Of Blog and Souls
Jayvee has launched his Blog and Soul Movement over at BlogandSoul.net. I have talked to Jayvee extensively before he launched the movement and pointed out a couple of things:
1. There is a lot of blogging movement in the grassroots level, a lot more people are starting to blog via multiply, blogspot or even via their own domains. Most of these wouldn’t even recognize/care about popular bloggers.
2. A lot of bloggers attend these parties, conferences, meets, and summits but go home feeling empty.
3. Not everyone knows Wordpress or SEO or how to monetize their site, and its they feel alienated going to gatherings where popular bloggers talk about making money off of your site but don’t actually help them earn.
4. Elitist sentiments about current groups in the local blogosphere.
Stellify.net says “Few people have actually stepped out of their comfortable shell and asked, “how can I make other Pinoy bloggers penetrate mainstream media”? Jayvee has, and thank goodness he did.”
I believe that the Blog and Soul Movement shouldn’t just focus on gaining the reputation/blessing of mainstream media, Its focus should be making Filipinos better bloggers and giving opportunities to the less privileged. It should be not about how much you earn or how many readers you get via RSS feeds or how many PR agencies invite you to lunches/dinners. It should be about how many people have you helped start/expand their blogging adventure and maybe start a new career or revive a previous one.
I’m not bashing Blog and Soul since i helped build it (with more projects on the way!) but i want to stress what exactly we want to do with what we have started.
Helping other bloggers, that is what i feel Blog and Soul is about.
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Comments
“3. Not everyone knows Wordpress or SEO or how to monetize their site, and its they feel alienated going to gatherings where popular bloggers talk about making money off of your site but don’t actually help them earn.”
I remember talking to you about this a while back. Is something already being done to address this problem? Are there pro-bloggers in the Philippines ready to really get down to the business of imparting monetization know-how? Somehow, I don’t see this happening within the next five years, especially with blogging seeming like an elitist hobby here. I have yet to see a successful blogger directly helping new bloggers reach their full potential.
hi there,
i just started a blog of my own, actually, i have two blogs now, one in wordpress and one in blogspot. the wordpress blog has been around since 2006 and the one in blogspot, i started that about 3 weeks ago. i have been reading up on blogs by fellow filipinos and i agree with what you are saying. blogging should be presented to the public as one of the media to help and to support other filipino bloggers(like myself).
as i am just starting and you are already a pro in the business, i have some questions id like to ask:
1. is there some kind of organization you are creating/has existed for filipino bloggers? this is a good thing so as to legitimize and represent the blogging community.
2. to be able to promote blogging as this kind of entity, bloggers who support this idea should form a group and try to make vision, missions, or a goal.
3. bottomline, an organization of filipino bloggers is, i think, a good idea.
anyway, as i agree with the idea, i would like to contribute to it. contact me if ever you feel the same.
my email add is: blackhowling1385@gmail.com
you can also visit my site, its http://laypndpilipins.blogspot.com
im just starting out so i don’t have much in my blogs. any advice will be very welcome though.. 
peace out!
I agree that there are many ways to help make blogging more mature in the Philippines. Inviting them to events the media would have access to is only one of those things since a Filipino blogger’s goal varies from person to person, after all. Whether or not the Blog and Soul Movement aims to be more than that, I’m still glad it still exists.