A look back at YugaTech in 2006

I’m combing thru 798 posts on Yugatech for the year 2006 and here are some notable stuff I’d like to share.

2006: The Year of the Scandals?

I don’t know about you but some of the scandals that rocked the Philippine blogosphere may have been fueled by this blog. :D

• Filipino Catholics petition against Bryanboy (54 comments)
• Jollibee Scandal: Mascots humping on YouTube (63 comments)

And who could forget the first and only true rant I made this year: Some people just don’t get Problogging. It’s always the one where you least expected it.

The Year of the Blog Trainer

This is probably the most exciting part of my year. Aside from being a fulltime problogger and netrepreneur, I accidentally became a trainer (well, at least that what’s printed in my contracts). That, coupled with trips both local and abroad (from Legazpi, to Vigan all the way to Taiwan, Pakistan & Indonesia) really caught my fancy. I’m looking forward to more travels to many more places next year.

The Seven Figure Blogger

When I celebrated my 1st year into fulltime problogging last month, I didn’t realized how far I’ve move along. Although a lot of my fellow Filipino probloggers already knew about this, and I know Darren Rowse got tons of press for doing so, I couldn’t really spell it quite well. Yup, seven digits but only in Philippine peso. I’m still too far behind hitting that 6-figure dollar mark.

It’s been fulfilling and my original plan of just testing how fulltime problogging goes in the Philippine setting has been proven viable — the car, slr camera, laptops and all sorts of stuff are just icing on the cake. It’s all about doing what you love most and making a living out of it.

2006 is the Year of Blog Events

I almost forgot how many blogger events we did this year but the most notable ones are the Globe sponsored BlogCon back in September and the Christmas meetup we did this December.

We’re hoping for more meetups, summits, blogcons and beercons in 2007. Don’t worry as we’re cooking up a post New Year Party next month.

MSM gets Blogging in 2006

This is one of the more notable developments in the main stream media involving the blogosphere. More and more blogs are becoming a source for news and feature stories. ANC did a series of blogger interviews in their Mornings @ ANC while ABS CBN and GMA 7 have put up blogs, albeit haphazardly, for most of their popular TV shows. It’s a start though.

And if the number of citations in my press page is any indication that traditional media in the Philippines is closely monitoring the blogosphere, then we’re almost there.

Blog Marketing is Hot

Based on the number of direct advertisers, invitations, request for reviews, sponsorships and meetings we’ve had in the last 12 months, blog marketing is certainly in. Nothing beats targeted market and demographics couple with virtual word of mouth. “Today’s market niches are no longer geographic, but psychographic“, as Mike Abundo puts it.

Another year to look forward to…

We’re just getting started and we all have our own stories to tell on how blogging has affected us personally, professionally and psychologically.

So, what’s your blogging story for 2006?