Right now, I rank #1 for “Writing for Search Engines 101″ and “Linkbuilding 101″ in Google. A pretty good result, especially since I’m “competing” against people who make a living ranking high on search engines. Perhaps it’s because I really put effort into writing those articles, or it may be just dumb luck. The fact is that I don’t really know that much about search engine optimization.

So why should I be given a free pass to SEMCON 2007? Well, I have a pretty clear idea of what I’ll do once I know more about SEO.

Online Advocacy

You probably know about The Bayanihan Blog Network, a project set up by me, Sasha, Abe, and AnP. We founded the first Filipino blog network because we wanted the world to know more about the Philippine voice and its very unique outlook. We mix oriental, American, and Spanish influences very well, and it’s easy for us to communicate “Asian” values to the English-reading west.

That’s why one of the objectives of the BBN is to educate the world about my home country. Our reputation among the world community isn’t exactly sparkling. I want to get the word out that the Philippines has a lot to offer, much more than stereotypically uninformed call center agents, domestic workers typecast as slaves to foreigners, and mail-order brides. And this is where SEO comes in.

The Power of SEO

Too often, people concentrate on the financial benefits of SEO. It’s true that optimizing websites for search engines brings in more traffic. In a world where variables are more or less under control and profit-generation is a science, people will tell you that more visits equals more income.

Yet focusing on this mercenary aspect ignores the effects of visibility building. Marketing your online presence on search engines is a very good way to spread your message., whether or not profit isn’t involved. SEO is a good way to affect the perception of people regarding a particular topic. Such as their impression of the Philippines. The BBN is already there with it’s realistic and informative content. It’s now a matter of getting more people to find out about it.

The influence of the Internet on the way people process information is growing everyday. Who wouldn’t want to be able to harness this ever-growing power?

Learning From Experts

As the SEMCON 2007 website says:

This Conference is must for interactive & digital marketers, brand marketers, webmasters, bloggers, and those involved in Internet marketing and electronic commerce in today’s seamless Web 2.0 world. Topics are scaled from novice (light content) to advanced experience levels (heavy content).

So, for someone who only has a basic idea of how to use and maximize search engine optimization, it’s a reasonable expectation that I’ll learn a lot more about this powerful tool. On top of that, I get to meet some important players of the SEO and online marketing community, and talk to them about getting the message out on the Internet.

There you have it. I now ask the organizers of SEMCON 2007: Wouldn’t you want to maximize the free pass? Wouldn’t you want to give it to someone who can make full use of it, and use it to benefit not only himself, but so many others as well?