Pig is busy with video platforms

“Pig, are you still working?” Robert said.

“Yes Robert,” I said. “My accounts on video platforms are getting recognized.”

“Accounts? Do you have more than one?”

“Yes, I have more than one. At first, it was my TikTok account. Then I worked on Instagram account and it is getting traffic.”

“It is good. They are moving forwards, so you can take a break.”

“I can’t.” I shook my head. “While it is getting recognition, I have to catch this chance tightly. If I take a break, it will turn to like when I started it.”

“It’s complicated. I don’t understand. But don’t you worry. Take your time. I go to work in the garden now.”

I smiled, “Thanks so much, Robert.”

Pig gains new knowledge and ide

“Pig.” Robert knocked on my room’s door.

“Yes,” I said and I opened the door.

“What’s happened to you?” He said with big eyes when he saw my eyes looked like a panda’s.

“Last night, I didn’t sleep,” I told.

“Till now?”

I nodded.

“Why?”

“My tiktok’s video went viral, and now a new idea pops up in my head. I am studying about it.”

“Really?  Congratulations.” Robert grabbed my hands and shook them with a smile on his lips.

“Thanks. I am busy, I won’t be able to help you with gardening today. Also, I can’t help you with other work. I need to work on it.”

“Don’t worry.” Robert patted his chest. “Leave everything to me. Take your time.”

Robert cannot justify his text on Blogspot

“Pig,” Robert called, “please help me.”

“What’s the matter?” I said.

“I created a blog on Blogspot. I wrote it already and I clicked Justify but my text isn’t justified.”

“Did you write on it directly?”

“No, I wrote it on Ms Word, then I copied and pasted it here.”

“It is not a big deal, we can fix it. Open Google, then copy your text from Ms Word to paste it in the search box of search, after that, copy it and paste it on Blogspot.”

“Ah, my text can be justified. How did you know that?”

“Experience.” I smiled. “I met this problem, too, when I wrote on Blogspot. There was no document telling how to fix this, so I tried to do it by myself, then I found this method.”

“Very good. Thanks pig.”

“You’re welcome.”

Pig’s article about traditional Khmer color indigo

“Pig, what are you writing again?” Robert asked.

“I am writing about the traditional Khmer color ‘black’. Cambodian people didn’t call it black in the past,” I said.

“What is it called?”

“I don’t tell you. If you want to know, you have to read it. However, it will be published next week.”

“What’s about your article about color indigo?”

“Click on the picture above if you want to read it.”

 

How pig edits English grammar

“Pig, can you tell the difficult experiences you have encountered working as a blogger?” Robert asked.

“There are many,” I said.

“Tell me one.”

“Let’s take the example of writing in English. Though I know English, I am poor in grammar. My writing usually had grammatical errors. When I wrote fiction on websites, there were a lot of criticism comments especially over my grammar, but no one told how to fix it. This is what the writers online always meet - especially the non-native English writers. In addition, though I asked them to help me by telling me how I could improve my grammar, no one replied. Seeing that I decided to continue writing. I published stories on eleven websites and I spent about one year. One day, there was a comment from a reader saying that my story had a lot of grammatical errors, they told me to use google doc in gmail to fix it. I followed their advice; after that, I don’t see anyone criticize grammar in my writing anymore.”

“Wow, sad but happy experience.”

“Yes, it is both a sad and happy experience. And because of that, I decided to share what problems I encounter and how I fix them on my website. The experts, the rich, the outstanding people might think it is not important and laugh at. But for the low and poor bloggers, like me, who are thriving to chase dreams to be successful bloggers, it is very important. Especially when we are not native English writers, we meet a lot of difficulties, and what we need is comments or advice on how we can deal with that difficulty or improve our capacity. Nowaday, among thousands of people, there are less than one hundred people who have a helpful heart to share good comments. Most of them love to give look down comments, mock comments etc.” 

Robert wagged his head, “I understand.”

Pig doesn’t have time to have fun like her friends

It was a good, shiny day. While Robert and I were gardening, cow, duck and twin piggies came.

“Hello pig. Hello Robert,” they said.

“Hello,” I said.

“We are coming to call you to go to the lake. We didn’t go out together for many days.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“Come on, pig. We miss you,” twin piggies said.

“Yes, come with us,” cow said.

“Don’t stay at home like this. You will be stressed,” duck said.

“No.” I shook my head. “Sorry.”

Seeing that they couldn’t persuade me, they gave up.

After they left, Robert asked, “Why don’t you go with them? This will be fun.”

“I don’t have time for having fun, Robert,” I said. “I need to work to get money.”

“I wonder why they can have time to have fun, and you don’t.”

“They don’t need to worry because they have their masters taking care of them. They don’t have to care about food or pay the bill, but I do.”

Robert wagged his head, “I understand.”

 

Marketing of writing a website today

“Pig, I have read your website. Most of your articles are short,” Robert said.

“Yes, they are short,” I said.

“Why don’t you write a long article?”

“It’s not the right marketing.”

“What does it mean?”

“Nowaday, people prefer short content. You can see that short videos are gaining more popularity than long videos. So, I decided to inspire this tactic by producing short articles.”

Robert wagged his head, “I see.”

 

Pig is writing about traditional color of Cambodia

“What are you doing, Pig?” Robert asked.

“I am writing to publish on my website chantchhaya,” I said.

“What are you writing about?”

“About the color of ‘wall of the museum of Cambodia.”

“Why do you write about it?”

“I want to tell both Cambodians and international tourists that the wall of the national museum of Cambodia is not called red.”

“Will it be published now?”

“Not yet. This article will be published on Wednesday, next week.”

Pig teaches Robert first step to be a blogger (5)

“How often do you plan to publish your article?”

Hearing this question, Robert made a sour face. “I have no clue about this,” he said.

“It’s important,” I claimed.

“What is your suggestion?”

“No matter if you are a blogger or a vlogger, you have to have products in your hand before you make a website or a video channel. Based on my experience, the number of products you should have is more than one hundred.”

“More than one hundred?”

“Yes.” I nodded my head. “When you create your website, you should post one hundred articles. If it is less than one hundred, you will make the readers feel you are not ready and it can make them feel not impressed about your site.”

“I see.” Robert wagged his head. “Like we open a fruit store, for example. We have to have fruits in our store. When the customer comes, they will go around and see what we have. If we have little, the customer will leave.”

I nodded my head with a smile.

“But why do we need more than one hundred contents?”

“If we own a store on the land, to make people know that our store is opening, we open the door - everyday. But own a website, an online store, the only way to tell the customers that it is opening is to post everyday or regularly. So, besides the one hundred published articles, you have to publish a new article - which you can choose between posting it one daily, two daily, one in a week, two in a week etc.”

“Oh god! It’s not easy.”

“Like I told you already, it is very very very very very hard. And it will be harder while you are operating your site. You will understand when you work with it yourself.”

Robert dropped his shoulders as he heard me.

“Now, summary what I have told you.”

“To make a website,” Robert narrated, “find a domain and a niche. The domain should be no longer than four syllables, it should be easy to say, to type and to remember, it should be a word that a lot of people know about it and it should not be too specific. As for the niche or the topic, it should be a thing that is useful for the readers or what the readers need. Then think about channel and language. If I choose Blogspot, I should write in English; if I choose Wordpress, I can write in any language. To make the website work, I should build my fame. So, besides creating a website, I should create a video channel as well - and I should link them together. Before I make a website or a video channel, I should prepare the contents in advance more than one hundred. When I start my website, there should be one hundred contents published on the site, then I should post regularly to make my website go on.”

“Perfect,” I said with a smile.

Pig teaches Robert first step to be a blogger (4)

I continued, “When I changed yayaidea to be Wordpress org’s site, I also changed its topic from balcony garden to television commercial script. My mind thought and hoped that this would be successful to pull readers to read, still it failed.”

“Why?” Robert said.

“First reason is we are new, second reason is no one knows about us, third reason is it doesn’t give any benefit to the readers.”

“Um,” Robert wagged his head slightly, “I seem to feel about what you said.”

I smiled when I heard it.

“What’s about your chantchhaya? You said it is written in Khmer. How can it get views?” 

“It’s because I link it with youtube.”

Robert shrank his eyes as he heard what I said.

“Besides writing blog, I have also used youtube - in 2011 or 2012 I think. At that time, I just wanted to learn using social media. In 2018, when youtube became famous, Cambodian users including me tried to get our channel monetized. I made many types of content but it didn’t work. One day, I tried an administration video and it went viral, so I decided to choose administration teaching as a niche for my youtube channel. At first, it went very well; then youtube closed the advertisement in Cambodia, it was the down period of all Cambodian users in Cambodia. Because of that led me to become a real blogger, and I decided to buy the domains - which two are failures and one is walking.”

“It is written in Khmer, so your youtube channel is in Khmer as well, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is in Khmer.”

“How can your site work by just linking to youtube?”

“Good question.” I grinned. “For instance, I made a video teaching how to write a meeting report uploaded on youtube, then I uploaded the sample of report as PDF file in chantchhaya for the viewers to download it.”

“Ah,” Robert wagged his head in a row, “I see.”

“It’s called a strategy,” I stated. “The same as very happy piglet and yayaidea, chantchhaya didn’t get views by just posting articles. Instead, people go to it because they want the free download document.”

“I’ve got it. You want to tell me that I should build my name if I want to walk on a path of online career. I should not create only a website, but also a video channel and link them together. And to make my website successful, there should be something beneficial that the readers can take from it.”

“Correct.” I nodded my head. “It’s a business. When we do business, we give a product or service to customers and we take product or service costs from them. If our business doesn’t have a product or a service that customers need, no one will come to us. So, you have to think carefully and deeply before you create your site. Not only the website career but also other businesses.”

Robert wagged his head in a row, “I see. Anything else?

“Yes…”

Pig teaches Robert first step to be a blogger (3)

“So, if we choose the correct domain or website name, will it be successful?” Robert asked.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “There are other aspects.”

“What are they?”

“Let’s talk about my three websites as examples. The site very happy piglet wrote about general articles, and yayaidea wrote about balcony gardens. Both failed. Then I changed very happy piglet to be written about whatever I want; I stop caring if it gets views or not. As for yayaidea, I decided to try something new by changing it to be Wordpress. When I did it, I thought it would become Wordpress’s site, but then I realized I was wrong. Before yayaidea is 'https' meaning it was under protection of Blogspot. Now it is 'http', no 's', meaning it is not under the protection of Blogspot anymore - because I pulled it out of Blogspot. In addition, Wordpress just took it to be in Wordpress organization, not Wordpress dot com, so now, yayaidea is cloud in the sky. That’s why I asked you about the channel. You have to be clear and sure which one you want for your works to put on. It is like you are setting up a store. You have to think carefully, because it is not easy to change or to move - the same as the store on the land.”

Robert wagged his head, “I see. Is there more?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Language is one aspect as well. Both very happy piglet and yayaidea are written in English. I made it in English because Google adsense doesn't allow monetization if the website is written in Khmer. However, there aren’t any viewers. But for chantchhaya, I wrote it in Khmer; it seems to be more successful than the English sites. With this experience, I have to remind you besides thinking of a domain, channel, you must think about the language of your work as well. Sure, English websites are good because a lot of people know English, but it doesn’t guarantee that they will come to read our site. On the other hand, Khmer is not a worldwide language, but it turns out my Khmer website gains readers much more than. Hence, you have to think and choose wisely.”

“Okay.” Robert nodded his head. “If I choose Blogspot, I should write in English. If I choose Wordpress, I can write in any language. That’s all?”

“Not yet all…”

Pig teaches Robert first step to be a blogger (2)

 

It has been a few days already. Robert told me that he could not think of a niche for his website.

“Can you help me?” He said.

“I want to, but it is your site, you must do it yourself,” I said.

“Then, can you tell me your experiences? Perhaps it will help me to find out.”

“Well,” I thought for a moment, “I have been writing a blog since 2011. At that time, I used Wordpress. Then in 2018, I started Blogspot. Because I love writing stories, I decided to write short stories on my site. I chose very happy piglet as my domain since I thought I am a pig and I want to be a happy pig. After that, I published one story a day, till I got 500 views, I applied for monetization. The adsense refused; it said my website didn’t have uniqueness and it didn’t give any benefit to the readers. I had to change from a short story site to a general article site. Though it had views, it didn’t go well. There are plenty of sites that have the same type of articles as mine. I could not attract the readers. Then I decided to build another website - yayaidea, by writing about my plants that I grew in my balcony. I really expected it could attract the readers, especially the people who like gardening. Furthermore, there is no website talking about garden on balcony; I was really hopeful that my site was the first kind and the best. In the end, everything failed. Still I didn’t want to give up, in 2023 I decided to upgrade my Wordpress blog to be a website with the domain - chantchhaya. It worked, but not very well at all. Even though I felt I didn’t lose for nothing. At least, through the experiences, I understood that choosing a website name or a domain is very important. It should be one or two words with no more than four syllables; that word should be easy to remember, easy to type; it should be the words that a lot of people know. Between the three websites, very happy piglet and yayaidea are good because they are used easy words, but very happy piglet is long, yayaidea is better. As for chantchhaya, though it has three syllables, it is Cambodian word that is hard to remember and it is not a well known word. Even Cambodians, there are not many people who know about this word. Furthermore, it is hard to type. When people cannot remember it, they cannot type it correctly, then it can’t be ranked in Google search and this leads my site to be not successful.”

After hearing it, Robert popped up his eyes, “Just a domain is hard. What about other things?”

“It is not hard, but it is very very very very very very very hard…” I laughed.

Pig teaches Robert first step to be a blogger

It was a cool night. Robert walked to lay near my chair.

“Pig, I heard that being a blogger needs to know how to write and love writing, isn’t it?” He said.

“Being a blogger is a kind of career dealing with writing more than other jobs, but I don’t think we have to love writing in order to be a blogger,” I said.

“Like I, I can write, but I can’t write long articles, I can be a blogger, can’t I?”

“I think you can.”

“If so, please teach me. I want to be a blogger. I want to earn money.”

“Being a blogger doesn’t mean we can earn money.”

“I know; however, at least it can help.”

I nodded my head, “Yes, it can help us - sometimes.”

“Teach me.”

“Well, I have experience with Blogspot and Wordpress. Which one do you want to choose to be your channel?”

“What is the difference between them?”

“If you choose Blogspot, you will spend about $20 a year but your site is under control of Google. If you choose Wordpress, you will have more freedom, but you need to buy a plan - the low price plan with a monetization option is about $120 a year.”

“Can I choose both?”

“Of course, you can.”

“Okay, I choose both of them. What’s next?”

“You need to find a niche for your website. I mean a topic. Then you have to find your domain.”

“Can you give advice on these points?”

“I can give you advice related to the domain. You should select a domain which is easy to say, to remember, and it should not so specific because if you want to change topic of your site, you can change it; if your domain is so specific, you might be have to change your domain, and it will affect your site and also your readers.”

“What’s about the niche?”

“It is about your own preference. I can’t give a comment.”

Robert wagged in a row.

“Think about these two things. After you find them, we can talk about it more.”

Robert nodded his head, “Okay.”

Because of a woman, Robert is working hard

It was early morning. Crow told that she got well, so she would go back to her home. Before she flew, she thanked us for taking care of her these few days.

After the crow left, Robert and I went to the garden.

“It was a long time. You don’t deliver the vegetables to your customer,” Robert said.

“This is a hot season. There is little rain, so the vegetables are not growing well. We have to wait for about one or two more months,” I said.

“Where can we get money while waiting for the vegetables?”

“I told you before that I am not earning from only vegetables but from being a blogger too.”

“Well, can you teach me how to be a blogger?”

I looked at him, “You are learning how to do business with me. Now you want to learn how to be a blogger. Why?”

“I think I should study multiple majors at the same time.”

“What is the cause?”

Robert didn’t reply, just made his face low and showed a shy behavior.

“I got it.” I nodded my head in a row. “You work hard because of that female human.”

Robert did shoulders shimmy, then he expanded his right hand to touch my arm within a manner of shyness, but because he used much strength, the touch turned to be a push and as a result I laid my face in wet soil.

“Oh sorry Pig. I didn’t mean it.” He hurriedly came to help me out.  

Pig is writing a short romantic fiction

Crow was still staying in my house; however, she was much better.

After dinner, three of us gathered at the table in my front yard. Robert and crow were playing a ball and I was sitting in a chair and typing.

When they were tired, they came to the table. As Robert saw me typing, he asked, “What are you writing?”

“I am writing fiction.”

“Oh,” he unlocked his eyes, “what’s it about?”

“It’s a romance between a bird and a fish.”

“Do you take inspiration from my romance?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I planned this story a few years ago. I had the story's plot and frame already. I just kept it. After I heard your love story, I remembered this story; so I took it out and decided to write it.”

“Wow, you are good. Can you tell me how you make a bird and a fish love each other? How do you make it start?”

“Well,” I turned to the crow, “Can you tell me what you think when you see a fish?”

“My institution tells me to eat it,” the crow said.

I turned to Robert, “It’s how the story starts.”

“I don’t understand.” Robert shook his head.

“Neither do I.” Crow wagged her head.

I chuckled, “If it is easy to understand, it can't be called a romance.”

Both Robert and crow raised their thumbs up.

 

Can Robert make a female human love him?

The sun was shining. Robert and I were doing a job in the garden. Then…

“Pig,” Robert said in a low pitch.

“Why did you whisper?” I said.

“I want to ask you something.”

“Say it a little bit louder.”

“Well,” he thought for a few seconds, “I want to ask for your advice on what I should do in order to persuade that woman to love me.”

With a blank brain for about five seconds, I stood and looked at him. After that, I opened my mouth, “In general, people who love apples will go to a community of people who love apples. If she is a person who loves a dog, she will love you. However, it is not romance. It is rare for a human to fall in a romantic relationship with a dog unless you are a dog who is good or better than humans.”

“So, what should I do?”

“Only one thing you can try.”

“What is it?”

“Develop yourself - knowledge, competence, ideas etc. If you are a dog but you can take care of her better than a male human can, you might have a chance to win over her heart and make her fall in love with you without caring what other people look at or think about both of you.”

 

Crow is not healed

The hotpot was finished.

“Thanks for dinner,” the crow said. “I am flying back home.” As she finished speaking, she opened her wings and flew.

Bang.

She fell on the ground. Robert and I ran to carry her, “Are you okay?”

“What’s happened?” She asked.

“You flew in the wrong direction. It’s the door to my house.” I pointed to the door.

“Oh,” the crow looked at the door and looked in the opposite direction and wagged her head. “I'm confused.” She got up. “Bye bye, good night.” She opened her wings and flew.

Bang again.

Robert and I ran to stand by the fence and asked, “Are you fine?” 

“I’m fine, but what’s that?”

“It’s a tree. You hit the tree,” I told.

“What’s happened to me?” The crow covered her wings on her head.

“I think you are not yet well. You better stay here.”

“Well,” she thought for a few seconds then she nodded, “okay.”

“I have free space in the house. You can sleep there.”

“I can sleep on the tree’s branch,” the crow said.

“It’s dangerous.”

The crow giggled, “I am crow. Only a wolf, fox or tiger will be able to hurt me. However, there is Robert. They don’t dare to come.”

“Yes, you are right; but it is double safe if you stay inside the house.”

Robert nodded his head, “Pig is right.”

Knowing that she could not refuse, the crow agreed to stay inside my house.

Hotpot night

In the front yard, I sat on a chair, Robert sat on a chair and crow sat on the table. We were having soup.

“Thanks Robert,” crow said.

“Why did you thank him?” I asked.

“Because of him, I can join the two of you tonight.”

I looked at Robert. He didn’t say a word and pretended to focus on taking beef from the soup pot.

“I am who invited you to this dinner and I am the one who prepared all of these. Why didn’t you thank me?”

“Because you were the one who caused me this,” the crow said and pointed to her forehead that was wrapped.

“Why me?” I asked.

“At that time, I was flying back home then I saw Robert was arrested, so I hurriedly flew to tell you but you didn’t wake up. You know I knocked on your door for more than ten minutes, but you were so lazy. Because I was frustrated, I decided to hit the door on purpose to break it into to wake you up. And it caused me this.” She pointed to her forehead again.

I looked at Robert, “You see? It’s the cons of being in love. I am innocent, but now I turn out to be a bad guy.”

Robert showed me a grin, “This is your favorite meatball.” Then he put it in my bowl.

What could I say? Nothing besides, “Let's forget it.”

Robert is arrested

In the early morning, I heard bang bang on my house's door. When I opened it, I saw the crow was laying on the ground.

“What’s happened?” I asked.

The crow covered her wing on her forehead and said, “Your dog was arrested. I came to inform you.”

I was surprised to hear that, “What was  going on?” 

“I don’t know. Go to ask him yourself. He is in the police station in the village.”

Quickly, I ran to the police station. When I arrived, I asked for the cause of arrest. After I heard the story, I was mind boggling. 

It started before the sun rose. An owner of a farm heard his chicken crying, so he went to check and saw Robert was inside the pile of dry hay in front of the chicken cage. The owner of the farm thought Robert wanted to steal his chicken, so he called for police to arrest him. 

When I asked Robert, he said that he ran following a car, but because last night, there was rain, the road was muddy. As he was running, he slipped and went to hit the pile of dry hay in that farm. He tried to explain, but the owner of the farm didn’t believe him, so he called the police and he got arrested.

Though the misunderstanding was solved, I had to pay the bail.

Along the way home, I asked Robert, “Why did you chase that car?”

Robert dropped his face down and stayed silent for a few seconds. Then he raised up his eyes and said in a tone of shy, “She was inside that car. I heard she would go back to her hometown, so I ran after her on purpose to tell her about my heart.”

I cocked my head and unlocked my mouth big, “Because of a female?”

Robert expanded his lips in a manner of shyness.

“Robert, I don’t mind if you love someone, but that one is human, not a dog.”

“I know. I don’t want anything from her. I just wanted to tell her how I feel about her.”

“Oh god.” I looked up at the sky and shook my head. “Love is strong. It can make not only humans but also dogs become a blind and a dumb.”

Robert asked what content which can get one million views

I looked at Robert who was laying on earth but his lips grinned ear to ear.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” he said, then he continued smiling.

“Don’t you have any questions?”

“Well,” he raised his face, “I am afraid that you can’t answer, that’s why I don’t ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Do you know what content can get one million views?”

“I am searching for it as well.”

“When you find it, share it with me.” He returned to lay on earth and smiled his lips.