Wireless in Camp John Hay Manor and other thoughts
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at October 4th, 2006
It’s past midnight and I’m catching up on lost emails. I’m currently blogging from the manor of John Hay in Baguio, where the entire area is a wireless hotspot. I’m here for a three day planning session for our company’s 2006-2007 strategies.
Since everyone is asleep i decided to sneak out and do some catching up with the online world. Though I was prepared for the worst case scenario – not having Internet for three days – and scheduling more than three days worth of content on all my blogs, having Internet has allowed me to do … well … some more blogging.
Have I become a blog addict? No, well not really. I’ve been posting a lot more often compared to the past few months. Most of it has to do with investing posts on this blog which will later on return in financial rewards. A lot of professional do this, and it takes precedence over quality content.
A good friend recently told me that my content quality went down. What does this mean? It could simply mean that (a) i don’t write long and thought provoking posts anymore compared to before, (b) I have nothing to say really, so might as well say whatever, or (c) content quality is subjective.
Nonetheless, there is a point in what he’s saying. A lot of bloggers post daily because they have to, knowing the long term financial benefits. Are they willing to sacrifice quantity over quality given the time they need to invest to create a really good post?
Not really, I would say. After all, this is a personal blog. I’d rather take a look at the best case scenario: blogging every day AND producing quality content is a good goal to have. There really is no other way to go but up!
The joys of international traffic
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at October 3rd, 2006After reading Abe’s post on how the typhoon affected the Philippine blogosphere and stunted traffic, I checked up on my phone blog which I had added onto the PTB Project a few days prior to the storm. Turns out that because of the consistency of international traffic and the sudden downing of local traffic, Cellphone9 soared from a rank above 100 to Top 25.
This has made me realize the effects of REACH. When we start blogs, are we aware of the actual demographic of readership we will get? Part of the answer to this question has to do with the purpose of our blogs, in the same way that we ask ourselves if we are starting a business (profit oriented) or an advocacy (non profit).
On the other hand, does traffic really matter? I can have a blog on broad technology with so many readers as well as a blog on knitting with only a few readers. So how does one measure success? Putting these two blogs side by side, traffic should not be the golden mean of success.
In the magazine industry, success is measured when your publication hits its target demographic.
Other things that blogging has bought me
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at October 2nd, 2006Yesterday, Rico and I enjoyed the snack that blogging bought.
Contrary to popular belief, blogging can also buy you everyday things – not just cars, houses and expensive tech stuff.
For instance, blogging has also bought me the following:
Has blogging helped you find true love?
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at October 1st, 2006It is true that blogging can be financially rewarding. But what about the things that blogging cannot buy – like true love?
I’ve heard stories – well, rumors of bloggers who find love (or at the very least a one night stand) from blogging.
What is it that attracts readers to blog authors? Is it the sexiness of making their thoughts bare to the public? Is it the fact that the art of writing is a rare find nowadays? Is it the package appeal of being eloquent and tech savvy at the same time? Or could it just be the excitement of meeting up with the mystery man or woman behind the URL?
Well, whatever the outcome, just make sure you practice safe CSS 
The search for the open wireless hotspot
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 30th, 2006Like most of you with a mobile computer, I’ve been searching the vicinity for an open wireless hotspot so that I could do work. We still don’t have electricity and water at home and we’ve been trying to chansaw the huge mango tree that fell into our garden (pictures to follow).
Luckily I found a wireless hotspot in Mocha Blends BF Paranaque powered by Airborne Access. For some reason, I didn’t have to log into the system anymore with the machine giving me a complimentary session.
Hopefully the power will come back tomorrow.
How to make a good elevator pitch
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 29th, 2006I got this from Jeremy. The elevator pitch is similar to the drive by shooting of potential VC funding. Here’s a video to help equip you with that tool. Who knows, the next person you might be stuck in an elevator with could be your next venture capitalist.
BURN BABY BURN: Concert is Good to Go!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 28th, 2006UPDATE: Doh! Cancelled!
Despite the strong rain, we are pushing through with our concert tonight! Entrance is free! All you need to do is bring or buy a copy of BURN Magazine at the SM Mall of Asia Music Lounge. See you all there!
Text Link Ads introduces Feedvertising
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 28th, 2006It’s finally out in the wild. Darren Rowse has a good explanation of TLA Feedvertising here but its really just common sense: a lotof people don’t visit blogs to read posts. They visit feeds. So might as well advertise on feeds then, right?
What I love about the new Feedvertising is the ability to post personal links on your RSS feed ads. For instance, I wanted to promote my company’s blog network so I inserted links to HIP Online as well as Mobile Philippines. It may take up to an hour for feeds to be repopulated with ads.
Back from BlogCon 2006
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 27th, 2006
Elber poses beside the BlogCon logo
Wow, what a trip! (as if it was really that far away)
Thanks to everyone who came and spread the link love. I hope everyone enjoyed the evening as well as the short presentations given by the guest speakers. Thank you Globe Innove for the sponsorship!
I want to apologize for two things though.
First, the “autograph signing” thing was actually supposed to be similar to the barnyard shoepile game where we have a list of all the blogs and people match the bloggers with their respective URLs.
Second, the podcast we recorded is corrupt. Something unknown to my geeky powers corrupted the audio file as it was being compressed in GarageBand. The file is lost forever! How tragic. How irresponsible. So so sorry about that.
There were some people I really wanted to talk to (especially the famous Jac Ting Lim!) but everyone was, as we all experienced, overwhelmed with the first meetup. I think we have plans of doing this every quarter so expect a Blogger Kris Kringle this Christmas.
I will be posting pictures soon (actually check out Rico’s blog because he downloaded all of my pictures into his computer…). In the meantime ….
BlogCon 2006 from the point of view of SOME of the attendees:
Teh BlogCon is the shizzle! – Sasha Manuel
Pinoy Bloggers Face to Face – Chris Lagman
What happened in BlogCon 2006? - Rico Mossesgeld
Live Blogging at the First Philippine Blogcon 2006 – Noemi
BlogCon 2006 was a blast – Gloria
After the BlogCon – Markku
BlogCon 2006 – Clair
PR Tips for the Philippine agencies
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 26th, 2006I sideline as a PR connoseur. Hah!
In truth, I’ve attended about a hundred PR events, big and small since the year 2003. Here are some tips I offer PR agencies when organizing events for the press, especially for the tightly knit technology industry:
Lose the hard copy but never the soft copy
People in PR should understand that the press do not live in the dark ages, where a hard copy of a product press release goes into a drawing board to be cut apart and pasted to fit a magazine page. Though it may sound too basic to even mention, PR material should always have an accompanying digital format available.
Never hold an event before 11:00 AM
I’ve talked to several people in the publishing industry and they say that their typical day begins at around 11:00 AM. Journalists and print media people usually begin their day late because they have been up the previous night covering the breaking news.
For the rainy season, umbrellas are useful for giveaways. Do not give them out during summer.
This one is self explanatory.
Know what’s out there
If you have friends in the press or with other competing brands, ask around if they have product launches on that same day. By hierarcy, Apple product launches are usually top priority.
HP Officejet 4355 All-in-One Printer
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 24th, 2006
I’ve survived without a printer at home for almost two years. It may seem odd, since I belong to the publishing industry. If ever I needed to print something, there was always Station 168 right outside my village or I’d bug my neighbor. Of course, that would be really embarassing in the long run.
So last week I decided to buy a printer, but I went as far as buying a complete mini office suite. If you’re looking for an affordable All-in-One solution, I’d highly recommend the HP Officejet 4355 for the following reasons:
One of the downsides though is that I still won’t be able to photocopy my face since the copier uses a roll feed method. Darn. But for P6k, this is a good price. In terms of affordability, the next cheapest is about P4,000 but does not include a fax component. For two thousand more, why not?
