One of our nice readers sent this email:
“I spend too much time on the internet doing nothing. Sometimes it is fun but it does not pay the bills. I’ve been sort of freelancing for awhile and paid a web designer to do a fancy website that I couldn’t maintain myself, and that thing didn’t generate any leads. Now I don’t have a website, but I have a blog that I don’t even use. Nini mbaya na mimi?
Hakuna kitu mbaya na wewe!
What we all need to do is to stop building all these fancy websites and complex marketing strategies. Are you making money online? Would a blog and Twitter and Facebook help you get your first three paying customers? The plain simple answer is NO. At the beginning your focus should be to get three paying clients (because one or two may just be a fluke).
After you do this, you will have established that your business idea is actually viable; you will have proven that people will actually pay for whatever you are selling. Afterwards, you can start thinking of the blogs and Facebook and other fancy stuff. Not before. I’ll say it again: skip all the fancy stuff that you hear (SEO, social media, etc) and just get your first three paying clients!
The funny thing is that almost everyone who hears this advice does not like it one bit! Instead, you like hearing things like:
- You need a Twitter page with lots of followers
- Everyone spends his time on Facebook, you need to get a facebook page
- You can’t do business without registering a company…and don’t forget business cards
You know why most people prefer the above to actually getting down to work and getting paying clients? Because it is so much easier to start a blog and Twitter and pray that somehow money will just flow in. It is much harder to sit down and make a plan on how to get three people to pay for whatever you are selling.
I have been blogging for more than six years and I’ve pretty much seen it all. If you ask me, 99.9999999% of all bloggers make a shameful amount of money, something like $2 per month. Does that really tie in with your high horse dreams of making it big? We have to be realistic about things, my friend. If your goal is to make money, do not waste time on social media.
Focus on setting up your business, not on the technology; focus on understanding your customer; focus on testing whether your idea is profitable; focus on how to build the best product or service that you can.
Tell me about it. I’ve been on the online gig for like 6 years now- and it’s HARD work. And your advice is on point as I started in the real world and THEN moved online. It’s about the product first so I totally agree with your post. And then… for the quick money/ cultural thing- here’s a sorta kinda opportunity (shameless self promo follows)… if you can tweet about what it means to be African in less than 140 characters, you stand a chance to win 5K (well, 3 winners stand a chance to each win 5K). The link is here: http://bit.ly/c9WOox
Compe closes Sunday. (End, shameless self promo)…
But seriously, keep spreading the word… If you have a good product- and a strategy, then the marketing will kick in (including online marketing)…
Thanks for the comment 🙂
At last somebody has said it! Your post is very true. Every Kenyan dreaming of making it big online makes three mistakes:
1. Thinking that in the first three months he will have made his millions.
2. Thinking that social media is the miracle. Dont equate the income Facebook makes with what you can make. (By the way, and please dont lynch me. Social media, akina Facebook, twitter etc are hugely overated. Facebook makes it’s billions because you waste hours on Facebook daily, making money for them but none for yourself.)
3. Focusing so much and trying to keep up with the technology rather than developing a product, creating a market niche and delivering your solution effectively.
Guys, these is good advice, take it. I started the Kenyan “hata mimi” way and for three years i was running round in circles, until a friend gave me advice similar to what Kelvin has mentioned.
I have done freelance for one year now and I must say the starting point is the hard part, and you can cry!! But one lesson I have gotten all this while is that you must begin by asking yourself what you are good at and what you really want to do in this life.So for me one should first begin by the all important question, “What do I want to do with my life?” Then you can say well I’m good in coding or writing or organizing events or inspiring or comics…..anything even if it is joking! From here you can now proceed, create your online presence either through a website or a blog where you can now reach to people and help them through that which you love to do. If you are a coder for example, you can help guys with simple problems like how do you fix a broken link. If you love to organize events, tell people how they can best organize cheaper events. If you are the comical guy, go a head and give us your comics. So how do you convert this to money? Well this is where stuff like affiliate marketing comes in. So if you are the comical guy, you can link to merchants selling comical books, videos, games etc and recommend them to your readers who will most probably buy them because they trust you. If you are the coder, you can make your own programs and sell them to your audience or better still, link to other professional coders and in turn sell their software. Of course there is the other side where you have your established business whether big or small. In this case, you simply use your website to tell your audience that your products or services are the best and let them know why this is so. Fill it with stuff like reviews and testimonials from customers who have already bought from you, even if it’s that one customer who said “Thank you so much, I will come again”…….The other form of making money online which I have also done is that of joining the freelancing websites, apply for jobs in your area and get moving. But the secret is never start by putting your price too high. Start small and you will be shocked how steadily you will grow. Above all, be patient, never put money first, Trust, work on it consistently and believe me or not one year down the line you will tell a story. Let me stop here but hope I helped someone. Thanks.
This is John again guys and I want to add something small on social media that burns me every time:
If you are using facebook just to chat and gossip then trust me you are not benefiting. You see dear, social media platforms are supposed to empower us but not waste our time. Facebook should enable you propel your dream and not make you a blind follower. So instead of getting to facebook to just upload and look at part photographs, you can upload your products and let people know that you are selling them at discounted prices, and where they can find them. Or that you are giving a marketing speech somewhere and why they must pay to attend it. Of course we are not saying that you should not have fun on social media. Remember as Josh says, our presence on facebook means more money for them(Same for our very own likechapaa though I dont mind guys,this is a good platform and I’ve just loved it)
This is John again guys and I want to add something small on social media that burns me every time:
If you are using facebook just to chat and gossip then trust me you are not benefiting. You see dear, social media platforms are supposed to empower us but not waste our time. Facebook should enable you propel your dream and not make you a blind follower. So instead of getting to facebook to just upload and look at part photographs, you can upload your products and let people know that you are selling them at discounted prices, and where they can find them. Or that you are giving a marketing speech somewhere and why they must pay to attend it. Of course we are not saying that you should not have fun on social media. Remember as Josh says, our presence on facebook means more money for them so we should also use it to make money!