I am not yet done with this blog’s redesign. Anyway, I just made a quick drop to inform all of you about contest. Here’s one that will appeal to those who are into those geeky programming stuff like me:

Are you the next XML superstar?

This contest is being made to raise familiarity in XQuery, XML and DB2. It is open to all students, professionals and hobbyists. It is even divided into five separate tracks, which is based on the skill level of the individual. Enter into one, or enter all of them and get bigger chances of grabbing the top prizes.

The video mania is probably the easiest way to participate and grab a prize, which is actually in the form of a Nintendo Wii. However, if you want to get the most attractive prices in the form of an iPod Nano, an IBM overseas lab trip or an iPhone, then a contestant must challenge himself or herself by participating in programming contests.

If you think you are now up to this challenge, then take part now in this IDUG contest, help raise awareness, boost your programming skills and win a prize. Be sure to check out the website for the detailed mechanics of this contest.

I learned that some bloggers had started dropping Entrecard using Google Chrome. Most of them say that dropping with Chrome is easier. Yesterday, I decided to do the dropping chores using the other browser.

Everything is Faster in Chrome

I tried to load the Entrecard website in both browsers with the cache cleared. The website seemed to load up faster with Chrome than with Firefox. The Inbox list loaded up quickly in Chrome too. That’s the only sheer advantage that I’ve witnessed firsthand.

Longer Time to Drop Everything

I realized that the system that I had established in dropping ECs is not applicable to my dropping strategy. It took me 2 hours to do 300 drops for the other blog. I use either a  feed reader or Great Registry Hacks’s Entrecard dropmaster to help me drop cards for my top 25 droppers. Then I go to my Inbox and drop ECs to those who dropped on me a day before. Then I use the remaining drops to drop on the most popular blogs that are related to my blog topic using the Entrebar until I reach the 300 mark.

With Google Chrome, I could not use the image disabling technique to load up sites and drop easily with a plugin similar to Entrebar. The “undo close tab” is not also provided in Google Chrome, not like in Firefox where it remains to be my top handy feature when I accidentally close a site. Firefox is still a better fit to my Entrecard dropping strategy.

Google Chrome is Still Useful

I don’t just simply drop then hop away to another site. I make sure that as I do my drops, I participate on the discussions posted on other blogs. I have Firefox and Google Chrome open at the same time. I do drops with Firefox, and when I encounter a blog where I want to comment on, I grab that post URL and open that with Google Chrome so that I could leave a comment.

One of the first things I did with Twitter was to announce what I am working on. As I use Twitter more often, I noted that many bloggers had been using it to promote their blog posts. Like many of these enlightened bloggers I followed what they had been doing and began to announce my post as soon as I hit the publish button. I even got Twhirl installed to help me manage and post out tweets.

What makes me visit and reply to your tweet? Of course the message has to be interesting enough.

• You are one of the first few to blog or announce breaking news.
• You have written those posts like “how to”, “top ten” and other catchy titles similar to the title of this post.
• You always have other articles, videos and pictures to share other than your own blog posts.
• You have an opportunity to offer that make some money or other similar incentive.
• You really interact with people by sending replies.
• You ask help.
• You ask questions.
• You’re not too obvious in announcing a new blog post.
• You post out status updates on what you’re doing, thinking and feeling - without being negative.
• You love to spread the positive attitude around and easily relate to everyone by simple greetings.

I had noticed that most of the people I am following on Twitter often start their tweets with the words “new blog post”. With the Twitter population growing, I think “new blog post” is fast becoming an outdated style of promoting a blog. Being creative and interactive is must! Most of those tweets that belong to the reasons would get me scurrying out to check your blog post.

Of course, that’s what attracts me in using Twitter. I might be on a lonely planet where everyone does not agree with me.

Don’t forget to join me in Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ladyprogrammer

I got “busy” updating other social networks which had made me not to update this post often. I even removed EC dropping from my daily routine.

The brief blogging absence made me realize that I had to define priorities in what I need to accomplish each day. I had to remove some of the tasks to make way for other activities that I need to do. This means I had to drop ECs less and even post out content less frequently.

I need to keep up with other social networks.

and plurk: http://www.plurk.com/ladyprogrammer

I don’t just submit my own content on Digg and StumbleUpon. I had to grow a profile that looks interesting, particularly on StumbleUpon. As I do this, I had to communicate with others at Plurk and Twitter. I plurk and tweet the best content from this blog and the other making money online blog.

Plus learn SEO too.

I got to use Plurk, Twitter and Facebook at the same time for a number of days. Since I got a lot of social networks in my list, I thought I could synchronize updates using only one tool - ping.fm is a good thing to keep these three updated. At first I thought that ping.fm would solve my woes of reducing a bit of work in maintaining social sites.

I was wrong.

I realized that Plurk, Twitter and Facebook are three different social sites with different sets of people. I have Twitter friends, I have Plurk friends and I have Facebook friends too. I had to maintain good relationship with those friends whom I connect with each of those three social networks, not only just posting out links of my own stuff.

As a Plurk friend had said, there can be too much social noise. I defended that too much social noise is a lot better then having no one to talk with - at least online.

Twitter:a big mixed group

I joined Twitter first, and right now I’m proud to have over a hundred Twitter followers. The Twitter group that I got are from different countries like the US, Canada, India and of course, the Philippines.

What I like best about Twitter is that this network is far well developed. There are a lot of software that is written for it, like TwitBin, TweetDeck, Twhirl (what I use) and can easily be integrated in a lot of social sites like Facebook. Also, Twitter remains to be the main choice of A-list bloggers so I get to follow their updates regularly.
Plurk: down to earth and casual

I have a different set of friends in Plurk, and since I am a newcomer, I had only 18 friends and 10 fans on my account. Perhaps if I placed my widget on one or more of my blogs then I must have grown a bigger friend and fan base. I find Plurk a much more interactive site than Twitter. If not for those A-list bloggers who use Twitter more than Plurk, then Plurk should have been a better medium than Twitter - it has more features than what I can write on this post.

I find Plurk users a lot more interactive than my Twitter friends. As soon as I had plurked out something, I often get replies in less than a minute - even from interested strangers who wants to connect with me.

Facebook: a better Friendster

Friendster remains to be the social network of choice in Asia. But to me, Facebook is a lot better. It can put links automatically from those Twitter. It can also post out links from delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg automatically. Well, a great medium to promote, IF only I have a lot of friends. I only got 18 of them in my account.

But most of my Friendster friends find it too overwhelming to maintain a lot of social networks. They are still sticking out to Friendster and I don’t think those Friendster users would like to switch or add Facebook.

Ping.fm: synchronize the social networks at once

I use ping.fm on times when I had to promote my own blog posts or share a link to all the three networks at one. I just wish that ping.fm will be able to show a Youtube and picture snapshot on Plurk and Facebook networks, than just showing a shortened link going to it.