Some offices actually celebrate Halloween by decorating their cubicles, tables and the entire work area with whatever scary decor or costumes. Imagine a coffin with a real corpse at the entrance, placed where the bundy clock is. And everyone has to punch in, near the coffin window.

Or maybe some cobwebs in the rest rooms and flying bats everywhere in the office. Then the company president appears wearing a dracula outfit. The VPs like zombies. The guard wears a cloak resembling Death with a scythe. The lady manager appears in a white gown, and just stands on top of the table all day, mumbling chants like the Druids. And the secretary dresses like an old witch and narrates aloud halloween stories.

Crazy, crazy halloween ideas! The canteen is turned into a cannibalistic feast. Blood stew, bloody red juice, and pork leg formed like an arm.

Crazy, crazy, halloween ideas! Why is Halloween celebrated anyway? Good thing no one here in the office cares about halloween. I don’t care too! Do you?

photo credits:  Kevinworld

Popularity: 15% [?]

Is it going to be Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain? November 4, 2008 is fast approaching and it is not only America that is waiting for the result of the US Presidential elections. The world is watching closely.

Mc Cain vs Obama

Recent news revealed the Gen Collin Powell, a renowned Republican, endorsed Sen. Obama, the standard bearer of the Democrats. Another Republican heavyweight announced that he also intended to vote for Obama. What could be the main reason? Is it McCain’s running mate choice of Gov.Sarah Palin, the relatively unknown Governor of Alaska? Most thinks so. A poor choice of a running mate could also be an indication of poor judgment. A poor judgment will bury America deeper into the pits of economic crises.

Latest poll surveys favored Obama. Now that they are on the last week of their campaign, can the Democrats celebrate this early? Remember how Bush Jr. upset the more popular Al Gore. The old man can still pull the rags from under. But I don’t know of Palin. She might be offered a full-time job at Saturday Night Live, if the Republicans lose.

It Is About the Economy

Who has the most convincing plan of rescuing USA from further recession? It is no longer about war on terrorism and of world domination. It is about the economy. So far, the Democrats has the edge. Saving the American economy would be like saving the world. We, in Asia, are already feeling the effect of their weak economy. What if the BPOs here pull out in a month’s time? Or their investments drawn back and transferred to America? The result of the 2008 US Presidential elections is a turning point for America and the rest of the world. May the American people choose well!

Popularity: 14% [?]

The list of the October 2008 Philippine CPA Board Exam Topnotchers and list of the top-performing schools is now available here.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announces that 2,442 out of 6,663 (36.65%) passed the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination given by the Board of Accountancy in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan De Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo and Legazpi this October 2008.

The results were released in one (1) day after the last day of examination. The top 10 Examinees are:

1. Richie Jackson Taguinod Padilla Univ. of St. Louis Tuguegarao 92.71
2 Ziff Calvin Rigor Marabillo Silliman University 92.14
3 Joanes Albert Batalla De Vera Far Eastern University-Manila 92.00
4 Richellou Jamaica Ortega Lenon University Of The Philippines-Diliman 91.86
5 Hazel Angeline Quiapos Abenoja Bicol University-Legazpi 91.57
6 Mhark Almario Serato De La Salle University-Manila 91.43
7 Kristine Jennifer Discaya Chua University Of The Philippines-Diliman 91.29
8 Adrian Hizon Bajador University Of The Philippines-Diliman 91.14
9 Raymund Christian Sayco Ong Abrantes Ateneo De Davao University 91.00
Teejay Tamayo Banal Jose Rizal University (Jrc) 91.00
Apple Amatorio Canaya University Of The Philippines-Visayas-Iloilo City 91.00
Jessica Madriaga Delos Reyes Adamson University 91.00
Melody Jade Figueroa Quilana University Of Northern Philippines-Vigan 91.00
Leomar Gabon Velez Polytechnic University Of The Philippines-Main-Sta. Mesa 91.00
10 Edison Ramirez Bautista Wesleyan University Of The Philippines-Cabanatuan City 90.86
Mark Jerson Rodriguez Pulohanan University Of The Philippines-Visayas-Iloilo City 90.86

The Top performing schools in the October 2008 CPA Board Exams are the following: (Note: The first figure is the total number of examinees, then the number of passers and the passing percentage)

A. With 100 And More Examinees
1 University Of Santo Tomas 332 259 78.00%
2 Ateneo De Davao University 100 64 64.00%
3 Polytechnic University Of The Philippines – Main – Sta. Mesa 584 301 52.00%

B. With 51-99 Examinees
1 De La Salle University – Manila 51 38 75.00%
2 San Beda College 72 45 63.00%
3 Bicol University - Legazpi 59 35 59.00%

C. With 26-50 Examinees
1 University Of The Philippines – Diliman 40 40 100.00%
2 Ateneo De Zamboanga 37 26 70.00%
3 Siliman University 26 18 69.00%
D. With 10-25 Examinees
1 University Of Saint La Salle 23 22 96.00%
2 University Of The Philippines – Visayas – Tacloban City 25 23 92.00%
3 De La Salle University – Dasmariñas 15 13 87.00%

Congratulations to the October 2008 CPA Board Exam topnotchers and to the schools producing them. I don’t see any from the Cebu schools though they were consistently present in the past.

For those who are looking for the list of passers, please check it here: October 2008 CPA Board Exam Results

Popularity: 100% [?]

If you want more traffic from Google and from other search engines, then you should stop writing about SEO. What? Yes. Stop writing about SEO but start applying what you have learned however little it is right now. We’re not experts and gurus. Let us leave the lectures to the experts. Concentrate on writing valuable content that readers want and search in the internet.

My last six posts including this one are about SEO, but Google is not giving me any traffic. My Feedjit and the analytics results confirm it. Even in my other blog, the topics on SEO brought no visitors from the search engines. Hadn’t I stumbled my post, it would have remained unnoticed in the worldwide web. The thumbs up of other stumblers brought more than a thousand viewers.

The SEO niche is so crowded. To get a pie of the searchers, one must be on the fist three pages of the search engine resulting page. Those who are optimizing in the not so crowded niche got the better traffic. If you are in the SEO niche and get plenty of traffic from Google, then lucky you.

Blog Traffic

So, for the next five posts of this blog, the aim is to get visitors from the search engines. I’ll forget my Busby SEO Test for a while though the optimization will continue since the contest will run for three months. Google, please give me traffic!

Popularity: 26% [?]

SEO is Easy

Sometimes we think that SEO is easy if we land in the top spot for a certain keyword or keywords. We might hail it as a success. But hey, look again! Who are you competing with that keyword? Maybe it’s only you who invented that word (e.g. Cjeblaggeer), or it is from some archaic language no longer used today, and you simply highlighted it in one of your post.

SEO is definitely NOT easy. Especially if you are competing with experts, gurus, masters and other hotshots. My Busby SEO Test journey is a steep climb. I used to be in page 10. But now, I slid to page 17. With more participants joining in the next few days, it would be very difficult to climb back. But who knows the mind of Google. What if they catapult me to page 1 with this entry? That, I would claim that SEO is easy.

note: image is plucked from the website of Pogung, in an entry in the previous Busby SEO Challenge. I consider myself one of his fans in the previous contest.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Building backlinks is an arduous task, but it is necessary to push one’s site in the front pages of the search engines. Currently, the total backlinks that this Busby SEO Test participant has is three as per report generated by backlinkwatch.com. Imagine, after 30 posts, I only have 3 sites linking to me!

This SEO contest is an opportunity to change the inner workings of this blog. First it was the Title. Obviously, the blog title plays a vital role in the search engine optimization game. All others had their Busby SEO Test as their blog title (or added to their blog titles). There is almost no difference at all, because these experts recognize the importance of the title. Had it been allowed to use domain names containing the keywords to be optimized, the busbyseotest.com.net.org.whatever would have been sold out immediately, minutes after the announcement.

Then the meta tags. I’ve already done that in my previous post. To check the meta tags of a website, click view, then the page source of the site. Search for whatever meta found on the codes. You add and/or alter the meta tags of your site.

Now, it’s the backlinks. Google considers a link to a site a vote for that site, hence, improving the importance of the linked site in the eyes of Google. So, where do I start with the backlink building?

First, it would come from me. I got a few ranked blogs out there. None of which had linked this site yet using the anchor text: Busby SEO Test. I want it linked to my domain, and not in any single post. That would be my start.

Next are my friends. Friends, please link me in a post or in your sidebar. Use the code here:

<a href="http://ceblogger.com">Busby SEO Test</a>

If you had done so, please let me know so that I can give recognition at a later time.

Then to those who just want to help, you may copy the said code above. I don’t have money to buy links. But if I’d win, I’ll share the winnings, even if it will only be the fifth prize.

Popularity: 33% [?]