I was just ranting about my sucky Globe Visibility connection about a few weeks ago. That time, however, I was still considering the possibility that maybe it was just me. Like, maybe our place in Caloocan just happened to have bad signal reception. Or maybe it’s just my laptop that’s got a problem. Lame stuff like that. After all, benefit of the doubt is often a rule in my game.

Until you reach a point when the noise is too loud already, and you know for sure that you’re not being given a fair play. Better than 3G, you say? No one’s paying 2K pesos (plus VAT!) a month for a measly GPRS connection. And what about that “promise” that a plugin that will allow Globe Visibility to work with Vista is underway? Until when are they going to make Vista users wait?

I recently said:

Really now. I can just imagine how many bloggers (and IT professionals) are subscribed to Globe Visibility. Aren’t they aware of what angry bloggers can do?

Angry bloggers -> bad reviews -> bad publicity -> indelible mark (in the form of pages and pages of cached information) to their company brand.

Something has to be done about this.

I know my voice was just too weak to reach the high heavens. But when big names like Bryanboy and Marc Macalua start saying something, and when forum threads start growing in protest of a bad service, be very warned. You better start strategizing your next move to salvage whatever’s left of your image online. Better yet, you better start improving your service and make your subscribers get what they’re worth. And the time is NOW.

So I’m joining these Globe Visibility lobbyists and making my voice count. I’ll update this post as often as I can. If you’re an unsatisfied Globe Visibility subscriber, speak up! Let’s dominate the Google SERPs with pleas for change and improvement. Maybe then, they’ll start noticing.

Www sightings on Globe Visibility:

• Globe Visibility Tipping Point (by Macalua.Com)
• Hold on Visibility (by Mobilityph)
• Invisible Globe Visibility (by Intsik Online)
• Globe Visibility: Customer Service, Third World Style (by Bryanboy)
• Globe Feedback Thread (Tsikot.Com)
• Globe Visibility Support Thread (Tipidpc.Com Forums)
• Why Globe Visibility is not Holding Up to its Promise (by Wifely Steps)
• Continuing Saga with Globe Visibility (by Intsik Online)

Last update: May 26, 2007.

So there. I’ll be clicking the publish button now. Let’s see how many seconds, minutes, before this one gets posted.

Being a girl in a man’s world (there goes that tagline again), I’ve always been an advocate of girl power — of women being exceptional at what they do and excelling in their own fields and in their own rights.

Precisely why pinkseo happened, back when the realization dawned on me that SEO Philippines, an organization of the best and thriving Filipino SEO gurus, needs a touch of pink somewhere in that testosterone-infested world. Hehe. Hence, this site’s participation in the ituloy angsulong keyword ranking contest. Apparently, I wasn’t the only female participant who stepped up, proved a point, and finished the race with flying colors. It was a lovely experience getting to know some of the best female SEOs in the country. (See there? No man would dare use “lovely” to describe an SEO experience haha).

Which is perhaps why female SEOs still never fail to inspire me. And why it thrilled me to find out that Hewlett Packard’s In-House SEO happens to be a woman too. In an interview made by Search Engine Journal, HP’s global In-House SEO Tanya Vaughan was put on the spot.

HP has a few in-house SEOs within various divisions, one is a full-time SEO, but most do SEO as portion of their role, and Tanya is HP’s central SEO hub. Tanya is the dream find for an in-house position; she had been working with HP for several years and knew about SEO, but more importantly was passionate about its integral role in the company’s web presence. Having already been with the company, she was ahead of the game when it came to what I call “the human side of SEO” – she already knew how to navigate through the personalities and corporate politics to get things done at HP. Tanya started dabbling in SEO as a content manager for HP.com, knowing that she wanted her content to be found. She’s a self-taught SEO that successfully works with all the HP divisions across the globe.

Oh wow, and she started out as a Content Manager. Yay! *hint,hint* Maybe I have a future in SEO after all. Haha.

Continue reading →

You know how a typical day is like in an Internet Marketing Department by just looking at the group’s Yahoo! Status Messages.

Have we become slave drivers already? But gaaah, I loooove these people — very promising, indeed. Their enthusiasm to learn and to grow into this industry is simply contagious. Reminds me of those days when SEO was still very new to me. (Er, ok, it still IS.) Reading their status messages this afternoon made me want to scream “grouphug!!”

So there you have it guys. The next SEO guru in the Philippines could be one of those people in the list. Watch out.

Last month, I subscribed to Globe’s Mobile Broadband service and was kinda impressed with it. Barely a month, however, my Globe Visibility’s been making some shutters here and there already.

At first, I just let them pass. But now, the connection problems are becoming more and more frequent, it’s starting to bother annoy me already. The promised 3G connection is not being met (I usually get GPRS/EDGE connection only), and sometimes I can’t even connect at all. The worst thing is, I’m still paying the same amount (plus VAT pfft) but not getting my money’s worth. Boo.

Just now, after about three hours of trying, and moving around the house to see where I can get a good signal, and a call to Globe’s 24 hour customer support (which didn’t really help at all), I finally got a (lousy) GPRS connection. I tried searching for HELP online and found myself back to Marc’s post about his own Globe Visibility subscription. This time, however, the thread’s grown longer, and I realized that I wasn’t alone after all.

Really now. I can just imagine how many bloggers (and IT professionals) are subscribed to Globe Visibility. Aren’t they aware of what angry bloggers can do?

Angry bloggers -> bad reviews -> bad publicity -> indelible mark (in the form of pages and pages of cached information) to their company brand.

Something has to be done about this. Globe? Help? (Francis? You there?)

We interrupt our regular programming to congratulate the man who ruled the recently concluded SEO World Championship, a Filipino no less, and a respectable SEO Philippines guru, Mr. Benj Arriola! Brand new car for the grand winner!! That is waaay cool.

That’s right, Benj, kick em all! (Image taken from Benj’s friendster account)

When I asked him to help me 301 this site, I didn’t realize I was demanding PROBONO services from the next SEO World Champion (So embarrassing!). But that’s just the kind of man Benj is — always willing to walk extra miles to help, always taking time to chat when you need someone to talk to regardless if it’s SEO-related or not, always sharing his life and the things he’s gone through so you can learn from them. When I met him on the night of the Ituloy Angsulong awardings, he is, undoubtedly, a very humble and funny and down-to-earth kinda guy. (But no, I don’t want to make this sound like a eulogy or a hallmark greeting card so ok I’ll stop haha).

Benj did an awesome job with his Global Awareness2007 contest entry. Topping 2,060,000 Google search results; 2,880,000 Yahoo results; and a couple more thousands from MSN, Benj got the highest accumulated ranking over hundreds of participants around the world. His success is definitely something, we, Filipinos, should celebrate and be proud of.

Benj said, in his blog,

I would like to add that 20% of my efforts in getting the top spot in this contest were through the help of the many SEO professionals in the Philippines. This win is not completely my win. It is a win of SEO Philippines. Where competent and skilled SEO professionals are, SEO professionals in the Philippines have high reliability in off-shore SEO outsourcing.

Right on! Ultimately, Benj’s victory is one proof that Filipino SEOs have reached the vicinity of “world class”.

Congrats Benj! I hope Pinkseo’s helped your rankings in any way.

PS. Pasakay sa bago mong car!