anthroblogia

Well, I signed up for a "Profit Blogging Bootcamp" workshop with Asia Online Mastery. It is free and I kept on seeing the ads in the newspaper, so I finally gave in to temptation

Their headline on the ad is:

"Discover How I Made USD 36,322.57 On The Internet in ONE MONTH And How YOU Can Do It Too"

Well, I suppose he did do that at least once, but I'm sure it wasn't in his first month, anyway

I was speaking to someone the other day who had started a blog because she had been reading another blog that was successfully making some money. Like many others, more than a year down the line she had yet to reach her USD100 Adsense payoff point. It reminded me that it's not unusual for people to start blogs to make money - I have no statistics, but I have been told that more than once, and seen it online.

However, the most popular blogs in Malaysia were not started to make money, maybe just because when they did start, that was not an option. I wonder how it will be in five years, when people starting blogging now have the examples of leading bloggers who get four-figure sums for blogging, invited to events, freebies, etc. It's definitely true that people are more likely to follow what others do (though of course they adapt, and some people are truly innovative): so when five years ago blogging was mostly defined by people talking about their life, often anonymously - or at least without having met each other - now, blogging is seen by many as a means to become something of a celebrity, and meeting up with other bloggers is more commonplace and, in many instances, facilitated by other interested parties.

Here's an interesting quote from a paper by Reed - it is a quote from a blogger who describes the first time they meet up:

"At ?rst we sat there on this table looking at each other in stupe?ed silence, slightly nervously, and then someone just went ‘you know what you wrote the other day about Princess Diana, that’s so completely true’, and then suddenly the conversation exploded. I think the weirdest thing about meeting people face to face is how normal it feels very swiftly."

Anyway, back to the workshop this evening. It is free, but I wonder what they get out of it? I suppose they will try to sell some extra training package, or something. Anyway, I'm sure it will be interesting, and I'll meet more bloggers

*****
Reed, A., 2005. ‘My Blog Is Me’: Texts and Persons in UK Online Journal Culture (and Anthropology). Ethnos, 70(2), 220-242.

The great majority of bloggers are 'amateurs', or perhaps 'part-timers' is a better way to put it. They blog in their spare time: students have more time to do this of course, but at the moment the leading bloggers in the Malaysian blogosphere are working adults - typically working in an office in some kind of executive/managerial position. To be noted however is that many of them started blogs when they were students.

Few are those like liewCF who "made the jump from hobby blogging to blogging as a full-time, successful career." (here): as such, he is the epitome of the 'problogger', i.e. a professional blogger. Another leading figure in the Malaysian problogging scene is 5xmom who manages to combine the full-time job of parenting with maintaining five different blogs.

In a sense, I am also a 'problogger' - or fulltime blogger - in that my work at the moment revolves all around blogging - but at the same time that's not all I do. I have to read blogs, write blog posts, and keep up to date with developments in the blogosphere, while at the same time managing the collection of data and trying to put it all into an academic context.

One thing I have noticed recently is that some bloggers will be up and blogging early in the morning: I try to start about 6.30-7am, and I notice that some other bloggers are also 'out and about' at that time. So, my guess is that the part-time blogger will do something like this: get up early to write a post and check out other blogs (using Google reader, for example), leaving comments when desired; go to the office and keep a track of comments using either the office computer or a handphone/mobile device; maybe dash off a quick post during the day if time and work permits; in the evening, perhaps some event beckons - a product launch, dinner with friends/bloggers, etc; after that, go home and download photos - blog if time permits; go to bed.

So - a warning to all - if you think it's easy to blog, make money, become famous and get invited to events with free booze and delectable eye-candy, think again!

How about you? How do you fit your blogging into your daily life?