In one of the prayer meetings I had with my SFC household, our leader Rhona shared to us something she learned from another co-SFC member. She said, as individuals, we shouldn't just use our earnings to save and buy things for our personal consumption, but also, we should use a part of our money to learn more. This means either buying a new book, attend workshops, and buy items that would increase our knowledge.
When I started to blog full time (meaning I blog almost everyday), I only blog to blog... but lately, as I get to know more bloggers and explore different blogs, I started to feel the willingness to learn more about blogging, and applying the same principle as I shared in my intro, I am now starting to read about ways to make blogging better.
When I received an invitation to attend the 2nd Blogger Fiesta Manila, I didn't hesitate and immediately sent my RSVP. Reading articles online sure helps, but I know it's much better to be in the same roof with fellow Filipino bloggers so information exchange has more substance, if I may say so. Together with my brother, we attended the Blogger Fiesta Manila at the Cyberzone of SM City North Edsa.
Hosts. Flow and Omar were the event's hosts... they really knew how to liven the event with their funny antics. :)
There were a lot of talks lined up for the day, and there were so many information gathered, so I'd just make this one concise, as I don't want to make a very lengthy post. :)
Az Coladilla. Az is the blogger behind this event, and he presented the first topic of the day, "Blog Layout and How to Use the Blogger Designer Template." At first, it was a topic I know a bit about as three of my blogs' templates were designed using the Blogger Template Designer. However, I got to learn some more like:
- Your blog's header should be something that is related to your blog niche. You can't put flowery header when you write about emo stuff.
- When putting your blog header, you can do away without the blog description, but never ever take away your blog's title. Also, when uploading your header, always choose "Instead of Title and Description." Your header should be clickable (even if you have your "Home" button under the header), because it also helps with the SEO.
- Never, ever, ever put background music on your blogs. No matter how good the music/song may be, people will be highly annoyed with it - especially if they are also listening to their own choice of music or watching videos while blog hopping.
- If you're blogging using a net book, do consider the font size of your blog - don't make it too big because even if the font looks okay on your end, it may appear too big for people using laptops or big monitors.
Jhong Medina. His talk was about "Optimizing Wordpress for Search Engine for Beginners," and since I am no longer blogging using Wordpress, I still get to learn a lot from his talk. Because of his talk, I am now very much aware how to title and tag my posts, as well as use several programs to help with the SEO of my blogs. I have this blog and two photo blogs, which don't really need too much SEO application, but my travel blog and food blog are two of my blogs that I want to have lots of traffic, and thanks to his talk, I understood more and more about how to do it. One major thing I learned: you also have to give the pictures you're uploading the appropriate titles because it can also help generate traffic for your blog.
Jonel Uy. Jonel is one of the successful bloggers I know of and today he talked about "BBB for B" or "Brand Building Basics for Bloggers." The title of his blog maybe about Bs, but it centered in four Cs - Character, Content, Context, and Creator.
- Character - "Who are you?"
- Content - "What do you write about?"
- Context - "What is your perspective?"
- Creator - "Who is the blogger?"
Character and Creator may be similar, but there is this thread that separates one from the other, while "Character" talks about you as a blogger, "Creator" speaks about you as a person making the blog. Confused? Well, he gave another explanation - If "Content" is about the flesh and meat of your blog, "Creator" is the soul of the blog.
- Free blogs is like renting a house - it is yours, yes, but not really yours.
- Owning a domain means buying a "peace of mind." - you can call your host anytime of the day when you have blog problems, whereas if you blog for free, you just have to adjust and put up with the server's quirks.
Personally, I still have some issues regarding owning a domain, and right now I still think blogging for free is much "stable" because my very old blog is still up and running even if I haven't updated it for years. I know owning a domain has its own limits - like losing it when you can't pay up for the domain and hosting anymore, and since I blog to "immortalize" myself, I sometimes think owning a domain isn't really for keeps.
- You cannot be the same person in all of your blogs (if you have multiple blogs).
- Ask yourself, "How do people see my blog?" and "Will my personality fit my blog?" To that last question is a follow up question, "Does my personality need to fit my blog?"
- Don't blog out of necessities. Don't put up a blog (i.e - travel blog) just because you see your friend's travel blog gaining a lot of traffic.
Major point of the talk: You can create a blog that has its own personality. There is no such thing as a "general" blog because the fact that you blog about something, it already has its own personality.
- Understand Facebook's edge rank.
- Place buttons on prominent locations.
- Integrate Facebook comments on your blogs.
- Get exposure on other Facebook pages.
- Integrate Google +1.
- Do your own media kit.
The last point was something appropriate for bloggers who want to get samples from companies (if you blog about products), but the first five points are something all bloggers can relate about. Some people may not like Facebook, but... if you're a blogger, you don't really need to like it, instead you can use it to your blog's advantage. These tips Carlo gave I am now starting to do and if you visit my food blog, I Live to Eat!, you can see that I already put up buttons on the upper right part of each posts... I am now starting to learn how to integrate the Facebook powered comments page.
Jenny Manongdo. Of all the topics, hers was the lightest as she talks about "The Joys and Rewards of Blogging." Though the topic was light, it was also the one nearest to the heart. Jenny stressed the fact that we all should be proud of us being bloggers because it is an extension of ourselves. She also shared a very wonderful quote, "The future belongs to the communicators." (that's from the book "You, Inc." by Henry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith)
Marlon Guzman. Aside from Google Page Rank (hehehe), one of the things bloggers fear are the hackers. In his talk, Marlon shares several tips on how to make our blogs secure, but he also stressed that even if we do all the tips we can gather, our blog is still not 100% safe as hackers will do everything to ruin sites, therefore, we should periodically back up our blogs and change our passwords.
As always, no bloggers event is complete without the "class picture." Taken by Az, he took three pictures and stitched them together to make this image - that meant holding our pose for a few seconds, but it sure came out good.
Whether you're a hobby blogger or someone who does it for a living, you should really not stop gaining new knowledge and you shouldn't stop interacting with fellow bloggers. If you hear of an event, which may help you gain more knowledge (may it be through photography or art classes or anything), don't hesitate to attend. Life is an endless learning experience.
I hope, too, that you learned something about this recap. :)
