FBP 009: Growing a Blog to One Million Readers, One Post at a Time with Vince Golangco of WhenInManila.com

I apologize for the lame Yoda impersonation during the show intro. Please bear with me. I am such a Star Wars geek. 🙂

Now, I am very sure that you, dear Freelancer, are one of the massive followers of either:

1. The vlog (video blog) WhenInManila.com (1 million readers and counting)*

2. WhenInManila Facebook page (185k fans)*

3. WhenInManila Twitter account (100k followers)*

4. WhenInManila Instagram account (12k followers)*

*Data as of February 2014.

Or all of the above. That’s why we responded to all of your requests and invited no less than the founder and publisher of WhenInManila.com, Vince Golangco, to the podcast.

It still feels surreal that the likes of Vince Golangco, voted in the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2010 and Best Photo Blog and Microblog in the Philippines at the 2013 Globe Tatt Awards, will take time off from his busy schedule to sit and chat with me on the Freelance Blend Podcast. Can somebody just pinch me?

From the interview, it seems that the reason why Vince is very supportive of new content creators like myself is because he himself received support from the most influential bloggers and vloggers before him – Anton Diaz (our previous guest), Janette Toral, and also the late Coy Caballes. As Vince said, “The most successful bloggers are the ones who are always helping.” So, what are you waiting for, why don’t you reach out to your chosen mentor now.

Meanwhile, here are the takeaways from this episode:

Key Takeaways

Vince’s love for writing that led to his job for the school paper, a blog for freshmen students in college, and eventually, for WhenInManila.com.
How a quarter-life crisis caused Vince to travel to different parts of the world and then ended up in the Philippines to start the blog.
The reason behind the name of the blog, WhenInManila.
The reason why he joined the US Navy.
How the blog grew slowly but surely – one post at a time, one reader at a time.
The perks of having a widely successful blog.
The “best ever plumber” analogy to success in the old days and why it does not apply to the digital age.
How you can contribute to WhenInManila and the advantages and perks that you will get out of it.
How to build a community one follower at a time.
What makes a blog post shareable and likeable and why making it viral is, in fact, overrated.
Why Vince chose a large and crowded niche such as the food and travel niche.
Who were Vince’s mentors when he was starting and how these mentors helped him.
How speaking engagements helped spread the word about Vince and the blog.
How social media improves a blog’s viewership.
The apps that Vince likes to use.
How WhenInManila opened doors for its writers like Mae Ilagan and Jason Cruz.

Quotable Quotes

“It started out just me getting drunk and sharing my stupid stories.”

“It’s really just not focusing on the money side. So for me and for the site, money was never a factor in planning.”

“It was just – we like writing and from there we like sharing stories, we like going on adventures, and then sharing those adventures.”

“How can we share more adventures? How can we find more people who like what we do and want to read about it. How can we find people who want to share their stories and slowly but surely, one small step at a time, it just added up into what we have today.”

“It’s not about who you know, It’s about who knows you.”

“Finding what you like, finding what you want to write about and really pouring your heart out into that because when you write a good article, people will see that and they will share that.”

“The most successful bloggers are the ones who are always helping.”

On the hurdles to blogging: “There’s all these walls, so just strive through them.”

Resources and Links

Vince@wheninmanila.com

Blogapalooza

Anton Diaz

The Late Coy Caballes (may he rest in peace) -> Here is Vince’s heart warming tribute to Coy

Contact Vince:

Twitter: @vincegolangco

Instagram: VinceGolangco

Email: Vince@wheninmanila.com

Thanks for listening. If you wish to contribute to WhenInManila.com, please go to wheninmanila.com/contribute.

So, dear Freelancer, are you working on your blog now? How will you apply Vince’s tips to your blog or your business? Please share your stories and questions in the comment box below.

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