Mommy Ginger
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14 Years of Blogging and These are the Things I Learned…

It was one afternoon a Japanese restaurant when I decided to blog. At that time, the easiest and the most accessible tool was called LiveJournal. My mom, dad and sister loved eating out so I wanted to start food blogging. Blogging wasn’t really something that you could earn from at that time. It was hobby that people got into when they wanted to journal and document that food that they ate, the clothes that they wore or their recent trip.

On that same year around December, I met a guy who later on became my boyfriend. This man started a blog with this family called Manila Reviews. I loved the idea, so I volunteered to be one of the writers, too. Fast forward to two years after, we were planning our wedding and he and I took over Manila Reviews while other family members started their own blogs, too.

Me with my husband, Ej! 🙂

Manila Reviews was the first blog that we kept for many years (2007 to 2015). It was a lifestyle blog where I would write about food and beauty, because these were the things that I was interested in writing about. I also started Manila Fitness, a blog about fitness and health (2009 to 2015).

We got our first brand deal from Nokia way back in 2008, but never really thought of monetizing our content until 2010, when I was writing for other blogs as a freelancer writer. It thought to myself, “why am I making money for other people?” This is when I decided to turn this passion into something profitable.

Run “Content Creation” like any Business…

This is the time when I started creating a media kit, a professional influencer bio and impressive proposals. I was working as a banker, so I applied all my professional skills into my blogging career. And that apparently worked! We were getting brand deals here and there. We were earning around $6,000 to $10,000 per year from content creation.

I kept both these blogs going until 2013, when I started MommyGinger.com. This was the time when I had my first child, and since my intention for the blog was to document my life, I was writing about my experiences being a mom. This was the time also that I started an events business called Manila Workshops. In my blog, I would also write about my experiences on setting up a business and juggling my time as a mom and as an entrepreneur.

Be Clear with what the Job of your Blog is…

From merely documenting my life, my purpose for the blog evolved to it being a platform where I can help other aspiring entrepreneurs create and sustain a business. I am a firm believer that you need to know exactly what it is that you want to say, what your purpose is and what you believe in. In these times when the influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth $15 Billion by 2022, you need to stand out. You can do this by being authentic to your own personal brand, enjoying what you’re doing while providing value to others and by using that “voice” that you have to make positive changes around you.

Don’t stress about monetizing your content…

Focus on developing quality content that offers value. Whether it’s to provide education, entertainment or information, focus on what value you want to give your audience. If your readers and followers get value from your content, you will have loyal followers.

Experiment using different platforms…

Through the years, different social media platforms have been created and each one targets a particular niche. It’s good to experiment and see which platform can effectively help you carry on your purpose. My belief when it comes to this is to be at least present in all since presence increases credibility and trust. You can be active in those platforms that you are comfortable in using, platforms where your audience is and platforms that allow you to deliver your message effectively.

This is why I blog… For this little cutie!

I’m trying a new platform now called Intellifluence. It allows me to earn by reviewing products that I love and would like to try out. Opportunities like these are out there, so keep your eyes peeled!

These are some of the things that I have learned as a content creator and vlogger/blogger.

My journey is far from over. I’m still learning a lot from creating content so I’ll prolly do this for another decade. For those who have questions or need tips on blogging or business, don’t hesitate to reach out to me and book a call. We can talk about growing your brand, starting your blogging business and fulfilling your purpose!

Vlogging 101 for Kids 101

Vlogging seems to be an “in” thing now. I can’t believe that there is this kid who earns 26 Billion US Dollars since he started way back in 2015. He earns 22 Million Dollars in 12 months. Read the full article here.

I’m sure that this is the dream of every child, because of the unlimited toys that he/she would receive. It would also be the dream of every parent since this kid is set for life!

You need not look far as we have a lot of moms and kids who vlog in the Philippines. I interviewed some mom and kid vloggers two years ago, and it was already something that was being enjoyed by a few parents with their kids: https://mommyginger.com/philippines-mommy-kid-vloggers-creating-youtube-channels.html

Personally, my daughter and I have been enjoying vlogging. Even if our main intent is to record our precious moments with each other and not really as something that we can earn from, we’d love to know how to become better at it!

So this summer of 2019, Manila Workshops is bringing you one of its Manila Workshops Originals which is its Vlogging 101 for Kids. The speakers for this workshop are the sweet couple Omni & Bryce of #TheClingyFam.

In this session, kids and parents will learn how to turn their moments into wonderful vlogs! The course covers the following highlights:

  • Doing it right the first time.
  • The right mindset, purpose, and equipment that can help kickstart your vlogging career.
  • Youtube Basics: On Branding
  • How to properly present yourself and make your vlog standout
  • Youtube Basics : Setting Your Channel Up
  • Creating your channel art and other items needed to attract more viewers
  • Youtube Basics : Building your content
  • Crafting your content plan
  • Monetization
  • Turning your passion into profit through the different ways of monetizing your content

What I like about this workshop is that it can also be a bonding activity for parents and their kids!

For those who want to learn more about the speakers, here is the profile of Omni and Bryce.

Omni and Bryce Larrosa is the couple behind the fun and quirky family vlog dubbed as Omni & Bryce or #TheClingyFam. They started their channel in March 2017 with the aim to capture their children’s milestones on video. Little did they know that people are looking forward to relevant family content and they realized this when their channel reached 3000 subscribers in just 4 months after launch and receiving thousands of heart-warming and encouraging comments from Filipinos all over the world. Since then, their passion to inspire more people that having a happy family life is possible by sharing their story grew bigger day after day.

Their story was also noticed and featured on different TV shows such as Social TV’s FamBam ABS-CBN’s Tapatan ni Tunying and GMA’s Reel Time reaching an even wider audience both on traditional and digital entertainment channels. Today, Omni and Bryce has garnered over a million watch minutes with over 400,000 watch views and more than 6,500 subscribers and counting in just less than 2 years of existence, making them one of the country’s fastest rising family vlogs. They are also trusted by over 30 companies to execute branded content for their brands including Babyzen, Foldaway, Ergobaby, Baby Dove Cheez Whiz, Eden, The Araneta Center, and many many others that cater to moms, dads or families in general.

So are you coming to join me for this workshop? For those who want to sign up, here are the details of the Vlogging 101 for Kids Workshop:

1st Run:
Date: April 27, 2019
Time: 9AM – 4PM
Venue: Toy Kingdom, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

2nd Run:
Date: June 22, 2019
Time: 9AM – 4PM
Venue: Toy Kingdom, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

LEARNING RATES:
Early Bird Rate: Php 3,995.00 (Adult + Kid)
Early Bird Group Rate: Php 5,495.00 (Group of 3)
Regular Rate: Php 4,995.00 (Adult + Kid)
Group Rate: Php 6,995.00 (Dad + Mom + Kid)

Workshop Fee is inclusive of handouts, certificates, giveaways and snacks!

You may buy your tickets at: https://manilaworkshops.com/events/vlogging-for-kids-2019

To make this deal sweeter and for visiting my blog, check out the Easter Surprise that I am sharing with you!

Hope you can avail of it! 🙂 Hurry and sign up now! For more details about the workshop, please contact VENI – veni.anabo@manilaworkshops.com | 09272816651

Tips for Aspiring Mom Bloggers Part 2 – Creating Content

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After going through your WHY (why you want to create a blog or vlog) and after contemplating if you can actually be consistent enough to sustain this, then it’s time to think about creating content.

THE FIRST TEN

If you’re a first time blogger or vlogger, try to start creating your first 10 articles or your first 10 videos first. The first 10 that you’ll create will be important, because during this time…

You’ll be able to identify topics that you really want to write about.

As time goes by, there will be many distractions. Distraction comes in many forms like brands inviting you to write about their products and services. Another distraction is seeing that not a lot of people are reading your content. You’ll try to shift gears and try out a lot of tactics like holding a contest, etc. Sure, it may work once or twice, then your stats (number of page views or visitors) will go back to how it was before you ran contests. Also, you may be distracted by what other bloggers or vloggers are writing or vlogging about. You’ll think “I should write more about what these bloggers are writing about.” Creating content will surely stress you out!

I’m not saying that experimenting on different things is bad. In fact, I encourage it. But during this time that you’re thinking about the first ten things, this is time that you’ll be least distracted

You’ll start knowing yourself better and you’ll start thinking of your Personal Brand.

In the first part of this series, I mentioned that consistency is key. In the process of creating the first 10, you’ll know if this is something that you can sustain. You’ll also have a clearer idea on where you want to take your blog — what topics do you want to write about and if you’ll have enough content to last you a lifetime. The ten topics that you choose are most likely the things that you want to talk about.

Also, you’ll, be able to start thinking of the type of audience that you want to talk to or you want to attract.

I’ve written a few articles in the past about Personal Branding and Branding for Blogs. Check out these links:

Blogging and Branding
My Portfolio Site is now Re-branded! (with Personal Branding Tips)
Create a Blog and BRAND It!

In creating content, some of you may ask, where do I write my articles? Just write it in a Google Docs or in Microsoft word. For the videos, you may do simple edits even or just use a raw file for your first few content. These things need not be perfect. You just have to get it done and then review it.

HOMEWORK:

For aspiring mom/dad bloggers or for any aspiring blogger out there, you can do this first Homework.

Please create your first 10 posts or videos

If you’re done with this, I can help you by going through the content with you, and we can even talk about branding and content after. For those who also want to learn more, you can fill out this form as we’re thinking of running a blogging workshop soon with my friends Cat Arambulo, Jackie Go and Shari Poquiz.

Now, in creating content for your blog, my basic tips for you are:

  • Choose topics that are somewhat “evergreen”. Evergreen content are topics that can be read, re-read, used, linked back to for all eternity. No matter what year it is in the future, it will be RELEVANT.
  • Another thing that you want to do is at least check and edit your content. I am guilty of sometimes not checking and reading the posts that I create. I’m the type of person who thinks and writes with PASSION and gusto. Haha! Then I just hit the publish button. That may be something that you might do when you’re confident enough that you won’t be making major Boo-boo’s. But if you know that your weakness are sentence construction, spelling, etc., you might want to use https://www.grammarly.com/. Not endorsing here, but a lot of my content writer friends are using this tool.
  • Have a relevant and catchy title (at least) for your first few posts. Let’s face it, people love to click on posts that have catchy titles. Write a clear title and please have content that’s really related to the title. I’ve seen content with titles that are way unrelated to each other.
  • Length (for me) doesn’t matter. So there is no expected number of words or expected length for your video. Put yourself in your readers shoes, would they get the gist of what you’re saying in 2 paragraphs? Will they want a longer post or video so that you can give them the lo-down on the stuff that you want to teach? So it really depends on what your audience will eventually like to read or watch from you.

These are just a few tips on creating the content that you need for your blog / vlog. If you have other questions or if you’d like to share more tips, please feel free to comment below or share your tips and questions on social media and use #GINspiration and tag any of my social media accounts (FB: http://facebook.com/mommyginger / IG: http://instagram.com/gingerarboleda / Twitter: http://twitter.com/gingerarboleda )

Hope you can connect with me and I’d gladly reply and respond to your inquiries! Again please feel free to sign up above if you want to join our blogging workshops coming soon!

Tips for Aspiring Mom Bloggers Part 1 – What to Begin With and a Little about Monetization

We have a lot of mom bloggers in the Philippines. And I mean a L-O-T! Just scroll through Instagram or search on Facebook and you’ll find them. My own team in ManilaWorkshops.com conducts business and freelancing workshops, and oftentimes, people ask us to do Blogging 101 workshops.

Those mom bloggers who have been in the industry for a long time now find this space to be very congested already. Notice that I used the word congested, since I didn’t want to describe the landscape as competitive. There is nothing to compete for anyway. The reality is that more and more people have started blogging and that’s okay. What’s sad though is that most of them join this industry not because of the love of the craft, but because most think that this is the easiest way to earn extra income.

Image captured by Veni Anabo: https://journeyofthevees.wordpress.com/

That latter reason of wanting more income isn’t bad, too, but then it leads people down a path of depression and loss of self-worth. We equate the number of readers, the number of followers, the number of comments and the number of likes with our worth.

There are many challenges that mom bloggers have to overcome. This is the reason why Mommy Pehpot of https://www.pehpot.com/ and I did this live session. Check out the video above.

When I asked my friends who are deemed successful bloggers like Frances Sales of http://www.topazhorizon.com/, Cat Arambulo – Anotnio of http://catarambulo.com/, Shari of http://www.themistymom.com/ and Jackie Go of http://gojackiego.com/ though if they really planned to earn from blogging, all of them said that it was purely accidental. Looking back at my journey, too, as a blogger, I never really intended to earn from MommyGinger.com. I just love writing. I also am very passionate about learning trying out new things. Family and friends know me as an early adopter when it comes to trying out new platforms, new activities, etc.

So in terms of monetizing your mommy blog, it will take time. When you create and start your blog, don’t think about money first. Money will come eventually.

The first thing that you need to take care of is creating consistent content for at least 5 months, then see if this is something that you can do and something that you love doing. Why 5 months? When you want to come up with at least 21 posts every week, that will take you 5 months.

Aside from writing the content in your blog, don’t forget to use social media to amplify your message. Create a Facebook Page, Twitter account and an Instagram account. Then every time come up with content, share and announce your new content in these channels. It may even be good to think about creating videos, too. People love watching videos on Youtube, Instagram TV and even other platforms like Kumu (please follow me on Kumu @ginger… hehe!).

After 5 months of delivering consistent content and see if you can continue doing this for the rest of your life. I’ve been blogging for 11 years already, and i’m still happily doing this. So if you’re like me after 5 months, comment on the section below and say, I’m READY! haha!

I’ll be coming up with other topics about mom blogging soon so stay tuned for those!

Also, my friends (Cat, Shari, Jackie and I) have been talking about creating a workshop on blogging. We will announce this to people who are truly interested! If you are VERY MUCH interested to join, please fill out this form:

So just to recap on how to get started, the first thing that you need to do is to know the reason why you want to have a blog. Will you be able to remain consistent in the years to come? Try to write (even without a blog) your first content this week and see if this is something that makes you happy! 🙂

Stay tuned for my next post for mom bloggers 😉

Goodbye, Influencers. Hello, Thought Leaders!

Our office is always quite a lovely and chaotic place to be in. Even though we (Taxumo) deal with one of the most tedious and complicated processes in a business or a freelancer’s life, our team still remains joyous and positive about this reality. We still have our daily banters and laughs. One of the things that we talked about recently was to urge one of us, Kuya Jojo, to be an influencer. And I really think that he could be one!

Photo by BRUNO CERVERA on Unsplash

Since we’re talking about influencers, I’d love to share my opinion on such a term.

I think that each one of us has the ability to “influence” another individual. Hey, I could influence my husband right this instant, but probably not when it comes to exercising… haha! The thing about influencing is that WE could ALL possibly do it given we have these things.

  1. Right audience: When I say the RIGHT audience, it means that the person has a receptive audience who trusts him/her. As you know, trust is built over time, and trusting a person stems from a previously established relationship or at least from borrowed trust from another person or entity (example: referred by another trusted friend, or they have mutual friends, etc.).
  2. Right message: RIGHT message means content that triggers a response from the audience, and this may be because it’s a shared, relatable experience. It may be something also that appeals to the emotion of the chosen audience.
  3. Right timing: If you want to get people to buy a cold drink, the perfect time will be on a hot day. If you want to get people to go to the gym, the perfect time to tell them will probably be after the holidays. Timing is very important in convincing people to do a certain action.
  4. Right “messenger”: Which I will expound on more below!

Now looking at people whom we consider influencers, you’ll notice that what differentiates any Tom, Dick and Harry from them is just basically the scale of their influence. But don’t mistake the scale of influence with the number of followers. One may have a massive amount of followers and yet, still have a minimal scale of influence.

The thing though about Influencer Marketing is that only a few get to see its benefits. And as a marketer, it’s mostly because of the lack of tracking of metrics and key performance indicators. Understandably so, we can’t tell the influencer to wear a shoe that she endorses and give a code to everyone who compliments her shoe. That would just be a bit too forced! But we all still try our best (brands, agencies, influencers) to work towards understanding how influencer marketing can work for all of us.

In this journey of understanding the world of influencers, many have become disappointed and disheartened.

My personal belief is that a lot of confusion stems from the fact that the term “influencers” itself is a bit unclear and confusing for many (since we always think it’s the number of followers). A lot of the content creators who strive to be “influencers” end up disheartened when they don’t easily get to their target number of people. A lot of brands and agencies are also disappointed because the influencer-strategy that they implemented didn’t result to achieving their target objectives.

Instead of striving to be Influencers, strive to be Thought Leaders. The reason why I like this term is that it involves not only gaining a number of followers, but going to the extent of being an authority or an expert in a certain field. People will naturally will flock to you because of what you know and the value that you can give them. With the exchange of values, a true relationship is built.

I also like this the term thought leaders, because it feels like these people are thought of to be partners of the brands who commission them. These people think of ways on how to improve the industry, improve the lives of their followers — basically, they truly and genuinely care.

Maybe the change of terminology will help, or maybe it won’t. These things actually make the world of marketing and advertising such a fun industry, don’t you think? 🙂

Hope I influenced you today. 🙂