Know a Fellow Blogger : SVB (Silicon Valley Blogger) from The Digerati Life
I have long wanted to consistently review and write about other bloggers who blog about credit and/or personal finance. I started with a review on Blogging Away Debt by Tricia a while ago. But I somehow got stalled in between maintaining this site, writing my blog post etc.
Well, I have to admit that I am in the middle of a slight writer’s blog at the moment. So rather than veg out in front of the computer and watching stupidvideos.com, I’ve decided to write another review of a pf blogger. Bear in mind, this is not a paid review. I don’t get anything out of this, not money, or any links (not now anyways!).
During the last few weeks, as I went through the end of the week routine of listing carnivals that I was involved in, posts that I liked, one of the blogs that I always found myself mentioning was The Digerati Life. In every carnival that I participated in, somehow Digerait’s post always seem to catch my attention. The writer from the Digerati Life is Silicon Valley Blogger. I later found out that SVB was a she!.
Perhaps that was the secret to her great post, a different perspective from the usual male pf and investing bloggers. But there were many other female bloggers around that did not excite me with their blogs! So surely gender has nothing to do with this. But what makes me like her blog so much? Trying to answer this question is tougher than I thought. So I finally took an hour or two to read her post and do some soul searching. Here is my take on what makes me check out the digerati life everyday.
SVB is interesting
And I mean interesting. How many post on “How to play the 0% balance transfer arbitrage?” or “Make sure you max out your company’s 401K plan” type post have we seen? Let’s be frank, I’ve certainly been guilty of this. You will rarely find such post on from SVB. Instead, many of her post are about topics you would never dreamed about – like her latest post :
5 Money and Currency Facts Your Banker Never Told You
Her Blog has Great Pictures
One of the things that bring her blog alive is her pictures. Lots of lovely pictures. This point is best illustrated by her post about the most valuable easter eggs. How that post actually made it into the festival of frugality sure beats me!
She is Smart Too (or at least I think she is)
Well, I think she is not only smart, but does not act like she knows everything. I know she is smart when she talks about investing in reits in her portfolio, increasing her international equity exposure.
She backs up her post with FACTS
Too many of us write very general posts. Very often, we try to inject a 5 ways you can blah blah blah type title to our post. Very SVB is guilty about that too. But many of her post has very interesting facts that make them very credible and interesting. Take the example of The true cost of a car ownership where she literally breaks down the cost of a repair.
She lets us into her life
One of the things that make blogs interesting is that bloggers talk about their lifes. Along the way came a new breed of bloggers that just blogged for the sake of making money on their blogs. SVB has retained the true tradition of bloggers in that she shares her life with her readers. And what an interesting life she has had. She shares her thoughts about her emotions while her husband sets up his second business venture. She even reveals her foolish money mistakes she has made. She also reveals her portfolio and asset allocation.
She writes a lot
This perhaps what makes this such an interesting blog. Not only is SVB writing about personal finance, but also about life, real estate, careers, tech stuff and even online internet marketing. She also participates in lots of carnivals – check out the list of carnivals she participated in recently!. This has simply inspired me to write more (and better as well). SVB, I hope to meet you in more carnivals as well!
I think I’ve rambled enough
Well, I can go on and on, but I think you get the point. At the risk of making this too linkcestious, I shall end this review soon. But seriously, this is one blog you should check out and dare I say bookmark. Whenever I’m at the digerati life, I either come away learning something, laughing and I have a great time just reading what SVB has to say. I can tell that she enjoys life and I’m sure life is interesting and fun for her. You get that sense and feeling when you are reading her blog. And I think that really sums up my thoughts about why I like this blog so much. There is emotion in it and you as a reader will feel it and get to know SVB (even though we still don’t know her real name!)
Despite all the good things I have said, I have not put her on my rss reader or my yahoo! What? I thought you liked her blog Mr Credit Card? Yes, I do. But you see, everyday, I read about 6 to 7 blogs (including problogger.net and shoemoney.com which SVB reads as well!). The funny thing is that when rss readers and feedblitz first came about, I suscribed to every blog and put them on my rss feed. Then the novelty wore off and I get too many feeds and emails. Instead what I do these days is simply type in the URL of my favourite blogs everyday and check it out. Yes, I type in www.thedigeratilife.com into my firefox browser everyday is see what’s happening over there.
But perhaps the best compliment I can give SVB is really how she has inspired me to write better. Before I write a post these days, I try to ask myself if I had already seen a similar post on another pf blog? How can I write better? Is this topic really interesting? How can I connect with my readers? How would SVB have written this? If you aspire to write better and connect with your readers, you will learn a lot simply by heading over to The Digerati Life.
