I know it’s pretty late. But better late than never right? It’s been such a great holiday for me! I’m really enjoying my vacation here at Bacolod. Although I wasn’t able to go online as often as I thought I could.

Anyway, I want to take this opportunity to give thanks to my close friends, college buddies, high school friends and most especially to those people that have been a big part of me online. Yes. You know who you are.

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Bacolod City, the City of Smiles, is one of the best place in the Philippines. It’s clean, not too crowded and is home to the best chicken inasal ever! Even Sharon Cuneta flies to Bacolod just to eat chicken!

For those that know me personally, they know that I grew up there. Although I was born in Manila, I graduated my high school years in Bacolod Tay Tung High School. Yeah. I miss those times.

Well, after maybe a year of absence, I’m finally going to back to Bacolod. We’re going there by land trip. It’s a whole lot cheaper for the family plus we get to bring our car! Hehe.

For my friends in Bacolod, we’re going there on December 22 and then back here on January 03. I’ve talked with Jimmy boy and he’s also coming over. It’ll be great! I’m really looking forward seeing you again guys!

Expect updates on our trip plus a whole lot of pictures! Hehe. Don’t worry, I’m going to bring my laptop so that I can update my blog regularly. Although it could be easier if I had an Asus Eee PC. Hehe.

Have you visited Bacolod City? You really should try their Chicken Inasal. Want me to send you some? Haha.

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I’ve seen a lot of blogs doing heavy promotions but not really sustaining the temporary increase of traffic. I feel that they are wasting their time promoting something that is not worth to be promoted.

If you do a promotion, that means a temporary boost of traffic, the trick is how to convert those newcomers to your loyal readers.

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With the Christmas season picking up, I’ve been busy doing a lot of preparation and of course, shopping! One item I’m looking forward to buying is an Asus Eee PC.

Fortunately, I found an Asus Eee PC at SM City Cebu just today. It was one of 10 freshly delivered units. The earlier batch sold like hotcakes. Why you say? Well, let’s get up close and personal with the product after the jump.

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Marhgil Macuha runs Macuha.com and a lot of other more blogs. He is known for his wit, ingenuity and blogging power. Marhgil is considered as one of the Top Pinoy ProBloggers of 2007 compiled by Basapa.

Enough of the introductions, let’s get into Marhgil’s head!

Marhgil Macuha: First of all, thank you for interviewing me. Now, to answer your questions.

Back in 2005, I’m not sure on which blog I’ve first saw those Adsense ads. I just got curious I’m seeing those ads everywhere, so I googled it and landed on Google Adsense sign-up page. I didn’t even know back then that it is a pay-per-click program. Since I just love blogging, so, I just put those Adsense codes on my old blog and continued blogging. They were not optimized. I just told myself that if it gives me money, then, good, if it doesn’t, I have nothing to lose.

For a couple of months having those ads on my blog, I just earned an average of $1 per month, telling myself that at least I’ll get my first Google check after 100 months. Hehehe. I even thought back then that Google Adsense is not true. Until I’ve read this news article from USAToday about Google’s hidden payroll. That article opened my eyes. There is really money to be made out of Google Adsense thru my blog. So, I researched. Found Yugatech’s blog. Found Macalua’s SEO contest. And the rest is history.

Marhgil Macuha: Yup. I have several blogs. Most of them, I set up when I was just learning to make money from blogs, trying to earn from free articles but to no avail. Maybe due to duplicate content penalty. birthdayguide.blogspot.com and wantusawa.blogspot.com to name some of my flop blogs My text messages blog still gives me the highest income, 60% of my Adsense income come from it.

Marhgil Macuha: Per month, I think, I’m earning an average of $600+ in all blogs and all money making programs combined. Most of my income come from Google Adsense, followed by Widgetbucks, Kontera, and Adbrite. So far, affiliate programs don’t work me. I don’t know. I still haven’t discover the trick on how to make more money on it. That’s why I just stick to PPC.

Marhgil Macuha: On MSN, my blog hit the first page on the keywords after 2 weeks. Just got lucky, I think. But on Google, it took me more than a year before I conquered the first page. I did not invest any money for promotion. Blog hopping did the trick.

Hopping from blog to blog (especially blogs of teenagers), I just left a comment on their tagboards telling them I have lots of text messages on my blog. Bloggers finding it valuable link to it automatically on their blogs, not even asking for a link exchange. When it’s already popular, I don’t need to blog hop anymore. Links come naturally and search engines deliver the visitors everyday.

Marhgil Macuha: Am I? I think, you’re mistaking me for Marc Hil Macalua. He’s the man. It was just a coincidence we have almost the same name and the same interest.

But seiously, when it comes to SEO, I still have so much to learn. I still don’t consider myself an expert. All you see I’ve been doing were just products of my SEO experiments. I only have 1 SEO client ever since I started SEO. Make it 2, including myself. Hehe.

I’ve been doing SEO only for my blogs, joining SEO contests, sharing my experience with my readers, and helping some of my friends start a blog and optimize it. I only started last June 2006. My advice for people wanting to learn about SEO? Keep reading. Be updated. The search engines update their algorithms from time to time, don’t get left behind. Subscribe to my blog. Anyone wanting to give me a full-time SEO career?

Marhgil Macuha: Actually, I’m a part time problogger. I still have a day job, a telephony application programmer/analyst in one of the companies here in Manila, totally not SEO-related. Hehe. I’m optimizing my blogs at night and blogging during office break time. If my officemates have yosi breaks, I have my blog break Some of them already started blogging too.

Marhgil Macuha: I’m online 8 hours a day, 5x a week. We have internet in the office. If I have assigned tasks, you’ll not see me online, you’ll not see updates on my blog. After finishing my tasks, most of the remaining times were spent on blogging activities.

Marhgil Macuha: It’s just an anagram of my name. Coincidentally, my first blog’s theme before is humor, so, when I discovered that my name has that anagram, I grabbed it and put it on my blog.

Marhgil Macuha: Like what I’ve said, I’m still a part time problogger. But I’m looking forward to be a full-time problogger 2 to 3 years from now. If I’m already earning at least $3000 per month, I think, it’s time for me to say goodbye to my day job. Hehe.

Just an advise to people who are trying to make money online through blogging. Don’t quit. Generate traffic + Optimize ads = Success

There is indeed money to be made online. I sincerely hope this interview can further serve as an inspiration to you and to others who are looking into earning passive income online. If he can do it, so can you!

Again, I would like to extend my gratitude to Marhgil for giving us his valuable time in answering all the interview questions. He is actually having a mini-SEO contest for the anniversary of his latest blog. Do check it out.

I’m going to leave you with something to think about. Marhgil said that he may quit his day job if he is already earning $3,000 per month online. How much earnings will it take you to quit your day job?

Don’t forget to subscribe to my feeds for more upcoming interviews.

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