Birthday gifts to friends, yourself, & community

As we get older, I noticed that personal birthdays are becoming less and less of a big deal and we begin to focused more on the people around us. However, there are also a wide variety of ways that bloggers can celebrate this joyous occasion that includes:

1. Just say happy birthday
   I make it an effort to check out my social network everyday and find out who is celebrating their birthday just to greet them. If I know the person's mobile number, I would even send a text or give a call. In my experience, our friends, online or offline, and family cherish that.
   
   
2. Organize a party
   Celebrating a birthday is a blessing. This can include arranging a party for yourself by inviting friends and loved ones to celebrate it with you.
   
   
3. Celebrate through your blog
   Some bloggers organize a contest through their blog to get their community involved in sharing this special day.
   
   
4. Throw a party for charity
   This is becoming popular as well where you celebrate your birthday by sharing blessings to a charity or caring institution.
   

In the U.S., organizing a party for yourself or for the people you love can be easy as birthday party supplies can be purchased online, from sites like Birthday Express, for this purpose and be delivered.

There are many ways that birthdays can be celebrated. Don't hesitate sharing this special day to the people around you whether you are in the giving or receiving end.

Winners of free delegate pass: Social Networking & eBusiness Conference Philippines 2009

Congratulations to the following bloggers for winning one delegate pass each for the upcoming 2nd Social Networking and e-Business Conference Philippines 2009. This will be held at Hotel Intercontinental, Ayala Avenue, Makati City on April 23 and 24, 2009.

• Manuel Viloria (not available)
  
• Lawrence Villegas
• Joan Pinon
  

Note that the delegate pass is not transferable. Many thanks again to everyone who joined this simple writing project.

Credit card - a must for student blogger & entrepreneur

I'm scheduled to deliver a talk about "From Student to E-Commerce Entrepreneur" this Tuesday to students of AIE College. Also, on June 16 about "Blogging for Money. Blogging from Home" during the Iloilo IT Week.

The idea is to impress on students that if they are willing and hardworking enough, they do can earn money online even while studying. That is indeed true as there are many programs today where they can participate that provides both monetary and non-monetary value.

Having a presence on the Internet is the minimum that one must have. With a Credit Card, you can use that as a start-up capital to purchase a domain name, web hosting account, among others. If you are hardworking, that investment can immediately pay off even before your billing statement arrives.

(In the US, websites like Extra Credit Cards provide comparative information about various offerings they can consider and even apply online.)

In my case, when my daughter turned 18 last year, I immediately got her to do two things:

1. Open a bank account and get those Student Credit Cards. There are many types but the one we got is a debit card in functionality but can be used to transact online.
   
   I noticed that some also refers to the debit card as one of those Secured Credit Cards.
   
   
2. Open a Paypal account.

As she does a lot of freebie graphic design work to her online gaming design friends, she found herself receiving donations and even small projects in less than a week after she created it.

So if properly used and guided well, a student can really jumpstart an online entrepreneur career whether as a publisher or seller of products & services.