Beyond Ideas: Realizing Business Potential Through Targeted Mentorship

 

I am thankful for the opportunity to mentor and coach micro and small businesses that have joined the Kapatid Mentor-Me Program (KMME Go Negosyo) in developing their business improvement plans. As this program is typically government-supervised, the commitment of entrepreneurs to complete it is truly inspiring.

A common challenge I encounter in informal mentorships is the tendency for either party to start missing meetings, leading to a decline in interaction.

Payoneer, in collaboration with Bridge for Billions, has created an incubation program designed to help entrepreneurs thrive and unlock their full potential as business owners. This program is part of Payoneer's commitment to empowering aspiring small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines. It aims to support 70 Filipino entrepreneurs nationwide, who will also receive guidance from 70 mentors.

Payoneer is seeking independent gig workers, freelance agencies, and small to medium-sized outsourcing firms operating in any sector of the emerging digital global economy in the Philippines to participate. Nagesh Nevata, SVP for APAC at Payoneer, said, “We are uniquely positioned as we support and empower SMBs, including freelancing agencies. This includes opportunities to find new business, access tools, and scale the business in cross-border markets.”

Ideal entrepreneurs should be past the ideation stage, starting to test their business concept or have a minimum viable product they wish to develop.

The entrepreneurship program will provide participating entrepreneurs with the solid foundation needed to grow their businesses. Online incubation tools include a value proposition, competition map, stakeholder map, business model, marketing, pricing, business viability, financial projections, impact plan, and growth plan, among others. Participants are required to complete a toolkit assigned week by week.

They will be matched with an expert in their field for one-on-one mentorship to help nurture their ideas and progress. Entrepreneurs are responsible for leading the relationship with their mentor, identifying their needs, challenges, and demands for support, rather than waiting for the mentor to provide all the solutions.

Businesses will also be introduced to a dynamic community of co-participants and other mentors. After four months, they will refine their pitch skills to succeed post-program.

Bridge for Billions' innovation-based entrepreneurship was inspired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship Concept. Over the past 8 years, the program has conducted 270 incubation programs in 134 countries. It has matched 3,709 entrepreneurs with 3,029 mentors. Of these entrepreneurs, 94% rated the program as important to their success, with many seeing their revenues increase by up to 2.4 times.

Experts and professionals are also invited to become mentors. They should have at least 5 years of professional experience in fields such as business, finance, and innovation, among others. Ideal mentors are those passionate about entrepreneurship, eager to develop their mentoring skills, and looking to have a tangible impact on job creation and the economic development of the country.

Mentors are expected to provide feedback on the entrepreneur’s submissions to the toolkit and commit to weekly meetings to offer challenges and guidance.

What’s in it for the mentors? As advisors, they can create a network of early-stage innovators for potential future collaboration. Joining the program also exposes them to emerging innovation trends in their industry and positions their brand within the global innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Additionally, mentoring promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially for typically underrepresented groups. As mentors, they can help create jobs, foster economic prosperity and innovation, and build impactful solutions for industry-wide challenges.

“Payoneer recognizes the scarcity of incubation support for SMBs, which is why we wholeheartedly encourage them to join the Bridge for Billions Incubation program. This program is a testament to our dedication to fostering innovation and empowering Filipino entrepreneurs to scale up and achieve global success,” says Monique Avila, Payoneer’s senior director for customer success in APAC.

Join the Bridge for Billions Incubation Program today. Entrepreneurs can sign up at https://programs.bridgeforbillions.org/payoneer-for-entrepreneurs/. Mentors can join at https://programs.bridgeforbillions.org/payoneer-for-mentors/. Applications will be accepted until December 2023. Selected entrepreneurs and mentors will be announced in February 2024. The incubation program will run from March to June 2024.

The program will also feature a pitch competition in June 2024, where three winners will receive US$2500, $1500, and $1000, respectively. Details about the pitch competition will be disclosed to participants. 

John Caplan, CEO of Payoneer, said, “It is our mission to help entrepreneurs in every small way we can.” Bridge for Billions CEO Pablo Santaufemia believes that change cannot be achieved by one actor alone. “Collaboration is necessary as together we can learn and bring our expertise to the table.”

Digital industries such as information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) and freelancing continue to transform the economic landscape of the Philippines. The IT-BPM industry closed in 2022 with revenues of $32.5 billion and employed 1.57 million people. In 2020, freelance revenues saw a 208% increase from 1.5 million gig workers.

I hope a lot of entrepreneurs and mentors will join this program.

Mother of e-commerce

(January 17, 2014) JANETTE TORAL is considered the “mother” of e-commerce in the Philippines, earning the title for her role in lobbying for an e-commerce law in the Philippines. The result was The Philippines E-Commerce Law -- Republic Act No. 8792, which was signed in 2000 by then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada.

Janette has made a living online and teaches others how to do it. 
Ms. Toral is busy with her Start-Up 100 Project, where she aims to help 100 e-commerce start-ups go online by 2019.

 

In the intervening 13 years, as e-commerce has grown in the country, she became an e-commerce educator, entrepreneur, and advocate.

She estimates that e-commerce contributes 21% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the Philippines. Even so, Ms. Toral said that there is still so much more potential to unleash.

LAWS FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Ms. Toral began as a blogger, and she directed her strong interest in the internet toward lobbying for laws that recognized and supported the economic potential of this digital platform. Formalizing her network of friends who were active online, she founded the Philippine Internet Commerce Society in 1997.

With their support, she lobbied for the Y2K Law (which made industries prepare for the year 2000 and guard themselves from the so-called “Y2K Bug” which was expected to compromise databases stored in computers) and the E-Commerce Law which allowed transactions online to be binding valid contracts, and mandated the government to increase its capability to deal with e-commerce, among others.

Lobbying for laws is a big commitment, said Ms. Toral during an interview with BusinessWorld last November. She went to congressional hearings, meetings, and courtesy calls. “You have to build a relationship (with the politicians),” she said. “Ang trabaho, sabi nila (it takes so much work, they say), but that’s the beauty of due process.”

Today, she continues empowering the public to learn more about e-commerce by writing Philippine-specific books on e-commerce such as the DigitalFilipino: An E-Commerce Guide for the eFilipino and DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Workshop E-book (published by McGraw-Hill Education Asia). She also publishes research material, creates video tutorials and podcasts, which she promulgates through her site http://digitalfilipino.com.

Thanks to her active role in the Philippine internet scene, she has been honored with numerous awards such as the 2011 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Women Innovator, the 2010 Champion of Philippine Internet and E-Commerce Hall of Fame Award (awarded by the Asian Institute of E-Commerce), and E-Services Awards 2008-Policy and Legal Category (recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry).

FROM SKILL TO KNOWLEDGE
With a knack for writing, Ms. Toral was not content to remain a writer able to hack out well-written articles -- she wanted to build herself into an expert whom people turned to for advice.

Although she continues to write a weekly business column for the newspaper Sun.Star Cebu, she is also valued as a resource speaker and as an educator.

“I knew I had to build a tighter identity,” she said, and that identity was an e-commerce expert, but Ms. Toral prefers to be called an e-commerce advocate. She said that even if she generates profit from her efforts, money is not her primary motivation.

It was on this identity as an e-commerce advocate that she built her educational programs on e-commerce, social media, digital marketing, and blogging.

She began in 2003 with an e-learning service she conducted through e-mail. After collating what she knew and writing educational articles, she would send them to clients via e-mail. She also used her first client base to gather testimonials about her educational program.

Now she has an E-Commerce Boot Camp which teaches users to make a web site, market products and services, accept payments online, and create loyal customers; a Digital Marketing Boot Camp where users learn online marketing techniques, online identity, and establish oneself as a digital influencer; and a Certified Blog and Social Media Entrepreneur Program where they learn professional blogging, in partnership with Ateneo de Manila.

BLOGGING NETWORK
Besides teaching about e-commerce, Ms. Toral also serves as a sort of agent for bloggers, working with companies who want to contract bloggers who can write about their events. For example, if a client says, “we need food bloggers,” Ms. Toral will tap into her network and ask the bloggers if they are interested. She vouches for the bloggers’ writing skills, their blog’s popularity, and their professionalism. Before she gives them an assignment, she lays down the rules. The blogger must submit the article in 24 to 48 hours, the article must be promoted by the blogger through social media, and the article must attract comments.

Asked about the feud between traditional media and bloggers, she said that on one hand she understands why some people from the traditional media are angry at some bloggers. Some bloggers are invited to events, but instead of writing about the event, they just copy and paste the press release. During the event, these bloggers take pictures but they won’t ask questions.

On the other hand, there are those bloggers who write better than people from traditional media. Their work is also read by more people because it is circulated online. This can also ruffle the feathers of traditional media if they see these bloggers as their competition.

Commenting on horror stories about bad bloggers like those who supposedly blackmail restaurants with bad reviews, Ms. Toral said that she has investigated such claims but could not trace who these bloggers were. Though these rumors revolve around a handful of bloggers, in the end the whole blogging community is tarnished, and are thus not trusted.

“Until we have proof, don’t believe it,” she said.

HER BUSINESS MODEL
When creating a model to commoditize expertise and offer it online, Ms. Toral advises the use of a membership model as she does. This means that in order for members to get information, they must pay a subscription fee. Upon paying, they have free access to all the events that Ms. Toral organizes and have one-on-one consultations with her.

This is the model that she uses for the Digital Filipino Club, which she established in 1999.

“You only need 100 people,” she said. Having that loyal 100 makes sure that there will always be people attending her events because these people would want to maximize the benefits from their subscription fee and because they don’t need to pay more each time they go to her events.

It is also easier to get sponsors because she can guarantee that she will have at least 100 people at an event.

The membership model removes the need for marketing the event because she already has a strong base of followers. She is not bound by the revenue from the event itself because the event is pre-supported by the follower’s subscription and the event sponsors.

With a steady number of followers, Ms. Toral is able to focus on them and assist them in terms of the online businesses that they want to set up, their advocacies, and their events.

Right now Ms. Toral is busy with her Start-Up 100 Project, where she aims to help 100 e-commerce start-ups go online by 2019. Her first start-up is I-metrics Asia Pacific Corp., which aims to help businesses with data on e-commerce that will guide their investments and other business decisions.

The mother of e-commerce is really a nurturer at heart as she doesn’t just help her followers learn, but she also wants to bring them closer toward their goals.

“I encourage them to become leaders,” she said, and through her help, the e-commerce industry in the country can be more diverse and vibrant.

(This article was first published in BusinessWorld under this url. Before it gets fully deleted, we are saving it here for posterity.) 

You Attract Who You Are, Not Who You Want

This 2019, I was blessed to receive two recognitions. The first one was a Distinguished Career Award Recognition from the Northern Rizal Yorklin School (December 1, 2019) and Women Super Achiever Award (February 17, 2019) at the 6th World Women Leadership Congress & Award India.

The nomination came from two women whom I least expected to nominate me. I am very thankful to Vhivian Wong Chan and Apple Allison for the kind recognition.

The kind of people we will attract in our lives are highly dependent on how we are changing as individuals.

How we go out of our way to add value to chosen people - most of the time - without asking for anything in return.

Influence must be used responsibly and at times when it is needed the most.

Whenever we use it for self-serving gains, over time, its trust value goes down as well.

This conservative perspective, admittedly, has also limited the relationships I have.

But I am continuously learning and growing. If I really like to build and strengthen the relationship, I will go out of my way to do so.

The 3 Must-Have Before Someone Buys From You

Got featured in Payoneer Philippines - Payong Kaibigan

If you are marketing a new product or service to a prospect who hardly knows you, it is not easy to get a quick buy-in especially if the person has a lot of options.

However, if what you are doing right now is something that you will specialize in over the long term, I believe the following are a must.

#1 Invest in yourself. 

Your clients will need to buy into you as a leader. You need to show that you are passionate about what you do and not just after a quick buck.

Share what you are doing to grow yourself as a specialist, expert, and as a leader, in your field.

Improve yourself as a communicator, speaker, salesperson, leader, and coach. The more equipped you are, the more you will be capable of building your momentum.

#2 Increase your influence. 

Your prospects will need to buy into your vision and what you stand for.

Form win-win partnerships and alliances with people who can help you reach out to a bigger market rather than doing everything on your own.

#3 Build momentum. 

Create competitive products and services that can add value and help your clients realize their targets.

You will need to have a sequence of activities, programs, projects, products, service, events, in the pipeline. Each one will help build momentum to the next one.

When you stop mid-way and try reactivating again, remember that you already lose momentum and need to start over again.

Get a FREE SEO Site Audit Report

With many folks asking for advice on their SEO challenges, I decided to provide a free SEO Audit report that will give a basic overview of your challenges. Just fill in the details here and the report will be sent to you.

I use SEMrush to work on my websites as I just went through the process of enabling SSL and migrating my site to a new web hosting service. It has been a challenge actually since I have the main site and 4 sub-domains. However, with patience, monitoring, and carrying out the fixes, I am sure my site will be ok soon.

The SEMrush service also gives suggestions on what you can improve in the areas of content marketing, advertising, and social media. They also have online learning resources and certification exams that you can use to learn and validate your skills.

Hack Attacks on Bitcoin-Traded Platforms on the Rise

As Bitcoin surges to an all time high of US$16,000, the number of hack attacks being experienced by platforms causes uncertainty among users.

Nicehash hacked
For instance, popular Bitcoin mining community - Nicehash became a subject of a hack attack. The site is now on hold and the platform is asking users to change their passwords.

Hexabot BTC glitch
Last December 5, popular lending platform Hexabot experienced a BTC glitch where users suddenly have 11 BTC in their accounts. New user registrants find themselves having withdrawable balances. The said issue reminded me of what happened to Exodus Wallet two months ago where some users find themselves having 18 BTCs in their account although not necessarily usable.

These attacks causes these sites to go down while doing the necessary damage repair. Especially with many users trying to withdraw the bitcoins received in their account. And if the damage is irreparable, it can result to permanent shutdown.

These attacks serve as an important reminder to cryptocurrency owners to take care of their digital assets. Use the necessary security layers to protect your accounts.

Make Money from Cryptocurrency Investment, Staking, Trading, Mining, Lending, Advertising, Blogging

I often get asked about Bitcoin and the rise of cryptocurrency when giving e-commerce talks. As I am improving our E-Payments Module in our E-Commerce Program, I decided to invest time / resource to research on this matter.

Back in November 2016, 1 Bitcoin was only around USD$700. On November 2017, it reached an all-time high of more than US$10,000 per Bitcoin. There's a lot of discussion among its active investors that it will likely reach US$40,000 in a year or two as more countries, businesses, influencers embrace it.

In my ongoing research about cryptocurrency, there are many ways a person can derive income online.

I'll be updating this post as we share the steps we have taken and experiments made.

Bitcoin Wallet / Loading Cash / Withdrawing Cash

1. Buy Bitcoin through Coins.ph (from pesos to Bitcoin)
Sign-up through this link to get P50 after activation. Remember:

• Use the "cash-in" feature to load funds.
• Click on "convert" to purchase Bitcoin.
• Use the "send" feature if you want to send peso or bitcoin to another person or wallet address.
• Remember to get your Bitcoin Wallet Address (click on your BTC Wallet and then click on the QR code symbol) and give it others or post on other platforms when you need to receive Bitcoin payments.
• Share your "invite" link to friends so you can earn when they sign-up and have their account validated.
• Convert your Bitcoin to peso before using the "cash-out" feature. 

2. Use your credit card at Changelly to buy cryptocurrency of your choice
You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Zcash, Dash, Ripple, Steem, Ether Classic using your credit card.

You can also use the platform to convert from one cryptocurrency to another type.

Another alternative for cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency conversion or sending to other people is Blocktrades.

3. Open an account at Binance and/or HitBTC

I suggest getting a Binance account and/or HitBTC as there are online earning programs out there that pays through other forms of cryptocurrency. You can also opt to receive Bitcoin funds here if your intention is to invest in other tokens / coins.

4. BitOES Bitcoin to Paypal conversion
If you want to convert and send your Bitcoin to Paypal (or other payment solutions), this is a platform that offers such service.

5. Spectrocoin
If you want accept Bitcoin payment on your website, Spectrocoin is a tool to use. It has plugins that you can use on multiple platforms to process cryptocurrency payments. It allows you to have multiple currency accounts as well that you can exchange in other forms.

It also has an ATM debit card that you can use to withdraw your cryptocurrency. Your account can accept bitcoin, US dollar, Euro, Gold, Dash, Ethereum, among others.

6. BCCPay
If you want to have an ATM card where you can withdraw your Bitcoin, BCCPay will be available for ordering - starting December 15, 2017. Based on what they have on the site, you will be able to order a USD, GBR, or Euro card(s).

Cryptopay Debit Card
If you want to have a Bitcoin wallet that is connected to an ATM card and you can use it when purchasing products online (functioning as debit card), this service is for you. Although this is not yet available in the Philippines at this time.

One you have all of that set-up, you can start joining programs.

With Investment

(We will edit this post and add screenshots as we are able to successfully earn.)

Trading

You can start trading by joining platforms like:

1. Binance
Straightforward to use. They have a lot of promotions that you can participate in. One of the friendliest affiliate program as well where your commission comes in the form of currency that your referees invested in.

2. HitBTC
Have more alt coins available for trading.

3. Bittrex
A popular trading platform in the US. I like the buy and sell activity in this marketplace.

4. Kucoin
I am new here although this site is following the path of Binance.

TIPS

What is usually suggested is to invest in the top 10 coins if you are beginning. "Buy low, sell high" is common advise you will receive from those who have done it.

A reasonable starting amount for trading would be P20,000 pesos. Otherwise, you will lose a lot from the fees charge for processing transfers from your Bitcoin wallet to Trading platforms (which is around P700 at least per transaction for Bitcoin). I learned this the hard way.

I have a small amount that I used as a start to learn how trading works. Having a worksheet that allows you to compute right away what is the ideal price - that will give you margin - will help you decide when to sell.

Focus when you are trading. The last thing you want is to input your desired buying price instead of your desired selling price at the "SELL" section. This is an expensive mistake to make especially when you are selling a lot of coins.

Instead of selling all your coins at once, you can also spread them at 5%, 10%, 20%, 30% difference especially if you see a lot of trading growth potential with the coin you invested in.

What coin to invest in?

Before buying any coin, make sure to read about them online - website, forums, reviews. You can also use CoinMarketCap as a guide and learn more about the cryptocurrencies.

For Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), I have put some on SNOV.io and TagCoin (Tagcash).

If you want to keep yourself posted on industry updates, it is also good to follow industry influencers in this area. Datadash is my favorite so far (am a proud patron).

Crypto-Mining

If you have limited resources, you can only invest in a few coins. That is where mining becomes a great entry point.

Although income generated in mining takes time, I like the idea that you can have passive income if you are able to set this up properly and build up your coin portfolio in due time.

Based on what I have seen from other people's experience and projections, it will take 4 months before you can recover what you invested and start making a profit from there.

1. Hashflare

I invested around US$100 dollars each on SHA-256, Ethash, and Dash. Sha-256 is the most profitable so far based on revenue projection

Ethash promises around 70% revenue which Equihash at at 50%. Dash tends to disappoint at this time as its revenue projection is half of what I invested. Hope this will improve in the days to come.

I also tried "Reinvest" for the SHA-256 earnings for a few days. This means whenever the minimum amount is reached, it is automatically reinvested.

You can opt to "reinvest" in SHA-256 or in the Scrypt option. Although returns for Scrypt is lower in comparison to SHA-256.

You can turn-off the 'Reinvest" option if you already want to withdraw your daily earnings.

2. Genesis Mining

(the 3% discount code is ZimUVN)

I got a Bitcoin pre-mining contract (which will start on March 2018). I think it is worth investing in Genesis Mining as their Bitcoin contracts are open-ended.

Their Ether, Zcash, and Monero contract runs for 2 years.

What I like about Genesis Mining is that you can customize the mining allocations. So even if I got Bitcoin, Ether, Zcash, Monero, I can still mine other coins by choosing it.

If you purchased through credit card, it will take time (32 days) before you see anything on your dashboard in so far as revenue projections are concern. You will need to be patient on that.

I initially invested around $310 for this. The moment the revenue dashboards start showing up, I will have a better picture on what the revenue projections will be like.

Lending

In the traditional world we live in, anyone promising to you daily or weekly returns are usually perceived as a scam.

However, in the cryptocurrency world with its by the second global dynamic trading, not being able to offer a gain or lost perspective on a daily basis is a scam.

If you are actively buying and selling cryptocurrency, it is likely that you know the feeling.

In this part, we will be sharing our experiment and observations in this space. 

THESE ARE NOT MEANT TO BE TREATED AS RECOMMENDATION. DO YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE BEFORE VENTURING INTO ANY EXPERIMENT OR INVESTMENT.

1. Poloniex

This site allows you to lend your cryptocurrency to site members who are engaged in margin trading. Although the interest is not that high in comparison to popular lending sites, it doesn't have a hold period and you can withdraw your cryptocurrency anytime.

STAKING

Another way that you can earn from cryptocurrency is "staking". There are cryptocurrencies out there that allows you to earn if you just keep them and don't sell it.

1. NEO

Another cryptocurrency that incentivizes you for investing is NEO. Earnings are given in the form of another coin called GAS. If you buy NEO in Binance, the GAS incentive will be given to your account there.

CRYPTOCURRENCY EXPERIMENT FAILURES

As this market is very new, there are risks. Here are my experiment failures so far.

Mining

1. Hashflare DASH contracts

I bought a US$100 mining contract and shortly thereafter it went out of stock. The platform does not allow you to transfer or cancel your contact and you had to wait it out for the whole year to be completed.

Lending

1. Hexabot

Hexabot experienced a hack attack that resulted to BTCs being added to all user accounts. As users tried to withdraw, their system crashed. The site was not able to recover so far.

Lost around P7,000 here. Investment came from Bitconnect and Steemit earnings.

2. BitConnect

Bitconnect had a great start. It encouraged me to try out trading to validate whether earnings (though nothing fixed) is possible on a daily basis.

However, being the first in this game exposed them to critics as its business model is parallel to ponzi scams committed in the real world.

Their referral program was also attractive that got people to go on the ground and encouraged people to join. This raised a flag to regulators that prompted US states to ban them.

The site halted its lending business and released the loans. It caused its value to plummet as well. They committed to coming out with better services this year to raise its value up again.

Invested US$100 here. I am giving this until January 2019 to assess how much was lost or recovery was made on or before the said time.

3. Investellect

The site lately became difficult to login too and no reply was received from customer support. Lost around P1,000.

RISKS

Like any investment, there are risks and use only what you can afford to lose. I refer to them as a learning investment as returns is not in the form of monetary income only but also hands-on knowledge gain.

When you research about ICOs, a lot of them are also being accused as scam or shit coins.

Even Bitcoin or alt coins mining are also referred to by some as ponzi or a scam.

Also, even if the sites are doing ok, they are also exposed to hack attacks where their bitcoins get stolen, user accounts compromised, among others. Have seen established sites like Nicehash and Hexabot destroyed as a result of it.

What I learned this early is that in cryptocurrency, those with conventional business models don't grab attention. Some ideas take time to catch on and you rely on influencers you read online or regularly watch on YouTube for info.

In my case, I only started looking at it with the growing number of questions we receive in digitalfilipino and event talks. That is when I decided to understand it better with an open mind knowing its probable monetary losses.

So keep that in mind when you decide to take the plunge or experiment on any investment available out there.

It is always best to do your due diligence and look at both sides of the coin.

Without Investment

There seems to be a lot of sites that gives you an opportunity to earn without any investment asked for. Here are some that we are currently testing.

Advertising

1. Bitter

This site asks you to add a plugin that will allow you to check on available ads that you can view and get paid for it.

2. BTC Clicks
This site pays you for clicking on ads.

3. AdBTC
This site pays you for visiting ads (includes auto-surfing too).

Blogging

1. Steemit
Steemit is a blog site that allows you to earn STEEM currency from blog publishing, commenting, and upvoting content. This can also come in the form of contribution given by other community members.

Crypto-Mining 

Bitcoin Mining

You need to provide your Bitcoin wallet address for this 

1. Micro-BTC
2. CryptoMiningFarm
4. TelcoMiner
5. Cloudmy
6. Fflak Mining

Monero, Ethereum, Bitcoin Gold, Zcash, Fantomcoin, Bytecoin, DigitalNote, Dashcoin Mining with MinerGate.

You need to have multiple wallets for this to accept the coin you like or use Changelly or BitOES to convert.

I really like Minergate as it allows you to use your own computer and Android phone resources to mine. If you have several computers at home, it is best that you mine under one account. Please note that Dashcoin is not the same as Dash coin.

When you start using MinerGate, the immediate instinct is to focus on high-value cryptocurrency. That takes time to build especially if your computer processing power is limited. You can also focus on cryptocurrencies that are easier to complete including:

• Bytecoin (BCN)
• DigitalNote (XDN)
• Dashcoin (DSH)

Their value may be small but if you are able to create several coins a day, you will be able to convert it to other cryptocurrencies using Changelly or trade it on HitBTC.

It has a dashboard where you can monitor the progress of what you have mined. Another option they offer is to get a Bitcoin or Monero cloud mining contract. You can use your mining earnings, if you want to, to purchase these mining contracts if desired.

Secure your Accounts

Make sure to secure your accounts including:

• Use 2 Factor Authentication
• Use different set of passwords, emails, mobile number for your accounts.
• Update your password regularly.
• Track any irregular activity in your account (like password reset that you did not request, among others) and report them.
• Save your cryptocurrency on your computer using Exodus or Electrum. Or on a hardware device called Ledger Wallet. 
• With the increasing value of Bitcoin, there are a lot of hack attempts on Bitcoin-traded platforms. Apply the necessary security processes to your accounts.

WIN or LOSE?

I am glad that I ventured into this field. As I earlier shared, these experiments are important. I treat losses as "tuition fee" in this whole adventure. 

My biggest WIN is now I am managing cryptocurrency accounts in mining, lending, trading of clients.

Learn more

If you would like to see our experiments in action, this includes learning and win / lose updates - become a Patron at http://patreon.com/janettetoral

Always remember, if you will venture into cryptocurrency, don't invest more than what you can afford to lose.

E-Commerce Affiliate Marketing & Lead Generation in the Philippines

E-commerce affiliate marketing and lead generation is reaching mainstream status in the Philippines. It helps in many ways including:

1. The merchant or marketplace can tap influencers and hardworking social media users to promote their products or services. Compensate those who were able to generate revenue for them.
2. The blogger, community manager, virtual assistant, social media user can generate income by recommending products they have tried or believe in. Any purchase by their connections through their link will entitle them to a commission.

Getting started with Affiliate Marketing and Lead Generation

If you are ready to venture into affiliate marketing, I suggest getting into popular brands and build experience. This is a great and humbling on-the-job training giving you a unique digital marketing experience. It will make you realize as well what works for you at the moment and what can you improve on.

You can attend our Affiliate Marketing 101 learning session this June 4 at BSpot (Eton Cyberpod, Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City across Robinsons Galleria) from 7 pm to 10 pm. SIGN UP HERE.

You can also join our free e-learning program online - Affiliate Marketing and Lead Generation Boot Camp - to get started.

Some of my favorite sites where you can get started includes:

• Alfox Printing Services (create and sell your own swags; sell printing services)
• Lazada
• Zalora
• Amazon
• Booking
• Payoneer
• One Network E-Commerce
• eBay

Lead generation opportunities are now happening as well in real estate, insurance, car loans, credit card applications, training, among others. It is usually arrange on a per company where trackers are set manually.

Generating affiliate and lead generation revenue

Conversions don't happen overnight. It takes time as you gradually need to introduce your readers to your affiliate or lead generation content. Here are some ideas:

• Let your friends know about your new product or service you are carrying. Sharing a story will allow your audience to see that you are not just there to make a quick buck on them.
• Match your affiliate ads with the kind of content and audience patronizing your website. If you already have an active blog, you can update your popular blog post and add deep links. Then re-share them. 
• Build your authority on the topic you want to niche in. Users who value your content will appreciate your product recommendations. 
• Create a content calendar to plan your postings. Be consistent in posting useful content. You can start with topics close to your heart or profession. 
• Be disciplined on how you promote your content or your affiliate links. When using social media, use links, images, and videos. 
• Email marketing can be helpful too. 

This blog post will be regularly updated to add sites where you can join and tips too.

Nearly 700K Tweets about the #APEC2015 Summit in the #Philippines

On the 18 and 19 of November, world leaders gathered in Manila for the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. Twitter saw 680,000 conversations as the world joined in on the annual gathering.

The chart below shows the flow of the Twitter conversation over the past eight days.
 

Here are the spotlighted Tweets from the #APEC2015

• Noynoy Aquino, President of the Philippines
• Malcolm Turnbull, PM of Australia
• Barack Obama, President of the US, moderating a panel
• The APEC Summit "family" photo
• Noynoy Aquino's selfie

Yesterday, I also got interviewed by State of the Nation news program on the various APEC related tweets that citizens have used. Although citizens have become savvy in using platforms like Twitter and Facebook to vent their concerns with the use of hashtags they believe is relevant to them, I hope more can also use it as an opportunity to also understand the issues, research about it, and share their findings to others.

 

Invest in Relationship, Do not Mislead

Once in awhile, I receive inquiries from Facebook connections on how they can be more effective in selling product or service business ideas to individuals where their success or effectiveness will rely largely on the use of social media.

Pitching their product or service is usually done via briefings, face to face meetings, and arranged via online private messages. These are usually online contacts and those met in social media public groups.

Here are some tips that comes to mind:

1. What’s on your Facebook timeline? How do you want to be perceived by people? Selling a product or service usually starts with you as the person. Selling yourself to the point that you can be trusted.

But sometimes, this is not enough. There are those who do share inspirational stuff online but when the events below happen, it becomes a disaster and contradicts to what they are projecting about themselves.

2. Show the product or service idea works for you. Try the product or service and show that it works. If you are selling an e-commerce site subscription, show that you also have your own site (or a project showcase) and it is working. Otherwise, selling an idea won’t be sustainable in the long run if you will not be able to demonstrate that it really works.

3. Invest in relationship. Do not mislead. Last night, I saw this message in my inbox. 

I removed reference to time, place, gender, amount to avoid identification.

I thank my online connection for the kind note and did not ask who the person was.

This online connection sent me private messages a few months back asking for advise on how to go about social media marketing. I gave links to our free learning modules online on digital marketing and e-commerce.

However, this message got me thinking --- and encouraged me to do this post.

From what I understood on the message sent, my connection accepted an invite from a “persona x” who will share updates on social media marketing. Especially so as “persona x” just came from a conference.

However, after 30 minutes of introduction, “persona x” perhaps zoomed into a pitch where the product or service idea includes recruiting people, using online, and making them invest a significant sum.

I am sure that “persona x” has the best intentions and may even be successful with the product or service being marketed. But if that is not what the person came for, it is a big gamble and may even cause more damage than good.

4. Be selective, listen, and know when to “back-off”. Lately, I met several persons marketing an online service or an actual product that also requires interested individuals to invest a significant sum. Some on the real estate and insurance fields. Let me refer to them as “persona y”.

“Persona y” was experiencing difficulty in conversions and asked for advise. I suggested to tap into certain type of bloggers who can experience or see the product or service. Write about it and share it via social media. They can negotiate a professional fee to do it and if possible, give them commission for successful sign-ups too.

“Persona y” agreed with the idea and I referred one who might be able to help. Talked to my referral and gave ideas on how to go about the deal.

But after a week, my referral gave negative feedback as “persona y” did not follow the idea originally discussed and instead pitched the investment.

Or in some cases, “persona y” would not want to pay the professional fee and just want to give a straight commission.

My referrals would often decline right there and give a counter-offer instead that will compensate their efforts. After a week, “persona y” would text to follow-up and my referral had to decline again.

I felt sad after hearing it and realized why they may have a hard time hitting conversions. Meetings will always boil down to what they want to say and failed to listen to the other party.

5. Guard your reputation It takes years to build a good reputation and one bad move to ruin it. More so when it involves taking money from people and the product or service did not work as promised. Or the income promised was not realized as the product or service was too hard to sell.

Or not paying people after fulfilling their part of the agreement.

6. Seek advise from experienced practitioners It is ideal to get as many inputs as possible from various individuals, whom you like on how they conduct themselves and seem to be successful, on how you can improve your craft. 

Share what you are doing and seek feedback on how to improve it. For those that turned you down, selectively, ask what they don't like about the offer or on more straightforward note - what turned them off.

7. Be genuine, be authentic. You can't fake it. Each failure is supposed to help you in becoming better. As you find the right product or service where you want to be identified ---- your passion, knowledge, and testimonial on the product or service effectiveness, rather than its income potential alone, will be the best pitch. 

You will reach a level of authenticity where what you experience about the product or service (as you grow with it), though may be not perfect, will be genuine and credible enough to convince your target to convert or purchase.