What's happening with the working mom?

I got busier!

I now got more clinics, 2 kids, one hubby and I have to bring to and from school, more blogs (check the sidebar for the latest posts!), and pending assignments for my Master's class! I also still have my online store.

I am hoping to come up with another blog. Good luck to me if I can still manage it!

How not to promote a website or blog

I got this from one of the comments up for moderation in my family blog:

*The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.

Here's the actual blog entry.

The commenter obviously didn't read the entry before posting the comment.

Of course there was a website he was promoting, I guess (won't post it here -- why give them free publicity, right?).  But how would his comment lead to more traffic, I really do not know.  Maybe it will, a bit, but not really the positive type of topic.

Reporting this comment as spam...

iBlog6

I've been wanting to attend the Blogging Summit for the longest time, but there's always something else that I have to do. Big sigh. This year, I've marked it on my calendar, told hubby about it, and set aside Saturday so I can at least attend on one of the 2 days. I can't on Friday since it's a work day.

I am really looking forward to going!

Update (April 17, 2010): Wasn't able to attend on Saturday either. :( Still not meant for me, I guess. Maybe next year....

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's such a busy week and I have so many things that are kept on hold, mainly blogging about the (few) events I've been to. You see, I've just started a new clinic. The new schedule is something me and my family are still getting used to.

So sorry.

Anyway, I hope I'd be able to come up with my blog posts on the Microsoft Bloggers Mix and the Johnson and Johnson Sleep Discoveries very very soon. Also, I have to update my other blogs.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I'd be able to accomplish these soon!

The Century Bangus Event

An iphone is something I'd really, really like, but I'd prefer to WIN it rather than buy it! LOL

So when Nuffnang announced the contest for Century Bangus, I was all set to join!

It's quite simple really, just take pictures of you and somebody else enjoying Century Bangus, make a blog post with the opening line "I Enjoyed My Century Bangus At ____". My entry here.

Unfortunately, I didn't win any of the 5 iphones up for grabs. But I did get to be invited to the Blogger's Thanksgiving Lunch. This happened last January 23, 2009, a Saturday, at West Side Grill, Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.

After registering my name and blog URL, I proceeded to this table:

We had to guess the ingredients by either looking, smelling, touching or tasting the different spices/powders/condiments that were on the table. I THINK I got pepper, coffee, mayonnaise, but I'm not so sure about the others. Sigh. (The eventual winner guessed 7 out of the 13, so I got less than that, definitely. LOL)

After submitting my answers (guesses actually) to the above game, I proceeded to the dining area. Met a few other bloggers -- Kate, Alvin, Vina. I'm quite shy so I'm not really very sociable--yet. Gimme a break, it's only the 2nd blog event I've ever attended!

Next up, the host (I didn't catch her name but she's really good. Her looks are a cross between Agot Isidro and Iza Calzado) introduced Century Bangus. The Chef Guy (gaaaahhh, I'm really bad with names) announced that Century will be coming out with new variants of their canned bangus, as well as their line of frozen bangus.

There was another game, wherein the contestants were supposed to make salads out of the various ingredients present, including Century Bangus, of course! The concoction called the "Happy Salad" won for this contest.


This was our menu for lunch:


All bangus! Well, not quite. The only things on the buffet table that was not bangus was the rice and the desserts! LOL


The appetizer and entrees, all with Century Bangus as the main ingredient:

The food was surprisingly good! Even if they all contained Bangus. Chef Heart assured us that we could ask for recipes. We'll surely look for them!

The winners were announced. They had truly awesome entries and rightfully deserved the prizes. Although I wouldn't mind being one of them (who wouldn't want to win an almost 40 grand cellphone?)

Even if I didn't get any prizes, I did get acquainted with interesting people who I'm looking forward to see in future events. I had a great meal, and took home a gift pack.

Thank you, Century Bangus!

Where To, The Working Mom?

I'm afraid this particular blog of mine has suffered a PR beating. It's my fault really. I have been quite remiss in doing personal, non-earning posts. But I guess I have benefited from it, so I'm not really complaining (not that much, anyway!).

I'm thinking of migrating to my own domain, but I'm having a lot of second thoughts. I've thought of this several times in the past but I've always been hesitant. That's because this blog has been so much a part of my life for the past few years. Also, I haven't determined whether to stick with blogger or to shift to wordpress. And, of course, since the PR then was good, I am aware that moving would actually put me back in PR zero status. The last reason is now moot, so I'm actually seriously giving a lot of thought to this.

I have another blog in wordpress and I like the platform, but, honestly, it does cost just a little bit more since I do need to pay for the webhosting aside from the domain name. Fortunately, the search for the best host is now quite easy, as sites like webhostinggeeks give a comparative side-by-side analysis of the different web hosts available. Comparisons are made for their performance as well as their price. As I am on a budget, I am leaning towards the lower-priced services, although I have to make sure that they perform just as well, if not better, than the higher priced ones.

I really do need time to think about it.

I'm Still Here

The past few weeks have been a roller coaster of sorts, hence the absence of updates in this blog. I have not really found the time to "seriously" blog on both this blog and Joey M.D., but I've had a few short posts on Tsinay and Practical Tips and More.

Several things have happened, both good and bad. I will try to give more details in future blog topics, if and when I get the time.

First, the good:
1. My son celebrated his 4th birthday! He had a school celebration for that.
2. My daughter got baptized.
3. I ventured into a diaper selling.

The bad:
1. Typhoon Ondoy. Enuf' said.
2. My son got sick.
3. My daughter got sick.
4. This blog got a page rank beating. Sigh...

I am attempting to get the mindframe to do more posts. And, oh, more time to do posts...in between 2 children who need my attention and my work, both online and offline.

Wish me luck!

Blog SEO?

Everybody and his mother has a blog nowadays, some more than 1 blog. Heck, I have FOUR active blogs! That's because not only has blogging been an avenue for sharing one's thoughts and emotions with the entire world, it's also a way to make some extra money, mainly through selling adspace or promoting products through the web. However, it's no secret that the higher ranked blogs and the blogs which get the most traffic get the most opportunities. That's where Search Engine Optimization comes in. In a nutshell, it simply means that you try to make your website or blog more search engine friendly, hence making your site appear whenever people use certain search terms. For example, if your blog's topic is about cosmetics, you'd want your site to come up when people search on Google or Yahoo for "cosmetics" or "make-up".

For the life of me, I do not really know how to really do that myself. Maybe I should consult an SEO Firm to improve my site's rankings? I'm thinking about it, actually. As a blogger, I want my blog to be popular (who doesn't) but I do not really have the time to learn SEO myself. All I want to do with my blogs is to write content.

Had To Change My Blog's Look

I got a free layout (which really looked great, by the way) which I wasn't really in a hurry to change. However, it seemed that the designer's photobucket account exceeded the bandwidth limits. My blog really didn't look nice with all those reminders from photobucket saying that bandwidth was exceeded and that upgrade to pro was advised. Hence I was forced to change the design -- FAST! It may not be my final one, though. Let's see....

Do You Like My New Blog's New Look?

I'm getting tired of my old layout, hence the shift. I hope you like it :)

I've been having some problems though, with attaching the date. Lena told me to import it to a new blog, but I'm having jitters about doing it...Of course, 600+ posts is no joke at all! :P

But at the moment, I'm enjoying the design. Thank so much, Lena!

Let me just gather up enough courage to just do what Lena suggests...No date is okay, actually, but since this is a journal of sorts, it would be nicer if dates were there...More courage needed...

Oh yeah, there are some other changes too. I've removed my cbox. Let me see what happens. I realized that sometimes I forget to respond to some comment people make on my cbox. Anyway, there's always the comments section.

And speaking of the comments section, I've made it moderated for a couple of reasons -- to keep out comment spammers AND so that I will be able to keep track of people who comment and try to respond as soon as I can.

Comments Are Now Moderated

I've found that I've been receiving some spam comments lately, so I've decided that it would be best if I just moderate all the comments.

The good thing about this is that I'll be able to check -- and reply to -- each message. And that only serious commenters will do so. (The bad thing is that if I find myself unable to go online, such comments may take awhile to appear.)

I'm contemplating on whether or not to remove my cbox as well. I find myself so busy sometimes that I just don't remember to go back to the messages, and when I do, it's scrolled way down. Maybe just stick with comments?

Any comments? :D

This is my 500th post!

I can't believe that I have so many posts already! It seems just like yesterday when I decided to blog regularly. Now I have other blogs already aside from this one!

In case you haven't heard, I am holding a 100th post anniversary contest at my other blog, http://www.practicaltipsandmore. It's running until October 25, 2008 . I'm giving away a spa set (room and linen spray, massage oil and essence burner oil). Why don't you go check it out here?

As for this blog, the second anniversary is coming! I'm thinking of ways to celebrate my blog's birthday! Any suggestions?

Wordcamp...But I Can't Go :(

The Wordcamp Philippines is to be held at the College of Saint Benilde on September 6, 2008.

Unfortunately, I was not able to register in time. Needless to say, I was very disappointed since this was a much awaited event and Matt Mullenweg himself is supposed to come and give a talk. There's supposed to be another one in Davao (on September 4, 2008) where registration has not yet been filled up but due to time and budget constraints,and more importantly, family and work considerations, I cannot go.

I wish a Web Conferencing setup could be done in either or both legs of the camp so that I can be a part of it even if i am not physically present. I wonder if they could perhaps get some sponsors to help in setting up either Audio Conferencing, or, better yet, a Video Conference. There are just too many people who want to join but are limited by either schedule, cost (not the camp itself because it's supposed to be free but the cost of travel) or other commitments. These kinds of setup would make it accessible to more people like me who really want to be a part of it all.

We're currently undergoing a makeover!

I'm updating the template of this blog. I'm pretty excited about this, but for an HTML newbie, it's not that easy pala. :) I'm hoping that you'll all like the blog's new look. Please bear with me in the meantime. I'll be updating a bit at a time there may be some elements that may be missing during the time that you visit.

I still owe a lot of tag replies and bloghops! I am so sorry. Been busy both offline and online (but mostly offline). Will get to them once I get the time.

Bummer!

My other site, Joey M.D. is down and I couldn't contact my webhost. I really do not know what happened. All I want is for my site to be there.

I hope it gets back soon.

I'm On A Roll...

I now have another blog. For those who do not know me, I'm Chinese Filipino. Born in the Philippines to Chinese immigrant parents. Thus I found it fitting that my new blog's title should be Tsinay.

I hope that you would enjoy it.

My other (active) blogs so far:
Joey M.D.
Practical Tips and More

I still have other blogs but they're a bit inactive right now.

Web Design...The First Look

I must admit that I'm not very creative with the look of my blogs. My background was never in computers and most of what I learned I did by just doing it. I always thought that content is more important than aesthetics. I think I'm right for the most part, however, I've noticed that I'm drawn more to blogs or websites with an eye-catching, unique custom web design.

I guess it's the same with people. You notice first the attractiveness before you delve deeper and see the inner beauty, which is not as obvious. The thing is, I'm actually a very simple person at heart and unless I have some dressy function to go to, I would usually walk around with no to minimal makeup. I guess the simplicity of my blogs is a reflection of how I am as a person.

I'm a dummy when it comes to design though, so even if I want to make my site more attractive, I do not know where to start. So I tend to look at a web design blog I've found on the net. This design blog aims to give tips to bloggers and website owners on how to make their sites more attractive. Whether people will stay to read and visit later now depends on the contents.

Updates

It's been difficult for me to update my blogs lately, as I've been busy offline.

I've managed to put in my 2 cents for the Philippine Medical Blog Rounds. The topic is about the Philippine Healthcare System. My piece is entitled Not a Priority!

Jan posted another coffee break. Since the topic is about budgeting, I've decided to post my reply on my other blog.

I know I owe a lot of tags, bloghops and such. I am really sorry I haven't done them yet. I promise to as soon as I get the time.

This (busy) week in summary

This has been a busy, busy week! We have started Ethan (finally!) on toddler school and he seems to be enjoying himself there. He's still not quite a good student, since he's always late -- he's used to waking up at around 8:00, has a loooonnnnggg breakfast and a bath before leaving for school, which starts at 8:30. Good thing the school is just in the neighborhood. We jittery parents try to accompany him every single day. That's on top on our clinic schedule! Whew! School is tiring even for parents! It's worth it, though. I'll blog more about this later.

So please excuse me if I've been a little remiss with responses, tags and bloghops. I've taken to doing these when my boys are asleep -- but by then I'm also quite sleepy so I don't do much na.

In the meantime, if you're interested in what doctor bloggers have to say, we just had a blog carnival of Pinoy MD bloggers here. My contribution is here. The others are pretty good reads. I've only read some of them (since there are a lot), but they've all been proven to be very personal and very human.

I've also gotten to meet Jan and we had quite a chat. She bought some stuff from me (Thanks!) It is always nice to see other n@wies because most of time, you feel that it's not the first time you've met even if it is.

Trying to declutter my sidebar

I've recently noticed that my sidebar has become longer and longer. I'm thinking of some things to make it less cluttered and more organized. These are the things I'm thinking of:

1. Dedicating a page for chatting. I've found that I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with the cbox messages so I sometimes miss some of them.
2. Transferring my links to another page (or post) and just putting the link on the front page.

What do you guys think? Would these steps help?