How A Blogger Really Earns

I'll be honest. The selling point of the whole course for me was the fact that the title said "make money". Really. Module 3 of the program is "Make money from Blogging and Social Media as a Service Provider". Another admission is that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, meaning I totally didn't understand what the second half of the course title meant; just that you could make money. Needless to say, I was well educated about the course's purpose and requirements in the first meeting alone so all I could do was dumbly stare at my computer screen after the first lesson with not enough time to process what I signed up for.

I've always been a fan of Digital Filipino's advocacy of spreading and legitimizing E-Commerce in the Philippines, and giving Filipinos a chance to earn and be acknowledged as professionals in the virtual marketing space. And now that the odds were for me, I jumped at the opportunity to finally enroll in one of their classes.

Despite my previous admission, I really did enjoy the course; the thrill of it, not expecting the project to be as challenging as it had been, and the fact that I was able to pull it off with a happy client was a huge plus.

There will be a separate post on my project's case study and how I went about it. This blogpost, instead, will be the summary of the tips and services I've learned while taking the course, their benefits, and a few personal notes. Again, if you want the full thing and even more details, I highly recommend you to enroll as you'll be getting more that way if you do.

HOW A BLOGGER REALLY EARNS

Google AdSense
I automatically added that up on top of the list as I personally have experience the power of AdSense. Google AdSense basically serves ads related to your niche, using the keywords and links in your blog to determine the right kind of advertisements that would benefit you and the advertisers. You earn a few cents (currency is in dollars) every time a reader clicks on the ads. The more traffic you get, the more likely it is that a reader will click on the ad.

Direct Ads
Let's say you are a fashion blogger and have an ad space on the right column of your blog. Brand X wants to advertise their spring collection on your blog so they pay you, depending on your rate and site traffic, an amount every month to keep their banner on the ad space on your blog.

Despite being more difficult, it's these ads that earn you a solid stream of cash as the advertisers themselves make a deal with you and no longer need any third-party to take their share of the profit. Direct Ads basically refer to ads advertisers pay you directly for.

Paid Reviews
Bloggers are brand promoters. Whether thy're a brand's "brand ambassador" or not, if they love a product, they will blog about it, they will tell all their friends and family about it, and, most importantly, they will tell their following about it. The same rules apply if a blogger hates a brand (so don't get into their bad side!). Some brands like going the extra mile and pay bloggers, either with cash or irresistible deals, to avail of their service/product and to blog about them given a few details.

This method doesn't necessarily sustain as you, being a quality blogger, will have to choose which brands you are willing to work with as it is your name on the line if you just take jobs willy-nilly. On top of that, you sill have to keep your blog in trend and updated with unpaid content to keep the sense of trust your following has on you and to keep your credibility (nobody wants to read a bunch of ads).

Affiliate Programs
Or commissions, if you want to go down to it. You basically put a brand's product on sale on your site and if your readers clicks on that link and purchase the product, the blog's owner gets a share of the profit. Other variations of that mechanic exists for many other affiliate programs but that's basically the gist of it.

Direct Selling
Obviously. (you sell something you have in your inventory though your blog)

Consultation and Blogging Projects
This one definitely takes time. It requires you to have a reputation, a sense of credibility to your name, for clients to call for your expertise on helping them run their projects. You can begin as a Virtual Assistant, learning the ropes by standing as the brand by commenting on other related blogs that might leverage the product being promoted, by posting in relevant forums, and creating and managing their social media accounts.

A few helpful guidelines in creating a blog is to take note of its blog name and domain name, description, target audience, and definite keywords for all these factors will lead to the eventual boost of the brand through search engine algorithms.

I personally hadn't thought of any of this when I first started blogging, leaning heavily on the "personal blog" route. Although this one still is, I've realized that my personal musing relate a lot to either of these three topics: art, business, and technology; so I leveraged that and tailored my blog to show that kind of content and not once did I think to "start over" as I hated the fact that I'd lose the following I already built if I did.

Creating Blog Campaigns for Awareness and Engagement
This one probably needs just as much work as the last one PLUS having your very own extensive blog network. Or at least having a friend that does. Contacting this network of influencers gives you more value as its coordinator and brands will recognize that. They will ask you to have their product tested, reviewed, or even give away prizes for the bloggers in your network. In exchange, these bloggers are expected to write about them and spread awareness about them in their networks; your job is to make sure they deliver.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS FOR A BLOGGER

If you're aiming to be a professional blogger, or at least an established one with a network, it helps to have a tangible, or in this case: numeric, goal to base your success on. Here are some metrics I personally found important as I handled campaigns on, before, and during the course.

Sessions
Or Page Views, tell you how many pages a reader visits and how long they stay until they lose interest in your blog. The shorter the session might mean that your landing page is off-putting, or that the content you have simply isn't connecting with the reader, or some other reason.

Subscribers
Obviously if your subscriber number is high, it only proves that the content you are posting is of value to your target market and that they are interested enough to see what content you generate in the future.

Engagement
It can mean the frequency your readers comment, share, or like your posts. How many of them ask relevant questions on your topic and how fast and sincere you are in responding to them. A blog with a healthy number of engagement

Links
More specifically Referral Links, are links from different websites that redirect back to your blog/site. The more referrals you get not only increases your audience and credibility but also tells you which type of content would prove most beneficial to your audience and what type of people you are reaching.

There are many more points in the course proper and they'll be discussed in detail either by the provided reference material or by simply talking to the instructor about it. The best part for me is that not only do you get to explore these points theoretically but are eventually able to apply them during your final project. You'll be made to interact with bloggers and other social media entrepreneurs, and brands that want to work with you.

It's a good opportunity to hone your skill, with curated content designed to help you improve, learning to become a CBSME won't be too hard. In closing, a blogger earns money according to their diligence and persistence to broaden their network and reach. The larger their network and influence, the more opportunity to earn will be brought to them. Engage with readers and serve updated, quality, and curated content. That is how a real blogger earns.

An Adventure Through Kingdoms And Realms

I'm a techie. Sure. Always have and always will be. But I also do art; most of the time my work forces me to marry the strangely different yet undoubtedly inseparable concepts, which is both strange and thrilling for me as a practitioner of both principles.

Needless to say it is that fascination with creativity and technology that lead me to pursue the dreams I have to day and it is also the very reason I am where I am in the first place. Along with that fascination, the interest in business and finance came to me in a rush. With my involvement in the startup community, it was inevitable that I came up with the craziest ideas, surrounded by some of the country's craziest people _{(I mean that in the best ways)}.

So, here I am, with a co-worker and her boyfriend running a crafts startup together. I know. I didn't expect it either. I mean, who would have thought I was the one that was the third wheel all this time I'm just kidding, I love you guys and I totally ship you with each other.

In all seriousness though, the fact that I am helping run a business at this time, with these people, and in this industry is still a pleasant surprise for me and was completely unexpected. I am enjoying the whole process, mind you, and wouldn't trade these experiences and relationships for the world but WOW a crafts startup, who would've thought!

Anyways, with that said, I bet you're wondering what this "crafts startup" really is. Well, to put it simply, it's suw(h)at.

We sell handmade notebooks, to put it frankly. At the moment, the brand is catering to the needs of individuals that would like to express themselves better through the different pop culture trends they relate the most with. Every month is a new theme for the brand. For instance, this month is Game of Thrones. Promos and discounts come and go that relate to this theme. Next month will be a different set of designs and so on and so forth.

As the brand developed, we continued to notice a peculiar thing from our customers. An observation that will be shared in a future post from me that will also tackle the many other lessons I have come across working as the brand's marketing and public relations lead.

Everything is handmade from the binding to the covers. At the moment we're only doing Cebu City meetups as the whole process is still fairly new to us and we wanted to get the basics down pat before we reach out to our national market. Considering it's been around three weeks of operation still, and we're all beginners, I think the decision was called for. We're not staying this way for long though as we have big plans in the upcoming months.

Other than the fandom-based notebooks, we're looking to further specifying our main product to those found in the first photo. But that explanation and big reveal can come with that future post I was talking about earlier.

We've been doing good so far but we'll never know what next month holds, or the next, and the next, and the month after that; you get my drift. All that to say though is that after all the businesses I thought I'd be helping run this whole time, a crafts startup wasn't even on my list. But here I am and here we are. Life really is an adventure through kingdoms and realms and I am loving every step of it.

Branding: TAFIAS' World Famous Tilapia Chips

The Talisay Fishermen's Association, or more popularly known as TAFIAS, was your average small countryside fishermen's group whose working members, the fishermen themselves, earned just enough and sometimes even less than they should from fishing. An average Filipino fisherman has a wife and at least three kids with income that varies depending on a number of uncontrollable factors such as the season and weather.

Most of the TAFIAS fishermen's children are well taken care of at school and at a day care by ANDAKidz, a local non-profit organization. That leaves the women of the family with their day jobs: producing and packaging food products created with locally made raw materials such as Taro Ice Cream, Taro Polvoron and Tilapia Chips, which I thought were really good considering. Much like other "locally made food products" here in Bohol, their products were poorly made with the typical unattractive bag of plastic and stamped-on labels and no quality control whatsoever.

In a bout to reinvent themselves, TAFIAS partnered with ANDAKidz to give new life to their products, to improve their identity and, in turn, generate more income for their families.

photo © Robin

Robin Gurney, founder of ANDAKidz, invited Velvet Design's Senoir Creative Designer, Janno Siimar, who came all the way from Estonia, to Talisay, Anda to help with this ambitious three-month project. The pair wrestled with logistics, different mindsets and excruciating Philippine legalities to make the whole thing work.

"In Estonia, when you say we "have no money", it usually means you can scrape up a few thousands within the next week. Here, when they said they "had no money" they literally meant zero. Nothing. It was quite a shock." -Janno Siimar

photo © TAFIAS website

LOGO

One of the first things they tried was to pimp up the old TAFIAS logo. It's unrecognizable and unmemorable. It looks much like all the other traditional institutions in the province and for an organization looking to stand out, the old logo just didn't do the job. TAFIAS' mascot, the Tipalia fish, was the type of fish farmed and caught by the fishermen in the area. Upon further research, they discovered that the Tilapia, or more internationally known as "St. Peter's Fish" was so much more than a local fish. It is mentioned in the Bible as being one of the few types of fishes caught in the Sea of Galilee in biblical times, one of which was caught by St. Peter himself "with a coin in its mouth" and is a completely versatile fish that can live in both fresh and saltwater.

These traits reminded Janno of the people of Talisay; of their drive to improve themselves and to adapt to the situation presented to them. The Tialpia's significance to the organization was made clear then.

Janno talks about designing the packaging

Given the time the organizations were to work on the project, they decided to focus and study only one of TAFIAS' many products: the Tilapia Chips.

Previously, the chips' selling price was so close to it's production price that there was virtually no profit left to generate significant revenue; so naturally, Robin and Janno decided to sell the product at a much higher price after the new recipe and packaging was implemented.

Their story is much like a startup where many of their decisions revolved around gut feelings and hunches. A defining moment for them that validated all their work and decisions was from the arrival of a Filipino volunteer group a day after the first batch of chips were packed and ready to sell. The group was presented with both the old and the new product and packaging. Surprisingly, and despite the majority of them moaning about the more expensive price, seventy or so of the new packs and only fifteen of the cheaper old packs were sold. That study spoke volumes about their product.

NAME and SLOGAN

The names "Fishies" or "Tafies" paired with a cartoon for the product mascot automatically popped into Robin's mind during initial planning but that wouldn't make them any different than the other food producers in the market so the idea was scrapped. Janno, being as practical as he could be, proposed to the group to call the chips as they were. Chips.

His reason was that the product is itself was already so unique and peculiar, them not being the typical potato chip, that calling them anything just as unique or peculiar will only confuse the customer, a thought that I agreed with wholeheartedly. Them being "world famous", on the other hand, was in one way or another true as many international supporters of both organizations and even a few locals and many OFWs had bought their fair share of the chips and brought their purchases with them to their individual countries. So indeed, the product is traveling but not yet as renowned as brands like Coca-Cola or KitKat.

Their slogan "Give a man a fish..." is personally one of my favorites. Everyone has heard the saying:

"Give a man a fish and you can feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime."

Take that thought and mix it with TAFIA's story, then you have their current slogan which I really liked. The slogan is both an emotional reference, as proven above, and a call to action. When you buy a pack of Tilapia Chips and give them to someone as a gift or souvenir, guess what you're doing? Giving a man a fish!

Robin talks about the effect of the project to the locals

COMMUNITY

Due to the improved quality standard developed for the product, the fishermen's wives who produce and pack the products also found a new sense of purpose. "If the product isn't good enough, it does not go into the bag.", Robin says to them and true enough, these women have practiced this discipline religiously throughout the production process. They found a renewed sense of pride whilst making this product. They consider it's production their responsibility and has now become the world to them. This new principle has improved their mindset on things, has taught them about capital and revenue, even a little bit of marketing; engraving into this small family of fishermen the seed of entrepreneurship which is a pretty awesome thing to do, in my opinion.

PRODUCTION

The best thing about this product, I have to say that everything from the raw materials to the packaging prints is made in Bohol. Money used to produce these premium chips circulate first in Anda then to Gindulman then to Tagbilaran. They could easily have had the packaging printed in Manila or China for a cheaper price but they chose to have it all in Bohol, to support the local industries which I thought was really cool. The organization dreams to use Taro, their specialty root crop, to use and process it as the chip's flour in the near future as the Taro plantation they have today just can't keep up with demand.

At the moment, they only have so much to go by when food production is concerned. They have a small but clean make-shift production area that they set up pretty well but they won't be able to scale if sales don't improve. The printing press where they get the packaging printed cuts the molds they provide but it is the ladies themselves that fold and glue them together. They produce around two hundred bags a day.

TAFIAS currently only sells the chips in their Talisay branch but are open to visitors and wholesalers. You can stop by and bring your own favorite ingredient, let's say a bottle of Gatorade, and make your own bag of Tilapia chips with your selected flavor at the plant. The TAFIAS ladies are very warm, welcoming and proud of their work and the chips are a unique product for the market so give yourself a fish and eat fish snacks and help them feed themselves and their families for a lifetime!

GDays Mandaue 2014: Secrets of Gmail

Overview of GDays Mandaue here.

Participants of GDays were required to select a category upon registering. Google for Management, Business or Marketing. I, obviously, wanted to join all of them but that option wasn't available so I had to choose a topic that I was most interested in. At the time, I had been mulling over studying business on the side but the more specific aspect of business I was slightly obsessing over from a distance was Management.

Our segment was facilitated by Jane Vestil, a Google for Educators partner and Cheer Garciano, owner of Cebu Web Services and Digital marketing.

Jane Vestil talks about Google Collaboration and Productivity Tools

The talk started out with an overview of the basic Google tools we're all currently using such as Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar. As it progressed, they started talking about a Google Apps Account. How is that different from a regular Google account when you sign up for Gmail? The features are basically the same, being able to use Google tools and whatnot, the difference is just that a Google Apps Account will enable you to use tools powered by Google, like plug-ins submitted by developers for example.

The first Google tool they delved into was Gmail and this feature was such a surprise to me when they first introduced it. Google Advanced Search uses a set of queries that perform specific functions in Gmail Search. For example, you want to look for an email sent by thatperson@gmail.com to you with a file named testfile attached. Among the hundreds of mail you receive daily, it would be time consuming for you to browse through all the possible mails containing that person's e-mail. So, with the specifics in mind, you type:

from : thatperson@gmail.com filename: testfile

And boom! The mail that you were specifically looking for is presented. More keywords are listed in this documentation conveniently compiled by Google. Next up was something called E-mail Delegation, whose concept wasn't that new to me but setting it up was still quite hazy. Basically its being able to let someone view your inbox and reply to messages on your behalf. It's pretty convenient if you're a founder and have a business trip out of town with limited internet. You can give your co-founder or a trusted employee to keep you and your company updated by replying to important e-mails for you. Learn more about E-mail Delegation through this link ma'am Jane sent me after all my annoying questioning hehe.

A similar feature is forwarding where you can automatically forward your e-mails received from your website e-mail to your personal Gmail address for convenience:

e-mail sent to contact@me.com >> forwarded to >> me@gmail.com

After running through Gmail's built-in features, we then moved to Google Labs - experimental features created by Google Developers. A lot of them may have some bugs and imperfect features but you always have the option to disable them after you've installed them. Some labs ma'am Jane uses herself are Canned Responses, which enables her to create and use a preset response to a specific type of mail, and Quick Links, a lab that allows you to save and create a link of a frequent search result in your inbox. You can look through more Labs by going to Settings >> Labs in your Gmail page.

Cheer Garciano gives a short presentation about The Internet

I personally don't use this feature but maybe when I'm more embedded into my career, I see a future use for this feature. Google Tasks help you keep track of the things you need to do, set deadlines and even use e-mail messages as the reminder itself in Gmail Tasks. I raised my hand and being the kiss-ass, thick-faced chick that I am, I asked a few questions along with a few others in the room. Apparently, Google Labs won't work on mobile _{(unless some genius codes something for it)} and Google Apps aren't free either. To create an account, there's a $5 monthly subscription fee.

"Don't be impressed with technology. Be amazed by what you can do with it."

In between ma'am Cheer's talk, she mentioned something called Internet Penetration which basically just means how many people in an area have access or are using the Internet. This data is considerably important to digital marketers, with their efforts revolving around how many people they can reach.

"Think. Create. Engage. Optimize." Strategy of doing Digital Marketing.

Ma'am Cheer shared the general steps of using Digital marketing to gain customers.

1) Generate Traffic - get people interested in what you're doing and basically, have an audience.
2) Convert Traffic to Leads - Make this audience interested enough that they are willing to pay for your service.
3) Nurture Leads into Customers - Turn this willingness into action. Baby your prospective customers into actual customers.
4) After the cycle is done, Analyze the Process to look at what you did wrong, what you did right, and how to engage the next batch of customers.

Google Analytics is a great tool to monitor activity in your site. It shows you the number of viewers currently in the site, what they are doing, what category they belong to, their location and more. Consider signing up for Google Analytics to keep a better eye on your users and possible customers.

After the session, I was literally mind blown about all the things you can do with Google Apps and Tools. And to think what we discussed that day was just a fraction of the Management features Google has. I guess my overall reaction to everything I learned was that there really is no excuse for you to not build a kick-ass product/business. Every resource is available to you through the Internet. It's just a matter of being motivated, persistent and smart with your resources and decisions in life and/or in your career.

GDays Mandaue 2014: How Social Media Can Affect Your Business

Overview of GDays Mandaue here.

GDays Mandaue 2014: How Social Media can affect your Business by Fleire Castro 

What made me enjoy ma'am Fleire Castro's segment of the event was that she presented her inputs, thoughts and advice in situations where the audience can clearly relate or empathize with as if they were in her shoes. 

" Try to mention other things then pitch your own brand."

As the story goes, ma'am Fleire was in Manila and was looking for a nearby cafe in the area. She posted her problem in Facebook and, to her surprise, she received several responses for her friends. Most were simply suggestions of which cafe her friends have personally tried but there was this one comment she highlighted during the presentation. It went something like "There's Cafe X, Cafe Y and Cafe Z just around the corner. But if you're willing to take this extra route, you'll come across Cafe A"

Now, despite us doing it subconsciously, we are given the impression that the last suggestion is probably the best, so you are more compelled to try that suggestion out first. She later on discovered that the person who commented that suggestion was actually the owner of "Cafe A". This, according to her, was a great marketing technique. By scouring posts in social media that relate to the field of your business or any topic relating to it, you come across possible customers and/or opportunities. The owner's tactic of "leaving the best for last" and not shoving the thought of "GO TO MY SHOP" down the possible customer's throat, was a great example of social media marketing.

Social Networks where most businesses set up accounts are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ _{(with it, all other networks of Google such as YouTube)}, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Using Social Media to spread news is now commonly done by YOU, the users and now, the major news channels as well. They set up Twitter accounts, YouTube accounts and even receive footage from viewers/witnesses on site through social media . That power being said, ma'am Fleire reached out to those frequent on the web to, during a time of crisis in any area, help those affected. I also experienced this during the 7.2 earthquake in my area. Many of those I know that are capable in the city weren't allowed to step foot outside their home even two weeks after the major quake, me included. The city wasn't as affected as those towns near the epicenter so I looked for a way to help. Power wasn't out until Yolanda and so I became tech support to various non-government relief groups. That was the first time I had used Facebook to actually DO something useful. We reached out to other people, contacted our friends outside of the country and those within who were willing to help. We delivered truckloads (and even an airplane) of water, food and other essentials to the affected within three weeks all because of social media.

If you cannot go out and help them yourself, you can let other people, who can, know. Leave a Like or better yet a Share, to boosted posts or announcements, list of areas affected or what the people need and so on. As long as you have internet and at least a smartphone, you CAN make a difference.

"Social media is empowering."

TIP: 80% of your business' social media posts should be topics you believe in/ advocate in. Sales pitches and calls to action should only be 20%

Another story from her segment that I really appreciated in was her "lost but apparently stolen island souvenirs shirt"

Post by Fleire Castro.

The summary is, she lost her customized Island Souvenir shirt that was part of a family set, found the culprit, couldn't get it back and upon hearing of her distress through social media, Island Souvenirs brought her a new one exactly like it! Full story in her blog here.

Ma'am Fleire with her new customized Island Souvenir shirt

Paying close attention to how your customers see your business, your service, products or generally what they feel about you and what they do with your services, will definitely payoff with their satisfaction and brand loyalty. It'll make them want to go back, appreciate your brand and recommend you to their peers which is the best type of advertising any business could have, in my opinion.

To close this post, here are Three Things you can start doing on Social Media by Fleire Castro, owner of Third Team Media:

1.  Verbalize gratitude for your customers
2.  Invite Advocates to explore your products
3.  Offer gifts so your customer can "finish their stories"

GDays Mandaue 2014: My First Major Google Event

My Musings on Innovation.
Why I think Getting your business out there is important.
How Social Media Can Affect Your Business.
The mind-blowing Secrets of Gmail.

As the event opened with models strutting their stuff on the stage, fancy dresses and large John Lennon sunglasses, I was thinking dafaq? It was really cool and all _{(the designs were so fab but I could never think of being able to bring it if I ever get the chance of wearing them)} and after watching the fashion designer's, Bree Esplanada, video about being able to use Google to build his online presence, I thought sure, great for him but at the back of my mind was this is weird.

I'm sure everyone in the audience thought the same thing so, after the GBG Mandaue organizers caught on, Bjorn _{(thanks so much for helping me get in, I had so much fun!)} came up on stage after a few segments and explained why they had the fashion show. Erica and Lindsey _(sp?) from Google talked, through a video, to the GDays Mandaue attendees about a Google Transformation Challenge. To use Google in businesses, no matter how small or big, to enhance, it, digitize it and make it grow. If you lack the knowhow, GBG Mandaue will help you do just that. They assist businesses and professionals, like Bree's fashion designing, and take it to the next level. Contact GBG Mandaue and let them know what they can do for your business.

Photobooth manned by Ryan Orcullo

Right outside the venue was a photobooth with really cute cutouts of the different Google Apps which was really great and fun to mess around with. I took my turn on it, of course, but I couldn't find my pic on the GBG Mandaue Facebook Fan Page. Instead, I found this:

close enough

I ran into Ryan and Rey, friends who I got acquainted with during my StartupWeekend experiences, and got to talk about the new FabLab in Bohol _{(Hardware junkies in Bohol, leave me a message! We should schedule a meetup!)} and StartupWeeken Bohol among other things. I learned a lot from my short conversation with them by the door as we densely stood by the entryway as busy organizers who obviously had to be somewhere important were squeezing through. It's conversations like this, with like-minded people willing to give and take information on topics you are passionate about, that you get to appreciate and enjoy your field of interest.

The entryway we stood by

I ended up sharing a table with them and a few more awesome people like Jan, who I met at SWC2, and Giovanni, who I met while riding up the elevator _{(with weird buttons)}  going up to Lakwatsa Resto Lounge.

I later met Jhanis at the event proper during an ice-breaker activity the second speaker made us do _{(say hi to the person beside you and ask them what fruit they'd be and why. She's a pretty banana)}. She's an amazing blogger with really funny entries about her life as a mom of two kids. I really enjoy reading her work, and it really helps me relate to what my own mom thinks, too.

The event overall was so much fun with so many learnings. I'll meet even more people in the afternoon session in our Google for Management group, which I will be blogging separately about, and I even got to talk to the event hostess, Issa _{(who I thought, and still think, would make a great model)} after the event ended and got to splurge about each of our family businesses and frustrations.

Again, thank you Bjorn and Ruben for helping me attend! It was an awesome experience :D

Pitching to an Audience about Your Event

You all know I attended the FabLab Bohol Symposium recently and that we got to pitch about StartupWeekend Bohol to the FabLab organizers and participants. Here's what I've learned about _{(teeth-shatteringly)} pitching to a room packed with experienced intellectuals about an event you're organizing. Most of these is just common sense but that's pretty hard to remember when a hundred pairs of wide, judging, bespectacled eyes are staring at you seeing every gross trickle of your condensed, thick sweat rush from your wide forehead to your sweaty, tiny palms.

1) Make your pitch quick and concise. Get to the point and prepare your pitch. Make sure you get everything down as fast and as clearly as possible. Most of these people don't usually have the luxury of time so get it through you head that they won't wait for you.

2) Bring yourself with confidence. Nobody want to see a slouching speaker, nor even want to hear his unsure laugh and "umms" and "errs" echoing through the auditorium. Suck that stomach in, keep that back straight and hold that head high. You mean business!

3) Talk about the event as briefly and clearly as you can. Again related to the first tip, talk in a slow, clear way so everyone gets what you're saying. Make your explanations short and to the point.

4) Tell them who are your target participants. Maybe the event isn't for everyone in the room so reach out to the ones that are there that you want to invite. Let them know who you need to make the talk more personal to those interested and maybe, if you've explained well enough, they might refer _{(or wrangle in)} their friends to you.

5) Event details like venue, time and registration fees _{(if any)} must be mentioned at least twice in your pitch. I mean I guess that's self-explanatory. Most people, because of nerves, forget to tell their audience who to go to or what site to visit in case they have any questions or if they want to register to your event. Don't leave them hanging. You're loosing valuable talent.

6) Quickly run through future or preparatory event related to your main event. If you have an orientation about the main event the week after, let them know. If you have a mentor/organizer open to skype calls on questions about the event on a specific time, let them know. Do so really quickly before you end your pitch. Just to let the audience know this event is continuous and there's much in store for them if they sign up to your network.

And that's it for me. If you have any suggestions please let me know, I'm no expert at this, I'm just sharing what I learned haha Mostly for my own future reference. I'm looking forward to more opportunities where I can step up and learn more. Especially more events I can attend _{(so I can rave and blog about it)}. Hope I was helpful to someone out there by sharing this :)

Horrible screenshot of me pitching in SWC3. 

Wasn't able to execute Tip #2 very well, I recall haha.