Well for those of you who hate posts about making a living in the Philippines, especially making a living in the Philippines on line, or supplemented by the online world, this will likely be another post you don’t enjoy. Sorry about that, I write when I’m “in the mood” and this is what I’m “Moody” about today.
If you think I’m somewhat unidimensional from the impression you have of me, you ought to see the view from inside my head … it’s absolutely flat as a billiard table from inside here at times.
It’s really hard for me to believe how many people make a living without the power of the ‘Net in today’s world, and it’s even more of a surprise to see those who succeed do so in spite of their on-line efforts rather than becuase of them.
If you feel you’ll never be doing anything to make money online in your life, that’s ok, read along, becuase for sure you’ll run into a friend or relative here in the Philippines who does want to and I’m going to reveal a couple of elemental truths that everyone can use.
I’ve been having a discussion with several online associates about the importance of responding to people on the web, and I recently had a prime example when someone whose site I had featured in a write up here on PhilFAQS months ago left me a comment.
Now the fact it took that person months to respond is neither here nor there. I’m not writing because my nose is out of joint about not getting instant gratification. I wrote about a lot of people and sites who never respond … that’s almost the norm … and the fact it is almost the norm is what today’s message is about.
Here’s the bottom line suggestion I have for anyone interested in people, money or both:
photo credit: kimberlyfaye
Number One … answer your email. In the Philippines, especially, this is a huge, huge problem which costs millions of dollars ayear in lost revenue.
I know more than one fellow foreigner who was ready to come to the Philippines for a visit or to invest here and then decided to go elsewhere becuase no hotel, airline, ferry company or real estate agent would answer his email.
Folks, answering an email is free. And it can lead to money, publicity or friendship.
Years back when I first started this blog I picked 100 sites that were in my folder of “Useful Philippine websites” and asked the owner (when I could find contact information that is) to write me back if they would like their site featured on this blog. Free. No strings attached. Want to know how many bothered to return my email?
Yep. Zero. If I had a dollar for every time I have heard a friend trying to get a blog started complain about no one coming to his/her site, I’d be as rich as people think I am 
I’ve been working with people who want to visit and or move to the Philippines for more than 8 years now. A lot of things have changed, but one thing stays the same. Filipino businesses just do not answer emails.
Second, the related issue that got me going today. If you have a standard blog, a ‘brochure’ type website, an ecommerce site or anything else on line you can find out who is linking to you.
If someone links top you it is a tremendous vote of confidence in their eyes (and in Google’s automated ranking scheme) and it makes good sense to link back to them, and to thank them persoanlly for noticing you and linkinmg to you.
Once again, it’s free. And you know they are not total strangers you have to be shy of … they are the ones who took the initiative to get in touch to begin with.
What could be easier or more welcome than a note to let them know their work was appreciated?
I link, on average, to at least 50 Philippine-oriented sites per year … at least one a week. Do you know how many site operators/bloggers ever even notice? Almost no one.
I guess they all have more traffic/on line collegues than they can deal with. I surely don’t.
You blog/web site can tell you a _lot_ about where your visitors and business is coming from, if you let it.
Some people ask me if I don’t often feel lonely and isolated, living here in the Philipines so far from my native country. My answer is, I’m better connected in many ways than ever before … but I didn’t get that way by ignoring links and emails.
Hi Philly, We have had the same frustrations when trying to get a response from many filipino websites. When we were furnishing our house from afar at first, I can’t tell you how many businesses that we contacted with interest to purchase or learn more about their products or hardware or furniture. that just never responded. My husband thought that maybe they set up a website and then never paid attention to it. Links to websites also I think are a real way of getting your product out to a broader audience.
Another observation– even pertaining to some ex-pat websites besides your own, I notice that they often only respond only to select readers and responders and often do not stay on-topic during a post. Isn’t that a way of alienating your audience also or am I missing the point? The sharing of information and insights is much more interesting to me and that is why I think you “practice what you preach”. Your readers and responders always interest me because it is the nature of the way you operate your site. Do all websites aim to attract a certain audience for different reasons? I’m pretty new to visiting ex-pat websites in general so maybe I’m not understanding of the workings of different sites.
@ Queenie … Thanks for the kind words. As to why people have the goals they have with their websites/blogs/ I really can’t say. I think many _have_ no goal ,,, certainly I kind of fit in that category. Some days I get to thinking I should have a goal … then other times that just sounds like work
It really is, for sure, that there are a lot of returning OFW’s and returning Phil-Foreign couples who can’t find ways online to spend their money …. a lot of opportunities are being passed by becuase of a reluctance to take advantage of the ‘Net, that’s for sure.
Hi Philly,
I must say you “practice what you preach”! You’ve replied to all of my emails and offered good advice.
By the way, on both my trips down there I never experienced a “private” outfit that did not reply to my emails. I won’t comment on “Philippine government” sites – not one answer. Cebu Airlines – not one answer, but their booking website worked well.
The country is desperate for tourism but does nothing to help.
Glad your experience was better thna mine, John. Here’s a good example. I went to a hotel’s web site. It looked like what I wanted so I booked two rooms. The hotel used a booking agency in the UK. Charged me $38 USD which turned out not yo be any sort of downpayment, just a fee, to me, for using my Visa card.
The day before we were to vist the hotel I had heard nothing, so I called the hotel, front desk answered and confirmed that my reservations had been in their computer since the day I made them.
While at the hotel I chatted with the general manager and asked him why there had been no notice of confirmation, no thank you note, etc. I also asked why they didn’t have their own credit card merchant account and collect te money directly. Response? “Oh sir, we Filipinos would feel it was intrusive to confirm reservations in that way and foreigners don’t want to talk to Filipinos”. Huh!? How do you think I wound up marrying one? LoL. I’m convinced alot of the problem rests in a kind of inferiority complex … more practical examples of culture shock. To a foreigner not getting an email response is frustrating, bordering at least, on rudeness. To a Filipino responding to the foreigner’s email directly is too blunt or too bold, so the standoff continues.
Hi Dave – the email thing in the Philippines is very frustrating. As is the fact that a number of businesses don’t have a website, or if they do they don’t have a way to make reservations at a hotel/resort. I could not believe how difficult it was to book a place to stay, and for that matter make my airline reservations on Cebu Pacific, that last time we came. That was true of Manila and Davao.
Of course if I wanted to stay at an expensive place, I would have had a lot less trouble
I think we have enough contacts now that it won’t be a problem in the future. Cebu Pacific still needs to get it together, though.
Agree completely. The beauty of the ‘Net is, even the tinest business has enough budget to use it. The We R Inn in Davao is a good examaple. becuase I’ve written about it, I get hundreds of quesries per year for information on the place. It would cost them nothing at all to set up an email; and a web site onb sonmething free like Google Pages … one page of info is fine … and they could take reservations by email and/or fax. Just based on the searches my little site gets they are passing up hundreds of potential guests per year. Boggles the mind. When I visited they seemed like nice folks, but they didn’t give me the impression they were overloaded with too much business.
One of Cebu Pacific’s problems is, they identify theimselevs to credit card companies as “Cebu Air Telephone” … apparently short for Cebu Air Telephone Reservation desk. Last time I treid to book two tickets with them my credit card was declined. They, Cebu Pacific, didn’t bother telling me that, I had to call the fraud department of my credit card issuer to find out why the sale didn’t go through. The lady at the fraud department reviewed my account and said, “We did put a hold on that sir, we thought it was strange you were trying to charge more than $400USD worth of phone calls.”
When I explained what the charge was about, she instantly approved it, stating “If we had known that was an airline the charge would have gone through in a heartbeat. Wow, it’s amazing you can buy two air tickets for so little. You’re lucky to live there in the Philippines.” Indeed I am, when I don’t need to use my credit card
There’s a well know money transfer service which loses a lot of buisness becuase they code their transactions as a grocery store charge and naturally many credit card vendors issue a ’tilt’ when you try to charge $1000USD in what seesm to be a grocery store.
This stuff isn’t rocket science. If I can figure it out, why can’t a multi-million dollar business figure it out for themselves as well. I would guess Cebu Pacific gets thousands pf ‘declines’ per month. And does nothing to follow up on the lost business. You know Visa and Mastercard _want_ to approve charges … it’s the only way they make money … why frustrate them by calling an airline a telephone service?
Hi Dave, there’s a good business – go around the businesses and give them links to all the comments about them – the bad ones. Then turn around and present to them what you can do – to solve it.
I feel the same way – but here, it takes time to educate them. To give them the benefit of the doubt, the businesses hire webmasters. They are the ones who can access the analytics. Most times they don’t bother to inform their clients. The clients don’t know because they are not computer literate for one and depend solely on the the webmaster.
I provided links too – and never get any thanks. Some even don’t want you to provide links.
You’re a mindreader. Mita and I have thought about that sort of idea several times in the past … as you pointe dout, though, the issue is education. It’s also a case of letting your ‘cheap’ overcome good sense in some cases.
I have an online freind from Singapore. He is a hard-charging MMO (Make Money Online) sort of guy. He’s done pretty well, makes $6 or $8,000 USD per month and gets thousands of visotrs per day. Becuase he markets directly to ‘newbies’ he of cours egets thousands of ‘please help me’ emails per month. He compmais often about the workload invloved with keeping up with that email load … yet he’s a PITA (Pain In The A**) tp do business with at times becuase he doesn’t keep up … he opften doesn’t respond for weeks, or long after a sales opportunity has passed.
Every single one of those ‘help mes’ is ap[otentila sale for something, now or in the future. How many go away and never come back. You can hire a good clerical assistant in Singapore for less that $700 USD a month. Why not hire one and let him/her screen all the emails and filter them .. and send sales letters where appropriate. That person could easily earn 5 or ten times his/her monthly cvost. better yet, pay a base salary plus commission on sales made.
My friend’s answer? “Oh Dave I can’t afford it,” Sounds to me as if he can’t afford not to, but then what do I know
Hahaha – PITA? never heard of that before. Really this shortening of words here into letters makes me look foolish because I don’t understand what they are saying. All government forms are told to me in LETTERs. I ask questions in order to learn the system and this is how they answer me – “you need a CLS, then a SNP letter which you have to take to the SPC.” So Dave, try educating the Filipinos with Letters. Maybe they will understand better.
I know what you mean. When I worked foer the Air Fprce I thought we were addicted to acronyms, but compared to the Philippines we were hardly out of diapers.
An afternoon or two ago I flipped on the TV to see if I could see what was up with the Euro Generals … no acronym for that yet I guess, and everything was on and on about CARP. CARP? After a lot of work I found out the first two letters stand for Compulsory Acquisition … which gives not the slightest clue that it’s really about agricultural land redistribution. Who knew?
You’re right about the education idea, maybe I should start a training couse on AYFEM … Answer Your E-Mail … maybe it would catch on.