Ramblings

The Best Birthday Gift For the Girl I Care

by Melvin · Oct 11, 2009

So a little offtopic post here. 🙂 Post Alert: Remember this is a blog owned by a teenager, so love stories are just fine as posts. 😉

Last year, I also did have this post asking for the best birthday gift which yielded a lot of responses from people. Since most of the commenters back before were not commenting now (or have stop reading this blog), I just thought I would again reiterate the scenario. So way back in early years in college I used to have a big crush on someone in our school. What I know is it’s more than infatuation and being attracted because I have to dwell with the feelings that I have for her for up to now (3+ years)..

I started giving gifts to her since first year without me revealing my personality and she not really knowing I exist. We just started to get to know each other and eventually talk more during our 3rd year (last year). Much to my dismay, that was her last year in school as she was a graduating student then (very short time. 🙁 ). And yes I was able to say goodbye but then its sad because 1: you know you’re not going to meet anymore (debatable) 2: as I’ve said we’re just starting to build our friendship back then. I really miss her so much and yes its love, puppy love maybe.

So 8 days from now is her birthday. I don’t know, but over the years I really don’t think I make great decisions on what is the right gift . You get my situation? The girl is not my girlfriend (I never had any gf’s before), I’m not courting here nor dating her, we’re good friends and I know I want more than just that, lols. And to add I am really a shy person and everytime we talk face to face I still have that nagging pressure that I always feel.

I always thought a ring would do it, but people around me say its not a good one and I respect their opinion a lot. I want to be romantic but not too much. Confused? I am as well. So here I am taking any suggestions you guys/girls can suggest. I believe most of you here are teens like me and if not (means you’re old), Im sure you have gone with this “cheesy” situation as well, Hahahaha… Fire away your take.

and yes taking her out for a dinner is a big dream.

Blog Updates And Announcements

by Melvin · Oct 6, 2009

September was a pretty good month for me because that was the month that I didn’t have to wake up early and sleep early to prepare for stupid internships. I was able to take the much needed rest and relaxation while also being productive doing what I want and what I need. It was good also because I was able to raise enough money to support myself and my expenses without needing to annoy my parents asking for allowance.

Anyways for this version of blog updates here are some of the more notable happenings and changes to the blog.

Pagination Problems Resolved
No theme change up to the end of the year
WWSGD plugin removed
Guest Posting galores on some blogs
Loyal Commenters Awarded.

So first is the pagination thing. You can now look at the footer part and click the next page or paged number as its completely working well now. I have also decided not to change the blog’s theme up to the end of the year at least! You can remember me posting an article asking you on whether to change the theme or not and the final decision is not yet. Meanwhile the popular WWSGD plugin w/c analyzes cookies and sends out different message for different visitor has been removed. I really love the plugin but since it’s hurting my search rankings, I have decided to pull it off. Credits to Mihaela. I’ve also guest posted on some of the blogs and well most of my guest posts are still not up. Hmm. Lastly all the the people on the top commentator’s list were rewarded with free advertising for a month. These are bloggers who kept on reading and commenting on my posts despite the atrocity of it. 😀

Announcement

The major announcement that I am going to make is the launch of Great Deals in the near future. Great Deals is eventually just a part of the site (a page actually) where you can see offers you’ve never really seen before. OIO Publisher for $27? How about the Ultimate Blogging Theme for just $47? Most offers are UNBELIEVABLE and those things mentioned are just preludes. Yeah, you’re not gonna believe it. 😀

And yes, suggestions, criticisms, opinions, advice is always entertained. If you have something to say which you think can really improve it would be highly ridiculed appreciated.

Problogger Forums Is Fine As Long As…

by Melvin · Oct 3, 2009

Darren Rowse, the genius behind the popular blog Problogger has already launched the forum which is more known as the Problogger Community. Although he hasn’t yet made a formal announcement of it in his blog, the community is rapidly growing already with over 3000 members on board . Some of the prominent figures I’ve seen there are the likes of Daniel Scocco (DailyBlogTips), Jim Kukral (JimKukral.com), David Risley (DavidRisley.com) and more.

Although there is no scarcity in blogging forums, the Problogger Community is still expected to surpass all other forums and get to the top in no time. Registration is NOT free but at $1.95, heck it’s a bargain. According to most, this registration fee exists to filter out spammers. The price is set to increase soon so if you’re planning to register then the best time to do it is now.

The forum is going to be big soon and there’s no doubt about it. But on whether it can be different on other blogging forums remains to be unseen. I have been doing some detective works and observing the forums. To be honest, the forum is really good because there aren’t so many categories yet it’s not lacking anything it seems. But still I am seeing a lot of reasons why this forum can be just your another average blogging forum and here are the reasons:

Experts Are NOT going to lurk there – The main selling point of the forum I believe is that it’s packed with several authorities in the niche. While it can really be exciting (and astounding), it’s still the fact that these bloggers won’t devote 10% of their time in that forum. I mean these bloggers are business guys and they are busy for most part of the day so I don’t see any reason for them to lurk over there. And if I’m correct, then the main selling point is canceled out already.
New Forum, Same Mindset – People who go to forums usually just go there to make promotions and marketing, both direct and indirect (debatable). Aside from its a paid membership, there is really no difference between it and other blogging forums. The rules are kinda the same. You still see people drop gazillion of links (like me, or Im just joking!), see annoying members, and see a lot of blog critiques with less than 2 critiques! The forums shows leniency and in my opinion I think it needs to be more strict.
Lurking is Bad – Like what I’ve talked here in the blog about lurking on forums, I think it can still harm people’s productivity. Most bloggers love to lurk and waste their time lurking. Im sure they enjoy it but since they joined the Problogger Community, then I’m assuming they want to be a professional blogger. And hurting your productivity doesn’t help to become a Pro Blogger.
Getting Bigger – Theoretically there’s nothing wrong on having a large forums, but I always prefer smaller forums. Why? Because a smaller forum can give you a tighter community where everyone really gets to maximize every benefit they could ever gain. It builds better relationship amongst bloggers and it can really help benefit everyone. Digital Point Forums and Warrior Forum used to be a good forum and it only gets out of hand when it became highly populated. You can post a thread asking for something and in the next 20 minutes your thread is already on the third page w/no replies. Big is good, but toooo big is not!

I don’t have anything against the new community. If I have, then why would I join? Why would I care about writing this post? It’s a good forum that can be a future source of awesome content to the right person. But as far as seeing the difference of it to other blogging or webmaster-related forums, I don’t see much. I may be correct and I may not be. And someone can prove me wrong here.

You Should Have a Personal Blog!

by Melvin · Sep 25, 2009

When I have first created this blog, MelvinBlog.com, I had a thought that this blog would really be a personal blog where I would put all the rambling stuffs, people I hate the most, new crushes, retarded politicians and many many more. For some reasons, the blog started gaining popularity and was pushed into the direction of mmo. Yes, the dirty and filthy make money online niche. I was reading my archives and haven’t really found good info related to making money online for the first 2 months I must say.

Quick turn of time, hey look! I had banners at the sidebar (many!), an impersonal about page, has set-up a landing page, and is even planning to run a mailing list soon! What the heck! Well I wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite by saying that I dislike what I am getting now from this blog. Sure I had dreams of owning a website and monetizing it ala Engadget or Techcrunch, but to actually become one of “them”, hey its not what I planned at first.

Anyways enough ranting. You see there really is an almost non-existing space when talking about blogging personally and succeeding (or making money from it). It took me some time to realize that “hey I can’t just put useless stuffs here anymore” and have to really switch to someone who has to put up useful (or funny) content 80% of the time. You can say that shoemoney and johnchow and couple others are just posting useless content yet they get so much attention but just look how early they did blogging. They did it in time almost no one knew it existed.

So the whole point of this post is to just persuade you to start your own personal blog. Personally for me, having one makes me really feel the real essence of blogging. Just post stuffs, no worries on whether its good, no pressure at all, and its all fun! Shoemoney (jeremyschoemaker.com) and Problogger (darrenrowse.com) even had their own! It’s like really a useful tool when you’re doing nothing, you want to express out how your neighbor sucks, or want to speak about your crush and more.

Come on, a domain name just costs less than $10 a year and I know you guys are filthy wealthier than me that you had your own dedicated server so why not? And besides, you can even just use free platforms. Btw, maybe you’re wonderin’ out what’s my personal blog address (you may say I keep talkin’ yet I dont have one 😀 ). Its located at Mehlvs.com and its totally a free-writing blog. I would be very grateful to hear your own opinion. 😀

What I Learned In Wordcamp 09

by Melvin · Sep 20, 2009

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:

Overcome shyness – Yes. It’s totally useless if you’re going to attend an event and talk to no one. One of the meat in these events is the “talking part” w/other people. If you’re shy like me my tip is, try to get yourself going. I mean just a simple hi or a smile to/from someone could boost your confidence a lot. And then try to capitalize on it and just keep going and go with the flow.
Make the Most of the Opportunity – You may have heard me a lot talk about Carl Ocab here. The truth is, prior to the event, we have not seen each other face to face although we know each other kinda about 2+ years now w/o meeting personally. So what I did was I approached him and just talked spontaneously. Boy, it’s such a humbling experience to have a conversation with a guy like him who is really bright and knows a lot of stuffs.

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.. 😀

Ask Questions – Just like in anything, not all are understandable. Even the best speakers in the world, had their audiences asking questions. If you don’t understand somethign, ask questions~! Or again if you’re shy, you can do so after the said event. Example is, I had a question to Mr. Ryan Reynolds Seth of Firefox and because I was shy, I approached him at the end of the event.
Bring Business Cards – Oh my god! I can’t believe I didn’t have one for the event. 🙁 Well my piece is do not ever think that people would get annoyed when you hand them out with your business card. The truth about events is that people attend it to network and meet new people, w/c would lead later on to joint ventures, friendships and stuffs. If you don’t know how to make one, just try to get a small piece of paper and put your details and thats it! 😉
Attend the after-parties – LOLs, another one that I didn’t do. Unfortunately that day I was kinda rushing to go to Greenbelt three to meet someone. Well if you’re really out to meet new people and make friends, you must attend the after-parties. After all it’s fun and you wouldn’t get that much drunk anyways (hopefully). 🙂
Bring a Camera – In my case I lost my camera, and so I brought my Flip to take some clips from the said event. I know some people would say they don’t have one, but it’s not really hard to borrow from someone right? Remember the one thing that you’d probably want to have is a remembrance of an event you attended.

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.. 😀

Wordcamp 09 Philippines

by Melvin · Sep 5, 2009

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.

My Info Product Has Gone Really Far

by Melvin · Sep 1, 2009

Last June I launched my first ebook about monetizing make money online blogs. That was my first ebook and I personally exerted every ounce of sweat and effort to have that book presentable and useful to everyone. Before that, I am always vocal here in my blog about my take on ebooks and why most of them are just waste of time. I also discussed that for every ebook you buy, the risk is always on you, the buyer.

Anyways I took a sneak peak yesterday at my account and am surprised the ebook has sold that good.(click for a larger look)

I know that “experts’ would actually tell me that describing the no. sales as ‘many’ is a big joke, but who cares? When I was just creating this one, I didn’t even expect that it would get pass 5 sales! Do take note that I don’t have a list or whatever. Most of the $10 sales came from this blog from one post while some came from webmaster forums.

All in all I can pretty much say that its a testimony that reputation by far is the best tool to market something. I mean, not that Im saying I am an expert in this niche but I think with the way I maintained the blog, built its community, pissed off people, and shared useful tips. At the end it eventually paid off.

For those who purchased the ebook, I would feel gratified if you send me your testimonials and even criticisms. Use the contact form and I would be grateful to put your testimonials on some page in the future. For those who are interested in buying, please bypass the salespage and go directly here. But still if you’re interested to see how salespages look like, then feel free to visit the boring salespage. And lastly for those who have questions regarding to the product or to why Stephon Marbury is making himself look crazy please use the comment form below. I am in 3 days rest and would pretty much just waste my time in front of my laptop so I can quickly answer your questions. 😉