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Blogging in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Whoa, never thought I wouldn’t be blogging for this long. It’s been awhile since I last updated this blogsite. I also haven’t been able to go online as much. My normal day to day Facebook activity has been totally lessened. This is a good thing because it made me realize that I don’t need to spend as much time on social media just looking at status messages when I’m on my laptop. I can actually do more productive tasks such as working on my other sites that need more attention.

I apologize for the absence, but I’ve been busy.
So what have I been doing lately? I am currently based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

dubai burj khalifa
Burj Khalifa, The Tallest Building in the World

I transferred due to personal reasons and I’m starting over by establishing new roots here. The past months haven’t been a walk in the park. I became one of the many thousands of Filipinos who are finding better opportunities in this desert city.

I can’t recall how many resumes I’ve sent and how few the responses were. Maybe I didn’t target the right employers. Still, I can say that I’ve done what the average Pinoy has in order to get a good start-up job; and it wasn’t easy at all.

dubai airport terminal
arriving in DXB

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Laptop Issues on the Road

bali-indonesia-work.jpg

I’ve been having problems with my laptop lately. I bought my Lenovo in February of this year and it’s on its 7th month now. The past few weeks have been terrible for me in terms of its performance. It doesn’t respond as fast as my old notebook with lower specifications.

Slow Response

Since I’m travelling most of the time, I have to make sure that there are no issues with my computer when I get the chance to work. And the last weeks have been a pain in the butt because of how slow it was. When I opened my browser or switched to a different application, it took a few seconds for it to respond.

laptop computer
working hard (or hardly working)
photo by Doi

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How to Earn Online While Travelling

working on the road

I bring my laptop with me in most of my trips. Although it consumes a lot of space in my backpack, I have online obligations that I need to fulfill in order to help fund my travels. I can’t really work on my rest days at home as most of my days off are also spent on the road. That’s why in order to maximize my time, I go online to work on freelance tasks. I know I talked about how to save money for your trips and extreme saving tips and one of the tips was to earn extra income by pursuing your passion. Blogging has paved way to other opportunities for me to do so.

Here are some areas where you can earn income online while you’re on the road.

Sponsored/Paid Posts

If you have a site that has a lot of traffic and has established a bit of authority online, companies will contact you to review their products and all you have to do is share your thoughts. Once you write a blog entry about it, you’ll be compensated depending on your online presence as well as your agreement between the advertiser.

You can also get invited to events and company marketing promotions. I was luckily chosen for a Cebu to Hong Kong flight courtesy of Airphil Express and all I was tasked to do was blog about my experience there. So these sponsored posts don’t have to come in the form of cash.

Ad Placement

Still the same concept with traffic, you can place an ‘Advertise’ space in your site to attract companies to place banner ads on your page at an agreed fee. You may also opt to place Google Adsense instead, wherein you’ll be able to earn if somebody clicks on those Ads. Adsense is another whole topic to discuss though as they say this is the most effective and high revenue-generating source for publishers/website owners.

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2010 Highlights: A Year-Ender Blog Post

2010 in general, has been a blast for me. Although there were times where I got lost figuratively, it’s always nice to look back at the positive things that happened. This has actually been my mantra every time the year ends.

I can’t remember everything but what I do to recall memories is browse through photos in my hard drive that are neatly arranged. Putting them all in this entry would just be too much. Hence I’ll just list a few points that made the whole year worthwhile.

Trips

soloflighted trips
some trips

Apo Island in Negros Oriental, Boljoon in Cebu, Adventure Café  in Balamban, Wordcamp in Manila, Nalusuan Island in Mactan, Alona Beach in Bohol, Shopping in Hong Kong, Bungy in Macau, Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Seair and Microtel Tour in Boracay, Blog Summit in Iloilo, Island Tour in Guimaras — I think this rounds up my trips this year.

I had my first trip outside the country! It took me a year to prepare it but I was really hyped up when it did happen! Considering that the prices for the round fare tickets were really cheap (1200 Php from Cebu to Hong Kong and 850 Php from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur), I was able to save a lot of money while getting my first stamps on my passport!

bungy jump

I also bungy jumped from the world’s highest platform during this trip which made the whole event really worthwhile. That alone is already an experience to remember.

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Got Featured on FlipNomad.com

I’ve been a regular reader of Flipnomad’s blog because I find his posts very engaging especially when he talks about traveling and finding purpose in general.

“Meet The Nomads” is a weekly feature wherein the blogger interviews other travelers to hear their side of their story on why and how they started traveling. I thought that this was such a nice concept so we can get to know more about other travel bloggers/backpackers and understand them better.

Today, I was surprised that my interview was published.
Read article here: Meet The Nomads: Edcel of SoloflightEd

edcel on flipnomad

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Visayas Blog Summit and Philippine Blog Awards Visayas

I am bound for Iloilo! I already plotted my schedule at work and I was initially wondering how I was going to file for leave. But I’m glad that it’s all set and I’ll be flying on Thursday. I was able to visit Iloilo 10 years ago but that wouldn’t label it as a vacation. We boarded a plane for Iloilo and went straight to the pier to ride a ferry going to Bacolod.

I’m not also sure what to expect because of the budget – I haven’t allocated any funds for this trip and I’m still paying off some dues because of my recent trips abroad. Oh well, bahala na.

This Saturday, I will be joining the Visayas Blog Summit and the Philippine Blog Awards 2010 – Visayas Leg. This is pretty exciting because I’ll be able to meet other bloggers again from around the country.

visayas blog summit
Visayas Blogging Summit 2010 and The Philippine Blog Awards Visayas 2010

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Random Updates

I realized I’ve been wrapped up in writing articles about my recent trips that I haven’t been able to provide updates about my life and the things that have been going on so far. This is still a personal blog and before I get caught up with writing a bunch of entries about my travels again, let me post a few random nothings – travel and non-travel related.

Money Play
money
Been playing with money the past couple of months – NO, I haven’t been wasting it. I’ve been looking for ways to  squeeze time in order to maximize the situation of funds and whatever’s left of it. This is not something I’d recommend to everyone because you’ll go crazy if you can’t keep up with your payables and receivables. Heck, I’m going nuts trying to figure out how I’m going to manage. But I still like to think I can.

Terra 60 Backpack

terra 60
Photo courtesy of Doi

As you might have noticed in some of my previous posts, I have a new back pack for travelling. It cost me an arm to get this despite the discounted rate. There was a sale on outdoor items and because I was so curious about the items being displayed, I had to drop by the place. I wondered why the hell I did. Now I’ve conformed to The North Face backpack. But I’m not complaining as I know this proves to be useful in my trips. Besides, the Deuter bag that I have cannot accommodate the things I bring during my long journeys. I still need to work on my packing skills though.

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trip na trip

SoloflightEd will be going on a lot of trips from August, September, October and November this year! Also, I'll be having a few more on January, February and March next year.

One big problem — where to find some money? I booked different flights due to Cebu Pacific's promo fares in different occasions and offerings but one thing is for sure, the discounts didn't cost me much. Only now I have to look for some cash for my budget. Here are my travels.

This Year:
August – Bohol
September – Hongkong, Macau
October – Manila, Kota Kinabalu, Singapore
November – Iloilo

Next Year:
January – Davao
February – Manila
March – Clark

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soloflightEd Meets Byahilo

Yesterday, Doi and I met up with Enrico Dee of Byahilo.com as he stayed in Cebu for 6 hours, waiting for a connecting flight back to Manila. After a few Facebook chats, we decided on joining him for a late lunch around the city. Doi brought her FX and we fetched the visitor at the … Read more

Visayas Blogging Summit 2010, here I come!

I will be attending the Visayas Blogging Summit 2010 in Iloilo! I booked a flight online and I’m excited to know what will happen on this blogging event which will happen on November 27 to 28, 2010. The Visayas Blog Summit 2010 will take place in Iloilo as well as the Visayas Blog Awards. I … Read more

Terribly Busy

Yes, I am busy, busy, busy. There are so many things that are happening right now and I’m having difficulty with my priorities. I’ll be moving again to another place; a bigger apartment with my brothers — it will be cheaper that way but I’m preparing myself for more expenses. Work, as usual, is filling … Read more

I Heart Photoscape!

Note: I wasn’t paid to write this post. I love the software so much that I’m willing to dedicate my time in order to create a good entry about this wonderful son of a gun. How do I edit my pictures? I use Photoscape. I’ve been introduced to this piece of program by a friend/colleague … Read more

I’m at the Cebu Blog Camp!

Just a quick update: I’m at the CAP Center in Jones for the Cebu Blog Camp. So far so good, I’m able to learn some good tips on blogging and photography and such. I’d like to ask more questions regarding making money online. Aileen from Google already discussed Adsense and Mica from Micamyx.com talked about … Read more

Convergys and Bench Live Your Dreams event with Enchong Dee

January 24-25, 2010 Convergys and Bench Live Your Dreams I had the privilege of having an all-access pass to the Live Your Dreams Fashion event. Convergys and Bench tied up to bring forth one of the largest marketing tactics to encourage people to work in Convergys and wear the latest and trendiest in style. Enchong … Read more