By Loo Qiu Xi
Blogging used to be mere expressions on the
web. Blogs were once online diaries, written to be shared with interested
readers. Leisurely created, bloggers wrote on their everyday experiences, vented
their frustrations and sought companionship from the online fraternity.
Today, blogging is so much different. It has completely
evolved into a modern career path for individuals with extraordinary needs. In
fact, famous bloggers do it so well that names like Michelle Phan, Jane Chuck,
and Ahmad Nazuwan have become synonymous to famous icons. Their readers have
assimilated their lives into the blogger’s life. Even more recently, video
logging (vlog) developed and became the new rage. Vloggers share their thoughts
better through creative visual aids rather than the conventional plain texts.
Last April was Youtube’s tenth birthday. To
honour the video streaming service that has transformed our online video
sharing experiences, Yahoo interviewed Youtube’s most popular woman, Michelle
Phan.
Phan started vlogging when she created
makeup tutorials and posted those videos online in year 2007. Phan’s first
video was filmed using a laptop borrowed from her local community college. At
that time, she was waitressing and living on food stamps. Never in her wildest
fantasies would she have expected that the videos would thrust her to fame and
fortune. Nevertheless, two years after her first post, her life changed because
Buzzfeed posted two of her videos. “First it was 25 cents a day, then 5
dollars a day,” she said. “When I hit US$25 a day, I quit my job as a waitress,
which freed me up to create content full time. I just focused on creating
powerful content and building influence. We’re living in an age where influence
is the new currency, its the new power, and it can make or break your
business.”
Today, she has accumulated 1.1
billion views and has a whopping 7.6 million YouTube subscribers. As if that is
not WOW enough, this 27 year old American also owns a makeup line, a media
company, a book deal, a beauty subscription service and a music label. Due to
her immense success, Michelle Phan was lately listed as one of Inc. Magazine's
30 top entrepreneurs under 30, with an estimated worth of $100 million. “What
inspired me to work so hard and to maintain my determination was seeing my
mother. She was an immigrant and was struggling in America to make it by, that
inspired me to work hard.”
Intended as a kind sharing, vlogging has totally changed the ways humans (especially netizens) connect with one another. It is genuinely fun and meaningful to be able to do something we are passionate as our career. As the famous saying goes,
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~Confucius~
Michelle Phan’s success story could be
traced here. View all her interesting videos on her official Youtube channel.
Sources:
http://my.bloggerati.me/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/from-food-stamps-to--100-million--how-michelle-phan-became-the-most-popular-woman-on-youtube-174445844.html
https://www.techinasia.com/michelle-phan-youtube-icon-ipsy-asian-expansion/
I love her!! Seriously, she inspires people with her success and has her own make up line that is interesting to watch. It is more intersting to watch how she include her personal life in her vlog. she is happy with her life and work and at the same time earning lots of money!
ReplyDeleteOh wow! If only everybody is doing what they love, they won't be working for their entire life! It is nice to see how she started from the bottom and now she's a successful persona now. Definitely blogging opens many windows of opportunities regardless of who, what and where one is from. But at the same time, one should be really careful when posting online especially on blogs. Our very own famous blogger, Raja Petra is being chased by the Government for speaking out his mind, which costed him to be charged under the Sedition Act. What I'm trying to say is, indeed blogging can either make someone or break someone. It is up to us, what information we want to convey to our audience, as long as it is abiding the law.
ReplyDeleteYes Venisa, I agree with you. The famous saying used to be "The pen is mightier than the sword." Nowadays, we should derive it into, "The keyboard is mightier than the machine gun". Everything is possible online, we just got to be sincere and responsible.
DeleteWow! Honestly, i don't know who is Michelle Phan. But, after read your entry.. i feel like... wow! She inspired me a lot. Suddenly, i wanna shoot my own vlog. Haha. But, you know what, i wont deny, blog, vlog and so on actually can change people life. From ordinary citizen to become a famous citizen.
ReplyDeleteEnna, start your own vlog and who knows, you may be just as successful =D
DeleteHi Qiu Xi,
ReplyDeleteI am so intrigued with this entry. How happy when can make interest as career and at the same time earning a lots of money. Although I do not really know Michelle Phan, but I really impressed with her. Suddenly I thought, why I don't make my interest as career earlier?
Like I said to Enna, you can always start now =)
DeleteWow!!!Now I'm start thinking how to start my own vlog (hehe ^_^)..I never thought that vlog can be one of the medium to create money. Honestly, I'm really impressed with her story.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is another channel for people to share their opinion. However, it has been a trend for a blogger use to promote some of the product when they are high readership among bloggers. What I can said is marketing people are genius. They can use any source of high readership to reach the marketing goal.
ReplyDeleteWho knows whether it goes one way or another. Did marketing directors look for bloggers or did bloggers look for marketing directors to increase revenue?
DeleteHi Qiu Xi, you did well by posting a nice topic here. Well, it is undoubtedly that blog and vlog can really make money and also make you become popular. However, I think that we need a high passion to do that as what Phan shown to the world. Her story inspired other peoples because she really loves those jobs and it is the easiest way to get money. But, I wondered if she posted too many videos and blogs, doesnt she get tired of it? Or feel bored about it? Plus, what about her fans? Maybe some of them like to know her private life right? How she handles the hater's comment? All those questions really make me wonder because she is a blogger and vlogger. Therefore, she must answer all that to her fans.
ReplyDeleteTikah, imaginative! Hahah. I believe that vlogging as a full-time career is just as difficult as any other professions in the world. But, like I mentioned in the entry earlier, as long as we do what we love, we would not suffer from work. Having expanded her businesses, Michelle probably has less time vlogging as compared to the primary years of her career. She spends her time handling her other businesses too. As for haters, I am not really sure because Michelle sure has a positive reputation. Anyways, haters will always be haters. Let's not let them ruin our mood. If you're interested to know more about her, perhaps you could follow Michelle from now on ;)
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