By Youth.SG Campus Spy Blogger Mentor, Alvin Lim

1. Blogging and
Personal Branding:
Getting Your Blog Noticed

2.  Alvin is a marketer by day and a blogger by
night
 By day: Marketing manager at omy.sg –
Singapore’s leading news and entertainment
web portal
 By night: Blogs at http://alvinology.com,
one of the better known blogs in Singapore
 Recently married, and was the first
Singaporean couple to solemnise marriage
in a commercial jet

4. Ad networks, sponsored
advertorials, invites

5.  Utilising ad networks – Google Ad Sense, Nuffnang,
Advertlets, etc
 ~ S$50 to $200/mth for a blog with 2000-5000 visitors a day
 Only applicable for blogs with high traffic
 Limited control over ads served
 Bulk of revenue goes to the ad networks vs the blogger’s own
pocket
 Advantage: no effort is required beyond serving the ad codes
on your blog
 Do not expect to get rich using ad networks

6.  Get assignments via blog networks like
omy.sg, Nuffnang, Advertlets
 OR do up your own rate card and get
assignments on your own
 Fee range from gifts in kind to a few thousand
dollars
 Again, dependent on web traffic/audience

7.  Build up your traffic first – when the
world takes notice, ads will come
 Join (and win) blog contests,
competitions like the Singapore Blog
Awards
 Practise good SEO habits – keywords
tagging, naming convention
 Link exchanges, interact with other
bloggers
 Court controversy – Xiaxue
 Regularity and consistency

8.  Get namecards, dress well, present
yourself well at events
 Watch your language on your blog posts,
don’t get too emo
 Consistent online ID throughout your
various web accounts – eg. On facebook,
twitter, youtube, etc
 Catchy, simple and easy to remember
domain name
 Social etiquettes
 Choose a topic to specialise and be
known for it – eg. Travel Blogs, Food Blogs,
etc
eg. http://travelerfolio.com/ and
http://www.camemberu.com/

9. omy.sg, omy Blog Club, talent-
spotting bloggers

10. Strong in blog, lifestyle and entertainment content
Most Popular sections in omy:
News, Showbiz – over 1.5 mil page views/mth
Blog – over 700,000 page views/mth

11. Strong in Social Media/ Online Communities
 Loyal, established online communities – database of over 3000
bloggers/avid social media users in the omy Blog Club (
http://blog.omy.sg/blogclub)
 Trail-blazer in various Singapore social media initiatives and events –
http://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta
 Regular school outreach programs - road shows at secondary and tertiary
institutions via Y-Talk: http://yzone.omy.sg/ytalk

12. • Over 3000 registered bloggers, residing outside of omy.sg
• Organise annual Singapore Blog Awards (
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg) to increase membership and
sieve out good quality blogs
• Another 150+ invited bloggers residing in omy.sg website –
http://blog.omy.sg – known figures like David Gan, Danny
Yeo, By2, Billy Koh, Jack Neo, Keith Png
Confidential Singapore Press Holdings

13. • Wide demographic range available – from 15 to 50 years old;
specialising in varied topics from beauty to food to tech gadgets, etc
• omy.sg will recruit bloggers to suit sponsors/advertisers’ needs and vice
versa
 Recruit bloggers to attend events/review products/join contests
 Additional editorial exposure about blog event on omy.sg, leveraging on
omy.sg’s traffic to give these blog reviews higher visibility + publicity
 Organise blog contests, outings
 http://blog.omy.sg/blogclub

14. Food Bloggers – 200+
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin
Travel Bloggers – 100+
Eg. http://project.omy.sg/royal-caribbean
Beauty Bloggers – 500+
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/estee-lauder
Youth Bloggers – 1000+
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/fnn
Art/Design Bloggers – 100+
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/kitkat
Lifestyle Bloggers - 500+
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/invogued
Tech Bloggers – 200+
Eg. http://contest.omy.sg/garmin-asus
PMET Bloggers – 100+
*All figures above are estimates. Bloggers under the above-
Eg. http://blog.omy.sg/urbanhommeicon
stated categories may not be niche in those areas.

15. Singapore Social Media Fiesta
http://project.omy.sg/social-media-fiesta/
Series of social media events in Singapore to promote
Singapore’s social media scene as well as to bring the
online community offline
Umbrella platform for advertisers/partners to brand itself
strategically in the Singapore social media scene for a
full year
Events include:
- Singapore Twitter Day (140th Day of the Year) – 1st year
- Singapore Check-In Month (April) – 2nd year
- http://project.omy.sg/sg4sqday/
- Social Media Day (June) – 2nd year
- http://project.omy.sg/sgsmd/
- Singapore Blog Awards (April to July) – 5th year
- http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/

16. Singapore Blog Awards (Apr – Sep)
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2008
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2009
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/2010
http://blog.omy.sg/sgblogawards
First launched in 2008, the prestigious Singapore Blog
Awards is an annual award organised by omy.sg to give
recognition to outstanding blogs, both in Singapore and
from other countries. The award accepts bilingual entries
in English and Mandarin and is the first of its kind in the
region to reward independent web content producers.
Over 1000 bloggers register for the awards each year with an
average of over 70,000 votes cast.

17. Y-Bloggist Blog Contest (Jan – Apr)
http://contest.omy.sg/ybloggistpopstar/
Organised by omy.sg’s Yzone, the youth
section of omy.sg, the Y-Bloggist is an
unique and challenging blog contest
where contestants compete with each
other over three months in multiple
challenges, including making vodcasts
and podcasts. The contest is targeted at
schooling youths and is a lead-in to the
Singapore Blog Awards.

18.  Good writing; subjects expertise
 Visually exciting content – photos, videos,
graphics
 Regularly Updated
 Permalink!
 Good site navigation and organisation
 Responsible and responsive
 Image must suits advertiser/brands
 Not media shy, articulate on camera, during
interviews

19. Jack Neo’s Affair Scandal

20.  On 6 March 2010, a two-year-long extramarital affair between Jack Neo and freelance
model Wendy Chong broke on evening Chinese newspaper, Lianhe Wanbao and Neo
admitted to the affair.
 Sensing that this news will shake Singapore, the omy.sg editorial team held an urgent
meeting right after the news broke in the evening of 6 March and conceptualised an
online news strategy to cover the event with liberal use of social media.
 http://project.omy.sg/jack-neo/
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN9QqTh9hhw
 http://twitter.com/omysingapore

21.  A quick decision was made to create a dedicated microsite to host
the content for all news related to the scandal.
 The microsite, http://project.omy.sg/jack-neo will track the
breaking news coverage of Neo’s extra-marital affair scandal as the
news unfolded day by day.
 The website features LIVE twitter feeds (on the keyword “jackneo”),
aggregation of blog content and the latest news updates from the
various SPH Chinese newspapers and omy.sg.
 Production started immediately on 6 March 2010 and the mircrosite
was launched on 10 March 2010, just 4 days after the scandal hit
the news.
 It was an instant hit with netizens, amassing more than 90,000
page views to date (Nielsen Netratings, Jan 2011).
 At the same time, omy.sg also began seeding Jack Neo stories to its
facebook (http://facebook.com/omy.sg) and twitter (
http://twitter.com/omysingapore) accounts.

22. Hash Tags and Aggregators
Eg. http://project.omy.sg/royal-caribbean
http://project.omy.sg/hongkong
http://project.omy.sg/jackneo

23.  On 9 March 2010, additional reports were released about Neo having or attempting
extramarital affairs with up to 11 women.
 On 11 March, Neo and his wife, Irene Kng held a five-minute press conference, in
which Neo admitted his mistake and asked the media to let him off.
 omy.sg sent two camera teams down to record the press conference. A decision was
made to release the video immediately onto youtube (usual policy was to hold video for
one week on omy.sg before releasing to youtube for sharing), in view of the
competition from many other local media zooming in on the story -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN9QqTh9hhw.
 press conference video became the most viewed video on the scandal to date.
 On 12 March, Neo made a formal apology on his blog, which incidentally rests on
omy.sg – http://blog.omy.sg/jackneo, further driving traffic to omy.sg.
 Asian Digital Media Awards 2010: Best in Social Media Award (Bronze) -
Innovative Use of Social Media

24.  Blog: http://alvinology.com /
http://blog.omy.sg/alvinology
 Facebook: http://facebook.com/alvinology /
http://facebook.com/alvinologist
 LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/alvinology
Email: alvinologist@gmail.com / limlh@sph.com.sg
 Twitter: http://twitter.com/alvinologist

25. Thank you!
Confidential Singapore Press Holdings