iBlog: The 6th Philippine Blogging Summit

It is only in rare occasions that you get to see and hear some of top Pinoy bloggers together in one place. One of those rare occasions is iBlog. This annual event will again be held for the 6th time on April 16-17 at the Malcolm Theater, College of Law, UP Diliman. And yes, registration is free.

In case you are interested, here is the schedule as posted on http://iblogph.org:

Day 1 (April 16, 2010)

9:00 – 9:20 Opening Ceremonies (National Anthem, Welcome)
9:20 – 9:40 Blogging for Business (Janette Toral)
9:45 – 10:05 Tapping Bloggers to Generate Buzz (Jayvee Fernandez)

10:20 to 10:35 BREAK

10:35 – 10:55 Advertising in Blogs (Abe Olandres)
11:10 – 11:40 SPONSOR talk

12:00 – 1:15 LUNCH / NETWORKING

1:15 – 1:35 SEO & Blogging to Promote Your Business (Francis Gary Viray)
1:50 – 2:10 Measuring Blog Buzz (Carlo Ople)
2:25 – 2:45 Legal Concerns in Blogging for Business (JJ Disini)

3:00 – 3:20 BREAK

3:20 – 3:40 Blogger and Advertiser: What is the Win-Win Relationship? (Diana Paterno)
3:55 – 4:15 Online Attraction Marketing (Manuel Viloria)

4:30 RAFFLE and GROUP PICTURE

Day 2 (April 17, 2010)

8:45 Opening Ceremonies (National Anthem & Welcome)
9:00 – 9:20 Blogging 101 (Hannah Villasis)
9:30 – 10:00 Video Blogging 101 (Vince Golangco)
10:15 – 10:35 Photo Blogging 101 (Juned Sonido)

10:50 – 11:05 BREAK

11:05 – 11:40 Political, Online Commentary, Social Media, & Election Blogging 2010 (Marck Ronald Rimorin and Noemi Dado)

12:00 – 1:15 LUNCH & NETWORKING

1:15 – 1:35 (SPONSOR TALK)
1:50 – 2:10 Launching Successful Blog Contests (Jinoe Gavan)
2:25 – 2:45 Blog Policies (UP-ISP)

3:00 – 3:15 BREAK

3:15 – 3:35 Impact of Blogging to the Community (Joseph Gonzales)
3:50 – 4:10 SEO: A Must for Making Money Online (Marhgil Macuha)

4:30 RAFFLE, iBlog Video Contest Winner Announcement, & Group Photo

A very interesting Saturday with Joel Christopher

Thanks to my friend Jeff and some blogs I follow, including www.manuelviloria.com and www.pinoymoneytalk.com, I was able to attend the free seminar conducted yesterday, Saturday, at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center by a successful Filipino netpreneur, Joel Christopher.

I learned a lot yesterday. I learned the story of Joel, a physical therapist who hails from Tabango, Leyte and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), left the Philippines and went on to practice his profession in the United States (US). By his own account, he was earning big bucks as physical therapist but foresaw problems in health care in the US.

The problems he saw led him to drop his practice and to learn how to do business with the internet which at that time was still very young. He acknowledges that he learned a lot from others and says he has met almost every internet guru you can mention.

Joel has become one of the most successful individuals on the internet and now acknowledged to have created a whole new industry and to be the best in list building. (You can learn more about Joel at www.masterlistbuilder.com) Jay Conrad Levinson of the Guerilla Marketing-fame, and many other respected authors, have nothing but good words about him.

I also learned about Joel's passion, his commitment to help the people in his hometown of Tabango, Leyte, Philippines and his plan to use technology to help us, his fellow Pinoys. Joel also shared quite a bit as to how he has been able to amass wealth through the internet and intends to mentor a few individuals to success in the near future. (Lucky them!)

On the first pic above is Jodjie Azurin of the Business Summaries sucess, the master list buider Joel Christopher, and myself. On the second pic is Manuel Viloria whose blog I follow and who was very friendly and sharing about his knowledge about the internet and blogging. (I even saw there Carl Ocab of the 13-year-old-make-money-online fame but I was too shy to get my picture taken with him too.)

If only Rober Kiyosaki's theory about "your income being the average of the income of the people around you" is true even if I had them people around me only for a few seconds. Check out also my pics of UST, a place I have always loved since my CPA review days.

My thanks to Joel for teaching me and the others who attended great things, Jodjie and Manny (I guess that's his nickname) for being very friendly despite their success, and Jeff for mentioning the free seminar to me. And thank God for Saturdays.

Niche marketing online, Pinoy style

Guess what? Later this month, I will again receive my pay from Google Adsense. It will be my third since I started posting their ads on Pinoy Seminars as well as on my other blogs.

The amount is by no means staggering but still something to be happy about considering that not all bloggers end up getting paid by Google.

One of the things I am happy about with this blog is that, I feel I have found a niche which gives me steady traffic. This niche, though not far reaching, has been largely unserved in the past.

With a few posts and some sidebar links, I feel I was able to provide information that will serve the niche and attract new visits, day in and day out.

I intend to build upon this modest success by learning more about niche marketing and search engine optimization. My personal target is, to double, if not triple, the income I derive from my blogs before the year ends.

What do you think?