Nanay Notebook | Work at home Philippines

My ZALORA Wishlist!

2012-04-23T16:04:00.005+08:00

It's no secret that I'm addicted to online shopping. When I need something, the first thing I do is search for it online (and cross my fingers that the online store accepts Paypal payments)!

Well, lo and behold, I've found another excellent online store that -- yes! -- accepts not just Paypal but also Visa, Mastercard, BDO and Chinabank deposits, and (attention eBayers) Gcash! What's more, they offer free shipping.

Of course, if you paid attention to the title of this post, you'd know by now that I'm talking about Zalora, the newest online store in town. This store is comparable to two entire floors at the SM department store: They've got clothes (blouses, dresses, pants, shorts, leggings, swimwear, etc.), shoes, and accessories (wallets, bags, toys, etc.) for ladies, men, and kids. Soon, they'll be selling Home & Living stuff, and even gift cards. Man, I could do my entire Christmas shopping here!

Now, as a veteran online shopper, there are a few things in my checklist that I like to see in an online store:

Do they have a sizing guide? (It can be hard to buy clothes and shoes without those.) In this case, yes!
Do they accept returns (you know, in case I flub up the sizing anyway despite the guide)? Zalora does!
Do they have a local landline I can call for customer service? (02) 513 0373.
Are the items described in detail? Yes. The prices, available sizes, measurements, and other details are right there for you to easily see. No guesswork involved.
Can I sort according to price? (Yes, I still tend to shop that way.) I can at Zalora.

Of course, a review is not a review if you only talk about the good stuff. I must admit, though, that I found Zalora hard to criticize. If there is one negative thing I can say about it, it's that it's more expensive than eBay.

One must remember, though, that unlike at eBay, all the items here are brand new, and we have assurance that they are genuine and of good quality. (Sadly, some of the eBay stuff I'd bought, I hated the moment I opened the packaging.)

And to be fair to Zalora, their store does have a lot of things that my stingy wallet can happily shell out for as well!

Having said that, let me get to the fun part: my Zalora wishlist! If I had a my day of free shopping at Zalora, here are the things I would get:

1. Riva 10 Party Dress from Periwinkle. The thing I love about Periwinkle dresses is they make little girls look like little girls, which is exactly how little girls should look! This dress, especially, has "English royalty" written all over it. With white stockings and white shoes, she'll look absolutely elegant, and yet, perfectly innocent -- exactly the way all little girls should look.

2. Reversible Wrap Dress by Spinkie. This one's for my soon-to-arrive little girl (that will make two girls and two boys in our family, wheee!). This dress has side ties, which I rather prefer over buttons, because baby clothes have such small button holes. The best thing about this dress, though, is that it's reversible: one side has fun balloon designs while the other side has beautiful, mandarin-themed flowers. It's like getting two dresses for the price of one. (And, if baby accidentally stains one side, as babies tend to do, you can simply mop up the mess, dab with alcohol, dry with talcum powder, then turn the dress over to make baby look perfectly neat again!)

Side A

Side B

3. Kendra SS Top by Space. How can anybody not love this blouse? You can wear it as is during the day, accessorize it with shiny chain belts or necklaces at night, and best of all, you can use it even when you're pregnant -- heck, it would even be perfect for discreet breastfeeding! Best of all -- look at that material -- it needs absolutely no ironing. This blouse is definitely heaven's gift for busy moms (and as you can see in the image below, it looks pretty good on young ladies as well)!

4. Sleeveless shift dress with chiffon center panel by Missy. Now here's a dress you can't use when you're six months pregnant -- but well, very few of us are pregnant forever. This gorgeous shift dress can be used at the office, or for meeting clients, for formal daytime affairs, or for semi-formal evening affairs. It's loose enough to hide figure flaws, but it's sculpted to make you look shapely nonetheless. It's too bad that, as of my writing this piece, they've run out of stocks in my size, but for a dress like this (and at its price of just P1,000), I'm willing to wait!

5. Scott Canvass Bag w/ Purse by Bags in the City. It's roomy, it's washable, it's sturdy, and it's beautiful. How could I not love this bag? It has enough space for all the diapers, spare clothes, wipes, and other stuff I normally carry in my diaper bag -- and yet, the bag looks dignified enough for me to carry around even on child-free excursions. When I'm out working, it can hold my notebooks and pens and tape recorder and even my little laptop -- and it won't be screaming to robbers, "Hey, steal me, I've got a laptop inside!" Oh, and have I mentioned it only costs around P800, with free shipping? Even the eBay crowd would surely fall head over heels for this one.

So that's my Zalora wishlist. What's yours? Make your own wishlist at Zalora.com -- then send it to your husband for reference (ha ha)! Happy shopping!

http://www.ZALORA.com.ph/

How to Apply for an Online Job, Part I

2012-04-17T15:58:00.005+08:00

There are plenty of guides out there on how to apply for a job, so we'll try to be more specific. After all, if you're following this blog, you're probably looking for an online homebased job, not a regular one.

So let's start. If you're applying for an online job, it's pretty likely that you won't be getting a face-to-face interview, so your application letter and resume are your first and last chances to impress your employer.

The application letter

As mentioned in the Five Big No-No's When Submitting a Job Application, you should never, never send in your resume without a cover letter, also known as the application letter. It's just plain bad manners.

Besides, the resume simply lists your credentials. Employers knows (or should know) that they will be working with real people, so they want to see your personality as well. A lot of personality can be seen through the application letter.

Application letters are, in fact, pretty simple. Here's a quick rundown on what you should put in:

Salutation: As much as possible, find out the name of the person you are applying to and his/her title, if any. Write "Dear Mr. Cruz" or "Dear Ms. Cruz" or "Dear Atty. Cruz" with a colon at the end. Remember, you are writing a business letter, not a personal one.

Do not write "Dear Juan" or "Hi, Mr. Cruz." If you don't know the name of the person, write, "Dear Sir/Madam." Do not write "To whom it may concern"!
Paragraph 1: Mention what job you are applying for, and when and where you found the job ad. If you have any attachments to your e-mail, list them down here too.
Paragraphs 2 to 3: Explain what makes you a good fit for the job without going into too much detail. You can say, for instance, that you have been designing Web sites for top companies for five years and you've never missed a deadline in your entire career. Let your resume list down the names of the companies for you.

List down, too, what makes you want to work with this company. This is a good way to show off your research skills, which is always a valued thing among online workers. If you know anything good about the company, mention it here in your application letter.

Remember to keep your paragraphs short, three sentences maximum. If you need to use bullet points, do so, but it should be a maximum of five bullet points.
Paragraph 4: Let them know that you are looking forward to hearing from them. Also give your contact details, in case they would like to interview you via e-mail, IM, or phone even before they open your resume.

Note that a Skype account tends to give a better impression than Yahoo Messenger (YM), as the latter could make your prospective employer wonder how much time you spend chatting with your friends on YM (as if people do not have friends on Skype). Be prepared for a Skype call. For this, you will need a microphone and speakers, or a headset. Video interviews are very seldom done, so you don't need a Web cam.

A word about e-mails: use a professional sounding one. For heaven's sake, do not use your iamsuperman@hotmail.com account. If you're applying as a individual freelances, a Yahoo or Gmail account is fine, but stick to the yourname@gmail.com format.

If you're applying as a company, you'd best have a company domain name in your e-mail. Mycompany@gmail.com simply lacks the credibility (and impressiveness) of j.delacruz@mycompany.com. I mean, really, in this day and age, what kind of company are you if you don't even have a domain name?

A word of caution: use your company e-mail only if you are applying in behalf of your company. If you are applying as an individual, do not use your company email. Your bosses can probably access your work email, and they will not be happy to see that you are applying to other jobs, even part-time ones.
Closing. I tend to favor "Respectfully yours" and use that closing in all my application letters. It is formal, and it shows proper respect. You can use whatever closing you are comfortable with, as long as you keep it formal and respectful. Write your complete name at the end, not your nickname.
Attachments. If your prospective employer did not specify a work sample in the job ad, find your best work that you think is closest to the kind of output this job you are applying to might want from you. I repeat: choose your best work, and make sure it is relevant to the job. You may send one or two samples, but make sure they are in just one file. Don't expect the person doing the screening to open two files of sample work. PDF files are great because they ensure that the file looks exactly the same in the receiver's computer as it did in yours.

If the job ad contained instructions on what work you should submit and how many, follow those instructions carefully. If you can't follow instructions during the application process, how much less will you be able to follow instructions afterward?

In part II, we'll talk about how to write a winning resume, what to include, and what to not include.

Five Big No-No's When Submitting a Job Application

2012-04-13T11:47:00.000+08:00

(Image by The Nothing Corporation)

I've recently posted a Writers Wanted ad at Pinoyexchange, and I've received so many unbelievable job applications, I just felt compelled to write this post.

Dear friends, if you're applying for a job, especially for an online job, please do not sabotage your chances of getting the job by making these following mistakes:

1. Not following instructions. It's not just about credentials and work samples. We need to know that you can follow instructions. If you're applying for an online job, most especially, we need to know that you can follow written instructions, since we can't be there watching over your shoulder, making sure you're doing things right.

If the person who posted the ad says "Put 'Peanut Butter Sandwich' on the subject line," do that even if it sounds ridiculous. These instructions are there to help us see early on if we can work with you or not.

If the ad poster asks you to attach your best unedited sample article, do not attach three; frankly, we have better things to do with our time than download and review three sample articles, trying to find the best one for you.

2. Omitting the salutation. It's good practice to find out the name of the person you're sending an application to. Often, companies make this easy by including in the job ad the name of the person you should send the application to. If they did not include it, it is a simple matter of making a pre-application phone call and asking the company directly whom you should send the application to.

If you really can't find the name and title of the person you are applying to, at least write, "Dear Sir/Madam." Do not write "To whom it may concern." And do not omit the salutation entirely and go directly to the body of your letter. That does not only bespeak of rudeness, it also shows you to be ignorant of basic business letter writing rules, which you should have learned in high school.

3. Putting someone else's email address in the "Sent to" field. This practice says, "I sent 200 applications today to random companies, hoping one of them will be stupid enough to hire me. You're one of the companies in my BCC list." E-mails like this are spam, and few self-respecting people read spam. I don't.

4. Attaching a generic resume. If you're applying for a writer position, send a resume that highlights your skills as a writer. Your experience as an English teacher is relevant; your patent in waterproof edible toys isn't, and it simply takes up a valuable line in your resume.

If you have nothing in your resume that is relevant to the job you are applying to, explain in your application letter that you have no relevant experience and why the company you are applying to should consider hiring you anyway.

5. Omitting the application letter. The application letter is your very first chance to plead your case. A well-written application letter tells the hiring company that they are dealing with somebody who is intelligent, educated, pleasant, and polite. At the very least, your application letter can remind the hiring officer that he or she is dealing with a human being who simply wants to live a decent life and is looking for the chance to do that by applying to the company.

A good application letter can improve your chances of getting hired. A missing application letter says you have much better things to think of than this job. While that is always true, it is foolish to make it so blatantly obvious during the application process.

Having said all these, what makes a good job application? We'll talk about that in the next article.

What about you? Have you ever been tasked to evaluate job applicants? What are your job application pet peeves?

Win a P1,000 Gift Certificate from Numa.ph!

2012-04-12T14:35:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Numa's kind sponsorship, the Nanay Notebook is holding a no-occasion giveaway for all our loyal readers. The prize is a P1,000 gift certificate that the winner can use to buy top-quality organic and eco-friendly baby stuff at Numa's brick-and-mortar store in Quezon City.

Numa's brick-and-mortar store

What you can get

Numa has baby clothes, shoes, bags, toys, slings, carriers, strollers, diaper covers, educational books, parenting books, DVDs, salves, creams, and beddings, to mention just some.

They also have top brands known for their high-quality, fair trade, child-safe, eco-friendly products: Boon, Green Toys, Medela, Ecobaby (Natursutten), Fuzzibunz, Charlie Banana, Tummy Tub, Seventh Generation, Earth Mama Angel Baby, Isabooties, Laessig, Miyim, Tiny Buds, Kee-ka, Greenbaby, Radius, MaliMariHome, Boba, Sleepywrap, Baby Boomba, NursingMom, Little Innoscents, Dentiste, and Babyjo.

Many of these brands, you can't easily find locally -- but you can find them at Numa.

How to join

To join this contest, just answer this question in the comments box below: What Numa product would you like to have, and why? You can go to Numa's website or Numa's Facebook page to see what products they offer. Or you can view my wishlist of my favorite Numa products in my Numa Store Review and Wishlist article.

IMPORTANT: Please use the same name in your comment as the name you used to log in to Rafflecopter. If we can't find your comment, we will be compelled to delete your entry.

You can also earn extra entries by liking this post, the Nanay Notebook, and Numa on Facebook, and by tweeting about this contest on your Twitter account.

Contest duration

This contest is open until 12 noon of April 21, 2012, Saturday. The winner will be announced on Monday, April 23.

How to claim your prize

Numa's storefront

If you're the lucky winner, you can claim your prize at Numa's beautiful brick-and-mortar store located at E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave., Quezon City. If you're coming from Manila, it's a short way after Welcome Rotonda, on the right side, before you reach St. Luke's Medical Center, which is on the left. Click here to see the map.

We'll be sending Numa your name, so they will know for sure that you're the winner. Please bring one valid ID with you when you go to Numa to claim your prize.

So what are you waiting for? Join now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Numa Store Review (and Wishlist!)

2012-04-11T16:56:00.005+08:00

A few days ago, I received an invitation from Numa ("new ma") to visit their website and give my honest review of their store and their products. If you love shopping for baby stuff as much as I do, keep reading!

Numa is a baby supplies store with a mission: to keep our babies comfy and safe today while preserving the world they will live in tomorrow. That’s why all the products they sell are made with organic and eco-friendly materials.

So what can we buy there? Well, a lot. There are clothes and shoes, bags, toys, slings, carriers, strollers, diaper covers, books, and DVDs, to mention some. But here’s a list of my favorites:

Booby Tubes by Earth Mama Angel Baby. Make no mistake: I love breastfeeding. I breastfed each of my three kids for at least two years. (My daughter reluctantly stopped only on her fifth birthday.)

But I must admit that breastfeeding has it downside too. In my first months, I always suffered from clogged ducts. For relief, I used a hot compress – but those could be so inconvenient to hold in place, especially when you have a baby to take care of.

Booby Tubes solve that problem. These are heating/cooling packs shaped so that you can conveniently insert them into your brassiere. No need to hold anything in place, and no more clogged ducts!
Medela Milk Collection Shells. Ah, I wish I had bought these earlier. These silicon cups are for catching the milk that leaks out of your breasts, especially during the first few weeks of breastfeeding, when your body has not yet calibrated itself to the exact amount of milk your baby needs, thus overproducing at times. In my case, I leaked so badly, breast pads simply were not enough to keep my shirts dry. If I had these then, life would have been so much more comfortable and less messy.
Seventh Generation diapers. I have a confession to make: In the cloth vs. disposable diaper debate, I side with the disposables. I believe the people who say the environmental effect of disposables is just as bad as the effect of all the water and soap and washing machine energy we waste when we use cloth. And unarguably, disposables are more convenient.

But when my babies are newly born, I am compelled to use cloth because my babies’ bottoms get diaper rash from disposables.

Well, for my fourth kid who is coming in September this year, I have discovered an alternative to cloth. Seventh Generation diapers are made with chlorine-free and unbleached material, so they’re not just more environment friendly than your everyday diaper, they’re also much less likely to turn my baby’s bottom red!
FuzziBunz cloth diapers. There comes a point in baby’s life when cloth diapers become ideal: potty training time. The wetness of cloth diapers signals and encourages baby to use the potty.

With my first three, I taught them to stop peeing in bed simply by leaving their diapers off and resigning myself to facing a wet bed in the middle of the night for a few weeks. But with the fourth, I’m going to use these cool cloth diapers with breathable waterproof covers and spare the bed of its nightly “blessing” until the baby’s toilet training is complete.
Boon Mush. This is my absolute favorite – yes, I saved the best for last. It’s a hand-powered food processor! It’s cheaper than an electric food processor (a big plus for me), it’s noiseless, and – here’s the best part – I can use it for chopping onions without tears! Oh, and yes, it’s good for making fresh baby food too, ha ha.

One thing I’ve noticed is that many of Numa’s products are listed at Amazon.com as “can be shipped only within the U.S.” Therefore, if you’re buying from the Philippines, Numa is a great place to buy baby stuff you otherwise would not be able to get from Amazon (or from other online shops, for that matter)!

Now for the downside – yes, there is always one. Because I’m an online shopping junkie, I’ve grown accustomed to eBay, where the items you are buying are often described in full detail. Unfortunately, Numa’s online store does not provide full details. It only provides the name of the product and the picture. If you want to know more about the product you’re buying, you'll need to have Amazon.com open in another window. The price is not listed either. You only find out how much a product costs when you add it to your shopping cart. (Of course, if you think it costs too much, you can simply take it out of the cart again.)

As far as the online store is concerned, I would say this lack of details is where Numa's greatest room for improvement lies.

On the other hand, the brick-and-mortar Numa shop is a cushioned, cozy, warmly lighted little nook that is pleasure to behold. I've also read from Manila Mommy's blog that they serve free oatmeal cookies in the store! So perhaps, the online store’s lack of features is Numa’s way of encouraging us to visit its beautiful offline shop.

To shop at Numa, you can visit their online store, numa.ph, or visit their brick-and-mortar outlet from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday, at the AEK Building, 40 E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave. (between Welcome Rotonda and St. Luke’s), Quezon City, Philippines. Click here for the map. For more information, you can call them at (632) 732-1522 or 711-9636.

Disclosure: This article is sponsored by Numa. All images belong to Numa. All views and opinions expressed in this article belong to me; they are uninfluenced and unbiased.

How to Get Collateral-Free Financing for Your Startup Business

2012-03-19T20:57:00.003+08:00

(Photo by iprole)

For a few articles now, we've been talking about businesses you can start right from home. But the big question for a lot of us is, Where do I get the money to start this business?

Often, a compounding problem for a lot of us is that we have no assets we could use for collateral.

Well, this is another reason why I strongly advise everyone to start their businesses while they are still employed. When you are an employee, you have one valuable resource at hand: the salary loan.

SME banks

How much, you may ask, can one get from a salary loan? Well, if we look at the loan offerings of my favorite bank for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Plantersbank, you can see that you can get as much as P500,000 salary loan (of course, depending on your salary), payable for up to 36 months. And yes, no collateral is needed.

What are the requirements for applying for a salary loan?

Fixed-salaried individual working in the Philippines’ Top 12,000 Corporation OR must be a credit card holder with a P50,000 credit limit if not employed in the Top 12,000 Corporations.
At least 23 years old but not more than 65 years old
A permanent employee with a length of service in current employer of at least 1 year (if less than 1 year, then total continuous work experience should be at least 2 years)
Has a gross monthly income of P30,000 for Metro Manila and P20,000 for Provincial Areas
Not due for retirement within the term of the loan.

Now let me take this opportunity to highlight the usefulness of a credit card. It's true, this little piece of plastic can be detrimental to our financial health when we don't know how to use it properly. But often, our credit card is also our best (sometimes, our only) proof that we are willing and able to pay our debts. When we apply for a loan, our credit card history can be our strongest ally.

Note, also, bulletpoint number 3: permanent employee of at least 1 year with current employer. If you can't keep a job, so much less will you be able to keep a business. Because no matter how difficult it is to work with your boss, trying to be your own boss is even harder.

The SSS loan

But what if your gross monthly income does not reach P30,000 per month? (Mine never did, when I was employed.)

Well, there's SSS too. But to get a one-month SSS salary loan, you need to have paid at least 36 monthly contributions prior to the month of filing the application. For a two-month salary loan, the requirement is 72 posted monthly contributions.

Microfinance institutions

There are also microfinance institutions. Granted that the interest rates of these institutions may be even higher than some banks and are definitely higher than SSS rates, they are still much lower than if you borrow from "five/six," those notorious lenders that charge an astounding 20% monthly interest rate.

If you want to contact a microfinance company near you, here's a list of them. Just click on the links below and find which company is best for you:

Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI)

Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD)

Center for Community Transformation (CCT)

Kabalikat para sa Maunlad na Buhay, Inc. (KMBI)

Taytay sa Kauswagan, INC. (TSKI)

Tulay sa Pag-unlad, Inc. (TSPI)

All these companies listed above are partners of the PinoyMe foundation, which was instituted by President Corazon C. Aquino. See the full list of PinoyMe's partner companies here. Or learn more about the PinoyMe foundation by clicking on the link.

How to Build Your Own Business Website, Part II

2012-03-12T19:41:00.001+08:00

(Photo by mmagallan)

So on part I, we talked about what we need to build our own business website:

domain name,
logo,
template, and
content (i.e., images and text).

Now it's a simple matter of putting it all together.

1. Start your site. Go to www.blogger.com, open an account there, then click on New Blog.

Title. It will ask you for the title of your blog. As much as possible, try to incorporate your blog's keywords into the title. For instance, this blog is not just The Nanay Notebook. It's formal, registered name in the Title bar is "The Nanay Notebook | Work at home Philippines."
Domain name. For address, you can put in your chosen domain name for your blog. If you're getting a custom domain name later, feel free to put in anything here. But if you intend to use a domain name with "blogspot.com," you put here the name of your blog "e.g., nanaynotebook.blogspot.com" and cross your fingers, hoping nobody has taken it yet. If somebody has already taken it, you'll need to find something else.
Template. Click on any of the available templates. It matters not which one you click since you will be replacing it with a more professional looking one from Btemplates.com later anyway.
Finish the preliminary steps. Click on "Create Blog!"

2. Set your other website settings. Go to your blog's settings. On the Basic settings, after title, add a description of your blog, that is, what your blog is about, and try to include your keywords. If, for instance, you sell baby dresses, you could say something like "Beautiful baby dresses for infants and toddlers, free delivery" or something like that (only put "free delivery" if you really give free delivery).

You could also add a custom domain name. If you want to get "blogspot" out of your domain name, you click on "Add a custom domain," input your desired domain name, and hope nobody has taken it yet. Otherwise, you'll need to find something else. You will be directed to Google checkout, and you'll need a credit card to pay $10 or approximately P500 to be able to keep that domain name for one year. After one year, you'll be given the option to give the domain name up or automatically renew your subscription.

3. Add the content of your first page. Click on New Post and paste there the contents of your front/Home page. Remember that if you intend to make this website look like a regular website, not a blog, this post will be the first and last post you can put in your blog. Click on Publish.

4. Add a pages bar. Click on Layout on the right side of your blog dashboard. Click on one of the Add a Gadget links. Look for Pages and add that. Then, in the Layout page, drag the Pages widget below the part that says Header.

5. Add a widget to your sidebar. You need to do this so that you can see what your sidebar settings (font size, font color, etc.) looks like. You can add the Text widget for now and write in it whatever you like. You can replace the text or even the widget itself later.

6. Add pages. Click on Pages on the right side of your blog dashboard. Click on the "New Page" button. The title of the first page is About. Paste here the contents of your About page, then click Publish. Then add another page: Contact. Paste the contents of your Contact page here, then click Publish.

7. Upload your template and logo. Now you have the basic elements of your blog, it's time to upload the template you downloaded from Btemplates.com. The instructions on how to upload templates can be found on the site, but if you need more help, leave a comment here and I will help you out.

If you've got a logo and favicon for your blog, now is the time to upload them. Go to the Layout page, find the Favicon widget on the page, click on Edit, and upload your favicon there. Then find the Header widget (instead of Header, this widget may show the title of your blog), click on Edit, and upload your website's logo there.

8. Tweak your template. This is the hardest part. If you know some HTML, it is possible for you to do this step by yourself. If you don't know HTML, I would strongly suggest you find somebody who does. I tweaked the HTML for Escrive.com myself, but it took me two full days to finish. My knowledge of HTML is limited to what I learned from asking questions from our office Web encoder in the two years I worked at goFLUENT.

9. Add other pages or widgets. But before you do so, always save your template. With advanced templates such as the ones you download from BTemplates.com, any change you make in the layout, any page or widget you add, could bring your entire template out of whack.

What other pages and widgets would you want to add? If you're building a blog, just copy the pages and widgets I have here on the Nanay Notebook (shortcut! ha ha ha). If you have specific questions, leave me a comment and I would happily answer.

If you're building a static business page, make sure you have your contact information right on page 1. If you have a separate contact page, it could contain a Web form that should make it easy for your buyers to ask questions or order from you. You can get a free email form from emailmeform.com.

If you're selling stuff, make sure you have a catalog of the stuff you're selling. You may also want to include an easy way for your buyers to pay, like Paypal buttons.

An FAQ page can tackle returns, shipping, payments, and other things your potential clients may want to know about.

10. Share your new site on Facebook and Twitter. Use social networking to get word out about your new Web site. Start a Facebook page for your business or blog. Get a Twitter account. Link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your website. (Click here to get the Facebook button. Click here to get the Twitter button.) Keep your pages updated.

Now comes the hardest part of all: you need to wait. If you keep your social network pages and your blog updated, you should begin to see substantial growth in a few month. In a year or two, your blog or website might even become profitable. The key is patience and constant work. Give it time.

How to Build Your Own Business Website, Part I

2012-03-09T17:42:00.000+08:00

(Photo by mmagallan)

If you intend to sell things, offer services, or brand your expertise on the Internet, it's a very good idea to have your own website.

Now some people may be intimidated by this, thinking that creating a website is beyond them. Well, I must admit, it's not easy and it's definitely not quick; but it doesn't have to be expensive, and it is definitely not impossible either.

So let's jump straight into it. What do you need to build your own website?

1. Domain name. Some people are able to build their business websites for free on Multiply or even Blogger. If you don't mind having "multiply" or "blogspot" as part of your site's domain name, then you don't need to spend anything to get a domain name. But if you want something that's truly yours, you only need to shell out P500 per year to get a domain name from Blogger.com.

2. Logo. A logo helps build your brand. Even if you're just blogging, if you intend to use your blog to brand your expertise or eventually sell a product or service, you will need a logo. You can make your own logo or get a professional designer to make one for you.

You'll need two logos, by the way: a big rectangular one to use as a banner for your website and a small square one to use as your Favicon (that tiny icon that appears beside the name of your website on the tabs of your browser).

3. Template. Blogger lets you choose among preset templates when you open an account, but if you want something more classy-looking, check out the free downloadable templates on Btemplates.com. That's where I got the template for this blog, though I had to do a lot of tweaking on the HTML to get the exact look I wanted.

4. Content. This refers to images and text. If you're selling a product, you'll need good quality images to display on your site. You'll also need text content for your website's pages.

Mandatory pages are your front page, where you would probably want to tell your clients exactly what you offer; the About page, where you tell your clients about yourself and why they can trust you and why they should buy from you; the Contact page, which lets your clients reach you. To establish the legitimacy of your business, it is best that you include a physical address here, your full name, your landline number as well as your mobile number, and other ways they can contact you.

Other pages you may want to have are Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions of Use (you can copy the text for these two from businesses similar to yours and just tweak the information and guidelines so that they fit your business perfectly), FAQs, Services (where you give further details on the services you outlined on your front page), and Location (there is a Google Map code you can input here to show people exactly where your office is located, in case your clients want to visit you).

5. Mode of payment. You open a business to earn money. Your online clients need to have a way to pay you. Will you accept payments via bank deposit or Gcash or Paypal?

For bank deposits, make sure you have an account with a bank that's easily found even in remote areas. BDO is a good bank for accepting payment deposits because they are open after regular work hours and even on Saturdays, and you can find them in nearly all SM malls. Metrobank and BPI are good too because they have a lot of branches. If your bank is not one of these three, you may have trouble finding clients willing to make bank payments to your account.

If you're selling products or services overseas, Paypal may be your best (if not sole) option. It's free to open a Paypal account, but you need a credit card to verify your account. If you don't have a credit card, you can use Unionbank's EON card. I can't speak for other debit cards because I've never tried them. I've tried to use BPI's ExpressCash card to verify my Paypal account, but it did not work.

Why do you need to verify your Paypal account? Verifying your Paypal account will remove limits on how much you can withdraw from it. Withdrawal limits vary from country to country. If you are from the Philippines, your withdrawal limit if you are unverified is $0. That's right: you cannot withdraw a single cent from your Paypal account if you are from the Philippines and you are not a verified member. You can use your Paypal credits to buy stuff on eBay, though, and other online stores.

So these are the things you need to have on hand when you start to build your website. Next article, we'll talk about putting it all together.

Did I miss anything? Let me know!

Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part III

2012-03-08T15:59:00.000+08:00

(Photo by Images of Money)

Finally, here's our last installment of the Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses series. Here are five more ways you can make money from the comfort of your own home:

1. Home-service mechanic. Okay, this is not exactly something you can do at home, but it's a service you can manage from home and offer to your neighbors and everyone within a two kilometer radius from your house. Actually, I've always wondered why this service is so seldom offered. If my car is broken, isn't it obvious that I would need somebody to go to my house to fix it? I could hardly drive it to a shop if it won't start, right?

2. Ironing and laundry service. You already wash your own clothes, right? It shouldn't be too hard to put up a sign in front of your house offering to wash your neighbors' clothes as well. Better yet, put the sign up at the village gate. Really, you never know who might need your help. Good target: moms with new babies. (Can you imagine all those diapers to wash? Just make sure to ask them to rinse the diapers out very well first!)

3. Web design. If you're running an online business, you would do well to have a Web site. For some, Multiply works well. But for the more finicky among us (like me), we want our business Web site to carry our own domain name and our own unique template. I'd been forced to design my own site for this blog and for Escrive.com, but it took so much time, I tell you, if I could have found somebody I could afford, I would have enlisted their services.

4. Tailoring. This is so classic, we often overlook it. With a sewing machine and a lot of talent, you could sew up a dozen outfits and sell them online. You could also offer alterations and repairs to your next-door neighbors. There's always a zipper getting broken or a pair of pajamas getting ripped somewhere, and honestly, not all of us have the time to repair them ourselves.

5. Be an Avon lady. If you love lotions and make-up and jewelry and bags and all those kinds of girly stuff, this is one of the easiest and most fun businesses to get into -- and often, all you need to do is to leave a catalog lying around where people can get them! My mother-in-law makes a pretty good living doing this, I tell you, though of course, it took her years to build up her client base.

I've said it before, I will say it again and again: it takes years to build up a client base. You've got to start sometime!

(Ma, I advise this to others, but I can't do it myself because, as you know, I don't use makeup or lotions or even a toner, and I hardly ever buy shoes and bags; I'm in the running for stingiest person on Earth.)

How to get clients

Now the question is, how do you get clients? Here is what you need:

1. Time. I can't emphasize this hard enough. People write and say, I'm giving birth, I want to quit my job, how can I start my own homebased business?

Oh, boy. We are presuming here that you want to start your business so you can replace your job's income? Not going to happen in that time frame! And if you opt to take a shortcut and get a work-at-home job instead, you'll soon find that you'll need to double your office job's hours when you move at home, in order to match your old income. That is, unless you're so lucky that your current office job will allow you to telecommute.

If you want a homebased business, start taking steps toward it as soon as possible. If necessary, offer your work for free just so you can build a reputation and a portfolio.

2. Have an online presence. This means having a shop at Multiply or eBay or Sulit.com.ph. Better yet, have your own Web site. I put up Escrive.com on twenty-four hours of labor and a P500 cashout.

3. Brand your expertise. This is how my friend Tarie gets all her clients. If you want a detailed crash course on how she did it, she's holding a seminar on it this March 2012. Click here to read more. If you want just a brief summary, here it is: she's been blogging on her niche since 2005, and she maintains an active presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc.!

4. Activate your network. You can't build a client base by being a loner. Solitude can help you be a great philosopher or scientist, but if you're starting a business, you've got to go out and meet people. And you've got to let them know about your business. Have business cards printed out. Have a Facebook page. Have a blog. (If you can't write, find somebody who can. Escrive has written for a lot of blogs.) Join online groups and attend meet-ups. Oh, and be nice! Come on time, keep your promises, do favors, give free advice, etc.

It's hard work, I tell you. If you want something easy and comfortable, you won't find it in a homebased business; you will find it in an office job. But that won't let you watch over the kids and their yaya.

That's as many tips as I can give right now. I hope other successful work-at-home moms out there could add their tips too!

Next up: where to get funding and how to build your own classy Web site!

How to Gain Fame and Fortune from Your Blog

2012-03-06T16:23:00.000+08:00

March 6, 2012

"How do you make money from your blog?" Well, first, you have to write it. Then, you have to get readers -- which you will only get if you write your blog articles well.

But how do you write good blog articles? And after you've written them, how do you really get the readers to come? (No, they won't come flocking simply because you're an excellent writer.)

An old friend of mine, Tarie Sabido, has been writing on her blogs Into the Wardrobe since 2005 and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind since 2009. She's got more followers and readers than I have Facebook friends.

"And," you ask, "does she earn anything from it?" Oh yes, she does.

You will notice, though, that her blogs don't have ad units on them -- not a single one. And she doesn't do sponsored posts, ever -- never did and probably never will.

But through her blog, she's managed to brand her expertise. Since 2008, she's been getting invitations from all over the globe to speak at conventions and judge book contests. I am bound to suspect she gets some sort of honoraria for it (as it is only fair she should!), not to mention all that glitz and glamour that inevitably comes your way when you're the judge of a prestigious book contest.

In short, she is living the life. While the rest of us are content with our short-term sponsored-post pennies, Tarie knows how to get real rewards from her blog.

Well, now she's sharing her secrets with the rest of us! On March 14 and 28, 6-9 p.m., at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City, Tarie will be giving a crash course on how to create an attractive and meaningful blog and, more importantly, how to get loyal readers and visitors to your blog!

Here's the text of the event poster:

Learn the basics of starting a blog or website and skills essential for writing effectively in the virtual world. See social media unveiled. Participate in exercises that will work towards the creation of your own Web space.

Tarie Sabido, the facilitator for this workshop, was a writing and literature professor at De La Salle University-Taft and the Ateneo de Manila University. She also edited instructional materials at goFLUENT International. Now, she is an instructor at Obelisk International Learning Hub and the Ateneo Language Learning Center.

A prolific blogger, Tarie writes about children's and young adult literature through her personal blogs, "Into the Wardrobe" and "Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind." Aside from writing personal blogs, Tarie is a staff writer for "Color Online," a website dedicated to women writers of color.

The workshop fee is P2,500 inclusive of handouts, materials, snacks, and certificate.

To register, please contact Joy de Asis-Villaflores at 892-1801 local 27.

Again, if you're serious about getting real rewards from your blog, this is one workshop you should not miss. Go register now.

Work-at-home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part II

2012-03-02T11:40:00.003+08:00

(Photo by Images of Money)

As promised in the first part of this series, here is a continuation of my list of work-at-home jobs and businesses you can do in the Philippines, items 11 to 20:

11. Rentals. There are plenty of things people would do better to rent than buy: formal gowns, maternity clothes, UN Day costumes, Halloween costumes, Linggo ng Wika costumes, non-convertible infant car seats, musical instruments (when you're not yet sure your kid is going to stick with those saxophone lessons), videoke machines, chocolate fountains, LCD projectors, lighting and sound systems, required readings for college general education subjects like Soc Sci II (read them two days, never open them again), vans ... my imagination runs out, but I suppose you get the idea by now.

12. Tour guide. If you live near a tourist area, why not advertise your services as a tour guide? You'll need to learn a lot about the nooks, crannies, and history of the place, but you'll get to go out a lot and meet new people and get paid too!

13. Business card/invitation/letterhead designer. Big companies probably have their own graphics artists to do this for them, but startup homebased businesses often don't. If you've got an eye for design, offer your services online. We homebased businesses who want professional-looking stationery could use your help.

14. Album/scrapbook organizer. Am I the only person in the world who finds it too much trouble to have my digital pictures printed and to put them in an album for posterity? If I could send you my digital files and you can send them back to me as printed pictures arranged chronologically in an album, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price.

15. Homebased concierge. Mr. X keeps forgetting his wife's birthday; he would love it if somebody would remind him and order flowers for her every year. Ms. Y wants to book a Cebu Pacific flight, but she doesn't know how to use their online portal or she just can't afford to wait two hours waiting for the d*mned pages to load. Mr. J wants to buy gifts for all his godchildren but simply does not have the time; he doesn't mind the purchases being done online as long as somebody else does it for him.

Have you ever been in situations such as these? I know people who have. If there were somebody who could do these things for them, they'll pay. After all, how do you put a price tag on your wife's affection because you remember her birthday and send her flowers unfailingly every year?

16. Project manager. Oh, I personally know three homebased businesspeople who need this (but only two of them realize it. The third is my husband, ha ha ha).

If you know how to manage projects, create timetables, and coerce people into keeping the sched, then this could be the job for you!

17. Pet sitting. This could be a lucrative job if you give your client base time to grow. You don't need a big yard. Most of your prospective clients keep their pets in condo units anyway. If all you have is a condo unit too, but you promise to take good care of their pets, make sure they stay safe, hydrated, walked, and well fed while their masters are gone, your business could be good to go!

18. Marketing/advertising consultant. Have experience in marketing and advertising? Then why not share your skills with the rest of us who need it? We have businesses, we want to grow it, but we don't know how, and we're afraid to approach consultants because we don't think we can afford you, but if it turns out we can, why wouldn't we want to?

19. Public relations agent. My biggest inspiration today, Ms. Nancy G. Pascual of NGP Integrated Marketing Communications, started out as a public relations agent 14 years ago. She had one client. She did all her work from her house.

Today, she has enough clients that she can afford an office in Shaw Blvd. Some of her clients are household names in banking, cookware, baby products, softdrinks, fuel, and transportation. The first time I heard who her clients were, I exclaimed, "Talaga? Kliyente n'yo 'yun? (Really? They're your client?)"

But let me highlight one fact: it took her 14 years to get to where she is now. There are no shortcuts to starting a homebased business.

20. Private investigator. Honestly, missus, have you never wondered if your husband was really going to so many meetings or if he was meeting somebody else all that time? If you have the wits to find people's secrets out, we who are less skilled but just as suspicious may find use for your services. (But don't offer it to me; I know where my husband is all the time.)

Okay, just one more list to go. After that, we'll talk about how to find clients and funding! Stay tuned for next!

Are you already doing any of these businesses? Let us know and we'll post a free blog article to let the world know about you and the services/products you are offering!

Work-at-Home Jobs and Businesses You Can Do in the Philippines, Part I

2012-02-28T13:28:00.001+08:00

(Photo by Images of Money)

"I want to work at home -- but what can I do?" Very common question. Here are some answers:

1. Accounting

If you have accounting background and experience, you can offer your services on the Internet (or you can advertise it here on the Nanay Notebook). A lot of people, including myself, hate to do their own paperwork, so if we can get somebody to handle our BIR registrations; tax computations; monthly, quarterly, and annual filing; financial statement preparation; SSS, HDMF, and Philhealth payments and record-keeping, why we would be willing to pay you a reasonable retainer's fee!

2. Human resources consultant

One of my clients operates a business with two employees, but he still gets a human resources consultant. Why? Maybe he realizes that an expert can judge character better than he can. Maybe he has more profitable things to do than sort through resumes and conduct preliminary interviews. Maybe he wants to make sure that all contracts and paperwork are done right -- with the way the laws of this country are communicated and implemented among the public, you could be doing something illegal without ever knowing it, believe me, I know! Maybe he wants somebody else to do the dirty job of sacking a person who has been found incompetent (or just lazy) with his work.

The point is, there are people who are willing to hire human resources consultants in the Philippines.

3. Photographers and videographers

Wedding photographers, pet photographers, baptismal photographers, party photographers -- the fact is, photography and videography are hard, and if you know how to do it, then you have a saleable skill right there. You'll probably need equipment, though.

If all you have is a digital camera and a printer, set up a stand for ID picture photography.

4. Art/music/sports/dance instruction

Oh, this one's great, because your target market is children, and parents tend to spend more easily for their children than for themselves. Come summertime, or even during school weekends, offer to teach kids a skill you know, be it

drawing
painting
singing
street dancing
ballet
martial arts
piano
violin
guitar
etc.

You don't need a big fancy studio or even super-great skills. If a parent just wants to know if her kid has some gift in a certain field, she'll be perfectly willing to enroll her kid in your ballet class, even if you just hold it in your backyard, if the price is right, and especially if you just live in the same village!

Once she knows her kid has a gift and will stay with the sport or art, then she can opt to enroll the child in one of those fancier, more distant, more expensive schools.

5. Jewelry designer

If you know how to make jewelry, you can sell them on eBay. Jewelry are great eBay items because they are small, often non-fragile, and cost little to ship.

6. Event organizer

If you enjoy organizing parties for your children, why not level up and start organizing parties for other people too? By now, you've probably met a lot of caterers, balloon sculpture makers, cake makers, clowns, event hosts, dressmakers, and whatever else parties need, to offer a good variety of choices for your clients.

7. Event hosting

If you've been asked to emcee a lot of events for free before, you could probably start emceeing for strangers and charging them for it too!

8. Freelance musician

Who would need this? Well, weddings, for one. A violinist or flute player would provide a good touch at a wedding ceremony. Some people may want a musician at their parties. You'll probably need to have a good barong or tuxedo, though.

9. Language tutor

You can do this online. Lots of parents would love for their kids to learn a second language. Some people may just want somebody to practice with.

10. Subject tutor

If you're good at science or math or English or Filipino (you'd be surprised at how many kids need Filipino tutors), offer tutorial services, even via Skype.

Okay, I gotta go back to my own work now. Please wait for the next items on this list (oh, there are many) and for advice on how to get clients for these jobs. Till next time!

Are you already doing any of these businesses? Let us know and we'll post a free blog article to let the world know about you and the services/products you are offering!

Work-at-Home Job vs. Homebased Business

2012-02-26T10:03:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've been receiving a lot of emailed queries from mothers asking how they could start working from home. Often, the hope is to quit the regular office-based job and replace the office-based income with homebased income.

I'll say this straight: If you're looking to replace your office income with your work-at-home income, you should not be looking for a work-at-home job. You need to start your own homebased business. And it is something you should begin to do while you are still in your office job.

Why?

Because often, work-at-home jobs pay much less than a homebased business will. After all, with a work-at-home job, you are just getting a percentage of what your employer gets from the client. If you own the business, you get 100% of what the client pays.

In fact, from my experience, the only way a work-at-home job can equal an office income is if you double your office hours, which means you work 80 hours a week instead of 40.

The downside, of course, is that with a homebased business, you will need to search for clients yourself. But let me tell you this: the process for finding your own business clients is almost the same as the process for finding a work-at-home job you can live with. In both cases, you need to

search online,
send a lot of application letters and work samples, and
activate your social network.

That is why you need to start your search for a work-at-home job or business many months before you quit your office work. It's no overnight deal.

Perhaps, the reason why a lot of people shrink from starting their own business and look for jobs instead is the fact that a business promises less financial security than a job. It's true. Client payments get delayed. Clients themselves are seasonal. You need to learn to manage your finances. But whether you have a business or a job, that is a skill you need to learn anyway.

And though a job offers more financial security in terms of regular payments, a business offers more financial rewards in terms of payment volume.

Another problem with having your own business is that your amount of accountability gets magnified. In the case of a writing company, for instance, the writer's work gets edited and fact checked and proofread before it is sent to the client. If the writer contacted the client directly, the writer would need to be able to edit and proofread his own work and make sure his facts are correct.

If you feel that your skills are not sufficient for you to contact clients directly, then yes, you may need to get a work-at-home job instead of start your own business ... but do the job part time, while you are employed, so that your skills can be honed to the point where you can eventually stand on your own.

Then, when you quit your office job, you won't need to look for a work-at-home job anymore. You can start your own business.

Next post: A list of homebased businesses you can start. Watch out for it.

The Sound of Scam

2012-02-25T03:09:00.001+08:00

I had an interesting experience today at Sulit.com.ph. I found this ad that was looking for work-at-home Web developers in the Philippines, inviting interested parties to apply to archer@debtresourcegroup.com.

"Wow," I thought. "Some of my readers might like to know about this."

So I asked the ad poster for details on the job. Naturally, I would not want to post it on the Nanay Notebook if I wasn't even half sure it was not a scam.

To establish their credibility, I asked them for the name of their company, some company background, the name of the contact person, and their payment schedule and methods.

Here's the "professional" reply I got (font styles, colors, and highlights not mine):

As you can see, this is a "work from home" job opening so there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States.

We would like to reserve our right to privacy and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified.

I have been in the offshore outsourcing industry for a couple of years now and have worked with a couple of U.S. based firms who outsource full-time and part-time jobs to the Philippines. And every experienced independent work-from-home worker is fully aware that there is always a concern out there for the "validity" of the job and the company. However, this "comes with the territory". Payments are made at the "back end" so there will be a "waiting time" that may cause apprehension.Needless to say, there is no company that pays upfront. It is always done in the back end. I cannot even say that MY OWN salary is guaranteed. What if the company folds up tomorrow or days from now? There are so many companies in the US that are losing money and closing down left and right. Even giant corporations have filed for BK.
In actuality, there is as much risk to the employer as there is to the employee because the services of the employee also cannot be guaranteed. Offshore oursourced jobs entail a higher level of trust from both parties. Some might ask for a "guarantee" and all we can say is "it is what it is". One tip I can advise your readers to keep in mind is that "if the employer is charging an application fee or joining fee, then there is more reason to worry". In our case, may I reiterate that we are NOT charging any fee. We are just looking for someone to do the job.

And just FYI, we have interviewed 3 people today and are currently evaluating them.

My dear readers, may I just use this as an example of the kind of work-at-home job you do NOT want to apply to. Why?

Mr. Job Poster was right on one thing: there is naturally less security for both the company and the worker when you take a work-at-home job. How do you know you will get paid? How do you know they will not run away from you after you have submitted the work they needed you to do?

But he is wrong in one thing: it does not need to "come with the territory." A good and legitimate employer, being aware of such issues, will bend over backwards to establish its credibility with its applicants. This includes, at the very least, giving out a physical address, phone number, and the name of a real person to contact. Ideally, they should have a Web site. After all, in this day and age, a Web site costs a mere $10 to get and about 8 hours to create. It may not be the slick, professional-looking Web site you would desire, but it's still better than nothing, which is what www.debtresourcegroup.com is.

And if the company folds up, that's no excuse to not pay your employees, no excuse to say that salaries are not guaranteed. There may be legal loopholes, yes, maybe, but a decent human being will make sure that his workers get their due.

Mr. Poster says he would like to reserve their right to privacy "and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified." What are they hiding? If you are a recruiting agency, I can understand why you would not want to divulge the name of your company, although I know reputable recruiting companies that stand proud by their name -- but to not even give out the name of a contact person? No physical address?

It is a lame excuse to say that since the job is a homebased one, "there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States." You cannot form a legal U.S. company (or even a legal Philippine company, for that matter) without a physical address. My virtual company, Escrive Writing and Editing, operates from my home. Therefore, that is the physical address of my company. My son's "school," Kolbe Academy, actually operates its homeschool program from a church in Napa, California. Therefore, the church is their physical address.

Mr. Poster reiterates that they are not charging any fee to applicants, so they are more trustworthy than those outright scams that make you pay money so you can do the job.

Not necessarily true. There are several stories on Odesk where the service provider did a lot of work, no "application fee" involved, but did not get paid in the end. The lack of an application fee is no sign of trustworthiness.

So what's my take on work-at-home job posts such as this? Is it a scam? I would not categorically say so -- but it sure walks and talks like one.

ARTICLE SURVEY: Good Sleeper to Bad One -- What to Do?

2012-02-23T20:07:00.001+08:00

Thanks to Mama Tina's article at Smart Parenting about my writing and editing gig, this work-at-home mom has been asked by Smart Parenting Online to write a few articles for them as well.

My first assignment involves a favorite topic among moms: babies' sleeping patterns. Has it ever happened to you that your child who has finally learned to sleep through the night – or has always slept through the night – suddenly begins waking up several times before the morning, for a bottle or something else?

We need your input!

How did you feel when that happened? And what did you do to solve it? Did you try to solve it at all, or did you simply take it in stride?

We would really like to know what you think. Please note, though, that your answers and names may be included in the article.

Incidentally, if you would like a link to your Web site, we'd be happy to add that to the article as well!

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

How to Become a Work-at-Home Mom

2012-02-21T23:15:00.001+08:00

Feb. 21, 2012 -- This is no generic, anonymous post. Today, I write about my own personal journey towards being a work-at-home mom.

Perhaps, this will help other mothers who want to work at home understand something very important: the road between being an office mom to being a work-at-home mom is not a road you can travel overnight (or even in one year).

A long road

We've all done it, I suppose. We searched Google for "how to be a work-at-home mom," hoping to find those five or ten steps that will let us resign from our regular jobs and start working from home in a week or so.

In my case, though, it took much longer than that.

It all started when I was a stay-at-home mom in 2005, seven years ago. I had resigned from being a public school teacher to care for our first baby full time.

It was not easy to survive on one income because my husband's income was not steady at that time. So I looked for something I could do at home. I decided to try my hand out at writing.

Now I had absolutely no professional experience in writing or editing. I had no portfolio whatsoever.

So I took the only writing job I could find that did not require experience and portfolio: I started writing keyword articles.

It was terrible. They paid P50 for a 500 word article. It was of no real financial value. But it gave me my portfolio -- and it gave me the courage to call myself a writer. Now I had something to put in my writer resume.

Tip 1: Start doing the work, even for free. The money will follow.

First break

Soon, my brother Ivan found out about what I was doing. He, too, wrote articles, but for a print magazine.

When Ivan heard how much I was making per article, he said, "You know what -- I'm a bit busy these days. Perhaps you would like to write some of my articles for me? They pay a bit more."

Only then did I realize how much print articles pay. I never looked at keyword articles again.

Now let me say this: my brother would never have let me write articles for him if he thought I could not do justice to them. And he would never have passed the work to me if he did not care for me in the first place.

Tip 2: Build a reputation. And build relationships.

Relationships are very important. My brother once said, "What you know can only bring you so high. In the end, it's who you know that will bring you to the top."

He was not being cynical. We all know he was right.

So let me say it again: relationships are important. They are especially important if you are hoping to step out of employment and into freelance work. College degrees and portfolios don't bring in clients; they only secure them. But to bring clients in and to keep them, you need to reach out. You need people who will refer you to others. You need people who will trust you.

Paid training

All the events I related to you so far occurred while I was a stay-at-home mom. Now a month or so after our second child's birth, I got a regular job as editor at a Swiss-owned company. And yes, to secure this job, I put in my experience in writing keyword articles (which paid peanuts) and print articles (which paid real money).

I was hired as writer. It was a few months after that -- before I was regularized -- that I was unofficially promoted to editor. How did that happen?

We did not have an editor. We needed one. So I volunteered. I had absolutely no editing experience, but it was close enough to writing. The other skills I needed, I learned from the Internet.

It entailed more work for the same pay, but it was a learning opportunity. Not only did I learn what a serial comma was, I also learned how to deal with writers, the editor's natural enemy (I'm kidding -- somewhat).

Tip 3: If you are employed, give it all you've got.
Volunteer to do the tasks nobody else wants.
Consider it paid training.

Going home

At this point, I had one client for freelance writing. I started to look for others. I found a company that accepts home-based editors. I applied and got accepted.

When I finally decided to take the leap and leave my office job to work at home full time, I asked this same company if they would take me on a fulltime basis. They accepted.

Tip 4: Collect your clients one by one.

While I was working from home, I kept looking for other work-at-home jobs on the Internet. I found one on Craigslist.com. He was looking for a virtual assistant. I had never been a virtual assistant, but I looked at his work requirements and told myself "I can do that."

I e-mailed him my application. He replied in an hour. We talked on Yahoo! Messenger, negotiated, and he gave me a test assignment: news writing.

I had edited a lot of news before, but I had never written one. I learned how to do it by searching the Internet. The next day, on the deadline he gave me, I submitted my sample article.

Just like that, I had a new client.

Tip 5: Meet challenges head-on.
They will force you to learn new tricks in your field.

More clients

Here's one other new trick I learned online: a blog is a good way of marketing yourself and your skills. In 2010, I started writing this blog. Again, it was one of those "non-income-generating activities" that I felt I had to do, for long-term benefits.

Many months after I began writing the Nanay Notebook, a television company looking for working moms to interview found me through this blog. They interviewed me and showed the segment on television.

That's how an old classmate who now worked with a PR company found me. She asked me if I could write press releases for her.

Of course I said yes. Who cares if I had never written a press release in all my life? Google to the rescue! I learned how to write a press release, submitted my first copy, it was accepted, and I received more assignments.

Now I had another client.

Leap of faith

By this time, I had enough work to keep me busy more than eight hours a day. Then one day, I got sick. I had absolutely no output -- and no income -- that day.

A week before that fateful day, a childhood friend Jocelyn Domingo had invited me to a free financial literacy seminar. I learned two important things there:

The wealth of a person can be measured by how many days he can stop working and still eat.
Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting a new result. (I believe this was a quote from Albert Einstein.)

On that day, I decided to do something different: I decided to hire freelance writers so that, even if I stop working, articles will continue to be written and the work process (and income flow) will not completely stop.

It was scary because at that point, I was earning barely enough for our family's needs. How could I think about sharing that income with other writers?

But a good aunt, Vidda Chan, referred me to a very inspirational video that reminded me to trust in the providence of God. I took the leap.

Sure enough, on the first few months, my income was halved. But with writers helping me out, I had more time to look for other clients. My Tita Amy referred me to a friend who needed somebody to edit biomedical journals. On Elance, I got invited to do small jobs. In time, my team and I were writing fashion articles, technology articles, travel guides, product reviews, UK news ...

Eventually, I was able to earn as much as I earned before I had writers to pay. At times, my new income even exceeded my old income.

"At times?" you may ask. "You didn't always earn a lot? So where was the benefit, then?"

The benefit was that now, I could go out on dates with my husband. I could take weekends and holidays off. (When I first started working from home, I had been unable to stop working, even on weekends and holidays, for about six months, because I had so many deadlines to catch all by myself.) I could even get sick now, when it was absolutely unavoidable.

And all that time, the work and the income continued to flow. What's more, other people -- my dear writers and editors -- were able to share in the blessings too.

Friends in high places

Today, the story continues. I have been working at home for about two years. I am far from being an expert. I am very far from being a millionaire. I can only share what I have learned so far.

But if there's one last thing I would like to point out, it is this: I am no savvy business person. I don't really know how to market stuff; I don't know how to sell. What I have so far, I have gained through two things only: (1) my sincere effort and desire to do things right, and (2) God's pure grace.

A famous poet once said, "Only God can make a tree." It's true. The most we can do is plant the seed -- and indeed, the seed needs to be planted. But whether that tree will grow, and whether it will bear fruit, only God can say.

So whatever you endeavor to do, make sure God is on your side. Make sure it is an endeavor that you can ask God to bless.

As my brother said, "It's not what you know; it's who you know." It's a great idea to make friends in high places -- and heaven is as high as anyone can get. Make friends with the One there, and you will be on the right track.

Breastfed Children Display Less Anger in Adulthood

2012-02-20T17:07:00.001+08:00

(Photo by Summer)

Feb. 20, 2012 -- I've just discovered another interesting study on breastfed babies. It says that children who were breastfed during their first six months of life grew up less prone to

anger,
irritability,
hostility,
cynicism, and
paranoia

than their bottle-fed counterparts.

This longitudinal study, which took place for 24 years, involved nearly 2,000 people. It was authored by researchers from the University of Helsinki and University of Turku in Finland. The article titled "Breastfeeding and Offspring Hostility in Adulthood" was published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics on September 28, 2011.

The researchers proposed that the warm attachment that the child develops with its mother during its infancy makes the child less hostile and more mild-mannered in later life.

But I wonder...

You see, I couldn't access the full text of the study (it necessitated a paid account to do so, so I only saw the abstract) so I'm not sure what the researcher's opinion was on the possibility that perhaps the babies were mild-mannered because women who breastfeed tend to relate more patiently towards their children.

Could it be that these children were less hostile, not because breastfeeding makes them more calm but because when a mother breastfeeds, she tends to become more patient and less hostile in dealing with her child?

Could it be that breastfeeding affects not (just) the child but (also) the mother?

Or could it be that mothers who choose to breastfeed their babies are more stable and more patient in the first place?

What do you think?

Phone-Using Drivers Are Worse than Drunk Drivers

2012-02-03T12:37:00.003+08:00

Put this sign in your car
(Graphics by mzacha)

I just saw this Facebook story about how a child lost his dearly beloved mother and sister because they were hit by a drunk driver.

And so many commented on how terrible drunk drivers are.

I'm sure none of us here would be so irresponsible as to drive while under the influence of alcohol.

But how many of us are irresponsible enough to drive while talking on our cellphone? Even worse, how many of us are irresponsible enough to drive while texting?

Well here's news to chew on: Talking on the phone while driving is just as bad as driving while under the influence of alcohol.

In June 2006, a group of Utah psychologists found that people who talk on the cell phone are as impaired when they drive as people whose blood alcohol level is beyond the legal limit (in most U.S. states) of 0.08%.

This is true whether you hold the phone in your hands or use it hands-free. (For more details on the study, see "Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks," published on the University of Utah News Center website.)

But that's not the end of the story. We haven't talked about texting while driving yet.

To be frank, I would say it's almost unnecessary to elaborate on this. If talking on the phone while driving is as bad as drunk driving, it should be obvious that texting while driving should be much worse, right?

But elaborate on it, I will. Let me repeat: People who text while driving are worse than drunk drivers!

In 2009, researchers from the Car and Drive Magazine did tests to see how quickly a texting driver can hit the brakes in case of an emergency, compared to an unimpaired driver and a drunk driver. Here are the results. Let them speak for themselves:

Unimpaired: 0.54 seconds to brake
Legally drunk: add 4 feet
Sending a text: add 70 feet

Seventy feet! Oh come on, maybe the researchers were exaggerating. Yup, maybe it's just half -- 35 feet. Nah, let's put it at 15 feet.

How many feet of delayed braking do you need to kill a child and its mother? How many feet do you need to put your own family in danger?

Less than five.

So for all of us here who are quick to crucify people who drink and drive, let us be the first to cast the first phone. We shouldn't be holding it anyway while we're at the wheels.

I Didn't Make These Babies; I Just Bore Them

2012-02-02T19:44:00.002+08:00

(Photo by vancity197)

I'm in the mood to wax philosophical today because I have nothing practical to write about.

On September, I shall be bearing our fourth baby. One thing I noticed is that, as the number of your children grow, the reactions of the people who receive the news become less and less enthusiastic.

And it bothers me.

It's not that I am searching for approval. With three children in the house, I have all the approval I need, thank you.

It bothers me because, in people's reactions, I come face-to-face with the truth that our society is truly becoming anti-life. It bothers me that, upon hearing about this fourth baby, the first thing that comes to people's minds is how I will raise all of them. It bothers me to realize that children are no longer considered blessings but burdens.

Burdens ... to whom?

And now I raise an accusatory note: who, really, do we consider these children to be burdens to? Obviously, their parents do not consider them burdens. Otherwise, their parents would perhaps have done something to stop them from coming.

What I notice is that, whenever we talk of children being born, it almost inevitably follows that we talk of overpopulation and the Earth's resources running out.

Which leads me to the ugly conclusion: We consider these children a burden to us, their fellow residents on Earth. We consider them an impingement on our resources. "Oh boy, there's one more child born. That's one more child on whom the government will spend the money they should be spending on me. That's one more child who will be competing for jobs my own child will want to apply to. That's one more child sharing my Earth's wealth."

Not our Earth

Well, here's an idea. Perhaps it is not our Earth. Perhaps it is God's Earth. After all, He made it. And perhaps, He knows better than any of us just how many of us can really share it. A good parent, after all, will not provide only one-half roll of cake if He knows he has twenty kids to share it. And yes, I believe that God is a good, wise, generous, and loving parent.

Perhaps, the reason why God allows children to continue being born is because He knows that the Earth He made is good enough to support more than 7 billion people.

And yes, I am putting the responsibility on God for all these children continuing to be born. Because I did not make these children; He did. If I had the power to make children, I would not have waited two years before my eldest child was born. I would have made him much sooner.

I am sure many women and their husbands would agree with me. How many of us have tried and tried to make children but have been unable to? How many of have borne a child once and tried to "make" some more but failed?

If "only God can make a tree," could it be that a mere human could make something far more complex -- a human child? How highly we think of ourselves!

God likes children

No, I don't make children. I only bear them. And I believe that if I say to God, "No, I refuse to bear any more of your children," I am sure He will simply have somebody else bear them.

And you know what? I'm not surprised that God wants so many of us here on Earth, because kids are really very nice to have -- even when they are disobedient, even when they are selfish, even when they are greedy.

I should know. I have three so far, and even though there are still times when they are difficult, I couldn't imagine how life could possibly be richer or more joyful if I had one or two fewer little people under our roof.

Homeschooling and the Working Mom

2012-01-31T19:00:00.001+08:00

Supergirl was single and had no kids
(Photo by Sam Howzit)

In the past three posts, we talked about when it would be good for parents to consider homeschooling for their children: bullying, ADHD, and other reasons, such as giftedness, mental retardation, distance from school, religious conviction, and financial flexibility.

I also promised I would talk about homeschooling and the working mom, that is, moms who work outside the home.

Let me get direct to the point: it is very difficult for a working mom to work outside the home and homeschool at the same time.

Even stay-at-home moms and work-at-home moms have their bad days with homeschooling. But a working mom who homeschools will really be stretching herself to the limit.

How about staying at home?

If you know in your heart that it is in your child's best interest to be homeschooled, because he is being bullied in school or for other reasons, then ask yourself this next question: is it really necessary for you to be working outside the home?

Take a calculator, sit down, and look at how much you could save from staying at home, not commuting to work, not paying for childcare, not paying tuition, not eating out every day, not drinking designer coffee.

Speaking of designer coffee, brainstorm, too, on what luxuries you are paying for that you could do without.

It might turn out you can afford to live on one income after all! In addition, you will be teaching your child valuable lessons in frugality and finding joy in non-material things.

Here's another option: you may be able to do your work at home. This article would be too long if we listed here the ways to find work you can do at home, but this blog has talked about that several times in past articles. Now, suffice it to say that many mothers have done it, and you can too.

Nonetheless, there are situations when you really have to keep working outside the home. What then?

Maximize your resources

There are two things that can help you homeschool your child even when you are not at home: the Internet and a tutor.

Admittedly, this goes against the traditional way of homeschooling, where the parents teach the child personally.

On the other hand, it still fulfills a good number of homeschooling's obejective:

It protects your child from bullies.
It protects your child from negative social influence.
It gives your child one-on-one attention.
It gives your child time to independently and thoroughly pursue his or her own interests.

The Internet is full of resources that can help your child learn almost painlessly at home. I have listed some of them in a previous post, Educational and Child-Safe Computer Sites.

Time4Learning.com, in particular, gives your child U.S. state-approved curriculum up to Grade 8. Now that the Philippines is moving to a K-12 educational system, Time4Learning's curriculum becomes compatible with our own.

For Filipino and Araling Panlipunan, you can get your child textbooks from local bookstores, and let your child read through those and answer the exercises.

When you get home at night, and also on weekends, you can go over the child's lessons together to see what needs to be reviewed or supplemented.

A tutor can also help you ensure that your child is studying and learning at home as he should.

Of course, none of these come cheaply. Nonetheless, I would venture to say that it is still cheaper to do it this way than to enroll your child in some of the best private schools in the Philippines.

You may ask, can I do it without help from the Internet or a tutor?

I would not advise it. You would be burning your candle at both ends. Don't try to be a superwoman. Remember that Supergirl (Superman's cousin) was single and had no children.

By the way, here's one last advice: get yourself a support group. We have one on Facebook and another on Yahoo Groups. If you're interested in joining these groups, let me know and I will invite you to them (the FB group is by invitation only).

Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part III: Other Reasons

2012-01-30T11:08:00.000+08:00

(Graphics by nornir)

So far we've talked about (1) bullying and (2) ADHD. For me, those are major reasons to homeschool your child. Here are other reasons:

3. Other exceptionalities. If your child has been diagnosed with retardation or giftedness, your child might benefit more from personalized instruction (in the case of the former) or independent learning (in the case of the latter).

Keep in mind that a child with retardation's greatest needs are to learn basic life skills (e.g., cleaning oneself, fixing up one's own room and surroundings, crossing the street safely, washing the dishes, following instructions) and a vocational skill that will let the child earn her own money when she grows up (e.g., handicraft, maybe clerical work, depending on the degree of retardation), and basic literacy, depending on the degree of retardation (e.g., reading, writing, counting, color and shape identification).

A gifted child, on the other hand, can learn well enough by herself. All she needs is the right environment -- the necessary materials, the necessary time, the necessary freedom. Instead of putting her in school where she will need to wait for the rest of the class catch up to what she already knows, why not let her study at home and use the time (and money) you save to enroll her in ballet class or gymnastics or astronomy or whatever she's interested in?

4. Transport issues. Either school is too far from your home or your child is too sick to travel the distance.

Some kids have to travel an hour to reach school, and I'm not talking about kids in far-flung barrios with no roads and no cars. When I was in high school, I rode a school bus that had to make 30 stops from the time I got in to the time we got to my school. That's an hour and a half, one way.

Or maybe your child is ill and too weak to travel to school. That does not mean you have to stop her education and let her run after lost time when she recovers. Let her have her schooling at home instead.

5. Religious conviction. This is not so much an issue in the Philippines, where religion has not been outlawed in the classroom. Still, some parents would like a little more religion in their child's education, or maybe a little less, or maybe a different sort of religion.

In our family, this is one of the primary reasons why we homeschool. I wanted my children to learn more about religion than I felt was being taught in our regular schools.

The best part is, as I am teaching our children about our faith, I am learning too -- I am learning things about my faith that they did not teach me in school.

6. Financial flexibility. The big difference between homeschool and conventional schools is that in conventional schools, costs are dictated. The school decides not just how much to charge for tuition but also how much you need to spend on field trips, graduations, etc.

In a homeschool setup, you can spend as little or as much as you like, and you decide when to spend. If you have a lot of money, you can choose the most expensive curriculums available -- some are even more expensive than what you pay for tuition in conventional schools. You can go to Bohol and Beijing for your field trip, so that your child can see the Chocolate Hills and the Great Wall of China personally. You can enroll your child in Ballet Manila for PE class. You can buy her a microscope and telescope for science.

Or you can use a free curriculum downloaded online, take the ALS exam for validation (very cheap, almost free), go to PAGASA Planetarium for your field trip (P25), and let your child improvise materials for art and science to strengthen her imagination and creativity.

No one will make you pay P800 to go to Enchanted Kingdom and SM Mall of Asia for your field trip. You don't need to pay P200 for a hard-bound diploma holder for your preschooler if you don't want one.

Okay, lecture over. Any questions? Please feel free to ask in the comments box below. I always reply within 12 hours.

Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part II: ADHD

2012-01-27T12:08:00.004+08:00

(Photo by jimpetr)

Yesterday, we talked about reason 1: bullying. If your child is being bullied in school, it is a good idea to look at homeschooling -- before it's too late.

Reason 2: ADHD. If your child has been labeled with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, his teacher is basically saying that your child cannot sit still long enough in the classroom to learn and to let others learn.

Without getting into an argument about the validity of such diagnoses or whether such a disorder really exists in the first place, allow me to propose that if your child is unable to sit still in school, then for his own good, he should not be there.

(And I say this with my Special Education degree from the state university to back my words.)

Let's digress a little and talk about eating styles for a second. Some people, like my friend Sampy, like to eat their food in a specific order: they finish up their cheeseburger, then they eat up their fries, then they dig into their sundae, then they wash it all down with a glass of Coke.

If Sampy learned like that too, she would fit very well in school.

But some people don't eat like that. I take a bite of my cheeseburger, then follow it with a few sticks of fries, then I take another bite from my cheeseburger, followed by more fries or maybe a spoonful of sundae. Now and then, I would have a sip of Coke.

Fortunately, I don't learn like that, which is probably why I did okay in elementary school (where there were no bullies to distract me).

But some children do learn like that -- they like their lessons in random bits and pieces.

If your child is one of these children and you forced him to finish 45 minutes of science before touching grammar or math, he would be heartily sick of science at the end of five minutes, in the same way that he would be sick of cheeseburger after ten consecutive bites uninterrupted by the taste of fries!

If you were homeschooling your child and you knew that he learned like this, you could set in front of him all the material he needs to finish for the day and let him go at it in his own sporadic fashion. All you have to do is sit beside him to answer questions and make sure he's studying instead of having his third snack that afternoon. (Yes, even in homeschool, kids like to play truant.)

Will your kid learn this way? I can assure you, he will learn more in this manner than he will learn in school -- and he will enjoy it more too.

Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part I: Bullying

2012-01-26T11:17:00.000+08:00

(Photo by Marzie)

First off, let me begin by saying this: Not every family, and not every child, is a good candidate for homeschooling.

You should not homeschool if

you spouse vehemently opposes it, or
your child vehemently opposes it, or
you just felt pressured to do it because you've been told "it's what good mothers do."

Well let me tell you now: I had a good mother, and she did not homeschool us.

On the other hand, homeschooling was not a very realistic option during her time. She probably didn't even know the option existed.

But now, lots of us know this option exists. And yes, there are times when it is wise to take this option.

So when should your family consider homeschooling your child?

Reason 1: Your child is being bullied in school.

Bullying is something that no child should ever have to live through. It's inhuman. If your child was bullied by her playmates in daycare, you would probably switch to a different daycare. If your child was bullied in painting/soccer/dance class, you would probably let her stop attending the class or find a different class for her to attend.

But when our children are bullied in school, we let them stay in that school with pacifying words such as "Don't pay them any attention."

Parents, you have to understand: it's impossible not to pay attention to a bully. Even if they don't attack you directly, they will attack you emotionally.

The physiology of a child allows her to heal from physical attacks relatively quickly, but the psychology of a child will suffer from the effects of an emotional attack for a long, long time.

I should know; I was bullied in school. By the grace of God, I survived it. But I still believe I will go to heaven when I die because I had already been to hell when I was in school.

Do not make the mistake of ignoring this, parents. Children who have heard "Don't let them get to you" from their parents often enough will eventually learn to just keep quiet about the bullying they receive. Then their parents think everything is now all right.

The next thing you know, the child tries to kill herself. Sometimes, tragically, the child succeeds.

One thing I've often been told before is, "These experiences will help your child grow into a better person. It will teach her to handle difficult people."

My answer is this: Maltreatment does not turn us to better people. Situational adversities, such as poverty or failure or physical handicaps, provide occasions for us to become stronger when we overcome them. But the cruelty of another human being does not turn us to better people.

If we sincerely believed that human cruelty is, in the long run, good for our children, then why are we so quick to cry "Foul" when a teacher spanks our child, even if we know in our hearts that the teacher had the best of intentions?

If my child needs to learn to handle difficult people, he does not need an encounter with a bully for that. He has his parents to practice on.

Again, parents, if your child is being bullied in school, please strongly consider letting her get her education at home.

Why not? Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, US President Abraham Lincoln, finance wizard Andrew Carnegie, the Jonas Brothers, and my favorite author, Louisa May Alcott, were all homeschooled, and they all turned out okay. (For a more complete listing of famous people who were homeschooled, click here.)

In the next parts of this series, I will give other situations where homeschooling may be a good option for your family, and how you can homeschool your child if you are a working mother.

Vicky's Coming!

2012-01-21T21:41:00.000+08:00

This working mom is taking a few weeks break around September. Her name is going to be Maria Victoria -- "the victory of Mary."

God is good!

Paypal and the RCBC Mercury Drug MyWallet Card

2012-01-20T18:21:00.003+08:00

(Photo by Toban Black)

Once again, I've received a message from somebody asking for advice on what to do because her Paypal withdrawal to her RCBC Mercury Drug MyWallet card is taking forever to appear in her bank account.

So I'm posting this article to tell you all right now: stop trying to use the RCBC Mercury Drug MyWallet card for your Paypal transactions! It has a bad track record as far as I could see from comments I've received so far on my old article, Withdrawing from Paypal to Metrobank, BDO, and RCBC.

It's true that some people have reported successful transactions for the abovementioned card. But there are also others writing with panic in their "voices":

HI.. ask ko lang nag withdraw ako sa RCBC Mercury Drug MyWallet Card nung Oct, 22 pero hanggang ngayon d pa cia dumadating. ano kaya ang problema bakit ang tagal yata ng delay.. hangang ilang araw ba ang maximum transaction period sa ganito.. slamat..

This comment was sent on October 31, nine days since the reported transaction. Paypal transactions normally take a maximum of five days from the moment you withdraw your money from the Paypal portal to the time your money appears in your bank account.

Or, to be more specific, when you withdraw your money, the transaction appears as "Pending" for about 1 to 2 banking days (holidays and weekends not included). Then it appears as "Completed," meaning that Paypal has completed the paperwork or whatever it does in its back office.

Two to four days after it shows as "Completed," it should appear in your bank account.

In my experience, if I withdraw from Paypal on Monday, the money appears in my bank account on Thursday morning.

Here's another comment:

5 days na eh hindi pa rin dumadating ang CASH from my PAYPAL to my MY WALLET VISA CARD.'.'.' Gaano katagal poh ba ang mga transaction na ganito?

And the most recent one, which came today and prompted me to write this article:

hello po, pwedi nyo po ba ako matulungan. I have a mercury drug my wallet visa card and I successfully linked it to paypal. Nag withdraw po ako nang pera from my paypal balance to my card the problem is hindi pa rin dumadating yung pera ko hanggang ngayon..malapit na mag one month from my withdrawal. .nag withdraw ako last dec. 28, 2011. Completed na yung status. I've been emailing RCBC customer service at sabi nila di pa raw sila nakakatanggap any funds from paypal. Ano po ba dapat ko gawin? baka mawala yung pera ko

My advice to this last commenter was that she should request a formal statement or document from Paypal, so that she can show it to her bank, to prove that the money has been received by the bank.

She should also get a formal statement from the bank stating that they received no such amount from Paypal.

If she's lucky, her money will be returned to her Paypal account, minus P250 charge for the failed transaction.

That was my advice to her -- but to the rest of you, my advice is this:

Avoid getting into such problematic situations in the first place by simply getting a Unionbank EON card if you can't get a credit card to verify your Paypal account.

Unionbank has a formal arrangement with Paypal; their EON card is the only card I know that makes no deductions whatsoever on the amount you transfer from Paypal. The EON card has zero maintaining balance, though you do have to pay P350 per year to keep using the card.

I have been using my EON card for my Paypal transactions without any problems whatsoever for the last year.

Now, when you apply for your EON card, you may have to wait for two weeks before you get it (never mind that the teller said it would be ready in one week; chances are, you'll have to wait two weeks or more nonetheless -- but it's better to wait for a card for three weeks than to wait for money you transferred from Paypal to MyWallet for a month or more, right?)

Of course, I have my own complaints with the Unionbank EON card: if you try to use it for paying online purchases, it sometimes fails, even when it is sufficiently funded. It has failed me when I tried to use it to buy tickets online from Cebu Pacific. It failed me, too, when I tried to use it to pay for a home study course in California.

But as far as Paypal is concerned, if you don't have a credit card and a regular bank account, the Unionbank EON card is definitely your very best option.

More about the EON card here: How to Use Your UnionBank EON Account

DISCLOSURE: The Nanay Notebook has absolutely no affiliation with Unionbank. Know more about this blog's "no sponsors, no affiliates" policy in our disclosure statement.