A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.
Networking with people that I don’t know isn’t necessarily my cup of tea however I’d be lying if I tell you I don’t enjoy going to these blogging events. I meet some people that I know, talk to few that I don’t know but primarily I enjoy these events for what it is which is learning new things in the world of blogging and marketing.
[Read more…] about Attending Blogging Events and Conferences
I am very happy to report that this blog, MelvinBlog.com has been nominated for this year’s Bloggys awards night! That in itself is a big honor as we all know there are many talented bloggers in the country and being recognized as one of them means a lot. But it doesn’t end there as I have also been invited to come to their Philippine Blogging Awards “Gala Night” this coming November 21 2015. Really, what more can I ask for?
[Read more…] about MelvinBlog has been Nominated for Bloggys Awards 2015
As mentioned in my previous local events posts, its just been since last two years (2009) since I started attending (or more so becoming more aware) local events here. I have been a blogger since 2006 but I haven’t been that much involved in the local scenes primarily because the demographics that I am catering to is more of foreign for most of my blogs / past projects.
Anyway iBlog7 is the second iBlog event that I attended. Funny how I missed iBlog 1-5 though. 🙂 Just in case you don’t know, iBlog is THE largest blogging summit here in Philippines in w/c lots of bloggers, PR practitioners, business persons alike grace the event. I met some people here last year that have become my friends since then while I also have finally seen some of the respected figures in the local scenes like Janette Toral, Carlo Ople and so on.
I’m not anymore going to discuss each and every talk made in the event since most people have already done that. Or you can just make a reference to the iBlog’s official site to see the topics that have been tackled all throughout the event.
Yay! I haven’t really been posting a lot in this blog lately so you’re probably unaware that I was one of the speakers in the event.
So obviously I was feeling some nerves during my talk mainly because I haven’t spoken in front of that amount of audience. You can consider that as my first stint to a big blogging event so my mouth was kind of like drying as I was speaking.
The topic that I tackled is entitled “Blog Traffic 102” in w/c I talked about some ‘modern’ ways that I always use to drive traffic to my blogs. The way I planned it was for me to tackle that topic in-depth and obviously that didn’t turn out very well since I just had about 20 minutes to talk about it. But in the end, I thought I did pretty well but of course there are still lots of room for improvement.
If you’re looking for the PowerPoint presentation, kindly grab it here. Hint: The amount of helpful resource links inside is enormous and is something that a lot of people requested me to share in this blog post but you may want to look at the last slide as well since there’s a free gift link in that slide. =p
The reason I attend these events aside from the networking part is because it always amazes me how I learn lots of things during the event. It’s not just about the tips or sleek tricks but its also about the intangible things that we, as bloggers usually forget. Like for me, I’ve been making money from blogging since a long time but I never really realized that much before how the money part is just 10% of the ‘industry’.
Sometimes its the other things that make blogging much more fulfilling. Things like helping out other people unknowingly, like fighting for something that we believe in, having our own advocacies, reaching out to people. Its about having that community that I admittingly, sometimes think I don’t have nor I cared about. And of course its the variety of people that you will meet that will help you grow more as a blogger.
I mean iBlog itself is a free event since it started. No one pays for anything, organizers work hard to do this and do that, and as a result of their hard work, bloggers benefit a lot. So that I think is my biggest reflection in attending this event. Hopefully I can comeback next year not as a speaker, but more of just like a normal blogger. Who knows, I might be able to do some sponsoring and organizing as well in the future. But for now, I’ll just cross my finger. 😉
I’d like to give special credit to the organizers, to Ms.Janette for organizing such a wonderful event. I haven’t done that much networking since a).I was too shy and b).I was too shy. But those who said ‘hi’ to me and asked some questions, I appreciate that.
P.S. If you have a picture of me while on the stage, then please let me know. 😉
The last few weeks and days have been pretty crazy for me. As you know I was planning (back then) to attend Wordcamp Philippines and so the way I did it was I slept in office to be able to come early to the event. Eventually I did, through the help of a good officemate named Chigs who offered to accompany me to the event.
Ok now back to the event. I arrived early as in really (6:30 am, event is 8am) early. I stayed in McDonalds for half an hour and went to Benilde at around 7. The organizing team was kind enough to welcome me even though they were surprised I was that early (shame on me!).
Anyhow I just waited patiently. And after quite some time, I met my friends named Paul Gerard and the hyperactive Eymard in the event. These are the same guys whom I met in iBlog event last year.
So this year was kind of like different from the previous year. This year, they had 2 parts. First one is the breakout session and the latter part is the Plenary. Most of the talks in the breakout session (w/c was held in different rooms with limited number of participants) were kind of like fundamental to me but I know its really really valuable especially for the right person.
The Plenary talks were interesting. Topics that were covered are: Social Media powered by WordPress, Blogging Ethics, Google University talk and some sponsor talks. They were of great value and its nice that a lot of people ask questions with regards to it.
The most interesting part though is the Q and A with Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. A lot of people asked interesting questions and its nice to see Matt answering all of them in a very straightforward matter. Questions related to plugin marktplace, Thesis theme and even the Hello Dolly plugins were all asked. Lastly, Matt encourage everyone to approach him personally if we ever have questions or we want to take pics with him. Now thats something not all famous persons would say.
I really like Matt a lot, I mean he’s a smart guy and a very nice person. You may have seen him speak in interviews and stuffs but in person he’s really really such an approachable person. So Matt if you’re reading, its nice to meet you! 😀
So just to make this post longer (lols) and seriously just to give you some of the neat stuff in Wordcamp, here are some images.
To see more photos from this event, kindly just head on to my photos page.
Overall it’s a nice event as I was able to personally meet Matt and some others there as well. Networking-wise, I failed badly since I hardly talk to anyone aside from my friends. I’ve planned a lot for this and even prepared a document with regards to networking and making more friends in the event. Unfortunately, I’m very shy and it didn’t help that Eymard and Paul weren’t as engaging as well.
But all in all, it’s really nice. The breakout sessions is something that I think is unique. I liked most of the talk and the event overall was great. I’d like to thank the organizers avatar media for really working hard on this event, the sponsors, Matt and everyone who attended the event. Now I’m excited for Wordcamp 2011. 🙂
Long time no post here, at least for my preference. 🙂 Anyways, last Friday and Saturday I attended the biggest blogging event here in Philippines which is the iBlog Philippine Blogging Summit. The conference was held for the 6th time already and I actually can’t believe that I missed the previous 5 ones considering that I’ve been blogging for 3 years already.
I also mentioned in my post on attending Wordcamp 09 that since late last year, I’ve shifted my focus on trying to network more with my fellow citizens here and connect with more local bloggers. Since I’ve started I was more always on the international side of things. Most of my blogging colleagues are from the other side of the world. I have few Filipino blogging friends but I realized I have to have more.
So I attended iBlog 6 Summit. It’s a 2 day event, the first day was more targeted on businesses on tapping blogs while the second day is more on blogging as a whole. Unlike most of the iBlog posts, this is going to be a comprehensive one. 🙂
Disclaimer: I’m a nice guy but I’m honest so i would put out my personal opinion on every talk. If you’re name is misspelled, hit me up. 🙂 Im also a horrible photographer so I had to steal borrow other photos from other people
Since its just my second event, its understandable that I am holding myself back a bit because Im shy. Ok, I arrived just on time by myself and with no friends on sight.
Janette Toral spoke about Blogging for business which is a pretty general talk on how blogs make money and how they are intended for business. It was a pretty broad talk wherein she covered making money from various things like paid review, corporate blogging and selling products.
Janette is a reputable figure here in Philippine and while its my first time hearing her speak, I was not disappointed. I think she laid out all the necessary info especially for noobs on how the money works on blogging.
It was followed by Abe Olandres speech about Advertising in Blogs which is a more in-depth topic than the first one. Abe is one of the pioneers of blogging here and is one who probably have generated the most revenue. Its a pretty great talk and he was not too shabby to share his figures. 🙂
The next one was the sponsor talk and its really something I dont want to talk about. The next speaker is Mr. Gary Viray who preaches about SEO and SEM. Its pretty fundamental for me but I know it really opened the eyes of most new bloggers in the world of SEO. It also debunks the myth of old SEO practices wherein it used to be based on quantity of inbound links.
Next is the lunch and networking part. The food is “” but thats considerable considering its a free and open for all event. Again I was not able to network that much because I was really really shy. But at the time, I met four people by then namely: Mariel, May Ann, Paul David and Jilcae w/c are the people that I pretty much talked with for the whole day.
Carlo Ople then presented something about measuring blog buzz in w/c he tackled on how traditional businesses are so much hurting themselves not putting up proper online campaigns and lacking specific goals. It was one of my fave talk for that day since it presented me to the offline business side of things. Im always like the guy who knows things online but its refreshing to see the “foreign” side of things. Carlo reiterated that we must “show respect to social media” which pretty much sums it all up.
Emerson Banez who is a lawyer tackled legal concerns in blogging w/c I initially thought was boring but he made a way to make it enticing to listeners. It was basically about copyrights, and disclaimers which was beneficial as well. Law is really not my forte but its good to learn something from that side too.
The next one is about the win-win situation for bloggers and advertisers which was presented by Didi Paterno. It was a bit sound and fundamental to me since most of the money made in this blog is through advertising.
Lastly that day, Manuel Viloria which i thought was dressed a bit overformal, discussed about attraction marketing which was a really fruitful topic. This topic was about building a list, capturing them, then using social media to leverage them is something that was an eye-opener especially for most bloggers here. Up to now, it still amazes me how a lot of bloggers dont go into the “relationship-building” business model and instead just stay on the old blogging bandwagon techniques.
Day 2 is mostly for bloggers. I anticipated that this day is for newbies, people who haven’t had much experience yet with blogging. With that in mind, I still attended.
The very beautiful, mesmerizing and eye-capturing and lovable Ms. Hannah Villasis started the day by discussing about Blogging 101 which is basically just about blogging and how it has become it is today. I’m hitting my head so hard because I actually missed this talk and wasnt able to take a pic of her while on stage. I woke up late that day and it sucks!
Then the equally handsome Vince Gollangco discussed about Video Blogging which was enticing to me since I’ve been planning to go into that route but never actually have done it. Vince made a great emphasis that we should never really care about those negative feedbacks because there would be always. He also handed out some great tips on how to do videoblogging and how its easier than what most people really think.
PhotoBlogging101 is another interesting talk since I am fascinated with photography lately. Im not a photo blogger but I love taking random pics. Juned discussed it more on a photography aspect rather than the blogging side and it was really a nice session.
Then it was the sponsor talk, and then the talk about launching successful blog contests which is something that I already have an idea about. But again Im sure this talk has become useful to a lot of other people on the said event.
It was followed by the very interesting topic of Impact of Blogging to the community wherein Joseph Gonzales (by far the most lively speaker, also humorous), cited the intangibles of blogging and how he leveraged it in helping his community. It was so inspiring to hear that blogging can do more than what we all think it could and in his case, its really for a bigger cause. And then it was lastly followed by Marghil Macuha’ of Macuha.com talked on how SEO is a must for making money online. It was pretty a fundamental talk but I picked up some nice techniques of his as well. 🙂
The biggest blogging conference and event was really living to its bill. I was so happy that I was able to attend and meet all other bloggers and prominent figures here personally. Of course I still wished to have done better especially with the networking part. In conferences like this, I should be introducing myself, shaking other people’s hand, taking pics with other people, and just building relationship with them, almost none of those were done. (shy alert!)
All in all I would like to thank to all who have stumbled upon in the event. My new buddies, May Ann, Jilcae, Paul and two other persons I didn’t recognize that much. The speakers who I know really prepared so hard not just to present something, but to make sure they give out the best ones.
And of course the organizers, Ms.Janette Toral, the emcees, the photographers (hey how can I find the pics that may possibly include me?), the hyper-active Mike Abundo, and all those people who worked to make this happen. Usually organizers are the ones who don’t get much credit but here I’d like to put an emphasis to them for doing such a wonderful job. Having an event for 6th straight years is just plain awesome.
If you have your own coverage of your iBlog 6 Summit, please comment here so I can post your link here as well. 🙂 Do share your opinion as well about this Summit and let me know what talks did you enjoy the most.
Other iBlog 6 Press/Blog Coverages:
More Photos are located on the photos page
So like what my previous post said, I have finally attended a blog event here in Philippines and it’s the popular Wordcamp 09. Much to my dismay that my camera lost bout three days before the Wordcamp started, I still attended the event with high hopes that I would learn a lot and more importantly meet new people and make new friends. Here are some photos that was taken from Jehzlau’s gallery (I just took some pics):
As I’ve said this is the first event that I happened to have attended and I was really tensed at first. Good thing is that a guy named Alvin (hey your link?) approached me and introduced himself and introduced me to the Nuffnang people and some other people as well, and that paved the way for me to open my mouth and start talking. 😀 Just in case you don’t know I am a really really shy kid and stuffs.
Anyways w/o further ado here are the things I have learned from the said event and how you can learn from them as well:
Another one is a guy named Jehzeel Laurente. He is a very popular figure (he’s like the Shoemoney of Philippines) and one of the sponsors. We talked together very briefly during lunch and it’s a pleasure to actually meet someone famous personally. So talk with people you know when you see them personally and try just not to be annoying.. 😀
Wordcamp 09 is really a good and interesting event. I’ve learned a lot, enjoyed a lot and got tired eventually. Hope you guys learned and if you have anything to add, feel free to do so in the comment form.
Note: Would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the said event, the Mindanao Bloggers community. And well, I’d list all people I’ve seen there and there link hopefully. Gratitudes to Blogie (one who told me there’s no dress code), Migs (emcee), Chatee (lone girl in the organizer’s section) Alvin, Jhoey, to the photographers and many many more (more name and link here, please). If you’re one of the photographers and had taken a pic that includes me, feel free to send it to me and I”ll send you a cup of coffee.. 😀
In case you do not know, Wordcamp is an event that happens every year that focuses everything on WordPress. This is a community-organized event wherein almost every wordpress users and enthusiasts usually show up and have fun together. This year there are 10 Wordcamp events all over the world and for Philippines to be one of them, its just a great pleasure.
Anyways I always regret how I happened not to know most events here in Philippines. Although I am a Filipino and live here in Philippines, there are very few people in the blogging industry here that I knew and have met personally. It’s again because of the fact that I don’t attend events because I don’t know the events!
So when I heard the Wordcamp Philippines 09 is going to happen this September 19, I was really excited about and immediately registered. It’s always nice to meet other people in the industry, make new friends and personally meet Mr.Wordpress, Matt Mullenwegg. So what I did after registering, is mark that day in calendar, and clear up all other scheds and appointments for that day. Really looking forward to it.
How about you? If you’re a Filipino blogger and resides here in Philippines, I would highly suggest you to join this event that will be held in Makati City. I might just hand out several free copies of the MelvinBlog shirts for free. 😉 Registration is located here.
