Postpaid subscribers spend more than prepaid ones

Posted by FrugalPinoy on Aug 9, 2008 in Consumer habits | 3 comments

My partner sent me this interesting article from Yugatech, saying that Globe’s quarterly report shows that postpaid subscribers spend 7 times more than prepaid subscribers. Here’s a quote from that article:

A recent press release from Globe Telecom indicated that their average revenue per Postpaid subscriber is Php1,492 for the 2nd quarter of 2008. On the other hand, average revenue from Globe Prepaid subscribers is just Php206. TM subscribers even spend less — Php107

Why is this the case? Probably because prepaid subscribers become more aware of what they spend, since every time they need to restock their cellphone credits, they have to get cash out from their wallet.  There’s already prepaid cable TV, and the possibility of having prepaid electricity.  How will these options, especially the one for electricity, affect consumer spending habits?

Since going prepaid or doing away with subscriptions altogether generally forces consumers to spend less, it’s a method that many personal finance gurus recommend. Blogger Ramit Sethi calls this the A La Carte Method, in the article he talks about the many benefits of this method, however, he also mentions a disadvantage:

The big downside is that this method requires you to un-automate your life, which is the price you pay for saving money. I encourage you to use this if you find yourself short of cash and wondering why you can’t save more money each month.

Personally, I’m a prepaid Globe subscriber and I spend roughly P30 a week on cellphone credits.  I didn’t have cable TV until recently (just to watch the Olympics), but the Destiny Cable subscription is much cheaper in the long run than the Skycable Prepaid. However, I could easily go back to having no cable TV at all, since most of the things I want to watch are available through the internet and I didn’t have to follow channel schedules (I did it for over a year and didn’t miss cable that much).  How about you, how much of your expenses are prepaid?

Affiliate Marketing 101

Posted by FrugalPinoy on Aug 3, 2008 in Earning and Income | 0 comments

If you’ve been researching online moneymaking ventures, you’ve probably come across the term ‘affiliate programs’ or ‘affiliate marketing’.  It’s also likely you’ve seen those really long sales letters with boldface type, testimonials, promising thousands of dollars while you sleep, and starts with “Dear Friend,”

The bottom line is that there are several misconceptions surrounding affiliate marketing, especially for Pinoys who are just getting into making money online.  Because of this, I’ve decided to answer some of the basic questions I hear when friends, classmates, and acquaintances ask me about affiliate marketing.  If you’re already a pro, you probably don’t need to read this, but if you’re new to making money online, it’s important to get your ideas and expectations straight before you try it.

What is online affiliate marketing?

Basically, this means you’ll be selling other people’s products online and getting a small percentage of commission for each sale you make.  The products can range from physical products such as books or CDs, or information products such as memberships to websites, ebooks, or online courses.  The advantages of affiliate marketing over other business models is that you don’t have to ship or make the product yourself – you just have to sell it.

Is it true that I can make money while I sleep?

Yes and no.  Although you can make a good amount of money passively, there’s still the initial setup you need to do.  This includes signing up for an affiliate program and marketing the product.  More experienced marketers merely pay for advertising and watch their sales go up.  However, newer affiliate marketers who don’t have much capital tend to do more guerilla marketing – which can be time consuming.