Big but nothing concrete

November 18, 2011 by · 2 Comments

I have been planning to build my own freelance business for the longest time (Since May 2011). I am inspired by virtual companies such as Blue Global Media and the independent contractors from Odesk. But somehow it seems that I’m not yet ready for it. Admittedly, I have a lot of excuses. I’m not yet stable. I’d rather save my money than to invest it. I’m lazy. Etc.

Last July, I almost accepted a writing contract in a freelance website. The deal is to submit a total of 500 x 500-word articles for $8 each.  The buyer’s budget is $4000. I know it is impossible for me to finish all 500 articles in one month. So, I planned to hire other people to do it for me and pay them $6 for every completed article. But before anything else, I need a back up capital.

Let’s face it, $4000 is a huge amount. What if it’s just a scam? I may be lazy, but I’m not stupid. All I want is to hire other writers to do the things that I can no longer handle. But I will NEVER involve other people until I have enough funds. If you’ve been following my blog, you might have read a post about me being scammed of $110. I don’t want that to ever happen again.

So anyway, I emailed an online friend from Norway to ask if he is interested to team up with me. We’ve already met in person last year so I kind of trust him. However, it turned out he’s not into it as he is already running lots of businesses. He has online employees in India and they are currently busy developing a VOIP software. He said there is a market for this kind of business but there’s just no time for it.

I could have asked Vienna or Ruthi, my other online friends, but I was particularly looking for someone who has the “money.” :P Of course, these girls have lots of it, I’m just not sure if they’d be willing to invest it in my business idea. Plus I don’t want to do anything that would ruin our friendship. Anyway, the other option is to borrow money from an Affiliate Network but I realized I also don’t want to bury myself in debts.

I again emailed my Norwegian friend because he is the perfect partner for this venture. He is a business person and so personal matters would be set aside. Well, guess what? A couple of hours after sending him the message, I decided to delete my email account because of embarrassment. I don’t want to be a pain in the you-know-where. I guess it’s pride that is getting in the way.

I’m not starving. I don’t need to push myself too hard. Needless to say, I did not pursue the contract. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even bother to contact the buyer to inform him that I lost interest. There are plenty of opportunities in the internet. But before I grab one, I learned to think 10 times.

Another thing is I don’t have the guts to resort to a cash advance affiliate program. Although business is about taking risks, I’m not a businesswoman. I’m an entrepreneur. There is a big difference between the two. Businessmen make money through investments. Entrepreneurs make money from zero capital. We use our expertise to make a living.

Filed Under: a career booger?, blogging career, future plans, in the name of money ·

Back to school?

September 8, 2011 by · 2 Comments

I was very studious back then. Something my mother always tells to her friends’ children. Like I’m some kind of a model student. It’s embarrassing because it’s been 7 years since I got my degree and until today, it’s the same old story that she tells neighbors and relatives. LOL. She’s a proud mama. Now, this is not to say that I’m the brainy kind of student. As a matter of fact, it’s the opposite. I needed to study harder to cope up with lessons and other school requirements.

After college, I wanted to enroll in PNU (Philippine Normal University) for further studies. At the time, I felt teaching was my calling. But maybe it wasn’t because I always had reasons to postpone my plans of getting a certification in TEFL. I was busy and I couldn’t leave my job. Then I learned about Online Degree Programs that offer plenty of courses including teaching English as a foreign language. I planned to save for those expensive online schools. But before I was able to save half the price of the tuition fee, I lost interest.

Today, I am no longer interested in becoming a teacher. I just have an inkling that it’s not for me and that my two-years stint in teaching preschoolers is enough. I had a “taste” of it and I enjoyed it a lot so that should be enough. What interest me now is designing web pages. The problem is I don’t have the required skills in Photoshop and coding. I am confused if I should enroll in a real school or in online degree programs in art. I saw a $29-worth e-book that promises to teach everything about PHP, graphics and web customization.

I want that e-book! Although there are tons and tons of tutorials in the internet, I’m so tired of searching for the right solutions to my coding problems. Aside from searching is tiring, it’s also time-consuming. You see, between photoshop and coding, the latter is very difficult. At least, for me. Maybe for you it’s a piece of cake but for me it’s really “brain-crashing.”

Anyway, I saw this link hours ago: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. The headline says “Get help paying for college.” It made me wonder if such offers are available for non-US citizens? Because I want to send my application. LOL. I wish there was a way to learn web customization without fees and charges. But it seems that I will have to pay for everything including templates, pdf tutorials, graphical elements, etc. Sigh.

Filed Under: a career booger?, a discontented booger, blogging career, buying things i really don't need, Consider This, exploring the world, future plans, in the name of money, money desperate, money well spent, products and services ·

A very intelligent comment

July 28, 2011 by · 9 Comments

I have a blogging dilemma and it all started with a very intelligent comment from an accidental visitor.

Hey….I just read your blog while surfing the net, it is good to know that there are talented Filipinos working their ass on the online world. I am a writer too, I understand that we all have our own ways of expressing what we feel and sharing our experiences. However, no offense, I just find you kind of “bragging” than sharing your stories. I hope on your next blogs, you rather “share” your experiences to motivate other people who are interested in writing. Just a piece of advice, it would be better to share your talent in the right way by being a catalyst of inspiration to those who have talent same as yours but were not blessed to have the same opportunities. See you in odesk….who knows, we might be on the same team.

The problem? I realized that I am an irresponsible blogger. When I blog, I only think about myself. Although I try not to offend other people, I also don’t intend to serve as an inspiration. I can’t possibly inspire others. I’m not successful and if anything, I’m just a struggling freelancer. I can’t even call myself a writer cuz that would be an insult to those who studied years to become a professional writer. Anyway, when I first read the comment, I wanted to laugh. After writing about my insecurities and failures and bad experiences, people think I’m bragging.  So, I’m bragging. But I read again that post and realized that I really sounded like “bragging.” Suddenly, I am embarrassed. Suddenly, I felt the urge to just terminate my blogs and just stop blogging. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way offended by that comment. On the contrary, I think that it’s what they call “constructive criticism.” It’s just that suddenly, I feel that having 4 blogs is not worth my time.  It’s not beneficial to me or to anyone.

Filed Under: a career booger?, a discontented booger, blogging career, Consider This, in the name of money, talking booger, unforgettable memories, what they have to say ·

Saving for the future

July 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

To say that I own my time just because I do freelance is foolish. I now realized that for freelancers, time is very important. When I was still working as an employee, I was just waiting for the hours to pass. Please don’t get me wrong. I was working hard but at the back of my mind I couldn’t wait for the clock to hit 5PM, then go home and just forget about paper works.

In freelance, there are no weekends, there are no holidays, there are no days off. There are no Mondays to hate and no Fridays to look forward to. There are no vacation and service incentive leave. But to say that we don’t care about hours and days is just plain idiotic. You know how people tell you not to bring your problems from work to home and vice versa? Well, tell me how am I going to apply that with the nature of my present job :)

Anyway as I’ve said, I don’t have time. I’ve been in the writing business for 2 months already and I would like to start saving at least 10% of my income in the coming months. Earnings are good but I’m still on a phase where I just want to enjoy and keep things “light.” But I do have some plans of depositing modest amount of money to my Savings Account soon. I’m just in the adjustment phase. Maybe reading savings and financing articles from http://banktime.com/ will inspire me.

I keep on telling myself that now it’s just me. There is no company that would give me a fixed salary every pay day. My salary now is based on how many articles I finished and how many hours I spent for SEO campaigns. No finished article means no food on the table, no chocolate chips, no zesto, no cheese cake … haha! Gradually, I would increase my working hours in Odesk from 20 to 40.

You see, I’m not working much. Last week, I only rendered 22 hours. I earned $101.75 from odesk plus $55 from my blogs. I bought something from the internet for $5, so my income less expense is $151.75 (for July 11-17, 2011). Starting this week I will try my best to render at least 40 hours. I have enough tasks, it’s my laziness that’s getting in the way. Help me Lord :)

PS. I really need a new blog. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying www[dot]freelanceearnings[dot]com but I don’t want to subtract another $10.99 dollars from my last week’s income. But it’s going to be an investment. Sigh. Why is it so hard to shell out money these days?

Filed Under: a career booger?, a discontented booger, blogging career, buying things i really don't need, future plans, in the name of money, link-building, money desperate, talking booger ·

New blog, not again

July 16, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

I have been planning to buy a new domain from a web hosting company. I’m too busy but I want another blog that will chronicle my income from freelancing. Although my basic rate as article writer / virtual assistant / SEO specialist / blogger is not that much (just enough to eat 3 times a day :) ), I think I have to keep a journal where I can track my online earnings.

To tell you frankly, since the beginning until today, I have no idea how much I’ve already earned from the internet. It was something I didn’t consider important. At the back of my mind, it’s okay as long as I’m not hitting below $100 per week. What matters is that I am surviving in freelance. It’s just recently that I realized the importance of knowing how much I’m able to make in a daily basis.

I don’t know if I need to pay for another managed hosting service from my current provider. And I also have not decided yet what domain name to buy. I’m choosing among these domains: (1) www.freelanceearnings.com, (2) www.freelancebread.com, or (3) www.daily20dollars.com. I think option number 1 is brilliant. But I also like number 2 and number 3 sounds special because there is a numeral character in it.

I have until next week to make a decision. After that, I will probably forget about it. As I’ve said I’m so busy. I don’t even have time to update all my existing blogs except for sterndal because obviously, this is my favorite. My webhost is offering me a colocation service but I can’t understand why it’s necessary. Everything seems to be working fine and I’m also avoiding additional fees. Haha.

If you think you need this type of service, check out Superb.net, specially if your website is intended for small to medium businesses. They can help you find a good domain name, host it for you, and they also have a colocation service if you need power, space and connectivity.

Going back to creating a new blog AGAIN, I’m not sure if I still have time to manage another one but I really want. I already have 4 blogs but I don’t have a niche blog yet. So Freelance Earnings or Freelance Bread will be my first, if ever. That is, if these are still available until I make up my mind. Please don’t buy it.

Filed Under: a career booger?, blogging career, Consider This, future plans, in the name of money, money desperate, money well spent, Portfolio, products and services ·
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