Ex-chemist Finds Full-time Job In Problogging
By Annalyn S. Jusay (now blogging at www.annalyn.net)
The name Gloria Gamat has cropped up in the list of top Filipino probloggers. This is a feat considering that the simple and unassuming Ms. Gamat started blogging only in 2004. At present, she blogs for three networks, specializing in health and science. She has certainly come a long way since the time she toiled hard in a laboratory at the University of the Philippines in Los Banos as a chemist. Blogging, she says, has given her a ticket to resign from her former job and concentrate full-time on her online activities - something which has given her enough income to relocate to Bicol where she is now raising her four-year old son alone and is her family’s breadwinner besides.Let’s get to know more about her in the following interview:
Q. Can you share with us the story about how you started blogging and then how you got into writing professionally online?
A. I was introduced to the blogosphere when my good friend and former colleague Ruth Schaffer introduced me to her personal blog . That’s when she stopped sending the long emails about her new life in Germany and would point instead into her URL so that I’ll know what’s happening and see new photos of her and her family. But it was when Ruth made this touching entry about me on my birthday in 2004 that I practically made my debut in the blogosphere : I started to get out of lurking and commented on her entries and the entries of those people in her links. It was already the start though I wasn’t blogging yet until Ruth told me to start a blog and told me I could set-up one for free.
A year later I bumped into Shai Coggins’ AboutWeblogs.com. I answered Shai’s call for new bloggers so pitched the topic of single parenthood but ended up blogging about Philippine Culture. When AboutWeblogs.com merged with B5media.com , that was the time I kind-a joined the world of the big boys and girls in problogging -FilipinaSoul.com was born.
In the mean time that I was blogging at Filipina Soul, Creative-Weblogging’s Creative-Reporter came alive- it is a system where you can submit entries to different blogs on the Creative-Weblogging Network. It was because of the entries I submitted via Creative-Reporter that I finally got a decent cold amount out of blog entries to land in the palm of my hands. I guess I can say that because everybody now knows that nobody earns outright on revenue-sharing. I can’t remember how many entries I made as a creative-reporter before I bumped into the wanted blogger post at Creative-Weblogging’s StraightFromTheDoc.com, so I applied and got accepted in February 2006. A month later, I started blogging at Know More Media’s PharmaGazette.com.
Last May, couple of months after leaving Filipina Soul, I rejoined B5media via CancerCommentary.com So I guess, I finally found my niche: Science and Health.
Q. How tough is it blogging for a living?
A. Blogging for a living is tough as it is: you need to spend more time blogging and reading about blogs and other blogs in your industry. Also, in my case I need to publish a certain daily quota so that my earnings at the end of the month will not plummet down. If you call that tough. He he.
There’s no easy money in the world. Is there? Problogging is no easy money either.
Sabi ko sa anak ko, wag kang magreklamo na wala ako sa bahay, kasi kung hindi ako humarap sa computer ko at mag-blog, hindi ka kakain.
So imagine how tough tough will be if you are actively problogging while maintaining a high-end job and a family?
Q. In your own opinion, what does it take it to be a successful problogger?
A. Sucessful problogger = earning substanstial amount of money by blogging while being able to create his/her own unique voice and persona in the blogosphere.
persona= good online presence, credibility, truthfulness substantial blogging income= sustainable amount to cater to your (self+family) needs (when you’ve dumped the day job) or you’re whims/luxuries that your day job cannot afford.
Thus,
successful problogger = substanstial income + good online persona (under the conditions of longevity, sustenance and staying power)
(I am a Chemist by education so pardon the equations that seem not to end.)
Q. What’s your daily routine? In the case of your personal blog, how frequently do you post updates?
A. My daily routine has changed several times. If you are constantly reading my blog you will find out that I am not blogging at home. I blog uptown where there’s electricity and internet services. At the moment I update my problogs almost daily from Monday to Saturday. I also would like to update my personal blog daily, but it really depends on my day. Most days I’m too tired with science blogging I can’t put my own thoughts into coherent words.
At the moment I am out of the house from 9 am to 7 pm. Yes, straight.
This time i spend with stuff to do with internet in the following order: reading my mails and answering the urgent ones, blog-hopping (reading+commenting), reading my RSS feeds to see what others in my "industry" are talking about and selecting my stuff to blog about, composing my entries and publishing them, while chatting with some friends (online and offline). This cycle goes on several times, plus running errands for my family and going to the grocery until my son arrives at 7 pm, a signal that i should get up and get oflfine. Sounds like a fulltime job? It is. Blogging is a fulltime job, it takes most of your waking hours.
Q. Being a problogger already, why do you still feel the need to write for a personal blog?
A. Because my personal blog is my outlet and has been the therapy in healing my wounded heart.
Seriously, because it’s mine and I decide what to write. It’s an extension of my current lack of a social life and the lack of a better half to discuss things with and just to steam off.
Q. I am sure other bloggers are curious, but how does one get into the problogging market?
A. I don’t know the exact formula either. I was just pondering on this issue recently. Every problogger has their unique story on how they jumped into the problogging wagon. But one denominator is common: being at the right place and time when you just wanted to do something outrageously abnormal (and earn from it) and you are an internet/tech addict and a passion-driven writer-wannabe. All this and finding a network that will pay you to blog, or being the geek that you are, you will set up and monetize your own blog.
It’s like testing the water on doing something outside your normal profession. Except that when you are on the verge of that blogging cliff, there’s no testing the waters, you have to dive right in to find out what problogging is really about. And so we all find ourselves here, right now, swimming in our own little world of problogging, of blog monetization, of SEOs and page-ranking and stuff.
It doesn’t matter if you quit or keep your day job, either way you just got to dive in at problogging to discover its wonders.
Q. What are the advantages/disadvantages of being a stay-at-home problogger as opposed to doing a 9 to 5 job?
A. I won’t enumerate but instead just cite the most important one: the biggest advantage of a stay-at- home problogger is the independence of doing the stuff you need to do at your own pace and time. In the process you can put your life in proper perspective, while tending to your family for example. The disadvantage: no employment benefits like health insurance, SSS, etc.
Q. In your opinion, how promising is the market for Filipino probloggers?
A. Very promising actually, because Filipinos can read, write and speak English very well. So if they can express themselves, if they can write about somethign they know about, they’ll be in business. Although I guess most Filipino professionals aren’t convinced with problogging. Siyempre kasi sa problogging dapat risk-taker at handa sa bukas na baka magsara ang network, so dapat may back-up na home business o kumikitang personal blog. Siyempre kung executive ka na, baka wala kang time for blogging o kaya naman bakit ka maghahanap ng kita sa blogging eh may kita ka namang malaki at regular?
Q. Your plans as a blogger. Do you still see yourself blogging five, ten years from now?
A. Yes definitely, as long as I can still type the keyboards and my eyes can still read. As long as there’s somebody who’ll pay up , be it a Blog Network or an advertiser! Yes I will be blogging about stuff i know about until my brain goes dead. Even if i bag another regular job in the process, i would still make time for problogging, there’s just no going back
But of course, in that span of time (5 to 10 years) I would probably already put-up an income-generating home-business, like an expanded sari-sari store; my dream internet shop for earning money online, not for gaming; a gasoline station; a fast-food franchise; on top of publishing my own book maybe.
(For comments and inquiries, email annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)
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