The team of Infographiclabs.com have released several extremely popular infographics over the last to months and were the brains behind the popular and amazing Twitter’s Meteoric Rise Compared to Facebook’s Growth and the just as just as popular Complete Guide to SEO and Social media Marketing. Both graphics are still going strong weeks after they were published.

Infographics are a great way to boost the name, brand of your site and our team is now taking orders for custom infographics design.
If you wish to the team will even perform the research for you and deliver your infographic in a really short time. Don’t hesitate to visit the Infographiclabs Portfolio to see discover the amazing recent work of our team. If you alays already , please get in touch with the IGL team and be amazed.

The Infographiclabs website has been designed by Ia Lucero, the Splashpress Media in-house design guru, and is based on the excellent GenesisWP by Studiopress framework.

What is My Blog Guest

MyBlogGuest has been started by Ann Smarty, a fairly well-known weblogger and social media user. She’s been guest blogging and building relationships in the blogosphere long enough to understand the power of a guest post – and that’s what she wants to share via her little cozy web community.

My Blog Guest is a unique community that is based on one simple principle: if you provide quality, you don’t need to pay to be heard. It unites bloggers who are interested in connecting to other bloggers, journalists and other content creators in any niche and publish their high-quality articles on their blogs.

What is a guest post?

A guest post is a piece of content the author and the blogger arrange to publish on the blogger’s site for free. The guest post belongs to the author and is attributed to him. It is up to the author which sites to link to within the post and it is up to the blog owner to accept/reject the contribution.

Splashpress Media will start weekly guest post features, initially on The Blog Herald, BloggingPro and Performancing. Subsequently we will expand the partnership and introduce the weekly guest blog column to all premium Splashpress Media publications.

Andrew G. Rosen has been promoted to Guest Post Manager and will accept all guest post submissions and schedule the entries. He is also moderator at the My Blog Guest forums.

To submit guest contributions for Splashpress Media publications, become a member of My Blog Guest and get in touch with Andrew via the Splashpress Media sub-forum at My Blog Guest.

For the last three years or so, I have been posting weekly updates on Splashpress Media news. In my first post at this version of our mother ship (thanks to Design Disease), I did warn you that this blog would essentially only be of interest to those involved with our network:

A note of warning for this blog: it’s very much “internal” news and focused on our own developments. We’re not going after some huge readership here with any particular views or commentary. If you’re not involved with Splashpress, in fact…even if you are-:), you’re likely to find all the posts in this blog pretty dull.

As those of you who do follow our network’s news, you may have seen the recent announcement at the Blog Herald with the news that Paul “Scrivs” Scrivens will be taking over as Publisher as of the end of this month. This is obviously a superb development for Splashpress Media and 2010 looks like it will be a very exciting year for the network. Andy Merrett has been promoted as Editor in Chief, while Franky Branckaute returns as Managing Editor. You can view the roster of the main team here.

And so…rather than drag out different “announcements” week by week, here is a round up of Splashpress news from recent times, and some things to expect very soon:

* The biggest news for our network recently was the acquisition of 9rules. We have previously announced the Round 9 winners and Andy Merrett is doing a great job over their with his weekly series “Around 9rules“. A new round of memberships is planned for the New Year. This was a very proud and momentous step for us to take and we are committed to doing justice to the legacy of 9rules.

* Performancing has undergone a major overhaul and redesign thanks to Randa Clay, including a migration from Drupal to WordPress (achieved via David Peralty’s tenacity)- no easy task! I’m happy to report that we are now back in shape and gaining momentum again with writers at the main blog like Franky Branckaute, Andy Merrett, Jayvee Fernandez, Justin Wright, J. Angelo Racoma, Dee Barizo and Rico Mossesgeld.

Other new or relaunched Performancing assests (again all redesigned/re-branded by Randa Clay), include:

@ Performancing Marketplace. Here users can buy and sell domains, blogs, blogging-related tools, themes, blog services, software and the like. The feedback we have been getting from those who were previously happy trading at Sitepoint is that there is a real need for this in the blogging community, and one that Flippa has failed to satisfy. The opening of this blogging marketplace was announced just 10 days ago, so it’s still very much in beta mode!

@ Performancing Jobs- as previously announced, Performancing Jobs has now relaunched and as was the case in the days at the old forum, it’s beginning to take up pace. We have now extended free listings for 30 days.

@ Performancing Themes is still very much alive, although we have moved the permalink from its previous location to a new one- but we’ll keep both open for now so that users don’t lose any of the support information. We now have 21 free WordPress themes released, all by top WP designers such as Brian Gardner, Design Disease, Forty Media, Ia Lucero, Randa Clay, the449 and Thord Hedengren. All have given their permission for the themes to be licensed under the GPL. And this week, we are releasing another classic: the Herald Theme- the previous Blog Herald theme, designed by Brian Gardner. The announcement at Performancing was made today; you can get a live preview of it here and download it here.

@ Performancing Hive is set for a relaunch after some time in hibernation. Luckily, there are still many active users there (including some notable a-listers). Do grab the opportunity to sign up for free using 093588648A as the coupon code- it will expire on December 11th. There are lots of great plans in the works including quite a few useful blog-related freebies for members!

@ Performancing Legal is set to relaunch imminently. Jonathan Bailey is ready to take up the mantle again and answer users’ copyright-related questions, so do submit your question here already. Thankfully, we have managed to retrieve all the previous Q&A from the legal section at the old Drupal forum and will be putting these up for future reference.

@ Performancing Ads is still going strong under the capable management of David Jones and Damian Manifold. Expect some exciting news soon as we have found a major partner who will be committing to excellent CPM rates for the regions on publishers’ blogs that are not booked by direct advertisers. And the affiliate program is working like clockwork, so if aren’t signed up already- it’s not too late.

@ Performancing Plugins still features and supports the pMetrics WordPress plugin. We’ve opened up a dedicated section for this at the site and will not only be developing more invaluable plugins for WordPress users, but also featuring other useful plugins along with tutorials.

@ Performancing Podcasts has been another victim of the recent migration the site has undergone. But we now have a home for all the podcasts that Performancing has produced in the past- by the likes of Darren Rowse, Ryan Caldwell, Chris Garrett, David Peralty and Jeff Chandler. Again, expect some news on this very soon as we relaunch the series.

@ Performancing Metrics continues to go great guns and we have more users signing up every month, wanting a piece of its awesome analytical powers. Managed by J. Angelo Racoma, the system is well looked after and constantly being improved by Sean Hammons. If you haven’t tried it yet, you can sign up for free as well as earn money from the affiliate program.

@ Performancing Services has been flourishing under the leadership of Dee Barizo. Just recently, we managed to get a prestigious client to the top of Google for some seriously competitive keywords in the travel industry. Such is the power of blogosphere! Especially popular services that we have recently added are the “Copyright Management Service” and the “WordPress Security Audit Service“. So do get in touch with Dee to see if we can help your site get more traffic and authority.

@ For all related inquiries for Performancing products and services, please do visit our support page.

* We were very proud to add Apple Gazette to our technology channel of blogs recently. Michael Murphey had done such an outstanding job at the site for nearly three years, especially with his highly respected podcasts, AGTV series and yearly coverage of Macworld. When we saw that the blog had not been updated since June earlier this year, we felt obligated to take up the challenge and so made Jacob Gower an offer which he graciously accepted. With former b5Media technology editor, Lia Espina covering the top stories; the mercurial RJ Huneke setting a new standard with the impulsive reviews and with Mac freak, Kevin Whipps handling the featured commentaries- we feel that we have a great team in place to do keep up the fine tradition of this leading Apple blog. And don’t worry, we will be relaunching the podcast and video series soon!

* Another strategic acquisition recently was Daily Bits, bought from Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips fame. We felt that this blog fitted in perfectly with our new media channel, with such sites as 901am, Blogging Pro and Tubetorial. Another huge bonus with adding this site to our network was gaining the services of the excellent Arnold Zafra, well known for his work at Search Engine Journal. Apart from Daily Bits, Arnold now also blogs for us at Blog Herald, Forever Geek and XFEP.

Here is Daniel’s original mission stated:

“Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Youtube. The Internet is changing the way we communicate, work, and live. And that is not referred to big players alone. Think about blogs that are already competing head to head with mainstream media; or people that are generating thousands of dollars with personal websites. You can reach literally the whole world without leaving your bedroom.
That is what Daily Bits is about. From software to Web 2.0, from online marketing to social networks and open source. In simple words, your daily dose of Internet and technology!”

* After quite some time (as all quality projects demand!), we have released our first premium WordPress theme: Rogue Theme. Undoubtedly behind the curve in terms of an over-saturated market, we feel that this one was worth the wait- especially if you are looking for a magazine-type or news-related WP theme, with full support. Developed by Thord Hedengren, what makes this premium theme different from others you will see around is the neat plugin that comes with it: Roguelines. There are multiple Roguelines areas– you can have several headlines for various parts of your site; you can add Rogueline data to any post within admin using the Roguelines box on the “write and edit” post page. And you have full control of the HTML code that is outputted before and after each Rogueline area, as well as before and after each element within.

There are also two default widget areas in the Rogue Theme: the headline area under the header on the blog’s front page. And the right hand sidebar (automatically filled with some default stuff). Either one of them can be populated by whatever widget you want to use. This means that you could, for instance, use the Roguelines plugin to fill the headline area on the top of the front page, as well as have it in the sidebar. You could use the built-in widgets that comes with WordPress, or install plugins on your own to create whatever type of setup you like. As we are still looking to officially launch Rogue Theme soon, we are looking to build some featured samples using the theme- at the site. So if you’d like a free version and to save on the license fees, please contact Ali Hussain (who will be supporting the theme) and he will send it to you.

* Tracking Tweets is a new service site that we have added to our network of services. Here we offer tweets sites custom-built with our own script, much as ones that we own ourselves, including: BloggerTweets, BusinessTweets, CelebTweets, DesignerTweets, MommyTweets and PoliticsTweets. There are various packages offered, which you can view here.

Twitter Button was recently relaunched, with a bunch of new designs for the buttons including- Spanish Twitter Buttons, Italian Twitter Buttons, Follow Me Buttons buttons and Follow Us Buttons buttons. And perhaps most significant was the incorporation of the personalized script we developed, allowing users to track their follower count within the buttons.

* We have relaunched various blogs, all designed by Lorraine Nepomuceno, whose excellent tips you have hopefully been following at Devlounge! The recent redesigns done for our sites, include: Best Blog List, Buddy-Press, CSS Basics, Ceylon Luxury, Fashion Hookup, Geeks Blog, My Asus Eee, Newspaper Blog, Parenting Blog, Red Tropic, Splog Spot Blog, Social Platform Journal and Yurto. Thank you, Lorraine, for all your great work!

And also huge thanks to the other WordPress designers that Splashpress has worked with over the last three years for so many of its projects- Brian Gardner, Design Disease, Ia Lucero, Randa Clay and Thord Hedengren.

* Many new editors, site managers and bloggers have joined Splashpress Media in recent times. Firstly, a special welcome once more to our new Publisher: Paul Scrivens, our new Editor in Chief: Andy Merrett and a “welcome back” to Franky Branckaute, our Managing Editor. Also, a long overdue welcome to our Technical Support guru: Ali Hussain and our Accounting magician: Nelly Chica.

Editors and bloggers who have recently joined the network (again, apologies for the belated welcome!) include: Ade Magnaye, Andrew G. Rosen, Arnold Zafra, Billy Mabray, Darren Burr, Easton Ellsworth, Enrique Mossesgeld, Juned Sonido, Justin Scarborough, Justin Wright, Karlo Licudine, Kate Alvarez, Kevin Whipps, Lia Espina, Liz Lanuzo, Mike Abundo, Nopy Loko, Peter Juan, Ramsay Taplin, Regnard Raquedan, Rick Martin, RJ Huneke and Varun Parmar. Thank you all for putting your faith in Splashpress Media

I’d also like to extend my personal thanks to all our partners- we couldn’t have gotten this far without your help!

* No doubt Paul will want to implement many changes to Splashpress Media over the coming times (you can be sure for the better!). But here are some plans currently in the works:

@ An iPhone app for our blogs, which will load the RSS feeds from our top blogs. There will be navigational buttons on the stories, so that the user can jump to the next/previous one and also go back to the listing. On the app home screen, there will be a reload button to fetch the latest items from the RSS feed and an info box that can be reached from the app home screen. What will make this app especially innovative is the category browsing through the bottom menu, where it will be possible to read and post comments, along with the integration with other apps and social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc).

@ Another site soon to be launched is: BeBlogger.com – an in-depth resource for newbie bloggers, to be designed by Design Disease.

@ At long last, after a protracted absence since the days of Matt Craven, the Blog Herald is about to relaunch its podcast series. And to boot, we’ve had a slick jingle done for it by Stefan Hedengren, better known as Stiff. So enjoy!

@ We’re about to release a seriously funky RSS widget application called SourceBeat. It is a flash-based tool that allows users to add vertically scrolling news, events, announcements, press releases and other content from any RSS feed to the sidebars of their blogs.

@ We’re also working on some large scale projects (including a uniquely built search engine!) with the likes of Chris Garrett, Dee Barizo, Richard McLaughlin, Thord Hedengren and Will Vacher.

And much more to follow….

Last, but not least- a special thank you to you, dear readers, who have put up with these long-winded, inward looking posts for all this time! Anybody who is still reading this post deserves at least some fine scotch…so drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do for you!

Over to Scrivs…..

We’re happy to announce the launch of the Splashpress Media online store! Do visit and check out our products- they come in all shapes & sizes and there are some quite sassy ones amongst them! Many thanks to Jayvee Fernandez, for putting all these together and to Dave Clough for his design work.

Here are some other t-shirts from three of our more popular sites- Forever Geek, Devlounge and Performancing:

We’ll be adding more products from our other popular sites as we move into 2010, such as for the Blog Herald, 901am and Celebrific. You may have already seen a preview of the 9rules t-shirts over at the 9rules blog. And there will soon be baseball caps for all the sites we promote in this store, as you can see with our Splashpress Media sample cap.

Mostly, these t-shirts and other related products will be used as giveaways (please excuse our models- underpaid by a long shot!) at blog conferences and other promotional events… we’re certainly not looking to make our millions with this enterprise!

Anyone who is part of our team, including site managers and bloggers- should have received an email offering a free t-shirt as a “thank you” from Splashpress Media for their loyalty and dedication to our network. We have received many confirmations already, but before we do this bulk order and arrange shipment in early December, please do contact us and let us know your choice (including size!), so that we can include you…

My Asus Eee, our blog dedicated (obviously) to the Asus Eee, made it to the finals of the Philippine Blog Awards. This yearly event, which we have been a co-sponsor of and is partly organized by our editor, Jayvee Fernandez, is held in three locations- Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao- making it a truly “national” event.

Ade announced the nomination over at My Asus Eee, listing all the nominees:

Best Technology Blog
JaypeeOnline // Blogging News & Reviews
MMO GrindHouse- fueling your daily grind on MMO Games
My Asus Eee PC
Orangeinks
sasa java
Software Critics
TechPinas : The Philippine Technology Blog
The Mike Abundo Effect
The Rookie Blogger
trashman

Best Travel Blog
A Pinay in Europe
BYAHILO: Ito ang Trip Ko!
eskapo
Explore Iloilo
Just Wandering
lagal[og]
Langyaw – Sojourns and Off-the-Beaten Path Travels
Making Things Happen
Nomadic Experiences
sagada tourism guide

Best Entertainment Blog
CONUNDRUM
Film-Otaku
Lessons From the School of Inattention
Music Picks
PH Stars
Pop Reviews Now
Reel Advice Movie Reviews
SHELU89
SHOWBIZCHISMAX
Starmometer
SUGARFREE

Best Personal Blog
ai’s cracker
Baddieverse
bikoy.net
Brief Stories
Cerebral Insights
citybuoy
Excuse My French
fritzified.com
Funny is the New Sexy
Life with Ria
Nursecissism
Platonic Trip
RALPHGUZMAN.ORG
room for squares
Succulence Unleashed
The Casual Observer
The Digitizer
The Free Lancer
writing on air
xtnpl.blog.friendster.com

Best Food & Beverage Blog
A Scientist in the Kitchen
Cebu Restaurants
Flipflopping my way around Town
hungrynez
Kitchen Cow
Our Daily Blog
Overseas Pinoy Cooking
Table for Three, Please
The Thirsty Blogger
Yedylicious: In Between Bites

Best Family & Living Blog
Absolute Cousins
Animetric’s World
BEYOND TOXICITY
Make or Break
MommyCow
occupation: SAHM
Viva La Vida Mama
What is a Progressive School?

Best News & Media Blog
Cagayan de Oro News Online
Daily Contributor
iNews Philippines
Paulnatic
PINOYWORLD
RePress
Virtual Journals

Best Business Blog
BusinessAccent.com
Millionaire Acts
MisOrJobs
Negosyo Ideas
Owning a Café
Pinoy Money Talk
Ready To Be Rich
The Sagada Lemon Pie House

Best Sports Blog
Buhay Basketball
Fire Quinito
i2runner
Lakers Today
Philippine Basketball Blog
Philippine Boxing
Sports and Tech sa Pilipinas
The Duffer

Best Hobby & Recreation Blog
Bearbrick Love
Bored & Crafty
Comicgasm
Comicology: The Study of Awesome
Dance Manila
Flying in Crosswinds
Mad Labs and Hug Dogs
Pinoy Experience Mountain Biking and Outdoor Philippines
Pinoy Mountaineer
The Singing Blogger

Best Fashion Blog
I LVOE LV
My Fashion Juice
Runway2Reality
Style and Relax
StyleAnywhere
THE UKAY QUEEN:Ukayshopping101
Ukay-ukay Escapades
who is elyoo?

Best Photo Blog
Asin at Paminta
dennisvillegas.blogspot.com
Didang Alvarez
Distilling Thoughts
I Am a Documentary Photographer
Lantaw
lawstude.blogspot.com
Lino Photography
My Manila
www.derpinsel.com/noone

Best Culture & Arts Blog
Art in Action
Bookmarked!
Coffeespoons
magnetic-rose.net: Japanese Pop Culture for Filipino Fans
Perlas Design Studio
PinoyTattoos.com – Filipino Tattoo Source
SA GUBAT NG NAMIMINTOG NA PATALIM
Sari-Saring Sineng Pinoy
The Spy in the Sandwich
Views from the Pampang

Best Commentary Blog
ad maiorem Dei gloriam
Alleba Politics
J. R. Ramos Go
Matinong Ehemplo Ng Youth Ehemplo ng Kabataan
Me and My Big Mouth
myepinOy’s bLOG
Pencil Pusher/Number Cruncher
pinoybuzz
riknakem
Splice and Dice
Staedtler
The Marocharim Experiment
Third Wave
Zzaragoza’s Weblog

Best Videocast
Digiputz.com
DoctorDude – Fun Vlogs on Health and Wellness
Entrepbuff.com
Komikero BIDJO

Best Podcast
Brink Notes Entertainment Daily
PINOY POPCAST PODCAST
World 3

Best Humor Blog
Basta…
Chiksilog
Good Times Manila
Hay!Men!
Indolent Indio
Kwentong Barbero
manik makina
Noisy, Noisy Man
Oi! Greenpinoy!
The Professional Heckler
tuyong tinta ng bolpen

Best Gaming Blog
ExcEsc
gameshogun
Mike Got Game!
Pinoy Gaming Network

Best Advocacy Blog
Autism Society Philippines
CyberRon
discourses of a free mind
Fide Quarens Intellectum
Filipino Deaf from the Eyes of a Hearing Person
Filipino Freethinkers
Foreclosure Philippines
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo RESIGN!
Greenpeace Southeast Asia
Nurses Notes

Best Beauty Blog
Candy Blush Beauty Blog
Shen’s Addiction
The Doctor Is vaIN

Special Award: Best Blog Design
Design was here
DigDesignz: Blog of a young Filipino Web and Graphic Designer
GraphiCult
Loy Meets World
Pink is Fab!
Pink Notes Diary
Simon Ong | Personal Blog and Portfolio
The Rookie Blogger
The Site Guy
The Vignette

Special Award: Best Foreign Blog
BakitWhy.com | Filipino American Lifestyle
koji ryan
My Sarisari Store

Special Award: Best Filipino Abroad Blog
AS IS
Baul ni Noel
Digifotoblog
Funny Side Up
IsladeNebz
Lilypad
myepinoy’s blog
Palipasan
PinoyBro
THE MONOLOGUES OF A DESERT DUDE
The Warped Zone

Special Award: Best Filipiniana Blog
Filipino Librarian
pamatay homesik
pilipinokomiks.blogspot.com
Simbahan – Philippine Heritage Churches and Related Structures
The Philippines and Beyond

We were very gratified to have a blog nominated in these local awards, given that we are an international company, but having such a strong affiliation with the Philippines through the many team members, site managers and bloggers that contribute so enormously to the success of our network.

A few weeks ago, in conjunction with Philippine Aid, our team initiated a fundraising drive across our network to try and raise money for the victims in the Philippines suffering from the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy. The reaction has been overwhelming, as one can see at sites such as Blog Herald, Performancing, Charities Blog and many others. The amount raised from this campaign drive is an amazing $12,472.32 from 140 contributors:

So a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who donated!! We will be posting a list of all who gave at our original post.

With the PNRC, we can be 100% sure that the funds have gone directly to those who are in need- with the basic human needs being prioritized: medical, clean water, food, shelter and the setting up of evacuation centers.

However, the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy to many victims in the Philippines is still not over, even if it is no longer in the mainstream news cycle. Many are still trapped and/or stranded, as this Google Mapspread locator shows:

So if you can donate or raise more funds for those who desperately need it, please do visit the Philippine National Red Cross donation page. Or you can send directly via paypal to: give@redcross.org.ph.

Once again, thank you dear readers for your support during this terrible calamity.

For a while now, our dedicated service for “jobs for bloggers” BloggerJobs.biz has been our only outlet in filling this important niche that helps bloggers succeed. Despite the obvious success of other sites such as Problogger and Freelance Writing Gigs, we have missed the Performancing Jobs Board, given its previous popularity. It has been some time absent owing to the migration to WordPress (a post for another day!), but Performancing has finally relaunched it’s jobs board as reported at the Blog Herald:

After a brief hiatus due to the big migration from Drupal to WordPress, the Performancing team is announcing that the Performancing Jobs board is now back online.

Performancing Jobs is a great resource for any freelance blogger or network blogger for looking for great opportunities. It’s also a good place where blog networks, corporate communications departments and blog owners can look for talented writers to fill in their rosters. The job board features both want ads and service offers.

Posting a job listing is free, and listings remain visible for seven days each. The board also offers premium listings at $20 apiece, which will stay at the top of the list for 30 days as a highlighted item.

Have a job opening? Are you looking for a blogging-related job? Post a listing now at Performancing Jobs.

Over at Performancing itself, J. Angelo Racoma announced the relaunch:

The Performancing team is proud to announce that the Jobs board is now back.
Since the migration of Performancign from Drupal to WordPress, we’ve had to momentarily drop a few things that were heavily reliant on Drupal, such as the forums and the job board (which is actually a thread in the forum), among other things. Just recently, we’ve installed a plugin that can support job listings from right within WordPress.

Do check it out at performancing.com/jobs.

Submissions are free, and each entry will stay online for seven days. For better visibility, though, you can subscribe to a premium listing for $20, which will be displayed at the top of the list for 30 days.

The job board supports listings for jobs and offers for writing, blogging and related services.

If you have an opening for a writing or blogging job, please feel free to add it to the list. Same goes for freelancers who want to offer blogging services for a fee. Be sure to include your contact information and even links to your existing portfolio, to make application easier. The plugin usually asks for a location, but we understand that most blogging jobs are probably virtual office or freelance in nature. Still, some blog networks or employers might want to hire writers or bloggers as in-house staff, so this is still applicable.

Good luck with finding the ideal job, or the ideal blogger, as the case may be.

The Performancing Jobs Board uses the WordPress Job Board Plugin, developed by Ditio, which was custom designed for us by Randa Clay to merge seamlessly with the Performancing brand.

We’ll be announcing more developments at Performancing in the coming months. It hasn’t been an easy transition, but we’re getting there….

Jayvee has announced the winners from Round 9 over at the 9rules blog- some 40+ blogs:

http://www.cooklocal.com

http://wordgrrls.com/

http://webstandards.raquedan.com

http://ghostlightning.wordpress.com

http://biglakersfan.net

http://mac.appstorm.net

http://awhitebox.com

http://365photopaths.blogspot.com/

http://www.hihu.fr

http://www.missionaryconfidential.com/

http://slightlyinsightful.com/

http://tech.karolzielinski.com

http://blog.karolzielinski.com

http://en.tspot.pl

http://www.nekosthinkbox.com

http://pieces-at-random.com

http://www.gameops.net

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk

http://mikeabundo.com/

http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/

http://www.charlespeng.com

http://www.WhenInManila.com

http://www.mostinspired.com

http://www.bikeexif.com

http://www.nofactzone.net

http://www.surfbits.com

http://familyrelationships.org.uk/

http://www.rotorblog.com

http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com

http://writeforyourlife.net

http://www.davidairey.com

http://recessiontaxi.org

http://pablolarah.blogspot.com

http://www.nattoli.net

http://worthworkingfor.com

http://prairieprogressive.com

http://human3rror.com

http://www.adviceongirls.com

http://completeorganizingsolutions.com

http://animediet.net

http://www.zachbraiker.com

http://www.thedailymind.com

http://finchsells.com

http://techie-buzz.com

http://pleaseobey.com

http://www.socialphototalk.com

http://www.9thwavedesign.co.uk/blog

http://www.iheartpgh.com

http://www.peppersprayme.com/

http://www.abuggedlife.com

http://jessicadoyle.com

http://www.8164.org

http://www.rewls.com

http://www.geekmba360.com/

http://brianbreslin.com/

http://www.creative-crossing.com/

http://racoma.net

A pretty good selection! And we are pleased after many attempts (no bias, of course!) that Splashpress itself has gotten its first blog into the membership: The Daily Mind. While we’d like to take credit for this, it is all due to the wonderful writing of The Daily Minder himself, Ramsay Taplin.

We look forward to the future rounds adding to this wonderful community. As there were many blogs submitted from the time Round 8 members was announced, there will be a special, retrospective round in the next couple of months. Do keep checking out the 9rules blog for updates!

After quite some time (Round 8 was announced by Tyme White last December), Jayvee Fernandez recently announced a new round open for 9rules over at the blog. With over 300 previous submissions and 150+ submitted blogs this time, Jayvee and Scrivs have their hands full sifting through the applicants!

Here are the various posts announcing this:

* New Round in 6 Days!

* New Round Begins Now!

* Nominations Closed

* Round Updates

We look forward to hearing the results this week! Having had a peek at the blogs, there are some truly great ones to choose from….

To get the word out, news of the the new round opening (for 24 hours only!) was posted at Blog Herald, 901am, Blogging Pro and various other blogs.

9rules joined our network at the end of August, as was announced by Scrivs over at the blog:

It has been a while since I have come on here to talk to you good people and that in itself is a problem. You may have talked to Tyme, Mike and myself plenty on a one-to-one basis somewhere else, but on the 9rules blog it has been quiet. Over the past couple of months the Triad has been considering what to do with 9rules. If you have followed us over the years you know that we have no problems making big changes to our site and community with the chance of making it better. However, we came to the point where the ideas stopped flowing and we were stuck.

This wasn’t due to a lack of passion for 9rules. 9rules helped to get Mike and me off the ground and has introduced you to the wonderful Tyme. We care about 9rules and this is why it bothered us so much as to what we could do with it to push it forward. Every decision we have ever made about the future of 9rules has put our members front and center. We want to give them the best opportunity to have their content exposed to the world because that is what they deserve and why they joined in the first place.
Because of this we have decided to reach out to a company that knows a thing or two about blogs and could bring in a fresh new team of talent to take 9rules even further.

Enter Splashpress Media. Why Splashpress? Because not only do they have the people that have a passion for publishing online content, but they also have the resources to make things happen without being too large as to forget the core of what makes 9rules special, the community. Much of the Splashpress team have been fans of 9rules for years so this will only make the transition easier as they understand the purpose of 9rules and why it is important to continue to push quality content to the forefront of the web.

I’ll let the Splashpress team come on here and let everyone know what the future holds for 9rules so continue to check back here or subscribe to the feed. As for what is happening with the Triad you can be sure to follow each of us on our Twitter accounts (Mike, Scrivs and Tyme). I will be sticking around 9rules for the next couple of months to ensure a smooth transition and to show a new group of people of how annoying I can be.
Mike, Tyme and myself would like to thank all of the wonderful people we have met over the years for supporting 9rules and we hope that you continue to show your support as it moves forward to bigger and better things. If you wish, don’t hesitate to send us bottles of liquor, but please send them to me so I can approve of them before I send them out to Mike and Tyme. This is their request, not mine I can assure you.

The announcement was covered at the Blog Herald and many 9rules members’ sites, such as Quick Online Tips. The joining of 9rules to our network is something we are very proud of at Splashpress- we feel deeply honored and privileged to have the responsibility of the looking after this very special community. We are determined to do justice to the prestigious 9rules legacy & history. We want to extend special gratitude to Scrivs, Mike and Tyme for making the transition as painless as possible and for all their support. Also thanks to Jason and Ryan over at Media Temple.

Our initial strategy has been to concentrate on working behind the scenes at the internal forum- getting to know the members and their wants/needs- rather than to come in with guns blazing and making drastic changes that may not be in the community’s best interests.

The first way that we felt that we could enhance the membership experience of 9rules was to open up various products and services that we have in our network to 9rules members. One of these services that we felt was appropriate to introduce, and was announced by Jayvee, was free membership to our blog directory, Eaton Web- the oldest blog directory on the web.

The second way we think that we can enhance 9rules is by organizing the memberships, starting with the rebuilding of the directory- as Jayvee explained in a recent post. We are planning a new design for the site after consulting with members and this will help to bring more of the members’ content to the forefront.

There will be many more areas that we hope to help keep 9rules as “the best content from the independent web“, while adhering to the fundamental nine rules:

1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.

As a footnote, we have designed some funky 9rules t-shirts, an example of which you can see here:

These will be available for 9rules members only and given, not sold

More updates on 9rules will follow in coming months as we move forward….

Over the weekend, residents of Metro Manila and cities in its vicinity woke up to torrential downpours and rising floodwaters brought about by typhoon “Ondoy” (international name Ketsana). This was the worst flooding the city of 12 million people has seen in about four decades, with over 80% of the area submerged underwater. While most areas were only moderately flooded, some low-lying areas saw waters reaching past the height of two-storey houses.

The typhoon is said to have brought in 400+ mm of rain–a month’s worth of rainwater in a span of 12 hours. The record-breaking rainfall levels even bested out rainwater from hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005.

The disaster spared no one–both rich, poor and middle class families saw their homes and properties destroyed by the flood and landslides. What’s worse is that a lot have died, and many are still lost. As per recent news, more than 250 have died. Scores more are missing. These are especially prevalent in cities of Pasig, Marikina, and Cainta (in Rizal province).

A good number of our team, staff and partners at Splashpress Media are residents of Metro Manila. So far, all of us were relatively unscathed after this terrible incident. Thus we feel responsible for extending aid to those who were badly affected. Some of our friends and family members (and even team members) have gone out and donated money, food, clothing, and physically helped in the relief efforts. But much has to be done, including a longer period of rehabilitation. News of incoming weather disturbances is making things more worrisome.

How to donate

Splashpress Media is running a donation drive in aid of the victims of the flooding in Metro Manila. We are starting the donation drive with $1,000 from ourselves. For those who can make credit card payments, you may directly send donations to the Philippine National Red Cross which is one of the bigger organizations organizing and handling aid. However, for those who might prefer PayPal, The Philippine National Red Cross can also accept PayPal payments through this address: give@redcross.org.ph.

How to link

You may link to our campaign drive using some buttons we have created:

You can copy and paste the code below, so you can add a link to our donation page on your blog, website, or social networking profile.

<a href="http://www.splashpress.com/2009/typhoon-relief-manila"><img src="http://www.splashpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ondoy-lifeline-125.jpg" title="Donate to Typhoon Victims in the Philippines" /></a><br />

<a href="http://www.splashpress.com/2009/typhoon-relief-manila"><img src="http://www.splashpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ondoy-help-125.jpg" title="Donate to Typhoon Victims in the Philippines" /></a><br />

Any help or form of support will be appreciated!

image credits: cbc.ca and flickr/ABS_CBN_News_Online