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Thursday, September 19, 2013

"Who Moved My Cheese?" Had Affected my Blogging

Gold and diamond was our topic while chatting with my 8-year-old son.  He is interested on how much the gold and diamond cost and where did it came from.

I taught him that gold is mined and bought by grams while diamonds are in carats.  We did some maths when he asked me how much does a gold bar costs. 

Since tomorrow is a school day, he needs to go to sleep early, then we said goodbyes.

The Video That Taught Me The Right Attitude on Blogging
After those conversations, I saw a video posted from a friend in his Facebook wall.  The title is "Who Moved My  Cheese".  Although I read this already in a paperback book version, it's still worth watching.

Don't be deceived by the style of the video, it's animated with four characters in it.  There are two mice, Sniffy and Scurry, and two small people, Hem and Haw.  You may find it boring at first, you need to watch it to the end.

The story is not, I think, for kids, although it might be applicable, but it's more about adults who are searching for ways to venture in other worlds out from their comfort zone, searching for business or money, or change in career.

Watch the video in Youtube or the video link below and I'll explain my views about it, how it changed my blogging career.


This video taught me a lot for my Make Future Income blog.  It changed my everyday views about blogging.  It answered my questions on Why Do I Need to Blog?

For me, blogging is one of my ways to express myself to the world.  It is also a conduit for people who wants to communicate with someone in their own kind, businessman to businessman or engineers to engineers, you know what I mean.

But, this time, as I finished watching the video, here are the lessons that I learned from it that are related to my blogging.  These in particular are the writings of Haw on the walls.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T AFRAID?
I'm a conservative person, probably like Haw, wanting to change but was constricted by the negative thoughts of Hem.  My attitude is that I want someone that will tell me first what's on the other side before I do something about it.

But, after Haw went out of his comfort zone, this is the time when he is not afraid anymore.  

I started to post my first blog at exactly 11:30pm on July 30, 2009.  I considered myself a newbie at that time.  It is when I started to realize that there's something out there where I can reach people and earn some income through it.  

The blog started when I saw a friend who ventured to blogging, probably like Haw, and I was like Hem at that time.  I was afraid to come up with a blog.  Why?

1. Afraid of rejection or humiliation from friends. Maybe they will laugh at my posting. 
2. I don't have any idea about the world of blogging.  Afraid that it might hurt me or my career.

Like Haw, I started to go out of my comfort zone, feeling not afraid to blog and the rest was history, I've been posting more than 200 post now, 10 blog sites and counting.

SMELL THE CHEESE OFTEN SO YOU KNOW WHEN IT IS GETTING OLD
Monitoring the progress of my blog is what the saying was all about.  Everyday, I do research about blogging and checking what techniques that might help me improve it.

I constantly monitor my progress with the help of Google Analytics and comparing my blogs to those successful ones.   When a blog is not that successful, I make and experiment with new blogs and monitors its success.

When I smell that my blog is not working, that means it's getting old.  I might change the way I blog or completely delete it and start a new one.  Blogging is a continuous learning.

WHEN YOU STOP BEING AFRAID, YOU FEEL GOOD
With so many blogs on hand and quite a lot of postings, I felt so good.

It took away all my doubts and fear on humiliation.  Good things started to flow when my readers praises me for what I've been posting, which help them a lot. They thanked me for my blog. 

This is what the feeling is all about.  Not afraid of anything to say, in fact, blogging is a free writing.  Who cares if my grammar or the spelling is wrong, as long as people understands it and I was able to help them with their problems.

IMAGINING YOURSELF ENJOYING NEW CHEESE LEADS YOU TO IT
Although I am not earning that much for now, I'm still so happy of what I had achieved. 

The very first earning that I have on my blogs was at $0.05.  Yes, I'm serious, it's my first earning in Google.  I was so happy at that time seeing that figure. 

Where else I can find that money by just doing something in front of my computer?  I don't even find it in my cabinet or anywhere around my house.

During those young years, I imagined myself having 10 or more views per day, it was just my dream.  But now, I gained more than that.  It's amazing how I started from that number to the ones that I have right now.

Imagining is like setting a goal.  So, I imagine myself that at the end of the year, I will be earning from this Make Future Income blog.

WHEN YOU CHANGE WHAT YOU BELIEVE YOU CHANGE WHAT YOU DO
Before I started blogging, my belief is that I can only earn money through selling physical things, the ones that we can touch.

At first, seeing my friends doing their blogs doesn't interest me at all.  Then I started to believe that they really make money out of it and so can I.

I stepped up and made my first blog site, registered in Google AdSense and that's it.  The rest followed and changed my way of finding income.

CHANGE HAPPENS THEY KEEP MOVING THE CHEESE
On 2007, the physical business that I have is not doing well.  It's because they keep moving the cheese, in other words, economy is not stable. This changes happens all the time.

Google AdSense changes their algorithms quite often and it will change the ranking of the sites.  Some of my blogs have been in the lowest rank in terms of search engines and other things.

That is why, I am anticipating the changes.  There are a lot of cheese out there and I need to find them before my cheese in Google runs out.

For the next blog post of Make Future Income, I will post all the cheese that I can find.  Maybe you are the Hem, I will be the Haw for you.  If ever I have some information that I can find, you will be the first to know.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Networking Business Online and Offline

Chatting with my two-year-old son is the most rewarding and the best motivation of the day.   His older brother is sleeping because of high fever with a temperature of 37.7degC.  I hope he will be alright tomorrow.

While the washing machine is spinning my clothes, I saw an advertisement in Facebook where the man introduced some kind of an online business.  This I thought is good for my quest of making future income, so I sneaked in.

See the video here in YouTube.

Online Networking Business
Sorry, but I have to say that the video was quite boring it's simply because of the three factors:

1. His voice is so low that he sounds like he is unexcited or exhausted.
2. The presentation is not fast. 
3. The product is not properly presented.  They are focusing only on the networking part and not the quality of their product, which is the most important for the buyer.

When choosing a business that will last longer than your lifetime, you need to have a good product.  It will overcome the high price of that product easily. 

People will still buy Louis Vuitton or Chanel or what have you even if the price can reach to 5 digits, it's because of the good product that they will possess and they know that it will be their good investment.

I've heard from my housemate that they have a client who offers high end bags for rent.  This is a good idea because of the fact that not all people can afford these things.  The only downside of this business model is when some incident happens to the bag, who will cover the cost?

My Offline and Online Business
Networking business, either be online or in real world, is a good business to have.  But, before you go into that business, make sure that you really like the product and take it as your future investment.  

Do not join if you are just aiming for the money.  In fact, it's difficult to offer products that even you will not dare to use.  Be picky when it comes to networking business.

So for now, I will not get the product which they had posted in YouTube.

Few weeks ago, I joined a networking business which is about Travel.  The product attracted me most because it's all about travel.  Almost 8 out of 10 people will say that they love to travel.  In a family of 4, everyone will travel and the good thing is this product will be extended to the family members.

I have my own website where everyone can visit.  I named my website as Alagnam.  You can view it here, but you can not see the member's benefit that it offers.

The only downside of this Travel Business is the option of inviting people or visiting them at their homes for a product presentation. I find it too tiring and costly, it will cost me few dollars for my meal and parking which I think is not worth it. But few of the members took this opportunity and they are now earning dollars in exchange of their time.

Even though I don't do the selling one on one or inviting people, I still can use the product and avail the benefits that it offers, it's because of the Travel platform.  So, that's why I love it.

If you want to learn more, you can contact me at benalagnam@yahoo.com.

Monday, September 16, 2013

How I Set My Website in Blogger

My first post has been published and I need to make few changes of the format of my website.

When creating blogs in Blogger, the default blog format is in a simplified form.  There are some formats that has designs on it already.

I prefer to have a simple format, which is the SIMPLE format made by Blogger. Taken from the format name itself, it has no colour contrast or designs in the background, just simple texts.  It's fine for me as of now, since I can edit it anytime I want.

Since I have some time to edit it, I started to change few of the settings, which I see it as not conforming to my niche.  I want to make it more professional and in a money making theme.

I logged in to my Blogger account,  clicked Templates and then Customize...

Here are the list of the changes under the Customize menu:

BACKGROUND
I chose a background that has a calculator and numbers on it.

ADJUST WIDTHS
Entire Blog - 1200 px
Right Sidebar - 360 px

LAYOUT
Single right sidebar.  I will change this later if I need to put ads on it.

ADVANCED
PAGE TEXT FONT
Trebuchet
15px
Color: #313131

Backgrounds Color
#838383

LINKS
Link Color
#990000

Visited Color
#af9a00

BLOG TITLE
50px
#000000

TABS TEXT
Bold
20px

TABS BACKGROUND
#b8b8b8

POST TITLE
22px

GADGET
16px

Here is the outcome of my settings.




So far, it looks good and professional.  This will stay as it is for now.  I don't know the outcome of this for a few months or so.  I'll just stick on it and we'll see...I need to cut the ribbon now. Cheers!

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Why I Started The Make Future Income Blog?

Just in time of setting my goal, I finished my first article in this blog, where I stated my reasons in doing this type of niche.  You can read it in the ABOUT page.

Although I've been making a lot of blogs and blog posts, this blog will be different.  In this blog, I will always start to talk about what my activities were before writing the main topic. 

It is not some kind of a blogging selfie, but this is some sort of a reminder for me on how I was feeling and seeing things at the time of writing the post.  This is like a diary of my quest for future income. 

I will also be transparent here with regards to the income that I will earn, starting from the first cent that I will be earning from this blog.  This will be my guide on my blog's progress.

How I Chose the Name of the Blog?
I was thinking of a way to have a niche that can earn money way better than my previous ones.  Yes,  I earn few from other blogs, but  it is not enough to keep me going for my future. 

The first thing that struck me is that my other blogs are not focused on one niche.  I was posting a lot of random things and my readers are reading only few posts that are applicable to them.  The retaining rate of my readers is quite low.  I need them to stay longer and browse more in my site.

Thinking of a type of niche is hard and it takes a lot of research.  As of now, I don't care first on SEOs, trendings and keywords. All I want is something that I'm always inspired to post. 

This niche, Make Future Income, fitted me the most.  The reasons are:

1. Passion?
Have you noticed that there's a question mark after the "passion" title?  It's because if we talk about income or money, majority of people will be flocking and pushing in their way just to get a grab of  information on how to make money, it can be online or in the real world.  This is the passion that majority of bloggers have.

I'm just being practical here, making this blog is an 80% looking for money online for my future income and 20% is my passion.  This will involve a lot of research online.

2. Early Retirement
At 50 years of age, I can't do heavy physical activities anymore.  The only active and strong parts of me at that time will be my fingers for typing and my brain for thinking.

When I make this blog now, who knows where it may take me.  I'm quite sure that if I put part of my 80% effort now, I will be building up my future income someday, so as I reach my target age of retirement, I may be just typing few post everyday and earning dollars for my monthly maintenance.

The advantage here is that I don't need to work hard during the final chapter of my life.

3. Family Oriented Job
If I can work anywhere I want, being with my family 100% of the time, and do other things while earning, this will be my best job ever.

Yes, I'm earning big salary now in Singapore, but I missed some childhood stages of my kids when I am supposed to be there during that important moments.  Unfortunately, I can only see them through Skype or Facebook.

This blog will change everything.

4. Practicing English
English is not my native language, I tend to forget the skills on writing if I don't practice it everyday.  Although I'm using English at work, it will not keep me away from grammatical errors specially working with foreigners, which the native language are not in English.

This blog will keep me improve my skills in proper writing.

5.  Monetization
I'm not earning thousands of dollars from this blog or even from my other blogs right now, at least I had started earning few cents or few dollars a month.  Although it will not support my daily food budget as of the moment, there's still a bit of income coming in.

If this blog will be successful as I promised, money will start to flow in and will help me achieve my goal of early retirement and focusing on this a 100%.

I have introduced blogging to some of my friends but others responded negatively and said that they don't have time to do it or they don't know how to write. 

It's alright, the people in this world are not created equal.  Some wants to write and others do other things.

But, in reality, the most common activity that we are doing everyday is looking for money.   It can be from other means, working 9 to 5, doing business, and etc... we  need money everyday. 

The best way to make money, for me, is to reach for billions of people around the world...where we can only find them in the Internet!

Blogging Has its Own Beginning

This date and time, 15 September 2013 at 3:03pm, I'm logging this in so I can remember how I started this blog.

In order for me to make it unforgettable, I will tell you what I was doing few hours ago, the weather and how I started this blog.  I'll put it in details on what caused me to start this Make Future Income blog.  This I'll explain to you at the end of this post.

How's the Weather?
The clouds are covering the whole of Singapore.  In fact, it rained the whole morning so the air is cold right now.

But the rain stopped at 2:45pm, I can hear the birds singing and celebrating for it, but still clouds are present that might be the signal for another rain later on.

What I Was Doing Few Hours Ago
At 2:00pm, my flatmate, Edward, asked me for help.  He cannot remove the broken doorknob at our common toilet door.  The screw is difficult to remove.  I tried to do it with his screwdriver but I cannot remove it also.

I told him that the screwdriver is not the right fit.  So I took my car key and headed to the parking area to get some tools.  The rain was pouring and I got wet a bit.

It was the right screwdriver that removed the doorknob, so I was right.  Then I took my late lunch at around 2:45pm, washed the dishes and headed to my room.

Edward, his wife and son were there in their room, probably watching a movie.  My 3 flatmates are also busy with their activities, just in their own rooms.

Today is the boxing fight of Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, where Mayweather won the fight.  My friend posted in his Facebook timeline that he don't like Mayweather.  Oh well!!!

Why I Started the Make Future Income Blog?
While I was browsing my hard drive, video files taken few years ago appeared to my view.  I opened each of the video and found my wife and my young son.

By the way, I'm an Overseas Foreign Worker in Singapore (OFW).  I've been working here in Singapore for few years now.

Going back to the video, I can see how time flies.  My wife looked younger and sexier, although she is still sexy now and pretty, and my son was  a toddler.  The video reminds me of the old days when I was in Philippines with this two special person in my life.

This moment, I paused the video for a while as I realized that I'm missing few years of my wife and son's time while I'm here in Singapore.  We have now our second baby, 2 years old, and I thought that I will miss his toddler years if I stay longer in Singapore.

What Should I Do With My Life?
Today, I promise not to stay longer in Singapore.  My goal is to go back in the Philippines to be with my family or to be with them in Canada.  My target is that next year, 15 September 2014, I shouldn't be here working in Singapore.

Before I can reach my goal, I have to do something about it first.  Today, I have started the blog in making my future income in order to get out of being an Overseas Foreign Worker.  I can't take it anymore, which is leaving my family in Philippines while I'm here working in Singapore, and so can retire early as 50 years old.

I will post my experiences in ways to get a passive or future income here in my blog. 

Please follow me and let's share some ideas to make this possible.
Ben Alagnam - MeMovingToCanada