Latest PhilHealth Issue affecting OFWs

I was a member of Philippine Health Insurane (PhilHealth) since 1994 to 2008. I moved to United States and got another Health Insurance there. Because we are planning to live in the Philippines for good, I started to reconnect my PhilHealth Insurance. I asked my auntie to inquire, she came back with a form with a message that there will be an increase of the amount of premiums next year. I was good about it since it is still cheap compared to United States'. Of course the services and benefits are way more better in the U.S.

Lately, I learned about this NEWS Release:
Blas F. Ople Policy Center dated December 20, 2011.


"Several non-government organizations involved in overseas employment issues banded together to oppose Philhealth Circular No. 022 that would nearly triple the amount of premiums to be paid by overseas Filipino workers by next year." 

The said increased is too much! Most OFWs are not living a good life in there respective country of destination. Income are  just barely enough for their self and family. I wanna tell these lawmakers in our country that they should read OFW blogs and stories before making any major decisions. Better yet, support Pinoy OFW/Expats Blogs Awards and do good things for OFWs.

Read more about this topic: 

http://www.pinoyblogawards.com/2011/12/ngos-ofw-bloggers-oppose-philhealth.html

http://www.pinoyblogawards.com/2011/12/fmwg-opposition-to-increased-philhealth.html

http://blissfullyrich.blogspot.com/2011/12/pamasko-sa-mga-ofws.html

UnionBank Eon debit card and Paypal Experience

Situation:

I am a verified Paypal member using my United States bank account. I am now in the Philippines for good, so I need to use a Philippine debit card in order to withdraw money from PayPal. 
My experience with UnionBank in Davao is quite different from what I have read online.

Here are my preparations:

1.  I visited UnionBank Website (www.unionbankph.com) and apply for Eon Visa Debit Card http://www.unionbankph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2031&Itemid=839.
2. There are only four steps:
1. Fill out. Follow this link for online form (http://www.unionbankph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1143&Itemid=249). Don't forget to enter you Tax Identification Number or TIN
2. Visit. After online submission, you will receive an SMS or email for you reference number and the accepted identification documents for you visit.
3. Submit. Complete the application at UnionBank.
4. Enjoy!

It looks so easy, right? But I had a hard time. I was overconfident that I got all the necessary documents. They required valid photo ID's. I brought my passport, driver's license and greencard (US ID's since I have no more Philippine ID's) plus I brought my marriage certificate and Birth Certificate.  The passport was enough, the teller said. But it's better to have more documents in case there are problems with ID's.

The  most important thing that I missed was my Tax Identification Number or TIN card. I told her that I entered it while I applied online but she said that they need to see the actual card for verification. Oh No! I thought, I travelled this far and I need to go back? I thought..... I told her that I worked in the Department of education for many years and she asked me if I was a GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) member and if so, she can use it for verification instead of the TIN. She searched their database and found my name there! And now the problem was solved.

Lesson: Always read the instructions carefully, she said it was stated there but I got so excited and did not pay much attention to it!

It took me at least an hour and a half and then I finally got my UnionBank EON debit card. Yehey!

Now the next step is to use it to verify my PayPal.

My plan was to add it to my existing account but I found out that it is impossible. When I chose "Add Credit/Debit Card" button, the default country is United States and I could not edit it. Thus, I need to use another account, a PayPal with Philippines address account! And now I found some problems ahead.
In order to verify my PayPal account I need to add the new debit card of course. I did my homework but it says that I need to find the code from the debit card statement. In order to do that I need to signup for an EON cyber account by entering: ATM number, ATM account, PIN, email address, etc. It should coincide with your Unionbank EON application. I successfully created and account but I read somewhere that it took 2 days before I can login to that account so right now, I am still on the process and I will update this post if it successful.

Winners: Wacom Bamboo Tablet Balikbayan Giveaway

Dear Friends.

Thank you so much for joining. I like the number of entries for better chances of winning. And I want to sent it away as soon as possible because I am also worried about some damages of the product during shipping or at home.

Anyways, eto na po ang mga winners. I asked a favor to one of the most respected blogger/leader/admin to do the drawings. Salamat naman at pumayag. Thank you Lord CM of Isang Minutong Smile. I was also   eager to see the result this morning. Whoever they are, para talaga sa inyo ang mga prizes na 'to.

Big winner of Bamboo fun tablet: isp101


3 winners of $10 each via Paypal for best blog entries (Lahat po ng entries ay magagaling kaya ang nasa itaas na result ang pinagbabasehan ko.) 


Yves Floyd
MaiThreeByz
Majie


Please FB pm me your paypal id :  http://www.facebook.com/alohagems and your real home address big winner.

Article writing and backlink tools

To Write or Not to Write by shakespeareshoppe
Browse Shakespeare Mousepads

The more I read different ways to earn online, the more confused I get. It's just easy to read and think that it's gonna work how it's gonna work. Will it work for me? Hard to tell unless I try.

I have some favorite successful people online. They tried different ways and from niche blogging to affiliate marketing. Everyone knows what I am talking about. How did they become successful while some of us are still struggling with our simple ways to earn online strategy.

I think did they a lot of readings. One can not just share their experiences online without knowing the subject matter. We can not just effectively recommend certain products without even trying it or knowing about each product.

Pat Flynn of smart passive income blog  shared some of the tools that he used for his contents : instant article factory and the best spinner. Because he got a lot of loyal readers he also got a lot of earnings for every product he recommends. Checking the instant article factory online, it is not a free software. It's $7 for 7 days free trial and $77/year with money back guarantee. it helps bloggers or writers to create content easily because there are article templates that will guide you through the process. You just have to fill in some words and if you refreshed it, another template will appear.  For the best spinner, it will spin your articles by replacing some words with synonyms from the latest thesaurus. This is ideal if you want to create back links to your site Submit these articles with links to your site to different article directory like ezine, squidoo, blogger, wordpress, etc. Instead of rewriting the same idea, each article produce unique contents. This not also free of course, the same price as the instant article factory except for promo days. To effectively use this tool, read and review the whole content and make sure it make sense.

I am thinking to get these tools. But before it happens, I will evaluate myself first as well as  my goals for blogging and online writing for residual income.

Updates: I found a better one that convinces me to consider having one. Read and views here: instant article wizard. I downloaded the wizard and instant article factory. I am still exploring it, if it won't make me happy, then I'll ask for refund.

Lists of Free iPad Writing Apps for kids

I have just created a lens of Free Writing iPad Apps for your kids. Why buy if you can get it for free. There are  almost 40 free apps for writing. Just follow this link : Free iPad Apps for Kids: Writing. All link will direct you to the iTunes apps store and it will give you access to download, rate, read review or purchase other products.

Online Income 2011: I have just reached $2,022.37

I am monitoring my income online for 2011 since January so that I can study, learn and reflect from it. There are only 3 more months left for December so it is impossible to double that amount at the end of this year.

For a specific income report for 2011, you can check this link : Online Income History for 2011

Analyzing this figures:

January $ 218.87

February $131.42

March  $136.59

April  $ 263.06

May $ 209.83 

June $ 422.46

July $ 365.81

August $123.6

September $150.66
October $ 240.33

It looks like I am not going to the right direction. It seems like I am gonna end up to ZERO. What happened to the other income and how come my earnings are diminishing?

• My eHow residual income was ended. I sold out the articles to demand media. That's why my income for June and July are great. 
• I stopped participating in monetizing my twitter (mylikes and sponsored tweets)
• I did not care about paid blogging as much as the previous years. My goal for this year is to focus on residual income.

My Plans:

1. I will still continue to work hard for residual income: upload more contents in squidoo, add affiliate links, create more niche website/blog.
2. I will continue to write reviews for Socialspark and Blogsvertise since these are the only get paid to blog sites that I have regular offers. 

I am aiming for a $500 a month residual income in 2 years. I made this challenge before learning about changes in eHow. I am not so confident to reach that goal now. But I still have more time to figure it out!

My First Amazon Associate Income

I earned a lot of referral commissions from Amazon for my Squidoo Accounts monthly. But I was not using my Amazon associate ID. Squidoo created Amazon module and for every sale that I made I got a share too.

I am just trying out this new strategy. Aside from the squidoo's amazon modules, I will also use my associate referral id and it works! I just got a my first earning from the articles that I made few weeks ago. It is about ghost costumes for Halloween. I am expecting more earnings to come. Of course I need to do my homework: upload more contents and embed affiliate codes.

How to get refund from Godaddy Orders

I thought I was wasting money again for purchasing one of the Godaddy Products called Website Tonight (5 pages). I was not happy with the service and it did not meet my expectations. I also have a free website tonight that I did not use from my previous purchases.

I did it within 24 hours and I got my money back! Find out how I did it!

Cancel Godaddy Order and Refund 

Zafari on Ipad Crashing

It was my first time experience this since I have just bought my iPad 2 weeks ago and did not play with it often, I prefer my laptop that has a bigger screen and good keyboard.

Anyways, I spend most of my time today figuring out how to solve this problem. I was thinking of returning this item to Walmart. I found some forum threads for this discussion but it took me long time to figure out. All people there have the same problem as mine. Someone mentioned about setting your network connection but another guys replied that it doesn't seem to work BUT, RESETTING all settings will do.

And that was what I did go to Settings -General - (scroll down up to the bottom) RESET. It will be okay in few seconds.

Now, what are you waiting for? Do your homework! :) Thanks for reading guys.

My Favorite Sites: Socialspark and Blogsvertise

Blogger Chick by chicktshirts
Join Zazzle's artist affiliate program

I am a member of these sites since 2008. Actually,  I did try a lot of Get Paid to Blog sites. The first one was Payperpost. It was really fun at that time learning and earning. That was my first income in blogging. And the offers were quite high depends on your blog page rank. I was PR 2 and got offers up to $32. Then, the offers went down to the point of $1 per 200 words. I lost my interests, I know Pay Per Post is still alive these days and I am still a member. I receive some leads that up to $5 each but I don't have any interest anymore...

What I know about Socialspark is that it is like a sister get paid to blog sites under Izea, Inc. I love socialspark,  I have offers of at least $15. And so I still write for this site as soon as I have offers.

Blogsvertise is what I love the most because of their friendly staffs. I got offers many times a week and great one.  

These are the two paid blogging sites that I joined although I already planned to stick to residual income but these site are just great that I couldn't resist if I have some offers to write.

If you have tried these site, what are your experiences?

Notes: I've been earning money blogging about interesting products & services via my sponsor SocialSpark! Sign up here: http://izea.in/r2UK