You just have to hand it to Yuga, a.k.a Abe Olandres. He’s currently giving away prizes. All one needs to do to get a chance to win is just to link up his blog. It's a wise move in more ways than one, heheh.
For those of you who don’t know who Yuga of Yugatech is, he’s only one of the most prominent, if not THE most prominent of the SEO trailblazers in my country. He’s currently the Main Man on the scene, and the way I see it, seems like everything he touches turns to gold.
As I said, this promo of his is a shrewd business move in more ways than one.
For one, it brings good PR. I believe that Yuga seems to be a good guy. I have yet to come across a bad blog post about him, after all. Though I don’t know him personally, I already admire him for being a fellow Ilonggo and a trailblazer and leader-of-the-pack in this world of pro-blogging in the Philippines. This promo of his made him all the more respectable, in my book, because this shows generosity.
But you have to admit, this promo of his brings more than PR. It actually has several, absolutely sensible moneymaking strategies attached to it.
1) It actually promotes his own company, plogHost.com in a win-win way. While it may seem like he just threw away a year’s worth of hosting for two clients, which translates to revenue his way, in the world of shrewd business strategies, it’s actually much like a Bishop being put out to set the scene for a “checkmate”: the two winners of his promo may get a year free, but if they like the hosting plan they got, and would like to stay on, then Yuga wins for years to come.
2) If the winners like the hosting plan (so far I’m liking the speed with which the sites hosted on Yuga load), then he promotes it to his friends! What’s more, Yuga may ask for a linkie or credits back to ploghost, which is more than a fair del. Ergo, advertisement and promotion galore!
3) The many people who will be linkie linkie-ing up his promo post and the two sponsors, Auction.ph and his own company, plogHost.com, will be giving them so much link love, they’ll rise up the ranks of Google results.
4) The many links and the consequent hits back to his site will generate more AdSense credits.
So is it shrewd or is it SHREWD?!
You just gotta hand it to Yuga! ;)
But his disclosure made the promo all the more credible and it showed his integrity. ;) Rock on, Yuga!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
New Year Raffle
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Bosses vs. Clients and Other Career Craziness
Busy busy busy! I think my new title as "Blog Empress" is an understatement. I am moving into a new role with one boss, and downplaying my role with another boss.. Because of an article I read, I realized that God wanted to be my BOSS now. He wouldn't want it any other way, and so I am going to treat the people I work for as clients, and no longer bosses. There is a huge difference actually. With a boss, you actually allow him to treat you like a peon, ordering you around and stuff. I had always taken pride in giving more than what is asked of me as regards my job, and sometimes, it becomes an unrequited, unrewarded gesture. But starting last night, I realized that I am on equal ground with my bosses now, if I choose to be.
Let's face it, they need me. I need them too. It's all a quid pro deal, because without me, they will not be able to produce content; without them, I wouldn't have gotten a start in this industry.
While before I allowed myself to be ordered around and the only way I can express my irritation at the workload was to be passive-aggressive and not submit on time, I guess it's time to grow up, be professional, and not need them. I have to keep remembering that my God is my provider, and not them. I have to keep remembering that no matter what, He is my boss and not them.
So, starting last night, I decided that I will be not needing my "main boss". If he decides to go for the proposal I have in mind wherein I do not have to meet a quota and will work as I please, no matter how many articles I pass or not, then I'm good. If not, then I may have to leave.
A business cannot run without its workers. I wonder why bosses and businessmen keep forgetting that.
My mother kept telling me the last time we talked that I should gear into managing other writers, farming out my work..
NO. I am not a manager, and though I want to take management courses, I do not want to be one. I want to have my time to myself and not care if some underling/minion/peon of my own wouldn't submit on time. If *I* didn't want to submit on time, it would be MY problem, not anyone else's.
I had tried to manage my cousins before, and I tell you, it's not a pretty sight. The fact that you have some of the same genes running around your bloodstream isn't a pretty thought when you are at the point when you realize that even some of your bad work ethics are theirs too. I love them both to bits, but on that week, I have to say that I was tearing my hair out secretly.
Frankly, it was my fault that the project has turned into a pain in my behind today. To have involved my cousins with that irritation (the project) was both a blessing and a mistake. But it showed me that I do not want to be stressed out with managing anyone else.
Though this sounds so clerk-mentality, this is actually more of the geek mentality wherein I would rather wake up, turn on my computer, work a bit, then go to chores, work some more, chat with people, talk with Porky, work some more, then go to sleep. (Yes, there are days when I avoid God. Today is one of them. :p)
And yet I had felt the need to create a "massive passive income," to quote an Internet Marketer's e-book title. Passive income is income wherein you just leave it there, and it works for you. THAT is what I want. Not the headache of timing someone else's deadline.
Passive income, in the real-world sense, is all about stocks, mutual funds, investments that you can leave running without needing to micromanage. But Passive Income on the Internet means AdSense, Revver, and Affiliate Programs.
Passive Income on the 'Net is sooo much more fun: because it's FREE. Like AdSense. You set up your AdSense account with a Google Account login, set up your blogs with AdSense, and watch as the cents turn into dollars.
Revver is much like YouTube, wherein videos are hosted. But there is a twist: you get paid for your activity there.
There are so many possibilities and I want to explore them all. That is why I need to break free of the employee/manager mentality and keep moving into going solo. So that when I am flat on my back, 9 months pregnant, my revenue can still come in, and Porky will have something more to dip into in case of craziness. :p
So yeah, take it from Colayco, Kiyosaki, and all them finance experts: you need to create a bigger monetary income influx than your expenses.
And take it from God: sow seed and invest in people. Now THIS investment would yield returns in hundredfolds. ;)
Credits: Kuya David, Internet Marketers, my bosses, LC Saul for the book, and Francisco Colayco and Robert Kiyosaki. :)
Edit: I forgot my linkies! Eep!
http://urltea.com/2chs << quick veggie recipe
http://urltea.com/2chq << appliance essentials
http://urltea.com/2chx << I want a HappySlip DVD.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Funny Equations
ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy
______________________________
OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime
_____________________________
SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs.
A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item that she doesn't need.
_____________________________
GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
_____________________________
HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a
little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to
understand her at all.
______________________________
LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more
willing to die.
_____________________________
DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
_____________________________
HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and
cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing
the same thing to them at funerals.
From Romeo Torreta
Online Selling: Keeping Sales Secure
Selling online is a lucrative way to make more money, apart from what you already do. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, you may soon find that more sales get pulled in through your online business arm, than your brick-and-mortar business. The Internet is a great avenue to conduct business, and the possibilities only expand with time.
Keeping your online sales secure is an important point that no one would want to miss. Consider the losses and the opportunity costs when you seal a deal and it goes bad. I have been guilty of being a bad customer before, though those incidents were purely unintentional. Because of my experiences, I learned a couple of things:
- Make sure I have the cash on hand when I want to buy something.
- I should never commit if I’m not sure I can pay for the item if the seller says “yes” to a date.
But as a would-be seller, I believe I have learned a couple of things too:
- I shouldn’t let my life depend on what I am about to sell.
- If the buyer of my item keeps extending the date, I would extend the utmost patience, but give an ample time frame of around a month.
I think that as a seller, you should keep a couple of things in mind when conducting business online:
- Conduct your businesses with integrity, no ifs or buts.
- Always abide by the rules of the web marketplace you are a member of.
- Keep all legalities in place, including disclaimers. The FTC is now making sure that consumers are protected. So make sure you follow rule #1.
- As much as possible, do meetups. Or else, if you’re selling to someone whose geographical distance makes a meetup impossible, get his/her payment first and send your customer the item in the best condition, and as you advertised it. Again, refer to rule #1.
- Don’t be afraid to hurt sales by declaring the condition of your item in all honesty. It will save you from gaining a bad reputation later if your customer was surprised to get a bum item when he/she expected only the best.
To wrap up, every business done online is incumbent on however you conducted it. Remember that when you are less than filled with integrity when you are selling, you only risk harming your business. Besides, a crook will never prosper. :p
For the intro post to this, see my other money making bloggie. :p
Read More......
When It Comes to Making Money...
We need to tithe.
So many testimonies abound on how God reveals His glory when His people tithe, and yet even I wasn't convinced of the need to tithe when greed got into me time and again.
I had learned that back in UPLB, when I would tithe faithfully, money flowed like a river, and it affected not only me, but my parents too. At that time when I was tithing to the letter, and not coincidentally, it was one of those times when their savings was at its peak.
It was all blown like chaff to the wind, however, when I had my psychotic episode that year.
Because of external influences and my personal materialism, I had trouble learning to trust God with my tithes again. Ten percent seemed to be much too steep for comfort.
Until these past three months, God had been more relentless with emphasizing that I give my tithes.
Last week, I got unexpected blessing when, after I finally paid the back tithes since my biggest folly, the hundred-page e-book fiasco, one of my bosses (not the main boss) finally forked over the months-old back pay that I was owed by the company I write for. Of course I rejoiced.
But I missed the mark again when I held back Php 200. I wanted the book so badly. I learned from it, but I should have given my tithe.
And so a week of hunger and lack ensued again.
So this week, when I got my last salary from my main boss, I tithed everything I owed Porky last week to stop the curse on his finances, and I tithed my Php 200 plus the week's salary.
You know what I got in return?
Not even twelve hours after I tithed, my mom announced she got in the same essay writing site I work for.
Then just yesterday, Porky belatedly announced that he and his bro got another wedding gig in Bora. Then, glory of glories, my main boss decided to waive the penalty that was actually part of the deal we made. That penalty is Php 500 a day. And I'm supposedly Php 1500 delayed now. :p
Then today, I got my salary for my November posts for a blog that I worked for! Totally unexpected!
Here is the Haggai verse that chilled me enough to tithe:
Haggai 1:4-11 (New International Version)
4-11 "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."
Porky was actually the one who found that, on the Bible that I had painstakingly installed on his cellphone. Here is the original text that scared me enough to tithe:
‘You expected a large harvest, but instead there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house!
We were both convicted because he prioritized my hunger/lack of money over tithing, and I was prioritizing my stuff (which I bought to save money, except for the book!) instead of God. So I tithed.
I can't remember when I found this Isaiah passage, but I think it was on the same day I got rid of my tithe:
Isaiah 57:17-18
17 I was enraged by his sinful greed;
I punished him, and hid my face in anger,
yet he kept on in his willful ways.
18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will guide him and restore comfort to him.
A part of me is driven by fear. But I am just allowing God to change my heart as regards to money, tithing and spending.
All I know now is that:
1) I need to tithe no matter what. So because Victory does not have a PayPal account yet, I am sticking to tithing to ministries that have PayPal accounts, because I just have to release my tithe before anything else I do with my money.
2) God is adamant and vehement about financial discipline. And it starts with tithing. Now if only there is a way to keep me from going crazy with the money the moment it's in my hands.
I wrote this to encourage those who are not convinced of the need to tithe. Malachi 3:10-12, the first verse on tithing that convicted me and stuck with me since, sums it up perfectly:
Malachi 3:10-12 (New International Version)
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.
Not convinced? Wait till God sends "pests on your grain". :p
*Please pray for me that I will grasp the need to and how to go about paying taxes next. Thanks!*
Kudos to:
http://www.biblegateway.com (For all the NIV quotes and other translations save for the GNB/TEV and the NET Bible quotes. :D For the Good News Bible/Today's English Version, go to http://bible.crosswalk.com :D)
http://www.bible.org (Home of the New English Translation, NET Bible)
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