The Middle Child at the 6th Philippine iBlog Summit

I’ve been into blogging for 5 years now. Basically, more of a personal blogger, but September last year, I finally decided to take my blogging on a higher level and start earning something from it, hence came the Recycle Bin of a Middle Child. And I’m on my 7th month now here in Blogspot, and everything’s doing fine.

Well, except for that crappy Adsense! Grrr!

Seriously, I really had a hard time leaving my axle16alex.multiply.com blog, and up until now, I can’t leave it, it was my first baby in this blogging world. Until I figured out what to do, I’ll just use that site for my photos!

My Recycle Bin of Middle Child site is currently dealing with food, fashion and events, and I’m enjoying every bit and pieces of it, maybe that’s why I’m so hooked into blogging and if you’ll just notice, I’m blogging every day now!

I’m not a techy person, I consider myself dumb-dumb when it comes to html codes, RSS and other stuff that a true-blooded blogger knows by heart. But I believe that certain stuff can be learnt and so is blogging, that’s why when I heard about the iBlog summit, I didn’t think twice about it. I immediately registered my name and my blog to this biggest bloggers’ summit of the year – The 6th Philippine iBlog Summit.

Held last Saturday at the Malcolm Hall in the College of Law of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, countless bloggers, advertisers and public relations representatives were gathered to learn and to teach new and best ways to blog, to promote and earn something from it.

Honestly, the only topic that caught my attention from the list of topics that they had on their site was the money making stuff and I didn’t knew til I joined them on their second day that this summit has a lot more to offer, especially for a newbie like me.

I learned some cool and simple way to promote my blog from Hannah Villasis of http://www.flaircandy.com and Vince Golangco of http://www.wheninmanila.com from their own version of Blogging 101 and Video Blogging 101.

Hannah Villasis

Vince Golangco

Next thing, I didn’t notice that all my eyes and ears were focused to Juned Sonido of http://pinoysnapshot.com/ when he started showing to us his cameras, from cell phone camera to DSLR with wowing bazooka lenses. Oh, man! If I could just have a lot of money, I’ll be spending some of it to gadgets like those. And the way he uses each of them, it just really inspires me to be a better photo enthusiast. I’m into photography first and foremost, you know, before I started blogging. I love talking pictures and I don’t mind what camera I used as long as it is working, it’s fine with me. As what Mr. Sonido said, “It’s the Indian not the bow.”

Juned Sonido

After those three topics, we were treated to some sort of appetizer, my favourite turon and a juice drink. Then, as we went back to the Malcolm Theatre, a deeper side of blogging faced us.

The second part of the event was started by Emerson Bañez of http://clickmomukhamo.com/bangus/. He discussed Blog Policies while Racquel Cagurangan of http://www.pinkputter.com.ph/ discussed to us a new way of blogging, through her Blog on Mobile. She introduced to us Blog’m. Blog’m, pronounced as Blog ‘em, is a unique mobile platform especially created for advance bloggers.

 Emerson Bañez

Racquel Cagurangan

After these two speakers, a nice packed lunch was given to us as I enjoy mingling with other bloggers. It was a fun day, really. Meeting new people and knowing their passion. We also enjoyed some ice cream as the other bloggers and I saw a cart of ice cream strolling outside the building of College of Law.

Then as we went back inside, before the final part of the summit, an amazing performance of U.P. Concert Chorus delighted our afternoon with their hair-raising performance.






After that wonderful performance, the serious stuff came in as Marck Ronald Rimorin of http://www.marocharim.com/ and Noemi Dado of http://www.blogwatch.ph/ discussed Political, Online Commentary, Social Media, & Election Blogging 2010. I think that the atmosphere inside the theatre heated up when the discussions led to politics. Well, I can’t blame them, with the election coming in less than a month,everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, right?

 Marck Ronald Rimorin

Noemi Dado

But after that, the mood turned back to light, then turn back to joy and laughter as the last three speakers shared to us their experiences as bloggers and open our minds to their wonderful topics.

Jinoe Gavan of http://www.takbo.ph tackled about Launching Successful Blog Contests. His talk gave me an idea on what to do next on my blog, and it seems like a fun idea having some games or contest in my blog. So to my dear FEW readers watch out for a contest here in my blog SOON!

Jinoe Gavan

Second to the last was Joseph Gonzales of http://batangbaler.net/ who had been the funniest speaker that day. And he was so true! I love how he practically shared his experience as a blogger in his hometown in Baler, Aurora from his Impact of Blogging to the Community.

Joseph Gonzales

And lastly, the moment that all of us have been waiting for, SEO: A Must for Making Money Online by Marhgil Macuha of http://www.macuha.com/. I’ve learned a lot from him that can really help me to be a better blogger and a better earner.

 Marhgil Macuha

The summit ended with some raffle. And luckily, I won an iBlog T-Shirt (so nice!) and some goodies! Wee! Super thanks, iBlog! And congratulations and thanks to the organizers, staff, sponsors emcees and all the people who made this very informative and successful gathering of bloggers.

It was such great experience to meet people who share the same passion as mine, so to all the people I’ve met there, thank you all so much! And see you all again next year!