Comments are a Bloggers Paycheck

Mike Troy's Tiny House

I have been blogging about building my tiny house since November of 2012. I am almost to a year and, as of this morning, I have written 104 posts. Some posts are more informative and some are just updates, but all of them help document this great journey I have undertaken. Not too long ago I read a blog where the author said, "Comments are a bloggers paycheck" and it has stuck in my head ever since. She is right. I get excited to see feedback because it means that someone not only took the time to read what I had to share, but felt moved enough to take a few moments out of their life to respond to me in the comments. Fellow bloggers I know are always glad to find someone has left them comments, good or bad, because it helps them create and write better and, hopefully, write about more interesting content.

I wrote a post in October 2013 entitled Does Crowdfunding Work? and received a response from fellow tiny house builder, Mike Troy (read his blog SkrewConventional to follow his Tiny House adventure). Mike has done an incredible job building his house and here is the advice he left for me:

I'll try and keep it short here. Once I decided to get started I focused on getting out of debt - that took about a year. Then I focused on saving money for a trailer, that meant cutting out "extra" stuff. "Extra" is your definition. I looked at used trailers but ended up buying new and had it built to my needs. My struggle came with the next phase for various reasons but mainly I got "out of focus". The approach to me is making the goal greater than the excuses. When I got close to saving the money something would come up. To get over the hump I sold my vehicle and rode a bicycle and walked to work. I realize not every one can go that far but this was a definite "out of my comfort zone" event. I also got things in the order that I needed them but I kept an eye out for ideas for what to do or buy in the future. Thanks btw for some of the ideas that you put up here. I did get use of two cars but I had no idea that was going to happen ahead of time and since did buy a car. May I suggest focusing on the trailer, Can you tutor or something for extra cash? Have you ever tracked what you spend in a month? That's an eye opener for some people. Hope this helps, and remember it is definitely a journey with bumps in the road. Sorry this is kind of a jumbled answer but I'm exhausted. (It will definitely make you tired)

I really value Mike's feedback because his statement of "making the goal greater than the excuses" sums up so much. It made me ask myself questions about commitment to making this happen and excuses allowing me to convince myself I am making as much progress as I can when, in all reality, I am not. So, dear reader, I took this advice and acted on it. I found a roommate. I opened my home and found a great match to share my house with and in just months I will have enough to buy the trailer of my dreams and get on to the physical building portion of this project. I am super stoked.

When you are reading blogs keep this post in mind. Taking the extra couple of minutes to leave a comment, even one just saying hi and that you stopped by, is highly valued by bloggers. We like to know you were here by more than skimming our stats. Thank you to all who have left me feedback and comments. You are greatly appreciated!