Blogie Blog

No, I’m not going to do a fiery treatise on how some bloggers make their blogs look like online billboards. I just thought I’d display this thought-provoking sketch from BlogComics.net.

A couple of days ago, my friend Migs (who recently and finally launched his own domained blog on mobile technologies) introduced the idea of becoming a gadget reviewer for WOM World / Nokia. Since I was starting preparations for a tech vlog already, I thought I’d send in an application. And yesterday, I got approved!

Read on»

Is this true? I mean, it’s so painfully clichéd and downright hard-sell — I was cringing most of the time, watching this "promotional" video — I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. If indeed the YouTube flick below is a promotional video produced by Microsoft Corp. to sell more copies of Vista, I doubt very much that they will see positive movement.

How could a multi-billion-dollar company, with a marketing expense account the size of a small country’s annual budget, come up with a video like this? Could it be a spoof? But… it’s not even funny! Watching it was utterly excruciating.

What do you think?

Winston of BatangYagit.com has published a video of me on YouTube! Yay! Here’s a screen-cap of the video:

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I’d long wanted to get logos for my various blogs, but other stuff got in the way (like, how to eke out a living and such). Then the other day I chanced upon an old CorelDraw file of the Davao Blogspace logo, which was created by Eric Su. Although it’s nothing new in the blogosphere anymore, personally, I still find the callout bubble design rather catchy.

It was Entrecard that’s to be blamed. After signing up months ago, it was only very recently that I got around to setting it up. And I found that people actually spruce up their 125×125s… That’s what got me hankering for logos again. So I tried to muster as much creativity as I could and came up with a concept. It didn’t pan out as I’d imagined, but a friend commented that the composition was OK. Whew! Read on»

Today, the last day of 2007, I was reflecting on the events of the last 12 months. My realization: they were good months. Not exactly as I’d planned, but highly satisfactory.

My greatest achievement for this year was the very successful conduct of the first-ever Mindanao Bloggers Summit in October. Surrounded by bloggers and supporters all throughout, I had no doubts that we could pull it off. What I hadn’t counted on was the way MindanaoBloggers.com turned out to be so viral. Long after the Summit was concluded, more and more bloggers from Mindanao are participating in the community.

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It’s been quite some time since I last participated in a tag game. So I thought I’d jump in and do one, which I got from Aileen Apolo. It’s about why it’s so much better to spend Christmas in the Philippines than overseas. (Did I get that right, Aileen?).

What to do: Just share a warm, fuzzy Pinoy Christmas story or anecdote or photo or whatever it is you love about Christmas (as a Filipino). Link to Aileen’s blog post so she can share your story in her compilation. Copy & paste the instructions (this paragraph) and then leave a comment on Aileen’s blog post so she can check out yours. Read on»

Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few people in my circles who’ve started to grow aware of this whole business of making money online. And they read and subscribe to various blogs that discuss such topics. These bloggers talk about AdSense, Bidvertiser, AdBrite on one side, and ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews, PayPerPost on the other. Let’s not forget, there’s also Text Link Ads (which seems to ruffle the feathers of the Big G).

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See this?

I still have three of these WordPress t-shirts, left over from the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. My colleagues in The Usual Suspects are going to whip up another online contest to raffle off these collectibles. Watch out for it! I’ll announce it right here soon.

Thing is, they’re all women’s tees, size small, so maybe the contest’s gonna be limited to girls. Well, including bloggers’ girlfriends.

Thanks to Matt and Maya for the t-shirts!!!

Brader Migs, the funny man of The Usual Suspects, has come up with another gimmick for the gang. Migs is constantly cooking up these playful and interesting ideas. This time, he’s given each member of The Usual Suspects a cute mascot. Read on»