TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s JourneyThe journal of a young web entrepreneur on his journey to wealth.

Heading to the Philippines for Two Weeks

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In exactly one week, I’ll be on a long plane ride headed to the Philippines after a stopover in Hong Kong.

As some readers know, I’m actually half Filipino, and so I’m going to see a lot of my relatives that I’ve never met before including my aunt, grandma (who just turned 90), and about 4,023 cousins. I went to Korea by myself for a bit over a month when I was 19, but I’ve never been to the Philippines before.

My return flight is set for 13 days later, but I might extend the trip by a week depending on how backlogged I get in work, how easy it is to find fast Internet access, and how homesick I get. I think the penalty for changing the return flight is only around $300 or so… I’ve never cancelled or changed a flight before so if somebody knows roughly how much it’d cost to extend my stay, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Where I’m Going

I do not know the plan perfectly, but I’ll be in Baliuag for a couple days to start, as that is where my Lola (grandma) and relatives live. After that, my immediate family is travelling to the northern tip of the Philippines to Vigan.

Here are a couple random photos of the the Philippines I grabbed from a quick Google Image search:

As you can see, the Philippines is a real tropical country.

My Transportation & Bodyguard

As in most poor Asian countries, the Philippines has some crazy types of transportation. When I’m travelling with my family we will be in a SUV, but the majority of the time I will most likely either be in a weird type of small car or “tricycle” which is a common type of taxi there.

I’ll be in the sidecar, lol.

I’ll be hiring a 24/7 driver while I’m there, and possibly a full-time bodyguard as well. I’m thinking of giving him my cameras so that he can be my cameraman as well. I wonder if some locals might think I’m some type of celebrity with a cameraman following me everywhere, lol.

Here’s a video of the downtown area in Baliuag, Bulcan which is close to where I’ll be staying for the first 2-3 days:

Limited Internet Access

I’ve been told that there are a lot of Internet cafés in the Philippines, but I doubt it’s as widespread as in Korea. Hopefully though, I’ll be able to attend one regularly so that I can keep up with my work and take care of any important business that can’t wait until I return.

Depending on the Internet connection speed there (I think most places still don’t have high speed yet), I may not be able to upload any videos. In fact, I doubt I will, especially since I just got a brand new expensive HD video camera and my videos will probably 500 megs each, so I may just post some photos or else I’ll wait until I return to post my videos.

Web Entrepreneur Meetup

Depending on my schedule and how things pan out, I might be meeting up with 1-2 acquaintances I know in the Philippines. If you live near Baliuag, are making money online, and are interested in meeting up, let me know and maybe we can arrange something.

It’s Balut Time

For those pinoys out there, I’ll be trying Balut for the first time and will be filming the experience as well, so be sure to watch out for that, lol.

My Experience Setting Up & Processing Payroll

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A few months ago I published a post titled My 2008 Personal Income Tax Results, and in it I mentioned how I was going to set payroll up with my corporation to pay my personal self in the future, to make processing and managing income tax easier.

Originally, I was going to process the payroll all by myself, do all the calculations and paperwork, and remit the income taxes to the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) every paycheck.

I was very stressed about having to set it up and how much time it would take to process manually every 2 weeks, so I posed the following question to my readers: “Does anyone have any experience setting up a payroll through a corporation with the Canadian Revenue Agency?”.

Fortunately, a number of people responded with helpful comments. In particular, I’d like to thank Paul Piotrowski, Martin, and Brian for really pushing me to use a 3rd party payroll management service.

In Canada at least, there are basically two sources for outsourcing your payroll management needs: Ceridian and ADP. Both are absolutely massive companies and have favourable reputations behind them, but I ended up going with Ceridian (the company Paul recommended to me) because it’s Canada’s largest payroll management company and is also tied in a partnership with TD Canada Trust, which is where my corporate bank account resides.

Getting set up with Ceridian wasn’t too difficult. After speaking with a representative over the phone who answered all my questions politely, I was sent a bunch of forms via PDF which I signed, scanned, and e-mailed back.

I also had to provide important information such as documentation and proof of my company’s incorporation, a signed statement from my bank, etc. It did take a little while getting everything in order, but Ceridian employees are very tech-savvy and respond to your e-mails pretty fast so I believe my setting up process was actually finished by the next day.

The next step was to get acquainted with the Powerpay system – Ceridian’s online payroll control panel where I can manage every aspect of payroll. It came with a 100+ page PDF instruction manual which I quickly read a couple times, but for the most part it is fairly self-explanatory.

I spoke to another representative who walked me through how to submit my first payroll, and it’s really just a few steps.

Here is a screenshot of one of the screens within the Powerpay system:

Basically, I just have to log in once a month and submit my payroll. This only takes a minute, and can actually be automated if you want the same amount each month. I chose to do it by hand so I can become familiar with how it works.

I should mention that the Powerpay system is only one method of managing your payroll. You can also do it over the phone, for example.

I have my payroll set up to run once a month, and it takes the amount from my corporate bank account on the 28th and, since I set up direct deposit with my personal bank account, deposits there on the 1st. These dates may change slightly depending on whether or not they fall on a weekend or holiday.

I currently have my payroll set up to pay me $4,500 each pay period (once a month). This is the gross amount before taxes. I only need to pay myself enough to live on – the rest will stay in the corporation to take advantage of the lower tax bracket.

In Canada, in addition to the basic income tax, we also have to pay into the CPP – Canadian Pension Plan. This is forced and mandatory. The sad part is, my generation will most likely never see a dime of the CPP… our government pension plan is is not much better shape than America’s.

To make matters worse, since I am both the employer and employee, I have to pay the CPP twice! CPP is nearly 5%, so that’s 10% from the gross amount that is going down the drain.

Below is a screenshot of my first payroll summary:

As you can see, of my initial $4,500 payment, $799.91 goes as general income tax, $208.31 goes to the employee CPP, and another $208.31 goes to the employer CPP. That works out to $1,216.53 that is immediately taken off and sent to the government.

What’s left is $3,491.78.

My first payroll was sent out without any problems and withdrawn as scheduled from my corporate bank account on the 28th, as seen in the screenshot below:

The reason why it shows a debit of $5,156.18 instead of $4,500 is because there were some initial set-up fees with Ceridian. For those wondering, the actual service cost to use Ceridian is only around $25 a month once you’re set up. The set-up fee will vary as well, but I paid around $600 since I opted for a paperless feature.

On the 1st of the following month, I checked my personal bank account to see that my very first payroll payment was deposited flawlessly with the correct amount of $3,491.78.

Awesome. What I really like is that I’m free to move around money as I want. For example, if I wanted an ‘advance’ of $30,000 to buy a new car, I could process that immediately. I’m not limited to being locked into a fixed $4,500 per month.

I’m very happy I went with a 3rd party payroll management company such as Ceridian instead of doing it by myself. I have no doubt that the decision saved me countless hours of accounting work each month, and all for only around $25 a month.

So, if you’re looking to set up payroll for your company, definitely outsource it. It’s really easy once you’re set up.

Blogging Weight Loss Challenge: Conclusion

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Three days ago, my Blogging Weight Loss Challenge against Jonathan Volk finally came to a conclusion. While it ran for a full 10 weeks, the time sped by and both Jonathan and I found ourselves scrambling during the final 24 hours to try to make the weight.

I’ll spare any build-up to my final result and tell you right now that I was able to lose that last pound and make my goal weight of 195. The night before I was actually up late watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and decided to eat a second full Vietnamese meal. That late night meal actually made me gain 3 pounds overnight and so in the morning I was faced with having to lose 4 pounds! More on that in a bit.

Jonathan Volk was in a similar situation and had around 4 more pounds to lose as well, and he also just managed to just barely make the final weigh-in. While I was a bit surprised, it wasn’t too shocking. I had always thought that both he and I would make this challenge from the beginning. Internet entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs in general tend to be very goal-oriented and will often do whatever it takes to reach their goals.

The Final 24 Hours

I had been planning for the past couple weeks that I would do my longest stretch at Westwood Lake on the final day as it always seems to cut a lot of weight.

So, in the afternoon I went out and did a full 14KM (8.7 miles) going as fast I could for the first 6 and comfortably walking the final 8. Fortunately, it wasn’t as hot as it had been recently which made things easier.

When I got home, I immediately weighed to discover that I had lost 4 pounds! That put me at 195 pounds, my goal. However, just to be safe, I didn’t eat or drink anything for several hours and did my official weigh-in then. I know that this isn’t healthy or even too safe, and wouldn’t recommend it, but I really didn’t want to screw up on my final weigh-in.

Westwood Lake Time

Date	Time	Distance	Comments
My 2007 Best Time	1:00:34	6 KM	My previous record…
April 8, 2009	1:06:00	6 KM	Feet and calves absolutely painful
April 12, 2009	1:05:33	6 KM	Feet, shins, and calves still absolutely painful
April 15, 2009	59:45	6 KM	Jogged a couple extra stretches
April 20, 2009	1:00:45	6 KM	Off my record by a minute Shins killed me
April 22, 2009	1:02:30	6 KM	Shins and calves still very painful
April 24, 2009	1:01:45	6 KM	Came close to record but couldn’t push near the end
April 26, 2009	1:03:30	6 KM	Had a very bad first 2-3 KM
April 29, 2009	59:35	6 KM	Had a fantastic first 2KM
May 4, 2009	59:07	6 KM	Had great first 3KM with lots of jogging
May 7, 2009	1:01:27	6 KM	Lots of pain in the feet and shins, very bad first half
May 9, 2009	1:01:38	6 KM	Tried hard as usual but just couldn’t set record
May 12, 2009	1:03:15	8 KM	Had severe ankle pain. Extremely frustrating
May 17, 2009	58:57	8 KM	First time trying new shoes
May 20, 2009	58:48	6 KM	Did several sprint stretches near end
May 21, 2009	59:34	10 KM	First time doing 10 KM
May 24, 2009	59:15	10 KM	Sprinted hard the final stretch but no new record
May 29, 2009	58:23	12 KM	Sprinted hard the final stretch
June 1, 2009	1:00:51	12 KM	Was so hot out. Sapped my energy all out
June 7, 2009	58:09	12 KM	Pushed myself hard final stretch
June 12, 2009	57:55	13 KM	New Record! Jogged much more in the middle area
June 18, 2009	58:50	14 KM	I was rather sleepy during my run which slowed me

(Note: Times are for first 6KM only)

Weight Loss Status

In my official final weigh-in video below you’ll notice that I’m not wearing socks. I had forgotten that I wore socks in my original weigh-in video which is why you don’t see them here. For any people concerned that my socks could add more weight, please note that my actual beginning weight was 206, not 205 (you can check the video) which should more than make up for the sockless feet. I just said 205 to make the number easier.

Before and After Photos

As with any weight loss challenge, here are my before and after photos. I wore the same shirt and pants (but forgot about the socks again).

I look pretty much identical between them, but I didn’t expect to see any visual change with a loss of only 10 pounds (4.8% of my starting weight).

Before…

After…

Although… if you compare my side portrait photos, you might be able to notice a very slight change; my shirt seems to fall a bit more naturally in the after photo whereas it clings and molds around my belly a bit more in the first photo.

I think if I lost another 10 pounds that there’d be quite a noticeable change.

I’d like to thank Jonathan Volk for participating with me in this challenge – the friendly rivalry definitely helped motivate me. I’d also like to thank MarketLeverage for sponsoring my shoes, and thank those readers who were kind enough to send me encouraging comments.

Now that this challenge is over, I actually have another challenge in the works (money related) that I plan to start around the middle of July, once I get back from my vacation, so be on the lookout for that as it should be awesome.

Affiliate Marketing with Tatto Media

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The following is a paid review for TylerCruz.com written and reviewed by Michael Kwan. It is completely of Michael Kwan’s opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having your site or product reviewed, please view my advertising page.

With so many different advertising networks for you to consider when it comes to monetizing your website or blog, it can be quite the daunting decision to choose just the right one for your type of traffic, your kind of demographics, and your particular area of interest. There is no such thing as a one size fits all solution when it comes to affiliate marketing, because each niche and each application is just a little different.

One of the newest entries into the affiliate marketing arena is Tatto Media, a network that boasts it is the leader in behavioural advertising and it is focused on utilizing technology to produce immediate results. Naturally, your mileage will vary accordingly.

Tatto Media Inks You a Deal

You have to be a little careful when you are looking at this particular affiliate marketing network, but it is Tatto Media and not Tattoo Media. This has nothing to do with getting a wicked tribal design on your bicep or some dragon running down your back.

I mentioned a brief moment ago that Tatto Media is one of the newest entries into the affiliate marketing arena, but that’s not completely true. In fact, Tatto Media was founded in 2005 in Boston. What sets Tatto Media apart from other networks like it? For starters, the developers say that they are focused on the quality of the offers rather than sheer quantity. In this way, you can have some assurance that they have screened the different affiliate offers in their network.

Keeping It Clean and Simple

You’ll also notice that they have kept things relatively clean and simple on their end, not bombarding you too many flashy graphics or complicated user interfaces.

From the main affiliates’ system dashboard, you will initially be greeted with a Snapshot of your affiliate account. On the left, you’ll see your stats at a glance. My account is brand new, so obviously there is no data to display. Along the right side, you’ll get quick links (offer links and today’s stats by offer), network updates, account manager information, and your referral link. More on that in a moment.

Offers at a Glance

What really sets one affiliate network apart from the others are the offers available through the network. Navigating to the offers section on the affiliate system dashboard, we discover an extensive list of possibilities.

While you could certainly peruse through the entire list of affiliate offers, you can also restrict your search based on the category. Choose from Dating, Education, Email Submit, Entertainment, Finance, Health, Insurance, and Mobile.

Alternatively, you can click on any of the headings to organize the list based on that information. For instance, you can sort the offers based on payout level (which can range from $0.24 to $96.00). You’ll notice that the geographic restrictions are also visible from this page. Not surprisingly, most offers are for the United States, though you’ll also find some for Canada, New Zealand, and other international locations.

In the email that I received from the Tatto Media representatives, they are particularly proud of the exclusive Mobile ads that are part of their network. These aren’t ads that are being displayed in a mobile format, per se. Instead, they’re mobile-centric offers that you’ll be displaying on regular websites and through email marketing.

For instance, the AskNow Psychic offer shown above will lead visitors to AskNow.com. You earn the $20 commission when the visitor submits a valid credit card.

One of the stranger things about Tatto Media is that they do not seem to provide you with any ad creatives to use aside from a simple link. Other networks will typically supply you with a range of banners, email templates, and other similar tools that you can use as part of your marketing efforts. With Tatto Media, you need to contact your affiliate manager if you would like to receive any banners and other related creatives.

Tracking Links and Conversion Tracking Pixels

Clicking through on any of these offers, mobile or otherwise, will reveal the offer information page. This is where you get the basics, like a description and payout, but it is also here that you can generate tracking links.

Beneath the basic offer information, you’ll find two additional sections. The first is for generating tracking links, which runs through click2go.org. This tracking URL can be used for your marketing campaigns. You can define sub IDs too.

The second section reveals a place where you can define conversion tracking pixels. This uses third-party HTML pixels and you must define this yourself. It’ll work with iFrame, image, and JavaScript pixels. This is a more advanced feature that you may not find on other networks.

Statistics, Reports, and Referrals

As with just about every other network out there, Tatto Media also offers you a full slate of reports and statistics to mull over.

From the statistic page, you can generate reports for any selected date period, reviewing data related to impressions, clicks, click-thru rate, leads, LTR (lead-thru rate?), payout, eRPC, and RPL. Tatto Media goes even further by breaking the data based not only on a per-day basis, but also on a per-hour basis if you’d like.

From a related page, you can also review your stats as related to the referral program. When you refer new affiliates to Tatto Media, you earn a 1.00% bonus based on their revenue. As far as I can tell, this referral program is only for one level but you continue to earn this bonus as long as those you refer remain active with Tatto Media.

Should You Affiliate with Tatto Media?

The finer details related to Tatto Media are not immediately obvious when you first surf onto the network’s main page. It would have been very valuable if they were to set up a basic FAQ page that would address some of the basic concerns that publishers and affiliates may have.

For instance, you have to read into the fine print of the Tatto Media Affiliate Agreement to learn that payment appears to be on a net-30 schedule. It is also not immediately obvious how you will receive payment, though diving into the account information area reveals that wire transfer is the default. You can also opt for a check via mail or instant payment via PayPal.

Prima facie, Tatto Media looks like a fairly standard affiliate network with a fairly standard slate of features. The mobile-centric offers are a nice touch and the simplicity of the user dashboard are definite pluses, but they’re not really enough to sway me one way or the other. There’s no harm in giving them a try, though, so feel free to sign up at your convenience.