Been doing those a lot the past couple months, and even more intense this week, and obviously lots of out-of-home/pajamaworking. Heck, I even had two steamboats just this week, one in Balik Pulau last Sunday and another just now in Gurney Drive. And tons of seafood too yesterday in Batu Maung, and between the eatings and occasional breaks for the photo shoots to feed Facebook and Picasa, I lost count of how many pieces of tiger shrimps I feeded myself - like Bubba Forrest Gump said - shrimp grilled, shrimp fried rice, shrimp steamboat etc. And then the excessive nite stays till wee morning hours past Subuh to complete posts like this and on four other blog sites (not including Facebook social network, Picasa photo blog, YouTube etc. video blog, Yahoo & Google Groups, Twitter etc. microblogs bla bla...)!
And like all addictions and craves, this must stop! Gotta stay home more, eat less and actually getting long-overdue work (and sales) done. Gotta start climbing those hills in Bukit Jambul and Teluk Bahang again... ;) Wait, there's Raya again this Monday nite, and looks like there will be more more activities involving meeting people and feeding tons of food again! The week after Eid al-Adha and program Usahawan Rakyat Deputy Chief Minister Fairus then... Gotta start thinking of plans for 2009 & 2010!
Happy Holidays and New Year this coming January 2009/Muharram 1430H everyone!
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6
Wednesday, November 28
Jom memblog untuk berniaga...
I originally posted this article on ICTpenang Crowdvine, but it was in plain-text format due to Crowdvine's lack of support for rich text (as of yet). Read on... (sorry if you can't understand it -- it's in Malay language).
"Blog" dan pengaruhnya telah hangat diperdebatkan di Amerika Syarikat bermula tahun 2004 apabila ahli politik tempatannya menyelar penulis-penulis blog yang mengkritik kerajaan atau ahli-ahli politik, sambil menyimpulkan bahawa penulis-penulis sedemikian yang hanya menulis sambil berpakaian baju tidur ("pajamas") justeru tidak cukup berwibawa untuk penerimaan orang ramai.
Tidak lama kemudian, pada awal tahun 2007, setelah penulisan dan pembacaan blog menjadi popular di kalangan ratusan juta pengguna Internet ketika itu, rakyat Malaysia pula dijerumuskan dalam kancah perbicaraan media umum (mainstream) apabila ahli-ahli politiknya mula menyelar penulis-penulis blog bersifat "SOPO" (sosio-politik) yang kebanyakannya mengkritik kerajaan. Menteri Penerangan Malaysia pula terus mengemukakan gelaran " goblog" untuk penulis-penulis sedemikian.
Kini, Technorati, sebuah engin gelintar yang menganalisa perkembangan "blogosphere" menganggarkan lebih daripada 100 juta blog yang diselia oleh puluhan juta penulis-penerbit (tidak termasuk lebih 250 juta laman media sosial seperti profil Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, LinkedIn dsb.), yakni lebih kurang SATU penulis blog setiap SEPULUH pengguna Internet, menjadikan kumpulan penerbitan ini sebagai yang terbesar dalam sejarah peradaban manusia berbanding dengan penerbitan makalah-makalah lain seperti suratkhabar ataupun majalah dan jurnal.
Kalau dikira ribuan emel-emel yang telah saya hantarkan ke pelbagai kumpulan elektronik (di platform Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, BBS, FTP, Usenet, Web Egroups dsb.) sejak dari tahun 1992 dan pelbagai penulisan di laman Web sejak tahun 1993, mungkin saya boleh digolongkan dalam kumpulan puluhan ribu "blogger" yang pertama di dunia. Begitupun apa yang membezakan blog dan karya-karya lain yang diterbitkan dalam ruang sesawang ialah kekerapan dan formatnya -- blog memerlukan disiplin yang tinggi untuk tukang karya agar sentiasa menulis sekurang-kurangnya sekali seminggu, dan dipaparkan berbentuk diari atau penerbitan makalah formal, seperti akhbar atau majalah, lengkap dengan tarikh dan keupayaan carian sama ada menggunakan kata-kata kunci (keywords) tertentu atau label ("tags"). Menyedari tren sebegini, walaupun agak lambat, saya sendiri telah mula menyelia beberapa blog secara serius sejak awal tahun ini. [Saya mula menggunakan aplikasi khusus untuk pemblogan termasuklah blogger.com dan LiveJournal seawal tahun 2000]
Hari ini, blog bukanlah hanya media penerbitan anak-anak walaupun kebanyakan blog bersifat sedemikian. Penulis blog popular seperti Michael Arrington di laman Techcrunch.com, cukup dihormati dan diikuti oleh jutaan pembaca termasuk lebih 600,000 pengguna Internet yang melanggan penulisan beliau dan ahli-ahli kumpulannya melalui sindikasi RSS - bandingkan dengan langganan akhbar The Star atau New Straits Times misalnya yang kurang daripada separuh jumlah tersebut! Contoh lain untuk blog popular termasuklah laman engadget, gizmodo, Huffington Post (oleh Arianna Huffington), Pete Cashmore's Mashable.com, BoingBoing, TMZ (celebrity sightings) dan Chris Pirillo (bekas hos program-program di TechTV).
Malah, beberapa penulis blog di Malaysia mampu menjadikan aktiviti sebegini sebagai kerjaya profesional mereka dengan penulis-usahawan terkenal seperti Liew Choon Foong, Gobala Krishnan, Samsul Zamzuri, Kenny Sia dan Chan Lilian yang mampu menjanakan pendapatan lima angka (RM) setiap bulan daripada sumber pengiklanan dan penulisan berbayar di blog masing-masing.
Jika diamalkan secare efektif, blog boleh dijadikan sebuah alat yang cukup berkuasa untuk perniagaan anda. Lihat saja bagaimana beberapa ahli perniagaan dan teknokrat terkemuka seperti Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), Joichi Ito (Creative Commons), Bob Parsons (Godaddy - syarikat penghosan Web terbesar di dunia), Tim O'Reilly dan Tim Berners Lee menggunakan blog sebagai alat untuk meningkatkan kesetiaan pelanggan atau pembaca serta menambah pelangan-pelanggan baru. Di Malaysia pula, kita ada Tengku Zafrul (Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Tune Money -- anak syarikat Air Asia Group), Timothy Tiah (CEO of Penang-based NuffNang Malaysia, yang mana beliau bersama-sama dengan pengasas syarikat yang sama tapi berpejabat di Singapura, dinamakan oleh majalah terkemuka BusinessWeek sebagai sebahagian daripada 25 Usahawan Muda Terbaik di Asia) dan sudah tentu, Nasir Sobri (oops, I only maintain a company blog, not a personal one, yet -- not ready to be so bold yet).
Sudahkan ada blog?
Pernahkah anda membaca blog? (Anda sedang membacanya di saat ini!).
Apakah itu blog sebenarnya? Mari kita rujuk Wikipedia untuk mengetahui apakah yang pengguna Internet katakan tentang blog:-
"Blog" dan pengaruhnya telah hangat diperdebatkan di Amerika Syarikat bermula tahun 2004 apabila ahli politik tempatannya menyelar penulis-penulis blog yang mengkritik kerajaan atau ahli-ahli politik, sambil menyimpulkan bahawa penulis-penulis sedemikian yang hanya menulis sambil berpakaian baju tidur ("pajamas") justeru tidak cukup berwibawa untuk penerimaan orang ramai.
Tidak lama kemudian, pada awal tahun 2007, setelah penulisan dan pembacaan blog menjadi popular di kalangan ratusan juta pengguna Internet ketika itu, rakyat Malaysia pula dijerumuskan dalam kancah perbicaraan media umum (mainstream) apabila ahli-ahli politiknya mula menyelar penulis-penulis blog bersifat "SOPO" (sosio-politik) yang kebanyakannya mengkritik kerajaan. Menteri Penerangan Malaysia pula terus mengemukakan gelaran " goblog" untuk penulis-penulis sedemikian.
Kini, Technorati, sebuah engin gelintar yang menganalisa perkembangan "blogosphere" menganggarkan lebih daripada 100 juta blog yang diselia oleh puluhan juta penulis-penerbit (tidak termasuk lebih 250 juta laman media sosial seperti profil Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, LinkedIn dsb.), yakni lebih kurang SATU penulis blog setiap SEPULUH pengguna Internet, menjadikan kumpulan penerbitan ini sebagai yang terbesar dalam sejarah peradaban manusia berbanding dengan penerbitan makalah-makalah lain seperti suratkhabar ataupun majalah dan jurnal.
Kalau dikira ribuan emel-emel yang telah saya hantarkan ke pelbagai kumpulan elektronik (di platform Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, BBS, FTP, Usenet, Web Egroups dsb.) sejak dari tahun 1992 dan pelbagai penulisan di laman Web sejak tahun 1993, mungkin saya boleh digolongkan dalam kumpulan puluhan ribu "blogger" yang pertama di dunia. Begitupun apa yang membezakan blog dan karya-karya lain yang diterbitkan dalam ruang sesawang ialah kekerapan dan formatnya -- blog memerlukan disiplin yang tinggi untuk tukang karya agar sentiasa menulis sekurang-kurangnya sekali seminggu, dan dipaparkan berbentuk diari atau penerbitan makalah formal, seperti akhbar atau majalah, lengkap dengan tarikh dan keupayaan carian sama ada menggunakan kata-kata kunci (keywords) tertentu atau label ("tags"). Menyedari tren sebegini, walaupun agak lambat, saya sendiri telah mula menyelia beberapa blog secara serius sejak awal tahun ini. [Saya mula menggunakan aplikasi khusus untuk pemblogan termasuklah blogger.com dan LiveJournal seawal tahun 2000]
Hari ini, blog bukanlah hanya media penerbitan anak-anak walaupun kebanyakan blog bersifat sedemikian. Penulis blog popular seperti Michael Arrington di laman Techcrunch.com, cukup dihormati dan diikuti oleh jutaan pembaca termasuk lebih 600,000 pengguna Internet yang melanggan penulisan beliau dan ahli-ahli kumpulannya melalui sindikasi RSS - bandingkan dengan langganan akhbar The Star atau New Straits Times misalnya yang kurang daripada separuh jumlah tersebut! Contoh lain untuk blog popular termasuklah laman engadget, gizmodo, Huffington Post (oleh Arianna Huffington), Pete Cashmore's Mashable.com, BoingBoing, TMZ (celebrity sightings) dan Chris Pirillo (bekas hos program-program di TechTV).
Malah, beberapa penulis blog di Malaysia mampu menjadikan aktiviti sebegini sebagai kerjaya profesional mereka dengan penulis-usahawan terkenal seperti Liew Choon Foong, Gobala Krishnan, Samsul Zamzuri, Kenny Sia dan Chan Lilian yang mampu menjanakan pendapatan lima angka (RM) setiap bulan daripada sumber pengiklanan dan penulisan berbayar di blog masing-masing.
Jika diamalkan secare efektif, blog boleh dijadikan sebuah alat yang cukup berkuasa untuk perniagaan anda. Lihat saja bagaimana beberapa ahli perniagaan dan teknokrat terkemuka seperti Jonathan Schwartz (Sun Microsystems), Joichi Ito (Creative Commons), Bob Parsons (Godaddy - syarikat penghosan Web terbesar di dunia), Tim O'Reilly dan Tim Berners Lee menggunakan blog sebagai alat untuk meningkatkan kesetiaan pelanggan atau pembaca serta menambah pelangan-pelanggan baru. Di Malaysia pula, kita ada Tengku Zafrul (Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Tune Money -- anak syarikat Air Asia Group), Timothy Tiah (CEO of Penang-based NuffNang Malaysia, yang mana beliau bersama-sama dengan pengasas syarikat yang sama tapi berpejabat di Singapura, dinamakan oleh majalah terkemuka BusinessWeek sebagai sebahagian daripada 25 Usahawan Muda Terbaik di Asia) dan sudah tentu, Nasir Sobri (oops, I only maintain a company blog, not a personal one, yet -- not ready to be so bold yet).
Sudahkan ada blog?
Pernahkah anda membaca blog? (Anda sedang membacanya di saat ini!).
Apakah itu blog sebenarnya? Mari kita rujuk Wikipedia untuk mengetahui apakah yang pengguna Internet katakan tentang blog:-
Blog (singkatan untuk web log dalam bahasa Inggeris) ialah sebuah laman web yang kemasukan-kemasukannya ditulis menurut urutan kronologi dan dipaparkan dengan tertib terbalik.
Blog memberikan ulasan atau berita mengenai sesuatu tajuk, umpamanya makanan, politik , atau berita tempatan, dengan sesetengah blog berperanan lebih sebagai buku harian peribadi dalam talian . Blog yang tipikal menggabungan teks, imej, dan pautan ke dalam blog, laman web, dan media lain yang berkaitan dengan topiknya. Keupayaan para pembaca untuk meninggalkan ulasan mereka dalam format interaktif merupakan ciri yang utama untuk banyak blog. Kebanyakan blog umumnya adalah blog teks, walaupun sesetengahnya bertumpu pada gambar foto ( blog foto), video (vlog), muzik (blog MP3), atau audio ( podcasting), dan merupakan sebahagian rangkaian media sosial yang lebih luas.
Istilah "blog" merupakan kata lakur untuk perkataan "web" dan "log" (Web log). "Blog" juga boleh digunakan sebagai kata kerja yang membawa pengertian "untuk memeliharakan atau menambahkan isi kandungan ke dalam blog."
Jadual isi kandungan
Sejarah
Babad, buku Commonplace, buku harian, perzin and persatuan akhbar amatur boleh dilihatkan sebagai pendahulu-pendahulu blog. Sebelum blog menjadi popular, terdapat banyak bentuk komuniti-komuniti digital, termasuk:
- Usenet
- perkhidmatan komersil dalam talian, seperti GEnie, BiX, dan CompuServe yang awal;
- senarai emel; [2] dan
- sistem papan buletin (BBS).
Pada dekad 1990-an, perisian forum internet seperti WebEx mencipta perbualan selari dengan "bebenang". Bebenang merupakan hubungan topik antara perutusan-perutusan pada " papan gabus" metafora. Sesetengah orang telah mempersamakan blog dengan gerakan Mass-Observation yang diasaskan pada tahun 1937 di United Kingdom.
1983-1990 (Pra-HTTP)
Usenet ialah perantara bersiri yang utama yang terangkum dalam takrif Jaringan Sejagat (WWW) yang asal. [3] Ia menonjolkan Kumpulan Berita Tersederhana yang membenarkan semua pengeposan dikawal oleh seorang individu atau sekumpulan pengguna yang kecil. Kebanyakan kumpulan berita tersebut hanya merupakan forum-forum perbualan tersederhana. Bagaimanapun pada tahun 1983-94, satu kekecualian, iaitu mod.ber telah dicipta, dikendalikan, dan dinamai sempena Brian E. Redman. Secara tetap, Redman dan beberapa rakannya akan mengeposkan ringkasan pos-pos dan bebenang-bebenang yang menarik dari laman- laman web yang lain dalam internet. Dengan gaya penerbitan jurnal bersiri, kehadiran dalam jaringan pra-HTTP, serta persamaan yang rapat dengan bentuk blog kini yang biasa — ia menonjolkan pautan ke laman-laman web yang menarik yang dipilih oleh pengguna blog — mod.ber mempunyai banyak ciri yang biasanya dikaitkan dengan istilah Blog. Walaupun demikian, mod.ber menamatkan operasinya selepas lebih kurang 8 bulan.
1994–2001
Blog moden berkembang daripada buku-buku harian dalam talian yang digunakan untuk menyimpan huraian selari tentang kehidupan-kehidupan peribadi mereka. Kebanyakan penulis ini merujuk kepada diri sendiri sebagai penulis diari, wartawan, atau penulis jurnal, dengan sebilangan kecil memanggil diri sendiri sebagai " eskribisionis" (escribitionist).
Gelang laman web (webring) Halaman-halaman Terbuka merangkumi ahli-ahli komuniti jurnal dalam talian. Justin Hall yang menggunakan blog peribadi sejak dari tahun 1994 ketika masih belajar di Kolej Swarthmore umumnya dianggap sebagai salah satu pengguna perintis blog yang awal, [4] bersama-sama Jerry Pournelle.
Bentuk-bentuk jurnal yang lain juga wujud dalam talian. Satu contoh yang terkenal ialah jurnal John Carmack , seorang pengaturcara permainan. Jurnalnya yang diterbitkan melalui protokol jari telah dibaca secara meluas. Laman-laman web, baik laman korporat mahupun laman peribadi, masih kerap kali menonjolkan bahagian-bahagian "Berita" atau "Berita Terkini", seringnya di dalam laman utama masing-masing dan disisihkan mengikut tarikh. Salah satu "weblog" berasaskan berita ialah Laporan Drudge yang diasaskan oleh Matt Drudge. Drudge menggelar diri sebagai pemberita pengingkar walaupun beliau jelas tidak suka akan pengelasan ini. Lagi satu contoh ialah Institut untuk Ketepatan Awam yang mula mengeposkan siaran-siaran berita yang menonjolkan petikan-petikan berita seperenggan daripada laman-laman web yang lain banyak kali seminggu mulai dari tahun 1998. Satu contoh pendahulu yang awal yang patut diberikan perhatian ialah laman web peribadi gurauan Kibo, legenda Usenet yang sentiasa dikemaskinikan.
Weblog-weblog yang awal hanya merupakan komponen-komponen laman web biasa yang dikemaskinikan secara manual. Bagaimanapun, pengembangan alat-alat untuk memudahkan penghasilan dan pemeliharaan rencana-rencana web yang diposkan mengikut tertib kronologi terbalik menyebabkan proses penerbitan boleh dilaksanakan oleh lebih banyak orang yang kurang mahir dari segi keupayaan teknikal. Ini akhirnya menyebabkan sebuah kelas penerbitan dalam talian yang terdiri yang menerbitkan apa yang diakui sebagai blog pada hari ini. Umpamanya, penggunaan perisian berasaskan pelayar kini merupakan suatu aspek "pemblogan" yang biasa. Blog-blog boleh dihoskan, baik oleh perkhidmatan- perkhidmatan pengehosan blog yang khusus, mahupun melalui perisian blog, seperti WordPress, Movable Type, blogger atau LiveJournal, atau dalam perkhidmatan-perkhidmatan pengehosan web yang tetap seperti DreamHost.
Istilah "weblog" dicipta oleh Jorn Barger pada 17 Disember 1997, manakala singkatannya, "blog," dicipta oleh Peter Merholz yang secara bermain-main memecahkan perkataan weblog menjadi frasa we blog di palang sisi blognya, Peterme.com pada April atau Mei 1999. [5][6] [7] Ini dengan pantasnya diterima, baik sebagai kata nama mahupun sebagai "kata kerja" dalam bahasa Inggeris ("to blog," bermaksud "mengedit weblog atau mengeposkan perutusan ke dalam weblog").
Selepas sebuah permulaan yang lambat, pemblogan dengan pantasnya mencapai kepopularan: laman web Xanga yang dilancarkan pada tahun 1996 hanya mempunyai 100 kemasukan menjelang 1997, tetapi melebihi 20 juta pada bulan Disember 2005. Penggunaan blog meledak pada tahun 1999 dan selepas nya, dipopularkan lagi ketibaan-ketibaan hampir serentak alat-alat blog pengehosan yang awal:
- Open Diary yang dilancarkan pada Oktober 1998 tidak lama kemudian berkembang sehingga beribu-ribu kemasukan dalam talian. Open Diary membuat pembaharuan kepada ulasan pembaca dan menjadi komunit blog yang pertama yang para pembaca boleh menambahkan ulasan mereka pada kemasukan blog penulis yang lain.
Brad Fitzpatrick, seorang pengguna blog yang terkenal memulakan LiveJournal pada bulan Mac 1999.
- Andrew Smales mencipta Pitas.com pada bulan Julai 1999 sebagai pilihan yang lebih mudah untuk mengendalikan "laman berita" dalam laman web. Ini diikuti oleh penciptaan Diaryland pada bulan September 1999 yang lebih menumpukan pada komuniti diari peribadi. [8]
- Evan Williams dan Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) melancarkan blogger.com pada bulan Ogos 1999 (dibeli oleh Google pada bulan Februari 2003).
Pemblogan menggabungkan laman web peribadi dengan alat-alat untuk memudahkan perpuatan ke halaman-halaman dalam talian. — khususnya permalink, blogroll dan TrackBack. Ini, bersama-sama dengan enjin carian blog membolehkan pengguna blog untuk menjejaki bebenang-bebenang yang menghubungkan mereka kepada orang-orang lain yang mempunyai minat yang sama.
Bacaan tambahan
- Alavi, Nasrin. We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs, Percetakan Soft Skull, New York, 2005. ISBN 1-933368-05-5 .
- Bruns, Axel, dan Joanne Jacobs, ed. Uses of Blogs, Peter Lang, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-8204-8124-6 .
- Kline, David; Burstein, Dan. Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, Squibnocket Partners, L.L.C., 2005. ISBN 1-59315-141-1.
Rujukan
- ↑ Blogosphere melihatkan pertumbuhan yang sihat.. (2006-11-08). Dicapai pada 2007-03-15.
- ↑ Istilah "e-log" telah digunakan untuk menghuraikan kemasukan jurnal yang dihantar melalui emel sejak dari seawal Mac 1996. Norman, David (2005-07-13), Pengguna dikelirukan oleh blog, < http://lists.drupal.org
/archives/development/2005-07 > (retrieved on 2007-Feb-20), Para kakitangan dan pelajar penyelidikan mengalu-alukan 'E-Log'. Kolej Universiti London: (Disember 2003). Dicapai pada 2007-02-20./msg00208.html - ↑ Berners-Lee Tim. Jaringan Sejagat: Cadangan untuk sebuah Projek HiperTeks. Dicapai pada 2007-03-22.
- ↑ Harmanci Reyhan (2005-02-20). Masa dah tiba untuk memeriahkan kehidupan anda — Justin Hall, pengguna perintis blog, berundur pada umur 31 tahun. San Francisco Chronicle. Dicapai pada 2006-06-09.
- ↑ " It's the links, stupid", The Economist, 2006-4-20. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
- ↑ Merholz Peter (1999). Peterme.com. The Internet Archive. Dicapai pada 2006-07-21.
- ↑ Kottke Jason (August 26, 2003). kottke.org. Dicapai pada 2006-07-21.
- ↑ Jensen, Mallory A Brief History of Weblogs
Pautan luar
- Carta pembandingan perisian blog oleh Online Journalism Review, USC Annenberg
- Pemblogan, dan penyertaan peribadi dalam pembangunan pengetahuan awam dalam talian (fail PDF) oleh Mark Brady, Kertas Kerja Chimera 2005-02 Colchester: Universiti Essex
- Laporan Undang-undang dan Keselamatan Komputer Jilid 22, Terbitan 2, m.s. 127-136 — blog, bohong dan doocing oleh Sylvia Kierkegaard (2006)
- Panduan undang-undang untuk pengguna blog oleh Yayasan Electronic Frontier
Panjangnya...! ;)
Macammana nak bermula? Anda boleh menggunakan alat yang anda sedang tatapi sekarang ini untuk menyumbangkan karya anda (sebagai latihan atau secara langsung) dengan mengemukakan penulisan tentang berita, acara, pengumuman, pantun, cerpen, sajak, artikel ilmiah atau apa saja...
Untuk tujuan peribadi atau komersil, bolehlah bermula dengan menggunakan khidmat percuma Blogger.com -- Saya berpeluang berjumpa dengan Evan Williams, salah seorang daripada pengasas Blogger.com semasa Web2Expo Tokyo baru-baru ini ;) [blogger.com bagaimanapun telah dipindah milik kepada syarikat gergasi Google, dan beliau kini mempelopori produk terbaru, Twitter.com - alat untuk pemblogan mikro]
Jika anda sudah bersedia untuk memblog secara profesional, bolehlah menggunakan perisian seperti WordPress (sumber terbuka percuma) atau perisian komersil lain sama ada dihoskan sendiri atau dihoskan oleh penyedia komersil (ASP). (psst... 1oasis.net)
Untuk penggemar telefon bimbit, mungkin boleh selia "moblog" seperti yang dipelopori oleh Joi Ito - sempat juga saya jumpa Mr Ito di Tokyo baru-baru ini, dan kami telahpun menjemput beliau ke Malaysia (sedang tunggu pengesahan sama ada dia akan datang ke Kuala Lumpur bulan depan atau tidak).
Selamat berkarya!
Sunday, July 8
Can Software as a Service (SaaS) projects be done offshore?
By Emmy Gengler
Sometime I get these incredulous looks from people when I tell them that we are able to do SaaS (Software as a Service) projects offshore, and not only the software development portion, but we involve offshore resources from the very beginning of any transition to SaaS project.
There is value to be had in involving offshore resources from the very beginning:
- Begins the knowledge transfer process immediately giving the offshore team a much better understanding of what needs to be developed.
- Optimum use of onshore and offshore resources provides for a better use of monetary funds by the client.
What can offshore resources actually be involved with? Below is a list, in chronological order of the types of activities we involve offshore resources in before development of the application even starts:
- Write the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) based on the lists of required functionality
- Develop use cases
- Technical architecture design
- Detailed design
- Design Look & Feel of the new site - show sample screen shots
- Prototype
Tuesday, July 3
Shuth's mistake: "Delaying to outsource"
Hafiz Latib (fondly known as Bitol among his online peers) of the InternetMuda.com online marketing resource online newsletter (who also runs an an Internet graphic-related business through CheapestCovers.com) has done an excellent job in compiling a list of mistakes to have been admittedly done by dozens of Malaysia-based respected Internet Marketers (the locally called "otais" [old-timers] among their fellow IM-ers and loyal "followers').
Subscribers to his list receive a tip from different otais (or IM Gurus) every five days or so.
Tip #19 of Bitol's serial email newsletter is by Mohd Suhaimy (nicknamed: Shuth). Here's a full re-print of this most recent tip in Malay (published with permission from the original writer), followed by a rough translation into English:
...Kesilapan yang saya lakukan ini bukanlah kesilapan sewaktu saya memulakan perniagaan internet, tetapi, ianya adalah kesilapan selepas saya mempunyai perniagaan internet dan sewaktu cuba memperkembangkannya.
Kesilapan saya ialah.. tidak mempunyai "rakan kerja".
Sewaktu memulakan perniagaan internet dulu, saya tidak percaya dengan konsep rakan kerja dan outsource. Pada saya, jika anda boleh membuat kesemuanya sendiri, mengapa anda perlu membazirkan wang mengupah orang lain? Lebih-lebih lagi di dalam perniagaan internet, hampir semuanya boleh dilakukan sendiri.. bermula dari membuat website, marketing, ambil order, urus order dan hantar order.. semuanya boleh dilakukan seorang diri.
Jadi, bekerjalah saya seorang diri di depan komputer setiap hari. Dari pagi sampai ke malam. Namun begitu.., lama-kelamaan, masa bekerja saya menjadi semakin panjang, jika dulu pada waktu malam saya sudah boleh berehat-rehat, tetapi kini, saya terpaksa duduk lagi di depan komputer untuk melayan karenah-karenah pelanggan. Sama ada dari pelanggan baru, hinggalah kepada pelanggan yang sedia ada.
Akhirnya, hari cuti sabtu & ahad saya pun terpaksa dikorbankan, apatah lagi jika hendak pulang ke kampung yang tiada sambungan internet. Boleh mengamuk pelanggan-pelanggan baru yang hendak membuat tempahan, sebab order mereka tidak dapat diuruskan dengan cepat dan pantas.
Dipendekkan cerita, untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut, saya telah mengambil seorang pembantu/rakan/protégé untuk membantu saya menguruskan perniagaan saya. Alhamdulilah, kini, barulah mudah sedikit untuk saya bergerak dan memulakan projek-projek perniagaan yang lain. Jikalau tidak, masa saya hanya habis untuk menguruskan perniagaan internet saya yang 1 itu sahaja. Langsung tidak boleh berkembang...
Jadi, kepada rakan-rakan sekalian, jika anda ingin mengembangkan perniagaan anda, anda sememangnya memerlukan bantuan orang lain.
Jika ada yang mengatakan... "Ahh.. tak perlu orang lain.. aku sorang je pun boleh buat semuanya!".. itu bermakna, perniagaan beliau sebenarnya, masih belum cukup besar dan berkembang. Masih lagi di tahap kecil-kecilan lagi.. pelanggan pun tak ramai..
Jika anda tidak percaya.. cuba anda cari mana-mana perniagaan yang maju .... Pernahkah anda melihat perniagaan-perniagaan yang maju, besar dan untung juta-juta, hanya diuruskan oleh one man show sahaja ?
Sekian...
Shuth
WangCyber.com
The simple-but-concise tip in English [roughly translated by Nasir]:
...This happened not when I was starting my Internet business, but rather after I have already established the business and when I started to grow it.
The mistake was... I DID NOT have a "business partner."
When I started my Internet business, the concept of partnership and outsourcing was not something that I believed in. After all, I was able to perform all the tasks required for my business by myself. I've said to myself, "Why would I want to waste money by paying somebody for these tasks?" I figured that in Internet business especially, almost everything can be done myself -- from setting the website, marketing the products, taking and fulfilling orders -- EVERYTHING can be done by a single person!
So, I worked, and worked alone, in front of the computer every day: From morning till night. Soon, my work hours was becoming longer and longer. If earlier, I was able to take a rest every evening, during the later evenings, I was forced to keep staying in front of the PC to take care of my clients -- both new and existing ones.
It wasn't long before my weekends had to be sacrificed too. I wasn't able to take holidays to go back to my parents' kampong that still lacks Internet access. How could I, or my would-be clients would mad if I failed to fulfill their orders in due time.
To make the story short, I've recently hired an assistant who's now my protégé and business partner to help me manage my business. Praise be to God, I'm now able to move around, and start many more business projects. If not, all my time had to be dedicated to the single Internet business I had back then, and thus I could not have grown my business.
In conclusion, to all my friends, if you want to grow your business, you definitely need others' assistance. If anyone says "Well, I don't need anybody else. I alone can do everything!", that means his business is still not big or have grown enough -- still small and has very few clients.
If you don't believe me, try looking at any other successful businesses that are big and profitable by the millions of dollars/ringgit -- are they managed by a 'one-man show'?
The End.
Shuth
Head to Shuth's decently popular and active a-year-plus-old Web forum called WangCyber.com ("wang" means "money" in Malay --hence, the forum posts are mainly in Malay too) to get more of online money making and technical tips. He also blogs for slight ly over a year now at MohdSuhaimy.com. Suhaimy's company among others, also published and directly retails a Malay-language pop-culture ebook called "Mas Kahwin Yang Hilang" (The Missing Dowry) -- how to make enough money to finance your dream weddings!
Read more about outsourcing or business partnering, especially in Malaysia:
"Innovate or Die!"
(you've repeated heard of this mantra, right?)
"Outsource or Die Slowly!"
(did I just came up with this?)
Subscribers to his list receive a tip from different otais (or IM Gurus) every five days or so.
Tip #19 of Bitol's serial email newsletter is by Mohd Suhaimy (nicknamed: Shuth). Here's a full re-print of this most recent tip in Malay (published with permission from the original writer), followed by a rough translation into English:
...Kesilapan yang saya lakukan ini bukanlah kesilapan sewaktu saya memulakan perniagaan internet, tetapi, ianya adalah kesilapan selepas saya mempunyai perniagaan internet dan sewaktu cuba memperkembangkannya.
Kesilapan saya ialah.. tidak mempunyai "rakan kerja".
Sewaktu memulakan perniagaan internet dulu, saya tidak percaya dengan konsep rakan kerja dan outsource. Pada saya, jika anda boleh membuat kesemuanya sendiri, mengapa anda perlu membazirkan wang mengupah orang lain? Lebih-lebih lagi di dalam perniagaan internet, hampir semuanya boleh dilakukan sendiri.. bermula dari membuat website, marketing, ambil order, urus order dan hantar order.. semuanya boleh dilakukan seorang diri.
Jadi, bekerjalah saya seorang diri di depan komputer setiap hari. Dari pagi sampai ke malam. Namun begitu.., lama-kelamaan, masa bekerja saya menjadi semakin panjang, jika dulu pada waktu malam saya sudah boleh berehat-rehat, tetapi kini, saya terpaksa duduk lagi di depan komputer untuk melayan karenah-karenah pelanggan. Sama ada dari pelanggan baru, hinggalah kepada pelanggan yang sedia ada.
Akhirnya, hari cuti sabtu & ahad saya pun terpaksa dikorbankan, apatah lagi jika hendak pulang ke kampung yang tiada sambungan internet. Boleh mengamuk pelanggan-pelanggan baru yang hendak membuat tempahan, sebab order mereka tidak dapat diuruskan dengan cepat dan pantas.
Dipendekkan cerita, untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut, saya telah mengambil seorang pembantu/rakan/protégé untuk membantu saya menguruskan perniagaan saya. Alhamdulilah, kini, barulah mudah sedikit untuk saya bergerak dan memulakan projek-projek perniagaan yang lain. Jikalau tidak, masa saya hanya habis untuk menguruskan perniagaan internet saya yang 1 itu sahaja. Langsung tidak boleh berkembang...
Jadi, kepada rakan-rakan sekalian, jika anda ingin mengembangkan perniagaan anda, anda sememangnya memerlukan bantuan orang lain.
Jika ada yang mengatakan... "Ahh.. tak perlu orang lain.. aku sorang je pun boleh buat semuanya!".. itu bermakna, perniagaan beliau sebenarnya, masih belum cukup besar dan berkembang. Masih lagi di tahap kecil-kecilan lagi.. pelanggan pun tak ramai..
Jika anda tidak percaya.. cuba anda cari mana-mana perniagaan yang maju .... Pernahkah anda melihat perniagaan-perniagaan yang maju, besar dan untung juta-juta, hanya diuruskan oleh one man show sahaja ?
Sekian...
Shuth
WangCyber.com
The simple-but-concise tip in English [roughly translated by Nasir]:
...This happened not when I was starting my Internet business, but rather after I have already established the business and when I started to grow it.
The mistake was... I DID NOT have a "business partner."
When I started my Internet business, the concept of partnership and outsourcing was not something that I believed in. After all, I was able to perform all the tasks required for my business by myself. I've said to myself, "Why would I want to waste money by paying somebody for these tasks?" I figured that in Internet business especially, almost everything can be done myself -- from setting the website, marketing the products, taking and fulfilling orders -- EVERYTHING can be done by a single person!
So, I worked, and worked alone, in front of the computer every day: From morning till night. Soon, my work hours was becoming longer and longer. If earlier, I was able to take a rest every evening, during the later evenings, I was forced to keep staying in front of the PC to take care of my clients -- both new and existing ones.
It wasn't long before my weekends had to be sacrificed too. I wasn't able to take holidays to go back to my parents' kampong that still lacks Internet access. How could I, or my would-be clients would mad if I failed to fulfill their orders in due time.
To make the story short, I've recently hired an assistant who's now my protégé and business partner to help me manage my business. Praise be to God, I'm now able to move around, and start many more business projects. If not, all my time had to be dedicated to the single Internet business I had back then, and thus I could not have grown my business.
In conclusion, to all my friends, if you want to grow your business, you definitely need others' assistance. If anyone says "Well, I don't need anybody else. I alone can do everything!", that means his business is still not big or have grown enough -- still small and has very few clients.
If you don't believe me, try looking at any other successful businesses that are big and profitable by the millions of dollars/ringgit -- are they managed by a 'one-man show'?
The End.
Shuth
Head to Shuth's decently popular and active a-year-plus-old Web forum called WangCyber.com ("wang" means "money" in Malay --hence, the forum posts are mainly in Malay too) to get more of online money making and technical tips. He also blogs for slight ly over a year now at MohdSuhaimy.com. Suhaimy's company among others, also published and directly retails a Malay-language pop-culture ebook called "Mas Kahwin Yang Hilang" (The Missing Dowry) -- how to make enough money to finance your dream weddings!Read more about outsourcing or business partnering, especially in Malaysia:
- Entrepreneurship 2.0
- Visit the Offshore Location or do an Actual Project?
- Selling Malaysia as outsourcing hub
- Ready for Pajama Enterprise?
- Mastering the Virtual Workplace
- Globalization - The Great Equalizer
- Outsourcing Blogging - it will become a trend!
- We can have it all!
- Hire Globally, Test Locally
- The era of big software is over
- Micro-Management Has a Negative Growth Effect
- How to Balance Your Life and Your Work
- Outsourcing Malaysia: In Search of Excellence
"Innovate or Die!"
(you've repeated heard of this mantra, right?)
"Outsource or Die Slowly!"
(did I just came up with this?)
Tuesday, June 26
Which site would you like to hack today?
Less than two weeks ago, HongKiat.com, one of the most popular blog sites in Malaysia and by a Malaysian (also ~Top-3000 at Technorati) alerted its readers on spotted hackings, eg:-
Unless, if this has been a stunt for the presses... ;)
Two other bloggers have also reported that their blog sites have been hacked yesterday (Monday, 25jun07):-
I remember having a chat with a fellow blogger at recent NuffNang's Penang Meet on Saturday where I suggested some pros and cons of having your self-installed content-management system (eg. WordPress) vs outsourced service (eg. Blogger.com) citing among others, security concerns and/or technical maintenance chore for the former option. Liew, another prominent tech-centric blogger also alerted his readers with availability of the latest security patch for Wordpress on the same day.
Guess, three of the bloggers who were also present at the event are experiencing such major hassle first hand! Lim HK should be technical enough to recover his much valued blog, I think. Though, this hacking incident could be a major blow (or boost) for Hong Kiat's full-time self-employment move, announced just last week. 5xmom (who has had her other sites hacked not long ago, who should have learned her lesson well -- sorry!) and Cedric however seem to have to start rebuilding their damaged site from scratch, respectively. Luckily, unlike HongKiat.com or Chan Lilian's other more worthy sites, those other sites were quite fresh prior to have been hacked -- Some hackers somehow have been nice enough not destroy the entire sites which could be a worthy archive for the Internet.
For other bloggers and website operators, beware of the hackers!
Read more about cyber securities in Malaysia:-
- hongkiat.com/blog/more-than-400-websites-hacked-yesterday-majority-were-malaysians
- hongkiat.com/blog/audi-club-malaysia-forum-hacked-by-bmw-fans
Unless, if this has been a stunt for the presses... ;)
Two other bloggers have also reported that their blog sites have been hacked yesterday (Monday, 25jun07):-
- Chan Lilian's frenzrss & faith walk - forcing this mom to stay up late to restore the two blogs (or to start over with WordPress)
- CedricAng.com - forcing the previous site owner to immediately move to another domain and declare war, eh, I meant to have gone to be slightly bad from just monkeying around previously.
I remember having a chat with a fellow blogger at recent NuffNang's Penang Meet on Saturday where I suggested some pros and cons of having your self-installed content-management system (eg. WordPress) vs outsourced service (eg. Blogger.com) citing among others, security concerns and/or technical maintenance chore for the former option. Liew, another prominent tech-centric blogger also alerted his readers with availability of the latest security patch for Wordpress on the same day.
Guess, three of the bloggers who were also present at the event are experiencing such major hassle first hand! Lim HK should be technical enough to recover his much valued blog, I think. Though, this hacking incident could be a major blow (or boost) for Hong Kiat's full-time self-employment move, announced just last week. 5xmom (who has had her other sites hacked not long ago, who should have learned her lesson well -- sorry!) and Cedric however seem to have to start rebuilding their damaged site from scratch, respectively. Luckily, unlike HongKiat.com or Chan Lilian's other more worthy sites, those other sites were quite fresh prior to have been hacked -- Some hackers somehow have been nice enough not destroy the entire sites which could be a worthy archive for the Internet.
For other bloggers and website operators, beware of the hackers!
Read more about cyber securities in Malaysia:-
- NST Online: In Malaysia, it's a hacker's heaven
- Hack-in-the-Box: Security conference in Malaysia coming in September 2007.
Monday, June 25
Outsourcing Blogging - it will become a trend!
Since early last month, the whole journalism industry especially in the United States started buzzing about the 'invasion' of outsourcing, citing a case that was purported to be among the first of the many potential threatening trends for many full-time local journalists. I ended my take on the issue with a scenario where no on-site journalists would be employed anyway, in the case of over 70-million blogs out there today representing a powerful force of mostly (99+%!) independent or micro publications. With so many bloggers publishing between one to two blogs each, one could guess the number of microworkers in indy journalism industry to be about 1 every 20 Internet users today, or ~5% (and increasing fast) of worldwide Internet users!
Technorati, a leading community of bloggers and a web engine that scours its millions of members' blogs in its April statistics further revealed the shocking numbers like, 120,000 new weblogs are created every day (that's1.4 new blog every second or well over 40 millions new blogs a year to boost the growth in number of blog sites at well over 50% in 2007 alone) and 1.5 millon blog posts are published every day (~17 posts per second).
Seeing these shocking numbers, some journalists of the mainstream media would respond: "Aargh, more junks for the tangled Web!". True indeed as the bulk of these blog posts and websites would fall under the category of splogs (spam posts), 'engrished' (in butchered English language) and duplicates (plagiarized/pirated content from other sites, particular of the mainstream news agencies like Reuters, AP, ANN and Bernama or mega broadacasters/publishers like CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, WSJ, CCTV, Al-Jazeera, MTV, Media Prima, Utusan, Karangkraf etc.)
It's commonly known however that for decades, the mainstream media including the big names like Reuters have been outsourcing news reporting to independent journalists and to various partners throughout the world. 'New media' companies like CNET and About.com for instance have also been outsourcing content creation to hundreds of independent journalists since their inception year. Slashdot and Dmoz Open Directory (and sister sites like MusicMoz, Chefmoz etc) further took the outsourcing concept further to pool content from the entire Internet crowd, i.e.'crowdsourcing'. As well, Wikipedia took advantage the similar collaborative model and soon later, successfully trounced the former kings of encyclopedias like Britannica and Microsoft/MSN Encarta. [Gone to the higher extremes today, many media hosts let the individuals themselves publish their own content directly for free as observed at today's leading websites like Myspace/Friendster/Orkut/MSN Spaces/Yahoo 360, Wordpress/Google Blogger, YouTube/Imeem, eBay, Del.icio.us/Blinklist, Digg/Topix/Newsvine, LinkedIn/Xing/Ryze/Ecademy etc. but original non-commercial journalism content concern us more in this post]
Most Internet users would insist that Wikipedia, Slashdot, CNET Blogs, Topix/Newsvine and YouTube are no junks! These sites with loads of original contents by hundreds or thousands dedicated contributors (or a lot more in the case of YouTube) have become some of the most relied reference networks/resources for many including for academic work and business. In fact, there have also been many cases in US court sessions where Wikipedia has been cited for definition references. Even journalists for the mainstream media often flock to sites like Slashdot and YouTube for their hot stories.
And the millions of bloggers, will soon realize, if not already, the power of outsourcing for turning their modest online creations into something more meaningful or influential like CNET, HowStuffWork and Wikipedia (a long shot, but possible for smaller niche of subjects) or in the case of local scenes, MalaysiaKini (maintaining its solid mark in local journalism), The Cicak/CJC Media Network/Project 010 (flourishing -- fresh in the market), NSTP's Monsters Blog (fading? -- after all, these mainstream media companies are mostly controlled by political parties, with many prominent politicians having just openly expressed their fear of blogs) etc.
A closer look in Malaysia: well known blogging personalities like Jeff Ooi, Liew Cheong Fong, Kenny Sia, Irfan Khairi, Fione Tan, Terrence Smith etc. seemingly have yet to majorly outsource the content creation for their respective blogs, although such outsourcing activities are starting to be buzzed around. Still, Samsul Zamzuri for instance, a recently featured blogger in the New Straits Times, mentioned collaborative activities between him and partners from around the world for maintaining several of his web sites. Gobala Krishnan, another featured blogger in the same NST article published last month, also openly advertised freelancing positions to grow his blog empire with sites that specialized in topics like internet marketing (at his self-named website), internet technology (e.g. VoIP and WordPress CMS), music & entertainment news (i.e. offering trivias on artists like The Rolling Stones, the Beastie Boys, Prince, Marvin Gay etc. while also lashing out a few: like Metallica), and network marketing.
A good start, would you say? It's more like a tip of the iceberg for what oursourcing or crowdsourcing would offer for bloggers especially or for entrepreneurs in general.
BTW, if you're wondering how much a freelancing blogger/webmaster/internet marketer can ultimately earn, try peeking at Paula Mooney's list of blogger's salaries - quite a number of Malaysians made it to the list of 120 individuals with their claimed/estimated yearly income, starting with Shamzul Zamzuri at #10, Gobala (#34), Victor Yusop (#47), Paul Tan (#49), Liew CF (#59) , Chan Lilian (#64) and MenJ (#67) in the world! -- Shamzul who has been blogging since August 2005 however openly denied the gross estimation put at up to well over US$300,000 making him a clear Internet millionaire every year (in Ringgit Malaysia, that is), claiming that he actually makes more like 20% of such amount which would still be higher than salaries earned by many entry-level engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, business managers etc. who work full-time on various company sites throughout Malaysia -- not too bad for someone working from home, eh?
If you'd ask me why we have so many Malaysians ranking high in the list of wealthiest bloggers / micro-netpreneurs, I'd say perhaps we really do have many of them. After all, according to Alexa, and confirmed by Friendster's PR, Malaysians do supply the biggest traffic (20+%) to Friendster, one of the leading social network in the world, and members numbering over three million (7% of Friendsters). Many other social network and sites/forums on money-making information are also flocked by significant Malaysians as their audience -- Pajamanation is more of a business network, or more specifically, a business consulting marketplace for home-based work/business, rather than a social or infopreneurial network, but still promotes "make money online" (or on the Internet/from home) and hence also enjoys this Malaysia-centric audience exceeding 20% according to Alexa (The real traffic is more like 7% though). A true SEO-aware blogger, Chan Lilian even pointed out in her blog on how she prestigiously get here 5xmom site to be in the first page of Google search for "make money" (searched over 100,000 times per month in Yahoo Overture network alone). OR... We Malaysians, in the overhyped spirit of Malaysia Boleh, just love to brag, thinking that those tax agency men from LHDN will be quite slow in catching up to collect their share out of Internet-driven revenue (unlike say, US counterpart, the IRS that seems to be very effective at catching up with tax evaders). You do realize that get-rick-quick schemes and illegal HYIP operators are actively being pursued by the government men, right? Soon, it'll be bloggers and website operators. A note of advice: If you blog for money, you'd better register yourself as a business entity with SSM and do file tax report to LHDN every year -- closing in soon to end date of 30 JUNE (for individuals with additional non-salary earnings) this year!
FOR BLOG OWNERS OUT THERE: Would you or would you know outsource your blog writing?
Technorati, a leading community of bloggers and a web engine that scours its millions of members' blogs in its April statistics further revealed the shocking numbers like, 120,000 new weblogs are created every day (that's1.4 new blog every second or well over 40 millions new blogs a year to boost the growth in number of blog sites at well over 50% in 2007 alone) and 1.5 millon blog posts are published every day (~17 posts per second).
Seeing these shocking numbers, some journalists of the mainstream media would respond: "Aargh, more junks for the tangled Web!". True indeed as the bulk of these blog posts and websites would fall under the category of splogs (spam posts), 'engrished' (in butchered English language) and duplicates (plagiarized/pirated content from other sites, particular of the mainstream news agencies like Reuters, AP, ANN and Bernama or mega broadacasters/publishers like CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, WSJ, CCTV, Al-Jazeera, MTV, Media Prima, Utusan, Karangkraf etc.)
It's commonly known however that for decades, the mainstream media including the big names like Reuters have been outsourcing news reporting to independent journalists and to various partners throughout the world. 'New media' companies like CNET and About.com for instance have also been outsourcing content creation to hundreds of independent journalists since their inception year. Slashdot and Dmoz Open Directory (and sister sites like MusicMoz, Chefmoz etc) further took the outsourcing concept further to pool content from the entire Internet crowd, i.e.'crowdsourcing'. As well, Wikipedia took advantage the similar collaborative model and soon later, successfully trounced the former kings of encyclopedias like Britannica and Microsoft/MSN Encarta. [Gone to the higher extremes today, many media hosts let the individuals themselves publish their own content directly for free as observed at today's leading websites like Myspace/Friendster/Orkut/MSN Spaces/Yahoo 360, Wordpress/Google Blogger, YouTube/Imeem, eBay, Del.icio.us/Blinklist, Digg/Topix/Newsvine, LinkedIn/Xing/Ryze/Ecademy etc. but original non-commercial journalism content concern us more in this post]
Most Internet users would insist that Wikipedia, Slashdot, CNET Blogs, Topix/Newsvine and YouTube are no junks! These sites with loads of original contents by hundreds or thousands dedicated contributors (or a lot more in the case of YouTube) have become some of the most relied reference networks/resources for many including for academic work and business. In fact, there have also been many cases in US court sessions where Wikipedia has been cited for definition references. Even journalists for the mainstream media often flock to sites like Slashdot and YouTube for their hot stories.
And the millions of bloggers, will soon realize, if not already, the power of outsourcing for turning their modest online creations into something more meaningful or influential like CNET, HowStuffWork and Wikipedia (a long shot, but possible for smaller niche of subjects) or in the case of local scenes, MalaysiaKini (maintaining its solid mark in local journalism), The Cicak/CJC Media Network/Project 010 (flourishing -- fresh in the market), NSTP's Monsters Blog (fading? -- after all, these mainstream media companies are mostly controlled by political parties, with many prominent politicians having just openly expressed their fear of blogs) etc.
A closer look in Malaysia: well known blogging personalities like Jeff Ooi, Liew Cheong Fong, Kenny Sia, Irfan Khairi, Fione Tan, Terrence Smith etc. seemingly have yet to majorly outsource the content creation for their respective blogs, although such outsourcing activities are starting to be buzzed around. Still, Samsul Zamzuri for instance, a recently featured blogger in the New Straits Times, mentioned collaborative activities between him and partners from around the world for maintaining several of his web sites. Gobala Krishnan, another featured blogger in the same NST article published last month, also openly advertised freelancing positions to grow his blog empire with sites that specialized in topics like internet marketing (at his self-named website), internet technology (e.g. VoIP and WordPress CMS), music & entertainment news (i.e. offering trivias on artists like The Rolling Stones, the Beastie Boys, Prince, Marvin Gay etc. while also lashing out a few: like Metallica), and network marketing.
A good start, would you say? It's more like a tip of the iceberg for what oursourcing or crowdsourcing would offer for bloggers especially or for entrepreneurs in general.
BTW, if you're wondering how much a freelancing blogger/webmaster/internet marketer can ultimately earn, try peeking at Paula Mooney's list of blogger's salaries - quite a number of Malaysians made it to the list of 120 individuals with their claimed/estimated yearly income, starting with Shamzul Zamzuri at #10, Gobala (#34), Victor Yusop (#47), Paul Tan (#49), Liew CF (#59) , Chan Lilian (#64) and MenJ (#67) in the world! -- Shamzul who has been blogging since August 2005 however openly denied the gross estimation put at up to well over US$300,000 making him a clear Internet millionaire every year (in Ringgit Malaysia, that is), claiming that he actually makes more like 20% of such amount which would still be higher than salaries earned by many entry-level engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, business managers etc. who work full-time on various company sites throughout Malaysia -- not too bad for someone working from home, eh?
If you'd ask me why we have so many Malaysians ranking high in the list of wealthiest bloggers / micro-netpreneurs, I'd say perhaps we really do have many of them. After all, according to Alexa, and confirmed by Friendster's PR, Malaysians do supply the biggest traffic (20+%) to Friendster, one of the leading social network in the world, and members numbering over three million (7% of Friendsters). Many other social network and sites/forums on money-making information are also flocked by significant Malaysians as their audience -- Pajamanation is more of a business network, or more specifically, a business consulting marketplace for home-based work/business, rather than a social or infopreneurial network, but still promotes "make money online" (or on the Internet/from home) and hence also enjoys this Malaysia-centric audience exceeding 20% according to Alexa (The real traffic is more like 7% though). A true SEO-aware blogger, Chan Lilian even pointed out in her blog on how she prestigiously get here 5xmom site to be in the first page of Google search for "make money" (searched over 100,000 times per month in Yahoo Overture network alone). OR... We Malaysians, in the overhyped spirit of Malaysia Boleh, just love to brag, thinking that those tax agency men from LHDN will be quite slow in catching up to collect their share out of Internet-driven revenue (unlike say, US counterpart, the IRS that seems to be very effective at catching up with tax evaders). You do realize that get-rick-quick schemes and illegal HYIP operators are actively being pursued by the government men, right? Soon, it'll be bloggers and website operators. A note of advice: If you blog for money, you'd better register yourself as a business entity with SSM and do file tax report to LHDN every year -- closing in soon to end date of 30 JUNE (for individuals with additional non-salary earnings) this year!
FOR BLOG OWNERS OUT THERE: Would you or would you know outsource your blog writing?
Saturday, June 9
Blogger's Gathering in Penang - Sat, 23 JUNE 2007
Got the following announcement in my email inbox yesterday... Looks like a worthy event for Pajamaworkers to join:
Best Regards,
Samantha Wong
Marketing Executive
Nuffnang Malaysia
I've signed up to attend it, so, if you'll be coming to Penang for this one, see you at Gurney Plaza that Saturday noon (for free lunch, hehe -- who says there's no more free lunch..)!
And the promotional poster:
FELLOW NUFFNANGERS!!!!!
It is time for another bloggers’ gathering.
Though this time for the sake of the North Malaysians who missed the Pirates event in KL, we’re holding one for over 100 Nuffnangers at Food Loft, Gurney Plaza.
Along with a panel of Nuffnangers like Cedric and Project010, we have put together an event where the lovely guys at Food Loft have offered to sponsor us the venue and food for our bloggers’ meet.
For those of you who’ve never been to Food Loft, it is the trendy and chic restaurant at Gurney Plaza with a breathtaking sea view of Gurney Drive.
Nuffnangers from all over Malaysia are welcomed to attend and mingle with bloggers, Nuffnang advertisers and some of the Nuffnang team members themselves.
There will be a mingling session with lots and lots of photos and even a contest with prizes sponsored by Exabytes.
Not only that, in the show of support for our Nuffnang Community, Kenny Sia himself will be flying over all the way from Kuching to meet up with the Nuffnangers at this meet so sign up now before all 100 places are filled.
For more details of the event, click here.
http://www.nuffnang.com.my
To sign up for the event, click here to sign up.
http://www.project010.net
Best Regards,
Samantha Wong
Marketing Executive
Nuffnang Malaysia
I've signed up to attend it, so, if you'll be coming to Penang for this one, see you at Gurney Plaza that Saturday noon (for free lunch, hehe -- who says there's no more free lunch..)!
And the promotional poster:
Saturday, May 12
NST Spotlight :Casting the Net for money
If we've heard in the past of many entrepreneurs who advocate pajama working by organizing seminars throughout the nation, only recently have these actual pajama workers or pajamapreneurs been featured in the mainstream media, initiated by the following article by one of the Malaysia's premier english-language newspapers - New Straits Times. If you're a reader of traditional newspapers, both online and offline, most likely you've stumbled on ads by Fione Tan's eOneNet and Dr Irfan Khairi's or even Shaun Tan's (aka. Sen Ze) who famously came up with the tagline "Make US Dollars in Your Pajamas". Although each of these personalities claimed to have been or are still making a great deal of income through the Internet, we must have realized that they are now making even more money by being an SME (vs. being a one-man show, working from bedrooms/own home), hiring many staff, complete with at least one lavish office and advertising heavily in mainstream media -- TV, radio, newspapers and magazines.
Not popularly known however, except by the growing community of bloggers and internet suffers/marketers for at least two years already, are the many hundreds of individuals who are actually making a decent life-supporting income or even a small wealth each month working literally in their pajamas (or shorts/kain pelekat/batik) at home or anywhere the Internet is accessible. How much money are we talking about? Is RM2,000/month enough to make you quit your day job? (This is VERY POSSIBLE BTW, but in some cases, you'd have to wait six months or longer to collect a monthly income of this size -- so, keep your day job when you're about to start your first Internet-based business). How about RM5,000 or even RM50K per month, for a full year or longer? Wouldn't that make you a pajama-working self-made millionaire in two years or less?
Forget auto-surf, and forget high-yield investment programs that presented more risks than benefits. There are many legitimate business/work than can be done by Internet-accessible workers, and some are even simpler and better than joining and promoting products thru an MLM system.
Perhaps to be politically correct, the following NST article features three home-working micropreneurs representing three major races in Malaysia - Malay, Chinese and Indian - SZAB, LiewCF and Gobala, each of whom operates quite a varied business activities, namely, "directory systems", "a dedicated publication on ICT and gadgets", and "an internet marketing blog as well as many sites selling infopreneur ebooks/products".
There are many others, for instance the eBay Taiko, the eLance Superworker, the Domain Web Lords, the Million-Pixel Millionaire, the World Traveller, and perhaps the mainstream media will soon catch an eye on them. (Psst: Author of this Pajamanation Malaysia blog is another net-centric pajamaworker, since 1992, but he's not ready to reveal his full resume. Though, there's this little devil called Google, you know!). Over the past many years, Pajamanation Malaysia has been following this trend of Generation C finally starting to invade Malaysia and many are shouting, "Show Us The Money!".
With success stories like this spreading like fireflies, Pajamanation Malaysia has projected that the number of pajamaworkers and micropreneurs in Malaysia to grow fast to exceed 100,000 (that's only 20% of existing active business entities in Malaysia) in two years time, and to surpass ONE MILLION net-centric workers by 2012. The question is, are the government and the local SMEs & corporations ready for this rise of the knowledge-centric amateurs? And, will the broadband and telco providers in Malaysia ever keep up?
(Note that there are 40 million home-based workers/businesses in the USA alone today, another 10 million plus in Europe and in China, India and Pakistan: prepare to be shocked soon!).
Read on the following newspaper article to learn more...
Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, who works up to 12 hours a day on his laptop, has a monthly five-figure salary.
A popular Internet income generator is through the sale of advertisement space in websites and blogs. Others sell anything from e-books to software, either authored themselves, or through an affiliate programme.
There are no statistics on the number of Malaysians who have gone full-time into online money-making ventures, although anecdotal evidence suggests more are doing so.
However, before Malaysians start jumping on the Internet income bandwagon, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has a word of caution: Beware of online scams.
"Surfers should not fall for get-rich-quick scams that are aplenty online. MCMC continuously monitors and acts on them," said a spokesman from the regulatory body from the communications and multimedia industry.
But for those who have struck gold online, the returns are generous, not only in terms of pay.
Most work from home, which means they do not have bosses breathing down their necks, don’t have to get stuck in traffic jams and can spend more time with their families.
Liew Cheon Fong, who runs a technology blog (www.liewcf.com), claimed he was the first Malaysian to go into blogging full-time in 2005 in what started out as a hobby to share computing tips with friends.
The Kluang-based 27-year-old computer science degree-holder posts a few entries in his blog daily. He needs to keep his entries interesting to attract web traffic, failing which his income could dip.
One of his sources of income is Google Adsense, an online advertisement programme run by Internet giant Google. Liew gets paid whenever visitors click on advertisements placed on his blog.
Website operators who sign up with Google Adsense display advertisements related to their websites. For example, a blog on pets may feature ads on dog shampoo or pet grooming services.
Often, revenue generated online is in US dollars and credited into e-commerce facilities like PayPal. While Malaysians cannot withdraw money from PayPal accounts, many use them to make online purchases instead.
Unless you earn a monthly five-figure salary like Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, 32, a Sungai Buloh-based Netpreneur (see accompanying story). He has opened an account with a United States bank which allows him to withdraw earnings credited into PayPal.
Then using his ATM card, he withdraws his money here.
But Samsul, who co-runs several blogs on gadgets like handphones and digital cameras, said many people have the misconception that entrepreneurs making money over the Internet involve "just working a few hours a day and spending the rest of the time watching their money roll in".
Samsul spends up to 12 hours in front of a computer, either liaising with his co-bloggers, marketing his blogs or simply surfing the Internet for ideas or to keep abreast with the latest developments in technology.
There are also drawbacks when your sole income is derived from such unconventional means. A common complaint is erratic income.
In Samsul’s case, revenue peaks during the Christmas and the US summer seasons when sales of technology items go up, while for the rest of the year, earnings can be slow.
Last June, Liew’s income was badly hit when Google dropped his blog’s ranking, resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of visitors to the site. Liew has since recovered after Google upgraded his ranking. Now, almost a quarter of a million visitors go to his blog per month.
Gobala Krishnan, 27, who sells e-books and software online, said it was more important to plan ahead and follow it through. Otherwise, his earnings would be affected in the long-run. He claimed to be making RM20,000 to RM30,000 per month.
How does one identify online cheats, especially since some of the operators are based overseas?
Krishnan offered his rule-of-thumb: "If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. Just like any business, Internet business takes capital, time and dedication."
SOURCE: NST Online: Local News
Not popularly known however, except by the growing community of bloggers and internet suffers/marketers for at least two years already, are the many hundreds of individuals who are actually making a decent life-supporting income or even a small wealth each month working literally in their pajamas (or shorts/kain pelekat/batik) at home or anywhere the Internet is accessible. How much money are we talking about? Is RM2,000/month enough to make you quit your day job? (This is VERY POSSIBLE BTW, but in some cases, you'd have to wait six months or longer to collect a monthly income of this size -- so, keep your day job when you're about to start your first Internet-based business). How about RM5,000 or even RM50K per month, for a full year or longer? Wouldn't that make you a pajama-working self-made millionaire in two years or less?
Forget auto-surf, and forget high-yield investment programs that presented more risks than benefits. There are many legitimate business/work than can be done by Internet-accessible workers, and some are even simpler and better than joining and promoting products thru an MLM system.
Perhaps to be politically correct, the following NST article features three home-working micropreneurs representing three major races in Malaysia - Malay, Chinese and Indian - SZAB, LiewCF and Gobala, each of whom operates quite a varied business activities, namely, "directory systems", "a dedicated publication on ICT and gadgets", and "an internet marketing blog as well as many sites selling infopreneur ebooks/products".
There are many others, for instance the eBay Taiko, the eLance Superworker, the Domain Web Lords, the Million-Pixel Millionaire, the World Traveller, and perhaps the mainstream media will soon catch an eye on them. (Psst: Author of this Pajamanation Malaysia blog is another net-centric pajamaworker, since 1992, but he's not ready to reveal his full resume. Though, there's this little devil called Google, you know!). Over the past many years, Pajamanation Malaysia has been following this trend of Generation C finally starting to invade Malaysia and many are shouting, "Show Us The Money!".
With success stories like this spreading like fireflies, Pajamanation Malaysia has projected that the number of pajamaworkers and micropreneurs in Malaysia to grow fast to exceed 100,000 (that's only 20% of existing active business entities in Malaysia) in two years time, and to surpass ONE MILLION net-centric workers by 2012. The question is, are the government and the local SMEs & corporations ready for this rise of the knowledge-centric amateurs? And, will the broadband and telco providers in Malaysia ever keep up?
(Note that there are 40 million home-based workers/businesses in the USA alone today, another 10 million plus in Europe and in China, India and Pakistan: prepare to be shocked soon!).
Read on the following newspaper article to learn more...
Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, who works up to 12 hours a day on his laptop, has a monthly five-figure salary.
by Chow Kum Hor, 11 MAY 2007
KUALA LUMPUR: Fed up with day jobs and measly pay, a small but rising number of people have become full-time Internet entrepreneurs, some raking in five-figure salaries, often in the comfort of their living rooms.
There are no statistics on the number of Malaysians who have gone full-time into online money-making ventures, although anecdotal evidence suggests more are doing so.
However, before Malaysians start jumping on the Internet income bandwagon, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has a word of caution: Beware of online scams.
"Surfers should not fall for get-rich-quick scams that are aplenty online. MCMC continuously monitors and acts on them," said a spokesman from the regulatory body from the communications and multimedia industry.
But for those who have struck gold online, the returns are generous, not only in terms of pay.
Most work from home, which means they do not have bosses breathing down their necks, don’t have to get stuck in traffic jams and can spend more time with their families.
Liew Cheon Fong, who runs a technology blog (www.liewcf.com), claimed he was the first Malaysian to go into blogging full-time in 2005 in what started out as a hobby to share computing tips with friends.
The Kluang-based 27-year-old computer science degree-holder posts a few entries in his blog daily. He needs to keep his entries interesting to attract web traffic, failing which his income could dip.
One of his sources of income is Google Adsense, an online advertisement programme run by Internet giant Google. Liew gets paid whenever visitors click on advertisements placed on his blog.
Website operators who sign up with Google Adsense display advertisements related to their websites. For example, a blog on pets may feature ads on dog shampoo or pet grooming services.
Often, revenue generated online is in US dollars and credited into e-commerce facilities like PayPal. While Malaysians cannot withdraw money from PayPal accounts, many use them to make online purchases instead.
Unless you earn a monthly five-figure salary like Samsul Zamzuri Abu Bakar, 32, a Sungai Buloh-based Netpreneur (see accompanying story). He has opened an account with a United States bank which allows him to withdraw earnings credited into PayPal.
Then using his ATM card, he withdraws his money here.
But Samsul, who co-runs several blogs on gadgets like handphones and digital cameras, said many people have the misconception that entrepreneurs making money over the Internet involve "just working a few hours a day and spending the rest of the time watching their money roll in".
Samsul spends up to 12 hours in front of a computer, either liaising with his co-bloggers, marketing his blogs or simply surfing the Internet for ideas or to keep abreast with the latest developments in technology.
There are also drawbacks when your sole income is derived from such unconventional means. A common complaint is erratic income.
In Samsul’s case, revenue peaks during the Christmas and the US summer seasons when sales of technology items go up, while for the rest of the year, earnings can be slow.
Last June, Liew’s income was badly hit when Google dropped his blog’s ranking, resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of visitors to the site. Liew has since recovered after Google upgraded his ranking. Now, almost a quarter of a million visitors go to his blog per month.
Gobala Krishnan, 27, who sells e-books and software online, said it was more important to plan ahead and follow it through. Otherwise, his earnings would be affected in the long-run. He claimed to be making RM20,000 to RM30,000 per month.
How does one identify online cheats, especially since some of the operators are based overseas?
Krishnan offered his rule-of-thumb: "If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam. Just like any business, Internet business takes capital, time and dedication."
SOURCE: NST Online: Local News
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