Tip: use shortcodes anywhere
Shortcodes are meant to be used for post and page content, but with a little custom code you can make them work elsewhere, as shown in this article:
- Text Widgets
- Template Files
- Comments
- Excerpts
- User Descriptions
- Category, Tag, and Taxonomy Descriptions
I think the most crucial piece of code to remember here is the one for theme files. Just add the line do_shortcode('[foo]'); and that will obey shortcode syntax. Super convenient! Also check out this list of custom shortcodes. For WordPress.com users, there are a bunch of media shortcodes already built in.
See also: how to use widgets anywhere.
Tip: add a widget anywhere with the_widget()
Here’s a very useful tip for everyone comfortable with customizing their WordPress themes: you can add any widget anywhere on your site, not just in your sidebar or widgetized areas, using the template tag the_widget.
Here’s the syntax:
<?php the_widget($widget, $instance, $args); ?>
This post by Shailan explains how to find the widget class name and arguments to use in the code. Refer to the Codex for the names of the default widgets. Want to create your own widget? Valums shows you how.
WordPress ModGuide
DriftwoodCMS.com has a comprehensive compilation of resources called the WordPress ModGuide, which contains just about every tip, trick, hack, code snippet, or plugin to help customize your site.
WordPress is open source and the php code is free for all to use. And use I have giving credit where it is due whenever possible. Here is my gift back to the WordPress community. All of the links on the page are free resources. Spread the knowledge.
All the links can be found on a single page and even includes non WP-specific categories like SEO and social networking. You can also share a resource that isn’t on the list. A must bookmark!
More than a dozen useful WordPress database queries
Secure, clean up, and optimize your blog with 10 “life-saving” SQL queries from Cats Who Code. Most of them are short and should work by simply copying & pasting them into your database manager. Here’s what you can do:
- Manually change your password
- Transfer posts from one user to another
- Delete post revisions and meta associated to those revisions
- Batch delete spam comments
- Find unused tags
- Find and replace data
- Get a list of your commentators emails
- Disable all your plugins at once
- Delete all tags
- List unused post meta
- Disable comments on older posts
- Replace commentator url
- Replace commentator email adress
- Delete all comments with a specific url
The article also recommends an SQL WordPress plugin so you don’t have to go anywhere else to execute the queries. If you’re not familiar with SQL, the best way to learn is by example! As a precautionary measure, however, make sure to have a database backup ready before doing any database manipulation.
New features in WordPress 3.0
WP Beginner digs into the new features coming in the big WordPress 3.0 release. Also recently, Jane Wells posted a report on the latest developments with the current cycle. Third, WP 3.0 is set to enter feature freeze mode on March 1.
What do these all mean? Now is the best time to get familiar with the new features. As we all know, we’ve got some big ones coming:
- WordPress and WordPress MU merging
- Custom post types
- Menu management
- New default theme, 2010
- Welcome guide upon installation
- Canonical plugins
Blog Action Day on Feb. 25: The Real Heroes of EDSA
The Kabataan Partylist is inviting everyone to participate in the Blog Action Day this February 25, in commemoration of the EDSA Revolution that took place 24 years ago. More specifically, it celebrates the people who participated and made it happen, hence the title “The Real Heroes of EDSA”.
We may have been too young then or were not even born yet, but we can ask them to recount their tales of real-life heroism to us. What prompted them to join the uprising? What were their thoughts and feelings? What did they wear, eat, chant? How did it feel to be able to be surrounded by overwhelming unity and patriotism among millions of other heroes marching in the streets on those three historic days.
Blog Action Day posts linking to the announcement will be posted as early as 12 noon on Thursday. It’s interesting to see a partylist spearheading an online mass action this time.
Filter out political ads from Google AdSense
As the 2010 presidential election on May 10 draws near, candidates are campaigning more aggressively than ever, including online. However, as much as Filipino bloggers enjoy making money from advertisements on their websites, inadvertently endorsing politicians doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. Carlo Ople’s tutorial on removing political ads from Google AdSense should help out with that. He also cites another reason to do this:
Here’s a more compelling reason to filter ads though – adsense earnings. I noticed that the CTR of my various sites went down over the past few months. I decided to observe for a week and I noticed that my blogs are being flooded by political ads. Not just from Manny Villar, but also from Bayani Fernando and Mark Jimenez. It looks like my site visitors are sick and tired already of politics to the point that they refuse to click them at all, hahaha!
If you’ve tinkered with AdSense long enough, you probably know how to do this already. If you don’t, the instructions are straightforward: go to AdSense Setup > Competitive Filter and enter the URLs of the sites you’d rather not advertise on your blog.
What the tutorial is missing is a complete list of political candidates’ websites, which would make the filtering process even more convenient.
iBlog6 schedule posted & registration open
iBlog6 has opened its doors for online registration, on this page. The 2-day event is completely free, so there’s absolutely no reason not to sign up now. The schedule has also been posted, which indicates the difference between the talks on April 16 and 17:
The first day (April 16) is targeted for businesses and entrepreneurs wanting to understand how to tap blogs as a medium to promote their products and services. The second day (April 17) is meant to everyone interested about blogging.
Edit: No word yet on there will be an afterparty this year. Keep up with all the updates at the iBlog site.
DigitalFilipino Social Networking Awards 2010 call for nominations
The call for nominations for the DigitalFilipino Social Networking Awards have opened. The competition, which is part of the 2010 Social Networking Conference, recognizes the Philippines’ best efforts in social media and social network marketing & advertising. Here are the categories:
- Social Network
- Virtual Worlds / Games
- Social News, Bookmarking, Media Voting
- Photo / Video / Media Sharing
- Ratings / Reviews
- Forums
- Micro-blogs
- Blogs
- Search engine marketing
View the last year’s winners here. The social campaigns must have occurred from April 1, 2009 to March 10, 2010. Judging criteria will be equally divided among the following: design, creativity, copywriting, impact. Deadline for nominations is on March 13.
Ask and earn at WP Questions
Do you have an important WordPress question that you’re willing to pay money for it? Or are you so confident with your WordPress knowledge that you deserve to earn from it? Try WP Questions.
It’s not official, but looks like an interesting premise. It fills in the gap between answering common problems and hiring for full-blown WordPress projects. Need a template tweak here or a bug fix there? If it’s a very specific task or problem, and you’re running out of time, this should do the trick.
Questions close automatically after 3 days and the asker has to pick the winning answer. The asker is also in charge of setting the price for the question. Listing fee is 9%; payments go through PayPal. Read more about the rules here.
11 WordPress One Minute Podcasts
Tris Hussey has compiled all the episodes of his show, the WordPress One Minute Podcast, in one page. It’s perfect for WordPress users who are just starting out, covering some of the most popular tips in blogging with the platform. The current list so far:
- Ep 1: Pasting from Word
- Ep 2: Disable the default admin account
- Ep 3: Turbo-charge admin panels
- Ep 4: WP.com vs WP.org
- Ep 5: Press this bookmarklet
- Ep 6: Sidebar widgets
- Ep 7: CPanel file manager
- Ep 8: Pretty Permalinks
- Ep 9: Upgrading plugins
- Ep 10: WP to Twitter
- Ep 11: All In One SEO Pack
From dealing with Word-formatted text to acquainting onself with the All in One SEO Pack, consider the list a virtual pocket guide for WP, if not for you then for a friend or loved one who just got into ‘Pressing. It’s an interesting take on the podcast format, which normally contains several different topics and long-winded discussions on each.
It’s also worth noting that Tris is currently writing the book Using WordPress, so keep your eyes peeled for developments on that.
Alex Villafania on Libel and Copyright in Blogging
Juned Sonido interviews Alex Villafania, former online at Inquirer.net, to discuss two of the most important legal issues in the contest of blogging and online media: copyright and libel. The latter is a hotter topic these days because of the libel complaint filed against blogger “Ella Rose” by the National Bureau of Investigation and Department of Social Welfare and Development. She previously claimed that the DSWD was not distributing relief goods during the Ondoy disaster. Here’s Alex’s comment on such a case:
Baratillo.net: Is the blogger or on-line media practitioner liable for comments said/posted on his blog, forum or website?
Alex: If the law is to be strictly followed, to the last word, yes. Because blogs and online media are public communiques, and are read by more than two people (libel requires 3 people or so — the 2 parties involved and a third-party to actually hear it), they can put under the libel clause.
Article 355 states that “a libel committed by means of writing, printing, lithography, engraving, radio, phonograph, painting, theatrical exhibition, cinematographic exhibition, or any similar means, shall be punished by prision correccional….in addition to the civil action which may be brought by the offended party.” That also includes articles written in forums, email and yes, online stories and blogs.
Year in and year out, legal issues are one of the biggest topics at the iBlog Summit, and with yet another blogger making mainstream news, this will surely be tackled again. Alex Villafania’s interview is a glimpse into that discussion, so consider this an early look into that.
Catch the complete, must-read interview here.
iBlog6 Video Contest
Aside from a logo design contest, iBlog6 is also running a video contest to “capture what blogging means to you, or highlight how blogging has changed your life, helped you earn, promote a project or cause, or some other similar theme.” This is a great opportunity for bloggers to express how this hobby, profession, art has impacted their lives, hopefully also in the context of the Philippine blogging scene.
This contest is organized as a means to celebrate how blogs and the bloggers behind it are:
- Changing lives – their own and/or of those around them;
- The way blogs allow them to communicate their ideas and thoughts;
- The way establishments, whether profit or non-profit, use blogs and bloggers to reach out;
- and many more..
Entries will be judged according to concept, visual artistry, editing, production value, and overall impact. You need to be at least eighteen to be eligible. The winner will be announced during the iBlog event and will receive an 8GB iPod Nano.
Deadline is on March 7. Read the full mechanics here.
New in WP 2.9: Transform URLs to embed codes
A very useful new feature in WordPress 2.9 is oEmbed support, which lets you display video and other embed objects with less hassle: all you need to do paste the URL and you’re all set.
First, make sure this feature is enabled under Settings > Media > Attempt to automatically embed all plain text URLs. There’s also an option to set a maximum width and height for the embed objects. Next, create or edit posts like you normally would, and enter the URL in its own line. Save your post and hit the Preview button to check if it’s working.
For example, pasting a YouTube URL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtdTJP_GUI) automatically generates this:
If you don’t want WordPress to create embed codes from URLs automatically, use the shortcode.
WordPress has a list of sites you can do this with, which includes sites like YouTube, Flickr, and WordPress.tv. More information about adding support can be found at the Codex page.
Philippines Top 100 blogs in 2009 according to Alexa.com
Pinoy Money Talk has compiled a list of the top 100 Filipino blogs for 2009, ranked according to traffic using statistics from Alexa.com. Also listed were the biggest gainers, losers, and newcomers to the list.
Finally, we bring you our listing of the Top 50 Blogs in the Philippines for the year 2009, ranked based on each blog’s 3-month Alexa.com traffic rank.
We started monitoring blogs in 2008 (see our 2008 Top 50 Philippine Blogs list) and, in 2009, we see a diverse collection of old and new blogs alike.
In this list, 19 blogs or 20% of the Top 50 entered the list for the first time in 2009. They either became popular or started only in 2009. This means the length of time a person has been blogging does not necessarily translate to higher traffic rank.
PMT itself, which is 6th on the list in 2009, admits that the ranking is flawed (the traffic stats are only for 3 months; it also removed porn and warez sites from the list), but still gives people a good grasp of the biggest names in the Philippine blogosphere. View the complete top 100 list here.
WordPress Personas for Firefox
Firefox Personas, which let you skin your whole browser according to your own tastes, now has WordPress ones made by Automattic itself. As of writing there are two personas: WordPress Inkwell and WordPress Vintage Press.
WordPress and Firefox are both open source projects with great communities, so it’s not surprising to see their worlds colliding every now and then. In fact if you’ll Google just a bit, Firefox add-ons for WordPress will turn up—and vice versa.
In the Philippines, the 2009 WordCamp also saw Mozilla and Automattic present both at the event and after, with Beau Lebens and Seth Bindernagel eating balut!
Grab the WordPress Persona for Firefox now.
iBlog6 call for speakers/topics and logo contest
iBlog6: the 6th Philipping Blogging Summit is happening on April 16 and 17 at the Malcolm Theater, UP College of Law, UP Diliman, QC. Here’s what to expect in this two-day event:
iBlog6 is targeted to take place on April 16 and 17. The first day will focus on Blogging for Business (entrepreneurs, corporation, non-government organization, and the likes). We would like to receive proposals that can help businesses understand better on how blogs can be tapped as a tool for promotion and how to work effectively with bloggers (through events, contests, advertising, and the likes).
The second day will focus on topics for Bloggers that includes introduction to blogging, use of photos and videos, policies, and promotion. We also want to look at political blogging, election coverage, and building offline blogging communities.
Interested speakers may now submit topic proposals before the January 31 deadline here.
iBlog is also launching a contest for the redesign of its logo. The mechanics are listed here. Submission of entries runs from February 1 to 15 and the winner will win an 8 GB iPod Nano.
Tips for speeding up WordPress
Michael Gray of Graywolf’s SEO Blog has compiled a comprehensive list of tips for optimizing load times with your WordPress site. Since Google has announced that it would include page loading time as a factor in its search results rankings, and launched its Let’s make the web faster microsite, site performance & optimization is now the hottest topic in the SEO world. (If you need something to blow up so everyone else follows suit, trust Google to get things done.)
The trick is to look at all the plugins and widgets you’ve added to your site and figure out which ones you can do without. Do you really need that fancy lightbox zooming script to display your larger images? How about opting for a more compact, all-in-one solution for your social media buttons? Or a lighter theme?
But whether or not you’re on WordPress, website analyzing tools and techniques such as gzipping and caching should come in handy. Yahoo! also has a great resource page on speeding up your website.
It seems this will be the year of optimized page loads, so don’t get left behind!
BuddyPress can now run on WordPress single user
Great news for everybody itching to run BuddyPress but are still having second thoughts running WordPress MU: BP no longer requires WPMU! The latest trunk version can now run on single-user WordPress (that’s the original flavor of WP we all know and love) and these are all you have to remember:
- Install WP Single User.
- Make sure Pretty Permalinks are turned on.
- Download the BuddyPress Trunk here.
Scroll down to the bottom and grab the zip archive.- Unpack it and upload to your wp-plugins directory.
Make sure you move the bp-themes folder to the wp-content/themes directory and you should be good to go.The BP theme folder shows up automatically in the Appearance tab in WP 2.9.
I didn’t expect that this would happen before the WordPress-Wordpress MU merger, so this is a pleasant surprise. Read more details on this forum thread.
As an aside: this is the first time I’ve heard of WordPress being referred to as “single user”. Of course, this is just the counterpart to the term “multi-user” for WPMU, since we all know WordPress can have multiple users/authors in one installation.
The WordPress community sounds off on WPShout
WPShout.com has published answers from the most prominent members of the WordPress community to four big questions about WordPress:
- Why WordPress?
- What Would You Change In WordPress?
- What Problems Currently Face The WordPress Community?
- What Is The Future Of WordPress?
Fantastic reads which couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s the end of the year which means evaluating the year that was; then, between the latest WP release and the big 3.0 dropping next year, we’re also looking forward. Whether you’re new to WordPress or a veteran, there are a fair amount of insights to be had, and it’s a great glimpse into the state of WP and its community.
How to use the WP.me URL shortener for self-hosted WordPress
WordPress.com users have enjoyed the WP.me URL shortener since August, but here’s a neat discovery for self-hosted WordPress users, courtesy of the folks at WP Tavern: if you upgrade to WordPress 2.9 and install the WordPress.com Stats plugin, you can get to use WP.me too. Once you type in a post title, a “Get Shortlink” button will appear right beside the “Edit” button for the post permalink. For example, the clicking on said button gives us the shortlink http://wp.me/pely2-Aq.
What do you think of the requirements? Stats buffs probably won’t mind grabbing yet another analytics plugin if they haven’t already. But upgrading to WordPress 2.9 this early might still be discouraging.
What exactly is more attractive about choosing to use WP.me over, say, native post ID-based permalinks instead? Probably the number of characters you can save with a much shorter URL.
But take note that both Google and Facebook have just rolled out their own URL shorteners in goo.gl and fb.me. Seems like the URL shortening arena is getting more serious competition than ever.
An unofficial WordPress.com Gallery FAQ
The WordPress Gallery is one of the most powerful features introduced to the software to date, but it’s also pretty tricky. You can read the official support page for it, but long before that came around this FAQ was published. It’s more than a year old but it’s still a useful reference for anybody who uses the Gallery all the time.
Can I have a Page that displays all my existing Galleries?
To make a separate “Gallery” Page, make a new Page and then locate the Post ID number of the Galleries you wish to include in your Gallery Page (see above). In the HTML Editor, type in the gallery shortcode, together with the relevant Post ID. It will look something like this [ gallery id="210" ] (without the extra spaces after and before the bracket). You can also adjust the settings for number of columns and thumbnail size for each individual gallery displayed on that Page.
Note that the FAQ was created for WordPress.com users, although from the looks of things a lot of it applies to self-hosted users as well.
Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards 2009 on December 27
Now on its second year, the Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards will be held on December 27 at the Philam Life Theater on UN Ave., Malate, Manila. There are 37 nominees whom you can vote for at the sidebar of the website.
Aside from the blog awards itself, there’s also a photo contest open to all Pinoy bloggers abroad.
Can’t make it to the awards night? Check this page for live streaming of the event.
WordCamp Philippines 2010: save the date; Matt is back!
WordCamp Philippines organizer Ria Jose announced over the weekend that a date has been set: August 28. And even more exciting is that Matt Mullenweg will be returning to next year’s event.
There are no further details other than that, but those are the two most important ones right now, don’t you think? Kudos to Avatar Media and the rest of the WordCamp PH crew for starting the buzz this early.
Tip: editing post permalinks is easier than you think!
WPLover shares a neat discovery about editing WordPress permalinks: you can type your custom link text as you would your post title, spaces and all, and it will fill in the hyphens and change the text case for you.
Usually, since permalinks are written in this-kind-of-format-with-dashes, I would have to write that way manually: must carefully keep them lowercased and dashed properly.
However, I just found out that you could simply write your title normally there (with alternating cases and spaces, even)
It’s a tiny little thing but can save you a lot of time customizing those permalinks for readability and search engine optimization. Have you discovered some other time-saving feature built into WordPress?
24 days of WordPress during the holidays
The lovely folks at WPEngineer have started a WP Advent Calendar—a WordPress-themed countdown of sorts in line with the holiday season. It’s like 24 ways but for WordPress, or perhaps a winter counterpart to Summer of Code.
Here’s something from Day 3:
Imagine that it is possible to break into the blog, or potentially damage the entire web space of the server. I wouldn’t like to pay the invoice of your provider for the damage and surely don’t want to lose my whole website and files. And all this because you wanted to save $59!
If you want to have a special theme, buy it! The theme developer also provide support within the $59, also many developer help with customization, updates and much more. A pretty good deal in my opinion.
So take the advice and rather buy a premium theme than download it for “free” somewhere else. The same applies also for premium Plugins.
What a great way to spend Christmas, if I do say so myself!
WordCamp Philippines 2009 talk: WordPress in the Wild
Markku Seguerra just blogged about his talk in this year’s WordCamp Philippines called “WordPress in the Wild”:
WordPress used to simply be a blogging app and not much more. It’s growth in the past few years though has pushed it to adapt a more extensible structure to allow for other uses beyond blogging as well as various other customizations. These changes made it more appealing to a wider range of users, but at the same time it also introduced some performance bottlenecks that become apparent when your blog rises to be just a bit too popular. Ah, the price of success.
His slides on WordPress deployment, performance, optimization, and security are embedded in the post, but scroll down for all the important links and points covered by his presentation. A bit on the technical side, but definitely a must-read for everyone running a WordPress website.
WordPress is Best Overall Open Source CMS
WordPress has won the Best Overall Open Source CMS award in this year’s Open Source CMS Awards. It was also named first runner-up after Drupal in the Best PHP Open Source CMS category.
This is a landmark for us, as it is the first time we’ve won this award, and it marks a shift in the public perception of WordPress, from blog software to full-featured CMS. No small contest, the Open Source CMS Awards received over 12,000 nominations and more than 23,000 votes across five categories.
That makes for a very good point, seeing as how there are oodles of “WordPress as CMS” articles out there. WordPress has proven despite its very strong reputation as blog software, it’s now ahead of the content management system pack. Plus we, the members of the WordPress community, are a big part in making it this big.
Win premium WP themes, hosting plans, and cash from JaypeeOnline
PBA 2009 Best Technology Blog JaypeeOnline is holding a Thanksgiving Giveaway contest for all the bloggers out there. The sheer amount of prizes is staggering, with a total worth of $1,500.
Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays and I always look forward to it because its one of the times in the year where I get to spend time with family and friends and at the same time eat good food. Thanksgiving is the time to give thanks and express gratitude so in celebration of this special occassion, I’m giving away $1,500 worth of cash, premium WordPress themes and web hosting. This is my way of expressing my gratitude for all the blessings I’ve received this year including the recent achievements and success of JaypeeOnline.
Contest mechanics include subscribing to his blog, blogging about the contest, and leaving a comment on the contest entry. There are bonus points you can also earn to give each person a total of 12 points.
Deadline is on November 30; winners will be announced the next day. Join here.
Download the WordPress Visual Cheat Sheet
The WordPress Visual Cheat Sheet was created by Antonio Lupetti of Woork Up for all you hard core WP developers. This PDF file contains 5 pages worth of template tags and corresponding code examples, which should be a more convenient to look them up compared to the Codex.
A preview of the PDF is also up at Scribd. Check it out here!
Put yourself on the WordPress World Map
The WordPress World Map lets WP people unite get themselves on a custom Google Maps interface. You can sign in with your Twitter account (there should be support for WordPress.com, and WordPress.org as sign-on identities, but you can add your respective usernames on those sites to the profile) and add yourself as a user/blogger, developer, core developer, company, or fan. See folks who are in your area and check out which WordCamps are happening near you—probably the nifties feature thus far.
Great way to get a global perspective of the WordPress community. And this project would integrate well with the WordPress.org profiles.
Put the WordPress Philippines community on the map and register now!
Two Filipino blogs win in the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards
Two Filipino blogs brought home honors in the first Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards held last October 23 in Singapore.
Ferdz Decena’s Ironwulf.net bagged the Best Travel Blog while Australia-based Arnold Arnaez won Best Geek Blog for Mr. Gadget.
Congratulations and mabuhay kayo!
Philippine Blog Awards 2009: Chikka’s Readers’ Choice Mindanao
Time for the Mindanao leg of the Chikka Readers’ Choice Award. Here are the nominees and their blog codes:
Davao Mac User M1
Ganda Ever So Much M2
Plurk Designs M3
Gensan News Online Mag M4
Blogging Frenzy M5
Random Randoms M6
A Pinoy Experience M7
Himantayon nga Kagay-anon M8
Travel and Tours M9
Manilenyo in Davao M10
Just like before, send CHIKKARC [BLOG CODE] and send to 2929 (Smart and Globe). Each text is worth two votes and costs Php2.50. Deadline is on October 23.
Using WordPress MU for universities
Jim Groom, a contributor at the WPMU Development for Education group, has published an FAQ on running a large scale WordPress MU installation in a university setting. He lists what plugins were used, details on creating custom themes, and more nitty-gritty stuff like hardware configuration.
How many staff/partial FTEs are needed to support your instance?
As of right now, I do the majority of user support with the actuall system. But our division 5 and 1/2 FTEs, though I think most of the support has been relegated to me, and it has not burned all my time, but as UMW Blogs becomes bigger and bigger, and more “Systemic,” the time devoted to it becomes greater. But, in anticipation of the next question. WordPress has made any barriers to new users very easy because the interface is so slick and user-friendly. And the fact that it is open source, and has an insane community behind it makes our jobs as instructional technologists so much easier, cause we can integrate new features on the fly.
What do you see as the biggest barriers that new users have to overcome in using WP?
Well, I think that is WP’s strength, and why we used it, because it’s interface is so user-friendly we haven;t had to invest too much time at all in user training.
WordPress MU is a bit more tricky to maintain than standard version, though with its upcoming merge with WordPress.org should change things. Read the whole FAQ here.
Mindanao Bloggers Summit and Philippine Blog Awards Mindanao on October 24
Two huge events for Mindanao bloggers are happening on the same day at the same venue: this Saturday, October 24, at the Pearlmont Inn, Limketkai Drive, Cagayan de Oro City. First comes the Mindanao Bloggers Summit from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, then the Philippine Blog Awards – Mindanao leg happens after at 7:00 pm.
Register for MBS3 here. This year’s theme is “Mindanao Bag-uhon ang Panan-aw” or “Changing the way people see Mindanao”. Looks like a jam-packed and exciting couple of events happening down south.
Philippine Blog Awards 2009: Chikka’s Readers’ Choice Visayas
The Philippine Blog Awards 2009 is now moving on to the Visayas leg with the Chikka Readers’ Choice Award for Visayas. Here are the nominees together with their blog codes:
Mcbilly.com V1
Sinjin’s House V2
The Extraordinary Kiddo V3
Intiendes V4
Byahilo: Ito ang Trip Ko! V5
Explore Iloilo V6
Habagat Central V7
My Cebu Photoblog V8
Kevin Ray N. Chua V9
Zdiaz.com V10
Voting is done through SMS: send CHIKKARC [BLOG CODE] and send to 2929 (Smart and Globe). Each text is worth two votes and costs Php2.50. Deadline is on October 17.
Winners of the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards
Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Philippine Blog Awards!
Main Awards
- Best Personal Blog: Writing on Air
- Best News and Media Blog: Virtual Journals
- Best Commentary Blog: The Marocharim Experiment
- Best Technology Blog: JaypeeOnline // Blogging News & Reviews
- Best Beauty Blog: The Doctor Is vaIN
- Best Photo Blog I Am A Documentary Photographer
- Best Fashion Blog: who is elyoo?
- Best Culture and Arts Blog: magnetic-rose.net: Japanese Pop Culture for Filipino Fans
- Best Sports Blog: Fire Quinito
- Best Advocacy Blog: Autism Society Philippines
- Best Humor Blog: The Professional Heckler
- Best Podcast Blog: Brink Notes Entertainment Daily
- Best Business Blog: Negosyo Ideas
- Best Gaming Blog: Mike Got Game!
- Best Family and Living Blog: Make or Break
- Best Food and Beverage Blog: Table for Three, Please
- Best Travel Blog: Langyaw – Sojourns and Off-the-Beaten Path Travels
10 Best Blog Posts
- The Parable of the Furry White Rabbit (Good Times Manila)
- Lost Gems Of Philippine History: The 1896 Board Meeting (It’s true! It’s true!)
- Finding Your Soul Mate: A Statistical Analysis (guttervomit)
- karnabal (tuyong tinta ng bolpen)
- The Diving Boys of Quezon Bridge (Dennis Villegas)
- Twenty Pesos (lost photograph)
- The way of the leaf (SMOKE)
- Portrait of a dramatic highlight in Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (Gibbs Cadiz)
- Kaya Dumarami ang Bading Kasi… (Manila Gay Guy)
- The Amazing Bulul: A Story of Epiphany (The Cat Whisperer)
Special Awards
- Bloggers’ Choice: Micamyx.com
- Best Blog Design: The Site Guy
- Best Filipino Blog Abroad: The Warped Zone
- Best Foreign Blog: My Sari Sari Store
- Best Filipiniana Blog: Pilipino Komiks
Check out Tonyo Cruz’s post for the complete list of awards and other highlights from the awards night last October 9.
Stay tuned for Visayas and Mindanao legs happening in the next couple of weeks.
Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag
So Google loves WordPress for SEO, but here’s something it doesn’t care for: the keywords meta tag.
Q: Does Google ever use the “keywords” meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has the ability to match meta tags, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that’s an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at present.
In the same blog post, Matt Cutts also admits that they have not been using it for a year. However, Google does use other meta tags, so you might want to read up on that one.
Blog Action Day 2009 Pilipinas take a stand against climate change
Bloggers Kapihan once again spearheads the Philippine version of Blog Action Day. It’s happening on October 15, with this year’s topic being Climate Change.
The theme is more relevant than ever with the onslaught brought about by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.
We cannot be apathetic or cynical. We as a people have the solemn duty to accept the reality of climate change, to study it, and to take a stand.
Bloggers Kapihan thus calls on Filipino bloggers to take time out on Oct. 15 to post your thoughts and aspirations, frustrations and hopes, photos, videos and stories, on climate change and how it affects our family, community, country and the globe, and how we wish to make things better.
Local organizations such as TXTPower, Kabataan Partylist, Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment, Agham, Computer Professionals Union, and Philippine Climate Watch Alliance all support this blogging event. Have a post ready by next week and grab the badge to put on your blog!
Philippine Blog Awards 2009 registration & raffle
Register to attend the Philippine Blog Awards Luzon night on Friday, October 9, by completing this form. There’s also a special raffle during the event courtesy of Nokia: you can win an E75 by signing up at Ovi, snapping a photo, and being the lucky pick. Complete mechanics listed here.
Finally, don’t forget to send in your vote for the Chikka Readers’ Choice award as the deadline has been extended to October 8.
PBA ‘09 Bloggers Choice Special Award voting opens
Voting for the Bloggers Choice Special Award at the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards is now officially open. There are three categories this time: National, Visayas, and Mindanao. But as with last year, your vote should be in the form of a blog post explaining why you’re voting for a particular blog. This also means you can only vote once. Also, only Filipinos can vote.
Check out the list of nominees then submit your vote here. Deadline is on October 7 at 10:30 PM (National) and October 14 at 10:30 PM (Visayas and Mindanao).
Philippine Blog Awards and RockEd Philippines join forces for Ondoy relief operations
The Philippine Blog Awards organizers and RockEd Philippines are working together to help the victims of Typhoon Ondoy. Everyone is invited to drop off relief goods during the PBA Luzon event on October 9:
These donations will be collected at the lobby of the PETA-Phinma Theater before the program begins. The collected donations will be turned over to RockEd for distribution to victims of the recent typhoon.
With this year’s theme being “One Blogging Nation”, the spirit of Bayanihan through this blogging event and community is stronger and more relevant than ever. Stay tuned for donation drive announcements in the upcoming Visayas and Mindanao events.
Help the victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana)
The Philippines is still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), which had a record downpour over the weekend resulting in massive flooding in many, many areas. Thousands of families are now homeless, and as of writing over 240 are dead, several more are missing. Even worse, at least two stores have been spotted approaching the country in the next few days.
Please take a moment to visit these sites and offer any help you can—cash, in kind, or through voluntary efforts.
- How to Help
- Philippine National Red Cross
- PhilippineAid.com
- Help Ondoy Victims
- Google’s Typhoon Ondoy page
- Yahoo’s Typhoon Ondoy page
- TXTPower
- TyphoonOndoy.org
- OndoyRelief.org
- Typhoon Ondoy Situation Map (Enter info here)
- Missing people list
- Missing people found
Help spread the word!
Philippine Blog Awards 2009 finalists in the nationwide categories announced
The 2009 Philippine Blog Awards finalists have been announced. We have lots of new categories this year, and that means more finalists and more winners. Check out if you or your favorites made it. Congratulations and good luck!
Take note that this is for the nationwide categories; the regional finalists will follow soon. And speaking of which, pre-registration for the Visayas event is up. It will be held on October 18 at Ayala City Sports, Cebu Business Park.
Vote and score tickets to the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards
Nuffnang has launched the first regional blog awards in the Asia-Pacific. It’s going to be a glitzy whole-day affair in Singapore on October 23, where over 400 bloggers will walk down the red carpet, eat sumptuous dishes, and enjoy famous acts from the region.
Vote for your favorite blogs here: there are 60 finalists under 12 blogging categories, including the Philippine blogs of Jim Paredes, Luc Melgar, Bryan Boy, and more.
You can also score tickets to the awarding ceremony by writing two blog posts, the mechanics of which are detailed here. Over SGD$5000 worth of prizes are to be given out.
Don’t forget to follow them on Twitter for instant updates.
WordCamp Philippines 2009 aftermath
WordCamp Philippines 2009 was a great follow-up to the one held last year. A lot of the campters live tweeted and plurked the event, while the videographers provided a livestream.
WordCamp had a good balance of topics for both designers/developers and bloggers. Here are the slides for two of the most awaited talks that day from Automattic and Mozilla representatives:
Meet the WordPress Family by Beau Lebens
Note: even though Matt Mullenweg couldn’t make it, he made a special video just for the participants.
A quick look into the Mozilla community through the lens of localization by Seth Bindernagel
(Download the presentation here)
Hope the other speakers can upload their slides as well. Congratulations to the Mindanao Bloggers for another successful WordCamp Philippines!
Philippine Blog Awards 2009 releases new video, “Jingle”
The Philippine Blog Awards 2009’s first teaser video was a little skit entitled “Blogger”. Now we have a fun little “Jingle” featuring the Philippines’ most famous blogs. There’s even a little nod towards WordPress at the beginning. Check out the lyrics:
Lyrics and Music by: Coy Caballes
Guitarist: Markku SeguerraBinuksan ko ang laptop
Homepage ko ay Technograph
Ako’y Pinoy Blogero
Sa WordPress ay adik akoLet’s Go Sago, Lakwatsero
Coron hanggang Batangas sobrang Byahilo
Kahit ako’y mag-Visit Sagada
Basta may WiFi ay solved ka naLaging Good Times Manila
Basta naka-online enjoy tropang Foodista
Alam mo lahat Da Who sa showbiz landia
Talo mo pa si BryanBoy AbundaOver the top sa page views
kahit Patay Gutom busog ka sa news
Dumating si Mommy galing Project Manila
Nahuli niya si daddy nasa Facebuko niyaLet’s go, c’mon! Kung gustong sumikat
Just wear your Happyslip at sa Merryland umakyat
FunnySexy man o Komikero ang drama
Sa Radio Cubao natin wala nang panamaOkay lang ang maging Misteryosa
Basta Awesome Planet ating ipakita
Kahit sino ka pa, Batang Yagit o Tanggera
Basta Pinoy at Blogger… Tayo ay iisa
And don’t forget, catch the Flippish livestream on October 9 at 6:00 pm!
Basic image editing in WordPress 2.9
Jeff Chandler of WordPress Tavern has recorded a screencast on a major new feature coming in WordPress 2.9, which he discovered in one of the nightly builds. This was the third most popular feature voted on in the WP 2.9 media manager survey from a few months ago.
I fired up my local server today and installed the latest version of WordPress 2.9 and was surprised to see the basic image editing tools already available in the media library. I decided that the best way to display them in action was through video which also gave me another reason to open up CamtasiaStudio. In the video, I show off each individual tool as well as provide feedback on the crop tool as at this stage, does not appear to be user friendly. But, it’s very early in the development stage so it will most likely be better once it hits the public’s hands. Check out the video.
Functions include crop, rotate, flip, undo/redo, and scaled resizing. You can also apply the changes made to all the images in the library in one go—now that’s the most useful feature of all.
Jeff comments that the interface still needs polishing but the features work well. Can’t wait to see what else WP 2.9 has in store for us.
WordCamp Philippines 2009 program posted
It’s one week to go before WordCamp Philippines 2009 the program is finally out:
8:00 AM – Registration
9:00 AM – Welcome Remarks
Backgrounder: Mindanao Bloggers Community by Blogie Robillo9:30 AM – Meet the WordPress Family by Beau Lebens
10:30 AM - WordPress in the Wild by Markku Seguerra
11:15 AM - Citizen Journalism in the Context of the 2010 Elections by Danilo Arao
11:45 AM - A quick look into the Mozilla community through the lens of localization by Seth Bindernagel
12:25 PM - Lunch
1:30 PM – Vlogging Mythbusters by Coy Caballes
2:30 PM – The Editorial Voice and Taste in Writing Tech by Jeff Villafranca
3:15 PM – Advanced WP: Portfolio & Directory Sites by Gail Villanueva
4:15 PM – WP: The Ultimate Content Management System by Karla Redor
5:15 PM – Q&A with WP Experts
Emcee: Migs Hipolito
Unfortunately Matt Mullenweg won’t make it this year, but we still have an Automattic guy in the form of Beau Lebens, and interestingly, someone from Mozilla, Seth Bindernagel. As for the blogging talks, the Citizen Journalism panel is more timely than ever.
20 bloggers turned entrepreneurs
Income Diary lists 20 people who started out as bloggers and have come a long way since. Find out where the likes of Perez Hilton, Darren Rowse, Tim Ferris, and Michelle Malkin are today because they started blogging.
Darren’s success has earned him great fame and he was awarded the Best Web Development Weblog blog award in 2006 for ProBlogger. In 2007, he was also named in the Forbes Celebrity List. In the following year, Darren co-authored the book ‘ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six Figure Income (Wiley) and founded TwiTip – a blog dedicated to Twitter Tips. Preferring to live a simple life, Darren lives in Melbourne, Australia but does frequent traveling for numerous speaking engagements.
They’re newsmakers, kingmakers, book authors, and celebrated public figures just like celebrities. These condensed success stories should inspire you to take your blogging to the next level, and maybe someday lead you to something infinitely rewarding.
