When All Your Posts Are Nothing But Paid Posts

I am one of the many bloggers who is enjoying one of the countless perks of blogging- getting paid to blog. When I first came to blog, it's primarily because I want to express and not to impress. Then came the companies who were able to lure me with a few bucks by writing for them. Indeed, it became a huge motivation for me to stay infront of my PC longer hours than necessary. And why not? I get to earn dollars by just writing a few words.

I am FOR paid blogging but while I get to enjoy the monetary aspect of it, we must admit that it also has its downsides.

BLOG CONTENT IS SACRIFICED

Though I have always believed and emphasized that quality is subjective, content is still KING. When one gets to write a post with a couple of paid links for advertisers and there's a need to beat the deadline, the tendency is for one to be in a hurry and just write in random, include the needed links, hit the publish button and get paid. That's all there is to it. I admit I am guilty as charged. Sometimes I even forget that there is a certain ratio needed for paid reviews versus personal posts- 1:2 is ideal. It's hard to do it especially when one has multiple blogs (like me). I admit I can only manage to have one (1) interim post after each paid reviews.

What's striking here, and frustrating I must say, is that we can see a LOT of blogs where every post is a paid post. Some even don't write an interim post when there is no new assignment at hand. In my opinion, it will hurt our blog if we do that more often. Just take for instance this blog. It was ranked 3 by Google a couple of weeks back. When I grabbed assignments from one identified affliate for a week, my Page Rank dropped to 2. Why am I not surprised at all? I know Google is a little unpredictable but the heck with Page Ranks!

Now going back to paid posts, I do not know the technical consequences of it, but personally, seeing blogs bombarded by paid links is rather dismal. I always take more than three (3) hours a day dropping cards on blogs, reading and commenting. I admit there are a few blogs where I do the "drop and run" phenomenon. I am sorry but your posts must be bombarded with paid links. If it's any consolation at all, majority of the blogs I get to spend more of my time are those that are very interesting to me and they are all worth spending my time.

I don't want to cease being a passionate blogger. I truly enjoy the REAL perks of blogging and that is free speech. I can get to write whatever comes to mind in random, paid post or not. I don't want to disappoint my visitors when they take time to visit my blogs and all I can offer are paid links. I don't want to steal your time and waste it by letting you know that my advertisers have become my master. Though I don't write for an audience, I feel I should be responsible for whatever things I write because I am involved in some communities where I am inviting my fellow bloggers to visit my blogs (EntreCard, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, etc.).

UNDERMINING READER'S INTELLIGENCE

While it's true that most of us are paid to blog, a lot of bloggers have quite forgotten that personal posts should be written by REAL people. Some bloggers tend to plagiarize just for the sole purpose of breaking the monotony by writing paid reviews. Bloggers must exude prudence and decency to give credit to where it is due when quoting or copying someone's work. We can not always undermine our reader's intelligence more so fool them in believing that we are such a great writer. We are not fooling them but we are only fooling ourselves!

As what, Tony Feriozzi, Payu2Blog support staff warned and I quote:

"What I have run into a few times now is a blog full of 60 word posts with links, all paid and nothing else. That blog, if thats all it is, will eventually not get assignments. So do your best to do some real posts on your blogs if you aren't already, it will be better for you and us. "

Let us all remember that with blogging comes responsibility. And blogging is not about how articulate and eloquent we are as a writer. It's about the effort we put in by writing down our OWN thoughts, generating pleasure just by doing it and how we convey every message we wanted relayed to our readers (if there's any, hehe!).

HAPPY BLOGGING TO US ALL!

I Am A Blogger!

For those of you who have been frequenting my blogs, you must be aware by now that I am so much passionate about blogging. It has become an addiction and eventhough I am quite busy with work which is on a 8-5 basis and preoccupied with a lot of other stuffs, I always find time to blog, or if not to blog, doing my usual daily routine such as replying on comments, reading and commenting on blogger's posts that are of interest to me, and dropping cards to more than a thousand blogs everyday... without fail.

My blogs are my babies. It never really came to mind that I would take blogging seriously to the point of contemplating on giving up my own job. I became really, really serious with blogging when I got my own domains April of this year. When I mean serious, it means I keep it updated at least once a week.

Though most of the things you read here is all about me, myself and I, I still would want to make the most out of your time by coming up with articles that are thought of. Everytime I make a post, I don't write them just for the sake of posting. And it's never for the sole reason that I need to write because I have an audience. It's all for the love of writing and expressing myself well through this medium.

If not too busy at work, I even draft those that comes to mind in random. But because of time constraints, I admit that quality articles is sometimes unattainable. People have always been talking about quality and content being king. But to me, it is subjective. If you think this blog is low in quality and I am just wasting your time, you can opt to never come back. But still, there is always room for improvement. I always want to improve as a person, as a blogger. I never cease in learning because it's the thing that I crave. I have learnt quite a lot from other people's points of view and the learning doesn't stop there.

The gift of friendship that I've shared with many of you here in the cyberworld has kept me motivated to try harder and improve. And because I've learned so much by being a blogger, I am sporting this shirt to shout to the world that I'm proud to be a blogger. This shirt was created and designed by the artistic hands of a very good blogger friend, Rosilie of Rosilie: My Blog, whom I had the privilege of meeting in the flesh during the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit.

What about you? Are you proud to be a blogger?

I Am A Basketball Fanatic!

It’s funny to think how a mere basketball game could immensely affect my emotions. True, I love watching basketball games may it be NBA, PBA, UAAP, or NCAA. The game is doubly exciting especially so when my fave team is on the run. You can just imagine how happy I am when my team wins. It’s like I wanna throw out a real big party. And how heart breaking it is when they lose. I always see to it that I keep myself updated with my own favorite team -- their standings, schedule of games, stats, etc. I admit that it’s the only show I prefer to watch if you would let me choose one though I am also trying to enjoy watching other shows apart from watching basketball.

Right!

You could say I am a fanatic, a proud Ginebra fan at that, hehe. I still could recall, I was in college when I have erratic heartbeats whenever I watch their games without a single miss! You could attribute it to my having a big admiration to their once-small-forward player Vince Hizon, who is now happily married, poor me, hehe! Well, the feeling’s long gone as well as the man. He’s no longer part of my all-time favorite team but still, I am one of the million Ginebra fans who keeps cheering and egging them on to always keep that NEVER-SAY-DIE SPIRIT.

New players came and continued to live up to the fans’ expectations. The ball is round. They could win the championship or they could not. But still, I am hoping they have the win every game because it’s one of the things that makes me happy. Good thing they won the Championship last conference for the Fiesta Cup. I won’t mind if you think I'm too shallow. It’s always a good feeling to be true to one’s own self. And because I so love basketball, any sports gifts for my birthday will be very much appreciated ;-)

Below are some of the photos with the Ginebra players when we watched them rehearse at the City's gymnasium last year:

With JJ "The Fast" Helterbrand

With Ronald "Fearless" Tubid

With Billy Mamaril