Guidelines for Paid Post Blogging

In my ongoing Blog Entrepreneurship Program with Ateneo, one question asked focused on quality expectation of blog post writing. This is important as it can result to missed opportunities if not handled well.

Here are some tips that I hope can help both blogger and blog network editors. If you have additional inputs, feel free to add.

Tips for Bloggers on Paid Post Blogging

1. Review the job order or assignment.
Make sure to fully understand the assignment and expectations. Clarify if there is any confusion.

2. Proofread for blog post story flow, grammar-check, and spell-check prior to submission.
The blogger is also the editor of a blog. Best to have a fellow blogger who will read your blog post first and tell if it needs improvement.

3. Meet the deadline.
Do not accept an assignment if the deadline can't be met.

Not following the job order, submitting incomplete work, poor quality of writing, and missing deadline affects task completion of the project lead - that affects the blogging network as a whole.

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Tips for Managing Bloggers

1. Have a contingency plan.
If you committed 10 blog post, get 12 bloggers to write for you. This helps increase chances of meeting the deadline. Factor this in your cost.

2. Read the blog post submission and request for corrections asap
As soon a completed blog post is submitted, check it for story flow, grammar, and spelling. If there are problems, ask the blogger to revise and get it done right away.

It is embarrassing for a client to see a blog post written poorly or has wrong information. This usually happens when a client spotted the story, especially for those who use "keyword alerts", prior to submission of completed work.

3. Understand the blogger's situation
Have encountered scenarios where a blogger who used to write well suddenly regress. Best to give a break. The blogger might be overwhelmed with other things that affects the quality of their work.

In managing relationship with bloggers, continuously remind on the need to pursue reasonable standards with regards to quality of writing and the impact of great work to themselves, project lead, and entire blog network.

On a last note, maintain a one-on-one relationship with the blogger. Trust is a two-way street and needs to be continuously worked on. If handled well, the above challenges will always be dealt with a smile (kasama na asaran) and all forms of feedback seen with good intent.

October 13: Blogging 101 Webinar

Glad to know that the Ateneo-DigitalFilipino.com Certified Blog Entrepreneur Program is a go where Module 1: Blog Launch, Copywriting, and Basic Promotion will take place this October 16 to 30.

This October 13 Wednesday 8 pm to 9 pm, I will have a webinar on Blogging 101 covering the following topics:

• Introduction to Blogs
• Searching for Blogs
• Knowing your Blog's Purpose
• Setting up a blog using Blogger.com and Wordpress
• Q&A and further demo (we will extend time up to 10 pm to accommodate as much questions as possible)

Who can attend:
1. Paid participants for the Ateneo-DigitalFilipino.com Certified Blog Entrepreneur Program.
2. DigitalFilipino Club members noting the following slots: (please contact me to reserve your slot)

• Individual - can attend (not transferable)
• SME - 2 slots
• Corporate - 3 slots

3. Blogging from Home book owners. 

To prove book ownership, just post a photo in your blog holding a copy of the book or upload your photo at Yahoo! Meme. Don't forget to post the link to the comment section here.

Thank you!

Winners: Join me at Kape Isla Farm Tour

Instead of having 2 winners, all 4 bloggers who participated in "Join Me at Kape Isla Farm Tour" writing contest will be able to join me at this activity. They are:

1. PinoyOrganics
2. Nica Mandigma
3. Jay'L
4. Japaul Vergonia

Look forward seeing you on Monday and blog about the experience. See you!

October 4: Join me at the Kape Isla Farm Tour

In celebration of Coffee Month, the Philippine Coffee Board is organizing a Kape Isla Farm Tour. This will be on October 4 leaving Manila at 8 am and be back at 6 pm.

I can tag along 2 bloggers. To become one of the 2, this is what you need to do:

1. Make a blog post on why you want to join the Kape Isla Farm Tour. Share your love for coffee by including a photo or video in your post.

2. Link to the following:

• Philippine Coffee Board (http://www.coffeeboard.com.ph/)
• Free webinar on October 9: How to Put up a Coffee Business and Choose your Coffee Blend (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145957765444104&ref=ts)
• Kape Isla (http://www.coffeeboard.com.ph/kapeisla.htm)

3. Add a Facebook "like" button to your blog post to enable your readers to give a thumbs up.

Post a comment to this blog entry and give me the url link where your entry can be found.
Deadline for submission of entries is on September 27, 2010.

Selection of winners will be based on:

1. Story - why you want to join the Kape Isla Farm Tour.
2. Number of Facebook Likes.

The 2 winners who will get to join the Kape Isla Farm Tour shall be announced on September 29.

The Kape Isla Farm Tour consists of stop-over at:

1. The National Coffee Research Center in Cavite State University in Indang, Cavite. Tour around the coffee farm to see seedlings, coffee flowers, coffee fruits, different kinds of coffee varieties and have an espresso at the coffee center.
2. The Beneficio Amadeo - a coffee mill. See how green coffee or dried coffee cherries is brought to the mill for cleaning and sorting before being bagged prior to delivery to roasters.
3. Coffee Roasting Plant. See how coffee beans transform from being green to a nice golden brown or dark brown depending on the roast being processed.
4. Along the way, see many coffee plantations, pineapple and banana farms and vegetable farms as well.

Hope you can join. =)

In addition, there will be a Kape Isla Tour that is open to the public on October 16. If you are interested to join, just contact the Philippine Coffee Board for details.

waiting for iPhone 4

For the past few months, I have been contemplating of getting a mobile phone to explore the world of mobile application development, marketing and advertising particularly using iAds and AdMob. However, carrying this out would require investment in a mobile device and have decided to look into the iPhone 4 as my entry point in this space.

At first, I thought of the iPad or iPod Touch but I eventually decided on this unit instead. If things will turn out well with my experiment, will be sharing application development, mobile marketing, and advertising experiment with this device.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/#gallery01

In the Philippines, the iPhone 4 is carried exclusively by Globe (if I recall correctly) and already reserved a unit. To control usage, decided to get a prepaid kit first and once familiar, that is when I will explore getting a plan.

Excited and a bit worried. Hope it will not take too long before the units arrive. Unsure as well where I am in the cue and how soon will I get the unit. Oh well, hope to get the e-mail or call soon.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Columnist versus blogger

Just realized that this was published already, Issue on Bloggers. I thought first it didn't made it as of press time.


Additional article reference:

• Politics of blogging 
• Bloggers guide in attending media events

Blogger.com now gives Blog Traffic Analytics

Just read about Blogger Stats and so happy that this feature is now available in Blogger.com. Just visit your  Blogger in Draft dashboard and there's a stats link there where you can check out the traffic that your blog is having.

What I like about this feature is that it reduces the need to have 3rd party analytics tool installed and measure how you are doing with your site.

Information you will find in your Blogger Stats dashboard includes:

1. Overview - get info on your pageviews, top posts, audience, and traffic sources for the time period. It also has real-time stats update. Wow!
2. Posts - pageviews of your top 10 blog posts and pages.
3. Traffic sources - referring urls or websites and search keywords that drives traffic to your site.
4. Audience - shows pageviews by country, browser type, and operating system.

Look forward to more features from Blogger.com. My wish is for Blogger.com to improve on its commenting system and make it more social network friendly (sign-on your comments with Twitter, Disqus, Facebook, Google Buzz, Yahoo, among others).

Winners of free delegate pass: 41st National Marketing Conference

Many thanks to those who joined our free delegate pass contest for the 41st National Marketing Conference organized by the Philippine Marketing Association. This will be on June 24 and 25 at Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Pasay City.

Search Profile Index (to be launched on June 25) is a proud sponsor of this conference.

The winners are:

• Alvin
• Jonas Roque

Note that this slot is not transferable. Congratulations to the winners!

Get a free delegate pass: 41st National Marketing Conference

The Philippine Marketing Association is organizing the 41st National Marketing Conference this June 24 and 25 at Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Pasay City. We are giving away two (2) delegate passes to this event.

Search Profile Index (to be launched on June 24) is a proud sponsor of this conference.

Should you like to participate and hope to get one of the passes, this is what you have to do:

1. Make a blog entry about the 41st National Marketing Conference and cite why you like to attend this two-day event.
2. Your blog post must have a link to the following:
   link 1: 41st National Marketing Conference at http://philippinemarketing.net.ph/eng/4th-national-marketing-conference-2010/
   link 2: Philippine Marketing Association at http://philippinemarketing.net.ph/eng/
   link 3: Search Profile Index at http://www.searchprofileindex.com
3. Post a comment to this blog entry and give me the url link where your entry can be found.

Deadline for submission of entries is on June 20, 2010. We will list and link to all entries that get submitted here.

The 2 winners who will get one delegate pass each shall be posted here on or before June 21.

I hope you can join and see you at the 41st National Marketing Conference!

3 Tools to help increase your Twitter interaction

Search engines today like Google and Yahoo look into Twitter as a resource of real-time results as recommended by users. This makes it important for bloggers who would like their content become widespread to share quality content and interact. This helps increase your network size as you proactively connect online and mingle relevantly with active users.

There are three tools that I find valuable for one to become effective in using Twitter. This includes:

1. Hootsuite
   This allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts. I also added my Facebook fan pages for various websites (rather than Facebook personal profile) for simultaneous update. You can schedule tweets at a later time too.
   
   It has statistics that you can use to monitor which of the links you tweeted merited the most number of clicks.
   
   It can also promote your latest blog post as you can add RSS feeds.
   
   
2. Twitoaster
   You can use this tool to monitor which of your tweets elicited a retweet and response from followers. You can post follow-up replies from their site too (example). I posted this at the sidebar of my blog with the intent of encouraging readers to check it out and join the discussion if interested without necessarily leaving this blog.
   
   
3. TwitterCounter
   This is similar to MyBlogLog that you can add at your sidebar where you will be able to see members checking out your blog. This is a great tool if you want to connect with other Twitter users who passed by. Effective too if you want to see how your Twitter profile is growing. (example)

If you have other tools to suggest, please post a comment and share. Are you on Twitter? Let's connect! (my id is digitalfilipino)

Blog, Eat, Drink, Meet at Le Bistro Vert

Since November 2009, I found myself frequently visiting Le Bistro Vert to hold meetings, parties, and even catch up with my blogging advocacy work. When people ask me why I love that place, here are the reasons why:

1. They offer free Internet access with power plug. This allows me to catch up with work and blog even while doing meetings. As I also do informal consulting session with club members where online hands-on demonstration is necessary, this places makes it easy for me to do it
2. They offer traditional dishes with a twist. This is done by using locally available or produced ingredients that also benefits Filipino farmers. My favorite menu combination as follows:

• Sagada orange, carabao cheese, tomato appetizer
  
• Arugula, Davao blue cheese & cashew salad
• Spiced pumpkin or organic vegetable minestrone soup
• Inch thick grilled pork chop or walnut & herb crusted sole fillet

You can also come in the morning and try their breakfast. My favorite is the big breakfast.

3. On weekdays, 5 to 8 pm, cocktails are available on a buy 1 + 1 arrangement. For those who are treating clients and are on a budget, this is one great deal to avail of.

4. They serve Kape Isla Philippine coffee that helps local farmers.
Kape Isla is a seal given by the Philippine Coffee Board. It is a stamp of approval for quality Philippine coffees. If you haven't tried this yet, visit Le Bistro Vert, Fraser Place, Valero Street, Makati City and have a free cup of Kape Isla Philippine coffee. Just mention the code "KapeIsla164" to avail of it. This offer is valid until March 31, 2010.


View Le Bistro Vert Fraser Place in a larger map

5. Ideal for parties and small seminars
Le Bistro Vert has a function room that can be used for special events or lectures. If you have a large party happening, the whole place can also be reserved to you. Packages are very negotiable. Tried the place last December 2009 for the Blog4Reviews.com Christmas party and our guests enjoyed it.

6. Le Bistro Vert is a social enterprise and include its network of companies conjointly marketing to communicate their sustainability culture consistently. A simple demonstration of this is the use of ECHOstore products in the rest room of the restaurant. ECHOstore daily care and home products represents small marginalized, cultural communities, creative industry practitioners, women groups and foundations.

Have you tried this place? If yes, review it at

• Foursquare
• Google Maps
  

Blogging for Power and Influence

Last March 5, I gave a talk at the BlogWorld Philippines 2010 event that took place at Crossroad 77 in Quezon City. I'm very thankful to DigitalFilipino Club member Asian Institute of E-Commerce President Aveleo Fuentes for inviting me to share insights on blogging.

All participants were given a copy of the Blogging from Home book. Check out the tutorial videos and additional learning insights should you like to pursue it further.

Practical tips in becoming an influential blogger by Janette Toral

View more presentations from Janette Toral.

Blogging for power and influence requires a bigger perspective and a definite plan for those pursuing this path. It is more than just technical knowledge as it requires the following:

• Pick a niche
  Identify where you want to be known for. Is this something that you will be interested in doing for the next ten years?
  
  
• Share what you know
  Give and share what you know. In the process, you will earn goodwill and trust that can result to opportunities.
  
  
• Be different and stand out
  Don't be a copycat. Know right from the start what will make you different from the rest.
  
  
• Forge alliances
  Partner with those where you can add value to and benefit from as well.
  
  
• Be featured
  If you'll do the above well, there is a big possibility that people will start talking about you. Don't miss out on opportunities that gives you valuable exposure. This includes being interviewed and speak in events.
  
  
• Appear in search engine results
  Make sure that you own first page of search engine results or information that gets posted about you.

The following can be read also to help in the process:

• Building a Tribe: can you lead us?
• 14 Challenges in Staying Remarkable
• Boost Your Friendliness and Likeability Factor
• Learn in every trial
• The Secret: 13 Years of Freelancing
• Three steps to spark marketing creativity and launch new offerings
• Getting 100 True Followers, Fans, Members
• Building a personal brand

Last year, I spoke on the same event where my talk was focused on Philippine E-Commerce Entrepreneurs Towards Globalization.

Great to see Pangasinan SEO bloggers Dr. Julius Mamaril, Philip Tiangson, and Julius Sison once again whose presentations proved that regardless of location, one can make money online. First met these guys during the Search Engine Marketing & Optimization seminar at Urdaneta City University last year.

Carlo Ople gave an inspiring talk on how to make money online and shared his experience on how he was able build it gradually.

Also to fellow speakers Joey De Venecia, Tyrone Charles Solee, and Cristina Manimbo-Gascon. It was my first time to hear Kelvin Servigon speak. (Kelvin's blog was actually named as one of the top 10 emerging influential blogs in 2009 as selected by writing project participants)

I am also thankful for the "Champion of Philippine Internet and E-Commerce Hall of Fame Award" recognition "for offering all her life towards the advancement of E-Commerce and Digital Media education and policy improvement in the Philippines".

Look forward interacting with AIE College students. Have fun in your blogging adventure!

3 ways of reconnecting with blog readers through comments

There are many ways that a blogger can promote a blog, oneself, and attract readers as I shared in page 46 of the book Blogging from Home. Perhaps one of the most time-consuming yet very important is commenting on blogs. Used the term time-consuming as one has to read the blog first and then start participating in the discussion or simply comment.

Connecting with bloggers

For new bloggers, one will usually reach out to blogs that covers the same topic as they do or those that complement your niche. You can use Google Blog Search and Technorati for this purpose. On a simpler level, you can visit the blog of your social networking friends who regularly promotes them from time to time.

You can also subscribe to a blog and monitor on a regular basis using your Google Reader.

Once you have an established set of blogs, reconnecting with your past readers is important whether they are active in commenting or not in your blog. This is the present situation with my old blogs. Some approaches I have taken:

1. Look at past comments
   Visit the blog of those who commented at your blog in the past just to drop by and reconnect.
   
   If they are not active in blogging, connect through other means like re-tweeting something they posted on Twitter. Or respond to their Facebook activity such as giving a thumbs up, leave a comment, and share.
   
2. Visit past contest, events, writing project, or promotion participants
   If you have ran or sponsored a contest or promotion in your blog before, then visiting those who joined is also a practical thing to do.
   
   I find this easier said than done though. Had a writing project at Influential Blogger for the past 3 years and reconnecting would meant consistently communicating with past winners and reach out to past participants (around 400 bloggers).
   
3. Visit your members
   Whether you have an informal community, club blog, MyBlogLog, Blog Catalog, or NetworkedBlogs, you can scan through your community members, visit their blog, and leave a comment.
   
   For this blog specifically, that would meant visiting the blog of past book buyers and owners to keep in touch.

If you have additional inputs on this topic, hope you can share them.