How to Make Money in a Small Country Like Brunei While Unemployed

There are plenty of ways to make money. While I’ve been researching for the past 2 educative years (edutcative… is that a word?) of my life on how to make money was a dreadful experience. I have tried a lot of things every now and then. And still my research haven’t been very fruitful. So I’m gonna tell you what I have found and learned in the past 2 years of my life now.

Basically, you can either make money by:

• Spending money (the obvious way to make more money)
• Spend your time/effort/skill (also known as a “JOB”)
• Use other people’s money (also known as “OPM” to entrepreneurs)

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Of these methods that I have learnt through reading journals, magazines, Internet, articles, books, seminars and presentations. None of which I have set to do and made any money whatsoever. I cannot do any investment as I am still living with my parents and have no job nor money to spend. (Recently finished my studies in UK and now back to Brunei and actually apply the skills that I have learnt.) Of the above mentioned methods, I can narrow down which of them can be done in my current state. I have no money, so I can’t spend any money to make money. I do have the time/effort/skill to spend but I have no job because the employment market in Brunei isn’t so attractive to receive that many graduates especially in Kuala Belait. (and also another reason as to why I’m writing this blog on a 7.37 Tuesday Morning.) And I do not have enough connections nor the people’s skill to convince them to invest into my business. (I have plenty of business ideas but none can be done if I do not have a job and that is a deal breaker.) All that’s left is to be self-employed.

Along side that note of being self-employed, I just came across a small secret for a 21 year old bachelor (That’s how old I am) is able to make some money without spending money. All that is left is to spend a little bit of your time and effort. And everyone can do this if they have the know how. You wanna know what it is?

I will be making myself an e-book! It’s like being an author but better!

How is it better? Well, the thing about books is that you have to really invest a lot into actually buying the book materials, production and manufacture for production. Then after production, you would need to market and legalize that the book you have is of your own work and not plagiarize without proper referrencing.

Whereas an e-book costs a lot less than that. You can buy a software that can enable all your data work of whatever it is that your an expert of and convert it into a secured document. Then you need a site or something similar to sell your e-book. This will then be your shop without an employee to pay to bring in money. And when it is all set, all you need to do is to sell it. Whatever your means, either through your own site, selling it to your close friends/family/relatives/associates/etc, posting on Brudirect.com or texting everyone on your DST/3G book of contacts on your mobile phone, or however you like to market and promote your easy and cheap made e-book. Once everyone knows about it, all you have to do is sit back and relax while the money rolls in. But this of course may take time though as you would need to actually give them what they ask for. Even if your expertise is:

• Cooking
• Car Mechanics
• Fixing electronic appliances
• Plumbing
• Fishing
• Gaming
• Etc

There is always a market that will buy your e-book. All it takes is time. Also be in mind, people tend to be as cheap as you, so try to price your skillfully and all-knowledgeable handyman e-book to something affordable. Or even better cheaper than the books in Bismi or Booker International.

Next step is the critical and important point, the point of sale. Now how is it people are going to get the e-book from you? So you set up the website, you show or told them the summary of your e-book and then they’re interested to buy it from you. Well there are several ways:

1. If you have a credit card account or already own a paypal account, you can sign up with ClickBank. They have a system where people can get what they want after they key in their credit card details. This will be in a secured web page by ClickBank.
2. You can do it the hard way by having the visitor send you an email to request for your e-book and you can make the exchange in about 1 or 2 days of negotiating in order for both parties to feel secured with payment and the product sent.
3. I haven’t really gone far but I will be looking into more methods of secure payment and downloads. Otherwise it’s going to be another software piracy.

And there you have it. So let’s recap.

List of things that need to make an e-book and sell:

1. Make a book - Write a full document of all your knowledge and expertise on a special subject and be sure that you get all the information right and proofread your document before converting to e-book.
2. Get an e-book converter software through either downloads or buy them from the shop. (And that is also cheap from kedai Communist. Only a B$1 – B$15 expense. No biggy.)
3. Make an E-book - After having the software, convert the full document into a full fledged book and maybe add some designs before making it in-editable.
4. Set up shop - Set up a simple single page website where it gives out a summary of what your e-book contains and provides if they actually made a purchase. But if making a website is too difficult nor too complicated, then I might suggest you promote your e-book through other means. Like selling it on a pendrive (And that sounds ridiculous. -_-;)
5. Marketing and Promoting - Start promoting your product for a month or two towards everyone in your circle of friends (Or if you’re the type that didn’t do much socializing, just advertise through brudirect.com or anywhere on the Internet is fine)
6. After-care market - Then all you have to do is wait till they click on download and pay for your e-book. Or should there be any feedback, you need to take care of that as soon as possible and carefully. Because once people take notice of your e-book and what it contains is not really worth, they might tell others not to pay or download it from you.

And all it takes is 6 steps to make your e-book and sell. And what we’ve created is not only your way of making extra money but also a passive income. (That is if you actually have a website and have people go to your website and download your e-book regularly then yes, its a passive income.)

Aren’t you glad that I didn’t charge you for this information? Hehe. In any case, I have more business ideas and tips to post up, so be sure to check every so often.