47 comments

She’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1 Million Page Views)

Today was a slightly exciting milestone in the life of this blog, in that it reached the one MILLION page views mark, measured since the day it was born on April 6th, 2011.

Some additional interesting figures: It has been around for nine months (although it feels like many years), and the Google Analytics stats page says there are might be about 25,000 regular readers and 5,000 RSS subscribers. Altogether, about 205,000 unique people have visited the site at one time or another. They made 424,000 visits at an average of 4 minutes each, meaning that on average, 104 hours of reading have been done each day. We’ve written up over 4,300 comments together.  Any way you slice it, there are at least a small city worth of Mustachians out there, which I find quite exciting!

Just today, for example, I learned that some guy started a blog called “Toward Mustachianism“, where he studies up on the concepts here, and applies them to his own high-income/high-spending (but dropping rapidly) lifestyle – and will surely see great results.

On a personal level, I have found this new role as Mr. Money Mustache to be quite a golden life booster. It is so much fun to get a chance to write down all these ideas and rants that have circulated in my head for years.. and have actual people read them and write back to share more. I feel the added challenge of thousands of imaginary eyes watching me when I feel tempted to make any sort of wussypants decision in my daily life. It has brought out many good laughs, and even brought me closer to some friends and family as well as finding some new friends out there around the world who I hope to meet in real life.

I mention all of this mushy stuff because I wanted to use this milestone as an excuse to say THANKS to my wife, Mrs. Money Mustache, for forcing me to start writing this blog. I was content to just occasionally write stuff down in an old Google document whenever it came to mind, with no interest or desire to ever publish it anywhere. But she set up this fancy blog system and reserved my previously-imaginary domain name, and then just left the whole thing sitting up there online, empty, taunting me, daring me to publish some shit. Since then, she has kept improving it and tweaking it, letting me know about mentions we received from other writers, and generally keeping things going.

That part is the key, because from what I’ve learned, it is unusual for a  blog to grow this quickly or even as large as it has. There are lots of technical hurdles involved and hidden side tasks, which I was not badass enough to spend the time to figure out on my own. Without her, I’m just a guy typing some shit into the computer, an activity which doesn’t just automatically create a fun community like this. It’s much like our family’s kickass roadtrip vacations, where she loves planning them out in meticulous detail, at which point I get to just hop into the driver’s seat of the fully-packed car, glance down at the already-programmed GPS, and say, “Ok, so where are we headed first!?”.

When it comes to poking around on the Internet and figuring out how to get things done, Mrs. Money Mustache is the bomb. That is one smart lady, and when she gets an idea in her head, she works non-stop and implements it and irons out all of the creases until it’s perfect. I respect that greatly, because it’s the formula for success in most forms of work.  It has also been great to have her as an occasional writer and commenter on the blog itself, and hopefully we’ll hear from her more often in the future.

Meanwhile, I’m not that great of a blogger, because ever since becoming a parent I tend to spend most of my time away from the computer. While I reassure myself that this is essential to be a REAL Mr. Money Mustache who has an actual life to write about, it does mean that I tend to let a lot of details slip in the blogging world. Story ideas get thought up but then forgotten, emails go unanswered, and more complicated articles requiring research sit around half-written. I apologize to the many dedicated people that write in every week with ideas and questions which do not get the timely attention they might get with a full-time blogger. It makes me feel a bit uneasy, because I don’t really like doing a half-assed job at anything. But oh well, at times like this we must take our motivation from the Honey Badger and just do it.

Over time, even small efforts like this can build on themselves and collect into a bigger success, and that’s my goal, the reason I will stick around and keep having fun here with you. Hearing every day from people who have sliced out their long car commute or made lifestyle changes that completely improved their lives is an incredibly good feeling. I can’t stop, as long as there is good stuff like that going on, and the scale of everybody making changes in their lives is much more than anything I could accomplish by myself. By one calculation, this blog has indirectly wiped out over 1000 person-years of average rich-country consumption already!

And there is SO much more to be said and learned! I noticed there are now 152 articles on this blog (equivalent to the length of a 600-page book!), but looking in my Drafts folder, I see there are MORE than that many unwritten ones waiting for further details or the right time to share them. More of them get added every day, as part of conversations at the kitchen table or out on the town with friends.

So for the foreseeable future, the Mustache must continue to grow. Thanks for making it happen!

 

(cover art and title is a takeoff of the 1988 album from oldschool rappers Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince).

 

  • Nuno André December 10, 2011, 1:37 am

    It is us that must thank you for your enlightenment, thank you for sharing these great ideas!

    Reply
  • GardenGal December 10, 2011, 5:17 am

    Thanks for the great shout out to Mrs. MM and kudos to MMM who appreciates the heart and soul of his family. It’s great that you both work so hard and so well together and your young one will very likely grow up with appreciation for hard work and family cohesiveness.

    Thanks for your blogs, I always look forward to reading them.

    Reply
  • Jeh December 10, 2011, 6:40 am

    A huge kudos goes out to Mrs. MMM for instigating this whole thing, and of course to you MMM for keeping the flame burning bright for all of us who aspire to more ‘stachian lives.

    I’ve learned so much from this blog (as has my wife and other’s I’ve sent this way) and hope it’s around for many, many years to come.

    Reply
  • mugwump December 10, 2011, 7:09 am

    I have been reading your blog regularly for about a month now, and I really like your style. Thanks to you and Mrs. MM for all the work. It’s fun to read about someone in a place I know fairly well. We looked for housing in Longmont when we moved to this area 15 years ago, but we ended up farther south and east.

    Reply
  • AGil December 10, 2011, 7:10 am

    What about setting up a wiki section that allows you to write down those difficult to research and formulate ideas and let users, complete or start them. Auto turbo blogging. Imagine how many Jr Musicians have great ideas or methods of frugality but now way to contribute.

    Reply
    • MMM December 10, 2011, 7:19 am

      I agree! Something like this is in the works.. and I think you can already guess which brilliant lady is the one doing the hard work on it so far.

      Reply
      • Christine Wilson December 10, 2011, 11:39 am

        Awesome. Looking forward to that. Your wife sounds awesome. I’m definitely fond of women who embrace technology and great processes since I’m into that too! Tell your wife we are looking forward to articles from her too. Would love to know more about the way she thinks and organizes things like this.

        Reply
  • rjack December 10, 2011, 7:28 am

    MMMs: Your blog is now and has been my favorite blog almost since you began. I hope you decide to add forums soon!

    Reply
  • m741 December 10, 2011, 7:49 am

    Keep up the good work! I’m glad to hear you have an arsenal of articles stored up, awaiting deployment. I need my regular MMM fix!

    Reply
  • Joe O December 10, 2011, 8:33 am

    Congrats on the milestones, MMM. You deserve it!

    And thanks Ms.MM, for pushing him to do this and making it happen. Plus your articles and comments are always awesome. You rock!

    Reply
  • JP December 10, 2011, 8:43 am

    I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying writing this blog, because it’s quickly shot to the top spot in my RSS feed favorites. You’ve managed to give me great ideas for saving money, getting free entertainment (I’ve fallen back in love with my local library!), doing more with cycling, and really keeping a focus on overall life quality and happiness at the forefront. I think doing some soul-searching about what really makes you happy and what your life goals are is just as important as, and essential to, figuring out where you can save. I’m still in school and working part-time, so my money-managing skills are mostly keeping me out of debt instead of building me up a huge ‘stache. But this blog has helped me put a positive mental spin on things like biking to work, so now instead of feeling like I’m doing it because I have to to get by, I feel like I’m doing it for my own happiness and to keep from going into debt so I can hit the ground running when I’m starting my career in 1.5 years.

    tl;dr: It’s nice to see a successful, happy person with goals like mine doing stuff that I already wanted to do!

    So much thanks to you and Mrs. MM!

    Reply
  • Dee December 10, 2011, 9:10 am

    Nice to hear about the ins and outs of this blog being brought to us by Mrs. MM — Thanks Mrs. MM!!! I would love it if you wrote more posts Mrs. MM. And thanks, of course, to MMM for all the inspirational ideas and hands on information on how it’s done.

    Reply
  • mike crosby December 10, 2011, 9:43 am

    When I first came aboard I wasn’t expecting much. And as time has gone by with other blogs that I like a lot, the quality diminishes. You’ve surprised me with the first post I’ve ever read of yours to succeeding posts. The quality of your writing is not only not diminished, it’s getting better.

    Please don’t jump the shark yet;)

    Reply
    • MMM December 10, 2011, 11:58 am

      Haha.. I had to look up the term “jump the shark” because I had never heard of it. It’s a nice one – I’ll have to see if I can dig up that old Happy Days episode if it’s considered the peak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

      I think one of the keys to having a blog that doesn’t go into tired/repetitive mode is to make sure nobody is depending on it for a living. If I ran out of stuff to say, I could just stop talking for a while. But if a professional blogger with no other source of income runs out of stuff to say, he or she has to keep talking anyway.. and pushing the e-books, and the courses, and the advertisers…

      Someone wrote me a private email challenging me to get rid of the ads. But I kind of like them.. seeing that $4.85 or whatever at the end of a day is like a little report card, saying the Internet has accepted the latest offering. I’m not anti-capitalism by any means, so learning about this way that many people are actually trying to make a living is pretty valuable to me, and the knowledge from the experimenting will surely pay back in some unexpected way in the future.

      Reply
      • rjack December 10, 2011, 12:34 pm

        “Someone wrote me a private email challenging me to get rid of the ads. But I kind of like them.. seeing that $4.85 or whatever at the end of a day is like a little report card, saying the Internet has accepted the latest offering.”

        Along those same lines, you may want to add a “Donate” button. It too can act as a report card. Nothing says I love you like money! :)

        Reply
        • Bakari December 10, 2011, 3:06 pm

          That’s a good point.

          I pirate software all time, but I often donate to sites that offer good software for free (like Spybot) or that consolidate information and give it away (like Black Viper).

          I don’t normally purchase books, but I’m planning to buy Jacob’s, since his ideas have saved me hundreds of times as much as the book cost

          Reply
        • MMM December 10, 2011, 3:50 pm

          Thanks rjack and Bakari,

          I still like money (maybe a little too much at times), but I try to be logical about it as well.

          Do I really want the money of the MMM readers? What would I do with more money? I wouldn’t use it to increase my spending, so I’d have to increase my saving or giving. But can I put it to better uses than you the Mustachians already have for it?

          Making you all richer builds your enthusiasm for the lifestyle, which should help it spread through the culture.

          I suppose if there were a reader who already had too much cash, and wanted to donate to me in order to motivate me to do more good stuff and then write about it, I could be talked into it :-)

          Reply
          • Bakari December 10, 2011, 3:57 pm

            Once the hosting fees are paid, perhaps paying for google ad-sense ads in order to expand readership?

            How about a paid intern who was a moderator for the comments, wiki, and forum once MsMM sets them up? Then y’all could have plenty of free time for family (and writing blogs), and also employ a youth part-time to keep them off the streets.

            Reply
      • Jeh December 10, 2011, 1:16 pm

        “Someone wrote me a private email challenging me to get rid of the ads. But I kind of like them.. seeing that $4.85 or whatever at the end of a day is like a little report card, saying the Internet has accepted the latest offering. I’m not anti-capitalism by any means, so learning about this way that many people are actually trying to make a living is pretty valuable to me, and the knowledge from the experimenting will surely pay back in some unexpected way in the future.”

        Good on you for not taking the ads down, that’s the right way to look at it. Incidentally, I know where I’m shopping for my scooter if I ever get to buy one, thanks to the ads on your blog.

        The anti-capitalists are asshats and morons (then again, so are the hyper-capitalists). Your middle-way fits my worldview to a T.

        Reply
        • Bakari December 10, 2011, 3:30 pm

          I’m an anti-capitalist.

          The thing is, people mix up “capitalism” with “free market” when in fact the two are totally different. (In fact, they are inherently incompatible, at least if its corporate capitalism).

          And MMMs ads aren’t capitalism, they are the free market.

          Subtle, but very important distinction.

          Anyone who is against the (regulated where necessary) free-market I would agree is both an asshat and a moron

          Reply
          • MMM December 10, 2011, 3:52 pm

            I like this “Asshat” word – that’s another find that the blog has brought me.. I heard it first when it was applied to me by a Hacker News commenter (“this guy sounds like a smug asshat”, or something like that).

            Reply
      • Hanah December 10, 2011, 9:06 pm

        What ads? Thank you adblock! I wonder if you still get your $4.85 if I block ads?

        Maybe that’s a topic for a future post: reducing your desire for stuff by reducing the amount of advertising in your life. I find it makes a big difference for me.

        Reply
        • MMM December 11, 2011, 8:34 pm

          Yes, I will still get the $4.85 if you block ads.. because not everyone blocks ads. If they did, I believe Google and most blogs would go out of business, as sad as that sounds.

          Only about one in a thousand people actually clicks an ad (which is the only time the website owner gets paid anything), but just that tiny rate is enough for a big blog (larger than this one) to pay the bills. And it’s enough for me to say, “hey, cool!”.

          Reply
  • Chris December 10, 2011, 10:06 am

    Great Job MMM family. This blog and ERE and have been very inspiring and have resulted in me “tightening up my game” a lot. Don’t change a thing and I look forward to more great mustachian insights.

    Reply
  • et December 10, 2011, 10:08 am

    Congrats on those impressive stats. Your blog is a unique and interesting space.

    Reply
  • poorplayer December 10, 2011, 11:21 am

    Style, baby – you got style! That’s what separates you from all the other PF blogs I scan. About the only other blog I read that comes close to your style is Don’t Quit Your Day Job. But they don’t curse, so they lose style points for that. It is so refreshing and so great to see someone combine PF information with a friendly, funny, ribald, humorous, badass style! You’re just great read, as in “What is this dude going to say next?” Oh, and not for nothing, but as much as you feel the eyes of all your readers keeping you from putting your wussypants on in the morning, we feel your hot breath ready to drop an F-bomb on us when we go to make some stupid decision (like when I think about getting into my car to go two miles to the store because I don’t feel like putting on my scooter helmet – WUSS!). So a great big thanks to Mrs.MM for setting you up, and thanks for your style.

    Reply
    • PKamp3 December 12, 2011, 11:26 pm

      We do curse by proxy, however: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCmJUiidu9k

      To MMM: I found your site because the comment I’m responding to sent 15 visitors to my site. That’s impressive for a weekend article!

      Congrats on your 1,000,000 page views! I just added a few dozen more.

      Reply
  • MiniMMM December 10, 2011, 12:26 pm

    Thanks for starting my favorite blog of 2011. Has really been fun to look forward to your articles, and feeling badass about being ‘cheap’.. about to go on a nice 1.5 mile run to the store.

    Reply
  • Diane December 10, 2011, 1:23 pm

    I’ve been following since the beginning. I’m amazed but not surprised that you hit the 1M milestone so quickly. You (plural) are smart and funny and your blog hits a sweet spot. I don’t need advice about how to get out of debt, but there are a lot of advanced skills I’m still working to acquire.

    In fact, one weakness I see in folks thinking that life is going to be bliss after they dig out of debt is that they fail to realize that life is just life, with all the temptations and tribulations that got them into debt in the first place still lurking out there.

    Let them get their undergrad degrees from other get-out-of-debt sites and come here for their post graduate work. There’s still a lot to be learned and I like the way you teach. Also, your tuition rates are pretty unbeatable. Thanks MMM and Mrs. MMM too.

    Reply
  • Bakari December 10, 2011, 3:37 pm

    Major props and congratulations.

    I blogged for almost 3 years, but I never took the time to set-up a proper site, never worked on coordinating with established blogs for exposure, never picked any theme, and consequently never had any real readership. Which was fine at first, since it was meant much as your old Google doc – just a place to store the ideas that got trapped in my head – but eventually writing to no one lost it’s appeal and now I haven’t written in about a year.

    Since you mention it, just a reminder that one of those someday topics is supposed to be about saving for those with working class (or below) incomes. I’m sure its already in the list – I used to have an idea in draft form for up to a year before I got around to actually writing it, and I wasn’t putting out anywhere near the volume of writing you are.

    P.S. I usually read your blog in my email inbox, so that won’t show up in your page views. I’m probably not the only one, so you are likely to be underestimating your total hits. I wonder is there anyway to distinguish RSS which sends readers a link, who then read on the site, and RSS that forwards the whole entry?

    P.P.S. Please personally thank your DJ for me. You generally get all of the attention and credit, but I know from experience just how much work the behind-the-scenes stuff is.

    Reply
  • sumarie December 10, 2011, 4:18 pm

    Mr & Mrs MM,

    You’ve both given us, your “audience”, so much fun-to-learn information
    and inspiring challenges. Thank you for sharing with us your various and
    unique gifts.

    Reply
  • Dividend Mantra December 10, 2011, 6:33 pm

    That’s pretty big time growth in less than a year! Congrats and keep up the great work. :)

    Reply
    • Christine Wilson December 10, 2011, 6:45 pm

      That is big time growth! Congratulations with all the success you’ve had with this blog.

      Reply
  • CG December 10, 2011, 6:38 pm

    Behind every great man…
    Nice to see someone praising their partner, and from what I’m reading, it’s entirely justified. ;)
    Congrats on the huge milestone!

    Reply
  • Dave December 11, 2011, 7:33 am

    The Wiki idea is brilliant–looking forward to it. I’ve been dreaming of a Mr. MM TV show but the Wiki idea is light years ahead. I guess the two could co-exist.

    Reply
  • Kevin M December 11, 2011, 10:45 am

    Congrats Mr. & Mrs. MMM. Now that Jacob is un-retired/retired from blogging you site has become my new favorite. Keep up the good work.

    Reply
  • Financial God December 11, 2011, 9:21 pm

    That is really incredible growth given that you started just a short time ago — less than a year! I am new to the site and look forward to learning more.

    Reply
  • Diane December 12, 2011, 10:36 am

    I’m also new to this site (thanks so Mrs MMM!) and am loving it. As I shared with her, I just had my husband buy my Christmas present this weekend – a used bicycle (Craigslist). Nothing seemingly amazing, but it’s for a gal who is, shall we say “less than athletic”, and has not sat on a bike for approximately 25 years. I find your outlook on life inspiring and refreshing. Keep up the good work, both of you!

    Reply
    • Mrs. Money Mustache December 13, 2011, 8:38 am

      You are athletic Diane, with the right mindset! :) I’m so happy to hear you got a used bike. Let us know how it goes… you know what they say about riding a bike (you never forget), so hop on and enjoy your new freedom!

      Reply
  • Pachipres December 14, 2011, 3:59 pm

    I have learned so much from your blog. I have probably saved myself 2k in doing the weekly $100 challnge since May. In fact, since reading about how many times your family bathes/showers has inspired my dh and I to start cutting back on our own water usage. Thanks so much for the inspiration!

    Reply
  • Travoid December 19, 2011, 11:37 am

    Congratulations, man! That’s a great achievement in such a short span of time. Goes to show you that if you put intelligent and useful shit on the Interwebs, that’s the type of followers that will read it!

    Reply
  • Joe June 4, 2012, 6:02 pm

    What happened on Oct 16, 2011 that got your pageviews so high?

    Reply
    • Mr. Money Mustache June 4, 2012, 6:05 pm

      I think that was two articles showing up on Hacker News and going to the top, followed by a front-page Lifehacker feature of the Cost of Commuting post, all at once.

      Reply
  • Rollie November 3, 2014, 7:28 pm

    We also would have accepted “Mrs. M do the cuts while I rock the fresh rap.”

    Reply
  • diggs August 29, 2015, 7:03 am

    Thanks for writing this down. Very inspiring on multiple levels. Years from now, people will realize this way of thinking was cutting edge thinking for the time.

    Reply
  • banyanbat August 9, 2016, 7:19 am

    I really love the simple and clean layout of the blog, keep up the great work Mr and Mrs MM.

    Reply

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Take a look around. If you think you are hardcore enough to handle Maximum Mustache, feel free to start at the first article and read your way up to the present using the links at the bottom of each article.

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