Just attended the 2-day I-BLOG 3, the 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit held at the UP School of Economics Auditorium organized by the UP Law Internet and Society Program.
I have been a ‘Netizen for about a dozen years now. I’ve had and still have several personal websites. I rarely engage in chatting so there was no chance for me to establish any friendly relationships through the Internet.
I started blogging only last year and I realized how much easier it is to maintain blogs than websites. Since there is so much buzz about making money through Google Adsense, I thought I’d give it a try. I put Google Ads on three (blogs) and in very prominent positions. After a few thousand unique visits to my blogs, my total Google revenue is just a bit over TWO DOLLARS.
Something was obviously wrong. Then I read about Technorati ratings. To my surprise, my blog (this one) ranks LOWER than the other blog even though this blog gets 4 times as many visitors as the other one. Obviously, something is wrong again.
When I got both blogs’ BLOG JUICE, both got the same value (3 or 4, I don’t remember exactly).
When I heard about IBLOG 3, I decided to attend. And well, I’m glad I did. I got several pointers, many of which merely confirmed my suppositions.
I got to know such things as Google’s Page Rank. This blog has a page rank of 3 while my other blog has a page rank of 1. Just shows that Google and Technorati don’t agree on rankings.
And I realized that the big difference with personal websites and blogging is that in blogging, you cannot make money out of your site if you are not part of a big community of bloggers unless you have tons of money to hire SEO services, pay for directory listings and pay for your advertisements.
And since this is a Moro blog, and there are few Moro bloggers, this blog would remain a blog in search of a community. Oh well, so what’s new?
After a dozen years or so in the ‘Net, this is my first ever Internet-related social affair. It was a nice experience. It was also free – including lunch and snacks although I had to take my lunch elsewhere because the food was always pork.
Incidentally, I had not been to UP in over two years. I had my lunch at my favorite eatery – KHAS Foodhouse – which serves Pakistani food. While eating lunch today, one of the cooks, a woman in her 50s, smiled when she saw me. She then went to me and said “Si sir, bumalik. Ang tagal na…” ( Sir came back. It’s been so long.) I was quite pleasantly surprised that she remembers me.
Back to the Summit, at the end of the first day, all the participants were invited to have some snacks and drinks at the UP hotel. I got to exchange notes with some bloggers –
Jester, Lauren, and the guys of Technoville.net. They were all OK.
I was also introduced to Misteryosa and Kutitots. Seems like Pinoy bloggers are now known by their blog names or "brands". It reminds me of the days of CB radio when CB enthusiasts were known by their call signs.
And to cap it all, I won P1000 – Rustan’s gift certificate from GLOBE. Not bad at all.
Congratulations to the 3rd Philippine Blogging Summit!