The Conditions
Thursday
May 11, 2006
Okay, so there were some questions on the free . com . ph offer, and I got to provide a few generic answers to some of the inquiries. Sorry I have to add to the “conditions” (but we still don’t ask for any big thing in return). Giving something for free isn’t all that easy, I’ve come to realize.
Here are more specifics on the deal.
What you get:
* A free yourname.com.ph domain. It will be registered through our .PH reseller account, but the domain will be registered under your name and email account–so you will get full control of the domain via the dotPH control panel.
* Free hosting on ploghost.com. You get the plan 150 package–I think that’s enough space and bandwidth to support an active blog.
* Any content you create will, of course, be yours–it’s your site.
So you get a total value of about PhP 3,550 or US$ 70 per year (domain + hosting). This also goes with additional value in terms of our helping out with search engine optimization–we will help direct traffic from your existing blog to your new one (SEO will also help enhance traffic in general).
What we will ask for in return:
* Content restrictions: The site must be PG-13. No smut, no adult stuff, nothing that you wouldn’t show your pre-teen brother or sister or kid. And no malware of any sort, of course.
* A link to our .com.ph campaign website in a visible position (a choice of icons/buttons will be provided).
* The domain should be actively used. In case you have an alternate domain, the .com.ph should be the one primarily used (i.e., I have racoma.net, but I’m now using racoma.com.ph as the primary domain across all our “Racoma” sites).
* For free renewals, as I mentioned earlier, we would maintain the domain and hosting free for as long as the blogger is active, in terms of writing and traffic. Okay, to be honest, we’re still ironing out the particulars in this area, but I think a couple of posts of some substance per week (and the “read this link” one-liner posts would, of course, not qualify), about 150 200-250 unique visitors per day, and 20 feedburner readers would be sufficient.
* On monetization, well, go ahead with whatever monetization plan you would like to use (i.e., AdSense, etc.), but we’d rather not have any stealthy pop-ups or pop-unders on your sites (these are quite annoying and tend to degrade the value of a website).
You’re probably thinking why we seem all-too-generous, and that giving away of .PH domains (of all things) is a bit too much. Well, we’ll be upfront in our intentions. We do have quite significant holdings in the .com.ph namespace, which we are in the process of developing. Hence, we are investing time, effort, and money to build up mindshare and value in this area.
What do we intend to achieve with this activity? For one, we would like to improve mindshare, especially among Filipinos. The current trend, I believe, is to go for generic TLDs (com, net, org) because of the price (dirt cheap), and sometimes because of some stigma and bad press connected to the use of .PH domains (because of the registry administrators).
In this regard, I hope you do understand why we have to ask for some small conditions in return. We can’t just go about giving away domains without thought, as this might actually work against our goal of developing the .com.ph namespace (i.e., say, if the sites turn out to be crappy smut sites). Hence, I think it would only be fair to ask that the domains be active and to have quality content.
What do you think?
J. Angelo Racoma is a technology and automotive journalist and blogger. See more of his work at e27.sg, Android Authority and Tech Wire Asia. Follow him via Twitter at @jangelo.



Comments
jotuvillo
May 11th, 2006 at 8:07 am
I’m actually quite confused. Are you offering only free .com.ph domains (plus hosting) or do you offer .ph domains as well?
J. Angelo Racoma
May 11th, 2006 at 8:14 am
We’re only offering free .com.ph domains, and not .PH (hey, maybe we can ask dotPH if they’ll give us free .PH domains
). It’s actually a subset of the PH ccTLD.
jhay
May 11th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
I’m very much interested in getting the free .com.ph domain hosting, but I don’t know if my current blog will qualify.
I recieve at least 150-200 unique hits (does that also mean unique visitors?) per day, but I only have 6-10 feed subscribers and 2 e-mail subscribers.
I hope I qualify though…really hoping
jong
May 12th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
haha. sa feedburner palang talo na eh. hehe
J. Angelo Racoma
May 12th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
That’s after a year pa naman. What’s your readership as of now?
kenneth03
May 13th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I’m totally confused about this will you please send me an SMS at 09202597202. Thanks…
J. Angelo Racoma
May 15th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Kenneth,
If you have questions, I’d be glad to help you out. Please do email me or send me SMS–my contact details are posted on my sidebar.
vance
May 16th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
hmmmm, interesting, but i doubt I can qualify, if you visit my current site theres no traffic (since no one really visits it) and the content is more about me hehehe. some tech news i foind here and there. and also I don’t have feedburner thing. ah but the offer is still interesting.
Kates
May 18th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
How many months before you start counting the stats? A fresh blog can’t get 200 unique visitors a day. But the offer is really good.
J. Angelo Racoma
May 18th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
The stats should be that level by the 12th month, so by the 11th month, we should be able see such a trend already. Of course, registering a free domain for a blogger would also require that the existing blog have a certain traffic level in the first place (say, 150-200 uniques per day).
Are you interested? I’ll include you in my list already
.
leon
May 21st, 2006 at 5:27 am
Interesting. Count me in!
hardwyrd
May 26th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
I really am not sure yet if I’d be able to fill the requirements outright. I’ll be having a blog anniversary this coming August, but I doubt if I already arrived at 150-200 readership.
But count me in if anything. I’d rather wear at .com.ph than an ordinary subdomain.
Benj Arriola
July 7th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Game, kuha ako.
Paul Selibio
July 15th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I’m very interested. Please sign me up.
rhodz
July 27th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
am i in??
rhodz
July 27th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
count me in!
Tristan
July 30th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
im interested. could you send me the details by email? thanks!
Ollie
August 10th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I have a free domain name from dot tk, its http://www.pinoypodcaster.tk if can give me a free dot com dot ph domain name with free hosting that would be great.
Ollie Style
Ollie
August 10th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
here is my email addy discountorder at gmail dot com I think I misspelled it when I typed it on your form
The Ca t
October 31st, 2006 at 8:48 pm
ako ba qualified diyan? Hindi kasya yong Now What, Cat? ko eh. I post three times a day, and i am limited by my theme (humor).My other blogspot accounts are for researchers.
Kezia
February 6th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Does my website have to be a blog to get my free .com.ph name, or can it just be a community forum or a commercial website for the Philippines?
J. Angelo Racoma
February 7th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Hi guys. Sorry I’m no longer connected with enthropia. You can try the “contact us” page at use.com.ph – perhaps you can still get a free domain.
Jing Gloria
December 5th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Can i still request for a .com.ph domain? Thanks.