While browsing through Facebook this morning, I found out that the 1st Baguio Blog Conference will be held within a couple weeks’ time. Inspired by the success of the other blogging summits I’ve mentioned earlier, several local bloggers decided to organize the Baguio Blog Conference.

WHEN: May 19, 2012 Saturday @ 8:00 AM
WHERE: University of Baguio Square Hall
ADMISSION IS FREE

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Below are the objectives of the Baguio Blog Conference:

• Formally convene the members of the Cordillera and North Luzon Blogging Community.
• Share knowledge in Blogging as an aide in education, tourism and business.
• Educate the Baguio and North Luzon business community with regards to the power of blogging as an advertising medium.
• Learn from the Blogging experts on how to write an effective online article or blog post, as well as how to effectively promote the blogs and gain readers and followers.
• Inspire Baguio and Cordillera people to promote their localities through blogging.

LIST OF SPEAKERS

• Janette Toral – digitalfilipino.com
• Antonio Magno Caranzza Jr. – pusangkalye.net
• Chyng Reyes – chyngreyes.com
• Azrael Coladilla – azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com
• Florencio Jusay Jr. – manualtolyf.info
• Avelmar Manansala – gensantos.com

REGISTER HERE for the 1st Baguio Blog Conference

The local bloggers who are organizing the event are working with their own finances. To help make the event successful, they are looking for some financial assistance to help cover the expenses such as conference kits and food for participants and transportation for guest speakers. If you or your company would like to help, you can choose from one of the sponsorship packages listed below:

SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES

• Co-Presentor: Php. 25,000.00
  (Major Billing in Event Posters and Banners, Sponsors’ Time, Press Releases and Radio Announcements, Video Commercials to be played during the event, blog posts from Cordillera Bloggers’ Network, Company Logo Post and Link from the Cordillera Bloggers Sites)
• Major Sponsor: Php.15,000.00
  (Billing in Posters and Banners, Video Commercials to be played during the event, Blog Posts from Cordillera Bloggers, Company Logo Post and Link at the Cordillera Bloggers Site)
• Minor Sponsor: Php. 10,000.00
  (Billing in Posters and Banners, Company Logo Post at the Cordillera Bloggers Site, )
• Donor: Php. 5,000.00
  (Billing During the Event, Company Logo Post at the Cordillera Bloggers Site)

Wish I could attend but unfortunately, all I can do is help spread the word about the event. All the best to the event organizers, speakers and participants of the upcoming 1st Baguio Blog Conference.

Anyone here attending the Baguio Blog Conference? Do you know of any other upcoming local or regional blogging summit/conference in your area? Please share it with us.

This is a guest post by Sarah Rexman. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Are you plugged in? Do you know about all the latest gadgets? Are you wearing the latest fashions before they start showing up in stores? Have you already downloaded the second album for a new artist that everyone else is just discovering? If you answered “no” like most of us, the you likely don’t already know what all the latest trending topics are. Sure, you might be familiar with Hipster Kitty, and maybe you’ve even LOL’d at some of the Texts from Hillary, but you still couldn’t tell a friend what all the latest trends are.

Tapping into these trends can help you to grow your blog readership and rank higher in search results by hosting discussions that people want to be a part of now. So how do you find out what the trends are? Here are a few ways that you can find the latest trending topics for your blog:

Twitter

Twitter plays up trending topics better than a lot of other sites, often playing like a news ticker for the latest stories and other items of interest. Hash tags identify conversations about the latest trends, making it easy to become part of the larger conversation. To check out a handy list of the latest trending topics, just click on the “Discover” tab in the top portion of your profile page. The trends will appear in the column on the left side of the page.

You can use this list of trending topics to better understand the discussion that is happening around those topics so that you can approach them from a fresh angle. Find a way to talk about the latest news in a way that others aren’t. People will find your blog when they look for the latest news about that subject, but they’ll stick around because they’ll know that you have unique, quality content to offer them.

Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends)

When people want information, they turn to Google. Find out what they’re looking for by using this handy tool. Browse the list of the top search terms for the day in your country, or check on the popularity of a topic by entering a term in the search box. You can get related search terms that are trending, or you can check on performance within a certain time frame.

Google Trends also updates frequently — at least every hour or more. You can often get breaking news this way because you’ll see when everyone starts searching for something all of a sudden. Bloggers who do their best to post frequently and to offer a steady stream of quality content can get a lot of ideas from Google Trends, as the top searches are constantly changing.

Google Insights (http://www.google.com/insights/search/)

Google provides multiple tools for marketers, and this is another that helps you identify trending topics. Enter a search term, a time range, and a location to get information about keyword performance and related search terms. Find out if a topic is going up or down in popularity, as well as related terms.

Google Insights is great for finding out not only what is currently trending, but what topics are expected to be trending in the near future, or by season. For example, allergies would be a trending topic in the spring. However, you can find much more detailed and nuanced lists here.

You can also look for patterns in search topics to get insights into related categories and to broaden your coverage of a topic, helping to set you apart from a competitor. There is also information about geographical searches, helping you to optimize your local search results, which Google is now emphasizing.

Forums

What better way to find out what people are talking about than to go to the places where they are talking. Popular forums and information-sharing sites like Reddit, Digg, and Stumble Upon can help you quickly identify the most popular conversations, thereby determining trending topics. You can even get information about whether a topic has gone up or down in popularity.

Take special care to look at forums within your niche, as well. While it’s a good idea to find out what’s popularity with general audiences by looking at sites like Reddit or Digg, you also need to find out what’s hot with your target audience right now.

News Sites

Trends and popular topics are what make the news. Scan the latest headlines to get a sense for what’s on people’s minds. You can get ideas for larger social conversations or even just topics about lifestyle, health, or popular culture. For example, a scan of today’s headlines might show you that people are talking about environmental issues and the upcoming election, as well as a hot new workout that mimics circus training.

The key to following the news for trending topics is to make sure you are ahead of the story. You don’t want to be the person talking about Charlie Sheen’s meltdown a week after everyone else is already tweeting #winning. Follow news sites for trending topics so you can help break news and contextualize it, offering your readers more value and setting your blog apart.

Other Blogs

Watch your competition and other blogs in your niche to make sure you’re always ahead of the news most important to your audience. Look at what other writers in your niche are talking about, and find ways to add to the conversation. Make sure you bring a unique voice to the discussion, tackling the topic from a new angle or offering a distinctive opinion. Your readers will come to know your blog for content that is both current and distinct from other sites.

Staying ahead of trending topics is key to keeping your blog content fresh and relevant to readers. It is also a great way to rank our site better, as you will have content that people are searching for right now, making your site seem more in demand for search engines.

What other sources do you use to find trending topics to write about on your blog? Tell us your ideas in the comments!

One of the blogging events that I religiously blog about every year is iBlog: The Philippine Blogging Summit. For those who aren’t familiar with it, iBlog is an annual 2-day event that aims to help bloggers, marketeers, businesses and entrepreneurs to have a better understanding on how to use blogs or blogging as a medium to generate income or promote their products/services.

iBlog8: The 8th Philippine Blogging Summit is scheduled for May 25 and 26, 2012 at the Malcolm Theater, UP College of Law, UP Diliman, Quezon City from 8 AM to 5 PM. Below is the complete schedule and lineup of speakers/talks for the 2-day event.

Day 1 (May 25) Advanced Topics on Blogging

8:45 – Introductions of bloggers in the audience, National Anthem
9:00 – 9:20 Unboxing the true potential of your blog (Carlo Ople)
9:30 – 9:50 Creating a Blog Activation Campaign (Mark Joseph Delgado)

10:00 – 10:15 BREAK

10:15 – 11:00 SEO and Social Media Marketing Panel – On Site Optimization 101 (Sean Patrick Si); Inbound Marketing – Merging SEO, Social, Content Marketing, Conversion Optimization and Online Branding (Jason Acidre); Utilizing Blog Networks for SEO and Social Media Traffic (Kim Tyrone Agapito)
11:20 Keynote Talk: UNILAB

LUNCH

1:00 – 1:20 Blogging, social media and journalism: The use, misuse and abuse of freedom of expression (Danilo Arao)
1:30 – 1:50 Social Media and Social Change (Tonyo Cruz)
2:00 – 2:20 Unwritten Blogging Etiquettes (Gellie Anne Abogado)
2:30 – 3:00 Youth and Blogging: The Next Generation Bloggers Are Here (Lloyd Salac)

3:00 – 3:15 BREAK

3:15 – 3:35 Grow Your Blog, Keep Your Voice: Maintain Quality While Expanding Your Blog’s Reach and Brand (Martine de Luna)
3:45 – 4:05 Bloggers the new PR community (Boris Joaquin)
4:15 – 4:35 Financial Planning for Bloggers (Garry Zaldy De Castro)

Day 2 (May 26) General Topics on Blogging

8:45 – Introductions of bloggers in the audience, National Anthem
9:00 – 9:20 The Soul of Blogging (Rem Tanauan)
9:30 – 9:50 How NOT to blog (Jay Jaboneta)

10:00 – 10:15 BREAK

10:15 – 11:00 Blog Writing Panel – Making your blog post work: Inspiring Quotes and Posts (Wendell Glenn Cagape); Using Public Narrative In Blogging (Bien Eli Nillos); Blog comedy writing for the not-naturally-funny (Marcelle Fabie)
11:20 Keynote Talk: McDonald’s Philippines

LUNCH

1:00 – 1:20 Teaching and Learning through EduBlogging (Noel Feria)
1:30 – 1:50 How to make your blog stand out from the crowd (Victorino Q. Abrugar)
2:00 – 3:00 Social Media Panel – Social Media Marketing Shiznit (Carlo Angelo Gonzales); Optimizing your Blog thru Social Media. Using Hashtags, tags, and keywords (Jeoffrey Solas); Twitter as an ally in learning (Arvin Antonio V. Ortiz); Social Media in Business and Advocacy (Grace Bondad Nicolas)

3:15 – 3:30 BREAK

3:30 – 3:50 Leveraging Video for More Traffic and Conversions (Glen S. Dimaandal)
4:00 – 4:20 Increasing Health Information Access through Blogging (Alvin Cloyd Dakis)

DAY 1 & 2 EMCEES / Co-Host are: Flow Galindez and Rod Magaru.

REGISTER NOW for iBlog8: The 8th Philippine Blogging Summit

Like the previous events, iBlog8 has a great lineup of speakers and topics so make sure you get to attend the 2-day event or even at least one of them. The iBlog organizers are still looking for businesses or individuals who would like to sponsor the event. Interested parties can check the different sponsorship packages on this post. I’m not sure if they did it last year but I do hope they would do a livestream of the event for people who can’t make it to the event. Anyways, all the best to the organizers, speakers and participants of iBlog8: the 8th Philippine Blogging Summit.

So who’s going to iBlog8: The 8th Philipping Blogging Summit? Anyone here who’s already registered or still planning to do so? Which particular speaker/s or topic/s are you most interested to listen to?

Features:

• Browse the best original content on WordPress.com
• Share photos, links, and quotes from any app on your WordPress.com blog
• Reblog cool content you find to share with your readers

Screenshots:

If you already running Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you can go and download WordPress for Windows 8 from the Windows Store.

I tried installing the WordPress.com for Windows 8 app but failed because I couldn’t access the Windows Store as it requires a minimum screen resolution of 1024×768 and the netbook I was using only has 1024×600. So I’ll have to wait until I have installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a different machine before I can try out the WordPress.com app.

Anyone tried the Windows 8 Consumer Preview or the WordPress.com for Windows 8 app? Please share your thoughts.

[via Matt Thomas]

Online marketing company KISSMetrics, has published a series of posts entitled “The Science of Social Timing“. The first part was about “Social Networks“, the second was about “Timing & Email Marketing” and for the third and final part of the series – “Timing and Blogging” they talk about the effect of timing on blog readership.

The infographic provides a lot of useful information. However, data and statistics vary between blogs and time zones. The main idea here is learning how to use your blog’s stats and analytics and correlating them to get the best results. The best thing you can do as a blogger is to experiment and use whatever works best for you.

NOTE: All of the data presented in the infographic are presented in Eastern Time (EST) unless otherwise noted.

What do you think of the data and information presented in this infographic? In your own experience or observation, what is the best time to blog or publish a blog post? Please share your thoughts.