I am voting for Micamyx for the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards Bloggers Choice National division. Why?
This Dagupena Dreamer who is a proud pangasinense herself is making a name on her own at the Philippine blogosphere and she influenced a number of  bloggers to start on their own as well. A true Dagupena who was born and raised in Dagupan City, this girl is already on her way of making her dreams come true.

I dropped by the E-Services Philippines event last Monday to check out the exhibits happening. A few members of the DigitalFilipino Club were there busy promoting a variety of services with payment gateway, software development, blog marketing & search engine optimization, training – to name a few.

SEMCON Bicol & IT head of Aquinas University, Alvin Perez, also attended as the club representative during the conference. Our conflicting schedule prevented us from catching up then.

There were around 140 exhibitors. As expected, visitors were not that many since this type of event attracts a specific audience niche. However, I find it interesting the level of interest for some of the services offered such as in the area of search engine optimization.

Perhaps as the local SEO community get organized, it can really establish itself with SEO/SEM as an important outsourcing service offering that local & international entities should take seriously – use it to position effectively in this time of crisis.

I mentioned earlier that our Busby SEO Test site got a lot of visitors from  Facebook friends as a result of our efforts to promote this site.

Another community that has been very kind to our Busby SEO Test entry is Plurk where a good share of referral visitors comes from that site. Also, my peer’s shout out for Digg and StumbleUpon vote also gets support from great folks there. Through it, we also found out which articles are most popular and here they are:

• Scorpio Predictions for 2008-2009 (Busby SEO Test)
• Busby SEO Test Home
• Capricorn Predictions for 2008-2009 (Busby SEO Test)
• 10 Ways to Say I Love You (Busby SEO Test)
• 20 Secrets of Great Relationships (Busby SEO Test)
  
• Cancer Predictions for 2008-2009 (Busby SEO Test)
• Virgo Predictions for 2008-2009 (Busby SEO Test)
• Cell Phone Users & Abusers (Busby SEO Test)
• Sagittarius Predictions for 2008-2009 (Busby SEO Test)

Many thanks Plurk friends!

Note: Try to Google Busby SEO Test.

Whenever search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) gets talked about, different entities and individuals have their interpretation on its scope. For this Busby SEO Test participant who also renders consulting services, it can cover the following:

1. Content development

Creation of content based on popular keyword searches by target users.

2. Website fixing

If there is an existing website, this includes improving the code, url, meta-tags, text, navigation, sitemap and analytics installation, and others with the intent of making sure that search engines pick up the valuable information that is being disseminated by the site.

3. Website performance & maintenance

Analyze monitoring reports and update website based on findings. Common tasks are reduction of bouncing pages, improve page size, develop new content or navigation path to ensure visitors will find what they need from the site.

4. Directory submissions

Paid, free, reciprocal, deep link directories tapped though it is dependent on client’s budget.

5. Search engine submission

Paid and free search engines to ensure that the client’s site can be found.

6. Article writing and submission

Writing a high-quality article that gets disseminated to popular article directories for re-publishing. This in turn results to traffic generation and search engine visibility.

7. Online press releases

If the site has a major announcement, an online press release is also suitable as this gets picked up by major publications, e-zines, and blogs.

8. Link build-up

This is trading links with other websites that have similar niche.

9. Paid advertising

This can come in the form of online ads. It allows the client also to discover and validate keywords that were chosen for effectiveness.

10. Local sites and maps

Registering at country level directories and search engines. In addition, making the entity visible in various map sites.

11. Blog marketing

This can include creation of blogs and linking campaign from various blogs.

12. Social Bookmarks

Get your site, blog, video, or photo submitted to various social media and bookmarking sites.

13. Wiki

Get your entity mentioned in various wiki sites accurately.

14. Social networking

This may include creation of brand profile, product page, and invite users to become followers.

There is a lot more that can be mentioned but I hope the above 14 will give you an idea already on the range of services that SEO and SEM can cover.

Instead of sleeping today to get me back in shape after all the sleepless nights I have been into, I thought of link building my Busby SEO Test entry so that I can get back to at least page one.

Hm… After this post, will I be in page one? Did I make a real good job that I need not be disappointed because I traded my sleep working for my Busby SEO Test entry?

Sleep vs. Busby SEO Test contest. woot!

I was invited by EMARKE (Electronic Marketing) Class of Marketing Management of De La Salle – St. Benilde to talk about Blog Marketing last November 28,2008.

At first I was hesitant because I have not talked to students for like 6 years already and I was afraid that I might not have the “magic” anymore to connect to them on what I am supposed to discuss. But then I had a second thought and I said yes.

While I was driving my way to St. Benilde, I recalled how I used to be as a facilitator in the learning process of young minds and I thought, Hmm.. I think this one opportunity is something I should not miss.

True, I am already akin to talking to professionals and corporate entities and it has become like an ordinary thing already but to students, I already forgot the feeling.

I arrived late in the scene because of the bad traffic in Manila and constructions are ongoing here and there. Surprisingly, I was the first speaker to be there. The traffic jam is already bad and that later, I heard that the Multiply representative from ABS-CBN cannot make it because of some minor accident on his/her way to St. Benilde.

So I had a small chitchat with the group of students who were tasked to facilitate the event and then, a few minutes came Joel Yuviengco, a Social Network consultant and Ramon Duremdes Jr., the CEO of Mobile Arts.

You see the world is so small because the 2 individuals are in one way or another are connected to my network of friends. I was able to meet Nonoy Carandang, the Editor of Digital Photographer Magazine who was also there to talk about a certain topic too.

So when it was my turn (I was the second speaker because Ramon of Mobile Arts requested me to talk first instead of him), the magic of being in front of students came out of me once again. You see when you are a speaker, you need to look at your audience and you have to make sure that they are connecting. Gets? Are you with me? kinda questions that you should ask yourself or else, you will never be effective. If it needs to scrap all your prepared presentation just to get your message across then you should.

Luckily, I still have that charm in me and that ability to connect to my audience. In short, I had fun being in front of students again.

After the event, the speakers had a small conversation about what are going online these days. In short, my decision coming to the event is correct.

Of course, Adolfo Aron III is all support to this event and Janette Toral is always a great help.

The students of De Lasalle-St Benilde are amazing! Oh! the new building rocks! Top of the class!

Anyways, let me look at my Busby SEO Test entry now..

Oh my! This post is long overdue.

I had a picture taken at the 38th floor of Discovery Suite where Yehey.com headquarter is. Rare photo of me. –>

I attended the Digital Filipino Christmas Party and I was late as usual. I just grabbed two beers just to have things “tick” right on the spot or else my usual shy-type self will simply ruin the night.Opps! But no (sabay bawi), that was only a joke though. I was glad to meet Ada of Adaphobic.com, Jay of TitikPilipino.com and Ms. Micamyx.com

Although I was late, it was fun because the Digital Filipino members are so welcoming and all.  I never witnessed the raffle draw where Ada won the 3G phone. Whew! that girl is such a lucky one. Hey! Ada, they said once you are lucky with raffles, you will never be lucky with love. So beware… but you will have it booted out if you give me your 3G phone? hehe Nambola pa no?

Anyways, I do hope that we can have a repeat of such wonderful occasion together with the known, Ms. Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino.com.

So there you go, I guess I need to go back to my Busby SEO Test challenge now. Til next time.

I am not an expert in blog design although I know enough to get by. Like many bloggers out there, I use what is available and make the best out of it. However, as time passed by, I realized that blog design is important. Some of the basics I look into when checking out a blog design are:

• Titles
  Yes, I still get to see blog designs that does not properly reflect blog titles and make it appear at the browser title bar. This is important as search engines pick-up the information when indexing pages.
• Focus
  A blog’s purpose, primarily, is to inform its readers by sharing one’s latest insight, news, and even reviews. I prefer blog designs that brings that straight to the point. I partly frown whenever I see blogs that shows ton of ads before the actual post, some are also screaming at the sidebar, as it distracts the reader from getting what they came for, which is to read your blog. I think this is also the reason why more prefer reading blogs through RSS (really simple syndication) as it spares them from the clutter normally found in blogs.
• Personality
  Now I’m considering of having my own customized blog design, I would like to have one that properly reflects what my blog is all about and the business I’m into.
• Open to plug-ins and widgets.
  I recall changing templates from time to time as the one I’m using can’t seem to work well with plug-ins and scale with widgets. I think a good blog design should have that flexibility or at least provide room for it.

If done right, a blog design can or has influence in communicating a blog’s authority to its readers, advertisers, and supporters. It shows how serious you are in the blogging business and even the kind of blogger you are. Yes, I’m still very much learning and the above ideas are just ramblings. I hope to get my blog in order soon.

This post is a contest entry of Blog Design Contest, hosted by Blog Design Studio and the winner will get a free custom wordpress theme. There are some amazing prizes by Daily Blog Tips and Blogging Tips as well. The contest is being judged by WordPress rockstar Jeff Chandler, David Peralty (who has the same birthday as this Busby SEO Test participant), and Alex Cristache whose blog is in the Technorati top 10k.

I found the following entries to this contest so far and I encourage you to read them too:

• 10 steps for a perfect blog redesign

One semi-SEO contest that happened last year that won’t likely have a repeat is the Filipina Writing Project. I observe the challenge for that contest is being able to sustain what it intends to do which is to have greater visibility for Filipina-related write-ups and websites online. Today, most search engine results seen online refers to sites that promotes the Filipina in a different light.

Filipina keyword Google search engine results in US and Australia

I think even on a small scale, this should be continued and perhaps done twice a year similar to the Busby SEO Test experience in order to make it sustainable in achieving its purpose.

The blog post winners last year were:

• The Funniest Filipina Vloggers
• Ako si Pina.. At ito ang aking kuwento…
• Superiority of Women in the Philippine Society
• Filipina as Other
• Two Popular and Unique Individuals, Both Filipina
• The Filipina Campaign
• Filipina 2007

For the SEO competition part, the following won:

• Google – Filipina
• Yahoo – Filipina
• MSN – Hindi lang Filipina Dating, Dating Filipina, Wow Filipina talaga!

After the DigitalFilipino.com Club Event in Manila held last night, I decided to convert this blog as my primary blog because I noticed that whenever people/bloggers ask me what my blog is, I keep on saying, “Omg! I am not proud of my blog/s.” I used to blog about my personal views like the rest of the bloggers out there but then, after hitting a gold mine online, I immediately converted practically all of my sites into a money making machine. Truly, I made money online but then, it “killed my social life”.

Oh yes, I opted for my paypal account rather than having my blog be a real blog where people will be interested to visit.

I guess, I am going to name this blog, garyviray.com as “I am not proud of my blog” because it will keep on reminding me on how I transformed from being a real blogger to a money making guy online and back again, just to be proud of my blog again.

Geez! as of now, please don’t ask me of what my blog is, okay? lol.