Cyza Sector

One sweet afternoon about 1 month ago, I had a nice lunch in a restaurant with my wife. While waiting for the food to arrive, I grabbed an interesting looking Times magazine which was displayed in one corner of a large wooden cabinet. The issues posted on the cover of that Times magazine triggered me. I’ve forgotten the actual title but the message was “Bloggers against government of China“. It was a Times issue that was published in 2006. The government of China has felt the heat and challenge from the growing numbers of bloggers in that nation. The freedom to speak and to voice out opinion via blogging suddenly became something that the government cannot ignore. I did not read the entire article because my lunch meal had arrived. However, the message that I learned was, the growing number of bloggers worried the government of China. The bloggers which can be anybody became more and more brave to voice out almost anything. Remember, that happen in 2006 and it had already open their leaders eye, and made the Times magazine featuring a special issue on that matter.

Is blogger a threat to society? community?

So, what is it now or what does that have to do with us here in Malaysia? I strongly believe almost 95% or more of the visitors to this blog is a blogger, no matter what platform you blog with, either from a self hosted blog, a free wordpress.com or blogspot.com blog, a facebook blog which is gaining popularity now, micro-blogging twitter or so on. Each and everyday, the numbers of blog registered and active increases. Our government, with the new slogan, 1Malaysia, realizes the impact driven by the emergence of web 2.0 and how it can influences the overall citizen of Malaysia. It is the sensitive provoking issues which possibly lead to the instability of the country and also lack of integrity in delivering information and news which is of high concern to the government. The bloggers, which now acts like a virtual independent media plays an important role in our political and civic future and that it is important for the truth to be told through responsible reporting.

Published on an internet news site, these guidelines are based on the US-based Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics for bloggers. A small selection follows.

Bloggers should:

• Be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information

• Never plagiarise

• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible

• Never publish information they know is inaccurate – and if publishing questionable information, make it clear it’s in doubt

• Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual information

• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly

• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity

• Explain each blog’s mission and invite dialogue with the public over its content and the bloggers’ conduct

• Disclose conflicts of interest, affiliations, activities and personal agendas

• Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others

I find such standards critical to developing a respectful and productive dialogue, and will endeavour to adhere to them as best as I can. What are your thoughts on this code? Are there any best practices that you can think of that have not been included?

Adopted and referred from 1Malaysia.com.my.

For further reading on Bloggers Code of Ethics, check out Cyberjournalist.net.

Zamrin also touches a little on code of ethic for bloggers.

Blogging can make money. That’s for sure. Affiliate can make even more money. But the problem is mastering all the skills and techniques to be grow the affiliate business. If you are a regular in Cyza Sector, you’ll notice me mentioning my interest to be involve in internet affiliate business.

Honestly, I must say that, I am struggling to start up my affiliate business. Out of a sudden, I found this program which was just recently launched. It is a speedy way to make money from affiliate business using products from clickbank. After 48 hours analyzing the program and system, I decided to give it a shot. I hope I have luck on this.

Off course there are pro and cons of joining this program.

OK, since I’ve joined this program for about 72 hours already, I’ve test run it a little. I haven’t had the opportunity to spend more time on this as I was stuck with another non-online job.

Pro (Advantage) – in no particular order

• Set up the sites in just 5 minutes. 6 ready made + 29 possible custom made videos ready to be uploaded to youtube.com
• Start begin marketing effort using ready made + custom made video (with your domain) right away.
• Start article marketing right away. 20 articles provided.
• Video tutorial and ebook on how to make videos + other traffic methods are available. Hence making amateur people like me can learn all these available powerful traffic techniques immediately.
• Do NOT need auto-responder.
• NO need to think of auto-responder sequence – as the system will do the job for you.
• NO need to do niche research.
• All we have to do is marketing and wait for the Clickbank income.
• Every month, members will get a new clickbank product on anonymous niche to promote.
• For the first month (now, if you register fast), you’ll get 3 fantastic niches. I’ve begin promoting.
• The system is – I can say Automatic or almost Automatic.

Cons (Disadvantage) – I can see right now 2 cons:

• We promote our site but we cannot collect the email list.
• Possible competition with other members if we don’t market creative enough.

Personal view

For me it is tricky and will take relatively longer time to master the affiliate skills despite of reading and mentoring with Affiliate Gurus. However, to taste international affiliate profit faster, I decided to be a member of this plug and play program. I can easily set up my site in truly 5 minutes. And after 12-15 minutes, I already have 3 powerful niche sites. The next thing for me to do is to brand my video, upload them and do some article marketing. That’s the marketing part. It’s all ready for me. The membership price for founding member is USD29 per month, which I think is reasonable (only for the first batch). I heard today that there are only 12 spots left for this membership price. If I can manage 2 sales a month, the commission is more than enough to cover my fixed monthly membership fees. But, I’m going to target more sales. I’m going to try at least to get USD500 per month for a start. Wish me luck…

If you are interested, you can investigate more by clicking the READY-NICHE-PROFIT below. I’m not asking you to get hold of this program. I’m just sharing what I’m doing now with you. I know, some of you are just like me, wanting to run an affiliate business, but for some reason, stuck somewhere… Good luck…

Example of video that I just re-brand from the membership area to promote my site:

Sebelum aku berangkat pergi kerja, aku nak share info ini. Kalau korang rasa takde modal untuk beli domain name untuk blog, adsense for domain atau bisnes korang, apa kata korang register free domain di co.tv. Korang boleh register premium domain dengan percuma sebanyak maksimum 3 domain. Pergilah register cepat dan dapatkan domain kegemaran korang secara percuma. Oh yea, benda ni lebih kurang je macam co.cc yang beberapa waktu lalu ada mula bagi domain free juga.

Aku takde dapat apa-apa komisyen pun, so, korang kalau berminat teruslah register pada:

co.tv

Macam aku, tadi waktu sahur aku register 3 domain free, 1 daripadanya aku buat forwarding je, manakala lagi 2 tu aku set-up wordpress baru dan tukar DNS setting ke hosting aku sendiri. So, amacam? Good luck and have funs with your free domains.

You don’t need to have a lot of equipments/gadgets to launch and maintain your blog or website. I myself run my blog from just one little corner inside my master bedroom (my work cubicle!). Initially I began with just a broadband connection, a laptop, a free blogger.com platform account, no blogging skills, zero blogging techniques knowledge, a family digital camera, a high hope and belief, a lot of hard work and sacrifice. A few months later, after further digging, exploring and learning, I decided to blog using wordpress with my own domain and hosting. Those were the only investments I made so far.

That laptop and the broadband connection are the only equipment and service I used up till today. I still don’t have a printer, scanner or other latest tech gadgets. More impressively, I also know some bloggers who do not even have a computer and blog from the cyber café or library. Wow!!!….that’s pretty hard to beat.

I’m planning to get a new PC to cope up with my blogging. On top of that, I hope to get a 4 in 1 printer, a new digital camera and a router to support my growing activities. Maybe I’ll get them in the second quarter next year. What about you? What’s your blogging tools/equipments?

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Everybody wants to be rich!!! But do we have the strength and the right attitude to be filthy rich? Everybody wants to have an extra income to pay for study loans, car loans, house loans, credit card debts, have a better live and enjoy a vacation on a beautiful island. There are various ways to accumulate wealth but behind them, there are many obstacles we need to overcome. It all depends on our mental strength and perseverance. Here are some of my own experiences and some tips/comments on generating wealth:

(1) I used to do some direct selling when I was studying. I sold phone cards, air line tickets, calligraphy art and some others which I barely remember. The money was good and I enjoy managing the business.

(2) After graduating, I got a job and my younger brother introduced me to a great opportunity on earning 5 figures income a month. It was a multi level marketing (MLM) or direct selling business (Passive Income). Being green, I was excited and joint him, learned the business and expanded my organization together with my girlfriend (now, she’s my beloved wife). We spent a lot of time and invested a lot of money on the education and training programs/seminars in order to build the business. We met tonnes of people, prospecting one after another. However, after getting married, our down-lines falls apart and the group slowly collapse! We were so disappointed and frustrated. After that, I joined another company, with the same ambition, to be financially free. But, it did not last. Until now, I’ve joint more than 10 MLM companies but i failed to do the business. At this moment, I realized that, I’m not fated to do this kind of business. Presently, whoever approached me for this type of business, I have to be completely honest with them that I’m no longer interested. I don’t fancy meeting up with people and explaining some business plan or products. No…Not anymore….

(3) Then I noticed one more way of being financially free. But, I guess, it’s already too late for me. I wish I was introduced to it at the moment after I graduated. Being an insurance agent/financial planner is a good career which can lead to great wealth. I saw many youngsters becoming a part time insurance agent/financial planner while still studying and working. They don’t have to spend any money, instead they enjoy the commissions and benefits plus bonus from collecting their customers insurance premiums. This career requires us to do aggressive prospecting, just like doing MLM business, which I do not prefer now.

(4) Robert Kiyosaki and his property success opened my mind for a real estate business. It is a very exciting and expensive industry. I learned and read a lot to be able to be rich from the property business. However, I don’t have the financial fire power to kick start my realty empire. Perhaps, later, after accumulating an adequate financial ability, I may be blessed with the opportunity to join the property market, I hope so.

(5) Bored of “Just Obeying Boss” (JOB) and limited monthly salary, I always consider starting my own business. I occasionally chat with some close friend at work about the possibility of starting our own business. But, what type of business? Do we have the capital to run the business? Are we mentally strong to develop and grow the business? As a university graduate, what will people say if I open a car wash center or a small trading business? Am I capable to work long hours until late night to sustain and ensure the survival of my own business? If the business is not doing well, how am I going to feed my family and pay my staffs salary? Those questions always haunted me and I know I’m not capable of facing those challenge. There are too much risks and commitment! Is it worth it for me?

(6) What about the potential of internet business? There are some people who tasted the glory and success of their internet business. This type of virtual business won’t require us to deal directly with a lot of people. However, having zero IT and internet background (accept for browsing website and reading emails), I need to learn all the tricks and secrets to succeed in it. I read somewhere that having an internet business, patience must be our prime trait. Internet business will grow very slow but surely speed up later with some hard work and dedication. It has an exponential growth effect. There are a lot of internet businesses to try: affiliate marketing, selling your own product online, developing a successful website providing certain niche product or service, selling some space for advertisement, running a blog like this and some others. Presently, I’m running a number of blogs and websites (I’m still developing the websites). I hope I can do some on-line affiliate marketing as well and soon have my own unique product to sell. I need to continuously learn and be updated with current softwares, techniques and approaches available. It can be very rewarding. I hope I can earn a descent income from it.

The good side about internet business: I can stay at home or conduct the business anywhere as long as there’s internet line, business operation world wide 24-7, flexible time, no need to deal, persuade or involve directly with people like MLM or insurance/financial planning business.

Some tough side of internet business: Really require hard work in front of the monitor or laptop, you strain and stress your eyes, a lot of stuff to learn (especially for non-IT people like me), some commitment will be there if you run a newsletter or a blog where loyal readers wait to read your content, we have to compete with millions and millions of site and blogs in the net, income generation is low initially but will grow with consistent effort (it’s a matter of time).

(7) Last but not least, stock investment. This is one area I’m beginning to try my luck in. I’m educating myself by reading books, surfing related sites as well as discussion with experience colleagues and brokers. A friend of mine began investing in the stock market last year with initial investment of MYR7,000. A year later, he has accumulated MYR70,000! His achievement has inspired me to indulge in the business. I’ve injected MYR2,000 and I’m going to allocate another MYR3,000 next week. My target is to gain net profit of at least MYR500 minimum monthly. In a year, that will be at least MYR6,000. Well, That’s just minimum, I’m hoping to get more than that. I know it’s a very risky step but I’m willing to take the challenge.

Conclusion: Those 7 ways are just part of various methods to become rich in this world. They are just based on my opinion and experience. Hopefully, you can learn and benefit from it and feel free to explore other ways to become financially free.

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English is not my first language, it is actually my second. My mother tongue is Malay language and I speak this language most of the time. However, at work, during meeting or while communicating with my superiors, I use English. All of my written reports, instructions, paper works, reference manual etc also are in English. When it comes to internet surfing, most of the websites and blogs are in English. Even my favourite local newspaper is The STAR, which is written in English . In short I apply more English at work and during surfing the web. Oh yea…. and also during watching TV and movies. However, don’t be mistaken. I’m not that good in English, but I’m still continuously learning and improving my vocabulary, pronunciations, comprehension, writing and communication skills.

Having a blog like this, totally written in English is also one way or my strategy in improving my writing skills. It took me slightly a longer time to make a post because I have to carefully structure a sentence to avoid silly spelling or grammatical mistakes. I don’t mind the extra time because I know it is worth posting in English. You can also notice that I don’t use bombastic or flowery English. My writing are just pure basic straight forward English. Sometimes, I ask my wife (who has better English) to proof read my post and edit wherever necessary (that includes this post!). This is one of the reasons of me having an English blog –> to improve my English. The other two reasons are:

International Language

English is an international and universal language. More people in the world understand and use English compared to other languages. That means English medium website(s)/blog(s) have more exposures and more readers, hence bigger market to capitalize. This will lead to more traffic being generated.

It is such a great advantage to have audiences from all around the world. It is fun to communicate and associate with people who have an enormous difference in time zone than us (which means from other continent). A lot of things (ideas/opinions) can also be shared and learned, on top of the opportunity in making many more new friends. Who doesn’t like to have new friends, great isn’t it?

More Monetizing Opportunity

There are countless advertising companies offering money making opportunity for bloggers out there. All of these companies require English language as the main blogging medium. Some of those advertising companies are Google Adsense, ReviewMe, TextLinkAds, PayPerPost, Kontera, TTZ Media, and many more. By registering and participating with their programs, chances of earning more money from the blog(s) are more wide open. There are already a lot of part time bloggers changing their status to a full time pro blogger, thanks to the money making opportunities provided by those advertising companies.

Exception can be made to Google Adsense which allow some countries to use their own language (Indonesia for instance); and also local advertising companies such as Nuffnang and Advertlets (in Malaysia), which accept local language blogs.

To other fellow local bloggers, no offense in writing in your mother tongue language. It all depends on why you want to blog. It might be for fun, to share with others, to keep a record of your activities or to make new friends in the virtual community. I also read a number of quality Malay language blog and I found them very interesting, informative and attractive. As for me, blogging has become a very serious hobby as well as an emerging industry. I love to write and share with others. At the same time, wouldn’t it be great to get some incentives from doing the things that we enjoy? What about you?

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