How to Make Money Online In Kenya (2020 Update)

Last Updated on December 19, 2022 by Patrick Mahinge

You are just about to uncover a goldmine.

All those questions that you’ve been having about working and making money online in Kenya will be answered in this one monstrous post.

I will start with the most basic:

1. Can you make money working online in Kenya?

Hell yeah! I do it all the time.

I know of 1001 other guys who sit in their comfy houses the whole day, working online, making dollars with every tick of the clock. These guys never have to worry about beating traffic in the morning, getting to work late or answering insidious questions from their supervisors.

But please note, making money online, especially in Kenya, is not as simple as many people make it sound. If you do not have a tough skin, please continue dropping your C.V. in offices.

2. How much money can you make working online?

If you’ve not started working online, you probably think that working online is for those desperate college leavers who are waiting to get into mainstream jobs.

You could never be more wrong. Working online is the way to go if you want to start making big bank as soon as you graduate or even before you’ve graduated.

Many entry level jobs in Kenya will pay you between 20K-50K per month. Trust me, getting to this level of income when working online will take you less than 6 months, and from there, this sum quickly builds up.

If you are diligent and hardworking enough, you will be making 6-figure income after your first year. I am not saying that it is easy, but it can be done. And the best thing is that there is no cap on how much you can make working online!

3. What kind of jobs can you do online?

Almost any type of white-collar job that you can do in an office can be done online. The most common online jobs include:

  • freelance writing (academic writing, article writing, e-book etc)
  • website design
  • Graphic and logo design
  • Social media marketing
  • data entry jobs
  • transcription
  • among many others.

4. How do I get started?

This is the one-million-dollar question. Almost everyone seems to know that they can make money working online in Kenya, but they don’t know how to start. I am going to steal you into a few secrets about how you go about building an online career.

  1. Identify what you can do best: Hopefully, you’ve been through education and you’ve passion for crafts such as writing or web design. Passion is the keyword here. You can monetize whichever passion you have. You only need a certain level of tactfulness. For instance, if you love cooking, you could search for online jobs that involve writing recipe books (this is huge!). If you love weight lifting, find for clients who are looking for articles in the health and fitness niche. Writing is, however, not the only thing that you can do. Be tactful.
  2. Google is your best friend. Please, do everyone a big favor. Use Google. Read as much as you can on what you think you can do. There is so much information available on the internet.
  3. Get a trainer/mentor: It is important that you get a mentor to hold your hand even as you use Google to research the hassle. A trainer helps you narrow down on the information you get online. Yes, a lot of trainers will want that you pay them. Who has time to give away for free? If you expect someone will train you for free, you clearly don’t value their time nor yours.

5. Where do I get online jobs in Kenya?

Depending on the type of online work that you’ve settled on, there are different places to get jobs from.

  1. Upwork: Upwork is one of the most popular marketplaces for freelance talent. On Upwork, you can get almost any type of work ranging from freelance writing, data entry jobs, website design jobs, data entry jobs and many others. Creating an account on Upwork is free, and it takes less than 30 minutes to get started.
  2. Iwriter: iWriter is another great freelance marketplace, but one that only posts article writing jobs. Some people swear by the moon and the stars that it is one of the best places to launch your online career. Unlike in Upwork,you do not have to bid for jobs on iWriter. The process is simple: clients post jobs, you pick a writing task that appeals to you, complete it, and send it to the client for approval. The only slight is that some clients can be cheapskates. They will reject your articles for no reason, give you low ratings and cause your account to be banned. I have written a good post on how to make it on iWriter. Read it here.
  3. TranscribeMe, Speechpad, Rev & Scribie: All these accounts specialize in transcription jobs. Unfortunately, I do not have first hand experience with any of these accounts or transcription jobs. If you’d like to try your hand on transcription a Facebook Group, Awesome Transcribers Kenya, offers incredible tips and advice.

Freelancing Jobs in Kenya

Freelancing is a very powerful way to make money online in Kenya. This works on the basis of outsourcing your skills and time to others who require them

Thousands upon thousands of companies are looking to outsource the jobs that they either can’t do or don’t have the time for.

You have likely seen me recommend outsourcing as a nice way to get ahead of yourself and generally speeding up your business development timeline. What if you could turn the tables around as that “Go-to” guy?

Freelancing as a model to make money online works on the premise that you have some specialized knowledge or skills and/or time. Among the skills you can get hired for as a freelancer are:

  • Graphic design
  • Web design
  • Copy writing
  • Customer support
  • Programming
  • Typing
  • Research
  • Writing
  • Among others

There are broadly speaking two ways in which you can make freelancing as a way to make money online work for you here in Kenya:

1. Signing up at a freelancing site:

working online in kenya

There are many online freelance job sites where you can search and bid for online jobs and among the most popular are:

Now, to get hired for projects on these freelancing sites, you basically need to bid for the ones you are interested in. The project owner will review your proposal against those of other interested providers and if he/she is impressed with your bid, then he will award the project to you.

Of course you won’t win every bid but you’ll win enough of them to make good money online. But that’s not even the best part. Get ready for something even more exciting…

You are very likely to find a client who becomes a long-term match for you. What does that mean to you? If you get such a client, you’ll be able to get lots of work from them in the future without having to undergo the bidding process. That’s, you’ll be working directly with them by then, sweet huh!

2. Starting your own online service website

A classical example in this category is a website/graphics design services. If you are good at website and/or graphics design, you can start your own online design service company to provide these services.

You can then attract targeted traffic to your site using such strategies as pay per click advertising, forum marketing, ezine advertising etc.

To get an insight into how you can make money online in Kenya using your own online service company, have a look at these sites:

  • www.minisitegraphics.com
  • www.sweetcovers.com

In conclusion, freelancing is one of the easiest ways to make money online in Kenya. So, get busy bidding for projects on the freelancing networks.

If you enjoyed reading this article or have any questions or comments about it, please leave them by using the form below. Your feedback is greatly honored and appreciated.

Also, if you know a friend who can benefit from this free information, then show some love and tell them about this make money online in Kenya site.

Taking it Past Working for Someone Else

If you critically scrutinize the information provided above, you’ll realize that the options I have given involve being employed by someone. You’ll still be answering to your clients, albeit online. Although these jobs are a good launchpad for your online career, you don’t want to be stuck working for other people forever.

There are a few disadvantages of working online using the model illustrated above:

  1. You are not your own boss. You are still relying on clients to give you jobs
  2. If you don’t spend time banging on your keyboard, you do not earn.
  3. If you stop working, you go broke, and might be forced to go back to the dreaded pursuit of employment

The Better Approach to Working Online in Kenya

There is a better model of working online that does not involve working for clients.

Disclaimer: The models I am about to illustrate require more commitment from you!

I strongly advise about starting your own online business. Having your online business puts you on the drivers seat. It gives you freedom and allows you to make money even when you are not actively engaged in working!

Although you will need to put up some time (and possibly capital) to get your online business going, the reward are well worth it.

What online businesses can I start?

1. Start your own freelancing agency:

Seriously. Instead of working on all the jobs that you get, consider outsourcing some of the work to other freelancers. If you have a good account that gets frequent jobs, you can even hire an account manager to manage your account and freelancers. This frees you to concentrate on other income-generating activities.

2. Create an Online Training Course

Everyone has something that they can teach. Just the other day, I created a website for a friend who is teaching Kenyans how to speak French! I also have a training, the Kindle Bestsellers Program, which is the best online course on how to make money online in Kenya.

Creating an online training course is easier than you might think, but this will be a post for another day. For now, I’d recommend that you read this article on how to create info products that sell!

3. Start a PayPal-Mpesa Transfer Business

As long as online jobs exist, and this is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception, there will always be need for online workers to transfer their earnings from PayPal to Mpesa in a fast, efficient and reliable manner.

If you build a name for yourself as a reliable and honest dealer, you will make a very lucrative business for yourself. PayPal -Mpesa transfer agents charge a commission on every transfer that they make. Sometimes the commissions are as high as 10%, which means if you transfer $1000 in a day, $100 (or 8K) will be yours to keep!

4. Become a self-published author

Do you know that you can write a book in less than 7 days and have it published within the same time? What’s more, your book can become a bestselling book, and you’d receive money from the sale of your book for as long as that book remains in publication, which is… forever!

Becoming a self-published author is one of the best ways to make money online. It is actually what I have been doing since 2014. I still earn from the sale of books that I published back then. Last month, my earnings from the sale of my books neared 200K.

To become a self-published author, you only need to open an account on Kindle Direct Publishing, write a book, and post it there!

5. Start a niche blog/website

A niche website is a website that is dedicated to publishing content on one specific topic only. With such a website, you make money through affiliate marketing or by showing ads on your blog.

Conclusion

I could go on and on and on about how you can make money online in Kenya, but I won’t. At least not until you’ve implemented the above.

If you’ve any questions, I’d like to hear from you. Drop a comment below, and let’s continue this discussion there.

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Patrick Mahinge

I am glad that you're here. My name is Patrick Mahinge, and I am serial webpreneur. Don't leave without subscribing for my newsletter.

9 Comments
  1. Great great piece….I have shared with all and sundry within my network, on how one (a KENYAN) can make money online. Personally, I am enjoying the freedom of working online from home, after five years of being a stay at home mum. Thank you for putting everything in one piece.

  2. You inspires me alot I would love to write a book and have it published.

    • Hey Mbugua,
      With my training on how to be a self-published author, you will be writing books and making lifetime income from them in no time. The training goes for 1500/=. Holla at me using the phone number provided in my profile.

  3. Great post and thanks a lot for writing…

  4. hi Patrick,I’ve always heard abt this online thing and wished to be in it but I had no one to hold my hand,am grateful am getting all I ever needed from your article

  5. Hey, thanks for the piece.
    I would like to explore the online working space however I’ve been hit with a lot of hurdles your blog has given me some ease.I wanted to inquire if possible we could exchange few “words” privately.Thanks once again.

    Leave a Reply to Patrick Mahinge Cancel reply

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