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My personal blog, Debt Discipline, was started in 2013. It was started, so we could stay connected to the personal finance community as we worked our way out of debt.

It was just a personal blog where we shared our family’s journey with debt and money. Debt Discipline wasn’t my first blog. I had another blog, which was not a WordPress blog, under a different domain name that no one read, which I started on the blogging platform, blogger.

Over the years, Debt Discipline has morphed into something bigger than just a personal blog sharing our story.

After we felt like we had a firm footing on our finances, we wanted to help others accomplish what we had. We became debt free in 2015, and I believe that when the purpose of my personal blog shifted. I also saw the opportunity to earn some side money with it too.

Personal Blog Traps

Overall, running Debt Discipline has been a roller coaster. There have been many peaks and valleys over the years. It’s been frustrating to see other newer blogs grow faster, make more money, generate higher blog traffic, etc.

Most bloggers over the years have been very helpful. Answering any direct questions, if I had any, but often we don’t know exactly what to ask or what we are doing wrong that’s preventing our blogs from growing. Often bloggers share “How to Make Money Blogging” posts stuffed with a lot of fluff, and affiliate links. Honestly, they are not very helpful.



There have been times I’ve wanted to let my personal blog go. It was just not worth the time and energy for the return I was seeing. But almost every time I’ve considered letting Debt Discipline go, some reader contact looking for help draws me back in.

So to take the blog to the next level, I joined a mastermind group.

Masterminds Long History

Are you familiar with a mastermind group? I’ve heard the term over the last few years but had no idea its long history.

According to Wikipedia, a mastermind group is a peer-to-peer mentoring concept used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members. The idea was coined in 1925 by author Napoleon Hill in his book The Law of Success and described in more detail in his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich.

In his writings, Hill discussed the idea of the Master Mind, which referred to two or more people coming together in harmony to solve problems.

Cooperation through the use of mastermind groups was one of the laws of success that Hill learned by studying successful Americans, including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, and Charles M. Schwab.

There have been several famous mastermind groups throughout the years.

King Author and the Knights of the Round Table – the legendary British leader formed a group of his best knights, who demonstrated courage, honor, and dignity. The mastermind group was as large as twenty-five knights. Lancelot was the most famous.

J.R.R. Tolkien and The Inklings – J.R.R. Tolkien, a writer, started an informal literary mastermind group to critic each other work known as the Inklings. Some of the famous members included CS Lewis and Charles Williams.

Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men – Walt, a pioneer of the animation industry, created a mastermind group with nine of his best animators. The Nine Old Men referred to the nine Supreme Court judges.

Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trusts – Roosevelt the 32nd presidents of the United States created a mastermind group of his closest advisors,

Benjamin Franklin’s The Junto – One of our founding fathers started a 12 member improvement mastermind group. It was also called the “Leather Apron Club.”

Thomas Edison’s The Vagabonds – The famous inventor started his mastermind group to talk about ideas, current events, and business ventures.

It’s easy to see the long history and success of the groups mentioned above. So, after six years of blogging, I’ve joined a mastermind group intending to take my personal blog and turn it into a passive money-making blog with a broader reach.

Blogging Mastermind Group

I’ve had mild success blogging. Over the last six years, I have built a small following, and have made enough money to support the blog each year. But from an actual traffic perspective, I’ve been running on fumes for months.

I have contemplated riding off into the sunset with Debt Discipline several times in the last year. Hell, six years consistently, blogging is a good run. I’ve seen several hundred blogs come and go over that time. Maybe it was time for me.

Although there are plenty of other blogs out there, I still believe I can provide some unique value. The month of April also provides me with a bit of extra inspiration as we celebrate Financial Literacy Month. I always like to ramp up content to focus on the importance of that initiative.

It was around that time last year that I had some outreach with some fellow bloggers and joined what at the time was an elite bloggers group, intending to help each other’s blogs grow by sharing blogging tips. Upon joining, I saw an immediate impact on my blog’s audience and reach. My email list grew, and social media follows increased, too.

Having a small group of collaborative bloggers, who are willing to help one another grow was just what I needed at this point of Debt Discipline. It quickly came apparent that I still had much to learn about producing content, syndication, and SEO.

Blogging, in general, has a low entry point so much so that anyone can start a blog. To be successful, in whatever way you define that success, such as reaching a larger audience, making money from your blog, social media, google ranking, etc. you need to master many behind the scene things and often many technical aspects of your personal blog.

Having a group of bloggers to learn from and bounce ideas off of with no judgment has been the key to tripling my traffic in the last three months. That initial blogger’s group eventually become the “Insiders.”

The Insiders

The mastermind group I’ve joined is called The Money Mix Insiders. It’s a kick-ass group of bloggers all working towards similar goals. A great group of veteran bloggers runs the Mix.

Here’s a little more about the Money Mix mission form their site.

We started The Money Mix to bring the latest and greatest money and financial news, stories, and articles together in one place.

We love the personal finance community, and this is a website created both for and by the personal finance community.

The Money Mix’s Why

The mission of the Money Mix is influence. We curate the very best from around the Internet and connect the most highly-influential writers by working together.

The Money Mix is a great place to start your money journey each day, but our goal is actually to drive as much traffic as possible away from our site!

The Insiders program is designed to harness the power of sharing resources to boost pageviews and engage new audiences. Only high-motivated writers are accepted into this program. If you’d like more information, click below.

Our network of influence is designed to provide companies and organizations with extremely high-quality content shared among high-DA (Domain Authority) web sites, instantly instilling credibility and authenticity among products and services.

Money Mix Insiders Benefits

Here are some of the Money Mix Insiders benefits I enjoy:

Private Forum

A wide selection of SEO-friendly content

A diverse set of bloggers with targeted audiences

Free web hosting on the Insiders own dedicated server

Access to a growing collection of SEO and website tools to help keyword research, chart domain performance and build colorful, fully-responsible pages in WordPress

Hands-on coaching and access to premium Webinars

Conference calls to review blog topics in-depth

Endless potential to expand their reach and social engagement

Paid post opportunities

But more than just what’s listed above is each member’s insight. I’ve learned so much from each member of the group — simple things like what WordPress plugins to use, content marketing tips, feedback on content, blog configuration questions, affiliate marketing, and social media tips. Their encouragement is infectious. I like to think of the group as my personal blogging twelve-step group.

The private forum alone has been an invaluable source of information and key to my recent audience growth. It seems like daily, I’m picking up a bit of information to improve my blog’s reach. This past week we discussed the proper use of categories and tags. It seems I’ve been using them wrong for years.

Even if you don’t want to improve your blog, join for the inside jokes and personal finance blogging banter.

I’ve only been involved in this mastermind group for less than a year, but it’s been well worth my investment. Because of the Insiders, I’ve been able to increase my traffic enough to join one of the larger Ad networks, drop Google Adsense, and have seen consistent monetization income month over month.

How You Can Join the Money Mix Insiders

It easy to join the money mix insiders and get immediate access to all the things mentioned here. Simply click here to begin the process. After signing up, you’ll receive your welcome email, and it begins.

The money mix insider’s mastermind group is made up of over a dozen bloggers and growing. Here’s what some of the members had to say about the group.

Nathan from Millionaire Dojo says:

The Money Mix Insiders program is a group dedicated to growing each member’s blog at a rapid pace. Since joining the group, I have learned so many valuable tips for growing my blog that I have been able to implement immediately. The program is unlike anything out there, and I look forward to watching my blog explode with the group’s help over time.

Robin from Mastering the Side Jam says:

Honestly, it’s the group I’ve been waiting for. I’ve been in several blogging groups, and they’ve all been extremely helpful in a number of ways. Because it’s great to bounce ideas off of other bloggers, no matter the niche. But it’s even better to be able to collaborate with those who specialize in the same subject matter you do. We’re all money bloggers. And even though we don’t all write about the same exact topics, everyone is in-tune with each others’ struggles and wins. We support each other daily. We’re not adversaries, and we’re not each others’ competition. The group works because we help support each other. Each and every one of us wants the others to succeed.

Mr. SR from Semi-Retire Plan says:

The Insiders program has been a tremendous help — it has allowed me to jump-start my blog. Having a community of other bloggers is extremely valuable when it comes to navigating the ever-evolving blogosphere. Choosing plugins, experiencing technical problems, working on SEO — the Insiders group has helped me in each of these areas. Plus, the support and friendship in the group just makes blogging more enjoyable.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! As you can read, the Money Mix Insider’s mastermind group has had a significant impact not only on Debt Discipline but on these members as well.

If you are looking to take your personal blog and turn it into, a monetized site, I hope you’ll consider joining, and we can begin collaborating too. The cost to participate per month is $180 for full membership and $119 for basic. That may seem like a high cost, but it’s well worth it! The free tools paid opportunities, and all the insight makes it well worth the value of the Insiders. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the Money Mix Insider’s group or any other questions you may have.

Brian is a Dad, husband, and an IT professional by trade. A Personal Finance Blogger since 2013. Who, with his family, has successfully paid off over $100K worth of consumer debt. Now that Brian is debt-free, his mission is to help his three children prepare for their financial lives and educate others to achieved financial success. Brian is involved in his local community. As a Financial Committee Chair with the Board of Education of his local school district, he has helped successfully launch a K-12 financial literacy program in a six thousand student district.