Filipino Problogger: Paulo Ordoveza

Our next Filipino problogger is Paulo Ordoveza, more commonly known online as browpau. I’ve known him way back in college though we didn’t really got to know each other personally until he interviewed me back in 2000 as his replacement for a start-up company affiliated with PEx. He may not know this but he practically got me into blogging. He now lives in Washington, DC, where he works as a graphic designer and website developer.

• How would you define problogging?

  Weblog as work: regular production of written online content, directed at a specific audience, with the purpose of profitably filling a specific topic-focused niche.

• When did you start blogging? When did you get into problogging and how did you realize that there’s some money to be had from it?

  I started writing my personal weblog, “How Now Brownpau,” in September 2000, and added Google banners to it sometime in 2004. I didn’t really think of it as being “professional” while the ads were on HNBP; it was just a way to offset some of my web hosting costs, and also provide context-based external content to some of my entries for people arriving by way of nonrelated search terms.

  Later on, realizing that I had bought several little low-end electronic devices, I decided to try starting a site on these same electronics to see if it would attract any interest — and profit. I had originally intended to make Cheap And Tiny a static clump of affiliate product pages with a few ads, but I then decided to see if the Gizmodo/Engadget way might not be a better route.

• Which blogs are you writing for and which blog networks are you affiliated with?

  On a professional basis, just Cheap And Tiny, though there are a few other projects in the pipeline. I’m not affiliated with any particular weblog network, and I like my independence.

• Are you problogging part time or full time? Do you see this career as a part time gig or you are looking into going fulltime problogging?

  Part time — very, very part time. I don’t think I’ll ever take it beyond that, because I’ve discovered that I find much more happiness and fulfillment in my day job as a graphic designer.

• How do you monetize your blog? Which ones bring in the most revenues?

  Google Adsense, Chitika ads, Amazon affiliate links, and Thinkgeek and Macmall affiliate links via Commission Junction. Adsense and Amazon bring in the most money.

• What are the requirements to go into problogging for a network? Flat fee or profit sharing? How much is the salary range?

  Definitely a flat fee to start. I’ve found out the hard way that profit sharing means there’s not much to share for the first couple of years, and that in turn means less motivation for your writers, who produce less content, which means less profit. Hence, a flat fee to provide incentive; you really need to spend some money at the start to gain more later.

• How much time do you spend on problogging?

  Not much, and I haven’t been counting. The original aim, however, was to make one post a day to Cheap And Tiny, with not more than an hour per day devoted to each post.

• What other benefits do you get from problogging?

  Aside from the [still-meager] income, you get a nice cross-pollination of interest. People who wouldn’t normally find your less popular sites or projects can discover them via links in your more interesting ones. Keep at least a few links in your sidebar for that purpose.

  And if you’re not just duplicating links from the big pro weblogs, you find a lot of interesting content all on your own.

• What’s the most significant event/moment you had in your entire problogging career?

  Probably the time I got a link from Matt Haughey, of Metafilter fame. Sadly I haven’t really capitalized on the popularity I got from back then, so the flood of inbound clicks from that day have sunk back to a trickle.

• What personal tips can you share with bloggers who want to try out problogging?

  Keep at it. It takes a long time to become a popular, widely read, much-linked online cultural flashpoint — I’m talking years. You can’t be “ningas-kugon” about it; if it’s pro, you have to act pro, and actually work at it consistently for a long time, investing the same time and effort over the months and years as you did in the heat of excitement on the first few days.

  Don’t attack other weblogs, don’t plagiarize, and for crying out loud, DO NOT SPAM. I know you’re impatient to get the word out about your wonderful site and become famous, but DO NOT SPAM the link all over email, weblog comments, and message boards. Spam will only establish you as an annoyance to be avoided, shunned, and blacklisted.

  Also, be ready to adapt, and don’t be too enamored of the latest buzzwords. We say “blog” and “problog” and “Web 2.0” and “AJAX” now, but remember that five years ago, “push” and channels” were all the rage. Things change fast in these modern times, and your medium — and revenue sources — may transform to something else entirely before you know it. Be ready to react.

More Filipino Probloggers:

Melissa Atienza-Petri
Joachim Guanzon
Ruth Schaffer
J Angelo Racoma
Markku Seguerra
Gloria Gamat
Paulo Ordoveza