My Foray Into Blogging

My love affair with blogging began not on a rosy start.  One day I found myself one of the participants in a one and a half day-seminar held at the Cubao branch of a known internet cafe chain.  The basic of blogging using Blogger as the platform, how to earn through Google Adsense and some stuff which I later found out to be email marketing parlance were cramped into that span of time.  To cut the story short, I went home not knowing where and how to start if I will do blogging on my own.  That was in 2008.  My initial attempt at blogging was sad to say just an attempt.  

Fast forward to 2009.  I enrolled for the Certified Digital Marketing Program (CDMP) at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business.  For the first module, Digital Wiki, we were to submit an essay that has to be uploaded via a blog website.  Making the article was a breeze but how to upload?  Fortunately for me I had a partner for this project and he took care of the technical side.  After that incident, I promised myself that I have to do something to conquer my feeling of inadequacy.

Seven months after Digital Wiki, I was at the Blog Revolution module under Janette Toral, an institution in the Philippine blogging world.  To pass the module, my group mates and I have to submit a blog that we started from scratch.  That exercise of creating a blog from thin air was very useful and gave birth to my blog about green business and entrepreneurship, There's Money in Green.  Weeks after the blog module has ended, my new found confidence kept me busy updating my new blog with new articles. 

There's Money in Green

I did not stop with the CDMP.  One month after the eleventh and final module of the CDMP, I again enrolled for a three-month special course on blogging, the Certified Blog Entrepreneur Program (CBEP).  This course takes a more in depth study of blogging.   I learned a lot about blogging specially the technical side from Janette Toral.  Out of the first module, I was able to create  My Life as a "Couples for Christ" on my lonesome.  Yes you can say that I am now more comfortable with the platform.

My Life as a "Couples for Christ"

To date, I am maintaining four blog sites, each blog talking about a different theme.  The challenge for me is not the technical issues anymore but on how to come up with a new article every week for each blog.  I keep my creative juices flowing by digging into past experiences, by reading and through research.  

Blogging Tips

When I started blogging, I thought that having something to write about and a computer are enough.  I was able to publish a number of articles alright.  When I needed video which is not often, I go to YouTube.  As the number of my articles grew, my confidence grew alongside to insert videos for both my Blogger and Wordpress blogs.  For the longest time, my blogs only contained pictures or images from Google Images, Flickr or Picasa. 

I write my blog posts when the children are not around to compete for internet connection.  Not having them around is both a blessing and a bane. If they are around, I can always ask them about technical issues.  But when they are in school or elsewhere, I can download or upload blog posts, music, video, pictures quite faster.

When I took up the Certified Blog Entrepreneur Program from the Ateneo, I learned that grabbing a few images from Google or Flickr to enhance my article, is not as simple as copying and pasting.  I have to be sensitive to the issue of fair use.  But what is fair use?  From Jonathan Bailey's "The Basics of Fair Use", fair use sets a guidance to the use of somebody's work in limited situations.  Copyright is affixed to a work the moment it is published either offline like books, magazines, and other printed matter or online like blogs, websites, e-books, e-magazines and etc. It gives the author or copyright holder certain exclusive rights to the work and derivative works based on the original work.  

To add a touch of accuracy and lessen my dependence on other's works, I found out the necessity of having a digital camera at my disposal anytime.  No need to lug an SLR for me.  My motto is that if I have to read the operating manual before I can use it, then it is not for me.  I hate reading instructional materials.  A digital camera is now a must-have and I don't leave the house without it in my bag together with my wallet, cellphones, pen holder and make up kit.  Having my own camera at any time enables me to shoot anything that can be used in my future articles.  

Aside from my digital camera, I have a notebook which I can use when ideas pop out of the things, places or people that I see or meet in the course of daily activities.  Depending on the time or circumstance, I can compose a draft of an article while waiting for my turn at the doctor's clinic or while waiting for my hairdresser to finish the job that I asked him to do.  I only write on my notebook if I forgot to bring the Asus notebook.  I find it easier though to do my articles if I use my computer.

I attend to as many activities as I could.  Activities are a goldmine of writing materials.  Writer's block is a reality that affects all writers, professionals and amateurs alike.

Read, read, read. Read anything that could be useful to your articles.  News, both online or printed, are good sources of what's hot.  Writing about what's hot helps the article to get as many hits as possible.  My article The PNR Trains got a lot of hits that tripled the number of readers for my other blog Bicol Express when I published it after GMA7 made a story on the resumption of the service of the PNR trains.  I got free promotion from that GMA7 telecast.

Write regularly, once a week is okay.  Remember readers are like lovers, out of sight, out of mind.  Just kidding.  Writing regularly makes the blog site easily found by the search engines. 

I think I have already covered the most important things that a would-be blogger or writer has to have and to do.  Good luck and happy writing.