...What am I doing in the Philippines?...
My name is Bob, short of course for Robert and the last name Hutton from Scottish and English descent. Quite a combo eh What?
I live in Manila, Philippines and God only knows, and me, how I ended up in this 3rd World country. Life takes so many strange twists. Like they say, one of the only permanent changes in LIFE is CHANGE, whether you want it or not. Sometimes good and sometimes bad.
I grew up in a great town of Montclair, New Jersey. My father went to Columbia Univ. and was President of his class in 1916. My mother graduated from Ohio State Univ. I also got my graduate degree from there. I have a twin sister. Both of us were adopted at the age of 5. ( How lucky can you get!! )
Life was good to me, and I started out in life teaching seniors in High School in New Jersey. However , I was drafted into the Army and served 2 years in between my sophmore and junior year in college. Unfortunately, life took a bad turn because within 2 years after being discharged I became half deaf in both ears. This was a nerve deafness derived from loud artillery I was exposed to in the service. I lost my teaching job since I could not hear the students questions without trying to lip-read.
I moved to New York after a 6 yr. marriage. I just couldn't hold a job very long with my disability. Great hearing aids were not yet developed. The years rolled by, and I was on limited incomes from various non-descript jobs. New York was a difficult place to save money with the expenses so high...
..WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO THE REST OF MY LIFE?...
I needed to change things. My twin sister, had her own family to worry about and helped when she could. I never leaned on her and she understood. I basically detested the 9 to 5 routine. I hated the fact that someone else decided how much I was worth. I have always been so impromptu and loved to travel whenever possible. I loved New York City, there is nothing like it in the world. However, I knew that the time had come to see what else was out there.
...New York became history...
I traveled to Asia. Stayed in Bangkok for 7 years and from there traveled to Malasyia, Singapore,China, Japan, Borneo, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. I became a walking thesaurus on Southeast Asia. There was something about the Philippines that had many advantages. The Peso to dollar ratio was a big advantage if you had USA dollars. Cheaper living and more buying power. The biggest perk was that the Philippines also spoke English a great deal having it taught in the schools. Only Singapore was the other English speaking nation in Asia but was far too small and little nightlife.
I moved to Manila, Philippines in 1998 and assimiliated myself in their culture and lifestyle and groped with it being a 3rd World country. There are 7001 Islands in the Philippines and lots of beautiful women to adore. I'm telling myself WOW what a paradise!!
... Reality Sets IN ...
One thing I had to keep was my American citizenship and passport. Travel was difficult if you were a Philipino. There was always a problem going anywhere outside Asia. I valued my freedom. One had to always remember that you are in their ballpark not yours. The fact still was I was not working at any job and I needed money to sustain my lifestyle and just to exist. What exactly was my lifestyle? Good question. After all these years I couldn't bear the thought of working for someone 9-5 and at my age no one was going to employ me when they could pay someone younger than me a lot cheaper.
I needed to find a way to make money on my own. I needed to start paying myself what I was worth. I started dabbling with my first computer laptop since I had met a few people who were making a small living selling on ebay. I watched them at work one day and saw that they spent many hours every day auctioning items and trying to outbid someone else, ( not the most reliable money maker in the long run ).
I wanted more money and less time to do it. I wasn't lazy , I just needed to use my time more efficiently with more profit. I needed to enjoy those 7001 Islands and my years were slowly running out.
... Sometimes You Get Lucky...
Let me say that I was far from being computer literate. I didn't know HTML from any other language so I needed all the help I could get. One day I received an email I thought was spam at first. I almost deleted it but read it anyway. The email ws from a Company called SBI. SBI builds websites for people. Hmmmm!! That's something I don't have and don't know much about.
As I read further I discovered that SBI was not interested in making quick money for people but building a website that would consistently make money month after month for years to come. What did I need ? I needed to think of something I was an expert on. Some topic I loved to talk about or had a good bit of knowledge about. Everyone has a hobby, a skill or an interest in something they know more about than the average person.
I found out that that knowledge is worth money. First you need to build a site, get people to see your site ( called traffic ), and then get paid by customers who are interested for your information. Sounds simple BUT it's is a lot of work to set up. SBI makes it much easier. You can do it at your own leisure. SBI is there to guide you every step. They will do all the hard work with the tech stuff, you put your own ideas into it.
Take a look at their VIDEO TOUR. You can even take a peek at many OTHER SUCCESSFUL WEBSITES which were started by average people like me with no experience. After the website,or blog, is built there are many other ways to make money on the internet with your website involvement.
What can I say. Now I teach Computer Marketing and help others make money from their laptops.I'm happy now in the Phillipines making money while I sleep with the ocean lapping at my seaside condo. Maybe someday you can join me in this paradise in Asia.
Bob
