At first glance, the thought of initiating a worldwide event is like a vagary.  People are raising their eyebrows, some are pessimistic, and some don’t even give a deal.  The main point here is that, we successfully initiated something which would result to a global impact later on.  We don’t need to expect a lot because this is the first, and though we have some failures, we surely can learn from it.

I wanted to congratulate Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. for successfully launching the very first World Bloggers’ Day event at Parkmall Cebu just a while ago.  It’s actually the very first time that all blogging communities around the Philippines made representations for each group.

The event started with an Invocation led by Willand Cuna (CBS member), followed by a welcome address by Miss Ma. Carla Estella, PR Officer of Parkmall, Cebu.  This was followed by the presentation of the blogging communities from around the Phillippines by Mark Monta, founder of Cebu Bloggers Society Inc..  Three blogging communities sent in their presentations: Manila Bloggers’ Network (headed by Azrael Coladilla), SOCKSARGEN Bloggers (headed by Avel Mananzala), and Davao Bloggers (headed by Ria Jose).  And, of course, Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. had also presented a short AVP about their organization.

After the blogging community presentations, Mark Monta presented the newly elected CBSI officers to the public.  The following are Cebu Bloggers Society Inc.’s newly elected officers.

President - Vernon Joseph Go
VP for Content Management - Michelle Louise Maglasang
VP for Corporate Affairs - Agnes E. Jimenez
VP for Education - Jerry Gervacio
VP for Marketing - Michael Sinjin Pineda
VP Membership - Clarence Andrew Mongado
VP for Ways and Means - Mark Monta
Treasurer - Bryan Karl Yuson
Secretary - Wilhelmina Sarawi
Auditor - Jorich Ponio
BOTs for Special Projects
- Gerrymie Tampus
- Guada Conception Esmena
- Mark Alessandrew Abitona
- Prince Ryan Gilig
- Ruben Licera Jr.
Ombudsman/Legal Counsel - Atty. Ethelbert Ouano

The presentation of officers was then followed by the unveiling of Parkmall’s monthly blogging contest.  Agnes Jimenez, the Events Coordinator, presented the contest’s guideline and mechanics.  This blogging competition is open to all Cebu-based bloggers.

The bloggers then enjoyed a sumptuous dinner prepared by Parkmall’s best food tenants.  The event ended with the awarding of the blogger of the day, the one with the best cast-away outfit, and a closing remark by CBSI’s new president, Mr. Vernon Joseph Go.

A lot of raffle prizes were also given during the event.  By the way, Ricky dela Cruz of Rabsing.com, won the best cast-away outfit contest.  Atty. Ethelbert Ouano and Doyzkie Buenaviajie were the men of the event (emcees).  Thanks a lot to Parkmall’s Marketing Team, headed by Madam Judith Letty Sellner for the major support and sponsorship.

N.B.: Before ending this post, I would also want to give special thanks to the special team behind World Bloggers’ Day’s online launching.

Graphics and Design - Jim Villaflores
Press Release - Bert Padilla
Post & RSVP - Michelle Louise Maglasang
Article - Milafel Hope Dacanay
Wikipedia Release - Jerry Gervacio (to be published later)
Others - Mark Monta, Agnes Jimenez

Photos will follow later.

“PLDT myDSL Watchpad has over a hundred thousand subscribers and it’s growing”, revealed Miss Myla Villanueva, Senior Product Manager, during the short interview after the ribbon cutting of the launching of the myPLDT Speedster Bus last March 27, 2010 at Formo Restaurants.

Speedster Bus Launching at Formo Restaurants

When asked about the specific number of subscribers, Miss Villanueva replied that it is confidential.  She, however, quipped that this is to lessen transparency to competitors.

PLDT myDSL Watchpad is the very first internet TV in the Philippines and it is also the pioneer in the industry.  And, it is FREE to all PLDT users.  Its target market is mainly the young generation who are common patriots of the of the online world.  In terms of browser compatibility, it is best viewed using Internet Explorer.

This is how the inside of the myPLDT Speedster Bus looks like

You can watch the following channels thru your myPLDT Watchpad.

• Channel [V]
• CNN
• National Geographic, myView
• E!, Smart Shopping, TBN-World
• PBO, RCTV, Go, Splash
• CNBC, Cartoon Network, Animax, History, The Biography Channel, Crime & Investigation, Living Asia

Photo Credits: Jose Farrugia and Wilhelmina Sarawi

Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign

Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign is the most respected web design and rugs company worldwide.  It is founded by expert Web Design professionals who are responsible for the big success of their very first Rugs Portal client.  Aside from web design, they also offer Affordable Outsourcing Web Solutions that cater to various medium businesses worldwide.

Through the years, Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign has already proved its significance in the online industry by winning various Web Design awards and being listed in Forbes Magazine’s most profitable online business.  The company also received the highest merit given to a web design and rugs establishment.

And as mentioned above, Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign tipped the point of success of Rugs Portal.  Because of this, the latter almost entrust to them all of their web design and rugs projects.  Through this, Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign is a name to reckon in the multimedia and design and outsourcing industry.

Sashi Buri! Do you know that your most beloved Facebook was created by a 20 year-old geek in his college dorm (5 years ago), and a movie about it will be released this year starring no other than Justine Timberlake?

Well, if you are reading this post, it’s 99.9 percent that you are a Facebook user and you are somewhat curious with the title above.  The only thing you and I know is that, Facebook is the best social networking site ever existed in this friggin’ universe.  And you know that I’m not making a baseless statement.  I can attest to this and I can personally go into detail why Facebook is the most superior social networking site in the world wide web.

Aside from the usual social networking features (well, they are really not usual but I will go into details about this in my next post), there is this main factor which makes FB superior among other social networking sites.  I’m referring to TOUCH.  Touch is a term in psychology which is parallel to ATTENTION.  From infanthood to adulthood (an even from conception), the human consciousness always craves for this kind of warmth and bliss.  Everyone loves attention.  Well, not necessarily to become the center of it, but attention from the people they treasure like friends, lovers, family members, and the likes.  Most children who lack attention have high probability of becoming rebellious and tend to develop self hate and low confidence when they grow up.

So, what is the physical or rather virtual manifestation of attention in Facebook?  We can start with its “like” feature.  Believe it or not, you can’t find this feature in other social networking sites.  FB pioneered the use of the “like” button that enables users to like theirs or other users’ statuses, photos, notes, posts, quizzes results, and all activities published on their newsfeeds and walls.  This button looks like any other button out there but if you will examine it closely, it is actually one of the reasons why most FB users are active and love to share their online activities with friends.  If your status is being liked by your friends, it’s a positive form of attention and you will surely post another one again and again.

Another feature that triggers the manifestation of attention is the “tag” feature. If you found out that someone tagged you in his/her note (or post, or photo), the very first thing that would come into mind is that, that person remembers you and he/she wanted to share something with you.  Being tagged would give you a feeling of belongingness and can actually hype up your self-esteem.  Being tagged means that the person who tagged you has given an ounce of his time in paying attention to who you are.

The last feature that would make a complete combo to the features I mentioned above, is the “comment” feature.  This is rather a common one, but it is only in FB wherein you can comment in every activity your friends published (on their walls or newsfeeds).  Just like the like button, comments are one of the strongest manifestation of attention you can get after posting your activities on your wall.  But, it could result to positive or negative reinforcement.  Unlike the like button which only gives positive reinforcement, the comment feature can actually affect your temperament especially if the comments are bashful and indifferent, and contain personal attacks.  This is actually the form of attention that most users wanted to avoid.  Uhmn, well, there are actually deviant ones.  These are FB users who would do everything to anger or irritate anyone in their networks just to gather lots of comments.  They are called KSP (Kulang Sa Pansin).

Conclusion: Like button + tag + comment = The FB Attention Combo.

Ja Mata Ne!

In the end, my loyalty to CBS prevails.  At first, I hesitated doing this because of that little mess that happened a month ago.  But when I think of it now, it’s just like a tiny splat of mud that temporarily stirs the very still water.  Cebu Bloggers Society Inc., no matter what will happen, is still the only winner in my mind and heart.

CBS is very dear to me because of various personal and official reasons.  This is why I’m voting for it (http://cebubloggers.com) in the PBA’s Bloggers Choice Award.  In the near future, I am quite sure that CBS will not only become the leading bloggers group in Cebu, but also, will become the Philippines’ premiere blogging community.  This is because, as what Bimbo Cabochan said, “CBS is a very powerful group.”

CBS is the most organized blogging community in the country and has the highest number of active members compared to other blogging organizations outside of Cebu.  Unity, respect, humility, and camaraderie are the main components that bond the group together.  Being tagged as a “very bureaucratic” organization, is definitely a compliment.  Arigatou ne!

Devastated by the very unfortunate twist of event last 21st of August, I decided not to shop in that mall for a while.  Well, I’m referring to that most heartbreaking moment when my precious bag was stolen by some heartless homosapien inside McDonald’s at Ayala Mall, Cebu.  I won’t elaborate more about the incident because I will write a separate entry about it.  It’s just very unfortunate that all my personal belongings were stolen along with my bag.

That is one of the reasons why I opted to shop online these days.  Because of that incident I was left with no ATM and credit cards up to now.  It’s a good thing that I still have my paypal account which I use when I make online transactions.  And also, thanks to ShopWiki.  Their free online service made my online shopping faster and hassle free.  Whether you are shopping for cosmetics like mascaras, lipsticks, foundation, and concealers, or if you are looking for the latest  gadgets like digital cameras, cellphones, and laptops - you can find them all at ShopWiki.

ShopWiki is like a mall where you can find almost everything you wanted to purchase online.  From collectibles, food and beverages, pets, furnitures, DVDs to fashion and gift guides. This is the best alternative shopping portal especially for those people who got phobias shopping in malls infested by soul-less criminals.

Aside from email marketing and pay per click (PPC) advertising, there is one strategy that has been used by successful online marketers worldwide.  And that is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is an online marketing that proves to be very effective because it uses SEs (Search Engines) as its means of attracting website traffic.  This traffic includes people who are searching for anything on the web.  It is reported that more than 80% of American internet users are using search engines like google, yahoo, bing, etc. to look for stuffs to buy, or services to subscribe to online.  This means that if someone wanted to outsource services, he would likely use google to search for companies who offer outsourcing services.

It is recommended for online outsourcing businesses to use SEO to market their services.  Why SEO? Because it is more effective than paid advertising and PPC.  SEO is one of the best online marketing strategies that has been used by multinational companies all over the globe.

Below is a rough draft on how to optimize your website in order for it to become search engine friendly.  Note that I categorized each procedure as internal and external.  Internal means you need to have access to the administration page of your website to implement the task, while external procedures don’t require admin access.

Internal

1.  Identify Relevant Keywords - Let us take for example supportresort.com.  The possible keywords that should be used in order for it to top the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) are support resort, online support, online support staff, hire staff online, outsource php programmer, outsource customer support and the list goes on.  These keywords should be placed on your site as meta tags.  If your website will top on SERPs, then a high volume of traffic will come in.  This means greater chances of attracting new customers to subscribe to your services.

2.  Sitemap -  This is actually very important in search engine optimization because it allows web crawlers to easily access your website content.

External

1. Link Building - This includes exchanging of links if you have a blog, or if your website has a link category.  This could also help increase traffic generation, thus increasing chances of getting new customers.

2. Submission to Directory Sites/RSS Sites/Social Bookmarking Sites - Another way of increasing the popularity of your site through the power of directory listing.

3. Article Submission - To maintain your online business credibility, it is also important to publish articles that are related to the services you offered.  This is another way of informing the public that the company doesn’t solely exist for profit.

4. Blogs - It is one of the most effective SEO tool.  This is because blogs are search engine friendly.  Unlike static websites, blog sites have mechanisms wherein search engine web crawlers can easily penetrate.  Most successful companies have blogs on their websites.

5. Forums -  There are lots of online forums where you can advertise your services by putting a link or banner in your signature.  There are also people who frequent in forums who are looking for cheap, yet high quality outsourcing services.

6. Social Networking Sites - Facebook, Friendster, Multiply and the likes are effective advertising mediums you can use to market your website for FREE. On the other hand, you can also tap bloggers to blog about your services.  This is what other companies have been doing as part of their online marketing strategy.  In my next article I will discuss in full details the importance of site mapping in search engine optimization.