Internet Income

I just knew I could tap Internet income opportunities. Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, I knew deep in my heart that there were thousands upon thousands of income-generating sources on the Web. The sweetest part of it all is that you can work at home, with no boss looking over your shoulder, no bundy clock to beat, no commuter traffic to wrestle with. You could set your own work hours and target outputs. The more productive you are, the more income you earn. You can devote quality time to your kids and have more than adequate income for your needs. In the Philippines, where the U.S. dollar-Philippine peso exchange rate currently hovers around $1:Php44, a monthly Internet income of $300 would go a long way towards alleviating my dire financial condition. It was a realistic and modest initial target I set for myself.

Actually, the original plan was to set up an Internet café, with borrowed capital of course. The idea played on my mind for a full two months. But Internet cafes are now a dime a dozen even in the Philippines. You could see one in every street corner and in between. Young entrepreneurs would set up a café with as little as five PC’s and a single commercial broadband connection. Worse, due to intense competition, Internet surfing rates in our city had plummeted to as low as $0.35 an hour. I talked with a very successful Internet service provider and café owner in our city. He told me that, in order for an Internet café to be feasible business-wise, you had to have at least ten PC’s. Given all these factors, I dropped the entire Internet café idea.

The next Internet income idea I pursued was work-at-home data entry jobs. Overseas companies are reportedly downsizing and outsourcing their data entry requirements so as to reduce operating costs. Hiring online data entry typists (who are technically contractors for any given job) is cheaper than maintaining regular employees on the payroll. Once you were hired, these companies supposedly sent you the data to be encoded through the Internet. You encoded the data into pre-programmed data entry screens which facilitated the upload of the data to a central database.

Here was an ideal work-at-home Internet job, or so I thought. The work was simple, easy, and downright mechanical. You had to be accurate though. You were supposedly to be paid on a per record basis through mailed check, PayPal, eGold, MoneyBookers or other payment method. Even if you were paid as low as $0.50 per record, if you were hardworking enough, you could earn a fairly substantial Internet income.