Promoting a writing project

Idea for writing project promotion - mind map

Promoting a writing project nowadays requires more promotion efforts than usual. This is partly attributed to numerous developments happening online and offline where becoming prioritized is a major challenge. This is especially true if a writing project intends to attract a global audience and the blog starting it is unknown to the majority.

For the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs writing project, I have the following activities in mind. Some of them are already in motion while the others are on its way:

• Submit to social news site (Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon) with the intent of spreading the word. The key to success in this area is getting more folks to do the same.
  
  
• Advertising is one way of getting attention from target participants. I am using Entrecard and Google AdWords for this purpose. So far, some of the entries received were through it. I still have to see Google AdWords conversion performance.
  
  
• Giveaways are also an important attraction to any writing project. For now, 10 winners of US$100 each was created for entries who submits an entry citing 10 qualified blogs. Giving entrecard credits and e-book is another tactic I'm planning to offer in the weeks to come.
  
  
• Updates about the writing project are now done on a weekly basis showing a summary of entries and blogs cited. Creating an entry masterlist and blogs cited masterlist are items I intend to post online this coming week.
  
  
• Announcing the writing project and its summary is currently done through Twitter. A big chunk of entries outside of the Philippines came through this medium. I will be posting the writing project updates in our Yahoo Groups this week.
  
  
• Interact with fellow bloggers by visiting various blogs is something that I make time for once to twice a week. Sending email to fellow bloggers is also something that I make time for once a week.
  
  
• Events can help boost writing project participation. Last year, entries were dwindling in the latter weeks but upon announcement of an eyeball event, there was a surge of entries. Tying it up to a conference is also another option to ensure maximum exposure of club members.

There are more ideas coming in that I haven't included in that mind map yet. However, I will update this soon once I've executed all the ideas above and be ready to share newer ones.

Additional suggestions are more than welcome too. Cheers!

Changing blog advertising revenue models

Early January this year, I launched an experimental ad network where I invited club members and friends for the trial. It was a good idea at that time and still is today. As credibility is something that must be instilled and protected, advertisers in the network were limited to club members as well. Time shall tell whether we eventually became the first blog advertising placement network in the Philippines.

The recent shake-up in the Google PageRank system encourages people like me to look into other parameters that can take its place but still do-able, proactive, and of high-value.

An option that came to mind is for blog members to demonstrate that they have taken an active effort to promote their blogs that can be done in a variety of ways (e.g. Filipina search engine campaign). This means removal of the Google PageRank criteria and replace it with efforts for blog promotion. Still experimenting with this idea and will observe how blog network members shall adapt.

Make Money Online Through Blog Advertising

I got this question from Johnny who replied to our post on connecting with bloggers, encouraging questions to be asked.

"Do you have plans for us, Filipino bloggers, specially those who want to make money online, to convince our local business firms to advertise or put their ads in our respective blogs? Just like you got here in your blog where you post local ads as your sponsor?"

Whenever businesses evaluate advertising proposals, whether Internet-based or traditional print media, it gets evaluated the usual way such as:

• Readership or audience profile
• Content relevance
• Investment versus value proposition

Behind it, other intangible values come into play such as relationship, track record, and capability to sustain.

What I learned from Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail," the more content or product selections you have, the more segments you can accommodate. This means that if you want to succeed, like in the case of blogging, having collective strength will allow you to compete fiercely with mainstream big players. Instead of journalists, traditional consumers and technology connectors are the ones supplying the content and analyzing industry developments.

After participating in affiliate and blog revenue generating programs, I decided to launch an ad revenue program for club members last end of January. Since this is still in experimental stage, the opportunity is currently limited to DigitalFilipino.com Club members.

In addition to the parameters mentioned earlier, advertisers I was able to tap got convinced on the following reasons:

• Ads to appear in a good number of blogs and sites plus those of club members part of the ad network. More eyeballs, diverse blogs, fraction of mainstream media cost, all the better.
• Apart from exposure, add-on benefits includes better search engine positioning. As most of my advertisers were able to get clients through being found in search engine results, it made more sense to support endeavors like this. It is also suitable to entities who are just testing the waters on Internet advertising.
  

There are some lessons learned in this area that I shared lately and look forward in growing together with those who joined.

Blog revenue models, managing online finance, finding good writers

In doing some blog hopping today, I found myself reacting to the following topics:

• Wesabe is an online service where you can manage or track your finances. However, I don't think I'm comfortable in putting my personal financial information online. I'd rather do it still in my personal organizer.
• There is also the discussion on 7 levels of revenue for your blog. I get very concerned when some tend to bash potential earnings for Google AdSense. I still find myself thankful to it as it revolutionizes the online advertising sector. It would not have paved the way for more democratized online earning opportunities today. In my limited experience, most ad buys are seasonal. It is best to plan for the long term and establish your own network where you can sell/place ads. I still use Google AdSense for some of my sites and blogs while I’ve signed up the ones with high Google PageRank to my own small network. Combining AdSense with other programs still works well for me.
• I also found this finding good writer tips to be useful in building my content development program for club members. I should try it out soon.

Also, I'm now using my Ituloy AngSulong blog to record my travel adventures. I've roamed so many places in my nearly 11 years of e-commerce advocacy. I wish I was more diligent in taking pictures and record the places I've visited. My first topic is about my visit to the Alegre Guitar Shop in Cebu.

Growing together

Earlier today, I discovered that three of my niche blogs have achieved a Google PageRank 4. They are:

• DigitalFilipino.com Club Member Job Openings
• Market Intelligence Digest (from PageRank 0)
• Fortune Reading (from PageRank 0)

These are great addition to my two sites that got PageRank 4 as well last January.

The last two were experiments on creating niche and wider audience blog. Seeing this achieve such a PageRank is a great break. It meant the site is ready to graduate from using Google AdSense and participate in our advertising sponsorship program.

I also found that some club members who joined our ad network have experienced progress with their respective PageRank. One achieved a PR 4 and 5 (when they started as PR 0). A few more were able to align their Technorati ranking to their Google PageRank. At least some of the stuff we do in mentoring worked! Of course, this good news means an increase in ad rates of their respective blog or website which makes all club members in the ad network quite happy.

Those who had a decrease in Google PageRank will be given up to the next update to recover, without any fee decrease.

Congratulations and let's continue growing together!

I have a strong vision on what I want do and achieve. As DigitalFilipino.com turns 8 years old this year and with a growing number of advocacies, that gives me no time to spare for free lunch, it makes me wonder if we can reach 25 years, still strong and competitive as ever.

I just like to share this inspiring video interview of U2, obviously my favorite.

Enjoying chaos

I admit that I'm the kind of person who thrives on personal chaos. I dislike the idea when everything around me gets too comfortable and end up creating personal challenges to grow. Although I must admit that the repurcussion can be quite tough and there are several lessons learned in that regard. Learnings gain makes it all worthwhile.

• My 3-days Software Development Policies and Procedures Workshop pushed through, when I least expect it. The class will be finished by tomorrow.
  
• The Philippine Schools Cyberfair Awards is now set on March 23. I was fortunate to get projects that allowed me to set aside a personal budget covering the expense for food, trophies, medals, and t-shirts. I might visit a province on April 20 should the winners in that area can't make it during the awards ceremony or teacher training.
  
• I am setting aside the last week of April for the DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards recognition and may organize a small forum so that club members can take advantage of the lessons learned from winners at that time.
• I'm set to speak in a conference in New Zealand next week and take a break in Adelaide, Australia.
• Will have to deal with payment of property and income taxes before taking that break.
• Send out ad per post and content development assignment to club members asap.
• Submit status reports to all SEO, advertisers, and research clients.
• Finish writing commitments and book project.
• Do all out delegates invitation hurrah for iBlog3. Aiming for 300 bloggers to attend the 2-day FREE event!
• Reactivate the DigitalFilipino.com Podcast.
  

During the travel break, I will reflect on what to do after closing all the pending items I indicated above.

Roll-out: Advertising Revenue Program for Club Members

Our advertising revenue program for club members just began its roll-out yesterday. There are now three club members in the roster, who are also bloggers, joined and began receiving assignments. Advertisers are now coming in as well that pressured me to start it earlier than February 1.

At this early state and in discussion with advertisers and bloggers (who are all club members), I already learned the following:

• Getting advertisers to start with US$100 as a budget is not so bad after all. Risk is small, it won't hurt much if it fails.
• Trust and belief in the community is important. Our club members/bloggers who joined the program have much to work on but giving them that chance matters a lot.
• Mentoring is a must. One can't just give the assignment and let them be. Advise must be given regularly on how they can further improve their blog, increase readership base, and get more advertisement revenues in.
• I think each blogger is accountable for their own blog and have every right to decide on what to do with it and how to go about things. Not be bothered by a-b-c-d lists of sort.
• Be competitive. Actually, not to compete with others but with oneself. Always outperform your past accomplishment, whenever possible. Be happy with every improvement, no matter how small, and still pursue in getting better.

I'll be organizing club members meeting in Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan De Oro, Legaspi, and Bohol to spread the word on this one this February. Will post the details soon in our club members blog.

98 Percent Rule

Last Wednesday, I availed of the Birthday Month discount that Fully Booked (bookstore) gives to its cardholders. This entitled me to a 40% discount for cash and 35% for credit card on any imported item sold in the bookstore. It was a toss-up between Moleskin notebooks (available in Fully Booked Rockwell) or traditional books. As my Author's Avenue Leatherbound Journal still sufficient, I availed of traditional books instead.

The book that caught my attention is Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail". (It seems that the Amazon link to the book version I have is not available in their site right now. Oh well..)

As I started reading it yesterday, I realized that the right materials are coming up for further enhancing my Blogging 101 Workshop (blogging101workshop) book project that is coming out this April 10.

The Introduction portion of the book discussed the 98 percent rule. Upon reading it, I now enjoy giving a pop quiz to friends like this. "Amazon.com is known for having a huge listing of book titles. In your estimate, at least how many of the titles there has one unit sale per quarter?"

As I spend nearly one hundred thousand pesos in bookstores last year (according to my customer loyalty cards in 3 bookstores), that question really intrigued me and made me guest of no more than 80%.

It shocked me that the answer turned out as 98%. That means, if my book sells one piece per quarter, that is normal. That is because of unlimited choices available today and where markets are further segmented. This means that perhaps my books are not within the taste range of blogparteeh07 attendees but it caters to a niche segment who may find specific value in the work I do. The more content or product selections you have, the more segments you can accommodate.

So we are now living in an age where bestsellers are not the one that really rules. The Long Tail talks about a situation where all of us are offered with unlimited choices, as everything becomes available to everyone. Service providers who offer products or services that intends to empower the small players (like Google AdSense - although Google has grown big already) may find themselves equally profitable and even more powerful than a handful of big ad networks.

This means that if you want to succeed, like in the case of blogging, having collective strength will allow you to compete fiercely with mainstream big players. A classic example here are blogging networks like PinoyTech Blog versus Inquirer as a source of technology development information. Instead of journalists, traditional consumers and technology connectors are the ones supplying the content and analyzing industry developments.

With that example, if used as an inspiration, I can revive a blog like W3O and have more chances of success, by getting more female players (mostly from the club member roster), developing them into professional bloggers, involved in the process. This time, not just contributors pro-bono, but actually compensating them for it. I'm trying to push this further as I inquire the possibility of getting the Philippine channel in CitizenBay. With an advertising program being established, perhaps this can work.