Well, I’m getting fat, Marc, thanks for asking.  Also, I’ve been having some pretty weird dreams lately.  I’ll tell you about them next time.  This is just a general State of the Spartan address.

I’m a little stressed, but you know what helps?  Listening to Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie.  The song speaks to me, brother.  And of course, Freddie Mercury’s really something.   David Bowie was in Zoolander, so he’s cool in my book, too.

Basketball’s been helping a lot.  I’ve been shooting baskets almost everyday, just around my backyard.  I’m actually getting really good at it.  I guess all that shooting, whether rain or shine, really hones your game.  It also doesn’t hurt that I see my brother playing in his varsity games.  There’s always a competitive vibe in me that just won’t quit.  He’s getting better.  All that training he’s getting.. wow.  Makes me wish I signed up for varsity before.

As you probably can see, I’ve sort of sold out my blog.  Well, a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s  got to do, right?  So far, I’ve doubled the initial investment I made on the blog.  That’s pretty good, I think.  I’ve got this idea in my head for another Adsense experiment, but it’s tough.  There’s just too many things going on, and I can’t really focus.  Bad attitude.  I just have to keep my head down, soldier on.

Isn’t it weird how I never post videos on this blog?  It’s not because there aren’t any videos out there.. it’s because for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to post videos here in WordPress.  That’s the first thing I’m going to ask when I get to WordCamp.  Can any of y’all players help me trick out my blog with some videos and sounds (and rims, yo!)?

That’s it for now, Marc.  It was nice talking to you.

..and no, I’m not getting fat.  I’m probably hotter than most everybody you know.

2008 Philippine Blog Awards are upon us, friends.  I’ve always wanted to go to these swanky events, where I can show everyone that yes, I AM as sexy as my blog makes me sound.  Thing is, it feels a little weird, what with all these career bloggers and their insane page ranks.  By comparison, my blogs are like the working girls of the industry (it’s all about the money).

But whatever, I’m seriously considering going.  I mean, it’d be a great opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers, build up the links, right?  So we’ll see.  I’ll feel around if anybody I know is going.  If they aren’t.. THEN I’ll go.  Kidding.

I admit, I started this blog to make money online (hopefully a ton of it), but that hasn’t really panned out.  This whole SEO thing is tough.

That’s why I’m going to try a different approach.  I’m going to sell out.  That’s right.  Totally sell out.  The plan is to earn back what I’ve already laid out for this blog, and then triple it.  But then, I’ll STILL maintain this as my main blog.  I’ll renew the domain name and hosting every year.  As long as I can earn back the initial investment then triple it yearly, I’ll keep this thing going.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and The Dark Knight totally kicks ass!

I recently came across a blog that had a PR of 5, and I asked what it had that I didn’t.  The layout was nothing special.  Neither was the content.  It wasn’t exactly very SEO or very niche at all.  But this woman was making a killing with paid posts.  (Yes, I recognized them).

She was a make money online fiend.

I looked at the blog, and realized I wouldn’t link to it.  It was just like any other blog out there.  But apparently, a TON of people HAVE linked to it.  That’s why it had a PR of 5 in the first place.

So I did what any jealous blogger would do.  I technocrati’ed her ass, and I found her secret.

The woman designed free Wordpress Blog Templates.  Now this isn’t an act of goodwill.  She put in a small link to her blog at the bottom of the templates.  The templates weren’t anything special, but she got enough people to use them, effectively giving herself links.

So the moral of the story?  Learn to create Wordpress templates.  I’ll be trying to.  I think.

Here’s the thing:  I need to make some serious dough, fast.  But I don’t really want to sacrifice my PR.  Or at least I don’t want to sell myself short by sacrificing it too soon before I’ve made a decent profit.  (Yes, I’m talking about this blog).  A quick suicide would net me around $30.  But I paid $45 for this thing, so I’ve got to plan this through.  This make money money online business is crazy.

Ever since Google’s battle with (insert devious backlink marketing company here,) I’ve been getting the short end of things.  I’ve been looking for ways to get around it, though.  I gotta be honest, it’s tough.  There just might be a way, though.

I’m not going to say anything just yet, because I don’t want to spout my mouth off and get everybody all excited.  In fact, I probably won’t say anything at all, unless it works.  I guess we’ll find out in a week or two.

It used to be that nobody had any idea what Page Rank was.  Now, even my grandma knows about it.  In today’s MMO (make money online) world, PR counts for a lot.  That’s why the Google (henceforth referred to as the Big G) put into effect some changes in how they determined PR.

Now, you can’t beat the Big G.  To do so would be equivalent to suicide on the web.  The best thing you can do is to play its game, and play it well.  Here are a few things you might not know about Page Rank.

1. One way inbound links are the only relevant links.
2. Links from pages related to your website matter more than links from unrelated pages.
3. Link juice is also an important factor to consider.  If a website with 100 outbound links link to you, it’s not going to be as worth as much as a website with 10 outbound links linking to you.
4. Search engines look at webpages, not websites.  You may have different PRs for different pages in the same site.
5. Reciprocal links carry almost no weight.

So far, BlogMarc.com has a Page Rank of 2.  I’ll be trying to get it as high as possible over the next month.  Hopefully, things work out for you as well.  Good luck to us!

So I’ve been away for a month with some quarter-life crisis issues, but I’m back!  While I was gone, I did a little soul-searching and decided that this blog needs a new direction.  I’ll still be trying to make money online, but BlogMarc.com is going to be so much more from now on.

This isn’t only about making money by blogging and totally whoring out my blog.  This is about BUILDING A LIFE.

If you know what that means, then mad props to you.  If you don’t, I’ll explain it in tomorrow’s post.   Yeah, that’s right, tomorrow.  I’ll be updating daily again, like I said I would.

I know I haven’t posted since my last (which was also my first) post, but I’ve got some pretty good reasons for that:

1. I’ve been busy trying to learn WordPress and giving up on it.
2. I’ve been busy trying to learn SEO and giving up on it.
3. It’s Holy Week and we were out of town for Easter.
4. I was going to write a whole bunch of blog posts but I got too excited I couldn’t churn out a single sentence.

All legitimate reasons, right? WRONG.

I’m the kind of guy who wants people to like me, and by association, to like my blog. The only way to do that is to be endearing and charming and informative on a SET posting schedule. Here’s an article by Maki on Dosh Dosh which details the benefits of a set posting schedule towards increasing readership.

Basically, Maki tells us to create anticipation in our readers so that they will be repeat visitors to our blogs. It’s sort of like Christmas. Everybody knows when it’s going to happen, and nobody wants to miss it. Brilliant blog marketing.

So without further ado, here’s my blog posting schedule:

UPDATED DAILY.

Pretty simple, huh? See you tomorrow!