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How Much Can Bloggers Make?

To publish or not to publish, that is the question

I debated whether I should publish this article for two months. I talked to friends, family, acquaintances — all have given me different responses. I tweeted to fellow personal finance bloggers, too. Everyone had a different answer.

Frankly, I’m nervous to share this article. Unlike my weaker points and budgetary failures, this article is a highlight. It was easier for me to write and confess my student loan debt to you all, but successes are more difficult to share — ironically.

After much consternation, I decided I’d finally publish an answer to a big question I’ve been getting: “How much can bloggers make?” Or, more specifically sometimes: “How much did you make, Sam?”

Even as I type these words, I’m debating whether I’ll push the publish button. It’s really challenging to share this number. I’m proud and embarrassed in a weird way.

Well, here goes nothing! Today, I’m going to share with you how much I made over the first year of Frugaling, and what led to that success. My goal is to both inspire those who are thinking about starting a blog, but also to provide info about where the greatest revenue can be made. I know of quite a few people right now who want to get paid to write or need some push to start blogging.

This one’s for you.

A trickle became a torrent of funds

I started with Google AdSense

I began Frugaling on May 4, 2013. Motivated out of a desperate need to share my story with others and begin my journey back to zero debt, I wrote my first article. These first few months I only had Google AdSense. I stared at $15-20 a month and thought this was pointless, but that quickly doubled, and doubled again.

For those who’ve never heard of the platform, it’s an easy and very popular way to start making revenue. Google handles the advertisers — all you do is publish them. Easy as can be. Nobody becomes rich from AdSense, though (hardly anyone at least). It’s an entirely automated and algorithmic ad network that pairs relevant advertisements with consumers. While creepy sometimes, the ad network is the best in the industry — for everyone involved in the money making process.

I looked up affiliate opportunities

As a member of the personal finance blogging community, I was fortunate to be exposed to various money-making experts. Many had done well adding affiliate programs to their sites. Affiliate programs usually host a bunch of companies that are looking to give publishers a small commission for products sold. Let’s say you run an apparel website and link to Macy’s, you can count on a certain amount of revenue kicked back to you in the referral process. Or, if you blog, it can help to advertise your web host.

I decided to throw my hat in the ring and joined a top-notch network called LinkOffers. Two months after being approved to hawk some bank-affiliated products, I looked at my account and noticed a strange number: $500 in sales. It was early in the summer and the number shocked me. I was making ridiculous amounts of money! Over the ensuing months, I received an atmospheric amount of affiliate commissions (I’ll address monetary specifics in the proceeding section).

I partnered and linked to Amazon.com

I timed articles to important holidays, your recommended books, and/or tax season. Most bloggers seem to struggle to make much money with Amazon’s affiliate program. I found it to be incredible.

You can link to nearly everything in the Amazon store and make a commission on that item and anything else that’s purchased during that visit. This primary and secondary commission style is very generous. For instance, if someone buys the product you advertised and a new Macbook Air, get ready for a kickback of $40 or more. These purchases added up quickly. One article netted me over $200 in two months.

Flappy Bird-style wealth creation is definitely scary

Flappy Bird Money Wealth Success — *Flappy Bird was a hugely popular, viral success. The creator was making $50,000 per day when he pulled it from the Apple App Store.*

The Apple Store was slammed earlier this year with millions of downloads of one app with a ridiculously simple premise and name: Flappy Bird. The creator was a mysterious and private individual based in Vietnam. Not much was known about him until Rolling Stone magazine tracked him down and got one of the best interviews yet. Rolling Stone reported that:

By February, it was topping the charts in more than 100 countries and had been downloaded more than 50 million times. Nguyen was earning an estimated $50,000 a day. Not even Mark Zuckerberg became rich so fast.

This level of attention and wealth prompted Nguyen to take down the app and buck the demand for his work. Within a couple days of his decision to remove the app, it vanished. Many criticized his decision and questioned why anyone making $50k a day would optionally take down their application. Frankly, I could relate on a tenth of the scale.

In December, January, and February I saw earnings that blew my mind. Every day I checked my earnings, I was looking at another couple hundred dollars. I was closing in or crossing $5,000 per month. I was scared about whether the affiliate company would actually pay me. Every month — before I got paid — I’d get nervous. I’d think, “Are my earnings going to be revoked? Am I actually going to get paid that much?” Month after month would pass, and the earnings would clear — right into my bank account. It was like magic.

Average these earnings over 12 months, and I’d be making over $60,000 per year. Meanwhile, I’m a full-time graduate student working 65+ hours a week. With all my earnings combined (regular work, too), I was nearing a six-figure salary. My debt was disappearing and life was looking up in a crazy way.

The earnings eventually slowed. The bulk of the money was earned. I paid off a $25,000 student loan and stopped taking out loans for school entirely. Suddenly, I was paying in cash for the deficits in my graduate assistantship budget.

Marketing and advertising affects everyone

You’ve now read nearly the entirety of this article, but I still haven’t shared how much a blogger can make. Or, more specifically, how much I made in my first year. Before I say that value, I want to mention one thing: advertising tends to taint perspectives.

As a personal finance writer, there’s a wealth of advertising opportunities. It’s a direct consequence of the powerful financial services sector. Trillions of dollars are managed within financial companies, and consumer credit products are just one of the many revenue sources they have. It can be easy to be swept up with the possibilities and ignore the initial purpose for starting a blog.

I got swept up by it. I was deeply affected by it. It changed how I speak. It swayed my opinions.

After you see this value, I hope you take great care with your site and visitors. Please don’t let this inspire you to morph into a credit-card-hawking-affiliate-driven-market-maven. The personal finance world needs personality and reality. Credit products aren’t right for everyone.

Still want to know how much I made?

I made about $35,000 in my first year of blogging.

Related post: Make An Extra $10,000 In 6 Months!

52 Lessons From Blogging A Year

By Frugaling 16 Comments

52 Lessons Learned — *Photo: flickr/gr33n3gg*

Today is the first-year anniversary of Frugaling! I’m very fortunate to share my lessons from the first 52 weeks of blogging. I learned an incredible amount, and I’m hoping that some of the following points inspire future bloggers and frugalers. Enjoy!

Setting up a blog is surprisingly easy
1. I started Frugaling on May 4, 2013. It was a shot in the dark. Within hours of buying the domain name, I had a WordPress blog running. A few days later, everything started coming together — logo included.
Networking online is even more important than in-person
1. When you’re just starting out, it can be funny and saddening how few people visit. You’ve probably invested some time and money to try and start this new site. Even more, you’re spending precious time writing articles (at first) that are read by no one. This is where building a network is vital to your motivation and livelihood as a blog. Connect with similar sites, offer to link, comment on their articles, and tweet/share without expecting reciprocity. Your network will build over time if you follow these steps.
Prepare for harsh criticisms of your work
1. Every now and then, I get a story wrong, use an inappropriate word, or botch my grammar. When I see it, I try to correct it right away. Those things bother me, too! Unfortunately, the Internet isn’t always the kindest place. It can foster some horrific personalities in some. Some people notice these errors and take to public displays of hate or vitriol. Don’t be surprised if people post on Reddit about how awful you are! Hah.
Get controversial every now and then
1. Writing shouldn’t be bland. You’ll bore readers. Go ahead, stir up some trouble!
Focus on quantity over quality — quality comes with quantity
1. I am a firm believer that writing a lot is the most important action. I make grammatical mistakes, and I’m not afraid to admit it! When I write, it’s always flawed with room for improvement. But at least I write. I never want to suffer the paralysis that comes from worrying about whether my writing has errors. The words need to flow — mistakes included. I’m a firm believer that publishing at a feverish pace enhances my quality.
2. Focus on your count, rather than quality. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at one perfect paragraph and an empty site.
Success is not measured by your income, but it helps for motivation
1. I’d be lying if I said that making five figures in my first year of Frugaling didn’t motivate me to write better. It does! My word of caution is not to get wrapped in income as a measure of achievement. You’ll have up and down months for ad revenue — that variation doesn’t connote more or less success.
Share your journey with friends and family
1. I’m lucky to have a supportive network of friends and family that keep me going. Whenever I hear from them, or they tell me they’ve read an article of mine, I feel incredible joy.
SEMRush Statistics

Google can be your worst enemy or best friend
1. Your placement in Google searches is vital to your daily traffic and revenue. I receive about 200 hits from Google every day. Without Google, I wouldn’t have nearly the revenue I have today.
It’s okay to walk away
1. Sometimes I can’t write any more. Sometimes my brain is tapped for ideas. Sometimes I feel down about my writing. For me, I value the ability to walk away for a bit, and then return refueled. Every time I walk away from writing for a while, I feel the surge return. Give yourself that permission!
Social media leads to explosive growth
1. The most popular article on this site is called, “Too Poor To Protest: How Income Inequality Silences Your Voice.” If you search that phrase (“Too Poor To Protest”) on Google, my article is the first link. The article was shared at least 1800+ times on Facebook, over 200 times on Twitter, and over 50 times on Google+.
2. Little did I know that when I shared it on Reddit, it would become a trending topic on some of the largest categories on the site. I was featured on the front page of the r/Politics portion of the site, and then other people shared it across different parts of the web. Over the first three days, I received over 12,000 new visitors.
Time important articles to financial events
1. When tax season comes around each year, people flock to Google for advice, answers, and feedback to get a larger tax return. This year, I timed an important article with this event, and it paid off. I published an article on an important refund bonus that Amazon was offering when you purchase TurboTax with them. Using an affiliate link, it paid over $200 in ad revenue for that one article.
Write, re-read, schedule, re-read
1. New articles flash in my head. Usually, I push every other priority out of the way and write for a good 45-60 minutes. After one of these crazy writing flashes, I’ll normally have about 600-700 words. Now, I re-read the article to check for flow and errors. I like to publish new articles as soon as possible, and immediately schedule them for about 5-10 minutes after the write and proofread. Then, in one last attempt to catch errors and make it sound smoother, I re-read again. I normally catch one or two major mistakes in this last round.
Share what you’re reading with your audience
1. If you’ve developed a following, it’s time to give them the insight that you have. If you read financial books regularly, why not share that with your audience?
2. I wrote an article on 3 books I recommend everyone read for a thorough understanding of current stock market dynamics and personal finance issues. On top of sharing these books, I made a little Amazon commission off each one sold.
Persistence is key to growing audience and followers
1. Over the course of a year, you’re probably going to doubt whether continuing to write is worth it. This is a key fork in the road for many writers. This doubt can creep in and destroy all your hard work. Here’s where it pays to keep on writing — keep trying. By publishing and writing regularly, your audience will grow rapidly and readers will know how often to expect your work. Persistence pays!
Inspire and encourage others to take up blogging, writing
1. When I first started Frugaling, barely anyone bothered to say “hi.” I was a no-name in a field of personal finance sites. Nobody had any reason to visit. Nowadays, I get strange/foreign reactions from followers. When I comment on a blog just starting out or follow them on Twitter, oftentimes I get these shocked responses (like they can’t believe I commented on their little ol’ site).
2. It’s incredible to push someone else into starting their own website. Writing and sharing in this way can be incredibly empowering. Why don’t more people try it!?
Pick an intrinsic passion
1. Maybe this is obvious, but you shouldn’t ever blog about anything you’re not entirely passionate about intrinsically. Sharing your views and ideas with the world is wonderful, but if you’re not excited every day, you’ll become bored and lose the focus/desire to publish more.
Seek mentors that have done it before
1. When I first started blogging, I sent a number of emails to top personal finance writers. I wanted to hear about what worked for them and how they built terrific, large audiences. Their insight was priceless. It cultivated and honed my own abilities as a writer and entrepreneur.
2. Recently, I began interviewing the best bloggers in the community. I absolutely love hearing about what motivated other people to begin writing about this important topic.
Writing a book is easier when blogging regularly
1. This summer, I’m hoping to turn a few key articles and themes into a top-notch Kindle book for you all. With nearly 200 articles to choose from and various important themes, I cannot wait to compile some into a book. By itself, writing an entire book would’ve been daunting, but now I have tons to choose from and thousands upon thousands of written words.
The technology you use needn’t be advanced
1. Nowadays, I recommend people check out Chromebooks. They’re Google’s take on laptops. If you’re just going to be blogging, you only need a keyboard, web host, and WordPress. Yes, you can benefit from more advanced setups, but the basics are exceptionally affordable. Entering into the blogging world should not be analogous to starting a normal company — keep costs in line with that idea.
Inevitably, your web host will crash
1. Hopefully the downtime won’t be during a highly-trafficked period. Unfortunately, that always seems like the exact moment when everything crashes. A couple of my most popular or money-making articles pushed my web host offline, and cost me hundreds of dollars (in lost revenue) in the process.
Web hosting is more important than you think
1. At first, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the basic idea that you start writing and it’s on the Internet. But behind all this tech magic is an intricate layer of data connections. Certain web hosts are notorious for poor performance. Choose a web host that’s known for rapid connections. The faster your site loads, the higher ranking you’ll receive from Google.
Sometimes airing your dirty laundry is the best idea
1. The amount of support received is mindboggling. Whenever I write a more personal article, readers comment their support and understanding. The community of personal finance writers is incredibly positive.
Frequent readers prefer shorter articles
1. My most popular articles with the regular audience tend to be thought-provoking questions about how to deal with financial problems. These articles are normally about 500-700 words. They tend to be well-shared among the personal finance community, friends, and family.
Longer articles are better for Google
1. These posts spread like wildfire and attract new readers to the site. Google tends to rank these articles higher on the search rankings, too.
The tax man says I run a business
1. This was the first year that I had to fill out a Schedule C for my taxes. This portion of the massive IRS bureaucracy deals solely with profit and loss from a business. Now, all that advertising revenue adds up to a hefty tax loss. Fortunately, I can write off any business expenses. For example, paying writers, hosting fees, and travel related to work can all be deducted.
Experiment with new projects
1. Throughout this first year, I tried a few frugal projects. One of my most popular was trying to go 7 days without spending any money. Another one was my experiment with an all-cash diet. Both offered a win-win for me and my audiences, as I could share my experiences and help others in the process.
Haters gonna hate
1. The Internet is full of haters that use hurtful, vitriolic language to convey awful opinions. Let them hate. If you’re receiving strange messages and hearing how others disagree with you, just think: you’re on the right track and building an audience.
Speed up your website for better Google results
1. There are some simple programs you should use to speed up your website. I’d recommend checking out W3 Total Cache, Smush.it, and looking into loading “script” sources asynchronously. This last change will help heavy data elements on your page load last — the important content will load in the mean time.
My unsubsidized student loans were going crazy. In August 2013, they reached $25,000. Now, they’re completely paid off!

Include your readers in successes
1. In the personal finance domain, talking about money isn’t taboo. Your openness is rewarded. Whenever I hit a milestone — like paying off $25,000 in student loans — my readers shared in the success and encouraged me to keep going. I really wouldn’t be able to do it without them.
Men visit way more often than women
1. Not entirely sure what contributes to this statistic, but about 70% of the visitors to this site are men.
Most are aged 25-34
1. My audience is primarily younger, and just starting out on their independent financial journeys. Likely, many are fresh out of college, new to the working world, and looking for ways to save and make more money.
Start a blog as a side hobby, then consider full-time
1. The perfect opportunity to blog is when you already have a full-time job. Blogging can be done in between busy periods, weekends, and anywhere you find an extra 15-60 mins. It’s the perfect side hustle!
Ask friends and family to chime in, visit the site, and/or provide feedback
1. Close ones can lead to important areas of improvement in the design and content of your site. I’m fortunate that there are a number of great writers and readers among my family and friends. They constantly provide important feedback that helps me improve.
The focus isn’t money — it’s being able to live the life you desire
1. While running and writing for Frugaling has paid off — big time — the focus wasn’t ever solely on money. Rather, I started Frugaling to hone my writing ability, share my stories, and work on reducing my debt. The advertising money followed, and it’s been a wonderful bonus to the main purposes.
Basic text editors help me write ideas and prep new stories
1. I get new ideas everywhere I go. Whenever something pops into my head, I write it down and often begin writing. I have found that taking advantage of new energy gets the articles finished faster.
2. Google Drive (with Docs), Apple’s Reminders app, and the built-in TextEdit program all help me stay on track.
A purpose-driven blog, but I drive that purpose
1. This article — the one I’m writing right now — doesn’t necessarily fall into the tight bounds of personal finance. And if you’re frustrated by this tangential article, feel free to unsubscribe. While I consider this a purpose-driven blog, it’s a purpose I drive — not the other way around. Over this year, I had multiple people criticize my publications on blogging, ads, etc. Many suggested they were frustrated that I didn’t stick to finance-related articles. For the most part I do, but every now and then I love using this platform to speak about something else.
I made a lot of money
1. Despite not being the main focus, money poured into my wallet and I used it to pay off massive amounts of debt.
It provided an outlet for accountability
1. Writing a blog about frugality kept me honest for my readers. I didn’t want to disappoint them.
Affiliate income is king
1. Most of the money earned came from affiliate advertising for various banking products. The amount of money that can be made from these financial products and advertisements is shocking; like, five figures of shock.
I’m willing to work even harder to stay out of debt now
1. I refuse to make the same mistakes I made to get into massive amounts of debt. Starting this site helped me see the value in working to change my financial circumstances.
There are many more ways to save
1. There isn’t one comprehensive list that could cover all the ways you can save money every day. When writing articles on this subject, I’ve enjoyed putting on my thinking cap. In a way, it takes a creativity to save even more than others.
I was ignorant to the power of excessive student loans
1. Somewhere between denial and stupidity, I took out massive amounts of student loans over the first two years of graduate school. On track for $100k by the end, I was awakened to the reality of how long they would take to pay off. No one at my universities ever tried to explain the consequences of all these student loans. After a year of active research and reading, I’m beginning to understand how others get into this mess — universities are culpable.
Our consumer society has horrible consequences
1. Sometimes I’m able to reduce my spending solely because of the burden my consumerism may place on the environment. I want to reduce my emissions and harm to the Earth. It helps keep me from impulse buying for new clothes and electronics, when I think about the bigger picture.
You can actually make yourself happy with money
1. This year I read a couple key research articles that shared the results of what actually makes people happy when they have money. Most often, happiness comes from helping others and giving to important causes — putting your money to work to help others.
The personal finance community content sometimes gets repetitive
1. This is not a universal truth, but there are some basic finance stories that seem to spread to every site. Oftentimes, these articles focus on minor savings on coffee. Why coffee?
2. I live for the articles that get really personal or uniquely approach financial problems.
Guest bloggers and paid staff are a wonderful addition
1. I had two regular guest bloggers over the course of this year. While I couldn’t pay them much (as all my money was going to pay off debt), I did give them a little. I got to practice my own copy editing skills, and they filled gaps when I couldn’t come up with new content (for a number of reasons).
I’m really dependent on and thankful for Google products
1. I mentioned Google Drive for writing articles, but I use Google for nearly everything. From researching new articles to checking my site stats to seeing my AdSense revenue, Google is at the heart of my success.
The Internet allows for any niche
1. My audience — you! — is a unique crew. Nowadays, there’s a group of people for any kind of writing. This is an empowering time to start publishing.
Be generous with your links to other sites
1. Whenever I write an article or publish an interview, I try to link to every site therein. I believe that generosity is genuinely rewarded on the Internet and often encourages the recipient to look at your site in return. This can open great networking opportunities!
Writing for free is risky
1. I’ve written for free and had both positive and negative experiences. Once, I wrote a 2000 word article and the company decided they didn’t want to publish the article anymore. That sucked.
2. I would only recommend writing for free if there’s an exchange of traffic and future readers in the process.
Frugaling received over 225,000 pageviews for the year
1. This is more than just a statistic. It brings a tear to my eye. I guess I learned that people do enjoy reading my articles and seem to appreciate what I have to offer. That’s more exciting than anything else.
The readers are vital to my motivation
1. Without you, I wouldn’t have the motivation to work this hard; in turn, I wouldn’t have paid off massive amount of debt. Thank you for giving me the courage, energy, and hope to strive for a better life.

Entrepreneurial Secrets That Turn Side Jobs Into Main Incomes

By Frugaling 7 Comments

Entrepreneurial Google Founders Wikipedia Photo — The Google Founders. Photo: Wikipedia

My first year of writing is nearly complete. In starting my own online site and business, I realized a few entrepreneurial secrets that aided in the success and development of Frugaling.org. Hopefully, some of these ideas inspire you to make more and take advantage of any downtime you have to achieve your own entrepreneurial dreams!

A fun alternative to a temp job

Finding time for extra income opportunities was daunting last year. I wanted to make and save more money to pay off an overwhelming amount of student loans. I was rapidly approaching $40,000 in total debt last May. I thought about getting a menial job that paid me about $8 an hour after taxes. I scoured Craigslist for random temp jobs, but grew hopeless as the opportunities didn’t often fit within the parameters of my challenging semesters. The debt was unmanageable.

Sometime in mid-July, Frugaling.org became a real second income for me. My advertising revenue and traffic skyrocketed. I felt a rush when I published articles that would get read by 10, 100, 1000, and eventually by up to 10,000+ people at a time. But the excitement was heightened because I knew this would perfectly sync with my busy graduate student schedule.

You make your own schedule

Here and there, I began to work on the site. I’d type a story between classes or when I finished work for the night. In a fleet of passion through my fingers, I’d hammer out intricate articles that were entirely my own desire. As much as I wanted to share my voice with others, I was writing for my own growth, too.

Unlike the Craigslist opportunities or strange side jobs around my college campus, writing online and becoming entrepreneurial allowed me even greater freedom in money-making endeavors. It was far easier to squeeze an hour of work where I could fit it, then worry about someone else’s overlapping or differing schedule. Frankly, it was empowering.

Entrepreneurial success is often predicated on fall back options

Graduate school, work, and my other job account for about 60 to 70 hours of work per week. At times, it was hard to digest how many hours were dedicated to my education. Until this academic year, I considered myself to be lazy. I didn’t want to work all that hard and found any opportunity to waste time.

By creating an outlet for my thoughts and conveniently forming it around my schedule, I kept my prior obligations while starting a new project. My grades and school experience hardly changed; actually, I was more diversified and felt grounded in life because of my entrepreneurial spirit.

Starting a business takes a certain gusto and risk, but having options helped insure against failure. If Frugaling didn’t work out, that would be okay. This wasn’t the only business venture going for me, and I wasn’t putting all my eggs in one basket. The failure of this would simply be a drop in the larger bucket.

Follow these examples to find your own achievement

I’m not alone in starting a business while staying busy. There are a tremendous number of tech titans that took to something on the side, and it turned into their main income. Here are two examples:

Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox

Houston was searching for a method to avoid the constant need for a flash drive. As a graduate student at MIT, he coded a rough basis for Dropbox.com. Basically, it would allow users to place a file online, and have access anywhere in the world to that same file, as long as there was Internet. Houston met his business partner at MIT and launched the company with the safety net of getting a masters degree from a top-tier institution with massive social connections. If Dropbox had failed, he would still be hirable at some terrific institutions. If it succeeded, he would get the best of both worlds.

Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook

Zuckerburg’s story is legendary now. Through a series of startups and ideas, Mark created a site that was exclusively for Harvard students. It was originally entitled, “The Facebook.” This elite establishment became the perfect territory to foment incredible demand. From there, Zuckerburg and his partners slowly spread the idea from university to university. The elite model appealed to a variety of people, but if it had failed, he would still be getting a Harvard degree.

The Smart Home: More Productive, Efficient, Emotive, And Economical

By Frugaling 1 Comment

Her Film Spike Jonze Smart Home Automation — *Her* by Spike Jonze.

The OS: Into our homes, hearts

Our brains are wired for interpersonal relations. Human-to-human contact reduces depression, anxiety, and a host of psychological concerns. When a child exhibits facial expressions that are more reminiscent of adults, there’s usually a cute relation to it. When a cat brushes up against you and purrs when you rub it, there’s a feeling of mutual connection. As adults, we connect with these as-if experiences – they’re so adult-like.

Skeptical Baby Meme Smart Home — *Skeptical Baby Meme*

Automated devices can be adult-like, too – mimicking that human-to-human experience and connection. In the recent film, Her, a lonely man falls in love with an operating system (“OS”). The OS predicts his needs, sends and organizes emails, and offers romantic companionship. The main character, Theodore, loves the anticipatory brilliance and personality of the device. Suddenly, this inanimate object becomes a vital part of his life – personally and professionally.

After watching the movie, a friend of mine asked if that predictive, assistive, and somewhat convivial system could ever exist. It made me chuckle. Frankly, these capabilities are nearly a reality and they’re going to lead to tremendous savings.

Beyond suggestions, you’ll find automation

If you ask Apple’s Siri (personal assistant software) how long it takes to drive from point A to point B, it’ll plainly explain how long and offer a map. The directions will account for changing traffic patterns, as well. Looking for the latest showtimes and reviews? Just ask Google Now and it’ll give you all the local theaters, films, and reviews. They all are at your service, waiting for your questions, concerns, and comments.

If an application can predict what you might like next (and is incentivized to offer paid suggestions), you’ll likely hear about some special deal at your favorite local restaurant. This could lead to budgetary problems from predictive advertising for some consumers, but there’s another side that is far more positive, environmentally friendly, economical, and a true productivity booster.

The power of smart homes, technology

Nest Thermostat Smart Home Appliances — *The Nest Thermostat*

If you’re a discerning automation expert, you may realize that asking a question and getting a simple response aren’t quite the same as engaging in full-length dialogue (back and forth) with a software package. This Her-like capability is coming to many devices. It’s going to completely revolutionize our homes, heads, and hearts.

Imagine walking up to your apartment/house, seeing the lights turn on, feeling the heat match your immediate needs, seeing the oven beginning to preheat (knowing that you got your favorite type of take-and-bake pizza); all the while, a virtual assistant checks in with you to see how your day went. This is the not so distant future.

By automating the simple tasks and leaving them to computers, we can appreciate from electricity, heating, and gas savings. Have you ever left your house’s air conditioning or heating on too high while away? How many times do you accidentally leave lights on in your house after you leave? These forgetful moments can seriously hurt your bottom line. Smart homes can predict and prevent these errors.

A few devices are already leading to serious savings. For instance, Nest has created a thermostat and smoke detector that can communicate with each other. Used in conjunction, these devices can tell when you’re presently in your home – changing the temperature to something more economical when you leave. All of it is automatic – no more adjustments. The thermostat can even be locked to prevent tampering. By properly controlling your thermostat, you can save $173 a year.

By allowing these devices into our home, we can actually be safer and more prepared if anything happens. The Nest Protect (smoke detector) sends alerts if it senses smoke and/or carbon monoxide. This is just the beginning of a serious technological evolution. The future will bring these systems in unison, and give them a voice.

The future looks frugal

There are many players in the smart home market. This has led to fractured, expensive devices. Companies are investing billions to create automation technologies with sharp designs, but they aren’t universally connected – they can’t necessarily communicate with other systems. This is where competition can hurt innovation.

These tech stalwarts and startups are battling for space in your home. Google has been on a buying spree – getting everything from Nest Labs to Boston Dynamics (a robotics company). Apple is developing and modifying Siri constantly – aiming to make it more interactive and available. Each of these iterations will further a sci-fi reality that includes a smarter home.

As the leaders emerge and prices begin to fall, the demands that technology and regular household devices ask of us will swiftly decline. We should have more time for work, family, and enjoying what’s really important in life. This the essence of frugality and it’s coming to fruition one smart device at a time.

In case you haven’t seen Her, here’s the trailer:

52 Lessons From Blogging A Year