These days, going digital seems to be the answer to almost everything. Everything, except finding peace of mind, I guess.

I notice the trend lately: seemingly, a lot of people aspire to be a vlogger/ blogger. Never in my life had I thought of such thing — i mean, me, a vlogger??– but I guess I have to go with the flow in order to survive and thrive in this digital era. Call me a sell out, but I guess one would just have to adapt. We all have to at some point.

I know for myself that I am a very private person. What does that mean… these days? I enjoy my privacy. I don’t share a lot of personal info, photos, videos or escapades in my social media. The thought of me checking in FourSquare is cringe-worthy. But having zero strong personal presence online in this digital times might be a bit disadvantageous on one’s end, especially for me who work in the media industry.

So yup, I am slowly adapting. In fact, given the very competitive online market out there, I’d even like to study digital or social media marketing. Not because I swayed to what is called the herd mentality. But I’ve always been an advocate of continuous learning or education. I’m currently studying MA-Film in UP Diliman. I’ve studied black and white film photography, I’ve studied sales and just last month, I finished studying Basic French!

Now, I’m trying to set foot in this frontier that seems everyone is ga-ga over: vlogging. I’m just a new vlogger. And admittedly, I don’t like seeing myself oncam. Yet in the next several videos that I’ll be uploading, what you’ll normally see would be my hands or hear my voice. I’m not sure if that’ll work — vlogging without the vlogger oncam– but I’ve settled, and at peace, with this idea for the time being. Haha.

A few weeks ago, I got the privilege to sit down in a very insightful seminar-forum given by Sir Ted Claudio. He’s the founder of Wazzup.PH, and being a man in his 50s, he’s a self-confessed not-so techie baby boomer, but one who is very determined to adjust and adapt to the millenial culture of going digital. I am inspired, actually, and very much. So thank you very much, Sir Ted for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us this time. I am one of those you have motivated to start doing this and I hope there’d be many more out there.

So I’m sharing here my takeaways from the said forum with the hope that I’ll be able to help the aspiring vloggers out there, and may be build a community through my website where we can help each other out. 🙂

Sharing the tips from Sir Ted Claudio (with some additional input from yours truly):

1. DON’T DELAY STARTING YOUR YOUTUBE DUE TO GEARS. Start by using your mobile phone! Edit using video apps installed on your phone.
2. DON’T BE AFRAID OF HATERS. Just be yourself because that’s what separates you from the others, which in turn would make your vlogging unique and personal.
3. BE CREATIVE AND PLAN YOUR CONTENT. As with all passion in life, it has to be paired by religious and consistent action. Plan your strategy. Implement it. Be consistent.
4. CREATE YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL. ‘Nuf said. Go!
5. CATCH ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY. Do it in the first 10-20 seconds. Tease what they will see. Get them excited. Shock and awe!
6. BE CONSISTENT. Produce content on a regular basis. Plan one that suits your schedule.

I actually made an audio-video material about it. Sharing this to you now. If you’re a long-time blogger/ vlogger, share your tips to us now!