More Online Jobs

September 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment

More Freelance Jobs

Project Manager – PSD to eCommerce is looking for a talented project manager to handle all the client communication and project management for the company. You will be required to be somewhat knowledgeable with how the PSD to HTML slicing industry works, and how the pricing works. It is a bonus if you understand the eCommerce industry to (Magento, Shopify, wp-ecommerce), but it is not required, you must be willing to learn though.

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. We wish to find someone with experience in programming who also knows the mobile phone usage in East Africa specifically Kenya. The game is about peace keeping and is aimed at young people. If you are interested please contact us with your bio and previous experience, thanks!

Copywriter wanted – Seeking a freelance copywriter for a small web site job. Please send url, examples and your rates to apply or contact me for further info. Preference for those based in Australia.

Content Writer – Need a writer to produce 5-10 fairly extensive articles / blog posts (1,500-2,000 words) on the topic of birthday parties for kids. There may also be ongoing blog work available, but the initial work is for 5-10 posts. We have a template structure for the posts that you’ll be able to follow. Need to be able to do extensive research – link to quality / relevant content. And potentially do some social media marketing as well.

Blogger needed – DigMyDrive is a new Website that allows members to ‘give their take’ on topics in specific driving categories. We are looking for bloggers to take on each category, posting 3-5 blogs per week on newsworthy topics or topics relevant to category members.

Experienced Flash Developer – Digital Aisle, the leader in interactive touch screen applications, is seeking an experienced Flash Developer.

Interface design – We are looking to build a music sharing website and need an excellent designer. We only require the HTML / CSS / PSD deliverable. You must love design, and be obsessed by perfection in design. Please send a long copies of your previous work and expected pay.

Freelance web designer and developer – We are a new social venture (not for profit) looking for a designer and web developer to develop an on-line marketplace.

Weekly newsletter article writer – Generation X Finance is an established personal finance blog that targets readers in the 25-45 age demographic. Topics generally include investing, saving for retirement, banking, taxes, and tips on saving money. In addition to the regular blog posts Generation X Finance has an email newsletter that goes out weekly. Each newsletter will generally feature a short 250-500 word original article covering some relevant topic. In addition to the short article there are links to three of the most recent blog posts with a brief introduction.

Finally, Some Hot Freelance Jobs


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How to get an online job.
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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.

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Ever Thought Of Building An Online Community? [Interview]

September 3, 2009 by 2 Comments

For the readers that don’t know, our interviewee today, Francis, is the founder of The Young Professionals Google Group, a java guru, and a successful internet entrepreneur. He sells e-books as well as advertisements on his Google group. Bwana Francis is also the chairman of the League of Young Professionals – a club in which I am a member.

Q. You’re quite an achiever, tell us about you
I am a software developer by profession and a social entrepreneur by choice. My passion is to see how we can tap the incredible power of web 2.0 technologies (specifically on communication and collaboration) to create great communities and then harness their power and influence to create capacity to solve problems, produce ideas and valued products. There are various tools and applications that individuals, groups, organizations and businesses use/ can use among them message boards, blogs, websites and web portals, mailing lists, news sites, SMS solutions, social sites like twitter and facebook etc

YP Google group is just one of such tool we are using to create a community of passionate young professionals who have a shared purpose of developing themselves and building a better Kenya.

To illustrate the enormous power of such technologies and the online communities around them, one needs to look at the role they played in the election of President Barrack Obama. Voters were reminded via SMS to go vote, could follow the updates of their candidate on Twitter & Facebook, huge amount of campaign money raised online as well as having vibrant discussion of issues on blogs, message boards and mailing lists. We do also have fortune 500 companies who have companies’ weblogs for their staff to blog about the personal life and their companies’ products. The ascendance of free and open source software can also be attributed to this.

Q. How did it start?
It started when I was doing my BSC in computer science. I become passionate about programming by seeing it is possible to create applications which can be used to solve a real problem. Once I got into web technologies, through curiosity and experimentation I looked at the available tools that could be used to achieve the goal, and a Google group and facebook group were the entry points. With time, I and the team I work with, shall be churning out a more integrated platform of all the technology to build great web portal

Q. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Most of the challenges were intrinsic (within), and I mean the prejudices and bias that the environment taught me as I grew up. Mostly everyone believes after campus you should be employed and not to experiment with ideas and risk. To overcome such I had to unlearn what I have been taught so that I could absorb new ideas and perceptions.

Secondly, IT is a field that requires specialized technical expertise some of which is rarely taught in schools. For example, to build my programming skills I had to proactively learn the java programming language for over four years through self study.

Q. What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Kenya?
There are two sets of challenges, one uniquely specific to internet industry and secondly the challenges of any business startup or initiative.

With regard to 1st, the % of Kenyans who have access and use internet regularly is around 8.6% of the total population as compared to countries like USA who have above 46% usage. So a large percentage of the population doesn’t access any product, service or platform that is internet based.

With regard to the 2nd, among the top challenges I can pinpoint that cuts across all industries in Kenyan context are firstly getting funds to finance your venture, secondly fierce competition from established and large global companies and thirdly building a successful business requires a large investment of your time and needs patience and commitment

Q. What was critical to your success?
It’s hard to single out one or a few since I believe it’s a whole set of skills which I could call the winning combination, but they generally fall in 3 domains.

  1. My ability and the passion to learn. Generally I buy & read at least 2 books (mostly on business & management) a month.
  2. Technical expertise. My programming skills are very good and I never cease to try to become even more qualified. I am always sharpening my saw, learning new skills and craft I need to get something done, being more competent either in programming or any other roles
  3. Emotional Intelligence. Mastered myself, can manage myself and my relationship with others. Can easily understand my emotions and the behavior of others.

All the three orchestrated together, I can say they are what is critical to my success.

Q. What about the competition and marketing, do you need to advertise, print flyers participate to conferences or is it mostly word of mouth?
Mostly through word of mouth and email marketing.

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?
Definitely that is a myth. Making money online is possible since I am making quite a lumpsome. You just need to have the right product, well priced and packaged and target the right audience.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your business (es) in the next 5 years?
I believe we shall have built the required competences and products to provide communication & collaboration solutions, be it to political parties, large organizations, community groups, NGOs, Small and Medium Enterprises and well as having flagship enterprise applications for mass usage.

Q. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Not really, same direction but different routes. With experience I have come to know which works and which doesn’t work. Definitely I would avoid the latter, while only keeping the former.

Q. What advice do you have for internet business entrepreneurs in Kenya?
I will quote Charlotte Bunch who once said “We do not need, and indeed never will have all the answers before we act…… It is often through taking action that we can discover some of them.” Lets not be afraid to try and fail, it’s through trying, failing, having false head starts that we can only make great reaps ahead.

That’s all for today readers. If you’d like to hear more of Francis, please join the YP Google group and The League of Young Professionals. You can also reach him at the following:

Email – francis.mwangi.chege[at]yahoo.com
Alt – francis.mwangi.chege[at]gmail.com
Phone +254 721 663 208
On Twitter – https://twitter.com/francismwangi
On Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php#/profile.php?id=1579110764&ref=profile

PS Francis has a very good deal on a package of 800+ ebooks.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: ,

Do You Also Want To Be A Successful Freelancer? [Interview]

August 26, 2009 by 20 Comments

For the readers that don’t know, our interviewee today is an accomplished freelancer from right here in Kenya! She’s one of the most successful local freelancers I have heard of, having won a one year government tender to offer writing and editorial services for a regulatory state corporation recently. Imagine that! Our interviewee pens her thoughts at: http://kenyanfreelancer.blogspot.com. You can also find her on her website: www.smurtnotes.com

Q. You’re quite an achiever, tell us about you.

Thank you for having me here. I am writer, blogger, editor and proofreader. I found my passion in writing about a year ago and decided to pursue it, at first on a part time basis before taking it up full time at the beginning of the year.

Q. How did you start?

I started freelancing by chance. I had been working in corporate Kenya since leaving collage and my last FT job was in the banking sector. Upon leaving the bank and back into the overcrowded job market, I was searching for a job when I chanced upon an online magazine (nairobi.tujuane.com; I still write for them) searching for contributors/freelancers for their business magazine. With little knowledge about online writing but a salient passion and determination for writing, I put forward my application and like they say, the rest is history.

Q. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

The people over at tujuane were very supportive, understanding and offered the much needed help. However, the reality of working as a freelancer hit me so hard that it took me a while to adjust. Without a regular work schedule, daily commuting and no boss to answer to, at first it seemed like an easy thing to do, but it took an enormous amount of determination and self-discipline on my part to make it work.

I was also battling with the idea of telling people that I freelance which I must say is somewhat new here in Kenya. (Interestingly, saying you freelance is coded to suggest that one has no regular FT job hence searching). But after much thought, I realized what I did/do is no different than what people with a 9-5 do, just that I work from a home office with my own set of rules, structures and schedules and a very demanding boss-me. This has helped me greatly.

Q. What are the challenges of being a freelancer in Kenya?

Getting people to understand that being a freelancer is not about lazing around the house in your pyjamas and a bowl of pop-corn seated in front of the TV, while others are busy working out there. It’s still difficult to explain to people that I work from my home office, at times working 10-12 hours a day.

There is also the notion that one is not a professional or cannot deliver to par as those working in an office setting.

Finding clients has been an uphill task as Kenyans have been socialized to believe a 9-5 or operating an office outside your house is how one should be making a living. But, I must say this perception is changing, thanks in part to technology that has made it easier and fast to communicate with one’s clients anywhere in Kenya and/or the world.

Q. What was critical to your success?

Having a vision and believing in my abilities. I have also continuously sought to improve my skills by reading widely and attending workshops that can impart the necessary skills needed to be successful.

I am also a risk taker as I believe one can only know the extent of their abilities by taking wise and well calculated chances. Toss in a bit of luck, passion and drive; and you have a winning formula.

I do not view my freelancing as a hobby but as a business, thus putting in place the necessary business structures to support it.

Q. What about the competition and marketing? Do you need to advertise, print flyers participate in conferences or is it mostly through word of mouth?

I can say most of my clients are through word of mouth, networking, knocking on people’s doors and contacts I make at conferences. Having a presence online (blog) has greatly contributed to my marketing efforts. My business card acts as my marketing tool by clearly stating what I do and how I do it.

As for competition, I do not worry about it as the market is large enough for any one person, let alone a multitude, to fully exhaust it. It also depends with one’s line of work, how specialised, demand and market forces.

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?

I do believe, as long as you have high speed internet, patience, persistence and good judgment when it comes to making a living online, it does not really matter where you work from. I personally started writing online and still do, before sourcing for clients’ offline.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your business(es) in the next 5 years?

When I made the decision to freelance full time, I ensured to put in place a strategy that will chart my path to accomplishing my goals and vision such as working with a large corporation or even the government-but in the distant future, say, in three years time. But, this came sooner than expected and have had to make adjustments to my plans for bigger things. In the next five years, I hope to have made significant strides by having a freelance agency where businesses, government and NGOs can come to and source for highly skilled freelance professionally for their projects here in Kenya.

Q. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

To be honest, I wouldn’t change a thing as I have learned so much during my short stint as a freelancer and still do. The only thing I would say… why didn’t I start this sooner!

Q. What advice do you have for internet business entrepreneurs in Kenya?

Just choose an internet service provider that charges for unlimited usage on a monthly basis. This will save you the first headache of working online/remotely without running a huge bill on internet usage. Trust me on this!

Have a contingency plan just incase things do not go as planned e.g. the current power rationing or how to meet your deadlines and other obligations when you are under the weather.

Last but not least, there are so many scams out there and one has to be very careful when venturing into internet business. Google is there to help you filter companies/individuals that want to make you a statistic of scammed individuals online. Just search for companies that you feel are not genuine or suspicious. You maybe surprised what comes of it.

For aspiring freelancers, one thing that needs to be clarified and understood is that not everyone can/should freelance let alone do it successfully. It takes guts, passion, determination and vision, and of course, an entrepreneurial spirit to make it.

Good luck and all the best.

That’s all for today readers. If you’d like to read more, please visit:
Smurt Notes Editorial
http://kenyanfreelancer.blogspot.com
twitter.com/kenyafreelancer

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: ,

Looking For A Job?

August 24, 2009 by Leave a Comment

More Freelance Jobs

Bloggers Wanted – We’re looking for several talented blog writers to join our team of writers at www.webdesignerdepot.com, a popular blog dealing with web design. Compensation for each article accepted varies depends on length and complexity (average $150) and the position is available on a freelance basis only. Articles must be about web design topics as well as tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator and others.

Adobe Air Developer – Kerosene Creative Services is a Chicago/Los Angeles based digital advertising firm specializing in the entertainment and lifestyle business sectors. Were create innovative strategies and executions for some of the biggest Hollywood films.

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.

Photography Blogger – www.Digital-Photography-School.com/ is looking for a feature writer to provide content for it’s blog on a weekly basis (from 1-3 posts per week – to be negotiated). Posts need to be of a high quality and display a knowledge of digital photography.

Blog Writer For Employment Site – Employed Online is hiring for our work from home blogger position. This position is home based and so reliable internet connection and a computer are necessary to being hired. What you will be doing is researching various topics and information that will be given to you, such as job trends, articles, and other information. You will then write short descriptive articles on your findings. You will be paid bi-weekly through PayPal if available or through other means decided upon after hiring.

Freelance Flash Work – I have 5 .swf files. I need to have them play in order within one .swf. I don’t have the original .fla. This is a one time project, but I will keep your contact info on hand for future work. Give me a quote and time frame for the project. If you need more info just message me. Thanks and I look forward to working with you

Talented Freelance Writer Wanted – Suite101.com is looking for talented writers who can write a minimum of 3 non-fiction articles between 400-600 words each month. As a Suite101 writer, you can enjoy the freedom to write what you want, when you want and earn a competitive income off your articles over the lifetime of your career – even if you decide to stop writing for us.

Drupal Developer – We’re looking for an experienced Drupal developer to work together with our development team in Toronto. We’ve been developing Drupal sites for almost 3 years, we’re growing and we’re looking for new talent to join our team.

Engineering Blogger – Knovel (www.knovel.com) is an online technical resource that helps engineers innovate and solve complex problems faster by providing instant access to trusted technical information. We are looking to expand our online presence, and are seeking an Engineer, or Engineering Student, to be a featured writer on our blog (www.knovelblogs.com)

Freelance Web Designer – create a website for a band to fit many genres of music.

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: , , , ,

Freelancing – The Art of Making Money Online By Using Your Skills

August 12, 2009 by 5 Comments

If thoughts of freelancing have already been making rounds in your head for some time now, it’s time to give it a definite shot! One of the biggest advantages of freelancing is that it can be done from any part of the world as long as you have Internet access. From Kenya to India, and from Philippines to Mexico, as companies cut back on their expenses and staff numbers, they are increasingly seeking help from outside-freelancers. So, if you have expertise and experience, then it’s time to make the most of it by starting to sell them.

If you are now ready to read more…Congratulations! Let’s get started.

So, what are you planning to sell? That’s the first question you need to answer. What skill(s) can you sell you earn money? Whether you are good at marketing, advertising, web design, programming, ghostwriting, candle making, interior decoration, photography, child care, pet care, etc, etc…start planning your freelance business now.

If your skill matches the demand in the market, you should be off to an easy start. However, if you have a unique skill, you may have to struggle a bit at the start to create a demand. Once the demand is generated, you should be able to maintain dominance and expand your freelance business with patience and focus.

Ok, you have the skills. Now what about the set up? Much like most start-up businesses, you’ll need to get some basic things together. Some of the most important tools for freelancing include:

  1. Computer/Laptop – We live in a technology driven world. Not being able to use a computer is frowned upon from Kenya to China. So, get a decent computer to maintain records, correspond with your clients, and do research related to your niche.
  2. Internet connection – This for sure is one of the most important things to have. For Kenyans wanting to start freelancing, a hi-speed Internet connection is indispensable. It’s the BEST way to look for work, research for it, and deliver it. Even if you have a field business, you would require a reliable Internet connection to communicate with your clients.
  3. Website or blog – A website address is like an office address in the virtual world. Nowadays, having your own website is as important as having a business card or a telephone. There is simply no reason why a freelancer should not have a website. Can you do e-commerce if you are not online? No. Can potential customers who hear about you check you out later on the internet if you do not have a website? No again. Can current customers find out what your new offerings are if you lack a website? Not easily.
  4. Telephone/Mobile Phone – Get a new telephone number for your freelance business. This will ensure that your personal calls and business calls are segregated. Also if you don’t already have a mobile phone, this would be a good time to buy one so that you can stay connected with your clients even on the move.
  5. Printer – Being able to print emails, financial records, information etc easily, can be extremely helpful to you as freelancer. So invest in a good printer with decent print quality. The AIOs (All-in-Ones – Printer, scanner, and copier) can really help you run your freelance business efficiently.

Finally, you’ll need to learn how to get an online job! That’s it, you’re ready to start!

I cannot stress enough on the importance of a website, however simple, as you set forth freelancing. And is a website hard to get? No. You can get one very suitable for freelancing at just 100 Kenyan shillings. Go for it!

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