I have lived in the Philippines for almost 7 years now. When I came here, I had a wad of money that I had saved up in order to be able to make the move and have a comfortable life. I didn’t have enough for a lifetime, but I had enough that my plan was that I could start up a business here with my money, and also live comfortably for about 3 to 4 years without worrying. It didn’t exactly work out that way, but I learned.
I have been lucky. I guess it’s mostly not just luck, though, it’s a lot of hard work. When I saw that my plan would not work out the way that I expected, I was able to make adjustments and find new ways to make money. Instead of my original plan to have a chain of Internet Cafes and earn my money in the local economy, I realized after about 2 years that I needed to find a way to earn my money abroad while living here in the Philippines. Luckily, I had a little experience in earning some money off of the Internet. In the States, I sold on eBay and supplemented my income there. So, I started selling on eBay from here, then I branched out into online sales from my own e-commerce sites. In the past year to year and a half I started blogging, where I could write and earn money from the advertising on my site. I enjoy writing, I feel that I have something to write about, and the extra income is a nice side benefit.
I no longer sell on eBay, but I still do the e-Commerce sites and the blogging. I use a combination of these two things to earn my living and be able to live anywhere in the world that I want to live in.
As an ex-pat, you find that you come in contact with a lot of other ex-pats where you live. You get into e-mail correspondence with other ex-pats who live in other parts of the country, you meet other ex-pats who live in the same city where you live, etc. In my case, word tends to get around that I have been able to earn a living here. Most ex-pats tend to have a hard time earning money. They either have to bring the money with them when they move here, or they have to periodically go abroad to earn another pile of cash so they can go live their ex-pat life a little longer. When people hear that I have a “formula” for being able to earn a living here, I get e-mails or visits from them. I hear sad stories on how they have been unable to make it financially. I hear about how they lost all their money to dishonest businessmen who they got into business with. Whatever story you can think of, I hear it from ex-pats here.
I am pretty free with sharing ideas and information. I usually tell people that I can help them understand how to make money here, but that I will only show them how I do it if they will agree and promise me that they won’t just copy me outright on what I am doing. Everybody can look at what a person is doing, make adjustments and sort of copy the formula, yet apply it to their own niche. For example, on this blog, I blog about how to Live in the Philippines. I can show somebody how to set up a blog, how to monetize it with advertising, how to write and generally how blogging works. With this information, and their promise to not copy what I am doing, they should be able to come up with a niche topic of their own, and do it. Instead of blogging about how to Live in the Philippines, maybe they want to blog about bird watching in Marinduque, maybe about their favorite football team, maybe about hurricanes…. whatever they have expertise on and an interest in can make for an interesting blog, and one that can earn them some extra money. Wouldn’t you agree? And, I don’t just teach people about blogging, I teach people about e-Commerce and basically anything else I am doing to earn money on the Internet.
All this is great, I enjoy helping people, and it builds some friendship between us. It is all great, that is, until they break their promise to not copy exactly what I am doing. So far, almost every person that I have tutored on earning cash on the Internet has made the decision to copy me. For example, I have an online store called “WowPhilippines” where I sell gift items. Three different people have made outright copies of that after learning from me how to do it. Is that right? I finally decided to stop teaching people how to do the e-Commerce. The good thing for me is that on these cases, their stores never did catch on, and they did not persevere long enough to make that happen. They tried it for a few months and abandoned it when the riches did not come immediately.
This morning, I got an e-mail from a guy that I taught about blogging a few months ago. He is a nice guy, I genuinely like him. When he started blogging, after my tutoring, he chose a topic to blog about that is somewhat similar to this blog. I blew it off, though, because I figured that it was not exact, and there were plenty of things for each of us to write about anyway, without stepping on each other’s toes. When he e-mailed me, he asked me if I could send him a list of all my blogs (I have over 100 blogs, and a staff of bloggers to post on many of them) so that he could start reading them. Before e-mailing him back, I decided to go have a look at his blog. Hmm… one of the titles of a post was almost identical to a post that I made on this blog last week. That’s a little strange, but probably just a coincidence, I thought. I went to look at the post, and it was an exact copy of my post, almost word for word! A few words were changed, but it was clear where the text came from before being changed here and there! So, not only did he use my idea for a general blog topic, now he was cutting and pasting my posts into his blog? Well, that just doesn’t seem right to me. If he had cited my blog as the originator of the post, that would be different, but he didn’t even mention my post, he just stole it from me.
So, basically, when you decide to move to the Philippines, or any other country, if you are planning to do something to help you keep some money coming in, you have to be careful. My advice, based on my experience would be to keep a low profile. Don’t share much information on how to do what you are doing. Leave it as a mystery. True, it is not very helpful toward your friends and fellow ex-pats, but at least you can keep your ideas for yourself, and not be copied.
i kind of wondered about that, bob. seeing that you share a nice amount of tips. but i didn't think it was a big deal. i also put my work out (on a slightly different medium) and do not hesitate giving advise to startups in my field. i also hoping they dont plagiarize or use my work without consent because it affects me too. so i understand.
hope you dont edit your insights too much. you are a hell of a read.
oh, about your feathered neigbor, take it easy on the rooster. be happy it isn't a guy with a wayward vocal chord singing 70s music on a mic. its usually either one of the two here.
Hi Macky – I have been sort of fighting this kind of problem for a number of years, but I still share ideas pretty freely. I guess that I feel that when I share ideas, it helps with my own thought pattern and allows me some thinking that often leads to even newer ideas that I can capitalize on. It also makes me feel that I have been helpful to others, which is something that means a lot to me.
Believe it or not, when I wrote this post, you came to mind because of the nature of your work. At the time, I even imagined how you must have similar problems at times.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the thought. you are right. I get emails regularly from visitors, professionals & hobbyists asking for tips or advise. I always make a point to help. It feels good. besides, I dont want to be a scrooge about it.
But putting our work out on the web (or other mediums) exposes us to negative aspects. It might bite me in the back someday but I dont want to change my nature. I just need to exercise good judgement.
There are enough selfish people out there already. i dont want to be one of them.
i guess if i want people to respect me, i need to believe that i can respect them as well.
besides, helping out can be a good investment too. who knows, maybe the people you've helped in the past may lend you a hand someday.
Happy New Year, by the way. To you and your family.
I heard a lot about making money in the internet but do not know to the extend of how this can be done because I was scare to find out. A reason I did not borther is because there are lots of warnings about scams. make me worry. In teaching someone to do a business, we can also think of how one can benefit from it. It can be a win win situation for certain businesses. Bob i had been in the internet for many years but can you think of something that you can help me so that you will benefit from it too. I will be going for official retirement in 5 years. But life have to go on.
Hi Macky and Alan – Thanks for you comments. Macky, I agree with you fully about wanting to help people out and such. That is how I am too, and I enjoy being that way. Alan – because I have gotten a lot of requests, I am going to start up a blog about how to do business online. Keep watching, I will announce it here soon with a link.
Bob, Please check out my blog.
I hope such entries, past, present and future, will meat with your approval.
Immitation, not intended, is the finest form of flattery!!
Happy New Years
Thanks again for the ideas and past assistance!!
JJ
JJ – thanks for leaving your comment. I see that you did re-format your post so that it isn't a total carbon copy of mine. That's a good thing.
Don't take me wrong, I have never said, or thought, that you need to meet my approval on your blog posts! That being said, it is not really right to simply copy other people's work and claim it as your own. The common practice in the blogging world is that if you see a post that inspires work on a post you write, you are sort of obliged to link back to the original post. If you just say "I got the idea from Bob's blog" that doesn't do much, because most people have no idea who "Bob" is. By providing a link over to the post that you are picking up the idea from, then the reader can go read the original ideas too. It's good for you, good for your readers, and very good for the original person who came up with the idea. It's just the right thing to do.
Good luck with your blog. Honestly, I hope that it brings you satisfaction as well as some monetary rewards.
Bob,
Please give me the link to your liviingin thephilippines blog.
I am still learning this computer thing. We have not charges a nickle for or gotten a nicke from any writing as of yet. I do hope to start a e-business with recipes that we have used over the last four years. We have saved over 50,000 of them and feel the recipes will make an nice encyclopedia for cooking. What are your thoughts on marketing recipes by e commerce?
JJ Houston
Bob, you are of course quite right, its good to help fellow expats out, I know you have me tremendously with my blog, and my heartfelt appreciation has been shown to you privately, I have one or two ideas of my own for the time when I arrive in Philippines, I think e commerce is the way, I think many of us want to find something that will keep us in the style that we would want, we all should stick together and network, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Bob, looking forward to meeting up with you as promised in July.
Hi Peter – I enjoy helping people learn how to become financially dependent only on themselves. Being able to use the web to highlight your talents and make money that way is really a blessing, and one that many people can take advantage of. Funny thing is that we can all do it without even stepping on each other's toes.
See you later this year!
Bob,
So are you saying setting up a web/graphic design company in the Philippines is a good idea? I'm already looking for desingers for my friends in the states here in the Philippines, as well as trying to create/maintain one for my own tour business. I'll just kill two birds with one stones. What's your opinion on this one? Till next time….
Hi Julius – Like you say, why not kill two birds with one stone. As a matter of fact, I'll go one step further… here is what I would do:
1. Find one or two people who you can hire to design and build a website.
2. Tell your friends in the States that you have found the right people to do the work for them: Julius' Web Design.
3. Let them hire your company to do the work!
You should be able to find plenty of work, and should be able to hire plenty of people to do this kind of work. Go to a computer college in your area and ask if they have some recent graduates who are looking for work! I like to hire people who are fresh out of school because I can mold them and have them work the way that I want them to work. I find that when I hire people who have been employed others, they have often picked up bad habits from their old jobs and it's hard to break them of such. Especially when you are hiring them to do computer work, maybe they will spend time chatting on the net and such.
Bob, you and I think almost alike. I'd rather mold em' than fix em'. That's exactly what I'm doing now. My wife is a nursing assitant student at STI. That's where I'm trying to do my recruiting for web/graphic designers. I asked the staff there if they could recommend their best current/graduate students. I left my cellphone number and now I'm just waiting for a text. People abroad just don't realize how talented the people in the Philippines are when it comes to the internet. Remember the "Love Bug" virus? The guy came from a unknown college (AMA). With his infamous antic of corrupting the internet in early 2000, he not only put his school on the map, but landed him a page in history. Last I heard he worked out a deal with the FBI to become their anti-hacker specialist. Funny how things work out sometimes. Till next time….
Oh, yes, Julius…. I remember the guy who created the Love Bug! That was shortly after I moved here to the Philippines. He was world famous! Luckily, that bug didn't bite me!
Good for you, Bob. It just goes to show that the Philippines is full of talent. Unfortunately, it's not only used for good, but also for bad. Just like the roadside bombing that were triggered by cellphones and were used heavily against the U.S. troops in Iraq. That technology was invented in the Philippines by some of the insurgency movements against the government to bomb buildings and transportations. I guess you have to take the bad, in order to appreciate the good. Till next time….
Bob,
My wife wants to buy jeepneys in the Philippines as an income. Do you think this is a good idea. She is totally sold on the idea. Her family could do all repairs on them as they own a electrical shop in Tacloban city. We want to move there in six years. What do you think of the idea?
Hi Don – I have knows LOTS of people who got into the Jeepney business. So far, I have yet to find anybody who made any real money at it.
It would not be a business that I'd recommend.
Hi Bob:
After reading this topic I can honestly say that. We have walked in the same shoes. I have been in business for 26 years and found out early on not to get to helpful with other people that inquire about my business. I was copied also. Back when I had a nursery garden center and landscape design & instillation. Another couple of other things that I learned also was not to be to exuberant about my business and how much I loved it. I got copied because people would then romanticize the idea and copy what I was doing. I addition I found that just appearing to be successful at what you are doing can invite people to copy what you are doing. In the long run all of these attempts failed and I persevered. However in the meantime it does make it a bit more difficult to make money because there is only so much to go around.
There is another side of the coin though. I was give a gift from our Lord to understanding the natural world. So when I sold of my landscape business and decided to become a guide I did look at how others who were already doing it. I made my decision to become a guide & then when I need to find something out I would look to the other people in the profession. Since in my opinion I was the new kid on the block I always tried to be respectful of the people that were there first. If I could not service some one I would and still do recommend the ones that I feel are the best professionals in the business. It has now been returned to me that they are now asking me to help them when they need it.
Two last thoughts. Arising tide raises all boats. So what helps one can and often does help all. Second, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Hi Wayne – Yes, it seems like we have indeed walked in the same shoes. I've kind of blown this off by now and forgotten about it. As you say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It doesn't always feel that way when it is happening, though! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and good luck on your guide business!
Hi bob, I emailed you privately a few months ago. Anyway, I have an interest in relocating to the Philippines with my family. I'm a retired veteran and for years have been caught in the hype of various business ventures that have just overwhelmed me to the point that I just gave up. Anyway side stepping this for now, how much in round figures would you say one needs in justifying to relocate? In your opinion considering your background do you think you were somewhat groomed as an entrepreneur in doing the business that you do? I could talk all day and will continue to establish dialog with you as time goes on.
Hi Tony – No, I was never trained to do what I am doing. Everything I am doing to earn money today are things that I taught myself by trial and error. I am an entrepreneur. I have little formal education. Most of what I know I learned from the school of hard knocks! I have no grooming when it comes to my profession, other than what I did myself.
Regarding moving here, for a single person, I recommend that you should have available income of $1,500. If you're married, figure $2,000. With that income you can lead a nice life here in the Philippines.