Like Chapaa

  • Actually Getting An Online Job

    Posted: March 30, 2010, 10:24 am by wham

    Getting an online job is hard. Very hard. This is because the competition is stiff. This post is an extract of an email in which I explain how to best prepare yourself so that you can actually get an online job.

    First off, please do everyone a favour and only apply for jobs that you are actually qualified to do. Do not bid for a web design project when all you know is how to use Microsoft’s Frontpage. Keep in mind that you are competing with experts in their fields. You must also be an expert, or at the very least very good at what you want to do. Whoever is going to pay you is interested in your expertise and experience.

    Even if you know your stuff backwards and forwards, getting the first few gigs online will be extremely hard. This may be due to many reasons but I think it helps if you understand what potential employers are looking for:

    1. They need to hire someone who is skilled at what he does
    2. They need assurance that you are trustworthy and reliable
    3. They need the best price

    The first two are the hardest to achieve. In our experience, people looking for online jobs really need to create a portfolio-like document where they will attempt to address issues #1 and #2 above. A portfolio is a job-hunting tool that you develop which gives employers a complete picture of who you are – your experience, your education, your accomplishments, your skill sets – and what you have the potential to become – much more than just a cover letter and CV/resume can provide. You can use your portfolio to showcase a point, to illustrate the depth of your skills and experience, and to show off previous work and accomplishments.

    In you portfolio, you need to talk about yourself as regards the job that you are applying for and market yourself as having the skills and experience to do the job to a high standard of quality. Specifically, you need to include:

    • A list of similar jobs that you have done in the past. This is important in that the potential employer can see that you can actually do the work and that you have the experience and wisdom of having done it before.

      What do you do when you do not have a list of past jobs done? You may be asking this if you are absolutely new to the whole idea of freelancing. Hmm, well, no one said you have to give a list of jobs that you did for other people, did they? If you are a writer, why not write a few articles in your spare time and put them in your portfolio as “samples of work done”? Same thing goes for web designers, artists, etc.

    • A list of testimonials. This is a list of people who you have worked with in the past and who can vouch for you and say that you rock! How do you get testimonials? Well, always try to ask for them after every single gig. Not many people will refuse to give you.

      How can you get testimonials if you are new to freelancing? This is tough. Your best bet is to do some jobs for free for people on condition that they give you testimonials. Do not make the mistake of writing fake testimonials.

    Cover Letter
    You have your nice portfolio, which is like your CV/resume and you are all set, eh? Well, not quite. Never forget to send out a suitable and meaningful cover letter with each job application.

    When applying for an online job, most people just write a one or two line application that generally reads, “see my attached portfolio”. This is wrong! A cover letter should always accompany the portfolio. It should be used to introduce yourself and why you are emailing. It is also a unique opportunity to showcase your unique personality or traits that could not be put in the portfolio. Always write a good cover letter.

    That’s all you need, really. Put up a good portfolio and tailor it to suit each and every job that you apply for. And write a nice cover letter for each gig you apply for. Sooner or later you will get a job. Once you get the first one, you’ll find it easier to get more. Before you know it, you’ll be rich like her.

    The Importance of A Website
    You do not need a website to get an online job.

    However, most of your competition does not have websites. Why not stand out? It will certainly make things easier on you. I always take people more seriously if they have a site. Why not put up your portfolio on the site? It can open many more doors for you…

    Incidentally, Nickel Pro does offer a simple website package perfect for this use.

    The thing about online job sites
    Most online job sites have a “rating” feature where all the freelancers are rated according to how the job providers like them/their work. When you are starting out, you will find that some of your competition have hundreds of 10/10 ratings. Such people will easily win bids instead of you because you are not rated, being new. This makes life for newcomers very hard indeed. How do you overcome this? I do not know. Sheer diligence should work. Just keep trying, as long as you do everything right then you must succeed, at some point. Everything that you sow, you must reap!

    Good luck.

    PS. If you wish, you may hire us to help out in this. We’re experts!

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  • Pain and Suffering

    Posted: March 29, 2010, 2:20 am by Kelvin

    I used to work at one of the so called “Big Four” accounting firms. A place described as one of the best workplaces in Kenya. True to this, the pay at this company is extremely good and the work is challenging and enjoyable. I remember once I had almost a year of first hand experience at running and managing a pharmaceutical company – the experience was…breathtaking, enjoyable and helped me learn so much. However, I did not like my job very much. In fact, I barely liked it. We worked extremely long hours, for one thing. At the end of the day, I guess, the thing I disliked the most was….taking orders. I just had different ideas about my life. I did not go through school and university so that I could spend the rest of my life doing jobs that I did not like. What kind of life would that be? So I quit last year. It has been hard, very hard, and more than once I have thought of just going to beg for my old job back. But I wholeheartedly believe that quitting was the best decision I ever made.

    I still struggle, I struggle a lot but I’m generally happier now. Everything I do now, I do for me. And everything I earn, I earn for me. Your boss does not care about you the way you care about yourself, you know? You may be making millions of shillings for your company but how much do you take home every month? I feel that a lot of people work their jobs because they have to. We go to work because we have to; we have to pay the bills and feed the baby; we have to survive. I do not know if I am a lost soul but, with everything in me, I feel that life should be about more than just surviving. The average human spends a lot of his or her days on earth working. Is it really meant to be that that those days should be un-enjoyable, uncomfortable, regrettable or even contemptuous? I strongly believe that this is not how it is supposed to be.

    If what I am doing with Like Chapaa and other things fails and I have to go get a job like everyone else it would hurt me greatly. My self pride would be destroyed. If I had to go and beg for my old job back, my zeal for life and self belief would be forever gone. I cannot imagine such pain. One of my friends had to do something like that recently. I cannot imagine how it is like for her.

    We get a lot of emails at Like Chapaa. And way too many of them are from people who are suffering. Some of the emails we get are by people who are not even asking for something – they are just writing out of frustration or just to ‘release’. People who want a better life and believe that a better life is possible yet they do not know how to achieve it. Good people. Intelligent people. Skilled and talented people. People who do not deserve to be cornered and oppressed by life. Dear readers, it hurts me to say that there is a lot of pain and suffering in this our land of Kenya. A lot of pain and suffering in this world.

    We try to help all the people who email us. We really do try. In fact, this very reason is why we set up Like Chapaa and why we started Biashara 30. But there’s only so much that we can do, you know? Sometimes I wish I had a million dollars so that I could help everyone who needs help. But I am no superman. And it pains me when I get yet another email and I know that I will not be able to offer much assistance to that particular individual. I’m happy with the progress made by Like Chapaa and Biashara 30 but the sad fact is that what we have done is just a drop in the ocean of what needs to be done.

    Dear readers, how do we make our efforts more effective? There is a lot of pain and suffering in this country. We want to do everything in our power to lessen this pain. It is a big huge goal, eh? What do we do to achieve it? We need your help.

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  • When Makmende gets a nature call, he hangs up!

    Posted: March 23, 2010, 11:20 pm by wham

    Well, well, well…things are definitely changing around here. I believe Kenya has its first internet sensation and truly viral video.

    Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably already heard about Makmende. Had you heard of him before last week? It all started when Just a Band released one of the most innovative Kenyan music videos ever made. What followed after is…well, Makmende took over everywhere on Twitter and Facebook. According to this, makmende.com got over 120,000/- hits in just over 60 hours thanks to brilliant SEO and online marketing by Blue Monde.

    What does this mean? It means that Just A Band’s video has been watched and discussed by tens of thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook and Makmende is the buzzword at the moment. Kudos to everyone who was involved in this.

    Why don’t you do something similar for your business, your products?

    Watch the video, Makmende Amerudi!

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    You can read all about Makmende here.


    The title to this post was lifted off Twitter.

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  • Improve Business Using Your Website

    Posted: March 23, 2010, 4:39 pm by tranx

    Most people have websites these days (and most sites are not well done, really). Most websites are used to market a company’s products and services. Almost all websites are just offering information about the company, goals, target group, products and more. Why stop there? Did you spend all that money on the site to see it lie there?

    By using a website creatively, you can automate many of your tasks in no time: it can process, retrieve, and transmit data, it can keep track of billions of pieces of information on a single server.

    Here are some things you can do with your website to improve business:

    Build your mailing list – it is essential to get names and emails and create a database which is extremely important for online marketing campaigns.

    Provide valuable information with sequential auto responder – add value to your website content and don’t limit yourself only to presenting your services or products, but attract your clients by offering valuable content directly to their e-mail. These newsletters can provide pre-programmed content and at the same time stimulate the visitors to return to your site to see the latest offers. Of course, you won’t offer them the whole details, but make them go back to your website and find out more about your offer.

    Create an online payment system – it is much easier and it can save you and your clients a lot of time for and will allow you to gather e-mail addresses and track leads. Not to mention that you will have clients from all over the world! Explain all the details about online payments, making sure it won’t be a hard time for you clients.

    Another important thing is to measure your marketing efforts – check how many visitors you have, how many of them buy your products and how many open your newsletter e-mails. These are valuable indicators to think about, as they can show you how efficient your business is. Make sure that your shopping cart includes trackers, which are very helpful because they automatically calculate your click-throughs and conversion statistics.

    The sad truth is that after paying hefty amounts for a website, most people just sit back and let it sit there. Why did you pay so much for it in the first place?

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  • What If?

    Posted: March 22, 2010, 11:23 am by wham

    I spent the weekend with a lively group of people and we talked a lot about the state of e-commerce in Kenya (more on this in a later article). Things seem to be really really picking up – for example, Nickel Pro has built more online shops this year than the whole of 2009 (and we’re only in March). However, as fast as things seem they are moving, great huge stumbling blocks remain. There is still no reliable, convenient way to process online payments in Kenya.

    One thing that we discussed at length was the state of old media (particularly newspaper companies) in Kenya. In more developed countries, newspaper industries are dying because of the Internet. Many of these companies have good and useful websites but no one has found out how to efficiently make money off news sites. This means that the newspaper companies are facing a declines in sales because less people are buying the physical newspapers – preferring to read news online yet the online news is not monetized efficiently. What a predicament, eh? The news business is in trouble!

    What about Kenya, though? Well, I think that this situation will take time to be apparent in Kenya. The impact of the Internet on newspaper sales is probably minimal. But for how long? Newspaper companies should be wary – especially with the fast uptake of of the mobile web in Kenya. It won’t be long before people, en masse, start consuming news primarily through their mobile devices and PCs.

    Can we do anything to speed this up?

    What if you poached the leading writers from all our major newspapers? You know, akina Mutahi Ngunyi, Sunny Bindra, Chris Hart…even Oyunga Pala. Take twenty of the best and most well known writers in the country – writers with fans who never miss reading them. Pay them handsomely to work exclusively for you and set up a website that is well designed and works very well on the computer and on mobile devises. Now, everyone who wants to read their favorite writer has to come to you. Hopefully, the newspapers will not find replacements quickly enough.

    The question is…..will you succeed in shaking up the industry? Will the new business make you lots of money? How will the public take it? What do you think of this idea?

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  • Brainwashed!

    Posted: March 19, 2010, 12:19 pm by Kelvin

    A while back, I wrote about 8-4-4 robots. Specifically, I wrote this:

    Do we go to school so that we can be able to get a job? Am I missing something here? Don’t we all go to school so that when we come of age we are able to build a good life for ourselves and become valuable citizens? School is important, very important. But not as important as most people think it is. The important thing is to learn all that you can and how to use it to achieve your goals and/or make a good life for yourself. As it happens, ’schooling’ is not the same as ‘education’. As Mark Twain once said, don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

    I’ve been thinking about this subject ever since. Do you remember learning to factor quadrilateral equations in high school? x2 -32x +12? Or calculus? Why were you taught this? Have you ever applied it in your life or work? If you are not a scientist or engineer well, you probably forgot about all that…. But why did they spend hours drilling you on such clearly useless content? Why does school teach things that most people never use? What is the purpose of school?

    I believe that, as it is right now, education systems are designed to produce employees. I remember being given assignments to write English compositions while in Form 3. The teachers did not like it if you did not write in accordance with certain moulds or styles – you did not have the freedom to write what you imagined. Why is this? At school, you were being trained to be a compliant ‘cog’, someone who could mindlessly follow instructions as opposed to seeking out innovation and surprise.

    Seth Godin puts it best, “I love math. I love the idea of working with numbers, of inventing cool ideas that click. But memorizing factors of 32? It’s clearly an effort to teach you to be taught, to instruct you in compliance, to follow the curriculum.”

    That’s an excerpt from Seth Godin’s book, Brainwashed : Seven Ways to Re-invent Yourself.

    Years ago, when you were about four years old, the system set out to persuade you of something that isn’t true.

    Not just persuade, but drill, practice, reinforce, and yes, brainwash.

    The mission: to teach you that you’re average. That compliant work is the best way to a reliable living. That creating average stuff for average people, again and again, is a safe and easy way to get what you want.

    Step out of line and the system would nudge (or push) you back to the center. Show signs of real creativity, originality or even genius, and well-meaning parents, teachers and authority figures would eagerly line up to get you back in line.

    Our culture needed compliant workers, people who would contribute without complaint, and we set out to create as many of them as we could.

    And so generations of students turned into generations of cogs, factory workers in search of a sinecure. We were brainwashed into fitting in, and then discovered that the economy wanted people who stood out instead.

    When exactly were we brainwashed into believing that the best way to earn a living is to have a job?

    Download the book for free and learn how you can liberate yourself: Brainwashed

    Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is author of multiple books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. His newest book is Linchpin.

    What did you think of the book?

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  • Email Marketing

    Posted: March 15, 2010, 1:30 pm by wham

    E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

    • sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
    • sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately,

    (Source: Wikipedia)

    Email Marketing is often ranked second only to search marketing when it comes to online marketing. If you are doing online marketing in any capacity then you need to incorporate email marketing.

    This is all well and good but, sadly, in my experience I have not come across many Kenyan businesses that understand how to do email marketing the right way. Indeed many “email marketers” in Kenya are nothing more than spammers. Just last week I had a gentleman ask me, “How do you get emails of people working in large corporates?” The plan was to get those emails and then “market to them”. This is nothing but spamming.

    To spam is to send unsolicited messages. They key concept of email marketing is to get permission to send emails to your audience. Spamming is wrong and illegal in some countries.

    So, how do you do email marketing properly? I like to think of it as a three-step continuous process:

    1. It all begins by finding suitable email marketing software. This is software that you can use to manage your subscribers’ list(s) and which enables you to send emails on a large scale. You cannot use akina Gmail to send to more than a certain number of people at the same time. I recommend MailChimp. Websoft looks like a nice Kenyan alternative.
    2. Devise a strategy through which you will get people to give you their permission to send them emails. The most common and current way of doing this is to offer people something for free – but to get it, they need to give you their email address. Numerous internet marketers give away something like a free ebook, white paper, or report.
    3. Develop compelling, interesting and/or useful content and send it out to your subscribers. Make sure you do this very well: if need be hire a professional to do the email layout for you. Do not forget to include a call to action in your email.

    As long as you keep on sending out wonderfully interesting/useful emails and keep on increasing your email subscribers, you will get results. It will not be long before you see your sales increase. Email marketing is powerful.

    An emerging Kenyan variation to the above is sending your emails to the massively popular Kenyan Groups on Yahoo or Google such as Young Professionals. These groups communicate primarily by email and often include thousands of members. It is an easy way to reach a large number of people. However, some of these groups do charge for advertisements.

    Whatever you do, do not spam. I keep on getting emails from sijui akina Mlalahoi or Baraza la Taifa and I have no idea how I got onto their lists. I don’t have to tell you what I think of such groups and the people behind them.

    That’s it, you are ready to go and start email marketing. If you need any help, you can hire Like Chapaa to handle things for you.

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  • Taxi Driver In India Uses Youtube to Find Customers

    Posted: March 12, 2010, 9:06 am by wham

    So, I read this over at Alootechie and felt that I had to share it with you, dear readers.

    Apparently, Divesh Mishra, an Indian taxi driver was worried that his business was going down. This was in January 2008 when the Indian travel industry was experiencing a downturn. Divesh knew he had to do something to keep his business going.

    “I wanted to advertise about my services but could not do that as I did not have much funds,” Mishra said. “This was the time when I met a friend from Singapore. He was one of my customers and I discussed my problems with him. He then suggested me to upload a video on YouTube. Though I knew about internet, I had never heard about YouTube before.” (Source)

    The rest, as they say, is history. Divesh’s video has been viewed 24,000+ times and he reportedly gets hundreds of emails a week – from foreigners asking about his services for when they visit India. According to Mishra it was amazing to get such response and this made him understand the power of internet. “It was a wise decision as I eventually understood that I could not have reached those consumers if I had advertised on some other media. Internet helped me to reach out to foreign customers,” he said.

    Embracing the internet changes lives, and businesses. What about you, though? What are you doing to tap onto the opportunities provided by the internet?

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  • 8-4-4 Robots

    Posted: March 11, 2010, 6:27 pm by Kelvin

    Are you a product of the 8-4-4 system? Well, whether you are or you are not you have probably heard about this: “8-4-4 produces robots”. Is it true? It is said that the 8-4-4 system of education has a workload so heavy that that students go through school without getting a real education; it is said that the system produces people trained to cram and follow instructions but not actually think on their own. I’m an 8-4-4 product and so I am not sure that all this is true.

    If it is true, then the 8-4-4 seems to be perfect at producing … employees. Since the dawn of the industrial age, the bulk of employment opportunities were available in “factory-type” jobs. Jobs in which the employee is a faceless ‘cog’ among many. The 8-4-4, it seems, is perfect at producing cogs. However, one may argue that all education systems everywhere produce ‘cogs’.

    Why do people go to school? A while ago I heard about a pair of parents who had quite the strange reaction to the wonderful news that their daughter (who was still in college) was starting a business. The parents were furious that their daughter was starting a business instead of focusing on her school work (she was in university) and promptly put an end to her entrepreneurial ways. “Finish school, get a good job and then think about starting a business,” was the advice given.

    Do we go to school so that we can be able to get a job? Am I missing something here? Don’t we all go to school so that when we come of age we are able to build a good life for ourselves and become valuable citizens? School is important, very important. But not as important as most people think it is. The important thing is to learn all that you can and how to use it to achieve your goals and/or make a good life for yourself. As it happens, ’schooling’ is not the same as ‘education’. As Mark Twain once said, don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

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  • To the left to the left

    Posted: March 10, 2010, 12:40 pm by Crystal

    Running your own business is immensely fulfilling, but it can also be tedious. You have no weekends, no public holidays, no annual leave. You will probably never retire, and you can’t quit or walk away when you get frustrated or bored. You worry even in your sleep, because there is no boss or subordinates to blame when things go wrong. The buck starts and stops with you.

    But I’ve realised that getting a breath of fresh air is easier than you’d think. All you have to do is shift positions, change direction, step to the side.

    Think about your pre-business desk job. When you felt drained, all you had to do was facebook for a few minutes [only a few minutes mind you] and your mind would be alert. You’d find some long-forgotten picture tag or some silly new game, and suddenly you’d be smiling through your chores.

    In running your biashara, the same rule applies. I’m not recommending you go hang out on facebook; you can end up spending a dangerous amount of time there considering there’s no annoying boss to stop you!

    I simply mean you should change tasks. When you’re running your business, you generally handle everything from finances to door-to-door sales. Even if you have employees to do all this for you, you find that your eye is all over. After all, this is your baby.

    And this is where the trick lies.

    If you’ve been dealing with difficult clients all day, take a break and look through the books. If you’ve been filling out your tax returns and your eyes are swimming in numbers, stop for a second, pick up your cell phone, and make a courtesy call to a client.

    If you’ve been shaping up the code on your website, jump to the comments page and work on your response. If you’ve been taking inventory at your warehouse, run to the computer and work on the receipts. All it takes is a simple sideways step.

    I’m not very good at multi-tasking [actually, I suck at it. I can’t even talk and skate at the same time!] and I’m (usually) a very focused person, so I like to finish one task before I move on to the next. I’ve been working on an editorial assignment all day, and after 12 hours, the full stops were starting to look like commas, and the small caps are lost in the text. I thought about taking a break to read a novel, but I figured I’d never stop. I looked at the pile of laundry and the dishes in the kitchen [I’ve nothing left that’s clean!] but that didn’t hold much motivation.

    So I started to think about the other assignments that are due today, and took a break to do a little writing. Four articles later, my mind was refreshed, my deadlines were met, and I could do my editorial work easy peasy.

    Granted, this may not be possible with all businesses, but if you stretch your mind far enough, you can find a slightly different section of your work to take your mind of things, even if it’s as basic as shifting from counting your thousand-bob notes to stacking your ten-bob coins…

    Crystal Ading’ is a professional author, editor, rock lover and mother. Her work is available through www.threeceebee.com.

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  • Outsourcing to India

    Posted: March 6, 2010, 10:46 am by wham

    I’m sure you’ve all heard about the noble cause of the Kenyan government to make Kenya an offshore outsourcing destination. Companies like Kencall are, currently, the face of these noble and valuable efforts. I have been thinking about Kenya as an outsourcing hub and I still wonder, can we really make it a reality? Yes, companies like Kencall do very well but will Kenya ever be as big as countries like India when it comes to offshore outsourcing? I think not.

    Last week, I was talking to some people who are interested in starting an egg (mayai) business. They want to sell eggs on a large scale. Do you know it is cheaper to import eggs from Egypt than it is to produce them locally? And that’s just one product – pick any industry in this country and you will quickly realise that producing goods locally if often several times more expensive than it is to just import them. What does this mean for us, as a country wishing to grow our producing and manufacturing industries?

    You would think that imported products are cheaper, but those that are locally manufactured are of a better quality, yes? Well, this may be true in some cases but more often than not, it is not. A trip to Nairobi’s industrial area would leave you shocked at just how much of what we consume locally is outsourced – from packaging material to the whole manufacturing process. The people who outsource would like to use Kenyan alternatives but it does not make business sense to do so. Why pay more for something of a lesser quality?

    What about services? We’re good at that, at least, eh? Well, not really. Undoubtedly, we have a very educated and extremely skilled workforce. But, it is still cheaper to get things done in India, or elsewhere. Case in point: Kenyan ‘technology’ firms (software producers, web design, web development, etc etc) often require to hire additional programmers, designers, etc to handle small tasks. The local labour force is very well equipped to handle these tasks. However, the local labour force is also nearly five times more expensive than offshore (often Indian) options. Who would you choose to go with?

    Now, this post is not meant to bash Kenya and Kenyans. I’m a Kenyan too.

    I’m just simply wondering: how can we compete with India as an outsourcing destination when we ourselves outsource to India? As a people and as a nation we have to ask ourselves: what are we doing wrong? Why is it cheaper to import sofa sets from China (and taking shipping costs into account) than it is to make the sofa set locally? Why is Kenyan stuff so expensive? Can we ever compete with economies like India or China? I do not know the answers to these questions. Do you?

    What I do know is that the following are some of the things we need to address:

    • The infrastructure in Kenya is good, but hardly good enough. We still have frequent power losses and water shortages, not to mention many other things
    • The cost of doing business in Kenya has to be brought down
    • Our mentality as a people needs to change. The average Kenyan businessman is greedy – he would much rather do one job for a profit of 50,000/- than 10 jobs for a profit of 25,000 each

    What do you think?

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  • Hustling Is Over. Now You Can Sell your Music Online.

    Posted: March 4, 2010, 10:42 pm by wordseller

    How much do Kenyan artists, musicians and those wannabes who feel like celebs make from their efforts? With piracy trends on the upward, making money as an entertainer here in Kenya seems to be a hard call. Waiting to get an invitation to perform or curtain raise for others may not be the best way to make serious ‘bucks’ for the so called ‘wasanii’. We have seen them complain that Kenyans don’t appreciate local talent. We have seen them floss with the little they make –is this really a celeb`s life?. If you are reading this and you are musician or an entertainer listen carefully because what you will discover will open your eyes and do something.

    Let me ask how many local artists Jua Cali, Nameless, Wahu, Redsun etc market their music, tickets and events online? How many if I ask have a website or a face book fan page.

    So why do many local celebs fail to market their music online? Why do they go down the traditional route of taking it their music to the radio stations? Now it’s to live the life you deserve.

    If you are an artist its almost criminal if you don’t have a website and its almost suicidal if you don’t have a list: a collection of email addresses (of your fans, leads and purchasers of your music) .Your website is where you send all of your prospective customers. Your website must contain details on how to purchase your music, both online and offline. I would also recommend having a ‘sample’ piece of music for clientele to listen to for free and to be able to download the a sample.

    Ring tones have made Cellulant and mobile planet richer by the day and you too should have ring tones (as a product) of your music online. Sample this just by selling 30 ring tones a day at Kshs 30 brings in (27,000 kshs) every single month. And that’s with very little sweat because everything is automated. Once you have a website running you can get sponsors via co-branding rights. Lets say we have Jua Cali as our artist who has a website running and receives 20,000 visitors everything month. Jua Cali can get sponsors(convincing sponsors to brand the website becomes easier since we have some traffic already) and advertisers(by selling advertising spaces ) to his website .The money he gets can supplement what he makes offline. If you combine the income from ring tones, online CD sales and sponsorship revenue then Jua Cali could be living the real celeb lifestyle.

    And where will he get these 20,000 visitors?

    1. Via Search Engine Optimization-Marketing the website by improving its rankings
    From my research, the term “Jua Cali” (I know it may mean the other Jua Cali out there) alone receives 4,000 searches a month .Other important terms like ‘Kenyan music, (searched 20,000 times a month) and ‘Swahili music’ (9,900) all point to a lucrative undertaking – note that these are buyers and business leads. See other popular search terms from the table below. Even if he gets 20% of these visitors to his website then the chances of conversion are quite high. It seems crazy to miss out on this. Doesn’t it?

    2. From YouTube and other video hosting sites
    This is the new way to market your music online. You Tube has simply taken the world by storm, not only from a viewers perspective but from a marketing perspective also. Similar to video clips that you see on MTV you are able to create your own video of your music and upload them on YouTube.

    3. Facebook and Twitter
    Facebook, twitter and the Social media represent the new way to market your music. Facebook alone has over 1/2 million Kenyans and from Alexa.com, facebook is in the top ten of Kenya’s most popular websites. As an artist who wants to make serious inroads, facebook and twitter should become the focal point of your marketing efforts. Alongside your website you will need to create a fanpage updated daily. Let the fans know about your next event, upcoming album, collabos, where to get the tickets. The point is: engage and interact with fans and you will surely never run hungry.

    4. Forums
    Forums are an old and popular way to marketing your music, and it still works today. Not only can you specifically market your music in the forum, you can also market your music by just posting messages about anything related to music. For example, if there is a discussion about the kind of music you sing then post your comments and put a link at the bottom of your post to your website. So not only do you market your music, you also marketing to the right group of people, music lovers!

    It’s time to sell your music to the world.

    To your success,
    Kihato Mwangi
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The end of the fish cakes

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