via email, you can sign up with the form below.

If you don’t see the form, then follow this link to my sign-up page.

Email Subscription change

For many years, I used Aweber to send new posts via email. It works pretty well, but it’s one of my biggest business expenses. I’ve been looking for an alternative for a while and I finally found it. Actually, Brian at Lazy Man and Money told me about Follow.it. The service fulfills my requirements and it is much more affordable than Aweber.

The downside is they won’t import the subscriber list from Aweber because they were single opt-in. I guess we’ll start over. Anyway, I’ll discontinue Aweber at the end of May. If you were a subscriber, you should subscribe again with the form above.

This year, I’m trying to reduce business expenses because traffic is down. I plan to move to a lower-tier hosting service at Siteground as well. Our current traffic doesn’t need cloud hosting anymore.

Blog Traffic

This year, the blog traffic is down a little bit from the same period in 2023. The number of users is flat, but the views are down about 10%. This is a big improvement from the previous few years. The pandemic gave us a big wallop. Let’s take a look at the number of visitors over the years.

Ouch! It’s discouraging to see the number of users drop like this. However, it seems the bleeding is over. The blog traffic is flattening out. I think 2024 should be similar to 2023. Alright, you gotta keep your chin up and keep going when things get tough.

Blog income update

Our traffic is back to the level it was in 2012. That isn’t good, but not really bad either. The last 12 years were a huge bonus. I didn’t think blogging would be my second act when I started in 2010. I was just looking for an outlet and hoped blogging could generate enough income to cover expenses. However, it grew to be a real business. Here is the chart of my blogging income since 2010.

Incredibly, Retire by 40 generated over $450,000 of income (pretax) over the last 14 years. That is pretty amazing. I put a big percentage of this income into my individual 401k. Interestingly, the i401k account is worth about $450,000 today. Not bad for a side gig.

*I checked my record and I contributed about $270,000 to my i401k.

The Future of Retire by 40

Life is busier this year. I’m exercising more and it takes up a large chunk of my mornings. That’s my most productive time so I’m not as active with blogging. Also, I’m taking an Intro to Ceramics class this quarter. I’m enjoying it tremendously. This new hobby is so much fun. It’s pulling me in. In addition, my son is busy with all sorts of activities. I’m his driver so I’m out and about more often as well. I still enjoy blogging, but it is starting to take a back seat in my life.

Thanks to all the readers, Retire by 40 had over 15 million views since I started in 2010. That’s awesome. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever see the kind of traffic we had previously. The golden age of blogging is over, but I plan to continue blogging for a few more years. Writing is a great outlet and the income is a nice bonus. We’ll evaluate the state of blogging again in a few years.

Again, thank you so much for your support over the years. It’s been a blast. Good luck on your journey to financial independence, retirement, and self-discovery. Enjoy it!

Check out Follow.it if you need to build an email subscriber list. It’s affordable and works pretty well. Disclosure: This is an affiliate link and we may generate some income if you sign up with Follow.it.

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Joe started Retire by 40 in 2010 to figure out how to retire early. After 16 years of investing and saving, he achieved financial independence and retired at 38.

Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!

Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital for DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.

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