I have lately spent quite some time over at Performancing.com. Pcom lately has become a valuable resource for the professional orientated blogger, with regularly awesome articles being published.
Actually articles I really digg. I like participating to the discussion at Pcom, because no matter how few are bloggers are active in the comments , there are some pretty smart people present in the Pcom community.
Today Phillip Kimpo Jr.’s Problogger: Hate or Love The Title brought me to an interesting piece of insight by fellow JOAB blogger J.Angelo Racoma at The Blog Herald. While reading Angelo’s Perils of Problogging, I had to chuckle at one moment.
In fact, I myself sometimes find it difficult to explain to people that I make a living mostly out of blogs and other online activities. From where I come from, blogging for a living has yet to be recognized as a viable career or source of income. There is a prevailing culture where corporate work is preferred over entrepreneurial exploits.
[emphasis mine]
Why chuckle?
Angelo lives in the Philippines. And in last months, as one of the more prominent bloggers at The Blog Herald, he certainly has made his name also in our Western part of the blogosphere.
Somehow I were left in the imagination that a problogger in poorer (no offense meant) countries such as Angelo’s lived on a certain summit having successfully tackled the path to a career as independent [online] publisher.
Many of my friends regularly travel to the Philippines (and Thailand) - stop those perv thoughts, they all are married already- and most of time when they tell me about their trip I am curious about the tech level in those countries. And with tech level I do mean how far is IT spread among Joe and Jeanne Average.
The answer to us, Western IT freaks of course is no surprise : pretty low. Hence why I thought that being a problogger in one of those countries a special status was.
But of course it gets funnier. I live in the UK and even here Problogger has no or very little status. I work at one of the major credit card companies, in the IT sector and am daily surrounded by über-geeks. But only a minority of them has a blog. Actually most ITers I work with are knowledge sponges/absorbents, but hardly blog focused. Many of them daily read ZDNet, CNet and many other tech pages, probably even without being aware of the high number of blogs they read, but most of their time is spent in tech communities.
Blogs? Nah, blogging is for SAHMs. At least that is the public thought. I have never gone that far to analyze our dept.’s server logs and check if someone maintains a hidden blog. I am sure there must be some rants about me out there but I digress.
Not that long ago, when I announced my retirement from corporate life, the big question was ‘What are you going to do after this?’.
I beg your pardon? I actually had expected that everyone knew what my next jump would be : blogging. Problogging.
Probably combined with some SEO and design jobs. Online Consulting as well.
Everyone knows what a blognerd I am.
But the unbelievers were out there. Since that day, my colleagues (team members) have been trying to convince me to stay in corporate and certainly not jump into an unsustainable life. And that although they all know that I reside online already since more than 10 years, have built several popular Windows communities in the past and have a quite in-depth SEO background.
Angelo,
welcome to the world I come from. The world where problogging also is seen as a fluke. Even in IT.
Unless among fellow (pro)bloggers.
And we don’t know any roots other than /dev/ ;-)
1 thought being smart ↓
1 jangelo // Apr 24, 2007 at 7:23 am// View all comments by jangelo //
Hmm, I guess it’s the same wherever we are. It’s a new profession/calling/business/entrepreneurial exploit, after all. I won’t expect just anyone to understand. At least those people who are in the know are in awe whenever they get to meet someone who really makes a good living out of the Intarwebs.
I cannot survive in a corporate environment. I could never come to work early, and I often find myself either surfing, blogging or fiddling with the gadgets/computers at the office rather than doing what others would call real work.
Anyway, I consider myself lucky. A good majority of people here really live in deep poverty. But there are also those who are neck-deep in money, power and other resources. Sometimes I wonder about the disparity. They live like kings and queens, while their countrymen live in the streets without any money for food, shelter, or other very basic necessities.
Anyway, no perv thoughts here! :P