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5 Best Practices for Personal Finance Blogs

We all love a good blog – and with the average U.S. household owing $7,027 in credit card debt, finance blogs may be more relevant than ever.

In the finance world, blogs are becoming popular ways to share money-saving advice. If you’ve just started one, or are interested in making one, we’ve put together some best practices for them. These are our dollars-and-cents tips for making sure your finance blog serves your audience and contains amazing content.

1. “Serve before you sell”

“Serve before you sell” is solid advice from Tori Dunlap (founder of Her First 100K). Every finance blog should give readers high value before asking for a buy-in. What kind of value can your finance blog offer? Find ways to serve your audience and build that trust from the ground up. Once you have a strong following, your products/services will likely be successful because your audience has confidence in you.

2. Be consistent in great content creation

Creating great content is one thing – creating great content several times a week is another. If you want to build a loyal following for your finance blog, it’s important to have a content strategy. You’ll need amazing content – whether written, audio or video – on a regular basis so that your readers check back often. (Oh and all this content should be available for mobile, too!)

At the same time, you’ll also have to maintain a high level of quality, so that followers aren’t turned off by so-so content. Not to mention that you’ll have to keep up this level of great content creation for a long time, even years.

Planning your content for the month can help you look ahead and make sure you’ve hit all the high notes. It’s also essential that finance blogs don’t skip over the “unromantic” aspects of finance, such as payroll. If you can give readers value, make content, no matter how dull it may sound. They’ll thank you for it.

3. Share your personal financial journey

Finance blogs also tend to be successful when bloggers share their personal financial journeys, i.e. how exactly they started paying off debt or making a side hustle work. Personal details matter a lot to readers, especially when it comes to money. Without them, the blog could start to feel corporate or even unrealistic.

Sharing your personal financial journey also makes followers feel like you’re one of them. You’re just another guy or gal wanting to get finances straightened out. Aligning yourself with your audience is an excellent way to build community and a strong base of followers.

4. Figure out how you’ll make money from it

Let’s talk money too. Perhaps your finance blog gives you a sense of purpose and joy, but it’s also important that you understand how to maintain it. At first, you might be focused on content creation, but you should also figure out how you want to make money from it.

There are plenty of options to monetize your finance blog. Some of these methods may be more in line with your vision than others:

  • display ads
  • affiliate marketing 
  • brand partnerships
  • drive to site’s products/services
  • fee to use app or site

It’s up to you what route to take. Some bloggers prefer to keep their site free of display ads, so they focus on driving to their products/services. Others will use affiliate marketing to make an extra buck.

5. Be honest about it

Honesty really is the best policy when it comes to money. It’s vital that you’re not giving bad or unrealistic advice. You could lose followers if you present financial tips as magic tricks. It’s recommended to stick with your personal finance journey as the backbone of your advice and add content warnings if it may not be the best advice for everybody.

Staying genuine is also a bonus for your followers. Generally speaking, readers will feel greater affinity with finance blogs that tell it straight, instead of presenting lofty financial advice.

Final takeaway

Every financial blog has its own focus and followers. But no matter the specifics, these five best practices will make sure you serve your audience and create amazing content about finance.

Want to start a finance blog? Talk to our Onsharp team to create a customized blog for your financial niche.

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