This will the first of many interviews with the movers and shakers of the Pinoy Internet marketing scene. Through these interviews, it is hoped bloggers can pick up practical tips and pointers to effectively monetize their blog traffic.

Pinoy megablogger Connie Veneracion a.k.a. The Sassy Lawyer is considered by many as the queen of Pinoy blog royalty. Her two successful blogs HouseOnaHill.net and PinoyCook.net command considerable attention from both local and international readers.

From an Internet marketer’s point of view, this is the prototype for a critically and commercially successful blog.

We know she likes political commentary, cooking, photography and blogging (not necessarily in that order) but really, who is Sassy Lawyer?
What do you mean, who? LOL The Sassy Lawyer is a very private kind of person. :) She does the laundry, the dishes, helps her kids with homework…

How did you get started in the blogging world?
Ummm… I found a blogging script (web wiz journal and web wiz news) that ran on a Windows platform. My old domain was Windows-based. I posted a few recipes and I liked how the CMS worked.

When you first started out, I take it not too many people actually visited your site. And now, I’m sure traffic’s peaking. How did your early visitors “discover” your site?
I have no idea.

What do you think made them come back and refer your site to other people in the process?
I guess they found something useful, informative or entertaining, or all of that.

What are your strategies as far as building traffic goes? Any tips for bloggers?
Original content. Well-organized HTML tags and navigation. Submission to search engines.

Most bloggers don’t start their site with money in mind. When did you realize you could actually make a decent income out of your blogs? Would you care to share anectodes from your first attempts at monetizing traffic?
I started out with money in mind. But that was a mistake because I was trying to pattern my site (not a blog yet at the time) after sites that were already making money. Not original. Not successful.

I didn’t realize I could actually make some money until I actually saw some money. I had been told, of course, that the food blog was a gold mine but being told and the real thing… they’re different. And “gold mine” is an exaggeration. LOL

Anecdotes… well, see, I wasn’t making money by “monetizing traffic”. Zilch. When I stopped developing the site with money in mind and started developing original content, well, that did the trick. We hear all the time that “content is king”. It may sound like a cliche to some but it’s really true. To be more precise, original and relevant content is king.

How many hours do you set aside each day for maintaining your website/s?
The whole time that my kids are in school. Interrupted by cooking, laundry, errands, etc. of course.

I think most bloggers are well awere with your struggle against online plagiarism. How has that turn up?
It’s good. Can’t let you publish my strategy because that will be forewarning the plagiarists.

Do you think there’s money to be made online, specifically blogging? Have you considered making blogging a full-time job?
I don’t want to think of it as a job; that will take the fun out of it. If you say work, there’s pressure agad. Let’s just say I spend enough time reading and writing as though I had a full time job. But then, of course, a lot of the reading is for leisure.

Any new projects in the pipeline?
Yeah, there were two but they got pushed to the sidelines when I joined Manila Standard. Sus, I’m still reorienting myself with the concept of deadlines. For the past couple of years, I set my own deadlines, then suddenly… LOL It’s manageable though. When I’m comfortable with the deadlines, I’ll be paying more time and attention to those two projects which, right now, is a secret muna.

Your advice for bloggers aiming to make a difference online, while earning an honest living out of it at the same time?
First of all, think “content”. Develop your own. Malaking factor yung ikaw ang una. Yung mga underhanded gimmicks like provoking more popular bloggers para mag-react and retaliate and thereby create links to the provocateur–and there are quite a number of bloggers utilizing this cheap gimmick–luma na yan. Gasgas na yan. Bulok na yang style na yan. Hindi kayo aasenso dyan. Kaya di umaasenso Pilipinas dahil sa mga taong ganyan mag-isip.

Forget the gimmicks and go for content. Gimmicks may make you popular for a day or two but it will not give the kind of consistency that great content can.

Second, learn HTML. You’ll get nowhere unless you can customize your web pages.

Third, you have to make an investment. A Blogspot account may be good for a hobby but not much else. Get a domain name and webspace. Don’t rely on third-party servers like photo bucket ba yun? They slow the loading of pages which will turn off a lot of readers.

Fourth, accept the fact that writing is a huge chunk of blogging. You have to develop writing skills. And I’m not just talking about correct grammar. I’m talking about the ability to organize thoughts to form cohesive blog entries.

Fifth, write honestly. Don’t hold back for fear na walang mag-advertise sa blog mo. Or baka walang mag-link sa iyo. That’s cheating.