Ed Earns

I have 4 friends who resigned from work in order to pursue careers in blogging and freelance. These people all worked in a prestigious contact center and they were all my colleagues. I even started blogging before them and I influenced a couple to start sharing their thoughts online and earn some income at the same time.

The funny part about this is that I was the one who told them that I’d raise the white flag first. Now, I’m the one left in this business process outsourcing industry; still doing the same things that I’ve been doing for almost 3 years now. I actually feel toxic knowing that the job has been monotonous already. My friend told me that I’m at a plateau and I’m not moving anywhere. I know I should take action but the job that I have is the most flexible one considering that I’ve been doing freelance jobs at odesk, onlinejobs.ph and blogging jobs at sponsored review sites and other payperpost sites.

These jobs don’t really generate a stable income and the benefits are less when it comes to insurance and security; however the possibility of owning one’s time and being able to stay in a different place is limitless. Doing freelance work and blogging makes you less location-bound since you only have to have the internet and a good laptop computer in order to do your daily tasks.

My goal now since I haven’t really gotten full-time with my freelance work is to pursue my education and get that diploma. For now, I can just be envious on how free my other colleagues are who already resigned in order to work on a freelance scheme. I’ll definitely join them but it’s not about to happen anytime soon.

I just had a conversation over lunch with a fellow blogger/colleague and we were talking about our jobs. We’re running 4 years within this business process outsourcing industry already and we have come a long way from being classmates back in our product training class. Although we haven’t reached our peak, it seems that the years have passed by so fast. Funny at times that we wonder what will happen once we reach the 5 years if we’re going to opt for an early retirement or we’ll pursue other careers.

I have my fair share of doubts and questions on how I see my future. Although it seems that I’m busy with my blogs, it seems that I haven’t really pushed myself to the limit in promoting and marketing them. I know there’s a huge potential in the blogging market but I still need to tap some resources in order learn more.

Then there’s studying — I have to go back to school within 2 months and stay in it for probably a year until I get that elusive diploma.

In the mean time, I’m preparing myself for some travels that are lined up for me in the coming months.

It was a busy lunch; somehow it seemed that I did all the talking.

I’ll be going out tomorrow for an event wherein I got invited because of being a blogger. It’s starting to come to fruition, the results of being able to write quality posts about a particular niche. My main blog, which used to be a personal blog has shifted to a travel blog which showcases the different places I’ve been to in this country.

Tomorrow, I will be covering an event with a couple of travel bloggers. Somehow, I should be able to expand my network in order to reach more people. I’ve already done that in some cases but there’s a battle within me that’s a bit conflicting because of wanting to be anonymous so not much hype will be generated. But then, if I want to earn more, it would be wise to also spread the news and promote my site some more.

For now, my day job is still preoccupying a lot of my time so I’m letting it get me stuck in limbo.

I have so many write-ups I need to finish today:

• 2 750-word articles – freelance work
• write-up for a call center magazine that also serves as my application
• blog entry submission for a contest I’m joining
• long-overdue post for ceburoadtrip.com – I haven’t contributed an entry ever!

I only have this afternoon and tonight as my free time. Good luck to me.

I didn’t realize that contests are abound nowadays in the blogging community. Contests that are especially designed for bloggers to write about a certain trip or experience that coincides with a product’s theme of their marketing campaign. What’s great is that big prices are at stake and anybody who has experienced the service or tried the product can join.

It makes me feel glad that I’m a blogger because I get to join these promotions and I also have the chance to win them. It’s just that I can’t really commit to each one of them because I’m already busy with other things. Writing a good entry, a really good one, takes effort; more so, time. You can’t expect to win without devoting yourself into creating a well-crafted piece in order for other people to take inspiration for it.

I my case, I also don’t want to churn out a write-up for the sake of having something to submit which is why I can’t just go out and submit any entry. I know there will be lots of contests available. We’ll see and I’ll wait for the really good ones to come out.

I’ve been having a number of blogging activities with friends and colleagues and I get to meet new people which is pretty exciting knowing that before, I used to blog alone.

Attending events and discussing topics regarding blogging and online marketing has helped me gain exposure to how others see this therapeutic form of expression. I’ve also learned new points of views which makes me understand that there’s more to blogging after all.

I guess what I like is the community that is established because of the bond being created with people who share the same interests as you. I plan to join more blogging activities which will help me in creating a better relationship with people.

I always like going out to events and being invited as a Blogger. As they say, blogging is a new generation of media that’s effective and more efficient as it captures a lot of market in a short span of time.

Press Release events help a lot as the number of people using the internet is growing rapidly. Getting invited to these experiences make me feel proud of being a blogger and I make sure I don’t disappoint knowing that the quality of posts that I create is going to be worth it.

I hope to have more of these in the future. Hopefully, I’ll be invited to travel for free! That is one my ultimate dreams!

I should be updating my site more often, this one in particular. It seems I haven’t been paying much attention to this when this is a good place for me to write about my experiences in earning some extra money.

This is very useful especially for newbies who want to know more information on how I was able to do it. Like I always say, I’m not an expert and I don’t guarantee the same results if other bloggers will follow my steps as most of the time I’m just lucky. I just wish to impart the knowledge that I’ve gained because of always writing and creating posts.

I want to change and add more pictures to this site but it seems I’m still constricted with time knowing that I still have a lot going on. I’m just letting the days pass while I consistently anticipate for sponsored reviews as well as continue working on my full-time job and my freelance job.

I think the updating part will have to take some more moments before I can come up with some good write-ups and pages again.

I know I should stop goofing around.

Well actually, she bought the laptop herself due to the hassles of shipping overseas and other complications that arise in sending out a device to the Philippines. But that’s beside the point already; she got a laptop as a bonus for the services she’s been doing for an employer of hers.

I haven’t been very successful with odesk (when you compare my credentials with hers) because my freelance jobs are more blog-related and I’m not as active as I thought I would be.

Anyhow, her employer whom she met at odesk seemed satisfied in hiring her as a VA (Virtual Assistant) that he (employer) decided to give her a laptop as a bonus. Now why am I the one blogging the information out for her as if I’m the one received the laptop? Simply because I’m just so happy for her, who wouldn’t be right?

Well, because I was the one who sent the money to her. She doesn’t have paypal account and had to use mine in order to transact the cash. After all the currency conversions and waiting for them to reflect at the bank, I sent the money happily and proud that somebody was able to get her bonus early this year.

It’s really nice to help out people and spread the good news on being able to share how I’ve earned online in blogging. It’s sometimes hard especially when the steps that you’ve done doesn’t work for them. Because in the end, sometimes I am just lucky to be at the right place and at the right time. That’s why I always put a disclaimer to always love blogging and not focus on the money as it will just follow. If you concentrate on the latter too much, you might get frustrated for not earning enough.