Free Source Codes Blog Initial Success

Last week I blog about my new free source codes blog which I created also last week. I'm excited to say that I having a good traffic to this blog, mainly from search engines, particularly Google. And what's more exciting to me is that this free source codes blog is generating clicks from Google Adsense ads. In fact for the past two days, it is my highest earner in Adsense. This is a success in itself considering that this blog is just a week old

I give credit to this initial success to the search engine optimization, careful selecting of the keywords and the techniques I used in this blog first milestone. I think it's working also in my free source codes blog.

Blogger's Corner: Aleksei Miheev

Our feature blogger for today is Aleksei Miheev. I happen to come across his blog when he made a comment in this blog. Aleksei is an Applied Maths student at Nizhni Novgorod State University. He loves of wine and live and also his one and only girl.

Profile
Photo
Name	Aleksei Miheev
Describe Yourself	As lazy as a programmer should be, a lover of wine drinks, fine women (one woman, actually, the only), live music (a drummer myself) and cats. Linux geek and web developer. Still an Applied Maths student at Nizhni Novgorod State University.
Main blog URL	Temptation of Saint Aqualung
Main Blog Description	Temptation of Saint Aqualung is my personal blog featuring my freelance and general programming experience, my thoughts on Linux, Web and technology in general, some bits of my life and a little of my graphomania.
Other blogs	None
Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?	When and how did you start blogging? The best friend of mine, Margo, Russian hippie, living in Norway now, started a blog (which was more a private diary) at russian LJ-like service and invited my there, too. It was late 2004, AFAIR. Those two blogs (mine and Margo's) have been inactive for at least a year.
2) How many blogs do you maintain?	Three: Temptation, a Russian version of it, and a private one, mostly for my girlfriend (it's a kind of psychotherapy for both of us: we use diaries instead of shouting and breaking dishes when arguing). It's possible that there's be 2-3 more blogs for my projects.
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?	Blogging :) I love writing, so I write. Expressing myself, sharing experience and other stuff are secondary to my graphomania.
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?	Not much. I do not even blog every day. About an hour in average, I guess.
5) How do you market your blog?	Place links in my projects' footers (if clients don't mind, of course) to pump up PR, and submit to SU, dzone and sometimes digg and reddit to get traffic. No intentional link exchange with othersm just linking to what I like and letting others do the same.
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?	How? I've put Adsence here and there, but it doesn't generate any income for now. Also tried a couple other PPCs, earned a few cents with adBrite. Place affiliate links for Amazon, TLA and ReviewMe sometimes, but with no effect now. Those links are more investment into future, I think.
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?	Making love.
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?	Started blogging. I'm not a pro and will never be a pro. I'm coder and DBA, not pro blogger. Everything is a mistake in my blogs.
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?	My girlfriend's private one.
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?	DO NOT post your cat's pics unless your blog is dedicated to cats' photos.

If you want to be featured in this blog, please visit the Blogger's Corner Campaign post.

Free Source Codes Blog

My newest blog, Free Source Codes, is a blog about programming source codes and some tutorials.

For the past two weeks, I have deleted my low traffic blogs to concentrate on a few blogs that I think I'm more interested in and I will give focus more. As I have known through my more than a year of blogging, it's better to have a single blog with heavy traffic than numerous blogs with has very little traffic.

This new blog that I have added just last week, is my contribution to the programming community. Here, I will post free source codes that I personally use in my projects and other source codes collection that I gathered in my years as computer programmer.

What a Day

Whew. Today was a busy day. I barely had time for my blogs. Thanks it's already past 5 PM.

I can't remember how many telephone calls I received concerning our programs from Subic and VECO (sister companies of the company where I work). And yet I have another pending jobs for tomorrow.

Well, this is the life of a full-time programmer, sometimes you have all the time doing silly things on the internet and sometimes your time is drained by responding the users demands.

Blog Clean-ups

Today I deleted again my blog, Organic Traffic. Last week, I deleted three of my blogs namely, Home Landscaping Guide, Dog Health Care Guide and Fly Fishing Guide and added one blog of my interest.

Since I decided to update this blogs often, I make it a point to write posts of the things that I like to share in this blog, and not just for money.

As of today I have three existing blogs: Joel Badinas dot Com, Free Jokes and Amusing Stories, Free Source Codes. I won't post here the URL's of my deleted blogs because you can't access it anyway.

My Reasons
You might ask why I deleted those blogs. My reasons are simple, those blogs has very low visitor activity and I don't update them often. So I better delete them so that others who might want those URL's can re-use it. Likewise, I'm loving blogs now so I don't want to spam the blogosphere. (^_^)

For the record, I don't regret creating those blogs, in fact I was thankful I made them. Those blogs that I deleted were part of my trial and error when I was first introduced to Adsense. Those were my "guinea pigs" into the world of making money online. I don't say that I'm a guru in the online marketing field, but I can say that through those blogs I gained considerable amount of knowledge and that knowledge leads me to deleting them and concentrating on a few blogs of my interests.

My Two Cents
For bloggers, my advice is to create a blog of your interest because if you do, you will never run out of topic to write. Don't be concern about making money at once through your blog. It is this simple reason that most bloggers fail. Enjoy blogging first, gain traffic to your blog, and then money will just follow.

Google AdSense Vocabulary

Google Adsense is one of the most talked about CPC advertising online. This blog is even monetize using Adsense. In fact, it was Adsense that got me into blogging.

For newbies, abbreviations will sometimes hinder you from fully understanding Adsense. When you first log into your Adsense account and look at the report, you will see this abbreviations and immediately ask yourself what are those (trust me, I was like that on my first Adsense days).

I have met bloggers you have been using Adsense for months and yet ask me what are the meaning of those abbreviations. So I decided to blog about this. Here’s a list of the most common ones, and a plain-english description of what they mean:

Page Impressions
When somebody visits your website and loads a page in their web browser(IE, FireFox, Safari, etc), Google caount that as one "page impression". When that visitor, browse around and visit another ten(10) pages of you website, that's another ten(10) "page impressions". In short, "page impression" is the number of pages a visitor loads while browsing your website.

Page CTR
CTR stands for "click through rate" or "click through ratio". It the percentage of the page impressions that resulted in somebody clicking one of the AdSense ads. So, for example, if you had 1,000 page impressions, and those 1,000 page impressions resulted in 100 clicks on the ads, that is a 10% Page CTR (100/1000 = 10%).

Page eCPM
eCPM stands for "effective cost per millie". "Millie" means thousand. CPM is what the old world of banner advertisements used in pricing their ads. If a site had a $10 CPM, that meant that you as an advertiser would pay $10 for every 1,000 page impressions that your ad was shown on.

With AdSense, eCPM is telling you how much you are earning (or will earn), on average, for every 1,000 page impressions. If you have a $25 eCPM, that means you are earning (or will earn) $25 in clicks for every 1,000 page impressions on your site.

Google shows you this figure so you can get an idea of how much more they are paying you than a banner advertising network will pay you. I have some sites with eCPM values as high as $300, $500, $700 and more. That means for every 1,000 page impressions I’m earning $300-$700 on those sites. How I do that will be discussed later.

EPC
You won’t see the term EPC in your Google AdSense reports, but you’ll hear it a lot if you hang out on AdSense forums. EPC stands for "earnings per click", and just means how much you earn for each click. Your EPC will depend on the price of a keyword because Google only gives you a percentage of how much advertiser pay for that keyword. Naturally, the more expensive a keyword, the more EPC you gain.

Channels
By default, all of your page impressions and clicks are dropped into one giant bucket. By default, you have no way of knowing how much each individual site earned (if you have multiple sites), or how much each individual page earned, etc. "Channels" are Google’s way of letting you break down your earnings into "sections" so you can analyze each website or each page independently to see where the money is coming from. Google only lets you have 200 channels.

AdLinks (or Ad Units)
AdLinks, or Ad Units, are just another type of AdSense ad. The basic AdSense ad is a block of links with short descriptions that when a visitor clicks, you get paid. Ad Links are a little different. They show linked topics
that are related to your page, and when people click on those they are then taken to a different page and presented with a list of ads. If they decide to click on one of those ads, you get paid. You can see what AdLinks look like by visiting Google's Ad Formats page.

So there you have it bloggers. Bookmark this post and whenever you have a question about Adsense advertising terms, go back to this page.

First Joel Badinas dot Com Milestone

Yesterday was the first milestone this blog has attained. According to Google Analytics, this blog was visited 98 times yesterday. With that 98 visitors, 83 was unique.

Ok, for some bloggers this number of traffic is not a reason to blog about, but for me it is. Since starting this blog last year, this been through up and down. This blog went to "sleep" for months until I decided to "awaken" it again. Lucky me I didn't delete this blog. I was on the brink of doing that.

I think the traffic was the result of some techniques I made to this blog. Before yesterday, the average number of visitors was just 30 and then it jumped to 98 all of the sudden. But don't ask me about those techniques because I'm not telling about it just yet. I need more proof before I will blog about that techniques I made to this blog.

For the meantime, I'll just keep on blogging and using those techniques. (^_^)

Views From A Fellow Blogger

Last night I recieved an email from a blogger, who happens to read about my blogger's corner campaign that I sent through email. This was his actual message:

I was going thru your blog today, after reading ur mail. You have a real nice blog, i can go endlessly praising ur blog and work.

I would like to point out one thing to you about ur blog, under the column "About Me" you should be writing about you and it should read like, I am a full-time systems developer......my hobbies include.............,in short you are saying about your self and with ur current introduction it looks like you are being described by a third person.

Its just my views. anyways wish you all the best in your blogging and wish you all the best in life now and always.

Bye for now.
Pankaj

I told him that I did it on purpose. And this was his reply:

As I said earlier,its just my view, it gives an impression that you have people employed to post to your blog.

To clarify this, I don't hire anybody to write for this blog. All that is written here are products of my own imagination.

I was thankful to 'Pankaj' for sending his views. I didn't realized until then that my 'About Me' section gaves my readers the impression that I hire somebody to write for this blog.

So at that instant, I changed the texts in my 'About Me' section from this:

Joel Badinas is a full-time systems developer who likes the idea of having a passive income through the internet. His hobbies includes web programming, internet surfing, blogging, reading computer books and making money online.

To this:

I'm a full-time systems developer who likes the idea of having a passive income through the internet. My hobbies includes web programming, internet surfing, blogging, reading computer books and making money online.

The moral lesson, sometimes we miss little details that only our readers notice. We have to be open-minded to consider their opinion.

COMDDAP-Davao Visit

Davao host this year's COMDDAP (Computer Manufacturers, Distributors, and Dealers Association of the Philippines).

COMDDAP, which was help in Manila last year, is considered as the country's biggest computer trade show and technology event. This year over 20 technology companies exhibit their latest software and hardware technologies at the Davao Convention and Trade Center. The said event will run from June 21 to 23. Exhibit hours for the three-day event are from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

This year's exhibitor companies include Astech Pengson Distributors, Inc., ATP Peripherals/Achieva, Axis Global Technologies, Inc., Brother International Phils., Corp., Canon Marketing Philippines, Inc., Chase Technologies Corporation, Epson Philippines Corp., Hitachi-Glee Electronics, MDR Microware Sales, MSI-ECS Philippines, Inc., Microwarehouse, Inc., Millennium Computer Technologies Corp., Neo-Glee Electronics, PLDTmyDSL, RASI Computers, Inc., Redwood Ventures, Sanyo Philippines, Inc., Trinity Marketing, Inc., and Wordtext Systems, Inc.

Me and one of my co-worker went this afternoon to see some of the new technology and hoping to get some freebies. And yes, we didn't went home crying. We got a pitiful mouse pad and a pen. (^_^)

How I Was Introduced Into Blogging and Adsense

I was first introduced to blogging, when I signed up for Friendster. I made a blog on that website, submitted a couple of post and then, it went dead. Up until now, that blog is never updated.

Then, last year, a co-worker of mine introduced me to Google Adsense. It was like a wake up call to me. My eyes turned into a dollar sign. I said to myself, "Why didn't I knew this before".

I'm not new to designing web pages. Back in college, I was chosen to be a member of a team that helped design my school's sub campuses webasites. Had I knew about Google Adsense at that time, my first Adsense check would be much earlier. And I would have earned considerable amount of money from Google to this day.

A day after that first introduction with Adsense, I made my first blog at Blogger.com and then applied for Google Adsense. My goal for blogging that time was to make money through Adsense. Then just lately when I realize that blogging for money is bound to fail. To be successful in blogging, your first goal should be to write about what interests you, with making money the second goal.

With that realization, I came to enjoy blogging more than before. Of course I still use Adsense in this blog but it's just a secondary goal to me. If I earn money from it in any day, fine. If not, fine with me too.

You see, for bloggers out there. In your early day of blogging, try to enjoy writing about what interest you and you will be more happier when your earnings.

Happy blogging...

Different Moods of a Programmer

Systems Developers or Programmers, as they are often called, has many moods. Often, those moods are triggered by the status of the program he is doing and the environment in the workplace. Warning: Don't take this seriously.

1) Distrust. When a program is doing a 1 + 1 operation and the the result is -1, this feeling is triggered.

2) Excitement. A programmer's first program will always be the "Hello World" program. It is this first program that triggers the programmer's excitement.

3) Astonishment. "Aha" moments is part of the daily life of a programmer. When a 1 + 1 operation results to 2, brace yourself for the loudest "AHA" you will hear.

4) Enthusiasm. When a programmer discovers a new technique that has never been discovered, this feeling surfaces. For example, when a programmer discovers that the expression "1 = 1" is always "True", you can see this feeling in his face.

5) Love. Let's face it, programmers are just human. When his computer is doing what he programs it to do, falling in love to his computer is just around the corner.

6) Disillusionment. Again, programmers are just human, they err at times. After a while of being in love with his computer, it becomes clear to him that computers are only "hot" when it is in use.

7) Fright. This feeling is common when a programmer notices that his boss suddenly go to his direction while he is playing Starcraft. (hehehe. I sometimes get this feeling)

8) Horror. This feeling comes after #7 (Fright) when a programmer failed to press the "ALT + TAB" key on his keyboard and his boss is in front of him and his computer.

9) Fury. Ok,a programmer went through #7 (Fright) and #8 (Horror) and he was fired. What do you think will be his feeling?

10) Frustration. After more than a week of programming a single routine and still no progress, a programmer is vulnerable to this feeling. If you sit beside a programmer at time like this, you will hear faint cries.

11) The End. Programmers are not like their best buddies - the computers. At the end of the day, they feel they need to rest for tomorrow's another set of the above feelings. A vicious cycle.


These are my opinions. What's yours'?

Blogger's Corner: Rex Bugcalao

The feature blogger for today is Rex Bugcalao. He is a full-time Systems Developer/Analyst in an electric utility company in Davao City, Philippines.

Rex is a coffe drinker and loves listening to music and watching movies. You can read reviews of movies he watched in his blog. He is the one who introduced me to Google Adsense.

Profile
Photo
Name	Rex M. Bugcalao
Describe Yourself	Coffee Drinker and Loves Music and Movies
Main blog	Trails
Main Blog Description	Trails - my blog expresses my thoughts on things, events and things that has significance to me - from movie reviews to personal views and information technology
Other blogs	none
Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?	2006.
2) How many blogs do you maintain?	2 blogs, but my new blog is Trails.
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?	Fun, experience and money.
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?	2 to 4.
5) How do you market your blog?	I cross-links, visit other blogs and forums and announce.
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?	Yes. Google Adsense.
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?	My blogging experience.
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?	Not understanding what is a blog (hahahaha) silly me.
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?	My blog of course!
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?	Express your self and don't get your ass stuck on it unless you are already in the pinnacle of your blogging success!

My New Office PC And Me

The main topic here is not my new haircut but since this is one of my best post so far with my new PC, I might as well use this picture.

This new PC has been in my table since last week, as a replacement to my old PC, but I just fully utilize it's "power" since yesterday because only then that my enterprise account have been upgraded from "USER" to "ADMIN-USER". Our company uses Novell Client for the enterprise network security. It's much secure (according to one of our technical staff) than the previous one we're using, the Novell Zenwork.

PC Specs
17" CR E773S Monitor
USB MOA8BO Mouse
Standard 101 Keys (USB-SK8115) Keyboard
Pentium D - 3.0GHZ CPU/Precessor
AT/ATX Motherboard
1GB DDR Memory
ATI Radeon Express Built-in Video Card
80 GB SATA Hard Drive
440x 10/100 Built-in Network Card

I hope with this new and powerful office PC, I can speed up my Adsense revenue. (^_^)

Thanks John Chow

Last May 31, I blogged about John Chow's make money online campaign. And just yesterday, this blog was featured in the make money online batch 82 of John Chow.

Blogger's Corner: Joseph Gumia

The feature blogger for today is Joseph Gumia. He is fairly new to the blogging world. Joseph is a full-time System Developer in an electric utility company in Davao City, Philippines.

His life's motto is "Fill up each hour with what will last; Buy up the moments as they go; The life above, when this is past, Is the ripe fruit of life below. -- Bonar"

Profile
Photo
Name	Joseph Q. Gumia
Describe Yourself	I'm a very energetic, talented person. :)
Main blog	Etcetera..Etcetera...
Main Blog Description	Etcetera..Etcetera... anything goes here..Life, Technology, Music, Scripting etc..
Other blogs	none
Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?	I started blogging just a week ago. I was convinced by a colleague of mine Joel Badinas and I just sign up and their it goes.
2) How many blogs do you maintain?	For now just one.
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?	My online journal to express my thoughts and ideas.
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?	At least 3 hours a day during breaks.
5) How do you market your blog?	By inviting my friends, relatives, schoolmates etc...
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?	For now I can't. Still waiting for my adsense account to be approved.
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?	About my life and how happy am I.
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?	Not yet..
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?	The life of my girlfriend
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?	Just keep it real and simple.

Evil Blog Contest at John Chow dot Com

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps other bloggers make money using their blog is now giving away a 24″ wide screen LCD monitor.

John Chow periodically runs contest such as this in his blog to promote it.

This contest is sponsored by BluFur, a hosting company who is now hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

Anyone can join this contest, all you have to do is write about it in your blog. And since I plan to get another monitors, I might as well enter in this. Who knows I'll win on this one. (^_^)

Blogger's Corner: Mila Smith

Today's feature blogger is Mila Smith. I met her at YM and since then we exchange blog links and share ideas. Mila enjoys researching and sharing her own experience.

Profile
Photo
Name	Mila Smith
Decribe Yourself	Person with a good sense of humor, industrious
Main blog	Cigarettes
Main Blog Description	The Blog offering information about cigarettes and marketing. The author enjoys researching into the field and sharing her own experience.
Other blogs	Advertising and cigarettes blog
Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?	I began blogging approximately a year ago. I just liked the idea to write about different kind of events, news and reviews.
2) How many blogs do you maintain?	I have two blogs
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?	I just wanted to share my opinion with other people who have blogs and to exchange our blogs
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?	I spend 4-5 hours blogging everyday
5) How do you market your blog?	I exchange blogs with other people who have blogs
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?	No, I don't monetize my blogs
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?	If I'm to write my very last blog, it would contain the idea that there is nothing impossible in out life and we can always find a way-out.
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?	Hope there were not any mistakes in my blogs, but I have plenty of time))))
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?	It would be the topic about global network and the development of blogging
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?	I advise other bloggers to create interesting blogs in order other people to appreciate this work and take advantages of the information read.

Free Blogging Report: Blog Profit Blueprint

Have you heard about the Blog Profit Blueprint? For some of you who don't know, it's one of the best free blogging report I've ever read in my whole blogging life, really.

I downloaded this free report just this week through an invitation from John Reese's newsletter.

I have downloaded and read other blogging and make money online reports, but this one is really different. In this free report, the author, Yaro Starak, shared his blogging techniques that he used to make his own blogs one of the successful blogs on the internet today.

Here are some of the things you'll learn from the report

• The one vital skill that most bloggers lack, and how YOU can easily learn it.
• "Pillar Method" for creating killer content that attracts links and sucks in waves of traffic for months or even years to come.
• How to build multiple, ongoing streams of blog traffic using Communication Channels
• The exact methods Yaro Starak use to make money from his blog.
• Plus, access to a LIVE VIDEO that let's you "look over his shoulder" as he give you a guided tour of exactly how he make money from his blog - and how much!

Aside from the Blog Profit Blueprint, you can also join the Blog Mentoring Program, that is also run by the same author.

If you are really serious about blogging and monetizing it, I recommend you to download this free report and read it from start to finish.

Blogger's Corner: Simon Lioe

One day after I posted my Blogger's Corner campaign, I already got two bloggers who responded to this quest. So now, it is my pleasure to post my very first feature blogger, Simon Lioe.

Simon Lioe of MyBlog Rocks! is an amateur blogger who has been inspired by Steve Pavlina and John Chow. He is one of my internet friends and we have been exchanging links and sharing ideas about blogging and making money online. Read on.

Profile
Photo	(none)
Name	Simon Lioe
Describe Yourself	I am an amateur blogger who has been inspired by some great bloggers such as Steve Pavlina and John Chow. I have been lucky to be supported by some of my loyal friends (Joel, Linda Mulyana etc). Initially I intended to blog for money (from Google Adsense) but I realize later that blogging is so much fun. You too should try blogging now.
Main blog	MyBlog Rocks!
Main Blog Description	My blog is all about what we are experiencing in someone's everyday life, be it Health, Wealth and Wisdom
Other blogs	Fashion Hottie - This blog is about fashion and celebrities, Agloco Rocks! - This blog is about how to make money by signing up to AGLOCO
Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?	I started blogging in Sept 2006
2) How many blogs do you maintain?	I am currently maintaining 3 blogs
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?	I was initially attracted to earn money from Google Adsense, but later, I find that the enjoyment of blogging is more than just trying to ean money.
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?	After several months of hardship (wow...what the ....! ), I am now active again, maybe a few hours a day.
5) How do you market your blog?	Mainly by link exchange
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?	I joined Google Adsense to monetize my blogs. It is easy to sign up and you should do it now
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?	I guess it would be about How To Lead a Happy Life
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?	I don't know.... But a word of caution. If you plan to earn money from Google Adsense, you MUST understand the TOS.
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?	I would read stevepavlina.com
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?	Make friend with Joel because he is a very nice man and he will guide you step by step to be a successful blogger.

PC Face Off

Last June 9, I said that it will be the last post about my old PC in my office table. I was wrong. Yesterday, my new office PC was delivered to me. And while I was copying my files from the old PC to the new PC, I can't help but take a picture of it and post it in this blog.

Old or New?
In my case, there are advantages and disadvantages of having a new office PC. Some advantages are: much faster than the old one and you get to use the latest PC technology. While some disadvantages are: some securities are not yet fixed to comply our network security and needs more time to copy files and install softwares. And right now, the disadvantages outweighs the advantages. I hope not for long.

Today, I'm still waiting for my enterprise account to be upgraded to 'Administrator' because I can't use some of the new softwares I installed in it. If this new PC has the same specifications as my old one, I would not give up my old PC.


Whatever it is, one thing is sure. I have a new and faster PC.

Blogger's Corner Campaign

As of today, there are millions of blog and thousands are being built every day. Time will come that the internet will be dominated by blogs.

Blogger's Corner is my personal campaign to let bloggers showcase their blog(s) and blogging experience and let other bloggers know other blogoshpereling out there.

If you would like to be featured here, please fill-up/answer the form below and email it to me.

Terms & Condition
1) You must have an active blog.
2) Your blog(s) must not contain any pornographic materials.

Blogger's Corner Answer Form
-----------------------------------
Profile
Photo URL:
Fullname:
Descibe Yourself:
Main Blog URL:
Main Blog Description:

Q & A
1) When and how did you start blogging?
2) How many blogs do you maintain?
3) What is your primary reason for blogging?
4) How many hours you spend blogging everyday?
5) How do you market your blog?
6) Do you monetize your blog? How?
7) If you were to write your very last blog post, what it is about?
8) What is the biggest blogging mistake you've ever done?
9) If you are allowed to read only one blog, what should it be?
10) What advice can you give to other bloggers?

Help Me Spread the Word
This campaign comes without any obligation from your end. However, if you could help me spread the word by blogging about this, it would be much appreciated.

You can also email me your comments/suggestions regarding this campaign.

Happy Birthday Sir

Today, is the birthday of our boss Jotham (or Amo as some of my officemates call him). During lunch, he treat us in an eat-all-you can restaurant in downtown Davao.

We had a big lunch (or a monster lunch). Wheew. But its ok because tommorrow will be the third game of the Jotham's Cup. At least we can lose the pounds we gained today.

Jotham's Cup: The GISD Basketball Tournament Update

Last June 7, 2007, we had our first GISD basketball game. Last night was our second game.

The agreement
Race to two games. Whichever team wins twice first will win. And the loser will buy roasted chicken for dinner (again).

The Synopsis
Team 1 won the first game. But Team 2 came down hard with big blows and won the second and third game. But this morning, Joe of Team 1 argue that only the first game was the valid one for last night's game. Apparently it was their secret agreement with Macao of Team 2, my team, that the first game will be the deciding factor of last night's game. Team 2 was like HAAHHH?

The Result
Team 1 wins. Team 2 losses (because of that secret agreement).

The Conclusion
Back to zero next game (because of that secret agreement). Still no roasted chicken bought (not even a burnt feather). But we were happy we lose some pounds and no muscle pain today.(^_^)

The Pictures

Team 1 in position

Team 2 in Position

Team 1 and Team 2 with our (a)Muse

Tips For Aspiring Programmers

I'm a computer science graduate. And because of that I'm a computer scientist, yes? Well, technically I am, but functionally not. I don't design computers. I design softwares - things that make a computer functional. I'm a full-time systems developer.

Being a computer science graduate doesn't automatically makes you a good systems developer, or a programmer as some call it. Some graduate of the said degree ends up in other fields such as teaching, bank clerks, sales agent and etc. I'm don't blame them or discriminate them of any sort.

To be a good software developer requires hardwork, determination, practice and enjoying what you do. If you are an aspiring programmer, here are my personal tips you could use:

1.Enjoy Programming. This is the most important. Before you take an IT degree, ask yourself: Do you enjoy programming? Do you like the idea of sitting all day in front of the computer? Do you enjoy analysing complex problems and come up with a good solution just by thinking? If you answer 'No' to any of this question, go get yourself another degree or profession.

2.Self-Study. If you're still a student, don't just rely on what your intructor teaches you. Read more and more books and teach yourself programming and other IT stuffs.

3.Communicate With Your Peers. Share your ideas and knowledge with other programmer. Sometimes you think your ideas are very good but when you hear others', you'll find that it's there ideas that are better. Sharing among your peers will give you more knowledge about your craft. Don't be shy to ask questions.

4.Practice, Practice and Practice. Truly, practice makes perfect. Constant practice in programming will enhance your programming skills. The more you practice, the more you become better in your field.

5. Upgrade Your Skills. Programming technologies today are very fast evolving. Ten years ago, desktop application are everywhere. Now, web and browser-based applications are more in-demand. And now mobile computing are fast evolving. Upgrade your skills by self-studying, participating in training and seminars.

Programming is a trial and error process. Don't be intimidated if others (or your classmates) are better than you. Follow my #4 tip (Practice, practice and practice). When writing a program and you hit a dead-end, set back, relax and go back in front of the PC.

Wedding Pictures

As a respond to some feedbacks from my friends about our wedding reception AVP, I posted here some of our wedding pictures.

This photos was taken in Tacloban City, and was provided by East Digital Studios. Our official photographer/videographer for that event.

Top 10 Blogs About Blogging

Below is the list of the latest top 10 blogs about blogging. This list is based on four factors: Google Pagerank, Alexa ranking, Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority.

#1 Problogger
#2 Copyblogger
#3 John Chow
#4 Quick Online Tips
#5 Lorelle on Wordpress
#6 Daily Blog Tips
#7 Performancing
#8 Weblog Tools Collection
#9 Blog Herald
#10 Blogging Pro

This blogs generate hundreds of thousands of pageviews daily. Which means they also generate thousands of dollars in revenue monthly. John Chow for example, averages 10,000 dollars a month in blogging revenue. This only means there is money in blogging.

But I think to truly enjoy the beauty of blogging, blogging about your interest should be your priority.

What's more. This bloggers also spend countless of man hours to improve their rankings to be on top of the list. Their success is years in the making. So if you are an aspiring blogger, be patient and slowly build your traffic to the top.

This list encourages me to keep on blogging. Who knows, after a year from now, this blog will be on that list too. (^_^)

Feedbacks About Our Wedding Reception AVP

Last June 1, I posted in this blog my wedding reception AVP (audio video presentation). I got nice feedbacks about it from my college classmates and friends. They said it was nicely done, others told me how romantic and proud I am about my marriage. And one of my classmate in college said; "I didn't know you have a serious side inside you". (^_^)

Well, she said it maybe because when I was in college, I always do things less seriously. I make fools about almost all the things arround, except my education of course.

Some also ask for pictures of our wedding. At first, I want to make another website that will host all of our pictures. But when I changed this blog to a new domain name, I changed my mind. Instead of making a new website, I'll post some of our wedding pictures in this blog.

Hopefully, when my internet connection at home gets connected this week, I'll be able to post some of our wedding pictures in this blog next week.

New Blog Address, New House Address

Last Saturday, this blog moved to a new address, and yesterday also, we finished moving to our new apartment. The same apartment building but different door number. Before, we were at door number 3, now we are at door number 4 of the YMCA apartment.

I have no internet connection at home since yesterday. I have to apply for a new one for our new house. My previous connection was Smart Bro. Now, I think I'll go for the PLDT-DSL because I have to pay another 1800.00 pesos just to have my existing connection transfered.

The beauty of PLDT-DSL is that it comes with the telephone line at the same price with the Smart Bro. Although I haven't tested the speed of PLDT-DSL, it looks promising because some of my co-workers are connected through it and so far I haven't heard of their complain about it. Likewise, one of my officemates told me that there is a promo at PLDT for a two-year free internet connection. Although, I still don't know how to avail for this promo.

Moved To A New Address

This blog has moved to a new address from life of a programmer to joelbadinas dot com.

From the day I made a commitment to update this blog regularly, I have been true to my word. And since I want to do it this for as long as I'm inpired to write, I bought my own domain for this blog. I thought buying a domain that bears my real name will strengthen that commitment also, at least for a year.

I bought my domain at 1 And 1. The 1&1 Instant Domain Package that I bought took almost 2 days before it became available and another 1 day for updating the CNAME so that I'll be able to use it as a replacement to my old address .

At 5.99 dollars for one year plus the free private domain registration, I think this is just right to my pocket.

If you are really serious of blogging for passion, I suggest you register you own domain.

And with this new domain name, I can now officially say that I am a true-blue blogger. (^_^)

Clutters In My Table

At last, Saturday again, time to slow down at work. Time for research and study of programming stuffs.

I have always been an orderly person. I don't like the table where I work is cluttered with things that I don't use. But during days like this, my table is cluttered with stuff. I think it's because of my mentality that the following day is Sunday and the janitor have more than a day to clean all my mess.

By the way, this is maybe the last time that I'll be posting a picture of my office table with that PC. My new PC has arrived last week and maybe next week, I'll have it on my table already. So I guess this is sort of a bye-bye to my old PC.

Self-Study Quest Update

It's about three weeks ago when I posted about my plan to study XML, Javascript and Ajax. As of today I'm in the chapter 5 of the XML course. It's a bit slow i know (the culprit is my blogs and other website). I'm studying XML at home and whenever I'm in front of my PC and opens my blogs and other websites I'm hooked to it in an instant. It's too late before I notices that its already almost midnight and I have to sleep for the next day's work.

At the office, I also read the JSP Web Development book that has been in my table since last year and right now I'm in chapter 4. Whew. I just hope I just can download the information in this books to my brain just like when I download a file from the internet to my PC. (^_^)

Blogging With Passion - A Blogger's Sercet Formula

My first website was a blog (I can't remember the title now). It was powered by blogger as with this blog. Back then, I was inspired to blog because I have known others making big bucks monthly just by blogging. Down the road, as I gained more experience in blogging, I have learned that monetizing your blog should be the second goal in your list. The first one should be your passion to write about something you are interested.

On my personal opinion, this is true. When I started this blog, my goal was to monetize it and not to right about my opinions and daily ramblings as a programmer. After a month that this blog was online, I stop posting. This blog went dead for almost six months. I almost delete it had it not bear my codename, kabalweg.

Until one day, I just had a sudden enthusiam (if it's what you call it) to update this blog regularly with the money just the second goal. Since then, I have been posting regularly about my daily ramblings and other stuffs that interest me. And since then, this blog went alive again. At times, I even post two to three times in a day about my daily activities and other stuffs.

For fellow bloggers, my penny-worth advise is: blog with passion on something you are interested in and for not money or at least make it just your second goal.

The Evolution of Software Development

I was googling for an image for the phrase "life of a programmer" to be use as a logo for this blog, one of the result is this pictures of the evolution of software development.

I. Golden Age - The Technocrat Era

II. The Early Business Era

III. The Late Business Era

IV. The Product Design Era

You can download the pdf version at the Lost Garden website.