Mindanao Bob» Making Money

Finding your business niche

Bob Martin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:44:54 +0000

I have lots of different businesses. With only a couple of exceptions, all of my businesses only earn a little bit of money each. That’s what I like. Truth is, I have so many different businesses that off the top of my head, I am not even sure how many different businesses I have. In fact, even if I sat down and started counting, I am not certain which ones I would count as actual businesses, some are so small, and things I do so seldom that I might not even count them. But, I suppose if they are something I do to earn money, they are businesses, regardless of how small. These small businesses that earn small amounts of money are what I would call “niche businesses” because they are not of appeal to the general public, but there is a small group of people, or a “niche,” who are willing to pay me for that service. Usually, when you are involved in such a niche market, people will pay you more than if your business is of mass appeal. For example, if you have business that millions of people want to shop at, you will have plenty of competition, because the market is large. In this case, you will need to keep your prices low to compete with all the other players in the business. However, if you have a business that is very “nichey” there will either be no competition at all, or very limited competition. In that case, you can charge more for your time or product, because there is not much competition at all. As an example, let’s say that you were the manufacturer of Cola product. Cola is very popular with several “big players” making it. If you wanted to come out with a new Cola, well, you need to make your price competitive, even lower so that you can attract a slice of the market. However, if you produce an off the wall, unusual flavor of soda, even though fewer people will like it, you probably would not have any competition for that particular flavor, and thus could charge a higher price for it. After all, for those who really like your unusual flavor, even if the price is a bit more, they can’t get it anywhere else, and will pay your price if they really want it.

Rolling out your Niche Business

The other day, I was talking to my Mom on the phone. I mentioned that I had been hired by somebody to do a certain job for them. My Mom said, “gee, I didn’t know you were in that business,” to which I replied “Oh yeah, you didn’t know? I’ve been doing that for years,” I told her. It surprised me that she didn’t know, but as I thought about it, I guess I never told her! That is sort of the way I look at these businesses of mine, none of them are such a big deal, because they are small. But, even though they are small, they earn me a nice living. So, how do you go about figuring out what kinds of businesses to get into? A lot of people tell me that they just don’t know what kind of business to set up. They are looking for a business that will make a lot of money, and they can’t find it. Well, the beauty, at least in my eyes, of niche businesses, is that you don’t need to look for something that will make big money, just look for something small that you will enjoy doing, and that a few people might want to pay you to do, then promote the service. If it turns out that a lot of people want to hire you to do that particular thing, well, that’s a good thing! If only a few want it done, well, that’s OK, you just need to find other things that a few people will want to, and you will stay busy, and keep food on the table too. So, again, how do I find these small businesses? How do I decide what type of small businesses I should get into? Well, that is very easy. I let other people tell me what to do. You see, if I get requests from people for a certain kind of service, if it is something I would enjoy doing, I do it for them, and then I start telling others that I will do it for them too. I have a somewhat unique situation where I live in a place where there are not too many Americans. Because of this, I get e-mails from people back in the States, in Europe, or elsewhere who need something done here. For example, let’s say that an American guy who lives in the States likes to come to Davao where I live, and maybe he owns a house here. Perhaps he needs something done, some papers for his property or whatever. A lot of these kinds of people will e-mail me and say “hey, would it be possible that you could go to the tax collectors office and get these papers for my house?” Well, if I decide to do it, I will then set up a website advertising to others that this is a service I can provide for them. After a while, I will have dozens of different websites offering different services, and maybe a half dozen people in a year will also ask me to do that for them. Add all these up, and you will find that you are soon making some nice money. That is how I come up with different types of businesses that people need and I can provide. After all, if nobody needed the service, nobody would have asked me to do it in the first place. It is similar with my wife. She enjoys doing things like home decorating and such. She also likes helping people. Thus, she offers a relocation consulting service for foreigners who are going to move to the area where we live. She will help them find a house to rent, negotiate the rental price for them, help them decorate the place, show them around town and such, and she makes nice money doing it. She gets a fair number of jobs doing this, and her customers seem to always be very happy with the service that she provides to them. It all started out by people asking for such help, and she decided to make a business out of it. This is a sure fire way to anybody to find niche businesses that people will want to use. As I said in my first paragraph of this article, there are a couple of exceptions when it comes to the “all of my businesses earn only a little bit of money” rule. Why? Because I started out with something that only earned a little bit of money, and it turned out that there was a bigger amount of demand for that particular service. In fact, a couple of my businesses earn quite a bit of money, and they keep my life, and my family’s lives, comfortable. But, if those few businesses do very well, does it mean that the other businesses that earn only a little bit of money are failures? No, not at all! For me, anyway, if a business earns me any money at all, no matter how small, it is a success. Now, I suppose that if a business only earned me a few hundred dollars per year, and I was spending 20 hours a week on it, well, that would be somewhat of a failure. However, if a business earns only $200 per year, and I spend an hour a year on it, well, that is still a success. It’s just not enough of a success that I can live on it. But, if I have many of those businesses that can earn me $200 for an hour worth of work, well, I can live quite nicely, don’t you think? For me, niche business is a great way to get good paying work that will keep you busy, and may lead you to some very profitable businesses too.

My new PC!

MindanaoBob — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:00:57 +0000

In the past week or so, I purchased a new PC! It is kind of a departure for me, because this computer is much different than any other computer that I have bought in my lifetime. And, believe me, in my lifetime I have bought a lot of PCs too! What is so different about this PC? Well, a lot of things, and I’ll be telling you about that later in the article.

It all started out with my old laptop, a Compaq laptop that was only about 18 months old, or so. I started having problems with it. The monitor was starting to give out on it. If I touched the monitor, the screen would go white. Because I make my living on the Internet, I cannot afford to go even a few days without a computer. Because of this, my wife told me to go buy a new computer when it was my birthday last week. So, not wanting to disobey my wife (!), I rushed out to get a new PC.

I ran into some problems buying a new PC, which I wrote about on my other blog, click the link to read about that. As it turned out, the big local PC dealers were not helpful, and few of them had anything that I really wanted to buy. At that time, I decided to try a small local computer store that I had not visited in years. About 5 or 6 years ago, I bought a Shuttle PC at a little shop called “PC Shack” in Uyanguren, also known as Chinatown here in Davao. PC Shack was a very small, very local Mom & Pop type store. They treated me well when I went there 5 years ago, but I had not really gone there regularly over the years. But, last week, I visited there again, and I’m glad I did.

Actually, as it turned out, I discovered that PC Shack had “bit the dust,” sort of. They had been bought out by a company out of Manila called “Qube”. The sign still said PC Shack, but the stuff inside all said Qube. As it turned out, I was very glad that I went to Qube. They had a number of PC’s that interested me.

I saw a new form factor of PC that really caught my eye quickly, it is called a “USFF” PC, which stands for Ultra Small Form Factor. This USFF PC runs on a dual core Intel Atom processor. The Atom is the processor that runs the new little “netbooks” and “net-top” desktops. I liked this one because it was a dual core Atom, so more powerful, but still efficient, cool operating, etc.

My new USFF PC, sitting on my desk next to my cellular phone

In the past, I have always been a “power guy” when it came to PC’s. I wanted the fastest, most powerful PC that could be bought, and I was willing to pay a premium price to get the best. Now, I still want a good quality PC, but I want only the power that I need. I am not a “power user” to be honest. Most of what I do is just stuff on the Internet, and a few other minor things. I do some light photo editing work with Gimp Image Manipulation program, and the most power hungry thing I do is Video editing, but I do that only rarely. When I started thinking about getting an Atom powered PC, I was worried if it could really handle my needs or not. In fact, I held off for a number of days trying to decide if the Atom was really right for me or not. In the end, I talked to several friends who have similar power needs as I do, and they told me that they are able to do it on an Atom based PC, so I took the jump.

I sure am glad that I gook the plunge too, because I love my little Atom USFF PC! It’s great. Here are the Specs of the PC that I purchased:

Intel Atom Dual Core 330 1.60GHz
nVidia MCP7A-ION Chipset
Integrated nVidia ION
2GB DDR2 800MHz Memory
320GB Mobile SATA Hard Disk Drive
Internal Card Reader
Wireless Lan
HDMI 1080p FULL HD Support

Overall, all I can say about this PC is that I love it. It’s so tiny, so efficient. It runs very cool, the case rarely even feels very warm. Although I can’t really verify this, it is said that it uses 90% less electricity than a “regular” PC too, which is cool.

Another thing I learned in the experience of buying this PC is that I enjoy dealing with a small Mom & Pop type operation too. One thing that I enjoyed about that was that it gave me a chance to use my Bisaya skills. I think that if I did not speak Bisaya, I would have had a difficult time buying this machine, because the clerks there had a bit of a tough time speaking English. At first, I tried to speak English with them, but when I switched to Bisaya, the purchase went a lot smoother and more friendly too! I enjoyed it. I’ll be buying at Qube again too, you can bet on that!

My new book: 49 Ways to earn a living in the Philippines

MindanaoBob — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:02:43 +0000

Today, I am ready to make the big announcement! You can now get my brand new book, which is entitled “49 Ways to earn a living in the Philippines.” (order here)

Basically, the book goes through 49 (actually 50 ways, because I have a Bonus Idea) Ways that you can live in the Philippines and earn your living while you are living here. I have been living here since May 2000, and when I came here I did have a bunch of money, but I went through it too fast! By 2002, I had only two choices:

Go Home
Figure out how to make money here

"49"

I chose to go with number 2, because I didn’t want to leave. Sadly, few people (expats who move here) are ever able to figure out how to earn money here. Most expats will tell you that “you can’t make money in the Philippines, it’s impossible.” Well, I am living proof that they are wrong! In my book, I want show you how to make money here too!

Yep, I'm the author!

The ideas that I present are real-life ideas that work! Most of the things that I discuss are things that I have actually done to make money, and because of that I know for sure that they work.

I know of people who have come to live in the Philippines and after a few years they had to go home, because they ran out of money. Don’t let that happen to you! Why leave a lifestyle that you love, just because you don’t have money? Making money is actually pretty easy, if you just know how to do it. I didn’t know how in 2001 and before. But, in 2002, I started learning how to make money, because I had to! Let me show you how to do it too.

Let me be clear, I am not going to tell you that you can get rich quickly or easily. I am going to say, though, that you can earn a good income if you are willing to work at it. I don’t slave away, I generally just work a few hours per day, and I am living good. How good is my life? Well, I make a lot more money here in the Philippines than I ever made in the USA, I can tell you that.

If you read my sites, you already know that I make 100% of my income online through my various websites. However, I know that some people are not comfortable on the computer. That’s why I have ideas in the book not only for Online businesses, but also for Offline and for Hybrid ideas that mix online and offline strategies into a single business. So, whether you want to earn your living at the computer like me, or you don’t want to even touch a computer, there are ideas for you!

I offer my book in two formats: paper and digital. If you order the digital version, you can download it immediately after payment. If you order the paper version, I will ship it directly to your mailing address.

Guess what? I also have a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! If you don’t think that the book is what you were expecting, you get the full purchase price back upon return of the book! No fuss, no muss, no questions asked! So, what do you have to lose?

Order Bob’s New Book TODAY!

How to make money?

MindanaoBob — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:17:26 +0000

When it comes to blogging, my niche is related to living in the Philippines. Even when I write on other subjects, the Living in the Philippines niche is still in play. For instance, when I write on this site, it is about making money. Primarily, though, it focuses in on how to make money while living in the Philippines. Because I live in the Philippines, that is just a big part of my life, and it interacts with just about any subject that I write about.

One thing that I get a lot of is e-mails from other people who want to live here in the Philippines. One of the most widely asked questions in those e-mails is – “how can I make money while I live there” or “what kind of job can I get in the Philippines.” Well, my answer to that second question is always the same – you can’t get a job here. In addition to legal hurdles for foreigners who live here getting employment (i.e. taking jobs from Filipinos) there is the simple fact that employers would rather hire a Filipino in most cases. And why not, after all, a Filipino can better understand the customer, can speak the same language, etc. If you do find an employer that will hire you, are you willing to work for a few dollars per day? I doubt it. I know that I would not. I mean, if you are the type that is willing to work for $3 per day in a full time job, you probably shouldn’t even be reading this blog!

Making Money

So, how can you live here if you are not independently wealthy? Well, derive your income from some other method, some other source. That’s why I talk on this site about ways to make money online. Do things like write books, write websites, sell things online. There are lots of ways you can do it. But, the key is to be self employed, and take responsibility for your own well being.

Philippines

Recently a friend of mine wrote about somebody that he knew who worked for a major corporation in the Philippines, and the company refused to even pay the salary. When you work for yourself, you don’t have to worry about those things. Yeah, you will have people who will try to weasel out of paying for things, but after you are in business for a while, you will figure out how to spot those people, and you will also figure out ways to do business where this can’t happen to you.

Basically, if you are looking for a way to get into your own business and earn your own money, take time to read this blog! Read other blogs on this topic (there are hundreds of them). Don’t expect the UPS truck or FedEX to pull up to your doorstep with a box of money the week after your start. It doesn’t work that way. Indeed, you must work, and the money will come. Give it time, though, and don’t give up! Instead of getting discouraged and working a little less day by day, work harder when it isn’t going the way that you want. It will pay off.

Believe me. I know, because I’m living the life.

I'm giving a seminar in Davao City!

MindanaoBob — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:19:27 +0000

You CAN earn a living in the Philippines, no matter what you think, or what others tell you.

With the growth of the Internet and the tremendous money-making potential of online tools, trends, and technologies, a good income is indeed possible. Your income potential is only limited by how hard you are willing to study and then apply your knowledge.

Is it possible to be a 100% virtual earner, earning your money from the Internet? What are the ways in which you can make money at home, using your own computer? What does it take to become an Internet Entrepreneur? How does one succeed at an online business in the midst of today’s economic crises?

Bob Martin asked those same questions when he moved from the United States to the Philippines. Now living in Davao City and making his name as one of the top Internet Entrepreneurs in the country, “Mindanao Bob” is making more money now than when he lived in the USA. Bob wants to show you how you can do it too!

With Virtual Earner: A Business Forum by Bob Martin, you can uncover many ways to earn a living in the Philippines. Invest in the potential of the Internet and reap the benefits of strategic online, offline and hybrid ideas for business. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover and prove –as Bob did– that making a living in the Philippines is NOT IMPOSSIBLE!

Details

VIRTUAL EARNER: A Business Forum by Bob Martin

Speaker: Bob Martin
Venue: K-1 Coffee Shop, F. Torres Street, Davao City
Date: Saturday August 9, 2008
Time: 3:00 pm (the seminar will start sharply at 3pm)
Seminar Price: P3,000

To register for the seminar, please either e-mail or call (or text) John at (0921) 467-8372.

The forum is created to provide an intimate and informal venue for learning how to make a living in the Philippines. It will also serve as a medium for opportunities to discuss new technologies, products, services, and business ideas with a qualified expert who has explored the possibilities on the Internet to become an 100% Virtual Earner.

Who is Bob Martin?

Bob Martin is an Internet entrepreneur based in Davao City. An American who has lived in Mindanao for the past eight years, Bob has resided in General Santos City, and now in Davao City, while owning and managing dozens of Internet Businesses.

For the past seven years, Bob has made his living exclusively through the Internet. He serves customers all around the world, and has used the Internet to enhance his earning ability to the point that he is making more money now than when he lived in the USA and had a regular job. Bob wants to show you how you can do that too!

“Becoming successful on the Internet is great, but one thing I really enjoy is helping others achieve the same,” says Bob. “It makes me feel good if I can show somebody a few simple methods, or share my thoughts with them, and watch them learn how to make a living themselves. I don’t really like it when others copy what I am doing, but when they look at what I do, and mold it a little bit to fit their interests, they can come up with something that is patterned after me yet totally different from my business. I think that is great, and it gives me a lot of joy to see a friend become successful by doing this.”

Bob has a business background in Retailing and in Manufacturing, having previously managed discount department stores and an electronics store in the USA. He is also a published author of more than a dozen books. His latest book is entitled 49 Ways to Make a Living in the Philippines.

Early Bird Bonus! – For the first 10 people who sign up and attend the seminar, they will receive a FREE COPY of Bob’s book, 49 Ways to Make a Living in the Philippines! That’s right, a book that is selling for $49.00 will be yours free when you sign up and pay to participate in the seminar(but, only for the first 10 people)! So, don’t miss out, sign up today!

To register for the seminar, please either e-mail or call (or text) John at (0921) 467-8372. Remember, the first 10 people who register will get a free copy of Bob’s eBook, 49 Ways to earn a living in the Philippines!

Stop the treadmill! I think I want to get off!

MindanaoBob — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:01:27 +0000

I’m having one of those days today. You know the kind of day I am talking about – one of those days when you work hard for the entire day, and at the end of the day, you feel like you didn’t do anything. I don’t like those days.

I blame WordPress.

“Why WordPress,” you say?

Well, I blame WordPress because it has become like a treadmill that never stops. First of all, you have a never ending parade of updates to the software. As soon as you update to a new version and get all the kinks worked out, it seems like there is a new, critical security update that you have to do immediately! If you don’t update on time, it’s like running around in public naked – you just don’t do that!

Wordpress

Here’s what happened today. I had a couple of improvements that I wanted to make on one of my sites. When I went to that site, I noticed that the Plugin panel on WordPress was telling me that two plugins were out of date. Oops! I better update those right away. So, I went and downloaded the new releases on these plugins, and installed them. What the…. I just checked my blog and the whole top half of my screen went black! Hmm… turns out that one of the plugins didn’t work! So, I reverted back to the old version, it worked fine. That second upgrade that I did didn’t work either. So, I eliminated that one. I have dozens of blogs, so all of this piddling around took me half the day (or more).

The thing is, I am feeling like with WordPress, it is getting to the point that there are so many Admin tasks that need to be completed, that I rarely have time to produce the quality content that I want to share with my readers! If I had one blog, maybe two it would not be a big deal, but I have more than that. It is making me wonder what I should do. Abandon some of my sites? Find a new software to run on?

I have been playing with the idea of moving to Drupal. Today I took the step of installing Drupal on one of my inactive domains, and playing with it. It only took a few minutes when I realized that if I changed platforms, that meant that I had to re-learn the whole system again! I had to create a lot of new templates. Hmm… I have sites with thousands of posts on them, which means that I had to import all those posts into a new platform. Importing thousands of posts usually doesn’t go as smoothly as it should.

Stop the Treadmill!

Hmm… I don’t think I want to change platforms. I also don’t think that WordPress is the right platform any longer. Updating plugins and platform software doesn’t bring in any money. However, if you don’t do the updates, your site will end up getting owned by somebody else who hacks in. Either way, you haven’t written content that keeps your readers coming back.

For me, the call comes down to what direction to go in order to make the most money. Problem is… right now I can’t figure out which direction will achieve that goal.

What do you think?

Update: Since I originally wrote this article a couple of years ago, I feel that WordPress has gotten better about having fewer updates, and the quality of the software has improved too. Not only am I still using WordPress, but I use it to develop client sites too!

Training courses on the way!

MindanaoBob — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:56:23 +0000

It’s nice that since I started trying to re-invigorate this website by writing more often and such, the number of people coming and visiting here has skyrocketed! Let me thank you for coming by and visiting.

As part of my effort to show people how to make money online, I will continue blogging about it here, but I also have something else that I will be offering in coming months. I am coming out with a series of courses to teach you how to make money online! The courses, as I am planning them now, will include written instruction, videos to show you how to do things and such. Plans can change, but this is what I am envisioning.

You know, honestly, there are thousands of people teaching stuff like this online. Problem is, most of the people who are trying to sell you something have never successfully made a living online themselves! Well, I have honestly, made 100% of my income online for over 6 years now. I have no other source of income, other than what I earn online! As you already know, I have a number of different ways that I make money online: blogs with advertising, e-commerce stores and other ways. I used to really be into selling on eBay, and made a lot of money doing it. I quit doing that because I had other ways of making money online that were easier for me, but I still know how to earn money on eBay, and it is not that hard, if you know a few of the secrets!

I want to show you those secrets and help you start making a living online. Watch here, as those courses become available, I will announce them on this site! Perhaps I’ll even have some contests or something where the winner will get a free course, or something like that!

Yes, the courses will be for sale, but don’t worry, I will continue to share tips on this site for free too! I am a big believer that we can all make money online, if we want to! Want to join me in doing so?

What do you think about this?

MindanaoBob — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:16:27 +0000

About 6 weeks ago, maybe 2 months, I got an e-mail regarding a new advertising program that I could use on my various blogs. It was from a company that I have been using for over a year now, and they were adding a new type of advertising program. They invited me to be one of the “beta testers” for the program. I looked at it, and felt that it may have some merit, so I figured that I’d give it a try. I am already using two different advertising programs from this company, and have been happy with their service.

I added this new advertising service to just one of my websites for testing. For the first few days, I followed the earnings, and all seemed to be OK. Not a huge amount being earned, but it was just one more income stream, and perhaps it would grow. I remember about a week or so ago, I noticed that the ads from this company did not load when I looked at the blog that featured them. I didn’t really think much of it – it annoyed me, but I figured that it was just a server being down or something. It was a new service after all, so glitches will happen!

Beta Testing

Well, yesterday, I logged in to look at my account to see how my earnings are going with this advertising, and I get a message that my account has been suspended! The message said that I need to e-mail them with all sorts of different information and they would consider re-opening my account. Funny thing is, I am still running ads from this same company (but a different ad program that they have) on other blogs, and without a hitch. When I log into my account, it is fine on these others. But, the new program suspended me! For what?

It annoys me that they took this action, and didn’t even send me an e-mail, or tell me what the problem was (if there was one). I find it unprofessional, and I am considering dropping their other ads from all of my sites.

What do you think?

What's up with Chitika?

MindanaoBob — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:54:13 +0000

One of my monetization tools that I use on many blogs is Chitika, particularly their eMiniMalls product. In particular, I have one website where I earn some nice money through Chitika. Something is not right, though….

Normally, I can log into the Chitika site by around 2 am EST and find out my earnings for the previous day. Yesterday, I logged in at that time, no updates, only earnings reported for the day before. I waited a few hours, it was the same. Before going to bed (that’s around 6 am EST), still no update. Just now (about 8pm EST), I went and checked it again, still no update! Very strange, and unusual. Is anybody else experiencing the same problem with Chitika?

I would hate to lose Chitika as one of my advertisers, because I do pretty well with them.

UPDATE: I see that Chitika reporting is back to normal this evening. Good to see that!

I've used Paypal a couple of times now

MindanaoBob — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:29:51 +0000

As I announced on this blog a few weeks back, Paypal is now available for users in the Philippines. It actually has been allowed to have a Paypal account here for about a year now, but it wasn’t very accessible. You could not take money out unless you used a Bank Account in the United States, and there were other limits too. However, in the past month or so, Paypal has made it fairly easy to use various Philippine Accounts to accomplish the use of one of their accounts to the fullest.

I have actually used Paypal twice now, since they have started their new policies. So far so good! About 2 weeks ago, somebody wanted to buy something from one of my online stores, and e-mailed me to let me know that they did not have a credit card, and wanted to use Paypal to pay. I said “OK” and accepted my first Paypal payment on my Philippine Paypal Account. It worked great! I proceeded to go to my account settings in all of my advertising companies that I use on my blogs, except for Google AdSense (they don’t do Paypal). This morning I received my September earnings from Chitika through Paypal, and again it went off without a hitch! So, now I actually have a healthy balance in my Paypal account.

I have yet to make any withdrawal from my Paypal account, though, so I’ll be testing that later. Until then, though, I have full confidence that Paypal works great here in the Philippines. So far, nothing has shown me otherwise. I used Paypal when I lived in the USA, and never had a problem there with Paypal, so they have my confidence!

Have you tried Paypal yet?