We Buy Websites

October 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The internet is a curious thing. Not only can your website make some great money for you while you run it, it can also make money when you decide to sell. Just like physical properties, web properties can fetch quite a bit of cash during the resale process, and we’d be happy to take a look at yours to see if it’s something that may be of interest to us.

Wondering what people look for when they go to buy a site like yours that’s for sale? There are several factors. One of the first major factors we consider is the size of your site. A larger site tends to be quite a bit more valuable than a one paged placeholder, but that’s not always the case. Another major factor we take a look at is your niche. Sure, there are thousands of websites that sell the same affiliate product, but very few of them sell insects for human consumption. The more unique and popular your niche, the more valuable your site is. The age of the site also factors into the overall price. The older the site, the more established it is, and that can prove a better deal for you. In fact, many companies won’t buy sites that are less than a year old. Your traffic numbers also factor into the price you’ll get for your site. Obviously with more visitors comes more profit, and that can make your site a bit more valuable to buyers like us. Finally, the nature of your site may make it more valuable. Business sites are, naturally, more profitable than informational sites, but there are always a few exceptions to that rule.

While the type of sites we buy vary extensively, the idea I want to leave you with is that we buy quality websites, and we’re looking to add to our list right now. If you’re making any money from your site or you have some traffic numbers, please let us know. We’re not looking for absolute junk here, we’d like a respectable business or information-based site, but if you need cash fast, we’re here to help you out. Take a moment to contact us today for an evaluation of your site. We’ve bought many sites in the past, so if you’re looking for a level of professionalism and experience, you can rest assured that you’ll get it with us. Ready to get started? Drop us an e-mail today.

chapaa[at]likechapaa.com

Interesting in investing in websites? If you want to get into this but have no idea how to search for, value, evaluate and manage a website, give us a call. We’ll work something out.

Filed Under: Internet Culture

Using StarCraft to Boost Your Tours & Travel Business

September 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

No idea if this can work but…..

Let me paint you a picture. Imagine your organization at the centre of an exciting online event that generates passionate conversation all over the Internet: on news websites, on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube, and on other websites. Imagine your organization featuring prominently on YouTube videos viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Imagine reaching up to 15 million people through one marketing campaign. Now imagine these people passionately applauding your organization.

What am I talking about? Too good to be true – you say?

StarCraft 2 is a computer game published by Blizzard Entertainment and which is played primarily online by millions of players. StarCraft is one of the best-selling computer games in history. In South Korea, it is a national sport whose matches are televised and whose players are national celebrities.

StarCraft 2 has spawned immensely popular online tournaments throughout the world. The tournaments are followed by millions of people worldwide. The companies that sponsor these tournaments include: Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, Samsung and many others – and this is just a selection of the biggest names. Needless to say, these companies benefit greatly for tapping into an exploding “e sports” industry. How exactly do they benefit?

  1. Tournaments are almost entirely played online and so they generate passionate activity and discussion from fans on many websites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Tournament sponsors are usually prominent in these discussions.
  2. Tournament videos are created and posted to YouTube and similar websites. They are often viewed by hundreds of thousands of people during the tournament itself and by many others afterwards. These videos usually prominently feature tournament sponsors.
  3. E sports is relatively new. As such, video game players are very appreciative of anyone who supports it.
  4. Everything that is put on the Internet is still going to be there years later.

Now, we all know that there are probably hundreds of Kenyan tours and travel businesses out there. Indeed, with the Internet it is extremely easy to start such a business. But how easy is it to profit from one? I put it to you that actually making a decent amount is much more difficult than most people think it is. In my opinion, this is mostly due to two reasons:

  • There is a great amount of competition
  • How does a small Kenyan company market to Europeans, Americans, etc in a cost-effective way?

StarCraft 2 and “e sports” can make the second problem go away. I see this as an incredibly accessible marketing channel. How so? What if your organisation organised (or partnered with these guys) a successful StarCraft 2 online tournament? What would you get out of it?

  1. You would get your name out there amongst possibly hundreds of thousands potential tourists
  2. Your investment would reap continual benefits as long as you exist – two years from now, people will still be able to watch YouTube videos of the tournament in which you featured

I do not know about you, but I think that this is something worth thinking about…

Filed Under: Lazyweb

Amazing Low Cost Computer (Kshs 2,500)

September 9, 2011 By 1 Comment

Remember when we wrote about Raspberry Pi a couple of months back? For those who do not know, the Raspberry Pi is an amazing little device that is actually a fully functioning computer. It is not much larger than a persons finger credit cart and consists of not much more than a processor (CPU), a USB port to connect a keyboard, and a way to connect it to a TV.

The development of this device is at an advanced stage and it should be available for sale in about 2 months. The device itself looks to be very well made and perfect for use in places like Kenya. Because:

  • It is extremely affordable at Kshs 2,500 for a FULL modern computer. Not one of those refurbished things in town.
  • Just for emphasis, this is a full computer system which you can use for Word processing, watching movies, or even playing games.
  • It can be connected to your regular TV. You don’t need to buy a separate screen.
  • It is very mobile – it fits in your pocket and consumes very little power (you can run it using regular AA batteries.

The video below is of these device being used to watch a movie:
YouTube Preview Image

I think this device can revolutionise computing in Kenya. Now, personal computers have a chance at being as widely used as mobile phones.

I am going to get myself one, or three of these. Are you going to get one?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

New. Get Paid To Click! Easy Money!!

September 6, 2011 By 8 Comments

Come on, admit it. You’ve been tempted at leas once to sign up for one of these programs. Sindio? Easy money; just sit at home and click on some ads and BAM! You get paid. It cannot possibly get easier than that. Can it? Really, can it?

How much can one expect to earn? Let’s do the math, shall we?

Let us assume that you get paid $0.001 (which happens to be the usual amount) for every click you make. That is approximately Kshs 0.095 per click. Assuming you can click on one link every 30 seconds (as it happens, you are usually limited to one link every 30 seconds), this translates to about Kshs 11.4 every hour. Assuming that you work for 24 hours every day, for 30 days, that makes it approximately Kshs 8,200 per month.

So, that is Kshs 8,200 per month assuming you work for 24 hours every day for 30 days. Now subtract the cost of electricity, Internet and any other expenses you might have.

Sounds like a waste of time to me. You?

This post was inspired by a thread on SkunkWorks.

Filed Under: Internet Culture, Make Money, Miscellaneous

A systems approach to earning more

July 14, 2011 By 1 Comment

The following is an excerpt from an email I got from Ramit Sethi. Check our his program for more information.

After taking a much-needed vacation to Hawaii, I’m in San Francisco for a few days. So I open up my computer this morning and see this:

“What business could I help create for my mom?”

I love this guy’s question. His mom works for a travel agency and the future looks murky, so he’s trying to figure out a business she could do on her own.

But then the commenters have at it.

  • “Set up a ‘Deal of the Day’ site for travel”
  • “Go ask Mary of MaryXYZ.com how she did it”
  • “Consider foreigners who come to the USA…”
  • “Gift baskets”
  • “How about blogging?”

Some of these are actually good ideas. But if there were one word to describe them…it would be RANDOM.

Do this! No, that. What about this?

If you’ve ever tried to think of an idea to start earning money, this is a familiar pattern. You simply jump from one idea to another, never sure if they’ll work, and you let others throw their 2 cents in, too.

Here’s the surprising insight about finding an idea: Your SYSTEM is more important than any individual idea.

In other words, the process you use to find ideas is more important than any one idea itself.

Let me give you an example:

When you write a paper, essay, or book, people often obsess over words (well, at least nerdy writers like me). But what’s more important: A random word on page 9, or your structure (i.e., the table of contents)?

The structure, of course. If your organization is strong, you can have mediocre language and still have a good paper.

That’s why I spent 8 MONTHS outlining, refining, tearing apart, and revising the table of contents for my book. The process — my system — was more important than any individual word in the book.

No more random ideas
When I look at those bullet-pointed ideas above, I see some good ideas. But I also see bad ones.

And that’s just what they are — untested, unproven ideas. You see how easy it is for anyone to throw “ideas” at you…but how do you know they’ll actually work?

I could give you 50 ideas today and they would be worthless. Want me to prove it? Go search for “how to earn money” and see for yourself.

There’s a better way. Follow these 3 steps.

Step 1. Generate ideas:
First, you’ll come up with a big list of business ideas, many of them from sources you might not have explored before. There are specific techniques to generate ideas, but in general, no idea is too far-fetched at this stage.

NOTE: MOST PEOPLE STOP HERE, JUST LIKE THE ABOVE “RANDOM” IDEAS.

Step 2. Validate your ideas:
Once you get all your business ideas in one place, you need some sort of filter. Almost nobody does this, which is why they waste 9 months of their lives on futile ideas that will never pay.

In this step, you’ll weed out the bad ideas from the good until you’re left with the very best.

When you explain validating your idea before you invest significant time, you can hear the same reaction from people: “Yeah… that is interesting. Maybe I should do that.”

It’s like telling someone they should get in shape. They “know” they should… but they won’t.

4 Reasons People DON’T build a system
So…why would people SKIP this step and jump right to random ideas?

This is what we found through research:

  • They’re afraid of discovering their one idea will be proven to be unprofitable… and then what? (In reality, the idea is not your secret sauce, the validation process is.)
  • Not sure how to actually do customer research (so they avoid it entirely)
  • Worried about having to talk to people they don’t know (“What will I say?”)
  • Not sure if they’re serious enough about the project to do things like customer research

This is really important stuff. Re-read those bullet points again.

The biggest difference between those who succeed and those who pursue random idea after random idea? The ones who use a system can identify which ideas are good and which ones aren’t…BEFORE they pursue them.

Step 3. Get your first sale:
Once you have a solid, market-confirmed idea, it’s time to find real work. You’ll take your best idea and test it against the market by trying to find 3 paying clients.

A system…not random “ideas”
If your goal is to find a way to earn money on the side, you’ll want a method for finding, testing, and refining ideas — a SYSTEM.

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business

Dummies Guide to Getting an Online Job – Free Content

July 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, we launched our new eBook:

Have you ever thought about getting an online job? Imagine a job which you can do from your own bedroom, in your pyjamas. Imagine a job which you can do at your own time (you can wake up late everyday and spend the afternoons on Thursday playing tennis). Could this lifestyle be for you?
Scenario 2: Have you looked long and hard and struggled to find legitimate online jobs? We wrote this book for you. Many people go out looking for online jobs without doing the basic preparations. They end up as an online scam statistic. Do not let this be your story. Our book guides you through the things that a beginners should know and we suggest several places where you can find well paying legitimate online jobs. We even go as far as guiding you through the use of one very popular online jobs website/service.

Buy this. Now.

This e-book is meant ONLY for beginners and it teaches you how to start the process of getting your first on-line job. If you get JUST ONE ONLINE JOB, this course will have paid for itself!!

More information on the ebook is available here: Dummies Guide to Getting an Online Job

Some good news

  1. We now have some free excerpts from the ebook that you can read before you buy. This lets you asses the book for yourself.
  2. We’ve running a special offer where you can get the book for Kshs 500 instead of Kshs 750 because we think you’re awesome.

Cheers!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Introducing MyCDBag [Interview]

May 25, 2011 By 3 Comments

Dear readers, today’s interviewee is Paul Abwonji. He is a nairobi-based developer and the man behind MyCDBag, Water Framework, and I-sentIt.

Q. You’re quite an achiever, tell us about you.
My names are Paul Kevin, developer by heart. I enjoy non-cliche media and gamming. I taught myself most of what I know and I develop web applications(Java and php), video games(Mobile and PC) and mobile apps for smart phones.

Q. How did you start?
Well, ever since I was very young I always loved developing products and items that are cool and procatical. I never had a liking for theory in innovation, so I always took a practical approach. My first ever project was www.plus254.com, a website that would have all of Kenya’s entertainment in one site in a social network scene. This was back in 2006, I had a team of reporters, developers, marketers and a programmer. It was fun, I must admit, but we lacked direction and discipline.

Q. Tell us a little about MyCDBag
MyCDBag is basically cloud music. This idea came to me 2 years ago, I have love for music and I know afew mucisians. So, its a platform that will allow users and artists to directly interact with each other on their terms. A platform that will change our music industry and show people that music is not just a business, its fun. The name MyCDBag was coined up while working on a project with no name. I had first wanted to call it ‘M’ but domain names cannot be that short :( . Alot can be put in it, and we want to start with music and grow.

Q. What do you hope to achieve with MyCDBag?
I hope to bring out more recognition to the music industry. We have great artists and upcomming artists, most whom lack motivation due to piracy and expenses incurred when producing music. Music is a career, and all careers have their own edge to them. I want the site to help artists become artists. MyCDBag has an anti-piracy tool that allows artists to be alerted when one of their songs or albums is in use by someone other than themeselves. The technology will enable fans to follow artists from any device and from anywhere.

Q. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
First of all, I was not so good in design. This is actually the second version of the website, with a better design. I partnered with a friend who I think is the best out there when it comes to design, Paul Bombo. The second challenge was mamnagement, so I partnered with another friend, Michael Otieno.

Q. What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Kenya?
The biggest challeng I got was laziness. I personally would prefer sleeping over working. I currently have a job and balancing that with code is a real challenge also.

Q. What was critical to your success?
Great friends and a project that I love. Hard work and plenty of research

Q. What about the competition and marketing, how do handle that?
Competition is crucial, otherwise you are not in business. There is alot of competition and big names with alot of funding to do things we cannot do. To handle this, we get personal with the users of this service. Target the artists who are comming up and offer them something we are happy about. Its all about delivery and product belief.

Q. Do you think that in order to “make it big” online you have to live in a Western country? Or does Kenya offer more or less the same opportunities?
You can “Make it big” from anywhere in the world as long as you believe in your product and in yourself. Kenya, currently has alot of untapped opportunities. Sometimes you will want to get sponsorship from a company that you know is good for your product/service and they shut you down. It happens, but as an entrepreneur you should know that everything in life is not easy and you should not let others determine your business mood for you.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your business (es) in the next 5 years?
I see myself helping others build their business, I know the struggle and I would like to see more online businesses come up. As for MyCDBag, there are alot of plans in play for the next 10 years, a step by step process that is really fun. I hope to chenge the music industry as it is.

Q. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Launch sooner :) Version 1 had a simple layout, but I had to srap it off tio make room for new technology.

Q. What advice do you have for internet business entrepreneurs in Kenya?
Dont limit yourself on technology, follow your dreams and if its done, do it better.

That’s all for today readers. If you’d like to hear more from Paul Abwonji, please visit his website www.riswolde.com .

  • Water Framework is a php API framework developed to server as an API base for I-sentit – in development
  • I-sentIt – A communications API for all platforms using Email and SMS. It will have a mobile and desktop client.
  • Email : paul.kevin[at]riswolde.com
  • Twitter : @paul_kevin, @mycdbag
    • Filed Under: Interviews