Looks like we’ve found another niche:

In general, I would avoid the theme auctions at DigitalPoint.com. The quality of themes is quite mediocre, mainly driven by a commercial mindset and quantity not quality. Most of the designers are from places like the Philipines or India. For the most part, their work does not measure up to the best independents in the North America and Europe. For the moment, their work is mostly cheap knockoffs. (source)

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Guerilla Keyword Research Tip #2: Hunt for ‘recent searches’ or ‘top searches’ pages that give you an inside look of a particular site’s keyword profile.
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How do you increase offline conversions? Offer free food :P

Any other SEO bloggers coming to Taste Asia’s food fest this coming July 3 (that’s a Tuesday)? Sign up via comments below or via Aileen’s blog. First round of beer’s on me :)

So you have 3 reasons to go: free food, support Ms. Google Philippines and ‘free’ beer! BTW, the beer offer’s good for SEOs only :) and I have the right to tap out pag masyado kayong madami!

We were supposed to launch the contest last June 12 to ride on the nationalistic mood of most people, but last minute changes forced us to postpone the launch further to Sunday, July 1, 2007. Why on a Sunday you say? This will give people equal chances of getting the domain name they want to use for the contest. So folks, we’re now T-minus 12 days and counting!

For the next few days leading up to the contest launch, you’ll see the the official contest site live at BayanihanSEO.com. I’ll also be dropping clues, tips and hints on special contest items so be sure to tune in to any of the following web destinations for updates:

• SEO Philippines Forums
• SEO Philippines Blog
• Macalua.com and this and this
• Comments on blogs of SEO Philippines moderators, members and friends.

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Update: Download the slides to my E-Commerce Conversion Optimization presentation for Janette Toral’s Advance E-Commerce Training seminar this morning. You can also download this PDF goodie pack on e-commerce trust.

If you’re interested in launching a conversion optimization initiative for your site, please contact me (my contact details are on the sidebar) so we can discuss your requirements in detail.

Be it getting an extra lead/prospect or making that additional sale, driving visitors through the purchase decision process as efficiently as possible has always been the battlefield. You still can’t take away traffic from the equation (from sources like organic search, PPC, email, affiliate marketing, etc.), but at the end of the day, raising conversions is the ultimate goal for any marketer. And let me tell you right now, it ain’t easy. But it can be done.

I’m inviting you to come attend Digital Filipino’s Advance E-Commerce Training this coming June 18 to 20. Catch me talk on June 18 (Monday) from 10:30 to 11:37 AM. It’ll be a knowledge-exchange session packed with tips and techniques for raising conversions for e-commerce sites.

People interested in attending this premium seminar can contact Janette Toral via email.

Two questions for when my high school batch holds its reunion 30 years down the road: who will be our Norberto and who will be the ones to offer comfort and hope?

He was still just a young man when this happened but his job prospects had become bleak. Poor and physically disabled and psychologically scarred by this tragedy, he had not known the comfort of a wife and the pleasure of having his own children.

He is now old like the rest of his batchmates, but unlike most of us, he has suffered the very heavy hand of injustice, and through no fault of his own, was denied so many of the good things we take for granted. Justice which is a basic human entitlement has been denied to him.

Help my mom’s batch help Norberto by passing the word along. Blog miracles can still happen.

Update: Eugene tweaked the algo a bit. I’m now a B- :) I should get a B+ after the Chico River whitewater trip (booked and set to leave early August). If you’re interested to join us (10 have signed up so far) please contact me. P4000 for the rafting/hotel/meals and P1300 for the Manila - Kalinga - Manila bus fare. We leave Manila on a Saturday night.

Fresh linkbait. One of the best ones to come out from the Philippines this year.

My Lakbayan grade is B-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

As you can see, I’m in desperate need for some Northern Exposure. Anyone up for this? At least talo ko si Aileen at Rico :P

Here’s a gem of a post courtesy of Half’s SEO Notebook.

Think of total PageRank X (sum of all inbound PageRank to your domain) split between Y number of pages. Roughly speaking, bigger page count = lower average PageRank per page (depending on your site structure). We know that a page with PageRank below minimum threshold “goes” supplemental. With excessively high page count, average falls too low, and you’ll end up with many pages in the supplemental index. By reducing the number of pages, you slightly increase average PageRank per url. That can result in several supp pages popping back into the main index.

This pretty much mirrors what Matt Cutts was saying all along at SMX:

If you got 60,000 pages, and you only got “this much” PageRank, and you divide it […he mumbles], some of them are going to be in the supplemental index. Given “this many people” who link to you, we’re willing to include “this many” pages in the main index.

So pretend you’re a mega-site dealing with a supplemental pages problem like Gov.ph and Yehey.com, what link building projects can you do to boost your total PageRank?
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Here’s a list of things I’m not doing which I think would help my personal blog attract more Text Link Ads advertisers (and higher paying ones too).
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