Stop Blogging? Never!!
So, some people are asking my why I haven’t posted a new blog post in two months now.
Good question, and not one easily answered.
I would recommend Jungle Jil’s Blog for updates about ex-pat life in the CdO area and Northern Mindanao. I found a great link on his blog to a terrible Baseline Economic Scenario prediction. The article is great, but unsettling.
I was expecting an economic downturn beginning in 2010 to 2011 as a result of baby-boomers going into retirement (If you were born in 1946, you would turn 65 in 2011), but this economic crisis has nothing to do with that, and that’s what worries me. Because I still think the baby-boomers going into retirement is going to create some sluggishness in the World economy (not just the U.S.).
So, what’s that got to do with me not blogging as much as I used to?
Well, my clients are mainly from 1st World, industrialized nations. Late last year we lost two clients who’s loss is directly attributable to the economic downturn. We lost another client to a traffic accident fatality and the resultant probate status of his estate, which meant we probably wouldn’t get paid for a long time.
However, I saw the economic downturn as a chance for growth in my industry. “My industry” is a fairly specialized niche market. I have a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) that specializes in Search Engine Otimization (SEO), it might be better described as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), but I really prefer the term SEO, and all the meaning that differentiates it from SEM, but we do SEM also. SEO is a subset of SEM.
Indeed, we have grown as a result of the economic crisis. Business still need to do business. They just need to do it cheaper than they did before, which at least in some cases means outsourcing to places where labor is cheaper, and The Philippines is the perfect place. The country is 85% Catholic, is the most “westernized” country in all of Asia, and English is widely spoken here.
So, I have been quite busy trying to capture some of that market, and we have, but at the same time that means my intellectual overhead goes through the roof and one of the first things I have to do is stop blogging so much, because I do not blog for fame or profit. It’s more of an escape valve. It is a way to keep my State-side family current on my affairs, and it is a way to dump personal and digital data so that I do not have to keep it in my head or on my PC.
I do have a lot of stuff I would like to post. I yearn for the opportunity. I have been involved with so many great things recently I would really like to tell the World about it, but at the same time I have a personal and professional obligation to make the most of things while the opportunity is at hand.
On the other hand, I also believe there is an Asian bubble that is going to burst and one of those results will be Philippines real estate values. The prices in some places here are just unbelievably high.
That being said, I will probably, at some future date, and as time allows, back-fill some blog posts back into December, January, February, and March, just to keep events chronological.
Also, I would like to say thank you to me few regular readers who have complained and led me to take the time to write this post. I will be back, but right now, I have a to-do list that has to be seen to.