If you’ve been reading about this blog for quite some time now, you probably already know that I’m driven by passion for the things that I love and values that I believe in. Whether it’s writing a deep, draining and provocative existential dirge or a jargon-filled debate review, I really put my stamp on my work. Currently, I have three blogs:

 

Most bloggers have a sense of entitlement. To them, the mere fact that they are writing brings tangible benefit to the people reading. It’s quite easy to fall into that trap. Comments, raves and praises aren’t that really hard to get in the ever-growing and ever-shrinking Philippine Blog Community. But in reality, those people are merely reading insights - personal musings that may or may not have a significant effect on things that they want to achieve in their lives. Our blogs were just fillers for the spare time that they had while waiting for their programs to compile or for their microwave dinners to get ready.

 

This is precisely why I have a profound bias for Visit Sagada. Aside from being just a soapbox by some regular Joe in this side of the islands, it’s very fulfilling that we’re actually helping people. Sure, the amount of comments and mail that need answering could be a bit overwhelming, but in the end, the appreciation that we get from visitors never fails to motivate us to improve the site.

 

Aside from Gareth who is a native of Sagada, the members who maintain Visit Sagada were practically clueless on how they were going about their respective trips. Much of what Jeff and Angel know was actually courtesy of yours truly. In turn, much of what I know about Sagada - information regarding the caves, accommodations etc — were derived from a thread in Pinoyexchange. Fritz of course found out about Sagada through morse code messages sent to him by aliens from Xenu. Though the forum was fairly helpful, it was quite a tedious resource to use. The information usually came in trickles and one needed to read more than 30 pages of text - some redundant and some obsolete — so get a sense of what to do. This minor inconvenience inspired the people behind Visit Sagada to make it easier for the people who would think of going in the future.

 

About three months into the project, we’ve gotten over three hundred comments, a hundred e-mails from all over the world and strong search engine results despite not being well linked in the blogs of the Philippine Blog Community. Despite this handicap, I think we’re doing fairly well. We’re extremely grateful for the generosity of Ferdz and the handful of bloggers (most of whom we don’t even know personally) for writing about us and linking to us. The buzz hasn’t been that great in the overt blogging community, but we’re ecstatic that we’re getting in touch with the non-blogger crowd - backpackers, families and foreign tourists who are trying to get to Sagada.

 

This project by Janette Toral have launched the blogs of many people in the past year to greater heights and we’re just more than willing to reach out to an even bigger audience. As our site stats would indicate, we’re already at a robust level, but we’re committed to bringing the resource to everyone who is planning their getaway to Sagada. I hope you would support us. :)

 

Who May Join?

 

To join this effort, please do the following:

  • Write a blog post and pick your choice of 10 (or less) emerging influential blogs.
    • Any blog in the world can be picked.
      • You can update the same post entry up to July 26. However, please inform us of any changes.
    • Old blogs who move to a new domain are disqualified
    • Blogs who remove their archives just to fit in the cut-off date are disqualified.
  • Include a link to this post to help spread the word and encourage others to participate.
  • Post a comment and let us know about your entry. Only one entry per blogger. Cut-off date and time for submission of entries is on July 26, Saturday, 5:00 pm (GMT+9:30). Afterwards, submission of comments in this page shall be closed.

On August 1, 2008, we will do the following:

  • List the The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2008 based from your posts.
  • I will pick ten writing project entries in random who will get one hundred dollars (US$100) each. Prizes are transmitted via Paypal.

Joining a writing project has its own benefits that includes:

  • Getting link love.
  • Meet bloggers.
  • Receive traffic (especially to those who join early on) from current and prospective participants.
  • More than anything else, you will also be supporting a worthy purpose of spotting and promoting new blogs that are making great waves out there.

I leave you with some of the most heart-warming messages we’ve received over the past three months:

 

Hello Visit Sagada people!

We closely followed this itinerary! We even searched for Mang’s Cuisine which has a new name now.

We even browsed the net on our way to Baguio just to confirm everything here in your site - which is very helpful. I got the numbers of GGH and Residential Lodge here which made reservations very hassle-free.

Even our tour guide knows your site. Keep it up! :)

From My Sagada via Baguio Itinerary, 2008/04/23

 

:D my friend and i are interested in going to sagada and we’ve been researching the net. i think your site is one of the most informative sites I’ve seen about sagada! :D we haven’t finalized our decision yet, but i would like to ask about this itinerary, is it also possible if we pass by banaue to sagada or sagada to banaue to manila?! because I’d love to see the banaue rice terraces on the way, you can’t visit the world’s 8th wonder everyday! :D Thanks so much for your help! :D

From My Sagada via Baguio Itinerary, 2008/04/11 at 8:54 PM

 

Thank you. I hope you’ll support us in this endeavor.

 

 

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