Editor’s note: With the author’s permission, we’ve updated this entry to clarify some terms.

By Carlo S. Ople*

Over the past few weeks, there have been talks going around on what advertising agencies and marketers should expect from bloggers. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, and I think I have enough examples and put enough thought into this to publish it on this blog.

Companies who want to tap bloggers should be aware of the different kinds of bloggers. Not all bloggers can influence your target market, and not all of them can have the same level of interaction with their readers.

I’ve generally defined the types of bloggers into these 4 categories: Value, Hobby, Journal and Google. There’s a fifth type which I’ll share at the end of the post. Note that these categories can overlap, and in fact some of the best bloggers have stricken a balance on how to be all 4. However, these are rare bloggers. Most of the bloggers right now just fall to either 1 or 2 of these categories.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

THE proliferation of weblog tool and publishing platforms, such as Blogspot, Wordpress and its evolution to include multimedia content such as art sketches, photographs, music and video drove a shift in paradigm of publishing and sharing information. Everyone has power to become an author and publisher.

In the corporate space, executives use blogs to deliver opinion on the industry and information on their products and offerings. Then there’s the personal blog. For most of us, the blog has become the extension of dairies, chronicling personal events and a sentimental log of personal statements on almost anything. For some, it becomes a therapy to deal with pain or loss. Still, others try to provide entertainment by dishing out entries of a fictional, intelligent house help.

Sharing anecdotes, opinions or thoughts is inherent to us Filipinos. Given this and the blog, it is all but possible to turn the Filipino blogosphere as social catalyst for positive change. The act of blogging in itself is a form of struggle to express opinion.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

As a parent to growing kids, I found this helpful tips from Trend Micro on how to ensure the online safety of kids. Let’s admit it, kids are quite fond of social networks (more than their parents). My generation grew up watching television. Today, kids have the Internet and online social networks — not to mention online games. So it’s best that we parents should also understand how social networks work, for instance, so we could guide them.

Here’s one good example from Trend Micro’s website, which I think is very important:

Set reasonable expectations. Pulling the plug on your child’s favorite social site is like pulling the plug on their social life. This can shut down communication and send kids “underground” where they’re more at risk.

Here’s another one:

Try to get your kids to share their profiles and blogs with you. Also, use search engines and the search tools on social networking sites to search for your kids’ full names, phone numbers, and other identifying information. You’re not invading their privacy if they’re putting personal info in public places online.

Do you have any other practical tips you wish to share?

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

How do you create blog? What copyright rules should be followed? How can you earn from blogging?

Blogger and editor of Digital Filipino Janette Toral hopes to answer these questions in her latest book “Blogging from Home,” which she launched at the recent Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines Summit in Makati City.

Toral, who has been blogging for the last five years, said that she has been thinking of coming out with a book on blogging since 2006 but realized she needed to understand the blogging community more in particular its dynamics.

“I hope to share how [people] could make a presence in the blogosphere and perhaps earn a little, without having to be so gung ho,” Toral said in an interview.

Watch this video interview with Toral.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net

IT was not until two years ago that I got hooked into blogging.

Before that, I found it absurd that people would post their thoughts and their daily activities for all the world to see. I found it even more absurd that people would post on their blogs yet change the preferences to private so other people will not read the entries. I thought, “Why create an online diary if you are not going to make it public anyway?”

So I shunned the idea of creating my own blog, even as my friends maintained either a personal website or an account with a blog site. But everything changed two years ago. My friend sent me a link to her blog, and I decided to check it out. Within minutes, I found myself absorbed in reading her blog and was amused at how many people gave their inputs to her entries. It was more like an online community where you can share your thoughts with your friends and they get to share their points of view as well.

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A-LIST blogger Robert Scoble posed this question recently, as he weighed on the impact of social networking service and other innovations like Twitter on top bloggers.

I theorized that was due to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce’s rise. Most of the non-A-list bloggers have been showing up on those places in droves. After all, if you are only writing a blog to tell your family what your new kid is doing then something like Facebook is a lot better for that.

A-list bloggers are the celebrities in blogosphere. They’re today’s newspaper columnists who write about almost anything.

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I HAVE recently experienced a phenomenon over at my personal blog, where I had casually invited a few photographer friends to a cosplay shoot with Jerry Polence over at the Intramuros Golf Club on a Sunday afternoon. Where I had estimated that about five or six people would come (we were around that number at 1:45 p.m.), we ended up with a total of over forty five photographers from different photo organizations.

For a few minutes I was greatly overwhelmed and panicked over the situation but then, after gaining some composure, realized that this is a proof of concept of how viral marketing works in the Philippines: from blog post to forum thread to an SMS campaign. At least for this case.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how such a thing could happen. Either (1) the post was made at the right time when no other photo events were occuring (2) nobody ever shot cosplay before so this was something different. Then I started to analyze the posting patterns.

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CHECK out this article by Cathy S. Babao-Guballa, who writes about moms who blog.

Excerpt:

There was a time in my recent past when I was so burnt out I thought I had lost the gift to write. Blogging has helped me find myself again.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

LOTS of people are blogging nowadays, but not everyone is able to consistently update their blogs.

Sometimes it’s a case of ningas cogon, where we’re all fired up when we start blogging for the first time, but then lose interest or can’t find the time to add new entries. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and before you know it, your blog has joined the growing ranks of the dead and dormant.

As a disclaimer, I have to admit I haven’t been able to update my personal blog for almost two months, though I hope to start blogging there again pretty soon, otherwise people might think I no longer have a life outside INQUIRER.net, heh. I’m not making excuses, but in my defense I’ve been building the INQUIRER.net Blogs network, among other things, as our company’s gaming and multimedia editor.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

YOU’VE probably experienced it at one time or another. Days when you just can’t seem to blog about anything.

We know about writer’s block, but since blogging is becoming a way of life for many people, I think we should make a separate category for blogger’s block, heh.

What do you do when blogger’s block strikes? How do you keep blogging even when you’re not in the mood — particularly if you’re a pro blogger? Are there days when you feel as if you’ve lost your passion for blogging? Share what works for you, and help others cope with blogger’s block.

And gee, looks like I was able to post an entry even when I’m kinda suffering from blogger’s block right now, heh. I guess that’s one way to deal with it: just blog it.