Hi there!

I’m giving away the toy above as the Grand Prize to my first ever GMTRISTAN.COM Toy Photography Contest. If this becomes a success, I might be doing this regularly.

Without further ado, the full mechanics after you click below… Sali na!

The 2010 GMTristan.com Toy Photography Contest – Mechanics

• First, be my fan on Facebook
• Upload your best Toy Photo on my Facebook Page. You can do this by adding a photo directly via my wall. See the example below

• Share this on your own Facebook wall. Just click the “share” link… like so

• Ask your friends to “LIKE” your photo. You have to tell them to become fans first by posting this link in your facebook status http://www.facebook.com/gmtristan (just copy and paste in the links section of your status)
• Optional: You can comment below and tell me you’ve already posted, k?
• The top contestant with the MOST NUMBER OF “LIKES” by the end of the contest (May 5, 2010) will win the Grand Prize
• For the consolation prize winners, it will be judged by me (see below)
• Contest duration:
  • Start: April 5, 2010.
  • End: May 5, 2010 (11:59pm)
• Prizes:
  • Grand Prize: World of Warcraft Ilidan Demon Form Deluxe action figure (limited Edition)
  • Consolation Prizes: P100 Level Up Top Up Card (5 winners) – I will be judging this and does not need to have a lot of “likes”
• I will be announcing the winner(s) after the contest duration and will contact them individually on how to claim their prize
• No purchase necessary. Anyone from the Philippines can join. Feel free to repost and share this in your social networks, blogs, forums, etc.
• Porn, NSFW photos and/or toys are not allowed and will be deleted on the photo area.
• you must OWN THE PHOTO (you can borrow the toy). DO NOT GET PHOTOS FROM THE INTERNET
• You may post as many photos as you want!
• Good luck to all!

Here’s another photo of the Grand Prize:

Feel free to repost and share this anywhere!

Sali na!

One of the things I need to tick off my “to-do” list is a new site design for gmtristan.com.

Not that I don’t like the current design. I actually love it. It serves its purpose.

But here are several reasons why I’m eyeing a redesign:

• Navigation – visitors should be able to access information clearly. Sections should be highlighted so that readers can go wherever they want without need to scroll down.
• Ads Optimization – I also want to optimize adwords further. So the need for unobtrusive, yet strategic, placement is key.
• Highlights – Now that I have slightly changed formats, I need to highlight some sections (like Girls and Videos) as well.
• Eye Candy – last not but not least, is to make the site fresh and pleasing to eye, of course.

I’m currently using my charm to convince Kiven Codamon to help me with the redesign. He’s just on Holiday hiatus. When he comes back, it’s back-breaking work as we struggle to put up the new look before January 2008 is over.

Meanwhile, here are some designs that will influence my site’s new look:

Details after the jump

Inluencer #1 – Problogger

Why I like it

• Has provisions for video at the middle
• 3 columns
• “Best of” post as the main highlight
• Recent posts on the left
• Good ad placements

Next…

Influencer #2: Sports Illustrated

Why I like it:

• Big highlight box on the right.
• Top stories on the middle
• Promos and features on the right

Next…

Influencer #3: Maxim 

Why I like it:

• Same as S.I. – big right higlight feature
• Girls in middle. Rawwr!!!
• Nice right sidebar for ads, contests and promos

So there you have it, some of the ideas that I’m working with. After seeing the above, you will most likely get the idea how the new site will look. Here are the summaries of my “requirements”

• 3 columns
• Big right side feature highlight
• middle to be used for Girls, gadgets and games
• Right side for blog sidebar, links, ads and promos

I guess that’s it. If you can show me more site design ideas, I would very much appreciate it. Just comment below.

Calling web techies out there – I would also love to hear from you. I’m not a design expert so I need all the help I can get.

Thanks,

GM T

2007 will soon come to a close. I’ve been officially blogging since February of this year but I started out without my own URL at blogger.com.

After almost a year of posting 1 to 3 articles a day, I guess it’s time to reflect on the my most popular posts of 2007 and put in a few notes and analysis.

Of course, I wouldn’t have had this modicum of success without the support of all my dear readers. Especially those who are “loyal” enough to visit here regularly. I owe you big time. A million thanks to you all.

At any rate, my most popular post has over 19,000++ visits… man, that’s a lot.

The most popular posts and the reasons why after the jump…

GM TRISTAN’S MOST POPULAR POSTS FOR 2007

• Perfect World Open Beta Client Download (19,456) – thanks to all who “Googled”. I guess this became popular since no other site, even the official Perfect World site (Level Up) optimized the key word and managed the download for this. But I already told the PW team to take note about this.
• Download Perfect World Beta (19,026) – same reasons as above.
• RF Episode 2 Download and Install (11,261) – Again, keyword optimization is vital to placing even above the RF Philippines site listings at Google. A fact that surprised even Brand Manager Keith Morales and the RF Team. Seems that all the research, reading and putting it into action really worked (on keyword management)
• Download Ragnarok Valkyrie (8,166) -
• Ragnarok: Episode 15 Arunafeltz/Rachel (7,940)
• Sneak Peak into FlyFF Version 8 (5,641)
• Games (5,527) – since the games are a highlight of the site, I get a lot of visits here. I tried to organize every LU game so that users have all the info at their fingertips, including downloads, trailers and registration. I hope my GIRLS SECTION improves on hits too. Hehehe.
• Ragnarok: Dupe Item Rollback to June 1 (5,360) – One of the most controversial issues of the year 2007 for Ragnarok. It was so stressful, I think managing the comments alone was such a huge task. The waukster and I noted that we don’t have to reply to every comment or question. If we do, we wouldn’t have time to do real work.
• Perfect World Torrent Now Available (5,260) – Ah, when PW had a torrent, I was the first one to announce it. I even got higher place in Google too. I was also still active at the PW Forums back then.
• Contest: 20 FREE Perfect World CBT today! (4,885) -People still come here even if the contest is officially over. Makes me glad, of course. This was one of my earlier blog contests and was really popular. Even foreigners thought they could win (and play) the CBTs. Unfortunately, I already clarified that PW PH and the CBTs were only valid and playable here in our country.

So there goes. My most popular posts for the year. Next year, I intend to break the 20,000 mark for a post and maybe even increase my Alexa and Google page rankings. I will be teaching you guys whatever I learn so that you can apply it to your blogs.
Again, thanks to all of you, my dear readers for a successful 2007 for gmtristan.com!

But wait! There’s More! Check out the blogs that linked to me for 2007. Thanks!

It’s been quite some time since I held my last online contest.  Those sepcifically for the Perfect World beta was quite successful, if I say so myself. Though I previously posted some tips on how to hold your own blog contest, it’s time to put the words into action (yet, again).

This weekend, I’ll be musing over a group writing project which will be open for bloggers. The goal of this project cum contest is to help each other promote our individual blogs, our hobby and the industry as a whole. Basically, it will work this way: each week, I’ll be posting a theme that we can all write about. It will specifically focus on gaming, online and MMORPG experiences. Then, those who wish to participate can simply post back their entries with a linkback to the contest’s home page and then submit it to me.

Every week (hopefully Fridays) I will compiling a list of all those who submitted and be keeping track of those who submitted more than one entry per week. I’ll be posting it here as updates.

NEXT: Prizes

I still don’t have the final list of prizes. But some things racing through my mind would be “donations” from my various Brand Managers. These could be in-game items, special merchandise (limited RWC jacket, anyone?) and maybe even Level Up top-up cards and other things that I could get my hands on. The contest will be running for 6 or 8 weeks and before then, I will be able to update the growing list of prizes at stake. Another prize that we could give is banner space for your blog here and possibly at Waukster.com or even Codamon’s blog. But that’s still in the planning stage.

Note that the prizes won’t be uber-big but the project will hopefully bring back the “link-love” to your blogs and increase your rankings and page hits at the same time. Plus, a group writing project is fun to do and exercises you on writing.

That’s it for now. Like I said, I’ll be finalizing the mechanics and will be posting the official announcement and start of the group writing project next week at the soonest (Monday, Aug 13).

I’d be more than happy to hear any comments, suggestions or recommendations you would have on the matter to make this even better.

Thanks,

GM T

Just did a check on a Google search for “RF Episode 2 Philippines” and my 2 articles came up on the first page. Rawwr!

It goes to show how S.E.O (Search Engine Optimization) tips, when put into practice, really works. Kudos and gratitude goes out to the “chief”, Kiven Codamon – for his inavaluable aid.

Pat on the back also to the official RF Episode 2 microsite for being on top of me (sounds kinda kinky /heh). Anyways, here’s a screeny of that google result:

More SEO tips after the jump…

How to Be on Google’s First Page

1. Title – be wary of the title of your post. Be blunt and direct to the point. Don’t have a crazy title like “The Long Wait is Over”, rather make it “Open Beta (game) Launches Today”. Make sure that your keywords are on the title and on the first paragraph of the post. See number 3. Of course, the Google spider looks at the URL first (hence RF is above me)

2. Freshness – Google has spiders looking out for fresh content. The more fresh and relevant your content is, the more you’ll be up there in the page ranks. Notice that I often make follow-ups and “updates” to old posts whenever I have something new to share and/or announce?

3. Tagging and Keywords – before you write your article or post. Try to ask yourself “what would an average dude type on Google if he would want that information”? Would he type “Free Dancing and Crazy Music Game with crappy blogs”… duhh? Tough luck. He’ll be more than likely to search for “Free Online Game”. Make sure that those are tagged and those words are either in your title or somewhere in your article.

Why is there need to be high on Google? A lot of companies, businesses and individuals would wrestle you to be on top of the search pages for that much coveted keyword. Forget about fighting over “Viagra” or “Asian Sex”. There simply is too much content to win over them. The key to success is to focus on a niche – whether it be a psychographical, demographical, geographical or cultural, your blog must address this.

As I promised Darren Rowse, I’ll be posting at least 1 blog tip a week and help him with his 31 Day Blog writing project.

Until that next blog tip…

Seeya on top of Google!!!

Strength and Honor!

GM T

Contests are cool and netizens are eager to join them.

Top bloggers like John Chow practically broke barriers with it (with his “evil” blog contests) and raised to the top of the Technorati charts (creating some issues with Google and adsense though).

That aside, there’s just something irresistible with FREE stuff on the Internet. Starting an online blog contest with the right attitude (and steps) will mean rewards for your blog.

Below are some tips to help you organize a successful blog contest (after the jump).

10 TIPS ON STARTING YOUR OWN BLOG CONTEST 

1. Open the contest to bloggers only. The “link loving” and the pollination of your links will only happen if bloggers are your main target
2. Identify what parameters are for joining. The most common ones are a link back to your post and offering a way for others to know that you have a contest and/or giving away free stuff.
3. Give out something valuable. At the same, targeting your niche. In gmtristan.com, I try to give out stuff that the gamers would want such as free Open Beta Accounts or videogame guidebooks like the Ragnarok Ultimate Game Guide.
4. Write your mechanics clearly. Enumerate them and spell out the parameters to be qualified in the draw.
5. Set out the conditions for winning. If it’s just a random draw, tell your readers. If it’s something subjective (like having a “themed post” or judging the most creative writers) then inform your participants so they know what to expect.
6. Post a nice photo of your prize. Hopefully, with the specs and its current market value (and convert it to USD). Not everyone will be familiar with your national currency.
7. Generate at least 30 days for the link to proliferate. That means the contest must run for at least a month.
8. Have a system so that you will be informed of entries. A simple email to you will do.
9. Give back to the link love. Try to make a weekly “summary” of the entries. Make an effort to link back to them and show them that you care.
10. Mail the prize ASAP and tell everyone who won by writing a special post. (and then thank all who joined)

I hope that these tips help you out. Do tell me if you’re making your own blog contest. Who knows? I might join and hopefully, with a bit of luck, I might win.

PLUG: This post is an official entry to Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog group writing project.

GM Tristan (Mon Macutay)
www.gmtristan.com

Wow!

It’s a good week…

I was on TV yesterday and now this blog is a feature in Business World Online. Thanks to writer Jeffrey Valsino for doing a phone interview with me. I enjoyed every moment of it and the pleasure was all mine.

Jeffrey writes about the story of this blog (among others), entitled the “Pinoy Blogger” - how I started without any knowledge and how it has grown day-by-day. Thanks for the nice article, Jeffrey. I’d also like to take this opportunity to THANK YOU, my DEAR READERS for making every minute of gmtristan.com worthwhile and fun! I couldn’t have done it without you.

But there’s still a lot of goals to be made, more posts to be written and more sharing of thoughts between us friends.

Here’s an excerpt:

Mr. Macutay told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview that he started his blog site just during the first quarter of this year. But his blog already attracts a sizeable audience, with as many as 2,500 hits (or page visits) daily. His blog was also considered by gaming fans as one of the “10 most influential blogs” this year.

He admits to having zero knowledge of web design when he started. He said he began blogging in free blog hosting sites, following the blog phenomenon spawned by social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace.

“Those who may want to start a blog can start in blog sites like blogger.com. That is zero cost to you, and does not demand much of web design skills,” he said. He however explained that blogs in these sites are “what-you-see-is what-you-get-type,” which means you cannot deviate much in the design or color scheme, for example, from what the blog sites implement or offer.

As such, Mr. Macutay decided to have his own domain (which gives him his own “dot com” Internet address). He advises bloggers who want to have their own domain to scout around in the Internet for the best prices. “You can sometimes get the domain for free, as long as you get the web hosting from the same company,” he said.

Read the entire article here

Okay… sometimes i have contests…. and sometimes I come upon blog contests too.

Alrighty then! I decided to join this blog contest from Janette Toral’s blog 

It’s simple, I just get to list the Top 10 emerging influential blogs in 2007. I’d like to focus more or less on Pinoy entries to spread the link-love. Ok, so here goes:

(in no particular order)

1. hackenslash
2. Codamon
3. Game Magazine
4. Ceskypooh
5. chinoyray.com
6. waukster.com
7. haravata.com
8. jannette toral
9. selaplana.com
10. gmtristan.com

You guys might want to join the contest for a chance to win $100 (and have your links grow for more awareness).

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