Hi. Two Saturdays have gone by, and there are still more Saturdays to come! Have yourself listed, who knows, you could be one of the chosen few to be given a slot.

(Pasig, Philippines. January 2008.) In recent years, the Internet has become a potent tool for selling products or services. It has also opened employment and income-generating opportunities to many Filipinos. So much so, Internet marketing has become the latest buzzword in the online sphere.

A series of seminars aims at sharing basic information on the creative and technical aspects of Internet Marketing. The “Internet Marketing Bootcamp” will run for six consecutive weeks from January 26 to March 1, 2008. Each session will be held from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at RCC Center, Shaw Boulevard, Pasig City.

IMB, Second Batch (January 26, 2008)

Some of the country’s Internet Marketing luminaries from U.S. Auto Parts Philippines (USAP) will discuss the key concepts and strategies on this emerging field:

• Michael Joseph Villar, USAP Affiliate Marketing Manager, will give a crash course on performance-based marketing, how companies and individuals can benefit from it, as well as the challenges confronting affiliate marketing.
• Alvin Jimenez, Email Marketing Manager, will present the email marketing campaigns and their relevance.
• Rico Sta. Cruz, Creative Director, will discuss the essential principles in Web design and how to apply them to the Web.
• Jennelyn Tabora, Copy Editing Supervisor, will talk about online copywriting and its crucial role in attracting and building readership.
• Gabriel Libacao Jr. and Rhiza Sanchez, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Project Managers, will explain the basics of search engine marketing and how to convert visitors into sales and profits.
• Maia Nuguid, Senior Web Analytics Specialist, will discuss how Web analytics can help in assessing Internet marketing strategies.

Finally, Marc Hil Macalua, USAP Vice President for Marketing, will give the inspirational speech. Web Project Manager Elymar Apao will facilitate the Bootcamp sessions.

Left to right: Ely, Gabby, Rico, Alvin, Mikey, Maia, Riz
Hi, this is us.

The Bootcamp is sponsored by the U.S. Auto Parts Network, the premier warehouse of auto replacement and performance part brands in the United States. One of the leading players in the Internet retailing industry, U.S. Auto Parts ranks among the top 100 online retailers in the United States in 2007.

The Bootcamp is open for all professional bloggers, Internet marketing enthusiasts, or anyone who has a background in Internet marketing. Interested persons may send their updated resumés at elymar@usautoparts.net or glibacao@mbsautomotive.com. Qualified applicants will be informed via a confirmation email.

Participants are encouraged to bring their resumes as a Job Fair will closely follow each seminar.

For further details, please visit the following sites:
US Auto Parts Internet Marketing Bootcamp
US Auto Parts Job Listing

Contact Persons:
Elymar Apao
elymar@usautoparts.net

Gabriel Libacao Jr.
glibacao@mbsautomotive.com

I know, I know. It’s easy for me to say “duh” because I’m not affected by this drastic change in Google PageRanks that’s happening now across the web. My sites, after all, have always had PageRanks of 4 (but so are the rest of you now! Bwahaha! Kidding.) Admittedly, it had been a little disappointing at first — considering all the link building I’ve done for these sites, I reckon I should have at least moved a step up in that PageRank ladder already. Heh.

But it’s not like I’m having sleepless nights over it. I stopped caring about PageRanks long ago, after all, I’ve seen websites with PRs as little as 2 and 3, ranking in the SERPs along with sites that have greater PageRanks. I just don’t think that PageRank is still a valid measure of a site’s relevance anymore, is all.

Andy Beard made an inventory of sites/blogs that were affected by the update downgrade. And so did Barry Schwarts at Search Engine Land. It would be interesting to find out if the traffic of these sites were really affected by this whole PR update thing. I think not.

Hence, I make an anti-thesis to Jayvee’s “Blog Networks should NOT rely on Text Link Ads or Google AdSense” idea. (Hi, Jayvs! Hehe.) Yes, Google is not a big fan of selling and buying links, we all know that already. Then again, it has been pointed out several times that a lot of those blogs that were affected are not involved with selling (or buying) links. I don’t think this has got anything to do with Google Adsense, either. Perhaps, the theory should be something in the line of “stop relying on Google PageRanks, people.” Google must have been fed up already by sites that are relying too much on its PR technology to market their own businesses.

Didn’t Aaron Wall state long before this controversial PR update that “PageRank is the wonkiest stat of them all“? Prior to this, we all know that Google updates PageRanks every after three months (longer sometimes), hence, the PageRanks we’ve all been seeing are, in a sense, outdated. Also, PageRanks vary across data centers, and across Google toolbars even. And again, I’ve seen a lot of sites that do not have PR5s or PR6s ranking for competitive keywords all the time.

My thesis: Websites should NOT rely on Google PageRanks.

Blog Networks should no longer use PageRanks as their “bait” or marketing pitch to advertisers. Text Links Ads or Blog to Profit shouldn’t make it their standard for approving sign-ups, either. Point is, there are far better and more reliable ways to measure a site’s relevance, like, traffic for example. Or content. Or backlinks. PageRank is soooo 2005.

Good for me, while blogging this I found myself at Search Engine Journal (whose PR, by the way, dropped from 7 to 4). So hey, I’d stop ranting now so I can direct you over to Loren Baker’s take on this. Take it over, Mr. Baker. I agree with everything you say.

So should the rest of us.

Some people may not have gotten the message I was trying to get across when I “introduced” the idea of Pink Hat SEO. (Hey Danielle, I actually did it! Haha! And your pink teddy bear had a special appearance on my powerpoint *winks*).

Truth be told, I had second thoughts adding that part in my presentation. I was afraid some people will find it juvenile and inappropriate for a serious and prestigious event such as SEMCON 2007. But I had to squeeze it in to drive a point, and to somehow put my personality into my talk. I mean, seriously now, if I’d be remembered at all, I don’t mind being remembered as that girl who had a pink presentation. Haha. Okay, fine, not really. But, well, you get what I’m saying.

Now once again, I didn’t mean “girly stuff” by Pink Hat SEO, which, if I remember right, I pointed out several times during my presentation. What I wanted to focus on was using social media as a means to build link networks for the purpose of SEO. And well, perhaps adding eye-catchy stuff (not necessarily pink) on your site so that people will link to you. The only reason why I related it with being a girl is because girls do love to socialize and attract people.

It’s true what they say — SEO techniques can simply be classified as either black or white, period. But just like choosing between what’s right and wrong, sometimes, there really is no black and white. SEO Hats that are Green, Blue or Pink, perhaps, are just used for the purpose of discussion, to set apart certain techniques from the ones we usually do. Basically, that was what I was trying to point out.

Anyway, I promised some people that I’ll upload my powerpoint presentation on Advanced Link Building Techniques, so here goes. Warning to those who weren’t there at the SEMCON, you’ll see a lot of pink in here: Download away.

I cannot match the Great Aaron Wall’s unconventional link building checklist, but here’s a few more suggestions. After all, you can never tell which ones will work. I once said that women have what it takes to RULE the SEO industry, and here are a few link building tactics we can do that men can’t. Ha!

1. Offer free dates on your site. Get your male visitors involved in a contest of sorts, require them to blog about why they think they deserve a date with you, and require them to blog about your date right after. Sounds familiar, you say? Of course, Lauren did it. Ask her yourself, or, head over to her blog and see for yourself how well it worked. Heh.
2. Attend those blogger events and get drunk. Make sure you’re around bloggers (the likes of Mike Villar, TJ Cafuir, and well, The Man Blog, I suppose) so that when you puke at them, you know you’re guaranteed a link, plus maybe an entire paragraph documenting how you made a mess of yourself. (Or how cute you are when you’re drunk. Hah.)
3. Attend those blogger events, be a social butterfly, smile and say hi to everyone as if it’s your birthday. Make sure you have a bunch of business cards ready to give away
4. Post pictures of yourself wearing skimpy outfits. Fine, this might not get you links, but at least you get traffic.
5. Walk around the office wearing a plastic tiara, and wave your hand ala-Binibining Pilipinas. This really works if you’re working in an internet marketing company where most of your officemates have blogs or twitter accounts.
6. Twit the whole day, even when mobile. Announce to everyone you’re in love, or you’re depressed, and other emo stuff. You see, Emo kids are IN these days.
7. Wear matching pink outfit all the time. The kind that will make people think of care bears, or alice in wonderland, or strawberries. (Uhm, wala lang. Papansin lang.)
8. Be annoyingly sweet online and offline. Especially with guys whose sites have high pageranks. (Hi, Mikey. LOL.)
9. Keep linking to Aaron Wall until he notices you. Or, Yugatech. (Hi, Aaron. Hi, Abe. Hi.)
10. Marry an SEO guru. Exhibit A: Aaron Wall’s marrying a Filipina. Exhbit B: Sharmskee’s got a permanent sidebar link from Macalua.com. Get the picture? ♥

Okay, don’t listen to me. Just taking a break from all these link building stuff. Back to work now. Heh.

One of the things I realized as I prepare for my talk on Advanced Link Building Techniques at the much-awaited SEMCON 2007 is that, the “advanced” part of it is pretty basic. True enough, the more you dig into what you thought was a complicated topic, the more you realize how simple it is. Apparently, this idea applies to link building too.

Link building is not like a complicated chemical solution that would explode if you didn’t follow a certain step-by-step procedure. Yes, some techniques may be detrimental to your search engine rankings, and could either pull your sites up or down drastically. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try and test ways to build your link network and see which ones will work for you.

Also, the one thing I like about it is, you can put your personality into your link building strategy, couple it with some standard techniques, and the right combinations could easily make your project flourish before your eyes. And while there are gazillion ways of doing link building, in the long run, it all boils down to the basics.

Let me tell you more about that on October 9. SEMCON Philippines 2007.

And let me just add that there is such a thing as Pink SEO. Yup.

More at SEMCON 2007. Be there.

P.S. Trust me, don’t believe everything she says. You see, she’s a very good friend of mine. LOL.