According to a special report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite, global internet users are increasing at a rate of one million new people every day. According to the January 2019 Report, out of the total 7.6 billion global population, over 5.1 billion people own mobile phones. There are over 4.3 billion active internet users, and 3.5 billion are active on social media. See figure below.
These numbers reflect the fast growth observed in Kenya. The Internet World Stats estimates that in 2019 Kenya has a population of 52.2 million people, and 43.3 million of them are internet users. The high growth of internet has not just transformed the way we live but also, the way we communicate and interact with other people. We use the internet for entertainment, education, research, communicating, socializing, and shopping, among other things.
The internet also transformed the way we do business. Businesses know that people spend a lot of their time on the internet and they do everything to leverage that.
The internet has also enabled businesses and organizations to run operations and processes more effectively and efficiently. Companies like Amazon, Uber, and Jumia, among others are experiencing continued growth because of leveraging the internet. These companies leverage the power of the internet to improve service delivery and reach more customers. Companies like Apple and Google reap the benefits of providing the infrastructure the internet is built on, and that is why they are ranked among the top companies in the world by revenue. Organizations all over the world are taking advantage of the internet in different ways to achieve more success.
The internet has also brought opportunities to individuals, with many people using different strategies to generate income. Many people in countries where internet penetration is high are successfully leveraging the power of the internet to build their own businesses or just work remotely. For example some people have moved away from traditional employment to freelance type work. You may have heard of the term “Digital Nomad.”
The Kenyan population is currently embracing internet use like never before and there are endless opportunities. We all know how the embattled betting firms in the country like Sportpesa have rapidly grown in a few years to become ranked among the top organizations in the continent. This is the right time to take advantage of the opportunities the digital world has to offer.
This article explores different ways any individual in Kenya can start making money online. My aim is to help people understand that you don’t have to be employed in that regular job to make a living. We all have heard of internet success stories, individuals with basically no background making millions on the internet. It’s easier than you think and with the right motivation and hard-work anyone can do it. All you have to do is find what works for you and stick to it.
Selling Products and Services Online
Personal - This is the easiest to start. You can sell basically anything online today, including old clothes, shoes, books, DVDs, electronics, etc. If you are looking to make some quick cash online, just look around your house for any valuable thing that you don’t need any more. By taking pictures and advertising the items online, you can quickly get someone to buy them at a good price. If you are good at something, you can market yourself and get people to pay you for services. For example, if you know a foreign language you can offer online classes or sell courses. If you are a developer, designer, photographer, among others, you can find freelance jobs online. Many professionals are already doing it.
Business - You can also take a business approach and open your own online store to sell items for a profit. What you have to do is buy products at a cheaper price, sell them at a higher price and keep the difference. There are several people who have implemented this strategy and they make thousands on a daily basis. A friend of mine who now owns a shop in town started by promoting products he didn’t even have on Facebook and Instagram. He had identified suppliers who could sell him the product at a fair price when they start getting orders. In a matter of months, he had earned enough to open a physical shop in town. Now he supplies products to other entrepreneurs as he continues to serve the large customer base he has created over time.
If you decide to take this approach, I would advise you to go for a market with low competition. Pick a niche and come up with a unique product that can benefit the people in your niche. It is also wise to pick something you are familiar with or passionate about to make the process easier. Find out everything you can about the business and familiarize yourself with the products. If you have some cash you can buy some and test them out yourself. Interact with people who are on the same line of work and ask for pointers. You will be amazed by how most people are willing to help. But also, be vigilant of individuals who act in false pretense in the real world and also online. You also have to consider how you are going to buy and ship the products to the customers. There are several parcel delivery service start-ups operating in Nairobi today. You can outsource your order fulfillment to these companies and focus on growing your business. A downside to this approach is that you can get stuck with products rejected by customers.
Drop-shipping
This a unique retail fulfillment approach where the store does not hold the products it sells in stock. When a purchase is made, the store buys the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. Through this approach, you as the merchant never see or handle the product.
This approach offers huge opportunities as your work is made easier; you only focus on getting and retaining customers. You have the freedom of creating as many stores as you can in any industry you choose. Many internet millionaires achieved their internet success through drop-shipping.
The process is simple, you first identify a market, create an online store with shopify, import products to your store, and then promote it. Once orders start coming in you can fulfil them directly on your store and the supplier does the rest. There are tons of videos on YouTube if you want to learn more about drop-shipping.
My advice if you choose to take this approach you should prepare a budget. You will need to pay for a domain (the address of your store like www.jumia.co.ke), which costs around $10 a year. Shopify offers a 14 day trial, so if you decide to continue you will be paying the $29 monthly. You can earn money to cover your monthly subscription within the trial period if you can get the right product or service to the right customer, at the right time and place. This means you will need good strategies to promote your store. You have to get it in front of the right audience to get the sales.
The major difference between the drop-shipping approach and the usual retail method is that you as the seller does not stock or own inventory. Instead, you purchase inventory as needed from a third party to fulfil the available orders. The third party can be a wholesaler or a manufacturer.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways through which you can create passive income. Passive income simply refers to an income stream that does not require your direct involvement.
Pat Flynn, the founder of the Smart Passive Income blog defines affiliate marketing as: “The process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products.”
The process simply entails creating an audience, finding a product or service and promoting it to the audience, and then earning a piece of the profit made from each sale that you refer. You get to benefit through the commissions you earn from the sales you make. The company selling the product benefits through the new clients you send them, who may turn out to be recurring clients. The customers benefits by learning about a product or service they need from a person they trust, you. Many internet entrepreneurs make their first money online through affiliate marketing. The method has been ranked the easiest and fastest way to start an online passive income business.
The are many strategies through which affiliate marketing can be implemented but the best is by building a site. The process entails identifying a problem in a niche, building a website and offering a solution to the problem. Once you publish your website, it can remain live for as long as the internet will exist, which means it will be visible to people and you will continue receiving commissions. Don’t be scared about the “creating a website part”, it’s easier than you think. Even without any experience, you can have a website running in minutes. Bluehost makes it easy by offering you a free domain and cheap hosting packages. You can read more about how to create a website here. Affiliate Marketing is the best way to create passive income.
The best thing about affiliate marketing is the fact that you don’t need to have, or to create a product to make money. As soon as you have a platform to sell on, you can go ahead and start selling something. Almost every blogger has affiliate marketing as one of the income streams incorporated to their website or blog. And in case you are wondering, Yes! You can have more than one income streams with your blog.
I use affiliate marketing to generate income with some of my articles. I recommend products and services I personally use for my online business. Some of the products and services contain affiliate links, which means that if you or anyone else makes a purchase through the links, I earn a commission. This of course comes at no extra cost to you. It is one of the best ways through which bloggers make money and are motivated to make more high-quality and engaging content. This is a wake-up call for companies not leveraging the influence that bloggers have to reach more people. People love reading but traditional books have been replaced by devices. People also like getting recommendations from people they trust. Affiliate marketing is the new word-of-mouth marketing!
There are many other strategies through which you can make money online; however the strategies discussed above have been tested severally and proven to be effective. Each strategy requires dedication and hard-work. Always aim at exceeding expectations in whatever you do.
Feel free to share any other legit ways to make money online in the comments section...