How I Earned Money Online as a Student in the Philippines
Steps I Took That Made Me Successful
For four years, I have delivered top-tier quality to my clients. Whether you wanted me to create listicle articles, affiliate blogging content, landing pages, or YouTube scripts, I’ve done it all!
I even became a financial analyst writer for SeekingAlpha and have somehow good results according to TipRanks (currently ranked as the #1,687th financial blogger in TipRanks), having an estimated average return per rating of 38.90%.
I’m definitely not the best at what I do, but I sure have experience under my belt.
So, how did I achieve this feat?
A Little Background
I want to start this story by saying that GRATEFUL to God that my parents have done a great job in supporting my studies.
I witnessed their sacrifices, and although we do have some occasional fights (I’m a teenager, is that a teen thing? I don’t know), I still want to appreciate their efforts in giving me the best opportunity to study and learn many skills I’d use later in life.
It all started when I was 15…
I was always a curious person. Because of my curiosity, I found the internet and the “ways” you can “earn” money online.
Back in the day, I didn’t even have a working phone. All I had was a Nokia Lumia phone that didn’t even have Facebook, Messenger, and Minecraft (yes, I still despise them to this day for not supporting these apps).
Additionally, in the Philippines, we didn’t have strong internet connections back then, so what everybody would do was buy a prepaid SIM Card and load up some credits just to connect to the internet.
I learned about investing back then (which helped me in writing great articles on Stocks), and I also learned about blogging.
One Thing’s For Sure: I wanted to start a blog but didn’t think I’d make it. Blogging back then was considered unprofitable and hard.
People would say that “it’s not profitable, nor is it worth your time,” and as the naive kid I am, reading some Quora posts, I just straight out believed them. Pretty stupid, right?
Despite knowing that it was unprofitable, I still wanted to make a blog of my own. That’s when I started my first ever “blog”. I created my first:
🔵 Blogspot — JustHarvy.blogspot.com
🔵 WordPress — JustHarvy.wordpress.com
I still have my subpar articles on those sites, but I’m not taking them down. They hold a place in my heart, and I’m keeping them.
As a kid, we weren’t the richest, so I wanted to help my family cut costs by earning money online.
I dreamt of the day where I could afford to buy anything I wanted, without my parents’ help.
The Pandemic
I was saddened because of the pandemic — but it opened up new opportunities for me to grow.
Since classes were online, I used my dusty old 2014 Lenovo T430 laptop (this is not a promotion; I just love Lenovo laptops, specifically this model, which still works today) to look for ways to earn money online.
Then I found OnlineJobs.ph. I thought to myself:
What service can I offer that gives value to the client? Then, something clicked in me. I instantly knew what service I was going to give, and it was Content Writing.
It’s basically a niche where I get to write for clients and provide writing services to them. This was what I thought back then:
I love writing, why not find a way to monetize it?
BUT THERE WAS A HUGE PROBLEM!
Since there were a lot of applicants back then due to layoffs, I was competing with degree holders and experts in the writing field.
I had a solution to that…
I lied in my resume.
Now, hold your horses. I ain’t saying that you should do that too. I mean, hey, the only part where I lied was when I included:
“Local Tutor”
“School Writer”
Well, the school writer was somehow true, but the Local Tutor sure wasn’t.
Anyway, I landed my first client. I wrote VPN Articles for him, and this is where it all began.
I invested some of my money in Grammarly Premium, and my workday would look like this:
5 AM: Wake Up
6 AM — 5 PM: Work Time
For a 15-year-old? That isn’t a healthy lifestyle, but I was getting paid $20 per 1,000-word article.
I was happy! I never held money that I earned in my life, and I vividly remember opening the PayPal email telling me I’d received money.
My work experience grew, along with my rates, which gave me an opportunity to grow as a writer.
I got to work with different people and get paid 5-figures in Philippine Pesos (road to 6-digits! woohoo!).
My Advice
If you want to do something. Just do it. Start small, practice, and eventually, you’ll be good at it. Find something that you’re passionate about, and money will follow. There are A LOT of opportunities for growth. Don’t be scared to make mistakes. Take it from me: a successful (I mean, am I?) writer in the Philippines who has yet to break the headlines.
P.S.
If you made it here, thank you so much for reading my post! I appreciate your time and effort in reading my (somehow short) story of the day. If you’re interested in more, why not subscribe to my newsletter? It’s new, but I’ll be posting stuff like this : >
Why did you start writing? Comment your thoughts 👇👇👇
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For those interested, I’m a freelancer, and you can check out my Upwork Profile and OnlineJobs profile. Feel free to contact me, thanks!
