I think I met Abe Olandres (aka Yuga of Yugatech.com) in college. When we met during the first Pinoy Tech Blog EB, I then remembered seeing him play Magic: The Gathering in the hallowed halls of the Chemistry Building at the Ateneo.

My first impression of Abe was that he genuinely likes what he does and it shows. His enthusiasm for all things Net is contagious. You seldom see veterans displaying the same wonder, the same gusto to evangelize and convert. Perhaps Abe’s most intriguing trait is his genuine desire to make technology work for the Filipino.

Marc: Could you please describe some of your online business operations and products/services?

Abe: My longest running online venture would be plogHost.com, a commercial blog hosting company which I started almost 3 years ago. I originally intended to provide affordable hosting and domain registration services to local bloggers.

Marc: What made you decide to start an online business? What was your inspiration or motivation?

Abe: A year before that, I maintained two hosted sites - yugatech.com which is a personal blog and pinoyblog.com which was a tech blog. I made my own blogging and commenting script then and distributed it freely thru PinoyBlog. However, my script requires that you have your own hosted site since it requires PHP/mySQL. I then realized that there could be a niche market to provide hosting service primarily to bloggers; something affordable and blog-ready.

Marc: What have been your major challenges or obstacles so far? How did you overcome them?

Abe: Running a hosting service has been very challenging in so many ways. The technical aspect is the more consistent pasrt since one has to learn the ropes very quickly.The learning curve is steep and you had to constantly read and do research. In general, the entrepreneurial challenges involved are both exhausting yet fulfilling. How did I overcome them? Sen. Villar put it quite simply, “Sipag at tiyaga”.

Marc: What specific types of online marketing tools are you using successfully?

Abe: Not much on SEO but the “viral effect of blogs”. If you provide good, personalized and affordable service to blogs, the word will spread on its own. Referrals has been and will always be our main “tool” to market online. What we’re getting is a seal of approval from these respective and prominent blogs.

Marc: Have you always envisioned yourself doing what you are doing now? What did you “want to be when you grew up”?

Abe: I always want to be a scientist or an astronaut when I was a kid. =) That’s why I took Chemistry in college. I never thought of ending up something like this. But I believe that opportunity does not come knocking on your door too often and you have to embrace it the first chance you get.

Marc: What is your favorite part part of running your own business? Your least favorite part?

Abe: That no one else but you can dictate the direction you want your business to go. You’re more passionate with the service and brand. What I don’t like is the idea that people will only see your mistakes all the time. I’ve learned to accept that over time.

Marc: What important advice or tips would you give to a new online business owner?

Abe: Patience — it’s the virtue that you will always need when you go into a business. Success is not achieved overnight so you’ll have to strive hard and take small steps at a time. Don’t take big risks, rather make calculated ones. Oh, and get the people you can trust the most. They say that it is easier to teach a diligent man HTML than to teach an expert one how to be diligent.