One of the advantages of working from home in the Philippines is the convenience of getting the job done regardless of weather condition. Unless of course, if your house is located in an area where it always floods during heavy rains, you will have to consider some careful planning of the costs of doing business.

Work Location

When you are just starting out to make investments as an Internet marketer, you have to seriously consider your work location. If transferring to a new place is not an option to avoid unimaginable damage due to floods, then you might have to have build a higher platform for your work area. Better yet, have it on the second floor of your apartment.

Be very keen on where your Internet provider installs your cable in relation to where your network router would be placed. Ensure that the connections are secure and isolated. I make sure that they are safe from getting disconnected whenever someone in the household decides to do general house cleaning or major rearranging of furniture.

We normally want to work by the window. Most prefer to work in a noise-proof, air-conditioned room while others like to work with windows wide open. We all know by now that even during a very hot day in the country, you can never be certain whether or not it will rain so just close the windows of your work area whenever you leave the house. A bit of negligence usually costs a lifetime of work.

Furniture/ Chair

I have seen many Internet marketers work from a laptop while on the bed, leaning against the headboard. They can go on and on in this position for hours. But eventually, just a matter of time, each one would complain of excruciating pain on the back or neck.

In the early stage of your Internet marketing plunge, you can not avoid becoming a computer geek – either literally or by image simply because you can spend countless hours online uninterrupted. It is always the best investment to look after your health while the passion runs high in the workplace. Getting a comfy chair that is adjustable in height is highly recommended to support good posture and proper leg length accommodation. If the chair is too high, a footrest can help.

You would think that a standard computer chair is ideal. Wrong! For computer geeks, you need a chair where the backrest is high enough to support your spine and neck. In times when you need to shut your eyes or simply take a break without leaving your desk, you need a chair with head rest (or at least high enough to attach a neck roll pillow). The neck roll works wonders more than you can imagine.

The head is heavy and the muscles of the neck take the entire load when your head is forward, creating neck pain. The monitor height should be set such that the top is in line with your eye level and you don’t have to strain your neck up or down to view the screen. You will find that your eyes will naturally settle around the centre of your monitor’s screen.

The computer monitor should be set approximately 18″ – 24″ from your eyes such that you aren’t straining to read it when sitting on your computer chair.

Your keyboard and mouse should also be in front of you and slightly under your lower arm level, you shouldn’t need to strain to reach either of them from your office seat.

Email Access and Security

I love using Gmail for all possible ways you can utilize it for. I have 5 Gmail accounts for different purposes. One is for registration and sign-ups. Another is an account I do not give away (to avoid Spam) and mainly used for storing essential documents and contracts. And I have a Gmail account as forward from each official domain email address for my niche sites.

Why create a Gmail account as forward? Gmail is the most reliable web-based free email provider recognized officially even by social networks and membership sites.  However, a paid domain account is still needed for a professional representation worldwide. Some affiliate networks do not accept free accounts like Gmail or Yahoo because serious Internet marketers are expected to have domain accounts.

If your Gmail contains confirmation messages and notifications of your membership passwords and usernames, then you should secure your Gmail with very strong passwords.  If you set your Internet browser to “remember password”, then secure your User or Admin Account by requiring a password during start up.  This is of utmost importance when you carry your laptop outside your workplace.

What if you can not access Gmail for some reason?  Create a back up solution by creating a POP mail account where you can download your email messages to Outlook Express or Microsoft Office Outlook. Gmail has this function that you can set up easily from Settings.

Downloads Data/ File Back-Up

There are many websites that offer free storage of any kind of data including very large files of videos, photos, ebooks, software, etc. Even if the download links are stored in your Gmail, most links expire after a few months – taken down by the site owners after some time. To secure your Download files (specially if you paid for them), get your own external drive and back up valuable files every month.

I use Fujitsu HandyDrive300 with 280 GB capacity (USB device).  It is sleek and light, about 3” x 6” with just a thickness of 2 cms.  Retail price is about P4,000  ($87).  You can find cheaper brands nowadays (my IT friends say they are all the same anyway) but personally, I go for reputable brands for hardware and peripherals because you can be assured of global service and data retrieval wherever you are (or at least in key cities of any country).

Health and Fitness

I can not help include HEALTH among the list of “important investments” for doing business. If you spend more than 8 hours online, wouldn’t it be fair for your body to have one hour of physical exercise?  Thirty minutes of brisk walking a day and another thirty minutes for stretching and bending could be the best investment you will every make for yourself and your family.

Most Internet marketers complain of gaining weight not to mention the extra fat on the belly. This is indeed a problem because increased weight causes lower back pain.

“Walking is a refreshing alternative to complicated aerobic routines and overpriced gym memberships,” says personal trainer Lucy Knight, author of a new book on the exercise.

“It is free, enjoyable and already a part of everyday life. All you need to do is correct your technique, walk faster and for longer and you will lose weight.”

Because walking is a weight-bearing exercise, it can also help prevent the bone disease osteoporosis. Health experts recommend that we should walk 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) to stay healthy, yet most Britons walk only 4,500 steps. You would probably need to tot up at least 16,000 steps a day to lose weight.

Knight suggests the following workout plans, depending on your level of fitness. With each, you should aim to progress by increasing the duration of your walk by five minutes every two weeks, and the intensity by walking faster. “In just three months, the results should speak for themselves,” says Knight.

Beginners

• Monday to Saturday: Walk ten minutes at a moderate pace.
• Sunday: Walk slowly for 20 minutes.

Intermediates

• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday to Friday: Walk for 25 minutes at a moderate pace one day, 30 minutes the next.
• Saturday: Walk 20 minutes fast.
• Sunday: Walk 45 minutes at a moderate pace.

Advanced

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday to Friday: Walk 45 minutes at a moderate pace one day and 50 minutes the next day.
• Saturday: Walk 50 minutes at a fast pace.
• Sunday: Walk 60 minutes at a moderate pace.

Good Filipino Citizen: File Taxes as Freelance Internet Marketer

You do not have to register a business account with the Department of Trade and Industry if you are not committed to religiously file business taxes.

As an Internet marketer, YOU and your name is the entity. YOU, as an individual, should be the easiest entity to get around with and manage in terms of opening and sustaining bank accounts, obtaining loans, etc. Personal bank accounts require basic identification documents and a minimum deposit amount to open.

All payments from customers should be payable to your name, the same name used as your personal bank account name.  For example, if your bank account is “Manny S. Go”, your clients should make the check payments payable to “Manny S. Go” and not “Manny Go, Jr.”  Otherwise the bank needs to go through the standard verification process.

Allow your local customers to deduct 10% professional tax from your project quotation.  Just ensure that when it is time to collect the check payment, your customer  would be able to provide you the “Certificate of Income Payment Not Subject to Withholding Tax”. You will need to keep all these certificates,  attach them into your Annual Income Tax Return – BIR Form 1701 for individuals.

If you are into the buy and sell business with goods not appropriate for eBay like frozen meat products, then you may go for sole proprietorship.  Here, you can register your fancy business name to DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and obtain a BIR authority to print receipts and invoices.  With sole proprietorship or as an individual professional, you only need to file income tax every year before April 15.

Heads up on registering sole proprietorship. Bear in mind that it is as personal to DTI as much as it is to you.  The law does not make any distinction between you and the sole proprietorship, therefore, should you be unable to cope with your obligations, the penalty charges will continue to increase annually.  DTI will not allow you to register a new sole proprietorship even after 10 years without clearing past obligations.

Do you realize the weight of this information that “DTI will not allow you to register a new sole proprietorship even after 10 years without clearing past obligations on your sole proprietorship account“? Either you have to pay the total penalty amount incurred during the past 10 years or you will never enjoy the benefits again attached to your name as a proprietor.

Though tax is not an investment, the fulfillment of obligation is.  Get it?  Just like with whatever we do in our lives – integrity/ honesty is an investment that transcends beyond borders of business and family.

In short,  please pay taxes

How does internet marketing work? How do you earn dollars? Why do you need to learn about keywords and SEO, backlinks ang anchor text? Why do you need to have a blog?

Yes, these are very valid concerns commonly raised. It is simply because Internet Marketing is a systematic method and there is no short cut to it.  Even if you opt for black hat SEO, you would still need to know the process before you can apply magic tricks.  I have mentioned here many times that Internet Marketing is a system because I wish to emphasize the methodology by which it could be successfully carried out. It is so easy for us to complain about not getting the kind of income we want. Yet, it is so easy for us to skip some steps in the system then wonder why the money is not coming in.

You can try to learn everything to get the big picture and then decide on the kind of business you want to apply the Internet marketing for – sort of working backwards. It is also very likely that you already have a product in mind that you wish to market online. In this case, you need to decide on the keyword you wish to compete for in the search engines with the target niche in mind and then learn the possible SEO and traffic systems afterwards.

Like any other project or business, we  need to have a GOAL. Internet Marketing is a system with a set of proven formula. You can not expect to turn to Internet Marketing for income if you do not have anything to market at all.  Product + Market = Sales.

A lot of people around the world turn to Internet Marketing as a way of life. Many spend months or even years studying the tools and trends, always improving, always experimenting on new membership sites promising to turn their life around. With so many Internet gurus out there who are actually making money online, they can not help offering training courses and sharing confidential information as a way to give back to the community and of course, also as a way for them to brag about the financial freedom and lifestyle that they have finally attained.

Access to vital information from the gurus is easy. Some are basic info distributed free of charge. Some good courses are sold for $495, some helpful non-hype eBooks, I had to pay for $77. But you know what? The value of such information are not measured by how much they cost. Even for just $17, I will not buy a PPC eBook course simply because I have no interest in PPC.

In the beginning of the journey, it is difficult to know which direction to take – which system is best applicable to your goal that you can truly implement with success. I recommend our Assessment page as your first stop so you can download the basic eBook guide based on your current situation and objective. Or, you can simply email me your thoughts so I can send you the appropriate eBook or Program Outline that you can look into.  We can then explore more systems until you gain confidence on your chosen path. My goal is to provide you the basic guidelines and tools without having to pay for anything until you have acquired the sufficient information to make decisions and set up your own online business. I believe information should be accessible to those who are willing to nurture it.  Your initial and  minimum investment would be your own domain name and hosting for your own website.  I pay for a domain name with privacy for $16/ year and about $54/ year for hosting with unlimited domain names.  Your other most valuable investment is to stay focused on your goal and not give up before you can see the fruits of your labor.

With the appropriate eBooks and training videos that you can access at Campus Pinoy for free, you will be able to study the various processes and tools based on priority and methodology.  For definitions of Internet  jargons, web marketing and advertising terms, you may refer to IM Dictionary here.

• Write a press release and submit it to PRWeb Press Release Distribution Increases Online Visibility and Web Traffic.
• Promote your site using cheap or free classified ads in targeted ezines or newsletters.
• Leave comments on other people’s blogs with a backlink to your site.
• Advertise your website in the appropriate category on CraigsList.com.
• Create a viral software program and give it away for free.
• Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
• Submit your blog articles to Digg and other blog related sites
• Participate in LinkedIn.com.
• Write a book.
• Sell a cheap but extremely useful PDF formatted ebook on Amazon.com full of links to your site.
• Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
• Find someone on eBay who is willing to tattoo your URL on a visible body part. For maximum impact, the forehead is the most highly desired location.
• Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
• Submit articles to trade magazines with a link to your site in your bio.
• Buy text links or banner ads on eBay.

• Place a classified ad on Yahoo Classifieds
• Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
• Start your own newsletter or ezine.
• Target your website to low competition niches using long tail keywords.
• Use OnlyWire.com to automate your social book marking and automatically generate backlinks.
• Offer a free email mini course or e-course.
• Have a website with content that’s worth coming back to.
• Add social bookmarking icons to your website or blog (use the sociable plugin for blogs).
• Use cheap or free newspaper classified ads. This is also a great way to test the response of different headlines.
• Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
• Start and affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
• Submit a viral video to YouTube – Broadcast Yourself..
• Blog – blogging is a great way to get free traffic from search engines, RSS feeds, other blogs, blog directories and more. The following 35 tips will focus on how you can grow traffic through the phenomenon that is blogging.
• Submit your blog to all the major blog directories, including Technorati.com.
• Ping the blog directories and search engines.
• Tag your blog posts.
• Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds.
• Rewrite some of your blog content and post it to article directories to develop backlinks and traffic.
• Find a hot topic on Technorati, post about it and then ping Technorati with your new post.
• Link to your blog in your email or forum signatures.
• Submit your RSS feed to other sites.
• Go to http://www.fivver.com and leverage other people’s big social networks for $5 by asking them to send your blog or landing page out to them. It’s amazing what you can do on that website for $5!
• Save your product in .exe format so it qualifies as software, research product keywords that are successful in competing products, use them to list your product on high traffic download sites. The most famous being download.com
• Use resource links at the bottom of high traffic Wiki sites which are linked back to HIGH QUALITY content on your blog. This won’t work with squeeze pages and won’t work 100% of the time, but is worth playing the numbers.
• Use Tube Mogul to distribute video content. This used to be free and now they’re billing videos for business, although you should still be able to submit videos that are under 300MB without being challenged. The limit used to be 1000MB which was enough for the 10 minute YouTube limit.

———————–
This is a list generated by Matt Duggan which he picked up from the discussions at Warrior Forum, mostly recommended by Craig Caron. Then the last 3 items were added by Wayne Lambert on Matt’s post. Interesting weave of valuable info, huh? This is the most comprehensive, traffic-sucking list of methods you will ever find.

Please post your thoughts at the Forum. Thanks!

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