Sunday, March 11, 2012

Blog Interview: Vince Golangco, the Man Behind WhenInManila.com

Vince Golangco, a graduate of San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication, a radio DJ at Mellow 94.7, is the man behind WhenInManila.com. Vince is also a freelance columnist and he published his articles in different printing press such as The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star, Playboy Magazine and many more. He is also the organizer of Blogapalooza, the meeting place of bloggers and businessmen.

Start of Blogging Career

“I just like telling stories.”

When Vince came home to Philippines, he wanted to show his friends in San Diego what Philippines look like, so he started blogging and became a storyteller. However, that did not stop him to publish beautiful tales about Philippines just to tell it to his friends, but also, to let the world see more about our country.

Vince had many blogs at first, however, he made When in Manila his priority. The name “When in Manila” comes from the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, thus, the blog shows what should be done when in Philippines.

The Perks of Being a Blogger

“You get invited by the coolest events and you get to meet the coolest people.”

Just a couple of days before the interview with Vince, he was invited in the Malacanang Palace for an exclusive screening of a Filipino-made National Geographic documentary called “Inside Malacanang”. Without a doubt, President Noynoy Aquino was among the viewers and with so much luck, he manage to shake his hand and took some photos with him!

On New Year, the Mellow DJ was celebrating the holiday with the sexy and beautiful model-actress Solenn Heusaff. It’s no ordinary event as he was paid to celebrate with Solenn so that he can write about partying with her!

For his income, Vince is paid 6-7,000 just for a tweet and 10,000-25,000 for a blog post since many people views his blog. For the ad space on his blog, Vince charges $50 a week for a 125x125 spot.

Though there is money in blogging, he believed that the best part of being a blogger is not all about the cash you’re getting, but it is about meeting many people and sharing your stories with them.

Blogapalooza’s Beginning

“Blogapalooza was about inviting good bloggers who can help a business out.”  

Due to WheninManila.com’s popularity, many people inquired him about how to get them promoted on his site, how they can meet new bloggers and tips on what to do on their online social media. And with this Vince and his friends decided to create an event that will make bloggers and businesses meet in one place.

He said that small businesses can’t afford to throw a blogger event due to many expenses (food, venue, lighting system, etc.) and what’s more they don’t know who the bloggers are, they don’t know who to invite. And since Vince know a lot of good bloggers, he started the event.

The benefits of joining Blogapalooza for businessmen are that their products get promoted, and for the bloggers, they had the chance to discover and try cool things. Vince called this as B2B or Business to Blogger networking event.

Regarding the next Blogapalooza, he said that he still don’t know when to organize it as he have a busy schedule with him. But if you wanted to join and get updated for the next event, just go to Blogapalooza page (http://blogapalooza.wheninmanila.com/).

The Key to Success

“You have to write every day. It’s really a commitment.”

Vince said that he read about search engine optimization (SEO), a powerful tool that improves the visibility, or rather, the popularity of your site. He exampled two people having the same blog that talks about gadgets. One of them had good SEO. So, when people search about gadgets, that person’s blog who had good SEO, will be at the first page of Google search while the other will be somewhere in the next pages. Meaning, that blog will get more hits rather than the other one since no one goes to Page 2 in Google.

Links and keywords are very important for SEO. If a blog have lots of links, Google will see that blog as important and will rank it higher. In the case of keywords, a blog should repeat a keyword in an article 3 percent of the time. It also had to be in your title too.

Vince added that content is a key, so one must have a lot of contents. Also, the way one should write must contain SEO-friendly keywords, so that Google will link your blog first since you have what they are looking for.

For earning money, Vince said that there are a lot of ways such as Google Adsense, InfoLinks, Nuffnang, etc. Vince’s favorite is Nuffnang. Compared to Google Ads which has a pay-per-click function by clicking ads, Nuffnang has the pay-per-view function whenever someone sees your blog. To sum up, you just have to be creative.

In terms of criticizing, Vince believed that when they have a bad review, they reserve the right not to write about it. He added that if one is going to review, at least go back the second time and try again.
Vince recommended that a blogger should write about positive things and try not to focus on negative things.

Advice from the Expert

“If it’s not you’re passionate about, don’t write about it.”

Vince encouraged bloggers to write everyday even if it is a short one, as long as you love what you are 
writing.

(Credits go to Stephanie Bas for making our interview with Vince possible!)

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