One of the people who restored my faith in the COMELEC is James Jimenez. After the Comelec’s reputation was literally driven to the ground by Benjamin Abalos, I was cynical that I’d ever change my opinon of the Comelec as a corrupt and incompetent institution. That did change though and James was instrumental in the shift. My first encounter with this guy was way back in iBlog 5. He was one of the speakers and I took the mic to ask him a question about the annoying commercials of Bayani Fernando which aired during the Star Trek movie in Eastwood. While I didn’t like his answer too much, I found him to be a very sincere and genuine fellow.

Fast forward a year later
I wrote at entry on my political blog, Juan Country, about the Comelec secrecy folder issue. I wrote about some questions I had for him in a very harsh manner. I never really expected the guy to respond but he did. And he didn’t just give me “automated” answers. He really took time in answering all of my queries. When I replied, he talked back.

James is also very active on Twitter where he keeps everyone updated on the latest news about the Automated Elections. I’ve seen him answer a few queries online and I don’t think I have the same level of patience as this guy has when it comes to interfacing with constituents.

Yesterday, I saw that he started a wordpress blog to write about the elections and to answer the letters, emails, and inquiries he’s been getting. You might want to check that blog out. It’s nothing fancy but it does the job.

So let me just honor and commend James for his dedication, effort, and hard work. As a “netizen”, I really do appreciate everything you’ve done and I wish you the very best. Cheers!

Let me just take this opportunity to plug the blogs of some good friends of mine who are really adding value to their readers by writing insightful and helpful articles on various topics and niches. I really pushed these guys to start their own sites because I strongly believe that we can learn a lot from what they have to say. They’re all experts in their own fields and hopefully they continue blogging in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. Links to the blogs of a Pastor, Financial Planner, and Parenting Expert after the break.

Dennis Sy: Clueless Church Planter
He’s the Senior Pastor of Victory Greenhills. Pastor Dennis is one of the most innovative and creative people I’ve ever met. He applies very modern ideas to church building and I’m constantly amazed at his leadership. In his blog, he writes about the ins and outs of building a church.

Thammie Sy: Mom Me
Thammie writes about her experiences with her children in her blog. She’s raising her kids using various methods and I think that a lot of young mothers will learn a lot from what she’s been posting. They don’t really teach parenting at school so I guess self-research is one of the keys to becoming a good father or mother.

J. Randell Tiongson: Personal Finance Coach and Educator
Randell is a Registered Financial Planner. People usually pay to hear what he has to say. In his blog, we get free tips and advice on how we should manage our finances. A great blog for the young and old alike. If you have problems with money and you want to grow your passive income streams, then Randell is the guy to talk to.

I hope you guys visit their blogs as well and become part of their communities. These guys really have a heart for their topics. Welcome to the blogosphere Pastor Dennis, Thammie, and Randell!

I organized a blog event for the Blas F. Ople Policy Center last night and I had the chance to get a quick interview with Ms. Janette Toral about the recently concluded iBlog5. Since we were already there, I also asked about her plans for iBlog6 as well as her new project, the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs. Watch the video interview after the break.

Here are the main points of the interview for those who are too lazy to watch it (haha):

- Join the top 10 emerging influential blogs project! (Author’s Note: You might want to nominate New Media Philippines *winks*)
- More than 270 participants for iBlog5. A new record!
- iBlog5 exceeded Janette’s expectations and was a huge success
- What happens in iBlog after-events parties STAYS in iBlog after-event parties. (this got me really curious)
- No plans yet for iBlog6, but iBlog will definitely remain as an event for newbie bloggers.

Many thanks to Janette for accepting the invite for the quick interview and for joining us during the dinner-forum. I’ll write about what the dinner-forum was all about in a separate post.

Diwa De Leon is an award-winning composer, musician, cosplayer, and blogger. Each time I think if Personal Branding and marketing yourself, Diwa is really one of the first people that come to my mind. Using the internet, this guy has exponentially grown his business as a composer. He’s done work for ABS-CBN, GMA 7, and several other big names. Through personal branding, e-mail marketing, and sheer perseverance, Diwa has grown in his craft and has made his life better.

Diwa reveals several good strategies in this interview. In fact, he really taught me a thing or two about the basics of e-mail marketing. It’s funny how powerful e-mail can be and people usually take it for granted. In a nutshell, Diwa generated leads, clients, referrals, and repeat customers by advertising through e-mail, leading them to his portal/website, and showing them what he’s done in the past.

While having coffee with Diwa, I asked him if he was open to making a blog about music. He has a blog right now but it’s really more about his lighter side – cosplay, girls, etc. It would be great if he could be part of our campaign for Value Blogging by coming up with a blog that would really give advice to musicians who are just starting out.

For Diwa: Hopefully you’ll consider my suggestion bro. It was great talking to you and thank you for accepting my invitation to be featured here at New Media Philippines.

Kel Fabie is a professional host, magician, and mentalist. He used to be on radio but decided to go full time with his passion for magic last year. What’s amazing about his story is that he really relied on social media to generate opportunities for his craft and this resulted to him without having to work a 9AM-5PM job for one whole year. Through Multiply, Kel was able to get around 5-6 jobs per month, some of which were performances for celebrities and politicians. Watch the interview after the break. I also summarized his talking points for those who have slow internet connection and can’t stream the video.

What’s good to note about this particular case is that he really stepped in a filled a void in the online space. Other magicians weren’t really aggressive online and relied mostly on mass media to promote themselves. I’m not saying that he’s done it 100% already, in fact, there’s so much more to be done for him to fully occupy that space and be top-of-mind when it comes to Philippine magicians. What he’s done though is to open a window wide enough so that people can contact him and book him online. This also allowed him to network with people who were in the same line of work as he was, and this gave him better and bigger opportunities.

Social Media platforms can be as powerful as blogs. The advantage of starting a blog in a social network is that you already have a captive audience to begin with. If you constantly update your blogs in Friendster, Multiply, and Facebook, all your contacts get a notification that you’ve done so. If the topic is interesting, then they’ll probably read it. Yes, you won’t get revenues from Adsense. However, if you’re self-employed and you’re offering something, then there’s a chance for you to earn even more (versus Adsense).

Lastly, here’s some unsolicited advice for Kel. This is part of the free consultancy thing that I’m also offering here at New Media Philippines.

1. Create a blog that really offers more value. Maybe you can teach simple magic tricks through video and post it on your blog? You don’t have to give everything away, but the basics will definitely get you a lot of traffic. I’m not sure if you’re doing this already but if you are then great! Haha.

2. Consider online advertising that will drive even more traffic to your blog. Placing ads on Facebook is really cheap. Found that out myself (I’m currently running an ad campaign on FB for New Media Philippines). Suggest you also expand from Multiply to Facebook. In terms of user demographics, there are more young professionals on Facebook compared to Multiply.

3. Protect your Brand. More on this on the article that Sonnie wrote on Personal Branding.

Thanks for the opportunity for the interview Kel. Looking forward to seeing you become one of the premiere Philippine mentalists and magicians.

This next blogger that I’m going to feature is one of my “corporate mentors”. I read his blog a lot, especially way back when he was really focused on giving career tips. Sonnie Santos has been blogging for 3 years now, and he has more than 15 years experience in HR. He currently serves as an AVP for one of the most prestigious car companies here in the Philippines. Sonnie is also the inspiration behind the Value Blogger type which I discussed in the 4 Types of Bloggers article. He’s also a fellow Christian and I really enjoy having talks with him about world views and life in general. Watch the interview after the break.

I broke down the interview in two parts because it’s a bit long. In the first video, Sonnie will talk about how and why he got into blogging.

For the second part of the interview, he explains and gives tips on Personal Branding. As an HR expert, he really has the credentials to be talking about this particular topic.

Before I end the post, let me just emphasize again on his advice. This applies a lot to people who are corporate sharks and want to find better opportunities.

1. Get a LinkedIn account – a lot of headhunters and HR recruiters check LinkedIn, especially for middle management positions. Make sure your file is properly updated. Put your best foot forward.

2. Maximize social media networks – Friendster or Facebook can become channels for you to get a better job or clients. If you’re self employed, use social networks as venues to showcase your portfolio.

Thanks again to Sonnie for accepting the invitation for the interview!

I’ve decided to do regular Blogger Features here at New Media Philippines. This is to give faces to the people that I usually talk about in my posts. For the first interview, I was able to arrange for a quick coffee session with Filipina Mom Blogger, Noemi Dado from www.aboutmyrecovery.com. In this video interview, we talked about how Noemi got into blogging and how she’s able to give her readers value through her experiences in life, especially in the area of grief recovery. Noemi lost her 6 year old son in a tragic drowning accident a few years ago and she now uses her life stories and network to help others. Towards the end, she also shares some valuable blogging tips to fellow bloggers on content. Watch the interview after the break.