I’d like to welcome my new visitors and readers coming from MSN Live, Yahoo! & Google looking for my blog after watching the feature at Mel & Joey last night. I was surprised that for a 2-hour footage, they managed to squeeze it in a 2-minute feature.
Just to guide our new visitors, I’d like to point you out to some readings. I wasn’t really anticipating to be inundated with emails so apologies if I didn’t come up with a welcome page to guide all of you along and answer the more obvious questions beforehand.
First, a disclaimer.
- Before we started with the interview, I asked the crew what the story will be about and they informed me it was a feature “on ways to make money online or thru the internet”. It wasn’t just about blogging but looks like the feature ended that way. Just to complete that line-up, I also suggested digital photography, webmastering, web copywriting, running forums, e-mail marketing, doing paid reviews, article writing, among others.
- When I was asked to give out an advise, my tone was a little discouraging and I explicitly said it was not an overnight gig. It took years before I got any significant returns and it wasn’t just thru a single income stream. I had to stress that because I didn’t want to give out a false impression that it was easy. They also failed to mention how many blogs, websites, and forums I own.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move forward and answer all those frequently emailed questions:
- How to start a blog?
The easiest way to go about this is by signing up with free hosted blogging service. Try WordPress.com and Blogger.com as they are two of the most popular ones. Signing up is easy and should be a breeze if you have basic internet skills (I usually add that if you knew how to create a fee email account, signing for a blog should be much easier). Blogger.com is more advertising friendly and new sign-ups are also encouraged to open an AdSense account so go ahead with that too. You can also go to a full blown blog and get yourself a nice domain and hosting — but that will cost you too. - What should I blog about?
A lot of things! But, focus more on the topics you are most passionate about or something you think you have good knowledge of. Topics could range from gardening, pets, to food, traveling, gaming, cars and toys (so much more actually). A newly turned blogger I helped recently put up a blog about finches (a certain species of birds for breeding). - How do I earn from my blog?
The same business model applies to most other websites — advertising. Some are self-service and pretty easy to get into while others take time and patience. For self-service advertising, check out TextLinkAds, Google AdSense, ReviewMe, PayPerPost, AdBrite, Kontera, Amazon Associates, etc. To get direct ads, you will need to have a fairly established blog with sizable traffic to get noticed. The getting noticed part will be a little hard depending on the topic you blog about. - How do I get paid for it?
It depends on which ad platform you use but most of the time, it’s thru cheques at the end of the month, quarter or after you reach a certain amount (e.g. $25). Others thru Paypal, direct deposit and other money remittance services (Xoom, Western Union, etc). - How long before I start earning?
Now this is the hardest part to answer really. Based from experience, it could be as quick as 3 months to as long as 2 years. So, you need to be very patient and passionate about it, otherwise you’ll only end up getting disappointed. Sometimes, you won’t earn a cent at all. It’s not a fool-proof formula. - What else do I need to know?
I’ve compiled a number of posts about problogging here. I also did several interviews with fellow Filipino probloggers here. You can contact them (esp. the network bloggers) for more leads in getting a part-time blogging gig at their respective blog networks. - What’s the easiest way to start?
You can join a blog network. It’s one way of getting into problogging without a lot of the hassles since the network will help you out a long the way. A local blog network you can approach is Bayanihan Blog Network (which I co-founded). J Angelo (the other blogger who got featured) is also managing a blog network. He can hook you up with some writing/blogging jobs too.
There are other ways too of earning money on the side thru the internet. I wrote some suggestion about that before (More Ways to Make Money Online) with a more local twist. Will be publishing an addendum to that later.
Hope this helps. Once you’ve gone thru all the readings, you can get back to me thru email for additional questions.
How to Make Money Online,
Pinagkakitaan pala ang TipidPC, may plano poa naman akong bumili dyan.
I couldn’t agree more to all of you about the difficulty one will have to endure in order to be a recognized blogger. I’m still a starter and would love to do it more on a regular basis, but time is against me at present. Quite busy with lots of things here in Oxford.
Jaypee, you’re absolutely right on your comment about the media. Be it back home, in the US or here in the UK it does happen. You can always get back to them and comment that you weren’t completely happy about it as they haven’t presented the whole side of story/ they made it appear to be such an easy job to earn big bucks. They might just bring back the topic briefly to correct the wring impression that they might have relayed to the interested public.
With regards to Joey’s comment in reference from Arnold’s, having known him for what he’s like (on the telly not personally, you may want to just ignore the term. But equally, this is rather quite offensive particularly to serious bloggers. Surely, if he’s been been made aware of this he’ll definitely make an apology.
I can’t see anything wrong with earning money from it but for starters this should not be the goal. Those who love it and just want their voice heard tend to last, those whose just in for a quick money, without a doubt will drop out from the blogospere in a few months or so.
I might blog about this topic on my blog account.
I’ll have to agree with Jaypee. Media will find it difficult to sell something that is not hyped or sensationalized. If “Mel & Joey” told viewers, uhmm, “the truth” about earning online, the buzz they were building will go from buzz to bust. That episode needed to have a selling point, otherwise, it will just be one lousy, ho-hum show. Unfortunately, they did that at the expense of the truth about online earning.
Anyway kudos to Abe for writing this article about the “real score” in online earning. And congrats on your TV appearance! I’m sure that will inspire a new breed of Filipinos who will try online earning out.
Master Yuga! musta? kaw lang inabangan ko sa Mel & Joey eh!
anyway, crib and rig..
Sir Abe tlaga oh… I though you didn’t know how to play the guitar! Or you really didn’t? :D
That’s the problem with most tv shows and other media, they tend to sensationalize things in order to get people to watch their shows or programs.
It’s true that blogging can be a good source of income but it’s not for everybody and not everyone who goes into problogging succeed.
Mel mentioned “..magandang racket para sa lahat..” for blogging maybe but not problogging and they should have made that clear. They’re misleading people. They should have pointed out the disadvantages in the show not only the advantages.
Too bad they didn’t show the full interview. But thanks to Advocrazy for uploading it in YouTube.
You look good on TV Abe! :D
Thanks Abe!
Yes, me too was so really interested to make a blog online, though, I always make my blogs and I know that there are a chance that you can a make money through blogging but the problem is, I don’t know where to start and how to do it? I already sent you an email for inquiries, thanks for sharing this ideas.
There are lots of ways to make money online, you can also do a freelancing job, which I am doing since 2004. I earn lots of money using my skills in data entry and fast typing. I also get my payment at western union. I can work anytime I want, work anywhere I want and paid every project I finish.
So, I think Juan Dela Cruz is not left alone to outsourcing job which is very “in demand”. There are lots of filipino in the site and they are earning money.
I think its the best way to show the world how hardworking, talented and genius, the Filipino’s are. Because if you joined on that freelancing site, you are competing with many freelancers around the globe, from Europe, Africa, India, Uk, Canada, USA, Australia and many more country.
I am proud to be Pinoy! Be proud to be pinoy!!!
Thanks again MR. Abe, hope you include my comments in your blogs. Thanks again and more power!
Actually, right after the video shoot I convinced the segment producer that it wasn’t an easy industry as they initially thought it was. She agreed after I told her how much time, effort and passion I put into it. But, they just had to make a huge story out of it. The sad part was they failed to show the disadvantages I enumerated to them.
Yeah, anything to pacify the nearly hopeless. Tsk, tsk. Not only do you have to be well-informed, internet savvy and a good writer (compared to the average educated Filipino), you also have to be lucky on your niche. Mas may chance ka pang yumaman sa pa-kiosk-kiosk lang.
@Brian, I didn’t. I showed them a survey before about income ranges for probloggers and maybe that’s where they got the figures (which was assumed). I also told them I’m into the web hosting business but that didn’t make the cut as well. Franky, I didn’t like the way it was portrayed. Too much hype.
And why oh why did you divulge your earnings?
They didn’t do Yuga justice. H’s practically a genius. Did they mention that? No. Did they mention that many have tried and are trying and are earning a pitiful amount of money… for all their trouble. Puro paasa sa tao.
Nice you are so famous nest to bryanboy
The Mel & Joey feature on blogging as alternative earning vehicle has certainly aroused my interest. Who wouldn’t be if someone is earning as much as $4K to $6K a month? That’s a lot of money, my goodness! The only problem is that the feature was made to look like a very easy job… it has not said anything about the difficulties and problems of doing a blog over time before you came to this point of reaping your labour and hardships.
i guess the problem with shows like these is that they tend to hype the whole making money part to add intrigue.
You did say it wasn’t that easy to earn right away from blogs.
The show might not have the air time to say what Abe needs to say, but I think the important thing here is that an interest in blogging has emerged.
I watched the Mel&Joey problogging segment video at Rom’s site:
http://advocrazy.com/2007/08/19/pro-blogging-as-an-alternative-job-in-the-philippines/
does anybody has uploaded the segment to youtube?
The problem with the Mel & Jay segment was the way it gave the idea that earning from blogging is an easy gig. How did Joey termed it? “bagong raket sa internet”.
Present it on Sunday primetime TV and mentioned that a certain Abe Olandres is earning $5K a month, who wouldn’t be amazed at that?
Unfortunately, the show didn’t point out that earning money online entails a lot of hardwork, perseverance and all.
blogging is for everyone, but earning through blogging is not.