[Article]Starmometer Blogger Wants to Meet Angel Locsin

I came across an excerpt of an interview with the Starmometer’s blogger where he mentioned he wants to meet Angel Locsin because Angel has been winning the online poll in his blog for four years in a row.

Why am I featuring it here?

I would like angels to gain more information about the Starmometer’s blogger, whom we normally call “cd”. For angels who have been actively involved in the online poll for Starmometer’s “100 Most Beautiful Pinay”, I do not need to introduce Starmometer.

For new angels, please note that fans of Angel Locsin have always given importance to this online poll, which is being conducted annually. Angel has been topping this online poll since 2006, when Starmometer started..

Personally, I have issues with “cd” on how he is conducting the online poll. He needs to be upfront with his voting rules and makes the voting count as transparent and objective as he could. He has this tendency to change rules midstream of the voting process, which made most of us suspicious that he preferred Angel Locsin not winning. This is public knowledge and he could see how vocal we were with our complaints in the comment section lol. I hope next year, regardless of his preference, he would distance himself and avoid intervening on the outcome. He should make the voting process as transparent and objective as he could manage. He started a tradition among angels and in return we have been giving importance to his online poll so it is a pity if we would loss interest further down the road because of misgivings on the voting process.

I don’t wand to turn this post into a long litany of complaints [as it is already] so here’s the actual interview with “cd”:

Credit: Annalyn S. Jusay, Manila Bulletin blog

The rise and rise of Starmometer

Excerpts of our interview with Chris Diestro, the man behind the Philippines' top entertainment blog Starmometer (found at http://www.starmometer.com).

Q. Please tell us the history of Starmometer. What made you decide to launch an entertainment blog? Do you maintain other blogs?

A. Why “Starmometer”? Well it’s a coined term using the words “star” and “thermometer”. The site is an instrument measuring the hottest celebrities, the hottest events and the hottest news in the entertainment industry. And by “hottest” we mean the latest, the freshest and most updated showbiz news.

My tagline for Starmometer is "Your Total Entertainment Blog." By the word "total" I aimed to cover a wide scope in entertainment - from tv to music, movies to sports, fad to fashion, news and celebrities, it’s all here!

My pitch is to make Starmometer engaging to its readers by posting thought-provoking articles that are easy to read and understand. Aside from Starmometer, I am also maintaining www.pinoypower.net and www.phstars.com.

Q. What has been the most exciting part of your blogging since you started Starmometer?

A. At first I'm having difficulty in maintaining the website because on the first month that I was blogging, i was also getting myself oriented with the platform (Wordpress) and learning html and php programming at the same time. The process was trial and error. But when the site started to pick-up more readers, that's when the excitement began.

On my first year of blogging, the site has been receiving 300,000 page impressions a month. It doubled in 2007. Now, Starmometer is currently receiving an average of 1 million page impressions a month. Learning that more people are added each month reading my posts and that they continue to visit the site, i must say, it is the most exciting and rewarding part of this hobby. When I receive positive feedbacks from my readers, it really warms my heart and inspires me to continue. When I receive negative feedbacks, it drives me to improve.

Another exciting part of this blogging thingy was when Starmometer was featured on television. Our poll on the 100 Most Beautiful Women in the Philippines was featured on TV Patrol World. Some articles that I wrote were also featured in other programs such as Showbiz News Ngayon, etc. And when the stars on ASAP mentioned my site, it was music to the ears!

One of the perks was getting invited to various press conferences where I was able to meet and talk with celebrities! SStars that I was able to rub elbows with were Maja Salvador, Nikki Gil, Kim Bum of Boys Over Flowers, Piolo Pascual, Sandara Park, KC Concepcion, Jason Abalos, Phoemela Barranda, etc.

The bonus part was when Starmometer made it as a semi-finalist in the Philippine Web Awards 2008 in the Best Blog Category, Starmometer was also a finalist in the 2008 and 2009 Philippine Blog Awards.

Q. Who among the entertainment personalities would you like to meet, and why?

A. I want to meet Lee Min Ho of Boys Over Flowers because I was hooked in watching his Koreanovela. And of course Angel Locsin because she topped our online poll "100 Most Beautiful Pinays" for four years in a row!

I also want to meet Marian Rivera kasi puro kapamilya stars pa lang ang nami-meet ko (and there's something about her that people love to hate and I find it intriguing).

Q. Can you share some tips on being a successful entertainment blog?

A. Coming up with thought-provoking and engaging articles that are easy to read and understand. I'm not trying to impress the readers by using highfalutin words, instead, I choose the ones that can be easily understood.

They say in order to get more traffic, the blogger should post topics that will become prominent in search engines like Google and Yahoo. I think its only a temporary thing. I say the blogger should blog to his readers and not to the search engines and traffic will not become temporary.

Q. What do you think are the elements of a good (entertainment) blog?

A. I think one additional element of a good entertainment blog aside from the things that i mentioned is posting discussion starters for the readers. I came to know who my readers are and what kind of articles they want to see on the site. Because of this, the blog was able to be a channel for interesting conversations, debates, sharing of ideas and networking.