I am proud to say that I am the black sheep in the family. I think differently from the rest of our family and relatives. Especially when it comes to the country’s state. I never see that the Philippines is in bad condition but instead, the situation we are facing today is a lot more of an opportunity than a curse. I will always hear my dad tell me “Gago, naghihirap na ang Pilipinas!” or my sisters say “Kuya, ang weird mo!” just because I’ll say and debate to them that the Philippines is not in a bad state.

I was watching tv with my kid sister. The tv show was about different marine animals. Then there’s this marine creature that’s called Mantis Crab/Lobster. This creature can see heat & light under the sea. In which the narrator says “only they can see things that other marine animals can not see“. Looks like he have thermal camera on its eyes and night vision too. Then I said, “Wow, that crab can see things not all fish can see. He’s weird!”.

You see, people will judge you by how you see the world. What the crab can see that other fish can not see is not something weird, but a gift. If you see things differently than others you should be happy. I know a lot of people will just stay quiet in one corner just because they have a different view in life. Marconi was put in a mental hostpital because he said he can talk to people from other town without using wires. And now, we are using the product of his vision, the cellphone & wireless communication.

Let’s take the Philippines for example. A lot of people will be ranting about high gas prices, economic depression. As we all know, these things comes in cycle after a few years. It will go down and up. But what’s important is when there’s a bad situation happening, there’s always a new opportunity coming up. So to give you a hint, during the economic depression, stocks are low, which is the best time to invest! When the stocks got high again you’ll get a good amount of profit.

In an affiliate marketing perspective, because of the economic set backs, companies are lowering their advertising costs. Big companies can easily dominate the PPC arena just by bidding insanely high, that most affiliates can not compete. Because we are in a world wide economic crisis, these companies need to cut the cost and bid low. This is the best time for affiliates to get the best of the profit because they can now compete with merchants head to head price wise.

Do not be afraid to be criticized by people just because you think differently. Most of the time, thinking out of the box is where you’ll find great opportunities waiting for only those that are brave enough to think & act that way.

Today marks the end of the early bird tickets for Graphika Manila 2008. Being a web designer, I am always happy to attend conventions like these. And tomorrow you may buy the tickets at regular price. I bought mine together with my close friends and after buying the tickets, we sat down with coffee on the table on the nearest Starbucks and tried to catch up.

Two of my friends are still employed they have already realized that working for a day job is not the way to financial freedom. They already decided that I should lead the group. But I was happy that someone took the effort to lead and volunteered to lead us in this venture simply because I will have more time for my own business and most especially, I would like to see how my teammates will “strive” to make their lives better. I know that if we become successful in this, it would be a very good success story for them.

We have talked and joked around but one question that pops into my head is that, “What’s your retirement plan?” In being an employed worker, you don’t have to think about this and its not really a problem. When you’re in a company, they already decided what you will have, after you served the company almost half of your life. This is what my father has planted into my brain for years, “Pick a company with a lot of benefits”. I was happy that he said that to me. Through that question, I realized that, the greatest benefit that I could have for my life and future of my family is freedom. And I can never ever get that freedom until I retire. So what’s the use? Will I ever enjoy that freedom, if I am old?

Enter Entrepreneurship

Then I realized that the financially free people have their own business. People that are not only proud of their family, their sons, and achievements but actually proud that they can enjoy life as early as possible. The only drawback is that, you have to work waaaay more than a normal person. Think of it like having to work for half of your life everyday just to achieve financial freedom at an early age. This is a tough consequence that life throws at us. And sometimes, we will have to think about it all night. Until the sun rise and then you have to work again. Until you got tired of the same old things again and again shall you realize that life wants you to take it. So, I did. I damn took it.

Being an entrepreneur gives you the power to decide what kind of retirement plan do you like. Do you want to spend all your living days in a yacht sailing the pacific, traveling the world, dining in the finest restaurants around the world and meeting gorgeous women? We all heard of this and we envy it. But not all people are willing to sacrifice everything to achieve this. What do you have to lose? What are the consequences? You’ll only have to give up your job, being ridiculed for a couple of months because you have no job, hearing sarcastic comments of friends because you constantly fail with your attempts in business, unpleasant reputation, laughed at, tell you that you’re lazy and why not get a “real job”, will say you’re just wasting your time because of your wild dreams, weird, introvert, antisocial (lol) and most importantly, being dead ass broke. If you have a thick face of steel then you are on track. All these things are temporary. You know there’s a lot better life for you if you work hard enough to make it happen. Its a hard decision, I know. I have been there. But think of it this way, would you want to play safe and work for the rest of your life? Or you want to take risk today and be free for the rest of your life? If you already took the first step in achieving your retirement plan, you are already ahead of the pack. Because 90% of people, even though they read books or articles like this, won’t even do shit to follow their dreams because they are afraid of the consequences.

I am a big fan of Steve Jobs. Since I watch the movie Pirates of the Silicon Valley, I was astounded by how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started. Today, Steve Jobs has been one of my inspiration in doing the things that I do and making the things I want in life happen. This might be an old video, but its really good and it would be a nice post for anyone, affiliate marketing or any other business.

Steve Jobs’ Standford University Commencement Address

If you have this (point to head) then you follow this (point to heart), if anyone tries to judge you, give them this (a middle finger).

It’s a very powerful speech. All people have the brains, come on, we are human, but we sometimes doesn’t follow our heart and tries to live the life what society expect us to live. If someone tried to tell you what you should do with your life or judge you by what you make, don’t let them get away with it. They asked for it.

Since I got my goal of $1k per month in affiliate marketing, I have been slacking a lot lately. There’s an increase in this month’s earning but I am not happy. This is not the kind of income that I want and I know I could’ve done better if I tried harder. It’s time for me to get things rolling because I’m planning to move out of the house. My parents and the people around me are not the ones that could help me improve and reach my goals. I love my siblings and my parents, I love my relatives but I believe they can’t help me reach my dreams.

As for today I would like to set my goal to reach a certain amount of income (personal) enough for me to move out of my parent’s house and hopefully buy my own. Do some crazy things and experiment. Expand my business.

It’s time to get serious… Like a pornstar ready to grind.

Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are right. - Henry Ford

I’m just a web designer, not rich (aiming to get there), not a business tycoon, but I firmly believe that the difference why people are successful, the difference from the rich and the poor, is the way they think. People would always say the most depressing things in the world that is almost suicidal and that reflects the status of their life. The world is never bad. It is still the way we think it should be. If you think it is bad, you are correct. If its good, you are correct. Whatever you say, good or bad. You are correct. But the effects are different.

Law Of Attraction

We all learned in school that all things in the world are governed by law of attraction. The sun, the planets, the stars, the atoms, the electrons, the poles, gravity, all of which that have energy generates attraction. And as the law of the conservation of energy states that, “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed to one form or another.”

Now, THOUGHT, is an energy. It is composed of electrical signals in our brain. This energy can be a form of idea transformed into a form of labor that can be transformed into inventions, buildings, cure for diseases, and most especially, money. What you think is what you attract. If you think of poverty, you attract it. If you think of wealth, guess what, you will get it. And when wealth comes, it comes in bulk, wealth in a big package of people, power, fame, money, cars, houses, women! Only the right people that have the right mindset will wealth be attracted to. Talk to a rich man for a couple of minutes and then talk to a poor man. You can clearly tell the difference in mindset. You know the saying, “To be a King, you must think like a King”.

Respect And Give Honor

Thoughts are said to be spiritual in nature, it is sometimes called the 6th sense. That when inspirational thoughts come, it comes in flashes that its so fast you might forget it by the next minute. Give honor to your thoughts by putting it in action. It doesn’t matter if its ridiculous, stupid or if its a business plan, seems impossible. Still do it and respect and have faith in this force. You’ll be amazed that when you are in the process of carrying out this idea, detailed plans will be rushing in to help and guide you.

You may be wondering why I made this post. Since gas prices are steadily increasing I know people would be thinking the worst. These things already happened and there’s nothing we can do, we can not control the world market. Let’s focus on things we can control, our minds.

Ken McArthur of Top Affiliate Challenge brought up a very good point that will probably decide on what path you want to take in life. He stressed the question, “How do you want to spend your day?. It made me think of the things I’ve done for the couple of months, the trials and errors, and would it be this way that I want to spend the rest of my life.

People have different ideas of their dream life. Some people would treat as talking to people or working for a big company a dream life for them. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s what they want. If you’re an introvert living in the basement, working in a computer 24 hrs a dream life for you, well there’s nothing wrong. It’s a DNA game. People would always compare you to somebody that you’re not. That’s exactly the point, no two people are similar. How you want to spend your day would, be the determining factor on how enjoyable would be life for you.

As for me, I have experienced working in a small and big web design company, no matter what company I’m in, I couldn’t find the “thing” that could make my working days enjoyable. I never really like answering for a boss, waking up early in the morning, traffic jam, having a job but broke we all have the same experiences but people might find that enjoyable for them than having to work for themselves.

If you’re about to watch a video about your life is this the kind of movie that you’ll be just proud? Would you even tell people about this movie, how you live your life and how you succeed?

This morning I was greeted by my father, he was telling me of the not good situation of my grandparent’s business. And asked if I could lend them some money since they are the ones who helped me during my college years. I know for a fact that it would be hard to ask them to pay back. I have a couple of experiences with them and the “utang na loob” is hard to pay. They will always bring that up. I would like to help them out but this is not yet the time.

Maybe you are kind of familiar with this situation. Family members and relatives asking for financial help and soon after they got the money, its damn hard to get them to pay back. Making yourself a lot hopeless than they were. Lending relatives money is not bad, in fact, its a noble thing to do. But its stupid to help someone if you, yourself is struggling financially.

The Camel & The Ox

Let me share with you a story of a camel and an ox during the ancient times. The ox came to the barn one evening and protesting with all the hard work he made during the day. He was so damn tired and absolutely irritated by the work he do everyday. You know how hard it is to plow the field the whole day. He was jealous of the camel’s job. Carrying the master, then if the master is away, they were left in a green field so they can eat grass until the master is back. So his friend, the camel, suggested that, “You should pretend that you’re sick tomorrow, so our master won’t let you work. By that, you can have at least 1 day of relaxation.”. The ox was grateful for the idea and did exactly what the camel said.

The next morning, the ox was lying on the floor, pretending that he is sick. When the farmer came up to them and saw the situation. He thought that it would be a good idea to make the camel plow the field instead. So then, the camel plow the field for the whole day.

When the evening came, they were talking in the barn. The ox was thanking the camel for being such a good friend. For doing his work for the day. But the camel was angry for working the whole day in the field. He said to the ox, “If the master caught you lying again, he said that he will call the butcher you useless ox. Don’t even try that again you lazy ass ox.” And that was the end of their friendship.

Long story short, its ok to help others. But not to the point that you have to carry someone else’s burden. What I did so that I wouldn’t be like the camel? Instead of confronting them that I don’t trust lending them some money I used my extra money and bought stocks. And some of it I placed in mutual funds. This way, I or anyone in my family wouldn’t be able to touch that money until a certain period of time. I might be selfish this way but it depends on the person. I feel uneasy dealing with people that can’t tell the difference between business and personal life.

Being a full time web designer for a company would mean 9 hrs of your day dedicated to your comapny, and around 3 - 5 hrs more for your side business (freelance). Freelancing is a business and it will take you more than just do this, and do that kind of thing to get it going. You have to do the accounting, invoice writing and the dreaded customer support. You know you can’t go forever with this kind of set up, juggling full time work and your freelance web design business. You’ll soon realize that you have to pick. Full time  web designer or full time freelance web designer?

Full Time Web Design Job

People loves security, no doubt, we want a better and safe future. That is why sometimes having a full time job is the best way to go. I think this is one of the best reason why people can’t quit their job. It’s for the security. Being a web designer, you know that you only need to design sites for the company, day after day. And wait till the end of the month to get paid. The only thing is, you’ll always hope to have an increase of maybe after a year? The good thing is you only have to work 9 hours a day for the pay check.

Freelance Web Design

Freelance web designers are entreprenuers at heart. They depend on their skills not only in design but people management and social skills. Maybe some business skills but the basics are all there, you can research the internet for that. Now, the advantage of this is that, the more you work, the more you earn. And time is flexible. BUT, the draw back is that, you are not sure of your income. It may decline or rise. There are income fluctuations, just like in real business.

Things to Remeber If You Want To Become A Freelance Web Designer

There are a couple of things I always think about before I took the plunge and quit my full time job. They are:

1. Do You have money to pay your expenses? If you quit your full time job, you have no more income source. Do you have the money to pay the bills without working? What I did was to set aside money to pay my bills for 6 months. Secure that money and quit to become a full time freelance web designer.
2. Do You feel limited, bored at work and think that work is getting in your way of improving? I always felt that doing routine work can bore the hell out of people. And the hardest part is that, you’re like a robot that does things over and over and over again, without consciously thinking about it. This will stop improvement in your skills and, come on people, its plain boring, if that hits you, you know there’s something wrong with your life or you’re better of doing business yourself than browsing youtube in the office.
3. Do You have a good number of clients and works to sustain your freelance web design business? If you are doing freelance web design jobs while having a full time job, it is best to have and keep clients that trusts you and those that have more work for you. When I quit my full time web design job, I have no rock solid client base, I only depended on contests to hopefully feed me. So, if you have the guts to go and try what I did, this I say to you, don’t you dare, or your family will think you’re stupid. Build a list of clients first and think if these clients will come back to you for more work and hopefully sustain your business.
4. Do You have a strong control of your emotions? Believe me, this one is a biggie, most people will think you’re stupid to quit a high paying web designer job. Do you have the guts to control the urge to get angry? If you don’t mind what other people think, you are on your way. Always remember that:“An entrepreneur stands tall against the tide of popular belief”.
5. Have you prepared yourself for the worst and planned for the best? Freelance web design is a business. In business, there are no certainty. We are all at risks. Business will come and go, are you prepared to accept that fact? No one will give you pay check, you are in command of how much you could earn now. Make plans for expansion, harness your skills. Learn more skill set. These are the traits that a full time job won’t teach you.
6. Don’t Be Afraid To Fail! If you never failed, you never lived.

If you follow this pointers, it will help you get started in the freelance web design industry. Always remember that freelancers are entreprenuers, selling their skills, it takes a lot of confidence to sell their skills to people. If you got these trait of an entreprenuer, making money by freelance web design will be easy for you.

I never really thought that I would take web design and development seriously. I have a Computer Engineering degree and its all computation, numbers and binaries on our head. But the creative spark of our human brain took domination over my other half of my brain. To put it in simple words, I was hooked!

I never really thought in the beginning that you could actually earn money from web pages or make a business out of it. I’ve been stumbling day after day after I quit my full time job as to where I could get the money to pay the bills. Up then after months of searching. I have come to find out the best way to make money on web design especially on a freelance basis.

This is how I learned, and I use these points to get freelance jobs. It may not work for anybody else but its up to you to apply the things I will point out.

Practice Web Design

Practice makes perfect. Creativity can not be learned by principle only through practice. Enhance your creativity in web design by doing creative things aside from web design. Creative writing, photography, painting… Anything that requires creativity. Its your bread and butter.

When I was starting up, I used to copy websites that I really like. My favorite was 2advanced.com. Their design is simply the best. Learn from each websites you visit and take note of what part of the page is attractive, pay attention to details.

Know the Web Design Trends

Clients are always on the look out for the best and freshest design for their website. If its a big company, they will need the website to be updated to the latest look. Know the styles, know the dont’s.

Brand Yourself

When joining web design communities or competition, always have the same name in the internet. So people know who you are and your skills and it would be easier for them to contact you.

Make Money

Join Web Design Competition

The best way to earn money online while learning is to join competition. SEO have seo competition so as web designers. Do not take any lost contest personally, learn from your competition. You may join contests on sitepoint.com or forums.digitalpoint.com there are tons of opportunities for newbie web designers.

Competition opens up new opportunities, people that are just passing by and saw your work might be interested in hiring you. Contests in which you have won might be interested in doing some more business with you. There are lots of benefits in joining web design competition so be sure to try them out while learning.

Freelance Websites

If you are ready to take on serious jobs, visit freelancing websites like getafreelancer.com or elance.com where you will bid on the work and the best bidder will get the job.

Put up a Web Design Portfolio

The reason why I wanted you to join competitions so keenly is that this is the best way to build up your portfolio. I have done FREE web design jobs to a lot of clients just to put up my portfolio but I learned that competitions are the best hands down. You get to earn money while building it up at the same time.

…and most especially…

Keep The Fire Burning

Have a burning desire to make web sites. That is what will make you earn money in this business. Once you have a list of clientelle, you’ll be amazed at how much work you have to do day after day and you’ll be happy that you have no more boss to answer to… Working hard would mean more money for you. You are in control now.

Making money online is never easy. This is a business and business is never easy. What is easy anyway? Picking your nose perhaps? There is no magic bullet here. Though you are sitting in front of the computer doing the work, its also tiresome and getting burned out is no joking matter.

I also understand that this type of business in the Philippines is not yet in the open so most people will look at you like a bum that have no work and always in the computer playing video games. They will ask you to get a “real job” will say things to you, but don’t be afraid to follow your heart. Let me quote this line from a very important figure:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

~Steve Jobs

Have a dream and follow that dream.