Blogging from Home book by Janette Toral launched
One way to tell a professional blogger has achieved massive success is when he—in this case, she—releases a book. Yes, the digital Filipino and and influential blogger extraordinaire Janette Toral has launched her book called Blogging from Home last week at the Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit.
Blogging from Home was written for easy reading and designed for the typical Internet user who wants to learn about blogging and its various use for business or personal intent.
So how can you buy the book? You can go online or pick it up from one of the leading bookstores.
Philippine Blog Awards 2008 date and venue announced
Update: Here’s the official announcement at the Philippine Blog Awards blog.
We’re getting closer and closers to one of the biggest Philippine blogging events of the year, and it just so happens it’s also in September, like WordCamp Philippines. Yes, the Philippine Blog Awards night will take place on September 21, 2008, at the Coral B room of One Esplanade (near SM Mall of Asia and Manila Bay).
Here’s a video announcement and tour of the venue:
A few minor notes on this event: the date was originally August 30, but because it was announced that the Eraserheads reunion concert will be held that night, PBA 2008 had to be rescheduled. Also, the website has been migrated to a new server, so you may be seeing the default WordPress theme instead of the snazzier design.
Tip: create a blogging workflow
Chris Brogan writes that keeping up a steady blogging pace is no easy task, so you need to be ready with goals, tasks, tools that can help you out when that “blog drought” comes.
See what makes the front page of Digg.com (or your industry’s most likely haunt) - learning by emulating is an important blogging skill. Don’t be a clone, but if you pick up some tricks from writers you come to admire, all the better.
The article contains lots of excellent tips for those who still haven’t quite kept up with their blogging routines. It’s useful for amateur and professional bloggers alike.
Unofficial International WordPress Day on July 1
WordPress fans, it’s time to toast to our love of this awesome blogging CMS on Tuesday, July 1, 2008. The Unofficial International WordPress Day is hosted by WPCandy, and it will be one whole day of showing how much people adore WordPress.
How do you participate?
If you love WordPress as much as we do, then we invite you to blog about it with us on Tuesday, July 1. It doesn’t have to be too formal or anything, just make a simple (or incredibly long) post about WordPress. Here are some topics your post could cover:
- Why you use it and prefer it over other CMSs
- How it’s helped your business or blog
- A thank you letter to Automattic
- Your top-secret tips and tricks
There will be 20 prizes given away, including themes, banner ads, plugins, and more. Complete details found here.
The list to end all lists on How to Blog
Look no further than Skellie’s blog for answers on all your blogging questions. Read The Pocket-sized Guide to Blogging. It’s not too long, not too short. It’s just right.
Take for example her straightforward advice about getting comments:
How to get more comments
- Respond.
Don’t you all agree? Skellie better provide an printer-ready version of the list; I’m sure thousands of bloggers will be asking about it!
2.3 Million Filipino Bloggers
Here’s a list of Philippine internet and blogging usage by the numbers, according to the Wave.3 Social Media Tracker (PDF file, 25.66 MB) by Universal McCann, a New York media agency.
- 14 million use the internet (15.4% penetration rate as of April 2007)
- 3.7 million actively use the internet (as of March 2008)
Out of the 3.7 million active users (between 16 to 54 years old):
- 3.6 million / 98.6% : watch videos
- 3.3 million / 90.3% : read blogs
- 3.1 million / 86.4% : post pictures
- 3.0 million / 83.1% : create profiles on social networks
- 2.3 million / 65.8% : have a blog
- 2.2 million / 60.5% : upload videos
- 2.2 million / 61.8% : listen to podcasts
- 1.6 million / 45.2% : subscribe to feeds
(Note: some figures were rounded down or roughly calculated to complete the number-and-percentage pairings.)
It’s interesting to see that podcasts are actually more popular than feeds even though they’re usually powered by syndication technologies.
(Via 100% Batangueno)
Bloggers Unite for Human Rights on May 15
You might be familiar with past iterations of Bloggers Unite. On a certain date, bloggers come together to learn and spread the word about one important issue. Today, May 15th, it’s about Human Rights.
I recently wrote about the possibility of Philippine bloggers being put in danger because of what they write. People have suffered terrible fates because of what they write, including our country. In certain countries, bloggers already belong to that group; we could be next.
But this day is not just about the abuse of the freedom of expression, but other rights. As bloggers, we should not stop with what may put ourselves in danger, but that which concerns our families, our neighbors, our countrymen. Blogging is as much about keeping our eyes open and learning about the world around us as it is about posting updates about our mundane lives.
Take time out to discover these human rights issues presented by Amnesty International. These are just suggested topics you can write about:
- Human Rights In China: “China has long promised to improve its human rights record for before the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Instead, there has been a crackdown on peaceful dissent in Tibet, prominent human rights activists, and media. Today, China human rights record is worse than it was before they made their promise.”
- Illegal Detentions at Guantanamo Bay: “Since first detainees arrived on January 11, 2002, the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay has become a global symbol of U.S. human rights violations. Infractions have included: illegal detention, denial of fundamental legal rights, and torture. The only proper recourse is to close the detention facility.”
- Crisis in Darfur: “One of the worst atrocities and abuses of human rights in the world today is taking place in Darfur, Sudan. The conflict in this country has led to the worst human rights abuses imaginable — the systematic and widespread murder, rape, abduction, and displacement of peaceful citizens.”
Participate in today’s challenge by grabbing a badge, blogging about a human rights issue, and sharing it at the Bloggers Unite group page.
Contests: Win Cash, Laptop Bag, Kubota Artistic Tools, Power Hits 2 CD, Web Hosting and Domain, Nokia N70, Sony Cybershot
More contests for Pinoy bloggers this month of April:
Win $50 from Makoy’s Memoirs of a Certified Blogger
Deadline: April 30, 2008
Win a Laptop Bag for Eee PC from AllAboutEeePC.com
Deadline: April 30, 2008 at 23:59:59
Win a copy of Kubota Artistic Tools v4 from Shutter Box Philippines
Deadline: May 1, 2008
Win Domain and Hosting from Pinoy Teens
Deadline: Unknown
Win a Power Hits 2 CD from Music Picks from a Music Lover Blogger
Deadline: April 30, 2008
Win Nokia N70 Music Edition, Sony Cybershot, or 15,000 Pesos from Kwentong Barbero
Deadline: April 30, 2008
If you will notice, a lot of these contests have unspecified deadlines. It’s not a very good idea to do that especially if you want to convince your audience to act on your offer.
Blogging May Not Be Deadly, But It Has a Whole Sweatshop of Other Problems
It’s currently the hottest story at TechMeme. The New York Times reports that “In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop“. Drop dead, that is. They consider professional blogging a “digital-era sweatshop”, referring to a factory where its workers are sorely underpaid and unprotected.
Bloggers call it a really low blow. Of course it’s concluding that blogging can be the death of you is full of hype and hot air; as long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you shouldn’t have a problem. You don’t even need to be a blogger, or a web worker in general, to have this problem. (I suggest you read the Top 10 Quotes Against Work to see just how wretched are lives our because of work.)
The Big But
But I have to say that NYT is going somewhere with its term, sweatshop.
I believe that unless you’re a high-profile blogger, you are suffering in a new kind of sweatshop. Since we are only beginning to lay the groundwork for web-based employment, we lack the very same labor rights older generations have fought for at the beginning of the 20th century! How very modern of the Web, isn’t it? Indeed, there are very many questions that need to be answered, but I have to wonder if anybody is asking them at all.
Fighting for online “labor” rights in a Philippine setting is harder. Isn’t cheap labor exactly why outsourcing is such a big thing in the Philippines? They allow themselves to be worth much less than their foreign counterparts so that more opportunities may arrive their way. Skellie writes that you should “never write for less than $50 for a 500+ word post — even when you’re just starting out.” If you’re a Pinoy problogger and you’re earning $50 a post, can you raise your hand? I’d love to know the name of your employer.
American bloggers will soon enjoy health benefits, which is a pretty good sign online media is starting to look a little more legit, but as I have asked before, what about Filipino bloggers? Are they not supposed to enjoy any sort of benefits compared to the office workers of Makati, Eastwood, and Ortigas just because unlike them, they can work anytime, anywhere?
Come to think of it, do Filipino web workers even sign any sort of contract when they engage in online work? (I’m not even going to ask if they pay their taxes.) Do they even care about protecting themselves, in case the company suddenly disappears or turns out to be ripping them off, especially if they are working for them full-time? Who will back them up when they complain that their creations have been plagiarized?
In the U.S., job security has become an issue lately because of the country’s plunging economy, but they’re still a first world country. Foreign employers won’t be worrying about Filipino health benefits! It’s foolish to align ourselves with them all the time just because we can communicate with them more easily over the Internet. The digital divide is still very real, and it’s constantly widening whether we like it or not.
We’ve had tons of blogging summits, conferences, parties, meetups, and all sorts of get-togethers in the past few years. I have to wonder if any of those events have actually addressed these very real and more pressing issues. To borrow a very popular phrase: kung hindi ngayon, kailan? kung hindi rito, saan? kung hindi tayo, sino?
Events: Butch Dalisay Talk, Davao Food Appreciation Tour, BlogBank Launch, and Tons of Concerts!
Here are some notable events that are buzzing around the Philippine blogosphere this time of year:
Butch Dalisay on Creative Non-Fiction for Bloggers
Kape @ Pandesal sa Isla Series No: 2 features a conversation with Butch Dalisay, a Palanca Hall of Fame Awardee. You can view a partial video of the talk or full audio at the Blog and Soul website. And here’s a nice narration of the event courtesy of PinoyCentric. (A podcast of the previous talk, Libel and Blogging, can also be downloaded.)
Davao Food Appreciation Tour
Davao Food Appreciation Tour (Davao FAT) is literally a food trip for over 20 bloggers throughout 8 establishments in Davao. It follows the Davao Food Trip that was held last December to January. Davao FAT begins March 14 and ends on March 16.
BlogBank Launch
Blog Bank, the first blog advertising network in the Philippines, held a launch party on March 13 at Red Box Greenbelt, Makati. Regnard Raquedan writes:
The launch was held at the spiffy Red Box Karaoke in Greenbelt 3, Makati City. The BlogBank team threw a rockin’ karaoke party for the advertisers, publishers and bloggers, with a short program to recognize the Top 3 advertisers (eLBC, Delifrance & Nokia), as well as the Top 3 earning publishers (Jehzeel, Kiven and Anton).
Concerts!
Finally, let’s talk about concerts. You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t about all the great musicians gracing our islands in the past few weeks. But for your sake, here’s a rundown:
- Ne-Yo (March 1)
- Maroon 5 (March 5)
- Incubus (March 9)
- Colbie Caillat (March 11)
- Earth, Wind and Fire Experience featuring Al McKay (March 11)
- Mandy Moore (March 12)
- Incognito (March 14)
- Harry Connick Jr. (March 15)
- Celine Dion (March 15)
Don’t feel so bad if you haven’t attended any of these, because even bigger artists are coming to town!
- Joss Stone (April)
- Toto (April 3)
- Swing Out Sister (April 7)
- Duran Duran (April 10)
- Damian Marley (May)
- Natalie Cole (May)
- James Blunt (May 19)
- The Click Five (May 30)
- Steve Tyrell (May 30)
- Madonna (July)
- Josh Groban (July)
- Dave Matthews Band (September)
- Justin Timberlake (October)
- U2 (October)
- Usher (November)
(Info from edarevalo.net, PhilMUG, and TicketNet.)
Are you psyched yet? Woot!
