Telling it like it is

I was asked this question today and this made me think. There’s a simple answer to this, but if you’re going to offer a good advice from a perspective of a journalist, then that’s a different issue.

Okay, for a start, blogs are here to stay. It’s a publishing tool that anyone with enough technical know-how and time can use. But as one of my editors would often tell me, “it’s a beast that you need to feed.” And if you’re planning to earn from it, then you have to be clear with the purpose it serves.

But as I write this, I recall answering: ‘You need to start thinking about content, first. Then, you can start building your audience, until you get some recognition, a name that will eventually attract income.”

In the end, no amount of SEO and link love would amount to good content, sustained. If you love your craft, you will keep writing and delivering stories that will hopefully attract an audience. I say “hopefully” because it is easy to say it, but doing it is another matter.

So where do you start?

Start with your family and friends. “Force” them to read your blog. And if they’re really your friends, then perhaps word will spread! (But make sure they find your blog using social media).

Choose a topic that you think you can write about with much gusto. In short, if you’re passionate about music, focus on that. Write from your experience. You can “copy” the style of your favorite blogger–what I mean here is that you mimic their voice and not copy their work–that’s infringement.

Do an overnight test and get a good reader to challenge your work. In the publishing world, this means getting a good editor to go through your copy. It helps! But once you’re confident with your work, edit your work.

Read, digest, then write. There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. But there’s such a thing as being overwhelmed or being disorganized. Some writer friends use mental outlines (you can draw them if you want) to organize their thoughts. You get stalled when you cannot pin down the main theme of your blog. Also, read a lot. It helps!!!

Write as you talk. In my writing classes back in the days, I struggled with writing. But once I started writing the way I would talk to my friends or even parents, then I figured–that’s the voice am going to use when I write. It has to be conversational these days if you want to hook you’re readers. Read magazines. Read non-fiction. Read fiction.

I’ve been a big fan of William Zinnser, author of the classic on Writing Well. His tips are practical and up until now, are still relevant.

So back to the question of earning from a blog. So where do you start? If you’re able to blog consistently and get people to even comment–and share it –then perhaps you can move to the next level and push your blog to publishers. Magazines are still out hunting for good writers. Websites that offer news are also on the lookout for good writers who have good track record in blogging. The best way to earn from a blog is to get paid for what you produce–which is content, and if you think you can do this most of your life, then you might get a better chance of succeeding.

It’s not easy, and there’s no shortcut. It takes hard work, patience, practice and a good sense of who you want to reach (audience) before you can make an impact. You don’t blog for the sake of making a living out of it. It has to serve a purpose, or at least fulfill a need–or even answers life’s questions. Use your imagination. Some may disagree, but this is my view if I were asked this question again.

Now, the choice is yours.

You have probably seen this article from Poynter Institute about a community website deciding to go Facebook-only. Argument goes that since people start most of their day now on this popular social networking site, it was a no-brainer decision to make: Go where the people are. Such move is seen as a radical step in self-publishing these days.

Because of this story, I was inspired to do a little experiment. I’m bringing my class to Facebook. One of my colleagues pinged me a link. So I’m following the logic of being where the people are. (But surprise, surprise, not all students are on Facebook).

Blogs and websites have a different purpose. Social networks are for distribution, conversations (in a way) and for sharing. Blogging, for one, is more of an exercise in thinking and story-telling. I must admit, after I started becoming more active on social networks, I stopped blogging. Cold turkey! Why? I got addicted to the real-time information rush. And, instant gratification of connecting and sharing ideas to people. How could a blog compete with that?

Perhaps, blogging or writing long-format news or content (to make it more generic), is only for the talkatives and highly opinionated elite. I remember attending one blogging conference where they revealed that most Filipino political bloggers still represent the “political elite.” They are, by default, educated, have access to the Internet/technology, and are more exposed to the world. But that was several years ago. Today, anyone who can type into a comment section of a news website can express their political opinion. And such is the Internet. It creates a community who will gravitate towards common interests.

Social networks are today’s starting point for most online activities. (In my case, e-mail and Twitter). This is where most old and young users are now introduced to the digital media. So for a community blog to decide to drop its website and go for a Facebook-only model is something that might make sense for now. And if its primary objective is to build a community, increase engagement, and eventually keep them coming back, then I suppose that’s a good, radical move.

But I wouldn’t abandon my blog or my news website. Both offer a different set of digital values that are quite distinct from social media. Blogs still represent you, as a person or as an organization. This is where people can find out what you’ve been thinking, wanting, doing, etc. I have my own profile on Facebook now, and a page that I created for purposes of sharing links and hopefully sparking conversation. But this blog will remain, and it has evolved over the years.

Short answer: Less.

Has micro-blogging killed blogging? Perhaps. But actually, only about 1 percent of those online are really creating original content, which includes blogging. So, it’s no surprise that fewer people do blog.

I just finished a course in PR this summer when I stumbled upon Guy Kawasaki’s blog. He posted an alternative way of doing PR, which is doing it on your own. This is based on an article penned by Glen Kellman. Excerpt:

Just the other day a newspaper’s technology editor told me, “It’s just so hard to meet entrepreneurs these days. You always get their PR people.” A dozen entrepreneurs sprang to mind who would kill to tell their stories. All have agencies. So what I am recommending is not howto manage an agency, but something more radical: not hiring an agency at all.

Hmmmm, that’s a good suggestion. But I think the bottomline here is that people don’t need to hire PR firms to reach out to journalists. Yes, a quick personal email telling us about your idea would likely get us excited. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy article. We just need interesting facts.

Sometimes, I end up writing stories after getting a short email message from some sources. E-mail remains the best way to get our attention.

And don’t forget to be honest (in telling your story) and  be accessible, especially for follow-ups.

But you don’t have to push journalists to write your story. Give it time because you’re not the only one they’re talking to. A good story will find its way in a newspaper or an online news portal if it’s good, interesting, and timely. Be patient.

Finally, here’s something I learned this summer. It’s called the Sunshine principle. Good PR is based on establishing good relationships with the press. Catch them when the Sun is shining. So when storms come, good relationships with the media would spell the difference between getting good and not-so-good stories. Respect journalists, and they’ll respect you in return.

There’s a word war going on in blogosphere. And the battle has just begun…

David Bullard, a columnist for Sunday Times, has written a controversial piece that compared some bloggers to the “air guitars of journalism.”

Air guitar is about pretending that you can play those fast riffs without the instrument. Air guitar became mainstream maybe after the low-budget movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure hit the video stores. But I maybe wrong, heh.

Anyway, I wrote a short entry for Blog Addicts on this issue.

Excerpt:

DAVID BULLARD’S recent column “Name and shame offensive bloggers” on Sunday Times has stirred the blogosphere.

Vincent Maher did not mince words, as he answered every point made by Bullard.

It was too good to last. Yes, Pandora, the Internet streaming service that allowed people to rediscover music is gone. I was introduced to Pandora by my officemate. In not so many words, she just said, “Go to Pandora.com. You’ll love it.”

I replied, “Pandora what?”

“Just go!” she snapped back.

So I opened my browser, and for the next few hours I was hooked. Pandora became my dose of music everyday. What was so addicting about this service? Well, it is powered by an intelligent system that works like a DJ. Once you type in a song or a band in a search box, it goes through its database and starts playing it. It doesn’t stop there. It plays another song that sounds like the first but this time from a different artist. If music had its own genome, Pandora claims to have mapped it. And that makes this service unique. It plays the music based on common traits found in music. In fact, you might be surprised how you’re playlist will turnout as you listen to more songs.

This week Pandora has announced it was blocking listeners from other countries due to licensing issues. Sigh.

This piece of news was a surprise. I was just reading through the blogs at INQUIRER.net when I read this entry 572 issues from Current. It read:

Today we printed the last issue of Inquirer Compact, the company’s first venture in compact-format journalism. We had a great ride, but, well, all good things must come to an end. Ours came after almost a year and a half of publication, with issue no. 572.

The transition occupied most of my time the last two weeks; one of the last things we did was to upload our front pages to Flickr, as a fittingly digital reminder of the work we poured into the title. Over the next several days, I expect, I will be updating the tags, the descriptions (in other words, the text part) of our Flickr site.

But if you’d like to take a look now, the door’s already open.

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I recently wrote an entry on Soundtrip, aptly titled “What is Pinoy Music?”

Excerpt:

I WAS “lost” last weekend in the piles of books in a local bookstore. I was hunting for a book that was recommended to me earlier by a literary friend. But fate brought me to the “entertainment section” of this bookstore. There I found two remaining copies of “Punks, Poets, Poseurs: Reportage on Pinoy Rock & Roll” by Eric Caruncho.

I checked the price. It said, “50 pesos.” Are you kidding, I told myself. This book is a steal! So I grabbed one copy (now I’m thinking I should have also grabbed the last copy, heh), and went straight to the cashier.

This is an “old” book which I read back in 1996 when it was launched. I must admit I had little knowledge of the Pinoy rock scene in the 1970s leading to the late 1980s, which was about the same time when Baguio’s The Blank became the hottest rock band in the country.

Finally, this is another dream come true. That sounds corny but please indulge me. I’ve been given the chance to blog about Pinoy music at INQUIRER.net. We launched it today and it’s called Soundtrip.

Excerpt of my first post:

I WAS once gifted with a T-shirt from Tower Records that says, “Know Music, Know Life.”

Perhaps that was one of the best birthday gifts I’ve received. It was simple and yet it captured what I thought was my own view on music.

You see, before I decided to turn to the pen, I was, ehem, a musician. I studied music because I admired people who could stand in front of millions of fans and mesmerize them with their music.

Wish me luck!

P.S. Apart from Soundtrip, another blog was launched at the INQUIRER.net. It’s called Vox Populi. This blog will allow registered users to start and keep conversations going online.

Tim O’Reilly has recently invited people to consider a proposed code of conduct for bloggers. This was prompted after his talk with Kathy Sierra who had received threatening and disturbing anonymous comments in her blog.

Eventually, this call for bloggers to adopt a code of conduct was picked up by the media and bloggers, including Blog Addicts, which I contribute to.
I wrote a reaction to Blog Addict’s post by Joey Alarrila.
Here’s what I said: