Ed Earns

4 more days and the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs 2010 will be revealed. Who do you think will be on the top 10?

For this  I want my nominees to be counted as well. Here are my nominees for the Emerging Influential Blogs 2010:

Project52weeks – This is Mica’s Video Blog where she posts her weekly video updates.

Music Vlogger – This is Rabsin’s music vlog where he posts his performances and version of the songs requested. Purposely created to entertain and share his talent, this blog is one of a kind.

Pigginoutsessions – An interesting food blog by Doyzkie that shares lots and lots of food and details to his viewers.

Libotero – One of the big time bloggers in Cebu, Sinjin, has a goal to travel every corner of the Philippines and hopefully discover new things.

Everythingubec – A frequently updated blog gives you current and upcoming events in the Queen City of the South.

Adventurouslei – A blog that shares all kind of this. I can see good potential on this young blogger.

These are my nominees for now. Don’t forget to join the writing project and cast your nominees now!

I have 4 friends who resigned from work in order to pursue careers in blogging and freelance. These people all worked in a prestigious contact center and they were all my colleagues. I even started blogging before them and I influenced a couple to start sharing their thoughts online and earn some income at the same time.

The funny part about this is that I was the one who told them that I’d raise the white flag first. Now, I’m the one left in this business process outsourcing industry; still doing the same things that I’ve been doing for almost 3 years now. I actually feel toxic knowing that the job has been monotonous already. My friend told me that I’m at a plateau and I’m not moving anywhere. I know I should take action but the job that I have is the most flexible one considering that I’ve been doing freelance jobs at odesk, onlinejobs.ph and blogging jobs at sponsored review sites and other payperpost sites.

These jobs don’t really generate a stable income and the benefits are less when it comes to insurance and security; however the possibility of owning one’s time and being able to stay in a different place is limitless. Doing freelance work and blogging makes you less location-bound since you only have to have the internet and a good laptop computer in order to do your daily tasks.

My goal now since I haven’t really gotten full-time with my freelance work is to pursue my education and get that diploma. For now, I can just be envious on how free my other colleagues are who already resigned in order to work on a freelance scheme. I’ll definitely join them but it’s not about to happen anytime soon.

I just had a conversation over lunch with a fellow blogger/colleague and we were talking about our jobs. We’re running 4 years within this business process outsourcing industry already and we have come a long way from being classmates back in our product training class. Although we haven’t reached our peak, it seems that the years have passed by so fast. Funny at times that we wonder what will happen once we reach the 5 years if we’re going to opt for an early retirement or we’ll pursue other careers.

I have my fair share of doubts and questions on how I see my future. Although it seems that I’m busy with my blogs, it seems that I haven’t really pushed myself to the limit in promoting and marketing them. I know there’s a huge potential in the blogging market but I still need to tap some resources in order learn more.

Then there’s studying — I have to go back to school within 2 months and stay in it for probably a year until I get that elusive diploma.

In the mean time, I’m preparing myself for some travels that are lined up for me in the coming months.

It was a busy lunch; somehow it seemed that I did all the talking.

I’ll be going out tomorrow for an event wherein I got invited because of being a blogger. It’s starting to come to fruition, the results of being able to write quality posts about a particular niche. My main blog, which used to be a personal blog has shifted to a travel blog which showcases the different places I’ve been to in this country.

Tomorrow, I will be covering an event with a couple of travel bloggers. Somehow, I should be able to expand my network in order to reach more people. I’ve already done that in some cases but there’s a battle within me that’s a bit conflicting because of wanting to be anonymous so not much hype will be generated. But then, if I want to earn more, it would be wise to also spread the news and promote my site some more.

For now, my day job is still preoccupying a lot of my time so I’m letting it get me stuck in limbo.

Keep the SocialSpark entries coming!

Been waiting for good opportunities for writing sponsored reviews online and like I’m always happy with, SocialSpark.com has been giving me a couple of tasks to write  about.

With 5 blogs in tow, I am able to diversify my sites in order to accommodate different categories which in turn, allows me to take written reviews here and there. Although there are a lot more paid posts that I’m not really qualified, I have enough already to keep me going. 

Temporary break, this blogger is broke.

Been spending more because of out of town trips that have yet to be blogged and now I’m still looking for ways in order to find some extra income online as usual.

I’ve been trying to optimize my site as well to make sure that it gets more organic traffic and have visitors to come and drop by again.

Having fun with Photoshop these days; aside from Photoscape.

I didn’t realize that contests are abound nowadays in the blogging community. Contests that are especially designed for bloggers to write about a certain trip or experience that coincides with a product’s theme of their marketing campaign. What’s great is that big prices are at stake and anybody who has experienced the service or tried the product can join.

It makes me feel glad that I’m a blogger because I get to join these promotions and I also have the chance to win them. It’s just that I can’t really commit to each one of them because I’m already busy with other things. Writing a good entry, a really good one, takes effort; more so, time. You can’t expect to win without devoting yourself into creating a well-crafted piece in order for other people to take inspiration for it.

I my case, I also don’t want to churn out a write-up for the sake of having something to submit which is why I can’t just go out and submit any entry. I know there will be lots of contests available. We’ll see and I’ll wait for the really good ones to come out.

I’ve been having a number of blogging activities with friends and colleagues and I get to meet new people which is pretty exciting knowing that before, I used to blog alone.

Attending events and discussing topics regarding blogging and online marketing has helped me gain exposure to how others see this therapeutic form of expression. I’ve also learned new points of views which makes me understand that there’s more to blogging after all.

I guess what I like is the community that is established because of the bond being created with people who share the same interests as you. I plan to join more blogging activities which will help me in creating a better relationship with people.

Been talking to EJ of focalglass.com and we were discussing about branding your website/personal blog in order to market yourself in a more effective way that would catch your reader’s attention.

Branding is how you create an identity for your service or product; in this case, it’s my blog. It’s a good thing that soloflightEd.com has it’s own following (I guess). People call me more as Ed instead of my given name.

It sets you apart from other people. There are times when I thought I should have a catchier name but what the heck. I’ll be known as soloflight Ed.

I started already by setting up a Facebook Page for my travel blog which is pretty nifty in a sense that the value appreciates over time. Social media hasn’t been really my thing and I initially used it for my personal reasons. Now, I’m using Web 2.0 to expand my market. The returns will come by in a matter of time.

I always like going out to events and being invited as a Blogger. As they say, blogging is a new generation of media that’s effective and more efficient as it captures a lot of market in a short span of time.

Press Release events help a lot as the number of people using the internet is growing rapidly. Getting invited to these experiences make me feel proud of being a blogger and I make sure I don’t disappoint knowing that the quality of posts that I create is going to be worth it.

I hope to have more of these in the future. Hopefully, I’ll be invited to travel for free! That is one my ultimate dreams!