Femme Power

I’ve been blogging (and earning) for more than a year now but I do believe that I still have a lot to learn about blogging.   So last Sunday, sans the opportunity to watch the world-renowned Cotto-Pacquiao boxing match on TV, I tagged along a friend and went to attend a blogging 101 seminar at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.   And it was a good thing we did.

The iBlog mini summit discussed the basics in blogging for the benefit of those who are yet to start blogging and for the “newbies.”  But as one speaker pointed out, “There’s no such thing as newbies and professional bloggers. Once you blog, you’re a blogger.”  One of the points given emphasis was the blogging mantra “Content is king.” While everybody knows that, not everybody gives their best to provide quality content on their blogs all the time. (Ooops, guilty as charged!)

But the very topic that I went there for was traffic generation.  Surprisingly I’ve been practicing what were mostly discussed there except for one thing: SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

Wikipedia defines SEO as “the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.”

While I’ve known its meaning and importance in traffic generation several months ago, I’ve never given any attention in optimizing my blog through it.   Mainly because I didn’t (and still don’t) know how.  The speaker said she finds out the key words that drive the most traffic to her site and in the process, she was able to come up with several niche blogs that are now generating thousands of traffic daily. Traffic is fundamental in monetizing your blog.  Higher traffic yields higher ad revenues.  And SEO helps bring in traffic.  Sadly, she wasn’t able to discuss the nitty-gritty process of optimizing one’s site.  So let me quote Wikipedia again to supplement some information, “SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.”  So since it involves editing HTML, I’m afraid it’ll take me some time to optimize my own blog. Wish me luck! *Wink*

Anyway, here are some photos of the event. My friend, whom I dragged to the event, was lucky to win a Philips Rice Cooker during the raffle.  I, meanwhile, almost had the chance to win a Crocs limited-edition camera if I was just fast enough to run to the stage for the “Bring Me” game.  It broke my heart to see the cute pink camera go to the faster guy. =(

Generally, the iBlog Mini Summit was well-handled.  The program went smoothly, the speakers were knowledgeable and the participants were served with ample snacks while listening to the talks of real bloggers.  Kudos to Ms. Janette Toral and her team!

I’m looking forward to future gatherings like this because I can never say I know enough about blogging. While I enjoy writing down my thoughts online, I also love the financial benefits it brings.  Even though my current  monthly income from blogging is just enough to buy me some groceries, it’s a big help to augment the family income and definitely better than nothing.  Isn’t it just wonderful to get paid for doing something that you love? Hopefully the next seminar I’ll attend to would be about monetizing one’s blog.  And I mean monetizing BIG TIME! Lol!

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