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Articles

One Year Blog Anniversary: State of the Blog

By Jimmy Turner, MD
The Physician Philosopher

On November 20th, this blog surpassed an important milestone: the One Year Blog Anniversary!  Today, I want to discuss my thoughts on blogging in general, writing in the physician finance niche, how the website has done over the last year, and future goals.

Thank You

Set for Life InsuranceThe first thing that needs to be said is: Thank You.  Thank you to my readers, subscribers, and to all of the financial blogging community who have provided so much support over the last year. Blogging is a community.

Because of all of the support from The Physician Philosopher readers, there has been a ton of progress. Here is the low down on the numbers for the website over the last year.

In my first full month blogging (December 2017) the site had < 2500 page views.  My goal by the end of my first year was to get to 10,000 page views.  And, in the last two months, the site has averaged >16,000 page views (image of traffic shown below).  Mission accomplished!

In one year, we also broke a total of 100,000 views for the 12 month period.  I definitely didn’t think that was in reach when I started, but it is something you all helped accomplish.

Blog traffic

The Physician Philosopher currently has 533 email subscribers, which consists of 416 subscribers who receive the weekly update once each week on Saturday morning and 165 subscribers who elect to be notified each time a post is published.

The Most Popular Posts

Here is the breakdown for the top 5 posts over the last twelve months.

  1. Step by Step Backdoor Roth Tutorial
  2. The Road to Burnout Helped me Find My Purpose
  3. Physician, Know Thyself
  4. Three ways “First, do no harm” Applies to Personal Finance
  5. The 10% Rule

This doesn’t include my post on Why It’s (not) Wrong for Doctors to Retire Early, which received a ton of traffic on doximity and sparked quite the debate (search for “It’s wrong for doctors to retire early” in the doximity app, if you have it).

In addition to the posts above, guest posts were submitted on White Coat Investor, Physician on Fire, Physician’s Money Digest, and many others.  It was quite a busy year as we published over 150 posts (three posts each week!) plus these guest posts.

Our Visitors

The visitors for the site have come from far and wide.  While we haven’t quite painted the entire global map, we have colored much of it with visitors from various countries and continents.

Site visitors

How do our visitors arrive at our site?  Well, they come from various places, but here are the top five:

  1. Search Engines
  2. Physician on Fire
  3. Doximity
  4. White Coat Investor
  5. KevinMD

Where does my traffic go?  Here are the top five places and some awesome posts featured on each:

  1. Physician on Fire
  2. Millionaire Doc
  3. Reflections of a Millennial Doctor
  4. IRS.gov (what does this say about me…actually it’s because I use that site as a resource to back facts on my site)
  5. Doctor of Finance MD

Blogging in the Physician Finance Niche

For the most up to date list of physician finance blogs and how they rank in the internet world, Dads Making Cents has created a list.  For an even more exhaustive listing, Crispy Doc can help you out.  There are 75 as of the time of this writing, which is simply incredible.

With all the names in the space, you might think that the room is getting pretty tight.

However, over the last year, I have had the opportunity to interact with quite a few of these physician bloggers.  The physician finance community is truly incredible.

Pretty much everyone endorses the “a rising tide raises all boats” philosophy, which means that the more exposure any of us get – the better it is for the community as a whole.  This explains why all of the physician finance bloggers are so willing to lend a helping hand.

The community has made the journey really enjoyable.  If you are thinking about starting a blog, podcast, or some other creative endeavor – I would encourage you to jump in with both feet.  While it hasn’t been without difficulty and hard work, the experience has overall been great over the past year.

Future Direction of The Physician Philosopher

The site continues to grow.  Alexa rankings (run by amazon) give websites an idea of how their traffic compares to other sites.  While it is not a perfect science, it is a metric that bloggers use to determine how they are doing.

When I first started this site, The Physician Philosopher was somewhere in the 6 million range.

Today, as of this writing, I’ve broken well under 1 million in the rankings.  And the trend of the growth continues to be encouraging.  Here is what it has looked like over the past couple of months.

Alexa ranking

 

 

So, what are the future plans on the site?  Here are some things that you can expect in the coming year.

  • A Physician Finance Book on the 20% of Personal Finance Physicians Need to Know.  The goal of this book is to serve as a primer for medical students, residents, and early career attending physicians. This book is about to undergo editing (It’s been written and revised a few times).
  • An online course geared towards the same target audience.
  • More guest posts and podcast interviews to spread the message.
  • Continuing to write three posts each week.
  • Extending the charitable goals of the site.  This will be done through sponsorship opportunities, affiliate relationships, the book, and (eventually someday) the course.

If you have other ideas on things that you’d like to see, I am all ears.

Take Home

This journey has been full of ups and downs. I don’t like to sugar coat things.  It’s just not my style. In fact, November has been a bit of a down month for the site.  That said, my family and I also moved into a new house this month and that transition has limited my time to get the message out.

The time this blog has taken is not inconsequential, but the value that I get back out of creating something that is worthwhile more than makes up for it. And the community that has been thrust upon me after entering the financial blogging world has been second to none.

If you like what you read on this site, and the honesty with which I bring it – please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues.  Word of mouth is the best traffic source.

And, again, thank you to everyone who continues to visit the site.  Someday, you’ll be able to say that you were one of the first to know about it.

Do you run a blog or have a creative endeavor?  How has it impacted your life?  Share the details below.  

TPP

29 Comments

  1. M

    Congratulations on a successful first year!

    I’ve been so impressed by your ability to churn out so many great posts as frequently as you do, and your goals for writing a book, making an online course AND breaking into podcasts while having a family is just boggling my mind!

    So many kudos to you – I’m just glad I’ve had the opportunity to ride on your coattails! I’m also coming up on my first anniversary – you’ve inspired me to reflect on Reflections.

    Hope the house transition has been going well!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks, M!

      And you aren’t riding anyone’s coat tails. You are creating your own journey. And one that is certainly worth following.

      The house transition has gone as smoothly as something like this can go 🙂 just trying to settle in.

      Thanks for all of your support!

      Reply
  2. Dave @ Accidental FIRE

    Congrats man, keep it up! The “time is not inconsequential” line is an understatement in my experience. But it’s a passion-hobby for sure. And if we can help one or two folks it’s worth it!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Haha definitely a huge understatement. I probably spend 10-20 hours a week on this thing. But I love it. A creative outlet is really important for me … Just like your post recently talked about!

      Reply
  3. Kpeds

    Congrats on a great year! I’m almost a year old too but severely developmentally delayed…. Your hard work and dedication really show!

    Good luck keeping things awesome in 2019

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Stop it. You are not developmentally delayed. just like kids, we can all get there – it just takes time!

      Reply
  4. Xrayvsn

    Congratulations TPP!

    A year of blogging under your belt actually is quite an achievement as most blogs flame out before 6 months.

    Congratulations on your site growth as well. Blogging as you mentioned is a ton of work. If you put the amount of hours you do for your site and figure the financial return it is easily below minimum wage (at least in my case). But it truly is a passion project and for me the non monetary rewards is what keeps me in the blogging realm.

    I’ve hit the 7 month mark finally and like you have gone to a 3 post a week schedule (early on I was at a 2 post a week schedule). It really keeps you on your toes and can be a logistic nightmare.

    A rising tide raises all boats as you mentioned and it is wonderful to be part of a physician blogging community that has been collaborative in nature.

    Well here’s to your next year and the growth that will bring. Hopefully when I hit a year I can look back as you have and continue to see an upward trajectory

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      You have been shopping up like a star, man. Your omnipresence on all the blogs is super impressive! Between that and Doc G’s daily posting, I am not sure which is more impressive 🙂

      P.s. definitely earning less than minimum wage!

      Reply
  5. Andrew Wilner, MD

    I really appreciate your blog. Finance is not a passion of mine, and I never want to write a finance blog, but I’ve learned a lot from yours, PoF, WCI, and a few others. Their blogs have encouraged and informed me, hopefully to the end of making fewer financial faux pas and achieving my financial goals sooner than later. Thanks!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks for the support, Andrew!

      We all make mistakes. Talking about mine and the mistakes I’ve seen others make has been really helpful!

      Thanks for following along on the journey!

      Reply
  6. Millionaire Doc

    Congratulations TPP. Those are impressive growth numbers and I wish you continued success. Looking forward to the new book and online course. I think there can never be too many resources. I also enjoy your no nonsense writing style. It was a pleasure getting to know you at FINCON.

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks, MD! It was a blast meeting you at FinCon. Glad that there is such an awesome community around to help support this huge need.

      Reply
  7. Doc G

    Congrats man! Great growth and great content. Now I know where all my traffic is gowing!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Ha! Stop it. You have written 365 posts in a year AND started a podcast. You’re super human man.

      Thanks for the support 🙂

      Reply
  8. Jim Wang

    Congrats on a full year TPP! It was great meeting you at Fincon last year and hopefully we’ll be able to hang out more this year – cheers!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks, Jim! Really enjoyed meeting you, too. The plan is to come along to FinCon again this year. Hope to see you there.

      Reply
  9. ESI Money

    Congrats!!!! The sky is the limit and I know you’ll keep killing it for years to come!

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks, ESI! I certainly hope you are right. If it doesn’t, it won’t be for a lack of effort 🙂

      Reply
  10. PW

    Congrats for the 1 year anniversary. I found the blog extremely relevant having been married to a veterinarian who in the 70’s moved us to Chicago to start the entire veterinary specialty medicine field. We were just so busy with work and careers, speaking etc. that $ took a back seat and ultimately resulted in a divorce that even made the financial situation worse. This is good advice not just for doctors but also everyone that is so busy working they forget about $ and are constantly in the survival mode. Especially when starting out. We had no college loans, not big house no fancy car but med school took it’s toll as working with docs in a specialty and transferring it to vet med meant a lot of non-work hours and no pay. I hate to see these young kids come out of college get a first job and then go buy a million dollar home and expensive cars and then when they have kids they are already in over their heads. So I refer them to your site. Got many thanks.

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      I appreciate the encouraging words and support! It means a lot to me when others find the site helpful. Thanks so much for your kind words, and keep sending those in need my way. Happy to lend any help that I can!

      TPP

      Reply
  11. Dr. McFrugal

    Congratulations, TPP!

    Amazing work on the blog. Impressive growth!

    I can’t wait to see all of the exciting things coming out next year.

    Do you get most of your stats from google analytics or from wordpress?

    I should do a similar post some time 🙂

    -DMF

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Hey DMF, thanks man! I get most of my stats from wordpress, but my google analytics looks similar when I find the spot where pageviews are listed. This is obviously inflated compared to “sessions” that google analytics normally spits out. I find page views much easier to follow.

      Reply
  12. Liz@chiefmomofficer

    Congratulations on hitting the one year milestone! You’ve got some awesome plan. Looking forward to seeing what you do in year two!

    Reply
  13. Wealthy Doc

    Wow, that is amazing growth. Congratulations. Although I must admit I’m a bit jealous, I admire your well-deserved success.

    Reply
  14. David

    Cool, maybe this year you’ll hit that J curve and see some big growth.

    Reply
  15. Crispy Doc

    Enjoy seeing your rising star, my friend.

    The virtual doctor’s lounge we’ve collectively built creates a healthier space for our colleagues to find one of us they identify with, who might just be that guide that gets their financial life on the right track.

    To many more happy and healthy years, and to your continued success.

    Fondly,

    CD

    Reply
    • ThePhysicianPhilosopher

      Thanks, brother! I appreciate your support and camaraderie! Really glad that I found this community.

      Reply

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