Wazzup Pilipinas!
From a personal blog into a community blog, Wazzup Pilipinas or WazzupPilipinas.com has evolved into one of the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2013 delivering highly engaging articles that are sensationally making waves and followed by a lot of people in search of updated news and information about the Philippines.
Wazzup Pilipinas has become one of the most sought after blogs being invited to partner with events, brand and product promotions, advocacy awareness, and several other online movements and activities.
We would like to believe that Wazzup Pilipinas has truly achieved a significant and commendable accomplishment that deserves praise and recognition, or at least a tap on the back and a "Keep up the good work!" congratulatory remark.
For all those interested in knowing more about Wazzup Pilipinas, we now share with you a brief history of our origins and what we stand for.
Partly responsible to why I am blogging right now is the influence of Miss Janette Toral, the organizer of the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2013 and founder of DigitalFilipino.com. It was during the first Digital Influencers Marketing Summit last 2012, through the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs Writing Project, when I began to take a great interest in blogging.
My list was composed mostly of bloggers from outside of the Philippines. Being a newbie in blogging, I did not know or follow any new Filipino blogger or blogs. The only blog that I regularly follow back then was the Professional Heckler who was also one of the reasons why I made my very first blog: Be Kind to Us Trolls (http://bekindtoustrolls.wordpress.com) which I later changed the name to "Be Proud of Us Pinoys", but still with the same URL, after Miss Janette Toral commented that she got scared of the admission that I was an online troll (joke). I tried to change the image of the blog into something that promotes positive vibes instead but I never had the chance to work on it when I became busy with something else.
"Be Kind To Us Trolls" was a personal blog that deals mostly with political satire and personal rants. There were plenty of articles there where I make fun of politicians, showbiz personalities, and other individuals involved in current issues. I would many times create images of individuals with big heads. I was painstakingly trying to be funny most of the time but I couldn't help being serious. It was the blog that I joined in the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs Writing Project.
The Professional Heckler was not a new blog and has already received plenty of awards and recognition already so I couldn't vote for it as an emerging influential blog. What I did was to try to search for new blogs by Googling, and also considered the provided list at the Digital Influencers' site containing blogs who wanted to be considered as one of the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2013.
Amazingly, after some time when I learned how to use PR checker, I found out that "Be Kind To Us Trolls" was already at a PR2 ranking even after just a few months. That was because I was so fond of sharing my point of views online. I was very opinionated and so passionate to get involved in current issues. I got into the blogging habit only because I was commenting too much on Facebook that somebody suggested I create a blog instead. I was also fond of creating satirical images (mostly politicians with big heads). Thus my "Be Kind to Us Trolls" blog was born. I abandoned this blog when I got so busy at work, and couldn't regularly upload articles on it. I couldn't sustain the momentum anymore.
The requirement of the Writing Project was to make a list composed of 10 emerging influential blogs. It was a list to vote for newly created blogs that I find influential - not bloggers, to be specific, because I later found out that majority of the participants have been blogging for some time and already has several blogs under their name. Some of them were even SEO and social media experts. It was only their blogs that were newly created but the majority of the bloggers who joined have been around for ages.
After I found out about that fact, I knew immediately that I have no chance of winning since many of the bloggers were already very popular, famous and widely known by the blogging community. Most of them were members of many blogging groups. A lot of these groups are in Facebook and many of them see each other in product launches, social media events, and other events specifically designed for bloggers.
As expected, I never made it to the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2012 mainly because nobody knows me at all.
I was only blogging for myself and was not yet attending events except as a contributor for a community blog as one of their writers. I was not really attending events back then but was only intent on just submitting IT-related articles for the community blog. My very first article at the site about the very first Social Good Summit organized by Maria Ressa's Rappler got more than 100 Likes on its first day of posting. I was so happy about it that I blogged about that incident on my own blog (http://bekindtoustrolls.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/the-social-good-summit-2012-inspired-my-first-wim-article/).
But the tech-related event invites at the community blog were very rare. This is what prompted me to try non-tech-related event invites. I attended lifestyle event invites from PRs just out of curiosity (I was too bored doing nothing and waiting for a tech event), it was the start of something definitely fun for me.
Armed with just an ordinary point-and-shoot digital camera and my eagerness and enthusiasm, I started attending events and met fellow bloggers. Some of them I meet very frequently in different events. I later found out that they are professional or full-time bloggers. It was a plus for me to gain new friends or acquaintances as I see them as a happy bunch of individuals enjoying every second of their stay at events.
I eventually became more of an events blogger because it was an awesome privilege of being invited to be among the first to learn and experience new stuff like the opening of a new store, the introduction of a new brand, product, or service and other neat stuff and cool activities. I was into blogging because it was fun. I was into blogging because I was given the ability to share my experience while learning at the same time.
In particular, I was enjoying events that gather a group of bloggers exclusive in one occasion. They call this a "Bloggers' Event" or sometimes a "BlogCon" or "Bloggers' Conference". I appreciated it more because I get to meet a lot of interesting individuals.
After less than three months with the community blog, they promoted me to a senior writer position where I can now freely publish my articles anytime and as much as I want. Before, a managing editor had to check my articles first before she publishes it. Now, I was so enthusiastic that I was actually coming out with articles almost every week, sometimes more than just one article at a time.
Now I've eventually realized that I can make things happen with my blogging. I can talk my way into setting up a bloggers event with the promise of being featured in the blog. I can avail of special perks, privileges, and freebies because of my blogging, as well as meet popular and interesting people up close and personal. There was so much I can do being a blogger that I was enjoying every second of the experience. I was having the time of my life.
There came a time that I was able to organize a lot of "bloggers events" and started inviting fellow bloggers. The "bloggers events" were plentiful that I was uploading articles almost everyday. To avoid the monotony or hugging the limelight at the community blog (since I'm seeing a great deal of my articles), I started requesting fellow bloggers to represent and write for the community blog for the events that I organized. So instead of me writing for the community blog, I let other bloggers (who were also members of the same community blog) to get the privilege of writing about the event.
Lately, I've realized that blogging is not just a means to have fun. It can be simultaneously used as a medium to get some perks and freebies. There are many possible ways to get rewards and/or complimentary gifts or tokens... and its all up to how hardworking, resourceful, aggressive and creative you are.
But earning was not my priority or concern. I wanted to do more than just gain from the benefits. Of course, it was nice receiving complimentary gifts or tokens but my main objective was to learn from the events.
I then decided to create Wazzup Pilipinas (which was still only a free blogspot domain when it started - (http://wazzuppilipinas.blogspot.com) sometime October 2012. It started only as an events or more appropriately an "events announcement blog". It only contained announcements of events and was just used to further promote my articles written in the community blog. I usually do my best version of a write-up on the community blog.
Thinking that I could do a lot better without the restrictions of being tied up with a community blog that was burdened with political and management issues, I decided to part ways from the community blog. Since I owe a lot to them, I made the process slow by just deliberately stopping posting articles for them. It was easy and I had a good excuse because we were in the process of transfering to a new home with no Internet connection yet. Aside from that, I couldn't really post articles because I had no way of uploading them, and was too broke to rent at a computer shop on a per hour basis. We bought a lot of stuff for the new house like new sofa set, beds, etc.
I eventually left the community blog and created my own which we called "Jeepney Manila" (http://www.jeepneymanilaph.wordress.com). We tried to open it to other bloggers and contributors to become a portal for all members who want to be recognized as a community. Our motivation was the realization that "There is strength in numbers!".
I was devastated when the community blog removed my name from the authorship of the articles I've written for them. I was further insulted when they also did the same to fellow bloggers who are no longer connected with them. Rumors spread that they were doing a witch hunt and was removing bloggers that were close to me.
One of their writers even tried to set us up for a surprise meeting just to see if he can patch up the issues among us. But the editor and owner of the community blog got angry with the writer and refused to reconcile with both of us. That writer was also removed from the community blog as well as his authorship to his articles. This writer earlier reported to me that the editor and community blog owner tried to persuade him to stay away from me.
Another writer, who was also close to me, reported that he received an e-mail from the Managing Editor telling him he is also being removed from the community blog which gave a reasoning that they were removing newbie writers so that they can effectively manage their team. He was so sure that he was being removed because he was often collaborating with me in bloggers events, and also because he found out that he was the only newbie writer that was removed based from reports of fellow writers that were still with the community blog. Other writers also refused to join our bloggers events giving reasons that they are afraid of being seen with our group.
We tried to communicate with the community blog and demanded that they return our names on our articles. Do you know what they did? They totally removed our articles from the community blog. The nerve!
Back to my story, I've realized that maintaining a blog is very difficult. It needs to be sustained by exerting great efforts. This is why I opened it up for contributors by turning it into a community blog where everyone can submit articles and be recognized as a contributor with full credit to their works. The contributors can also use it to promote their own blogs by just using Jeepney Manila as a jump point containing a preview of their write-up with a link pointing to their full articles.
I also bought the domain name http://www.jeepneymanila.com but I still do not have a hosting since I couldn't afford it. I also converted Wazzup Pilipinas into a dot com (http://www.wazzuppilipinas.com) to make it a more professional personal blog sometime last March 2013 when I got an offer for a free domain and hosting. I have so many great plans for Jeepney Manila and Wazzup Pilipinas but it was such a toll on me to maintain these blogs. FYI, I also had a tech blog (http://pinoytekkie.blogspot.com) dedicated for all things techie (which is also less active now).
I created a Facebook group called Wazzup Pilipinas - https://www.facebook.com/groups/wazzuppilipinas/ (due to a lack of name to call the group) which eventually grew into a community composed of more than 300 blogger members.
When I realized that Wazzup Pilipinas was gaining more attention and views, and when I couldn't really manage three blogs all at the same time (and since I called the Facebook bloggers group Wazzup Pilipinas) I decided to turn the Wazzup Pilipinas blog into the community blog instead. I gave up Jeepney Manila and turned it over to my wife (who was also too busy to upload articles, so she rarely post articles there). In short, I concentrated on Wazzup Pilipinas and said goodbye to Jeepney Manila.
I also wanted to contribute to our country so I partnered with the Department of Tourism (DOT) and other government agencies like the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), and even Malacanang, to help in the proliferation of news and programs of the government. I believe that the efforts and accomplishments of the government is less appreciated because they are never highlighted. Only the bad news are being sensationalized.
I wanted to help our government to let the people know of the hard work and positive movements they are contributing for nation-building. The people need to know that the government is doing its best despite the negativeness and corruption surrounding a few misguided government elements. This service is open to other government agencies and may extend to other organizations and movements. It will be my advocacy to help our country because I believe that a great global image and perception will eventually bring our country its rightful recognition.
We now cooperate with the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) of DOT in helping disseminate DOT efforts and events partnerships by being invited in DOT-partnered events and blogging about it afterwards. Wazzup Pilipinas is now the TPB's proud online media partner and DOT Ambassadors of Fun where we help disseminate official press releases.
For DOTC, we are the only blogging group partnered with them of which they called us the DOTCOMS (DOTC Onlime Media Specialists). The partnership with DOTC came almost at the same time with the DOT Partnership. We also help in sharing their press releases.
I have great plans for the blog and I believe it would not reach it status without the help of the people who have supported me in my endeavors. I owe it all to the ones who stayed with me despite the overwhelming hardships, shortcomings and negativity that has plagued Wazzup Pilipinas due to controversial issues that were meant to bring us down.
This is just a partial story of Wazzup Pilipinas. There are more fascinating details and experiences worth sharing but this blog may turn into a novel if I tell the whole story...hehehe. What? You want to turn it into a life story movie? TV drama, perhaps. Lol!
I know this is just the start of more huge things to come for Wazzup Pilipinas. We are proud to say that we are ready for it, and promise to give you the best partnership!
We are Wazzup Pilipinas!
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