Credit card - a must for student blogger & entrepreneur

I'm scheduled to deliver a talk about "From Student to E-Commerce Entrepreneur" this Tuesday to students of AIE College. Also, on June 16 about "Blogging for Money. Blogging from Home" during the Iloilo IT Week.

The idea is to impress on students that if they are willing and hardworking enough, they do can earn money online even while studying. That is indeed true as there are many programs today where they can participate that provides both monetary and non-monetary value.

Having a presence on the Internet is the minimum that one must have. With a Credit Card, you can use that as a start-up capital to purchase a domain name, web hosting account, among others. If you are hardworking, that investment can immediately pay off even before your billing statement arrives.

(In the US, websites like Extra Credit Cards provide comparative information about various offerings they can consider and even apply online.)

In my case, when my daughter turned 18 last year, I immediately got her to do two things:

1. Open a bank account and get those Student Credit Cards. There are many types but the one we got is a debit card in functionality but can be used to transact online.
   
   I noticed that some also refers to the debit card as one of those Secured Credit Cards.
   
   
2. Open a Paypal account.

As she does a lot of freebie graphic design work to her online gaming design friends, she found herself receiving donations and even small projects in less than a week after she created it.

So if properly used and guided well, a student can really jumpstart an online entrepreneur career whether as a publisher or seller of products & services.

From Student to Problogger

Juan Karlo Licudine is one of the few student turn professional blogger (problogger) in the Philippines. Karlo believes that contrary to popular belief, problogging is not easy. "If you are serious in taking up problogging, you must ready to juggle this and your studies, two equally demanding tasks, at the same time. There actually comes a time when you are forced to choose between the two. In the end, it all boils down to priority."

Karlo got into blogging around 2004. At that time, he was still part of their school’s student publication when a colleague introduced him to blogging. "He told me that it is the best way to express my thoughts and, at the same time, a good training ground for me to improve my writing skills. I tried it out by creating my own personal blog and got hooked the moment I made my first post," recalls Karlo.

For three years, he only used blogging as an avenue for sharing of thoughts and feelings until another blogger inspired him. "Everything changed when I stumbled upon the blog of Darren Rowse, the blogger behind ProBlogger.net. It was there where I learned about the other great possibilities that can be achieved through blogging."

"When I earned my first few dollars, I then wondered how much I could earn if I would get serious with the money making. And so, my life as a problogger began."

Life got a little tougher for Karlo as he has both studies and blogs to take care of. He realized, "What caught me by surprise was the gap that I had to traverse before I could get to the point where I could consider myself as a problogger. Because of this, I learned that problogging is not just a walk in the park, it is a serious business."

Karlo shared his experience at iBlog4: The 4th Philippine Blogging Summit. Here's his presentation and talk.

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