People Are Doing It!

May 16, 2010 by 2 Comments

I’m a happy guy today! 😀

See, I just got an unexpected income. It is not much, but it is income all the same. Online income. The real story, is how I got this income. The only way I could have got this income is if one of you clicked on one of the Freelancer.com links found here and then went on to successfully do a job on Freelancer.com and get paid.

What does this mean? Well, it means that other Like Chapaa readers just like you are making money online! Making money online is just as easy/hard as it is anywhere else – you just need a sound plan and hard work. I know you have a plan of some sorts, but have you done anything with it? Why not?

No one ever succeeded by doing nothing. Do something, anything!

Filed Under: Make Money, Online Jobs Tagged With:

Jua More – All About Book Reviews

May 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Jua MoreWell, we’ve gone out and launched a new site: www.juamore.com

Why did we launch a book review site? Well, the short story is that we launched it to prove a point. See, a while back I wanted to start a magazine so I went out seeking support for the idea. One unfortunately ill-advised lady tore down my idea by claiming, “Kenyans do not read”. Hogwash! I’m a Kenyan and I read!

The long story: I feel that the book “industry” is not well covered in the Kenyan online ‘space’.

There’s no one site that is known primarily for its focus on books. I know that some sites do exist, but none of them are yet ‘big enough’ for us not to be able to compete with. So, yes, we launched Jua More to compete for attention in the Kenyan online ‘space’ for books and book related things. We’re coming from humble beginnings, as an outright underdog and we relish the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test our mettle against bigger fish.

The idea isn’t quite fully thought out yet – we prefer to just do things once an idea gets us excited enough. However, we’re stating with book reviews because:

  1. We love books
  2. I love reading books and I can read and review them in truckloads.
  3. We would like to grow into the ‘place’ where you can find reviews on all your favorite books, especially Kenyan books.

Of course there are other plans, this is just the beginning. Once we get our wits about us, we’ll do more with the site. We’re looking to partner with book sellers, authors and book publishers. Are you interested in partnering with us? The writers among you may be pleased to know that we’ll be hiring writers in a while.

Later on, we may start a fully fledged online bookshop. 🙂

Please read more about Jua More, the place for Kenyan book reviews.

What do you think of this? Why not get involved?

Filed Under: Cool Sites, Miscellaneous Tagged With:

When ‘Best Practices’ Don’t Work

May 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This is the story of how Dropbox, a cloud storage company, went from having 100,000 users to 4million users in fewer than two years. Amazing, eh? Watch the slideshow:

Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

View more presentations from gueste94e4c.

I find the presentation to be quite inspiring. Incase you didn’t/can’t watch it, it tells the story of a young company struggling to bring their product to market. At first, they experiment with traditional ‘best practice’ marketing methods. They realise that these methods fail horribly and decide to switch tact – this proves to be a smart move as their customer acquisition rate increased rapidly.

It just goes to show that when you are staring your own business, you have to be “hands on” and you have to think inside, outside and around the box. The important thing is to be bold enough to actually try something – when it doesn’t work, change it and try something else. As long as your are not basing your decisions on ignorance then your smart management will probably improve your business position.

Hubspot has a nice article on 5 lessons learnt from the dropbox slideshow.

What did you learn?

I loved the statement: search engines are a way to harvest demand, not create it.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: ,

Drop-shipping (and other) secrets

May 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Are you making any money online?

I’d say one of the most satisfying ways to make money online is to actually sell a physical “good”; to open up your own little (or big) shop and just sell something. Would you like to do that?

Well, you’re in luck. I’ve just got word of a wonderful opportunity to learn about several product sourcing methods that you can use for your online shop. What is product sourcing? Think of it this way: you need “things” to sell in an online (or any) shop. Product sourcing is the process of getting these ‘things’.

Worldwide Brands have a nice set of videos that teach you a lot about product sourcing for online shops. I’d say that the videos can also easily be applied to normal brick and mortar shops.

Here’s the link: Learn about product sourcing. Click and go watch. The people over at Worldwide Brands will teach you how to really profit from selling physical products online.

Good luck. 🙂

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business Tagged With:

An Opportunity to Learn

May 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard of the League of Young Professionals? Well, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that the LYP has a nice event coming up. I thought I’d let you know about it.

There’s going to be a LYP meeting this Thursday evening (6th May, 2010) at Marble Arch Hotel from 5.45pm to 7.45pm. (Its on Lagos Road, near the Nairobi Fire station). Here’s a map to the place: Location of Marble Arch Hotel.

After a brief discussion of internal LYP matters (the formation of an investment club!), there will be a discussion with some entrepreneurs on challenges and opportunities one can expect as one engages in investing activities.

Thereafter, there shall be the main presentation by Jimnah Mbaru – an internationally renowned investment banker, and CEO and Chairman of Dyer and Blair Investment Bank who will be talking about Investments.

I think it is a perfect opportunity for you, dear readers, to socialise, network and learn more. I shall be attending. See you there?

The meeting is free to attend, but please carry Kshs 250/- to cater for some light refreshments.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With:

Making Money From Trends

April 26, 2010 by 5 Comments

Look and seeYou know how twitter has ‘trending topics’? Just visit twitter and you’ll see a list of topics that are being discussed the most. You get what I mean?

Google also has a ‘trends’ feature, but it is much bigger than Twitter’s trending section. Google Trends tracks what people are searching for and displays the most popular web searches over a certain amount of time. Visit their site and see for yourself: Google Insights For Search.

During the height of the Esther Arunga madness in Kenya, Esther Arunga became one of the most searched for terms on Google in Kenya. What does this mean? Well, you have here a unique opportunity to make money online! What if there existed a website that talked of nothing but Esther Arunga? This site would have gotten tens of thousands of visitors when Arunga was all over the news. The site would probably have made some money, too. Nice, eh?

What I am trying to say is that a quick, nice, and easy way to make money on the net is to build sites around popular topics, and make money off them. An example of this is quite common in the more developed countries: when a new movie or computer game is about to be released, tens of websites spring up that are about the new movie or game. These websites are all set up by opportunists trying to cash in on the buzz that will be generated by the new movie or game. Similarly, if someone set up a site just when Arunga’s madness hit, they’d probably be very happy with themselves right now.

Google insights for search is an excellent tool for tracking trends. However, if you rely on it you’d be too late! The trick is to find the trend before it starts or very early (before it runs out of steam), then quickly set up a website that is heavy on information regarding the trending event, topic or person. Then, slap Adsense on the site (or find another monetization strategy – perhaps you could sell T shirts, I do not know) and watch the money roll in.

The basic idea is that because a particular topic is popular, lots of people will be searching for information on it online. As in the Esther Arunga case, there was no one site that exclusively covered her story. If such a site existed, then the owners would have gotten a lot of the traffic generated by the Arunga buzz. You can apply these same principles to any other popular or trending topic.

Idea: The debate on the new constitution and the upcoming referendum are only just getting started. By the time we’re getting to vote, they will probably be the only news in town. Why not set up a simple website in anticipation of this? Think about it. Nickel Pro could help you if you need help or advice. 🙂

What else could be popular online? Can you capitalize on it?

Cheers, and good luck.

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: , ,

A Better, Easier Way To Succeed In Business

April 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This is a little book with big ideas. Written by the founders of 37Signals, it is meant for new business owners and people aspiring to start their own businesses. The book teaches simple lessons (that you may have heard of before) in a clear and simple way, giving real world examples.

It is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Download it here:

[download id=”30″]

About the authors: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are the founders of 37signals—a trailblazing software company that produces products used by millions of people around the world. They have been profiled in publications like Time, Newsweek, and Wired. They’re also contributors to Signal vs. Noise, one of the Web’s most popular blogs. To learn more about Rework and 37signals, go to 37signals.com.

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: