Archives for August 2009

Video In Paper Magazines? Wow

August 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

While just idly surfing, I came across this:

The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.

The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly.

The slim-line screens – around the size of a mobile phone display – also have rechargeable batteries.

The chip technology used to store the video – described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards – is activated when the page is turned.

~BBC

Daily Prophet anyone? I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these magazines. What about you?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

What If Shit Happened?

August 19, 2009 by 5 Comments

What if you lost your job today? No, really. What if you actually lost your job today? I am asking you. No, I’m begging you, to think for just a moment about this. What would you do? Are you going to go out and look for another job at another similar company? I bet you’re smart enough to have an back-up plan. Alas, most people would be completely lost if they lost their jobs today.

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong – Murphy’s law.

I am always inspired when I read “Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It” by Naomi Dunford. In that article, she describes a small town in Ontario, Canada where the area’s largest employer closed down one day.

Here’s what Naomi says, “Recently, in a small town in Ontario, the area’s largest employer closed its doors. Most of the town, trained only in the art and science of making canned soup, found themselves out of work. A few thousand soup makers live in a town where nobody wants to pay them to make soup. Now all of them are going to try to find a way to apply their skill sets to other employers in the area. The competition is fierce, and their mortgages are on the line. Except there are no other major employers in the area.”

Can you imagine that? What would you do if you woke up one morning to find that not only had you lost your job, but your whole industry and area of specialisation disappeared overnight? I know, I know..you live in a big town and you’re trained in X or Y which is always in demand. Blah.

How much time do you spend worrying about your immediate boss’ job security? Do you invest a lot of time worrying about his happiness and fulfillment at work? Well, guess what? He spends the same exact amount of time worrying about you, your happiness and your job security. This is hard to swallow for many people – we grew up dreaming of ‘dream’ jobs and long careers. I’m sorry but the world changed.

Seth Godin puts it best, “As long as you work for someone else, you have no job security. As long as your company is public, your future is in the hands of others – people who are likely not as smart as you are. And as long as you follow the instructions of others, you won’t be fulfilling your destiny or really, truly making a difference in the way people live and work.”

Stop doing something that is risky, crazy, and that you don’t understand (your current job is all three). Stop working for The Man and start building something that people will remember.

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With:

How To Park A Domain Name And Make Money

August 19, 2009 by 3 Comments

So we’ve learned quite a bit about domain names and domaining in general over the last month or so. Today, I took one of my non-paying customers over at Nickel Pro and parked one of his domains so that we can attempt to recover some of what he owes us 😛

The procedure is dead simple. I decided to use Google adsense for domains and everything was very straight forward – I set up everything in under 10 minutes!

From Google,

“AdSense for domains allows publishers with unused domains to help users reach relevant information by presenting content on the domains.

Users often type domains into their address bar or follow expired links leading to sites with no content. Instead of an “under construction” page or 404 error, AdSense for domains provides links, search results, advertisements and other content. To do this, we use semantic technology targeted to the domain name. You earn revenue when users interact with the ads on your site.”

So, you have a domain that you’d like to park using adsense? here’s what to do:

  1. Log in to adsense
  2. Click the ‘Adsense set up’ tab
  3. Click on adsense for domains
  4. Follow the simple instructions

That’s it! next, I’ll show you how to create a custom landing page for parking purposes. Stay tuned!

The non-paying client in question is www.kipsang.net. The owner ordered the domain but never paid for it or used it so I lost money – time to earn it back. The parking pages should be up in about 48hrs.
Edit: This baby is up and running. Visit Kipsang: http://www.kipsang.net/

Filed Under: Make Money, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With:

Like Chapaa’s New Haircut

August 18, 2009 by 6 Comments

The Like Chapaa site has today, just now, undergone a design overhaul – everything is spanking new. Why?

I loved the previous design – it was just beautiful! Sadly, though, one too many readers complained that the site was a tad bit too slow. So what did we do? We love you, readers, so much that we went ahead and did the site over. Now things should load faster for everyone.

We hope you like it, it is for you.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Kenya’s got talent!

August 18, 2009 by 2 Comments

I really like the TV show “America’s got talent”. What about you? I am always amazed at all the different people who do so many different things – some crazy and some, to be honest, just plain dumb. But there’s no doubt in my mind that America really does have talent – people do amazing things on that show. What about Kenya, though, do we have talent? Some of the Topic Comic try outs make me think we have close to zero talent :p

Seriously, though, I believe that Kenya does have talent, lots of it. This was confirmed to me by a very interesting few weeks of the Biashara 30 program. As you probably know, the Like Chapaa team is currently involved in a little project to try teach people how to earn money online (without charging them). The pace of the program has been somewhat slow but it’s picked up recently and we’re taking some major positive steps.

We’ve just been going for two weeks but already have several ‘businesses’ in the making, which are 100% original ideas of the Biashara 30 students. Mind you, some of them were complete newbies (they aren’t anymore). So far, we have two online shops (that I fully believe will be successful) and a really interesting idea for an ebook to be written and sold. I admit, some of the B30 students are not interesting (or interested) but there are a few who have a lot of creative energy about them and amaze me with their motivation and creativity. Watch this space, you’re going to see interesting internet businesses come up soon.

What about you? Do you have talent? What are you doing with it? Kenya’s got talent!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With:

Jobs Available

August 17, 2009 by 4 Comments

More Freelance Jobs

Front-End developer – Collaborate with developers, designers and product managers to produce an advanced, envelope-pushing UI for a Alexa Top 50 video-sharing portal used by tens-of-millions of users daily.

Online lesbian magazine seeks writers – GoGetYourGirlOn.com, a new online lesbian magazine, seeks to expand content and grow our family of writers. Our mission is to uplift and empower the lesbian community (read: we do not gossip, and we are not into bashing).

Freelance logo design – We are in urgent need of a logo more than able to represent our classy yet cool lifestyle concept, targeting the middle class Beijinger, age 20-40. We have several examples of logos we like for your viewing, all sharing the common elements of creativity and originality, often being simple, clean and minimalistic. Some artwork to it would be preferred. We do have a specific idea of our own we’d be happy having developed, but would pay more for a fresh vision.

Data storage writer needed – Writer needed to create content for: External Hard Drive Data Storage, Backup and Disaster Recovery, Comparison of backup technologies (disk/online/tape), Search engine optimization for external hard drive market etc.

Mobile phone programmer – Butterfly Works is interested to find someone who can program and test a game to work on mobile phones in East Africa. We will design the game and send you the specs, it needs to work on all phones with a color screen from different manufacturers.

Web development – Nurses World Publications (NWP) is seeking professional end-to-end services for the design, engineering and development of an enterprise level, blended-model website utilizing the full complement of Web 2.0 technology. This new website is an outgrowth of Nurses World Magazine, a four-color glossy publication in circulation throughout California from 2003 to 2008.

Logo & Poster designer – We are an events company located in England and we need a chic, sexy and simple logo designing, as well as posters to advertise our event.

Freelance writer / Proofreader – Freelance Writer / Proofreader for press/marketing pieces for a prominent game company on the West Coast(USA). Must be well versed in Chicago Manual of Style and a Harvard Alum. Work from home. Couple of hours per month.

Experienced business plan writer wanted.

Personal technology columnist – Mshale Newspaper, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota is looking for a personal technology columnist to comment and write on latest technology trends of interest to its readers. Mshale caters to the African immigrant in the United States through its print edition as well as its online version at Mshale.com. Requirements: Must be a technology enthusiast and able to write in a clear and captivating style that engages readers. Must be able to meet tight deadlines.

Freelance blogger – A few bloggers who can share valuable tips, techniques and ideas on the topics of being a self-employed personal trainer / fitness consultant (eg the people who teach you how to work out), or who can share tips about the business of trade shows. You should have already been writing on either topic for 1 year +.

1% Club manager – Because of the success in the Netherlands we will be launching the international version of the 1%CLUB website by the end of this year. The international version will be managed by 1%CLUB Kenya in Nairobi. Therefore we are looking for a manager to set up the 1%CLUB organization in Nairobi.

Style & fashion writers – Examiner.com, a Quantcast Top 100 website, is growing and looking for freelance content contributors (we call them “Examiners”) to share local insights, knowledge and experience about Style or Fashion related topics. It’s a great way to cover what you love and communicate what’s happening in your city.

Freelance web designer – In continual need for talented web designer/ UI expert who can take the most minimalist brief and turn into quality design concepts. The ability to code to valid W3C standards a bonus but not ultimately required at this stage.

Finally, Some Hot Freelance Jobs


Need help?
How to get an online job.
How to avoid online scams.

This post is a weekly feature – we post a list of online, work-from-anywhere, jobs every single week. Be sure not to miss the next list of jobs. Subscribe to Like Chapaa today, or sign up to receive free email updates.

Filed Under: Online Jobs Tagged With: , , ,

You are not a Zombie. Are you?

August 16, 2009 by 2 Comments

Last year, I launched a little website called Kikulacho. Goodness, I was in love with this site – I wanted to do everything just right with it. I read all the books on successful websites and learnt all the tricks that the “gurus” out there had published. I had done my homework and I was determined to make the site work. So on a cold October morning, I launched my baby and got ready to watch it grow into an absolute authority of a site.

I was doing everything that I was supposed to do so it was a big shock to learn that I was not getting the success that all the books and gurus had promised. What was I doing wrong? Nothing. Yet, a few months later I abandoned the project for other things. It was really really painful to let my baby die and I still haven’t gotten over it ( :p ). I think about Kikulacho now and then. What went wrong? I was being a zombie.

Many times, we do the same things everyone else does and expect to find success doing them. In fact, we expect to do be more successful than those other people.

How many people do you know who play it “safe”? After high school, they go to college and take a safe, easy college that lots of other people take too. Afterwards, they strive to find a nice job somewhere and strive to blend in to the company’s culture. They do what they’re told and try maintain a low profile – it feels safe. They just want to keep their jobs and get that regular salary. Month after month. Year after year.

Admittedly, not all people lack ambition. Some people start out with these BIG ideas and amazing energy but life knocks all that out of them, slowly. StartupKenya puts it best in this story of law school:

“You see when you join law school, you feel like you are on top of the world. Heck, you must be one of the brightest minds in the land to get admitted, and law is usually chosen by pretty ambitious students. It is not uncommon to find 99% of the 1st year law school class with dreams of grandeur. Speaker of the National Assembly, Special-Rapporteur at the UN, President of the Republic, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Celebrated Trial Lawyer. The list is endless and only limited by the effort taken to actually establish the seniority of the position. As the semester progresses and you ferociously consume case law, volumes of law books, and professors’ lectures, your ambitions are even more amplified. You gauge your progress by the number of questions you ask, and how many cases you can remember, sometimes how many House of Lords quotes you can recite verbatim.

However by the time your first year results are in, and for the first time in your life you get a C or worse, you realize that your goals might be a tad bit ambitious. Instead of the best lawyer in the world, you mentally settle for best lawyer in Kenya. A few more grades and your expectations of achievement drop to best lawyer in your firm. The curve which had only been going up now starts leveling off. By mid of second year after a string of horrifyingly bad grades you are looking at being best lawyer in your office… “

Success is difficult to achieve. How do you do it?

Since you were in class 2, schools and society have been teaching you to be just another cog in the machine that is out economy; to do what you are told, to stand in straight lines; to get the work done. We have been trained to be cogs in a vast system, workers in a finely tuned factory. Just look at our robot-making 844 system, or our universities. Universities are supposed to be places of research & innovation but ours are just an extension of high school.

The problem is that someone changed the rules and being a cog is no longer an option. It is essentially impossible to be successful by doing something that is described and measured by someone else.

Kikulacho did not succeed because I was trying to do it exactly how people elsewhere had done their own sites. The road to success is different for every one. Do your own thing; be different; make your own rules.

Photo by Eric Ingrum.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: