Bangladesh: Earning Money Online is not Easy

The history of Internet in Bangladesh is just 13 years old. E-commerce is still not legal here and there is no way of online transaction. SO, earning money through websites is a very big problem. I have written a detailed article about it in another blog: Web Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. However, I am some shocked and perhaps worried to see that in the community blogs and some forums, these days, we can find a lot of advertisements about earning money online. Most of the time, they are useless scams or referrals through which you can never earn money. Recently, I saw a report a in a magazine that gave advise to open Google Adsense account from cyber café and then click from your home and this way earn money. Needless to say that this way, Google will happily ban your Adsense account.

In Bangladesh, unemployment rate is very high and may educated people are either without any job are in the jobs that they should not be. Here, many graduates are forced to apply for the posts of peon or typists. So, naturally, when they hear the news of any new business or income source then hundreds rush towards it without giving any serious thought. It has happened to the share market and many people suffered loss in 1996. Then, many young people became crazy to get training and study computer by spending 1 lakh or 2 lakh taka in the period 1998-2002 and only lost their money. Anyway, I am worried that again similar thing may happen about online income.

First of all, there is a number of ways to earn money through Internet. They are perfectly legitimate and reliable. You will never lose a dollar with companies like Google. However, you have to remember that there is no short cut in earning money through Internet. Basically Bangladeshi students and educated people can earn money through two ways:

1. Participating in bidding websites

2. Blogging and Freelance Writing

There are some websites famous for outsourcing projects. Rent A Coder and Odesk have become very popular and thousands of people from all over the world are getting projects from these websites. Monthly Computer Jagat Magazine has been publishing reports about the websites regularly for more than one year and you can find all the articles in their website Comjagat.com. Just remember that in these websites, there are many projects and there are many people competing against you to get them. You need several qualities to shine:

a. Be prepared to work at a very low rate at first until you can make your profile

b. You have to be skilled in your field.

c. You have to persistent. Success will not come right way.

d. You have to be punctual. You have to have the mentality and ability to deliver the projects within the deadline.

If you take a look the websites that I mentioned above then you will notice that you can find projects in many fields. It is not just programming. There are many projects in web design, graphics design, virtual assistantship, data entry, online marketing etc.

The second field is blogging and freelance writing. It is even a tougher field because blogging is very easy. There is no barrier to entry in this business. Anyone can join any time. So, the competition is huge. You have to be good at English language. Then, you must have good skill in your field of writing. You must have some decent knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO) and Advertisement programs like Adsense, Chitika, Infolinks etc. You have to get thousands of visitors per month if you want to earn any considerable money through it. Never think that you can earn money through blogging in Bangla language from Adsense.

Anyway, I am worried to see that many young people are now becoming excited about earning dollars through internet without any hard work. This is simply impossible. In fact, if you can read and understand English language then do just some search in Google and you will understand how difficult it is.

I would like you read some entries about earning money online:

How to Make Money From Your Blog

How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs

In the end, my advice is that please, do not rush for anything- especially when it comes to earn money online. It is not a joke. It is very tough and you have to compete with many people. If you are not serious, dedicated and committed then don’t try for it. There is no short cut. 

Writing Online: Earning Money, SEO and Quality Content

I guess that this is a dilemma everyone who writers for Internet have to face no matter how talented he or she is. When you are writing for Internet then rules are different. You have to think that your content must earn money. In Internet, there are not a lot of opportunities to earn money by selling your articles. Instead, there are many opportunities to earn money through getting good amount of visitors for your content. This model of advertisement revenue for traffic is more common in the web.

If you want to write for the web then you must know something about Search Engine Optimization or SEO. For example, one of the things that you should adhere to is that you to put your important keyword in your title. If you come up with a shocking title then Search Engines may not understand the topic you are focusing and this way, your article may not generate good number of visitors.

This takes us to the dilemma that if you focus on SEO then will you lose your quality? The answer is no. Fortunately, search Engines like Google value an article on a number of factors and one of the most important factors is that whether your article or your website get linked by other websites. If you produce quality content then be sure that other website owners or bloggers will happily mention about it and even give link.

So, in the end, you must know about Search Engine Optimization but you do not need to give up quality. These are the two most important things you should remember if you want to earn money by writing online. 

Pakistan: Paan Betel leaf Sellers Cannot Earn Money

Pakistan is a Muslim country and it is the time of Ramazan or fasting month. People are spend a lot of money for Iftar items and as a result inflation is high at this moment in the country. So, Betel leaf Sellers are suffering a lot in the city of Karachi because most people are not eager to buy Paan or Betel leaf as if they have to spend money on other things. There is a very interesting report about this matter in Daily Times website:

It may be remembered that according to the health department officials and paan (betel leaf) traders in the city the citizens of Karachi consume 12,000 kilogrammes (kgs) betel leaf daily. According to non-governmental organisations there are almost 3,500 cabins in the city where paans of different quality are sold.

However, the traders in Paan Mandi claim that the sale of paan betel leaf has decreased to almost 5,000 kgs during the first 10 days of Ramazan.

Well, the government of Pakistan should take this matter seriously and they should help the paan sellers.

Email Fraud Attempts Increasing because of Global Economic Recession

First of all, this is not a topic related to the theme of this blog but I felt that I should write about it after receiving at least five emails in one day. The message of all the five emails were almost identical: someone rich or powerful or their widow has found a lot of money but he or she cannot use this money in their own country and is giving me the proposal to transfer the money to my bank account and then give me a huge amount of commission or making me the partner of a new company. I have been using emails for nearly a decade and I know that this kind of emails is sent regularly and I have received them a lot in the past. I also know that they have no significance.

This kind of emails are nothing new to me but what is alarming is that in the last few weeks, I have noticed a significant and noticeable increase in the frequency. I know that I will not fall for this kind of things but I know at the same time that many people in the world become greedy suffer. Sometimes they (the victims) lose a lot of money and find themselves in deep trouble. That is why I am writing this entry to warn you about the possible dangers. It is the time of very bad economic recession and people in all parts of the world are suffering from it. So, many people are perhaps desperate and are now searching for new ways of making money and getting money.

If you receive these kinds of emails then do not give any importance to them because of the fact they are hundred percent fake. In the past, some people believed them and fall into the grave danger and sometimes lost everything. So, please pay attention to me and just ignore this kind of messages.

Some samples of the emails:

1. Dear sir/madam
First, let me start by introducing myself as Mrs. Susan Shabangu, a mother of three children and the deputy minister of safety and security since 29th April 1996 to date under the auspices of the president of South Africa Mr. Thabo Mbeki.
After due deliberation with my children, I decided to contact you for your assistance in standing as a beneficiary to the sum of us$30.5m (Thirty Five million, Five hundred Thousand united states dollars only) you can view my profile at my website www.gov.za click on, contact information, then click on deputy minister, and click on safety and security finally, click on my name Susan shabangu and read about me. The proposal, after the swearing in ceremony making me the deputy minister of safety and security, my husband Mr. Ndelebe Dube shabangu died while he was on an official trip to Trinidad and Tobago in 1996.

2. Dear Friend,
I am the bill and exchange manager at FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT,In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of U.S $14.3million US dollars, (FOURTEEN MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS)in an account that belonged to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or a business associate to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws, but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin or a business associate to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don’t want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill. Since the bank law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Six years the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

3. Dearest One,
With Due Respect And Humanity, I was compelled to write to you under a humanitarian ground.
My name is Rose Fofana. My nationality is Poland, I am married to Dr. Johnson Fofana who was director J.C Industries Cote d’Ivoire West Africa.We were married for 36 years without a child. He died after a Cadiac Arteries Operation.
And Recently, My Doctor told me that I would not last for the next six months due to my cancer problem (cancer of the lever and stroke).
Before my husband died last year there is this sum ($2.8 Million Dollars) that he deposited with one of the BANK here In Cote D’Ivoire West Africa. Presently this money is still in the Vault of the BANK.
Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to any good God fearing brother or sister that will utilize this fund the way I am going to instruct herein.
I want somebody that will use this fund according to the desire of my late.husband to help Lessprivilaged people, orphanages,widows and propagating the word of God.

4. Dearest One,

Good day and how are you ? My name is Miss Rose Akah 23 years old from sierra leone, i intend to establish in your country, Though I have not met with you before but I believe,one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life. There is this huge amount of Eigth million U.S dollars ($8,000,000.00) which my late father Mr Harrison Akah deposited in one of the prime security company here in Abidjan before he was assasinated by unknow gangs.before his death he was the Director of Mines and power in mende district in sierra leone.

Now i the only survived daughter decided to invest these money in your country or any where safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons.
I want you to help me claim this money from the security company ,i mean standing as my guadian and beneficiary of the consignment untill the money is claimed which is for investment purposes on the followings below

You can clearly see that all of the messages have the same style and they are promising you to give a lot of money. Whatever you do please do not pay attention to them.