So I spent the entire afternoon Facebooking, oops, I mean, reading loads of stuff about link building and SEO. With my talk on Advanced Linkbuilding Techniques in the much-awaited SEMCON 2007 looming in the horizon, I’ve been spending more than 60% of my day Facebooking, I mean, digging into a topic that I once thought I already have a firm grasp of.

And leme just say I’m having that kilig feeling again. There’s just so much to learn, and so much to explore about the art and science that internet marketing is. But I’m not about to bore you with this mush and tell you how much I’m growing more and more in love with the internet lately. This post is simply to send you to the direction of my, by far, most interesting read this afternoon.

Hop on to Webmasterworld’s forum discussion: Link or Content - Which is the Boss? Now. Quick.

While the discussion-slash-debate gives you some helpful tips and insights on the importance of links and content (and a few other things), what’s really interesting is how these SEOs discussed the topic in a geeky, almost.. comical, way. Geesh, am I the only one who thinks it’s funny? Hehe.

Seriously though, it brightened up my day. And if you’re a certified geek, I guarantee it’ll brighten yours too. Haha.

Haha. Read first before you react, will ya??! Pfft.

This jobstreet ad has been going around for a while, and as always, I lag behind again. Equally-popular Google-competitor Yahoo! is looking for an Online Community Manager who will be the face of the company in the local scene, both online and offline.

Truth be told, the job opening sounded somewhere within the vicinity of “dreamy” to me. Interesting, indeed. And Ely’s probably right when he said that the job sounds much like what Miss Aileen Apolo is doing as the Official Google Country Consultant here. With Yahoo’s ongoing initiatives to localize its network to various markets across the globe, getting into the online and offline scene in the SouthEastAsia is, no doubt, the inevitable first step to take.

And then there came a lightbulb above my head. *Ting!*

(Okay, more like a thought bubble, fine.) Ano kaya? Pede kaya..? Too ambitious, I know, but something suddenly awakened that little dreamer inside of me, making me want to imagine the unimaginable. What can I say, can I help it if the job description sounded, for me, like The Ultimate Dream Job?

Online Community Manager, Philippines
Yahoo, Singapore

Online Community Management

You will lead the on-going management of our online communities. You will drive the engagement and growth of community-based services like Yahoo! Answers, Flickr and Yahoo! Groups. You will encourage our users to build relationships with each other and to share their knowledge, photos, videos and passions in a meaningful and responsible way. You will do this by communicating with the community through product blogs, message boards, emails and instant messaging.

Offline Community Management

You will engage our community face-to-face via meet-ups, road shows, workshops, seminars and other public events. You will be the face of Yahoo! and an evangelist of our products, teaching users how to maximize their online experience with our products.

Product Marketing

You will help the product managers and marketing team identify, evaluate and drive opportunities to increase market share and usage of our products. Based on your experience with the users, you will help marketing work out their strategy for our community products.

Product Maintenance and Development

Based on your interaction with users, you will provide user feedback to the development team as they upgrade and design new features. You will also work with customer care on how to handle abuse and service violations so as to maintain product quality.

And the job is based in Singapore too. If you’re my friend and you’ve known me a long time, you know in my heart of hearts how much I considered taking my chance in Singapore. Sheesh! It’s fate! I’m perfect for the job! The job is perfect for me! (Ha!!)

LOL.

But of course, that’s just me, playing around.

So no, I’m not stoopid enough to apply for the job and waste my time. Not confident enough to say I have what it takes (coz I don’t haha). And inasmuch as it’s good for daydreaming purposes, I didn’t apply for the position because:

1. I don’t have 2-5 years of product management / community administration experience. I have a little over 2 years worth of working experience, and barely one year as an SEO Project Manager. What do I know about being The representative of a very popular online brand??!
2. I talk a lot, I know, and I can talk a handful in front of my friends if I’m in the mood. But to talk in front of an entire community and educate them of Yahoo’s products and services? Gaah. The SEMCON alone is freaking me out, what more, this?? LOL.
3. I have a lot to learn. And for the meantime, I don’t want to grow up that fast just yet. Besides, I still have dreams of owning lots of pink gadgets to reach, I have no time for BIGGER dreams such as this. Hehe.

I think, however, that a woman will be perfect for this job, and I’m saying this not because of personal biases. I guess all I’m saying is, whoever’s going to fill this position up is someone to watch out for. For sure, just like Aileen, we’ll be seeing a lot of this person too.

Anyone in the local blogosphere who’s perfect for this job that you can think of?

As for me, if the position becomes available again about three years from now, I’ll probably take my chance.

Or, if I suddenly matured within the next three months (application period for the job will be closed in December), then, ehem-ehem, say hello to the first ever Yahoo! Philippines Online Community Manager: ME.

LOL.

Dream on, Riz. Dream on. Haha.

Meanwhile, please be nice come judgment day, okay? *puppy-eyed*

Ha! See ya there!

Is it just me or the new iPod nano looks kind of similar to Creative’s Zen V Plus in some way?

Pink Zen V Plus side-by-side with the new Pink Ipod Nano

Must be the rounded corners. But okay, fine, maybe it’s just me.

And by the way, what’s with the new iPod Nano ad? Go watch it and tell me where in the world the iPod nano is there.

P.S. Don’t get me wrong. I like the redesign.

The noise arising from the controversial Scoble Sunday videos is subsiding by the minute but here I go again with my delayed reactions.

I’ve always been one of Robert Scoble’s thousands of readers. Being this wide-eyed SEO newbie that I am, I’ve come to learn a lot from him, along with other prominent SEO gurus, about this online industry that’s still relatively new to me. I guess it doesn’t hurt to say that more often than not, I’m still in that point where I’d blindly accept their opinions as truths, such that when some SEO guru states the SEO armaggedon has come, I’d probably start panicking and digging a whole in the ground.

And for this latest buzz in the SEO world, we’re talking about The Robert Scoble. The tech evangelist. I even blogged about one of his interviews once, that one with Jeff Figueiredo where they discussed about Google adwords, keyword analysis, and PPC. Being a very influential player in the online tech industry, one can’t dismiss such claims from the Scobleizer just like that.

There’s no need to panic yet, apparently. But the following discussions (retaliations, angst, whathavewe) about Scoble’s unusual “thesis” are good references.. you know, just in case his prediction (prophesy?) about Google, Facebook, Mahalo, Techmeme, and the future of web search and SEO, comes true before our very eyes.. or NOT.

• Why Mahalo, Techmeme, and Facebook are going to kick Google’s butt in four years by Robert Scoble
• I used to respect Robert Scoble’s Opinion by Rand Fishkin
• The promise and reality of mixing the social graph with search engines by Danny Sullivan
• Mahalo, Techmeme, and Facebook will not kick Google’s butt by Vallywag
• Google and Search and We fat check your ass by Dave Winer
• Trend: Debunking Robert Scoble’s Mahalo beats Google theory by Wired
• The Scobleizer foresees a subversion of Google search in the future by Profy
• What I learned by Scoble

..and well, there’s more over at Scoble’s blog, quotes from some of the first few reactions that his videos got.

A lot has been said. SEOmoz and SearchEngineLand alone have said a TON. Their blow-by-blow reactions to the Scoble videos are enough to calm the storm as if to say, “relax, the world is still right where it should be.”

And I would have to agree. At the end of the day, that student who’s searching for the functions of the human brain, or that mother looking for parenting tips, or that drag racer searching for used auto parts and accessories — who all have no idea who Robert Scoble is — are still going to use Google (not Mahalo — they probably don’t know what Mahalo is, too) as their first resort to find what they’re looking for online.

Meanwhile, Google’s still the Internet search giant. And I.. still have my job.

Also, there’s still the Philippine Search Engine Marketing Conference happening this October.

And Aaron Wall is still the keynote speaker.

Yep, the world is still right where it should be.

Being in an industry that is relatively new, it’s usually hard to try to explain to people what I do. So usually, I just dismiss the explanation part and tell them “ohh, I’m doing Internet Marketing.” And when they stare at me as if waiting for further explanation, I would simply say, “Ohh it’s just like advertising.. but our market’s the internet.” And then they would start to nod, and change the topic. Heh.

Anyway, to those who are curious about this whole Search Engine Marketing industry (whether you’re interested to consider being part of the industry, or you’re already doing SEM yourself and you’d like to know the secrets and tried-and-tested techniques of the, err, experts), we present to you, *drumroll please* the first ever Search Engine Marketing Conference Philippines 2007.

 World-renown SEO guru Aaron Wall, (author of the SEO Book), will be the keynote speaker, and together with experts, both local and foreign, from different scopes of Internet Marketing, we hope to “showcase beginner-to-advanced sessions on a wide range of Internet marketing topics.” (see SEO Philippines founder Marc’s blog to know more.)

Oh, and I’ll be one of the speakers, by the way. Que horror! I’ll be talking about Advanced Link Building Techniques — or at least try to, as I’ll most likely be starstruck and shaky and nervous the whole time anyway. (Aaron Wall is gona be there, ohmy ohmy.) This is going to be my first speaking engagement in front of industry experts so technically, you’ll be witnessing history in this life of mine. (Please be nice, thanks. Oh, and thanks for the prayers too.) Hopefully, it’s not gona be the last time you’ll see me. Haha. *faints* Seriously though, I sure hope I would be able to contribute to the success of this event.

Registration is at P8500 per head. Check out the official website and the list of speakers and topics for mre details. See ya there!