Blogging… Demystified! – A Short Interview with Youth.SG

It feels kind of weird seeing my interview on Youth.SG; especially so when a year and a half ago, I was the portal manager for the website which by the way, looks much more hip and happening, managed under the new tag-team of Lai Chow and Stanley.

It’s basically a short interview about blogging to plug a youth blogging contest omy is running. I will be one of the three judges. The contest is called Y Bloggist and there are more than S$12,000 worth of prizes to be won. Do take part and support if you are a blogger under 25 years old. 🙂

Anyway, here’s the full article via Youth.SG:

Blogging… Demystified!
Written by Lim Zhan Ting, on Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Published in : Culture, &*@!(%

His blog on omy.sg has garnered one million visitors since its inception twenty months ago. And Alvin Lim of Alvinology fame isn’t afraid to attribute its popularity to the tabloid news and scandals he regularly features. (Ed’s note: Some of you might recall Alvin from Youth.SG’s not-too-distant past!)

Alvin’s entries of late are eclectic in style and content, ranging from a photo-filled holiday journal chronicling his trip to Japan, to a shocking expose of two men who decided to consummate their passion right along the corridors of a HDB flat.

“Sex, sleaze and gossips do sell on the internet,” Alvin concedes. “But getting the internet traffic to your blog is another matter altogether.”

Given the proliferation of blogs in Singapore, having to differentiate from others in style and content may prove challenging for the regular blogger. Consequently, blog counters, often the most direct barometer of blog popularity, indicate dismal figures.

So what exactly is Alvin’s secret to the enduring popularity of his blog?

“It is important to make full use of photo and video elements. Thereafter, attention-grabbing content has to be combined with proper meta-tagging and consistency in updates,” he explains.

For the uninitiated, meta-tagging broadly refers to the tagging of keywords pertaining to individual blog entries that allow search engines to locate the page with greater ease.

“To me, blogging should be fun and exciting. Life is already hard. There is no need to be serious all the time. I try to post one entry daily, whenever there is a topic that interests me,” he explained.

But there are lines and moral boundaries that Alvin is careful not to cross, even as he pulls out all the stops to make his blog entertaining for his readers.

“NSFW (Not Safe for Work) entries are a no-no. I will censor images and videos accordingly. I am also not a confrontational person, so I try to avoid personal attacks or flaming posts that offend,” he said.

Indeed, there are precautions he adopts to safeguard content credibility and respectability, even for the raciest of blog entries. “I take much care in writing my blog entries in a way that does not disparage or pass unfair judgements on anybody,” says Alvin.

“And above all, plagiarism is a no-no, so I try to attribute my sources as best as I can.”

Alvin counts Yawning Bread and Mr Wang Says So among his favourite Singapore blogs. Their commentaries on social issues strike a chord with him for being “sharp, light-hearted, and able to read between the lines.”

So what does he have to say about (in)famous Singapore bloggers like Xiaxue and Maia Lee who take pride in dishing out sensationalistic content laced with personal judgements and satirical humour?

“I have nothing against blogs of any kind. The beauty of blogging allows everyone to be [the] content publisher, with the world as an audience. In this context, all blogs, sans the spam ones, are good blogs. If the content of a particular blog is not attuned to your taste, just don’t visit it.”

Above all, there is just one other blogging mantra Alvin subscribes to that restricts him from publishing exploitative content that veer on the wrong side of sensational:

“Don’t be evil.”

Alvin is one of the three judges for omy.sg’s inaugural The Ybloggist competition, which provides a platform for youngsters below 25 years old to submit themed blog entries on youth and the bountiful experiences that blogging entails. Join now and stand to win up to $12,000 worth of prizes!

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