Philippine Passport

Are you planning to travel abroad and you want to know how to apply for Philippine passport? Here's a step by step guide on how to get a Philippine passport through the DFA Passport Appointment System. Please note that the requirements and guidelines below are for Filipinos who want to apply passport in the Philippines. Information on how to apply passport online is also provided. The process and requirements to apply Philippine passport renewal, however, may differ particularly if you are based in other countries such as UK, US and Canada.

How to Apply Passport in the Philippines

1. Secure Philippine passport requirements. It is better to prepare the important documents before you contact DFA for your passport because some of these documents may not be easily available or may take days to secure. Make sure that you have the original copy and photocopy of these documents. Some of the most important of Philippine passport requirements are as follows.

Birth Certificate issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO)
Valid ID such as digitized government-issued IDs like SSS, PRC and school IDs for students.
Supporting documents with your full name, date of place and birth and citizenship such as the following
Marriage Contract
Land Title
Driver's License
Government Service Record
School Form 137 or Transcript of Records with dry seal
Other documents that show full name and birth details of applicant and/or citizenship
Voter's Registration Record from COMELEC Intramuros
Baptismal Certificate with dry seal
Seaman's Book
Income Tax Return (Old)
NBI Clearance

The full list can be found here http://passport.com.ph/requirements

2. Set an appointment by going to this link http://passport.com.ph/set-appointment or you can also call 737-1000. We shall, however, focus on applying for passport online.

3. Answer the captcha and then click "Start Individual Appointment Process"



4. Fill up the individual application form and then click submit.



5. Take note of the requirements that you need to bring on your appointment date.
6. Choose an appointment date and time
7. Check for your reference number and application form link that will be sent to your email. Make sure to print this form and bring it with you during your appointment.
8. Be at the DFA Consular Office on your appointment date 30 minutes before your scheduled time with all the needed requirements and photocopies. DFA Consular Office is located at ASEANA Business Park, Bradco Avenue corner Macapagal Boulevard, Paranaque City.
9. Show your printed application form to the Appointment Counter and get your queue number at the information counter. Wait for your number to appear before proceeding to the processing window.
10. After processing, proceed to the Passport Enrollment Section and pay for the passport processing fees.
11. Proceed to Encoding Section for data capturing after payment. If you opt to have your passport delivered to your home without returning to the DFA, pay for the delivery fee.
12. Wait for the release of your Philippine passport.

This site is NOT the official website of the DFA. For discrepancies in steps and requirements provided by this site and DFA, please follow the guidelines provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Requirements and procedures on how to apply Philippine passport may have changes since this post was written.

Privacy Policy Plugin for Adsense Monetized Sites

Finally, a privacy policy plugin is now available for wordpress blogs that display google ads. Synclastic has created the privacy policy wordpress plugin to help automate the creation of a google adsense compliant privacy policy.

I have installed the privacy policy wordpress plugin in this site and I must say that it really strips off the hassle of making a privacy policy page. Since I am too lazy to make a new page for the pirvacy policy, I just hit the "create page" button in the privacy policy configuration page (under the options tab) and viola, a new privacy policy page is created with all my default information in it. You can check out my generated privacy policy page here.

Since I hate spammers who harvest emails online, I made changes in my default contact information so only real people can contact me in case they have questions about my site's privacy policy.

How to Make Your Keywords Work

Keywords used in the visible text of a blog post are considered as among the big factors that determine how a site will rank in the SERP. Using keywords effectively can therefore increase a site's chances of "getting noticed" by the search engines. Here are ways on how to make keywords work for a web page:

1. Use descriptive keywords with lesser competition. Many people advice the use of keyword research tools when writing articles but top ranking keywords may not always be the best as there can be tons of people using the same keywords. Using single word keywords can prove to be very competitive so the use of keyword phrase will be a good option. Another way to do this is to "localize" your keyword (e.g. Davao Jobs instead of Jobs). This post provides tips on how to best localize a keyword. Remember to use related keywords and synonyms.

2. Do not break your keyword phrase. Keyword proximity refers to the closeness of your keywords in your page or article. The closer the keywords in your article are, the better. This is best applied when using keyword phrases. It is best not to put stop words such as "in" and "at" between important keywords in your article. Example:

Eden is one of the best Davao tourist spots

is better than

Eden is one of the best tourist spots in Davao

Another good example of using keyword proximity is here. Proper use of forward and reverse proximity must also be observed (eg: optimizing website vs website optimization) because they may have different ranking results.

2. Place your important keywords in the beginning and end of your article.This is otherwise referred to as observing keyword prominence. Important keywords, particularly the keyword that you want to rank on should ideally be placed in the beginning of the first paragraph. Using the primary keyword in the last paragraph is also advised.

3. Emphasize your keywords.The v7n blog says that bold texts have more weight than regular texts. Italized words words are also given more emphasis than regular words in your article so use bold or italic texts in your target keyword. Remember not to abuse the use of these specialized texts though, highlighting a keyword once or twice is enough.

4. Avoid over stuffing your article with keywords. I have noticed that I have been using too much keywords lately particularly in my sites that display google ads. Nevertheless some SEO experts already say that keyword density is useless as this is not related to keywords' proximity and prominence. On the other hand, some SEO people also say that overstuffing articles with keywords will have undesirable results. Search engines reportedly penalize the use of excessive keywords and see this as a form of "keyword spamming". So what is the ideal keyword density? Garry Conn says 3% to 6% for keyword density is ideal. This tool can be used to check a page's keyword density. Nevertheless, I want to take heed of this advice from bigoakinc.com: If too many keywords make your article sound silly, then take them out. You should after all, write for humans and not for search engine robots.

5. Use alt tags. Search engines "read" texts so make your images "readable" by using the alt tags. Alt tags are used to describe an image and serve as a text keyword. The general format for the alt tag is <img src="image.jpg" alt="keyword phrase" title="keyword phrase" />. According to searchengines.com, the search engines do not penalize overstuffing alt tags with keywords. Nevertheless, better be careful than sorry so be cautious when using alt tags in your image.

6. Optimize keywords one at a time. Do not optimize a number of keywords in one article or page. Concentrate on one keyword one at a time. You can use related keywords in your post but make sure that you focus on one keyword that you will use in your title tag, emphasize and place in the beginning of the article.

7. No black hat please. Be careful not to use "hidden texts" by avoiding text colors which are of the same or near the color of your background. Many consider this as a popular form of black hat SEO which can result in your site being penalized by the search engines.

This article is part 2 of CTT Blogging and SEO Series

Online Fraud Protection and Security

A few days ago, I received an email with the subject telling me that my paypal account is suspended. Instead of reading the whole email and click on the links that usually come with this kind of emails, I head on to my paypal account instead and logged in. I was no longer surprised when my paypal account worked and all my paypal balances are still intact. The email, as I have suspected is a scam mail trying to phish me off with some of my account information and password.

This kind of scenario becomes more common these days as the number of scammers and phishers increase. Common sense will still help in avoiding instances that can result in losing money through online transactions. Aside from knowing and avoiding phishing emails such as the one that I have received, here are more ways to avoid online frauds:

Use your credit card cautiously. Online thieves who steal credit card numbers so they can use the credit card themselves exist. When purchasing online, for example, I make it a point to transact only in well known and legitimate sites and avoid giving away my card number to questionable sites that cannot even guarantee my online transaction with them is secure.

Update and do not just install an anti virus software. Here is my major pitfall, I have an anti virus installed in my computer but it is not always updated which makes me a potential target of people sending malwares and viruses that can scrape off important information stored in my PC.

4 Ways to Optimize Title Tags for SEO

The title tag is considered as one of the most basic and most important factors that can contribute to how well a site places in the search engine results page (SERP). Search engine searchers are also more likely to visit a site with good title tags than sites without title tags at all. The ability to optimize a title tag will therefore make a site loved by search engines and visited by more people. Fortunately, optimizing title tags is now much easier with new tools such as the wordpress SEO title tag plugin. Here are some ways on how to optimize a title tag for SEO:

1. Make your title tag keyword rich. The title tag should contain important and related keywords that best describe the site article. Note: do not use keywords that are NOT related or visible in the content or text of your post. Keyword phrases are better used in title tags than single keywords because competition is not as stiffer. Keywords can also have better variance when geographical terms are included in your title tag.

2. Make title tag as descriptive and catchy as possible. The title tag should not only be a bunch of keywords but a free standing phrase descriptive enough to give an idea what the post is all about. Many do not advise repeating keywords in a title tag because search engines may consider this as a form of spamming. Nevertheless, you can use secondary versions of your keyword in your title tag. A good title tag makes a searcher know what to expect from the post. Remember to use proper capitalization because title tags in all caps are difficult to read. Bloggers and webmasters can also take advantage of catchy title tags to entice search engine searchers to visit their site. Here is a good post on how to make catchy and descriptive title tags: HTML Title Tag Defines Your SEO Strategy.

3. Make the title tag unique. It is not advised to use the same title tag for every page of your site and while it is recommended to write your title tag based on the contents of your article, it is not a good idea to use an exact phrase or sentence from your article as the title tag. Similarly, it is also advised to do away from generic title tags such as "page" and "home". A unique sentence or phrase should be separately made for use in the title tag.

4. Know the character limit of your title tag. Google limits the title tag to 66 characters only and yahoo can cater up to 120 characters. Using “&” instead of “and” can help in decreasing the number of characters in the title tag. (Using a title tag that is different from your blog post title is therefore ideal if you have a lengthy post title). Because search engines display limited numbers of characters from the title, it is ideal to place the more important keywords near or in the beginning of the title. You can make a title tag work for both yahoo and google by creating a primary title tag for google and a secondary title tag for yahoo. This post will explain this in detail. Shorter title tags (not more than 10 words) are also reportedly more effective than title tags with more than 10 words.

This article is part 2 of the CTT Blogging and SEO Series. The articles under this series are compilation of things that I am learning about blogging and search engine optimization.

GPS Tracking

GPS or Global Positioning System is perhaps one of the most helpful forms of technological advancement in the 20th century. The GPS is used to identify direction, time, speed and locations and is currently used in a number of applications. GPS devices, for example, are reportedly used as a tool in helping soldiers locate targets in an unknown territory. A number of rescue operations are also dependent on the GPS especially in locating critical areas such as during fire and medical emergencies. GPS is also currently used in construction an is now seen as a potential tool for business owners and employers in the form of GPS Insight vehicle tracking system.

By using GPS tools and software, employers and business owners can keep track of the performance of their employees particularly if their industry is related to trucking and delivery of services and goods. By using a GPS vehicle tracking system, for example, employers are able to evaluate the how well their drivers and employees perform without necessarily being around. This system can reportedly mitigate instances of employees going idle or engaging in unnecessary travel and activities during duty time. The tracking system is also claimed to be helpful in identifying driving speed in case of overspeeding and related violations; unnecessary fuel consumption and details of activity during work.Using this tool simply requires employers or business owners to use a form of cellphone mapping to check on the performance of their employees.

The GPS insight Blog for GPS vehicle tracking and GPS Insight support wiki for customers provides more information about the use of GPS in the work place.

Business owners and employers who are engaged in industries that require their workers to travel or work without their supervision can take advantage of the GPS vehicle tracking system by using a form of cellphone mapping to check how their employees and drivers perform during work.

PPC observations and website monetization programs

I used to equate pay per click (PPC) programs success to the traffic of my blogs. The more visitors my site receives, the more money I can generate from google adsense or bidvertiser. My conception was however proven wrong these past few months. My showbiz blog, TelebabadQueen.com actually used to get a lot of visitors (thanks to the Marimar mania). It shows a page impression of 800 to 1000 plus. My online jobs site, on the other hand, Jobzonline only registers less than 150 page impressions a day. Nevertheless, Jobzonline earns far more than telebabadqueen. The reason? Page Ecpm. Telebabad Queen’s page Ecpm can be as lower than one dollar.

I have therefore wanted to try other website monetization programs to see if they can work with my high traffic blogs with low PPC income. Yesterday, I have signed up for what people popularly call “pay per play”. I still have to go through the tutorial today so I can understand the program better and hopefully earn more money from url's of my blogs. What made me sign up is the fact that my visitors need NOT make any click for me to earn from the program. Based on web-audio-ads.net’s video, visitors merely have to listen to a 5 seconds audio and that is it. I hope that this concept will help me maximize the number of visitors that I receive in my sites.