I fail for not having a cam T__T

September 6 will forever be remembered as the day the 1st ever WordCamp Philippines was held (to all those who attended it, that is). Needless to say, and it was awesome! Fun and insightful, and I got to spend it with fellow anime bloggers hazy and Zeroblade too. I’m pretty slow so both of them have already given their respective reports on the event, while mine is days late orz.

Random Introductory Babbles of an Otaku

During the seminar, there was this trivia / gift giveaway portion where the audience was asked to answer some questions (and they get some prizes in exchange), and the people who were able to answer are made to introduce themselves as well as their blog. This introduction made me all the more hesitant to participate, even if I clearly knew the answer to some of the questions. It’s not an issue of showing how geek I am (since many of the questions are geeky, like how do you install Google Analytics into your blog, what is Google Gears, etc), but rather having to pimp my blog in front of an audience, almost all of whom might not even have the slightest idea as to what anime is about. There’s supposed to be nothing for me to be ashamed about, amirite? I’m proud of being an anime otaku, and I’m proud of my blog. I clearly am, but my subconscious took over and I sort of went back to those days.

Way back when WordCamp Philippines was announced, I already had the resolve to attend it, even if I had to do it alone. I can just wonder what difference that would’ve made. Perhaps it’d be awkward, since I won’t know any other anime bloggers in the bunch of participants, but then it would’ve also prompted me to step out of my shell and have more guts to introduce myself and my very own anime blog to the rest of the bloggers out there. Anyways, time to leave those What-Ifs behind. The next time, such an opportunity comes, I really hope I can stand proud of my anime blogging achievements! If there is such a thing

The Blogging Lectures

Blogging cartoon piccies to break the wall of text and at least not alienate the non-anime fans reading this post.

Partially due to the nature of the tracks I chose, the blogging lectures I attended were all not-so-technical in nature (though I was honestly expecting the Organizing & Optimizing Your Wordpress Blog to be more technical, like tackling design-specific issues, CSS or plugin sins to avoid and all that).

The first two talks I attended, by Jayvee Fernandez and Ely Apao, respectively, both focused on the blogging extrinsics, how to become a remarkable blogger, how we measure / capitalize on our media value and all that. The issues they tackled was more of selling your blog, but even those who don’t really plan on making monkey business money out of their blogs can learn a thing or two from them.

But really now, who wouldn’t want to make money out of their blogs? Their lectures prompted me to once again bring back the affiliation linkage that I do in the past. Pimp, then provide links to where they can directly order it online. That way, I’ll be able to contribute to covering the expenditures for the site hosting as well, since I’m just leeching and taking advantage of Maestro’s kindness. The monetary benefits is only a second priority of course, since what should prompt us to review something should be our love, more than anything else.

On Being a Remarkable Blogger

Going back to the topic, I’d like to share a few more tidbits regarding the Blogging 102 lecture we had with Mr. Fernandez. To make this easier for both you (as readers) and me (as the writer), I’m just going to mention snippets of what the speakers mentioned throughout the lectures, and voice out my thoughts along the way.

“Many bloggers write excellent content — however, not all of them break through the clutter of their niche” –quoted from ProBlogger
“There’s no better or worse, only remarkable.” -Jayvee Fernandez

This reminded me of the “The [anime] blogosphere is saturated” hot topic almost two years ago (way back when I knew nil about the whole blogosphere), or the episodic vs editorial issue that shows its fangs every now and then. It’s good to look back at these posts from time to time, especially after seeing the ones which I never read until now

I suddenly missed the good old blogging roundabout posts, the ABC adventures, Round-Robin, or what have you. I wonder who can pioneer or spark-up another one of these inter-blog discussions.

Many of us blog for fun, or so we say, but I’m sure that each and everyone of us wants to be well-known or remarkable. Otherwise, why blog if we just want to enter and exit the blogging scene like an anonymous weed, right? I remember 21st Century Digital Boy (whew that was a mouthful) say that one of [our] goals in blogging is “to have an opinion with authority behind it”. Like when says something, all people bow down, kinda like Omni, Jason or Danny Choo. This is also one of the reasons why many people feel honored when they get cited by Author-tan, in his on posts. It makes them go “Gosh, I got cited!”

So how do we break through the clutter of our [anime] niche, you ask? The first set of links above already give tips regarding this, but in the end, it’s all about discovering the blogging voice that commands us to write, being enthusiastic and passionate about what we do, striving to become better everyday, all for the sake of shaping our blogs (and ourselves) the way we want it to be.

If you want to be remarkable, then do something about it, and not just laze around hoping people will flock to your blog and that you’ll get famous even without you doing any extra effort. Instead of envying other famous blogs, make them your inspiration (Believe me, being envious or wallowing in self-pity will lead to your own doom). Not only will that flatter them, they’ll most likely recognize your humility and efforts as well. If you think you can provide something new to the blogosphere (whether you think it’s saturated or not), then do it. If you think you can make a difference, nothing should stop you from doing so. Believe in yourself, or believe in the people who believe in you.

The remarkable ones in this whole blogosphere get to be distinguished with their unique voice, and leave imprints in the minds of people. In this faceless internet, we all want to be recognized, to make a name for ourselves. As Mr. Fernandez also said, “Deep inside, we all want to know how much our efforts are worth”, whether that worth is in terms of tangible or intangible measures. I haven’t been long enough in this whole blogging business, but I do know for a fact that one of the key to staying long and fruitful in the blogosphere is to not be let-down by setbacks (lack of comments, lack of hits, lack of earnings – to those earning commissions out of their blogs), but allow these negatives drive you to become better. That’s one of the most basic rule of thumb to success which many of us forget, it seems… or it’s just me forgetting it. Coincidentally, as I was writing this, Impz writes about his current writing dilemma. So yeah, this one’s for you, Impz.

Wanting to be remarkable and set ourselves different from other bloggers is what drove Seleria and I to do our deep frying posts made of blood, sweat, tears, and LOTS of fangirl enthusiasm. We pimped our blog posts whenever we get the chance, earned readers, lost some along the way too, but still we’re alive and kicking! Or rather, I’m alive and kicking T__T; As to whether our blog can be considered remarkable, well, you be the judge.

semi P.S. While scourging the Philippine blogosphere, I stumbled upon the blog of Markku Seguerra, one of the first WP users in the country, and got enticed by one of the recent links in his homepage, What Makes For a Good Blog from Merlin Mann of 43folders. Boy does it make me strive to become a better blogger everyday! “Good blogs make you want to start your own blog,” he says. How great it would be if I can have that inspiring effect on people

On Responsible Blogging

The last lecture I attended was on Blogging and Journalism by Sir Danny Arao, which tackled the issue of responsible blogging. I really felt Impz’s spirit throughout this lecture, since the very words of our lecturer is pretty much what Impz mentioned in his comment to a previous post of mine, about Responsible Raw Anime Blogging.

One may argue that they’re not really treating blogging as major SERIOUS BUSINESS, and hence this whole blogging journalism issue does not concern them, but this is certainly not true. In his lecture, Sir Arao mentions about the Blogging Code of Ethics, which, I believe, all of us bloggers should try our best to adhere to. We may blog for personal reasons, like an online diary which we didn’t necessarily intend to be read by other people, but this shouldn’t be an excuse for us to become irresponsible bloggers. We should realize that the moment we publish anything on the web, Google will find it, and someone will certainly read it. We should all be conscious of that, and be accountable for whatever we write.

Blogging nonsensical LOL posts of course, would be another thing, but in the end, we still have to be accountable for whatever damage that will cause, especially those people who misunderstand them and take them seriously.

On Wordpress 2.7

Matt Mullenweg, the father of Wordpress, talked about the State of the Wordpress during the Plenary Sessions, where he showed us a glimpse of the upcoming WP 2.7, to be released this coming November. Zeroblade already summed up the features to expect in this upcoming release so I won’t go into details regarding this (especially since I feel really wasted because of a stomach-ache whose cause is unknown… makes me feel like I have Bulimia T__T). I’ll just mention a bit of my thoughts on BuddyPress (said to be the “Facebook in a box”)

I just wonder how useful BuddyPress will be. I mean, it’s cool and all, having your very own community within the blog, but that might also entail bloggers to stay in their comfort zones instead of exploring the vast blogosphere, and make the current situation worse. Random Curiosity can certainly make the most out of this feature, since this blog is quite an active ‘forum-like community’ in itself! But yeah, I’m pretty divided about BuddyPress atm =/

Misc Afterthoughts

I’d love to say more stuff, like how Mr. Regnard Raquedan advocated a ‘Wordpress Web Standards campaign’ as he tells us to do our part in ensuring Wordpress adheres to Web Standards (to the lesser geeks: at least check the plugins and themes that you’ll be using), not only for the sake of accessibility and usability, but for the sake of conserving energy (optimized code = less energy wasted), but alas, this post has gotten far longer than it should’ve been already.

Anyways, I’m pretty surprised I still managed to chatter this much given my wasted state. But now, I shall be off to sleep. Pray for my sty and also my tummy ache, sigh.

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