Q. Please tell us more about yourself, your blogs and the blogging networks you're connected with.

A. I am a rebel by nature, and hence, I could not really conform to the norms that society has set. It would be common for a man my age to be climbing the corporate ladder (perhaps still in the bottom rungs by this time), and enduring the daily grind. I actually served government as an economist for three years, and then moved on to an I.T. firm, in which I stayed only nine months. Though I didn't really enjoy it much, I learned much in my stay in government and the corporate world, and I am very grateful for my experiences.

I started blogging with my own The J Spot on Blogger, which began as a personal blog, dabbling in tech content along with other miscellany. It was still this way when I moved to i.PH (a service developed and operated by dotPH, which I used to work for). But I decided later on to focus the J Spot on technology only (being one of my favorite themes), and moved my miscellany to my personal blog.

I got wind of some popular Pinoy tech bloggers starting Pinoy.tech.blog back last July, and I asked to join in. Fortunately, I was accepted. Same with The Man Blog (the irreverent), in which I sometimes feel lost, not being half as witty as the other writers are (though undoubtedly as man--or even more?--as anyone on the editorial team). I am also part of Pinoy.urban.blog, though I rarely get to post these days. My site's also part of the Blue Fish Network--no business model really, but more of link exchange and content aggregation.

As for the blog networks, I applied to write tech for BlogMedia/Erati last January, and I was assigned tech.erati.com (now Gadzooki) and MobileHerald. I also started writing blog content for WordContent, a UK-based webcontent company. This marked the start of my problogging career. I wasn't a hotshot at earning from blog ad revenues (like Yuga/Abe and Connie/SassyLawyer) so I had to find another way to earn.

Just recently, I was approached by the owners of BloggyNetwork with an offer to write for them and join the community for a considerable compensation (by Philippine standards). But the catch was exclusivity in terms of writing for other blog networks. I took the offer, and I'm formally starting this 15th of March. I'll be writing on some fairly popular tech blogs like ForeverGeek and the like.

Q. Can you describe your work as a problogger? What's a typical day for you?

A. I usually write/blog during nighttime, as I take care of the kids in the mornings (sometimes I sleep a few hours at dawn and when the kids are taking their a.m. nap). I take some rest after lunchtime (when my wife arrives from work), writing/blogging a bit in the late afternoons. I usually pick up steam again late in the evening and write until dawn.

I handled six blogs for WordContent, and I had to come up with moderate-length content (approximately 250 words) for each blog on a daily basis. That was a lot of work! With BloggyNetwork, our focus is not only writing, but also community building (blogging is not just about posting!), so it's not as brain wracking as coming up with 1,500 words per day.

Q. What made you decide to go full-time into problogging? What factors did you consider before coming up with the decision?

A. I was actually a "problogger" even when I was still working with dotPH, since I was involved in developing the i.PH blogging service, and my blogging was part of our efforts at reaching out to the blogging community. But in the sense of earning purely from blogging, I actually started "problogging" a few months after I quit my dotPH day job. Probloggers are usually typecast as having to quit or get fired from work first before earning the "problogger" label, and I disagree with this notion.

As for going full-time with blogging, the major factor was that I really preferred to work on my own time. A nine-to-fiver was quite unmanageable for me. Even a flexitime schedule (which we had at NEDA) wasn't quite up to my liking. And I preferred to work wherever and whenever I was productive. When I got into writing suff, I usually stayed at home to work. I also worked wherever there was wireless Internet, which meant most upscale cafes (ah, problogging bliss!).

My family life's another major factor. Having two toddlers (aged 2.5 and one), you can't really have peace of mind leaving them with a caregiver. And I usually arrived home late from the office when I was still working my day job, so I longed to be with my family more.

Q. Do you think there will be increasing demand for bloggers who want to go into it full-time? What trends do you see happening in the market?

A. Increasing demand? Maybe not for blogging, per se, but for writing or copywriting.  It's probably the next trend in offshoring, next to the call centers and other outsourced business processes. Search Engine Marketers, and other Internet Marketers in general, are looking for great content. With artificially-generated content ( i.e. scraped or plagiarized/duplicate) being frowned upon and sometimes even banned, nothing beats good ol' quality content written by real humans. Pinoys are quite adept at written English so this is a comparative advantage over other countries (although we still need brushing up on usage and grammar).

The demand for bloggers might grow, but I don't see it happening with Philippine firms anytime soon. Corporate blogging hasn't caught on here yet as much as it has in P.R. circles in the west.

Q. What qualities and skills do prospective probloggers need to possess?

A. Other than writing skill, prospective probloggers need wit and a keen eye for interesting stuff. You won't get read if your stuff's plain and boring. You also need to be good at networking--blogging's no good if you only write and write. You have to communicate with others; you have to join in on the conversation!

Q. Can you enlighten us on the existence of blogging networks (such as the one you're connected with)?

A.The business models vary, with some going for sponsorships and contextual advertising. Some focus on content aggregation and link exchange.

It pretty much involves the much-discussed "Long Tail" principle. Now you won't get to study this in undergrad or graduate Economics, since it's a relateively new principle (applied from statistics). It basically means you get better business from aggregating the small, obscure, niche-oriented stuff rather than focusing on the popular/best-selling content.

So what blog networks do is publish blogs on various, numerous niche topics, put up great content, and the business model usually involves sponsorships and contextual advertising. Since the content on each site is focused, it's more likely that the advertising is targeted at the correct audience, who is more likely to be interested in the ads.

Sum up revenues for each site, and you get big bucks from the aggregate.

Some networks operate purely on content, such as Weblogs, Inc., which was acquired by AOL a few months back. Now AOL is syndicating the blog content into their AOL portal.

Q. How can one join and earn money from these?

A. You can try out and apply. Blog networks usually advertise their need for bloggers on specific topics. If you can find your niche, then why not try it out?

Some networks give a fixed amount per blog. Some pay a share of the revenue per site.

Q. You were interviewed recently for a blog feature on "blogging for money is not for the fainthearted." Please explain.

A.There are only a handful of Pinoys earning directly from blogging activities. And this is because it's not really that easy to break into problogging in the purest sense of the word. Many think that simply slapping on Google AdSense ads onto one's blog would be a sure source of steady income. Fact is, blogs are the last thing you'd like to slap contextual ads onto, because unless you get a large amount of traffic--quality traffic at that--into your blog, you'll end up earning cents!

So sometimes, you have to think of alternative income streams from your blogging activities.

Problogging is akin to entrepreneurship. You take calculated risks, and you should therefore not get into it if your comfort zone involves earning a steady paycheck from a regular job. It could be great one month and bad the next. But it sure is rewarding if you know how to keep it sustainable.

Q. What's your observation of the present blogging climate in the Philippines? What trends do you see happening this year?

A. Mainstream media is starting to pick up fresh stories from blogs (i.e. in tech and political matters), and that's great. But I don't see the number of Filipino bloggers increasing anytime soon. What I see is the increase in the number of quality Pinoy blogs in the sense that blogs being a grassroots, independent-type of publication, a lot of experts and commentarists are exploring the medium to put up their work. There is no censorship in the blogosphere.

Q. Do you think podcasting will click in this country, now or in the future?

A. There are difficulties, considering the low broadband penetration rate in the country. We only have a handful of Pinoy podcasts, as compared to the thousands in the U.S. alone.

Perhaps if notable media personalities--such as radio commentators--started to podcast, interest would pick up.

Q. What's your definition of a good blogger? How about a successful one?

A. A good blogger writes regularly and frequently. A successful blogger is one who is able to elicit much discussion from others with his writings (you can be successful without posting regularly and frequently, though).

Q. What do you think differentiates the Filipino blogger  from other nationalities?

A. I think blogging renders moot the concept of having nationalities, as we are all equal as netizens, or global citizens, if you may call it that. Fact is, many contributors, writers, and even owners of the popular blog networks in the west are Filipinos!
 
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