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You Should Have a Personal Blog!

by Melvin · Sep 25, 2009

When I have first created this blog, MelvinBlog.com, I had a thought that this blog would really be a personal blog where I would put all the rambling stuffs, people I hate the most, new crushes, retarded politicians and many many more. For some reasons, the blog started gaining popularity and was pushed into the direction of mmo. Yes, the dirty and filthy make money online niche. I was reading my archives and haven’t really found good info related to making money online for the first 2 months I must say.

Quick turn of time, hey look! I had banners at the sidebar (many!), an impersonal about page, has set-up a landing page, and is even planning to run a mailing list soon! What the heck! Well I wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite by saying that I dislike what I am getting now from this blog. Sure I had dreams of owning a website and monetizing it ala Engadget or Techcrunch, but to actually become one of “them”, hey its not what I planned at first.

Anyways enough ranting. You see there really is an almost non-existing space when talking about blogging personally and succeeding (or making money from it). It took me some time to realize that “hey I can’t just put useless stuffs here anymore” and have to really switch to someone who has to put up useful (or funny) content 80% of the time. You can say that shoemoney and johnchow and couple others are just posting useless content yet they get so much attention but just look how early they did blogging. They did it in time almost no one knew it existed.

So the whole point of this post is to just persuade you to start your own personal blog. Personally for me, having one makes me really feel the real essence of blogging. Just post stuffs, no worries on whether its good, no pressure at all, and its all fun! Shoemoney (jeremyschoemaker.com) and Problogger (darrenrowse.com) even had their own! It’s like really a useful tool when you’re doing nothing, you want to express out how your neighbor sucks, or want to speak about your crush and more.

Come on, a domain name just costs less than $10 a year and I know you guys are filthy wealthier than me that you had your own dedicated server so why not? And besides, you can even just use free platforms. Btw, maybe you’re wonderin’ out what’s my personal blog address (you may say I keep talkin’ yet I dont have one 😀 ). Its located at Mehlvs.com and its totally a free-writing blog. I would be very grateful to hear your own opinion. 😀

Being Nice To Your Readers

by Melvin · Sep 22, 2009

Intro: If you guys don’t know it yet, Lax is running a cool contest in his blog where one can win $100 per month by just commenting. Must-see! Anyway’s this is not a paid plug or stuffs. I just thought its worth a mention 😉

For today’s recipe I would like to talk about my experience of communicating to my readers and if I am being nice or not. When I was just getting started with this blog, the blog didnt really had much traction and attention from other people and I was receiving very few PM’s and comments. But anyways I did respond to them just as like as how I respond to people now.

This blog has been up for about 2 years (?) and I’ve had tons of experience with dealing with different kinds of people. Sure there are those who were really annoying, some are so arrogant, some are douche, and some are too nice that I’m not sure it’s for real! I also made some mistakes in the past and have really adjusted with it.

The main point of this short post is just remind you guys to try as much as you can to be nice to your readers. Sure, it’s hard to make yourself look godly when you’re really not but I think there goes a threshold where we, bloggers have to be professional in the way we communicate. I know some of you would say “hey Im not a pro-blogger”, but since blogging is just everywhere, being more approachable to a wider sense of people can still be the “better” thing.

I’m going to be the first one to tell you that it’s hard. Yes, it is. I myself is a hardcore criticizer, someone who mocks the misery of an idiot, a guy who makes fun of any hilarity, and a frequent user of slang destructive terms to people. But does those stuffs evident here? Partly yes, but I bet you’d noticed it. Not being nice to douchebags is never a good thing although Im not saying the contrast is the best thing. My point here is that your audience/readers is generally flawed. They ask questions that are totally written in a post, they demand too much, and they can just be annoying to a certain degree. But what we bloggers can do is just simply try to interact with them, the most polite way we can.

I’m sure all of us, at each certain times, used to be annoying as well. And maybe that experience is something that we can use to deal with it this time. How’s your take against it? Is there a point here when you think I was being too harsh to you, readers?

What I Learned In Wordcamp 09

by Melvin · Sep 20, 2009

So like what my previous post said, I have finally attended a blog event here in Philippines and it’s the popular Wordcamp 09. Much to my dismay that my camera lost bout three days before the Wordcamp started, I still attended the event with high hopes that I would learn a lot and more importantly meet new people and make new friends. Here are some photos that was taken from Jehzlau’s gallery (I just took some pics):

As I’ve said this is the first event that I happened to have attended and I was really tensed at first. Good thing is that a guy named Alvin (hey your link?) approached me and introduced himself and introduced me to the Nuffnang people and some other people as well, and that paved the way for me to open my mouth and start talking. 😀 Just in case you don’t know I am a really really shy kid and stuffs.

Anyways w/o further ado here are the things I have learned from the said event and how you can learn from them as well:

Overcome shyness – Yes. It’s totally useless if you’re going to attend an event and talk to no one. One of the meat in these events is the “talking part” w/other people. If you’re shy like me my tip is, try to get yourself going. I mean just a simple hi or a smile to/from someone could boost your confidence a lot. And then try to capitalize on it and just keep going and go with the flow.
Make the Most of the Opportunity – You may have heard me a lot talk about Carl Ocab here. The truth is, prior to the event, we have not seen each other face to face although we know each other kinda about 2+ years now w/o meeting personally. So what I did was I approached him and just talked spontaneously. Boy, it’s such a humbling experience to have a conversation with a guy like him who is really bright and knows a lot of stuffs.

Another one is a guy named Jehzeel Laurente. He is a very popular figure (he’s like the Shoemoney of Philippines) and one of the sponsors. We talked together very briefly during lunch and it’s a pleasure to actually meet someone famous personally. So talk with people you know when you see them personally and try just not to be annoying.. 😀

Ask Questions – Just like in anything, not all are understandable. Even the best speakers in the world, had their audiences asking questions. If you don’t understand somethign, ask questions~! Or again if you’re shy, you can do so after the said event. Example is, I had a question to Mr. Ryan Reynolds Seth of Firefox and because I was shy, I approached him at the end of the event.
Bring Business Cards – Oh my god! I can’t believe I didn’t have one for the event. 🙁 Well my piece is do not ever think that people would get annoyed when you hand them out with your business card. The truth about events is that people attend it to network and meet new people, w/c would lead later on to joint ventures, friendships and stuffs. If you don’t know how to make one, just try to get a small piece of paper and put your details and thats it! 😉
Attend the after-parties – LOLs, another one that I didn’t do. Unfortunately that day I was kinda rushing to go to Greenbelt three to meet someone. Well if you’re really out to meet new people and make friends, you must attend the after-parties. After all it’s fun and you wouldn’t get that much drunk anyways (hopefully). 🙂
Bring a Camera – In my case I lost my camera, and so I brought my Flip to take some clips from the said event. I know some people would say they don’t have one, but it’s not really hard to borrow from someone right? Remember the one thing that you’d probably want to have is a remembrance of an event you attended.

Wordcamp 09 is really a good and interesting event. I’ve learned a lot, enjoyed a lot and got tired eventually. Hope you guys learned and if you have anything to add, feel free to do so in the comment form.

Note: Would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the said event, the Mindanao Bloggers community. And well, I’d list all people I’ve seen there and there link hopefully. Gratitudes to Blogie (one who told me there’s no dress code), Migs (emcee), Chatee (lone girl in the organizer’s section) Alvin, Jhoey, to the photographers and many many more (more name and link here, please). If you’re one of the photographers and had taken a pic that includes me, feel free to send it to me and I”ll send you a cup of coffee.. 😀

Affiliate Marketing in Blogs

by Melvin · Sep 16, 2009

It’s been quite a long time since I wrote something on a topic that is my favorite, talking about affiliate marketing. It happened so because of me acquiring and managing AffiliateHat.com and transferring all of affiliate marketing related stuffs to that blog and focusing more on general marketing and blogging tips here in this blog. But anyway today I would like to talk about a simple affiliate marketing topic w/c is about promoting offers in blogs.

Most people make the mistake of thinking affiliate marketing in blogs is just like affiliate marketing as a whole. Totally false. In promoting in blogs, you are more toned down, laid back and careful. When you use a blog, in most cases a make money online blog, you risk your reputation, unlike in the traditional, landing page–pay per click combination wherein people would not even know (or care) your true name and personality.

Another is when promoting outside the blog, the tactic tends to be more of hardselling whereas in blog, you’d more likely have to be transparent and honest to your readers.

Last year I made a post about why some bloggers make so much w/affiliate referrals and I got a lot of responses about it. The truth is, your conversion rate would depend on how reputed you are in your industry. I see a lot of big bloggers promoting shit products and I doubt that they don’t make any money with it. Why? Because they are famous!

Another big factor is how you write your reviews. Obviously, the only good way to promote something in your blog is through product reviews. Again most people do wrong with it by stuffing their readers too much to buy the product, making it obvious that they are being biased. What happens then is that readers get annoyed and leave.

You see, things are about different when you do use your blog as a marketing tool for affiliate offers. If you are looking out to use your blog as a tool for affiliate promotions, make sure you’re not doing it wrong, or maybe you should rethink of the strategies that you would use. Remember, it takes a lot of time to build a reputation online. But it only takes a while for you to completely ruin it.

Look, We’re Not Idiots Here

by Melvin · Sep 12, 2009

Note: This is a spontaneous rugged post with no proof-reading whatsoever..

Internet marketing is all about sales pitches and good copywriting skills. Those who make a good amount of income as a marketer usually do things right, good sales talk, then proper marketing. But 90% of people just don’t. I’m really very pissed off on how a lot of marketers do hardselling the ugly way. Of course hard selling is theoretically ugly but exaggerating it makes it then 1000% more ugly.

I have read a lot of pitches, either in a sales page, squeeze page, peel away, or just pop up javascript. They don’t lack the selling point, what they lack is realism. Most of them are thrashy and are fool in expecting prospective customers to buy their stuffs.

You probably have seen a package wherein you would pay the main product for $37 and then get bonus packages worth $5999 right? Well isn’t it hyperbolic? You’re not giving away that value of items, would you? Who’s fool would do a hardwork, get paid $37 per item, and give away $5999 value per item? None! That’s because it’s totally untrue.

Another is the bullcrap use of strikethrough where the price starts at $1000 and for some reason, goes down up to $10 w/some bullshit reason. Ok, the use of strikethrough is nice, in fact I have used it a lot in this blog and some sales page. But must be used in a realistic manner…

The problem with marketers today especially in the MMO niche is that most of them play things wrong. Look, you’re marketing your product, ebook, whatever to a fellow marketer. Whatever tactic you have, the other end knows it completely well! Well don’t market to me, I’m a marketer. What say you?

Your Blog Can’t Survive This Year

by Melvin · Sep 7, 2009

Early this year I made a challenge post about if your blog can survive 2009. The post was made specifically asking my readers and partly the blogosphere if they can sustain their blogs up to the end of the year and hopefully for life. Although most bloggers really can, there are several factors though that can still make it the other way around. Blogging is so cheap that any man making a minimum wage can pay for it without having a problem at all! The problem I think lies on other factors like lost of desire and passion, or simply being too busy and stuffs.

Well I was scanning pretty much of the blogs that used to be a loyal reader and some blogs that I used to visit and notice a lot of them have died (literally)… Here’s the long list (blogs in mmo niche) of them (most of you know them) and the reasons and stuffs:

SuiteJ.com (stopped blogging)
MoneyBites.com (stopped blogging, heck I even one several contests with this blog)
BlogSmartly.com (The owner was a promising teenager but for some reasons he just stopped posting)
SplendidKid.com (The owner was a fellow Filipino. It looks like he either had his blog hacked or database corrupted (no backup), hence has to start over.
BloggerVenue.com ( The blog was a promising one but he decided to sell it and the new owner just totally sucks.
TheGermz.com (Another student who has been super duper busy)
Blogsessive.com (Not died, but decreased his posting frequency to once a month, wtf?)
MakeMoneyDynamo.com (site had a thousand subscribers. Eventually, it looks like Jason just completely abandoned it… sad)
Flimjo.com (The guy was one of my first blogs to read because he blogs interestingly about how passive income and the usual misery of having a day job.. Stopped posting for a long time)
Courtneytuttle.com (Another established blog that seemed to just vanished off)
InternetBabel.com (I love this blog! Even when there’s a change of ownership I thought the posts were still great. Apparently Dave’s lack of posting and interaction (and theme change?) killed the community. from 60K alexa to 1M+ today, sad)
TheBlogEntrepreneur.com (Stopped Posting as well)
Green-Flamingo.com (The guy had struggles with maintaining this blog and have seemed to be tentative since then)
Blogriffic.com (The owner is experiencing health problems, get well soon Salwa)

I want to keep that longer but that’s it for now. Although it’s been stressed many times that blogging is just blogging and cannot be put ahead of more important things, it still feels sad to see a former blogger/reader stop blogging or struggle with it. The blogosphere is a tight and enjoyable community and that’s the main reason why it’s sad.

For the case of Blogsessive, CourtneyTuttle, DoshDosh, they really don’t need to post everyday, every week and stuffs. These blogs are authoritative blogs and they can go on w/o posting that much and still rank below the 50k mark of Alexa w/o any problems at all. My bet is that they’re getting a ton of organic traffic because they have their blog indexed really deep (both quality and quantity) on search engines.

But in most blogs, it’s really kinda sad. Of course we can’t say a blog is dead until it’s domain is already parked, but a blog w/a dead atmosphere and community is 3/4 dead anyway! The surprising thing is when you ask people time from time, they usually respond saying ‘yes they will be patient and can hold on with their blog for a long time’. At the end it just goes to show you how really unpredictable things are. Today, you’re blog is in top 100, the next month it’s for sale, the next few months its nearly dead, in a year all the content is completely wiped out and the domain is not even renewed. Things move very rapid. It’s profitable, all of a suddent its not. Of course, it’s still nicer if there’s such a thing as farewell post every time a blogger kills his/her blog. But that happens very rare…

What say you? Any other blogs to add in the list? Or if you’re one of the bloggers listed above, any reasons why you’re blog got killed?

Wordcamp 09 Philippines

by Melvin · Sep 5, 2009

In case you do not know, Wordcamp is an event that happens every year that focuses everything on WordPress. This is a community-organized event wherein almost every wordpress users and enthusiasts usually show up and have fun together. This year there are 10 Wordcamp events all over the world and for Philippines to be one of them, its just a great pleasure.

Anyways I always regret how I happened not to know most events here in Philippines. Although I am a Filipino and live here in Philippines, there are very few people in the blogging industry here that I knew and have met personally. It’s again because of the fact that I don’t attend events because I don’t know the events!

So when I heard the Wordcamp Philippines 09 is going to happen this September 19, I was really excited about and immediately registered. It’s always nice to meet other people in the industry, make new friends and personally meet Mr.Wordpress, Matt Mullenwegg. So what I did after registering, is mark that day in calendar, and clear up all other scheds and appointments for that day. Really looking forward to it.

How about you? If you’re a Filipino blogger and resides here in Philippines, I would highly suggest you to join this event that will be held in Makati City. I might just hand out several free copies of the MelvinBlog shirts for free. 😉 Registration is located here.