Wow HeavyTraffic!!

A cheap way to forewarn your friends...

As of the end of 2004*, there were 1,500,000+ registered vehicles with the Land Transportation Office (LTO). That was 5 years ago! On any work day, it feels like a billion vehicles - making the major roads and highways look like one giant parking lot. Need I say what it looks like during rush-hours?

Source: Land Transportation Office (LTO); data summary provided by the Society for the Advancement of Technology Management in the Philippines (SATMP) under the Asian Regional Research Programme in Energy, Environment and Climate (ARRPEEC).

So, if a motorist can find a way, by any means possible, to avoid a clogged spot, it may mean an hour or two earlier to reach the office or to be comfortably inside one's home. Unfortunately, the country doesn't have the new stuff where satellites, cameras, and in-vehicle computers all conspire to warn motorists to take a detour - way ahead of time.

As is the case with motorists stuck in traffic, some use their mobile phones to call or to send a text message to forewarn the spouse (or the boss) of a late arrival time. While we're waiting for all these high-tech stuff to become available and affordable, wouldn't it be great if we can use a single text message (an AKA BLOG) sent from our mobile phones to forewarn others- friends and family members, who're just about to leave the office or the home?

Wouldn't it be great to see the same text message appear on your Facebook status section, the Facebook notification sections of friends, an incoming eMail message via Gmail or Yahoo, or a widget box on a shared website or social media group (Friendster, Multiply, Ning)? It's a low-tech, but effective solution to an everyday problem. It'll even be more beneficial if more people text-in traffic updates everytime they're on a specific roadway. And if we have more people doing an AKA WATCH of known and diligent "traffic-jam texters", the long queues from secondary and tertiary roadways going to a clogged area can be avoided as people will go to alternative routes.

Foutar Cakes & Pastries

From her home to ours!

Everyone knows that the tastiest food stuff are "home-made". Over time, more and more people get to sample delightful kitchen creations beyond the needs of the family - and that's where word-of-mouth referrals kick in. This is one case of a working Mom, Irma Salao-Riego, who has recently made available her yummy cakes & pastries for others to enjoy.

Working with a tight budget and understandbly cautious about preserving quality, the creations are, for the time being, made-to-order (2-day preorder period), and listed on her website. Great approach to augment household income without the heavy overhead cost of maintaining a physical storefront (space rental, staff salary, etc).

By avoiding the relatively more expensive advertising options (newspaper print ads, radio ads, television commercials), Foutar Cakes & Pastries will soon benefit from the viral or network benefits of having a website and by cross-posting info onto social media sites like Facebook and Multiply.

As an AKA user, Irma can now update her website via simple text message - which is a very affordable and convenient way of posting new creations or to announce sales promos in the near future. (WATCH alias: FOUTAR)

AKA Virtual Gift Certificates

Beer Below Zero's "PasaBeer" Launch

Recently, the technology-savvy shareholders of "Beer Below Zero (BBZ)" launched PASA-BEER at the Grilla Bar on Kalayaan St., Makati. The concept is simple: For a few hours, trivia questions will be announced through the P.A. system, and the first x-number of correct answers sent via mobile phone text messages/SMS and posted on a large-screen "shoutbox" will win certain prizes - BBZ hats, Tees, free beer.


If you're one of the winners, a text notification will be sent to your mobile phone which you can then show to an appointed person for prize redemption. In effect, this text notification that you've won is actually a virtual Gift Certificate (vGC) issued by a brand, which is BBZ in this case.

Ordinarily, just showing the text notification on your mobile phone may not be ideal or secure for multi-site redemption sites if the brand has many physical branch offices or stores. The extra step, as was shown that night, was for the winner to text-in the vGC back to the AKA system so that the redemption desk can get the security confirmation, turnover the prize or item, and delete/invalidate the vGC reference number (to prevent duplicate claims at other redemption centers).

To get everyone (customers, guests, service staff) in the Grilla Bar informed of the mechanics of the "PasaBeer" launch that night, a 2-sided business-card-size guide was handed out. At the back of this card, instructions were posted on how to register for your AKA alias via mobile phone, how to submit answers to trivia questions via AKA TELL BBZ, and how to redeem prizes.

As you can imagine, the place was jampacked, several long tables were celebrating promotions and birthdays, and customers were sending various fun messages to the projected SMS shoutbox whilst awaiting the start of the PasaBeer event. BBZ fans who could not make it to the event also sent SMS messages via the web-shoutbox of BBZ.

Near midnight, people who initially kept company with just their table mates were now trading shoutbox messages with other people at other tables... and everyone had a good time!

To know more about AKA's integrated web+sms tools for marketing and real eCommerce, visit: AKA Mobile Directory

Media Link: Pinoy entrepreneurs intro SMS-based virtual GCs by Melvin G. Calimag

AKA Spotlight: Helping Kids Do Better in School

AKA welcomes Schoolkid.PH

"Whether you're a busy parent who couldn't find time to make reviewers for your child or you are looking for additional practice worksheets, then Schoolkid.PH can provide you with the learning sheets for your child.... for FREE!".

"Let's all help our children do better in school."

Roxanne Flores-Aquino, the site's owner and a Mom to three young boys, believes that she can "help parents of the preschool and grade school community in providing the necessary tools to help their children do well in school.".

The FREE supplemental learning worksheets, which can be downloaded and printed, cover various subjects: Language & Reading, Math, Writing Skills, Science, Filipino, and Araling Panlipunan.

All worksheets are originally produced by various contributors who have unselfishly put their time and effort to make exceptional worksheets not only for their own use but for the entire Schoolkid.PH community.

If you have made reviewers for your child, then maybe you would like to share these with the parent community of Schoolkid.PH? Send your worksheets/reveiwers by email: community@schoolkid.ph.

If you're already registered (FREE registration) on the AKA MOBILE DIRECTORY, you can receive updates on new uploaded worksheets by watching the AKA BLOG postings of AKA alias schoolkidph - send the text message below:

Text message: AKA WATCH schoolkidph
Send to: 09229999252

You can also WATCH schoolkidph by logging into your AKA account, click MINI-BLOG, select WATCH OTHERS, then type in the alias schoolkidph in the box provided.

Schoolkid.PH is also on Facebook - Be a Fan!

How To Earn FREE web-to-mobile Load?

The concept of AKA CREDITS explained...


When you sign-up for your FREE AKA alias from the AKA Mobile Directory site, you'll be brought to your personalized HOME page where you should see a few options on how to earn FREE "load" to allow you to use certain AKA features (AKA Tell, AKA Yell, AKA Blog) directly from the website to the mobile phone of another person with an AKA Alias. This "load" is known as AKA CREDITS.

As you can see from the 1st image (click to enlarge), you can earn two (2) credits if you populate your MINI-SITE (click on the MINI-SITE section on the main AKA website), or if you try the AKA FIND on your mobile phone (Text: aka find jollibee fort and send to 0922-999-7255), or if you AKA WATCH another user with an Alias (click on the MINI-BLOG section on the main AKA website, select WATCH OTHERS). If you do all three, you earn a total of six (6) credits - which is equivalent to six free text messages!

Did you notice the line from the 1st image that reads "Happy Birthday, MANGO!"? This is another way to earn AKA CREDITS, via a 3rd party sponsor! If you clicked on that line, you'll see a pop-up box (click the 2nd image) where the sponsor's AKA alias is shown (in this case, LANCE); how many aliases can earn 2 credits each (first 20 greetings only, in this case); and what the AKA TELL message should contain (in this case, the message should have the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY).

So what happens if you run out of AKA CREDITS? If you do, you cannot send an AKA TELL or an AKA YELL from the AKA website to an intended recipient's mobile phone. You'll have to purchase the AKA CREDITS directly from the chaps who run/operate AKA or monitor your AKA home page on a regular basis to watch out for FREE credits sponsored by 3rd party businesses or people.

Why populate your AKA Mini-Site?

The public may search for keywords that match your AKA Mini-Site keywords!

The rally cry of the AKA Mobile Directory is "FIND and BE FOUND!". If you're an online seller (eBay or Multiply, for example), a work-at-home-mom, or a small-to-medium scale enterprise, you'll have to agree that non-traditional ways (via web search or sms mobile phone search) by which you can advertise your products and services would be the most affordable and viral way to go about it.

You can, of course, still avail of traditional marketing/advertising options (print, radio, TV commercials) but are any of these within your budget for one-time, occasional, or continuous exposure to your intended buying market?

The alternative, therefore, is to take advantage of nearly-free web and/or sms (text message) tools so your offerings may easily be found. To do so, you must populate your AKA Mini-Site if you already signed up for an AKA alias. To populate your AKA Mini-Site, you must take the time to determine what keywords best describe you, your business, and your offerings to the public.

Let's take a look at a few AKA aliases; specifically, an eBay.ph seller of original-brand make-up/beauty products: simply4business.

This online seller has taken the time to carefully populate her AKA Mini-Site with keywords that she believes (probably from experience as a seller or as relayed by past clients) the general public may use in searching for her offerings via the TEST DRIVE tab of the AKA website or via the AKA FIND text message from a mobile phone. As you can see if you click on the picture, her keywords are: branded makeups, cosmetics, simply4business, loreal, revlon, neutrogena, maybelline, max factor, cover girl, tights, stockings, makeups. Unfortunately, she did not post her eMail address or direct eBay website address - in case someone wants to contact her right away.

She did, however, post her direct eBay website address on the BUY.SELL section of the main AKA website to funnel interest into her main online selling site; but such postings are not searchable yet via web or sms (text message).

The good news is that you can UPDATE your Mini-Site at any time by clicking on the MINI-SITE section, after you log-in to AKA, and just click UPDATE to add, revise, remove keywords.

Contrast this with another AKA alias: merkado. The owner of this AKA alias left his/her AKA Mini-Site section blank. At first glance, people may think the owner of the alias just wants to reserve the merkado name, for whatever reason.


On closer inspection, however, it turned out that merkado also posted on the BUY.SELL section of the main AKA website - which means he/she has something to promote or sell - www.merkadonetwork.com. It would have been more convenient for the general public to be able to find the website of merkado if merkado populated his/her AKA Mini-Site with relevant keywords.


So... which AKA Aliases have better Mini-Site keyword entries?? Consider the three (3) aliases posted on the right.

beerbelowzero keywords: BBZ beer cold chill freeze below zero degrees http://www.beerbelowzero.com

Duo keywords: Serendra Fort Bonifacio Global City Taguig fine dining restaurant 8561200

Tony.Cuerva keywords: Mango Torte Pie cake dessert rated 2/F PETRON Dasma Dasmarinas Village Makati corner EDSA Tel. 8509182

How do you know if the keywords are good for your Mini-Site?

The only way to find out is to do any of the following:

a) run the free web search via the TEST DRIVE tab of the main AKA website. Try to type in the keywords: fine dining fort or makati rated cake or cold beer or bbz cebu and so on....

b) text the same keywords on your mobile phone in this format: AKA FIND FORT FINE DINING or aka find rated cake makati - and send that text message to: 0922-999-7255. One peso per text message (Sun, Globe, or Smart).

AKA BLOG now posts to TWITTER too!

Post mini-blogs to your TWITTER account

If you have an AKA Alias (free registration), you can post a mini-blog not only to your Facebook account or to an AKA BLOG widget embedded in other websites (Wordpress, Blogger, Multiply, Ning, customized website, etc) but also to your TWITTER account!

For example, let's examine the AKA web account of AKA Alias: LaPerfumeria

You can post the mini-blog or message via your AKA web account (go to MINI-BLOG section after you log-in at http://aka.name) or as a text message from your mobile phone. To repeat, click on MINI-BLOG section; select BLOG TO WATCHERS even if you haven't invited others yet to watch your blogs. The mini-blog or message you posted and sent out will appear on your TWITTER account....

- click on any picture to enlarge -

The same mini-blog or message will appear on your Facebook account! This assumes, of course, that you've previously linked your AKA alias with your Facebook account. If you haven't done so, go to the main page of AKA MOBILE DIRECTORY, log-in, and click on the Facebook logo so you can follow the simple binding instructions. As LaPerfumeria has a Facebook account, note the same mini-blog posting.

Plus, if you ticked the PLOG THIS box before sending out the mini-blog, your message ALSO appears on the PINOY BLOG site (which can be easily be customized for your customers, cause, social circle, or business):

- click on any picture to enlarge -

So where's the AKA BLOG widget? Check the PINK box on the right side of this blog page and you'll note that the same mini-blog or message of LaPerfumeria has posted.

Remember, just one mini-blog, sent from the AKA website or as a text message from your mobile phone (Sun, Globe, or Smart), appears on several sites so you gain more eyeballs for your announcements as a friend, a social networker, work-at-home Mom, online seller, or store-site entrepreneur!