Change. Pivot. Crumple up the page and start again.
There are lots of ways to describe taking a new direction and there are even more reasons why people decided to make changes.
You might have noticed that VOSA has experienced some changes lately.
You might have noticed that there has been a small logo update, a full site redesign and a strange lack of posts while all this change was taking place behind the scenes.
In case you can’t remember, this is what VOSA looked like before the redesign:
Fell free to quickly check out the home page and then come back and read the rest of this post. I’ll wait… Back? Good, moving on.
Just like us, beauty is only skin deep and what’s on the inside is much more important.
The Mission Here At VOSA
I started VOSA because I wanted to provide personal finance writers a medium to spread their ideas and fill the financial education void that our school systems leave wide open.
I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best personal finance writers in the business to contribute here at VOSA.
Their posts have been well received and I’ve enjoyed reading them myself just as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing them with you. There have been some absolute gems published over the past 15 months.
Here are some of the most popular posts:
- Teach Kids about Want vs Need Now to Avoid Debt Later by Shannon Ryan from The Heavy Purse (this post was picked up by The New York Time and Lifehacker!)
- 15 Things I’ve Sold To Make Money. #12 Had A 600% Return on Investment, written by me (featured on Rockstar Finance)
- 6 Unconventional Money Tips That May Change The Way You Think About Money by Melanie from Dear Debt (featured on Rockstar Finance)
- Credit Card Churning For Rewards: The Rules You Must Follow by Holly from Club Thrifty
- How You Can Use “The Olive Method” So You Can Save More Money Today, written by me (picked up by Business Insider)
- How I Got Started in Real Estate Investing by FI Fighter
As much as I have enjoyed showcasing bloggers from this amazing community I have found that I have things that I want to say, ideas that I want to share and questions I want to ask and help answer.
With my many business ventures, including running this and other websites, writing wasn’t the priority.
My VA and I were doing all we could to keep up with sourcing content, editing, publishing posts, paying our contributors and promoting the content. Don’t get me wrong, these are all fun things to do but there just wasn’t any time left for me to sit behind the keyboard and write.
This new found desire to write still feels somewhat foreign to me as for as long as I can remember, from elementary school to college, I have never really enjoyed writing.
What I have figured out is that I really enjoy writing as long as I’m writing about business, investing, travel, entrepreneurship, personal finance and making $10,000 from a shoebox.
Not only do I enjoy writing but I also enjoy engaging with the amazing community of personal finance bloggers and incredible people who read and engage in the discussion.
Plus, it never hurts to have people leave you comments like these:
With the encouragement of my pal, J. Money from Budgest are Sexy (which is where all those nice comments came from when he was nice enough to let me guest post), I have decided that I’m changing the direction of this site to feature more of my own writing.
What does this mean to you?
Ultimately it will mean that the frequency of the posts here at VOSA will go down since I will be spending time writing. With writing being my priority, I will have less time to source, edit, publish and promote content from outside contributors.
In fact, I won’t be spending any time actively sourcing content for VOSA from outside contributors. However, I am still accepting (and compensating contributors for their) guest posts. If you are interested in being paid to write for VOSA please contact me here.
What To Expect From VOSA Going Forward
You can expect a minimum of one post per week written by yours truly and VOSA Insiders can expect one email per week with exclusive content that won’t be published here at the blog.
These blog posts and VOSA Insider emails will focus on:
- Business and entrepreneurship
- Travel and travel hacking
- Investing (I have an entire series planned where I’ll be discussing my 10+ years of real estate investing)
- Saving money vs. making money
- Creating multiple streams of income through side hustles
- Recommended strategic reading for business and life
- and so much more
I’m beyond excited to continue to write every day and share my experiences, both good and bad, with you here at VOSA.
Yours truly,
Yessir!!! Love to hear it man – people can (and will) learn SO MUCH from you! Every time we get off the phone or email I’m like “Damn. That dude is killing it.”
So now, it’s “That guy is gonna help all of US kill it now! Damn!” haha…
Excited to see everything spill out from your brain here… Great new plan 🙂
Thanks for your support! I hope people can learn a thing or two even if it’s only what NOT to do.
Excited for their new direction. I loves that SIM card post and can’t wait to read more like it.
Thanks for the comment. I have so much planned that I can’t wait to share :).
Sounds like a great plan. Looking forward to seeing what you write about.
Thanks Harold.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your writing Brent.
Jenn, makes me happy hearing that. I hope I don’t disappoint!
Long time reader, first time commenter… happy to hear you’ll be writing more. I started a side hustle after reading your article about the 15 ways you have made money. So far I’m not getting rich yet, but I’m making some extra cash each and every month. How awesome is that?
Thanks for reading and for your first comment! That’s awesome that you’ve started a side hustle and are making some extra cahola! What’s the next step? Can you scale? Extend the product line? Add an upsell?
Sounds like an exciting transition! Looking forward to reading along!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I’m excited about the new direction especially since I’m still leaving VOSA open to outside contributors (http://vosa.com/contribute) and will be able to write as well.
Looking forward to the new direction. I would much rather read one quality article a week, than 5 okay articles. Keep up the great work.
I’ve only recently started digging through your archives and catching up. But I can tell you that I like the redesign and I’m eager to see what you’ve got coming down the pipe.