EarnPinoy.com Filipinos’ Source of Information on Earning Extra Income Online and Others

Blogging for Pinoys

It has been ten years since blogging marked its debut in the online industry and not far behind, Filipinos started doing it. Filipinos have become abreast of the blogging trend because blogging has brought a revolutionized way for Filipinos to express their inert creativity in writing. To many, it has served as a way to earn additional income. It was estimated that there are 2 million Filipino bloggers in the country.This number is still low compare to the number of Filipinos who has a Friendster account. The Manila Times reported in January that Philippines has the world’s most number of Friendster users, with 10.7 million Filipinos accounting for the 58 million all over the world registered with this online social network. The Philippine Blog Award 2 has proved that there is really a great number of talented Pinoys that do blog.

I have enumerated below some reasons why blogging is a better alternative in using your time:

• It serves as an outlet. The blog is a good means to self expression. It has a natural therapeutic effect.
• It provides a useful tool for engaging with other technologies. The technology needed in starting a blog is fairly simple to use, for a newbie you can opt to using free blogs from WordPress or Blogger. Once you get familiar with the process and your blog has a momentum you can start exploring by adding new technologies that enhance your blog.
• It forces you to read. Blogging does not mean claiming that you know anything just to have a credibility in writing. it is best every now and then to research on topics that you are interested to blog.
• It connects you to others. The blog provides a way to easily communicate with other people. When you write you expresses your feelings, ideas, personality, your orientation, values and even your lifestyle. Blogs allow others to relate with you and comment on your posts thus, opening your connection horizons. Blogs also allow you to insert pictures and other media to share with others.
• It can develop leadership. Writers who are good at their craft develop readerships and followers. They tend to trust your perception, thoughts, rants and opinions and you become the thought leader. You become expert in your specific field or market and you are able to influence others to think the same way as you do.
• It creates an opportunity to earn. Blogging is a tool because of which you can learn new things, evolve yourself, build relationships, help others learn and experience this. The other side of it is that you can get compensated from your efforts. Monetizing from your blog serves as an additional motivation for spending time on writing, and maintaining your blog. What you should not do is to focus on it instead of creating contents that benefits your readers from.

Whatever reason you may have when you start blogging is up for you to keep but the best thing is to actually start DOING IT.

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How to Start a Catering Service Business

• The first part of your business system should include your Catering Business menu. This is the food that you will supply to your customers. What type of food/cuisine will you offer to your customer? Are you going to have a constant menu that never changes or are you going to change your menu monthly, weekly or daily? If you don’t have a background in cooking or if you want to be able to get more creative and exotic, you may want to look into cooking classes at a local community college or even a culinary college. You may be able to find a culinary college that offers classes in catering business management. Being able to attend those types of classes, as well as cooking classes would be beneficial and relieve a lot of stress. Once you have your training, certifications, insurance, and you have complied with the local Health Department and any other government regulations, you are ready to finalize what catering services you will provide and the associated fees. The best way to get this information is to contact some local caters. Find out what they offer and their fees. Do the same with any restaurants that offer catering services.

• The second part should include all of the equipment you will need to operate your Catering Business. This part should also include the day to day operations and the maintenance that should be done on your equipment. This part should also include the preventive maintenance on this equipment, as well.

• The third part of your Catering Business Plan should include how you will run the day to day operations of your Catering Business.

• The fourth part of your Catering Business Plan will be about the way you will deliver your menu items to your customers. Are you going to have your customers pick them up, or are you going to deliver? or Are you going to provide a full service of catering and delivery and serving as well?

• The fifth part of your Catering Business Plan is that, you are going to have to figure out how you are going to pay for your catering business. Are you going to self finance it or are you going to borrow the money from your friends and family? Or are you going to use your credit cards? Are you going to obtain financing from a bank?

• The sixth part of your Business Plan is figuring out where your Catering Business will be located. Are you going to start it out of your home? Or are you going to rent or lease a business location? Are you going to buy a building for your business?

LEGALIZE YOUR BUSINESS

When you start a catering company you will be required to have many licenses and certifications, and must adhere to Health Department regulations. You will need to contact your local Health Department for the specific regulations, certifications, licenses, and insurance information for your area. The Health Department also usually requires an inspection of the area to be used for your catering business. You also need to decide what brand name will you use for your services, you can check the availability of your chosen business name from DTI BNRS .

PRICING YOUR CATERING SERVICE

In setting your price you have to carefully study your market; your competitor and your costs. Of all these three variables, the only controllable factor is your cost. The quality you set for the product you sell determines the cost of your production. Supply source plays a big role in your cost management.

Another factor is your target market. Most high end restaurants are charging high price for their menu, I am sure you would not believe that that is the actual cost of their food. The truth is you are paying for the brand. A price of a coffee in Starbucks is almost 350% higher than a cup of coffee in Jollibee or Dunkin. But why would you buy a highly overpriced product when you can have the same quality at a lesser price? The answer is: the all too expensive product image.

Competition also has a great impact in your pricing. You can choose whether to set your price higher, lower or same with competition. Any one of these options have different implications to your business and you have to study carefully before casting your decision.

Price of catering service is usually set through package or by bundle pricing. Customers may want to have everything in just one appointment. For example in wedding, you should have a package that includes wedding cake, giveaways, flower arrangement or dove. The bundled package should look attractive to your prospective client; taste test is encouraged if you really have great tasting menus. You should be able to determine what may entice your target market to buy from you and not from another catering service provider.

PROMOTING YOUR CATERING BUSINESS

Marketing of any business can seem almost impossible. However, you have many options. You can write a press release for local newspapers and radio stations. You can offer your catering services to fund-raising events. You can invite wedding and event planners to a tasting of some of your food. If they know your work, they are more likely to hire you. Once you get your catering business name into the community, your best advertisement will be word of mouth.

FULL IMMERSION

The last step is to do it. Whether it is just part time or full immersion, remember that through all the hard work that in the long run it will be worth all the effort. People will always need catering services. The potential for growth in this industry is unlimited. There is always room for one more catering business to share the wealth.

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Pinoy Tutorial in Starting a Small Business

The tightening economic condition around the world has greatly affected almost every Filipino family’s limited budget. Increases on the prices of basic commodities have made the humble “Juan Dela Cruz” cry for a change. Even Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW)  are potentially facing job losses, thanks to the global down turn.  Please watch this video:

Hence, instead of complaining and ranting about life’s hardship, we can help ourselves by doing business that increase family earnings. Doing business is also a good option for OFW’s who may go home with some hard earned savings.  The big question is what business to start? How to do it? and wIll it give me good income to support my family? In this tutorial let me provide you the easy steps in starting your small business.

1. Key Decisions to Make
2. What Steps to Take
3. Key Skills to Apply
4. What it means to be called a “Businessman”?

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On the News: Facebook, Twitter in talks but no deal

Are you aware of this? Look what i found….. Facebook, the fast-growing social network, offered to purchase micro-blogging service Twitter for 500 million dollars in stock but the talks broke down over price,  AllThingsD.com reported Monday.

“Several weeks of serious talks” about a purchase of Twitter by privately held Facebook began in mid-October but broke down about three weeks ago, said the website which covers technology, media and the Internet.

AllThingsD quoted “sources on both sides” as saying the 500 million dollar bid was an all-stock offer based on the 15-billion-dollar valuation of Facebook from Microsoft’s purchase of a 1.6-percent stake in the company for 240 million dollars in October 2007.

“The Twitter side felt that figure was inflated and the shares should be valued at the lower figures that have also been reported for Facebook’s true valuation, more in the five billion dollar range,” it said.

“That would have given the deal a 150 million dollar price tag, which was seen as too low, especially since it was in Facebook stock and not cash,” AllThingsD added.

It said the San Francisco-based Twitter wanted cash or Facebook stock at an even lower valuation than five billion dollars.

Twitter’s investors and executives were also reluctant to sell, AllThings D said, because they still hope to build a revenue model for the service, which is wildly popular but has yet to develop an income stream.

“Facebook has its own revenue-generating challenges,” AllThingsD quoted one person close to the company as saying. “As much as Twitter would give them a lift in the status area, it was still a worry.”

Twitter claims six million users of its service, which allows users to send short messages known as “tweets” of 140 characters or less.

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What is a Blog?

The blogging activity has increased in the past several years and on it attracts more and more people. Basically, one must understand the meaning of it in order to create one, so I have compiled answer to question “what is a blog?” and “what are the types of blog?” I gather these data from wikipedia and other sources, I have listed them here for your easy reading. Here it is:

A blog is a shortened of the “word web log” meaning to maintain or add content on a website. It is usually maintained by an individual to make regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Most blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject like for example the upcoming fight between Manny “pacman” Pacquiao and Oscar Dela Hoya on December 6 in las Vegas. Many bloggers will comment about it, Im sure. Others use blog as more personal like an online diary. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.There are many different types of Blog and the purpose and content vary as well:

Types of Blog

Personal Blogs

The personal blog is an online diary of an individual, it is the most traditional and the most common type of blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Personal bloggers tend to share their life with their readers and seek comments or reactions from them.

Corporate Blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Entries to this type of blog includes product launching, seminar updates, awards and recognitions received, etc.

Question Blogging

is a type of that answers questions. Questions can be submitted in the form of a submittal form, or through email or other means such as telephone or VOIP. Qlogs can be used to display shownotes from podcasts or the means of conveying information through the internet. Many question logs use syndication such as RSS as a means of conveying answers to questions.

By Media Type

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.

A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog. Phlog is the easiest way to share photos from your mobile, iphone or digital camera.

By Device

Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.

By Genre

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Splogs are blogs where the articles are fake, and are only created for search engine spamming.

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Pinoys Can Also Earn Money Online

The internet provides us a 24/7 chance to earn. It does not necessarily mean you have to be awake 24/7.  What I want to emphasize is that if you can harness this nonstop medium, why not make it worth your while. If you can spend hours playing online games or beautifying your Friendster Layout, MySpace, Tagged, etc. You can also allocate sometime doing this dollar earning activity. What made it better is that you can be able to see results almost immediately or at least within a week.

What I am talking about is the Hits4Pay program. A good way to earn extra income just by reading emails.  I choose Hits4Pay because they offer the best sign on bonus, $10 as a thank you for joining. The site pays out well enough, imagine earning 2 cents for every email that you read. It may not be impressive but if you are able to refer others to do the same, your earnings would add up real fast. Just imagine if you have 1000 members, so if they average 65 emails each that’s $650 in your account plus the measly $1.30 you earn directly. Now that’s making money the easy way.

Getting people to become a member under you is the easy part, you just tell people that when they join they get $10 in their account instantly as a thank you reward. You can send them pre-outlined emails that have links to the site or place a referral ad if you have your own website.  Your ad could look like:

Sign Up Now And Get $10 In Your Account In An Instant, Refer Others And Get Your Advertising FREE. Do It Now!

After joining you will periodically receive emails to a specified email account. These emails are essentially ads for which you are paid. Similar to a traffic exchange only you earn money instead of credits. You view these ads for a few seconds then your account is instantly credited. Just make sure you whitelisted their IP’s so that your Hits4Pay emails will not go to spam.

Simple right? Start now and earn money to spend for the Christmas season!

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C Stock Falling Down, Falling Down

C Stock is falling down, falling down; there goes the famous lyrics in a nursery rhyme. As conflicting reports surfaced Thursday over whether the banking giant was mulling options, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week; Citigroup customers are at panic, rushing to sell their c stocks.

The Citigroup Stock slides below $4. a share this Friday, after an initial lift from a report that said the banking giant was considering a sale to rebuild investor confidence. Internal discussions are at a preliminary stage and don’t signal that Citigroup’s Board and management are backing down from their insistence that the New York company has ample capital, funding and strategic direction.

But as no hard news emerged from the company about that possibility, Citigroup’s shares tumbled below $4 a share to their lowest level in more than 15 years, continuing a sharp, week-long plunge that could not be stemmed by Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s decision Thursday to raise his stake in the company to 5 percent from less than 4 percent.

The shares have shed 60 percent of their value since last Friday.

A call that CEO Vikram Pandit and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden held Friday morning with senior managers at the bank offered nothing new about a shift in strategy for the company.

People familiar with the call, who spoke anonymously because the comments during the call were not made public, said that Pandit’s message was similar to that at his town hall meeting with employees on Monday — that Citigroup has adequate capital, and that he supports the universal bank model.

Still, the people said the call, which lasted about half an hour, did not rule any option out.

“It’s clear everything is on the table. That wasn’t explicit, but I think it’s clear,” one person said.

Citigroup is considered the most vulnerable among the major U.S. banks, failing to turn a profit in the past four quarters when rivals such as New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Charlotte’s Bank of America Corp. managed to do so.

Concerns are growing that the deteriorating economy and still-turbulent markets will slam Citigroup with more write-downs in the coming quarters. What began as a subprime residential mortgage crisis has ballooned into a full-blown debt crisis, escalating defaults in everything from leveraged loans to credit card debt to commercial real estate loans.

The bank has been rushing to get leaner and wind down its assets backed by risky debt. On Monday, Citigroup said it will cut 53,000 jobs, on top of 22,000 cuts previously announced. Then on Wednesday, the bank said it is acquiring the remaining $17.4 billion in assets held by complex debt products known as structured investment vehicles that it previously ran off its balance sheet.

Do you have money in Citibank or Citigroup? How do you feel about their current financial situation? Please share your thoughts on the comment area.

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Pinoys to enjoy Extended Christmas Holidays

The upcoming yuletide season brings a different feeling of rush to Filipinos. Malls are congested with people as companies started to give Christmas bonus and 13^th Month benefits. Here is a good news, Filipinos will enjoy a long holiday in December as Malacañang declared two days - which are wedged between a weekend and a regular holiday - as special non-working holidays, a radio report said.

With this, the following days in Decembers are officially declared holidays:

• December 1 (in lieu of the Bonifacio Day on November 30),
• December 25, Christmas Day (regular holiday),
• December 26 (special non-working holiday),
• December 29 (special non-working holiday), and
• December 30, Rizal Day (regular holiday).

December 27 and 28 fall on a Saturday and on a Sunday, respectively.

Malacañang has also earlier declared December 31 as a “last day of the year” special holiday, which will be followed by another the New Year holiday on January 1. Hence, Pinoys will have more time to shop and enjoy the Yuletide season with their loved ones as Christmas is the most festive holidays among Filipinos.

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How To Keep a Budget

Creating a budget isn’t difficult. All you need to do is spend some time organizing and planning. Once it’s set up, a budget can be easy to maintain. Just follow the steps below to help with your budget planning.

Step 1: Set your goals

The first thing you need to do is identify your goals - a new home, early retirement, even an education. You can group your goals into three areas: short-term, mid-term and long-term financial goals. Ask yourself: What’s important to me? What do I need? What do I want? Your answers to these questions will help define your goals. If you’re married, you and your spouse should discuss your answers and decide what your shared goals will be. Then write down those goals. Once you know what you want, you can begin to budget accordingly.

• Short-term goals: These are goals that you’ll achieve within the next year, give or take a few months. They may include paying off credit card dues, purchasing a new television or refrigerator, or saving for a vacation.
• Mid-term goals: These are goals that you want to achieve in the next two or five years. For example, you may want to save for a downpayment on a house or new furniture for your home.
• Long-term goals: These are goals that take more than five years to reach. Retirement savings and college expenses are common examples.

Step 2: Gather information

Pull together the records of all of your household income and expenses. Be thorough and honest when estimating any expenses. Your budget should be an accurate picture, not a “best case scenario”. Gather the following information:

• Pay slips
• Your income tax return
• Checkbook records
• Credit card statements
• Payment information for major purchases such as car loans
• Financial statements from banks and financial institutions

Step 3: Find out where you stand

After you’ve collected all of the information, you can see the relationship between your income and expenses. It is alright to use estimates for your first budget calculation. It may take a few months to find out exactly where you stand, but this exercise should give you a good idea of your spending habits.

You should organize your information into the three sections below. These three sections will be used to make up your budget.

• What You Earn: Add your income from various sources, including “take-home pay” after taxes, commissions or bonuses, Social Security or retirement benefits, disability benefits, interest income, dividends, etc.
• What You Spend: Add your fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are those payments whose amounts don’t change every month (rent, mortgage, insurance, loan payments, retirement savings, etc.) and usually cannot be eliminated. Variable expenses are those that change (cable television, groceries, gas for your car, telephone, etc.) and could be reduced or eliminated.
• The Bottom Line: Subtract total expenses from total income. The amount left over is called “discretionary income”. This is the money that you can use for emergencies and meeting budget goals.

Step 4: Check your bottom line

Your bottom line is the difference between what you earn and what you spend. It tells you if you’re spending too much. If the figure is positive, you can increase the amount you pay for debt or credit card dues, or add more to your savings. If the figure is negative, you are spending more than you earn and probably paying for the difference using credit.

If you’re spending more than 15-20% of take-home pay on repaying debts and credit cards, you could be in a danger zone. If your bottom line is negative, you need to examine your expenses, especially the variable ones, to help bring your spending under control.

Step 5: Keep track of expenses

After you do your first budget calculation, start keeping a monthly expense record. Even if your bottom line is positive, it’s still important to learn everything you can about how you spend your money.

Carry a small notebook everywhere and record all purchases and withdrawals. You’ll be amazed at what you learn about your spending habits. For example, many people find that they spend thousands of pesos each year on snacks, clothes or cellular phone bills. People usually get into trouble with non-essentials - the things they could easily do without. The goal of tracking expenses is to understand where you’re spending your money.

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How Much Credit Can You Afford?

Many of us find it difficult to control spending especially when you just charge the purchases to your credit card. You seem to have that trigger in your fingers to just buy anything you find. The feeling is fulfilling in the mean time because in the end, you will be worrying how to pay your debts.

Know your Limits

If you do not make your credit card or loan payments on time, there will be serious implications for you. Defaulting on a loan or credit card is serious business, and can affect your ability to take out new loans in the future. It may even lead to legal action. In order to prevent such problem, here are some tips to using credit card wisely:

Set A Realistic Budget and Stick To It

In order to prevent such problem, it is important to use credit card wisely. The first step in using credit wisely is by knowing how much you can afford to borrow. You need to take a long, hard look at your current and future financial situation before you take on any new debt. Then, set a realistic budget for debt repayment by computing your debt ratio.

Debt ratio
Debt ratio shows you how much you owe compared with how much you earn. It usually gives a clear picture of your financial well-being. The lower your debt ratio, the more you have left over to save or spend on other things.

Your debt ratio is the percent of your monthly take-home pay that goes to paying debts and monthly obligations. It is calculated this way: Take the amount needed to repay debts each month, including rent or mortgage, and divide this by your take-home pay (your net pay after deduction of tax).

Many experts recommend that no more than 15-20% of your monthly household take-home pay (excluding rent or mortgage) should be used to pay debts and make loan and credit card payments. Furthermore, no more than 40% of your monthly take-home pay should go to paying all debts, including mortgage payments.

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