Wow…time flies so fast! I’ve been out of town for almost a month…travelling in all directions with my whole family.  Tiring, but a lot of memorable moments were bonded.

My last post was more than a month old already. I’m very sorry for that, but let me tell you that I did not procrastinate nor I’m a  Blogcrastinator.     A  Blogcrastination – the deferment of writing a blog post to a later time; often a mechanism for coping with anxiety.

In fact, all the blogs that I own and most of the sites that I’m maintaining ( I’m not the blog owner) were all updated even if I was on a vacation except for blogdemanila.com. This is of course due to WordPress scheduling techniques. All the articles were set to be posted on a scheduled date.

So how did I earn while traveling? Simple, by just letting my blogs run on their own. To tell you the truth,  my earnings for this past four weeks  where I was mostly offline are more than what I’ve earned  on my first year of blogging.

And here’s the other truth;  I don’t really do ALL the work. It’s all outsourced or automated.

It’s simple really when you already have set-up your “blog empire” and let the soldiers do most of the work. All you have to think about is the strategy you will use in conquering your next loots.

Just like the old English idiom, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, there’s also there’s WAY more to blogs than running a few clunky ads.

Spilling the secret box

My secret box is composed of a mix of revenue streams including:

• Services (setting-up sites and blogs)
• Affiliate products and services
• Ads (such as Adsense and Bidvertiser)

I know that some of you are earning a lot doing product reviews and/or using pay per post networks. Honestly, I’m not good on this. I’m not a good writer and so I shy away from this task as much as possible.

Since I’m not good in writing,there’s another SECRET that I’m going to reveal on my next post.  I just have to schedule the articles that are needed to be posted on all the blogs that I’m maintaining. Don’t worry it won’t take long.

Please bear with me while blogdemanila.com is getting a facelift.  It has been ages already since this blog was given a makeover. It won’t be an extreme makeover but just simple upgrading and tweaking of the layout.

I’ve promised that I will use a custom theme for this blog, but due to unforeseen new projects that came-up, I don’t have the luxury of time to create my own theme anymore.

If you find anything unusual or awkward in this site, like broken links, missing posts and images, please be calm and patient.

If you have noticed that I seldom post here at blogdemanila.com, this is due to some offline projects that I’m doing . It doesn’t mean that I’m going to quit blogging. No, never!  It won’t happen.

In fact, I’ve already lined-up some topics that I’m going to post like basics of blogging, link building, adsense tips, seo techniques and services that blogdemanila will offer.

So, please stay calm while I’m  fine-tuning and adjusting the layout of blogdemanila.com.

Sometimes you come up with a great blog story. You know it will drive you a lot of traffic but you have a problem. No one knows about your great blog post.

In order to get maximum attention you need to spread the word around. This is where the social / bookmark networks come handy.

Bill Gate is using the technology. Mircosoft is taking advantage of this new marketing strategy. What about you? Are you harnessing the power of social networks?

Social Network Logos

What is a social / bookmark network?

It’s a place where you can share your stories or blogs and network or bookmarks with others. Take Digg and StumbleUpon for example. You submit your blog story to the network, allowing other members to vote and comment on it. More popular stories that receive a certain number of votes get promoted to the front page. Most social networks are different. Some even allow you to export a large number of bookmarks straight from your browser.

Why social networks?

1) Social networks get a lot of traffic due to their nature. Users often return to read the latest stories and share their own.

2) Readers are usually only one click away from your blog. A popular submission can bring you thousands of daily visitors.

3) Most social networks are free and take seconds to register and submit your first entry.

4) You will be surprised when you see the amount of other websites that use feeds from various social networks. A good story can spread across the network like wild fire.

5) If your story will not get to the front page you can always submit another one. In most cases there is no limit on the amount of stories you can submit.

6) Most social networks are search engine friendly. Not only your story will be picked up by major search engines in no time, in most cases you will also get a reciprocal link. Some social networks have very good google page rank (PR)

Tips and tricks:

1) An interesting, catchy story is often a must. Your main target is to get promoted to the front page by getting enough votes. You need to convince other readers to vote for your story. Strange, shocking and controversial stories often do well.

2) You can always ask your friends to join and vote for you in order to get more votes. Don’t create fake accounts because you will simply get banned.

Secret tip: Form an alliance with other bloggers and vote for each other’s work.

3) The more stories you submit the better. If you want a steady flow of traffic you will need a steady flow of submissions.

4) Just enjoy your experience. I certainly find it more interesting compared to other methods of blog promotion, such as link development.

Social networking sites are useful, aside for their marketing potential,  but as a way of keeping in touch not just with your friends but with your universe of friends.

There are a lot of various social networks around. Simple search on google should do the trick.

Be a paparazzi and win at least Php 20,000 Cash + 1 Year’s Supply of Real Leaf!

Real Leaf launches its Paparraz-Tea blogger contest, open to all the bloggers of the Nuffnang Network!

Mechanics of the Contests:

1. This contest is open to all Nuffnangers and will run until January 31, 2010.
2. To join, bloggers must take a picture of a person drinking Real Leaf and create a blog entry about it explaining:

• Why the person was drinking Real Leaf
• The situation the person was in

3. Each blog entry must have the uniform title: “Real Leaf Paparazzi”.

4. Once you’ve published your entry, drop an email to realleafteacontest@gmail.com with a link to your post so we can keep track of it!

5. Entries will be judged by the following criteria:

• Creativity of photo: 30%
• Creativity of write-up: 30%
• Popularity of blog post: 30%
• Brand fit: 10%

6. Only one entry per blogger will be allowed for this contest.

7. Winners shall be notified via email and phone call.

Cash Prizes :

• First prize: Php 20,000 Cash + 1 Year’s Supply of Real Leaf
• Second prize: Php 15,000 Cash + 1 Year’s Supply of Real Leaf
• Third prize: Php 10,000 Cash + 1 Year’s Supply of Real Leaf
• Consolation Prizes (blog entries ranked 4-10): Real Leaf Product Bundle + Premium Item

Catch a Real Leaf now and be your own paparazzi!

I think this is a good news for all WordPress users.

Best WordPress Theme

WordPress has won the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards.

“From Blog Software to Full-Featured CMS”

Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress,  was very excited to learn about the good news because it is the first time that WordPress have won this award.  This is no small feat because WordPress was designed to be a “blog” software and not a CMS ( Content Management System).

Tied for runners up are MODx and SilverStripe.

WordPress receives US$ 4,000 in prize money, while MODx and SilverStripe each receive US$ 2,500.

Aside from winning the  top spot in the Overall Award,  WordPress also made its way into the top five for the first time in Best Open Source PHP CMS Category.

According to the award site, WordPress outranked Drupal (Winner) by a very slight margin. I guess WordPress has the best chance to win this category by next year.

Matt , in his blog, wrote “ Every member of the WordPress community, from core developer to beginning user, should be proud to be part of this momentum: congratulations to us all!”

Best WordPress Theme

I’ve been overwhelmed with feedback and comments that I received from my previous post, Five Important Reasons Why You Need To Subscribe To Your Own RSS Feeds. I would like to continue that momentum by sharing some “secrets”  I’ve learned from some bloggers.

Building a blog for profit is not easy if you start from scratch, but there are proven techniques already out there. All you have to do is search and apply them in your blog.

Luckily for you, I’ve found them already and I’m ready to share for those who are willing to listen (or read) .

If you are looking for some ways to get more out of your blog, then you need to stop whatever you’re doing and read this article carefully.

Here’s why:

Once you finish reading these RSS tips you’re going to learn how to finally profit from your blog; yes, you’re about to get insider access to pro blogging “secrets”.

Please don’t tell to anybody that you’ve found these secrets.

Alright, I’m just joking. If you’ve found this post worthy of your time, you may share and retweet it.  Just click on the green “retweet” button on the upper right corner of this post. I’ll appreciate that.

And before we get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a quick reminder – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”

RSS is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video — in a standardized format [source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS]

Here Are Three Easy Steps To Blog Brofit With RSS

Step #1 – Add Feedburner On Your Blog

FeedBurner is a no-cost RSS management service owned by Google that enables you turn your RSS original feed into a feedburner standard LINK.

Once you create an account, make sure you redirect your default wordpress feed to feedBurner by logging into your control panel and changing your feed settings.

If you don’t know how to setup your feedburner, kindly get in touch with me and I’m willing to do it for you.

Step #2 – Update Your Ping Services

Whenever you publish a new post on your blog, RSS feed directories will be notified by your new post; some might index your post/link, just as Google does. It simply means that you are telling the virtual world that you have new and exciting content in your blog!

How to get the maximum out of this feature?

When you go in the “settings” – “writing” options you’ll be able to add a list with all the RSS feed links you know, or that are available out there.

Here’s a list with four such links

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://ping.feedburner.com

Step #3 – Publish Great Content Frequently

There’s no secret about it; top-notch content that your readers want is what will attract massive traffic to your blog over the long run.

And RSS makes it easy to send your stuff in your subscribers inbox, saving them time and providing them with solutions to their wants and needs.

If you look at the bloggers who really make a killing online from their blogs, they all focus on just one thing – building a massive subscriber list via RSS or email. – Pawan Agrawal

I challenge you to turn your RSS blog feed into cash today – click here to learn how: RSS To Email!

And by the way, If you are not yet a subscriber of BlogDeManila, you can easily subscribe by going to my special page “Getting Updates from BlogDeManila”. I’ll be happy if you do.

Update:Unannounced Tip: As of October 29, 2009 AdSense for feeds now available directly in Blogger

A client of mine is looking for a new webhost but not just any kind of  provider. It should be a Windows hosting provider. There are numerous providers out there but mostly they are offering a Linux webhost only.

My client will not just simply install a blog  but he’s developing an ASP.NET website. He’s actually a Windows guy and it’s just natural for him to look for a reliable windows hosting.

I had a long chat with Jade  of MommaWannabe last week because she was looking for a cheap hosting. While searching for the right hosting provider for her, I’ve found out about this Window hosting company called  Hosting Fest.  They are supporting the classic ASP, ASP.NET,Microsoft SQL Server and other technologies such as ASP.NET Ajax extensions. This is exactly the kind of hosting provider that my client is looking for.

If you know any Windows hosting provider that can beat the offerings of Hosting Fest, please let me know. It would be great if they have affiliates program too

Whoa, it’s exactly one month today since my last post.  So what really happened to me and BlogDeManila.com?

First, I had a problem with my webhost.

Yes, you’ve read it right.  I have other 6 other blogs/websites that I’m managing and, unfortunately, only BlogDeManila (BDM) was affected. The good news is, it’s already up and running!

Second, I survived Storm Ondoy!

I won’t bore you the details about it but I  did some rescuing on my mom-in-laws’ house, who was home alone when the storm hit. Unfortunately while doing the rescue mission, I accidentally stepped on a sharp object while crossing a raging water.  In just few hours, my right foot swelled that made me nervous. Since I can’t walk properly, my brother in-law rescued me from their house at 4AM and brought me to the hospital for the anti-tetanus shot.

By the way, my brother-in-law  lost PhP .5M  worth of equipments due to this flood. He was not home when it happened and most of his photography and office equipments submerged into the muddy water.

Recovered Photography Equipments

Third, I survived Storm Pepeng!

Kennon Road Entry - Storm Pepeng

We went to Baguio City two days before Storm Pepeng hits the Northern part of the Philippines. We were aware that a storm is coming but we don’t have any idea that it will stay for a week and will bring a catastrophic damages in the area. The weather forecast at that time was, the storm will just past hurriedly because of it’s speed. We were really surprised that it stayed and brought down all the water of Pacific ocean continuously for seven days!

Kennon Road - Storm Pepeng

After surviving all the virtual and real life drama, I’m proud to report that BlogDeManila is alive, kicking and ready to rock the Blogosphere again!

I don’t want to sound bitter against Nuffnang. This is not about the company nor the ads they are running on their network. I just want to rant about their support.

Last Thursday, September 10, 2009, I received an email from Nuffnang with a subject ” SMART is giving away Php 500,000 daily!” Within the body of the message there is this link to Smart’s website on where to get more information, but when I followed the link  I received a “404″ error. It means the page is unreachable or not existing.

I’m a bit curious ( “suspicious” is the right word) because how can Nuffnang broadcast an email to all their publishers where in fact the link to the Smart site is invalid.

I sent a message to Nuffnang using their support page on the same day  I received their email. Below was my first email.

Subject: Please confirm if it\'s true
Date: 11 Sep 2009 12:35 AM 

I received an email today regarding SMART’s BigTym Buddy Promo.
Is this true?
I'm asking this because I cannot find any news on smart.com.ph website.
I'm planning to post about this but I need the confirmation if it's true.
Thanks and God Bless!

And here’s what I received from their support the following day:

We have no projects with Smart at the moment, so we cannot answer that
 question, unfortunately.

Best Regards,
Marcelle T. Fabie

Marketing Sales
Nuffnang Philippines Inc.
http://www.nuffnang.com.ph/

I still could not believe it. How on earth they (Nuffnang) can announced a promo like this if they have no project with Smart?

I was not satisfied with their reply. I searched heaven and earth but I could not find any post on Nuffnang’s site and blog as well. The stubbornness in me was reigning that day so I sent another support email.

Since the staff  replied that they have no project with Smart, I attached an image of the email I received from them together with this message:

Hi Marcelle,

I'm just worried that perhaps somebody is using Nuffnang to send unscrupulous
 email to all bloggers.
See the attachment. This is the email that I received from noreply@nuffnang.com

I hope you can investigate this and update us ASAP.

Thanks.

Regards,
eric

On the next day, September 11, the date of the launching of the promo, I was monitoring Smart’s site if ever the page will come alive. And guess what? Smart’s website did not disappoint me. The promo was launched in the morning of September 11 as announced!

3 days after I sent my last support to Nuffnang, they replied to my “ASAP” inquiry with this:

 Subject: Re: Please confirm if it\'s true
 Date: 14 Sep 2009 03:09 PM  Posted by:  Marcelle Fabie  (Staff) 

All right. I checked, and we launched the e-mail blast on that day itself, and
 was informed about it only afterwards. Yep, it's a legitimate promo. Thanks!
Best Regards,
Marcelle T. Fabie

Marketing Sales
Nuffnang Philippines Inc.
http://www.nuffnang.com.ph/

I don’t know what is happening within Nuffnang. I like their network marketing company even if a lot of bloggers are telling me that they are not earning enough on it. This exchange of emails shows that either that particular staff doesn’t what do they have or perhaps  Nuffnang Philippines doesn’t know what are the projects of their mother company – Nuffnang (Singapore). I was just guessing that it’s Nuffnang Singapore who was able to bagged this promo from SMART and not Nuffnang Philippines.

Lastly, if anybody from Nuffnang is reading this post, kindly update the content of  your page with your current promos.

There’s a worm on the loose and it’s attacking blogs and websites powered by WordPress.

If you are using WordPress, make sure that you are using the latest version. According to some WordPress developers, this is the only way to secure your site.

Older WordPress verions have security holes that are being actively exploited by hackers to inject spam links. You either Upgrade or Die. Not really, but your site may drop-off the search engine radar.

Matt Mullenweg (main developer of WordPress) , wrote “The only thing that I can promise will keep your blog secure today and in the future is upgrading.”

Clues That Your Site Has Been Attacked :

1. Strange additions to the pretty permalink such as /category/post-title/%&(%7B$%7Beval(base64_decode($_SERVER%5BHTTP_REFERER%5D))%7D%7D|.+)&%/. Check Journeyetc.com on how to fix this.
2. A new “admin” user has been added.  Try to check your site users for “Administrator (2)”.This admin uses a javascript to hide itself. You can not even see his “presence” on your dashboard’s users page.

Steps You Need To Do

1. Backup your site. Export your posts to your local drive using WordPress export tool.
2. Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade!
3. Change password.
4. If your site had been attacked, read My site was hacked.
5. If you need help in upgrading, just leave a comment here and BDM might be able to help you.
6. If you are running a corporate site/blog and you need help right away, you may want to get  in touch with WordPress Help Center.

For Advance Users

If you want to make sure that there are no extra administrators registered and hiding in your blog, you can either run this SQL query directly on your MySQL client or do it from phpMyAdmin by selecting your WordPress database as suggested by Dougal Campbell.

This is not to scare you but the threat is real. I’m not here like a prophet of doom, but to warn and perhaps be able to help you in any possible way I can.