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March 1, 2010
Change is Good.
How would you feel if one morning you report for work in the office, step into the same room without hesitation, zap your electronic card to log in, then realize, “Uh-oh, I think I’m on the wrong floor, in the wrong office…”
You squeeze your eyes and try to make sense of where you are, but you are so sure. You can’t be wrong because you’ve been doing this for more than two years now! You force a lot of blinks and try to wake yourself up – you might have just dreamt your way to work, you’re still really on your bed.
But no, you’re there – right floor, right address. You are not dreaming.
You didn’t see it coming and no memos were posted for this. The Extreme Make Over Home Edition team must have come over and did this. You walk slowly into a different reception and you’re careful – you don’t want to get anymore surprised than you are now. With small steps you start checking who’s inside already – a handful of other surprised employees like you are already there looking around, too. You muster enough courage. First in mind at this point… find your cubicle.
That was how it was like for some (or a lot) of EPHians when one lazy day they clicked on the EPH bookmark on their browsers, typed their usernames and passwords, clicked Login, and this totally new cyberoffice popped into view. Imagine a brief moment of confusion here and insert the sound track from Twilight Zone (if you are familiar with that… if not, then just play up a screeching sound in your mind because that could be a good substitute).
In a nutshell, EPH has a new cyberoffice – to everyone’s pleasant surprise.
There’s a new look, new color scheme, and new ways of getting around (not totally, though), but the major threads are pretty much intact. The conference rooms and the cafeteria are the same; they just got painted anew like the rest of the rooms – that’s a relief.
There’s a more improved messaging system where recipients of a single message can actually have a conversation or exchange of notes in one page or mail thread. Main menus make it easier to jump from the forums to the list of members to the EPH Points System. Each member can easily access his or her cubicle (profile page) with this pull-down menu system showing one’s profile photo.
Navigation is still simple and easy – although it will take a lot of getting used to, of course. There are new clickable features that most definitely are temptations to the curious lot, but overall, it’s the same EPH that members have loved. There were a few technical problems during the early stages after the surprising launch but that’s natural. All things are only going to be better and better and better.
The clean, crisp look is easy on the eye and you get this immaculate feeling what with white as the dominating color. Essays.PH has put on a more professional ensemble and that’s great indication of bigger things to come for every EPHian.
You get this wobbly feeling at first, but once you get the hang of stuff and you see that you still are seated on that same comfy cyberchair right where your usual cybernook is, then you begin to feel comfy again. The caf still teems with the usual bunch of people plus new recruits and the forums are still familiarly homey. This change may have caused brief anxiety, but it is still good. Change is definitely good.
chickaywrites (Glenda Venturanza)
February 1, 2010
Triple Bonus Day
What better way to reward our amazing writers than to give them not just twice… but THRICE the amount of bonuses that they can get per each points withdrawal? True to its word of being a writer’s best friend, Essays.ph has come up with an exciting and rewarding event for this coming first of March. This once in a lifetime opportunity rewards EPH’s most hardworking writers by giving them the chance to receive three times the amount of cash bonus that they will get the moment they receive their salary. This is just one way for the company to thank its writers for all their dedication in making each project a huge success.
Dubbed as the “Triple Bonus Day”, this new event spearheaded by the Essays.ph management aims to ignite the passion of freelance writers to work harder by writing more assignments, while at the same time earning more money than their usual pay. Aside from being paid for the assignments that they will get, writers will also be able to enjoy triple the amount of the usual bonuses they get through quests like “Kapag May Tiyaga, May Nilaga”. The more assignments you claim and submit within the given period, the more bonuses you will receive.
Writers can freely choose any topic from the hundreds available in the newly designed EPH forums. Just imagine earning so much money while writing for simple topics like dating and traveling. Not to mention the additional knowledge that you will gain through researching and reading.
The challenge, however, of this event lies on the quality of articles submitted by each writer. While given the chance to earn more, the writers are still reminded by EPH to prioritize quality over quantity to ensure the company’s standard of excellence when it comes to writing for web content.
So what are you waiting for? Visit the forums now and start collecting those points. Withdraw at exactly the first of March and get three times the amount of bonus points in your account!
Mavy (Marie Antonelli Yupangco)
January 1, 2010
Essays.ph’s 2009 Christmas Party – Winter Wonderland @ the Alley Bar, Ortigas Home Depot
How can something that did not go according to plan be considered a rousing success? One way is if it exceeded your liberal expectations…and this is exactly what happened last December 11, when Essays.ph celebrated its second Christmas Party expecting only a fraction of the actual number of writers who came to show their support for the cyber office.
The party was held at The Alley Bar, located at the Ortigas Home Depot compound, which was barely large enough to accommodate all the writers who came bearing gifts and well wishes for their fellow writers and employers. Both floors were fully occupied by EPH people, and it is only through the efforts of the Purple Team and the Alley Bar’s helpful staff, headed by co-owner Ms. Daryl Ann Ponce, that people were able to socialize and talk with each other comfortably.
Essays.ph’s 2009 Christmas Party - dubbed as “Winter Wonderland” and emphasized with snow-themed décor - officially started at 7 PM, where forum-based writers from the Red, Green, Blue, and Brown team were finally able to meet each other in person, and was surprised to meet the e-mail-based writers who were previously unknown to them. Writers spent an hour talking to fellow writers and to the Purple team, whom they are only seeing for the first time, particularly EPH Director Mr. Paul Agabin and Asst. Director Ms. Sheila Buenaventura, who came to the venue early along with writer support Mr. Mark Aurelius Cabang, e-mail-based coordinator Ms. Lyzle Buenaventura, and the forum-based editors Ms. Melai Angeles, Ms. Glenda Venturanza, Ms. Natasha Gamalinda, and Ms. Mavy Yupangco.
While the party technically started an hour before, it wasn’t before the people were herded into the 2nd floor of the Alley Bar when the party literally began, as the writers are treated to a thrilling musical performance by the Editors and Ms. Sheila Buenaventura, who performed a medley of BEP’s “I Gotta Feeling” and the Wondergirls’ “Nobody”, while wearing mock toddler getup. This was followed up by a bevy of party games such as Pinoy Henyo, EPH Charades, Plastic Balloon sculpture contests, and many others that awarded prizes such as EPH merchandise, lootbags, gift certificates and keepsakes to the winners.
Mr. Agabin has initially promised that the party will be liquor-free, and while a lot of writers did not believe it at first, people still had fun when bottles upon bottles of Yakult were passed around and given to writers in lieu of their expected liquor. It was around this time when writers started exchanging gifts and taking pictures (again) as the night is winding down. Mr. Agabin and the staff gave away free EPH t-shirts to all the attendees, and wrapped up the night with an impromptu videoke session.
Even though the organizers were exhausted and initially experienced difficulties at first, Essays.ph’s “Winter Wonderland” Christmas Party is still a massive success since all attendees, writers and staff alike, went home happy and looking forward to another year with the EPH Cyber Office, which has continually proven that serious work can also be seriously fun.
Merry Christmas to the Essays.ph family!
neilencio (Neil Raymundo)
December 04, 2009
The Big Blog Bang
What’s the best game exercise for writers? Of course, a writing competition.
A few months ago, EPH organized a blogging event to commemorate the company’s 1st year anniversary. The mechanics were pretty much easy: write your EPH story, post it in your blog and then submit your entry. You can practically talk about yourself and your EPH work without thinking of SEO content- no word count, no keywords and no instantaneous deadline to beat. Not bad, right?
EPH is a company that houses interestingly diverse writers. And true enough, some writers’ blogged their hearts content without further ado. In fact, the first entry was submitted literally four hours after the announcement of the game.
30 days later and EPH had 104 entries to choose from. Amongst all these entries, the Staff (Purple Team) must choose the best 10 writers/bloggers. The grand winner will receive numerous prizes such as a brand new Cellphone, a surprise book, SM Gift Coupons, EPH Merchandise, Complete Warn Removal (if there’s any), Instant Promotion to the Elite Team and Cash. The two runners-up will receive the same prizes excluding the mobile phone. The Mighty Seven (4th to 10th placer) will receive complete Warning removal and cash as well. For those who are not included in the top 10, consolation points will still be awarded and more importantly an addition Grace Credit (aka grace period).
The judges of the event were the members of the EPH Staff. And like any other competition, the Purple Team was given criteria for judging. As I was a part of the judging committee, it is with pride that I tell you that it took us one whole day to choose the winners of the event. The long hours, the level of difficulty in judging and the endless discussions were enough testaments on how good and articulate EPH writers are. Choosing the best out of the best was not an easy feat but in the end, after much deliberation, we finally found our top bloggers.
The Mighty Seven
10th place marge22 - Debts and the City
9th place moonfaerie - All's well that ends well with EPH
8th place lilaclilith - Essays.ph - Divine Intervention in a Modern Form
7th place cecilia - A very serendipitous episode
6th place Mralvarez - From Randomness, Facts, Mralvarez, Trance, to How I Spend the Money I Earn through Freelance Writing and Vice Versa
5th place ejrush - Irreplaceable Benefit from Essays.ph
4th place alexis0fdreams - Just an Ordinary Girl with Extraordinary Dreams in Essays.ph
The top three winners:
3rd Place - anywhowhatever
A Journey into the World of Online Freelance Writing with Essays.ph
2nd place- wenggaling2002
Of Dumplings, Male Enhancement Products And You
Grand Winner- deityofmanila
Thou Shall Disclose It Raw and With No Sales Pitch.
Feel free to see and feel how to be part of the EPH family through the various blogs of these writers. As my favorite adage goes “Talent alone cannot make a writer.” This time, on this case, a healthy, happy working atmosphere can really make a difference. Thanks to EPH, happiness it is!
siriusmelai88 (Melanie E. Angeles)
November 10, 2009
Milestones are reasons to celebrate.
When Essays.PH took a big turn to spruce things up in terms of the look of the Cyber Office, the powers that be also decided to drop the old name and adopt this current one. With these changes came the goal of expanding the number of writers to accommodate the influx of writing projects.
The online writing community that is Essays.PH is continuously improving with projects coming in at a steady pace. New freelance writers are onboard and more are signing up. The writers who were with the company during start-up are still around and pretty much active. New editors and moderators have been promoted from the pool of writers to keep things regulated at the forums.
But the Cyber Office is not all work. The management opens so many opportunities for everyone to have fun too, via online and offline events. Writers have the forums to interact with each other and the various online contests that perk up their homebased gig.
With so many things going on for EPH and EPHians, there was much anticipation for the first year anniversary. There was a huge reason to party and that’s what happened on August 1 2009.
Although the weather was not very cooperative and the meeting place at the Market! Market! disappeared (fountain at the entrance) because of the exhibit scheduled that day, EPHians still found each other – thanks to SMS (and yes, that improvised banner an active writer raised at the entrance, which prompted a security personnel to give the group a “warning”).
Dinner was sumptuous at Gerry’s Grill. Since people only knew one another through usernames and avatars, there was a brief moment of awkwardness. It didn’t take long for the writers who were strangers to each other to start getting acquainted more personally.
The highlight of the event took place at the Lazer Extreme, the primary venue for the celebration. Organizers of the party prepared a few team-building games that glued together the writers in their respective teams – Blue, Green, and Red. Mentally stimulating games like the Pinoy Henyo and that Paint-Me-A-Picture, which stirred everyone’s creativity, were a hit.
Awards were handed over to deserving members who are active and really performing. Recognition has been given to writers who have stayed with the company for a year or so. Every single attendee went home with a loot bag, too!
Now, what all EPHians enjoyed was the 30-minute laser-tagging game. EPH Director, Mr. Paul Agabin, together with Ms. Sheila Buenaventura and the office-based staff made the game more exciting by giving away prizes in terms of writer points and goodies.
The group was divided into two. Upon cue, people started hunting for their opponents and attempted to accurately aim their laser guns on rivals’ vests to earn points. What took this game to a more challenging level was that participants could (if they choose to) pick goodies and point cards up on the way and stash them in their designated home bases.
Although tiring to some, the game was a big hit! Everyone went home with something in their hands, but the best thing that the EPHians that night brought home along with them was the happy memory of great camaraderie and budding friendship.
Kudos to the Essays.PH family!
- chickaywrites (Mrs. Glenda Venturanza)
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