DEAR GOOGLE SPIDERS PLEASE CRAWL THIS

It’s been about almost 2 years, since I first picked up web development. I remember a real long time ago, the first exposure I had to web development, was hearing about CMS and Drupal from my mentor, Uncle Yong. And back then never would I have dreamed of doing what I am currently doing. XODUS Creations is something I would honestly call, a decent portfolio site by my standards. I won’t say it’s the best, and there is still tons to work on, but I think I’m finally going somewhere with XODUS Creations, in fact I already have a freelance web projects on hand.

Acknowledgement

1) My Family

For always being so supportive of whatever I am doing related to the web, and letting me pursue my own path. Without your support, everything above is never possible.

2) Sylvia

For being so nurturing towards my web development interest. I remember back when I started footballmanagerguru.com and I was not ranking 2nd on Google, in fact I was ranking many pages far away from the 1st page. Sylvia would check my rankings every single day, and tell me how many positions I’ve moved up or down. She even added footballmanagerguru.com to her Google reader, even though she knew nothing about football manager at all. She did it so, she could nag me to update whenever I dropped the ball, and I couldn’t have done it without her. Till date, footballmanagerguru still ranks 2nd on google for the term “Football manager blog”. Thanks Hun, for always being there.

3) Uncle Yong

My mentor, and a great selfless teacher. Thanks for growing my interest regarding SEO and the web in general, I really could not have came so far without you. Thanks for not only imparting your wisdom regarding SEO, and also about life in general. Without you, I wouldn’t never have came across the word CMS, and I will have always thought WordPress is a blogging tool and nothing more. It’s been amazing working on the same project with you.

There is only so much I can say with words, but thanks for being the biggest inspiration to me to take the bold step of stepping into web development.

4) Shifu (aka Weijie)

thanks for teaching me everything from scratch, knocking some design sense into someone who knows absolutely nothing about it. I can’t stress how big an influence you’ve been on me, and I feel I’ve developed leaps and bounds under your guidance. From someone who knows jack about custom CSS and CMS, you’ve turned me into someone who is confident of handling any web development project.

I believe I still have so much more to learn from you, and it’s been an amazing experience working under you, and I doubt that will ever change.

5) Weiling

You made CSS so easy to pickup, I think I’ve learnt everything in barely 2 weeks. Thanks for always giving me advice and pointers, and answering any questions I have. It means a lot to have someone guide me when I was picking up all these new forms of knowledge.

Don’t judge me, I tried to be different.

I remmeber 2 years ago, I was looking for an mp3 player and I wanted to not get an iPod because every Tom, Dick, Harry had an iPod. I went out to bought an equally expensive Creative Xi-fi 32GB.

And it was spoilt after just 8 months.

Chun Rui

My iPod Classic lasted me for almost 2 years now, and I’ve dropped it so many times, I’ve already grown immune to feeling heartaches when I drop my Ipod. So, don’t judge me for sticking with Apple.

In other news, I ordered a Sager laptop today (: I am down 3,000 hard-earned 3,000 SGD, but I am one happy happy man.

The postcard to gold, on my desk.

Always a proud moment, to have your name associated with Google (:

Also in other news, 4 days, Over 600 pages to study, CMFAS Module 9, Aced.

In the end, it was a little sad saying bye to the laptop I’ve been working on for 3 months, will I ever work in an IT related job, full-time? I’ve no idea. It was a great experience, and the people I’ve worked with made my job so much easier by being really friendly and approachable.

Enter a new challenge.

So it’s gonna be 4 days, over 700 pages to study.

So I passed CMFAS Module 5 Last Monday, and due to negligence, and me falling sick, I am left with 4 days to study for CMFAS Module 9. I am so dead.

On a brighter note, as a reward to myself for ending 3 months worth of work, I burnt a deep hole in my pocket and purchased the Canon Ixus 210s, a more detailed review on it later. The picture above, is taken with my new camera, with a supposedly 3D effect, and I am really having tons of fun exploring the camera, but right now I am pretty sure I don’t want to waste the 100 SGD spent on registering the CMFAS exam. Mugging, here we go again.

And boy is it a joy. The last step before I could receive real cash from Google, is that they need to verify that I actually exist in sunny Singapore at the address I used when I signed up for my Google Mail aka account eons ago. Today they did just that, and what a day it’s been for me.

One day after my 21st birthday, I passed the CMFAS (Module 5) examinations, and I am one step away from getting money from Google after receiving the mail below!

Of course, I blanked out the voucher code.

All I have to do now, is await a postcard from Google, and I could collect the money from my Google adsense account!

For a first timer making money off the Internet, this is extremely exciting for me. It also validates the hard work that I’ve put in to my various websites, and I must say it is immensely satisfying.

Thank You, Uncle G!

In case you are wonder what’s with the two big arrows, it’s a jQuery slider that allows you to go through all my work. If you would like to see it for yourself, click on “Portfolio” at the top of this page.

My New Wishlist

Okay, back to non-techy stuff! I have been doing some market research recently, mostly due to the fact that I am moving away from home into hall/private residence @ NUS. I’ve realised there are a couple of items that I am still lacking to make my living-away-from-home experience a great one.

Now that I already have an awesome sound system that I am planning to move in together with me, I still lack the following:

• A Gaming Laptop (Screen should at least support 1920 x 1080 resolution
• A good phone that last me for a few years (My last proper phone was before I entered the army.)
• A compact digital camera

Looks like the money made from designing sites for the past 3 months can be put to some good use (:

Let me know if you have good deals for the above 3 items!

Singapore Fashion and Style Community / Fashers /

Chun Rui Screenshot

SEO Strategy

I am currently ranked 6th out of 30,200,000 results on Google for the term “Football Manager Blog”, and I will continue to use the same SEO strategy for fashers.com

If I could rank for “Singapore Fashion” well with the same strategy, I might have just found the blueprint to ranking high on Google searches. Let me know what you guys think about the new dot com site of mine if you have any suggestions (: