I’ve gotten some recent feedback from some of the articles I recently have written on earning money online.  Some people are especially interested, as I am, in how a person could make money teaching English, online.  I thought I would throw out a few thoughts and further clarifications.

First of all, let’s look at the online/off line question.  Many people, even though I meet them online, are particularly doubtful … occasionally even hostile … toward the idea of making money online.  OK, with me, fair enough, because everyone has freedom of choice … but I am not interested in off line ‘dirt based’ jobs.  If you do a simple search using Google or whatever your favorite search engine is, you will find dozens of sites that are focused on conventional jobs in the Philippines … along with all the attendant downsides … visas, commuting, taxes, low pay, long working hours, poor benefits, et al.  You’re welcome to drift on in that direction but just fair warning that you won’t get much info here on those sorts of jobs.  Don’t have one, don’t want one, ain’t interested.

The other day I had a phone call with a PhilFAQS regarding some business ideas.  The reader (who is involved in a number of labor-intensive “dirt based” businesses back in the USA, and likely works a lot harder than I do) tasked me what I was doing, business-wise, commenting that they noticed I had some “web sites”.  I replied that was my business and the response was a bit of a disbelieving, “Oh, I see”.  Totally uncomprehending.  Hardly a clue.  If I don’t go to an office every day and have other people deciding how much I earn it must not be a business.

I don’t work that hard and I don’t consider my online businesses a full time income at this time … I don’t want a full time business … but I guarantee I make more than a lot of independent business folk in the US, especially those still trying to milk dead cows like the real estate market, investment counseling, etc.  And I certainly make more than many who have jobs … especially those who are laid off or on furlough and who hope they still have a job.  I don’t fill up applications, I can not be fired and I won’t be laid off … period.

That is why I’m much more aligned with the on line world.  It’s pretty simple.  You really should start thinking this way too.  You can set your own hours, you can pick what line of work you want to do, if you want to teach, you can teach who and what you please and whatever money you make is yours, not some rich middleman who will be retired in Hawaii while you are trying to make ends meet.  An example.

A fellow I know pretty well moved to the Philippines from his home country with little or no monthly income.  He had relatively little trouble finding a job, right off the bat, as a classroom teacher in a school of English that catered strictly to Korean students.  Korean students who came to the Philippines specifically to learn … more correctly to improve … their English.  Most have no interest in the Philippines and were marking the time until they could return home. Now why would they come to the Philippines if they had no real interest in living here?

Simple.  The conventional language schools for foreigners here in the Philippines are _c_h_e_a_p_.  Koreans of means send their children to schools in Korea, those who can’t afford “good” schools send their children to the Philippines as a second or third choice.  Anybody here have any experience in retail, especially the service segment of the industry and people who shop strictly by price?  Yep, you’re right.  You get a class of people who are mad because they know they had to settle for what they perceive as second rate.  People who don’t want to be here, and people who aren’t particularly happy either dealing with Filipino businessmen collecting the tuition or various other foreigners teaching English ACAP .. As Cheap As Possible.

This is not at all an environment I would like to be in.  My foreigner friend didn’t like it either.  He worked (Illegally, of course … an illegal immigrant with all the baggage that goes along with that …. 6 and 7 days a week for about $10 USD an hour (actual classroom teaching hours, not 8 hours a day)) … only long enough to save enough money for tickets home for himself and his family.  He flew back home with a bad taste in his mouth, a depleted bank account and no desire, ever, to return to the Philippines.

Again and again people write, telling me how much they hate their current jobs and how much they want a job in the Philippines.  Again and again I tell people they probably don’t want a job here, since jobs here tend to be a lot worse than the job they are currently i, and if you hate jobs, as I do, then what makes you think you’ll suddenly like working in the Philippines … even if you do find a legal job?

Tune in tomorrow for a better alternative.

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