Blog From Cebu To The World » SEO

Last Minute Halloween Party Costume Ideas

ceblogger — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:55:26 +0000

Last minute Halloween party costume ideas? My cousin has been invited to a Halloween party this October 31st. Venue is said to be somewhere in Alabang so I asked him if he needs some Halloween party costumes. He said “no”. I was a bit surprised. I really don’t know of a Halloween party without any costumes. Even kids these days attend Halloween costume parties organized by their schools.

Anyway, maybe he can just wear any mask to cover his face like the guy in this video. (This one is created by a badminton buddy of mine back in Cebu)

I hope I didn’t scare you buddy. Hehe. I am not really fan of Halloween parties. I don’t think I had ever attended one. Much more if you talk about shopping for some weird costumes that you only use once a year. But I know some people are taking this seriously.

For your last minute Halloween party costumes needs, you don’t actually have to buy something new. Just open your closet and improvise. Black shirt, black pants. Put some grease on your hair and paint your face. Then you’ll look like that guy at the end of video shown above.

No related posts.

Of Chasing Traffic and For The Love of Writing

ceblogger — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:10:51 +0000

Three of the influenza bloggers were very busy chasing traffic early this week. We even competed against each other. Bloggista wrote about it here, and Thirdworldgeek had his take here, too. If you don’t know what I mean, just take a look at my last four posts. Names, names, names. These are the names of those who passed the October 2009 CPA Board Exams.

Well, I don’t know who actually won our SEO race! If it’s based on money earned, it could be Bloggista again. He’s the real money maverick. I was just too happy to learn from him and in the process, earn a few hundred cents from adsense.

Hours before the results were announced, I was actually nervous as pageviews came in by the thousands. I was worried my site would crash. You know, like the flood brought by typhoon Ondoy almost a month ago. 25GB bandwidth may not be enough. Thirdworldgeek had his site down for an hour, he told me. But after the rush, I was glad I survived. I will not optimize for the results of both the teachers and the nursing board exams. This site is not intended for them.

But anyway, I had my fun chasing traffic. I topped some of the keywords and it means that any blogger can top the SERP and be at par with the SEO masters. And that traffic can be converted to $$. (Two digits in a day only)

Of Creative Writing

Jena Isle has finally released the book “Inspirational Thoughts and Stories of Bloggers from All Over the World”. My friends Jan, Doc Z, Roy, Elmot, Rey Jr, and Angel contributed stories. I contributed something too and it is entitled, “Missing the Bus”.
I really thank my friend Jena Isle for this opportunity. I can’t believe I’m in a book now

If you want a copy of the book, just follow this link here: Inspiration Anthology of Bloggers All Over the World.

Elmot, one of the contributing writers in the above work, sent me an SMS message the other day. Yes bro, I have blog for my poems and short stories. And Jumbled Writings is even older than this blog. I am not really promoting it, yet I am thankful for less than half a dozen weekly visitors.

It’s been a while since I wrote either a poem or a short story, but maybe, maybe, I’ll write again soon. Doc Z’s flash fiction and Roy’s Short Stories Blog, inspire me to follow suit. Of course, there’s Jena Isle’s Gewgaw Writings and that of the Fencesitter who, by the way, had just released a link to his best works due to the prodding of Jan.

Ah, blogging! It’s not always about traffic, social networks, money and site metrics. It is still for the love of writing.

Chasing Pay Per Click (PPC) Money

ceblogger — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:08:14 +0000

If you are a blogger wanting to earn from your site, you must have known by now what is pay per click. It is one way wherein bloggers make money from their sites. Plenty tried without success while a few others have brought cars, houses, and home appliances out from their online earnings. What is really the secret to their success?

Here is what the Wikipedia has to say about it:

Pay Per Click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser’s keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.

For a start, let us begin with Google Adsense, the most famous of these PPCs. All you have to do is register once, using your google account. Registering twice is not allowed and would get you banned for life. Banned fellows tried to beat the system by registering their bros, sis, parents, gfs, bfs, and spouses. I don’t know how the big G addresses that.

Now that you have an adsense account, you start displaying ads on your blog. Are you now starting to make money? It depends. If you get a click, well good! If none, then try again. But never try clicking on your own ads, nor ask others to do it. Again, you’ll be banned for life, and your earnings, however legit it is (or was), will be forfeited.

It took me many months before I reached $10. Others did it in 2 months or less. Generally, this is what you have to do when you have PPC ads all around you:
1. Snipe on keywords which you think searchers are looking for
2. Optimize for search engines.
3. Place your ads in strategic locations. (which sometimes annoys the readers)

Other bloggers come to the point of over-optimization, putting links one after another without providing the real thing. So let’s say you are looking for an online streaming of something. The legit ones offer it for a sum of money, while the others are more or less modern pirates, or point to the pirates. Yet the PPC ads that show up appear more credible. So the reader clicks on the ads and whoaah, the site owner earns.

In one forum I browse regularly, someone suggested creating a network that would click each others ads. Wow, desperate, indeed! The more experienced ones said no and warned the wannabes. Though the PPC advertising model is open to abuse through click fraud, Google and other search engines have automated systems in place to guard against abusive clicks.

How about PPC blackmail? Have you encountered someone commenting on your site saying that you should visit theirs and click on their ads or else they’ll click your ads a lot of times to a point that you’ll get banned? I received one. It’s chasing Pay Per Click (PPC) money at its worst.

Luckily, I was able to contact the owner of that blog thru another blogger. I found out that he was a fellow Pinoy. He denied having written the comment, and it seems that the IP addresses he used confirmed his innocence. Sabotage is what he called it and even posted an entry about it.

Chasing PPC money can be fun, yet the obsession without providing real content can pollute the internet, or even lead to desperate attempts of breaking the PPC system. But policing the internet is not our business and it’s up to the PPC companies to safeguard their system.

Web Traffic: Good News and Bad News

ceblogger — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:20:36 +0000

There are plenty of Pinoy SEO experts and enthusiasts these days, unlike a year ago when most of the bloggers I know were simply personal bloggers, and the method used to increase readership is thru building relationships with other like-minded bloggers. I say I miss those days. But blogging has evolved and the number of bloggers had increased exponentially in which expression and content are not the only things that matter for the blogger.

Then enter blog monetization, rankings, social networking and SEO. The objectives are to increase blog visibility, web traffic, and the monetary opportunities. Here are some web traffic news I gathered from the blogs I read the last 30 days:

Good News

Juler recently earned plenty of dollars because his optimization on the Beijing Olympics worked for him. His traffic reached by the tens of thousands, and a good percentage might have clicked on his ppc ads, hence, the earnings.

Bloggista barged into the top 50 Philippine blogs. Thanks to his ever-growing traffic and, of course, Alexa, the one used as the basis for the rankings. His optimization also worked well with him especially on the nursing board exam results which rocked his site with more than a hundred thousand page views.

Cyril’s month-old blog already breached 1k unique visitors. Plenty of Filipino accountants are searching the internet for RA 9504, The Law on New Tax Exemptions. One of his posts got 119 comments. It’s four times the most I got.

Lhurey got a birthday gift from Google. He got his PR3 back after pleading for reconsideration. How I wish Google does the same for my two blogspots!

Bad News

Iskolares got his traffic alright. But somehow, some of his visitors did more than just pay a visit. He exceeded his 100GB bandwidth limit and his webhost charged him $140 for it.

Joliber got some nasty anonymous comments in his blog. Some people probably didn’t like his optimization. He was on top of SERP in many keywords chased by other bloggers.

My News

There are no more lightning-quick visits here this month, not even from StumbleUpon. Average time people spent browsing my blog is 1 minute and 53 seconds. Fifty percent of my traffic in August comes from the search engines. The number of visitors is 20% higher than that of last month. Thanks to the Olympics! I’ve also upgraded my hosting plan to double my disk space and bandwidth. I don’t want this blog get killed by web traffic.

As to monetization, there is no good news yet. I spent more on coffee than earning from this blog. Pitiful!

So, how is your web traffic lately? Good news or bad news?

My Update On The Cebu SEO Contest

ceblogger — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:56:58 +0000

Right now, SEO experts, addicts, enthusiasts, wannabes and pretenders have joined the Cebu SEO Contest organized by Lhurey. There are still15 days to go before the contest is closed on September 2, 2008. Yet it seems like there is a new leader on SERP almost everyday.

I’ve been there once. That must be my lucky day! But right now, I’m on page 2. How to win on the Cebu SEO contest or any other SEO contests for that matter is a puzzle to many, but so easy for some. It is a puzzle for me though. I have not completed reading the SEO e-book in my hard drive and I have skipped some lines while browsing the blog entries of certain SEO experts. So my chances are definitely slimmer, unless luck strikes back on the final day.

Anyway, this is just a short entry and I don’t intend to flood this blog with 10 more posts about this contest. I know there are people out there who wouldn’t want to do anything with SEO because they feel it distorts the search engine, and bastardizes certain keywords. And I agree in part. But for most of the Cebu SEO contestants, including me, this is for fun and a learning experience.

CEBU SEO CONTEST

ceblogger — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:44:04 +0000

For the SEO newbie enthusiasts, joining small contests is a practice ground wherein you hone your skills when you really want to tread the pretty exciting and treacherous world of SEO. Lhurey, a blogger from Cebu, has his Cebu Seo Contest wherein you only need to do the following:

1. Make a post about his contest
2. Link to his blog (not the post) using “Cebu Seo Contest” as the anchor text, and
3. Comment on his post (with your complete name) stating that you joined his contest.

The contest is open only to residents of the Philippines and will end on September 2, 2008 at 6:00PM. Contestants whose blogs top in Google search for the Cebu SEO Contest keyword on September 8, 2008 will win the following:

Cebu SEO Contest Prizes

Top 1 position (September 8, 2008)
P700.00 cash via MLhuillier Kwarta Padala
Free 1 year hosting and a free .com, .org, .net or .info domain
+500 EC

Top 2 position (September 8, 2008)
Php 500.00 cash via MLhuillier Kwarta Padala
+1000 EC

Top 3 position (September 8, 2008)
Php 500.00 cash via MLhuillier Kwarta Padala
+500 EC

Right now, it’s Lhurey’s site that sits on top. Let’s unseat him and join the fun in the Cebu SEO Contest. It’s the learning that counts and I know that plenty of SEO enthusiasts are now joining for the experience. The prizes are only secondary.

Negative SEO and Keyword Bastardization

ceblogger — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:01:19 +0000

Have you ever heard any of the two phrases in my above title: Negative SEO and Keyword Bastardization? The first one is not really something new. It has been around the net for many months now but the phrase just popped into my head yesterday. The latter might just be of my own making. But tell me if there is a better term for it.

Negative SEO

…is simply an SEO technique that pushes a website out of the search engine rankings (or deep into limbo of Google SERP). How could that be? If it is unintentionally done and you are doing it for your site, it could be over-SEO. It happened to many of the over-eager SEO enthusiasts. And Google will penalize you for that. One day you’re on top, the next day you’re nowhere.

If you are doing it intentionally, linking like mad from hundreds of sites towards a competitor’s site on a particular keyword, and he gets penalized in the process, that is negative SEO. Many legitimate sites loses thousands (if not millions) of visitors and potential customers because of this. It’s money and opportunity loss. It is sabotage, and may even be an economic one. Is there currently a law that punishes offenders? That, I don’t know.

Keyword Bastardization

… is optimizing a keyword or phrase that your site is ranked high in SERP, but you are actually diminishing the meaning or importance of the keyword. It could also be used for a negative campaign or a parody.

The best example for this is the keyword : Filipina. Type that word in Google and tell me what you see. Or try Yahoo! or the latest search engine, Cuil. They all produce similar results, don’t they? It’s not new. It’s been around for years.

And why can’t anyone apply negative SEO on the bastards? Perhaps no one dares, or only competitors dare. And it can’t be easily done. Online dating is legitimate and a very lucrative business. But one way (and ethical way) to reclaim the term Filipina on the web is to help push the best contender to the top of SERP. Filipinaimages.com aims to do just that and we can actually help them achieve that goal. How? Simply by linking to them using “Filipina“as the anchor text. Or you may blog about it and optimize it to the max.

A Good Use

SEO is basically good. But some people can use it against someone else. A good tool in the hands of the unethical and the opportunist is a dangerous thing. I am not a SEO expert, and I’m not yet into the level of enthusiasm as some of my blogger friends have. But hey, may we all put in good use our collective SEO knowledge.

Google Search Engine Mysteries

History, Glory and Money for Manny

ceblogger — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:13:33 +0000

All ended well for Manny Pacquiao. He achieved a very rare feat in boxing history, brought glory to this ailing country, and cashed-in plenty to the envy of the many. The 9th round demolition of his tough foe, David Diaz, shows that Manny is the best boxer to have come from Asia.

History

Manny made history as the first Asian to win four titles in four weight divisions. 8 other boxing greats achieved this feat before. He started his championship rampage as a flyweight 10 years ago, moved up and captured the super bantamweight, super featherweight and lightweight belts. Maybe he’d try another weight division to make it 5. That would be a tough record to beat by any other boxer.

I remembered him fighting in the “Blow by blow” show on TV and how he easily took the wind out his opponents. I also saw that fight when was badly punished through body blows by a Thai boxing champ in their OPBF Championship, when he suddenly threw a left straight to the Thai’s temple. That was the end of the bout.

As of today, Manny is also the no.1 pound for pound boxer after the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr. How’s that for a Filipino athlete!

Glory

This is again a pride for the Philippines who was recently devastated by Typhoon Frank. We are all aware that Manny’s popularity even exceeds that of the President. I heard on radio that Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics is a big fan of Manny. Manny’s feat surely made each and everyone of us proud, like plenty of the bloggers who featured him on their sites.

Money

We expect that there will be overflowing cash for Manny. It must be millions worth. He promised to donate part of his winnings to the typhoon victims, and this is good news. P10 million won’t hurt his pocket. The left-wing Kilosang Mayo Uno even urges him to do that. The kind-hearted person that Manny is, no one has to tell him that. That is part of being a hero, and that is why he is well-liked by his countrymen.

Who is next for him?

Boxing experts say that the true test in the Lightweight division is a fight against Nate Campbell, the holder of the belts in the other three boxing organizations. I am not sure if that fight would suit Manny, but fearless as he is, he would not back out from anyone. Even if it is the barking Valero or the solid Marquez, Manny is ready to fight and rumble.

But I like him to brawl against the more famous De La Hoya or someone who is a Champion in a higher division. That would be another history in the making.

P.S.
On the SEO battle, no blood was spilled, and no known knockdowns occurred. If I got the same traffic as that of Mapiles.com, this blog would have crashed. That would have been worse than Diaz lying on his back on the 9th round. Sometimes, in our excitement to get more traffic, we tend to forget that what we have is not sufficient and ready for the big leagues. I’ll better upgrade fast.

Pacquiao vs Diaz Fight Results

ceblogger — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:43:17 +0000

Update: Manny Pacquiao Wins Over David Diaz on a 9th Round Knock-out

Manny unleashed powerful hooks and power punches from the beginning till he knocked down the solid David Diaz in the 9th round. It was absolutely a massacre as Pacman appears unscathed while his bloodied foe could no longer hold his ground. It is once again a celebration for Manny Pacquiao, his fans and the whole of the Philippines. Mabuhay ka Manny!

——
The Pacquiao vs Diaz fight results will be known on Sunday, June 29, 2008 (RP Time). Those from the US will know the results on Saturday, June 28, 2008. Of course it does not mean that viewers from a certain region get the news first, given the same live coverage offered by pay per view operators.

Zero crime rate is anticipated on the hours Pacquiao fights Diaz. As usual, traffic will be light. Everyone here in the Philippines is expecting better results from Manny Pacquiao as compared to his previous fight. On the cornerside of Diaz, they too are expecting results similar to the miracle that brought the downfall of Erik Morales. David Diaz has to bring out his best.

Let us go backward in time and analyze the results of their latest big fights. Both came out winners alright. But how convincing are their victories? This time around, one should come out the victor in a more flashing and convincing fashion to be rightfully crowned as King of the Lightweights.

Pacquiao vs Marquez II

Manny Pacquiao won, but many felt it should have been Marquez. We get so used to the punching power of Manny that we expect no less than a knock-out. Marquez must be a very tough guy that despite the knock-out in the early rounds, he managed to crawl back and slug it out till the end. It was very similar to their first bout, wherein Manny unleashed powerful fists to down Marquez, only for the latter to come back and gain a draw. The corner of Marquez even thought they’ve won.

Many fans were not really satisfied with that Pacquiao victory. I, too, was hoping for a knock-out. But true champions are not easily downed. Manny and his corner have to come up with better strategies against Diaz, not only to knock him out fro good, but to counter late surges of fists towards the end of the fight.

Diaz vs Morales

Let’s go back further and skip Diaz’ boring unanimous win vs Montano. It was the win against the boxing great Erik Morales that catapulted Diaz to stardom. Morales dropped Diaz in the early rounds but the latter pushed on and came out very strong on the middle to the last rounds. The judges, though unanimous in their decisions, gave a slim victory to Diaz. That fight also sent Morales to retirement, after his failure to secure four world titles in four weight divisions.

This is all about glory and respect for Diaz. Though a champion boxer, he doesn’t have that same prestige and status as Pacquiao. The bookmakers even have Pacquiao as the overwhelming favorite. What Diaz has to do is to employ his same strategy against Morales, and avoid the early power punches. If he survives the 12 rounds, there’s a chance of him retaining his title.

I will still be clinging to my earlier predictions: Pacquiao KOs Diaz in 6

— — —
Keyword Hunting

Even though my intention of this post is to join in the keyword hunting fray with the other bloggers, I do love to blog about sports and others current events. The purpose for this blog is about blogging and writing, in general. And here I am writing about boxing, though it’s a bit offtrack if you are following this blog. I will set up another blog intended for current events and keyword hunts. Watch out for Ceblogger.com!

Right now, everyone is waiting for the Dela Hoya vs Pacquiao Fight. I will still root for Manny.

Pacquiao vs Diaz Boxing Fight: A Blogging Brawl

ceblogger — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:50:34 +0000

Lethal Combination – Pacquaio vs Diaz
(Update is at the bottom)

Manny Pacquiao and David Diaz will slug it out on June 28, 2008 (June 29 RP Time) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is one of the most anticipated matches this year as the Filipino WBC Super Featherweight Champion will take a more challenging path in the land of the lightweights and brawl with the WBC Lightweight king himself, David Diaz.

If Manny succeeds, he will be the first Asian to hold boxing titles in four different weight divisions, a very rare feat for any boxer. But Diaz is not a pushover though his wins are not really convincing. His biggest win so far was against Erik Morales in 2007. But some quarters says that the victory was not convincing. Yeah, and so was Manny’s last fight.

This is actually David’s greatest chance of retiring happily. At 31, he is considered past his prime. If he loses, he will lose plenty of money-making fights in the future, probably a short future. If he wins, his stock and boxing status will move a notch higher. Or he can just retire a champion and become a real estate guy.

My own prediction: Pacquiao KOs Diaz in 6. I think it is better to predict a knock-out than a boring unanimous win.

Blogging Brawl

It’s not really the kind of brawl you would expect in the boxing ring. Picture instead a wrestling brawl with fighters entering into the ring and trying to push each other out. The remaining wrestler who subdues an opponent inside the ring will be declared the winner.

Same is true among Filipino SEO enthusiasts. The ring is the first page of Google’s search engines. Who would land higher in SERP? As of today, certain blogs are crowding certain keywords. Obviously, they wear the “searchers mindset” in choosing suitable keywords. Who will last till the end? But ultimately, the happiest are the ones who will earn more from their ppc ads.

This blog may or may not even reach the ring. But let us just wait and see. Google has its own wonders.

Update: Manny Pacquiao Wins Over David Diaz on a 9th Round Knock-out

Manny unleashed powerful hooks and power punches from the beginning till he knocked down the solid David Diaz in the 9th round. It was absolutely a massacre as Pacman appears unscathed while his bloodied foe could no longer hold his ground.
Diaz was lying on his back for seconds as if unaware of what force had hit him. The referee jumped in and helped the beaten man, while Manny came near to see if his opponent was alright. The crowd rose in loud cheer. Manny’s corner jumped inside the ring and lifted their champ.

It is once again a celebration for Manny Pacquiao, his fans and the whole of the Philippines. Mabuhay ka Manny! Mabuhay ang mga Pilipino!

On the other hand, in my SEO experiment, this entry reached page 1 for the keyword: Pacquiao vs Diaz boxing fight.