WordCamp Malaysia 2010 #wcmy @ Cititel Mid Valley

Wordpress's first WordCamp in Malaysia was organized in Cititel Hotel. Glad to meet up some of the top blogger and new friends that day [LiewCF, HongKiat, JamesYeang (Friedbeef) and more!]. It is an all new experience for me as I have been a Blogspot user for very long time instead of Wordpress. That's why I am there to update myself for alternate blogging channel.

Alex Wong, LiewCF, James Yeang, Hong Kiat and myself

Before go to the Wordcamp I was at Mc'D in Mid Valley for the breakfast. Thanks to its coffee for waking me up. I saw people who bring a big bottle for the FREE coffee refill too. I would like to do that if I am dare and thick-face enough ;p

This time WordCamp has Platinum, Bold and Gold sponsors for this seminar. Including Microsoft, Embunweb, ThePremiumPress, Kaspersky, Hongkiat.com and more.

Coffee Break was provided early in the morning and I guess there are people hoping that it come with some food. Luckily I had Mc'D Breakfast earlier.

CK was there as P1 Wimax is the sponsor for the available wireless internet provider. I guess all the attendees are hardcore internet users, they connect to the internet using their laptop, +iPad+iPhone +++ which ends up have slow internet connection.

Spot yourself in this photo =)


The event start by emcee Colin Charles, who own an iPad and keep monitoring the tweets =)

First presenter is Naoko (now-ko) McCracken. She is the lady who convert WordPress code into Japanese version so that more people will able to use the WordPress Platform. Basically she explain to us what is new about WordPress and how it works.

Follow her twitter @naokomc

The fitness celebrity and also web entrepreneur KevinZahri was there as his embunweb.com is also one of the sponsor. Kinda impressed with his desire on building embunweb as another Malaysia Web Hosting company besides Exabytes. [I was given Exabytes's brochure during one of the tea break, looks like they undergo safe-cost-ninja route]

Kevin received compaint advice from his wife not to spend so much time on the internet business. In my opinion, he is trying to earn more money so that in future his family won't facing any "money crisis". That's a big responsibility for a married guy, to earn more money.

In the mean time of the speech, lucky Twitterer with best Twitt will win 1 year web hosting sponsored by embunweb.com

DavidWang aka the @blogjunkie was there to share about Theme Framework. A glimpse about the future of WordPress Themes. In future we can keep our own theme customization without worries when updating to a new version of theme.

Build a better blog with WordPress

What's good about WP 3.0

As for LiewCF, the first few full time top blogger that sharing about SEO and SERP for blog. When people asked, "When is the time you start become a full-time blogger?". He answered, "When I fired my boss." Straight to the point ha? People do comment on his broken English. But I would say who cares when he an earn so much money globally? He has surely improve a lot since he start blogging.

From both him and HongKiat, I guess it is better to earn US than Ringgit Malaysia(RM) only.

LiewCF always mention Keyword is important, find a high traffic but low competition keyword.

Keywords again.

He just changed his permalink from "with-dates" to "no-date". This is to get shorter URL

As for Image you can do SEO on it too. Such as "Liew Cheon Fong hugging giant crocodile" included in the image code instead of P1234567.jpg.

If you are using WordPress must install these All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps plugin ya.

Yahya Ayob (@yahya_ayob) is sharing about blending Social media in your website. Basically is teaching us how and where to put the social media badge at the suitable spot in our website.

These rules can also be applied to Google Adsense =)

You need a niche instead of blogging for everything. Find what is your true passion. I still haven't really figured out mine, mind give me some idea? =S

Jimmy Ngu: Geo-Tgging with Buddy Press

Jimmy Ngu (@jimmynguyc) is the Co-Founder of ThePremiumPress and Production Manager at NI-Limits Sdn Bhd (@nilimits). He spends the majority of his time working all kinds of magic into the various press platforms; from WordPress to BuddyPress, themes to plugins; he has yet to find a problem he could not solve with press. With an avid love for highly extensible web frameworks, the press platforms provided an ideal playground for him to produce all kinds of goodies. He spent almost 2 months watching Avatar every night before bedtime, and possesses an average typing speed of 85 wpm.

Some of the useful plugins

After Jimmy's talk we all served with awesome lunch buffet. First time attend an event with a luxurious lunch =)

I like the Fishhead Curry the most

And Oyster with lemon =D

Not forgetting the fruits

and the sweet desserts. Chocolate cake is the best.

Too bad that the lunch break is kinda short as buffet was meant to be enjoyed slowly ;p

Hoong Fai said "Microsoft love Wordpress". He is sharing about WebPlatformDesign and what Silverbird can do to light up your website. I would say his talk was scheduled at the wrong time as I saw some of the people falling asleep probably because it is boring of high blood sugar.

The most interesting part in WordCamp is this forum discussion. Talking about how much they earn in a different way, sharing about how much their unique visitors. I guess HongKiat has the highest UV and he own almost everything Apple website available.

As for advice from the probloggers, HongKiat said "Consistency, don't give up easily. Don't write for sponsor review as you might get bad google page rank." LiewCF said, "Fire your boss. Keep update yourself about what is new and follow the trend."

What if one day your blog don't have traffic? LiewCF said, "I'll doom!". He is right, a website without traffic is nothing. As for how to get more traffic, give rewards such as freebies from sponsors is one of the good trick. They also not forget to advertise their own website and Twitter too.

Someone actually asked why don't they join Nuffnang/Advertlets too! But since mainly their websites traffics are from US instead of Malaysia. Therefore Google Adsense is their main income source. Ah, when will I start earning US dollar? I wanna own a Honda called Adsense too! Haha!

Wordcamp give a surprise to Naoko as that day was her birthday too. She sacrifice her birthday and went all the way to M'sia for WordCamp, how good she is? Many guys went to take photo with her because of her cuteness ha? =)

Again, tea break is here and some food were served. You can actually get fat if you attend WordCamp everyday.

Took photo with LiewCF and I guess he is thinner than previous met?

The final talk was done by Aizat Faiz, I like the way he design his slide by incorporating LEGO insides. It just like how he write his code, build plugin and websites. What I've learned from him is to find someone intelligent like him to design the plugin instead of me doing it myself. I get drowsy when I dealing with all the programing codes.

"Action" versus "Filter". Plugin Header, Hook, PHP code and Tempate Code. Oh no...

The event ended by having all the speakers on stage for a group photo. Congratz to the successful Malaysia first Wordcamp. Looking forward for next similar camp like this. =)

For your information, this event is not only for Malaysian la =D

Photo with the banner

Luckily not all are strangers as there are familiar bloggers in the event too. Me with CincauHangus

Joshua Ong

Last but not least, thanks again to Gobala Krishnan for the free Wordcamp passes. Appreciated for that!


If you are kind enough, can you comment on this post about what's my blog niche. Please? I might give you a rewards too~! [This is the "beg-for-comments trick" that I've learn from LiewCF, haha!]

Thanks first!