Looking For Mentor/teacher. Help To Generate Income Online

[geevlus]

Hi Thaivisa members. "Geevlus", a newbie here. After a visits to Los, I have the "Thailand thing". I'm in my twenties and currently reside in the uk with my Thai wife. Despite the prosperity in western europe at the moment, reasonably paid work in my hometown in the South West of England is increasingly hard to come by. Although I am a graduate the only work I've managed to obtain is a position in a callcentre, this is a common story as I'm sure many of you know. The enviornment is extremley stressful. I am basically working/killing myself for 42 and a half hours per week for £200 (british pounds), the stress is having a terrible inpact on my life and my bullying superiors (supervisors) aren't helping my situation. My Thai wife is slugging her guts out in our local Thai resturant. High rent/living costs coupled with our financial responsabilites to my wifes family ( sick relatives, childrens school fees, accidents, etc), my student debts, are taking their toll and our relationship is strained. This isn't the life I had intended for my girl. I feel our current situation is more of a poverty trap than what she was used to in Thailand, and she agrees!

The people in my hometown/workplace are narrow-minded, untravelled and limited. Frequently asked questions include - where in China is Bangkok? Do they have mobile phones over there? Although my current situation means I am also "limited" I could also be deemed as narrow minded because I can't see a way out of my current economic poverty trap. After observing posts on thaivisa there is no doubt that posting this "negative" post may have a "positive" effect on my life. A lot of switched on people on here who seem to know how to generate income streams via the internet etc. My 42 and a half hours a week of intolerable stress for £200 are very real for me, but probably "beer money" for most posters.

They say that only 3% of the population are successful simply because they have goals. My goals roughly translate as follows - If I could generate £400 (british pounds) per week whilst working about 25 hrs, say via the internet - giving me time to get other areas of my life in order. That would enable me to walk out of this god forsaken place (yes i'm at work at the moment). Naturally you have to specuate to accumilate, so I anticipate a capital outlay of some sort. I've been very honest here, not sure if its the right approach, but worth a try. Any members here can help me generate an income stream online? Much anticipation for replies. Now I have to got to the toilet - need to get permission first though. Help me guys

[mr_hippo]

"My 42 and a half hours a week of intolerable stress for £200 are very real for me, but probably "beer money" for most posters" for most posters" - most teachers that I know would be happy to earn 14,000 Baht/week (about £200)

You mentioned " sick relatives, childrens school fees, accidents, etc" but you forgot the 'sick buffalo'!

"I anticipate a capital outlay of some sort" - what do you want? A hand-out? Are you sure that you are not a Nigerian starting a 619 scam?

"Any members here can help me generate an income stream online?" I will now type this next piece slowly as I don't think you can read very fast - T-r-y d-o-i-n-g a s-e-a-r-c-h o-n t-h-e i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t

[DrFisher]

If I could generate an income on line I'm guessing I wouldn't go to work every morning for my 30,000 B monthly income, or work my evening job Monday-Thursday for an extra 10,000 B per month and I wouldn’t work Saturday and Sunday for 6 hours for the other 14,400 B per month that all works out to 54,000 B about $1350 USD for a 60 hour week that’s not a compliant I love it, I’m just saying but hey good luck to you.

[samran]

move out of the town you live in to somewhere which pays more than 5 quid an hour. Go where the jobs and pay are.

You say you are a graduate...what degree? Arts by any chance? Retrain my friend!!!

[mocean]

I think many people want to generate an "income stream online". I don't know what your education is, but for programming jobs, sometimes you can find offsite/telecommute projects.

If you're looking for a website business that earns, join the club. You will have to think of a good product or service to sell. And then comes the marketing. Search engine optimalisation etc. It takes a lot of knowledge and patience.

And no one will share some business idea they think can be a good one, they will try themselves.

[swissie]

geevlus, I can certainly relate to your situation. You are among the many victims of a project called "globalisation".

But this remains to be said: You may find wages in Thailand much lower than in the U.K. (Yes, life is cheaper in Thailand, but not cheap enough to compensate for the low "wage-level".)

Furthermore, there are about 45 "vocations" that a foreigner is not allowed to engage in!

Making money by way of "internet": The dream of about half of all the "expats" living in Thailand.

If you still want to take "the plunge" and move to Thailand, you MUST have some capital! I hope you are not contemplating to move here, practically pennieless, and just hope for the best! Unless of course, the family of your GF is willing to "carry" the both of you for a certain period of time. But I doubt that they would be willing (or able) to do that, since you and your GF have been supporting the family up to now. I am afraid, that this "role reversal" would not be much appreciated by the family?!

Think about it.

[JCCR6]

There are plenty of ways to make money online, most of which aren't without risk. I'm working (or not working...) in Thailand at the moment, running a number of online businesses. Only one of which I'm fairly confident will last out another year. The main problem you're going to have is, if someone is making money from something, then why are they going to share it with you and create a competitor?

What is your degree in? What previous work experience do you have? You should look to find a reasonably paid job, save up some cash then look at working online (unless you already have some savings of course), as you'll need some form of buffer if all doesn't go to plan.

You say you are currently based in the South West, is your employment limited due to your location, could you move to a larger town (Bristol...) or elsewhere?

[Jared]

Heres what ive done, its taken a long time but im now ready to move to Thailand (leaving in a few hrs) and run my business online. Basically I have a Thai girlfriend who is having our baby in a few months and we plan to get married. She doesnt want to move to England or be away from her family so im moving to Thailand to be with her and our baby.

After leaving school at 16 i spent 2 years learning a trade, at 18 I went back to college for 2 years and continued to work part time in my trade to make money. I continued doing this for another 3 years through university, this time spending a lot more time working my trade as you get so much time off at university.

After graduating last year I spent a little time travelling, then started to apply for jobs in the field that i had been studying at university. I was getting job offers but no offers were anywhere near the wage i was earning doing my trade as by now i have many years experience and making some good money.

For the last 6 months I have continued working my trade during the day to save up for moving to Thailand and in the evenings and weekend started my own online business. Ive been slowly saving up money and slowly building up clients for my online business.

I now have a nice lump of money saved for me my girlfriend and our yet to be born baby. I also have a nice list of clients on my online business that continue to give me work. As of next week or when ever i get my computer made and set up i will be running my online business fulltime.

Its been a long journey and i cant wait for the next step.

[alexth]

Heres what ive done, its taken a long time but im now ready to move to Thailand (leaving in a few hrs) and run my business online. Basically I have a Thai girlfriend who is having our baby in a few months and we plan to get married. She doesnt want to move to England or be away from her family so im moving to Thailand to be with her and our baby.

After leaving school at 16 i spent 2 years learning a trade, at 18 I went back to college for 2 years and continued to work part time in my trade to make money. I continued doing this for another 3 years through university, this time spending a lot more time working my trade as you get so much time off at university.

After graduating last year I spent a little time travelling, then started to apply for jobs in the field that i had been studying at university. I was getting job offers but no offers were anywhere near the wage i was earning doing my trade as by now i have many years experience and making some good money.

For the last 6 months I have continued working my trade during the day to save up for moving to Thailand and in the evenings and weekend started my own online business. Ive been slowly saving up money and slowly building up clients for my online business.

I now have a nice lump of money saved for me my girlfriend and our yet to be born baby. I also have a nice list of clients on my online business that continue to give me work. As of next week or when ever i get my computer made and set up i will be running my online business fulltime.

Its been a long journey and i cant wait for the next step.

Good for you, but I can't see how would this help the OP...

[Jared]

Good for you, but I can't see how would this help the OP...

Well my reply was alot more helpful than yours was so why did you bother posting. The OP is asking for help and ways of doing things. I have told him what I have done and I have also pointed out that it is not so easy to do. I think these are both relevent points for the OP to read.

[bkkmadness]

Good for you, but I can't see how would this help the OP...

Well my reply was alot more helpful than yours was so why did you bother posting. The OP is asking for help and ways of doing things. I have told him what I have done and I have also pointed out that it is not so easy to do. I think these are both relevent points for the OP to read.

Quite an encouraging story I thought.

[alexth]

Good for you, but I can't see how would this help the OP...

Well my reply was alot more helpful than yours was so why did you bother posting. The OP is asking for help and ways of doing things. I have told him what I have done and I have also pointed out that it is not so easy to do. I think these are both relevent points for the OP to read.

OK

[Tango7]

I was exactly where you are now. Degree in Economics, MCSE in IT, years of experience, but my travelling to work, cost of living and taxes just didn't make it worth while.

Coming here ( Thailand ) isn't going to help if you have no skills. You might get into teaching but it's a slog and you'll stay being an English teacher earning crap money see www.ajarn.com for examples.

When I was in the UK, I sat at my computer and taught myself to hand code HTML. I learned the Internet and how it worked, created a portal for my home town, got it listed highly in Yahoo, Google etc and then walked around the entire town offering to create local businesses a website and host it for them.

I approached all the hotels and guest houses first as this is what people look for on the Internet. When I had persuaded them to join, I went to other businesses and within 8 months I had 90 businesses hosted with me and I charged them a yearly hosting fee, upgrade / improvement fee and so on.

Now, if you did that, you could maintain the site from anywhere, but like another posting said, re-train yourself. Get a skill, but there are no quick fixes.

By the way, I did the website thing as I was training for my MCSE.

What I would do if I were you in your twenties is to set a goal to get a qualification.

Let's take accounting. Tell yourself and your wife that you have to tighten your belts until you get a qualification. Tell yourselves you'll be poor for say 2 years, and then once that period is over, you'll have a qualification you can use. Then, if you still want to do something else, you can try your hand.

If your Thai wife is working in a restaurant, could you guys not start your own business in that area ? Start a small Thai take-away...cheaper than a restaurant.

I know the situation you are in now sucks BIG TIME, and there seems no way out, but get a goal for yourself, focus on that goal and forget the luxuries others around you might have now. Stop going out, eat cheaply, take no holidays and the two years of training will go quickly.

But don't....don't..come to Thailand unless you have a real skill.

Good luck.

Tango7

[listenup]

Ok, here's my story...

I worked for a ring-tone and mobile download company in London, I was in sales and got media owners (TV Stations, Publishers and Webmasters) to advertise the services on a shared revenue basis.

I started working for this firm when I left school at 16, starting with the time consuming and boring jobs that needed doing. At 18 I got to my sales position and fount that I was good at getting clients from the web. I naturally started learning basic HTML, banner designs and so on. I then asked my boss if it was OK if I promoted the services in my spare time, he said it wasn't a problem.

Within 2 years I had 20 sites generating my monthly payments for an M3... Not bad at 22 to have an M3 (E46 that is :-)

Come to Thailand, met my missus and decided to try and make a full time living out of it. When I told my boss he offered me £50k to open a company here and get some Thai staff to push it real hard, again, on a shared revenue basis. We worked out a deal and that is where I am now. Have an office with 3 Thai staff and making a reasonable living. Even without the deal from my boss, I still would have been confident I could have made a living from working on my own.

It can be done, making an income on-line, just need to graft hard.

If you want more info on promoting the services I promote, PM me. I'll happily spend a day with you pointing you in the right directions.

[Oleg_Rus]

If you want more info on promoting the services I promote, PM me. I'll happily spend a day with you pointing you in the right directions.

True, lotsa things could be sold from los, as long as you have honest supplier, decent design + right promoter.

Even without it, ppl do pretty good on ebay, but real stream will come after proper "facelift" of your biz.

Good luck

[geevlus]

Thanks for the response so far guys.

[thomasjojo]

... Much anticipation for replies. Now I have to got to the toilet - need to get permission first though. Help me guys

hi there. I know how it is. I once worked in London as you, but I did it for 3 days to the end, I couldnt have it more, I even didnt care to go back to pick up my salary!! nowdays I do almost as you do a week, every day in the IT business in Norway.

But I am as you, I have plans to move back to Thailand, and start some business, within a reasonable time, I just saving money to have something to start with. Thats important. And thats why I work my ass off, even in my vacation, and I ask my wife every week to get a job too. (its a bit hard for foreigners to get a job here, depends what she wanna work with yes..., but if she just get one, whatever, we can start her and mine stores just faster)

Now I will read all the other answers to your post. Save up money is my first advice.

[thomasjojo]

I think many people want to generate an "income stream online". I don't know what your education is, but for programming jobs, sometimes you can find offsite/telecommute projects.

If you're looking for a website business that earns, join the club. You will have to think of a good product or service to sell. And then comes the marketing. Search engine optimalisation etc. It takes a lot of knowledge and patience.

And no one will share some business idea they think can be a good one, they will try themselves.

even I, I work with this god ###### internet, I create, design and maintain sites for huge companies, and I can set up a webshop, ablogging comunity, etc, anything you want actually. But because I work to much, I do not have time to make my own business. thats why I am back to saving, so I can quit and move some day... planning and passion + knowledge is a key.

[geevlus]

If I could just accept my situation, like many of my collegues do I'd probably be alright. As I heard somebody else once say, It's amazing how many people are more interested in last nights football game, or what movie they'e going to watch tonight than changing their situation. But then again maybe they are happy, but looking at the long faces where I work, I think not.

Working in a call centre sucks and is stressful. looking at the freedom/salaries of "blue collar" workers (trades), It makes me wonder whether I should look at retraining in a manual trade. As I said in the o/p, my situation isn't uncommon. The frustrating thing is i know there MUST be a way to generate income online. I have had a few pm's where people have responded to my post saying that for the right fee they would educate me in Sports betting? Never made a bet in my life, but maybe it's worth a shot.

Although I love Thailand I'm in no rush to live there full-time, not that I could anyway. I prefer it for "stints" in the future. Although I may be branded a criminal, I quite like the UK. The South West of England is a stunningly beautiful place, shame that a lot of people don't appreciate it more.

If I could generate £300/£400 a week online or whatever, this would have a seriously positive effect on one guy and his gals life - I'm happy to remain in the Uk and go to Los for hols in the future. As I said in the original post, I know nothing is free in this life and I anticipate capital outlay for somebodies guidance/mentoring. Anyone can help be generate an income stream from the uk? 43 hrs p/week in a callcentre for £200 is no fun believe me. Especially when I think of you guys out there! Thanks for listening.

[geevlus]

Any suggestions?

[geevlus]

Interestingly a member has pm'ed me offering a sports betting service. I've no knowledge of sports betting. Apparently for a fee of $20 per day via paypal, The member will help generate income. Is this worth a try?

[simon43]

Hi Geevlus,

Well, there is betting and spread betting. If it is just a betting tips service, then you don't need to pay $20 per day for these tips. More like $1 or even for free from some websites.

If it's a spread betting service, then I was paying about $1 a day for spread betting tips. No guarantee of winning, but it was winning about 80% of the time.

$20 per day fee? Thats $7,300 per year!!! Way too much

[jbowman1993]

The members on this forum can do a great job of answering specific questions you might have, but you are not going to get anywhere with this "tell me how to make money on the internet" sob story.

Get off your ass and hustle. Send out resume's. If no one is biting, retrain yourself. Go to night school, etc..

As my Dad used to say: "There is no free lunch in this world".

On the other hand, you could keep doing what you are doing, and guys like me will take away the jobs that you could have had, if you made the effort.

[geevlus]

I liked that last post. It was like a kick in the ass. Now i would like to re-train for a better job, preferably in IT. The only problem is - I don't know where to start! So many dubious companies like computeach etc offering overpriced, stay at home courses. Ok guys, if I could change the nature of my questions. What IT qualification could I train for then actually "use" in the uk - or overseas even, that would be great! It used to be mcse - Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Plenty of IT types on this forum.

[JimsKnight]

I liked that last post. It was like a kick in the ass. Now i would like to re-train for a better job, preferably in IT. The only problem is - I don't know where to start! So many dubious companies like computeach etc offering overpriced, stay at home courses. Ok guys, if I could change the nature of my questions. What IT qualification could I train for then actually "use" in the uk - or overseas even, that would be great! It used to be mcse - Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Plenty of IT types on this forum.

I hear you man I hear your problems. Manual Trade kicks ass! If you can do it as soon as you get chance. The sooner the better as the eastern europeans are established in the low-level trades.

One thing the Manual Trade did decades ago was leave the office sector wage level wayyy behind! 200 pounds for 5 days graft! Yeah thats an insult to you. Especially as you've been to uni and its all you've got to show for it.

Good advice coming from almost all of us.

Don't come to thailand with what you consider a chunk of money and a wing and a prayer.

Yes people do do it and continue to do it. But the ones who last are few and far between and tend to be very lucky people.

If you aint got an income coming in from an outside source then you will slowly but surely end up another penniless falang in trouble. Teaching can suck (crap wages). Divemastering/Instructing can become grueling and tends to become a 7 day grindathon.

The internet thing. I've got one website and thats a pet project. I built it myself from the ground up (and it shows ) but to make cash of it you either need a. sht loads of traffic coming through clicking on adverts etc or (this ones better but more hassle) selling things/providing a service. You've got to be creative on this one. When I first had ideas of merely creating a website the guru who showed me a thing or too to do on the web thing openly admitted he would'nt tell me all the secrets. I'd have to find that out for myself! And thats what you must do! Webmastering forums are ten a penny so go forth my friend!

Good luck.

You'll need it.