Stitching

Blogging is a Mass of Niches

2011-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:00

So another issue is rocking the Philippine blogosphere with a proposal to put together a National Bloggers Association. Creating an organization is well and good. It is best done when there is a good number of people who have the same interests. In the Philippines alone there are hundreds of trade associations and thousands of interest groups which people join based on their profession, interests or hobbies.

I have my reservations about joining a National Bloggers Association. Let me explain why:

1. Blogging for me is just a hobby. I've been writing since I was a kid so I just essentially use blogging as a platform to express my thoughts and share my ideas and as a journal too.

2. My blog is my own world and I do not want it to be subjected to a standardized code of ethics or metrics. I used to be editor in chief of our college literary paper and it was painful for both the editors and professors to give feedback to the writer. Our publication back then was like a volcano because of the different temperaments of writers and artists. Writing is a very personal act and subjecting bloggers to a standard/code of ethics is like building multiple number of volcanoes across the country.

3. Section 4 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides, "No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances." (highlighting added). The law provides for our freedom of speech and expression already, and the press makes sure that this isn't tampered with.

5. Each person has his own set of beliefs and values. In the past 5 years everyone in the blogosphere thinks they are right even when others think they are wrong, but we end up doing anything we want anyway. Following the 10 Commandments is hard enough, maybe we should just all follow it and the rest will fall into place.

I thought I'd write about this issue after reading the failed attempt in Singapore to put together a bloggers association. The Media Bloggers Association in the US also never moved forward in 2009 despite having been tapped by the Associated Press as a partner. Reading about it made me realize why it never worked.

Blogging is a mass of niches.

In short, to each is his own. And this makes it hard for advertisers and companies who would like to tap bloggers for their digital marketing campaigns. What they should realize is there will never be a one shot deal with bloggers. And it's not about getting bloggers to post your press release, but getting them to write about their experience with your product/service. And, of course, you have to do your research on which bloggers to tap.

As my mentor, Dr. Ned, kept telling me a few years ago, "The future isn't about marketing to the masses. It's going to be about you talking directly to consumers who are interested in your product." So don't expect everyone to read a specific blog, because it has its own niche (hundreds/thousands of readers). Yeah it's hard, but at least you have added content online about your products/services.

So this proposal about a National Bloggers Association... I don't know, I think I'll stick to joining or participating in select projects/activities since any attempt in the past (this the the nth attempt) never really flourished. Besides organizations really work with just a handful of people moving (I've observed that with local professional orgs too), so its actually better sometimes to just have interest groups work with different projects to get more traction.

Well, it's a free country and everybody has a choice :)

What do you think?

A Tool for Exporters

2011-02-02T23:36:00.000-08:00

When my Mom and I were exporting furniture back in the late 90s one of the things that I had a difficult time in was researching the right market. The furniture we were producing served a niche market and the only way to get information was to go to the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion library. It would take me a whole day just to get the right data and the info wasn't usually updated. It was hard and when you are a start-up company it's even harder when your target market is out of your reach.

When my Mom and I gave up on our export business, my interest on it stayed on. I eventually found work that allowed me to help exporters and I've been on a look-out for things that would be interesting. I recently found out about Google's Global Market Finder. The research tool provides exporters data on possible markets that they can tap for their products. Here's an example of a search I did for rattan specifically for the Americas market:

Aside from locations it provides information on export opportunity, local monthly searches (on that country), suggested keyword bid (if you're doing a Google Adwords campaign) and competition (a gauge on whether competitors are targeting that market too).

How I wish this tool was available a decade ago. To do your own analysis, just go to http://translate.google.com/globalmarketfinder/index.html.

Are You Afraid of the Big Bad Blogger?

2011-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

We have seen the rise of social media in the past few years. Companies have been riding the bandwagon by finding ways to have their products and services talked about in blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites etc. A number have been paying PR companies to handle it for them, a number have been doing it on their own. Some projects work, some don't. Marketers are probably asking if using social media to reach their consumers is worth it.

Margaux Salcedo published an article on the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, "Please Don't Give Blogging a Bad Name". In this article she calls out an unnamed PR agency and blogger for committing extortion on a resto owner who has refused to pay PhP120,000 a month to have good reviews on a popular food bloggers site. This issue isn't really new. It has been talked about in the community for more than two years now. Margaux only managed to bring it out in the open.

I am not really interested in the name of the agency and blogger. What I am interested in is putting another perspective into this issue since it's been apparent -- big time (like this) and small time.

Extortion/black mail is rampant in any industry. There would always be bad apples in any industry. Granted that what this PR agency/blogger is doing is wrong, one should be like Georgia and hold steadfast to what you think is the right thing to do. Your company's reputation should rely on the good service that you provide and not because of a PR spin. Word of mouth marketing works because of that and not because you pay an agency or a blogger to do it for you.

A number of companies have asked me for help on their social media strategy, but since I'm too busy with my day job I just tell them this:

1. If you want to utilize social media to reach out to your customers do it yourself.

2. Be clear on your objectives. Is it to show testimonials? Get more sales? Clear your reputation? Community building?

3. If you really need help, find someone you can trust to help you out. And check the reputation of that person/company you are hiring. Also check if their past campaigns have been successful.

4. What social media helps in is just to get more content online about your product/service. It doesn't really scale and when you do events the effect is just short term.

5. And finally, don't allow anyone to rip you off.

So don't be afraid of BBB. Be like Georgia :)

Using Blogging as a Learning Tool

2010-11-23T15:42:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I taught a communications class in De La Salle University and one of the things I required my students to do was blog. Back then they had to upgrade their school email into a Google Account so they could use Blogger for their blogs. Google has now included Blogger as one of the additional features of Google Apps (read more about it here).

I wanted to hit two birds with one stone when I asked my students to blog:

(1) To immerse them in new technologies for communication;
(2) As a learning tool, they had to post new discoveries about specific topics in their blog.

Some of them groaned since they didn't really like writing (I found out that most of them wanted to take another college course, but their parents forced them into it), but since it was part of their grade they complied. I actually discovered quite a lot of talent among my students. The quiet ones apparently had hidden arsenals within them and I used this as a way to bring them out of their shell.

And I think using blogging as a tool worked. Most of my students have graduated from college and I've been pleasantly surprised since most of them are working for businesses related to new media. Most of them are responsible for their companies online programs.

Awesome ;)

2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival PH Representatives

2010-07-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I managed to sneak in some time to attend PANA's event to send-off the Philippine representatives for the 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. I just checked their site and apparently the festival was last June.

Anyway, I just wanted to send my congratulations to the representatives. Awesome team based on the videos that were show during the event (was hoping that they'd upload the vids on Youtube but couldn't find it). RizCongrats Nino Gupana and John Paul Cuison (Leo Burnett Manila), Timothy Villela and Rizza Delle Garcia (BBDO Guerrero). I'm sure you guys had a blast!

Choosing Bloggers for Your Marketing Campaign

2010-05-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

There is much talk today about the relationship between PR agencies/advertisers and bloggers and as with any relationship there is a disconnect on understanding each others objectives and expectations. Both have one common goal though and that is TO TELL A STORY.

I've often been asked by both PR agencies and advertisers how to choose bloggers when they have events. I always tell them that the best way is to immerse themselves in the blogosphere so they can handpick based on their requirements. Some choose by doing a search on Google using keywords that relate to their product/service and this actually helps especially if you want to limit your list.

Here are some tips on choosing talented bloggers (if you want to do it on your own or you want to make sure that your agency doesn't resort to choosing the usual ones):

1. Define your objectives on why you want to utilize bloggers for your campaign. Is it to increase traffic on your site? Add more content about your product/service online? Make reviews? Try out your product/service?

2. Do a search on Google using keywords related to your product/service. You can also use Google Blog Search for this.

3. Check out the content of the blogs that you found and relate them to your objectives.

4. Also check whether the blog's content parallels your target market. You can do this by checking the blog's content. The more interesting blogs are those that have original content (text and photos and videos even).

5. And (optional) you may also wish to do a check on a blogger's reputation.

Blog traffic is something that most bloggers won't disclose and in my opinion this should only work if you compare based on the niche and not the totality. After all people read blogs depending on the passions and interests that they pursue online.

Some related content you may be interested in:
Instructions by Jayvee Fernandez
The Nightingale, Bloggers, Press & PR by Juned Sonido

Conference for Aspiring Marketing Professionals

2009-02-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

Last February 6, 2009, 4,000 students from different universities converged at the PICC Forum for the Conference for Aspiring Marketing Professionals. They were treated to a wide array of new and emerging marketing concepts and of course the Internet and Marketing Association of the Philippines was at the forefront of the event, represented by Mon Duremdes to speak about digital marketing.

Here's the Steve Jobs of IMMAP in action!

Digital Delivers: Building Brands through Internet and Mobile Marketing

2009-01-29T04:38:00.000-08:00

The title is this year's battlecry of IMMAP.

The other day the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) inducted it's new set of officers. I still remember the coming out party of IMMAP back in November 2006 in Greenbelt and then the first induction of members two months later (I was part of the first set!).

IMMAP has grown by leaps and bounds and as Donald Lim (founding president) shared they were the most productive board with 2 major summits and course-offerings and a whole lot of activities during their term. Aside from that IMMAP has played an important role in evangelizing about the use of the internet and mobile platforms for marketing. A mean feat especially since this advocacy entails a lot of education.

Kudos to the old board and congratulations to the new set of officers of IMMAP!

1. President - Arthur Policarpio, Snapworx
2. Vice-President - Angeli Lambsdorff, DentsuIndio
3. Board Secretary - Arlene Amarante, Microsoft Advertising
4. Treasurer - Norelyn Babiera, Fiera de Manila

Committee Heads:

International Linkages - Jojit Alcazar
Industry Relations - Donald Lim
Research - Leah-Besa Jimenez
Standards and Ethics - Chris Concepcion
Education - Arlene Amarante
Academe and Youth - Mon Duremdes
3rd Internet & Mobile Marketing Summit - Angeli Lambsdorff
3rd Annual Boomerang Awards - Ed Mapa
PR - Melissa Limcaoco
Membership - Bing Kimpo
Fellowship - Mike Palacios
Advocacy - Nix Nolledo

Awesome Ad

2009-01-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

I saw this ad on TV when it first came out about a month ago and I must admit I still look forward to seeing it on TV (translation: I don't change the channel when it comes up) because it's catchy. What's awesome about it though is how it has been viewed over 200,000 times in about a month (added 2 Youtube channels that have it).

Now some might argue that number is small compared to when it's shown on TV where eyeballs would be much higher. BUT! I would argue back that the efficiency of message delivery would be much, much higher when the person searched for it and watched it with undivided attention online. (Do you actually really pay attention to TV ads in between show segments? I do when it's this ad and the McDonald's ad.)

I was quite ecstatic to see TVCs being placed on Youtube since it shows that agencies and advertisers are dabbling more and more on viral marketing.

A great sample of this would be HP's Yetube campaign.

Up next: creating your Youtube channel.

We're Finally Getting There

2009-01-15T02:35:00.000-08:00

The landscape for digital marketing in the Philippines have changed significantly in the past couple of years. I remember back in 2001 less than 5% of companies who would join exhibits would have email addresses much less websites. My Mom's export company back in 1999 stood out even though we were a newbie because we had a website (a home-made one by me!).

It's been ten years since I started working on digital advertising stuff and I must admit it's been really slow to catch on in the Philippines. Really slow. I started off with online directories and the challenge back then was getting business to get their information online, must less have them showcase their products/services. After that phase was done (took a few years to get businesses comfortable) the next task was to convince companies to advertise online.

And I dare say we are going over that we're finally getting over that mountain.

But the next task is educating how. It's the most difficult phase I believe and a lot of organizations and people have been doing just that the past couple of years. What helped a lot in this process I believe are social networking sites and blogs and the Social Media Usage study of Universal Mccann clearly shows that a lot of active Filipino internet users spend a lot of time on these services. I've been seeing a lot of local ads on Facebook the past few months and more and more companies have been tapping bloggers because they want to be talked about online. It's just a matter of time.

Reports show that bulk of the online marketing spend goes to display ads (i.e. banner ads), I think this is because there is still a lack of better understanding of search. I believe this year that's where things will head to since: (1) advertisers will be looking for better ROI; (2) there will be better understanding that search isn't about demographics but direct needs; (3) there is more than enough available content online where advertisers can become relevant links for their target market; and (4) the continued growth of Filipino internet users.

After all, what company wouldn't want to have returns at minimal investment?

Should You Advertise Online During Crisis?

2009-01-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

I got a barrage of questions from a former colleague earlier about advertising online. His exact question was, "Why should I advertise online even during crisis?"

The answer is easy.

Because advertising online (especially pay-per-click ads) is the most cost efficientmedium of advertising.

"Are you sure?" he said.

"Of course!" I answered back.

Before the advent of the internet our parents used the yellow pages (or the directory) to find suppliers they need (they still do!). They open up the book, find the right category and start calling the supplier they need. The same way we do online. We go to Google and search. Right?

You only search based on your needs. Be it to purchase something. Canvass. Do Reviews. Find a store. Compare. Or just simply because they are curious. You don't really search for something you don't really need right?

The internet has a wealth of information and that's how a lot of people find info nowadays. Being there as relevant links or text (or even display ads) also helps because it may end up tickling the fancy of the person in that page.

Anyway, in a more formal note, Piper Jaffray & Co. in their study “The New eCommerce Decade: The Age of Micro Targeting” found out that the most cost efficient way of acquiring customers is via search at $8.50 per customer acquired, the yellow pages follows second at $20 cost per acquisition.

Makes sense doesn't it? And during crisis every centavo counts.

So have you searched for your product online lately?

The Value of Blog Marketing

2008-09-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of being invited to speak about blogging to the International PR Association (Philippines). The attendees were the head honchos of long-time PR agencies and they basically wanted to understand what blogging is all about.

Blogging seems to be the craze in the country lately and more and more companies are taking a dip into it. IMMAP has also come up with an online course on blog marketing and we're just finishing it up a bit and it should be available in the coming month. Janette has also introduced her own course through her book "Blogging from Home".

If I was still a marketing manager I would definitely look into blog marketing, moreso because the products I used to handle were online and mobile services. And I would ask the question, "What value does it have for my brand?"

Some say that the internet is a totally different landscape. It's another world that emerged when it became a commodity. And studies have shown that people go online to search and check email. The key word there is SEARCH.

And now you must ask, "If I do an online search for my brand/product what do I see?"

Now you better check to see what's available online about your brand. To check, go here.

. . . (waiting for you to check)

So now that you've seen what content is showing up on search results about your brand then now you know more or less the value of marketing through blogs. Blogs provide content and do help in getting in the message your want to convey to readers. Content is essentially, I believe, the value of blog marketing and that includes brand awareness, testimonials/trial, the layman explanation of your service and feedback.

Don't forget, search and content go hand in hand.

Google Lauches "Google Insights for Search"

2008-08-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how your products fare online? Search and content works hand in hand. Why not do a search on your products/services by using keywords that would probably direct people to your brand. Did your company's website come out in the first page of the search results? Did you find other websites/blogs talking about your product?

Google innovates further by providing a new tool for its advertisers, "Google Insights for Search". It's a tool that allows advertisers to compare keywords based on its search volume.

Let's say I'm a travel agency selling trips to different beaches in the Philippines. Here are the keywords I used to compare:

Boracay
Palawan
Bohol

And got this result:

Which tells me that Boracay is a term that is twice as much searched as Palawan and Bohol.

The tool also tells me which countries are interested in it (Philippines, Hongkong and Singapore). The map at the side also gives me an idea about where the volume of searches come from by region and it clearly indicates that most of the searches come from the Philippines. (You can also filter by country, year and regions)

Aside from the keywords I provided, the tool also provides both top searches and rising searches that are related to my keywords. Making it easy for me to know what keywords I should use to create a Google Adwords campaign.

Methinks "Google Insights for Search" is good for the following:

1. Provides great input for keywords to use when creating Google Adwords campaigns
2. Helps in giving me an idea which of my products are more searchable (and perhaps sellable) than others
3. Let's me know what regions/countries are interested in my product (great for exporters!)
4. If I was just starting out a business I could actually also use this tool for marketing insights (target marketing!)

Information at its best.

Corporate Blogging

2008-07-28T02:22:00.001-07:00

I caught up with the organizer of the Corporate Blogging seminar held at the Asian Institute of Management. In this video Regnard Raquedan talks about the reason why he came up with this project, what corporate blogging is all about, who it is relevant for and what it brings for business.

Some Insights about Blog Marketing

2008-07-17T23:04:00.001-07:00

I have been involved in the largest parties and events so far in the Philippine blogosphere and these include the following:

Philippine Blog Awards (Year 1, I was a host), 150+ attendees
iBlog3 and iBlog4 (as a speaker), over 300+ attendees
Taste Asia 1 and 2, over 200+ and over 450+ attendees respectively
88db.com Party for Bloggers, over 100+ attendees
Buhay Coke Party for Bloggers, over 300+ attendees
Ponds Event for Bloggers, over 100+ attendees

I've attended and participated in all these events as a blogger, but there is much insight that could be generated from these activities as a marketer. I've been asked countless of times by ad agencies, PR agencies, brand and product managers etc. to share my thoughts about blog marketing and I realized a lot of things as I was doing the IMMAP courses for search engine marketing and blog marketing.

What is blog marketing for?

If you want to try out new media marketing there are two important things: (1) content and (2) search. Consumers go online and do a search to find more information about a company's products/services. This is inherent in the buying process and with prices skyrocketing then people will surely try to find more information and reviews about a product. That's where blog marketing comes in.

But?

When a company tries its hand in blog marketing it should have a sound strategy for it. They could do it on their own by creating their own blog or they could just probably hold events and invite bloggers. One thing that's sincerely lacking though is the follow-up strategy after holding these events. I have yet to see a company who at the very least compiles write-ups about the events they've held and only a few bother to leave thank you's for those who attended.

So before you spend your budget on a blog marketing spree here are some things that you should think about:

1. Holding huge parties/events for bloggers is great, but is your product something that everyone uses (i.e. Coke) or is it best to just invite a specific niche of bloggers?

2. Bloggers also experience what you call "blogger fatigue". Sometimes its best to reach out to a specific niche since the bloggers will be more interested to make a post.

3. Must be our shy-Pinoy culture but a lot of bloggers are still wary to join contests. If you want to do a contest it's not enough to have an announcement through blogs, you have to follow-up, follow-up and follow-up and target key people who can help in spreading the word.

4. If you're going to hold an event for bloggers, it's important to make them experience your product/service. Holding a mall-type show just doesn't work. And get hosts who know what they are talking about.

5. Have someone in your company who understands how the community works or maybe at least somebody who is willing to learn.

And don't forget to plan on what you're going to do about that database you've gathered after the event. That's another post altogether, well maybe soon.

Happy weekend!

Blogging as a Marketing Tool

2008-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

More and more companies in the Philippines have been paying attention to bloggers. I'd say there are probably at least 3 events every week where bloggers are invited. It could be in the form of an activity with a handful of bloggers to really huge parties attended by hundreds of bloggers. Bloggers have also been receiving samples through mail and requests for reviews.

It's important for companies to be found online especially when people do searches about their products or services. Content is key here. Aside from a company's website, internet users also seek other types of information, especially reviews and testimonials which they find largely through blogs or review sites.

That's the reason why companies have been reaching out to bloggers and inviting them to their events. It's online word-of-mouth at work.

The past few weeks several big brands have been actively pursuing bloggers and these include the following:

1. Coca-cola recently held a "Buhay Coke ng Bloggers" party at the Taste Asia (Mall of Asia) and have announced a video blog contest.

2. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf sponsored a workshop on writing, making videos and photography last week and have extended the deadline of their contest.

3. Ponds (Unilever) is holding a party for bloggers on July 4, 2008, Friday at the Taste Asia (beside SM Hypermarket) at the Mall of Asia and will also be launching a contest of their own.

The Universal McCann study did say after all that 65.8% of active internet users in the Philippines read blogs.

The Art of Hiding from Salespersons

2008-06-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

This post is not meant to demean hardworking salespersons. I do admire them since I know that to be an effective salesperson you gotta have the following: (1) talent; (2) love for your product; and (3) a lot of tiyaga.

I did go through a sales job too, in another lifetime and I hated it. I just couldn't handle the rejection and I didn't like doing follow-up. My colleagues kept telling me (also said in workshops) that you shouldn't take things personally. Oh well, I realized then that I would never become a great salesperson and I'd rather do something else. So since then I shifted my career. Now that's another story.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Most of us have experienced getting spammed by marketers. Spammed not only in our email, but also through phone calls, SMS and direct mail. It's a basic formula used by marketers since at the average they do get 2-3% assured sales from it (that's why we get a lot of trash in our mailbox, offline and online).

I've mastered the art of being deadma about these things. I rarely get spam mail because I use Gmail. I get a lot of SMS especially from those promoting loans and a lot of the mail delivered by the postman goes to the trash can, including flyers stuffed in my bills. I've also mastered the art of saying no to telemarketers who call and ask if they can do a pitch over the phone (I just always say that I'm on my way out). Funny, but there are those who are really persistent and I handle them by giving them my email address so that whatever it is they're trying to sell to me gets caught in the spam filter. LOL.

We're bombarded with loads of information everyday, so I guess it's important to cultivate one's skill in filtering all these info. I also meet a lot of people every single day and I also have to weed out what's important and what's not. I guess at the end of the day the game is still about "need". If you target me and I don't need what you're selling, no matter how much you bug me you won't get any response from me.

Blog Marketing

2008-05-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

The Universal McCann study on "Social Media Usage" claims that about 65.8% of active internet users in the Philippines read blogs. That's more than the circulation than any of the major broadsheets and magazines. With that in mind a lot of PR practitioners, marketers and advertising agencies have been taking notice (finally!) of the platform.

I've been asked time and time again by former colleagues, college classmates and friends what blogging is all about. They've been asking me because they found my blog somewhere and thought that using new media for their companies is something that they should look into.

Below are some slides that I put together for a workshop I did about blog marketing.

Feel free to ask questions.

Social Media Usage in the Philippines, a Review of the Universal McCann Study

2008-05-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

I got excited over the study made by Universal McCann for social media usage (check out the study) and I chewed on the 80-paged report yesterday. What can I say? Stats make my heart do flip-flops. I miss my research mentor.

Tumble-weed crossing...

The study showed quite a number of big numbers and after review of the study I thought it should be noted that the study is a good indicator of what's happening in the market, but should not be taken to represent the whole market. Take note that they had 17,000 respondents from 29 countries, that's less than a thousand per country. I'm not keen on unearthing my notes on how to compute how much population less than a thousand can represent. Anyway, as my guru said, "READ WITH CAUTION".

I thought as well that the 15.4% internet penetration rate is grossly understated. AC Nielsen said that we're expected to have 24 million in our country this year and that's almost 27%, almost double of the penetration rate stated in the study.

The report claims to represent the online social media activities of active users. Active users being the "key leaders" and "drivers of adoption". They are what Mr. Ed Mapa coined as the "prosumers" in last year's National Marketing Conference. Active users/prosumers are the early adopters and those who do things on their own accord. They are the ones who are followed as examples by the "wait and see" crowd and for marketers they are important because they help get the word out, thus influencing consumers down the line to purchase/use products/services.

The study claims that the Philippines has 3.7 million active users. I did a bit of mathematics to align it with the supposed 24 million internet users and the number should be 6.48 million.

I have been asked by marketers time and time again about the demographics of the online market. I have continuously refused to succumb to explaining it the traditional way. Fact is you can never really tell if the eyeballs visiting a site is from a young child or a grandpa. What you can extract however is the profile of that person visiting that site. Fifteen and fifty year olds can both enjoy the same online game eh? Yup.

Anyway, the study Univesal McCann made is quite a good indicator of what's happening in the online market. Ahhh, the bloggers would be so happy.

Reading Blogs. 65.8% of active users read blogs, to current number of users it translates to 4.2 million. Five of the most read categories/topics are: personal, family/friends, music, news/current affairs, film/TV. IMHO it's true, I have a smattering of niche blogs, but my most read blog is my personal blog (I guess people find reading this blog boring LOL).

Writing Blogs. Only 4.8% of active users blog! That's roughly only about 311,000 in the 24 million internet users. I wonder though if the stats for the categories was correct since the page was exactly the same with the "reading blogs" page. Typo? Top 3 contents posted include: photos, video, and recommended website.

Social Networking. Everyone knows that it was the Philippines who put Friendster on the map (now with 10.7 million users in the country). The study said that 83.1% of active users have a profile in a social networking site. Let's not even bother to smudge in the numbers. Users normally upload photos and videos and install apps.

Sharing Content. Active users share the following content: photos 86.4% and videos 60.5%

Consuming Content. 98.6% of active users watch videos and 45.2% use RSS.

These are very exciting numbers and the Philippines is in the forefront compared to other countries. The indicators for growth is also rising by leaps and bounds. I've been seeing a number of local promotions targeting online users, but it's not picking up. Why? Because the marketers are still doing things the traditional way.

Ad spend to promote these endeavors are going to tv, print and radio, I have yet to see ads being placed on search engines and social networking sites. I think what they sadly forgot to take into account is the fact that the profile of internet users are very much different from those who watch tv or read newspapers. I'm a big internet user and I get my entertainment online through Youtube and I read news online as well. I don't watch TV often (especially now it's busted). The name of the game in marketing online is being able to profile your target market well and reaching out to them when they pursue their interests online when they read, watch and upload content.

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Podcasting and Vlogging the Filipino Way

2008-04-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday at the iBlog4 I was teamed up with popular Pinoy vlogger, Coy Caballes, to speak about podcasting and vlogging. Instead of doing it the regular-ala-preso-way Coy and I decided to do a short video about our iBlog4 assignment. We did not use any high-tech equipment to produce this video and hopefully we managed to inspire others to try out podcasting and video blogging.

Here's the bit about podcasting -

And on video blogging -

Read more about iBlog4 at An Apple a Day.

Understanding Google Analytics

2008-04-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Google Analytics I'd say is the best tool there is to track data on your website or blog. A few months ago I wrote a short overview about it, but I've gotten quite a number of requests on how to understand the data provided by Google Analytics.

Looking at stats in Google Analytics is pretty much a walk in a park, however it may seem like a daunting task when you have to submit a report. Aside from piling up information, of course you have to make sure that the stakeholder reading your report should understand it. I had problems in my past job making my report understandable to non-techies. I just got blank face when I mentioned the terms page views, referral sites, user sessions etc. It's also best to have a report that's both qualitative and quantitative. Remember top executives and managers have short attention span and they normally don't go beyond the first page of any report.

When you open Google Analytics you'll get to see a myriad of information. Quite easy to understand, here's an outline you can use when you need to come up with an offline report.

*Always define the period of your report.

Site Usage: Site usage provides an overview to the overall traffic of your website. Key among the stats provided in this section are the Page Views and the visitor's Average Time on Site (also known as user session) because this indicates whether the site visitor is looking through your content aside from your home page. The longer your visitors stay in your site, the better.

Visits
Page Views
Pages per Visit
Bounce Rate
Ave. Time on Site
% of New Visits
*it would also be great if you could include graph of your traffic

Visitors Overview: It is also important to know how many visitors your site is getting. Always remind your stakeholder that the reach of one's website is incomparable to traditional media. Bear in mind that those visiting your site are people who need your product/info (your target market). Any marketer would tell you that it's more expensive to acquire new users versus maintaining loyal customers. Content is key to keep your users coming back (it's called site stickiness). The map overlay basically shows you where your visitors are coming from.

Absolute Unique Visitors
New vs. Returning
Map Overlay (countries/territories)

Traffic Sources: This indicates how your visitors found your website. If you have an offline advertising campaign, getting direct traffic may indicate that your visitors may have seen or heard about your website through this campaign. Getting traffic from search engines is important since it indicates that your site is relevant and people are looking for you! Use the Google Website Optimizer to help you make your website more search engine friendly.

Source (search engines, referral sites or direct)
Keywords

Top Content: This indicates which of your pages are being read by your site's visitors. You can perhaps list the top 10 to 20 pages being visited. This helps marketers find out which of their products/services are important to them. This will also help marketers determine which products need more push/promos.

Tech Stats: Google Analytics also provides a lot of statistics that would be helpful to your website manager. It's useful as well for doing usability studies. Some key points include: browser profile, connection speed, navigation analysis and click patterns.

View this for a sample format.

Earning from Blogging

2008-04-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

I have at least 4-digits in revenue from blogging. In US dollars.

Yes!

4 digits per month!!!

Yup, you read it right. Four digits with a dot in between the second and the third number.

Gotcha!

I couldn't help but make a pun about it since it's April Fools Day. I have yet to get a check from my blogs, but it's no biggie. It would make me happy, but I see it just as passive income. I enjoy blogging because I like to write and I've lately been enjoying vlogging as well because I want to learn how to edit videos.

Anyway, I've been feeling a bit disturbed for a few weeks now over a conversation between two bloggers I overheard. One is an undergrad taking up engineering and another works for a government institution as a developer. They started off by talking about topics that draw traffic to ones blog, where to get keywords and how to utilize the info to increase traffic and then they started talking about niche blogs that they could create in order to earn more money from blogging.

"I'd be very happy if I get 10,000 pesos per month."

Eveything else was drowned out after I heard one of them say that and the other was pretty much excited about it too. I don't know if they mentioned if they wanted to earn more, but that line stuck and I zoned out then. It seemed to me that they wanted to put in all their efforts in earning from blogging (and that translates as well to doing a number of tricks to get traffic).

I honestly wanted to bonk them in the head.

I know there are a number of successful bloggers who earn a good keep from blogging. And that made me think - can a person live off his/her blog? I asked my pro-blogger friends about it and they said that they all HAVE OTHER sources of income and they said it has to be that way because they don't think that blogging alone would be sustainable.

I was disturbed with the boys because they are both very talented young people who I think should their time in garnering real-world experience before they settle in earning their keep through blogging. They might be surprised on how much easier it would be to earn 10,000 if they really do well using their talents.

Earning from one's blog is no easy feat and I salute those who do. It takes time and effort though to do so. I've been getting a number of requests to do talks about making money from one's blog. I'm sorry, but I'm no expert in that department. There are quite a number of respectable Filipino bloggers who talk about blogging for money and I'd suggest reading Manuel and Ely.

My Social Networking Scrap

2008-03-24T04:56:00.000-07:00

I am one of those social networking junkies. I have a smattering of accounts in different social networking sites - Friendster, Multiply, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and even the more serious ones (which I think is also a form of social networking) LinkedIn and Shelfari. I cannot really pinpoint where I spend a lot of time in coz I use it for different things.

I use Friendster mostly as a contact point for friends from school. Multiply is where I spend time randomly checking on friends who upload photos or blog and in some rare instances I check out what's being sold by some enterprising entrepreneurs. Facebook is where I play Mario Brothers (haha), my friends list in there isn't really controlled since I just approve (almost) anyone who invites me. I don't spend that much time on MySpace and Orkut, I just find it to be a totally different world, but it's where I've been getting quite a number of hilarious invites/scraps -

Here are some things I've been getting (and I have not deleted any of it for gloomy days) -

if i say hi.......u may say whoz this....
if i ask for chat....u may say why??....
if i ask u for a coffee.....u may say wt rubbish....
if i say i liked ur profile......u may say m flattering u.....
if i ask for frnship.......u may say m flirting......
so can u plz suggest me hw to start wid a new relation.........????
till u reply i am trying wid a request........."plz check me out".......m here lookin for new frns.

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..............how r u
Aileen
nice name.....
I am ur friend........ u add to me
I DON't know........ ur language..
plz tell me in engaliash
ok kiss

And here's the best one I've received -

Hon'ble

Princess,

First of all I bow down my head at ur feet and kiss ur sandals to show my devotion towards u, princess my owner I want to be ur pet doggy or ur pet slave which u likes, please give me some space near ur feet.

Regards
your pet doggy
Jacky

I could not help but grin over that last scrap. Imagine, somebody call me Hon'ble (does it mean honorable or honey-able?) and Princess. I giggle everytime I read that scrap. I guess to each his own and that's why social networking sites attract different types of people and culture, and, I might add, comfort level (for usage).

There's an upcoming conference for social networking entitled, "Social Networking & eBusiness Conference Philippines" which looks interesting. I wonder if there's someone who could explain why I get all these scraps from nowhere and what is it in a platform that attracts a certain set of people. Is it because of the interface? The features? Culture? The person who invited you? What makes one site successful over others? Will social networking sites eventually be a huge place for commerce? What's the huge fuss behind social networking anyway (aside from generating revenue)? Maybe this conference will answer some of my questions.

Well, if you wanna be my friend... add me up!!!

Getting Inspired by Technopreneurs

2008-02-28T07:08:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to join three Filipino technopreneurs last night at the E-Commerista 3.0 through Andrian Lee's invitation - Gabby Dizon, Jonas Diego and Gio Bacareza - and it's really inspiring to see how they've managed to turn their interests into successful businesses and here are just some thoughts that I wanted to share.

Flipside Games

I noticed that a lot of my friends who are developers now dreamed that they wanted to develop their own game "when they grow up" and this was their reason for taking up computer science back in college. Gabby Dizon, CEO of Flipside Games, said that the reason that he went into game development is because he "did not want to grow up". He used to work as a developer for Inq7.net and grabbed the first chance when they opened a slot for game development. Eventually he started his own company and has been successful in this endeavor. He even just got back from a gaming conference from SFO.

Integrated Art Services

I call Jonas Diego "Mr. Comics". I met him about a year ago through blogger-friends and I was glad to find out that we had common friends - artist friends from back in college and my former boss' son who publishes comics. I have very high respect for artists since I can only draw stick figures and coconut trees (seriously!). I believe it's one talent/hobby that's really hard to "monetize" unless you are very, very gifted. I truly admire Jonas for turning his first love into a very successful venture. During the "day" Jonas manages Interactive Art Services which caters to international clients for their storyboard needs. I think that this is a great way to showcase Filipino artistry.

Chikka.com

The Philippines still holds the title for "Texting Capital of the World" and that's the industry where web company Chikka.com has been very successful in. If you're a Filipino I'm pretty sure that you use Chikka's SMS services (tipid sa load!) and that's the company that Gio Bacareza represented during the event. I've been using Chikka for several years already and it has been very useful for me. Chikka has also re-engineered their service and it allows you to log-in all your IM services into their services and your IM friends can seamlessly communicate with you even when you are offline. Cool huh. Gio also mentioned that they'll soon be launching a service for bloggers.

I have neglected to make posts about "Good IT News in the Philippines" the past couple of months and I should just DO IT since there are so many exciting things happening around the country.

Here are some photos from Libby -

Thanks for the invitation Andrian!

Content Scraping

2008-02-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia says that web scrapping (or content scraping) is when content is copied and mashed up to create a scraper site... for the non-techie... it's simply PLAGIARISM! Rawr!

One of the major reasons why I started blogging is because I wanted to revive my muse. I've been writing since I was a kid, but I stopped for about 8 years and only found my way back again a couple of years ago. I try my best to come up with original content and I hope I succeed in doing that.

I have friends who had to report abuse because their content was being copied in bulk! I have been a victim of content scraping (both for text and photos) as well, but it's nothing really major. I try my best to come out with original content because I think it's quite un-creative (and unethical) to just copy another blogger's post and criticize it on your blog, unless it's a meme (and meme's are usually fun to do!).

Here are some exercises I do whenever I'm stumped: (1) Get 5 objects near you, make a story out of it. (2) Or chronicle everything you did today and ask yourself, "What's the most interesting thing that happened?" (3) List down all your expenses for the day and answer the question, "What purchase gave you the most value for your peso?" (4) Or go answer a survey/meme, I normally do that to psyche myself up for work on blue Monday mornings.

There are days though that my muse totally deserts me, so I just normally don't force the issue and take a break. So, what do you do when you face a blank sheet?

Localized iGoogle Gadgets

2008-02-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show some new gadgets developed by Hamilton which he shared in our group:

(1) Latest on the ZTE NBN Controversy

(2) Philippine Stock Exchange Ticker

Other localized gadgets from the Philippines you might be interested in, done by Andrew:

(1) Ratified.org (relevant for bloggers)

(2) GMA News

(3) Philstar

(4) Inquirer

(5) Business World

Pretty nifty eh? My iGoogle wish list include: TV guide, local comics (I want Pugad Baboy!), something to do with OPM, local entertainment news and maybe local recipes (like a recipe of the day).

Now I regret not taking up computer science back in college!

Go, add `em up in your iGoogle!

iGoogle

2008-02-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

Ahhh this blog's been really quiet the past few months, been quite busy. I just bumped into this video on iGoogle awhile ago and it easily explains what iGoogle is all about.

I customized my personal home page a couple of months back and aside from mail, the weather, a to-do list I've included some pets in it - some fishes and a pig! - and I know Pacman is so very 80s, but that's the only game I'm really good at. I wish though there was an iGoogle theme for the Philippines.

Google Apps for Education

2007-12-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

The Google for Educators event held last December 6, 2007, at the Bro. Andrew Gonzalez Hall of De La Salle University, was a success! Thank you very much to the Philippine Society of IT Educators and DLSU for hosting us.

Jeff Keltner basically spoke about different tools that educators can use for the classroom and explained what Google Apps for Education is. Here's a video of the whole talk -

*Taken from the Google Youtube Channel

Here are links to services Jeff spoke about in his presentation -

Google for Educators
Tools for Classroom
Teacher Community
Google Apps for Education (you can also sign-up here)
Google Summer of Code

Filipino Google Apps Help Group

If you have any other questions kindly email me. Thanks!

P.S. For those needing certificates, I'll be coordinating that with PSITE. Thanks.

STI Roadshow

2007-11-28T04:35:00.000-08:00

November 29, 2007 - Baguio City

Photos by: JayDJ and Mhel/Kim

Related Posts about Baguio:
Lakwatsera Ako
An Apple a Day

December 7, 2007 - Cebu City

January 9, 2008 - Bacolod City
January 11, 2007 - Kalibo, Aklan
January 22, 2007 - General Santos City
January 25, 2007 - Cagayan de Oro
January 29, 2007 - Ormoc
February 7 to 8, 2007 - Manila

For students who wish to join the blog writing contest, please leave a comment with your name, your STI school and the link to your STI convention blog post.

At the Advertising Congress

2007-11-23T21:14:00.000-08:00

I expected to experience a grueling long-trip to Subic yesterday, but was surprised to have a pleasant one despite of the fact that the driver was a tad bit reckless and arrogant (he should be taken off the streets!) and we were hailed by the MMDA for swerving (he got off by bribing him with PhP20! - BAD, BAD, BAD!).

Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager for SouthEast Asia of Google Inc., delivered a talk about the "Future of Internet" and cited mainly that marketers and advertisers should make sure that their campaigns should take an integrated online and offline approach. To learn more I'm doing a whole day hands-on workshop on December 11 in coordination with the Philippine Trade & Training Center.

Here are some photos from the event -

Derek and iGoogle

2007-11-22T03:24:00.000-08:00

Derek's here in Manila and here's a video Erwin Oliva of Inquirer.net took earlier today where Derek speaks about getting more local content from users and developers from the Philippines.

Check out Erwin's full story at Inquirer.net.

New Blogger Feature: Slideshow

2007-11-22T01:22:00.001-08:00

I was pleased when I got word about the newest Blogger slideshow feature. I've got loads of photos on my Picasa account and I've always wanted to have random photos to show in my blog. And it's easy to do! All you need to do is log-in your Blogger account and add it through your blog lay-out. You can choose to show random photos with Picasa, Flicker, Photobucket or any photo RSS feed.

Here's how I did it:

1. Add page element through the lay-out section of my blog.

2. Set the photos to come from my Picasa RSS (you can find the RSS link at the bottom of the Picasa album you want to showcase).

3. Here's how it looks in my personal blog.

Google for Educators

2007-11-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

We're hosting a workshop for IT educators/school IT administrators!

Here are the details -

What: Internet for Educators

Speakers: Jeff Keltner, Product Manager, Google Apps for Education
Aileen Apolo, Google Country Consultant - Philippines

Topics: Google Apps for Education/Tools for Classroom

When: December 6, 2007, Thursday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Where: De La Salle University, 20th Floor Brother Andrew Gonzalez Hall, Multi-Purpose Room, 2269 Taft Avenue, Malate, Manila 1004

How to join: Kindly fill-out the form and then check the guest list if you've been registered.

create form

Sign-up now! Limited slots available.

December 3 Update: Please make sure you have been registered, the guard will not let you in if you're name is not on the list. Thanks.

December 5 Update: Registration closed. Please make sure you're on the list and for those bringing a vehicle, kindly make sure you've included the plate number and make of car. De La Salle security is very strict. Registration starts at 1:30 p.m. and talk proper at 2:00 p.m. Please be prompt.

Google TechTalk

2007-11-20T01:07:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank all the developers who attended for taking the time out to attend the event last night. I also want to thank the tireless volunteers who helped out to keep the event organized -

The Registration People - Sweetie, AJ, Cel
The Schwag People - Jehz, Anne, Chel
The Bouncer este Usher - Juned
Cliquebooth People - Markku and Dax (thanks Mimi and Karl!) - download your photos!
GSoC Mentors - Ben, Zak and Rom
Mom's Personal Angel - Miguel (he wasn't there though)
ACCEED - Jigs

We are very much interested to hear your feedback, comments and suggestions. Kindly sign-up for the group. I'll make more announcements in the group. I'll also update this post to include the links that Jay and Franklin showed last night.

I wonder who's going to be the developer who'll make the most popular gadget for our country? Interested to make one? Download and read the SDK. Done with your gadget? Lemme know so I can help you out with getting it to the team. Check out the Developer home page as well for more videos.

For those interested to become Google Summer of Code mentors, check out the GSoC page.

Anyway, RJ David was kind enough to cover the event and upload the talk on Youtube.

I'm Hurt... Ouch

2007-11-16T07:23:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to watch TV again lately since I've been trying to stay offline after 10 in the evening since I usually start at around 8 in the morning. Fair enough right? Yeah right, it's 11:30 in the evening, I'm watching TV in my bedroom but I have my laptop on my lap and I'm feeding off from the wifi coming from my study room. Pfffttt...

Anyway, I was delighted to watch quite a number of TV commercials. They're all new to me since I haven't been really watching TV. What caught my attention tonight was PLDT's cutesy TV ad for its wireless landline (they're following Bayantel's lead now). It's where a guy is on the phone courting a girl and then he finally manages to tell her his feelings and then he asks if they were an item already. Then he kinda falls off his seat - because his Dad hits on the brakes - and the girl tells him that she has a boyfriend. Dad then teases him about the moves he was taking. Guy ends the scene by saying "I'm hurt... ouch!"

I have a good feeling that this line will pick up, the same way "Suportahan taka" picked up a couple of years ago. Remember the ad? -

Aside from catchy lines and ad slogans, there are other things that you should mind when doing ads. I learned these things on the job when I launched a brand from scratch by doing a full media campaign and when I did consultancy work for a property developer. I realized that I learned so much when I was looking at some flyers last night at Cafea. Here are some things to remember when producing ads:

1. When making flyers or other print collaterals, be OC (obsessive compulsive) about the images you are using. Looking at several flyers of properties I noticed that the images used were the same for different properties of the same developer. If your developments all look the same, then you should just have one flyer and just state the different locations instead of trying to fool consumers that they all look different.

2. When making radio ads, especially for mobile services make sure that the syntax you are trying to communicate will be easily understood by listeners. When reviewing your ads, do not wear your brand manager's hat, put yourself in the shoes of your target market. If you're the only one in your company who can remember all the syntax/codes, then your service offering has some serious problems.

3. The KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) is very much applicable when doing TV ads, or any kind of ad for that matter. Sometimes it is so tempting to show off your intellect by making puzzle-like ads, but with the short attention span of consumers (like me), then better keep it simple. Your ad is only as good as the few seconds that a consumer will actually pay attention to it.

And may I just say that I think at this day and age, it is a MUST to have at least some online presence for your company.

And, now I shall plug my upcoming business workshops and activities -
November 19 - De La Salle Lipa/Google TechTalk
November 23 - 20th Advertising Congress
November 27 - Marketing Your Business Online at PTTC
November 29 - Google University for STI in Baguio
December 1 - Google Analytics at PHP Philippines
December 6 - Google Apps for Education and Tools for Education
December 10 & 11 - Marketing Your Business Online at PTTC (hands-on)

Google for Entrepreneurs, Marketers and Advertising Agencies

2007-11-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Learn more about marketing your business online! We have the following workshops for entrepreneurs, marketers and advertising agencies/specialists.

Those with websites will get a FREE Google Adwords coupon worth PhP2,500.

November 16, Friday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

November 27, Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online (postponed to December 11)
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

November 28, Wednesday

ICT for Business
Google Advertising Case Studies for SMEs
in cooperation with Digitalfilipino.com
National Computer Center
Quezon City, Metro Manila
*To join this, please get in touch with Janette Toral.

December 10 & 11, Monday & Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online (hands on workshop)
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC
**Fee is PhP75 payable to PTTC
***You may also leave a comment below to sign-up, please leave your name, company name and website address and the date you are attending. Check the guest list if you've been signed-up.

A Night for Developers

2007-11-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

We're hosting an event for Philippine developers!

Here are the details -

What: TechTalk with Google Engineers (from Mountain View, California)

Topics: Google Gadgets, Google Open Social & other developer products

When: November 19, 2007, Monday, 7:00 p.m.

Where: 3rd Floor, SGV Hall, ACCEED Conference Center (beside AIM, in front of Greenbelt)

How to join: Sign-up your name and your programming language by leaving a comment below. You can check if you've been registered by checking out the guest list.

Sign-up now! Limited slots available.

=================================
11-13 11:45 a.m. Update: We can only accommodate 150 developers for now. For those who signed-up and did not reach the cut-off, kindly wait for further announcements. Your comments are just on hold. Please check the guest list if you've been included. Thanks po!

11-13 9:24 p.m. Update: Please keep posted for further announcements. Thanks po!

11-14 10:20 a.m. Update: Added 50 more slots but it's been filled up already. Kindly check the guest list if you've been included. Registration closed. Thanks for your support!

How to Survive

2007-11-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

I remember a speaker say in a convention, "If you're business cannot be found online, then where the hell are you?" Surprisingly, not many local businesses still cannot be found online and that convention I attended was one of the marketing forums that was held about 5 years ago.

I've been in the online advertising industry for more than 5 years and the growth has been tremendously slow. Why? There are many reasons why, but I think the greatest obstacle to its growth is fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of trying things out. Technology after all could sometimes be intimidating.

I always tell those who attend my speaking engagements not to fear anything when it comes to technology. "You can always click on the "undo button" or reboot!" That's what my Kuya told me when he enrolled me in logo programming classes when I was ten years old. And I still follow that principle (why do you think I started blogging? to learn about all these new stuff available online! and it's FREE!).

"It's easy!" I told several marketing bigwigs I had lunch with during the National Marketing Convention when they asked me if I could teach them to blog (I haven't gotten around to organizing that bit for them though). Well, all you basically do is educate yourself (see some tools on the sidebar) and you'll be well on your way to becoming a wholistic marketer (print, radio, TV + web and mobile!).

Find out more by listening to my colleague, Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager - Southeast Asia, Google Inc. when he talks about the "Future of Internet" in the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress.

I also have a series of workshops for "Marketing Your Business Online" in partnership with the Philippine Trade Training Center and Yehey.com on the following dates:

November 16, 2007 (Friday)
November 27, 2007 (Tuesday)
December 10 & 11 (Monday & Tuesday)

Those who will attend will get PhP2,500 worth of Google Adwords coupons. For more details please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC.

November Activities

2007-11-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

November 12, Monday

Google University
Miriam College
Quezon City, Metro Manila
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

November 16, Friday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC

November 19, Monday

Google University
De La Salle Lipa University
Lipa, Batangas
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

TechTalk: Google Gadgets, Google Open Social and other Google developer products
ACCEED Conference Center
7:00 p.m.

November 21 to 24, Wednesday to Saturday

20th Philippine Advertising Congress
Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center
Subic Bay Freeport Zone

*November 23, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
The Future of Ads
Speaker: Derek Callow, Regional Marketing Manager Southeast Asia, Google Inc.

November 27, Tuesday

Marketing Your Business Online
in cooperation with Yehey.com and PTTC
Philippine Trade Training Center
Buendia, Makati, Metro Manila
1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
*For inquiries please call Jeffrey Gumasing of PTTC

November 28, Wednesday

ICT for Business
Google Advertising Case Studies for SMEs
in cooperation with Digitalfilipino.com
National Computer Center
Quezon City, Metro Manila

November 29, Thursday

Google University
STI
Baguio City

Google Translate

2007-10-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

My friend was weirded out about getting emails in Spanish - emails that didn't look like spam, but were subscriptions on something. What it was, we didn't know because the whole email was written in Spanish.

And then I remembered, we could actually translate the text! So I quickly went to Google Translate, copied and pasted some of the text from the email. From the translated text we found out that it was a subscription to an online magazine and there was an unsubscribe link to it. Problem solved!

BTW, with Google Translate you can translate text or a website in a number of languages, do translated search (like search in i.e. English and then get results in Spanish) and then you can also find words in the dictionary. Pretty nifty huh?

At least now whenever some of my friends sent me emails in another language (they like doing that to me) or whenever I want to read blogger friends who write in another language, I can easily translate what they wrote and understand what they're trying to say.

Blogger Play Gadget on iGoogle

2007-10-17T19:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Blogger launched Blogger Play and I thought that it's really cool to see photos as they are uploaded. I get transfixed with the thought of peering into the lives of other people - makes you realize that you are just one of the many, many unique people in the whole wide world. Weird huh.

Anyway, I also like tinkering around my iGoogle page (which is now available in Filipino, which means you can get feeds written in Filipino as well) and I've so far placed some fish to feed, a flying pig, the weather (I monitor Manila, Legaspi and Davao coz I have dear friends and relatives in the area), a to-do list and I've recently added the Blogger Play gadget.

What are you waiting for? Try it! Try it! Just sign-in to your iGoogle using your Google Account (which is also your Gmail account) or if you're already logged-in just type http://www.google.com/ig in another tab (for Mozilla Firefox users) and the page will come out. Then include the gadget in your page by clicking on "add a gadget" (magdagdag ng bagay-bagay) and look for (or search) Blogger Play, then just click on the "add" button. When you go back to your iGoogle homepage the gadget will be there and you can just move it around the page.

Then you can just sit back and be mesmerized. Cheers!

Youtube Custom Channel

2007-10-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Guess who has their own Youtube Custom Channel - MYX!

MYX is ABS-CBN's music video channel that I personally love and I was really happy when they decided to have their own custom channel in Youtube.

A custom channel is like having your own TV channel. You can upload your personally made videos and you can use this to promote your company's products and services or you can use this to keep in touch with your family and friends by sharing videos of your adventures and misadventures (if any).

My custom channel is a mix of a lot of things - mostly music videos I get to take whenever I attend music-related events or videos with my family and friends. I'd want to do some DIY videos though, maybe when I manage to budget some time for it I would.

How to make your own Youtube Custom Channel? It's easy! Just visit Youtube, sign-up for an account and then play around with the settings and then upload your videos. And you don't need a video camera to create videos - I just normally use my digital camera and maybe I'll try using my webcam as well. I don't even edit my videos (and that's one thing I really want to start doing). It's that easy. And it's FREE!

What are you waiting for? Create your Youtube Custom Channel now!

October Activities

2007-09-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

SEM Conference

October 9 & 10, 2007
Hotel Intercontinental, Makati

Speakers:

Pay-Per-Click
Derek Callow
Regional Marketing Manager - South East Asia, Google

Google Analytics

Joel Sangria
Online Sales and Operation Manager - South East Asia, Google

More announcements coming...

Marketing through Communities

2007-09-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

I remember being the only product manager who didn't have a budget for my marketing activities. I had to be creative and my boss then gave the directive that I should do community development which meant I had to partner with trade associations and other business organizations to promote the product I was handling.

I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with the trade associations I was going to partner with so I had to do some research. I searched through Google if there were organizations that matched the market I was targeting. After identifying the organizations I then looked up the events they were doing and figured out what I could do with them.

Remember, don't be shy. It is not enough to reach out to these organizations, you have to channel your enthusiasm to them as well. Aside from that you have to determine what their needs are and what solutions you can actually provide for them. I'd say it's easier to do community development for B2B associations rather than for B2C because their needs are much easier to determine.

Anyway, one concrete and recent example I have is the Taste Asia Blogger Food Fest (done in 2 parts). My training always reverts me towards doing activities that have more impact and with the least (or no) cost. I also have to make sure that what I do multiplies its effect.

I've been blogging for a year already and I did not really expect that it would be a way for me to reach out to communities. Blogging's just a past time, something to while away my time since I don't have officemates nearby to bug (like to throw a ball with or nudge to have some coffee with during breaktime). But, it's been a big help since these are people who are knowledgeable and have the energy to teach others as well.

The Taste Asia Blogger Food Fest was an unexpected event, but brought across a message for a slew of products I'm supposed to market. It was quite easy to do since I just basically used available free tools online which made it easy for me to organize the event amidst all the other activities I'm doing. Here are some of the tools I used to organize the event:

Gmail (sign-up now!)
Blogger
Google Docs & Spreadsheets

After the event I realized I managed to talk about and use the following products as well:

Google Adwords
Google Adsense
Google Blogsearch
Youtube make your own custom channel!)
Picasa (create your albums online now)
Google Apps for Your Domain (create your own webpage free!)

Communities are important to any marketing strategy. It is also noteworthy to say that it helps in educating the market.

Happy Anniversary to An Apple a Day!

20th Philippine Advertising Congress

2007-09-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

I still remember the first AdCon I attended. It was back in 2003 in Baguio. I'll never forget it coz I won PhP100,000 from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Swerte? Actually it was the very first raffle I ever won. It was a thrilling experience indeed coz I wasn't really paying attention to the draw since I was having a migraine and fact is, I never really win in these things. So when I saw my number come up in the electronic tambiolo, I showed it to the VP-Sales of the company I was working for that time and she verified that it was my number. She started jumping up and down before I did. LOL.

Well, if you're interested, you can sign-up for the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress online.

Learn More About Search Engine Optimization

2007-09-09T03:31:00.001-07:00

For all those interested to learn more about search engine optimization/marketing. Attend the 1st SEMCON on October 9 to 10 at the Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinnental.

For more details, click on the ad below:

I Love Gmail

2007-09-02T02:16:00.000-07:00

Gmail is part and parcel of my daily routine. I don't even need to log-in separately to other services I used whenever I am logged-in to my Gmail since I can easily access Blogger, Photos, Calendar, Google Reader, Google Adwords and my Google Docs & Spreadsheets and other Google services. It is like my house-key to my online life.

And it looks like a whole lot of other people are using it too. Watch the final cut of the Gmail video below -

Did you know though that you can use the Gmail platform for the email addresses of your own domain? Check it out and sign-up (for FREE!) through Google Apps for Your Domain.

Books! Books! Books!

2007-09-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

I love books! I think I must've bought at least 10 books for the month of August alone despite the fact that I still have got quite a number of books to read. I was certainly awed by the number of books at the Manila International Book Fair and I really had a hard time staying away from the bookstores, lest I end up shopping for books again. Pffft. I must tell you though that it isn't going shopping that excites me, it's going to a bookstore. LOL.

Too bad Google Book Search wasn't around yet when I was doing all those research back in college and graduate school. It would have certainly been very useful to me. Well, I survived with Google Search and I could say I managed well with the traditional card catalogues, scrounging around dusty books, old newspapers, microfilmed data and all the other scholarly stuff I used to finish my thesis, case studies and other papers.

I would say kids are sooo lucky to have many, many tools to get the information they need nowadays. Google Book Search certainly helps both book lovers, researchers, browsers and publishers both ways. I'm sure kids in the provinces who don't have libraries in their schools or access to information would love to use Google Book Search.

Here's a video on how Google Book Search works -

Explore the Sky on Google Earth

2007-08-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

This is definitely more than what you'll see in a planetarium!

Read more about it here.

Chikka and Google Talk

2007-08-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

Inquirer.net reports that Chikka goes a notch higher with version 4.0 of its instant messenger service which is now integrated with other instant messenger services including Google Talk. Chikka.com is one of the large service providers part of the Google Talk Federation. Through this you can simply send messages to your Google Talk or Chikka buddy either way.

It's so easy to do! Just download the Chikka console here and then follow this simple steps (I got it from the Chikka website).

How do I add a Google user from my Chikka Messenger?
a. Click the SEND MESSAGE button in your Chikka Messenger.
b. The SEND MESSAGE window will appear.
c. Input the GMAIL address of your Google Talk buddy and click OK.
d. You will receive a confirmation message: “Your add buddy request has been sent to @gmail.com. You will be informed once your friend accepts your invitation. Thank you.”
e. Once an invitation is pending, there will be a “Waiting for Approval” bar in your Chikka buddy list on top of the ONLINE bar.
f. When an invitation is accepted, a system message widow will pop up informing user that the invitation was accepted.
g. At the same time, the VIEW PROFILE window will pop up where you can assign a screen name to your Google Talk buddy.
h. Once you assign a screen name, the name of your Google Talk buddy will be included under the ONLINE or IDLE bar depending on his/her status.

How do I add a Chikka user from Google Talk?
a. Click ADD FRIEND.
b. The “Invite your friends…” window will pop up where you can input the email address of the person you want to invite.
c. To invite Chikka users, type @chikkatalk.com (Ex. 00123456@chikkatalk.com or 639171234567@chikkatalk.com).
d. The confirmation window will appear. Your Chikka buddy should already appear in your Google Talk buddy list.
e. Simply double-click buddy name to send a message.

Read a Lot? Organize

2007-08-17T00:58:00.000-07:00

In the past few months I've found myself reading more and more stuff online and I have basically stopped watching TV because of that. With all the stuff that I read online, I had to find a way to minimize the time to load everything up. Opening so many tabs wasn't a good idea either since it was messing up my system. Life became a whole lot easier with Google Reader and I must say that I started out with only a handful of subscriptions, but my list has now grown to over 70 news and blog feeds.

Of course, methinks Google Reader is best used for vibrant content sites like blogs and news sites. I do a lot of research as well, both for work and personal use like for canvassing stuff or scouting vacation places and the sites I visit for these are normally static websites. I find it quite messy to bookmark stuff and by bookmarking you are basically stuck with just one PC/laptop (you can use iGoogle though for your bookmarks as well). So for static websites I use Google Notebook. What's great about it as well is I can create several notebooks where I can neatly save (clip) websites and even put notes on why I visited that site in the first place.

Organize your reads! Use Google Reader and Google Notebook.

Ratified.org goes Australian

2007-08-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Ratified.org expands to Australia! Andrew dela Serna, founder of Ratified.org announced in his blog his collaboration with Janette Toral for Ratified.org Australia.

Another Pinoy product to be proud of! Congrats Andrew and Janette!

August Activities

2007-08-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2007, Monday
Google University
Aklan

August 7 & 8, 2007, Tuesday-Wednesday
Google University
Davao

August 9, 2007, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Mandaue Business Forum, Thursday
Cebu International Convention Center
(my speaking engagement is at around 4:00 p.m.)
If you wish to attend, please get in touch with the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce

August 9, 2007, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Google University
Cebu
Cebu International Convention Center
If you are a school principal or IT administrator and wish to attend, please leave a comment below

August 10,2007, 9:00 a.m., Friday
Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit
Hotel Intercon
If you wish to attend, please book through the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines

August 13-14, 2007, Monday to Tuesday (tentative)
Google University
Bohol

August 17, 2007, Friday
Google University
Antipolo

August 18-20, Saturday to Monday (tentative)
Google University
Negros Occidental/Bacolod

August 23, 2007, Thursday
Google University
Angeles City

August 23, 2007, Friday, 8:00 p.m.
Blog Party at Taste Asia, Mall of Asia
Please await further announcements for this event

*The Google University events are organized by GILAS, if you wish to attend please get in touch with their regional operations managers.

How to Create an Ad in Google

2007-07-27T22:21:00.001-07:00

I've been going around in the past few months talking about advertising on Google, but I've only been skimming on why it's important to have web presence. I've received quite a number of inquiries on how to go about it, so here are simple steps on how to create your own advertising campaign on Google. You can also more accurately learn how to go about advertising on Google through the Google Adwords Learning Center which has text and video tutorials. You can also browse through the Google Adwords Help Page.

Before signing up make sure you have defined who your target market is for the website or blog you wish to promote. This will make things a whole lot easier. I was quite messed up when I tried defining the market for my personal blog because I basically write about anything under the sun. And that lead me to create my other blogs (travel and wedding planning). But, I digress, so here are the steps on how to create an online marketing campaign.

Step 1. Sign-up for a Google Adwords account here. Make sure you click on "Start Now". You will then go through a guided tour on how to create a campaign. No worries, you will have to activate it before it starts running so you can just play around with it first before creating the real campaign (and you don't get charged unless your campaign is already active).

Step 2. Now let's assume you've already created your account and you left it off and after a few days or hours you're now ready to create an ad campaign.

Step 3. When you log-in to your Google Adwords account you will see this page. To create a campaign choose between "keyword targeted" or "site targeted". For beginners I recommend doing a "keyword targeted" campaign. Now you can rename "Campaign #1" to whatever you want (if you're going to do multiple websites I suggest naming it to "Website Name Campaign"). I just named mine "Campaign #1".

Step 4. Click on the campaign name and you will be brought to the page where you can create Ad Groups. Click on "Create New Ad Group".

Step 5. Now you will be brought to the "Create New Ad Group" set-up page. All you need to do is name the Ad Group. I named mine "New Media Marketing"

Step 6. Now you will be brought to the "Create an Ad" page. Just fill it up (and make sure you follow the editorial policy).

Step 7. Press continue when you are done with your ad's copy. You will then be asked to choose the keywords for your campaign. The page will have suggestions which you can easily add up to the keyword box and you can search for other keywords as well. Bare in mind that you don't really need loads and loads of keywords.

Step 8. When done, press continue and you will be brought to the page which will make you define how much your default CPC bid is. You can also click on the "Traffic Estimator" to find out the estimated traffic, rank and costs of your chosen keyword(s). You can also add and delete keywords through the "Edit Keyword List".

Step 9. You can then review and change the keywords and your bids when you press continue.

Step 10. Review your selection and then "Save the Ad Group". Your ad is now running (unless you pause it).

Easy isn't it? Come on! Try it now! If all else fails, let me know and I'll hook you up with a local Google Advertising Professional.

Cheerios!

Barangay.ph

2007-07-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

When Jay told me about Barangay.ph I became really curious. Why? Because my undergraduate thesis was about the Sangguniang Kabataan of Paranaque and my thesismates and I had to go to each of the 14 barangays to interview and get data from the SK heads. It was a crazy thing to do, but all the hardwork paid off since we got a gold medal for our thesis. Yehey!

Anyway, methinks the founders of Barangay.ph, Jonno and Nanette Alcaro, hit the Pinoys right on target by adhering to the grassroots, basic political unit of the Philippines - the barangay. The portal aims to be of service for Filipinos abroad and will provide information in things that are usually found in one's barangay like - real estate, schools, government services, directory, lifestyle info and you can even do a bit of shopping.

Here are some photos from the launch which was attended also by bigwigs such as Guillermo Luz (Head of the Makati Business Club), former Senator Jun Magsaysay, Charlie Kemplin (President of EZ Maps), internet technopreneurs Janette Toral, Jovel Cipriano, Jay de Jesus and Monching Romano.

View Album

Get your own

Another portal for Filipinos abroad I know of is Globalpinoy.com.

Google Custom Search

2007-07-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things one must have in one’s website is to make the content easily searchable. You don’t need any fancy programming to do this, all you need is to install Google Custom Search. If you have a blog, you can easily integrate this as well. Just head over to Google Custom Search.

Some local websites using Google Custom Search -

Inquirer.net

Titikpilipino.com

Internet Tools for SMEs

2007-07-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

I was privileged to address almost 200 business owners for the Chinese-Filipino Business Club last week in Binondo. It is always a pleasure to spend time with SMEs and entrepreneurs since they have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

View Album

Get your own

So much education is still needed to bring all Philippine businesses online (I am hoping and praying for free wi-fi all over the country! Hehehe), but I am sure with staunch warriors such as Yehey.com and Jonas there would be significant growth in this arena in the internet industry. Now that’s a lot of good news.

So, let’s say you have a business and you’d like to put some presence online, what tools should you use:

(1) Gmail – the basic form of online communication

(2) Google Apps for Your Domain – create online presence for free using Google’s different platforms – Gmail, Gtalk, Google Calendar, Google Page Creator, Google Start Page, Google Docs & Spreadsheets

(3) Drive traffic to your website through
a. Google AddURL - Submitting your URL/website address to Google
b. Google Adwords - Advertising on Google

(4) Be more interactive with your customers through blogging
a. Blogger – create your blog/online business journal
b. Picasa – share your photos free
c. Youtube – need to show off your product through demos, upload those videos on Youtube
d. Myspace – put up a Myspace page and use this for podcasts as well

Here's Eric Schmidt (Google's CEO) and Terrence Merrill talking about Google Apps -

Now that’s a lot of FREE stuff! What are you waiting for? Sign-up today.

On Social Networking Websites

2007-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

A lot of social networking sites abound on the internet. I have accounts in Friendster, Orkut, Multiply, Tagged, Facebook and a new account on Myspace. I remember someone on my LinkedIn account sent over a question on whether I was a member of other social networking sites as well and why.

Well, I told him that each site actually caters to different needs and niches. Friendster is THE place to be when you are Pinoy. Orkut is very popular in Latin America. Multiply is a website that has a lot of online commerce and quite a number use it for photos. Myspace is one of the largest in the whole world and has integrated rather interestingly selling of music online. I have a friend who said he's addicted to Facebook, and there's quite a lot of interesting concepts in that space. LinkedIn, for professional purposes. And then there's Tagged (don't ask me what's in it, I haven't opened my account there for quite a while).

I was forced to get an account in Multiply because a friend of mine was uploading photos in it and I wanted to leave a comment. So I signed-up, well, at least my blog is mirrored there and it allows me to be in touch with some friends. What was quite interesting was the business activity happening inside Multiply. Yes, BUSINESS ACTIVITY. There were quite a number of members selling their wares online. A lot were fashion accessories, some t-shirts and other fashion related stuff. Now, that's one way of practicing e-commerce. What caught my attention on Myspace was the ability of individuals to see their music online (so if you're a struggling artist, you don't really need a record label to sell your songs) and I thought I should go check it out as well.

A friend of mine based in Australia told me that Myspace was being utilized in the elections. I guess with about 3.6 million Australian members, that's a great way to reach voters. How come no one thought of doing that on Friendster last May? LOL.

Oh, well, beam it up! Be my friend on Myspace!

Wika 2007 Blog Writing Contest

2007-07-12T21:28:00.001-07:00

The Pinoyblogosphere has recently announced their blog writing contest. Dubbed as "Wika 2007 Blog Writing Contest" the contest aims to showcase Filipino written pieces on this year's Buwan ng Wika (Language Month) theme "Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa" (Many Dialects, One Strong Country).

The contest is open to all Filipino bloggers based in the Philippines and abroad.

For more information, please visit the official contest site. I also did a piece about the contest in Filipino in An Apple a Day.

What are you waiting for? Sali na!

Oh, and don't forget about the SM Hypermarket Blog Writing Contest as well. And there's the 2007's Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs by Digitalfilipino.

The Philippines 1st Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit

2007-07-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Times are changing and you don't want to be left in the dark do you?

Then you have to attend this -

The Philippines 1st Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit on August 9 and 10, 2007, to be held at the Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Makati City, Philippines.

For more information and registration, please check out the website.

New Media for Your Business

2007-07-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

In the past two weeks I've been through a series of events in Cebu, Davao and Manila and CEOs, businessmen and people from different walks of life have asked me almost the same question -

What is the importance of putting your business online? How do we go about this? What is this blogging thingy?

If you're not online, where are you?

I've been involved in the online advertising business for about 7 years now and things have not been growing by leaps and bounds, but the interest is there. Appreciation for advertising online is now growing a bit. Businesses are recognizing the need to be searched online. Internet penetration in the Philippines is growing quite fast nowadays especially with the aggressive marketing stance the telcos are doing with their internet connectivity services.

How do we go about this?

I remember Dr. Ned Roberto saying in one of the DM Forums I attended years ago, that marketing will no longer be about mass marketing, but one-on-one marketing. With the many new ways to get information and the barrage of ways consumers get entertained, there is no one medium now that would allow you to reach the market fully. Find your niche, reach your target market... how? Be searchable!

How do you become searchable? The fastest and easiest way to do this on your own is to do a pay-per-click ad through Google Adwords. Yup, it is very easy and you can do it on your own. If it's rankings on search results you are after, then you are looking for a search engine optimizer.

Watch this video on Google and Brands -

Put your business online easily by using Google Apps for Your Domain. It's FREE! And all you need is a domain name. Sign-up and you're good to go in just a few minutes. Know more about Google Apps for Your Domain (and schools can definitely use this too!) through this video -

What is this Blogging Thingy?

I know sometimes I get so excited explaining what blogging is all about and my latest "victim" was SM Group of Companies Director Mr. Herbert Sy, the gracious host of the latest blogger event here in Manila. Blogging is basically a medium where individuals or companies can share their ideas/stories. The medium (which works as an online journal) may be used for personal or business use. Lately, quite a number of companies and PR agencies have been working with bloggers to gain attention and get feedback for their products and services.

Wanna set-up your own blog? Watch this -

Philippines Next SEO Outsourcing Capital?

2007-07-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

The recent win of Benj Arriola, a Filipino based in San Diego, California, in the SEO World Championships has definitely put the Philippines in the search engine optimization/marketing outsourcing map. Seeing as well that quite a number of companies providing SEO services have sprouted across the nation – MBSTek in Manila, Syntactics and Harvest SEO in Cagayan de Oro, SEO Global Pro in Cebu and BHIPro in Davao, to name a few – goes to show that the industry is growing and that businesses are recognizing the need for SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) services. I have also met some people who have come to Philippines to teach SEO.

SEO Philippines founded by Marc Macalua started out as a mailing list (and has been a forum the past few months) and has done two major SEO contests in the past year and I was lucky enough to attend the launch and awarding ceremony of the “Ituloy Angsulong” contest. Marc has recently launched the much awaited “Bayanihan SEO Contest”. It’s where SEOs scramble to be found on the top ranks of the search engines, BUT with a twist. They have to do it bayanihan style, meaning as a group.

It would be interesting to see the outcome of this contest. I’m sure SEOs across the nation would be interested to join this contest – each region should have a representative group!

So does this mean that this growing segment will result in the Philippines becoming the SEO outsourcing capital in the world? Now this is good news :)

Cebu ICT: Promoting Investment in Asia ICT/ITES

2007-06-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

"When it comes to excellence there is no finish line."
- Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT Chairman

I was privileged to be part of the panel for the plenary on "Promoting Investment in Asia ICT/ITES" for the Cebut ICT 2007 International Conference & Exhibition held at the Mactan Island Resort & Spa today, June 26, 2007.

Speakers for the plenary include Dipanjan Banerjee (Manager - Strategic Alliances, Center for Science, Development Media Studies) and Eric Alberto (Senior Vice President and Head-PLDT/SMART Corporate Business Group, PLDT). Other panelists included Oscar Sanez (CEO, Business Processing Association Philippines) and Eun Jung Lee (Cheif Executive Director, KIICA Singapore). The session was chaired by Michael Alan Hamlin (Managing Director, TeamAsia).

This is what I learned and shared during the session:

Investment is an intangible product and is best done "country" or through companies synergizing with each other. Mr. Alberto said that the "World is flat" with technology making communications and transactions borderless. Media and communication has evolved tremendously in the past few years. Marketing is no longer about promoting your products and services to the masses. What is key is finding and connecting to your niche, your target market - people who are interested and who will purchase your product/service.

Be found. Be searched.

And then communicate the following to your market:

competency/services
successes
initiatives and incentives (usually by the government)
available infrastructue

One thing I think would also help is for individual companies to share their successes or highlight winnings, be it in products/technology or talent. And, of course, for those who are successful to give back to your homeland - the same way how the Indian nationals did after taking studies in the US.

"Pinoy, ipakita natin sa mundo!"

What it's Like Working for Google

2007-06-24T04:15:00.000-07:00

Fun company, fun video to watch!

Opening specifically for Pinoys:
Localisation Editor (Filipino)

The Social Geek: June 26 to July 3

2007-06-22T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to be in Cebu and Davao again in the next 2 weeks and here's my schedule:

June 27 - 28
Cebu ICT

June 27 (evening) ---> moved to June 28 6 p.m.
Meet-up with bloggers/SEOs
Bo's Cafe, Ayala Mall, Cebu

June 28 (evening)
Marketing your Business Online
Meet-up with SMEs

June 29
Marketing Your Business Online
Department of Trade & Industry - Davao
with Yehey.com
2:00 p.m. to 5:30 pm.

June 30
Google University
Blugre Cafe
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Meet-up with Bloggers/SEO (evening)
venue TBA

July 2
Google University
University of Mindanao, Davao
8:00 to 11:00 a.m.

And then I fly back to Manila for another series of engagements:

July 3
Google and Research
Department of Labor and Employment
Intramuros, Manila

Blogger Food Fest at Tasia Asia
Mall of Asia, Bay City

Youtube Localized in 9 More Countries

2007-06-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Youtube.com launches in 9 other countries including local sites for Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK. Watch Youtube.com founders Chad & Steve talk about it and talk about the objectives of Youtube.com.

100 Bloggers in 48 Hours

2007-06-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

How do you get a hundred people to attend an event with less than two weeks preparation time? And considering the fact that the week before the event you'd be out of town for other events in other regions. What???

That was the question I asked myself last weekend. I spent Saturday evening thinking about it and chastising myself for getting myself into a huge task. I was in deep thought the whole weekend, but still had no answer. Monday came when I suddenly had a brain fart (my former colleague JV taught me that term). Aha! Eureka!

THE POWER OF NETWORKING!

I realized I met more or less a thousand people in the last 6 months or so and have gained a lot of contacts and friends. So I segmented the Pinoy blogosphere and got coordinators for each segment to invite their blogger friends to attend the event.

Interested bloggers signed-up in my blog or through any of the coordinators and then we encoded, in real time, the guest list through Google Docs & Spreadsheets. I would've encoded the guest list myself, but I realized I had tools I could use to make my life easier! Everything's being coordinated through electronic means (Gmail, Gtalk, Blogger and Google Docs & Spreadsheets).

And less than 48 hours later... a hundred plus bloggers have already signed-up for the event!

I'd like to take this opportunity as well to thank the following bloggers and Yehey.com for helping out in coordinating the Taste Asia Blogger Food Fest - Sasha Rico Janette Jedi Jay Abe Ely Marc Jayvee Shari Noemi Sexymom Jonas Pierre Jomar Markku Jonas of Yehey and AJ

Your help and dedication is greatly, GREATLY APPRECIATED. God bless you!

I Heart Picasa

2007-06-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

I love using Picasa. I must admit I'm not really great with Adobe or Corel and the "I'm feeling lucky" button in Picasa really does wonders to my photos and the "Collage" button also saves me time from stitching photos up. The slideshow feature must have been around for quite a while now but I never really did try it, until now.

Check out the photos from the musical play that made me laugh non-stop for two hours last night - Zsa Zsa Zaturna Ze Musicale.

Check-out My Picasa Web Album as well.

How Much is Your Blog Worth?

2007-06-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how much your blog is worth?

I did because a friend of mine broached this subject once because he received an offer for a buy-out. Got an idea on how to measure my blog's worth through Sasha and Sarah's blog posts where they based their blog's worth on Dane Carlson's ingeniuty.

An Apple a Day has a bigger worth, but here's how Stitching fared:

My blog is worth $36,130.56.
How much is your blog worth?

Ghost in iGoogle?

2007-06-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

Now you must be thinking I'm nuts. How could there be a ghost in iGoogle?

Well, check out Sarah's blog and find out what this is all about.

Congratulations Sarah for catching the ghost! I wouldn't have :D

Spice-Up Your Google Calendar

2007-06-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

I've been keeping track of Philippine holidays through my Google calendar so I'd know when Miguel will be home and so I won't make the mistake of setting an appointment during a holiday. It's easy, just sign-up for it through your Gmail or go to the Google Calendar directory and add the public holidays calendar. Stay on schedule and get alerts on your mobile phone.

Head on over to the Google Calendar directory and add up TV shows , events, sports, entertainment, miscellaneous (i.e. Mozilla Firefox updates), holidays and Google's calendar (like Adsense, Google Developer, Google Doodles and even phases of the moon). I've gone crazy and added up the Disney calendar and all Google calendars. I hope the local broadcast networks would add up their calendars because I'm so bad at remembering TV show schedules (Miguel does that for me).

Want this for your organization or school? Just sign-up for Google Apps for your Domain and you can easily share your calendar of events. You can also check-out my calendar.

Googlers Speak about Working for Google

2007-06-07T23:58:00.000-07:00

Why you should apply for work at Google:

Google's looking for the following:

Localisation Editor (Temporary) - Singapore

Check out other openings in Google Singapore here or check out Google jobs around the world.

Being Sincere in a Mad, Mad World

2007-06-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

It's been ten years since I graduated from college and six years since I completed my masters and I'm onto my 11th organization. Eleven?!? Yes, 11 coz I've been working since I was in college and I got moved around a lot due to product ownership. I must say I've found THE ONE and I'm sticking around for as long as I can.

Getting moved around a lot also means you get to experience different kinds of organizational culture, norms, morals; bosses of all shapes, sizes, moods, hair color and whatever. You get seasoned by that and I believe all the products I've handled were great. I was passionate about all of them and I gave my best for each one of them.

But I believe it takes more than a great product for it to be successful. Being sincere in your objectives is key.

On the ground level, I remember handling several bookstores for prepaid card distribution. You'd know from the staff if the store manager is accommodating and has customers foremost in her mind because it reflects on how they treat their customers (both buyers and suppliers). The staff mimic their boss. On the executive level, I remember having a very progressive boss. He's a Wharton Business School graduate and I learned a lot from him because he's a forward (futuristic) thinker. He would be in a business today that would be the next best thing tomorrow. But sadly, the people under him do not see his vision. His sincerity is lost because his minions are all only after their own objectives.

I've seen products and services go down the drain, not because of lack of support, strategy or programs, but because of the lack of sincerity of people running the organization.

Provide what people need and the rewards will follow. Be sincere. It shows ya know.

Friendster's Newest Friend

2007-06-05T03:27:00.000-07:00

The other night a friend of mine was bugging me to check out his Friendster profile. Logged in my Friendster account, but it was under maintenance. That was Saturday evening.

I was pleasantly surprised to find new changes in Friendster's search box... check this out:

Cool eh? You can also do this for your own website or blog, just go to Google AJAX Search API.

June Activities

2007-06-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Back-to-back speaking engagements this month in Manila, Cebu and Davao!

Here's my sched:

June 18, 2007, Monday
Marketing Your Business Online Workshop
Digitalfilipino.com
Time: TBA
Venue: TBA

June 19, 2007, Tuesday
New Media Marketing
Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Venue: Ateneo Professional Schools, Inc., Makati City

June 20, 2007, Wednesday
Marketing Your Business Online Workshop
Philippine Trade and Training Center
Time: 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Venue: PTTC, Pasay City

June 24, 2007, Sunday
Google Marketing Secrets
Fil Negosyo Expo
Time: 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Megatrade Hall, Megamall, Mandaluyong City

June 26 to 28, 2007, Tuesday to Thursday
Promoting Investment in Asia (as panel)
Cebu ICT 2007 Intl Conference & Exhibition
Time: June 26, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Venue: Shangri-la Mactan Island & Spa

June 29, 2007, Friday
Marketing Your Business Online Seminar
Department of Trade & Industry - Davao
Time: TBD
Venue: TBD

June 30, 2007, Saturday
Google Apps for Education
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Blugre Cafe, Davao City

This post will be regularly updated.

Google Job Opening for Pinoys

2007-05-30T04:15:00.000-07:00

Google's looking for the following:

Localisation Editor (Temporary) - Singapore

Check out other openings in Google Singapore here or check out Google jobs around the world.

A Sample of a New Media Campaign

2007-05-30T01:39:00.000-07:00

Now with the end of Book 1 of ABS-CBN's Maging Sino Ka Man (a local telenovela/soap), I don't have anything to watch on TV. Well, I do prefer to entertain myself on-demand now - through Youtube, getting updated through my Google Reader and, of course searching for my interests through Google.

As a marketer, I pay attention to advertisements and imagine how the team behind it produced the ad. I know how hard it is to produce an ad and markets are much more difficult to profile nowadays because people have diverse interests. In the 38th National Marketing Conference I mentioned that new media should be part and parcel of a campaign. Aside from traditional programs, have an online counterpart to reach other markets such as a video, a podcast, a blog and, of course, a website.

Here are sample ads done by HP using Shrek characters as endorsers. It's fun to watch, doesn't feel like I'm watching an ad. I'm sure your children will enjoy watching it as well.

Fiona Ogre Princess

To All the Girls I've Loved Before

Dancing Through the Ages

To watch more videos from Far, Far Away go here.

Da Marketing Code and Blogging

2007-05-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the privilege of speaking to an audience of almost a thousand marketers during the 38th National Marketing Conference, aptly titled "Da Marketing Code".

It was no easy feat.

The conference theme was based on the movie "Da Vinci Code" and everything revolved around that... down to the title of my talk "Google Marketing Secrets". In their opening speeches, PMA President Ricky Alegre and NMC Overall Chair Donald Patrick Lim promised that the conference was geared towards unlocking the code to the best marketing secrets.

The 2-day conference evolved from the traditional marketing strategies to new media on the second day. I was unfortunately not able to attend all the sessions.

Below are some of the key points I spoke about.

1. Why it is important to be searchable online. Read more about search marketing in a previous posts I made.

2. How to get found in the resulting chaos through all the marketing messages that consumers get bombarded with. Find the answer here.

3. Google products and services that can help your business. Learn also how you can inculcate Google in your daily routine by reading this. Check out also links to different Google products at the right side of my blog.

4. Do an integrated marketing approach. It is a MUST to have offline AND online campaigns.

5. And, new media trends. What tomorrow's landscape will be.

Missed my talk? I'll be talking next month in the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association Philippines general membership meeting and I'm doing a workshop series with the Philippine Trade & Training Center.

Over lunch with bigwigs such as Mr. Mon Lizardo, VP-Business & Linkages of Inquirer.net, Mr. Ricky Alegre, President, Philippine Marketing Association, Dr. Nards Garcia, famous full professor of De La Salle University, Ms. Lizanne Uychaco, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, PhilamLife, Mr. Rene A. Espinosa, President/CEO, Powermax Consulting Group Inc. and Mr. Christopher Paris Lacson, President, Habitats, the topic veered towards blogging. I was quite surprised that they were very much interested on blogging (I kept mentioning during my talk that Euro RCSG Manila Managing Partner/COO, Mr. Ed Mapa has a blog). They had many, many questions about it and I indulged them and encouraged them to set-up their own blogs. (I even got an offer for a consultancy job after, but had to decline gracefully :p).

I told them about a discussion I had with a UP professor that there should be a project to preserve the minds of the silver generation, those who are experts in their own right, be it in business, parenting or what-have-you. It was a very exciting discussion and they've requested to have a "blogging for CEOs" workshop since they had to go back to the conference and I had to run to my meeting.

Game! :)

SEO Buzz

2007-05-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2007
At Max’s Restaurant, my second time this week.

A friend of mine just sent me an SMS about two girls talking in line at a money changer. Girl #1 said that she’s going to enroll and get a course in SEO because she heard SEOs earn six figures per month. Girl #2, apparently a SEO, said that she’s earning very little since she learned from the company she’s working for.

My unsolicited advice to Girl #2, do some freelancing and then quit your job and do it full time. (I just hope you’re not an employee of one of my friends). LOL. Who knows, you just might be the next SEO World Champion.

Anyway, during the IFEX I got asked a lot about “getting found on top at Google”. I had to be careful about using the words “ranking”, “search engine optimization”, “algorithms” and “robots”. Whenever I mentioned one of those words, the person’s eyes I was talking to would glaze over. Those simple, almost non-techie terms is not the way to explain SEO to traditional business people. (Put down your brows my dear tech blogger friends, try sitting in my workshops and you’ll understand what I’m saying).

Search engine optimization is "The act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines" (from here). There is a whole industry for this and they basically work on getting your website to the first page of the search results to your query. Lost? It’s like when you open the yellow pages, it’s the first ad that comes to your attention (the biggest one usually).

SEO is very exciting and it’s interesting to note that SEO Philippines founder will be teaching in a university soon. It’s also part of a workshop series I will be doing with the Philippine Trade Training Center. Abangan.

Monks and the 38th Marketing Conference

2007-05-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

Wrote this post at the 38th National Marketing Conference...
Seated on the speakers couch

I am so glad that I woke up early today to catch the opening of the 38th National Marketing Conference, aptly titled “Da Marketing Code”. I arrived as the “show” was about to start. Good thing I saw past colleague, Maeyeth Cadungog, and she got me through the throngs of people outside of the ballroom. We trailed behind monks. Yes, MONKS!

The ballroom was transformed into a monastery/The Louvre to mimic the setting of the movie, “Da Vinci Code”. It’s a good thing I didn’t read the program (and wasn’t able to attend rehearsals last night) because I was surely awed by the opening program. As Maeyeth asked, “Kinikilabutan ka na ba?” Just to give a glimpse of the atmosphere here at the conference, the video walls are framed with museum frames, bookended by “stained glass” on tarpaulin and paintings adorn the wall. The last time I felt this way was the opening number in the 2003 Advertising Congress (Baguio) and, uh, the fireworks at Disneyland.

Here's Ricky Alegre, Philippine Marketing Association president, during the opening ceremonies:

Here’s a video of Donald Patrick Lim, executive committee head from the Philippine Marketing Association, opening the conference.

Why Put Up an Online Store?

2007-05-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

I was at the IFEX trade show the whole weekend and quite a number of business owners asked me if they should put up an online store. Their main concern was finding buyers online for their products.

The past few months I’ve been thinking about what kind of product I could probably sell online. Products that are known to be sellable online include music (CDs), books, online services like hosting/domains etc., a couple of gadgets to the mundane like trinkets/fashion accessories, swimsuits, t-shirts and what-nots. I want an online business because; (1) I don’t want the huge risk involved in setting up a shop; (2) I don’t have the capital to set-up a shop – this entails rent and stocks; (3) I don’t have the storage space; and (4) I don’t have that much time.

I thought about many, many things to sell online, but I’ve been getting side-tracked since I’m busy with my work. And then it dawned on me the other day while talking to a business owner.

You can sell anything online. Yes, anything.

Why?

Because you need not market to the masses to sell your wares. You don’t need a thirty million marketing budget to introduce your brand. You just need to speak to those who are interested and will actually buy your stuff.

It could be a mundane as kakanin (Pinoydelikasi.com is known for this), a very specific personal interest like OPM cds (check out Titikpilipino.com) or bakery items (check out a teacher's online bakeshop).

How so?

Because: (1) Only the people interested in your product will actually go to your website; (2) Only the people interested in your product will actually search for you online; and (3) let’s face it, mass marketing is no longer as efficient as it was before, person-to-person marketing is now the name of the game. And there are millions of internet users locally.

And?

That is why search marketing is the most efficient marketing tool nowadays. Why? Read my earlier post on this.

So, should you bother putting up an e-commerce site? YES!

Because it mainly expands your market and allows you to reach customers beyond the borders of your country. And that means sales. And more sales means profit!

Do you have a business you wish to put online? Here are just some companies I know who can help you:

Yehey!
Yehey’s Newest Payment System Kaban
Annex Store
Sheero Media
Spinweb
IAMD Software Solutions

*Note: This is not a paid post, nor an endorsement. The companies I enumerated are just some I have encountered at work.

Secrets Revealed: How to Profit from Trade Shows

2007-05-19T04:59:00.001-07:00

I’ve been joining trade shows for more than 8 years now and I had to learn everything from scratch.

Joining trade shows is an effective means of marketing products and services, especially when you have new stuff you want to introduce to your market. Aside from generating leads for sales, it also gives you a chance to test how your market will react to new products. A booth also helps you network and do PR for present and future use.

But, the key metrics to a successful trade show participation are: (1) ROI and; (2) PROFIT!

As a product manager to get budget approval I had to determine the number of accounts we had to close in order to break-even. I was always nervous about spending money for trade shows because I had to promise, no swear, to my boss that it was going to profit. I had to because I didn’t want to get beaten to a pulp. Yes, the pressure was that high. Anyway, I did, I always did.

Having a great looking booth (aesthetics) and appropriate collaterals is never enough. The secret really lies on tracking the development of your participation. And this is what you have to do:

(1) Define your success factors i.e. break-even point, goals.

(2) Brief your salespeople/booth attendants how many leads they have to generate or accounts to close. It’d be great if you already have the leads conversion rate.

(3) Make sure all the leads are logged into a visitors log. Encode everything and put it in a system.

(4) Determine conversion rate. In my past work we even created a salestracker system and had separate tags for trade show leads. That’s how we managed to determine the leads conversion rate per trade show. (So now I know which trade shows I should really join and which I shouldn’t). It doesn’t have to be really fancy, what’s important is that you can determine where your sales are coming from.

And remember, the system will not run by itself. You still need to monitor closely the movement of the leads generated from the trade show. After the show you have to closely monitor if your sales people are utilizing the leads. Breathe down their necks if needed (I used to LOL). Determine whether it is a hot lead, under negotiation or if the account declined. Tracking the reasons for decline will also help a lot in defining rejection points.

A successful trade show does not lay with a great product manager. It is a team effort. Motivation is important and if everyone has the same objectives, understand the objectives and has passion for the product, then your show will be quantitatively and qualitatively successful.

Trade shows don’t need to be boring. Have fun in it. Find out from “An Apple a Day” how.

April Zeitgeist Now Available

2007-05-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

The top gaining queries for the month of April are now available and very interesting and varied results!

Check it out now!

38th National Marketing Conference: Da Marketing Code

2007-05-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

I don't mean to scare off people with my photo, but that's the overall them of the 38th National Marketing Conference which will be held on May 23 to 24, 2007 at the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

The Philippine Marketing Association, the organizer of the conference, held a speaker's briefing the other night and believe me I've never been this excited for a speaking engagement. We even had a photo session after the meeting (check out my scary looking Silas look-alike photo).

I'm looking forward to attending the conference and listening to all the marketing experts. Here's a rundown of the topics:

Day 1

Customer Experience - Managing the two moments of truth in business

Marketing Strategy - Lessons learned on the road to becoming a global brand

Advertising Agencies - How advertising agencies are addressing the challenges of specialist marketing communications companies?

Media Trends - Understanding the Consumer Generated Media

Digital Marketing Trends - Unlocking the Evolution and potentials of Digital Marketing

Day 2

Global Consumer Trends - Prosumerism: The emergence of a progressive breed of consumers borne out of today's revolution in new media

New Trends in Internet Marketing - Google Marketing Secrets

Innovation Trends - Discovering the way people see Health and Medicine

Pinoy Consumers - Understanding the Filipino shopping code in Metro Manila

Media Convergence - Changing the way people see print media

Consumer - The new code on marketing evolution

Marketing Forum on Sunrise Industries - Unearthing the potentials of sunrise companies

I heard that they're raffling off a brand new car through an interesting raffle - you have to unlock the code to get a chance to win the car. Wow! I hope I get a chance to win it!

There's still time to sign-up for the conference, get in touch with Ms. Sarah Velasco at the PMA office through +632-6344890 or 636-1451.

What Every Business Should Use

2007-05-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about how businesses can go online at almost no cost. I've been meaning to share the good news about Google Apps for Your Domain which I think is very useful for businesses. And the best thing about it is, it's FREE - unless you want to use the Premiere Edition!

All you need is a domain name to be able to use the following Google applications for your domain:

(1) Gmail - use Gmail's platform for your company's email address. Now your employees can check their mail anytime, anywhere!

(2) Google Talk - chat right inside your email. Download the Google Talk console and do voice calls and send files through it.

(3) Google Calendar - check out my calendar by clicking on the "view my calendar" link here. View your colleague's calendar and book appointments with him through the Google calendar. This way you know immediately if he's available or not, but of course he's got to accept your invitation.

(4) Google Docs & Spreadsheets - share and edit documents with your colleagues online. Now you don't need to merge their revisions because it is automatically saved when you do it through Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

(5) Google Page Creator & Start Page - create and publish a website in just minutes!

I'm kinda shy about showing my Google Apps for Your Domain page coz I don't have a logo to brag about yet. All I could say is, it's very easy and convenient to use.

It's also a great communication tool schools and universities should take advantage of. Giving email to all your students and professors will definitely help in propagating internet literacy. Google Apps for Education is free as well.

Google Analytics, a Marketer's Heaven

2007-05-09T00:22:00.000-07:00

One of the problems I faced before when I was handling a brand was tracking the success of the marketing campaigns I implemented. Of course, the ultimate measure of success would always be conversion (sales). I used to join countless numbers of trade shows to generate leads and one of the things I had to determine was which show generated the most number of conversions.

The solution? End-to-end tracking of leads to sales. It wasn’t easy since we had to have quite a number of people in the system to encode, tag, milk and analyze the data. And, of course, sales had to cooperate with precise reporting. But at the end of the day I was able to pinpoint which shows were good to join and where efforts had to be put in (imagine finding out that sales practically didn’t touch the leads generated from the shows!).

Advertising online relieves a marketer the pain of tracking data and measuring the efficiency of one’s campaign. I’ve tried different tracking systems prior to using Google Analytics. They were quite fine, but we usually had to do some manual computations to get the exact data we needed.

Ahhh, the wonderful world of data (warm, fuzzy feeling).

Google Analytics basically shows you the following:

Traffic – shows details of your unique number of visitors and pageviews.

Referrals – shows you where your traffic is coming from, whether it is from search or from a link from a website/blog. You’ll also see the top keywords that you are referred from.

Geographic/Location – shows you where your readers are based. Location can be as specific as the barangay or city that the visitor is in.

New vs. Returning – shows you the percentage of visitors who are new and those who are returning for another visit. The console also shows you the average number of visits that visitor has gone back.

And, if you have a Google Adwords campaign ongoing, you will also get to see very detailed data about your campaign, like which keywords or creatives are effective etc.

You can also track the history of a sale. Great isn’t it? Every marketer’s heaven.

Filipino Wins SEO World Championship

2007-05-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Filipinos be proud!

Benj Arriola, a Filipino based in the US won the SEO World Championship for his GlobalWarming Awareness entry. Aside from the accolade of being the winner for the first ever SEO World Championship, Benj's going to receive a brand new Citroen C2 car. Woohoo!

I met Benj through the SEO Philippines forum (back then it was just a mailing list) and is one of the experts in the field. Unassuming and generous in his tips, Benj is one of the well-loved members in the group. He even won the "Hunk of the Night" in the last SEO Ituloy-Angsulong Awards night (LOL - and let's not talk about who was forced to be the "Babe of the Night").

I sent my congratulations to Benj this afternoon through Twitter and we ended up chatting. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Benj is actually a Chemist (and took up MS-Chemistry too)! And taught at DLSU when I was a freshman in college. Too bad he wasn't my chemistry professor, he could've probably weaned me away from my fear of open light. He shared too that he managed to solve the "first 11 digit prime number of e .com" thingy. Wow!

There's so much to learn from Benj. He even gave me tips on how to solve online mysteries and, of course, SEO!

Congratulations Benj! You do us Filipinos proud!

Discovering and Loving Picasa

2007-05-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

I've been using Picasa for quite a while now. Aside from making it easy for me to search for photos - I usually tag my folders this way when I download photos from my digital camera "Year-Date Photo was Taken-Occasion/Venue/Event", for example 2007 April 29 to May 1 Cebu and Bohol - and that makes it easy for me to put a keyword in the Picasa search box and find the photo I'm looking for.

Aside from Picasa's search function, the next best thing I like about Picasa is the "I'm feeling lucky" button which can be found when you view photos and edit them. I'm no expert photographer nor web designer, so it's a bit difficult for me to determine what's the best contrast and brightness for a photo. I just click on "I'm feeling lucky" and the photo gets fixed up instantly. Check out the photos below I spruced up using Picasa.

Time Warp

Photos taken at Fort San Pedro, Cebu City, Philippines
using a point and shoot digital camera. I used the "Focal B&W"
feature to set the photo in B&W and one point in color.

And, of course, since I seem to be verging towards "I can't go through a day without blogging" I'm really happy about the following Picasa features: Blog This, Web Album (where you can easily get link URLs and codes for embedding albums in your blog), and the Collage.

And! And! 1 GB storage space! :)

Digitalfilipino Web Awards

2007-04-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

Photos (L-R) Top: Winners, finalists and Digitalfilipino members; That's me giving my talk
Bottom: Marc Macalua, SEO Philippines; That's me accepting an award for a friend.

Attended the Digital Filipino Web Awards today, April 27, 2007, held at the Bureau of Investments in Makati to witness the awarding ceremonies. I also gave a short talk on "Putting Your Business Online". I also accepted the award for a friend, Honey Caragos, who won in the Corporate/Professional Category.

Congratulations to the winners!

1. Apparel / Fashion Category - Kamiseta

2. Art Category - Canvas

3. Association / Organization Category - Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative

4. Auction / Shopping Portal Category - MyAyala

5. Automotive Category - Ford Philippines

6. Beauty Category - FemaleNetwork

7. Blog - Personal Category - Touched by an Angel

8. Blog - Professional Category - Manuel Viloria

9. Books Category - Booktopia

10. Community Category - SEO Philippines Forum

11. Computer / Consumer Electronics Category - PC Express

12. Consumer Banking / Bills Payment Category - HSBC Philippines

13. Corporate / Professional Category - Syntactics

14. Education Category - De La Salle University - Manila

15. Food Category - Bulacan Sweets and Delicacies Center

16. Games Category - Philippine R.O.S.E. Online

17. Gifts Category - RegaloService

18. Government Category - Government Portal of the Republic of the Philippines

19. Home Furnishings Category - Cebu Rattan Company

20. Insurance Category - Sun Life Financial

21. Music / Movie/ Film Category - PhilMusic

22. Newspaper Category - Inquirer.net

23. Pharmaceuticals Category - Philippine Herbal Medicine Site

24. Podcast Category - Viloria.com Pinoy Podcast

25. Politics Category - Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

26. Real Estate Category - Philippine Realty Showroom

27. Services Category - Chikka

28. Social Networking Category - Itzamatch

29. Telecom / Value Added Services Category - Globe Kababayan

30. Tourism Category - Pinoy Travel Blog

31. Travel Category - Lakbay Pilipinas

"Have You Been Ratified?"

2007-04-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I placed quotation marks on the title coz that is what Ratified.org is all about. Ratified.org developer, Andrew de la Serna, explained that the name comes from Technorati, emphasis on the "rati". Good choice of name coz ratify means to approve or confirm. And that is mainly the objective of Ratified.org - to measure the top 100 blogs in the Philippine blogosphere based on Technorati data "sprinkled" with Feedburner stats.

Andrew said that he created the website to showcase and promote the best Filipino blogs. He said that if your stats are good then that means you're being read. I think it also means that you are relevant and that you are connecting to a certain base of people.

Well, if you're a serious blogger or a newbie who wants to improve your blog and hopefully define your niche so you could grow a reader base, then checking your stats at Ratified.org is a prudent way of gauging your relevance.

My Daily Dose of Google

2007-04-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a friend this afternoon and we were discussing the different products that Google recently announced like the Google Website Optimizer, Google Notebook, Gmail being open for sign-ups etc. and he asked me, "How much of Google do you use in a day?"

I said, "A lot."

I use Google products a lot because it is very convenient and easy to use. And besides, it's easier to speak about things when you are a user yourself. Well, I promised my friend I'll post about how much I use Google products in a day, so here it is.

The first thing I do when I wake up is turn my PC on and the first thing that greets me are messages from Twitter from my Google Talk window and while that's ongoing a little window pops up and appraises me about new mail I got on my Gmail. And then, of course, I check my mail, click on the Google Reader link to check up on new feeds from blogs I regularly read.

After I finish reading my mail I click on the "all my services" link in my Gmail account and then click on Blogger to moderate comments I received for my blogs. I may blog or I may not, depending on my free time or if my muse is around and depends on whether I have updates for my personal, work, wedding, or ghost blog. Or I may decide to upload some photos in my Picasa account. And I also use Google Blog Search to check out stuff I'm interested in.

I then sometimes tinker on my Google Adwords account and practice on making text ads and check on statistics in the Google Analytics tab. It's really so cool to have information about blogs/websites you maintain and Google Analytics is one of my favorite Google products. But, it's been a while since I checked on my Google Adsense account.

I used Google search a lot when I was going through graduate school. I still do and I wish I knew about the Google cheatsheet back then, well anyway I still search on Google a lot of times in a day. I've also personalized my own Google page to show news and other stuff that's important to me (including Pacman!). I've been using Google Notebook a lot to clip interesting websites and blogs, and I find it really useful since I can put little comments about the website easily.

And, of course, I try to get in touch with my brother and sister who are abroad regularly by sending them email updates about what's happening back home. I created a family Googlegroup more than a year ago and that's how we communicate with the whole clan. And badminton announcements and other plans are announced by my friends in our Googlegroups as well.

I'm now brushing up on Google Apps for Your Domain - planning to use it for our family as well.

Whew! It seems quite overwhelming to be using so many different products, but it's become second nature. I'm not as techie as my tech blogger or programmer friends, but I like trying out new things and that's how I learned how to use all these products and it's made me a whole lot more productive :)

Mission Impossible Series: The Beginning (Episode 2)

2007-04-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

I got the thumbs up from my siblings about getting our Dad to go online. You see, we've been trying to do this since the late 1990s so he could communicate with his grandkids abroad. And since he's a really good writer and has published several books we think he should really share his thoughts online - and get published faster!

I've been scouting around for his laptop the past few days and I just have a US$600 budget (suggestions on what to buy are welcome, leave me a note below). I've managed to install wifi in our home with the help of some friends and I'll be "expanding" the access all throughout the house once I get to save up for the other equipment needed. I have a few weeks left before his birthday on May 19. And summer ends officially once Miguel goes back to school.

So far, success is quite dim since he's adamant that he won't go online. Uh-oh!

Anyway, a friend of mine suggested that maybe I should start and publish his previous writings to test the waters. Get readers to comment and then let him know that there are people online interested in what he has to say. And since I am the safekeeper of all his works (since I've been encoding them since I was in high school!) and I am allowed to publish it wherever, that's exactly what I did today.

Next step: Market my Dad's blog to his friends.

Check out Solutions Not Lampoons.

How to Put Up Your Business' Website at Almost No Cost

2007-04-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

In the last 6 years I have been in the online advertising industry I always get asked, “How much does it cost to put your business online?”

Back in the late 90s very few businesses put up websites. The main contention about going online was cost, but aside from that the complexities - the too techie-lingo, the system requirements threw off business owners. Exporters/manufacturers back then were hesitant to put photos of their products online because they were scared that their designs would get plagiarized. All of these issues still holds true today.

Before I went to work full time for the internet industry my Mom and I dabbled in exporting furniture and houseware. My Dad, ever the forward thinker, insisted on putting up a website. We didn’t have the budget to outsource it, so I was challenged to put one up for free. My IT friends all told me that there was a way to do this. Do the web pages myself and then upload it in a free webhost. I then bought a copy of Dreamweaver and bugged one of my friends to teach me how to navigate it. He was such a sweetie coz I managed to upload our company’s website in no time. That was in 1999. Eighty percent of our revenues came from online inquiries. And guess what, the only cost to us was the monthly charges of Philonline.

Things were much more difficult to do 8 years ago. And I could say that it’s now very, very easy to put your business online today.

So how does one do it? (Disclaimer: I’m no web designer/developer, this is a do-it-yourself guide for non-techie business owners/freelancers).

(1) Determine the content of your website.

List down all the things you want to be found in your website. (Yes, include even the mundane things). Just list everything first, you can always cut down later.

Then organize. Think outline. Remember when your English teacher used to force you to do outlines before you start on your paper? It works the same way.

And then, of course, determine where you’re going to get all those content from within your company. List down the stuff you need to write and the photos/graphics you need. And since you’re doing it yourself. Keep it simple coz you’re going to be the writer as well.

Congratulations! In techie-lingo you have just completed your website’s content architecture.

(2) Data gathering and writing comes next.

Now don’t get unfazed, this is just the part wherein you write out the outline. Just make it short but informative.

At this point you have to keep in mind how everything ties up together. Your message has to have one voice and remember consistency is important in branding. (And branding’s another matter entirely, I’ll write about this later).

When your done writing out your content, congratulations! You are now a certified copy-writer.

(3) Design your website.

Knowing the information you want to share in your website is key. At this point you have to define how you want your website to look.

Get a pen and paper and do some doodling. You don’t really need to draw it out. It’s just like drawing on paper how you’re going to put furniture in an empty room. Just boxes and lines to see how things will flow in your website.

Case in point. Keep in simple. Remember, you are doing this yourself.

And it’s best to surf and check out other websites so you’ll have an idea how you want things to look. Keep in mind when designing your website that it should be easy for your readers to navigate your site. That’s called usability in techie-lingo.

(4) Develop your website.

Gulp! How does one do this?

I said earlier that it’s very easy nowadays to put your business online. All you need now is your domain name. Domain Name is your company’s internet address. A lot of search engine optimizers say that you should use a descriptive domain name. Meaning something that best describers your company’s products and services. If you’re selling pancakes, then www.pancakes.com is best. If you’re selling condominiums, then name it condominium.com. A friend of mind shared the other day that it worked well for her to put “Filipino” or “Philippines” in her domain name.

Purchase your domain name online or go and buy it from a web hosting company. You can easily search for them through Google.

When you already have a domain name, go and get the only thing you need now – free usage of Google Apps for your Domain.

(5) Publish your website and then generate immediate traffic by advertising online through Google Adwords.

Mission Impossible Series: The Plan (Episode 1)

2007-04-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

I was in a very engaging discussion with a UP professor yesterday about blogging and he brought up the problem of preserving the knowledge of those in the "silver years". And then I told him about having lunch with Mr. Jun Verba, former CEO of Globe, and the tales he told us over lunch. I feel it's really a privilege to hear great people talk about their accomplishments. It motivates me to do well and go for goals that would benefit my community.

The greatest, grandest influencer in my life is my Dad. He writes well and has published several law books and is about to come out with a book of his essays. His love letters to my Mom are so adorable and since I got them I know my Mom chose really well.

As with any executive, my Dad writes long-hand. He's definitely not techie, but he is a forward thinker. He was the one who actually encouraged me to dabble with internet marketing in the first place. In our family, he is the dreamer, the one who taught me to think big. And he has many stories and experiences to share.

So, I have hatched a plan to get my Dad to go online. Shhhhh! He doesn't know! (And he's definitely not online and won't read this post unless one of his friends find my blog LOL).

I've conspired with my siblings to purchase him a laptop and then I'm going to lobby for him to start blogging. I've broached the idea over lunch the other day, but he just shook his head.

That is my impossible mission this summer.

Good luck Dad, let's see who's the better influencer. :)

Lessons I Learned at the iBlog3

2007-04-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

iBlog3 is the third Philippine Blogging Summit. It was held at the School of Economics in UP Diliman last April 13 and 14, 2007. I didn't get to sit-in the talks on the first day, but I sat-in all the talks for day 2.

What I spoke about...

(1) Be found!

Make sure you are searchable online. With the 200% increase in marketing messages that we receive everyday, it's easy to get lost in the pile. We blog because we want to get read, so make sure you are: (1) unique; (2) relevant; (3) and that you have a niche. In today's world, it's not about mass marketing your site, it's about finding the people who will "buy" what you are saying. To be found, do some search engine optimization (check Google's Website Optimizer) or advertise through Google Adwords. (And, of course, if you want to monetize your site, use Google Adsense).

Wanna be searched in Google? Add your blog's URL here. And check out Yehey.com's blog directory, coming soon.

(2) Janette's Question: What is it that you want bloggers to ponder on?

I adhere to what Anton said in his talk. He said, "Blog about what's beautiful" and that thought stuck in my mind while waiting for my turn to talk. Whenever I travel I only hear negative news about our country. I think it is our responsibility to share to the world how beautiful our country is and that it is safe to travel here. Aside from that, we should also blog responsibly.

(3) How much does blogging cost?

I heard this question asked again and again during the summit. Blogging is FREE! (Well save for connectivity fees, but you can always bum some airtime at a friend's place if needed). All you need to do is sign-up for an account in Blogger and then you can immediately start blogging.

I love using Blogger! You should too!

I've learned so much about blogging in the past few months! And the tremendous change in traffic I've been getting the past few months (1,100% growth!) has spurred me to blog more. Some things I learned in the past few months from professional and hobbyist blogger friends and from experience:

(1) Find a niche.
(2) Blog as much as you can.
(3) Labelling/tagging is very important.
(4) Check Google Zeitgeist for the latest trends in searches.
(5) Market your blog through networking, link lovin', commenting.
(6) Do a little SEO. Well, ask Marc. Check your traffic and where it's coming from once in a while. (7) Speak in a universal language.
(8) Don't be scared to write. Everybody makes grammatical mistakes.
(9) Got blog backlog? Do a rundown post instead.
(10) Got bloggers block? Play badminton with bloggers and the intellectual conversation around you will surely get your block unblocked. You'll be running home to blog in no time.

Things I picked up from the speakers:

Abe Olandres - he's been blogging for 7 years and originally blogged about personal stuff but eventually realized he had to strategize about what he wrote about. It was only in the past 2 years that he has managed to monetize his blog.

Anton Diaz - blog about what's beautiful!

Manuel Quezon III - he said that at the end of the day everything is political. Ergo, everything is about power.

Wilson Chua - he spoke about the importance of podcasting and making your podcasts searchable on the web.

Aileen Apolo - er, this is me, more about what I spoke about below.

Norman Agatep - 20 to 30% of the market are prosumers (the first movers) and they will be the ones who would convince the rest of the market to use or not use your product/service.

Alecks Pabico - he shared the difference between journalism and blogging. Journalists adhere to a strict discipline since they have to make sure all facts are true and all sources are credible.

J. Angelo Racoma - he reiterated that trust is important especially in social news.

Malou Mangahas - she said that new media is where everybody should go and that media has recognized blogging as an important tool and that's the main reason why GMA has set up their own blog network.

Marc Macalua - the founder of SEO Philippines gave tips on how to increase your traffic and shared his insights on how to monetize your website. Also, be an expert in your field, just make sure you don't decorate your blog in pink.

Jayvee Fernandez - Jayvee basically taught us how to make raket from blogging. He said that it's easier to blog than to write for a magazine and the pay's really competitive since aside from per article fees you also get commissions depending on the traffic your write-ups generate if you write for a blog network.

Gail dela Cruz-Villanueva - inasmuch as her husband's "controversial post" was discussed, Gail spoke about how to brand one's blog.

Congratulations to Janette Toral, JJ Disini and the other organizers for a very successful event!

Google Job Openings in Singapore

2007-04-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

The Singapore office is hiring! Here are the positions available:

• Administrative Assistant - Singapore
• AdWords Account Coordinator - Singapore
• AdWords Associate - Singapore
• Client Services Associate - Singapore
• Creative Maximiser / Internet Copy Writer and Keyword Expert - Singapore
• Engineering Center Director - Singapore
• Enterprise Channel Manager - Singapore
• Enterprise Sales Engineer - Singapore
• Enterprise Sales Manager - Singapore
• Finance and Accounting Manager - Singapore
• Head of Corporate Communications - Singapore
• IT Field Technician - Singapore
• Localisation Editor - Singapore
• Network Engineer, Deployment - Singapore
• Project Manager - Network Deployment - Singapore
• Recruiter - Singapore
• Recruiting Coordinator - Singapore
• Sales Manager - Singapore
• Strategic Partner Development Manager, Content - Singapore
• Strategic Partner Development Manager, Reseller - Singapore

Go on... apply today. If you're interested please visit the jobs page of Google.

Blogger, Why Do I Love Thee?

2007-04-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

I was talking with Pierre during lunch at the iBlog3 Convention about sticking to Blogger. You see, his friends have been convincing him to switch to another blogging platform. This started our conversation on why we love using Blogger. (Hey Pierre, hope you wear your cool hat tomorrow!).

Blogger, why do I love thee?

Read more here.

Economizing Your Time with Google

2007-04-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I posted an entry about decorating your personalized Google homepage... fast forward to finding more ways to economize online time through Google Reader and Google Notebook. I was out yesterday and read Sarah's comment about the new Google Reader gadget. I only managed to check it out just now since I was at the iBlog3 the whole day today.

You may either use the full interface, your mobile phone, the "bookmarket", or you can include your reading list in your Google personalized homepage. This is how mine looks right now:

With more demands in work and personal time, I find Google services really helpful. One other thing I love is Google calendar :)

Google Zeitgest Takes on a Different Approach

2007-04-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

The March Google Zeitgeist is up!

Instead of publishing top keywords searched, Google Zeitgest has taken on publishing the top gaining queries. Noteworthy are the searches for "phantom of the opera", "hospitals" and music and anime related queries.

Data haven... now I'm having this warm, fuzzy feeling.

Check it out.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

2007-04-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ever had trouble merging documents because several people have to review and revise it? I always had a headache over document revisions especially when we were killing copy in white heat. And shuttling revisions on projections with accounting gave me migraines. So it really makes sense in having people access, review and revise the same document at the same time - live and borderless. The solution? Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Goodbye headaches and migraine :)

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