Blogging and Personal Branding:Getting Your Blog Noticed

Alvin is a marketer by day and a blogger by night

By day: Marketing manager at omy.sg – Singapore’s leading news and entertainment web portal

By night: Blogs at http://alvinology.com, one of the better known blogs in Singapore

Recently married, and was the first Singaporean couple to solemnise marriage in a commercial jet

Ad networks, sponsored advertorials, invites

Utilising ad networks – Google Ad Sense, Nuffnang, Advertlets, etc

~ S$50 to $200/mth for a blog with 2000-5000 visitors a day

Only applicable for blogs with high traffic Limited control over ads served Bulk of revenue goes to the ad networks vs the blogger’s

own pocket Advantage: no effort is required beyond serving the ad

codes on your blog Do not expect to get rich using ad networks

Get assignments via blog networks like omy.sg, Nuffnang, Advertlets

OR do up your own rate card and get assignments on your own

Fee range from gifts in kind to a few thousand dollars

Again, dependent on web traffic/audience

Build up your traffic first – when the world takes notice, ads will come

Join (and win) blog contests, competitions like the Singapore Blog Awards

Practise good SEO habits – keywords tagging, naming convention

Link exchanges, interact with other bloggers

Court controversy – Xiaxue Regularity and consistency

Get namecards, dress well, present yourself well at events

Watch your language on your blog posts, don’t get too emo

Consistent online ID throughout your various web accounts – eg. On facebook, twitter, youtube, etc

Catchy, simple and easy to remember domain name

Social etiquettes Choose a topic to specialise and be

known for it – eg. Travel Blogs, Food Blogs, etceg. http://travelerfolio.com/ and http://www.camemberu.com/

omy.sg, omy Blog Club, talent-spotting bloggers

Strong in blog, lifestyle and entertainment content

Most Popular sections in omy:News, Showbiz – over 1.5 mil page views/mthBlog – over 700,000 page views/mth

Strong in Social Media/ Online Communities

Loyal, established online communities – database of over 3000 bloggers/avid social media users in the omy Blog Club (http://blog.omy.sg/blogclub)

Trail-blazer in various Singapore social media initiatives and events – http://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta

Regular school outreach programs - road shows at secondary and tertiary institutions via Y-Talk: http://yzone.omy.sg/ytalk

• Over 3000 registered bloggers, residing outside of omy.sg• Organise annual Singapore Blog Awards (

http://sgblogawards.omy.sg) to increase membership and sieve out good quality blogs

• Another 150+ invited bloggers residing in omy.sg website – http://blog.omy.sg – known figures like David Gan, Danny Yeo, By2, Billy Koh, Jack Neo, Keith Png

Confidential Singapore Press Holdings

• Wide demographic range available – from 15 to 50 years old; specialising in varied topics from beauty to food to tech gadgets, etc

• omy.sg will recruit bloggers to suit sponsors/advertisers’ needs and vice versa

Recruit bloggers to attend events/review products/join contests Additional editorial exposure about blog event on omy.sg, leveraging on

omy.sg’s traffic to give these blog reviews higher visibility + publicity Organise blog contests, outings http://blog.omy.sg/blogclub

Food Bloggers – 200+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin

Travel Bloggers – 100+

Eg. http://project.omy.sg/royal-caribbean

Beauty Bloggers – 500+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/estee-lauder

Youth Bloggers – 1000+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/fnn

Art/Design Bloggers – 100+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/kitkat

Lifestyle Bloggers - 500+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/invogued

Tech Bloggers – 200+

Eg. http://contest.omy.sg/garmin-asus

PMET Bloggers – 100+

Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/urbanhommeicon

*All figures above are estimates. Bloggers under the above-stated categories may not be niche in those areas.

Singapore Social Media Fiestahttp://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta/Series of social media events in Singapore to promote

Singapore’s social media scene as well as to bring the online community offline

Umbrella platform for advertisers/partners to brand itself strategically in the Singapore social media scene for a full year

Events include:- Singapore Twitter Day (140th Day of the Year) – 1st

year- Singapore Check-In Month (April) – 2nd year - http://project.omy.sg/sg4sqday/ - Social Media Day (June) – 2nd year- http://project.omy.sg/sgsmd/ - Singapore Blog Awards (April to July) – 5th year- http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/

Singapore Blog Awards (Apr – Sep)http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/

http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2008

http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2009

http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2010

http://blog.omy.sg/sgblogawards

First launched in 2008, the prestigious Singapore Blog Awards is an annual award organised by omy.sg to give recognition to outstanding blogs, both in Singapore and from other countries. The award accepts bilingual entries in English and Mandarin and is the first of its kind in the region to reward independent web content producers.

Over 1000 bloggers register for the awards each year with an average of over 70,000 votes cast.

Y-Bloggist Blog Contest (Jan – Apr)http://contest.omy.sg/ybloggistpopstar/

Organised by omy.sg’s Yzone, the youth section of omy.sg, the Y-Bloggist is an unique and challenging blog contest where contestants compete with each other over three months in multiple challenges, including making vodcasts and podcasts. The contest is targeted at schooling youths and is a lead-in to the Singapore Blog Awards.

Good writing; subjects expertise Visually exciting content – photos, videos,

graphics Regularly Updated Permalink! Good site navigation and organisation Responsible and responsive Image must suits advertiser/brands Not media shy, articulate on camera, during

interviews

Jack Neo’s Affair Scandal

On 6 March 2010, a two-year-long extramarital affair between Jack Neo and freelance model Wendy Chong broke on evening Chinese newspaper, Lianhe Wanbao and Neo admitted to the affair.

Sensing that this news will shake Singapore, the omy.sg editorial team held an urgent meeting right after the news broke in the evening of 6 March and conceptualised an online news strategy to cover the event with liberal use of social media.

http://project.omy.sg/jack-neo/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN9QqTh9hhw http://twitter.com/omysingapore

A quick decision was made to create a dedicated microsite to host the content for all news related to the scandal.

The microsite, http://project.omy.sg/jack-neo will track the breaking news coverage of Neo’s extra-marital affair scandal as the news unfolded day by day.

The website features LIVE twitter feeds (on the keyword “jackneo”), aggregation of blog content and the latest news updates from the various SPH Chinese newspapers and omy.sg.

Production started immediately on 6 March 2010 and the mircrosite was launched on 10 March 2010, just 4 days after the scandal hit the news.

It was an instant hit with netizens, amassing more than 90,000 page views to date (Nielsen Netratings, Jan 2011).

At the same time, omy.sg also began seeding Jack Neo stories to its facebook (http://facebook.com/omy.sg) and twitter (http://twitter.com/omysingapore) accounts.

Hash Tags and AggregatorsEg. http://project.omy.sg/royal-caribbeanhttp://project.omy.sg/hongkonghttp://project.omy.sg/jackneo

On 9 March 2010, additional reports were released about Neo having or attempting extramarital affairs with up to 11 women.

On 11 March, Neo and his wife, Irene Kng held a five-minute press conference, in which Neo admitted his mistake and asked the media to let him off.

omy.sg sent two camera teams down to record the press conference. A decision was made to release the video immediately onto youtube (usual policy was to hold video for one week on omy.sg before releasing to youtube for sharing), in view of the competition from many other local media zooming in on the story - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN9QqTh9hhw.

press conference video became the most viewed video on the scandal to date. On 12 March, Neo made a formal apology on his blog, which incidentally rests on

omy.sg – http://blog.omy.sg/jackneo, further driving traffic to omy.sg. Asian Digital Media Awards 2010: Best in Social Media Award (Bronze) -

Innovative Use of Social Media

Blog: http://alvinology.com / http://blog.omy.sg/alvinology

Facebook: http://facebook.com/alvinology / http://facebook.com/alvinologist

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/alvinologyEmail: alvinologist@gmail.com / limlh@sph.com.sg

Twitter: http://twitter.com/alvinologist

Confidential Singapore Press Holdings

Thank you!Thank you!