We know that most of you probably got here after Googling “Sagada” and you’re most likely browsing through to find out more about Sagada, but a little bit of site-related news every once in a while wouldn’t hurt, right? Thanks to the votes of a good number of loyal readers and supporters who saw the promise behind this undertaking, Visit Sagada was named as one of the Emerging Influential Blogs for 2008. The site has propelled itself as the most-relevant search result for the backpacker haven despite being just founded during February of this year. We are deeply honored for the recognition and the team appreciates the trust and appreciation of everyone who chose to name us as one of their candidates on their ballots.
Visit Sagada was likewise nominated as one of the nominees for Best Travel Blog for the 2nd Annual Philippine Blog Awards. The awards ceremony will be on September 21, 2008 at Esplanade.
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Janette Toral recently launched the second edition of the annual Ten Emerging and Influential Blogs to give citations to the the ten best new blogs in the world. The project is 100% democratic and anyone in the world who owns a blog could vote for his or her top 10 before July 26, 2008. The blogs that are eligible to be cited are blogs that were started on July 1, 2007 or newer.
As you would have guessed Visit Sagada is in the thick of things and is getting considerable support. But dear readers, we also need your support. A vote from any blog will do - whether it’s a dot com, multiply, wordpress, blogspot, tabulas or livejournal. If you think Visit Sagada has had a positive contribution to the online world since its launch, then please do vote for the site along with nine other sites whom you think are also deserving.
To join this effort, please do the following:
- Write a blog post and pick your choice of 10 (or less) emerging influential blogs.
- Any blog in the world can be picked.
- You can update the same post entry up to July 26. However, please inform us of any changes.
- Old blogs who move to a new domain are disqualified
- Blogs who remove their archives just to fit in the cut-off date are disqualified
- Include a link to this post(http://www.influentialblogger.net/2008/04/top-10-emerging-influential-blogs-in.html) to help spread the word and encourage others to participate.
- Post a comment and let us know about your entry. Only one entry per blogger. Cut-off date and time for submission of entries is on July 26, Saturday, 5:00 pm (GMT+9:30). Afterwards, submission of comments in this page shall be closed.
WHY VOTE FOR VISIT SAGADA?
- In a few short months (we started the site last February 21), Visit Sagada has become one of the more prominent and relevant sources of information for backpackers and travelers going to Sagada. We have answered hundreds of queries left on our comment boxes and dozens more on our mailbox. If you search for “Sagada” on Google, we will not be place lower than fifth - sometimes, we’re even the top result.
- A win in this project will make the site more popular and thus, other people who may not have heard of it could be inspired to visit Sagada for themselves. When we all came back home from Sagada, didn’t we wish that a lot of our friends could experience the thrill of spelunking and the mystic calm of the mountains?
- Voting for the project could net you $100 (yes, US Dollars) that could very much finance your next sojourn to the mountains. At the end of the project, ten participants (those who voted) will win the cash prize decided via raffle.
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We figured you folks would like to have a place where we can just gather around, sit down, have a cup of mountain tea with Yogurt House’s Hiker’s Delight on the sides. Obviously that’s not possible over the internet, but this should come close:
Say “Përshëndetje!” to the Visit Sagada Forum! (That’s Albanian, by the way. For no specific reason.)
Brought to you by the same wonderful people who created WordPress, the Visit Sagada Forum is powered by bbPress. If you have previously signed up with a Visit Sagada account, you’re good to go; otherwise, you can register here. Thanks to a little geek voodoo (which had me pulling my hair for a good few days trying to get it to work) the same user name and passwords will work between the forum and the blog. (note: changing your password for the blog will also change it for the forum)
A little bonus: Gravatar support is built right in! If you don’t have one yet, take that same email address you used for your Visit Sagada profile and sign right up with the good folks at Gravatar.
I have started an Introductions thread, so if you’re too shy to post a comment, please visit the forum and get postin’! Don’t limit yourself to the one thread that’s in there though; feel free to start one - questions, comments, anything you want featured on the site.
Best regards,
Master Chief-slash-Mr Producer
Jeff
UPDATE: I just realized why no one’s been posting - WordPress has not been email-ing the passwords for those who have signed up 
Indefinite hold on the forums I guess. Stay tuned
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The Visit Sagada Team has been doing the rounds for this summer’s blog events. We’re aware that even if we’re getting decent hits from backpackers and travelers, we’re still fairly unknown among bloggers. To increase our visibility off-line, we’ve produced limited edition Visit Sagada stickers similar to the site badge (designed by Angel Juarez) that we use on our personal sites. We’ve given away close to a hundred stickers and we intend to bring a bunch of them to give away to the establishments in Sagada for their guests and visitors.
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Aside from experiencing the beauty of Sagada, one of the best things that could come out of your backpacking sojourn is meeting great people who also love to appreciate the wonders of nature and the cultures of other people. If you’re going to Sagada, simply leave a comment here and tell us the duration of your stay. Hooking up with other groups and travelers could save you money for the tours and could also win you a friend for future trips.
We will be updating this post as the comments come. If you want to get in touch with any of the people on this entry, you email me and I will ask them if the other party is interested before I give you their contact details. We plan to incorporate this to our forum real soon.
PLEASE GO HERE TO INDICATE YOUR TRIP SPECIFICATIONS. Thank you. You may also click on the “discuss” button to chat with the other people browsing the page.
May 16-17 Sp (2 people)
June 2-5 Liz (> 3 people)
May 19-25 JC (> 3 people)
As it stands, our three commenters will not really see each other in Sagada. If you’re planning to go, post your tentative date of arrival and departure from Sagada. 
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