racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

I often find myself envious of people who have the time and the passion to write thought-provoking articles and editorials. When I originally launched my blog, it was my intention to contribute such content to the world. I wanted to focus on making a point, making a stand, and helping people understand these.

I never realized I would gain a considerable followership (while a humble number, it’s the connections that matter, I must say). But then, one thing turned into another, and I found myself writing—blogging—for a living. And the pressure and constraints took me away from using blogging as a platform for truly expressing ideas and ideals. There have been so many “me too” posts, one-liners and link lists. There’s the pressure to earn. There’s the pressure to stand out.

Racoma.net is, in a way, the contradiction of those “me too,” one liner and link posts, in its every relaunch. You see, everytime racoma.net has been relaunched, it’s often been at a point in my life I’m trying to reach new heights (and that, perhaps because of hitting lows). And it’s a way of recreating and reinventing myself. The last time I relaunched racoma.net, it was in 2006. Now I find myself relaunching once more.

For some time, I have let racoma.net languish in obscurity, ever since I switched to this .com.ph version of my blog. Even with this most recent relaunch, it has been about 10 months since my first post. But now that is changing. I’ve been trying to be more consistent with updating the site with what I hope are thought-provoking, interesting, funny, or at the very least grammatically-correct posts.

And this is a discipline I intend to maintain.

And so, folks, I give you racoma.net. Redesigned. Relaunched. Reloaded. Re-impassioned. Re-infused with goodness and warm, fuzzy feelings.

Feel free to drop by at www.racoma.net. I have, so far, discussed Twitter, social media and, yes, even Rick Astley.

Image credit: flickr/jurvetson

A lot of people are trying to make a good living off of blogging, but sad to say, most are not successful, at least in terms of being able to monetize their blogging activities enough to quit that day job.

Sadly, most think that blogging is easy money. But that is not the case. Blogging is hard work—or at least it involves a big amount of effort in writing, marketing, planning and even socializing. Most people would not get that, and think that the fact that you’ve opened a blog, put in some ad units, and posted a few posts would already make you rich.

But I’ve come to think that the age of monetizing blogging purely for the content may not exactly be the best business model (or at least the one that earns the big bucks). It’s not that publishing as a business, per se, is no longer good. For me, blogging is just what it is: a medium. Blogging is not the ends, but rather it is a means.

That’s why it’s a medium.

There are several ways of earning from blogging, and it will be very fruitful if you get it right. But the big money could be somewhere aside from directly earning from one’s blog. Think of marketing. Think of networking. These days, people are able to generate sales, business leads, consultancy jobs, and other such opportunities because of their blogs.

Think of it this way. You can build up your profile online through your blog. Show people how good you are at what you do, whether it’s a skill, profession, or other business that you do. And the opportunities will come. Be a Joel Spolsky. Be a Jeff Atwood.

An example: a blog network can earn more from blog-related consultancy services, or from selling books, or from selling software than from ad revenues. Besides, writers are expensive. But if you’ve built a good product (software, etc.) or service, then they will pay for themselves, and will give you good money down the road.

Blogging is a medium, and not the end-all be-all of things.

I’ve been running Pinoy Auto Blog for a few months now, but it’s not such an active site yet. I’d like the site to get serious traction soon. If anyone’s interested in contributing to the site, please get in touch with me!

New media is lucrative, but also a very competitive industry. So it pays not to sit on one’s laurels. I like being at the forefront and keeping on my toes. Something I stumbled upon recently is Chris Garrett’s Authority Blogger course (affiliate link), which I’m hoping could get me fast-tracked to even more success in blogs and blogging.

People start blogging every day. They find their blogs flounder, the traffic does not come, they find it hard to generate business, they attract few comments and fewer subscribers.
Don’t be ignored. Get noticed.

Using the right approach anyone can start a blog today that will create more business, more profit, more opportunities, develop networking contacts, grow customer loyalty and much more.

Become an Authority Blogger and you can go from being unknown to an influencer.

Chris is a fellow contributor at the Blog Herald, and is one of the founders of Performancing, and an overall great guy. He knows his stuff, so I’m looking forward to learning a lot from the course. Authority Blogger basically aims to help professionals in any field use blogging and social media as a means to build up one’s profile. And once your content is a “social media magnet” what happens next is up to you!

Andrew Rosen asked how the weather affects your blogging. I can think of a couple of ways it impacts my blogging.

1. On stormy days my DSL sometimes goes down. So I have to resort to connecting via mobile. If that works at all! Also, during really stormy days, the power goes out, too. Sure I have a lot of mobile devices at home, but 3.5 hours of netbook battery life can only get you so far.
2. On rainy days, one is tempted to just sleep in. Poof goes productivity.