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.
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Bob is a good guy and I enjoy reading his blog regularly. I like the interviews with other PF bloggers to get a different perspective.
studenomist,
thanks for the interview – I appreciate it! And Craig – I think you are a good guy too!!
Studenomist: Could you put a link to the comments at the bottom of your posts as well as the top? It’s a tad annoying having to scroll all the way up.
Great interview! I had read Bob’s article on his blog success previously, and it was indeed an amazing story! Always good to have new sources of inspiration. And what I think Bob’s success comes down to (at least partially) is that sense of “I’ll do whatever it takes” to make the success happen. “Whatever it takes” is a mantra I’ve found very powerful.