Tag: Thoughts and Musings

My Life

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Mostly Everything

Podcasting is a Performance Art

Several days ago I wrote an entry on why podcasting seems to be so much harder to do. The concession was that unlike blogging, the resources needed to podcast would entail much more equipment. Of course, you can achieve a semi-decent podcast using the built in microphone of your laptop or by purchasing a cheap mic from your friendly computer store for less than P200.00.

But then after some reflection, I realized that the real reason why it is much harder to podcast isn’t because people think it is hard to do. Let me repost that paragraph here:

People THINK that podcasting is very hard to do. When in fact all you need is a cheap ass microphone and a free recording software like Audacity. Once you start recording, all you need to do is be yourself — having a guest over would help but if you really are in the need for some divine inspiration, then San Miguel can always help. You can always find a free service to host your podcasts like Odeo, Twango, Gcast or Podomatic. Against all odds your first podcast may really suck – in terms of coherence or content. But a podcast series is always a work in progress. It may not be obvious to you, but check back on your old blog entries and see how far they have evolved since. The same thing works with podcasts. Just do it!

Unlike blogging, which is now considered to be a spectator sport, podcasting as well as videocasting are performance arts. Though blogging requires technical as well as creative skill, these are already learned in our schooling days such as being trained to construct a grammatically correct sentence and write a paragraph that makes sense.

In school however, we were never taught to do radio shows, or to train our voice to be more attuned for broadcasting. The little that we learn to hone these creative talents are learned in extra curricular activities which for the most part, were … extra and optional.

I admit. I’m a n00b at podcasting. If what I do create sounds okay, it’s because its so easy to edit audio using GarageBand. In fact, editing is the easy part. The hard part is the performance – the voice. The content. The pauses. It is so much harder to get listeners engaged. You have to be theatrical. You have to be musical. You have to be three dimensional. You aren’t talking. You’re performing.

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Mostly Everything

The Best Way to Explain SEO from a Magazine Publishing Perspective

mphfeb2007cover.jpgAbout a year ago I wrote an entry on why or why we should not have sexy girls grace the cover of gadget magazines.

It dawned on me after a year of enlightenment that the issue of sexy girls can be the best way to explain white hat SEO tactics. White hat SEO — as opposed to black hat SEO tactics.


The actual line between the two is quite thin, but, Black Hat SEO refers to things that are considered dark, or spammy, while White Hat SEO refers to “good” SEO. I determine Black Hat SEO as anything that, A. breaks any search engines rules, B. effects the users experience on the site for the worse, or C. shows different content to different user-agents. [source]

Liken your magazine cover to your website and the magazine stand to the search engine. Sexy girls on the front cover of gadget magazines (or any magazine that holds a demographic filling in the “prime of youth”) is supposedly a magazine stall differentiator – the “sexiness” is supposed to “make the magazine rank higher in terms of visibility on the news stand.”

So how then do you differ black from white hat SEO in this case? Well the clincher is all in the context (again) of how the sexiness was executed. Bikini for summer issue? Check. Bikini for no reason at all? Ugh. The “black hat” comes in when the magazine becomes invaded by sex when in fact its focus is actually far from what its niche is supposed to be. A gadget magazine that has boob-clad “lady sexy” can surely ruin the reading experience.

Buy the latest issue of Mobile Philippines with the attractive, wholesome and geeky Iya Villania on the cover 🙂

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Mostly Everything

PROJECT: You Define Your Blog Conviction

Jayvee's Comics

UPDATE: The links page is up and it is slowly growing. Leave a comment if you want to be a part of this project.

Today I had two interesting one on one sessions with a fellow blogger and my closest friend. On both occasions the topic of professional direction and personal direction were brought up, as a consequence to some reflections on recent accomplishments as well as mishaps. At the end of the day, I was left thinking about my own personal convictions – if I were to have one mission statement, or a phrase that would satisfy my the life choices, what would this be? I came up with mine – rather rediscovered or was reminded of what mine was by the virtue of some short quiet moments and “drive by” life coaching. My personal mission, or what I would like to call my personal apostolate is something very private and only really revealed to closest of friends. But I digress.

This got me thinking about how blogs are extensions, or manifestations rather of our own personal convictions. Thus, I’d like to ask you to sit back from your computer monitor and think about your personal BLOG CONVICTIONS. Why did I start this blog? How has this blog evolved through time? Am I still on track with my original vision?

And now for the clincher. This is actually a project I would like to start. If you notice, my new template does not have a blogroll listing. This was done on purpose when I first thought of the design as I wanted a separate page to appear on the navibar to display links to local and foreign blogs. Usually, a blogroll doesn’t do bloggers justice as it is merely reduced to a one column directory of blog authors or blog titles. I want to add some value to readers who skim through my list of blog links. I want bloggers to be able to tell their story in a few sentences, that will cause a reaction from readers with similar interests who share the same passion. There is a concept in Philosophy that states that the Good has a tendency to spread itself and attract. In the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell calls this the maven mentality, where experts and enthusiasts tend to attract the same.

Here’s what I can do for you. If you want your blog to be listed, leave a comment here with your BLOG CONVICTION. Tell us a bit about your blog and why you set it up, and what is it that keeps you engaged writing for it. What is your mission, and what makes you identified with your niche. If you are still unsure of what your BLOG CONVICTION is, it would help to sit back for a while and think about it for a few minutes. I swear that this exercise will not hurt, and if anything, it will make you a better blogger in terms of focus and your growing enthusiasm.

If I play my cards right, I’m going to have a whole new page with the word PASSION written all over it.

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Mostly Everything

Flowers For Ye

flower cokin filter.jpg

This shot was taken using 2 Cokin filters on top of one another. The first layer was a center spot filter with a second pastel 86 layer to create the dreamy effect throughout.

When blog posts get counterproductive

There have been two things that I’ve found to be recently disturbing.

The first was the seeming misinterpretation of my post about PWIT and Pinoy Tech Blog – as if there really was some controversy going on. My intent was to help promote PWIT as the cast and crew involves people whom I have worked with in the past – people who have helped me in my career (Howard and Adel come to mind as they taught me almost everything I know) and personal life in various ways. That was it. Help promote PWIT. And thanks to the person too who cited that the original post I made was not controversial compared to the PTB post that was picked up.

The second post hits closer to home as it involves a small misunderstanding of a post I recently deleted out of frustration. One of my closest ever friends drew plans of building a blog network composed of all-Pinoy talent. I remember we were sitting down for coffee when he was narrating his plans to me. The only question I could ask him at that time was “are you doing this for profit or for amor?” My purpose for writing that post was to help promote the network for him. Again – help promote the network. Sadly, I received comments that led to a questioning of who really founded it in the first place. Why do we have to argue about this? Aren’t we all glad that we finally have a local blog network? Why do we have to celebrate it with a debate on who owns it?

Sometimes I wonder if spreading the link love is still worth it. I know that people are entitled to their own opinions but I just hate it when things get out of hand when all you wanted to do was help.

I do apologize, really, if misunderstanding was caused – maybe it had something to do with my post “spin” and not the point of the post at all that made a difference.

Sigh. At least the traffic peaked for everyone. That’s a good thing.