Gay Bloggies

I'm about to bite the hand that feeds me but here goes.

Exactly one year ago (coincidentally during the 2006 Gay Bloggies voting period) I made headlines in my country because of a simple yet effective blog entry that I posted.

What people didn't know (until now) is that blog entry was planned and executed with military-grade precision.

For years, I encouraged people around the world to send pictures of themselves holding a handbag and thrusting it to the air which is known as the infamous Bryanboy pose.

One day, two of my friends in England sent in their photos (taken from the back of a church) and I thought man, people are gonna go nuts over this.

Unfortunately, some thousands did.

You see, I'm no stranger when it comes to publicity tricks. Everyone does it ALL the time. If I got a paid every time I post something on my blog coming from PR companies promoting their wares or celebrities, socialites and the rest of the Z-list emailing me gossip, pictures and such, I'd be a millionaire by now.

Anyway, my friend and I concocted a cheap little plan.

• Fake email account? Check.
• Fake online petition because anyone new on teh internets think online petitions are still effective? Check.
• Sanctimonious holier-than-thou quote? Check.
• Crazy "ZOMG YOU ARE SO GONNA BURN IN HELL" letter with a ludicrous call-to-action? Check.
• Email a few folk and leave it to their hands to do a little viral marketing campaign. Check.

The result: countless blogs expressed their opinions and thousands of people (mostly hardcore Catholic Flips) made a reaction. My web hits skyrocketed, my numbers and page views are up, my affiliate sales quadrupled, my advertisers were happy and I exceeded my gmail email quota for the first time.

Even the Philippines' largest broadsheet wrote something about it.

You know you have it good when people, especially the ones who say they are gay *and* catholic go on a hate rampage and have the fans defend you by leaving comments like...

I've never had so many people wanting to have my head chopped off but I'm sure Paris or Britney probably have it worse. Boy it was a stunt well-played... until I released my Mrs. Granny Bee video a few weeks later.

Call me mentally-imbalanced or clinically-insane but there is something perverted in bringing the worst out of people, watch them go on a moral high horse and listen to the sweet sound of vitriol. I honestly can't count the number of times I found myself sitting in front of the computer, laughing at the sheer insanity and absurdity of it all.

Every once in a while I have people ask me questions like how I do feel about being hated or how do I feel when people think negatively on me. I just shrug it off to "occupational hazard". People will always find flaws or something negative to say. Do 1,000 good deeds and nobody is going to remember them. Do 1 bad thing and it's going to be magnified, scrutinized and remembered forever. That's just the way it is. We cannot -- and should not -- spend our entire lives changing how other people think. I'm in an industry where I'm not required to have a flawless and pristine image so why can't I use any negativity thrown my way towards my advantage?

I'm sure any web site owner would agree with me when I say that there is nothing more depressing than a day when your website hits reach a low. We live in times where shame is the new fame and a good ol' scandal brings home the bacon. Ask any gossip blogger how much money they made out of every young celebrity's coochie, crotch or mug shots... but gossip blogger I am not. If anything, haters and loonies contribute to the circus more than anyone else. When your income relies on visitors, the ones who drive traffic to your site are the ones who you should send a card come Christmas time. Think of them as your little marketing army. I once made a hate site for myself when I first started blogging (oh yes. oh shush!) and then I realized it's pointless. The amount of time and effort to publicize such hate site is better spent towards whoring my existing site so these days, I'll leave those sites to people who have spare time to burn. It also didn't help that I showed my hate site to a former friend who said it was SO obvious it was me. I'm such a crappy liar. I lie way too often and I always get busted out in the end because I simply cannot keep my mouth shut. Well, lies are not lies until they get caught and we all know the best liars NEVER get caught.

Or they HAVE lawyers.
Or publicists.
Or both.
Or they ARE lawyers or publicists.

I digress.

When you have a blog like mine, one cannot rely on great content alone to get traffic to their site. Some of the most successful blogs are the ones that are engaging. They poke and provoke people for a reaction and give a reason for people to keep coming back. For instance, every post I make is calculated. Are my hits dropping? Bring on the high heels and the camp antics! Are my hits up? Let's talk about fashion or raise awareness on relevant issues that affect society! While most of my entries are real and reflect different sides of me, some are for "fun". Some are boring and blah while some are made to make people sad. Some are even fabricated, fake and clearly for attention purposes while some are deliberately made to attract new visitors to my site. I'm not running for public office and I'm not one-dimensional so why not play a character? Give them an illusion. Play with people's misconceptions and prove them right. If you give 100% of yourself and there's nothing left to give when people start wanting for more. The key is to offer variety and leave it to the spectators on what to make out of what they see.

At the end of the day, it's good that I have people who get it, whatever "it" might be. As long as I still have some sort of following I'll be fine. Being heard by an audience, no matter how big or small, is the best feeling in the world.

Otherwise, there's always the good ol' sex tape. God forbid what would happen if I "leak" my 6-minute cellphone video of me getting gangbanged by 7 Russians.

Now *THAT* is a trick I hope I don't have to do.

Email me and tell me you love me. My email address is bryanboy@gmail.com. I love you all!