Fifth Anniversary Post - 2012

Wow, it has already been another year. Today, October 31, 2012, marks my fifth full year of writing as Dividends4Life. Like the first four years, I have had a wonderful time and saw many changes over the year. Looking back much has changed since last year's anniversary post. Below are some of the more notable items:

Growth Slowed In 2012

In prior years, I experienced phenomenal growth in just about every aspect. In 2012 this growth slowed some. I attribute this to the fact that investing dividend growth stocks has gone main stream. In 2007 when I started writing as Divdends4Life, there were only a handful of sites that covered dividend growth stocks. Mainstream sites ridiculed this approach to investing. Funny how tough economic times can change the minds of so many.  Now every outlet from the Wall Street Journal to the local blogger is singing the praises of dividend growth stocks.

I am sure another contributing factor to the slowing growth has been my availability. With a larger D4L-Premium Services subscriber base (see below) and kids hitting the teenage years, I've had less time for the public free site. My daughter is a senior in high-school and my son is a sophomore. Both are heavily involved in extracurricular activities from yearbook production (daughter) to Jujitsu (son). Soon they will be off to college, so dad is try to find opportunities to spend time with them now.

DividendsValue.com and Dividends4Life.com

These two sites continue to grow and provide a valuable service to investors within the dividend growth community.

DividendsValue.com is an automated dividend news site. It provides dividend news on stocks including dividend increases and earnings reports. Its always available and is updated 24/7. If you haven't visited DividendsValue.com be sure to check it out.

Dividends4Life.com, my original site, continues to provide a synopsis of 2-3 interesting dividend articles each day, with a link to the full article. In has developed a loyal and growing following.

Since last October, Dividends4Life has seen over 10,000 page loads each month and now has over 600 RSS/Email readers, up from 500 this time last year. If you haven't visited Dividends4Life, click here to check it out and be sure to subscribe to its Email or RSS feeds.

D4L-Premium Services

On July 9, 2009, we introduced D4L-Premium Services as premium content for the serious dividend investor. At the time, I had hoped to get 20-30 subscribers as my break-even target. To my amazement, it has surpassed my wildest expectations. Last October D4L-Premium Services had 450 active subscribers and it has now grown to over 500 active subscribers.

D4L-Premium Services is designed to provide the busy dividend growth investor with a wealth of relevant information. Each week the D4L-Premium Services publishes pertinent data on 220+ of the best dividend stocks. It consists of:

• D4L-Dashboard: An easy to read, color-coded, dashboard that sorts the 220+ stocks by Stars and yield.
• Analytical Reports: A detailed analytical report is available for all 220+ stocks tracked.
• D4L-Data: A LibreOffice (OpenOffice) spreadsheet containing a significant amount of data on each of the 220+ dividend stocks tracked. The data is sortable and has built-in buttons and macros to make it easy to use.
• D4L-Alerts: Subscribers get an email alert when relevant news breaks, when content has been updated, or when I make a trade in my income portfolio.
• D4L-Forums: Have you ever looked for a place where you can intelligently discuss dividend growth stocks with like-minded people? D4L-Forums is the place where serious dividend investors gather.

I continue to look for ways to provide additional benefits for subscribers. During the past year I introduced a new comprehensive portfolio manger written in LibreOffice (OpenOffice). It is currently available to subscribers in an Alpha version. I hope to release a final version in early 2013. Click here for more information on the D4L-Premium Services.

Contined Growth

As mentioned in every Pocket Change Portfolio update, I never expected my site go anywhere and certainly didn't expect the growth I have seen over the past five years. Since last October, our Email/RSS subscriptions have grown from to over 3,000.

My articles are syndicated on several sites, many of which have a large number of followers such as Seeking Alpha where I have over 38,000 readers following me. I continue to be amazed and humbled at how far these sites have come.

Thanks!

Most importantly, I want to thank every reader that takes time from their busy schedule to spend a few minutes with me each week! There have been so many wonderful people that I have got to know as a result of my writing. I appreciate all who have faithfully read, commented and supported my sites over the last five years. I am truly looking forward to what tomorrow will bring!

Best Wishes To All,
D4L