Weeks before I heard this news from some blogger friends of mine that they were able to buy a new webhost at Nexx which only costs $10. That deal covers Unlimited Web Hosting and a free domain that comes with it. This is the most inexpensive web host deal I had discovered so far.

Normally, Nexx offers webhosting that costs $5.95/month for a year’s subscription (which amounts to $71.40. Pay only $10 for the first year by applying the promotional code SPARK10. This limited offer is good until June 30, 2010.

The only catch I can see here is that the $10 seems to apply only to the first year subscription. However, the value is low enough to attract webmasters like me to try their webhosting plans for a year. Even bloggers who want to try out having their own domains on a self-hosted WordPress would definitely find this deal much affordable for them – this is such a good opportunity for them to try out this platform!

Here’s what is offered in that hosting plan:

• Diskspace: Unlimited
• Bandwidth: Unlimited
• E-mail: Unlimited
• Free Domains: 1
• 24/7 Customer Support
• **Google Adwords Credits: $50
• **Facebook Ads Credits: $50
• One-Click WordPress and Blog installations.

Upon learning this friends did not miss a beat and they had immediately signed up for this offer. I was about to do the same, but I stopped at their payment methods – I was ready to pay but they only accept credit cards at this time – which happened to be all out of funds.

It has been several months since I’ve published posts on any of my blogs. Although some of you might have noticed my brief updates through Plurk, Facebook or Twitter, I was not able to manage having time to create longer posts for any of my blogs.

March 2010: Dad got stroke

At the start of this month, just nearing the end of the Panagbenga festival, my father was suddenly down with stroke. This unfortunate incident definitely changed the way things are done at home. But that’s just the way life is: my parents are getting old and I suddenly realized that I have to assume the responsibility of being the sole breadwinner of the family.

Me and my dad

Ironically, a blessing that came after that is that I suddenly got lots of freelance work to do: I never ran of jobs to do up to this time. It was not also difficult for me to find new clients to work with.

I have been actively paying Philhealth contributions since I’ve established my freelance career, thus making me an active member. My dad was declared as my dependent in the first place, so my mom and I managed to get a good amount of discount from Philhealth (plus their senior citizen’s discount) from the total hospital bill.

Indeed, if are one home-based freelancer or blogger based in the Philippines, it is wise to continue Philhealth contributions. Philhealth contributions only cost P1200 each year or P100 per month. You’ll never know when unexpected situations arise.

April 2010: Meetup with Baguio’s Ruby on Rails Programmers

I was glad to meet some Ruby on Rails programmers – all from Baguio. I only knew one of them, Kat, at the beginning, but when I came to the meeting place I met the others: George, Dennis and Rad.

The group first met at a cafe, but since the order came too late we decided to eat dinner and discuss at a restaurant near Burnham Park.

These guys are into Ruby on Rails (ROR) programming but I am not. However, I am still grateful to Kat for warmly inviting me to this group (though I really wish I to have a photo opportunity with her; who wants her pretty face included in the picture?).

If not for the numerous projects and backlog blogging work I have these days, I will seriously consider learning ROR as I had learned that this skills this opens up better opportunities and higher hourly rates in freelancing.

Meetup with Rails Programmers, Kat took the picture

I strongly urge home-based workers to attend as many meet-up events as they can. It’s less lonely that way.

May 201o: attended an IECEP seminar

Some of you may get the initial impression that I finished a computer degree, but I did not. I actually graduated with a degree that’s related to that: electronics and communications engineering (ECE) – where the main focus of my course is on electronic circuits, communications equipment and a little on computer hardware. After graduation I was able to pass the licensure exams, so I’m holding a PRC license as an electronics and communications engineer.

My knowledge in computer was all from those years of work experience I had, as well as having near-perfect grades in my computer subjects. Some would say I should have taken IT course because I’m better at software programming but I did not regret the decision to pursue electronics and communications engineering instead.

One weekend I attended my very first seminar as an IECEP member. One of the speakers explained why electronics and communications engineers are now simply shortened as electronics engineers. The shortened name doesn’t mean that the scope of this profession is now limited: the implementation of R. A. 9292 (Electronics Engineering Law of 2004) widened the extent of this profession, such as the inclusion of ICT (information and communications technology) in which my freelance web designing and programming jobs are still applicable. Learning this, I am happy to know that I’m still practicing my profession as an electronics engineer.

Some would argue that the high cost of maintaining IECEP membership plus the PRC license isn’t worth pursuing these days; but I believe that in due time, this will change. I hope I’ll be able to get to the Electronics engineering license would become an internationally recognized license. For now, I simply maintain that license because I believe it gives me more leads to opportunities that may arise in the future.

New IECEP Officers

Oh and I met one of my college classmates and some of my college instructors and had a brief chat with them.

June 2010: Got an Acer Aspire 4740G Notebook

Because of my dad’s stroke, the way we do things as a family became different. One of the things I had to do is to try working away from home. I had been content in doing things using a desktop terminal for almost three years, but now I had to go out more often than before. I find myself being in the middle of many long hours of waiting and idle times when I am in town.

Since there are already many WiFi hotspots here in Baguio City as well as 3G/HSDPA signals for USB broadband internet, I decided to invest in more equipment so that I can take work outside.

Initially, I considered buying one of those lighter netbooks around. But I realized that I was already qualified to borrow salary and multipurpose loans from SSS and PAGIBIG respectively (like Philhealth, it is good practice to continue paying contributions to SSS and PAGIBIG to enjoy benefits such as loans). Those two amounts combined were enough for me to purchase a shiny Acer Aspire 4740G notebook that’s powerful enough for me to do web design jobs.

I decided not to get rid of my desktop computer since that equipment still remains to be my first choice in doing freelance jobs. My desktop is hooked to a 22-inch screen which allows me to easily view more details.

One big disadvantage of this laptop is that it is somewhat heavy to carry around. The laptop itself is around 2 kgs, but I’m carrying a laptop plus its bag so I must be carrying 3 kgs. This bulky laptop also makes me an easy prey to robbers: this puts me into a disadvantage in some places such as the public market.

Acer Aspire 4740G

My ideal laptop is the one that’s as powerful as notebooks and as light as netbooks; however, I think that laptop doesn’t exist yet in the computer marketplace.

I had been using the notebook outside of the home since I bought it and I am very happy that I made this decision. Having this laptop around surely made me more productive: those long hours of idle waiting times in town are put to good use – I can finally use those moments to update my blogs!

(I really hope this time there won’t be anyone trying to steal/rob me off these gadgets away from me – again!)

there’s more… I’ll write more on the IECEP and the Acer Aspire notebook in separate posts.

At first I didn’t like how communication bounces on and off with one-liner questions that are passed which is really is a time-waster (I often end up losing jobs that way), but over time I had been able to adjust and learn this kind of communication.

There are always advantages and disadvantages to each mode of communication. Email communication can be too formal that it sets distance between a freelancer and the client – which is a lot different when during chat conversations where the freelancer and the client can still do small talk before discussing business. However, the distinct advantage of email is that, unlike chat conversations, you aren’t much pressured into doing things at the spur of the moment.

Email Interviews

• Discuss the project outright. Instead of asking the first question that comes into your mind, come up with a set of specific questions about the project. It is better to make a list and ask these in just a single piece of email.
• Boasting one’s accomplishments and skills is unnecessary at the interview stage since the client had already reviewed your resume and had picked you out from dozens of applicants. Show more interest in the projects by asking questions (as discussed above).
• As the expert considered for the project, try to address the issues/problems of the project. What will be the steps that you plan to do? However, be careful not to spread yourself out too thin with too much information that the client can just decide to do the job himself.
• At most respond to emails within 48 hours. If you cannot answer the question just inform that you had received the message and will be replying at the shortest possible time.

Job Assignments

• Get into the specifics of the project. Just like what was done in the email interview, it helps to ask a detailed set of instructions from the client.
• For work done, try to inform that about the work done even if the job was left unfinished.
• Follow the 48-hour communication rule like that in the email interviews, most especially for new clients.
• If there are problems with the project, discuss this with the client at the soonest possible time over email.
• Don’t forget to suggest improvements for the project too.

All the tips above are what I’ve definitely learned from simply communicating with clients simply through email. Those are the hard lessons I’ve learned myself.

Have you encountered clients who insist on using emails instead of chat or voice communication? Have you got any additional tips to add for this mode of communication? Or would you rather just walk away?

As that lone freelancer at home struggling to keep a balance between doing freelancing work and parenting duties for over two years, the world has become my office. The internet kept me company while I slowly rebuild my riches through online work: I blog and be active on social networks which probably helped me keep my sanity intact.

Lately, I got interested in meeting new online friends for real. Unfortunately, most people I made friends online aren’t based in my hometown here in Baguio City: many of them live in Manila area which is around five to eight hours away from my place by bus, while others live farther down in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

Last week, I suddenly decided to hop on a bus to attend a blogger meetup which took me more than five hours to Pampanga. This is actually the second one for me to meet bloggers. This one is not just another blogger meetup: it happened to be a despedida party for Doc Z who is leaving the country for Micronesia: I remembered first seeing this poetic doctor online at a live webcast of the 2009 Emerging Influential Bloggers I watched at home. I realized that I’d be actually meeting him along with some of those famous influential bloggers!

I still could not believe that I traveled for hours and endured the change of weather then landed there just to meet, greet, sing and then get drunk with a bunch of people I just met and worked with online and never ever met in real life!

I met others at the party whom I met already online: Jan, Bonnie, Paige, Roel, Novz, Jeff, Yatot, JenaIsle and Roy (together with his birthday daughter Angel). The gentlemen are really awesome and handsome in person.

At the end of the day I was really so excited in seeing the first batch of pictures and videos. Since that was an overnight activity and all of us had to travel back home, I understand that these people are still tired and would not want to spend time sitting down just to upload all of those pictures. Maybe if Eye-Fi was readily available then that should have made it easier for them to upload pictures and videos! The computer and the digital camera simply needed to be turned ON then all the images and videos are submitted automatically to Facebook, Flicker, YouTube without needing a card reader or a USB cable.

Nevertheless, that was truly a wonderful experience that I’ll never forget!

Nevertheless, I’ve listed down the most interesting and informative posts during the year – in case you’ve missed them.

January 2009

The year started with oDesk recognizing my efforts in creating a buzz for their freelance oDesk jobs to many Filipinos. One of my oDesk posts: Get paid by the hour in oDesk, was included as an article in their site.

I got two T-shirts from oDesk FREE and shipped to me via USPS: oDesk Recognized My Efforts

February 2009

In case you’ve missed these two useful tutorials on payment methods, then these should be helpful.

• How to Withdraw Money from Unionbank EON to Smart Money
• Alternative Ways to Withdraw Paypal funds in the Philippines

March 2009

Making money on Twitter was the hottest thing on my blog on this summer month.

Are you Twitterpated on Twitter’s Money Makers?

April 2009

I guest blogged on JaypeeOnline’s blog for a tutorial on how to move from Blogger to WordPress. Since I ended up doing a comprehensive tutorial, this became a two-post series:

• HowTo: Move from Blogger to WordPress Part I
• HowTo: Move from Blogger to WordPress Part II

May 2009

This was the time when I started doing hot keyword posts that attracted search engine visitors and got me a significant rise in Google Adsense earnings and other ad network. I’m quite surprised some people still ask what ethical hacking is. Connie Culp, the woman who got a face transplant, was interesting too.

June 2009

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon still gives me traffic and comments up to this day.

July 2009

Achieve That Constant Stream of Work (Income) was the only post I did for this month. I was too busy to write new posts.

August 2009 to September 2009

Blogging hiatus.

October 2009

This is one of the most inspiring true-to-life stories I’ve ever encountered. The boy had been able to provide electricity to his small town by creating windmills made out of junk.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

November 2009

How to Earn Money from Blogging: Pretty basic article for newbie bloggers. I wrote this in the efforts that newbie bloggers could find easily this post easily through the search engines.

December 2009

This is what I call the first blogger mini-meetup! I had a great time with The Lunch Break Blogger. I hope to meet more bloggers soon!

Mid-afternoon Snack with the LunchBreakBlogger

Also, I had changed this blog’s color, but not the template. I hope you can provide me feedback on this: New Theme Colors for The Lady Programmer for the Year 2010.

For now I can just list down steps on how to get started in blogging.

How to get started in blogging

1. Decent writing skills. I started out using a word editor with a spell checker to help me out.
2. Knowledge of using the computer and the internet. Obviously.
3. Decent internet connection. Believe me, I started blogging and even freelancing using 56kbps free internet connection that came with my telephone line.
4. (optional) Your own computer. Here in my country (Philippines) you can always blog at any internet cafe for a  minimum of P10/hour.

Of course, the next thing to do is to open up a blog for free.

1. Blogger.com: The site is great for starters (and even advanced users) to start earning money from blogs. They allow placement of advertisements and other useful codes into the blog.
2. WordPress.com: Their blogs may look better and have better comment management, but they don’t allow advertisements and other codes to be placed on their blogs. If you don’t really intend to make money, then this may be a wiser choice.
3. There are more free blogging platforms out there such as Blogsome, but performance-wise, the first two options are still the best ones to start blogging.

What’s next?

1. Choose a topic for your blog. Most often people think of blogs as a place to write down personal thoughts: but blogging had matured and evolved, so it is now easy for one to pick a topic. It is best to write topics that revolve around your personal interest if you want to earn from your own blog: cars, technology, gadgets, fashion, kids and parenting, news and commentary – the list is endless.
2. Learn the technicalities of blogging, such as HTML. Or pay an expert to help you out in coding your blog. Or ask the help of a friend in doing simple HTML tweaks on your blog. Sometimes you want to insert advertisements and other useful codes into your blog.

Making Money from Blogs

1. Learn SEO techniques. If you want to attract huge amounts of traffic to your advertisements or offers.
2. If SEO is too technical to understand do occasional paid reviews and link selling instead in addition to SEO. You may even have to invest in a domain name just to qualify for these offers. Please visit this link to learn more.
3. Do not stop at the first two steps. Making money online doesn’t stop there. There’s always a new trick or technique that comes along the way.

One email I got said that she is planning to quit her job and just go freelancing. She plans to start building work history right after she resigned from her job. She could not explore freelancing while she is employed because the job takes a lot of her time.

I’ve got so many old friends who were suddenly interested on how I earn online these days (both from freelancing and blogging). If they happen to be skilled in Information Technology, writing or even both, then they can be able to get online freelance jobs successfully. Those who are interested in earning from blogs need to improve their writing skills and eventually move to learn SEO. However, their interests were short-lived even if they wanted to learn the ropes.

I helped two friends start their own blogs to earn from them. After that one session, they were not able to update it as often as they should. They were just too busy with the day jobs.

To be successful in this venture, people need to be able to honestly answer these questions:

1. Can I afford to quit my current job?
2. Do you have the right skills and experience to go into freelancing?
3. Am I able to learn new skills quickly with my own resources?
4. Is there a huge demand for my skills and experience?
5. Can I have a social life at home with online friends all around me most of the time?
6. Am I a master of my own time?
7. Do I have the nose for new income opportunities?
8. Do I tend to decide just early enough to get started?
9. Do I tend to be a bit ahead before everyone gets to discover the awesomeness of a good opportunity?
10. Am I thinking about making the preparations for freelancing or problogging over several weeks?

All the questions are essential to the success of a freelancer, but I’ve bolded the most important ones. If you can say yes to most (not necessarily all) of the questions above, then you may be a good fit for freelancing.

Freelancing and problogging always give better returns compared to regular salaried jobs to those play the cards right.

For neophyte freelancers, I’ve always recommended that they learn the ways on how to talk, communicate and negotiate with other people and think the business way. For aspiring probloggers, they just need to start out their own free blogs in Blogger (not WordPress.com – it is a platform that does not let you post advertisements in their blogs) then watch and see over time whether they blogging is for them or not before they waste their time, effort and money on things that may probably not work out for them (talking about perception and persistence!).

One of the new changes that I like in SocialSpark is their CPC campaigns. I noticed that each click pays more than what I normally earn in Google Adsense. In addition to that, I am not limited to displaying CPCs only in my blogs – I got both Facebook and Twitter, and SocialSpark provides the necessary links for me to display those ads in two Social Networks.

I’ve tried posting out technology-related CPC links right here in this blog, and in Twitter and Facebook too. So far, I’ve earned more from both this blog and Twitter, but not much on Facebook. I guess it is because I’m not too actively involved in Facebook (but I am not simply posting out sponsored links either). However the earnings I got from promoting tech-related products or services are not really that much – I still need to learn and figure out how to get the most out from CPC clicks.

If you are a blogger who loves to write about technology as well as earn money from blogs, then be sure to head out to SocialSpark – they already got plenty of technology-related opportunities up for grabs.

HowTo: Move from Blogger to WordPress Part I – initial import fom Blogger to WordPress

HowTo: Move from Blogger to WordPress Part II – configuring the permalinks

I’ve deliberately disabled comments on this post. Please visit JaypeeOnline, read my guest post and leave your comments.

NOTE: Jaypee of JaypeeOnline is looking for guest bloggers. If you are interested, please contact him with some writing samples or a link to your blog post.

NOTE: This is a sticky post. Please read recent blog updates which are shown after this post.

The page is now quite descriptive – you can actually see an overview of what the program actually is. I’ve also included links to the past reviews that I had already written on this blog!

Oh, and do me a favor by signing up!

visit Current Earners page