AlleNation Blog Review
Since I’m on a financial kick lately, writing about RRSP and Visa dividends, I figure now would be a good time to introduce the personal financial blog AlleNation.com. AlleNation asked me to do a sponsored review to generate some buzz for the blog.
Some of you will already know this blog. AlleNation is the home of Allen Heat, a young web developer, professional blogger and aspiring entrepreneur. AlleNation focuses around Allen’s journey to financial independence and freedom. Allen is documenting everything he is doing with his internet and business ventures, and every month, he gives you a recap (much like my monthly recaps) on how things went. This is just the kind of stuff people need to stay motivated and continue on their own quest for financial independence.
Allen’s blog has been on the Net since September of last year but he didn’t really start to crank out the content until January of this year. Some of his really stand out works include:
- The Best Tool to Leverage Your Business
- The Myth We Need to Dispel
- Why You Should Always Strive For Perfection
I also like the honesty in Allen’s earnings recap. His income went down 190%, from $3,469 to $1,673, in January. Many bloggers might be ashamed to reveal that kind of information so I have to give Allen props for his transparency. This kind of posts builds reader loyalty and makes Allen more relatable.
Another standout blog piece is AlleNation’s two part series on 5 Blog Aspects to Revise in 2007 (part 1, part 2). What I like about this series (besides being in it) is it reads like an attitude session. What is an attitude session? It’s a blog post that gives you a kick in the pant and makes you rethink what you’re doing. Here’s example from the post.
Have you noticed how many blogs are using the same theme as John Chow? I started noticing this after visiting some blogs whom the owners of left comments on Chow’s blog, and I was really surprised to see the vast amount of blogs with this theme. How can you possibly create a brand when your theme is not only the same as one of the most visited personal blog on the blogosphere, but also the same as your friend, and your friend’s friend, and his sister, too!?
AlleNation is advertising free and Allen doesn’t plan to monetize the blog anytime soon, if ever. The design of the blog is very clean and easy to read. Like all the better blogs on the Internet, AlleNation offers a full feed RSS, which you should subscribe to in order to keep up with the updates.
Allen’s latest post is 4 Tips on Smarter Archive Use. Go read it and then leave a comment saying John Chow sent you. That will make Allen feel like he got his money’s worth. 
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- ReviewMe Increases My Price « John Chow dot Com - February 8, 2007 at 10:36 am
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I am a daily reader of Allen’s blog and it is amazing he is only 17 years old. Allen writes with the clarity and experience of someone twice his age. I highly recommend Allen’s blog for anyone looking to gain a deeper insight into personal finance, developing the right attitude, and of course, personal finance.
It’s amazing that he’s only 17, isn’t it?
I’ve been following Allen’s site for a bit now as well and have the good fortune of him stopping by my site as well.
My site has a personal finance focus as well so it is interesting to see what Allen writes on similar topics.
Hey John, wouldn’t it be a drop in income of 52%? Because a drop of 190% would imply that he not only lost all of his income (100%), but was in the red an additional 90%.
(3469-1673)/3469 =
1796/3469 =
52%
(i.e., he retained 48% of his income: 1673/3469 = 48%)
I think you’re right…
Technically, you are correct. But 52% doesn’t sound as impressive as 190%.
Look at this way, if he went from $1,673 to $3,469 we can say he increased his income by 190%. So going the other way, we can say it went down by 190%.
Agree
You can say it, but that doesn’t make it correct
Good review. Very simple since he doesn’t have tons of bells and whistles with advertisers, but has nice content. I wonder why he’s not looking to monetize it? Any ideas?
You should be expecting a review request from us within the next 2 weeks. We want to set up a few different things before we get “Mr. evil,” “The Humanitarian,” and “Moto” himself to review us…that is if he would do us the honor (obviously including the review fee)
your the bomb Allen
How is his blog making money if it has no advertising???
Good question, but at 17 he’s going to have a hard time being accepted into any affiliate / advertising program.
Not quite, most of the companies also allow younger ones to sign up as long as they’ve got permission of their parents. And if not, I doubt it’d be much of a problem to sign up on your parents name.
Steve, please read the posts about my earnings, I make 4 figures through another blog I run.
Allen.H
I like the site. The 5 aspects to revise are a great read and are hitting home as I’ve been planning to work on a couple of them and haven’t made the time yet. Time to make the time
Oh yeah, Allen, we’re all not gifted with the ability to make pretty Wordpress themes.
I found one based on the theme John uses and it fits nicely.
It’s called MusicallyYours if anyone cares.
Also a daily reader of Allen’s blog. And I also had to do a double take when I found out he was only 17.
Hi John, I am a big fan of you. You are one of roll models for me. I write about tech for not-so-techy readers. I have dedicated a special graphics for johnchow.com here:
Throw tomatoes at the site you hate.
You Rock Man!!
Nice blog review John, have come across this blog some times before and it truly has some great content!
Thanks for your words everyone, I’m truly flattered.
John – I will tell all what I think of your reviews in a post coming soon, don’t worry
.
Cheers and see you at AlleNation.com,
Allen.H
Why is he promoting his blog if he isn’t monetizing it?