By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
PARAÑAQUE City, Philippines — Blogs are also business tools, according to some Filipino bloggers.
Apart from being personal diaries, blogs are increasingly becoming sources of income for some bloggers.
Janette Toral, blogger and author of DigitalFilipino.com E-Commerce Workshop E-Book, says some Filipino bloggers have turned their blogs to effective tools for advertising.
Combining e-commerce and blogging, for instance, allows people to earn some income while doing what they are passionate about: blogging.
But before turning a blog into something income-generating, she says it is important to maintain a consistent following. Content remains king in blogs.
“There was a time I did not update my blog for a month but still traffic is consistent, I think it really boils down to good content and good keywords for each entry,” blogger Jehzeel Laurente of Jehzlau Concepts adds.
The 22-year old blogger from Davao says he earns enough income from blogging to support his stay in Manila.
Laurente said he is able to maintain traffic growth in his blog through good content and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, a means to increase a blogs or a websites so-called page ranking in search engines like Google or Yahoo!
SEO involves combining good blog design and content using keywords to increase the chances of blogs of landing on top of, say, a Google search.
“Based on the top 100 list, bloggers need to create good content, use of SEO tools like keywords to help define the blog,” Toral concurs.
During a blogger awarding cum eyeball at the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. in Parañaque City, Filipino bloggers who were attracting a large traffic of viewers were a colorful mix of personalities, age, niche topics, location and gender.
One of them is Filipino overseas worker and blogger Rheynz who is behind ReynaElena.com. This blogger thinks her blog appeals to a niche market of OFWs. Based in Philadelphia, she says 80 percent of the blog’s readers are Filipinos based abroad and in the country.
Also based on the traffic Filipino travel, food, parenting, photography and gender blogs, such as baklaako.com, are getting, Filipino readers have varying tastes.
Which only means that during this period of economic crunch, bloggers need not look far to find ways to earn some income and feed people’s thirst for information and good content.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
magaling yan c jehzeel laurente, seo expert yan.. cool din… hehehe… cheers
November 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
At first, blogging is just a hobby but as the world evolves, it becomes a profession. Blogging is very easy especially for writers. I never imagined to earn as much as a regular employee with blogging. A lot of individuals and companies worldwide are using blogs to promote their business. Some hire bloggers to work for them. Like me, I was hired to manage someone else’s blog. I work less but earn more. If you have the time, feel free to drop by at my blog. I thought blogging isn’t so popular here in the Philippines. I hope more people will discover this opportunity. Unemployment is a big problem in our country and I think blogging is the solution.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Congrats to Jez… Hehe
Idol ka talaga!
November 5th, 2008 at 11:39 am
wow congrats Jehzeel weeeiii!!! he also taught me how to blog (^_^) and eto nahawa din naging blog addict (^_^)
November 4th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I was among who attended that event and it was my first time, although I have been blogging for a year.
I was not surprised to find my “kababayan” to be friendly and sociable because it’s our nature.
Ms. Janette was generous enough to pursue that project, and it’s a good time to see fellow bloggers that you only met online. It adds more confidence and trust.
Yes, blogging can be a good business and a window for other online opportunity.
I believe that one day in the near future that blogging in our country will just be like the cell phone today - very common.
Thanks.