So far, so good

What for should I ask more

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

How my blogging has paid off… somewhat

As the great birthday tradition goes:

Your greeting is good, but I need cash.

For many people, this is true for blogging as well, but with a twist, depending especially on what is one’s motive for keeping a weblog. Yeap, comments do feed the ego and often prompts the flow of creative juices and that floats the boat of many a blogger. But for the more enterprising ones, their pages are ad-riddled in order to rake in more that random praises and kudos.

While I revel in the fact that the number of hits I get nowadays often exceed the number of fingers in my two hands combined, I’m still hoping to make my blog a tool for augmenting my meager teacher’s income. But for the last half year, my AdSense dollars have been pegged at the staggering amount of $1.62! Whoo-pee indeed! I have surfed many sites which dispense sound advise on how to “monetize” one’s blog but…

Anyway, blogging did pay me off, somewhat.

Last March, I wrote about Federer’s loss in the hands of Guillermo Canas. It was an amateurish take on the world of tennis, a realm I have come to love and be very familiar with while never having stepped on a court. Anyway, the post somehow caught the eye of a Tennis Channel staff. He emailed me if I wanted to write about the then-upcoming French Open and at the same time place an ad in my site. In exchange for the ad placement, he offered to send a goody bag of Tennis Channel. I did blog about French Open 2007 and placed a Tennis Channel link in my blog (for which I had to ignore the voice in my head screaming SELLOUT! after I deviated from my support-Philippine-causes theme). And when the Tennis Channel staff verified the post and ad’s placement, he was mighty pleased and asked for my contact details so he could send the goods over.

May passed. Then June. Then July. Enter August.

I actually forgot about this deal I entered. Until I received a notice from our friendly neighborhood post office this first week of August asking me to pick up a parcel.

My Tennis Channel goodies finally arrived! The package they came in was post-marked June 21, 2007, well within the usual 6-to-8-week delivery time of goodies from the US. I can’t help but wonder then where it was the whole time. But in any case, I now have my wristwatch, wristband, sunvisor, mousepad, and shirt to enjoy =]

Blogging DOES pay off. Oh joy!

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh Tennis! This passion for the sport we both share..
And I'm so envious about your Tennis goodies.. way to go, Doc!

:)

Danikook@Multiply

Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:44:00 PM  
Blogger ian said...

i remembered you while i was putting this together. you deserve it more than i, an armchair tennis enthusiast hahahaha but you're still cooped in multiply! you're missing out on the goodies blogging elsewhere brings =] with the pace you're posting (with which i can't cope with!), you ought to use blogger or WP already! =] anyway, the rogers masters is up- any bets to get the tourney cup? =]

Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:02:00 AM  
Blogger Jap said...

wow, good job! =) the only tennis i play is the Sony Ericson Pro Tennis java game hehehe

did you know that there's a tour here in Qatar every January and people can watch international tennis in live action for free!? only I didn't watch it cause I'm not a big tennis fan, but I did enjoy Match Point lol =)

Thursday, August 09, 2007 11:04:00 PM  
Blogger ian said...

jap: while i really do love WATCHING tennis, i am really tennis-challenged, even that mobile phone game, i can't crack! harharhar it would be super if i can watch even one WTA or ATP tour match wherever that maybe... but a Grand Slam final in Wimbledon or Paris would be the ultimate...

Friday, August 10, 2007 5:03:00 AM  
Blogger atto aryo said...

Sige! Mang-inggit ka! He he. Galing naman. Me, I don't even know how to post those ads. I also cannot make a sports commentary as brilliantly as you could. Ano na lang ang pag-asa kong kumita sa blogging? Sigh*

Friday, August 10, 2007 9:12:00 AM  
Blogger ian said...

aryo: i can't even call it "commentary"- more of tongue-in-cheek, distilling-yahoo-news-sports-releases-and-somehow-transform-it-into-my-own-kind of entries yun =]

naswertehan lang na a staff wandered into my blog. who knows- if you blog something talaga with a passion, you might get "discovered" as well =]

Friday, August 10, 2007 9:41:00 AM  
Blogger INKBLOTS said...

this is cool, doc!
I have yet to feel how it feels to receive tokens like that!

Keep up and God Bless your trip!

Saturday, August 11, 2007 12:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You might want to meet other bloggers and "get connected". Bloggers are the New Media now and PR people are lining up for the precious blogspace, just like what you did on the French Open.

There is a coming meetup on Aug 23 at Mall of Asia and I am sure you can get a lot out of that (aside from the free food, goodie bags and raffle prizes. (Am not sure I can make it since we have our regular prayer meetings every Thursday)It's definitely a good way of "making more". And the traffic you'll generate from the "link love" later will be worth it.

Get to meet and visit the blogs of Blog Network bloggers and maybe even write for them. I hear they pay good money.

Sunday, August 12, 2007 2:12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dude check out the tennis channel's website during the US Open for player blogs and expert analysis. They also have this March Madness like bracket you can join called Racquet Bracket.

Thursday, August 16, 2007 2:55:00 AM  
Blogger ian said...

jun: thanks for the heads up! i am currently out of the country so i'm afraid i can't join the event. hope to join the succeeding events though!

furious forehand: thanks for the reminder! i almost forgot it was the hardcourt season already. i am out of the country and internet access is a bit challenging but i will make sure to visit that site you mentioned =]

Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:14:00 PM  

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