I had a conversation with a friend recently about giving some tips to fellow bloggers on how to write content that hits the mark; more specifically, to help other bloggers create competitive content for an annual blogging competition. The truth is, even after all these years, and even after winning a few writing competitions in the past, I still don’t have a guaranteed formula on creating winning entries. Every writing competition has its own set of criteria to meet. For me, it’s always been do or die. I give it my best shot and pray like there’s no tomorrow that my […]
Taking Time Out!
It’s been pretty quiet in my blog email the past two weeks. The invitations to events have dwindled from less to zero, and sponsored posts have stopped coming. As a blogger, I know I should have been worried that this happened, but the truth is, I’m quite relieved. This is the way it should be. I’ve got one last client to write a blog for, but I’m going to need to find the time to visit their branch and register for their class to be able to do so. Other than that, I’ve got no plans on signing up for […]
Comment Exchange: Is it good or bad for your blog?
When I first discovered blog comment exchanges in 2013, I was thrilled! I was a newbie in the blogging industry and having a couple of comments come through seemed to make my blog look good. As a new content marketer back then, I tried to do the same for our company’s website to help improve our website’s searchability, but was then called out by my boss for doing so. Apparently, instead of helping us gain traction, despite receiving comments from people all over Asia and the U.S., it was causing our website far more harm than good, S.E.O.-wise, and I eventually understood […]
On plagiarism: Are you the same tomato?
As a professional writer, I take plagiarism personally. I take pride in every work I publish, whether online or offline, whether it’s well-received or ignored completely, because I’ve put my time and my heart in every single one. There are many ways to plagiarise online without seemingly having done so, and it’s easy to make excuses and keep a straight face while at it that confrontations become useless; but really, if you look within yourself, what does that make you? If you want to grow in your skill, learn to care. Care for your readers and for what they […]
Going back to full time online work
I gave up my good-paying online job in April of 2015. I can’t begin to explain the emotional stress I was going through then. What I can tell you right now is that I was fighting hard to focus on my priorities and chose to attend to my children, most particularly to my youngest son, who was exhibiting some delays in his development. My decision turned out to be a bad financial call despite our move to go tiny living. I guess it’s because the kids are growing up and the expenses are also higher. I couldn’t stick to only […]