Write Blogs and Get Paid

In my earlier blogs, I promised that I am going to expound on the topic of working in a call center. But in my research, I realized that it is already a given that call centers pay big compared to the regular traditional jobs and almost everyone know it already. In the near future, I’m still going to write about it, though, to complete the profile of this blog which is to list all the high-paying jobs in the Philippines.


In the meantime, let me walk you through another kind of work that is only known to few but yields a large sum of income. I’m talking about blogging. This is a topic which I know by heart and I would like to share how it is done.

Blogging is short for making web logs. It means that you log your thoughts or opinions on the internet, and there is no limit as to what topic you can write about. It can be about your personal experiences, collection of your favourite movie stars, or instructions on how to accomplish things. For this purpose of learning how to blog to earn, I advise that you choose a topic that many people will be interested to read about, like current trends and hot topics of the time, but it should be something that you have command of writing.

You will learn two things from here. First, I am going to teach you how to create a blog, and second, how to get the traffic (visitors, readers) to your blog. The key to a successful blog is keeping the interests of your reader by providing relevant information. The second part is very crucial because it will dictate how much you are going to earn. The more visitors you get, the more you earn. To provide you a glimpse, your blog is a medium where companies can get exposure. If their logo or link is in your blog, they pay you for it. But first, let’s get your blog accomplished.

In creating a blog, you should know how to:

1. Set up your free blogger account.

2. Make posts to your blog.

3. Get signed up with affiliate companies to earn money.

4. Add promotional links to your blog.

5. Use special meta tag codes for search engine recognition.

Here’s how a completed blog should look like:

The main body is where you type your article about the subject you have chosen. You will notice linked words like “GO HERE” that take you to sites being promoted. I will teach you how to embed your affiliate promotional link on such linked words as we go along. Also notice the company logos on the side bar. Take for example eBay: for everyone who joins eBay (which is free) we get paid $25. If someone who clicks on that banner places an item up for auction, we get paid a percentage of the eBay listing charges for as long as that person places items up for auction for a lifetime.

Setting up your free Blogger account. To sign up for your free blogger account, go to www.Blogger.com. You will decide here what to name your website, like http://example.blogspot.com. Change the “example” word into your chosen name. You can then change your template layout. There is a variety to choose from. Everything is easy to do, just like how you open an account in Facebook. You can make changes in the design or account information anytime by logging into your account.

Making posts. To start your first post, click on "Start Blogging." or "Start Posting." You can add pictures or videos in your posts. Be sure to double check the grammar and spelling before publishing it. I first save a post and review it the next day when I have already forgotten what I wrote. Usually, I take off a lot of words that does not add value to the whole thought. When you are completely happy about it, click on the "Publish Post" and your blog post will be published to the Internet. You can always make changes to your posts at anytime.

Getting signed up with affiliate companies. Once you have published your initial post on your blog, you can now go and sign up with the affiliate administrative accounts (Commission Junction, LinkShare, PayDotCom, and ClickBank). You may sign up with one of them, or with all of them. These affiliate companies will take care of all the administrative aspects of your affiliate promotions on your blog(s). These administrative accounts will allow you to login at any time to check on your current earnings, select the companies you would like to work for and promote, contact any of the companies you may have questions about, and assign your promotion links to post to your blog(s). All of these companies are 100% free to join, and you are NEVER! charged for their service! Remember the companies you are working for and promoting are paying you.

Each affiliate company you choose to promote on your blog will assign you a special "AFFILIATE PROMOTION LINK," also known as a "HOPLINK," with one of the administrative accounts. This is done automatically once you select the company you want to promote on your blog(s). Each company will assign you a different affiliate promotion link to use on your blog(s). The promotion link you are assigned will track all of your earnings when the link is clicked on.

Many companies will pay you a commission on anything your links bring in, some will pay you for just leading the prospective buyer to them, and some even pay you for having someone click on their Web site. You can choose each company based on the compensation they are willing to pay.

Many bloggers who place promotion links on their blog(s) for some of these companies make $800 or more per day. If you think about it, when your blog reaches 1,000 people a day (many blogs get much more traffic than this), and only 1% makes a purchase for that $99.00 digital product which pays you $69.30 for each commission x (1% of 1000 = 10). It adds up like this: $69.30 x 10 = $693 a day for just one company. Now imagine doing that for seven or eight companies you have placed on your blog. I think you are getting the picture.

How you are paid and how often will depend on which affiliate company you choose. Can be twice a month, on the 1st and 15th, or once a month. They will pay by mailed check, direct deposit, or PayPal.

Here are the websites of these four affiliate companies. Remember to sign up as a publisher.

• ClickBank – https://www.clickbank.com/

• PayDotCom – http://paydotcom.com

• Commission Junction – http://www.CJ.com

• Linkshare – http://cli.linksynergy.com/cli/publisher/home.php


Once you have signed up, apply to the companies that you would want to promote. Some approve your application right away while some approve it manually. Don’t be discouraged if others take time to approve as they would want to evaluate first if your blog has enough worthwhile content. Besides, there are more than 20,000 companies to choose from from these four affiliate companies combined.

You’re good to go in making your own blog. Good luck and feel free to drop questions or comments.

Post Script:


• The second part of this post, Creating traffic (visitors, readers) to your blog, is still in the writing stage.
• Links/websites mentioned in this post are not for promotional purposes but only for your references.

High-paying jobs in the Philippines

High on literacy rate but low on job opportunities – this is the current scenario in the Philippines. That is why most of the skilled and talented workers opt to work abroad for a higher pay.

I would like to dedicate this blog in finding the less-common, less-known jobs in the country that generate high salary and lead the proper people to those jobs. As you will realize later on, there are more high-paying jobs in the country than the ones in the call centers and non-voice BPOs, but I’m not saying these are not good enough. It is a common knowledge that one of the highest-paying jobs in the country is working in a call center. We will tackle this as well. But if you think BPOs are not your forte, then follow on as I walk through other high-yielding jobs in details.

I leave the comment box open if you would want to drop some inquiries or if you would want me to look into a particular job in detail.

Medical Representatives

Medical Representative as a job is not common to most Filipinos, but in the Pharmaceutical industry, they are quite famous as they play a big role in the practice of the doctors. And I chose the word famous because most of the ones hired for this job are good-looking, with impressive physique, and good communication skills which in totality leave a good impression of professionalism.

To become a medical representative, one needs to be a graduate of any 4-year course. Medical course is an advantage but not necessary since a successful applicant goes through a rigorous training in the field of Biology and Pharmacy to be able to grasp the basic concepts of human diseases and the role of the medicines that he is going to promote to the doctors.

The primary role of a medical representative is to promote a medicine brand to the doctors by making the doctors aware of the features and benefits of that brand, its target disease and how effectively it brings cure. He also communicates its price, special promo if ever there is, and where the patients can buy that brand.

It is relatively easy to become a medical representative, and the pay is high. Aside from the basic salary, one gets a commission monthly for reaching the sales target plus quarterly incentives, semestral and yearly, not to mention the 13th to 15th month pay, depending on the sales performance of the company as a whole.

If we talk about being employed by the biggest multi-national companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis, the basic salary starts from PHP15,000 but upon regularization at 6th month, pay starts to increase. Yearly, the employees are covered by Collective Bargaining Agreement that increases their salary by around PHP3500 average. But the biggest cash is from the sales commissions that can reach up to PHP20,000 per month, PHP70,000 per quarter and around that much too in semestral- and year-ends. A 3-year medical representative who consistently achieves his sales target can expect PHP500,000 in his ITR comes year-end.

But the best part is it comes with a car plan. Gasoline expense is covered by the company, and the car gets to be owned by the rep after 5 years of using it. For some companies it's all for free while the other charge a minimal amount of 10% of the car's acquisition cost.

All it takes is some guts, innate pleasantness and good character to be one.

To apply, go to the websites of the pharmaceutical companies operating in the country and leave your resume in their databank.

Work as a Medical Transcriptionist

Medical transcription involves listening to taped reports from doctors and medical practitioners and converting them to a written format, usually in MS Word. In the country, we have few medical transcription companies which, unless you dedicate yourself in finding some in the web, are relatively hard to find. There are also several online, but since we live in the Philippines and these online companies are usually based in US, Canada, UK or India, it is hard to apply to one. But if you get lucky, these companies pay big on a per hour basis.

For a beginner, I would suggest looking for a subcontractual work for a small local company first and learn from there. You can usually find several job offerings in the net for a home-based medical transcriptionist where the company is only based in the Philippines. Try looking in www.bestjob.ph, or www.sulit.com.ph. Don't expect much salary at first because a good training and experience is required by those big companies abroad. A good 3-6 months could be enough to sharpen up your skills.

Then begin applying in the major arena. I would like to forewarn you, though, that there are hundreds, or maybe thousands, of offerings out there whose only purpose is to collect upfront payment and eventually scam you. A legitimate transcription company does not ask for payment from you to work for them but instead evaluate your potential and even provide good training before giving you work.

Be ready to undergo typing speed and accuracy tests. These are usually done on an automated program that actually counts your word per minute (wpm) and accuracy. So practice first before undergoing the test because you might lose your only chance. Kudos if you get accepted because that translate to an income of USD$30-40 per audio hour. If you can finish at least two audio hours per day, that is roughly PHP2,500 to 3,400 per day. Not bad. An audio hour is usually completed in 2-3 hours.

Aside from high income potential, some other reasons why you might want to start in medical transcription include:

1. You are able to work from home.
2. You can have a flexible work schedule, and work as much as you want.
3. You have the potential to create long-term relationships with your clients.
4. You get to put your organizational, detail-oriented qualities to work for you every day.
5. The more experienced you become, the quicker you will be able work and the more you can make.

But let me also enlighten you of the potential challenges you might face before getting into a medical transcription work so you could prepare yourself prior to applying to one.

1. Companies require one to be a certified medical transcriptionist. This means that you should have completed a finishing course on medical transcription. Search the net for any online MT course. Compare and try any of these two online MT courses: Online MT Course or Be a Certified Medical Transcriptionist. The whole course will cost you less than PHP20,000 and they give full online support. Usually, they are also the ones who lead you to employers or they hire you themselves. But if you graduated with any medical course and you type fast, you will do. Experience is also a big factor. Remember, there is a big demand for this job.
2. You need a broad understanding of basic medical terms and jargon.
3. You must be a proficient typist, at least 50 words per minute, with good grammar and research skills. You can practice touch typing online at www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php or www.typingtest.com.
4. You need to meet deadlines and follow formatting requirements. You will be instructed what format to follow. This is easy, you only need to properly follow directions.
5. You need equipments, including a computer, foot pedal, transcriber software, reference books and an internet connection. Download the transcription playback software called Express Scribe from www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html.
6. The work requires strict compliance with patient confidentiality requirements.
7. It's all computer work, which can put a strain on your eyes, wrists and back.

Post script: The links mentioned here are not for endorsement purposes but only for your reference.