SINGAPORE — Meet Hendric Tay, a blogger who is better known by his fans as Pohtecktoes — which is also the name of his travel blog. Every month, Tay gets between 20,000 to 100,000 page views on his blog, which has posts on topics ranging from electronic gadgets to spotting the aurora borealis in Iceland. And he is making a pretty good career out of it.

Since its launch in 2012, Tay, who quit his job as a physical education teacher to travel the world, has accomplished his dream of travelling to dozens of places, including Iceland, Australia and Turkey, some with the support and sponsorship of brands such as Scoot and Skyscanner. Over the past few months, the 28-year-old has also begun working on his business venture, a travel news website called The Travel Intern, which he hopes will become a sustainable source of income. (Until recently, Tay also did freelance graphic and website design for additional income.)

“Pohtecktoes started as personal branding, but things picked up, and then brands were asking if I’d like to take part in their campaigns, or send me to a location to write about it,” Tay told TODAY. “Through experiences like that, as well as talking to other influencers and bloggers, you start to figure out the business of the influencer and the media world. I thought, ‘Why not start my own travel inspiration website, bring in more people, build a community, teach the values I believe in and make a living out of it?’”

A HOBBY AS A CAREER

However, Tay believes that there aren’t any travel bloggers in Singapore who make sufficient income solely from their blogs; although he added that he didn’t start the blog as an income-generating activity. “The whole idea why I wanted to do this was because what gets me most excited is experiencing new things. Life is very short. I have lost family and friends, and I am very uncomfortable with the idea of people waiting 20 or 30 years for that big retirement that may or may not come. I don’t see why we should be so focused about stuff that we forget to live in the present.”

Eunice Annabel Lim, who started out as a blogshop model, seems to have unlocked the key to making a living through social media although she too, said one could not make a living through blogging alone. The influencer, who started blogging four years ago about beauty, fashion and lifestyle, credits influencer marketing and media company Gushcloud for showing her the ropes.

“It’s definitely tough to support yourself with only your blog, that’s why a lot of us explore different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” said Lim, who has more than 173,000 followers on Instagram, and has worked with brands like Sunsilk and Canon. Thanks to the various social media platforms, she said: “I make enough to support myself.”

“I’d love to enjoy this influencer life for as long as I can, while developing my acting career and venturing into business as well,” added Lim, who has acted dramas and telemovies, including The Circle House and season 3 of Mata Mata.

According to Gushcloud, influencers can earn between S$50 and S$4,000 per post, depending on the platform, the amount of original content the influencer is required to create, as well as their follower and engagement numbers. Gushcloud represents 5,000 influencers in the region.

Meanwhile, Aun Koh and his wife Tan Su-Lyn, of Chubby Hubby fame, have also found that blogging has its benefits. Since starting their food blog in 2005, the couple has gained a loyal following of readers who visit the website for inspiration on where and what to eat.

“I worked in the industry for a long time as a book editor (but) we became identified with the blog so much faster than anything we had done previously,” said Koh, who does not accept invitations to complimentary food tasting sessions. While the blog didn’t make him money (it only made a few hundred dollars a month at its peak), it gave them a reputation that, in turn, built their respective careers.

Over the last 10 years, Koh and his wife have also found that the emotional benefits of running a site like Chubby Hubby far outweigh the financial ones. “The feedback we have gotten from the blog has been quite extraordinary,” said Koh. “You are in direct contact with people and we were getting immediate responses about their lives and (they were telling) stories that were quite moving.”

COUNTING THE COSTS

Having a job that brings both fortune and fame may seem like a dream come true. But, as with any career that earns you income, bloggers and influencers also have to deal with the tax man. Earlier this month, several bloggers received letters from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), reminding them that non-monetary benefits, including the sponsorship of products or services received in return for writing or reviewing the sponsors’ products, had to be declared and may be taxable.

Because of the fluid nature of their work, some bloggers aren’t too sure about what exactly constitutes “income”, even though they agreed that declaring one’s income and paying taxes were responsible things to do.

“We do receive a lot of products to review, it’s very hard to put a number to it, because it comes without any pattern. Most of the time, I receive the products through Gushcloud, who helps me choose which projects I want to take on,” Lim said, adding that she hoped for more clarity on the subject, after seeing articles that have shared different interpretations of the regulations.

“Some companies pay you for your content, some just send you on a trip and let you experience something, and hope that you write about it,” said Tay, who said he can make up to a few thousand dollars in cash from his blog every month. “Other times, they send you on a trip and give you a small allowance, like S$50 a day, just for your time. Where does that put us?”

Tay added that the problem would be figuring out the value of sponsored overseas trips, because brands often work with many partners on these excursions. “There is always this grey line, because what do you consider payment? Is it income if you write about it?”

According to IRAS’s website, under “Essential Information for Self-Employed by Profession/Trade”, as long as the payments are made “in relation to your social media marketing activities, whether it is under contract or not” such payments are taxable. Meanwhile, IRAS encouraged bloggers and influencers to visit the its website (https://www.iras.gov.sg) or call its helplines (6351 3122 or 6351 3121) for further clarification.

Ultimately, this has shown that there is so much about the industry that has yet to be explored. The Internet is a new dark continent that is alive with new challenges to overcome and rewards to be wrought. And every step of the way is part of the experience.

“The single biggest difference from when I started the blog is that it is a business,” Koh said. “If someone is able to start a business and find an audience and customers are willing to pay them, we should say, ‘Hey, you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve done a great job’.”

“The opportunities are endless,” Tay agreed. “It’s very heartening when you get people writing in telling you how you inspired them to do something, or that they never saw something a certain way.

“Those things keep you going.”