Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone!

I've been very busy but I will be doing an update soon. By January, I'll be posting more jobs and tips. Please keep an eye on my blog!

Happy Holidays!

Fiona

Online Jobs University

A lot of people are starting to discover the benefits of working from home. Nowadays when you say work at home jobs, it has become synonymous to virtual assistant jobs.

Virtual assistants are people who provide services using the Internet as a medium. Any job that uses the Internet without having to go to an office, these are virtual assistant jobs.

Sounds exciting? Of course! But then a lot of people who venture into this get disappointed as they don't know where and how to start. Questions like where can I find a home based job or how much salary should I ask for always leave people in distress. It's hard to find answers.

Online Jobs University is a venue for people who want to get started. This site will answer all your questions. It has a free orientation program then it also offers training, which you have to pay for.  Anything and everything about virtual assistant jobs or home based job, you'll find on this site.

I really encourage people, especially online English teachers, to start thinking about finding other means of income. Students come and go so can be a part time virtual assistant to augment your current income as a home based online English teacher.

Follow Online Jobs University's Facebook Page if you have questions. There will be people there to help you in any way they can.

Rea Yadao's Tips

Rea Yadao, Superstar VA, shared some tips for home based freelancers. These tips are applicable not just to virtual assistants but online teachers as well.

Items 3 and 4 are especially important to online teachers. I know some teachers are pulling down their rates because of competition. I had to start from scratch and my rate was pretty low then but once I established my reputation, I was able to command my rates.

Please visit Rea's site when you have the chance. You may learn a thing or two from her.

Warren Buffet Quote

Image courtesy of http://bossip.com

“Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source.” 

- Warren Buffet

Work From Home Infographic

Check out the benefits of working from home:

Learn almost anything for free at the Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.

It's never too late to learn something new. I would try to learn something from this academy once I have the time. This site is not just for students but for everyone who wants to learn or even share their knowledge.

Watch this video to see how things work:

Inside the Mind of a Freelancer [INFOGRAPHIC]

I am lucky to have been working home based, freelance for a few years now. So far, my life has gotten better. I was able to buy the things I otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford if I stuck it out with my previous jobs. With my last employment, I was paid well and got lots of benefits. However, I hated having to commute at least 1 hour going to work. I lost 2 hours to daily commute. Plus the stress of having to work for an American financial institution, will all the laws and regulations we had to observe, not to mention company policies we had to follow, had become unbearable.

Working home based and freelance has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. I the fact that I can work anywhere in the world as long as I have my laptop and stable Internet connection. Some of my jobs (Yes Virgina, I have JOBS, not just one job), were flexible enough that I could work anytime as long as I do what I'm supposed to do or meet my targets.

I found this on Mashable. Most of the facts I would say are true, at least for me.

Source: mashable.com via Fionski on Pinterest

To Job Applicants

Applicants pass through me before they reach the managers or owners of various online English schools. One of the things that irk me is that when you tell applicants to send their resume, they attach their resumes to a BLANK email, no cover letter/email, no note, not even a "hi".

Back in the 80's and 90's, when people applied for work and were required to send in their resumes, it was automatic that they should include a cover letter. Call me old school but if you are applying for an online job, even if you've already chatted with the supervisor or manager, even if the job is just home based or you're freelancing, you still have to include a cover letter/email. It's really disappointing to see these so-called "teachers" do this. 

Don't schools teach etiquette anymore?

Remember: You only have one chance to make a good first impression.

OnlineJobs

I found this site through a US based VA forum. They discussed outsourcing help from the Philippines. I saw a lot of positive feedback. One member posted the link of OnlineJobs as the place where she gets help.

It looks like good place to find homebased jobs. It looks like it's a site created by Filipinos, for Filipinos.

Check out OnlineJobs.ph.

PhilHealth

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, or PhilHealth, will be increasing it's premium from 100PHP a month to 200 PHP a month. I called PhilHealth this morning, the increase will be effective July 1. Here's a news article about this from The Philippine Star:

Higher premiums for individual members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) will take effect on July 1.
PhilHealth president and chief executive officer Eduardo Banzon said the premium of members under the individually paying program (IPP) will increase from P1,200 to P2,400 per year.

The person who spoke to me about this told me that I could pre-pay my premiums for 1 year up to 2 years, I would be paying 1200 to 2400 for those years. Not bad.

Deadline for this is June 30.

Set Your Goals

I heard that people who don't set goals are set for failure. I've tried setting my goals every year (I do this instead of doing resolutions). Some of the goals I was able to accomplish, some I failed. I think I failed to accomplish these goals simply because I didn't know how to set them properly.

 Year 2012 will start in a few days and I'm pretty sure people are starting to think of resolutions or goals. The Silva Life Systems has created guidelines on how to set goals, it's “The Power of Goal Setting and Life Planning”. Here are the steps:


Step 1 – Identify What’s Important to You

Step 2 – Set Long Term Goals in Each Area

Step 3 – Decide What You Need to Do This Year to Achieve Your Long Term Vision

Step 4 – Put it All Down on Paper

Step 5 – Begin the Process of Creative Visualization

Step 6 – Begin taking Action towards Your Goals

These steps are important in achieving goals. It's not enough we have goals but we also have to know how to achieve them and what to do to get to the finish line.


More information can be found on the Silva Life System site.

Happy New Year!

.

PayPal

One of the things that homebased workers need to take into consideration is payment method. Although there are about a thousand of acceptable and convenient payment methods, I think using PayPal is the most popular.

Years ago, I thought PayPal was only used for paying for stuff bought online like Ebay transactions. PayPal has expanded its services and markets and a lot of transactions can be made through PayPal. I would like to recommend telecommuters to have a PayPal account. It's easy and convenient to use.

I'm sure some Filipinos are skeptical to use PayPal. They probably think it would be hard to withdraw funds or fees are big. The fees are reasonable, just make sure you do not make a mistake in adding your bank account information.

For transactions of at least P7,000, there is no fee or charge. For transactions below this amount, a P50 fee will be charged to your account. This is not bad at all. If you make a mistake in entering your bank information and then try to withdraw, you will be charged P250 when you try to withdraw.

My Aunt has been using PayPal for quite some time now. She recommends using Union Bank's Eon card. It's a debit card that can be used to link your PayPal account to. There is an annual fee for the use of the card which is P350. This means you can link your account to this debit card instead of linking it to your savings account or having to open a savings account. Not bad at all. For more information on how to use the Union Bank Eon card visit the guide to using your UnionBank account to withdraw funds from your PayPal account.

If you have an existing account but you do not know your bank code, visit this page where I found mine. Visit Pinoy Money Talk's complete list of PayPal bank codes.

Create your PayPal account now.