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: ,

How To Actually Start A Business

July 22, 2009 by 2 Comments

If you have read a lot about starting a business, you’ve probably seen over and over that it’s not so difficult. It just takes determination, hard work and patience. This is all true. For most people the problem usually comes in actually starting. You know like when you really want to do or say something but you just don’t know how to start? I put together a couple of steps to help starters get past that starting point.

Decide what you want to do – This should be fairly simple. You must have had some idea in order to want to start a business. Something that you are good at and you actually enjoy doing. It can be writing, marketing, advertising, selling, chocolate bunnies, pretty much anything sells these days. Most people have the idea in their heads, how they are going to make millions, start their own ‘apprentice’ show or something like that. You basically need a plan, not many go as far as Scofield by getting it tattooed all over their body but you get the point, decide what you want to do and have a plan.

Do the research – Check out the field you want to join and even better know the ‘who is who’ in it. Who is likely to be your mentor, who is going to be competition, who can help you out, who to look up to, who to aim to beat. All of these different people will come in handy at different points later on. Through this research you also get more insight and maybe new ideas on how to operate that you had not thought of or maybe even discover things that are not already offered that you can bring in.

Get a website – A website is becoming increasingly crucial in running any kind of business today. It is very important to have good stuff on your site, stuff that people will want to know, don’t just copy and paste from some other sites or pick up other people’s articles. I’ve seen many people complain about the state of Kenyan websites and how they are not up to standard, and seen even more people ripped off by cons selling clone sites. To save you any misfortune I recommend Nickel Pro for your website design, management, hosting and all your web needs.

Get clients– This is the part that needs a lot of hard work and patience. You have everything set, your website running, all that is left is getting clients. You need to let people know that you are out there, what you have to offer and why they should get it from you and not your competitors. There are many ways to do this. You can start a blog of your own, leave comments on other peoples blogs, get into forums, chat rooms, write articles, send emails, do everything. Even the old school African way, tell your family, friends and neighbors and tell them to spread the word.
A big mistake most people make in this part is doing this blindly. Before you start advertising yourself, decide who you want as clients, a target group. After narrowing it down to a specific people advertising is easier and if you do it right most of it will pay back.

Keep clients – Now you have a running business and a bunch of clients yay! It’s not yet time to relax though. In fact, it’s sometimes harder keeping your clients happy than it is just getting them. They came to you because they think you can do the job right. All you have to do is prove to them that you are better than everyone else and make sure they don’t regret picking you. How you treat your clients is very important. Update your website with information they need to know, reply to their comments on your site, answer their emails in time, give them high quality products, timely deliveries and do everything you can to make sure they are comfortable.

Launches – Yes launches, not lunches. One reason why a lot of on line businesses do not succeed is lack of stimulation. If you offer the same thing, over and over, after a while it gets to be kinda boring. To keep your business alive you need to have a launch maybe once every two or three months. Depending on what your business is.
What is a launch? It involves bringing in something new, a fresh idea to your business. For example we had Host a Charity a while back and Biashara30 right now, which is starting soon by the way so sign up if you haven’t yet. These new and different things that you bring in give your business a little spice. Launches also give your clients something to look forward to, makes your duty interesting too since you have to find something new every so often plus it offers an opportunity for you to get new clients due to the new additions to your business can be services or products.

So stop thinking about how you are going to do it and postponing, the sooner you start that business the sooner you start becoming rich 🙂

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business Tagged With: , ,

Domain Name Registration

July 22, 2009 by 1 Comment

Alright, we’ve had an introduction to domaining and domain names, domain extensions and how to get good quality domain names. What are we trying to do? We’re learning how to make money from buying and selling (at a profit) domain names. If you aren’t yet aware, selling domain names can earn you thousands (of US dollars) per sale. At what cost? A typical domain names costs 800 bob.

Today, we shall go through the process of buying a domain name. This is called domain registration. Now, I’ll be honest: I have no idea of how registration works from the technical point of view. Honestly, though, you may never need to know how the back end works.

Simply put, you buy domain names from Domain Registrars. They are licensed to sell domain names by ICANN. Once you buy a domain with a registrar, they put it into the registry and mark it as owned by you – so that no one else can register it later. Domain registration fees are paid when you register a domain and are charged annually. Once you buy a domain, it is yours in every way and you can manage it as you like.

Factors To Consider When Buying Domain Names
Registration Cost – Domain costs can range from $10 to $2,000 depending on the extension so it pays to shop around and get the best deal. However, as with everywhere else,you get what you pay for. You may buy a domain at $1.99 and get pue hell. It’s a fine balance of cost and quality that you cant to be looking for.

Domain Management – As I’ve said above, don’t get caught up looking for cheap domain names and forget that a good registrar should offer more than just registration services. Having the ability to manage your domains well is critical and a good registrar should have, at the very least, the following:

  • Ability to set DNS (domain name server)
  • Ability to modify your domain address
  • Ability to setup a URL redirect
  • Private Whois option available
  • Ability to manage multiple domains from a single account
  • Automatic renewal or renewal notification long before the annual registration fee is due

Customer Service – Sometimes you need help in one way or another, especially when you are new to domaining. It would help if your registrar is responsive and helpful. A good way to tell if the registrar has good customer service is to email them before ordering and judge the speed and quality of their responses.

Where Can You Buy Domain Names
Web Host Kenya Ltd – Many people look for good, reliable Kenyan domain registrars (to get those .co.ke domains) with little luck. Web Host Kenya is a diamond in the dust! A bit pricey for international domains, though.

Name.com – I have used this service for a while now and I have absolutely no complaints. They offer everything that you need as well as some extras (like Google Apps for domains integration).

Namecheap – They have a fantastic reputation and a huge amount of satisfied customers. They make transferring domains a breeze which is important to consider since domainers are constantly buying and selling new domains.

GoDaddy – GoDaddy is a popular registrar. They also have a good domain management system and fantastic customer support.

Other recommended places that you can buy domain names:
Dotster.com
Network Solutions

How To Save Money When Registering Domains
A little-known way of saving money during domain name registration is using coupons. When buying a domain name, there is usually a place where they ask for a coupon code – if you put one in, you get a discount!

Here’s a few places you can get coupons:
DNCoupons
Happy Coupons
Coupon Cache
Daily eDeals

Don’t Have A Credit Card?
If you don’t have a credit card or debit card, your domaining career is going to be difficult to start as almost all the above registrars accept payment only online. We can help, though (and cheap too). Basically, we have a credit card so if you do not have one, we can register the domain name of your choice for you after you pay us in cash, cheque or by MPESA.

Our charges:
International domain names – $10 (Kshs 800) per year
Local domain names – Kshs 4,000/- per year

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 any of these articles by subscribing to Like Chapaa (free) or signing up to receive free updates by email.

Filed Under: Make Money, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With:

Can Your Mom Also Work From Home?

July 18, 2009 by 1 Comment

More and more moms are now starting their own home-based businesses and we say – good for them!

As the Internet unifies the world, as geographical boundaries disappear,
online money making ideas for work at home moms or WAHMs are on the rise. If you are an educated, talented, experienced professional mother, with at least basic knowledge of using the computer, the Internet is your playground! As more and more women in Kenya open up to the idea of being financially independent, becoming a mother may dampen their plans, albeit temporarily. Staying at home to take care of your child can be a tough decision and one that could have had damaging effects on your career. But now all you mothers can start your own business from the comfort of your home. After all, there are plenty of money making choices for work at home moms online now-a-days.

Online Money making ideas for WAHMs
Freelance Writing – A fantastic way to sell your skills and experience when you want, how you want, and without too much stress. Yes, whether you are good at storytelling, writing informative, research-based content, or simply have a way with word, you can sell your writing skills to people who require them. You can demand your price, choose your delivery period and start earning money. A great place to start is GetAFreelancer, Guru or Elance.

Selling Something? – Do you make crafty things like kiondos, carvings and suchlike? Or do you know where you can get them cheap? Why not sell them online? There’s nothing to lose, you don’t need to be a computer whiz to set up shop. Try etsy .

Graphic Design – Every business require well crafted graphics for promoting and representing their product/service from time to time. Not even businesses, kawa people need posters hata! If you are a skilled hand with graphic designing then this is your best online money making idea. A great
place to start is GetAFreelancer, Guru or Elance.

Virtual Assistant – You used to be a secretary, or receptionist, or personal assistant? Or can you do everyday office administration duties (like filing, reading and responding to emails, etc). How about data entry? You can do it online by becoming a virtual assistant. Have a look
at this site virtualassistants.

Teaching – Are you really good at something? Anything..like singing, dancing, designing, etc, this is the best time to fulfill this dream and then use it to make money online! Yes, if you sing like a nightingale why not start your own singing classes? How about teaching dance to kids and other moms in your neighborhood? Simply send out flyers and advertise in the local media to get started. Better yet, get a website at Nickel Pro and offer online classes – just make a video of yourself teaching and re-use it (read re-sell it) hundreds of times.

It’s important for you to understand that you may make mistakes initially. Don’t get disheartened by these mistakes. However, once you have decided what you want to do, make sure that you organize your life and time accordingly so that you are able to reduce stress and have a more productiveday. After all, planning, organizing, and managing are the 3 cornerstones to any good business and you already know this because you are a smart, intelligent and experience professional woman.

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

Domain Name Extensions

July 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The domain name extension is the tail end of the domain name and is predefined by ICANN. You know, the part that comes after the dot. For example, the .com or .org. Once upon a time, there were just a handful of different domain name extensions to choose from. The choice used to between .com for commercial organizations, .net for network services such as ISPs and .org for non-profit organizations. On a country by country basis, many countries offered domains based on the two-character ISO country codes, such as “.fr” for France, “.ke” for Kenya and so on.

Then the picture became more complicated, with more and more domain names and alternatives springing up until we were left with the mess that is the current domain name industry. And it’s going to get messier with new domains coming in 2010.

It would, however, be unnecessary to go through the history of domain name extensions so I’ll only cover the bare basics. Extensions come in two forms: Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) – which includes .com, .net, .org, .gov and some others; and Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) – like .co.ke, co.uk, .ca etc. Note that a ccTLD is usually worth significantly less than a gTLD.

TLD stands for TOP Level Doman. The .com, for example, is the top/first level. What are the other levels? I’ll illustrate using an example. In www.jobs.problogger.com, the .com is top level, the second level is “problogger” and the third, and final level, called a subdomain, is the “jobs”. Same case for likechapaa.com. The “likechapaa” is the second level domain in this case.

As Domainer, the first and second levels are the only ones you need to worry about. However, there have been rare cases of very valuable third level domains. An example is the massively popular del.icio.us. These are few and far between, though – you can afford to focus on the first and second levels exclusively.

The Value Of domain Name Extensions
Undoubtedly, the .com extension is the most valuable TLD and domains with this extension usually sell like hot cakes and at premium prices. Seventy Eight (78) of top 100 domain sales this year have been .com domains. Another example: sex.net was sold for $450,000/- a couple of years ago. Sex is a very popular word and the sale was a good and tasty one, right? Well, get this, Sex.com sold for $14 Million.

I would say that the domain values are usually like so:
1. .com
2. .org /.net
3. Everything else

Keep in mind that there are a ton more domain extensions (including our own .co.ke) but once you go beyond the gTLDs it is not easy to figure out which domain is actually worth more than the others.

As a domainer, it is important to keep up with what ICANN is up to as the domains industry is largely shaped by ICANN policies. Sometimes, ICANN releases a set of new TLDs and jumping on them could be very lucrative. When the .mobi extension was released, some clever guy registered mortages.mobi and later sold it for a sweet $10,500/- less than a month after that TLD was open for registration. Could this be you some day?

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 any of these articles by subscribing to Like Chapaa (free) or signing up to receive free updates by email.

Filed Under: Internet Culture, Make Money Tagged With: ,

You Also Want These Jobs?

July 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment

More Freelance Jobs

Looking for OLPC News writers. OLPC News is the premier independent community following the One Laptop Per Child project, and we’re seeking Africa-based bloggers to cover XO laptop deployments around the continent, and around the world.

Are you a Relationship expert? Examiner.com, a Quantcast Top 100 website, is growing and looking for FREELANCE WRITERS (we call them “Examiners”) to share local insights, knowledge and experience. It’s a great way to cover what you love and communicate what’s happening in your city.

Are you a fan of TV? If you love watching TV, this is the perfect opportunity for you. This opportunity is for affiliate TV show data superloggers who can work from home with our emerging start-up, Moogi. As an affiliate superlogger, you will be responsible for a TV show of your preference. (You can elect to log more than one show) An affiliate TV data superlogger is similar to a wiki master, but instead specializes in generating rich informational data specific to TV shows.

Can you write for the web? Can you take jargon filled technical copy and turn it into an engaging read? Do you understand the role good editorial plays in a brand’s ‘personality’? Can you write snappy headlines? Can you get people to register, sign-up, click the ‘read more’ link? Got some samples you’d like to share? Ok then. Lets chat. We need your help in the run up to a re-launch of our business site. You’ll get all the technical content you can stand and slightly less time than you’ll need to make it interesting.

Bathhouse Experience? We are currently accepting submissions for inclusion in a non-fiction anthology covering gay bathhouse experiences both domestically and internationally. Writers are encouraged to fictionalize exact names and locations to protect the privacy of others, though stories should be based on personal experience, either direct or indirect. Writers will be compensated $50 per published piece.

Freelance Writing Jobs. At Suite101, our focus is our commitment to supporting freelance writers. Whether your goal is to publish articles, earn more income, hone your writing skills or create new career opportunities, Suite101 is here to assist you every step of the way.

Cell Phone Writer. Do You Love Gadgets, Cell Phones, and everything related to Mobile and Wireless? Mobile Maven, the Cell Phones.org blog, is looking for a full time blogger to blog about everything that’s going on in the wireless industry.

Appfrica Labs Seeks Web UI Designer. Appfrica Labs (appfrica.org) is looking to hire a part-time Web UI Designer for a number of our forthcoming web apps and a number of data visualizations. The position will pay based on experience and may turn into a full-time offering in a few months.

Flash Developer. Covenant Communications is seeking freelance flash developers for contract work. We are seeking candidates who have impeccable programming skills and a good eye for motion design and interactivity. We are seeking developers to help us create next level Flash projects for our company and clients.

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: , , ,

Not the usual job requirements…

July 11, 2009 by 4 Comments

Anyone who’s been out looking for a job knows how hard it is. You not only need the education and papers to prove that you are qualified, but also the ‘qualities’. Usually employers look for communication skills, honesty, ability to work in a team, motivation, flexibility and such. I don’t deny that most of us do have these qualities, but you all can’t deny that when it comes to an interview for a job that you really want, you take it to a whole other level. You emphasize the best in you, try to prove to the employer why you are better than everyone else. Why you are the best guy for the job.

Sometimes the not so good or not so usual qualities that we don’t pride ourselves in can come in handy. I put together a couple that I think serve as an advantage in acquiring a job. I’m all for self employment by the way (thanks to a lot of influence and some experience) so these are stuff that you don’t really need to be actually employed.

Celeb. This includes you if you were Mr Campus, it doesn’t matter how many years ago, if you were in one of those BlueBand commercials when you were like 5 years old or more generally if you know A LOT of people. To most being a celeb is not a ‘not so good’ quality. It’s here because it’s usually never in the list of qualities that your new employer wants or needs to know about you. So how can you put this to use? There are so many new businesses coming up. All this business starters need clients. So where do you come in? You know a lot of people. So find these new business starters and make deals with them. Bring them clients for a certain percentage. ( The more people you know, the more you’ll earn). You don’t need to go to school for this, just good communication skills and be smart, you’ll pull it off.

Mdaku. If you like knowing ‘stuff’. Especially stuff about other people that don’t concern or affect you in any way. You just like knowing. I’ve met someone like this. Not just the normal ‘talk a lot people’, this one was hard core. She’d get this serious glow in her eyes when she got info about someone else that has absolutely nothing to do with her. Note I didn’t say if you like passing along the news since this will most likely get you fired in this case. So anyway, who knew this could ever be good? There are a lot of ‘busy’ people around. With growing technology and maintaining status these very ‘busy’ people don’t have enough time to check their email and reply to all of them, update their status on facebook, myspace, twitter, Badoo, Bebo, Flicker, hi5, Orkut, mig33… I’m sure you get the point. I’ve seen many people and small businesses willing to pay to have someone do these simple tasks. Again this comes with the connections. The more people you know, the better.

Shopperholic. There are people who do not have the time to go shopping and believe it or not, there are others who just don’t like it. Shocking? I know. I can think of three groups to categorize these non-shoppers. First, celebrities. Those who cause chaos when they show up to buy milk at the supermarket. Second, the busy. Those who fly to Mombasa for that morning meeting, have to be back in Nairobi at lunch time for the appointment in the afternoon, the conference after that, then more work and just don’t make it to get to the shop. Third, the aged, sometimes the sick come in here too. Usually these have family or friends take care of them but not always so they hire sometimes. This is where you come in. I know mboga shopping is not as exciting as shoe shopping, but hey, you are shopping and being paid for it, so it’s a really good deal! This jobs are mostly for getting groceries and to run small errands. Again the more people you know, the more connections you have, the better you chances.

Mwanalugha. If you are really good in languages, or a language, you fall in this group.
In a mixed community like we live in now, language is quickly transforming. With sheng’, Swahili and English, most children born in urban areas never get to learn their ‘mother-tongue’. These languages are part of our culture and I think it’s important to pass them on to the next generations. I’ve seen people pay quite well to have these languages taught to them and mostly their children. If you don’t think you are that great in teaching, there is another option. Translation. Most people I’ve seen do this are based in tourist frequented areas such as Mombasa.

To succeed in any of the above, you need clients. You need to know how to sell yourself. There is a whole lot of information on this site about starting out your own business. Plenty of good tips that will get you on your way to success. If you need help, you can join ‘Biashara30’ a 30 day program where we teach you everything we know about starting your own business and take you step by step until you start making money.

I’d also like to mention one thing that I think is very important. Africa having the fastest growth of Internet use, having your own website is crucial for any business. Having your info and contacts available on line increases your chances of getting more clients. Check out Nickel Pro to get a great website. Their prices are great too and I think they do resumes and profiles too if you are looking for a job.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , ,