the following email was sent out May 9, 2004 to as many cyber filipino discussion groups, netizens and web publishers I was in contact with at the time.
Since then, some of the publishers I wrote took some of the tips to heart and are actually ranking higher in search engine query results for "filipina".
If anything, please take the meta tag tips to heart and apply them in your filipina/filipino website or personal pages in order to help balance Filipina presence online.
If you have time, please participate in the beta program of PhenomenalFilipinas. Email any glitches you have to me.
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From: perla
Subject: Fabulous Filipina Cybercampaign
Dear Filipino Web Publishers and Friends:
I believe that the Internet connects us not just with goods and services but also with people around the world, mind-expanding concepts and life-changing ideas. We can use the tools of the Internet not only for accumulation of "things" but also for the expansion of our range of choices. The latter is the most valuable thing that the Internet has to offer.
If you are a web publisher of a zine, blog, homepage, company or organization site, then I urge you to please join me in increasing a Fabulous Filipina presence online. And when you finish reading this, please be so kind as to pass this email to as many Filipino webpublishers that you know.
I am on this campaign because a query done on "filipina" at many search engines yields a limited Filipina representation--- too many sites represent filipinas in a biased way. Many commercial sites are profiting from marketing stereotypes of Filipinas as mail-order-brides, sex-tour bar girls and as porn models AND these sites are ranking high search engine queries on "Filipinas." If you have time, try searching "filipina" at google.com, yehey.com, yahoo.com and altavista.com to see for yourself. Many mail-order-bride sites can afford to buy top-sponsor placements in search engines simply because they profit from the activities of their site and can thus afford advertising.
The online representation of Filipinas via commodification sites CAN be changed!! I know because the online community for Filipinas and by Filipinas of BagongPinay at www.newfilipina.com finally ranks among the top in google.com and yahoo.com and other search engines---we have been online since 1998, but it took almost 5 years before we ranked in the top 5 there. I learned something from running the site of BagongPinay and want to share that experience with you. This experience can also offer you a way to find some fulfillment in being a Filipino woman or man who publishes content online.
And so if you are a Filipino/a web publisher you can also do something about biased Filipina cyber representation by applying some simple web techniques enumerated here. By doing so, more and more of us can help push quality Filipina sites to the top of search engine queries on "filipina." The application of these techniques are small steps to taking back our ownership online of Filipina cyber presence. Many efforts together can really change how it Filipinas are "googled" anywhere online.
For more info, please visit http://www.fabulousfilipinas.net. (Please note the domain ends in ".net" and not ".com"
The following are 4 basic technical steps to apply in increasing the occurences of quality web pages and web sites in search engines queries on "filipina." Apply one or all of these web coding techniques as possible. Using the web coding techniques below places the words "filipina" in your web page/s and increases the frequency of quality filipina web pages/sites being indexed by search engine robots and ranking higher in queries of "filipina" at popular search engines such as Google.com® and Yahoo.com®.
Technique 3.
Join the newly created Fabulous Filipinas Web ring now! go to http://F.webring.com/hub?ring=fabulousfilipina.
Technique 1.
Place the word "filipina" in the meta tags and the body of your site homepage, blog, company/org site or personal pages, and as many webpages that you manage.
Technique 2.
Place one of the Fabulous Filipina banners on your web page with "alternate text" code AND create interlinkage to http://www.fabulousfilipinas.net.
Technique 4.
Create a web page list of your favorite quality Filipina/o sites at your web page/site.
For more details on these techniques, please visit http://www.fabulousfilipinas.net/joinfabfilipinas.html.
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Halin Sa Tagipusuon,
(from the heart),
Perla Paredes Daly
www.babaylan.com
www.newFilipina.com
Women's Wisdom Gathering Handbook @ http://www.wowee.org
Bahala Meditations @ http://www.babaylan.com/bahalameditation.html