Real Beginner guide on how to make money online in Kenya

Updated Real Beginner guide on how to start making money online from the comfort of your room in Kenya and get paid via mpesa, paypal, western union, or Bank Transfer.

The number of internet users keeps increasing daily. People are becoming increasingly aware of the amount of money they can generate in a click of a mouse. However, getting a job online is in not that easy if you have no person to guide you.

Just like any other business, making money online is not without a host of challenges, and only a few succeed. Do not believe it when someone tells you that you can become a millionaire in a day without putting in much effort.

Making money online is not a one-day-get-rich business, but you can make good cash if you are hard-working, committed, honest, and patient.

Before I introduce you to ways of making money online, be aware of the following:

• Making money online is not hard but you cannot just wake up one day and make $ 100 or more in a day.
• Most sites that present you with offers like “make $1,000 a day from your home” are also looking for ways of making that $ 1,000 from you.
• Before you begin making money, you will undergo several challenges, therefore, do not lose hope.
• One of the best ways of making money online is by selling your skills. For instance, if you are good at languages then writing is for you, if you are good at programming then web design is for you, and so forth.
• The most genuine ways of making money online is through blogging, selling products or affiliate programs, and writing.

 Writing for a living

Writing is a process of putting down well-thought responses to suit a client’s needs, not a matter of recording already-developed thoughts. Since it’s not possible to think about everything all at once, most experienced writers handle a piece of writing in stages. You will generally move from planning to drafting to revising, but be prepared to return to earlier stages as your ideas develop (more info on how to write a quality article available at www.kenyayote.com).

Writing is the best way of making money online. It is also the most genuine way of making some cash online. I say it is the best because it does not require any investment at all if you have a computer and can access the internet.

You can either decide to be a news writer, academic writer, sponsored review writer, content writer, or SEO writer. Below are some categories of writing:

• Content writing – involves writing articles
• SEO writing – involves writing website articles
• Research writing – involves writing research papers
• news writing – involves writing news stories
• Review writing -involves being paid to write about certain products. For instance, you may be paid to write a one-page article about a Samsung Galaxy phone.

Research Writing

It involves conducting research on a given topic. If you want to be an Academic writer or content writer, you must be familiar with academic writing styles (APA, MLA, HARVARD, CHICAGO). You must also be aware of plagiarism and how to avoid it.

In order to get an academic writing job you need to apply and do a simple test to be allowed to be a writer for an individual or a writing company. Some of the best academic writing companies that offer jobs to writers that I have personally used include:

• Brainywriters.com – It is a Kenyan website. Their payment ranges from ksh. 240-ksh. 1600 per page. Payment is through M-pesa or bank.
• Uvorcorp.com – they pay from khs. 240-ksh. 3200 per page. Payment is usually made through wire transfer or moneybookers.
• Customwriting.com
• Writerbay
• More Research writing websites are available at (top writing sites)

Content and SEO Writing

Content and SEO writing does not have strict rules like academic writing. The best websites that pay writers to write for them include;

• Upwork – Payment is through Paypal, Mpesa, or wire transfer
• Freelancer – Payment is through Paypal or wire transfer
• Iwriter- Payment is through Paypal

Reviews writing

This involves writing reviews about a particular product. Companies that pay Kenyans for writing sponsored reviews include

• Review stream – you will be paid to write a review about a product that interests you.
• usertesting.com
• inboxdollars.com
• lifepointspanel.com

Content Revenue Sharing

This involves writing for a site and then you get a certain percentage of money that is generated whenever people click on adverts placed in your written content.   This is one of the best ways of making money online because it involves using another website which means it is not must for your own website or blog.

Some of the sites that pay Kenyans through content revenue are:

• Hubpages.com
• Helium.com (retired)

Affiliate marketing

Making money online through affiliate programs is similar to making money online through referrals but the difference is that for one to make money online through affiliate programs, the person he has referred must make a purchase. You are normally paid some commission out of the purchase of the product. I call this online hawking.

For instance, if the person you have referred purchases a book worth 600. You will be paid about 200. It is one of the best and most genuine ways of making money online. However, the only problem with making money online through affiliate program is that it takes time for one to make a purchase.

Some of the genuine companies that pay through affiliate marketing are

• Muthurwa.com – you do not need to have a blog to market their products. You can use social media to market their products and you will be paid a commission for every sell made.
• Jumia affiliate
• Kilimall Affiliate
• Travel start-https://www.travelstart.co.ke/become-an-affiliate- Travel start is an online company that deals with travel-related services. After signing up as an affiliate you will be given a chance to find people who want to buy flight tickets and refer them to their site. If the person you have referred makes a flight booking you will be paid ksh. 400 for domestic booking, ksh. 800 for regional booking and ksh. 1200 for international booking. You can be an affiliate marketer even if you don’t have a website.
• Amazon Affiliate Program – they give you a chance to sell their products and you are paid a commission
• eBay Partner Network – It is almost similar to amazon. They allow you to partner with them and sell their products for a particular price.
• Commission Junction – they have a number of affiliate opportunities that you can apply or join.

Social Media (Facebook)

Facebook is one of the best platforms for generating money online. Some of the best ways of making money online using Facebook are;

1. Facebook Page – create a Facebook page and invite friends to join. Make sure you work extra hard in marketing your page. Advertisers always target pages with many likes. Be sure that, if you have a page that has 100,000 likes and above, advertisers will hit your inbox asking you to advertise for them their sites or products. You may also get a person willing to buy your Facebook group.
2. Blogging – after your page has attained many likes, you can create a free blog with blogger, or other companies (listed in a subsequent section), and search for companies that pay for advertising. Add the advertising program in your blog then share it on your page. The higher the number of likes on your page the higher the traffic to your page and the higher the earnings.
3. Facebook Groups: Unlike Facebook pages, groups give an opportunity for members or followers to post their content which can easily be read by other members. The admin of the group has only the advantage of pinning a post contrary to Facebook pages where the admin controls what people discuss.  You can browse in this site for a comprehensive list of leading Facebook groups to market your products, services, and business online.

Video Monetization

• You tube-you tube is a Google product and the most popular video site. They place ads in your videos and pay per-view and click (learn more on youtube monetization)
• MetaCafe-www.metacafe.com is one of the sites that will pay you for uploading videos and earning per views. If you have interesting videos that can attract many views then this is the best place to be.

Selling eBooks

You can buy expired books sold in the streets, scan and sell them online for a good price. Fiction, poems, and love books sell well.  You can as well take your time and write your own ebook if you are literature.

Some of the websites where you can sell ebooks are;

• Muthurwa.com (kenyan site)
• www.ebooks.com

Blogging

Although a blog is a type of journal, it is a public writing space rather than a private one. In a blog, you might express opinions, make observations, recap events, have fun with language, or interpret an image so long as what are you writing is original.

• How do I start a blog?

Starting a blog is a simple A B C affair. You need to come up with a unique name or title that you will give your website or blog. For instance, my website name is www.kenyayote.com It is up to you to decide your name but remember that your website name must not resemble another website’s name.

• How much does it cost to start a blog?

The costs of starting a blog differ depending on the host company. It is like the price of a commodity that differs from store to store. Averagely, the charges of hosting a website for one year range from ksh. 2,000 to 6,000. Remember domains have different prices, mostly determined by their endings; such as ac.ke, org, com, net, info, and edu (for example, www.kenyayote.com, www.kenyayote.ack.ke, www.kenyayote.org, www.kenyayote.net, and www.kenyayote.edu).  It is up to you to choose how you want your site to end but take the pricing into consideration. The term host means the company that will give you permission to run your website. It is just like a business license.

Some of the companies that offer Webhosting services include;

• Bluehost

Bluehost is the best for international hosting. Kenyan hosting companies have issues with fast-growing websites. Their capacity cannot accommodate heavy resource-consuming websites like eCommerce websites or classified sites. And if they support, they are too costly. Go for local hosting if yours is a small personal blog. Read our detailed review of our Bluehost hosting experience.

• Sasahost

It is among the best web hosting companies in Kenya. If you are a newbie, I encourage you to host your site with sasahost. Their customer service is excellent. If you are hosting a site for the first time, they are always ready to assist you.

• Kenyawebexperts

It is also among the best web hosting companies. The cheapest price of hosting a website with kenyawebexperts is ksh. 1,000.

You can also open a free blog with Blogger.com, WordPress.com,  Tumblr, among many others. Nevertheless, a free blog won’t be as good as a premium blog.

Benefits of having a blog

Like there is a reason for starting any business there is also a reason for opening a website or blog. There are many benefits of having a blog or website. But the major benefit is the financial gains that you get from your website. Websites with high traffic like Standardmedia.ac.ke, nation.africa, the-star.co.ke and Tuko make thousands of dollars a day through advertising.

Most websites normally begin to generate revenue through ads after six months but it also depends on the quality of your work. 

If you have no idea which topic your blog should talk about you can use the topics listed below;

• How to make money online website
• News website
• Sports website
• Education related website
• Dating website
• Forum website
• Product selling website
• Consultation website
• Hotels and tour guide website
• Photo website
• Marketing website
• Healthcare website
• Farming website
• Music website
• Gossip website

Where to get blog advertisers

Some online companies that pay for advertising in your blog are listed below. However, remember some will not advertise on your site if the content or posts are not original or if your site has low traffic.

Companies that pay for advertising on your site ;

• Google Adsense – Best Highest paying advertising company in Kenya. It is used by large media companies like nation, standardmedia, Citizen, Tuko, among many others. Google Adsense will normally approve your site if it is more than 3 months old. However, your site might not be approved if it has copyrighted content or unoriginal content. You can visit the Google AdSense website and read about their approval policies. Payment is through western union, cheque, and wire transfer. You will only be paid if your account attains a minimum of $ 100.
• Media.net – it is the second best-paying advertising company after AdSense. Rules of approval are almost similar to those of Google AdSense.
• Ezoic – similar to Adsense
• Infolinks – pays via PayPal and paycheck. Minimum payouts are 50$

Read more about monetization and the many ways through which you can monetize your work.