How much do I get from blogging (my 5th year anniv post)

Posted by ai on Nov 29, 2011 in CRITICIZING A HOBBY, excuse my SIDE COMMENTS, KULTURA Articles, UNADULTERATED narci FILES | 8 comments

It’s my fifth year in the blogosphere!

I’ve been getting questions about blogging, what one can get from blogging, do I get paid for this nonsense writing, what can I advise first time bloggers, things like that and this could be the perfect time to answer these.

A quick backgrounder: I started blogging, privately, in 2006 somewhere else. Two years after that, I met the boyfriend. He read some of my scribbles and offered me his web services, in exchange for tight hugs for free. He asked me to think of a domain name, and I came up with “ai’s cracker.”

So what and how much do I get from blogging? Let me visit the far corners of my memory to share with you the small things that I got so far.

So-so benefits

1. Like other blogs, this one has google adsense installed in it (see “Making Money” at the bottom of this page), so every time you click on the ads here, I earn some cents. Not so many people make clicking ads as their hobby, so my adsense earnings are just around a hundred dollars. If you want to be aggressive about it, you can put Paypal donations and/or join Nuffnang Singapore or Philippines, which pays bloggers for placing their ads of various products and services and which invites the blogging community once in a while to the events they organize. Nuffnang may pitch a product, too, for you to write about and they can pay you for that.

2. I was contacted this year by a France-based advertising firm asking for ad placement rates. Unfortunately, their client, Lacoste, had hit its advertising quota so maybe next time. Yet somehow, it’s still nice knowing how far this site could reach.

3. Some Saatchi & Saatchi marketing peeps once contacted me to blog about a contest, and blog I did because one of the contestants is from UPLB. I received a gift pack–a Mossimo shirt which I gave to a friend, and a headset which I gave to my brother. Then they invited me to this event in Ayala where lots of celebrities were present, but, oh boy, I will be the last person in this country to be excited to star-gaze.

4. Some magazine emailed me, asking permission to publish the photo of Prof. Randy David that I took and used here. I told them to just mention my blog. It’s great that my photos can be used by those who need them.

5. The boyfriend nominated me two years ago at the Philippine Blog Awards, Personal Blog category and I made it to the list of Finalists. Singer Jim Paredes won. I could’ve attended the event had I not been hospitalized that time. It’s nice to meet some bloggers online though as it would remind you that the universe or the blogosphere is not all about you–there’s an entire pool of cooler minds out there.

happy benefits

1. Blogging is one of my ways of relaxing or venting out some intense emotions. It keeps me sane in times of sadistic stress or deep sadness, like when my former students or friend died.

2. My personal advocacy in reading and travelling and continuing education finds an outlet in this blog.

3. It can serve as my writing portfolio. On a personal level, I can track my development (or how I used to suck in writing and thinking) through this blog.

4. Blogging made me write about blogs and submit this to a conference where I met some cool scholars. I quit the academic world rather early but I’m happy to experience presenting a paper in an academic paper and winning one of the Best Paper awards because of my piece on blogging. Ok, on a less geeky note: Other bloggers, they join Bloggers’ events where they meet and befriend blogging strangers. You can try that. The world has more than seven billion people and there’s no reason to be alone all the time.

5. I’m a very busy person, always with work, sometimes with leisure activities, and by blogging I get to flex my mind and sharpen my writing skills, even if I’m writing nonsense or nobody’s reading these (except for my friends and occasional visitors). This is brain exercise.

Last but not the least…

I have implied many times that I love my current job and thanks to this blog that my employers somehow believe that I can write and edit.