Blogger Spotlight: Jonathan Gutteridge, The Money Shed
Jonathan Gutteridge is the author of The Money Shed, which recently ranked in the Top 10 UK Personal Finance Blogs. The largest community websites focused on earning money online, The Money Shed helps people find home-based opportunities and shares experiences of making money in the digital world. We spoke to Jonathan about avoiding judgement, engaging his readership, working with PRs and his absolute favourite blogger.
How would you describe your blog?
The Money Shed is the UK’s largest community website dedicated to earning money from home. People can come to our site and instantly find out how to earn £1,000+ a month from home without any trouble. We have a community forum with over 100,000 posts on it as well, which is chocked full of thousands of UK members all talking about how they earn money from home.
Why did you start your blog?
I wanted to create an alternative to MoneySavingExpert. I wanted to create somewhere where people could ask questions and get helpful replies instantly to get them earning money as soon as possible. I wanted to create a culture that wasn’t just advising people to do surveys for pennies but would promote higher paying things such as Web Search Evalulator work or Risk Free Matched Betting .
What’s the biggest issue facing personal finance today?
Judgement. People made decisions a lot of the time because they are right for them at that point in their life. Sadly, that can come with a lot of judgement, either from their family or friends or from the banks. There’s sadly a real culture of looking down on people who are just trying to crawl their way out of debt in the best way they can.
How do you think Brexit, once enacted, will affect our finances in the UK?
Well it’s already affected our exchange rate with the Dollar. I remember working the night of Brexit and literally watching it nosedive as it became clear ‘out’ was going to win. Apart from that I just think it’s too difficult to say at the moment how it will change things financially, heck, not even the Government seem to know!
What piece of advice would you give a young adult in relation to how they manage their money?
Make a spreadsheet. I know it sounds boring to anyone under 40 but visually being able to track where your money is going can really set you up for life. If spreadsheets really aren’t your thing then you can look at using one of the many money tracking smartphone apps around so you can keep on top of things.
How do you engage with your readership?
The forum is the number one place to find me. As the UK’s largest community site dedicated to earning from home, it is always busy but I personally connect with every new user who signs up to get an understanding of what drew them to The Money Shed and what I can do to help get them earning and improve their financial situation. On top of that I would say social media is a biggie, it can feel like you are on a conveyor belt sometimes trying to manage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. all at once but it’s worth it when you connect with people and are able to help them out.
What makes your blog successful?
It’s been featured in The Sun, Daily Mail, The Mirror and all sorts of other places but I wouldn’t say that’s what makes successful. Instead I look at how many lives The Money Shed has been able to change. People have been able to have holidays or even just been able to afford the bills easier thanks to my site once they are shown how easy it is to earn a decent amount from home.
How do you like to work with PRs?
Always, until I get told there isn’t a budget and ‘others’ have worked for free and they sort of expected me to do the same. Lol.
What’s the one thing all PR pros should know about you?
That I don’t work for free but your content will get cross promoted across both our blog AND our forum so you get double the bang for your buck!
What other blogs do you read?
Slummy Single Mummy is probably the only regular one that I read every few days if only because I like to see her latest middle-class japes.
Jonathan Gutterridge and The Money Shed are just two entries on the Vuelio Influencer Database, which is the UK’s leading influencer database available to the PR and communications industries.
We haven’t come across his blog but off to have a read now. Great interview
This was a good read. I enjoy reading Jon’s blog. I think debt sucks massively and would love to get out of it completely.
I think I need to start making up a spreadsheet, it would definitely make it easier to track finances. I also get annoyed when PRs say there isn’t a budget and other people worked for free. No two blogs are the same, reach, following and general statistics can differ dramatically.
I like the money shed, some great advice although I hate blinking spreadsheets! Ha x
What a lovely interview. I like how committed you are to making a difference.
I follow Jon’s blog and have made some great savings thanks to his tips
I completely agree – do not underestimate the power of a spreadsheet!!
Great interview. Big fan of Jons blog, I’ve picked up some great tips from him!
I’ve followed The Money Shed for a while now and the forum is a great place to chat to like-minded people!
I hate spredsheets but definitely agree they are great for seeing where your money is going and keeping u on track.
So many people want to earn extra money from home so it sounds like this site has some really good ideas and advice. I’ll have to have a look.
I agree with the comment about working with PR until they want something for nothing. No one else works for free so why should we!
Great to see John on here his blog is full of nuggets of wisdom and I always love reading his opinions on all things money.