When I made a call for iBlog4 speakers, I'm grateful that Charo Nuguid volunteered to share her experience and insight in this area. Charo started blogging way back in May 2003 at a time when Blogger wasn't yet part of Google and "The Geekette Speaketh" (TGS) was still called "Primitive Types".Charo used her blog for posting her everyday geek life although its current version has a different target from when it first started off. She believes that blogging is a way to inform other people that there's always something interesting out there. "It means being able to help others understand something that's new to them. Blogging piques the interest and hopefully get them passionate about something you really feel about."
Charo has her own observations of the local blogging scene and on iBlog4, she will be talking about blogging 101 without the commercial pitch side of it. She considers that perspective to be important. "For some reason, it seems that blogging is less about the passion and more about the money. Truth be told, it is SO EASY to turn a blog into a profitable one. The hard part is setting up the foundation of it all. "
"I've seen a lot of blogs that simply do nothing but link to others and ride on someone else's success. While that's all well and good, I find that the really big earners do more than just link. They have something new to add to it. They give a totally different view of the situation. Most of the time they have original content.
Charo believes that original content still is the driving force of of a profitable blog and cites an example to further explain the point.
"One of my best friends put up a blog with the sole target of documenting his childhood experiences before he grows old and senile (his words, not mine). Just a couple posts later he never expected his blog to be such a hit. But I noticed that he had all the points that made his blog really popular. He had a goal. He had a story. It explains why he is what he is today by telling his past. But he never once thought of making money out of it. If ever he decides to do so, he could very well earn more than me.
That's why I want to talk about the blog "foundations". I want blogging to be a fun experience for the writer. I want to help them figure out how to write their interests and publish them on the web. At the same time let them know of the dangers of blogging and how to deal with it."
Here's Charo Nuguid's blogging 101 presentation and talk at iBlog4.
"For some reason, it seems that blogging is less about the passion and more about the money.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what kind of blogs she has been reading but I see many blogs that don't talk about money. I think it's very wrong to assume that the blogging scene is like this..."more about money".
Hello, Noemi!
ReplyDeleteYou misunderstood me. I didn't say they talk about money. I meant that most new blogs I see are more concerned about turning a profit first rather than talking about what they're really passionate about.
Which also doesn't mean that there are no blogs that are just the opposite. For instance, yours and http://yolynne.wordpress.com to name a couple. It shows on how one writes the post, you see. Less about keywords, more about what you really feel.
Which is what my talk is going to be all about. Less about making an SEO blog, more about simply blogging.
Hope to see you on iBlog4!
P.S. Is it ok if I use your blog as an example of a "passion-before-pennies" blog? :)
@noemi - i agree that the blogging scene is not really all about money as that is more of a secondary benefit in my opinion. But there are blogs nowadays who tends to prioritize that.
ReplyDelete@charo nuguid - i look forward to your talk.