Hello, everyone! I am a work-at-home professional who lives in Kalibo, Aklan, a small, sleepy town in the Philippines. And yes, I am desperate for cash.
I have been working online for five years now. I started as a home-based customer service agent. I answered calls for different companies based in the U.S. I handled 20 accounts. Most of my callers were angry and frustrated. I decided to quit because I found the job too depressing. Can you imagine having to bear the brunt of the anger and frustration of these companies' customers every single day?
Then, I enrolled myself in a medical transcription training program. I finished the course at the top of my class. I worked for a transcription company in Manila for about three months to gain some experience. I had to come home because my family needed me. I was also raring to work at home again. Alas, I found out too late that medical transcription firms only accept work-at-home applicants who have had at least two years of experience as medical transcriptionists.
Fortunately, I found a job that allowed me to work at home, not as a medical transcriptionist, but as a general transcriber. For almost four years now, I have been transcribing talk shows from CNN. I used to transcribe shows from Fox News and MSNBC, but I gave up my other assignments thinking I would do well with my writing job (more on this later). The job is good and my pay keeps the bills at bay.
However, the transcription company that I work for does not send my pay on time. There have been days when I've had to do without cooking gas and eat less than usual. Worse, I'm the breadwinner of our family, so that means my brother and mother have to eat less, too, sometimes. I sometimes cannot buy my mother's maintenance medicines (she suffers from hypertension and diabetes).
I thought of solving the problem by getting into freelance writing. I was somewhat forced into this career because we were three months behind our rent. Our landlady was beginning to get impatient, and so I went looking for a writing job. I applied at oDesk and got $2 per hour rewriting articles that were unreadable. When I saved enough money, I bought Tiffany Dow and Craig Desorcy's "Ghostwriting Cash," which, in my opinion, was worth every penny. I soon had my ghostwriting website up and running.
I prayed for a well-paying writing job, and soon enough, my prayers were answered. A client found my website. She liked my writing samples and hired me. She paid me $10 a page and had me writing up to 24 pages week. The best part was the payments were made in advance. My client has a client who paid her to write website content. She hired writers to help her with the project and I was one of them. I gave up half of my transcription assignments to focus on my new job.
Unfortunately, my client's client bailed out on her, which meant she had to let her writers go. I did not see that coming and nothing prepared me for that. I am now left without a writing job. I now make only half of what I used to make in my transcription job because half of my assignments were given to other transcribers.
I am back to where I used to be. I am a month behind my rent. I am often left wondering where our next meal is going to come from. Last week, my mother had to borrow money because I had to pay my electric bill or else my line would be disconnected. Thankfully, my Internet service provider hasn't sent me a disconnection notice yet.
My ghostwriting website is also gone, along with the great testimonials from my past clients. I wasn't able to pay for hosting last month so my account got suspended.
I haven't lost hope though. I know I will find a job if I try hard enough. I continue to pray and work towards that goal. I started this blog because I know that someday, I will look back at this and laugh. I know that the best is yet to come. I also want to share what I've learned and will learn from my experiences to whomever cares to read this blog.
Nope. I'm not asking for any handouts. However, if there are readers who can offer me suggestions and advice and who can point me to the direction of great opportunities to make money, I would be very grateful. Please note that I don't have a dollar to spend at the moment, so please don't sell me any make money online products.
This is what I plan to do. I am looking for a writing job that pays well. I have submitted articles on Constant Content for review so I can sell them there. I also plan to write more articles to sell with private label rights (PLR). I have created another ghostwriting website using Weebly, a site that hosts websites and allows its users to use its website creator. I am also a member of the Warrior Forum and I have access to the War Room. I will be giving away articles that I have written before but have not been published yet. Those articles will come with PLR. I believe that I have to give first before I can get. I just hope my fellow War Room members will like my writing style and eventually give me writing jobs.
That is it for now. I am in dire financial straits but I haven't given up hope. I hope to fill this blog with experiences, tips and other things that my readers will learn from and enjoy.
