Asian Tiger

Last June, I wrote about going back to school. Today, I officially took the first step to apply for a PhD programme with one of the local universities. It took me just 3 minutes to write an email to the admission officer on my intended area of research but I took me 3 months to think of the topic for research.

I am really taking the plunge by proposing to research an area that is partly out of my expertise. The future is going to be rough but at the end of it all, I believe that it is well worth the effort.

Some of you might ask why I sent an email to the admission officer and not a proper application form. You see, in Malaysia, there is a national level academic accreditation body that scrutinizes all degree awards. For reasons unknown to me, my Masters from Australia is not recognised but the Bachelors degree is . Therefore, my application for PhD programme is not going to be straightforward.

My email has now reached the admission officer’s mailbox and will be forwarded to the Dean for consideration. It’s going to be a long walk before I reach the university’s classroom. Let’s see how this goes and I will definitely keep updating on the PhD progress.

It’s nice to see how a directory such as Alive Web Directory is seeded, nurtured and left matured by Chris. In the past, I have wrote about the enormous effort it takes for a directory owner to create a branding. Chris has surpassed that level with his directory. Today, Alive Directory is recognised as an authoritative site by Google. That itself speaks of the kind of commitment that Chris puts into building Alive Directory.

I have had the opportunity to watch this directory from its inception on the Internet close to 2 years ago and am amazed at how aggressive the marketing of this directory has been. Chris has amassed over 13,000 backlinks (on Google) and 630,000 backlinks (on Yahoo) for Alive Directory.

If you are a site owner, this is one directory that you would not want to miss out for inclusion.  If you are a budding directory owner, this is what you want to emulate. Way to go, Chris.