Halil: Send me a few notes on your background: name, age, where you`re from, etc....

Paula Neal Mooney, 37, originally from Chicago, now living in Ohio.


Halil: When did you start blogging ?

Paula: On December 13, 2005, I put up my first post on Blogger. It was an essay called Motherless, about the death of my mother. The essay had already been published in a local magazine, and I only posted it on a blog to have a free and easy way to showcase my writing to editors. Back then I considered daily blogging to be some kind of mindless, navel-gazing hobby. Little did I know!


Halil: Would you like to share with us the URL of your first post?

http://paulamooney.blogspot.com/2005/12/motherless.html


Halil: What is your motivation to continue blogging?

Paula: Friends, networking, verification of information, recognition? Blogging has been such a God-send to me. I don’t want to go back to corporate America right now, and I want to make money from home. Blogging is perfect for that. And the sense of community is truly amazing in the blogosphere. For example, it’s 3 a.m. right now, but I’ve just had an email conversation with Zaki Yamani in Malaysia over at http://zaki-yamani.blogspot.com/ discussing whether or now JohnChow.com is pulling an April Fool’s Day joke on us by saying that he’s quitting blogging! If only my late grandparents knew that someday we’d be able to communicate this way these days…


Halil: What´s your inspiration source?

Paula: Daily life, friends, worldwide web... Since the word “inspire” literally means to be filled with the Sprit of God, I know that the Holy Spirit fills me with passion and drive and interests. He also clues me in to tips in ways that gives me an advantage and draws readers to me. And I love my Lord and Only Savior Jesus’ promise in John 14:26 about the Holy Spirit: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” This works in the most practical of areas! Even at the health club I’ll think of some way to improve my blog, and later the Lord will remind me of it all without even writing it down.


Halil: What purpose/intent do you want to achieve with your blog?

Paula: To spread the Good News, to make money, to be a willing and able servant, to listen, to hear, to understand and to be understood.


Halil: Choose one sentence to describe your blog?

Paula: “The Wheel in the sky keeps on turning!” That song by Journey – fronted by my favorite male vocalist Steve Perry – kept playing over in my head when I was thinking of a blog description line. I don’t know if Steve Perry is Christian, but I look at that line as speaking about the “wheel in the middle of a wheel” in Ezekiel’s visions in Ezekiel 1:16: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.”


Halil: Who reads your blog and who should read it?

Paula: A little bit of everybody, ‘cause I write a little bit of everything.


Halil: What do you like most on blogging?

Paula: Communication, participation on different projects... I just love everything about it, the excitement of finding a new story, the perfect phrase, the feedback, the fun, the ranting, the raving, helping folks.


Halil: The top 3 blogs you read?

Paula: I read a lot of blogs every day. But I make sure to scan TechCrunch.com , ProBlogger.net and my friends’ blogs like Bonnie Writes (http://bonniescalhoun.blogspot.com/) all the time.


Halil: How do you generate traffic?

Paula: Whoa, search engine optimization (SEO) is such a popular topic, but if readers study my posts 
at http://paulamooney.blogspot.com/search/label/Increase%20Blog%20Traffic about gaining traffic, hopefully it will help them get some more, too.


Halil: What is the reason for visitors to return to your blog and become readers?

Paula: I can only say it’s that favor of God. Just today I was wandering around Target, wondering why folks were looking at me, but I always remember that I pray that the love of Christ shines brightly from my face. Some days I miss, but the favor follows me wherever I go. People give me free stuff, etc.


Halil: Do you want to say anything to other blogger?

Paula: Please subscribe to my blog:
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=528641 and,
Technorati fave me, then email me the URL of your blog at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and I’ll fave yours:
http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://paulamooney.blogspot.com


Paula´s Page:  http://paulamooney.blogspot.com