Davao Bloggers Christma Party and group launch

Good Evening all.

I’m blogging right now from the Davao Bloggers Christmas Party which is held at the Ma’am Bebs. Aside from the festive celebration of Christmas and simply having some fun this 4th of December, 2009; the people behind the Avatar Media group is seeking for fellow Davao Bloggers to step up and participate in the organization of the Davao Bloggers Society or whatever name they’ll gonna give to the group.

The Davao Bloggers group will be spearheaded by Ria Jose as the President and Dulce Lada as Vice President. The Official Name of the blogging group selected from the folowing, Davao Blog Squad, Davao Blogers, Davao Bloggers Society, Davao Blogers Group, Davao Blogers Association is going to be the plain and simple Davao Bloggers. Notably without the Society at the end unlike the other Blogging Societies from Cagayan, General Santos, etc

I’ll be updating this blog later on with the aftermath post as we’re just about to eat

Digital Filipino Club Davao Event 2009

Last years Digital Filipino Club Event here in Davao City was not schedule this early but to a surprise of many, this years Digital Filipino Club Event in Davao City will kick off in July already! The Digital Filipino Club and commencement of the top blogs of 2008 in 2008 was one of the most prestigious events where I was able to somehow shine for a moment, and looking back to where I have been a year ago, I am proud to say that I have further progressed and enhanced that personality and that website that was an hit during the third and fourth quarter of the passing year, and yet again the same seasonal mood is tuning in on Pinoy Teens, where the blog is starting to have it’s own wave in terms of Alexa Ranking and other perspectives.

With this, I would like to invite all of you to take part in the Digital Filipino Club 2009 Event here in Davao City, Philippines. Where bloggers, online marketers and their like meet together at a venue to talk and have a gathering with each other to interact with one another and share the common interest which in general refers to the interest in working on the internet or any other internet related activities. This years event from the Digital Filipino Club is scheduled for the 18th of July, 2009 which is a Saturday and will still be hosted by the Grand Regal Hotel (I’m finally of legal age and hope that I won’t have any issues entering the venue again this year). So if you want to meet some other cool online personalities make friends for link exchanges and socialize with people of common interest, then this is the hottest local event to attend to, and if socializing is not enough, then probably, the free food might lure you to the said occasion, anyways, I hope to see you there at the Digital Filipino Club 2009 Event in Davao City!

Early Updates for the Philippine WordCamp 09

As early as May, Blogie and the fellow people who are working behind the scene for the WordCamp Philippines 2009 announced that they are already doing their tasks to organize the said blogging event. The venue is set, the date is set and all that we’re looking forward now is you, fellow bloggers to participate in this years WordCamp event, even if you’re not a WordPress blogger, be there, and we’ll convert you into one :p

Last year, we had two WordCamps, a Mini WordCamp back here in Davao City whilst the major event was held at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) in Luzon. The difference from last years event will be, that we are up to pay something in order to attend, this is to avoid trouble with the shirts, fees and to reach expectations that haven’t really been met in the former meet up -of generally, WordPress wannabes-

The price range being discussed right now is from 750 Pesos to 1,500 Pesos, with available discounts for Students (wala bang discounts for Davao attendees? hehe), which is said to include snacks and a WordCamp Shirt (Ate brendel, saan na ang pinapangako mong shirt! hmp! :p)

Smart to lead the air ways

Smart Bro will be sponsoring the internet connection again, and surprisingly, Smart was able to accommodate everyone at Saint Benilde with fast internet connection throughout the day! Let’s hope that the internet will be up and running again like at the WordCamp Philippines last year and that we won’t fall pray to Smart Bro-kens trademark like at the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2008.

Other important updates..

WordCamp Philippines Merchandise is on its way, in stickers and in other forms, but I really love the stickers as you can see on Lyle Santos‘ Laptop published at Blogie’s blog. I don’t know much about the prices though, but rest assured that we’ll keep you updated about this year’s WordCamp and let’s hope that we’ll all see each other there and be friends.

As early as now, if you don’t mind asking, who’s going to attend it?

The Student Blogger is ONLINE

I am happy to inform you that Kevin has just finished creating his new website, which was formerly known as his personal blog and now to be known as The Student Blogger. A blog talking about being a student and a blogger at the same time, a blog talking on how our dearest administrator and student blogger Kevin earns his “baon” online and how he keeps up with the daily challenges of this rapidly changing online journey.

[Read more]

Copy Paste Issue

I wonder, if there is no ending to this issue on the world wide web. Yes, news spread from one site to another and are being carried throughout the world wide web like a flash, but, do we need to reproduce exactly the same thing like other websites do?

I’m talking about those shameful copycats who are desperate after the money that they could earn from stealing others content, and are eventually even being praised by their respective readers (who are not really aware of the trickery behind the scene). There are tons of websites with only a few news to be posted everyday, but, won’t you get bored seeing the same odd thing on every blog? Yes, it appears to be absolutely true that more than 80 percent of the world wide web is just being copied from other websites and sources and passed on, until the original author isn’t anymore recognized. [Read more]

13 Things Bloggers should NOT DO

There are more than ten factors that are getting on my nerves about a couple of bloggers and their blogs, but after thinking about all these factors, I’ve boiled everything down to 10 major factors or things that bloggers should avoid doing.

1. Have the I Blog For Money Only Character – You’re not blogging for making money, aren’t you? ’cause if you are really only blogging for money, but a big disclaimer up and let everyone know what for a money lusty person you are. Oh, and don’t call yourself a blogger if money making is your sole purpose of the blog.
2. Choose Blogspot – This counts for those bloggers who can afford buying domain, hosting and all other things, do you really need to choose the shorter when you have everything you need to lift your blogging career to the next level?
3. Spread the Word about EVERY SINGLE POST you make – There’s no need to let the whole world know about EVERY SINGLE POST you wrote, it’s okay to do so for post that you are really confident about which may catch the attention of other people lurking the world wide web, but I doubt that a lot of people would be interested about what you had as your breakfast meal.
4. [Read more]

Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2008

To make long things short I’m bringing out this post straight to the point about the Mindanao Bloggers Summit. Although, I wanted to make this a quite long one which turned out to be effective for Ate Brendel and Kuya Lyle when they read my Digital Filipino Club post.

So, I was on my way to General Santos City on my own. No one accompanied me when I went on a Air Conditioned Holiday Bus set for Gensan with a single stop at Digos City. I was supposed to meet Ate Grace and co at around 1 o’clock but it took them years to respond, so my mother made the move and told me to get on the bus now.

It wasn’t quite long until I had some accompaniment I could talk to, someone I knew since the WordCamp in Davao and someone who I met at the Digital Filipino Club of Davao. You guessed it, Charles Ortiz was beside me on the bus from Digos City onwards. He was also the kind person who sponsored all my goods like food and beverages in General Santos, including fare every now and then. And not to forget, he was my room mate at the Sleep Inn.

We arrived in General Santos City around 6 in the evening. The sky was cloudy and the athmosphere was pretty lone and monotonous. My eyes tend not to see any visible changes between Davao and Gensan, but I felt what was the difference. The atmoshpere was quite thick, the warmth around the place was different. In general, Gensan is a place of some temperature.

After waiting a couple of minutes, the said “sundo” that Kuya Avel has promised us arrived, with a fella from WordCamp Philippines, Aethen. He brought us right in front of the Sleep Inn’s door steps and left us after a while since they had to fetch other participants from the terminal as well.

I felt sleepy already but hey, the night is still young and there’s yet more to come!

We went to the Family Country Hotel, looking for the others, since Aethen has told us that there’ll be a dinner with the other organizers. But unfortunately dinner at the Family Country Hotel was negative. But, we were able to make use of their Wi-Fi Connection, check out some plugins, install some and maintain our blogs for a while. As we transferred from the Cafe to the Lobby, sad news reached me.

Pinoy Teens Online (pinoyteens.net) was down for more than 14 hours already, including the website of my host and almost all other websites that I run on that same server, not to forget my hosting service. I felt very nervous indeed, “what should I present to the people tomorrow if in case they would like to see my blog?”

I immediately setup a tempoary blog with wordpress.com, yet I misspelled the word KABATAAN to KABTAAN and decided to pay 10 USD to map my other pinoyteens domain name to the account to mask that mistake committed. And that’s the story how the 10 USD got wasted. Now, let’s set aside my personal problem with my domain name and hop over to a dinner at Grab A Crab.

I’m not quite a fan of seafoods, so I can’t tell how the food tastes like, but hey, it looked pretty yummy and almost seduced my lips to be devirginized for the first time eating crabs, but I insisted. All that I ate was a little beef sauce and a cup of rice, nothing more, nothing less. I just had too much trouble on my mind that time. At Grab-A-Crab, I was able to meet Kuya Avel, the one who emailed me to attend Mindanao Bloggers Summit and finally came to convince me.

Their stay wasn’t quite long and a talk was not to be expected since they all departed from the Restaurant and went back to the venue to prepare everything for the upcoming 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit which happened on the next day.

The main event up ahead:

It isn’t quite noticable that I was very sleepy that morning. Seems like I started my day with the wrong foot. Or was I just too stressed from Pinoy Teens Online’s downtime?

anyways, the event kicked off and everything was set. My site was up and running we’ve got a laptop and internet connection, everything was just fine and how it was expected. But, the internet connection really sucks big time.

The Mindanao Blogggers Summit in general was a great event and venue for all bloggers around Mindanao to inspire them, make them realize and understand the beauty of our place. Convince them to promote our dearest Mindanao in a good way. Wash away the negative image that media has put on us and make them come to see, what they haven’t seen yet. The other, positive side of Mindanao.

I met quite a couple of familiar faces from other blogging events that I have attended. I was able to exchange a couple of words with the people  present and was able to listen to what the speakers had to share. Everything seemed to be interesting the way they engaged the people in attendance. And the event has almost convinced me to create a blog for Mindanao and contribute to the Mindanao Bloggers Community. Yet time and energy won’t allow me to. Since I’m a student yet who’s up for graduation.

Speaking about being a student, another student in attendance who was able to give a shout out was Mikko. One of the people I recall who flamed here on Pinoy Teens. I wonder how he made it up there and talk. Well, his school, University of the Philippines adds much to his reputation. Whilst I see it from the rear opposite. But that’s another blog post that I’ll be writing up.

For those who are really wondering why I said that and are looking for answers well, a couple of months ago, when I was still a newbie in the blogoshpere and was a little voice among the others (I still believe I am one), I was so bad and got a very interesting article from ABC-CBN which I wanted to share to my few readers, unfortunately, I forgot to add the foot notes of the post (credits bah) (it’s the first time I left them out). A few hours when I checked on my dashboard the incoming links and my comments I saw a link from his site to mine and a comment on my blog.

He wrote a post about me copying content from other websites and labled the post On Posting Copyrighted Material. Wouldn’t it be nicer if he would have just left a comment and reminded me about it? Being someon who’s quite old in the blogoshpere that time, it shouldn’t be a problem. Unless…. - Princess Quin

The morning and afternoon sessions were completed. (parang WordCamp Saint Benilde, may sessions sessions?! XD) Sachimi dinner was next on the list, oh wait, Kuya Lyle sets us all up with his Mr Almighty prank!

Heading back to the hall, I was left alone by my buddies because I was yet blogging again. Though I wasn’t all alone, the band scheduled to perform later on was rehearsing their numbers.

After the tasty dinner, Party time was on again (just like at Digital Filipino Club) but just a little bit more wacky!

[flickr album=72157608453440859 num=10 size=Square]

Hope to see more people during the 3rd Summit here in Mindanao and all the objectives set for the next  months to be achieved. Let’s altogether witness the positive change here in Mindanao and all of us contribute to the development that everyone dreams of..

I would love to share even more from the event which I can’t do with just so little time left. Hopefully, I can finish my post about the trp last Sunday with all the pictures and link love to all those I have met. Let this be all for now and good night!

ps: Thanks to Kuya Avel. More thanks link love, photos, stories about the whole Gensan experience coming up soon!

Grand Regal, Bloggers and more – an Epic

Like I have mentioned a couple of hours ago, the recent Blogging Network Event that I attended was full of  fun, joy and entertainment. I met new people, I made new friends and I got the good news that Pinoy Teens Online has occupied the 10th spot in the Philippine Blogoshpere for the Top 100 Blogs of 2008 according to Andrew’s Ratified.Org Algorithm.

But that was way not all. Let me start from the very first thing that happened. I was lost. Stranded, in other words. I had to seek for a station that would allow me to transfer my G-Cash into real money because I ran out of it. (that damn taxi I took was really fast in terms of counting money). You might come to wonder why I was lost. Well, I didn’t arrive at the correct venue when I got off the Taxi, I went all the way to the Waterfront. Lol.

I honestly forgot the exact location of the event, and I was lost in Lanang because I go there very rare and my knowledge around that place is very scarce. But somehow, with the help of my girl friend, I managed to make it still. She texted me the exact location of the event and I was enlightened. “Sabi ko nga, sa Hotel nga mismo!” But there was still a little bump in my way. “San nga ba yun?”

And again, I made it somehow. And again, a bump came up. They almost didn’t allow me to enter because I am still 17 years of age, something that some people don’t believe in. (haha). Yet I managed to exchange a couple of words and convince the guards that I will stay only at our assigned venue. So there we go and there I go up the stairs of the hall.

Arriving at the venue, my fellow friend invited me to share a table with them and I did so. And on that particular table, the first person I started being-”makulit” to was the popularly known Drama Queen of Davao City and the Philippine Blogoshpere. I also came to meet our table neighboors, Grace and her buddies who were also around during the event. She’ll be the one who will accompany me to General Santos city. Then I noticed different voices speaking. The people where introducing themselves to everyone and just after a couple of minutes, my turn came. And hey, it was like trash. It wasn’t anything sensational but the rear opposite of it. I felt tensed and nervous at the same time because the people in attendance may be a bit less than the Software Freedom Day, but of some higher class, including Mindanao Bloggers head Kuya Blogie who was just a table away from me. I was able to introduce myself as Kevin Paquet the author of Pinoy Teens Online, Poetic Notes and the man in-charge of th free hosting service PhilippineHost.Com

After each and everyone of the blogging enthusiast where able to introduce themselves, the real thing kicked off. And that with a couple of words from Ate Janette of which I can’t recall a single one because I wasn’t listening since I was checking my Blog’s Comments XD (peace). Then the talk in front went on and went on, while I, Ghenessa, Meiyah and Faust kept on talking and talking about WordPress related stuff and struts like some of the coolest plugins in town that everyone needs. (I’ll have a weekly plugin session here soon, watch out for that).

And the mood for me which settled from being pretty much laxed and neutral to a bit more tensed and excited as I noticed a couple of very familiar blogs flash on the projector infront. The top 100 blogs for 2008 according to Ratified.Org are about to be introduced for the very first time. And then, the good news came. Pinoy Teens along with Lyle Santos’ Pinoy R.N made it to the top 10th and 3rd (correct me if I’m wrong) respectively. Both of us were called to go to front and share something and again, ridiculous nonsense words came out of my mouth. (I mean it, I wanted to say so many things haha)

After the first part of the program, Party Time was next to hit the floor. Peope danced, others drunk a bit and a couple of Photo Addicts took pictures from almost every angle and every place of the room. But hey, I won’t give in that easily and went to photo mode as well with my lonely Kodak Digital Camera in hand.I got a couple of shots with Blogie and some with the strange foreigner whose name I can’t recall.

The Group of Ara wasn’t the only one who took pictures during the event, Charles joined the troop as well and took a picture from me in the midst of the crowd and another one while holding a beer glass, but believe me guys, I didn’t drink anything from it.

I took pictures solo with a couple of cute girls like Ara (who has linked to me from her article about the event, yay!). I also got a bunch of pictures from other bloggers who were around. Excluding those few bumps that came along prior the event, the whole evening was pretty much perfect for me or let’s say was “almost perfect” for me. But again, my age made me play the underdog.

Despite the fact that I arrived quite late at the said event, my registration number, still made me win 500 Pesos, which I was unable to claim. Those 500 Pesos were given out in coupon which could be used to play at the Casino, which I’m unfortunately unable to do. I decided instead, to give it over to one of my friends who could benefit more from it and after all, it turned out that the coupon came back to me. With no loss nor win at all.

The hour long Pictorial finally took its end and the bloggers took off from the venue one by one or let me say crowd by crowd. I was supposed to be fetched by my mother dearest yet she was unable to respond to my missed calls and text for over an hour as we (namely me, Charles, Migs, Faust and co) went downstairs to interview one of the first iPhone 3G Users of Davao City (well, he’s the first that I know). A post regarding the iPhone 3G will be posted as soon as possible.

After the short interview, given by Migs which was recorded by the four of us, we decided to go to the Parking Lot accompanied by Blogie and Janette and their fellas. Bluegre was the next destination on the list. Unfortunately, not all of us fit into the vehicle, so WhyNotCoconut.Com owner Charles, Faust and I decided to ride a Taxi instead.

While in the Taxi, we discussed about a couple of very vital plugins that a blog should have, some of those that we were able to mention include All In One SEO, Google XML Sitemap, FD Feedburner and a lot more which those two would like to get more information of.

And guess what we were talking at the Cafe? Our discussion regarding blogs continues. We talked about copywriting, how bad it would be to copy paste content from others, what would be a competitive and interesting way to take advantage of hot topics you see on other blogs.

We all came to the conclusion that whatever you’re doing whether you’re one of the top people in terms of SEO and own a very high page ranked domain name, it’s still the content that makes you King and decides who among the many will go to the frontpage of Google and the other Search Engines.

When we departed from our last destination (Bluegre) I was able to shot a couple of “Filipino Teens” who are  “active at night” some of the less fortunate brothers and sisters of ours who felt a little bit happy the moment they’ve been caught on camera.

This concludes my 7 hour journey, another unforgettable experiance adding to the list of the couple that I have already. It seems like one event after another comes with even more unflagging success and the Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2008, looks as promising to be one of those great events that is already knocking on the doors of the Bloggers around the General Santos Area and the Bloggers from the Mindanao Bloggers Community.

Hope to see some familiar faces in General Santos City, who among you will be going there?

And also another question, could you add me in my Yahoo! Messenger? :p i.believe_11 I’d like to extend my network of friends around the Durian City.

Other people that I forgot to mention in this ubberlong post whom I was able to exchange a couple of words with:

• Pvegeta
• Alritch

Leave a comment guys, nawala ang list of URLs ko XD

Video

• Digital Filipino Club Group Blog (Aice)

Photos

• Candid, Group, and Pictorials at the Davao Blogger Event (Charles)
• Meiyah (will point to actual set once created)
• Digital Filipino Club – Bloggers Eyeball (Raphael)

Blog post

1. Bloggers Networking Event (Jedmeister)
2. Digital Filipino Club Event (Neolle)
3. DigitalFilipino Club Davao Bloggers Networking Event (Denxioz)
4. DigitalFilipino.com Club Networking Event at Grand Regal Hotel (Meiyah)
5. Me & My Food at Blogger’s Night (Badz)
6. Bloggers Networking Meet Ups
7. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Bloggers Networking Event (Ara)
   
8. DigitalFilipino.com and Davao Bloggers Networking Event
9. Davao Bloggers Networking Eyeball by DigitalFilipino.com Club (Lyle)
10. Digital Filipino Club Networking Event (DeeJames)
11. Blogger’s Fellowship Night (Louraine)
12. Food, Fun, and Cash at the Digital Filipino Club Bloggers’ Eyeball (Kathy)
13. Davao Bloggers Eyeball at PAGCOR (Bambam)
14. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Blogger Eyeball Photos (Mary Grace)
15. People at DigitalFilipino.com and Davao Bloggers Event (Charles)
16. Digital Filipino and Davao Bloggers Networking Party Last Night (Charles)
17. DigitalFilipino Club – Bloggers Networking Event (Dennis)
18. The DigitalFilipino Club – Mindanao Bloggers Fellowship Night (Gagay)
19. Just Got Back from a Bloggers’ Networking Event (CyNurse)
20. DigitalFilipino Blogger’s Gathering at Grand Regal Hotel (Rhodilee)
21. DigitalFilpino.com Club and Bloggers Davao Networking Event (Oliver LV)
22. DigitalFilipino.com Club – Bloggers Eyeball (Raphael)
23. Ratified.org Top 100, We’re #10 (Kevin)
24. DigitalFilipino.com Club and Bloggers Davao Networking Event (Cesar)
25. DigitalFilipino.com Club networking event (Migs)

Ratified.Org Top 100, we’re #10

It may not have been posted on the Ratified.Org blog yet, but I attended the event called Digital Filipino Club & Bloggers Networking Event just a couple of hours ago and had the very pleasing news delivered to my eyes and ears first-hand.

We’ve made it, we’re one of the top blogs for the year 2008 according to Ratified.Org and are ranked #10 if not mistaken. It’s a honor to be ranked as high as that on a Ranking System that has more than a couple of hundred websites in their database. Let’s hope for the best for the upcoming weeks and months here on Pinoy Teens.

For more information about the event, you’ll have to wait for a day or two until I get a good post of everything that happened out. But just one thing that I’d like to emphasize, I had fun. WordCamp Davao was very entertaining, the Software Freedom Day wasn’t bad too, yet this event has gotten even better. I wonder how much I’ll come to like the Mindanao Bloggers Summit this weekend.

Since Words do often tend to speak louder than words, let me allow to share to you one or two pictures from the event that was held at Grand Regal Hotel few hours ago. (You can see the images within the post)

Digital Filipino Club Bloggers Event

Guess what, it’s again an event where we, Pinoy Teens Online will be part of, the DigitalFilpinoClub.Com Club & Bloggers Networking Event which will be held on the 21st (which is today) October at the Pantawan Hall, Grand Regal Hotel, Lanang, Davao City.

This is a event fro where bloggers of the Davao City region and maybe as well as from the Mindanao Region come together. It promisingly sounds bigger than WordCamp Davao, because WordCamp Davao was a little bit more specific for WordPress Users (but still some other Open Source Coders and BlogSpot Users were around, if not mistaken).

Follow-up events are also going to happen in Cebu and Manila in the next few days. One thing that we’re really looking forward to is the Ratified.ORG Top 100 Blogs for 2008 – Filipino blogs that had big moves in 2008. Of which we hope, that we are part of, despite the fact that both traffic and Technorati Authority, we’re totally dropping.

Accompanying me there will either be Princess Quin who is tentatively unavailable for this afternoon and/or my classmate Raymond Torre who may also not be available this afternoon because he might be absent.

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