Today is the nomination day for candidates for the 12th general election in Malaysia. Polling date or the date we vote is on 8th March 2008. This means, from today onwards, all the political parties will go full force in campaigning both physically and in cyberspace.

Our local telecommunication providers like Digi, Celcom and Maxis said they are expecting an increase of 30% in usage. Now, I wonder can we bloggers expect 30% increase to our websites as well? Do we get 30% extra traffic during the general election?

Many of the local political parties, especially the ones who considered themselves strong and safe have a very disturbing trend. They do not update their websites. I found one which has stopped updating since 2005. These are the local political parties that people search.

To illustrate : Search for UMNO online. Tell me what sites do you find? ;) And another example is Barisan Nasional blog and see Google results here. In my humble opinion, it is so important to be pro in SEO and also the PR section now that our Malaysia rakyats are more savvy in IT, don’t you think so?

I wonder if they know how much damage it can do to their parties because the other parties can take advantage of the situation by being ahead of the search results, grabbing more attention than them. The other thing I notice is the lack of bloggers from ruling party. It is also very obvious that I don’t see general netizens, i.e. regular rakyats who are bloggers (like me) support the ruling party openly.


MALAYSIA ELECTION BLOG

To those who are looking for list of blogs on Malaysia election, I want to list here some of those sites that I normally read (and also worth mentioning).

1. Malaysia Today – This is the boldest, most revealing and also humourous site. It is mainly authored by Raja Petra who kicks asses.

2. Malaysiakini – I do not have subscription to Malaysiakini and hence, not able to read their articles. However, one tip fellow blogger, Pablo taught me is to quote Malaysiakini articles when it is relevant to your post.

- Malaysiakini in Bahasa Malaysia

- Malaysiakini in Tamil

3. JeffOoi - He is the blogger who turned politician. He is contesting in my state and as one blogger to another, I am giving Jeff my support as he has been around for us bloggers for a long time.

4. Election 2008 – Malaysia Media Monitor’s Diary – We get very biased reports on the mainstream media and hence, I welcome this alternative news to provide us a more balance view.

5. Aliran – This is another alternative media site.

Many politicians from PAS, PKR and DAP have taken up blogging. As I do not wish to take any sides, I shall not list the individual blogs except for the main sites :

1. DAP website

2. PKR website

3. PAS website and PAS Harakah Daily
(tks for pointing out, PAS fans :P )

Sorry, ruling parties, there is no need for me to list because the mainstream media, national TV and national radio stations are there to provide us the information.

The 12th general election in Malaysia is said to be one of the most suspenseful as a lot has happened these last few years. In the previous election, news do not spread as fast as it is now as there were less bloggers and online influence were much less. However, this time around, things move at cyber speed. I have a category just for the 12th general election and my views as a voter. As Catholic Christians, we are constantly reminded to prayerful and wisely choose who will lead the country for the next five years. Hence, it is good to jot down our opinons and share it on our blogs.

Most of the search engine optimization experts start working from the web design, proceeding with the layout and the content. Methods like email marketing come in much later. They also decide the domain names in consultation with the webmaster.

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