Breakthrough PART 2 - Information is key!

This is part 2 of my Breakthrough post for our April theme blogging activity. As mentioned in Part 1, again, this is addressed to my batchmates (of Jomar Hilario's Mar 2011 breakthrough seminar).

  

Guys, let me clarify. My adsense application got approved 1 day after Jomar’s seminar. Don’t’ ask me why and how because I do not know. Before that, I have been running my 2 blogs for about a week already. Both only had 2 short posts each, and both I think I have not updated since the seminar.

But first things first. Let me tell you what happened
right after the seminar. On my commute back to my home province, I didn’t get to sleep at all inside the bus. It was as if my eyes have been opened (Thanks, Jomar) to a new universe which was internet marketing. All I knew about the internet before the seminar was e-mailing, youtube, facebook and some adult sites (har!). I was even thinking of deleting my facebook account because I was stressing over my old friends bugging me of stuff I was not interested about.

The day after, I conceptualized my 3^rd blog. From jomar’s e-mails, I found out that it’s better to attach to your weblog title, the words online or Philippines. He said this will make your title sound more professional. And since I already knew I was going to blog about finances and ways to create wealth in the Philippines, I followed Jomar’s instructions to the letter. Hence, the birth of my blog : Creating Wealth Philippines. This is the same blog I mentioned in Part 1 that gave me my milestones.

Lessons at this point:

1. Subscribing to Jomar’s free 3-month on-line tutorials is a must. In it, he will not teach everything right away, but will give you ideas you will not be able to discover on your own.
2. You should spend time on your keyboard. Just type away. The hardest part at this point is DECIDING a good title for your blog. But then, Jomar also told us to create at least 5 blogs and then play around with it. So there’s really no point  getting stuck this early. Again, just type away. Don’t even think. Just type. The topics shall present themselves to you. But you will not be able to discover this UNLESS you spend time on your keyboard.
3. Read other persons’ blogs. You will learn a lot from them. How they choose their words; How they write; How they present ideas / feelings. From reading other blogs, you will also get to see different lay-outs, color combinations and effects (such as active buttons, links, etc). These ideas will be good for you when you finally decide the best stuff for your site.

So I then just typed away in my blog. After my 1^st 2 posts, I began toying with the idea of actually allowing people to read my blog. Because at this point, I was extremely shy. I mustered all my courage to finally share my link to our FB page. I already had adsense; I had already decided on my niche / topics, as well as the design of my site. So I now did not have any reason not to click share in our FB page. It was naturally the next step to take. Otherwise, I’d be stuck. So I clicked share. With a message saying “Hi batchmates, visit my site naman. Follow nyo ako, ifa-follow ko din kayo. Let’s help each other out”.

 I have to stop right there. As you can see, I was uncertain; I was shy; I was scared. Scared I’d get ridiculed. Or worse, you guys would ignore my message. As it turned out, some of you did  check out my site. Some even clicked “like”. 2 of you guys even sent me nice messages  But then, no one followed or inputted his/her email in my email box. Until now, if you review my blog, I only have 2 followers. One is my wife; the other, a dear friend. Even then, I was happy knowing someone did find time to read my blog. From zero, my viewers shot to about 20 overnight. Already, I was high! Also on this day, I created my twitter account.

The following day, a Friday ( 6 days after the seminar), feeling a bit high about my 20 views, I took one more step farther. I shared the link to my other FB group, my High School friends. After clicking share and after saying a short prayer, I went home and got ready for my quiet weekend.

The following day, Sat (7 days after the seminar), not expecting too much, I went to an internet shop and got my big surprise. My number of viewers now totaled 100. So I hurriedly went to our FB page to announce my milestone. I said in our page, “today I got my 100^th view”. Only a few of you “liked” that message, but really I was not offended that I did not get any response from you guys. I was more concerned celebrating my 100^th view. Maybe to a lot of you, 100 is a small number. But to me, it was already heaven. I was just happy that only 2 days ago, my views was zero, and now it was already 100. All because I clicked “share” twice.

I spent P100 inside that computer shop that day tweaking my site – trying to make it look more pleasing to the eye, and downloading “how to” stuff from adsense and google blogger sites. Also, before quitting for the day, I posted 3 more reads, then clicked share once again. Then another surprise. For fun, I clicked monetise on my blogger account. I couldn’t believe it at first, but there it was: I actually earned my first income from bloging. At sosi – in dollars pa!

What I did was some sort of stupid. I actually posted a message again to our FB page, saying “jomar was right, may laman na ang adsense ko”. Of course, again none of you reacted. Actually this time, not even a “like”. Lol! What was I thinking??!! But really guys, I was just happy. I knew there is money somehow in internet marketing, but I didn’t know it was going to happen to me THAT FAST. I was not prepared for it.

Lessons at this point:

1. Your fears aren’t as big as you think they are. It’s all in the mind. Be bold. Just click “share”. Somehow, someone in this universe will read your post.
2. Don’t expect too much. Not even from friends or relatives. If you receive good comments / reviews, or even a like, be thankful. If you get ignored, just pick up the pieces then move on. Remember why you are doing your blog/s in the 1^st place – your big why. Bite the bullet; swallow the bitter pill; all that stuff.
3. Google is my new BFF: I did research on my topics, as well as what I did to improve the look of my site using no other tool but GOOGLE. If you’d notice, about this time in my posts. You’d see a google box in my posts, or ads wrapping around my texts inside my post. All these I learned from googling certain keywords or phrases. Specifically, I learned how to tweak html codes to do that. To maybe a lot of you this is not a big deal. But to me, at my age, learning new terms as html, backlinking, etc IS A BIG DEAL. Just a week ago, I was as dumb as I could be in the subject matter. Experiencing it first hand, and actually making improvements as I go on, is quite something for an old guy like me.
4. Get ready to be pleasantly surprised. I don’t know how  the dollars came in. I’ts like magic. Jomar was indeed right – may pera nga pala dito. I learned there are 4 ways you can earn from adsense: content, feeds, domain, and searches. You will have to activate all 4 soonest your adsense application gets approved. The 5^th way is thru amazon affiliate marketing, which you will also need to activate soonest you can. I’m sure there are a lot more ways to earn. But up to this point, these were all the things I managed to encounter, hence I’m sharing with you.
5. Write with your heart. The only way you’ll enjoy this is by meaning what you say on your posts. In my case, what you see is what you get. I really want to help Filipinos become financially literate. What I post in my blog, all the words there, come from my heart.

Then another step farther. By this time, I was already receiving comments from readers. I became bolder by asking them to share the link to their friends as well. Specifically, I asked them to post it to their FB walls so other Pinoys can also visit my site.

Then yet another step farther. I asked my staff ( I have a 4-man crew in my day job) to create a gimmick. I asked one staff (Aileen) to post the link to her FB wall. In it she typed”this is a nice site; maraming lessons dito”. Then using another FB account, I asked my other staff (Ariel) to comment on that message by Aileen and then share to his FB wall. Only this time, his comment was “Oo nga ate Aileen! Maganda pala ito. Read nyo, guys”. So it snowballed. Remenber that these new readers are not my FB friends. They are friends of my friends. All I did was apply some sort of a marketing strategy to multiply the effect.

Up to now, I have not posted my link to my own FB wall. To my personal contacts and relatives. I still fear getting ridiculed. As you can see, I even use a pseudonym. Imagine how much more I can increase my viewers if I revealed it to my real contacts. I haven’t even resorted to emailing them one by one yet. Not even a tweet. I’ve been operating only on FB alone. Not even friedster. I have not dared to go farther.

Lessons at this point:

1. Create a gimmick. It worked for me. It should by all means also work for you.
2. Start re-connecting with your long-lost friends. You will need them, believe me.
3. Again, write with your heart. Your heart will show in your posts’ content. Express yourself well.

So now what?

My personal target is to get 1,000 hits for my Creating Wealth Philippines blogsite. Then I’ll be moving on. I have so many things I’m thinking of doing – hubpages, squidoo, hire my VAs, create 5 more blogs of different topics, become a VA myself, build a VA group or open a VA office, etc.

So far, I have started on 2 things – Last Friday, Apr 1, I have submitted my first article (hub) to hubpages. I have also been doing small VA jobs (from odesk and elance) for experience. And I intend to join Jomar’s VA seminar on Apr 5.

And oh, I will not quit my day job (yet). Nor will I give up my MWF basketball time. Nor will I leave my 1,000 readers in the cold. It will be a busy year, I guess.

So there, people. Information is key. Sana may napulot kayo sa post kong ito.

I really really wish our group good luck. As in I pray for our success. Mag-tulungan pa rin po tayo, please.We’ll get there. With Jomar’s help, hopefully, very soon.

May wealth and happiness follow us forever.

-Ron Salvador            


PS
a) For my newest posts and updates on my activities as a blogger, VA, and internet marketer, click here. 
b) For updates on my other website, Creating Wealth Philippines, click here.