My First Speaking Engagement *Changed Sked

Today I received below email. I actually said no the first time I was asked, being allergic to making presentations (I’ve had enough of that in previous jobs!). But I guess I’m too much of a sucker for a good compliment:

We�re hoping that you could do a 30-minute to an hour talk about blogging as a business venture. I would have chosen from our blogger-attendees during the 88DB Bloggers Night last month but I deemed that your Exchange sites are more successful than other blog sites. Since it is a short talk, I think you would be able to come up with a minimal presentation. A projector will be provided.

Man they sure know how to get a guy’s attention. But then they said this:

Continue reading My First Speaking Engagement *Changed Sked

Learn To Read

One of the nice things I like about big Press gigs is you occasionally get the chance to talk to other writers, many of whom have been in the business for decades. Yesterday I was seated beside friends from Manila Tribune, a sorta celeb guy from Studio 23 and interestingly enough, editors from 34 year old magazine Mod.

I unfortunately wasn’t able to ask for a calling card, so I forgot her name in the mayhem that is a Press event that included the usual big announcements, a displaying of new prods plus of course feeding us and raffling off prizes. At any rate we fortunately found time to small talk about a topic close to my heart, the dwindling number of readers and quality of written and spoken English in the Philippines, something she knew well about, coincidentally being a CEU Journalism Professor as well.

So here’re I’ll share a few things I’ve learned to believe.

One, is that I don’t think ‘Learn To Read campaigns’ are very effective. I’ve seen the ones Inquirer tried to do plus maybe a few others, and they’ve tried going the celebrity route (celebs explaining what reading has done for them etc.) but for the most part, that turns me off more than interests me. Of course, I’ve never been interested in celebs in the first place, so I’m probably an exception.

Continue reading Learn To Read

Yay.

Today is a milestone day for the Exchanges, which I’ll extend to my person, if it doesn’t mind, as well. I just had a meeting that I’d never thought would’ve happened if I didn’t have my notes and their calling cards on my left breast pocket as proof. A meeting with the kind of people and the kind of topic that I’d have only dreamed about, and if you’d have told me would happen a month ago I’d have told you you were talking nonsense.

No it’s not Google or anything even close, but to me its a big step forward. I’m really sorry for not being able to talk about it directly, but I figure its good logic and business sense to keep my mouth shut, at least till things are on black and white.

Continue reading Yay.

2nd Server Migration Complete!

Last night Jan. 11, we managed to completely transfer Kikay Exchange, Basketball Exchange and Mom Exchange onto the new server hosted at Tri-Isys. I changed nameserver entries by 930pm and as I write this at 741am the domain has completely resolved to its new IP address at least in my part of the world.

Tri-Isys via its hosting arm b2b.com.ph is (as far as we know) the first to offer commercial VPS hosting in the Philippines, offering terrific peerage to all domestic telcos Globe, Bayantel, Smart, etc., and especially PLDT. Their VPS is physically located at PLDT exchanges (either in Binondo or C5 – not sure) which guarantee almost LAN like data transfer for local viewers.

We are expecting faster access times for the greater part of Exchange.ph subscribers, which are approximately 88% local as shown in this graph from Google Analytics:

Can’t wait till the weekdays, when traffic is strongest, to check performance!

Continue reading 2nd Server Migration Complete!

Kikay Exchange’s Breakthrough Day

Our baby had an important day yesterday, Nov. 9th, for the first time registering 617 unique hits, the most ever in one day.

So let me just say it: Our little baby is now a lady :). Urk.

Anyway, the most number of visitors was recorded at 58 concurrent at 10:00 in the morning, with the least at 6 people at 5AM. That’s an average of 25.7 visitors per hour.

Continue reading Kikay Exchange’s Breakthrough Day

I was about to start writing about this tragic PBA event

at Ballex (Noli Eala’s disbarment), when I happened to speak (YM) with Ruby Gan, one of our faaahbulous sponsors at Kikay Exchange, and owner of the Schu line of women’s shoes. Of course while talking to her, I do what most people normally do, and that’s check out her blog.

And lo and behold, I chanced upon the results of our contest with her – an online contest where she asks schu owners to send in pictures with the theme ‘Are you wearing your today‘,(ongoing with still a month to go) and I was absolutely floored with the results so far. In particular, this one:

aug022007_schu_2.jpg

by Aggie, taken at the very recognizable Bulwagang Pilipino steps, and this one:

aug022007_schu_1.jpg

by Leah, showing how she uses her shoes for work.

Continue reading I was about to start writing about this tragic PBA event

Here’s a short long list of things I
need / want to do at this very moment.

  • Write a pulsating, heart rending blogpost about DLSU getting ripped by ADMU the other night for Ballex.
  • *NEW – Write a pulsating, heart rending blogpost about RP’s win against China last night.
  • Fix Kikay’s navigation issues.
  • Make a graphic for Kikay re Sale Alerts.
  • Contact a manufacturer of a cool product I like for feature on Kikay.
  • Make a feature article for Kikay on a new product I checked out last night (secret)
  • Make the Nike Post for Momex.
  • Make a (camera manufacturer) post for Ballex.
  • Prepare Sales Kit for Kikay.
  • Make a graphic for Mom for MomEx Forum.
  • Ask parent – friends to sell their used stuff on MomEx Forum.
  • Deal with a person who wants to sell items on MomEx.
  • Make a movie review of any of the last 3-5 movies I’ve watched recently for MovieEx.
  • Make a new graphic for MomEx Parents Ponder.
  • Add RSS feeds to my phone whose GPRS I’m starting to enjoy.
  • Write Start on SME article.
  • Make a new poll for Ballex.
  • Investigate the forum mod John Knight and Cola requested for BallEx forum.
  • Work for an hour a day for a week on client’s site.

    okidokey. off to work.

  • Announcing: The Mom Exchange Garage Sale!

    What is the MomEx Garage Sale?

    The MomEx Garage Sale was created to address two nagging questions every parent eventually realizes: The first being: “What am I going to do with my baby’s old stuff?“, and the second: “Where can I buy a pre-owned but functional baby car seat, toys or educational material?“. Enter MomEx’s Garage Sale, which allows parents to get rid of old toys cluttering up their garage while at the same time, helping those who need them save money.

    How Does It Work?

    First, you signup, and make sure you enter the Location (City or Municipality) where you live. Second, click the category where your item falls under, and enter as much details as possible re your item. Items are segregated into Toys, Clothes, Books, Shoes, Strollers, Car Seats, etc. (we will add new categories as needed). You can also post pictures by uploading them in photo sharing sites such as Flickr or Photobucket, and just paste them onto your post. If you are selling numerous items, click the “By Lot” category, and enumerate the items you are selling. We also have a special “We are having a garage sale” category, where you can post the dates and times of your garage sale. We also have a “Looking To Buy” forum for those who are doing the the reverse of this process.

    Continue reading Announcing: The Mom Exchange Garage Sale!

    Announcing The Ballex Sim League,
    and the formation of my Dream Team (Armchair) Basketball Analysts

    Albeit somewhat late, I’d like to formally announce Exchange.ph’s latest project, The Ballex Sim League. Here’s the clickable graphic:

    In a nutshell, a Basketball Sim (simulation) league allows you the chance to run an NBA team as its General Manager (GM). As such, you are in control of your team’s destiny for a period of months similar to the NBA’s. You can make player trades with other virtual GMs like yourself, adjust your player rotations, and even do such things as increase and decrease specific skillsets for your player(s). Factors such as salaries, salary caps, team schedules and a player’s ‘greed’ (or his desire to play for money / loyalty) are additional things to think about which add to it’s realism.

    There are two areas a virtual GM need to keep track of, namely the page where the game results are shown here, and the forum above. After you make adjustments to your team and perform trade after trade at the forum, you observe the game results to see how things go and make further adjustments / trades as needed. A virtual Commissioner, in the person of Gil Moreno (forum id: Cola), runs the simulations via a software he runs on his computer, uploads these results, and confirms / allows / supervises over all aspects of trading and adjustments on the virtual league – just like a real commissioner.

    Continue reading Announcing The Ballex Sim League,
    and the formation of my Dream Team (Armchair) Basketball Analysts