We attended the soft-launch of this new online storefront service of Air21 called Shopinas a couple of days ago. Based on their presentation, I think it’s going to be the beginning of the proper way to shop or sell merchandise online here in the Philippines.

Shopinas is a site where you can set up your own storefront to sell your items. How is it different from other sites with similar service? It’s a total end-to-end solution that will benefit both shoppers and buyers. From setting up your store, to payment processing up to delivery of the package backed by one of the country’s trusted courier service, Air 21.

With Shopinas, buyers and sellers will be more at ease and comfortable when doing business online because of the following:

Trust

Approved merchants in Shopinas will have the Sure Seal Trustmark. Sure Seal is the first Business Verification Service for online business here in our country. They’re like the local counterpart of Verisign or Thawte, letting buyers know that they won’t be scammed.

Payment Systems

Stores in Shopinas will inherit the numerous ways buyers can pay for the merchandise. You can pay through Air21 and Mail & More’s e-wallet, the iBayad. There’s also the traditional method via Visa and Mastercard or Paypal. Soon, they will also incorporate GCash, Smart Money or ATM payments.

Payment per transactions is held by Shopinas until  buyers are satisfied with their order. They have three days to settle any dispute regarding the transaction until the money is released to the seller.

Backend Hosting

Sign up with Shopinas and see how easy it is to set up and customize your storefront. You can even use your own domain name while being hosted in Shopinas. Or you can just mimic the look of your site then link your Shopinas site from your own website.

Delivery

Delivery won’t also be a problem thanks to Air21. You will receive a startup kit when you set up your store to take care of packaging. Package your items and arrange a pick-up and delivery from Air21 for each transaction. Air21′s tracking system will be used so buyers can check the status of their package.

Shopinas is owned by Lina’s Group of Companies’ Air21. Merchants won’t have to deal with technical issues while enjoying a complete e-commerce site. And buyers won’t have to worry about scammers and fraudsters.

The site is still new but they are aggressively adding new features and ironing out existing ones. Better sign up and start early so you can get your store name and get established at Shopinas. The first 100 merchants to sign up will enjoy free premium account for 6 months.

Planning to start a small business? Or does your small business needs an upgrade?

Check out Globe’s NEGOSTAR Deals where your small and medium-sized business can get reliable products and services of Globe at best market prices. SMEs can save up to 30% on exclusive packages that are available in all Globe Stores.

Here are the bundles you can take advantage of:

• Biz Loop 99 that offers unlimited talk and postpaid plans for as low as P99/month
• Biz Laptop Bundle that offers a NEO 3230 Netbook for only P499/month with a broadband package
• Biz Trio that offers 3 Nokia 1680 handsets with unlimited Biz Loop for only P559/month
• Biz Bundle that offers affordable internet with free landline connection for speeds of up to 1 Mbps at just P995/month

SMEs can also avail of Business + which gives t the flexibility to subscribe only to what they want and pay only for what they need. Business + offers various postpaid subscriptions with unlimited call and text features that can be customized to one’s business needs.

Get unlimited calls to Globe and TM, free 300 local texts to other networks, and a Nokia 2960 Classic with the Business Starter 499 plan.

For those that prefer unlimited calls to Globe and TM, unlimited texts to Globe and TM, free 60 minutes local calls to other networks, and a Nokia 6303 Classic or Nokia 5233 subscribe to Business Value 999 plan.

For more information, call the Globe Business hotline 730-1288 or log on to http://globe.com.ph/business or visit the Globe Stores in Metro Manila.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social networking site Facebook, may be world’s youngest self-made billionaire according to Forbes in its recent list of billionaires. Forbes estimates Zuckerberg’s net worth at $1.5 billion which puts him at #785 on the list.

Left school for Silicon Valley later in 2004; scored initial $500,000 investment from PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Venture firms soon swooned, among them Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.

Today Facebook boasts 66 million active users. Estimated annual sales: $150 million. Expanding beyond being a college-only message system and photo album; now courting users to 55,000 different high school, business and city networks. Microsoft bought 1.6% stake for $240 million last October; deal led many to suggest the company is worth $15 billion. {source}

Of course that $1.5 billion estimate was based on the Microsoft’s 1.6% buyout, but until Facebook goes public or gets bought, we’ll never really know if this geeky boy-genius will become the 21st century posterchild for Silicon Valley.

Abe wrote about how the weakening dollar is bad for probloggers. Likewise, it would be bad for people who earn in dollars: freelancers and contractors, other people who earn online, and the much talked-about case of the OFWs. It also affects outsourcing companies whose contracts are fixed in dollars.

But, it’s good for tech too. The obvious case: buying imported things in dollars is cheaper. This includes capital equipment, services (like hosting), and… gadgets! Many tech exporters export things that have imported raw materials: our people are the value-add.

This got me thinking even more: Exchange Rate and Silicon Valley. This talks about Silicon Valley competitiveness, but also relates to Pinoy tech startups as well. With a weaker dollar, it is now cheaper for a wealthy Pinoy to invest in SV – while the “Philippines Silicon Valley” is still far off. This can enable some of the work to be offshored.

Another benefit is cheaper living expenses when visiting the US (and perhaps travel too – but then this is related to oil prices.) Perhaps more people can check the Silicon Valley scene, make deals, and bring projects home!

A fellow Java developer showed me this article: RP software group slams poaching by Singapore recruiters.

Singapore companies even hire fresh grads now. I hear (no proof) that they are offer

Why would Pinoy IT professionals still stay in the country given they can earn much more abroad? Singapore is a short flight away and in the same timezone.

What can local companies do to retain their talent? Can they afford to raise salaries to match the foreign companies – and increase their costs?

I posted about this on my blog way back almost two years ago, but it seems FHM Philippines is still publishing AdSense ads on their homepage (screenshot after the jump). If you refer to the Google AdSense policies, it’s clearly stated that sites displaying mature content may not use Google AdSense.

Sites displaying Google ads may not include:
…

• Pornography, adult, or mature content

…

Now I’m sure some of you would argue on the “pornographic” aspect of FHM, but as for having mature and adult content, I would say FHM definitely falls under that classification.

I’m pretty sure this has already been reported to Google, but I’m wondering why action has not been taken yet. I’ve heard of AdSense users getting suspended or banned because of simple violations (like images beside ads, or ads posted on foreign-language sites; I know, that has happened to me several times). But this seems to be a more serious violation, and nothing has been done about it. I’m wondering about the mature nature of the link ads, too.

Is Summit getting preferential treatment because of their being a big publisher, at least in the Philippines? If that is so, then it’s one case of “everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others,” a la Animal Farm.

The K2 WordPress theme has been popular with bloggers using WordPress. I’d like to commend Carl Ocab for modifying the K2 theme and making it ready for Adsense. I was amazed by the fact that the modified theme was made by a thirteen year old.

There are a lot of bloggers out there as young as him but who would think of talking about blog monetization? How about SEO? Usually, blogs that belong to his age bracket would blog mostly about personal stuff.

Hmmm, the next Darren Rowse in the making?

iDeoApp is a contest of ideas of web applications. I’m pretty sure that there are a lot of talented and creative Filipinos there that have ideas for cool web apps.

What is the main objective of the contest?

The main objective of the contest is to obtain as many ideas for web applications as possible (maximum three ideas per contestant) and then a team of judges must select the ten finalist ideas for the contest. Any judge must qualify the ideas based in three basic areas: creativity, development, and action area. Afterward, the ten best ideas will be the finalists. This is just the first part of the contest.

The ten best ideas will then be selected by judges. After that, iDeoApp’s website users and visitors will vote. The idea with the most unique number of votes wins.

But wait, there’s more . After the people have chosen the winner of the idea, the team would start to work on the development, design, marketing and legal aspects of the idea.

Read more of the rules here then you could start submitting your entry here.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about the exodus of Pinoy techies. I was inspired by a despedida for some developer friends leaving, and college classmates’ reunion last Christmas. I finished BS CS in 1995, back when lots of people joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), got assigned to the US, and eventually moved there.

I posted this to the PinoyJUG Yahoo! group, the local Java developer community, and it sparked off a lot of discussion and insights on why Pinoys would prefer to work abroad. It started some soul-searching within the PinoyJUG organization on how to keep its mission alive.

It triggered some thinking at my workplace. We are hiring developers, but now we see some serious competition from multinationals based in Singapore. I assume a lot of local tech companies are faced with the situation.

Do you think the Philippines is still a good place to work? Why are foreign countries more attractive? Is it purely the compensation? The new experience of working in a different place? Or disappointment with our country?

The other day, I was searching for other Podcast Ad networks aside from Fruitcast which was mentioned here. I dropped by the site and all I saw there was the teaser and other links to navigate around the site were nowhere to be found.

If you are looking for other podcast ad networks try the following:

PodcasterAds. They offer flat-rate audio, live-read, video and text ads in podcasts and in websites. How does this work? Podcasters create advertising spots on each podcast that he/she plans to record. Then, advertisers browse podcasts, create the ads and submit it to the podcaster. Once approved, the podcast ad (in video or audio format) will be included by the podcaster in his/her podcast.

Blast Podcast. Blast Podcast is another podcast ad network. They use the BP Ad Engine technology where publisher content matches data provided by advertisers for specific market segments. Advertisers can choose between CPM and CPC campaigns.

Podtrac. Podtrac matches up your content with unique advertising for your audience. Aside from this one, they also provide a podcast measurement tool and a survey tool which are highly valueable tools for both publishers and advertisers.

RadioTail. This is also another podcast ad network. Just like Podtrac, RadioTail has statistical tools that can measure the usage of your podcasts. They also have a tool for advertisers that gives them real-time access to their ad measurement.

More information on other podcast ad networks here.