Offtopic

Making Money Online & then Quitting School

by Melvin · Mar 27, 2010

There’s usually a trend not just in online space but in the business as a whole. And this is usually when a kid, or basically just a young person starts becoming successful (making tons of money is included in that of course). What happens most of the times, is that that young kid quits school and goes his own way. Does it sound surprising? No!

For the last couple of month, last couple of weeks specifically, I’ve been into probably the busiest, most exhausting days of my college life. I am a graduating student and I’ve never really like gave everything in school. Even if its exam or just any subject, I never had any day where I was not able to do what I really want. Of course until now.

Just a wrap up of what craziness happened the last few weeks, it includes the agonizing process of developing a software, then the super duper lengthy amount of paperworks that comes with it, then all the meeting and then the revision and then the defense. Do take note, that is just one subject. How about the others where we have a project, exams, stuffs, just craziness.

And it surprised me that I can’t even afford to login to the dashboard page of this blog. I can’t do a lot of the usual things I do in a day. Seems like all I can do is the school work (and tweeting of course)

Quitting School

Let’s go back to the main topic of this post. If you are into this niche, you could easily realize that most successful marketers/bloggers never really finished college. Instead they quit and stuffs.

To tell you honestly quitting school when you are making good money (or even just some money) is not a hard decision to make. I mean who cares about school anyway? I’m always like “hell Im going to school this month and I would then make lesser money as oppose to I’m not gonna go to school and I would triple my monthly income when I go to school”.

The only thing worth considering are the outside factors. The factors that doesn’t do anything with all the benefits that you get to enjoy when you quit school. Like for example is your parents. I don’t know about you but if I’m quitting school today (or even before) and say to them Im making enough money, then they’d still be upset. Why? Because of the degree that you’re going to miss out.

I know having a degree is probably one of the many overrated things here on earth but a lot of people just value that. Not having one is just like not having a future life.

Another good factor is your friends, your enjoyment and attachment with them. I would be the first one to say that I go to school mostly because I want to see my friends, have a talk with them and do our craps all together. And if I quit school right now, then I don’t think I would see them anymore for maybe the next few months (seriously!).

There are endless factors when it comes to this and it includes, financial stability, security, freedom, values and cultures that you are used to and etc. And its important to weigh them all down equally before making a decision. It wouldn’t also harm to seek out advice from people you trust.

Lastly, quitting school is ALMOST synonymous to having your own business, doing your own thing in future. Because of not having a degree, the chances of you, getting employed becomes smaller. Of course anyone out there could disagree and give me twenty-five reasons why its not the case but I’m pretty sure that it applies to majority, if not all. In short, you’re taking the risk and you’re less secure.

Am I Quitting School

Heck, no is the answer! As I’ve said, Im going to graduate one month from now and If I am about to quit then its the most stupid decisions I am going to make.Maybe if I have stumbled upon that thought 2 years ago, but now? Definitely not! 😉

School has taught a ton of nice values to me, enabled me to become who I am right now, helped me be with equally talented people, brought me experience I could never forget, hooked me up with pretty girls, got me with cool persons, party casinos, sports, drinking sprees and etc. Even if I was making $1 million 2 years ago, I probably would’ve still not quit, or maybe I would. 🙂

Fruitful 2010 for Everyone!

by Melvin · Dec 31, 2009

Hey guys, as I was typing this, its like just 5 minutes before 12 am, the first day in 2010. Here in Philippines, people are so used to being noisy before the eve up to January 1. We use a lot of fireworks and firecrackers, noisy sounds, and small trumphets (w/c is called torotot here), and just about every asset we can use to be noisy..

For today I have a short message to everyone of you (I rarely do video posts). Again happy new year and may 2010 be the best year in our lives. 😀

P.S. I am creating a new report that would be FREE (interestingly) to all of you guys and I’m promising you it’s a great stuff, so stay tuned!

My Best and Worst For Year 2009

by Melvin · Dec 27, 2009

So looks like it’s time to say goodbye to year 2009. Whew, how quick time really flies! The time I first started this blog is still fresh in my mind and now Im close to 2 years with this blog.

Anyways since most people are still enjoying this holiday, I believe they won’t have any time to swallow marketing tips, blogging tips or whatever. So for today’s recipe I am putting out a list of the best and worst things that happen to me (not just blogging and business) for the year 2009 (in no chronological order):

Note: Bare in mind that some entries here can be irrelevant due to the fact Im typing drunk (not that much) and I still have that hangover,lols). Either way isn’t it sweet that even Im drunk I still have something for you. 😉

Best of this year

Went in love (the usual teenage love affair)
Won an Ipod from Market Leverage (w/c was converted to cash)
Won a gift card from another ML Contest.
Finished my 3rd year in college w/o any problems at all.
Become a more responsible person (both family and community-wise)
Sold old sites for a total amount of $1230
Purchased a nice Presario Laptop
Bought another walkman phone and then a smartphone
Attended several good conferences
Invited as a speaker in a local SEO Conference (I rejected it though)
Gained weight during the summer (good because I am skinny)
Leverage my online earnings and used it in offline business dealing with nuts.
Had 2 extremely successful internship stints
Finally did a redesign with this blog.
Never had a month without an advertiser/sponsor
Orlando made the NBA Finals
Achieved my goal of being as frugal/thrifty as possible.
Had a superb relationship this year with my parents.
Made a lot of new good friends while still keeping in touch with old ones.
Had myself interviewed thrice and getting mentioned a lot of times in the blogosphere.
and many more.

Worst of the year

Lost weight during the internship
Got a cease and desist letter twice
Got a legal letter from Yahoo! Search
Lakers won the Championship
Lost over $1000 in affiliate marketing
Lost my skill in playing guitar and keyboards
lost my skill in playing basketball
Have never been involved in sports for the whole 2009
Got banned for a month in Digital Point Forums
Bought some stupid info products
Never got my blog featured in a local newspaper here
Let some of my good domains expire & get picked up by someone
Still Pagerank 0 for MelvinBlog
Has not launched 4 out of 5 of my big projects this year

And that’s it. The list goes randomly crazy and I really never thought I would share some of the stuffs there with you guys. 😀 Either way, I would love to here yours too and you can do so in the comment form.

Photo Credits by Under Consideration

Let Me See Your Workspace

by Melvin · Dec 8, 2009

Much to my surprise there were just actually few people who have done this thing before (doing a google search would tell you). So in this very short post I am going to just to announce that I am looking for YOUR blogging workspace to feature here in my blog.

Note: You don’t need to have a majestic workspace to get qualified. Whether your workspace is in the farm, or in the yacht or wherever. The goal of this is to simply showcase the workspace of small business entrepreneurs/bloggers like us. In exchange is, of course a lovely link from this PR0 blog and some traction. 😀

How the heck are you gonna let me know about your workspace? There are various ways:

By using my contact form (recommended)
By giving a link of it in the comment form (not recommended, you’d spoil the excitement by letting your workspace shown “prematurely”)
By tweeting it to @melvinblog
Writing in Mail.

So fire away your workspaces!

MelvinBlog 2.0 – The Scenes Behind It

by Melvin · Nov 24, 2009

By now you probably have realized that this blog has been sporting a new design and a completely different layout. And as always any change deserves an explanation. 😉 So in this post I would try to do an in-depth explanation about this new design and how it came out to look like this.

MelvinBlog’s New Design

I lied when I stated that the new design would probably be implemented next year. Anyways, obviously the new design uses a magazine template which enables easier navigation and making good use of spaces. At first I totally really oppose the use of magazine themes for this blog for some reasons but after seeking for professional advices, I just got myself convinced!

The theme I am specifically using is Colormatic Theme, a theme created by ThemeWars which is owned by the super popular Unique Blog Designs. As of course, there are many magazine-styled themes by other companies but I guess UBD has sold the concept of this theme well to me and so I did purchase the developer’s license.

Anyways, the one prop I always get from the former theme is that it looks really peaceful and tranquil. I guess people like the light colors of it and I, myself think that the blending of color on that theme was good. So basically what I did was to try to carry out as much color schemes/combination as possible and import it in the new theme.

Better Navigation

As you can see the homepage of the blog showcases not just the latest post but also the best posts from the blog. It has the featured content at the top most part and the recent blog posts at the left. I also have four sub footers in there in which I have difficulties filling up with.

The unique part of this theme is the built-in blog navigator widget, the social network in the sidebar and the recent tweets. Do take note that those are not plugins but built-in widgets that comes within the theme.

This is the first time I have had a list in the IM niche and although I am with Aweber for long, I never really intended to have one until I realized the need of it last month. And that was one reason the change of theme has become imminent.

So this current layout has basically met my plans with the newsletter placement and as you may notice it’s very very visible. Feel free to sign up in it (it’s free) and I am promising to over-deliver to you, giving out the best stuffs that I’ve never yet put up here. You might not want to miss that.

Better Ad Placements

The new theme benefits advertisers as well. All the ads are shown on EVERY page/post and it just means maximum exposure for them. It’s also taking lesser space now as opposed to before yet is more organized.

I don’t have any plans on increasing the number of ads/ad spots in this blog (yet) as this blog is not created solely for getting monetized. But I am planning to increase the price of the ad spots since the current price is the price for about 5-6 months and obviously the blog has grown a ton after that period.

The Sidebar, Testimonials and Facebook Fan My Blog

Well this theme is preloaded with 4-5 different layouts and this one I’m using has two sidebars in homepage and one in every page/post. Using the sidebars is so easy because it’s widgetized unlike my former team. And as you may notice different widgets show in different pages of the blog (I would talk that in my future posts).

There’s also that testimonial part in the latter part of the sidebar. These are testimonials from some of the loyal readers of this blog and if you feel you can add one, then please hit me up in the contact form.

The facebook fan my blog widget is one that’s been recently used by a lot of bloggers and have left me wondering “why not?” So currently all the fans are my friends and classmates and so if you’re a frequent reader and a subscriber here then why not give the author some kudos by hitting up the “become a fan” button? 🙂

Overall Feel and Your Suggestions

It actually took me close to one week to test different color schemes and layout before deciding to fully implement this one. My designers and I still had about 4-5 custom implementations to make this theme more enticing. We’re still waiting for something to finally put together all those piece. In the end I really feel it’s all worth it and I feel more excited than ever! It makes me want to go to every page of the blog and feel the new look of it.

I also think it’s time to say goodbye to the old theme. I really like it and I’ve told you that lots of times here. That greenish organic theme from PremiumThemes.Net made me good money, helped the blog grow and had its own ups and downs. I’m a guy who appreciates everything and here’s the final look the MelvinBlog V1 powered by Organic theme. Click for a larger look…

So now it’s your turn. I’ve asked some of my friends about the new design and now it’s time for you, my audience to speak out your mind and throw your suggestions and critique for this blog. I could very well appreciate each and every suggestion that I can get from you and let’s hope it’s a win-win situation for everyone here.

The Best Birthday Gift For the Girl I Care

by Melvin · Oct 11, 2009

So a little offtopic post here. 🙂 Post Alert: Remember this is a blog owned by a teenager, so love stories are just fine as posts. 😉

Last year, I also did have this post asking for the best birthday gift which yielded a lot of responses from people. Since most of the commenters back before were not commenting now (or have stop reading this blog), I just thought I would again reiterate the scenario. So way back in early years in college I used to have a big crush on someone in our school. What I know is it’s more than infatuation and being attracted because I have to dwell with the feelings that I have for her for up to now (3+ years)..

I started giving gifts to her since first year without me revealing my personality and she not really knowing I exist. We just started to get to know each other and eventually talk more during our 3rd year (last year). Much to my dismay, that was her last year in school as she was a graduating student then (very short time. 🙁 ). And yes I was able to say goodbye but then its sad because 1: you know you’re not going to meet anymore (debatable) 2: as I’ve said we’re just starting to build our friendship back then. I really miss her so much and yes its love, puppy love maybe.

So 8 days from now is her birthday. I don’t know, but over the years I really don’t think I make great decisions on what is the right gift . You get my situation? The girl is not my girlfriend (I never had any gf’s before), I’m not courting here nor dating her, we’re good friends and I know I want more than just that, lols. And to add I am really a shy person and everytime we talk face to face I still have that nagging pressure that I always feel.

I always thought a ring would do it, but people around me say its not a good one and I respect their opinion a lot. I want to be romantic but not too much. Confused? I am as well. So here I am taking any suggestions you guys/girls can suggest. I believe most of you here are teens like me and if not (means you’re old), Im sure you have gone with this “cheesy” situation as well, Hahahaha… Fire away your take.

and yes taking her out for a dinner is a big dream.

What I Learned In Wordcamp 09

by Melvin · Sep 20, 2009

So like what my previous post said, I have finally attended a blog event here in Philippines and it’s the popular Wordcamp 09. Much to my dismay that my camera lost bout three days before the Wordcamp started, I still attended the event with high hopes that I would learn a lot and more importantly meet new people and make new friends. Here are some photos that was taken from Jehzlau’s gallery (I just took some pics):

As I’ve said this is the first event that I happened to have attended and I was really tensed at first. Good thing is that a guy named Alvin (hey your link?) approached me and introduced himself and introduced me to the Nuffnang people and some other people as well, and that paved the way for me to open my mouth and start talking. 😀 Just in case you don’t know I am a really really shy kid and stuffs.

Anyways w/o further ado here are the things I have learned from the said event and how you can learn from them as well:

Overcome shyness – Yes. It’s totally useless if you’re going to attend an event and talk to no one. One of the meat in these events is the “talking part” w/other people. If you’re shy like me my tip is, try to get yourself going. I mean just a simple hi or a smile to/from someone could boost your confidence a lot. And then try to capitalize on it and just keep going and go with the flow.
Make the Most of the Opportunity – You may have heard me a lot talk about Carl Ocab here. The truth is, prior to the event, we have not seen each other face to face although we know each other kinda about 2+ years now w/o meeting personally. So what I did was I approached him and just talked spontaneously. Boy, it’s such a humbling experience to have a conversation with a guy like him who is really bright and knows a lot of stuffs.

Another one is a guy named Jehzeel Laurente. He is a very popular figure (he’s like the Shoemoney of Philippines) and one of the sponsors. We talked together very briefly during lunch and it’s a pleasure to actually meet someone famous personally. So talk with people you know when you see them personally and try just not to be annoying.. 😀

Ask Questions – Just like in anything, not all are understandable. Even the best speakers in the world, had their audiences asking questions. If you don’t understand somethign, ask questions~! Or again if you’re shy, you can do so after the said event. Example is, I had a question to Mr. Ryan Reynolds Seth of Firefox and because I was shy, I approached him at the end of the event.
Bring Business Cards – Oh my god! I can’t believe I didn’t have one for the event. 🙁 Well my piece is do not ever think that people would get annoyed when you hand them out with your business card. The truth about events is that people attend it to network and meet new people, w/c would lead later on to joint ventures, friendships and stuffs. If you don’t know how to make one, just try to get a small piece of paper and put your details and thats it! 😉
Attend the after-parties – LOLs, another one that I didn’t do. Unfortunately that day I was kinda rushing to go to Greenbelt three to meet someone. Well if you’re really out to meet new people and make friends, you must attend the after-parties. After all it’s fun and you wouldn’t get that much drunk anyways (hopefully). 🙂
Bring a Camera – In my case I lost my camera, and so I brought my Flip to take some clips from the said event. I know some people would say they don’t have one, but it’s not really hard to borrow from someone right? Remember the one thing that you’d probably want to have is a remembrance of an event you attended.

Wordcamp 09 is really a good and interesting event. I’ve learned a lot, enjoyed a lot and got tired eventually. Hope you guys learned and if you have anything to add, feel free to do so in the comment form.

Note: Would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of the said event, the Mindanao Bloggers community. And well, I’d list all people I’ve seen there and there link hopefully. Gratitudes to Blogie (one who told me there’s no dress code), Migs (emcee), Chatee (lone girl in the organizer’s section) Alvin, Jhoey, to the photographers and many many more (more name and link here, please). If you’re one of the photographers and had taken a pic that includes me, feel free to send it to me and I”ll send you a cup of coffee.. 😀