Philippine Making Money Ideas — Number 151

I never started this blog with the idea of making money myself, and certainly not with thoughts I would be telling readers how to make money or how to start their own online businesses.  But an online effort like this blog takes on a life of its own and the next think you know, while I am trying to write general articles about living in the Philippines I wind up answering question after question about how to make money in the Philippines.

Never let it be said I don’t listen to readers.

Today I wanted to point out something that just caught me eye and caused one of those moments where you just want to slap yourself on the forehead … hard .. and say, “Why the heck didn’t I think of this small business opportunity”?

Those of you who know me well are aware that a couple of my other big time interests, aside from retiring in the Philippines and making a living in the Philippines, are GPS, GPS vehicle tracking and maps … all sorts of maps and the ancillary trades that go along with maps, like cartography and photogrammetry (where you measure thing via photographic sources).

I absolutely love Google Maps, Google Earth, MSN Live and the other online resources that show you detailed maps .. and more importantly … detailed “overhead” photography of a huge portion of the earth’s surface already … and more coming on line each and every day.

For example, here’s where I live now:

My home in the Philippines

12 Athena St, St. Michaels, Lias, Marilao, Bulacan

View Where I Have Lived in a larger map

And here’s where I lived when I used to hang out in Tony Soprano’s Pork Store as part of my job:

My former home in Kearny

62 Beech St, Kearny, NJ

View Where I Have Lived in a larger map

Now if you observed closely, these are both views of the same map … I mapped out all the places I’ve lived in my life, so far. Boring to some, I know … but here’s the online money maker idea. What do you see in common with these hybrid maps and overhead imagery views .. with all such views you see on Google Maps and its competitors? If you answered a lot of  “roofs”, then go to the head of the class.

Go visit the GeoEstimator site and see how this fellow has built a viable business, online, using online resources available to anyone.  And he’s not only making money, his making geo_estmoney in an extremely “Green” manner too.

Everyday of every year people need roof work.  Either their roof is worn out and leaking, or they suffered damage in a storm or fire.

“Everyone” knows what needs to be done.  Either the insurance company or the roofing company that gets called (or both … how wasteful is that?) has to send out an estimator to decide how much roofing materials are needed, is there space to pull a delivery truck up near the roof, are the streets leading to the property wide enough for a big truck or does the load have to be broken down into smaller increments, etc.

Well, in this case “everyone” would be wrong as rain.  All they need to do is go to the GeoEstimaror website and ask for an estimate and “bang”, it’s done.  No salary to pay, no taxes and benefits to shell out, no car to maintain, no gas to burn … the list of potential savings goes on and =on.

This guy can run his business based in the USA … or he could just as easy move his physical body to the Philippines (or anywhere else on earth he wants to live .. as long as he has an Internet connection, and no a single important aspect of his business has to change.

Pretty slick or what?

And here’s the part I consider even slicker … not only could anyone who knows a mansard from a dormer go into business in competition with this guy … there are millions and millions of roofs all over the world and no one company can ever grow big enough to gather in all the potential business … but there are hundreds or even thousands of other similar niches to explore.  Contracts to paint strips on roads, parking lots, airport runways.  parking lot sweeping and plowing contracts.  Solar water heating or power production initial feasibility studies, areas of lawn to be treated, mowed, have sod laid down … I could go on and on I think, but hey, you don’t want me to do all your thinking for you, do you?

When I talk about earning a living online, in the US, in the Philippines, or anywhere else, you really don’t think I am just talking about putting up a website and sticking on some Google AdSense ads, do you?  The Internet is real, the services you can offer and the money you can earn are real too … the only limitation is your imagination and your diligence.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Arbitrage — Maybe You Should Look It Up.

One of the more depressing parts of running this website is people writing in to me and pouring out their tale of woe about how they want to move to the Philippines but they can’t, they are just too broke.  And if you try to advise them in how to get themselves out of their financial hole and help themselves make some money, they fire back an “I don’t know how”, “I can’t figure it out”, “I have no money” (although they are $20k USD into debt with useless crap they bought over the past couple years).

If you are one of those people, don’t get upset, this article is not trying to “bust on you” or make fun of you, it’s trying to help you.  Read on, thoughtfully, but read, please.  There is no one alive and reading these words who can’t make money for themselves … there are only those who refuse to.

Jeremey and crew A fellow I have known for years online is a chap named Jeremy Schoemaker.  Some of you may know him by his online trademarked identity, ShoeMoney.  If you ever took the time to read Jeremy’s autobiography, you’d see that he is about as far from the “all American” well-educated, bright boy born with a silver spoon whiz kid as a person could be.  The guy spent most of his formative years going broke, getting himself fired from one half-assed job or another and even eating himself to the point of dangerous clinical obesity.

But now Jeremy is a rich man … a very rich man, made himself millions and then more millions … and he didn’t do it by luck, he did it by sheer desire, hard work, and mainly “arbitrage”.

(that’s Jeremy in the left rear, in the purplish shirt … as you can see he cured the obesity too)

One of the things Jeremy was famous for in the past was what is often called Google Arbitrage.  (don’t rush out and try this now, it violates Google’s terms of service and really won’t work anymore).  In basic form this involved putting up sites with many AdSense advertiser ads on them (where Google paid Jeremy a fee each time a visitor clicked on an ad) ,and then promoting those sites by buying AdWords ads, (where Jeremy paid Google a fee every time a reader clicked on the Google Ad and went to his sites). 

The arbitrage profit came from balancing the cost per click to drive visitors to his sites, versus the amount he got paid for each visitor leaving via a click to another advertiser’s offer.  Tricky, but very easy to do in the old days if you picked the right subject matter/keywords.  Spend a nickel to get a visitor and if every tenth visitor clicks on an ad that pays $2.00 and your net profit goes up pretty darn quick.

Another form of arbitrage I myself made money with Jeremy on was a scheme that looked like a trick but turned into a multi-million dollar service based on eBay.  eBay.com, by far the largest retailer online, pays a commission to anyone who displays ads showing sales on eBay, if a visitor to the advertisement “clicks through” and then completes the purchase on eBay. 

This is another standard commission sales idea, certainly not unique to eBay , and it is entirely legitimate, and it works.  But like many other online money making methods, it depends a lot on traffic.  It doesn’t scale well, as we say, down to “small-time” operators.

If you have a small website and display a few ads and a person every week or two happens to click through on your ad, you will make money, but at the volume of sales you are producing, eBay will pay only pennies.

But Jeremy looked closely at eBay’s commission structure and it turns out that as volume increased the payout ramped up very sharply.  People who sent hundreds of successful bidders per day were making hundreds of dollars per day, sending thousands per day meant thousands of dollars, etc.

So how can you get thousands and thousands of eBay ads out there in front of the public?  A simple arbitrage idea.  Just sign up thousands and thousands of small web sites and group them all together, pulling the ads from eBay (and sending the successful bidders) by the hundreds of thousands.  eBay made money, the otherwise ‘pennies per day’ website owners made more than they would have because of the volume pricing, and Jeremy sold that business as a going concern for millions of dollars.

There’s big money in buying and selling nickels and dimes, as long as you can sell buy all the dimes you want to for a nickel.

Today I read this in an email from Jeremy, as usual, he doesn’t keep things secret, he shares willingly when things work or when they go sour.  How many have been following the huge fanfare and furor of the new Apple iPad rollout.  How many have made real money with it .. I mean hundreds of dollars a day, sitting at their keyboard and shipping a few items UPS (UPS comes to you door to pick up as well as ship out you know, so does the US Post Office).

Apple iPad Arbitrage

Right now their(sic) is a HUGE arbitrage opportunity going on with the Apple iPads.  Apple stores are allowing you to purchase 2 per person.  My wife and I bought 2 this morning. 

I live in Lincoln Nebraska about 1 hour south of Omaha.

I placed my 16 GB iPads on Craigslist for 599 (100$ more then I paid) and they sold within 30 minutes of being placed.

That’s right… all 4 sold within 30 minutes.

Anomaly right?   Well no… Just look at eBay and you will find the 16GB iPad’s are SELLING  for $549 to $649.   People are used to Apple products being very scarce and are willing to pay way to much for them.   Huge opportunity right now for some hustlers!

You know this opportunity certainly isn’t limited to a one-time burst of desire for iPads in the US.  iPads aren’t even available here in the Philippines yet.  Or even mundane things like the mid-level Gateway netbooks my wife and I bought on our last trip to the States.  Cost us $297 each in Comp USA.  Closest thing I have seen in local, Manila area stores in specs/value is the peso equivalent of about $480 or $500.  If we had brought back a dozen it would have paid for our air fare and still left us two to compute with.

Don’t tell me you can’t make money in the US or in the Philippines or between the two countries.  Tell me when you are going to get off your behind, stop with excuses and do something.  The opportunities are there.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Another Guy Who gets It … Well Almost

Here’s a new online acquaintance who pretty much has his poop grouped as far as what to do with his life and how to earn a living … he is not yet up to speed on the Philippines… hence the “well Almost” in the title, but everything else he’s working on certainly makes good sense to me….

… Now that I don’t have a job (or won’t in less than 3 weeks), I’m pretty much free to go anywhere to work. So I’ve decided to live the dream. I’m going to work full time, 14-18 hours a day for the next 3-6 months on IM, and then leave Canada for Asia to live abroad for a few years. I’m going to travel around and live in different places across Asia (Taiwan, China, Japan, Tibet), (You Forgot the Philippines, Ben My note added)working on my niche websites and mastering landscape photography. It should be VERY interesting. Who doesn’t want to be a professional bum. Now, you hear a lot about loser foreigners bumming around in Asia because they can’t make it back here in North America (or the UK/Europe). These types usually end up teaching English. My goal is not to go there poor though — I’d like to be making between 15-20k USD a month. The only sort of bumming around I want to do is in my various rented penthouses and… we’ll I’ll stop there. But, good times ahead. Provided I can keep Google away from my properties. There’s always that…

If you really want to know some secrets about how to make money living in the Philippines or elsewhere, read Ben’s essays on Using SEO and Internet Marketing to Make Money Online.  This is not something I am selling, nothing to buy here, and no real secrets … just the nitty-gritty on what it takes to become independent and not have to worry about where your next dollar is coming from or what side of bed your boss got up from the morning.

Those of you who keep badgering me about Jobs For Foreigners or who write and say, “It’s so easy for a Westerners, how can a Filipino earn money online” should really go here and read this post of Ben’s or else some from my friend Griz who probably knows more about Making Money Online For Beginners than any 10 so-called experts … and also sells nothing.

Like Ben, who was hobble for years devoting his time to a conventional dead end job, you are missing the opportunities that are sitting there waiting to be put to use right now … while you wait for someone else to give you permission.

For those who don’t know about it, I also run a site Called Retired Pay World, where among other things I have had very good luck with teaching seniors and retirees how to empower their retirement.  You’re welcome to drop by even if your aren’t a senior or retiree (yet … you will become one someday, if you are lucky) and learn something about making money with AdSense or other opportunities that currently beckon.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Make Money In The Philippines — Doesn’t Matter Where You Live

Usually I write about business in the Philippines and making money in the Philippines on Fridays and/or Saturdays, but this one has a short lead time … it’s an opportunity that will be gone by Friday.  Will you look at this and say, “Yeah, right , Dave” and then move on to something else? … or will you take advantage of professional education to teach you about something that you can earn from, at no risk, whatever your nationality and wherever you live. 

If you prefer a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) way of life, this is not for you … but if you want to learn how the big boys do it, join in … the entire cost is you giving up an hour of watching TV drivel or playing on your Facebook page for yet another hour … we all can afford an hour less of that stuff.

There is nothing like ‘free’ to catch my attention.  What about yours?

After the word ‘free’ catches my eye, I then look to see what what the source is … and when it’s Trump University, I generally take advantage and see what ‘the Donald’ has to say.  (by the way, Donald Trump is bullish on the Philippines, I’ve written about it here before)  Stop chasing imaginary dreams and thinking of reasons why you can’t and instead dig in and make your own future.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Investing In the Philippines — RTB’s

I’ve written more than once in this journal about some strangely structured and ill-advised investment schemes (scams?) in the Philippines.  Sadly some of them were even heavily touted by fellow expats, and I’ve lost friends over the issue as well.

One huge scheme, the Legacy Group Rural Bank fiasco is still playing out in many levels of the Philippine government.  A number of banks have been closed, many people have been accused of crimes, some have been formally charged and fortunately for the depositors involved, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) is in the process of paying claims of depositors.  Will everyone get back every penny they invested?  I surely don’t know, I hope so, but it surely can’t leave a very good taste in the mouths of anyone involved.  I think it’s better to make investments that you don’t need ‘scoundrel insurance’ for.

The reason I smelled a rat long ago and the reason the Legacy Group house of cards tumbled, in simple terms, is greed and an unsound business plan.  If you ask people to invest, guarantee to pay them a certain high rate of interest and then have no suitable investment vehicle bringing money in to pay the interest going out, it doesn’t matter if you are Bernie Madoff or if your heart is pure as the driven snow … the scheme can’t survive.

On the other hand, I myself surely hate having money in the bank earning little or no interest.  My US-based credit union proudly touts 5 Year certificates of deposit paying a whopping 3.0% per annum … fully subject to income tax, of course.

Or the old safe and secure standby, US Savings Bonds .. buy some today while the simply astounding rate of return is a whopping 0.70% PA.  (That’s not a misprint, I went and looked it up and had to clean my glasses to make sure I wasn’t misreading the information at the official government site.  Pretty unattractive in my book

For those of us who live in the Philippines and have a bank account here there is an interesting alternative.  Before reading further, do bear in mind that:

  1. An investment advisor advisor I am not.  Invest in any thing at your own risk and if you think you need professional guidance, get it.
  2. I have no interest in these investment vehicles at all.  I do not sell them, get any commission or anything else of value and only mention this as an item that interests me and may thus interest you.

That out of the way, I’m talking about Government of the Philippines Retail Treasury Bonds.  Here’s some information regarding these investment instruments along with a link to an excellent source of financial data here in the Philippines:

First, what is a Retail Treasury Bond?

The Philippine Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) is a direct and unconditional obligation of the Philippine government generally considered a safe and liquid investment opportunity. The RTB, issued by the Bureau of Treasury (hence the name), is one way for the government to raise needed funds.

It is safe because it is fully backed by the government and rarely does a government, including the Philippines, defaults on a debt security such as this. It is liquid because it can be traded in the secondary market prior to maturity.

It is called Retail because at Php5,000 (US$112) minimum investment, even individuals can invest here … learn much more about TRB’s and other finances at the excellent Pinoy Money Talk

9% before taxes sounds pretty good to me.  I’m on my bank manager’s list for a couple hundred thousand Pesos’ worth … if the bonds get offered later this summer.  Last year there was no offering because the government was meeting its income goals and didn’t need to borrow, this year we will see what we will see.

Regardless of what you think of the bonds … or if they even get offered this year, I highly recommend a regular read of Pinoy Money Talk … an excellent resource to learn what’s going on here in the Philippines financially, written at a level we non-financier types can easily understand

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Philippine (or US) Business You Can Do — Watch Videos

I’ve written quite a few articles about using the combination of the Internet and video to make or expand a business.  This can certainly work for you in the US or in the Philippines or when dividing one’s time between two countries, as many of my readers want to do.

One thing there is a demand for … as in people buy … is home or business security and monitoring.  In particular there is a market connected with the Philippines for three categories of folks that come to mind immediately:

  • Folks who have a house or business in the Philippines, but want to travel for days, weeks or months at a time.
  • Folks who leave a house or business behind in the US or other home country and want a way to keep a ‘virtual eye’ on their property while they are in the Philippines.
  • Filipino residents, especially businessmen or women with property or businesses in different parts of the Philippines who want a ‘virtual security guard"’.

The business plan?  Simple.  Either provide the equipment, hookups and training for any of these potential clients whom you decide to target and let them arrange their own monitoring.  To many of you this may sound foolish, because if you can do it (and you probably can. if you know enough Internet and computer technology to be reading this post, you can learn easily), then why wouldn’t the potential clients do it themselves?

Well the reason people will pay for the service is the same reason people will pay for snowplows to clear their driveways, janitors to clean their offices, mechanics to change the oil in their cars, etc.  They value their time doing something else or they would rather someone else get their hands dirty.

The other way I see a huge opportunity here is that there are thousands of potential clients in the US, the Philippines and other countries who just want someone to watch and call the police if things go wrong.  There are dozens if not hundreds of companies in the YS making a good business from this need.  If you are already living in the Philippines or are able to set something up here, you are miles ahead of any company who pays ‘screen watchers’ in the US.  You can set up a monitoring station here for systems you sell yourself, or outsource yourself to companies already in the business in the US.  Hey, after all, people are already operating call centers just to take orders ay McDonalds drive thru windows, this job is simpler.

The last time I suggested something along this line there was a bit of discussion regarding liability and bandwidth,  Let me address both those issues briefly:

  • Liability: I may be naive, but I see no large liability issues here.  The service will always be provided on a ‘best effort’ basis.  In my last consulting job back in the US I worked a security contract with a top US form to monitor our software development and server facility.  Believe me, they were responsible;le for nothing except doing their job to the best of their ability.  All you need is a good lawyer to write you a tight contract (remember, I am not a lawyer and you need a lawyer for legal advice) … and for many of us who live here in the Philippines, what is anyone going to be able to sue us for, anyway?
  • Bandwidth: As soon as you mention video many people get up in arms about server loads, time for windows to open, etc.  Many of these concerns are valid, but only if you do video ‘wrong’.  When I talk about monitoring surveillance cameras and other alarms at a customer’s premise, such as motion sensors, window or door switches and such. I am talking about:
    • Having a DVR (Digital Video Recorder … Tivo is a common brand name but there are much cheaper Tivo substitutes out there) that spools the video to disk, on site.  There is no reason for ‘full period’ video to ever have to cross the ‘net to your monitoring computer unless and until an ‘event’ occurs at the client’s site.
    • There are many different security management software packages out there that will slow down the frames per second from cameras until something in the field of view changes, manage multiple cameras on one screen, and so on.  Google is your friend.

So, there’s some thoughts for making a business today, prompted by this video of a real world housebreaking, caught by the owner who was monitoring remotely over the internet and simply called the police when she saw the intruder.  The video doesn’t make it clear but the report I read said the police arrived in time to catch the perpetrators in the act … thus not only was the lady’s property protected, but two nasty customers won’t be breaking into your house or mine.  Video monitoring works.


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Popularity: 2% [?]

Why We’re Broke — And How To Fix It

What Are These Monday Editorials All About?

I’ve been casting around for some ways to reorganize this blog a bit and how to make it more meaningful.  Frankly I’m tired of the “please help me find a job” queries and the “how can I live in the Philippines for nearly nothing” crowd who aren’t really looking for success in life.  More or less every Monday I’m going to be writing about ways to make yourself a viable, productive member of society, no matter what your nationality, and how every country, especially the USA and the Philippines (the ones I have the most intimate knowledge of) can stand on their own two feet and move on to greatness.

Some won’t like these articles, especially many of my Filipino friends.  Too bad.  I’ve often been accused of being “blunt”, and in the Philippines especially, no matter what the problem, the “norms” of society are to never mention what is really wrong and to beat around the bush for a few paragraphs in the vague hope that maybe the people causing the problem will somehow get the message.  Well I don’t do that.  So if you want “delicadeza”, drama and innuendo that says virtually nothing, feel free to click on your browser’s “Back” arrow now and move on to someone else who will wallow in self-pity, or the latest scandal chismis.  I’m an old man.  I don’t have time to beat around the bush.

OK, now that I have your attention and perhaps raised your ire, what does the stated subject of this article mean?  Today, I don’t have a lot of answers, I have instead some thought provokers.

How We Got Here:

I’m going to drop a quote here from a writer you might find well worth reading, Naomi Dunford.  Naomi is a breath of fresh air in these days of “financial crisis funeral music” and most importantly. she lives what she writes.  A disclaimer:  If you visit Naomi’s site you’ll see that she sells things.  In fact she runs an online school that teaches many of the principles of self-sufficiency, world-market entrepreneurship and responsibility for your own life that I espouse here.  But I didn’t write this piece to sell Naomi’s products, I suspect they are good, but I’m not a user.  I just refer to her often because she has areal take on what’s going on in today’s world and what people can do to make things better, for themselves. 

Warning that I shouldn’t need to add, but will anyway, Naomi writes as she speaks and she speaks a bit “salty” for some.  If you like to put on airs to make people think you have never used the “F” word or that sex and the pursuit of sex is not part of your life, don’t go there.  Also, do not stick your head in a microwave to get yourself a tan.

We used to be self-reliant.

For 40,000 years of human history, we depended on ourselves. We were part of a small network of people who helped each other out, but mainly we fixed our own clothes, cooked our own meals and traded our own chickens to make our way in this world.

We were Jacks of all trades. When our roof broke, we didn’t hope we had money left on our Visa to pay a specialist to come out and fix it — we cut down a tree and went up the ladder. If the wheat crop was poor, we always had the cows. Wife took in some sewing work, husband ploughed the fields. If one thing went wrong, we didn’t cross our fingers and pray the big man down the lane would waltz in to take care of us.

Sometime around the industrial revolution, we gave the responsibility of feeding our families to a bunch of old guys in suits that cost more than our car. Or horse, as the case may have been.

Rich people came in and, as part of an income diversification strategy, decided to build some factories. We started to specialize. We became widget stampers, widget joiners, widget movers. Our self-identity became one of what we did to which widgets for eight or 10 or 12 hours a day.

Western culture became one of efficiency. How could we do it faster? How could we make it easier? How could we work it cheaper?

Then, on April Fools’ Day, 1913, Henry Ford added a conveyor belt to the whole process and generalism went to hell.

Flash forward 95 years and we live in a world of 10-page job descriptions that itemize exactly what we do — and more importantly, what we don’t do. We put cute little comic strips in our cubicles that scream “Not my department”. We do the same thing, every day, for years at a time. Optimally, we do our one thing and one thing only more efficiently than any other person in town.

And in order to ensure we have time for all of this efficiency, we have outsourced the rest of our lives to other specialists. Specialists grow our food and make our clothes and educate our children while we go be specialists for someone else.

We believed we were making things easier. Instead we were handing over every tiny scrap of personal power we had left.

Every Scrap, Dave?  Really?

Well pretty much in my view.  I decided to write this series because the news I see every day is just depressing as hell, and many people I read about and talk to on a daily basis seem to have their brains wired upside down. 

Just a few days ago I was reading a long and detailed account of a 62-yo man in California who had been laid off, had no real prospects for retirement income and was literally wearing out his shoes going from office to office submitting applications and begging and wishing for interviews.  In addition to being too old (yeah, I know there are laws against age discrimination in the US … work for a smart-ass 40-something when you are in your 60’s and you’ll find out how effective those laws are and how much they mean in the real world).  In addition to being on the wrong side of 60, this fellow had two masters degrees, both in technical, “meaty” fields.  Frankly I can easily see why he wasn’t finding a job.  If I had been doing employee hiring and saw his resume it would have scared me, I wouldn’t have interviewed him either. 

In admittedly tough economic times. when US business has to pick up the pace and modernize or die, what possible use would two 40 year old college degrees be to my company?  I would much rather hire a high school dropout with fresh ideas and a track record of making money for himself … any money at all, as long as he had done it on his own.  Since the transformation in society Naomi wrote about above, we seem to have fallen into some sort of perverse way of looking at things that equates a ‘job’ as some sort of plum that a business dangles, and the we who are lucky enough to have captured that ‘plum’ are now entitled to be paid for life for the winning of the prize.  In technical, real world terms, let me express this succinctly.  Bullshit.

Your right to a job exists only so far as your job provides value to the employer.  You make money for your employer or you hit the streets.  That’s the way life is, or should be.  Obviously American business has badly missed the point, as people demonstrate and vociferate over the “poster child” example of the AIG executives being paid bonuses with tax payer dollars.  It isn’t really the fact that these executives are being paid with taxpayer money that is obscene, the perverse aspect is that they are being paid a bonus for success when collectively they acted stupidly and ran the company into the ground.  Like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme or the Legacy mess here in the Philippines, these mult
i-degreed ‘smarter than the common folk’ “experts” bought into mortgage derivatives and other totally speculative “paper” that the average bum on the Bowery would be smart enough not to bend over and pick up … and because they fumbled big time in running their company they should be paid a bonus?  Give me a break.  Personally, I subscribe to the Senator Charles Grassley viewpoint.  Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.  At least Captain Edward Smith who was responsible for the RMS Titanic disaster mainly by virtue of his personal arrogance didn’t boot women and children out of the lifeboat and come ashore demanding a performance bonus … he knew how bad he screwed the pooch and chose to go down with the ship.

Filipino attitudes toward jobs seem to be, as if that was possible, even worse.  Here in the Philippines if you hire someone you essentially are married to them and you know there is no divorce here.  Recently the Philippine legislators have been mumbling about passing a law that would make it a criminal act to hire folks as independent contractors so as to avoid the life long employee “marriage”.  Yes, criminalize independence.  The Constitution is indeed alive and well .. NOT.  The idea that jobs become “property” of employees and that the employer and/or the government has to take care of the employee for life once hired is a significant contributor to the lack of jobs here in the Philippines.

So does this mean I think our destitute 62 year old man should just give up and die?  Absolutely not.  He should do as I have and how thousands of others are doing these days.  Tell the rejection artists at the personnel departments to pound salt, stand up on his own two feet as Americans, and yes Filipinos, used to do and make his own living.  You might even call it “empowering retirement”, and with the power of the Internet he can do it in California or in Cagayan de Oro just as easily. 

I know many of you who come here looking for information on conventional “jobs in the Philippines” don’t care to hear my answers, but perhaps some day the light will turn on for you too.  Reinvent yourself and make your own “job”.  Worked for me.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Send Love to the Philippines

This post is a bit commercial in nature.  No, I didn’t get paid to write it … there are no ‘paid posts’ here on PhilFAQS where we answer your questions about the Philippines, but I do run low key advertising to a;, make a buck now and again and b:,

,, because I can normally make a pretty good guess that everything I allow here is of decent value and will of use to my readers from time to time.

But today I am going to give a little “boost” to an advertiser whom I really think is offering something unique.  The advertiser isn’t related to the Live in the Philippines market and I don’t think they realize that their product is absolutely ideal to a certain segment of the Philippines market either.  So I am bring it to your attention.  I do earn a commission from sales that are made, so if that is not to your liking and please tune back in another time when I won’t be making any money.

Actually, a little totally free tip.  Even though I sometimes writer about making money in the Philippines and sometimes don’t, I am always making money online in some form or another, 24×7.  I sometimes have nice successes, I sometimes stub my toe, and you can often observe what is going on, if you look and read closely, even when I am not writing about money, online, in the Philippines, or both.  You see not all teaching is done in front of a blackboard with a pointer and a lesson plan ;-)

Anyway on to the case in point.  One of my good friends and mentors in this business is Bob Martin, better known as Mindanao Bob, a fellow many of you are already acquainted with.  Bob is an entrepreneur, both on and off line and has almost never had a traditional job.  He knives in the Philippines but he doesn’t have a job in the Philippines.  As I have often said, and many people often miss, earning a living in the Philippines does not necessarily have anything to do with having a job in the Philippines.  One way Bob makes money is writing and selling books.  I reviewed one here, if you want a peek: 49 Ways to Make a Living in the Philippines — Book Review | PhilFAQS

Another way Bob makes money is the gift market.  You can see an example here at his WoWPhilippines site.  Some people irreverently call this the “Honey Ko” trade, selling gifts for (mainly) men who are smitten with love for their Filipina sweethearts and wives (hopefully, one and the same person ;-) .  Honey Ko is slang for “My Honey” or “my Sweetheart”.  Well, there is nothing at all wrong with that trade, I was “smitten” myself about 10 years ago, and I still am (yes, the same woman if you really need to be so bastos as to ask ;-) .  I even married her just to make sure some other guy didn’t try to steal her away.  being “smitten” with a Filipina sweetheart has been a very good thing to me.

Bob sells a lot of gifts.  Some of them are quite innovative.  I visited his headquarters, idea and design st6udio and logistics hub down in Davao City and I saw a number of gift items that really impressed me with their thoughtfulness and value.

Custom Song service But Bob doesn’t have this.  At least not yet, anyway.  My-Song.ca has the perfect gift for the person who has it all! Order Now! This is a really neat service that just popped up on one of the advertising networks I partner with.  It’s run by a couple fellows in Toronto, Canada who are music professionals and wanted a way to make a go of the music business without the typical path of trying to become the next American Idol.

For about $200 USD they will custom craft an original song, professionally record it and package it, making a absolutely unique, completely one-of-a-kind gift for the person you love.  (actually, it doesn’t have to be one that you love.  I laughed like crazy when I read on their website that they had been commissioned to write and produce a song by a fellow who was undergoing a divorce and not too happy about it, called the “Divorce Song”)

To understand why I am taken by this idea, you really have to understand just how important music is here in the Philippines.  Including corny love songs from 40 years ago, and how deeply appreciated gifts having the personal touch, as in from the heart, are.  You go to a birthday party, for example, and the stereo is going to be blasting.  And it will not be long before the obligatory “Magic Sing” comes out and everyone will find out who can sing and who can’t … because typically, all will sing.  I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, really, but I’m surprised by how much I enjoy it too.  And I have a couple nieces … they’re not bad, let me tell you, not bad at all.  You have a special pamangking with a birthday soon? Exciting sweet sixteen. Give the gift of song from My-Song.ca!.

And of course many of the fellows who get “smitten” eventually wind up proposing.  Always a big event.  nerve wracking.  Leaves a guy feeling goofy.  How to arrange it?  What to say?  may I suggest: Propose to her in style with a song from My-Song.ca! She will never forget it, I can assure you of that.  If it is possible to be too romantic in Filipina matters of the heart, I am not aware of it.  Do something special and you’ll be remembered.  Anyone can send roses ….

OK, enough flogging for the day.  Next post back to how you can make money in the Philippines.

Of course this post wasn’t at all about how you can make money in the Philippines.  Or was it?  Remember the disclaimer above when I said I am typically teaching even when I don’t say i am teaching?  There is a ton of musical talent in the Philippines.  There are a ton of romantic, song-oriented people.  Compared to the cost and shipping issues of a Canadian company in this market, I don’t see a single reason in the world why someone couldn’t set up a competing service using talent, studios, recording artists etc. here in the Philippines, no matter where the business owner chose to live. 

Did any of you see that opportunity pitch coming?  Sometimes you8 can learn a lot by trying to sell something, or even by reading ads.

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