Work at Home Mama

Archive for May, 2010

Every elections, the teachers of government schools  all have to spend long working hours in precincts, bear the complaints of voters, ballot watchers and candidates alike, some risk their lives to protect the ballot boxes – all for a measly salary which is oftentimes late.

Not long after the May 2010 elections, these hard working teachers were once again braving the streets of the Philippines, under the scorching heat of the sun and 37.5 degree celsius temperature. This time they’re working for the National Statistics Office, counting the Philippines in figures.

I remember last week, we were having breakfast when two women knocked on our door. They were carrying folders with IDs I did not recognize. “Census po ma’am” they said. I did not let them in, of course! and I was even apprehensive in entertaining them at first. Why should I not be when budol-budol is very rampant in Cavite? The fact that my husband was inside the house and was listening to us made me decide to answer their questions.

It was a 3-minute interview if I’m not mistaken and yes, it was done UNDER THE HEAT OF THE SUN.

I didn’t have any idea that they were teachers until I heard the news from the television last night.

Yes, they are indeed teachers.

The National Statistics Office expects them to meet their quota of 340 households from May 17 to June 11, 2010. Failure to do so could mean that they cannot receive the  full payment of P11,500.

HOW HARSH considering all the inconveniences each teacher has to go through each workday.

1. Heatstroke – need I say more? With this unbearable heat, will NSO provide extra allowance for their water consumption during working hours? Is NSO caring enough to provide iced towels for these teachers?
2. Security Conscious Homeowners – why would I talk to strangers anyway? Did NSO or DepEd disseminate information about these surveys? They should have done it on national television weeks before the surveys were conducted to INFORM the people of their plans.  They should have coordinated with the local authorities BEFORE the survey period. Busy with the elections? Using the national elections is one very lame excuse! And because people were not informed, so were their dogs.
3. Dogs – There were reports about teachers bitten by dogs. The government will sure shoulder the expenses, hello PhilHealth! But will they shoulder the expenses should these teachers suffer from post traumatic stress disorder after the dog bite? Of course not.
4. Poor compensation – C’mon. Why not pay them the full P11,500 even if they not meet the 340 quota? Don’t these teachers deserve more? and why can’t these government offices hire contract-based employees to do this job and let the teachers rest so they’re ready for the incoming opening of classes? I’m still making sense here, right? If others can hire contract-based employees, why can’t our government?

These teachers are overworked, unappreciated and underpaid.

We are complaining of the poor educational system in the Philippines, yet we don’t know what our teachers has to go through just to make both ends meet. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers estimates that a teacher only receives a P9,939 gross monthly salary – no wonder that we always see some teachers selling knick-knacks during school hours.

It’s just sad that teachers has to go through all these. I just hope that the change of government officials will shed light on our teachers’ dark hole.

And I vehemently pray that the Filipino teachers are given the credit and compensation due to them before it’s too late.

Some of my applications were rejected because I have no idea what PHP is. Sure I’ve heard of it but didn’t have the patience to understand how it works and how it would affect my websites.

CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SIMPLE PHP

To start with, here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document. As a general-purpose programming language, PHP code is processed by an interpreter application in command-line mode performing desired operating system operations and producing program output on its standard output channel. It may also function as a graphical application. PHP is available as a processor for most modern web servers and as standalone interpreter on most operating systems and computing platforms.

Nosebleed. Yes, I know!

Good thing I learned the easiest way to learn PHP. If you know how to understand simple instructions, copy and paste HTML, then you’re on your way to mastering PHP.

This incredible book by Robert Plank takes you step by step, teaching you how to:

• Easily personalize your pages.
• Make easy .htaccess code for yourself.
• Code games, quizzes & other lead-building tools.
• Create an autoresponder.
• Mix JavaScript with PHP for a powerful combination.

Quit paying $125 per hour for something that you can do! PHP is very simple if you are willing to learn!

CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SIMPLE PHP

Online selling was my main bread and butter a few years ago until I could no longer keep up with customer’s demands. Selling online is hard as ‘actual selling’ but the the advantages outweighs the disadvantages. (this will be discussed on a separate post)

Moving on, you can sell products in Multiply. Unlike before, selling is already LEGAL in multiply so you need not worry about being ‘deleted’.

To start with, you need to create a regular account:

Next, to mark yourself as seller, you have to click this button:

MARK YOURSELF AS SELLER

After that, you can now CUSTOMIZE your website by clicking your Home Page Tab (1.) and Customize My Site (2.):

After doing so, your page will now look like this:

Play with your site. You can remove unnecessary elements here that you do not need on your store. Basic elements are the following:

• Photos – where you upload the photos of your merchandize
• Blog – for your FAQs, updates, etc
• Guestbook – for customer feedback

Once your site is up, you can now start uploading photos of the things you want to sell AKA merchandize.

Your photos should contain the following to save you time from answering the questions of prospective buyers:

clothes / footwear

• Sizes available
• Colors available
• Brand (Filipinos are very conscious about brands)
• Flaws, if any.
• Authenticity (though I don’t encourage you to sell fakes. ’nuff said.)
• Price (This is very, very important. I, for one, hates asking for the price.)

food

• the quantity for each order
• description, of course!
• price

Your FAQ should contain the following:

• Terms of Sale – your selling/buying rules should answer the questions: do you accept haggling?, are you willing to sell outside the Philippines?, what will you do to non-paying buyers?, are you willing to reserve a product? if yes, what are your terms?, things like that.
• Shipping Info - details of shipping should be posted here, including, the courier you’ll be using and how much it will cost the buyer, how long will it take you to ship the items, if you’re willing to meet-up, insurance, etc.
• Payment Info - Indicate here if you are willing to accept Paypal, Bank Deposit or Gcash payments and how long are you going to wait for the payment before you relist the items.

Once you’re done building your site, INVITE FRIENDS and let your contacts grow. Join groups and post your updates there. The technique here is to have lots of contacts and promote your product in your groups.

but, but, but DO NOT SPAM if you don’t want to be deleted by your contacts.

Promote your products ONCE and believe me, if your products are unique or are reasonably priced, people will flock to your site in no time.

It’s very easy to sell in multiply because it’s FREE and the traffic is good so if you are a new seller and want to promote your products online, then Multiply is the perfect platform for you.