I figured that since this will be the last interview for a few weeks I would have to find a really amazing person to interview. After searching far and wide (on the internet) I found the perfect person to interview, Erica Douglass of Erica.biz. No point to even try introducing Erica because she does a great job of describing herself in the interview:

Me: Your story is really inspirational and interesting. What motivated you to start a website where you share your tips?

Erica: I’ve been writing a blog for a long time; I started with a LiveJournal nearly 12 years ago. I have always enjoyed writing. After I sold my business, I realized people really wanted to hear my story, and also became aware that blogging could be a huge path to success for me. So, in December 2007, I bought the domain name erica.biz, moved my blog over, and started writing for other people instead of just myself and my friends!

Me: What are your greatest accomplishments?

Erica: Big question! Stating the obvious, selling my business for over $1 million at age 26 was unquestionably awesome. But there have been many other accomplishments I am proud of. I love public speaking and getting up on stage, and I have had the opportunity to speak in front of hundreds of people about business success. Recently, someone recognized me on the street from my blog, which was another great milestone. Finally, going from ~70 subscribers in late 2007 on my blog to over 2600 today is another thing I am quite proud of.

Me: If you had to start a business all over again from scratch how would you do it?

Erica: I am kind of doing this now — launching my new business, Inspiring Innovators, and blogging about the launch process. I would do what I am doing now (a membership site) instead of picking web hosting. Web hosting is a brutal industry. Membership sites have the perks of web hosting — a monthly fee — without the 24×7 support, pagers, and network outages.

Me: Any tips for starting a new business during a recession?

Erica: Great question. I wrote two posts about this: How To Choose A Business and Three Business Ideas That Will Thrive In A Recession. Since this is a hot topic, I will have many more posts about it, as well. Definitely subscribe to erica.biz and join my community to find out more.

Me: What advice would you like to give to current college students?

Erica:Know what you want out of life. If you want to own a business, there is no reason you have to graduate college to do that. In fact, I believe the best time to take a risk is when you are young. I started my business when I was 20. But then again, I knew even in high school that I would not likely complete college. I am happy with my decision to drop out, but I support others who think that graduating is the best choice for them.

It’s really all about what YOU want, not what your family/friends think are right. My mom told me when I dropped out (yelled, actually) “This is the worst decision you have ever made!” Years later, even before I sold my business, she broke down and said she was amazed by my courage to do what I thought was right instead of what other people thought would be best. Dropping out taught me to have courage and faith in myself, and that was probably a more valuable life lesson than many I would have found had I remained in school.

Me: What mistakes have you learned from the most?

Erica:I didn’t hire an accountant when I first started, and my business was really a mess financially. Having lost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to poor accounting, I am now a huge fan of documenting where my money goes. Spending money is the easiest thing in the world when you have a business. Knowing where that money goes, and whether you are cashflow negative or positive, is key.

An accountant can help you get a system set up that you can use daily or weekly to enter sales and expenses, and then help you file quarterly and annual returns. When you first start out, it may seem really expensive to hire an accountant, but you want to have those systems set up so you can focus on your business!

Me: What are common mistakes have you seen others make when it comes to starting a new business?

Erica:I talk about one common mistake — wishing to appear more “corporate” — in Delivering the Best Customer Experience, and another in Why Your Business Isn’t Doing As Well As It Could Be. The latter, despite its imperfect title, is probably one of the most important posts I have written. I could sell hours and hours of consulting time at $500/hour just fixing this one mistake for customers, and it would pay huge dividends for their businesses.

After almost a month hiatus I have returned with another interview with a personal finance blogger. I had the luxury of speaking with the full time blogger- Bob from Christian PF. Before I even get into the interview I want all of you to take a moment to read Bob’s post on how he earns a full time income from his blog.

Me: What do you think are the factors that have made your blog so successful?

Bob:

1. I had no idea that the Bible had so much to say about how to succeed in life – you would be amazed at some of the things I have found…

2. By defining success I mean, once I got laid off from my job and was attempting to make a full time income, success to me was making enough money from the blog to pay my bills. It wasn’t a # of visitors each day, or subscribers, it was paying my bills with the blog. That caused me to think about things differently.

3. And as far as the learning thing, when I got into this game, I knew next to nothing about blogging and the internet and while I still feel like I have a ton to learn, I have constantly been trying to learn more. When I didn’t understand how and why things worked, I didn’t turn my head, I dug in and tried to learn it. And from the 100s of mistakes I have learned quite a bit as well… Learning from mistakes and not repeating them is very important.

Me: What is a typical day in the life of a full time personal finance blogger?

Bob: Basically I write in the mornings and spend the afternoon on maintenance, optimization, building traffic, email, other online projects, etc..

Me: Any quick advice for personal finance bloggers that hope to go full time one day?

Bob: Keep writing – and find what monetization strategies are working and reinvest your energy into what works. I am all for diversifying and having multiple streams of income, but focusing a great majority of your time on the things that are already going well is a good idea.

Me: What financial decisions are you most proud of?

Bob: Deciding to care about my finances. I know it sounds simple, but it is the most challenging thing for most people. Once you car about getting your financial life in order – I mean REALLY care – a burning desire to get out of debt, make more money, etc, it really is pretty easy. So for us, once I decided to care, all the financial decisions really weren’t that difficult – as Dave Ramsey says, “20% head knowledge and 80% behavior.”

Me: Least proud of?

Bob: The way I paid for college was ridiculous. I bounced from schools a couple times when I changed majors and I wasn’t thinking anything about how much things cost. I ended up spending over $50,000 on a business degree that I probably could have gotten for a fraction of that if I would have been smart about it…

Me: Any advice for college graduates of 2009?

Bob:I told my wife that if we can spend our 20s making sacrifices financially, the rest of our lives would be pretty nice. There are about 100 reasons why this is a good idea, but basically look at it as your foundation that you are going to build on. So, when all your friends buy new cars, buy the cheapest (reliable) one you can afford, avoid credit cards like the plague, work hard at everything you do – people are always watching, pay attention to the small things…

At the time, I wasn’t sure that I believed what I was saying, but as I am almost 30, I am starting to believe what I told her.

Once again I would like to thank Bob for his well thought out answers and for sharing his input. Please take a moment to check out ChristianPF if you haven’t already done so.

Yes I have returned with another interview with an established personal finance blogger. This time I had the opportunity to speak with Peter from Bible Money Matters. I first spoke with Peter when he designed the logo for this site through his Logos For Websites service. Bible Money Matters is obviously a personal finance blog from the perspective of a Christian and it has a more positive tone than most blogs out there. I hope you have a chance to check out his blog and to read the following interview.

Me: What do you think are the key factors for the high level of success you have attained?
Peter: There are a lot of things that go into having a blog become successful. I can’t pretend that I’m an expert quite yet, but some of the things I’ve done so far that really helped me included:

Getting my own domain with good keywords, and self hosting the site using wordpress.
Getting a decent theme, that isn’t too distracting and is somewhat eye pleasing
Writing 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 600th article after just over a year of blogging!
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 for wordpress to aid you in creating good SEO 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.

It’s a learning process, and over time you’ll find out what things work, and what things don’t.

Me: What advice would you give to a new personal finance blogger?
Peter: Don’t give up!  There are so many new personal finance blogs popping up every day, and most of them will fail. The reason?  Too many of them give up or lose interest before they reach the tipping point.  Stick with it, write 4-5 good posts a week and over time you’ll reach a critical mass where you start making money, your posts start getting a lot of comments, and you start getting mentioned by others in roundups/etc.  For me it took a good 4-5 months before I really started getting traction.

Me: What personal finance advice would you give to a college student?
Peter: Try not to weigh yourself down with debt before graduation through student loans and credit cards.  Be conscious of the dangers of debt.  For most people going to a good in-state school will be a lot cheaper, and you can often pay off your tuition and room and board by working a little bit while you go to school.  Try to get scholarships, grants and other free money to pay for your schooling.  And don’t fall for the trap that says “Have fun now, pay for it later”.  I know I did and it took a long time to pay for it.

Me: What was the best financial decision you ever made?
Peter: One of the best financial decisions I ever made was to stop using credit and other debt, and instead started living a cash only lifestyle.  When you stop living with debt, which to most people is pretty normal, you have a weight lifted off your shoulders, and living life becomes a whole lot more fun!

Me: The worst?
Peter: The worst decision was probably signing up for a couple of credit cards in college because of the free t-shirts, and then proceeding to charge all sorts of things on those cards. Road trips, beer, TVs, video game consoles, you name it.

Me: What do you do for fun?
Peter: I love doing all sorts of outdoor activities.  Things like mountain biking on the trails near my house, playing tennis, softball and basketball.  I also love blogging, hanging out on social media sites, playing board games with my family, and playing my instruments (violin and guitar).  I also have a love of photography – who knows, maybe I’ll start a photography blog sometime soon!

I can’t believe it has been a month since I have posted one of these great interviews. For today’s interview I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the most popular personal finance bloggers- Lazy Man of Lazy Man and Money. In fact Lazy Man was a full time blogger until he went back into the work force recently. Enjoy the interview:

Me: What was your first major break as a blogger?

Lazy Man: That’s a tough one. I remember being excited about things that were silly early on. One time I got a Best Choice Blog on Brainwash Cafe – a blog that isn’t exactly lighting it up in the traffic department. It was huge to me. Another time I had an article make PF Blogs most popular list and I thought I was the coolest cat on the block. However, I think that getting nominated for Reader’s Choice as one of the Best Money Blogs of 2007 by Performancing. I finished third, which was pretty cool considering I don’t have a 10th of the readership of some of those people nominated. All that said, I’m still waiting for a huge site like the Consumerist or Lifehacker to realize I exist.

Me: What have been some of your major roadblocks on the journey to success?

Lazy Man: Every three weeks or so, I run out of ideas.  I have nothing.  When that happens, I try to read other people’s blogs and comment on them.  Sometimes I get new ideas and often I find that I get traffic from my link in the comments.  Other times, I’ve simply got too much going on to keep up with.  Setting up advertising deals, dealing with public relations people sending you books all the time, writing back to commenters, it can get to be pretty time consuming.

Me: Being one of the most popular personal finance blogs out there, how would you do it all over again if you were to start today?

Lazy Man: Learning how to blog is a process.  When I started, I simply got a Blogspot blog and started writing.  For 6 months no one came to my site.  Then I learned that there was a community of other bloggers, blogging on the same topic I did – personal finance.  So if I had to do it all over again, I’d probably pick up a book about blogging.  I would also follow websites about blogging.

Me: If there was one thing you could change about Lazy Man and Money what would it be?

Lazy Man: This is another tough one.  I have the power to change just about everything on Lazy Man and Money.  So in a lot of cases, I’ve made some of the changes that I already see fit.  I realize that I simply don’t know what I have to do to take Lazy Man and Money to the next level.  This is why I’m working on a reader survey.  I can never get enough good feedback.

Me: Now it’s time for you to have some fun and tear my blog apart. How would you improve Studenomics?

Lazy Man:  I can be extremely harsh sometimes, so I hope you can take this… I’d switch to showing 5 or more posts on your home page.  I’ve never found a lot of value highlighting the comments in the sidebar either.  You should also allow a way for people to sign up to get your content delivered in their email inbox (Feedburner provides this service).  Honestly, that’s about all that I can see.  I look at the design and it’s professional, much better than the theme I hacked together myself.  The content is great and you make it very “scannable”.  I would say include more pictures, but that’s something that I’m often too Lazy to do.  The other thing I would suggest is just doing what you are doing, getting your name out there by commenting, getting in carnivals, doing guest posts, things like that.

The student personal finance blogger interviews continue all month long. For today’s interview I had the privilege of obtaining some insightful answers from the Broke Grad Student. If for some strange reason you haven’t heard of the blog, the basic premise is that BGS is blogging about his adventures in paying back $22,000 worth of student loans.

Me: What do you think are the reasons behind your blog becoming so successful?

BGS: In my opinion, there’s no secret to success. It takes a combination of hard work, persistence, a little help from some friends (networking), and luck. Every success story contains these same ingredients, just mixed together in different ways.

I’ve been able to put in the hard work, because I truly enjoy writing. I’ve been able to keep it up, because I’m passionate about personal finance. When you mix these two things together, the result is quality content that’s fun for me to write and fun for you to read.

Of course, accomplishing goals is always easier with a little help from your friends. This is why I started the College Money Network with a small group of young personal finance bloggers. I also regularly participate in and occasionally host personal finance carnivals. More recently, I’ve started using Twitter to keep in touch with my PF friends, so feel free to follow me.

Last but not least, there’s luck. Although I believe that we ultimately have no control over luck, we can still do things to increase our chances of being lucky. I’ve done this through hard work, persistence, a great network of friends, and, most importantly, keeping my fingers crossed at all times.

Me: What were some of the major “breaks” you received as a blogger?

BGS: I received my first “big break” when MSN Smart Spending wrote a post about my article on 6 reasons why I hate cash. The post spent a day linked on MSN Money after it was promoted as an Editor’s Pick. That exposure helped open the door to more opportunities which have in turn led to even more opportunities. It’s kind of like surfing. Sometimes you catch the waves, and sometimes you don’t.

Me: If you could go back to age 18, what would you do differently knowing what you know now?

BGS: Knowing now what I didn’t know then, if I were 18 again, I would try to take more responsibility for my finances before going off to college. In particular, I would learn more about the financial aid process instead of just handing over the forms to my parents and asking them to take care of it. This knowledge would be extremely useful four years down the road when applying for financial aid in grad school.

Me: Your number one tip for saving money in this economy?

BGS: Negotiate your rent. This tip won’t work for everyone, but if it does, the savings could be huge. The economic crisis has caused vacancies to rise. In an effort to keep units occupied, landlords are having to negotiate with tenants. By negotiating a lower rent, you could potentially save hundreds or thousands of dollars over the next year.

Me: Decision you are most proud of in your 20s?

BGS: Ironically enough, going to grad school is the best decision I have made in my 20s. Despite putting me $22,000 in debt, grad school opened the door to two opportunities that probably wouldn’t have happened had I gone straight into the real world. First, it helped me land a job at my dream company doing something that I truly enjoy. Second, it’s the reason that this blog exists in the first place. While I wouldn’t recommend grad school for everyone, if you have a general idea of what you want to get out of it, then I say go for it. You might just get what you want out of it and more — like a blog about paying back your student loans.

For the whole month of March I will strictly be interviewing fellow College personal finance bloggers. I will only be interviewing bloggers that cater to the same readers as Studenomics- young people looking for personal finance advice and career advancement. What better way to start off then by interviewing Laura of Green Panda Treehouse. Laura’s blog has been growing at rapid rate and has been mentioned on many popular personal finance blogs.

Me: In one sentence how would you market your blog?

GPT: Green Panda Treehouse is a personal finance blog geared towards college students and new graduates who want to hit the ground running.

Me: Your blog is clearly popular and established, what major “breaks” did you receive that took you from a newbie blogger to a popular one?

GPT: Wow, I wouldn’t describe my blog as popular, but thanks. My first big break was getting on the blogroll of Give Me Back My Five Bucks. I was following the blog and left comments on her site.

My second break was hanging around the Moolanomy Forums and meeting some generous personal finance bloggers. Reading threads and asking questions gave me ideas to try out on my blog.

Joining the College Money Network was a big break as it was group of bloggers who were in my specific niche. I’ve been fortunate to meet some kind bloggers. I also think that just staying with it helped since many times bloggers come and go. People eventually notice you if you keep plugging away.

Me: Do you ever see yourself being a full time blogger?

GPT: I would love to be a full time blogger in 3 years. I enjoy what I do and blogging has given me a way to meet with a diverse group of people. I’m not there yet so my goal is to keep writing, keep connecting, and constantly read more.

Me: Your number one tip for people in their 20s when it comes to saving money in this economy?

GPT: Automate your savings. I always seemed to have an excuse why I didn’t have any money left over. I realized my problem was putting savings last. Automatic transfers are easy to set up and produce such big results in the long run. You can build an emergency fund by automating the deposits.

From there, you can automate your debt reduction, retirement, house payment, etc.

Me: The best financial decision you made growing up?

GPT: I started putting money away for retirement relatively early. My job at the doctor’ office offered a match and I thought it would be great to get started on retirement. It was very small amounts (around $50/month at first), as I was working part-time and going to college. It just felt go to get the momentum going. As I learned more, I made wiser choices with my investments.

Me: Any advice for new personal finance bloggers?

GPT: My advice is connecting with bloggers is a great way to build. Join a forum with others in your niche and ask questions. Leave honest comments on other blogs; I personally notice those bloggers immediately. Don’t give up, if this is a passion you owe yourself the chance to give your best.

If you enjoyed reading this article then check out the great and always informative Green Panda Treehouse.

Fr todays edition of my interview series I will be speaking with the man responsible for The Financial Blogger. If you have never checked out the site then I highly recommend you do. The Financial Blogger is not just a name because he also happens to work in the financial industry and he is very well educated on various different investment options. After reading this interview you should definitely give his blog a read.

Me: What is it that separates your blog from the other pf blogs out there?

TFB: #1 The first thing is probably the fact that I am making more grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes than any other pf bloggers. Since I’m French, this is quite a challenge to write on a daily basis in English.

#2 I try to give another point of view on personal finance since I has been working in a bank for the past 5 years. I have experience in leverage strategies, credit and financial planning (I am a working as a financial planner since the beginning of 2008). My job obviously help to get the most updated investment strategy and more accurate information on specific topic (such as my estate planning series).

Me: What was your first major “break” when it comes to gaining popularity?

TFB: My first major break was when I got mentioned for the first time in a comment of Canadian Capitalist post on the Smith Manoeuver. This is when I realized that I can use promotion across other blogs in order to increase my traffic. It had a dramatic effect on my way of blogging and promotion The Financial Blogger.com.

Since then, I never stopped blogging and promoting The Financial Blogger. I hope my blog will keep growing for several years!

Me: If you had to start from scratch today how would you compete in such a competitive niche?

TFB: My blog is actually still new (I started in Nov 2006). However, the PF blogosphere was not as competitive as it is today. I think that if you want to start a blog today, you need to communicate with other bloggers and get noticed. You can use their blogs to leverage your traffic and make more friends!

Guest posts, great comments and emailing PF bloggers should be the first things to do. Once you get more notoriety, you can surely create a blogroll and exchange links with other bloggers.

I might try social bookmarking sites as well (stumble upon, tip, pf buzz, etc.). These site won’t bring quality traffic but it will increase temporarily your traffic and encourage you.

Me: What are your future blogging plans?

TFB: I am actually working on a new design for The Financial Blogger and also working on 3 different blogs:
www.intelligentspeculator.net : This is an investment related blog that gives tips and information on the market and possible trades
www.donotwait.com : This blog is brand new but it will be related to retirement and retirement planning.
www.thecredittoolbox.com : This one is more related to credit as the name says. You will find information on how to improve, understand and keep a good credit score.

My biggest dream would be to live from blogs

For today’s personal finance blogger interview I had the privilege of speaking with J. Money, the man behind the highly entertaining and always fun to read Budgets are Sexy. J. Money adds a very personal touch to the blog and at all times makes the site seem highly interactive. If you enjoy his answers and want to follow his work then subscribe to his RSS feed. Time to start the interview:

(Note: There are no typos or spelling mistakes in the interview, it is just the unique writing style of J. Money)

Me: What have been your favorite personal finance topics to blog about?

J. Money: Bad experiences all the way!  A) because ranting is sooooo much easier to write about, esp if you just went through it, and B) because it shows your readers that you’re only human too – even though we do all that we can to keep our finances in check!  Not only can everyone learn from your own mistakes, but it adds another element to your blog as well – drama!  haha…it goes a looooong way here in the blogosphere   after all, you can learn a lot more through entertaining stories than you can from dry cut and paste teachings.

Me: What key factors are crucial to your blog being so successful?

J. Money: I wouldn’t say that my blog is “so successful”, but i’ll def. take the compliment any day   I think success is determined differently to each and every blogger out there.  For ME, it means having a handful of readers come to my site each day and comment around.  The way i try and make this happen is by posting frequently (at least once a day, M-F), and by adding some flare to each of the posts. Writing straight from the brain and being all hopped up on coffee usually does the trick!  It’s also important to just be yourself out there.  There’s a billion personal finance bloggers around town, and we all have our own voice.  You stick to that voice, and keep your target audience in mind, and you’re smooth sailing my friend!

Me: Do you see blogging as a feasible full time income source?

J. Money: Most definitely – but not for me at this point   There are a lot of PF, and non-PF, bloggers out there (think Trent @ Simple Dollar or Perez Hilton) that have mastered the art of monetizing their sites, but it all comes with a bit of time and crazy hard work.  So is it feasible?  for sure.  But am I there yet?  Nooooo way, Jose. It would definitely be nice in the long run, but i’m just as content blogging for the experiance of it all right now.

Me: Best financial decision you made in your early 20s?

J. Money: Not going into debt.  I think that’s the hardest part for a lot of people starting out in the “real” world, esp when credit cards are in play.  That’s not to say i was perfect (cuz i sure as hell wasn’t), but just that i was fortunate enough to keep my level of debt to a minimum.

Me: Best general decision you made in your early 20s?

J. Money: Following your dreams no matter where it takes you.  It’s the one time in your life (at least for me, coming out of college) where you have a fresh start and no responsibilities at all.  You can move across country, take a fun and exciting job for YOU instead of the money, or even travel the world – it’s totally your world at this point.  The best part is that you’re not “jaded” yet, and you feel totally invincible.  I really miss that to be honest w/ you ;)

Me: Biggest issue facing new College/University graduates?

J. Money: Finding that first real career job, and in a timely manner. It’s one of the most frustrating parts i can remember (besides leaving the parties, of course), and it takes a lot of patience to get you started. The good thing though is that we have the internet these days, so you can literally search through hundreds of job openings every week! And with Facebook, Myspace, and Linkedin – you have a whole sea of possible contacts out there to help you out.

Me: It’s been really fun so far and thank you for your time. In conclusion could you provide some advice for new personal finance bloggers?

J. Money: Ask yourself WHY you’re blogging, and WHO your target audience is every now and then. It’s super easy to get caught up in everyone else’s successes or failures, but you have to remember everyone’s in it for their own reasons.  And just keep being yourself and blog because you want to blog, not because you may feel like you “have to”. If it ever gets overwhelming or boring, just take a step back and re-evaluate.  Remember, your blog is YOUR blog, and you can do whatever you damn well please with it.

If you were as entertained as I was by reading the responses of J. Money then check out Budgets are Sexy.

For today’s interview I will be speaking with the man responsible for the very reputable Gather Little by Little. If you haven’t checked out the site yet then I highly advise you to do so. The articles are written extremely well with a common sense approach, often citing various biblical practises. If you are a new personal finance blogger then I suggest you check out Empty Cabin Media. It is an excellent source for blog consulting and coaching with Glblguy behaving like a mentor the whole time. If you want to read one of Glblguy’s best posts then I recommend you read about 10 things he did to regain financial control. Let’s get this started:

Me: What key factors are attributed for the success you have reached with your blog?

Glblguy: Two things: 1) Being part of a blog network 2) Writing content that is personal and honest.  Being part of the M-Network has been a huge benefit to me.  They are not only a group of awesome bloggers, but great friends that have a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge.  When I write my content, I always try to “keep it real” in that I always add my own personal experience and perspective.  That includes my mistakes and stupid decisions as well.  I think that helps readers relate and know that I’m a real person just like them.

Me: Would you recommend blogging as a full time source of income? If so, then for what type of individual?

Glblguy: Absolutely, but only if you love to write and plan to stick with it.  It takes a great deal of time, focus, and commitment.  The type of individual should be passionate about the topic.  If you aren’t passionate, it’s nearly impossible to be truly successful.

Me: Best financial decision you made in your early 20s?

Glblguy: Enrolling and contributing to my companies 401k program.  I made very few smart financial decisions in my 20s, but enrolling and starting to contribute to a 401k was the best one I made.  I’d strongly advise anyone in their 20s to enroll in their companies 401k program and contribute as much as you can.

Me: Given the current state of the economy, what is your number one tip for saving money?

Glblguy: Live without using credit cards and have an emergency fund.  These are two basic money saving tips that apply regardless of the economy.  Credit cards in my opinion are one of the many reasons our economy is in the state that it’s in.  An emergency fund is what allows you to live without credit cards.

Me: What type of people would you recommend to read Studenomics?

Glblguy: Young, college and high school age students primarily, but honestly readers of all ages would benefit from the content.  I’d recommend it to people of all ages, but primarily 20 somethings.

Me: Advice for a new personal finance blogger?

Glblguy: Consistency.  Regardless of how your blog looks or how many features it has the primary attribute that will bring readers back to your site is the quality of your content and how consistently you publish your content.  Having a consistent publishing schedule that your readers can rely on is critically important.

I would like to thank all of you for reading this and Glblguy for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this. If you enjoyed his insightful answers then head on over to Gather Little by Little.

For the Personal Finance Blogger Interview Series we are starting the year off with a bang! I had the privilege of speaking with the man responsible for the very popular and informative blog: Dough Roller. I’m not sure if I have admitted this to him yet but it’s thanks to him that Studenomics is here today. I always wanted to start a personal finance blog (in fact I had been writing articles for months) but never got around to until I read the great post on How to Setup a Wordpress Blog. If you want to learn more about making and managing money in an online world then Subscribe to the RSS Feed. Time to get into the interview:

Me: What is it that makes your blog so unique?

DR: My honest answer is that it’s not. There are 100s if not 1000s of personal finance blogs out there, and while we all bring our own personalities to our blogs, frankly, the blogs are generally not all that unique. Some are more popular than others, at least measured by traffic or subscribers or comments. But we are all writing about the same thing. One thing I try to do is make the content of my blog useful. While I wax philosophical every now and again, my primary approach is to blog about ways regular people can make more money, spend less, and invest the rest. Unique? I don’t think so.

Me: What key factors are attributed for the success you have reached with your blog?

DR: The first thing we need to do is define success. Some bloggers define success based entirely on how much money they make. Others define success based on traffic, number of subscribers, number of comments, and so on. I guess I use a mixture of these for myself, although I’m not as focused on the subscriber side of things. That being said, I think three things have contributed to what I feel has been a very successful blogging experience. First, tons of hard work. I get up every morning at 5 am and work for about two hours on my blog. I work on the train going into work. I work on the blog almost everyday at lunch. I work on weekends when I’m not spending quality time with my family. Successful blogging, however you define sucess, is a lot of work.

Second, a lot of luck. I joined the M-Network over a year ago, and met a great group of bloggers. They taught me more than you can imagine, and my blog has enjoyed a lot of success as a result. I’m also a partner blog with MSN’s Smart Spending. Donna and Karen at MSN are dynamite to work with, and it has helped me substantially.

Finally, and this is critical to the making money part of success, I’ve focused on keywords and SEO. If you want to make money with organic search traffic, you have to focus on keywords that bring relevant traffic to your site. I could go on forever on this topic, but my suggestion would be to find SEO and make money online blogs and start reading.

For fun, I recommend you read an article I wrote entitled, 30 Things I Learned in My First 30 Days of Blogging. I wrote this article late at night in a hotel room while on business travel. It was fun, but the truth is I had no idea what I was doing. If I only knew then what I know now!

Me: Would you recommend blogging as a full time source of income? If so,
then for what type of individual?

DR: The question here is whether blogging can generate enough income for you. It certainly does for some, but they are in the minority. I would blog full time if I could. I can’t financially right now, but I could see a time when blogging was full time or at least half-time. As for the type of individual, you need to be a problem-solver. Whether it is technical issues with the site, keyword research, SEO and so on, you need to be able to research issues, figure out solutions, and implement them.

Me: Best financial decision you made in your early 20s?

DR: Investing. Right out of college I began investing, even while I had school loans. It wasn’t much at first, but over time it has built up to a nice nest egg, even with the down market. My motto: Invest early, invest often.

Me: Biggest issue facing new College/ University graduates?

DR: In the U.S., the biggest issues is the future of our country. Both Medicare and Social Security are heading for serious trouble. Social Security is relatively easy to fix, but Medicare is a train wreck waiting to happen. The result will be higher taxes, and not just for the middle class. They might get a break when President-elect Obama takes office, but it won’t last; it can’t. We have an aging population, deteriorating infrastructure, and a government philosophy on both sides of the aisle that is moving us toward a European democratic socialism that will lower the standard of living in this country. I know, you’re sorry you asked.

Me: Given the current state of the economy, what is your number one tip
for saving money?

DR: Stay out of consumer debt. I’m not sure that’s a money saving tip, but it’s my number one recommendation. I use credit cards a lot, but not to support a lifestyle I can’t afford. I primarily use Balance Transfer Offers (shameless plug) to take advantage of 0% APR offers. But consumer debt is a killer, and it makes people miserable in the long run. Borrow for stuff that generally goes up in value (mainly just your home), but not for things that depreciate.

Me: Advice for a new personal finance blogger? (Tearing my blog apart is okay)

DR: Ok, I’ll tear your blog apart. Just kidding! Actually, your blog looks great. Visually, I wouldn’t change a thing. But here’s what I would do:

1. Take adsense off your site. I know it’s great to see a few bucks coming in, but until you’re getting at least 300-500 organic search visitors a month, it’s not worth it.

2. For each post, I’d pick a keyword phrase to focus on. I’d put that keyword phrase in my title and use it and variations a few times in each article. For important keywords, you should track your rankings in the major search engines. Here’s a Firefox tool that makes it a snap to track rankings: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

3. I’d change your permalink structure to remove the date and put the category in the url instead. Nobody will be searching for your articles by date, so why put them in the url. Keyword rich category names, on the other hand, can really help seo.

If you enjoyed the wisdom shared in this interview then don’t hesitate to head on over to Dough Roller.