Q. How did you start to blog? How many blogs do you maintain?

A. Cathcath and  Yuga are the "guilty parties" that introduced me to blogging. Even before I graduated from college, I am already into  designing professional web sites. This year, Cathcath asked me to design her weblog's theme and convinced me to put up a weblog  hosted in her site. While doing the design and the maintenance of her blog, I have to coordinate with Yuga who also pushed me to climb on the  bandwagon of the bloggers.

I have four  blogs, namely, Retzwerx (http://www.retzwerx.com) , Ang Panday Blog ( http://panday-blog.blogspot.com), and Pinoy Lyrics (http://www.retzwerx.com/lyrics/), and Sam Milby Collection ( http://sam-milby.blogspot.com)

Q.  What do you like about blogging as a personal activity? What is the best thing that blogging has brought you since you started?

A. Blogging is an outlet for my creativity. My works become a model for my students who are encouraged to start blogs as early as in their freshman years.

Q.  What have been the highlights of your blogging life since you started?

A. The best thing that happened to me is to be linked  for one month in the popular Darren Browse' Problogger ( http://www.problogger.net) after I won the logo  design contest, barely a month  after I started blogging full time.  Wow, for me that was great. It brought traffic to my obscure website.  My poop-tographs were "looted "by popular political analysts such as Manuel Quezon 3 (http://www.quezon.ph) and PCIJ  for their  book recently published.  My web design was also credited when Now What, Cat ( http://www.cathcath.com) was featured in the Manila Bulletin. My traffic  increased geometrically. So far I got more than 100,000 visitors in less than six months with 70,000 unique hits as of date.

Q. What made you focus on Pinoy Big Brother in your blog? What significant feedbacks have you received from your readers since you did this?  Would you call your blog now an "entertainment" blog?

A. Initially, I was into politics at the height of Garci tapes scandal.  Cathcath advised me to change the theme of my blog if I want to establish my presence on the web. Politics is for established columnists/journalists and lawyers. It made me rethink what would be my blog's focus.  I have to apply the marketing principles that I am teaching. To sell a product, you should identify the market you like to develop. Then package your weblog in the same manner that you package your product to appeal to the target market.

My target audience are the young people who have access to the internet and who made internet  a necessity in their daily activities.  Understanding the product/information that this market  segment wants will tell you exactly what  these visitors would be looking for.  These age brackets   want something bold, new, innovative and challenging thoughts and ideas.  Pinoy Big Brother is it.

I get the "usual nice blog, keep it up" feedback since most of the comments were about the housemates. Sometimes a sweet-ish response makes my day.

PBB  is categorized under entertainment. Therefore my blog is about entertainment. The difference is that the PBB  is a human laboratory where the viewers get to see the raw feelings that the housemates experience living together under sets of rules and conditions isolated from outside world.  Instead of having that feeling of being entertained, I think I am educated about life, about individuals, their  motivations, their relationships. Ultimately  about winning and losing.

Q. Please give us some technical details about your blog such as the CMS you're using, plug-ins/add-ons etc. What do you think is the role of "design" in a blog?

A. CMS - Wordpress, I  do the design.
The add-ons are  basically to keep track of visitors' behavior on my site (ie. wpusersonline plugin/ useronline plugin). This gives me information what the readers want.

Design is very important for on-line visibility Some weblogs are beautifully designed but the browsers do not give justice to the beauty since, they become invisible. The design is made with the target audience in mind. It should also be search engine friendly. Design  gives  you the character of the blogger.

Q.  Do you think tech-savvy bloggers have an edge over the others? What advice can you give other bloggers so they can be tech-savvy too?

A. Don't ask me that question. I will be biased. Hahaha.
For bloggers who want to know at least the basic, they should dedicate at least
two hours a day to learn html.  But these days, blogging softwares are user-friendly so anybody who knows how to type can start blogging without prior knowledge about html and designs.

As to Technorati ranking, a blogger need to have daily blog updates. The search engines' favorites are the regularly updated blogs.

Learn and use the Technorati tags for every blog entry.

Q. Do you abide by a certain blogging philosophy (ies)? What are these?

A. To follow  basic web standards/ Search Engine Optimization techniques. This helps a lot for Search Engines to index your site.

Q. Your online/blogging habits.

I conceptualize my presentation, take and edit photos in Photoshop/ Gimp, and write the texts.
I go out of my way to get pictures even from the TV screen. I read articles and watch shows that I can include in my blog.

Q.  Future plans for your blog(s)

A. I am coming up with different blogs with different themes. I am into market segmentation again. Redesigning is in the to-do list.

Q.  What do you think are the qualities of a good blogger.

A. A good blogger should be creative, innovative and explorative.

Q. What blogging trends do you see in the future?  Do you think blogging is here to stay?

A. Blogging is here to stay.  IMHO, blogs would evolve from journal diaries into money-making opportunities. Business blogs are already popular in the US while there are a handful bloggers who are into this blogging  activity.

(For comments and inquiries,please email annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)