My mind is still empty on what to write for this blog, but is still occupied by the thoughts on the wedding invitation that I recently designed. So, instead of writing articles on blogging, internet, make money online or any related topic, I’ll just show you the wedding invitation.

It’s just actually the photoshop’ed photo of the Sts. Peter and Paul islands in Hinunangan (Southern Leyte) along with our photo, and the picture of the wedding rings. It was printed by the FujiFilm Digital Imaging (Maasin City) in 3R size.

I was offline for more than a week already. I’m sorry for this. I was just too busy preparing things for my wedding. I just arrived this afternoon and wrote this post immediately. I wanted to post few articles for the past days but I just couldn’t because Hinunangan, Southern Leyte has no internet yet.

Yes! I stayed for several days in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte while my girlfriend and I prepared the documents required by the Iglesia Ni Cristo administration to members who want to get married. Then last Monday, our application had been finally approved, and we’ll be tied by the laws of God (not by knots) in marriage on the 3rd week of June 2008 in Hinunangan Locale of the Iglesia ni Cristo. You are all invited to witness as my girlfriend and I make a promise to each other to be wife and husband (respectively) ’till death.

Then Why Did You Say That Your Blogs Saved You?

Well, I am very much thankful to God for giving me the knowledge to blog and the chance to earn money from my blogs.

You know, since March 2008 I failed to be online regularly because I was always on my vacation. I failed to post articles regularly on my blogs and also failed to do SEO regularly. However, I still earn money from my blogs.

If I don’t have blogs and just working for a company (as an employee), I will be forced to take a leave of my job without pay. But my blogs saved me from this scenario and give me the opportunity to earn money even if I was not working for several days. Just recently, I learned that all my blogs are earning few dollars from Adsense, Project Wonderful, and other ad publishing network. And the income is enough for my June 2008 budget.

And just one more thing: The budget for my up-coming wedding is coming from my blogs’ income. My blogs really saved me.

It’s been a while since I published my last blog-article that answered the queries of our blog’s visitors. You know, I am receiving hundreds of email everyday from spammers, blog’s visitors and online friends, and I need to check each of these emails. And just this afternoon, I found an email written in Bisaya dialect:

(translation from Bisaya) Hello Selboy. … I want to get some idea from you as a blogger. I’m following you in your blog since January (2008) and I am quite interested to become a blogger like you. Can you please tell us what you are doing everyday?

I think, I already wrote and published posts that might answer the question. But that posts were written when I was still staying in a town where there is no internet connection. Check these articles: “2007 Blog Juice” and “How Do I Blog?” (… Sorry… those posts were not really the ones that I was telling you about. I searched my blog’s archive but I failed to find them.)

What am I doing here in my apartment?

Okay… Actually, I am living in a boring life. I am alone here in my apartment. My only companion is my desktop PC which I use for my daily blogging and SEO activities, and the laptop PC which I use to play some DVD movies. My girlfriend and I are not yet married so she couldn’t stay here with me now.

To let you know, while writing this post, I am also watching the movie of Harrison Ford, “Fire Wall”. Here’s the photo of my workplace as current as of writing this post:

And if I get bored, I play “ZERO Online” or the “Perfect World” (from Level-up Philippines). (Some online gamers urge me to play the “Cabal” from the e-games Philippines but I just don’t have the interest yet.)

By the way, I will not tell you everything here on this post, but trust me, I will tell you more about my activities in my future posts.

P.S.

If you didn’t notice yet, I have new posts in Motoristang Pinoy or Honda XRM Rider blog:

• Las Vegas Resort Hotel
• Mangrove Forest, Now a Village
• Purok Mamagan Variety Show

Just arrived here in my office from a week vacation in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte, and the truth about the blog’s ratified ranking shocked me. This blog is already nowhere in the top ratified blogs. As of today, the blog is ranked 26th among the blogs tracked by the Ratified.

The drop of its ranking from rank 1 to 26 is really bad.

What’s the cause of the drop of ratified ranking?

Based on the data shown on the screenshot above, the drop of the feed subscribers has caused the drop of its ratified ranking.

To let you know, on May 12, 2008 our blog has a total of 6,345 subscribers. But this number has dropped to 257, which means that thousands of our subscribers failed to receive the current update of our blog.

I don’t know what’s the reason of this dropped. I will still do some googling regarding this matter. If you experience the drop too or have knowledge regarding the truth behind this, please let us know by dropping your comments at our comment section.

One of the commentator of Mapiles.com asked this: “Hi, so how do you measure influence? and impact? By the number of hits?” This question is actually raised in connection to the latest writing project organized by the Digital Filipino which is the “Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2008“.

I will not answer directly that question. However, I will give you my thoughts on how to spot the emerging influential blogs in 2008.

Actually, the blogs you listed in your own list of 10 emerging influential blogs are really emerging influential blogs among the blogs you found in the internet. You listed them based on your own judgment. But don’t forget that you are just nominating them, and your nomination will be counted as 1 vote to each of the blogs in your own list. The final list of the emerging influential blog will be made by Ms. Janette Toral. The 10 blogs with the highest number of nomination or votes will be considered as the top 10 emerging influential blogs in 2008.

So, how can you spot the emerging influential blogs in 2008 that can be included in your own list? Well, the process is just simple… You only need to check the following:

1. Date of the Start of the Blog. According to the instruction of Ms. Janette Toral, the blogs that can be included in your own list of “10 emerging influential blogs in 2008” are those blogs that started on July 1, 2007 to the present. In other words, all the blogs that started anytime from July 1, 2007 to the present are already considered “emerging” … only “emerging“… but not yet “emerging influential” (lol) blogs because we need to consider the things below to know if they are really “emerging influential” blogs.
2. The Traffic of the Blog. Actually, not all blogs that have high traffic are influential blogs. But it is true that influential blogs have enough traffic. Just check the traffic-counter or the buttons of the blog-ranking system that the blog has participated.
3. The Number of Feed Subscribers. Almost all blogs display the number of feed subscribers. Usually it is displayed at the right side of the blog.
4. The Number of Commentators. Just check the number of commentators in each of the posts of the blog.

But what if the blogs you listed on your own “top 10 emerging influential blogs” have few number of visitors, feed subscribers and commentators, is it fine? Of course, yes. Tere’s no problem if the blogs you listed on own list of “top 10 emerging influential blogs in 2008” have only few visitors, feed subscribers or commentators as long as (just like what I said above) those blogs started anytime from July 1, 2007 to the present. After all those blogs in your own list are really the top 10 emerging influential blogs in 2008 among the blogs you found in the internet. So, it is of course true that there are blogs that have higher number of visitors, subscribers, and commentators compared to the blogs in your own list, but it just happen that you didn’t found them before completing the list.

I hope this post helps.