PF Blogger Interview: Peter of BMM

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!