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:

Web Squared – web 2.0 all grown up

August 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Web 2.0 has been all the rage for a number of years now. Coined by O’Reilly media almost six years ago, web 2.0 is a philosophy describing what works optimally on the internet. The key principle of web 2.0 is collective intelligence: the fact that on the internet, you cannot ignore the users and have to respect them as equals when creating websites. web 2.0 thinking is what largely led to a death of all those ugly yellow pop-ups, pop-unders and other attention grabbers. Web 2.0 sites are easy on the eyes and designed to be very usable.

Well, guess what? Web 2.0 evolved into web squared. Basically, web squared is the rise of REAL. What do I mean?

  1. Sites like twitter, friendfeed and even facebook, to some extent, introduce a real time aspect to the internet. ou don’t have to wait until it is available on Google – you can get news on twitter as it happens. The real-time internet is here, or almost here.
  2. The internet of things. Nowadays, all sorts of devices are connected to and interact with the internet. From RFID tags to take wine cellars online to security lights that work off the internet to internet fridges – you name it, it is connected to the internet. You no longer interact with just people on the internet – there are ‘things’ too. The real world meets the internet.

What does this mean for you and I? There is a shift towards real time, and the internet of things. If you are a developer, entrepreneur, inventor, marketer, etc, you should be paying attention.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,

Case Study: Alice & Kev (Make Money Blogging)

August 4, 2009 by 2 Comments


About a month ago, I wrote about an interesting blog: Alice and Kev. Alice and Kev is a blog about life in the fictional world of “The Sims 3” game. Basically, the writer (Robin Burkinshaw) is playing The Sims 3 and then writing about his gaming experience. Pretty simple, right? Well, Robin is a master storyteller and his blog has become wildly successful. So much so that that each “installment” of Alex and Kev has more than 100 comments (this is rare for even the most successful blogs) and it enjoys a very very passionate readership.

Note that this particular blog started out low key as a personal project of Robin’s but because it was just too damn good, it exploded onto the scene and is now very popular. That’s how you build a successful blog: you offer something that is just too damn good; something that is remarkable.

As I’ve always said (to anyone who cares to listen 😛 ), once your website or blog has a dedicated group of people that actively visit/read it, then you can make money with that site/blog. Alice & Kev has a huge number of people who actively and passionately follow it. Therefore, of course, the blog’s owner is making money off it.

How does Alice & Kev make money?
The writer of this blog never intended it to be a commercial money maker and so has not really tried to make as much money off it as he can.

Since the blog is about The Sims 3, Robin has set up a system in which he earns a commission if anyone buys The Sims 3 game after reading Alice & Kev. He’s done this through Amazon’s affiliate program – you help Amazon make sales and they give you a cut of what the buyer pays – this is called affiliate marketing and it is how Alice & Kev makes money.

With his thousands of readers, I’m sure Robin has made some good money. Can you do something similar and earn money too?

Filed Under: Blogging, Case Study Tagged With:

How To Make Money With A Blog

July 31, 2009 by 8 Comments

I once wrote elsewhere, “What is a blog? A web log, which is usually shortened as blog, is a type of website in which entries are made much as in a journal or diary and displayed in chronological order. But that’s just the technical mumbo-jumbo. A blog can be anything you want it to be. Your diary, your magazine, your newspaper, your photo album, whatever.”

Three years later, the definition of a blog hasn’t changed much. Enough with definitions, though – I’m sure many people don’t know (or don’t care) what a blog is. The more important question is, how do you make money from a blog? There are lots of ways to do it, and I shall talk about a few today.

Traffic
Before you even think of earning from your blog, you have to think of how you will attract visitors to your blog. If no one ever reads/views your blog, then you can be certain that you will not make even a single shilling from it. Got it? Good. On the internet, traffic is key.

Please have a look at this: How to build a successful website.

So, how do you make the chapaa?
I shall assume that you have somehow managed to build a successful blog, and that a reasonable number of people visit it everyday. Also, I shall assume that your blog is filled with content (words, videos, pictures, etc) that people find interesting or useful.

Here’s how you make money from such a blog:

Advertising – The obvious way to earn from a blog is by selling advertising space. Look at it this way, you have a good number of readers who visit you everyday – advertisers will be interested in pay to reach those visitors.

There are two ways to earn from advertising:
1. Self served Ads – basically, ou approach a company and tell them that they can advertise on your blog. If they agree, well, you get paid.

2. Advertisement networks – if you don’t want to go through the trouble of approach companies directly to advertise with you, you can join an advertising network where they approach the companies themselves and all you do is display the adverts and earn. This is a very popular way of making money online and thousands of websites (including blogs) survive and thrive on this model. Normally, you are paid a few cents (US $) when someone clicks on an advert. If you have many visitors then you can earn millions.

RSS Advertising – all blogs have an RSS feature. (What is RSS?). The idea is basically the same as above – place adverts in your RSS feed. Feedburner is a popular RSS advertising service.

Sponsorship – You know how Project Fame is sponsored by Tusker? The same thing could happen on your blog and is already happening at a lot of other blogs.

Consulting and Speaking – So you’ve built a really successful blog and it is widely read. This means people will start viewing you as an authority in the topic in which you write about. For example, if you write extensively on relationship advice, you may one day get the opportunity to be a paid get speaker at some event somewhere. Another example: even though Like Chapaa is young, we’re getting offers to act as consultants guiding new internet business owners. The returns are gooood.

Merchandising – In my own opinion, this one is tricky to pull off but it is possible. Suppose that you built such a wildly successful and popular blog named “Example Blog”. Maybe some people would buy and proudly wear Tshirts and other merchandise bearing your blog’s name and logo. Cafepress is powering an increasing number of bloggers to earn in this way.

Digital Assets – Increasing numbers of bloggers have been developing other digital assets to support and add revenue streams to their blogs. By this I mean that I’m increasingly seeing e-books, e-courses and e-seminars being run by bloggers.

Affiliate Programs – basically, this is using your blog to sell other people’s goods and services for a commission. It is one of the most popular ways of earning on any website (not just blogs). Where do you find these goods and services that you can sell at a commission? try: Clickbank, or CJ.

Blog Network Opportunities – Blog Networks are groups of blogs which work together to attract visitors and earn incomes. Blog networks these days are high profile and popular. Joinging such a network could be lucrative. It may not be easy, though. Why should you join a blog network?

Business Blog Opportunities – many companies (internationally, not sure about Kenya) are now starting blogs. (Because blogs are too important to ignore). Some companies use their existing staff to write their blogs. But an increasing number are hiring specialist bloggers to run their blogs for them.

Writing Opportunities – When you have a popular blog, people notice you. They know how good you are at writing on the subject matter of your blog. It is therefore not uncommon for bloggers to get jobs or freelance gigs at magazines and newspapers. (For example: I’ve been approached several times to have things I write on Like Chapaa printed elsewhere).

Flipping Blogs – Build a big beautiful blog and sell it for huge profits. This actually happened with NBB.

Donations – put out the tip jar and ask your readers to support you. It’s a simple concept 😛 Kottke.org is the only example I could find of a blog doing this well.

I realise that just mentioning the above is not good enough. I shall therefore follow up with case studies of each or most of the above methods being successfully used. Stay tuned! Subscribe to my RSS feed (free) or sign up for free email updates so that you don’t miss a thing!

Filed Under: Blogging, Make Money Tagged With: , ,

Receiving Online Payments In Kenya

July 30, 2009 by 116 Comments

Update: PayMPESA Helps Withdraw Your PayPal Funds to MPESA

Update: PayPal now works in Kenya! You can also now withdraw from PayPal through Babawatoto or LibertyReserve.


Anyone who does e-commerce from Kenya or wishes to receive payments online from Kenya knows the pain and hassle of it all. In other countries, the process is pretty straightforward but this is not so here in Kenya. For example, Paypal is the most popular online processing service but it is no good in Kenya. Kenyans using paypal can only send money and not receive it. Is there a way to go round this?

This is a question that was placed before me by Titus in my previous article about accepting payments online. As I sought to answer him, I felt that the answer would be useful to everyone interested in making money in Kenya and hence this post. When deciding on how you want to receive money, the first consideration is deciding who you intend selling to. If you want to sell to people in foreign lands you will face different challenges to that of selling online but to Kenyans within Kenya.

Receiving Money Online From Kenyans In Kenya
Generally, if you want to sell within Kenya, your choices are limited since many Kenyans do not have credit cards and those who do are still reluctant to buy from a website.

That leaves ‘off-line’ payments. These can be cheque, postal order, bank transfer, MPESA, ZAP, etc. Of course the problem with this is a matter of trust. MPESA (and possibly ZAP) is the closest that Kenya comes to an ‘online’ payment system. However, it is still not truly an automated system since the payment has to be processed manually. Here’s how to use MPESA to accept online payments.

Additionally, you can use some of the methods that follow to receive payments via credit card.

Receiving Money Internationally
The problem here is just that Paypal doesn’t work in Kenya. So we need a replacement that is just as good, or better. So I went out looking for third party payment processors who: can work in Kenya; have a solid reputation; seem professional. This is what I came up with:

AlertPay – A friend recommended AlertPay to me and I checked them out (very smooth website) and even signed up for an account with them. They seem to work well and I’d recommend you to try them out. Guess what? You can also make money online with AlertPay.

Other services which should work in Kenya: Moneybookers, Ikobo, 2CO.

If you still really want to use Paypal,it can work if you can get yourself a bank account in a country in which Paypal offers money withdrawal services. Alternatively, you can deposit your Paypal funds in GetAfreelancer (or similar sites) and request them to pay you by bank transfer, for example.

What payment processing method do you use?

Filed Under: Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With:

How To Make Money From Domain Name Parking

July 24, 2009 by 4 Comments

So we’ve learned quite a bit about domain names and domaining in general. You’ve done your research, picked a good domain name and perhaps even registered it. What now? How do you make money from it? There are two main ways you can make money with domain names. One of these is domain name parking and it is what I am talking about today.

Simply put, domain name parking is pointing your domain name to a page, typically containing advertisements. In other words, instead of building a normal website, you “park” your domain. Parking can be used for any of the following: serve as a ‘holder’ while you builds your site (like jayanoris.com), allow people a means to contact you, assess the number of people who visit a website and, finally, earn free money.

How do you earn money by parking your domain? Think of it this way: the ‘parked’ page that your domain is pointing to could contain advertisements. When people click on these adverts, you could earn money. Got it? There are two ways to do this:

1. Domain Name Parking Services
These are people who you partner with to place the adverts on your parked domains. Their adverts are usually contextual, meaning they are configured to math what the visitor to your site is looking for. For example, if someone got to your website by searching for “soccer” on Google, the parking service will display advertisements related to soccer in hopes that this will interest the visitor to click. Cool, eh? Here are some good domain name parking services:

Sedo – Sedo is the most popular domain parking service on the net right now. It is a very professional service with a lot of features available absolutely free. A good thing about Sedo is that it is also one of the largest domain name marketplaces and so you get exposure to people who may want to buy your domain.

Parked.com – Parked.com is solely a parking service, which allows them to focus more on the earning aspect of parked domains. Their payments are higher than those of Sedo.

2. Creating Landing Pages
Instead of sharing the revenue with a domain name parking service, why not create your own parked page? That’s exactly what a landing page is – it is where visitors “land” when they visit your website.

The purpose of a landing page is to make the visitor click on an advertisement or other offer and so the best landing pages are those in which users do not have to scroll at all – everything is displayed the moment the page loads. Also, if you load your page with so many advertisements and pop-ups, pop-unders, and God knows what else it all turns to spam and the visitor will very likely just quit the page. However, if you integrate your ads into the page subtly and classy then you are more likely to get leads and ad clicks. You should also make an attempt to give your landing page a somewhat professional appearance.

To make money from a landing page, you need to have offers or advertisements. Where do you get them?

Google Adsense – Google Adsense is the most popular contextual advertising service today. And for good reason – Adsense has a good targeting feature that gives your visitors ads that are extremely relevant to your domain. Since they’re backed by Google, you can rely on Adsense?s reputation and never have to worry about them not paying out at the end of the month.

Commission Junction – Commission Junction (CJ) specializes in offering products or lead offers to publishers rather than contextual ads. This means you advertise actual products and services of your choosing rather than automatically generated adverts. CJ typically have better pay outs than Adsense.

Other advertising networks you can use.

Hire Us
At Like Chapaa, we create a lot of landing pages for our own sites and clients – we know the business! If you’re stuck on how to go about creating your landing page, why not hire us? We’ll create a professional page and optimize it to make sure you maximise your earnings. We charge Kshs 1,000/- per landing page.

Contact US.

This article is part one of a series of articles that will fully explore making money online from domain names. The other articles in this series are:

1. Introduction
2. Domain Extensions
3. Researching Keywords
4. Domain Name Registration
5. Domain Name Parking
6. Selling Your Domain

Be sure not to miss the final article by subscribing to Like Chapaa (free) or signing up to receive free updates by email.

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: ,

Get A Free Domain Name With CO.cc

July 23, 2009 by 4 Comments

Co.cc gives away free domains such as example.co.cc. The vast majority of domain names are free, though some more popular ones must be paid for. You can use your co.cc domain to either re-direct to your main website, or a domain itself. You’ll need somewhere to host your website, however.

Search for the domain you want – if it’s available, register it today for FREE! Free for life. I registered www.likechapaa.co.cc yesterday (and configured it to redirect to this website). The only catch is that if you don’t “set up” your free domain within 48hrs, you lose it.

If you are still insure of this online thing, why not try it with a free domain?

Filed Under: Cool Sites, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: ,