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!

Bloggers and Taxes

Bloggers need to pay taxes.

Today, I’ve been seeing a lot of news that bloggers, filmmakers, digital workers and freelancers need to pay taxes. Frankly, I’m not shocked. This has been the rule in the Philippines since years ago.

I’ve been blogging for more than a decade now and when I started earning and accepting revenue for my blog, that’s when I started paying my taxes. I started paying my taxes since 2013 (7 years ago). So this news today that bloggers need to pay taxes isn’t really shocking.

Advantages of Paying Taxes

Other bloggers wonder why I get to haggle on my rate and this is because I can issue an official receipt. The reason why bloggers who pay taxes can negotiate for a better rate is because companies can book this as an expense. Imagine paying thousands of pesos and you can’t declare the amount they pay bloggers as a deductible expense? That’s basically thousands of pesos going down the drain for the companies.

Another thing is that I loved that it was so easy for me to get a Visa going to Japan 2 years ago. I pretty much had every requirement in the check list that the agency had. No sweat applying for VISA.

There are a lot more benefits like securing loans, credit cards, HMOs, etc.

How to get started

First thing’s first… don’t panic. Collate all the requirements that you need. If you don’t know what the requirements are, feel free to email bizreg@taxumo.com and they will give you a super comprehensive list of requirements. Taxumo helps process BIR registration for Php 4999 (discounted from Php 6000) until July 31, 2020. You need not go to the RDO and register; they will process it for you.

Aside from the processing fee of Taxumo (you can also do it yourself, too, if you have the time), here is my own breakdown of the actual cost.

The Actual Cost of Registration

In this article from Manila bulletin, they indicated that the only cost are Php 500 for registration fee and Php 30 for Documentary Stamp.

From my perspective, here is an approximation for costs:

Php 530 – BIR Registration and Doc Stamp

Php 2500 – Approximation of your Official Receipt (first ten booklets … yes, they need to be 10)

Php 200 – Manual Ledgers (really depends on how many BIR would require; oftentimes only two books for Professionals and 4 books for Sole Proprietors)

Php 200 – Notary for my SPA since I had Taxumo do it for me

Php 350 – Occupational Tax Receipt and Barangay Clearance

Php 250 – Delivery back to your place of all the documents (approximation since depends on the distance from Taxumo)

Php 2000+ – Payment for DST2000 if you are renting.

Total will be approximately Php 6,030. Again, this is an approximation of the costs. So Taxumo will ask for an advance of around Php 5750.

To help educate the market on BIR registration and Taxation, Taxumo is doing an Ask – Me – Anything Community Roadshow. If you are a community admin or founder, feel free to contact Taxumo via customercare@taxumo.com.

For other resources, please see these links from my other blogger friends:

My True Story – How I Registered with BIR as a Self-Employed Blogger

https://www.topazhorizon.com/2019/03/freelancers-professionals-small.html

If you have questions about bloggers and taxes, please feel free to message me in the comments section. Search for more articles on taxes and BIR registration on this blog… I have lots! haha!

TIPS FOR ASPIRING MOM BLOGGERS PART 3 – Building Confidence and Influence

Let’s talk about Confidence and Influence: Photo by Elijah Macleod on Unsplash

Zeeka, my daughter, was dancing like crazy again last night. She has this habit of singing original songs with lyrics she invents. She then performs in front of her able and willing “audience”, which is no other than me and my husband, at least 2 times a week. Not an ounce of shyness or hesitation can be traced in her voice and actions.

She gave us singing lessons last night. And again, we had to comply when she said that we had to individually sing our own original songs. Of course, for the most part, me and my husband both giggled our way to the end of our song (and thought it silly to be doing this). Our 6 year old teacher was obviously disappointed and angry that we weren’t taking things seriously.

Confidence and Influence

I am amazed at the confidence of little children. This is something that led me to write about how can we, as bloggers, build confidence. First off, confidence is important in our line of work or in anything in life for that matter, since it leads to success. Having lack of confidence lead to doing nothing or inaction. Make sense, right?

When you are confident, you say yes to opportunities. You don’t let fear stop you from doing the things that you love doing and the things that you’re curious in trying. When you blog, your life is an open book for everyone to see. If you’re not confident enough, other people’s comments will affect you and may even affect your decisions.

I think it was apt to talk about confidence and influence in the same article, because if you want to influence someone, you yourself should be convinced by YOU. Dale Carnegie was right to link Confidence and Influence, but he talks about if from the point of view of public speaking. Let me write about though from the perspective of being a blogger.

Salespeople won’t be able to influence and close a deal if they themselves are not confident when it comes to explaining the product or service that they’re selling. In blogging, it’s the same thing. If you’re not convinced that people will read your blog post, then people will definitely not read it.

And persuading people or influencing people all boils down Aristotle’s Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

Ethos refers to the blogger’s character. And when reader’s read your blog for the first time, they “judge” you base on the filters that you use on pictures that you post, how many sentences are grammatically erroneous, your blog topics or what you love to write about, etc. All of these things. People are oftentimes looking for “someone” online — either to befriend, emulate, rekindle a relationship with, criticise, etc. So who are you to these people?

Pathos comes into the picture when the blogger uses emotions to influence an audience. The emotions that can use may be humor, pity, sadness, longing, happiness, envy (even), etc. People who have gone through a similar emotion or have experienced this emotion would likely read and follow your blogs. We know that we are rational creatures, but there are times that we make irrational decisions (I admittedly make lots of these! haha).

The last one is Logos or the use of reason. Sad to say, in influencing people, this is the least important. This is the reason why marketers, researchers, psychologists have tons of research about how people behave and act, because we often don’t act based on “logic and reason”. As my husband always says, we humans justify our decisions. Even if we make a wrong decision that puts us at harm, we still justify and give a whole list of reasons why we chose that.

So there you have it, aspiring and current bloggers. These are my own thoughts on confidence and influence. I hope that this post made you think about your own view on Influence. If you want to join the conversation, feel free to comment below.

By the way, we’re thinking of coming up with a blogging workshop. If you want to be invited to reserve a seat, feel free to fill this out: https://goo.gl/forms/JMUQ7PeAX4XHNBFn1

Thank you for the people who have already filled out the form! 🙂 You’ll hear from me soon!

Create a Blog and BRAND It!

MG Blog Series

Today was a light day! I got to squeeze in time for learning. I was watching and listening to videos from the Teachable summit. For 2017, I want to create a course, but I don’t know what course to create and share with you. This endeavour is something new to me. I felt confused as to where to start and how to start. I then remembered that 8 years ago, blogging was also new to me. It moved me to think about how I started blogging, and to think of the factors that made me get to where I am today. I’m pretty happy that I have gotten this far in blogging, and I attribute a big part of it to branding. Create blogs with great branding, and you’ll go places!

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What is good branding? When you create blogs, consider thinking about the following:

1. Define a blogging objective.

What is the main thing or specific thing that you want people to do, learn or read from your blog. It is important that you have this in mind 24/7 when you create blogs. The topics that you choose, the videos that you make or even the picture or font that you use should be with aligned with the mood, tone or feel of the objective of the blog. Everything should be consistent. Consistency will come in when you have a clear objective.

2. Check on what you can offer that others cannot.

Uniqueness is a big part of the game. All of us can be a certain type of blogger (mom blogger, travel blogger, etc.). What sets you apart can be how you craft your content, the tools and methods of how you relay your message, the tone of your message, and the chosen angle of your message. These are all dependent on what particular niche you are trying to talk to. Knowing your readers really well is what makes you know of your “uniqueness”.  Truly listening and engaging with them will steer you towards the direction you alone will be taking.

3. Don’t forget offline marketing.

Talking to people offline is as important as chatting with them via social media. Building trust or just getting to know people who are part of your chosen community or niche is one big factor for successful branding. People should know who you are as a person. They will trust you more once you connect with them in both the online and offline world. This is especially true when you don’t have your own flock of brand believers who will tell others of who your are and your story.

These are just some tips that worked for me. Do you know of other tips that may have worked for you to develop a good brand. Share them with me please at the comments section below.

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Best Place to Start a Blog When you Want to Monetize It

The best place to start a blog when you want to monetize it is to think of it as a business.

MG Blog Series

The best place to start a blog when you want to monetize it is to have that mindset that it will really be a business. You need to be profitable in order for you to sustain a business. On the on set, if you really want to make blogging your main source of income, you should be committed to do everything you can, learn everything you can, and make a living out of it.

People would think it’s taboo to talk about money when you are talking about passion. As bloggers who are in business, we need to realize early on that we shouldn’t be allergic to talk about money in exchange for the value that we give. There is nothing bad about earning from blogging. Blogging is a legitimate profession — that is why there is a growing number of professional bloggers out there. And when you think about it, it’s great that these people wake up every day, do something that they are passionate about, and earn from it.

I have been silently analyzing different kinds of bloggers for the longest time and I have observed something quite interesting. Those bloggers who earn figures that you wouldn’t believe is possible are those who love numbers and charts. Haha! I’m not generalizing, but since the time that I have been intrigued by quant-based marketing, I have slowly seen the difference. These bloggers who earn huge amounts, in thousands of dollars, do not realize that they are experts in quant-based marketing. They take time to undertand trends, charts, ups and downs of their clicks, visits, and even bids. What they do is very interesting!

Another interesting characteristic of these people is that they don’t stop learning. They search online and try to understand how to make their blogs more engaging to their audience. These bloggers take time to understand what their readers want. They painstakingly go through each report on Google Analytics to see whether their performance is better than what it was yesterday.

So the best place to start a blog is really when you know clearly what your objective is for having the blog. If it’s about monetization, then go all-out!

Love lots,

Mommy Ginger

Mommy Ginger

 

 

 

 

PS. See you tomorrow at The Freelancer Fair!

PPS. See you on November 29 for Payoneer’s Freelancer Forum