This is a guest post by Alfredo Vaamonde or Alfred V. (aka Asswass), from Caracas, Venezuela and 3 weeks ago he launched his website www.hiburrito.com (For publishing world online Polls) and his blog www.asswass.com.
With this post I want to explain the Blogosphere how to blog from a restricted country.
I was born in Hollywood, Florida and then moved to Caracas, Venezuela only 2 years after I was born.
Venezuela is an amazing country with beautiful beaches, mountains, rain forests and deserts.
We have the most beautiful women in the world (Watch Miss Universe) and great people with warm hearts.
But 10 years ago our little paradise came slowly crashing down and now we live in a minimum security prison that we can leave whenever we want to. (I hope I don’t get in trouble by saying this)
To really describe what does “Blogging from a restricted country” really means, I’m going to tell you about the ball, the chain and the shackles that keeps us from blogging freely.
- The Ball: Freedom of Speech:
In the last 10 years the government has meticulously restricted our freedom of speech.
TV Channels have been closed, news papers have been expropriated and new laws are being dictated every day to keep the press from saying the whole truth.
Blogs and websites have already being threatened by the government but we are still luck to find international hosting services where the government can’t touch us.
But this doesn’t mean that the ones that want to write against the government want to keep their identity hidden.
Most of them still show their faces but the government keeps track of what their writing.
How do you blog without freedom of speech? Ask all those bloggers around the world that are in prison right now for speaking their minds.
- The Chain: Currency Control:
Venezuela is under currency control. For those who don’t know what this means, in Venezuela people can’t buy international currencies without a previous authorization from the government.
The price of the dollar is regulated at a specific exchange rate that hasn’t changed since 2003.
Every year, every Venezolano is entitled to a maximum of $2500 for traveling, depending on where are you traveling to and the length of your trip.
We also get $400 to spend on the Internet.
Companies receive an amount of dollars depending of the type of industry and product.
Due to this situation, a parallel currency was born called “dolar paralelo” which means the parallel dollar.
You can buy this dollar on the black market but it will cost you 3 times the controlled exchange rate.
Since we are going through an economic crisis, the government is regulating more than ever the amount of dollars being approved for producing and importing goods.
Everything in this country is costing 3 times more what things should cost and salaries are still calculated with the controlled exchange rate.
To it in more colloquial words, if you don’t have an international bank account or credit card, you only have $400 to spend outside Venezuela.
Everything else needs to be bought at 3 times their normal price.
Imagine I earn $100 with Google Adsense.
Google will send the check to my office here in Caracas. I can’t cash that check so I need to go to an exchange agency and they will give me the money at the controlled exchange rate.
With this $100 I won’t even buy dinner for two on a regular restaurant. That’s why Caracas is the most expensive city of Latin-American.
So how do you blog with $400 a year when you need to pay domains, hosting and everything else you need in a blog that costs money; and without having a decent income?
You may want to ask me why I don’t use a local hosting service.
My answer is, local hosting services use international hosting so I would be paying more than 10 times what I can pay in the US.
- The Shackles: Venture Capital, Angel Investors or Banks:
Two weeks ago I launched Hiburrito.com.
My associates and I are working very hard to make this business really work. But like any online business, you need some money to make it grow right?
Well , in Venezuela, Venture Capital and Angel Investors don’t exist anymore.
Why ?
Because they stopped believing, that’s it.
You invest and grow your business and before you know it, the government screwed you over and took it away from you.
Banks ?
If you want to pay 28% annual interest and return the money in 2 years.
As you can see, it’s not easy to blog or to have an online business on a restricted country. Be grateful of what you have and make the most of it.
The Bad Blogger is a prowess dude with great passion in copywriting and marketing, his a subscriber to Gary Halbert’s Newsletter, Ben Settle’s Daily Tips, John Carlton’s Marketing Rant Newsletter, Dan Kennedy’s Gold Member and Alvin Phang’s Atomic Blogging Premium Member. He had enormous amount of valuable information from world-class players in the field to share in his blog, subscribe to his Rss Feed @ http://www.thebadblogger.com/ You may freely reprint or redistribute this article, provided the content and links are left intact !
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