Try it right now. Take a quick peek at the New Profit System homepage (www.NewbieProfitSystem.com) which will open in a new window. Just to be clear, that is not an affiliate link.

What’s the first thing you will see among the tabs? Yes, you’ll find the NPS Affiliate Training Course, which gives you solid and useful advice on how you can earn money online by promoting products sold by other online merchants.

Just as a backgrounder: Some online merchants allow you to join their affiliate program. When you promote their product and someone buys it (after they click on an affiliate link found in your web site, for example), you earn a commission.

That’s right — You don’t need to keep any inventory, you don’t need to deliver any product. You simply refer people, and when they turn into customers, the online merchant takes care of them (i.e., customer support, product delivery). And you earn a commission.

Now getting back to Clifford Enoc, what’s the big deal about learning affiliate marketing from him? Well, some high profile internet marketers in the United States conducted a series of marketing seminars. Those who participated paid $10,000 to $12,000 to join such a seminar.

And yes, Clifford was able to successfully refer attendees to those seminars. You can already imagine how much he earned in affiliate commissions, right?

I mean, it boggles the mind. I mean, would you pay that much for a seminar? And how exactly did Clifford Enoc manage to motivate other people to sign up for such a high ticket event?

I grew curious, so I signed up for the Newbie Profit System affiliate marketing course. And that’s why I’m sharing with you the location of that web site using a straight, non-affiliate link.

In other words, I’m not after the affiliate commission. I’m just happy to share with you another affiliate marketing training course that can help you increase your online revenues over the next few weeks. And if you do try the Newbie Profit System, be prepared to read.

True, in the almost-instant world that is the internet, some things will take a bit of time to learn. But no, you won’t need to spend four years the way you did in high school or college.

Enough yakking. Head on over to NewbieProfitSystem.com and sign up for the affiliate training course. It’s free, and it will give you invaluable insight into the mind of successful, passive-income generating, affiliate marketers.

Okay, let’s take about Survival Challenges. In this type of LBP level, you only have one life. Your sack person enters the game, then tries to stay alive for as long as possible. In the meantime, the entrance portal disappears or is moved to the end (or the scoreboard).

When your sack person gets zapped or dissolves in a layer of foul gas, your character respawns. But since the entrance portal has been moved to the scoreboard or landing pad, the game ends and you get your score.

That’s it for now. In the future, I’ll just add more info to this page whenever we find fun things to do with Little Big Planet. Stay tuned!

Anyway, here’s a video showing one of the dance numbers of Michael Jackson:

Even if you weren’t a fan, and no matter if you were born in the 60s or 70s, or even if you were not some reporter of GMA 7 who got to personally meet Michael Jackson when he held a concert in the Philippines, there’s no denying that somehow, your life was directly or indirectly touched by this man.

And when you find yourself alone and thinking about what your life was like way back when Michael Jackson’s music filled your time, when you uncontrollably reminisce, well…

Whatever you do, try to resist the urge to sing “One Day In Your Life” while your you’re driving in your car by yourself. You’ll be sorry. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

(Ayan. Tuloy. Nawro-wrong grammar ako. At naluluha pa. Syet.)

Check out this video clip taken using (presumably) the I-Movix SprintCam:

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Found out about the above vid because of the Posterous blog of Zee M Kane over at Are You Looking At My Posterous?

For those of you wondering what Posterous is all about, it’s a free and easy to use blogging platform. All you need to do is simply send an email to post@posterous.com and your Posterous blog gets quickly updated.

Want to add photos to your blog post? Easy — just attach those images to your email. Yes, you can also attach videos. And yes, attaching multiple photos will make Posterous create a photo album in your blog. Simple.

I sense they’re trying to get more people belonging to the “Seniors” group to go online. There’s this line where grandma scolds JR for not communicating enough with her, and for getting in touch with her only when he has problems with computers.

Imagine that, Lola Techie is being treated as some kind of computer helpdesk! Usually, it’s the elders who ask help from their techie grandkids. Not in this commercial, though.

I wonder, though, why Bayan DSL isn’t making full use of YouTube to market their LolaTechie.com brand. Perhaps it’s a timing issue? Anyway, you’ll find Lola Techie in Facebook (complete with fan page), Multiply (where lots of Filipinos sell items online), Twitter, and Plurk.

Internet marketing, internet ubiquity. Lola Techie wants to be seen all over the internet, and she is targeting the popular online watering holes frequented by a lot of Filipinos.

Do you know how I found out about this commercial? Nope, not via TV.

I stumbled upon it because of Macuha.com’s The Funny Bayan DSL Lola Techie Commercial, which I visited because of a tweet that Marhgil Macuha posted in his Twitter account.

In other words, here’s how the visitor flow goes: From Twitter, to blog, product’s main web site, to product’s Multiply/Facebook/Twitter/Plurk social media marketing sites.

Let’s see how many companies and consumer product marketing groups will follow suit. And if Bayan DSL will allow other telcos or internet service providers to have their own account in Multiply.

So, how exactly can this make you fast cash?

If you know what people are searching for, and if you know what advertisers have, on average, been bidding for those keyword phrases, then you can publish content that targets those particular keywords.

And if you are able to attract to your blog or web page the kind of targeted traffic that advertisers want to reach, then you can earn a bit of online advertising income.

For example, when you sign up for the free trial of Google Cash Detective, you can start searching for the performance of certain keywords.

The main idea here is to first begin with broad terms. Typically, these will be single keywords instead of three- or four-word phrases. Once you have a list of such keywords, you can easily sort them in ascending or descending order, in terms of either monthly search volume, or average CPC.

You can also view the advertisements that Adwords marketers have run in the past in connection to each keyword. Plus, you will see when GCD first spotted the ad, and when it last saw the ad online. Based on the length of the ad run, you can more or less guess the profitability of that ad.

For example, if you see that the ad first appeared in October 2008, and still appears in June 2009, then you can reasonably assume that the advertiser is profitable enough to continue running that ad for so long.

You can then start blogging about the topics targeted by that advertiser, attract a lot of traffic to your blog or website, and earn a portion of the ad spend made by those advertisers monthly.

You’ll need to keep in mind, however, that those are average CPCs. Given the developments in the global financial markets, plus the advertising budget cuts, today’s ad spend may be less than the average CPCs shown in the Google Cash Detective database.

Is this guaranteed to bring in fast cash from the internet? Let me put it this way: access to the GCD database is free. So why not give it a try, right?

If you’re wondering what topics to write about in your blog, make a list of topics you are interested in and run those through the GCD database. See what comes up, and how profitable each phrase may be. Then go ahead and blog about it. Next, monitor your AdSense earnings and see what happens.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for the free trial of Google Cash Detective while it is still available.

Tara Stiles shares on YouTube several yoga tips and exercises that you can do practically anywhere. As long as you have a couch, or even a hotel bed, you can easily perform some yoga flexibility exercises in as short as just five minutes. Before you go into yoga, however, please consult first with your healthcare professional, ok?

Anyway, here is Tara’s video entitled “Hotel Room Yoga with Tara Stiles”:

The usual wide YouTube video has the following dimensions: 560 x 340 (but for this blog, I’m using 500 x 304)

How did I find out about Tara Stiles? I stumbled upon my friend Jane’s yoga blog, The Yogini From Manila, and saw the YouTube video in her blog’s right sidebar. I mostly connected with Jane via Plurk in the past, but a former student of mine got in touch with me via Facebook, and the rest is yoga Google history.

My dad practices a bit of yoga (his favorite is the Warrior pose), and given my full-packed schedule I’ll probably try the tips of Tara Stiles. Perhaps someday there’ll be a video about computer chair yoga?

The first time I saw them in the office, I wondered how they got assigned to the company I work for. Is there some kind of placement office?

Well, there’s an online resource called OJTCareers.com where you can submit your resume and application letters…

I found out about the OJT Philippines Jobs site through an email sent by Ina Raquedan. And the history behind their OJT-focused site provides some insight on the challenges students face when searching for a company to earn OJT experience in.

Typically, jobs in the Philippines are catalogued in various online job directories. But what about on the job training positions or vacancies? That’s where a site like OJTCareers.com can help.

The site looks fairly new, yet what began as a dream shared by three friends has now grown into a network of over 12 students and 5 schools. And as awareness of this new online resource spreads, we can expect them to reach a tipping point that will benefit not only graduating students, but also SMEs who can tap the youth for some of their HR requirements.

So if you’re a student wondering where you can gain additional corporate world experience via an OJT placement, or you are an employer interested in engaging soon-to-be college graduates, then check out OJTCareers.com today.

Well, you’ve probably caught yourself muttering about how you need to get a box of cards printed soon, so that you won’t end up telling people that you’ll email your contact details to them.

Before you go out and do just that, check out this hilarious YouTube video…

Here are my favorite quotes:

You don’t spend the money until you’ve made the money…

I will never make a criticism, if I don’t have… a reso-lyuuu-shun…

This is THE most impressive business card I’ve ever seen. It’s mine.

You just have to see it to believe it:

I’m sticking with regular-sized business cards, because I like getting this inserted in Rolodexes or bizcard albums/holders along with other cards. Just kidding.

I wonder if such cards are still effective today. It seems that people connect more using cell phones. I made a simple test once, and placed a call to action in the business card. The response rate? About 0.1 percent. A similar layout and CtA on a webpage got a little over a 5% response.

Just the same, there’s something fuzzy about exchanging cards in business meetings or even in informal blogger events. Just be sure your card’s font size matches your recipients’ eye sight. To be on the safe side, please avoid using extremely tiny fonts.

For example, men live longer if they marry a younger woman. Perhaps this is the case because someone is still strong enough to care for the men in their advanced years.

Interestingly, women don’t seem to enjoy the same life-extending benefit if they hook up with a younger mate. According to the article, women even get their lives shortened if their age difference with their husband is quite huge.

Yes, whether the woman is younger or older than the man, a woman’s lifespan gets shortened if she and her husband have a large age gap (i.e., 7 to 17 years). I don’t know why this may be the case, but based on my experience in Philippine society, I can hazard a guess.

Most women tend to take care of their men, regardless of the man’s age. Whether the guy is younger or older than the woman, she tends to pamper him, look after him, and support him in practically all his endeavors.

Now this can be quite stressful, because the woman ends up taking care of practically everything: the house, the children, relationships with friends and relatives, gift-giving, parties, socializing, school and the like.

Men, on the other hand, tend to focus on just one thing: Work. Or play (depending on the mental age of the guy).

In short, if the man is several years younger or older than the woman, she’ll end up living a highly stressed life. I wonder, though, why men have shortened lifespans (according to the article) if they marry older women.

So in summary: If you’re a man who wants to live longer, marry someone several years your junior. If you’re a woman, marry someone close to your age.

As the Vulcans would say: Dif-tor heh smusma (Live long and prosper!)

Assuming you’re logged into Twitter (and you have an account in TipJoy.com), just tweet the following:

P $amount @user reason

For example:

p $1 @manuelviloria for letting me know about TipJoy

Translation: Pay $1 to Twitter user manuelviloria.

Here’s an example of my TipJoy page:
http://tipjoy.com/u/ManuelViloria/

One other cool thing about TipJoy is that you can set up a target fund and invite people to contribute even as low as 10 cents. Once enough people have contributed (i.e., you want to raise $1,000), then you will do whatever it was you promised to do once the financial target is reached.

For example, you can publish a special report, create an image or photo, record an MP3 audio tutorial, create a video tutorial, or set-up a blog. You can then reward your TipJoy friends who helped you fund the project with the final product that you promised you would create.

What I need to figure out, however, is what happens if the financial goal is not met. Will you still push through? Or will you refund? Actually, you can simply TipJoy the amount back to the starred or TipJoy-verified contributors.

To make things simple, you can go for small online business projects first. For example, invite 10 people to TipJoy at least $5 each. Once you’ve reached $50, then go ahead and produce your promised report.

If not enough people fund the project, then you have at most just 10 people to refund their TipJoy money to.

Let’s see how this form of social micropayment system will fare in the coming days. In the meantime, sign up for your free acoount in Twitter (and perhaps follow @ManuelViloria) and TipJoy, and start experimenting with this kind of online payment system.

YehBA* Mobile IM allows you to access Yahoo!, AIM/ICQ, MSN, GTALK, Jabber and Mobile Widgets (VAS) on your phone. By downloading the free YehBA* Mobile IM, you can use your cell phone to access popular Instant Messenger, share photos, Value Added Services (VAS), social network community sites, news, blogs and more.

PinoyTXT is the new and exciting service brought to you by YehBA* (ToIP). Texting your loved ones around the world is now so much cheaper and FUN! With Real-Time chatting over SMS at local rates, kamustahan abroad has never been so affordable. Register now to get your very own PINAS Number and start sending messages to your friends and family in the Philippines.

So, is this really free? Well, there’s a P1.00 charge per text, which is still considerably cheaper than the usual P2.50/txt charge.

Well, it looks like it’s looking more along the $400~$600/month range. Anyway, I’ll post here what I’ve found online…

In Get Paid by the Hour in oDesk, Gem Baltazar (TheLadyProgrammer.com) writes about the oDesk freelance site. Some Filipino VAs visit that site, so you may be able to touch base with some of them.

Mike Sasuman (@maikeru76) told me via Twitter about Jefferson Faudan (@jeffersonfaudan), which led me to the DvoVirtualTech blog.

It looks like they have a pool of people you can choose from:

Programmer - $1,400
Graphic Designer - $1,400
Web Developer - $1,400
Virtual Assistant - $1,200
Link Builder - $1,000
Article Writer - $1,000

Those look like monthly rates, and the outsourcing provider normally handles the screening of the freelancers. If you were to hire an article writer directly, for example, you’ll probably pay that person around $400 a month.

Assuming an 8-hour day, 22 days a month, that $400 comes out to $2.27 per hour. If your writer produces one article an hour, that’s 8 300-word articles per hour. I wonder, though, how many people are motivate enough to produce 8 articles each day, Monday to Friday, without going bonkers.

Just looking at the list above, however, I wonder: What exactly does a Virtual Assistant do? Handle email, customer support, and administrative matters, perhaps?

The other names which come up when it comes to outsourcing to the Philippines are Oliver Turner, Joel Christopher, and the Agents of Value. I’ll update this post once I get more info…

All those articles, gone. But that’s not all that disappeared…

Wikipedia Grappling with Deletion of IHT.com shows you what happens when you publish articles that link to or reference webpages that no longer exist. Yes, it means you’ll have to edit or update those pages.

Unfortunately, in the case of Wikipedia, a considerable number of pages contain links to a now non-existent site. I wonder if this will make bloggers or online publishers wary about pointing to other resources online.

I’ve gone through a number of old blog entries and see references to what are now defunct sites, or worse, are re-purposed domain names. It makes me wonder if I’ll just mention other websites in email newsletters that don’t live too long online.

Then again, nothing really lasts forever. Not even out here on the web.

But wait! It’s not what you think…

Typically, most Make Money Online (MMO) sites give you specific tips on how to earn online. In this case, however, you’ll see how you can get on the road to increasing your internet business income in a more relaxed manner.

For example, in My Wedding Suppliers Around San Pedro Laguna, Paolo talks about his experience with his own wedding, and provides useful and relevant information that people who want to get married will want to read.

When you read that blog post, you will immediately see why it is a webpage of value. And you will quickly sense that thousands, if not hundreds of engaged couples, particularly those interested in getting married in the Philippines, will want to visit that site.

And if you can see that, then so can search engines such as Google.

Now tell me, if you were a search engine, where will you send people who are searching for wedding tips? And if you were a hairstylist or wedding photographer in San Pedro, Laguna, where will you advertise your services online?

That’s how a growing number of Pinoy netpreneurs make easy money online: by accident.

There was no hard business intention. It was not a case of: “Ah, I will write something about so-and-so and in the process earn a lot of Adsense dollars.”

Then one day, the blogger gets surprised to find out that they can monetize their site afterall. They build content, attract a lot of traffic, and get pleasantly astounded when their sites start earning money a few weeks after they place advertising spots in their blog.

Bloggers start off by writing about what interests them, and by offering useful and relevant information that others will find valuable. Afterall, are you the only person in this world who has your particular set of interests?

Clearly, there are a lot of other people who also share your interests. And they are searching the web for answers to questions and solutions to problems. That’s where you come in, as an online publisher.

Assuming you begin blogging and offer fantastic info online which attracts readers whom advertisers want to reach, what must you do to take your income to a higher level? That will be covered in the future…

In the meantime, please visit Paolo Ramos over at Phawville.com

The NHI wants Nievera to apologize for singing the Lupang Hinirang differently, because it was in violation of Republic Act 8491. Section 37 states:

The rendition of the national anthem, whether played or sung, shall be in accordance with the musical arrangement and composition of Julian Felipe.

Since the arrangement was modified and Nievera sang it, well…

Anyway, Martin Nievera refuses to apologize because he feels he did not do anything wrong. I did not like the way he sang the Lupang Hinirang (mainly because of the last note), but then that’s just me. I’m not demanding any apologies. Neither am I a lawyer, so I’ll just leave the legal tussle to other people.

This is the version that I prefer…

At any rate, congratulations to Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao for his stunning TKO victory over Ricky Hatton.

Here are Tom Jones, Jasmine Villegas, and Martin Nievera singing national anthems:

I suspect it may be a plugin issue, or something with the theme. The weird thing is, the other posts seem to be all right.

I’ll go test if this “WordPress Loop Error” post is handled correctly by WP. Will just add updates here after we figure out what’s going on.

UPDATE: I solved the blog post redirecting to homepage error by simply editing the URL shown in the permalink. The original URL was viloria.net/archives/smartmms-stopped-working

I tried the following variations, all of which produced the same 302 redirect error:

smartmms-stoppedworking
stopped-working
smartmms-not-working
smartmms-notworking

So I finally settled with just viloria.net/archives/smartmms

For some reason the word “working” appearing in the URL makes the blog post redirect. Weird. Will make more WordPress tests in the coming days…

UPDATE #2: It was the GoCodes plugin. For some reason, when the plugin is activated, if your URL ends in the word “working” that page will redirect to the homepage. Will have to check the GoCodes setting.

I’ve tried using different phones and different SMART SIM cards, but the multimedia message seems to end up nowhere.

The cell phones make use of the settings automatically sent by SMART, and they still match the standard Smart GPRS and MMS settings listed in smart.com.ph, so I still can’t figure out why what used to be the easy and simple shoot the video, send it via MMS to any email address approach no longer works.

A quick search of various blogs shows that hardly anyone is writing about this. Does this mean that mobile bloggers in the Philippines aren’t that active when it comes to sending MMS?

Anyway, I hope things get fixed soon. Otherwise, mobile blogging will turn into USB or Bluetooth blogging. You know, take the video, transfer it to your PC, and log into various web sites and upload the AVI or MP4 vid.

Yes, you can surf the web using your cell phone, but if you have a computer around, why spend more, right?

So to our friends in PLDT SMART, please bring back MMS. Thanks!

Here goes…

March 16, 2009

To: Mila Pascual & BALIKATAN

From: Atty. Delano C. Sta. Ana And Jane M. N. Sta. Ana

Re: Resolution Of The IVCF Board On Cagayan Valley Ministries

Hi Mila,

Since we have just received your BALIKATAN e-mail without prior communication from the IVCF Board, we now address this to you. We expect that as you have published the IVCF Board that you treat us equally well by publishing this to all BALIKATAN and IVCF PHILIPPINES.

Let it be known by all that in view of the recent resolution of the IVCF board, we, husband and wife, Atty. Delano C. Sta. Ana and Jane M. N. Sta. Ana, after a long, consistent and faithful relationship and support for IVCF PHILIPPINES, are hereby severing all relations with IVCF PHILIPPINES and all its ministries, including Nurses Christian Fellowship, BALIKATAN or any other national or international ministries thereof.

Let the following facts be known by all:

That “IVPM Cagayan Valley” ( Cagayan province, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya) ,the subject of the resolution, was initiated by a pure desire and burden by myself and my wife, who is a Cagayana, to share the gospel to the youth and to the professionals in Cagayan Valley as an IVCF’er would do;

That this burden started even before we left for the United States in 1970 realizing that there was and has never been any witness or work by IVCF in the Cagayan Valley Region;

That this burden was expressed repeatedly to several General Secretaries and especially to Elsie Calalang;

That this was expressed even to then BALIKATAN President Rolando Malincon and wife Eliza several times;

That we were and are willing and able to support two staff workers for Cagayan Valley Region;

That there was no positive response by any of the IVCF personnel or the IVCF Board in this direction;

That as a member of the IVCF Board in 2007, this burden for an initiative in Cagayan Valley was brought to the Board;

That because there was no action being taken, my wife and I took the initiative to fund the opening of this “project” with the full knowledge of the IVCF board; please note that until that time there was no IVCF work in Cagayan Valley in the North;

That the IVCF Board was fully aware of the direction being taken and raised no objections;

That in an informal meeting held with Southern Tagalog group- SVCF Los Banos graduates, IVCF Board Members: Edwin Erni and Jose “Jotique” Lamigo were present and appraised of the initiative;

That at this meeting, we noted that our initiative is in areas where IVCF does not have any work and whenever IVCF is ready and willing to take over including Cagayan Valley, we will relinquish the work to them but that time is of the essence we must continue the initiative;

That we found Joseph “Boyet” Ongkiko and Nicodemo “Nikko” Estrada who shared the burden for the Cagayan Region and partnered with us;

That they do not deserve the treatment and declaration the IVCF Board has just given them since we husband and wife are the sole initiators and supporters of the initiative but the resolution was not even directly addressed to us;

That Boyet Ongkiko is an unpaid volunteer who is working with us because he shares the burden and the same vision;

That Nikko Estrada is also a volunteer which is financially supported by us initially, but is not “IVPM Cagayan Valley” and the salary of Nikko which was a designated fund of 16,000 php monthly did not reach him in full but was drastically slashed to about 5,000 php even if it was a designated fund , therefore, we advised him to make a choice either to resign so he can support his family with full designated salary or get the fraction given by IVCF as a staff worker;

That no IVCF Board Member or staff directly came to us, my wife, in particular, as President of “IVPM Cagayan Valley”, as claimed in the resolution, regarding the call for affiliation to IVCF;

That Yoyit Roldan and Dr. Bel Magalit spoke to me over the phone (sent by IVCF?) In overture, the former to “discuss IVCF” and the latter to “mediate”; but since they are not privy to the privileged information I possess as a former member of the IVCF Board they are not the proper forum to address the issues;

That there was no direct call to my wife Jane M. N. Sta. Ana, being the president of “IVPM Cagayan Valley “(Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva vizcaya)”, in re “affiliation” or anything that the IVCF Board has now brought up; did anybody bother even to know who the rightful person to address the issue is? Did anybody really bother to get in touch with her as President of the SEC-approved group?;

That we took on the name of “IVPM Cagayan Valley” initially believing that we are, since 1958, members of IVCF, myself the first President of the FEU group now known as “Tamaraw Christian Fellowship” and my wife of the UP-PGH IVCF group, both KC grads, faithful supporters ever since, founding members of BALIKATAN, USA, and UGNAYAN Fellowship of New York, myself being the first and founding President of BALIKATAN, and then a member of the IVCF Board; what more evidence does anybody want to judge our “affiliation?”;

That this initiative has always been taken as a direction from the LORD and that long before this published resolution, i.e., in August , 2008, we had decided to change the corporate name to “Passionate Community for Christ” to reflect the new direction which includes not only Cagayan Valley but also Ifugao, Quirino, and Tarlac, realizing that “IVPM Cagayan Valley” has now become irrelevant to us; That this information was relayed to ND Erickson in November 2008 during IVPM National Conference in Lake Sebu; That the change in corporate name is being worked-out;

That we, husband and wife, as IVCF grads, recognize deeply that we are responsible to the LORD and only to the LORD, no one else: not any organization, group, or person; and that whatever connections we have with IVCF should be beyond what you now call “affiliation”. For what is a better “affiliation” other than recognizing the simple fellowship of kindred minds and hearts and true brotherhood in Christ?

That from my point of view “affiliation” is irrelevant, fallacious and misleading. The current IVCF Board of Trustees is assuming power and authority that does not belong to them. As explained by Atty. Jordan Reyes, current member of the IVCF Board of Trustees, the IVCF Student Ministry and IVPM are two parallel organizations, therefore, one cannot be subject to another. This issue is so esoteric that I will discuss it only with people who have legal background.

Finally, we pray that we may all achieve unity and oneness of mind that can only come through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. However, remembering that Paul and Barnabas agreed to disagree over the issue of Mark, and they parted ways only after a direct albeit heated or “sharp” discussion, may we too part ways, yet pursuing as guided by the Holy Spirit what God has led us to accomplish for His Glory.

Got a copy of the above letter from Boyet Ongkiko.

For Filipino book bloggers and aspiring book bloggers. Let’s spread the habit of reading and blogging about books and meet our kababayan book bloggers!

Don’t you sometimes wish you would pick up a book once again and read it? I mean, how long has it been since you last read something longer than 3 pages? Something printed and not floating on your monitor?

Yet when you walk into book stores you wonder: What book should I read this time?

Well, if you’re curious about what some Filipino book lovers are flipping through nowadays, check out their book blogs:

It all began when people met in Shelfari in the Flips Flipping Pages group, which also has its blog in Multiply at http://flipsflippingpages.multiply.com/

If you’re a book addict in need of a support group, you can meet every 2nd Saturday of the month.

I also got to read Blooey Singson’s Bookmarked! blog, and enjoyed her post about Rereading the Noli Me Tangere.

It’s amazing how these folks find the time to read mountains of books.

Here are other book blogs you will enjoy visiting: Coffeespoons (Honey de Peralta), Islandhopper (Gege Cruz Sugue), Kyusireader (Peter Sandico), Maydiwayatangnawala (Michelle Ciriacruz).

Well, Cynthia Moreno posted in Myspace about her hometown in Coalinga, California, and the angry residents found out about it after it was re-posted in the town’s newspaper.

In MySpace Musings Aren’t Private, Appeals Court Rules, we read:

Moreno sued for invasion of privacy, but late Thursday a Fresno, Calif.-based appellate court said she had no grounds even if she meant her thoughts for a limited audience on her MySpace page.

“The facts contained in the article were not private,” 5th District Court of Appeal Justice Bert Levy wrote. “Rather, once posted on myspace.com, this article was available to anyone with Internet access.”

I wonder if Cynthia made the post available to a limited set of Myspace friends. Perhaps not, as the first-name-only Myspace account probably gave her some sense of online privacy security. If so, then it was most likely open and accessible to a rather large group of people online.

If you want to be snarky online, think not once, but twice. Apparently, there is no such thing as privacy on the internet.

Or rather, he gives true meaning to that word.

Sometimes we find ourselves simply going through the motions of daily living, mistakenly thinking that people don’t notice. Or that people simply don’t see.

And then we are fortunate enough to discover that people do see, but are probably too shy to speak up. Or afraid that their act of kindness might be spurned or rejected. Or concerned that they might get laughed at, or even thrown to jail or something.

Source: Validation | YouTube ID: hughnewman1024

What happens when you try to make people smile, but can’t? You keep on trying… up to a certain point, that is.

Then you stop. And let nature or circumstances take their course.

Go watch the video. It’s worth it.

Then go out and make someone smile. Right now.

Why would you need to attend this event? What would you want to be more active in social networking circles? Here’s why…

Before, all you had to do was publish something online (even in some free blog site), the search engines would visit, and your site will appear in the search engine results pages after a few hours. All you had to do was publish, and you would gain online visibility almost instantly.

Then people had to learn the rules of search engine optimization or SEO, plus a bit of technical magic, and that would make your website appear on the first page of the Google SERPs.

Next, publishers learned about blog commenting, Forum Marketing, Viral Ebook Marketing, Article Marketing, Podcast and Video Marketing and a whole slew of site promotion tactics to help get the word out and to attract visitors to their sites.

Those with larger budgets turned to PPC and Adwords, if only to gain additional targeted traffic.

Nowadays, however, there is a growing group of marketers who want to gain independence from SEO, article writing, and the search engines in general. That group is currently tapping into the power Social Networking, where you have people and “word of mouse” serving as the driving force behind traffic sent to your site.

Why would you want to learn about social networks? Simple. This is so different from the “usual” ways of gaining contacts. If you’re used to the “traditional” SEO, niche blogging, and online publishing, then your old habits can spell disaster in today’s socially networked environment.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can still succeed. All you need to do is experiment and learn from those who have had their bumps and scrapes in today’s online version of the water cooler.

Janette Toral is offering a free delegate pass to the 2-day event, but you have to act fast. I’m hoping this blog post will win one of those passes, though.

How about you? Are you interested in understanding and gaining a competitive advantage in today’s changing internet landscape? Please leave a comment below and get a chance to win a special Social Networking prize from me.

I wonder, though, how things are faring in Q1 of 2009.

One thing is certain, though: Ad agencies and various companies are seeing how their customers are spending more time online. It only makes sense to make your presence felt on the internet, because that’s one of the places holding the attention of your target market.

I accidentally stumbled upon a partial list of Pinoys who use WordPress over at PinayAds.com, and slowly got reacquainted with my fellow Filipinos who enjoy blogging with the help of WP.

I don’t quite remember how I found my way to PinayAds.com, but it was probably based on the watermark in a photo in some Multiply site, which I found out when I checked someone’s Plurk profile page.

Found that profile page because of a lively Plurk thread which was talking about bloggers and 5 kgs of towels.

It’s strange how lots of seemingly unrelated things get mooshed into one delightful tangle that is the web.