One of my goals for this blog is to get to know other personal finance bloggers. I love blogging and getting to know other bloggers. And, one of the best ways to get to know other bloggers is through interviews. In this interview, I had the privilege of interviewing Peter from Bible Money Matters. For those of you who don't know Peter designed my logo here at The Debt Hawk.
If you don't subscribe to Bible Money Matters you are missing out on some great personal finance articles, so after reading this article, go and subscribe to his blog.
Now on with the interview.
The Debt Hawk: Thank you so much for agreeing to participate in this interview. I am dieing to know more about you and your blog. And I am sure that my readers are too.
The Debt Hawk: When did you first get interested in blogging?
Bible Money Matters: I first got interested in blogging around 2003-2004 when I started a personal blog on blogspot.com as a place to write about my life, share family photos, rant about politics and just vent. That blog has long since disappeared, but in January 2008 I wanted to get back in the blogging game because I enjoy writing so much. After reading a wide range of blogs, I realized that the personal finance niche was one that really interested me, and that would hold my interest well over time. I launched Bible Money Matters at the end of January 2008 and I've been writing at least 5 posts a week almost every week since then. I've now got over 700 published posts on my site!
The Debt Hawk: How did you come up with the idea of starting Bible Money Matters?
Bible Money Matters: When I started reading personal finance blogs a couple of Christian personal finance blogs really inspired me to start my own PF blog from a Christian perspective. Those sites were Christianpf.com and GatherLittleByLittle.com. My faith is important to me, and I believe it should affect all aspects of my life, including my finances. Lucky for me the bible has a ton to say about money, with over 2300 verses pertaining to money topics. I chose a domain name that was keyword rich, and started blogging from that perspective.
The Debt Hawk: In simplest terms, what is your philosophy regarding personal finance?
Bible Money Matters: I believe that we need to spend less than we make, and that increasing your income over time is key. While increasing your income don't fall victim to lifestyle inflation -instead live below your means and save, invest and give!
The Debt Hawk: What do you want people to get out of Bible Money Matters?
Bible Money Matters: My goal for Bible Money Matters is to help educate people about their finances, as well as talking to them about my faith and how it can positively impact their lives as it has mine. I think that we've got a huge knowledge gap in this country when it comes to personal finance, and I think personal finance blogs can help to fill that gap by providing educational material, real life experiences and motivation for all of our readers.
The Debt Hawk: What are your personal goals with Bible Money Matters?
Bible Money Matters: I would love to take Bible Money Matters to a place where I can commit more time to it and make it a full time endeavor instead of a sideline pursuit. I love educating others about money, and to make it my full time job is one of my dreams. In the year and a half I've been blogging I've been able to increase the site's income to a place where I never thought it would reach, and now after seeing the success that other sites have had I really do think it is an attainable goal to be a full time blogger. Yes it's a lot of hard work, but worth it if you really enjoy it as much as I do.
The Debt Hawk: Are you or have you ever been in debt? What do you think are the 5 best tips for getting out of debt?
Bible Money Matters: Currently the only debt that my wife and I have is the mortgage on our home. All of our other consumer debts, school loans and credit cards have been paid off for some time now. Right after we got married my wife and I decided that we didn't want to be slaves to debt - and that we wanted to get rid of our debt as fast as possible. After a couple years of marriage we became debt free after paying off $20,000+ in student loans and 2-3k in credit card debt. Since then we haven't taken on any new debts besides home mortgage debt.
5 best tips for getting out of debt?
- Use a debt snowball or another proven method to get out of debt.
- Do a budget so you know where your money is coming in and going out.
- Cut your un-needed monthly expenses like cable tv and eating out, apply extra money towards debt reduction.
- Don't add new debt, make sure you have an emergency fund of at least $1000 saved for incidentals that might come up.
- Save up and pay cash for the things you need.
The Debt Hawk: If someone came up to you wanting to start a personal finance blog, what are the best pieces of advice you would give them based on what you have learned from creating Bible Money Matters?
Bible Money Matters: If you think you're going to just start a personal finance blog, write a few posts and start making a bunch of money, think again. Blogging is a lot of work, and to make money blogging you'll have to put in a lot of hours. If you're ok with that, and you have a good work ethic you really can make a nice side income blogging.
There are a lot of things that go into having a successful blog. I can’t pretend that I’m an expert quite yet, but some of the things I think are important include:
- Getting a keyword rich domain name, and self hosting your site using wordpress.
- Getting a decent wordpress theme. It doesn't have to be anything special, as long as it doesn't detract from your writing.
- Write a lot of good content - especially when you’re starting out. I would post at least 5 times a week, sometimes more. I just published my 700th article and now that I have a nice archive built up my earnings are starting to do quite well.
- Network with other bloggers in your niche through forums, social media, commenting, etc.
- Participate in lots of blog carnivals and write articles for article sites to get backlinks.
- Use SEO plugins or themes with SEO features built in to help you in creating good search rankings for your site.
- Leverage social media like twitter, facebook, digg, reddit, stumbleupon, etc to promote your site, and network with others.
- Write some more good content.
- Write more.
See, it's simple!
The Debt Hawk: What are you favorite resources for personal finance news and advice?
Bible Money Matters: Some of my favorite sites for personal finance news and advice include aggregator sites like Tipd.com, pfbuzz.com or alltop.com. I also read a wide range of other personal finance blogs, finance news sites and books. I have several hundred sites in my RSS reader that I peruse every morning - which is extremely helpful for finding post ideas, hearing about important news, etc.
The Debt Hawk: If someone asked you to recommend one book for them to read regarding personal finance, what book would you recommend?
Bible Money Matters: I'm a big Dave Ramsey fan, so I'd suggest that they read Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover
The Debt Hawk: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
Bible Money Matters: Our economy is going through some tough times right now and I think a lot of people are struggling with their finances looking for a bit of hope. I just want people to know that there is hope, and that things will get better. If you commit yourself to doing a budget, getting out of debt and creating a sound financial plan, you can succeed. Don't give up, get started on making a change today! Don't wait for someone else to bail you out, but do what you can for yourself -and rely on God and he will help you through.
Again, I would like to thank Peter. Please go over to Bible Money Matters and check out his blog. It is excellent. Peter is also active on Twitter. You can follow his at http://twitter.com/moneymatters.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Mark for the chance to share a bit more about myself! I appreciate it!
Peter,
Thank you for agreeing to do the interview. I hope that everyone enjoys it.
Good article. Peter seems very chilled out about his great success!