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Jim Wang built personal finance blog Bargaineering as a side hustle, and eventually sold the site for seven figures. This “Godfather of Personal Finance Blogging” is at it again with several new projects. Get the whole story in this week’s episode.
What We’re Chatting About This Week
Jim Wang founded his site around the same time that past guests Harlan “Flexo” Landes and J.D. Roth launched their sites, Consumerism Commentary and Get Rich Slowly, which they all sold for seven figures around the same time. Be sure to check out episode 19 with Harlan Landes and Pat Flynn and episode 25 with J.D. Roth.
We start our interview learning about Jim’s days in the Wild West of personal finance blogging. After seeing tech blogs and personal journals emerge online, he founded his personal finance site Bargaineering, which was in some ways a personal journal of his own.
Coming from the tech industry, he was able to navigate the early challenges of creating a website and managing it. Early on, he didn’t think he would make any money from the site. He used the site as a way to learn more about money himself. Eventually, however, traffic began to grow and he started to earn from affiliate and click advertising.
He was excited when this side hustle started paying for a vacation every year, and after several years it grew large enough to make up a full-time income. He saw the most success earning through affiliates, and his income exploded when he started referring to credit cards. He saved up a big war chest of cash and left his job.
Going full-time gave him more free time in his schedule to work on new experiments at Bargaineering and elsewhere. This type of experimentation led to even more growth and success.
After seeing several other large sites sell, he found he could sell for a big enough price tag to take away any future financial risk in his life. He followed his gut and sold.
In the years after, he worked on 5 Dollar Meal Plans with Erin Chase, started a blog for scotch fans, a blog about blogging, and eventually Wallet Hacks, his new personal finance website.
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This Week’s Guest
Jim Wang has been writing about finance for more than a decade. He is the founder of Bargaineering, Microblogger, and Wallet Hacks. He also co-runs 5 Dollar Meal Plan and Kasai Media.
Other Resources Mentioned
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