Some have commented that the airtime was paid by Kris Aquino and Boy Abunda. Others are talking about how inspiring the music video is, while other folks are focusing on it being an infomercial, the upcoming Philippine elections, and… well, you get the picture.

I also saw the comment about Dingdong and Marian playing the young Ninoy and Cory Aquino. At least that was the impression of the commenter.

But enough of the chatter. Watch the video now…

Did you notice that the stars or celebs come from both Kapamilya and Kapuso (ABS-CBN / GMA)? Talk about unity, right?

Hopefully more Filipinos will take that concept to heart even more, as we hurdle the challenges our nation faces. Good luck to everyone, and please go out and vote in the May 2010 Philippine elections.

The DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2009 is a must-attend event for entrepreneurs, business owners, educators, trainors, managers, investors, and business development consultants who are interested in e-commerce.

Here are the topics that will be covered in November:

November 12, Thursday (Day 1)

• State of Internet and Mobile Commerce Market Growth (Speaker: Donald Patrick Lim, President and CEO of Yehey! Corporation)
• Building and Managing an E-Commerce, Internet Gaming, and Outsourcing Business during a Global Economic Crisis (Speaker: Enrique Gonzalez, CEO of IPVG Corp.)
• Creating a Niche and Identifying Your Online Target Market (Speaker: Stephanie Caragos, President and CEO of Syntactics Inc.)
• Search Engine Friendly Web Design: Making Site Visitors Click! (Speakers: Jan Alvin Pabellon, Vice President for Business Development at IT Group, Inc. and Arnold Alvarez, General Manager, BF Homes Properties)
  

  Improve your rankings, increase your visits, and make more money by building a web site that is attractive to both automated search engines and real live people. Discover how “search engine friendly” web design can help you get more traffic from search engines. Speakers will share experience in making their sites search engine friendly, launching additional websites to improve rankings, get more visits, and consequently improved revenues and bottom line.

• Measuring Effectiveness of Blog Advertising Campaigns (Speaker: Eric Ramirez, Chairman, Nuffnang Philippines)
• The End of Faceless Brands: How the Internet has Forced Brand Marketing to Personalize (Speaker: Brad Geiser, Co-Founder, GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications)
• Technology Presentation: Delivering Advanced Search Engine via Next-Generation Networks (Speaker: Cyril C. Rocke, President / CEO, DataOne Asia (Phils.), Inc)
• E-Commerce as a viable retail market outlet for SMEs (Speakers: Ma. Regina Bundang, CEO, RegaloService.com / Russell Ri, CEO, e-Philippines Adventure Travel and Destinations / Roy Platon, Managing Director, MyAyala)
• Improving E-Commerce Sales Performance (Speaker: Dustin Andaya, CEO, IslandRose.net)
• State of Online Payment in the Philippines (Speaker: Paul Hubbard, General Manager, Yes IT Corp.)

November 13 (Day 2)

• Challenges and Opportunities in MOBILE MONEY TRANSFER: Implementation of GCASH (Speaker: Ms. Rizza Maniego-Eala, President, G-Xchange, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, Inc.)
• The Future of E-Commerce is Mobile (Speaker: Chito Bustamante, CEO, Chikka)
• E-Commerce Policies and E-Government Growth in the Philippines (Speaker: Dir. Maria Lourdes Yaptinchay, Supervising Director, Department of Trade and Industry E-Commerce Office)
• Building Online Trust: Making E-Commerce Secure Against Fraud (Speakers: Jovel Cipriano, CEO, PinoyDelikasi / Mannix Pabalan, General Manager, AyosDito.ph)
• Make Self-Service Advertising Platform Work for You (Speakers: Aileen Apolo, Country Consultant, Google.com / Carlo Ople, Global Digital Marketing Head, Friendster)
• Why running an e-commerce business is similar to growing WHEATGRASS & Technology Presentation: Moving towards the 4TH GENERATION of E-commerce (Speakers: Edward Ling, Chief Executive Officer, Easy Pha-Max Philippines and Platform2U.com Philippines / Eddie Lee, Chief Information Officer, Platform2U.com)
• E-Commerce in the Philippines 2010 (Speaker: Janette Toral, DigitalFilipino.com Club)

I’m particularly interested in the mobile internet, since there are more cell phone owners than those who own a computer. It’s easy to see that there are interesting developments in store for e-commerce. Shouldn’t you be informed of the changes the internet is making on your business?

Attend the DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2009 on November 12 and 13, 2009 at the Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City.

When you visit ComeToMarket.com, you will sense that the site owner is based in Canada, is interested in blogging, CMS, financial services, and technology.

You’ll also find the carpool forums, which will be useful for those in Ottawa, because this will help save on gas.

Over time, the carpool’s benefit will extend to even more people. The key is to get the word out, so that more folks will become aware of ComeToMarket.com, visit it, and actively participate in the forums.

One way of attracting more traffic to the website is by offering free ad placements. Since there are merchants or entrepreneurs who want to tap the internet for their marketing campaigns, they will consider posting a free ad in that web site.

Here are additional tips on how to make an emarketplace succeed

1. Add more content. This will help bring in more organic or search engine traffic. With the increased number of visitors comes the higher possibility of people participating in the forums.

2. Publish in other places. You can also promote your emarketplace by creating your own presence in other web properties such as Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, Multiply, Plurk, and various online discussion boards. Do a bit of article marketing by submitting to places like EzineArticles.

3. Publish in multimedia. You can also add a podcast to your site, which will give you more exposure once you’re listed in numerous podcast directories. You can also post videos in YouTube (with your URL displayed at the bottom of your vids), or even start a vlog.

4. Host webinars. Think of a topic that your visitors will be interested in, then organize a webinar and invite people to your highly interactive audio/video presentation. Yes, real-time interaction will work wonders for you and your site.

5. Attend blogger events. Touch base with local bloggers in your area. They will help get the word out about your site especially in your local community.

With so many watering holes on the web today, your emarketplace needs to stand out. This entails a fair amount of multimedia publishing, coupled with a social media strategy that connects you with influential people both online and offline.

And once the traffic starts pounding your webservers, I hope your webhost provider is ready to help you deliver the needed bandwidth.

So, what makes a webinar service worth your while?

1. You have an engaging audio/visual presentation (or lecture) that people want to watch via the web, because they cannot conveniently go to your venue.

2. You want to hear (or read) questions from your audience while you are presenting your seminar on the web (or webinar).

3. You plan to make at least two presentations a month.

4. You have a back-end product worth offering to those who attend your free webinar.

5. You have a system for inviting people to your seminar, and for following-up on them, or for reminding them about your upcoming webinar (via email or even through Twitter).

6. You have a system that invites people to subscribe to your mailing list, so that you can keep in touch with them long after your webinar has ended.

7. You have a fast enough internet connection which allows your audience to see what you see in your own screen more or less in real-time.

Here are some applications that can make productive use of webinar services:

• E-Tutoring/E-Mentoring. Tutors and students need not be in the same room. You can share your whiteboard, and even adjust your lecture depending on the real-time questions of your student. Great for teaching math or even a new language.
• E-Teleconferencing. If the participants each have a fast internet connection, then this is a cost-effective way of holding a meeting among geographically-dispersed participants.
• E-Storytelling. Connect with your relatives and friends. Walk them through a slideshow, unmute the 25 people present during the webinar, and have fun listening to the real-time remarks.

How about you? Do you see yourself holding a webinar in the future?

Here’s my take on climate change…

Last September 26, 2009 Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) inundated large areas in Metro Manila, Philippines, and in the process affected a lot of people. This wasn’t just some news item in some far-flung province. For me, it struck closer to home because I actually knew people who lost their homes, vehicles, and worse, loved ones because of the calamity.

Typhoon Pepeng (Parma) soon hit the Philippines and a lot of our brothers and sisters in northern Philippines also suffered. Up to now, there are many places here that are still underwater, and people are trying to quickly recover and get this dreadful experience behind us.

Easier said than done.

Yes, some homes have been cleaned or rebuilt. Some items have been salvaged. Some previously submerged in floodwater vehicles have been repaired. Some students have gone back to school. Some of those left behind tearlessly grieve. Some people even look normal once again.

But each time the rain falls, people look at the sky and nervously smile at one another. It is all too palpable. The fear. The anxiety.

Climate change is now something more than just a phrase you read in the papers, or hear in the news. It is something you see in each others’ faces. You can hear it in the way their voice trembles. You can taste and smell it in the air. You can feel it on your skin as your heart races with each raindrop.

My goal is to make more people aware of climate change, and make it more real to others (somehow) even if they or their loved ones have not personally experienced it. Perhaps this sense of connectedness with one another will help make this herculean task less difficult.

We all try to do our share. We try to consume less electricity, conserve more water, or even keep our environment clean. But it is not a simple case of each person simply doing their own share. It needs to be a community effort which will succeed if we take the time to reach out and communicate with one another.

How can someone reach out to so many people? One way is through the internet. Through blogs, tweets, status updates, and various online media we can reach out to others and share our stories, so that we may share the effort of rebuilding.

Climate change is upon us. Just look around and you’ll see.

Fortunately, it’s not yet too late.

When I say immediately, that means you don’t need to forward any receipt or wait 24 to 48 hours to get the bonus materials or info. I am about to reveal to you below a Niche Horde strategy you can immediately implement as you build campaigns to help you make money online today.

TIP: Print out the list of “niche groups” provided by the Niche Horde database.

Yes, that’s right. Print it out, and read it. It might take around 7 pages, or even 20 pages (since the database just keeps on growing). Read it once in the morning, and once in the evening. Immerse yourself in that list. Highlight the keywords or phrases that you like, if you wish.

So, why is this strategy of internalizing those niche group phrases a way of attuning your mindset towards a more profitable blogging experience? In a word: FOCUS.

Do you remember the old game of red car versus blue car? You sit on the curb and count the number of red cars, while your opponent counts the number of blue cars. At the end of a few minutes, whoever has the larger count wins.

The point is, you never noticed that many red or blue cars prior to playing the game. Once you got focused, however, you get surprised to find so many red/blue cars. The same thing can be said about making money online and writing blog posts containing profitable niche topics or keyword phrases.

When you practically memorize those easy-to-rank-for and highly bidded for phrases, you will quickly spot opportunities in the world around you. Are you browsing through magazines or a bookshelf? Are you strolling in the mall? Or having a conversation with an acquaintance?

Similar to red/blue cars, conversational topics that match those Niche Horde niche groups will immediately become obvious to you. That simple act of internalizing and focusing makes your mindset more attuned to the profitable opportunities that swirl around you, and will help you quickly publish relevant information that will help other people online.

Did you like this Niche Horde bonus? Go ahead and get NH today (especially if you already have blogs that receive around 300 visitors daily), print out that list of niche groups, go out and enjoy your life, and publish blog posts that help people (using those prime keyword phrases as blog titles).

Yes, it is possible to make cash on the internet. Instead of just dreaming about it, go out and take action today.

Blogging newbies should attend this free event. Here’s why…

First of all, check the line-up of speakers and the list of topics that will be presented during the iBlogMini@CEL event:

1:00 – 1:15 Welcome Remarks (JJ Disini – http://disini.i.ph)

1:20 – 1:40 Blogging 101 (Micaela Rodriguez – http://www.micamyx.com)

1:50 – 2:10 Photo/Video Blogging 101 (Aileen Apolo – http://aileenapolo.blogspot.com)

2:20 – 2:40 Mobile Blogging 101 (AJ Matela – http://www.baklaako.com)

2:50 – 3:10: Blog Promotion & Traffic Generation Strategies 101 (Noemi Lardizabal Dado – http://www.aboutmyrecovery.com)

3:20 – 3:40 Blogging to the Next Level (Anton Diaz – http://www.ourawesomeplanet.com)

3:40 – onwards Raffle and group picture

Host / Moderator: Janette Toral – http://www.bloggingfromhome.com

Aside from gaining the opportunity to meet with and network with your fellow bloggers, you will certainly get additional tips you don’t usually find in most blogs. Some bloggers may even share with you internet marketing tactics they don’t blog about.

When I attended my first blogging event, I was able to connect with so many bloggers who are friendly and helpful. This has helped speed up my knowledge in the field of blogging, SEO, and internet marketing, and has opened many doors.

JJ Disini has organized several events for bloggers, and the free admission to these events has encouraged more people to either start blogging, or futher improve their online publishing and promotion skills.

Micaela Rodriguez gained her online credibility by publishing various blogs that contain useful and relevant content that connect with parents and family members.

Aileen Apolo has constantly evolved, and continues to inspire people to try not only blogging, but also videoblogging. Part of her life shows how the internet plays a significant role in shaping our personal future.

AJ Matela has blogged not only in the form of words/pictures, but also through video. The twist here is that AJ also engages in mobile blogging, which frees you from having to sit in front of a computer all day. With a mobile phone, you can easily blog no matter when, or no matter where you are.

Noemi Dado tackles a favorite topic among bloggers: How to get more traffic to your site. It would be interesting to find out the strategies that she uses to attract more visitors to her different sites.

Anton Diaz quit his job in Procter & Gamble in order to fully pursue his passion. You will certainly gain keen insights on whether or not the internet can help you become financially independent.

Janette Toral is an active proponent of e-commerce in the Philippines, and provides internet-related training via traditional face-to-face conferences, or through exciting e-learning technologies such as webinars. She will serve as host and moderator during the mini summit.

If you’re a blogging newbie, I highly recommend you attend the iBlog Mini Summit on November 15, 2009.

So, where do we go from here?

The people behind the Meralco Twitter account (@meralco) need to immerse themselves for a few days in Twitter, and learn how to make better use of this. All they need to do is ask around, and people following @meralco on Twitter will surely help.

In Nick’s Twitter Will Transform Meralco he writes:

I expect it will take Meralco almost a year before they get it down. In the meantime, they will just have to persevere through the mistakes, through the criticisms – a lot of which is likely to come from me.

I don’t think it will take that long. Perhaps the PR folks at Meralco will be able to make better use of Twitter in as short as 3 days. It boils down to what their objectives are, and how they can meet those objectives as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Here are some tips…

1. Start a blog in Blogspot.com – This will serve as a backup website, just in case the Meralco website (http://www.meralco.com.ph) is unable to handle the surge in visitors. The main website will also need to publicize their official Blogspot/Blogger blog, so that people will know it is legit.

2. For future brownout schedules, publish a detailed blog post in Blogspot, and post a single tweet (or Twitter message) that looks something like: “Brownout sked, Oct 10, 5pm to 8pm – link to Blogspot blog post”

This way, there will be no need to post so many Twitter messages covering the same timeslot of a scheduled brownout.

3. Since a Blogspot/Blogger blog has an RSS feed, Meralco can use that feed and have it automatically posted in their @meralco Twitter account with the help of TwitterFeed.com

This way, the Meralco people can simply blog about an upcoming brownout (or other news/updates), and TwitterFeed will automatically post it in the @meralco Twitter account.

4. With the RSS feed, Meralco can also link this to an email autoresponder account. People can sign-up or subscribe to a Meralco brownout sked announcement list, and each time the Meralco blog is updated, an email will be broadcasted to those who subscribed to the list.

This way, people who do not always monitor Twitter will still be able to receive updates via email (if they wish to).

In the end, Meralco will be able to better serve their customers by providing needed info on a timely basis.

5. Meralco can easily monitor questions/comments posted on Twitter by simply searching for @meralco in Twitter search.

Alternatively, they can log into their Twitter account, visit the Twitter.com homepage, and click on the @meralco link found on the column on the right side.

6. Meralco can interact with people or answer their questions by simply tweeting @username followed by their response. For example,

@ManuelViloria Yes, we will… etc etc

7. I’ll add more tips here over time. And if you need extra help in terms of screencast tutorials that show how to do the above steps, please let me know so that I can prepare those tutorials for you.

Welcome to Twitter, Meralco. Thank you for finding another way to serve your customers better.

From http://www.meralco.com.ph/Consumer/news/meralco_NW04809.html:

TRANSMISSION TROUBLE CAUSES POWER OUTAGES TODAY
October 8, 2009 as of 11:30 am

Customers in certain parts of the Meralco franchise, mostly in the eastern part, will experience at least three hours of power outages today (Oct. 8), as the company implements manual load dropping (MLD) due to the technical trouble at the power transformer bank of Dolores Substation, owned and operated by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

The series of power outages began late Wednesday night (Oct. 7) in several parts of Metro Manila and Rizal after power was cut off to 13 Meralco substations including those situated in St. Anthony, Manggahan, Parang, Masinag, Marikina, Santolan, Cainta, Shangri-la, Mandaluyong, Hillcrest, Dolores, Cubao bank no. 2 and New Teresa. This resulted to outages in various portions of Mandaluyong, Pasig, Marikina, Taguig; parts of Quezon City including Cubao. Outages were also experienced in Cainta, Angono, Taytay, Binangonan, Antipolo, San Mateo and Montalban.

As of 11:40 p.m., Wednesday evening, power has already been restored to most of the affected areas after Meralco opted to shift load or transfer sourced power to operational substations. Only Dolores 44XM and portions of dolores 47 XM were not restored.

At 6:39 a.m. today, Meralco resorted to MLD affecting circuits served by Cubao and Marikina substations in order to ease the critical loading of Araneta-Kamuning 115 kV line. Three-hour rotating brownouts may also be implemented today during noon-peak and three hours during the evening-peak periods. Meralco, though, is doing its best to shorten the duration of the brownouts.

Posted this because sometimes, the www.meralco.com.ph site is not accessible. It would also help if the site admin would adjust the webserver/domain name so that the site can be accessed via both www.meralco.com.ph and meralco.com.ph

And if the Meralco website is not accessible? Try http://www.bulagspot.com for other brownout / Meralco-related info. Nakakatawa siya! Try nyo ang Podcast Episode #1 nya nung Nov 2008.

You can also find the Tentative Schedule of Rotational Documents online (PDF, Google docs).

The key word here is tentative, because although the schedule shows two 2-hour brownout timeslots, the actual experience has been quite longer than 2 hours.

(Got the info about the rotational brownout schedule from @jimayson.)

Water entered the homes of several of my friends. It’s a good thing kind-hearted neighbors helped them move their appliances to higher ground. Some motorists who were stranded in the flooded streets were pleasantly surprised when people in the nearby houses went out of their homes and offered juice drinks and sandwiches to the famished motorists.

Abe Olandres shared some video footage (in his Samsung IT100 Digital Compact Camera blog post) of flooded streets at Evangelista, Bangkal, Makati City around noon today caused by Typhoon Ondoy.

SMART and Globe cell phones seem to be on the blink, because sometimes I’m unable to send SMS text (SMART to SMART, or Globe to Globe). I’m also unable at times to make a voice call.

Thankfully, the cell phones are able to call landlines.

Let’s all pray for those whose homes have been damaged by the floods, and also for those who do not have a roof over their heads and are still stranded in the cold, pouring rain…

» Typhoon Ondoy Emergency Hotlines and Relief Operations
“It has been raining the whole day. Tropical Storm Ondoy has wreak havoc across Metro Manila, and provinces around. Here are the key numbers to contact for information, rescue operations, relief services, donations.”

In Yahoo News (Saturday, 26 September 2009)…

Thousands flee heavy Philippines rain, flooding
“Nearly a month’s worth of rain fell in just six hours Saturday on the Philippine capital, stranding thousands on rooftops in the city and elsewhere as Tropical Storm Ketsana slammed ashore. The government declared a “state of calamity” in metropolitan Manila and about two dozen storm-hit provinces, said Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who heads the National Disaster Coordinating Council. That allows officials to withdraw emergency money for relief and rescue.”

Stay home, don’t clog roads, NDCC chief urges public
“As rains continued to pour over Luzon, the National Disaster Coordinating Center (NDCC) on Saturday urged residents of Metro Manila and nearby areas to stay home if there is nothing urgent for them to do outside.”

Philippine storm causes widespread flooding
“Hundreds of people fled their homes Saturday after overnight rains brought by Tropical Storm Ketsana flooded Manila and areas in the northern Philippines. Water was chest-deep in low-lying areas of the capital and part of nearby Rizal province, said Anthony Golez, deputy presidential spokesman.”

The Genesis Rocket bonus that I offer you is outlined in Twitter Rocket Booster. As a quick recap, it involves promoting webpages where people can easily follow a group of Twitterers in just a few clicks.

The value of the bonus is that your Twitter username or ID will be included in the list of people to follow. Hence, as those “follow these people” links get promoted online, you can gain more followers even if you don’t do anything else to increase your fan base in Twitter.

After you get Ashley Morgan’s Genesis Rocket (using the affiliate link shown on this webpage), please leave a comment below and state your Twitter username/ID and the kind of people you want to attract as followers.

Just keep in mind, however, that there are no guarantees. Even if thousands of people start following you on Twitter, it’s still up to you (and your tweets) to retain your followers. If you tweet pure gold, then you can fairly expect magic to happen.

Ask yourself: “Is what I’m going to tweet of value to my followers? Will it make them smile, breathe Thanks!, say A-Ha, or help them reach their goals?”

And if you honestly answer that question, then you will know if getting all those followers is worth it, both on your side and from their point of view. Sometimes we tend to just focus on getting more, or on taking more. Sometimes, we forget to also give back.

I like the word “genesis.” It’s a “coming into being” and it denotes a fresh start. So if your online marketing campaigns haven’t been getting anywhere, try a fresh new start with the Genesis Rocket.

Here are the details…

All you need to do is leave a comment below. In your comment, please type in your Twitter username or ID, and the kind of followers you would like to attract based on topics that they would be interested in.

For example, if you would like to attract followers who are interested in internet marketing or SEO, then you can post something that looks like this:

I’m a registered customer of the Twitter Rocket, and I would like to attract more followers who are interested in internet marketing or SEO. My Twitter username or ID is @manuelviloria.

I will then create a tutorial related to internet marketing or SEO, and will offer it as a free download to people who have an account in Twitter. Among the requirements would be for them to follow certain people in Twitter (that would be you!).

It would be a win-win situation, right? You want more followers who are interested in SEO, I request them to follow you, they get to download a free report or tutorial about SEO.

Why am I doing this? I’m building a list of targeted people, and part of this viral marketing campaign involves Twitter messages and following certain people. So I figured, why not help others who are interested in increasing the number of their followers, right? The first group that popped into my mind is the group of Twitter Rocket customers.

You know what happens when you connect with more people online, right? Exactly. You set the stage for creating alliances that can lead to making money online. It’s not just what you know, it’s also who you know. Or on the internet, it’s who knows you.

Are you interested? Do you want more targeted Twitter followers? Are you a registered customer of Ashley Morgan’s Twitter Rocket system?

What are you waiting for? Post your Twitter username below, and let me know what topic would be of interest to the followers you would like to attract.

Here’s wishing you and your business all the best, and I look forward to helping you expand your network in Twitter.

If you’re trying to connect with a lot of people via Twitter, you might have tried following hundreds of different Twitter-ers. Once you’ve reached the magical number of around 2,000 you will no longer be able to follow any more people unless a large enough number is following you back.

There will be times that included in the list of people you are following are those who haven’t tweeted in the past six months. Why should you continue following such dormant accounts, when you can be following other more active accounts, right?

And that’s where UnTweeps comes in. It saves you time because it can find such sleepy head accounts for you. Talk about outsourcing, right? And the best part about it is, it is absolutely free.

Up to a certain point, of course. The more often you wish to use UnTweeps, the higher the chance that you will need to go for the paid version. It’s only fair since you’ll be using their web resources more often.

What about the make money using Twitter part? The basic key is to connect with people without selling anything. Eventually, you will gain friends, and these people will help drive business to you in the future.

In a future tutorial, I will show you how you can help your other Twitter friends by making it easy for others to quickly follow them on Twitter. Talk about getting more targeted followers using a win-win tactic!

10. The old condo in Sigaw (Shout) – reminds me of some scenes in a Japanese horror film.

9. Halimaw sa Banga – There is a white-skinned, white-haired monster in the large jar, who grabs people who unluckily wander near the jar.

8. Engkanto in Shake, Rattle, and Roll 9 – played by Katrina Halili, who leads men to their doom.

7. Undin, in Shake, Rattle and Roll 3 (fear of lakes). Be careful when you take frog’s eggs from a lake. Some mommy creature will get quite irate.

6. Pridyider (old refrigerator) [Episode 2] in Shake, Rattle, and Roll 1. Janice de Belen gets seduced by the fridge. Scary!

5. Yaya (nanny) [Episode 2] of Shake, Rattle and Roll 8. Iza Calzado has one scary back. SHe turns out to be an attractive yet deadly aswang. Debraliz played the role of the good yaya. Nash Aguas acted very well (Benjo, the kid).

4. Bayan ng Aswang (Town of Aswangs) in SRR 2. Portia (played by Manilyn Reynes) finds herself alone and outnumbered in a town predominantly populated by aswangs.

3. Tiyanak, in the movie Tiyanak (Monster Baby). This popularized the line “anak ni Janice” since Janice de Belen starred in the movie as the mom of the baby named Angelica.

2. Manananggal (self segmenting monster) in SRR 1. Irma Alegre is an extremely attractive and shapely woman by day, and a deadly monster by night. Lucky Herbert Bautista who got to work closely with Irma.

1. Lotus Feet Lady in Feng Shui. Kris Aquino deals with the curse of the bagwa mirror.

Waiting for the rest of the show to find who the other scary characters are. I wonder if the movie Itim (Black) will be included. I heard (forgot where) that Itim is the scariest Tagalog movie ever, but I haven’t seen it yet.

I wonder why most of the characters listed are from the Shake, Rattle, and Roll series…

For example: mamon (light and airy sponge cakes), puto (steamed muffins), and panutsa (liquid brown sugar).

If you check out Jim Paredes’ Home again, workshop again, diving again and… you’ll find out what those words mean in Mexico.

The meanings are embarrassingly different, yet you can still find some connection with eating and drinking. Perhaps there’s some truth to Jim’s thoughts about our colonizers teaching us the “wrong” words.

Does anyone know the etymology of the words mamon, puto, and panutsa (as they are used in the Philippines)?

[Found out about this because of a Twitter exchange between @sassylawyer and @jonijavier]

Are you sending traffic to a merchant, who later on no longer correctly credits you for the sale?

Let me tell you a story…

There once was a merchant who set-up an affiliate program via a third party affiliate network. This is wonderful, because now both merchant and affiliate have a third party who can track, verify, and credit affiliates for their efforts.

Typically, there’s an affiliate link which is used to track visitors referred by that affiliate to the merchant’s online store or salespage.

There’s also an order link, so that the affiliate network can determine which affiliate will earn the commission.

Unfortunately, that special order link has to appear in the salespage or order page of the merchant. If the merchant edits their webpage and uses a different kind of order link, then the affiliate network will not be able to track that sale.

Which means: the affiliate will not earn the commission.

The lesson here is clear. When you promote an online merchant, please take the time to check if you will still be credited with a sale, from the traffic you send to that online store. It helps if you monitor this on a regular basis.

Over time, you will gain a better understanding of which merchants to trust, and which ones to avoid. In the long run, however, it will be better if you become the merchant (and not just an affiliate), so that you can make better use of your time.

Afterall, checking regularly will eat up a fair amount of your time. This is particularly true if you are an affiliate of several products. Now ask yourself this: Would you rather spend time checking, or earning checks?

Don’t be surprised if you find salespages that are transformed into opt-in pages. Some marketers are using traffic provided by affiliates in order to build their own mailing lists. And if you find yourself on the short end of the affiliate stick, what can you do?

You need to find a way to create your affiliate links, so that a quick change in one place will rapidly adjust all the links you have promoted all over the web.

Yes, it is possible to send all your links to a single landing page (which you control). The main advantage to you is that if the merchant you’re promoting one day intentionally or accidentally shafts your affiliate marketing efforts, all you need to do is edit the single landing page (or link) that you created.

TIP: Avoid directly linking to the merchant. Use your own URL, preferably one which you control.

Until the next tip, have fun making money online with the help of affiliate marketing!

But this caught my eye about the G11: it has a low-light mode.

I like taking photos in low-light conditions without using the flash, and I wondered how the Canon G10 performs in such conditions. Fortunately, someone is sharing sample photos.

Connie (@sassylawyer) shares the following examples of photos taken using the G10 in low-light, without using a flash:

• A Companion for my dSLR
• Manila by night
• Someone wants a Speedlite Flash for her birthday

Connie’s photos look terrific. Since my subjects are usually motionless, then it looks like the G10 will satisfy my needs.

Still, I’m curious about taking photos where there’s a lot of movement in low light (without using a flash). I’ll continue searching for example of Canon G11 photos taken in such conditions.

What happens next? Well, I haven’t read all the available material yet, but what it basically means is that your content will not become more visible, particularly as far as subscribers of cloud-enabled feeds are concerned.

Whether that additional exposure actually translates to more site visitors, online income, or indirect income (in the case of knowing and connecting with more people), that still remains to be seen.

If you are are currently focused on SEO and organic traffic, then go ahead and focus on that. But if your many projects, websites, and networks of virtual real estate are nicely chugging along with the help of search engine traffic, you might wish to experiment with rssCloud.

Installing the plugin is pretty straightforward. Some might even call it boring. Once you’ve activated it, it just sort of sits there. There’s no configuration page. A quick visit to the plugins page in your blog simply shows that it has been installed.

Perhaps there’s a way to track how effective it is in terms of increasing the readership of your blog? Yes, the hunt begins once again…

In the meantime, you might wish to read Dave Winer’s An rssCloud case study: Brizzly & Seesmic. I’m particularly intrigued by this point:

Publish each user’s stream of 140-character messages as cloud-enabled feeds, in addition to pushing them through Twitter.

You know what that means, right? More choices. And less over-reliance on any one service. I wonder what the next Twitter competitor will be called…

The one I tested is called Simple IPN, and it works quite well with digital download products.

You can store your downloadable ebook (or even MP3 audio file) in a non-public or non-accessible folder of your webserver. The IPN script then creates a temporary download link, which expires in X number of days.

The script allows paid customers to download your infoproduct even if your file is in a protected portion of your web site, and the download link automatically deactivates after a certain period of time.

It’s free, but you have the option of getting support from the creator, Iszuddin Ismail (@iszuddin on Twitter) for a nominal fee of just $10.

The download page that the script produces looks very simple, which means you can easily customize it (if you know a bit of HTML). Alternatively, you can easily find people you can outsource HTML design to, if you wish.

Yes, you read that right. Access to is free. Here are the details…

Please see Twitter Follower Tips which gives you info on how you can get online access to key marketing tips that build your Twitter following online. No, these are not the usual tactics you’ve seen in expensive ebooks.

You are going to get the insider’s look into what makes Twitter work for you, and why a lot of us are doing things backwards.

I posted my first tweet (or Twitter message) on July 19, 2006, and have made all sorts of different experiments on Twitter since then.

All the trial and error, the failures and successes… all these allow me to help you gain a key perspective when it comes to getting more followers on Twitter. And the best part about it is, you can get access for FREE.

Imagine what you could do if you have enough targeted followers in Twitter? Think of what it can do for your business, and how it can work with your online internet marketing campaigns. Yes, you realize by now that Twitter is growing so fast, and can no longer be ignored as a potent force on the internet.

Well, what are you waiting for? Click here and get free access to those Twitter follower tips today.

If you’ve been keeping track of the brouhaha over the selection of this year’s National Artists of the Philippines, you will know that several groups are up in arms over the choices “made.”

Here’s the video message of Gerry…

Here is a quick list of the popular stories written by Carlo J. Caparas, along with the name of the visual artist who illustrated those well-loved komiks series:

Ang Panday – Steve Gan
Pieta – Steve Gan
Bakekang – Mar Santana
Totoy Bato – Tor Infante
Gagambino – Karl Comendador
Mga Ligaw na Punglo (novel by Carlo J. Caparas) – Hal Santiago (illustrator)
Kroko – Hal Santiago

You can learn more by reading Gerry Alanguilan’s Why Carlo J. Caparas is NOT a Visual Artist

With the power of YouTube, blogging, and the internet, more people can share their voice online. I invite you to try blogging (or even videoblogging) today, so that you will gain a better understanding of how your actions (which have an impact on many people) affect the online world (and vice versa).

In Model forces Google to reveal ’skank’ blogger’s identity you will read about Liskula Cohen and how she is finding out the identity of a blogger who wrote defamatory things about her.

(Please note that I am not a lawyer. If ever you find yourself on the receiving end of a libelous/defamatory comment, please get assistance from techies and investigators who are experts at this sort of thing. Focus on what you do best, let others do the checking for you.)

What if the name used was fake? There are still ways of getting a clearer idea of who is behind the attack. You can check IP addresses, for example, and date or timestamps. Sometimes, someone slips up and gets careless.

Anyway, as I’ve said earlier, there are experts who can easily ferret out certain types of people online. It’s all just a matter of time.

In the meantime, just focus on what you enjoy and what you do best. If it’s writing you like, then go ahead and blog. Write to your heart’s content. Try not to get down when some people write false things about you.

It’s called FAQ-Tastic (FAQ-Tastic.com) and comes in two versions: Lite Free and Pro.

I’ll give this a try in the coming weeks because we will build websites that look like libraries containing tutorials in text/graphics format. The only thing that makes me hesitate is: will people bother to go through a FAQ, or will they simply fire off an email and ask their question?

Found out about FAQ-Tastic thanks to Andy Beard’s WordPress Comment SEO Solutions. He talks about building an “Ask Andy” section in a private area, but doesn’t think 3rd party systems will be able to effectively handle comments in custom areas of WordPress.

Sounds like a WordPress membership site plugin will work.

Here are the winners…

1. Writing to Exhale
2. Patay Gutom
3. The Struggling Blogger
4. Zorlone
5. Father Blogger dot Com
6. Kelvinonian Ideas 2.0
7. Tales from the Mom Side
8. Adaphobic
9. Lakwatsero
10. Let’s Go Sago!

In the coming weeks, we will take a closer look at each site as we wait for the mechanics of the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2010 program. You might also wish to view the other blog posts and photos taken about the 2009 event.

What can we learn from all of this? We find that there is still room for more bloggers, and that one’s notions about what makes a successful blog can only be further expanded by the diversity of people around us.

I hope, however, that success in blogging will encourage more people to go beyond the confines of the online and sms/texting worlds, and rediscover the old childhood joys of barkadas, lazy afternoons by a river, countless basketball games, trips to the library (do we still know how to use a non-electronic card catalog?), dinner table conversations with our parents (captive audience), and some kind of timeout from the sense of “progress” the internet gives us.

Let us blog and still connect with non-bloggers, and expand our sphere of influence within and beyond the web. Who knows? We just might see this when we look at the next batch of emerging influential blogs.

Those four honor guards are:

Army Pfc. Antonio Cadiente
Airman Second Class Gener Laguindan
Navy Petty Officer 3 Edgardo Rodriguez
Police Officer 1 Danilo Malab

To say that they displayed exceptional discipline while performing their extraordinary task is quite an understatement. Imagine, no food/drink break, no sitting down, no jacket or poncho against the wind and rain, and no bathroom break… for seven hours?

I say it took more than discipline to help them do what they did yesterday. They were most likely inspired by the life of Tita Cory, and the display of support, warmth, and love by the throng that surrounded the cortege from the Manila Cathedral all the way to the Manila Memorial Park.

Clearly, even after 26 years, Cory Aquino continues to touch the lives of so many Filipinos. She continues to bring out the best not only in those four honor guards, but in each and every Filipino who witnessed all these events right there in the streets, or on television and the internet.

Paalam, Tita Cory… Thank you for the gifts you have given to the Filipino people. May we continue to inspire and bring out the best in each other.