I was IMing with a fellow blogger last night and he was asking me for hot mutual fund picks. (Obviously he was very delusional, since he was asking ME!) He was looking for a good $1,000 investment through traditional channels, like the stock market and the bond market.
After suggesting what I thought, I asked him, “So what interests you?”
The idea here was to find out if he had other areas of interest besides personal finance. Something that could be monetized. Putting $1,000 into a mutual fund is one way to invest. But $1,000 will also let you take a class, attend a workshop, go to auctioneer school. It will also pay for a domain name and hosting for about ten years.
We didn't get around to talking too much about what interested him but he did mention that his wife had started up a blog that drew on her expertise as a dietitian. Blogging about her chosen field is probably one of the best resume builders she can do if it's done well. If the blog saves people time and helps people, this is money. A good following is an ace in the hole when asking for a raise, when there's a job change in the works, or when (or if) there's the desire to become an independent consultant.
This investment not only takes a little money (if you get your own domain name and hosting) but it also takes time. What's important though is the blog, and the content, and the clout that comes out of it, is yours. You can take it with you wherever you decide to go.
How's that for return on investment?
