Don’t Waste Your Life Working for a Boss. Here is How you Can Make $$$ Working Online

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.

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

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.

3 Tips For Launching a Successful Startup Business in Kenya

Statistics collected by Bloomberg indicate that 8 out of every 10 startups end up collapsing before the start of their third year. That is a whopping 80% of startups that crash and burn when they are still in their infancy.

As an entrepreneur, you should be asking yourself why so many startup businesses in Kenya fail. If you wish to turn your next startup into a success, you should be learning from the amount of failing startups.

What do these businesses do or fail to do that contributes to their untimely closure?

In this article, I share the 3 common pitfalls that are usually the death knell of many startups in Kenya:

Failing to keep in touch with your customers

What usually happens when a businessman has a brilliant idea that he or she thinks is the next big thing in the enterprise world?

Many entrepreneurs retreat into a shell. They hibernate into their work caves and get busy implementing their ideas.

This is the wrong approach to business.

You need to get out there and talk to your potential customers. Not through 140 character tweets but a deep dialogue that seeks to understand what your customers’ passions, fears and strengths are.

Holding dialogue with your customers is the first key to business success.

Lacking real differentiation in the market

How unique is your business idea?

One of the reasons why your startup will fail is if you are trying to do what everyone else in the market is doing.

Since most of the business do not have real value that they are adding into the market, they end up closing their doors and wondering what went amiss.

Failure to communicate your unique value proposition clearly

Communication is an art and a science. Unfortunately, if you do not know how to communicate your business goals and mission clearly, it doesn’t matter how brilliant your business idea is, it will end up with the 80% that never celebrate their third year anniversary.

The above three factors mark the most common pitfalls that lead to the crumble of many startups in Kenya. Now that you know the reasons why businesses fail, I trust that you can come up with ways to salvage yours from joining the colossal statistics.

5 Incredible Tips for Landing More Freelance Writing Jobs

Today I would like to share five super tips that will help you win high paying online jobs in Elance and oDesk. Remember, no matter how much information you cram in your head, if you do not make a point of taking action you are as good as the person who doesn’t know anything at all.

Elance and oDesk are two of the most promising places for online jobs in Kenya. If you have access to a computer and internet connection plus loads of time on your hands, you should try launching a freelance career in Elance and oDesk.

But what does it really take to turn freelance writing into a source of income that is not only sustainable but also constant?

• Bid for jobs on a daily basis

Bid for jobs on a daily basis

You are probably considering the world of freelance jobs because you probably graduated from college and have been tarmacking with little success.

Be awesome when you write your bid proposals

Your proposal needs to be laser-tailored to the freelance job being advertised. If for instance the clients wants an article about bitcoins, do not send a proposal that simply says, “I can do this job”…

•  Go for what you are most talented in
  

  Practise and perfect your field

One of the freelance fields that always has a flood of open jobs is freelance writing. But does this mean that we should all flock here?

No.

Don’t force yourself into a job category that does not suit you.

Freelance jobs come in many categories including admin and support, graphics and design, web design and programming among others.

Choose one that you believe you can perform optimally and stick with it.

• Do not give up

Whatever you do, don’t give up.

You might have heard of that miner who after digging a trench for miles and miles, finally gave up while the gold vein was only a few inches on the other side of the tunnel. Whatever you do, do not give up!

The job bid that you would have placed tomorrow was probably the application that was gonna win you the first job on Elance. There is money in freelancing. Other people are banking it all the time. Why shouldn’t you?

Lastly, make sure that you have joined my mailing list for even more detailed tips and sources of online money in Kenya. Do not forget to leave your comments below. They keep me motivated to keep sharing these tips with you. Thanks for reading, and you are welcome again and again.

KCSE Results 2013 Out- What Is Next

If you did your KCSE in 2013, you might be happy to note that KNEC finally released the KCSE results today after some delays. The release of the 2013 KCSE results however also marks a time in your life when you should sit back and reflect on what you really want to do with your life.

Whatever grade you got in the exams, you just cannot afford to relax. Life does not offer you that laxity.

At Kenyan Pridespot, we have suggestions that might prove workable for you. There are many jobs you can do from home and make money online. To get started however, you will need three things:

1. Basic skills in using a computer including typing and how to use MS Office applications
2. A computer
3.  internet connection

If you have all these three, you are good to go! Join my mailing list here. I will show you workable tips on how you can make money online.

Students who sat for their 2013 KCSE in secondary schools that offer computer lessons are at an added advantage here since they might already have the basic computer skills.

This does not however mean that you cannot learn how to use a computer if the school where you sat for your KCSE exams did not have computer classes.

Borrowing from my story, I sat for the KCSE exams in 2005 in a district day school that did not even have the luxury of electricity leave alone computers but one week after doing my KCSE, I had all the computer skills I needed to start making money.

I did this by visiting a friend who had a music shop with a computer and started fumbling with the computer until I became ardent at it.

If you are interested in making money online, I recommend that you read this article about Make Money Online.

Some of the jobs that you can do to start making money online in Kenya include:

• Data entry jobs
• freelance writing
• paid online surveys
• Forums and blogs posting among others

Are you a candidate who sat for the KNEC 2013 KCSE and would like to make money online in Kenya? Leave your questions and queries in the comments section below, and I will get back to you asap.

Having the Right Mentality for Online Jobs in Kenya

Let us not beat around the bush here. The only reason you are not making enough money online is because you are not an action taker and you give up too easily. You are letting a lot of money slip through your hands by postponing taking action.

I want to show you exactly how you can start earning a lot of money online by simply taking action.

At the end of the post, I will give you some of the links and ways you can use to earn online money in Kenya. I would love to see if you really have the get rich or die trying mentality of earning an online income in Kenya, and this will be your test.

The first thing I will demand you do is start a professional blog. You can do so by registering for a hosting account in ipage or Bluehost. You can think of your blog as a kiosk or store. It is where your customers will find you when they need you.

The next thing that you will need to do is join a freelance jobs website such as Freelancer.com or Elance and start bidding for freelance jobs. With these sites and your blog, you have everything that you need to start earning money online. I will be sharing more of the small steps that make a big difference at the end of this post. You can also join my mailing list to receive all the other online earning opportunities that surface from time to time.

Moving on…

You probably have an idea that you can make money online in Kenya. The evidence is there in my monthly online income earnings. I also make a point of giving detailed instructions on how you can make money online in Kenya.

If you do not have this information at hand, it is because you are not in my mailing list, which further speaks of you not being an action taker.

Taking action marks the difference between people who succeed in life and ones who will never make any significant improvements in their lives. The opposite of taking action is postponing/procrastination, and this my friend is the father of all failures in life.

But, how can you make the switch from a person who only consumes information passively to one who gathers information and takes action on it?

My Story- How I started Making Money Online

I am very successful freelance writer in Elance, Odesk and iWriter. I also double-up as an internet marketer. I have a salary of 40-80k per month from freelance job websites and a few dollars from doing internet marketing. However, this was not always the case. In fact, I remember joining Elance on July of 2012. I applied for a few jobs, never got them and that almost marked the end of my online earning dreams.

One year later, Timothy Chege, a nice chap that we had attended college together, suggested that I could make money from freelance writing. At that time, I was running a very disjointed blog that centered around my life chasing women, being estranged from my father and failing to appear on the graduation list.

I took Timothy’s word seriously.

I joined Odesk, Freelancer.com and reactivated my account in Elance. I shudder to think what would have happened if I had not taken action. I would be tied among the sad group of employees who survive on a measly paycheck from one end of the month to the other.

Listen, the secret to every form of success lies in taking action now.

This is what I refer to as the Get-Rich-or-Die-Trying-Mentality of earning online money in Kenya. I can never stress enough on how important it is to transform yourself into an action taker

Another real life example of how taking action can take you to where you want to be is this blog that I run.

I was very green on the blogging world when I started it. I just had the slight notion that I could earn online money through blogging but I never knew about such important aspects such as content marketing and SEO.

Because I took action, I have grown this blog into one of the most trustworthy and visited blogs in Kenya. I have been able to achieve a Google Page Rank of 4 in just two years of serious blogging and I am making a lot of money online everyday all because I took action.

If you really believe in taking action, use the following steps to start dabbling with online income in Kenya now. Remember, there is no time like the present.

Step #1 Start Blogging

• Start a Blogger or WordPress blog– It is absolutely free to start a blog on these two platforms. Although not very professional, starting a blog on one of these platforms gives you a head start on blogging and allows you to monetize your blog through ad networks such as infolinks or Chitika.However,if you really want to be accepted by many affiliate programs, you will need to register for a premium domain.

• Join an Affiliate Network– In order to monetize your blog, you will need to join one or a few affiliate networks. You can think of affiliate networks as a meeting place for bloggers and business owners who want you to advertise their products on your blog. You will get paid for every link/ad on your blog that is clicked, viewed or for every sale that is completed from your blog. Back when I was starting, I joined Commission Junction and Share-a-Sale. You can also start with these two although there are multiple other affiliate networks that you can use to make money online.

• Write SEO Optimized Content– SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In this case, writing search engine optimized content means that you write content that contains keywords that people are using when searching for information on the internet. For instance, a lot of Kenyans are seeking information on how they can make money on the internet.  Words like ‘earn online income, work from home jobs and genuine data entry, freelance jobs in Kenya e.t.c are often used to search for this information.

Before you read the next section,if you believe in taking action,  take it now. Share this information on your favorite social media profile, and I will send you a free report on how you can make $35 per day online. [sociallocker id=”3397″]Thanks for sharing! I love you soooo….[/sociallocker]

Step #2 Join a Freelance Jobs Website

1. There are several online job websites that are absolutely free to join and that are reputable enough. The three that I usually recommend Kenyans who are in my mailing list include

• Elance
• Odesk, and
• Freelancer
• iWriter

Before you join any of these freelance job websites, make sure that you have identified what services you want to sell there. You can probably do freelance writing, web design, graphics and logo design, virtual assistance, data entry jobs or accounting jobs among many other freelance jobs.

Only pick one field to specialize in as having a profile cluttered with too much specialties speaks of being a jack of all trades but a master of none. For instance, although I can build websites and design professional logos, I only include my writing skills on my profile in freelance job websites.

Step #3 Taking Your Online Income to the Next Level

If you hang long enough doing step one and two, you will realize that online income and opportunities are very lucrative. You will naturally get the urge to take it to the next level. You will want to get a self-hosted blog instead of relying on blogger and wordpress.

You will want to start hiring freelancers instead of doing all the donkeywork. I am currently at this stage. I have several blogs hosted on ipage and bluehost. I also hire freelance writers through my elance client profile.

Apart from hiring freelancers, I moved my elance freelancer profile from free basic membership to Individual Membership where I am paying $10 per month. In the next few months (starting from June), I will be moving the membership from Individual to Small Company, and I will be paying $20 per month for the membership.

Additionally, I signed up for aweber email autoresponders to help me carry out more vigorous email marketing campaigns. I pay $19 per month for the aweber email  autoresponder and make  more than that through the email autoresponder.

The combination of things in step 3 is what I would call the Get Rich or Die Trying Mentality of Making Money Online in Kenya. You cannot expect to have everything on a silver platter. You will at times need to make some sacrifices in order to succeed.

I mentioned about the other small things you can do to make money online in Kenya. I will not include them here. Instead, I want you to show your commitment to becoming an action-taker by joining my mailing list now. I will then send you a comprehensive list of the small things you can do to make an extra income online including being paid to tweet and to participate in social media sharing.

5 Easy-to-Create Info Products That Sell and Are Highly Marketable in Kenya

One of the best and time-tested ways of making money in Kenya is to produce and sell your own info products. E/books, movies, audio files, you name them. Info products that sell well have a very large potential to generate a passive income and allow you to work from the comfort of your home. What I like most about info products is that anyone can create them, no matter the type of business they run, offline or online.

5 Easy-to-Create Info Products That Are Highly Marketable in Kenya

When we talk about infoproducts, a lot of people think about ebooks, which are the common type of info product out there. The range of infoproducts you can create however extend beyond ebooks and online reports. Here is a glimpse at some of the other less explored forms of infoproducts that you can create to make money.

1. Voices to Text

Some people find that speech comes to them naturally. They can speak more coherently than they can write. Others are super slow in typing, and this hinders the amount of content they can produce typing. If you prefer to dictate your thoughts rather than write them down, you can make use of recording software that automatically translates voices into text. The most popular and affordable voice-text translation software is Dragon Naturally Speaking. You can also use Google Voice to record and translate your thoughts.

After you have translated your voice into text, all that you will have to do is edit the document to ensure that no misunderstanding with the software occurred.

2. Recorded Interviews

Did you know that you can sell audio clips of your recorded interviews? Get out there and conduct interviews with experts in your field of interest, you will get a ready-to-sell infoproduct that requires very little additional work on your part.

A lot of people prefer to download audio clips on their Mp3 players and listen to them as they work or walk.

You can even outsource for a freelancer to transcribe your audio so that people who prefer to read your interview can also do so. Skype lets you record voices if you cannot make to be in a one-on-one meeting with your interview. There are also a set of audio recorders that will allow you to record your conversation over the phone.

If you can make to have a live meeting with your interviewee, you will need to invest in a professional audio recorder. There are many brands of audio recorders out there, but a lot of people prefer the Olympus WS-803 Voice Recorder.

3.      Create Screencast Tutorials

Visual communication is by far the best means of communication. This probably explains why there are millions of videos uploaded on YouTube after every few hours. The good thing about screencasts is you do not have to invest in expensive video recording equipment.

You can easily create a series of tutorials by recording actions on your screen and backing them up with an audio recording. Camtasia and Jing are by far the best screencast recording software out there.

4.      Slideshow Videos

One of the easiest ways to make money from creating infoproducts is to create a slideshow in PowerPoint and then convert it into video format. If you already have PowerPoint installed in your computer, simply pick a beautiful template, add some graphics, screen captures, bullet points and make an informative slideshow.

You can add a recording of yourself on the slideshow giving the tutorial instructions. Additionally, you can include music clips in the background to make the slideshow more compelling.

5.      Outsource for the Infoproduct you want

If the above recommendations are so complicated for you, you can always outsource the work to an expert freelancer. Elance and Odesk are two freelance websites that are full of able freelance. Another cheaper option where you can get premium quality info products created for you at an all-time low-cost is Fiverr.

With so many easy and free ways to create your info products, there is really no reason why you should let your inability to write comprehensive sentences stop you from making money using infoproducts. Even if you are good in writing, it is advisable that you have info products in various formats to increase the chances of you scoring a lead. You also end up owning a lot of killer info products that you use on your optin-in forms or for sale in the various online stores in Kenya.

In our next discussion, we will be looking at how you can market the info products you have created. What do you think would be the most effective way to market your info products? Leave a comment below, and let us meet in our next discussion.

How Hard Does Your Website Work For You?

Give yourself a pat on the back if you are an accomplished web designer in Kenya. Nowadays, it looks like every dude in the streets of Nairobi does ‘web design’. This is actually good for you. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious. And since it is that boom time for websites in Kenya, you might as well go ahead and cash in on clients who are looking to put their business on the web!

The number of people who are in need of websites in Kenya is actually growing by the day.

This year alone, I have come across a lot of businesspersons who want websites for their businesses and are willing to pay a tidy sum for my services. The trouble with most of them is that they don’t seem to know ANYTHING about how to use a website to grow their business. If you have run the web design services for a while, I am sure you must have encountered that client who wants you to put up a site for their business within a week. They will quickly email you their company profile and other pertinent details. You do your best to design a website that will ‘work for their businesses. You follow up with creating email accounts for them using their domain names. So far, so good.

Forward to one year later when it is time to renew the domain name or the website hosting plan and your ‘clients’ develop one of the following characteristics:

1. They want to pull down the website
2. They wants to renew the domain name (not the hosting plan) because they still want access to the email addresses associated with their domain name, or
3. They are suddenly not available by phone or by email.

So, what exactly went wrong?

It is pretty simple to diagnose the problem here. Most of the clients that I work with want to get a website because it is ‘cool’ to have a website. The strong urging to place their business online however ends with the launch of the website. They simply do not know what the heck they are supposed to do with the new ‘thing’.

If you want to test the truth of the above hypothesis, ask those people who you know run a website when is the last time they have made a shilling from their websites this year. Try to get them to reveal how many unique visitors their website had in the previous year. You will even be lucky if they know how to check the visitor statistics.

This is the sad reality with many businesses in Kenya. We forget about our websites the moment we build them. We get caught up with ‘running the business’ that we even forget we had a website until the webmaster comes calling the following year.

The Solution

I think it is the high time to reconsider whether your business really needs a website. What is your website bringing for your business? Are you contented with simply having the address of your website appear on your business cards? If you are, then I am honestly happy for you.

If your answer is no, you are in some big trouble. A website is supposed to sell your business and to give you a wider customer reach. The ROI from your website should be quantifiable. Above everything else, you should always be reviewing how much of the sales you are making are as a direct result of having a website and what you can do to increase the direct sales coming from your website. If no leads are being generated from your website, you seriously need to reconsider.

How to Achieve Overnight Brand Awareness for Your B2B Using LinkedIn

On a recent B2B marketing workshop that we organized in Mombasa, Kenya, an entrepreneur asked me to give a genuine comparison between LinkedIn and Facebook as instruments of driving brand awareness.

 Which one did I think was better of the two, he asked.

“LinkedIn is the better social media marketing platform to use for creating B2B brand awareness and content marketing strategies. Not only is it geared toward all businesses and professionals, but also provides the vital marketing strategy that has been used from time immemorial, networking.

LinkedIn is similar to Facebook marketing, but instead of talking about the latest celebrity gone crazy, the content in LinkedIn discusses the dangerous importance society places on celebrity idols. LinkedIn gives brands and businesses more marketing and networking opportunities than any other social media outlets.

I would honestly advice any online entrepreneur who is considering to implement a B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy, to give LinkedIn brand awareness tools first priority.” That was my answer in so many words.

3 Features Behind the Awesome LinkedIn Brand Awareness Creation Strategies

There are 3 main features on LinkedIn that will help you build brand awareness and play a crucial role with your content marketing strategies. These include company pages, profiles, and groups.

Building a Company Page On LinkedIN

Starting a company page on LinkedIn is the best way to get your brand out on the market. A company page allows you to share job opportunities about your company and talk about the behind the scenes operations going on. Talking about your company on the page will allow other businesses to see what goes on behind the B2C marketing and trust your brand more. It also gives potential employees interest and knowledge about your company.

Your LinkedIn Company Page is the perfect place to post self-centered information on the company, such as product releases and press releases, which should not be on your content marketing company blog. Users can follow your page to get updates on the company, and any employees on the website will automatically follow the content.

Use LinkedIn Employee Profiles to create more brand awareness and trust

Your company employees should be on LinkedIn but this alone will not ensure success with your B2B marketing. Encourage them to make their pages professional in a way that positively reflects the company.

The employees are one of the most important factors in the image of a brand and they will help raise awareness of it thanks to the vast networking capabilities of the website. Make sure all employees are linked to the company page correctly so the correct name and logo appear on their profile.

search and join LinkedIn Groups related to your product niche

Groups is a section of LinkedIn that acts like a discussion forum on the internet. Yet groups are not informal and full of attacks like internet forums are. Instead, they are similar to breakout session at a conference.

Unfortunately, company pages cannot join LinkedIn Groups. This however does not mean you should not tap into this awesome marketing feature. If you are serious about using LinkedIn to create brand awareness, owners and managers need to set up their own profile in order to participate in LinkedIn Groups.

Once you have a personal profile set up, find groups that relate to your business. For example, if you sell clothes on a retail website, join groups about retail marketing or eCommerce schemes. There will be hundreds of groups to choose from, so join groups with more members and posts each month.

By using the above 3 features, you can rest assured that your brand is causing ripples in all the right places and that you are using LinkedIn effectively to create your B2B brand awareness.

 Take Away Tips

• When you are creating your company page, LinkedIn will use your company name in the URL. If your company name is long, it is harder to link to your page. Abbreviate your company name at first in order to make a manageable URL, then edit your company name after initial set up.
• Add aesthetic graphics to your company page, including your logo and a great cover image that accurately represents your business.
• Don’t worry about crafting the perfect description of the company. The About section will be pushed to the bottom of the page once you start adding content.
• When in groups, follow users who positively contribute to the discussion and like their posts. This is a great way to increase brand awareness.
• Do not post too often in groups at first. Instead, participate in discussion without talking about yourself twice a week for about a month. Once you have established yourself on groups, start your own discussion and share relevant links or your company’s blog posts.
• Invite customers to join a group you participate in if it is relevant to them.
• Create your own group once you have many customers and partners on LinkedIn. Make sure you have enough connections to make the group active in discussion, or else it looks bad for your brand. Hire a community manager to keep the discussion moving long term. 

The New NSSF Bill and Why Uhuru Kenya Should Assent to It

Kenyans have taken to the social media with mixed reactions regarding the the passing of a new NSSF Bill that is now awaiting the assent of President Uhuru Kenyata. Under the new bill, contributors to the government pension scheme will be required to make a contribution of 6% of their monthly income. Previously, employed contributors were required to contribute a standard 200 shillings into the NSSF pension scheme.

There are three main players in a government pension scheme; employees, employers and the government. As such, it is important to consider who stands to benefit more when thinking about the recent increment in NSSF contribution amounts.

These benefits should also be considered both on the long term and short term. If we take the long term look on them, there is no doubt that the employee stands to benefit more.

I for instance have been making a contribution of 200 shillings from my 20k salary with the same amount being chucked out by the employer. Under the new law, if at all it is passed, I will be contributing a good 1,200. The employer also contributes the same and this means that if my salary remains constant and I retire at the age of 55, I will have about 1M in savings… so why are Kenyans grappling about the new NSSF Bill.

5 Reasons Why You Should be Sh*t Scared About the New NSSF BILL

1. We are Living in Hard Economic Times

You do not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the economy in Kenya is in shambles. Prices of commodities are skyrocketing, same goes for fuel and rent and everything else. Add this to the high lending rates being witnessed in the financial sector… the next thing that Kenyans want is a shrink in their monthly income.

2. Kenyans are already burdened with taxes

I have always felt that Kenya is one of the countries in the world that has a very high rate of taxation. If you are employed, you are already paying PAYE, Value Added Tax, Excise Duty and more. Combined together, these taxes steal a large proportion of your monthly income earnings. It is unimaginable what chucking off another 6% from the pay package will do to our budgets.

3. NSSF is One of The Most Corrupt State Firms in Kenya

NSSF has consistently made a grand entrance in the top 10 most corrupt parastatals in Kenya. Nepotism, misappropriation of public funds and illegal award of tenders all characterize the pension scheme firm. This gives Kenyans reason to be wary of them hence the apathy that has greeted the proposed NSS Bill.

4. The Interest Rates Paid By NSSF are Laughable

The last time I checked, NSSF Kenya was not paying any interests that you would be proud of. I have schemed through the new NSSF bill and haven’t seen any clause that mentions a change in the interest rates earned. That means you contribute more, squeeze your budget but at the very same meager interest rates.

5. Will We See More The Unemployment Rate Climb Higher?

The rate of unemployment in Kenya stands at 58%. Will we see it increase while we should be working to bring it down? There is little doubt that employers will shoulder the bigger burden when under the new NSSF Bill while expecting no benefits. If I was an employer, my strategy to counter losses would be to make more layoffs and stifle employment opportunities.

All these make me wanna ask, what kind of Kenya at 50 are we building? Your comments will be highly appreciated.

5 More Things That You Need Before You Start Amassing Online Wealth

Today I would love to share with you a few more things that you will need to get under your belt in order to start making money online in Kenya.

In the next few weeks, I will also be sharing fantastic and genuine ways in which you can make money online in Kenya. I will also be exposing a few other ways that can only make you peanuts and others that will actually earn money from you. But before we major into the meat of it, here are a few things that you will need to have in order to start making money online in Kenya.

• A stable and Consistent Internet Connection

I strongly believe that if you want to maximize the amount of money you earn online, a stable and consistent internet connection is a must have. You simply cannot afford to be a hit and run kind of an internet entrepreneur. It will only ruin your online reputation when clients email you with new job offers and you take eternity getting back to them. To make sure that you are constantly connected, think about investing in a modem from one of the telecommunications providers in Kenya and a laptop.

•  Time, time and time

Time is the other thing you cannot afford not have if you are enthusiastic to make money online in Kenya. Every internet entrepreneur that I know of in Kenya concentrates solely on their online business. A lot online ventures require you to dedicate a lot of time towards making them happen. You will basically need at least 3-5 hours per day to earn a supplemental online income. If you do not have the time, please don’t even think of earning money online, you will only get frustrated.

• Attitude, Passion and Perseverance

Having the right attitude is directly proportional to your success as an online entrepreneur! You will need to shed off your pessimism. You will need to strongly believe that you can earn enough online money to sustain your expensive lifestyle. You will then need to work towards making this happen. Patience and perseverance will be paramount in this, but this won’t be a problem if you have already acquired the right attitude.

• Skills

There is no easy money online. The guys in Kenya who earn big actually do it from selling their skills and services. I personally earn most of my income through freelance writing, and with an average online income of over 80k, I have no qualms in referring to myself as an accomplished freelance writer. Other freelancers make money by blogging, graphic design, programming, transcribing and a milliard of other jobs that are available online. The bottom-line… discover what you are good at doing, what skills do you possess? After evaluating yourself, find online jobs that suit your skills. You will be surprised by the amount of opportunities that exist in your skills-area.

• Personal Blog and Other Promotional Tools

I will assume that by now you have discovered what you can do and what you cannot do. You have analyzed your skills and are ready to launch your online career in Kenya. However, you will need a means of promoting yourself. A free personal blog suffices for many newbies, however, if you want to appear professional I’d advice you to start off with a custom domain. It is cheap and easy to set up.

Click here to get a free domain name (www.yourname.com) and web hosting for less that $2.00.

Apart from starting a blog, you may also want to set up a professional twitter account, Facebook fanpage and other professional social media network accounts. These will help you in promoting your services online and ultimately lead more earnings.