MelvinBlog

A blog that chronicles my journey on online marketing, blogging, social media, technology and life.

wordpress

Wordcamp 09 Philippines

by ·

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.

The Sunday Thing Everyone Is Doing

by ·

Love

So being busy for almost the whole week and coming weeks to come(search for the word busy in this blog, and you’ll find a ton), I have to do the link love that most people do. Btw, just want to say the comment rewards would be inactive at least for a short month as I was looking for a more eye-popping prizes. So Stay tuned! Also I was very happy to have sponsors for this blog that have booked long term!

For the best post that I have seen and bookmarked, here they are:

The perfectionism thing is a great read. When I have read the title I was about to contracdict it and when I read the content I suddenly agreed with it. 😉 Shoemoney’s most commented post that week is an eye-opener. Just because guys like him who never finished college  became succesful, all of a sudden everyone wants to quit going to school and start making money online, which again I say is not for everyone. The Why do you blog question is popular these days and its interesting to see what are people’s take with it. Mr. Cooper talks about the importance of design. It’s so true that because everything has become a 2.0, design seems to be an important factor(very important) for getting viral.

For this coming week, I have a lot of unique ideas that can surely piss you out. 😉 I have prepared some posts that will break your neck make an emphasis on reality rather than what most people say. 🙂 So again stay tuned and make sure you are not subscribed to my feed

Shoemoney Has A New Theme

by ·

Well the ever famous Shoemoney has his theme get tweaked a little. Though he never announced it, it’s obvious. He has been promoting his newsletters and well this is the first time he has done this one. If you feel you will benefit from it, then signing up is a must.

Well the blog’s theme is nice but well I still believe the old one is better. You can see his blog have it’s own frontpage wherein the three subheaders are shown whereas it isn’t when you’re reading the post on the link directly. I got some reasons why the former theme was better

  • Better Width, Better Spacing – In his previous template he had everything extended. In this recent one he had a margin at both sides. Well IMHO the better the spacing the better it looks…
  • No threaded comments anymore – Though this one can be installed, I still think the threaded comments is one of the better part of commenting system of blogs. In this blog there is no threaded plugin because it’s not functioning well. So while removing the threaded plugin can be a wise move to lessen junk comments, I can say it’s still valuable. Large blogs like shoemoney aren’t just blogs. They are like forums. People talk in it, exchange their 2 cents and well criticize each other. Thats why I feel it’s important.
  • Looks like MMO blog – With the new theme, shoe’s blog has become like most “make money online” blogs there. The structure reminds me of most mmo (junk) blogs in the industry. Shoe never claimed his blog as mmo neither as a “blogging know how-to” blog.

Well a new theme is a fresh start. Sometimes it helps your readers feel more refreshing. I don’t know, maybe Im the only one thinking the old theme of shoe was better. How bout you, do you think your theme is that good?

What Makes You Rich The Most?

by ·

So obviously you didn’t came here saying blogging is your primary source of income right? Also you’re not planning to do it by blogging. I was looking at different blogs and different people and seeing they were making a lot of money doing things very far from blogging. We all know it’s impossible to make a living out of blogging. Yes, some people do it, name them, Darren Rowse, John Chow and more. But the thing is its very hard to duplicate the feat they have achieved. When they started, they were not so many people doing it so they were getting a lot of attention and exposure. Today, you can always write a great post and no one can still read it. That’s how www is very competitive right now.

Back to the question, what’s the thing that had made you tons of money? or maybe the most money? Some do well in joint ventures, freelancing, offering professional services and so. As many of you know, I had made some success with Affiliate Marketing. Isn’t really big, but a three figure income a month is always better than nothing. And besides that is doing it part-time. You can see, people get what they want based on how focused and determined they are. Most people fail because they tend to do tons of things at once and the result is they never accomplished any of them. My word of advice is, do what you think you’re strength is! You code superbly, then why linger with affiliate marketing? You write like a god, then why not go with freelancing? For me it’s just how those things work. Many people see always the value of having multiple streams of income but what they never see is if they can sustain positive results from them or just waste their time and effort.

How bout you? What makes you rich the most? I know you have blogs (and you won’t be reading these if you don’t have one) and that’s what you share with your readers (and that’s what pay your bills and hosting). Maybe you can share it.

Top Commentators, Prizes and Incentives

by ·

So again I am stucked on a very busy weekend with all people making me look like a slave. Like what I have done last month I have given the top commentators some gifts back for commenting a lot. Last time it’s an ebook about incentive marketing. This time it will be entrecard credits and one will get a free advertising on this blog via a link. 😉 If you do not, I just won a contest on Grademoney’s blog and I won 5000 entrecards from Bloggernoob who will also do a review on my blog.

Also I was able to finally receive the Atomic Blogging package worth $37 which I have won Carl Ocab’s Contest. The ebook is a great book and there are some items there that is well worthed. Another thing to say is that I will doing some incentive marketing here on my blog and on some forums. Incentive marketing is something that I have NEVER tried before so i think i’m gonna try to put up some efforts to it. This one is a great and busy week with some great post from all over the world. Check them out:

Now who said its bad to give a lot of outgoing links? 😉

Don’t Bother With PM’s From Your Blog

by ·

Since I have started this thingy I am always receiving tons of message from the contact form that are pissing me a lot. I’m not an impatient person but of course I don’t like craps. As this blog is getting read by more and more kids people there are also other things that are not so good to my eyes. Like the number of spams I am starting to receive and of course the messages from the contact form.

The purpose of the contact form is to contact. Sometimes my friends do not know how they can reach me so I put this one up. That’s also there for business purposes. But when is something not business related? Let me tell you a story. Sometime last month someone contacted me saying that their company is holding some promotional measures and would do me a free banner and logo in exchange for a linkback. During that time I think my header is fine but still I was like “Wow someone seems to be interested in my blog” But then the thoughts of beautiful design ala UniqueBlogDesigns was thwarted when the sample was given to me. It’s SO ugly that the drawing of a chicken could even look better than it. I swear! After that, I no longer respond. But that certain kept on sending me mails. After a week, they are already three! They all promote the same thing with the same company. Wow!

So things like that started off like comets falling here on earth. Most are asking/offering me about their services(which isn’t bad)! And a lot has been promoting untested networks with their affiliate links and wtf, their is even someone there saying she wants to be my husband! I guess this is really how things go. I can now understand how big and established guys and companies are having hard time dealing w/it. Before i am used to checking my email in this blog everyday, now it’s once a week and sooner it will be once a month!

Blogote vs TechTreak, Clash of Two Tech Blogs

by ·

So today it is going to be the technology blogs turn to face each other in this week’s featured ‘Blogger Head to Head”. Technology blogs are blogs that blog about technology. Well, that was before. Now, technology blogs tend to expand their reach. As the technology expands it’s channels, so as the blogs. Just take a good look at techcrunch.

For this week, it’s going to be Blogote and TechTreak. Honestly I have a difficult time remembering (pronouncing) their names but hopefully I can get over this hump. Blogote is a blog that I have visiitng since months ago while Techtreak has also a great one which I am reading lately. Here are the questions I fired to their faces. 😉

TechTreak Blogote
Describe yourself in less than 5 words? crazy, Contest(too many to say) freak, helper, smart, geek Indifferent,Simply and Smart! 😉
What is your favorite breakfast? Almost all indian foods Bread butter Jam 🙂
Any story behind choosing that domain name? Me and my brother just wanted to have a tech blog so we just searched through godaddy but all the good ones are booked then my brother came up with TechTreak(we still dont know what treak is ) and we took it, at first it is a bit tough to remember but after some weeks we just getting good response and we made it so far! yes, Blog + promote = Blogote
Why did you choose the technology niche? Coz am a big tech freak and just wanna try the lastest gadgets so it will be fun to blog about them! Tech is a part of life,So experiencing the Tech and writing about it is not a tough task.
How many hours per day do you spend blogging? Almost 3 to 4 hours but in busy day i cant blog for even 4 days Not even 1 hour 🙁
How many uniques are you getting monthly? 14000 before 3 months stats but now due to some personal(father expired) problems i just stopped everything and now started to get on the track back(its really hard)! First month I received 16k+ http://blogote.com/2008/site-news/blogote-june-2008-monthly-wrap-up.html
What is your average blog income? around $800 before 3 months but now just $250 due to bad days! This is the beginning.. I will post about them in the coming months!
Do you read other blogs feeds? How many do you track? Yeah i love to read others! i have more than 50+ No I dont read blog feeds.I do visit some of my friends blog to pass my time.
What keeps a blogger from making money from his blog? Content + Traffic + Good Circle and with good management! Motivation and discouragement..These two things make a blogger reach any of his goals.
When does a blogger have to consider monetizing While having a great content, traffic and decent link love After writing first 10-20 posts,he has to find out his niche and then Quality seo readable posts will do the job.Also submission to social sites is recommended for every blogger.
What makes your blog unique from others? Style in posts, good design(some self made ), covers almost all interesting stuff like mixed juice! I have No answer,I cant say if my blog is really unique bcoz Blogote is yet to be discovered and nourished.
What’s the biggest goal for this blog? ha…biggest!? almost every month is a sucessfull month for TechTreak coz as a contest freak i try to get on as much as possible and try to make most of my content with a better traffic each month so it just going to increasing!
But to the most hardest part i ever faced is face off with johnchows blog review, i dont know about johnchow that much untill then, when i seen him in a RuffPC(worth $3000) contest, that is the month i tried to make most of my blog to get nore votes and win but with both our votes euqual the whole contest rules and schedules are changed because of us but sadly i lost it and it still hurts(i even cant says that tons of xxxxxx comments i got from a month from JC fans) me the most! but the only hope is one day i’ll be there to break the chains!!!		 For now it is to break the traffic shackles obviously to be the best blog with quality content.
Give me a blog you admire and why? Problogger.net since in the beginning i learnt a lot from darren I don’t admire any blogs,why to admire a blog when you have the capability to blog better than others..