Like Chapaa

  • How to Become an Expert in Your Customer’s Eyes

    Posted: November 29, 2010, 10:59 am by wham

    One of the founders of this website (www.likechapaa.com) is a trained accountant. When we started Like Chapaa, it was very much (and still is) a for-profit venture. Along with wanting to help people, we wanted to make money with this site. Now, none of us was what you call a “computer” or “Internet”, or even “business” expert. But we believed in ourselves and we believed that we know how to do things with computers and the Internet that make business sense. The problem was how to convince people – our customers – that we really did know our stuff.

    Are you faced with this problem? How do you become an expert in your customer’s eyes? How do you become the person the customer most wants to work with? How do you then increase prices 300% (which we have done) and still have customers wanting to work with you?

    I mean, think about it. Would you hire a boring old accountant to do your website or even just improve it? Would you hire an accountant for anything other than accounting? That’s the kind of challenge that we faced. No one knew us as experts. Now, it didn’t matter how many times we looked in the mirror and called ourselves experts. We still were not getting any respect, let alone money in the bank. And it drove us crazy.

    (For the record, I would personally not hire an accountant for anything but accounting!)

    Interestingly, that is precisely why Like Chapaa was born. We thought that the easiest, fastest way to convince the world that we knew what we talked about was to start a site and write about the content of our brains. We started Like Chapaa to show the world what we knew. So yeah, we started pole pole but surely. We wrote articles. We used to get 7 visitors a day but we continued writing articles. Day after day, week after week. It was hard, extremely hard – and we had few, if any, successes right away.

    Then it all changed. We suddenly started getting emails and calls. Emails and calls from people who wanted us to work on their websites, their Internet strategy, their projects, and so on. We had planned for this, but the success of our little plan shocks even us.

    A lot of people struggle with marketing their business, and we did too. But we figured we could either go nuts calling people and walking the hard roads of Nairobi, or we could sit at our computers and write an article. And have a customer call. (Ooh, I did like the sound of that phone ringing). That is the power of the Internet, if you ask me.

    Information is expertise – just ask any author; any consultant; any trainer. Just ask us.

    The thing is, anyone can do this. You do not need any special qualifications; all you need is creativity, imagination and time. You have all three so go for it!

    If you need any help you can always hire us to help you, you know?

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  • Interesting Kenyan Sites #15

    Posted: November 29, 2010, 9:15 am by Kelvin

    Rupu.co.ke – this is a group marketing tool that features heavily discounted deals for products and services from various industries. It is yet another Kenyan “deals” website made in the mould of Groupon. Though the site lacks somewhat in content, I find it to be very well designed and the people behind it seem to have a solid plan on social media marketing. Kudos and good luck to them.

    GotIssuez this is a place where you can rant and rate issues that affect you. It is a nice idea, eh? If Safaricom, or KPLC, or anyone elses pisses you off, you can talk about it at gotissuez. Really nice idea and well executed, so far. I only displike the design a little bit.

    50-50
    Elma – we wrote about Elma a while back. While I really like what Elma promises to offer, I don’t really like their website. The design is okay, but I feel they can (and should) have put more effort into making the site more interactive. They are, after all, collecting people’s views – they should have made all of the user-generated content available online (right now they only display a selection of the latest ‘wishes’). I feel that their objectives may have been better served with a more interactive and ‘social’ experience (and this could easily be achievable by making all the user ‘wishes’ available and enabling people to comment on them. Still, good effort.

    Flops
    KwaSwa – these guys are web designers offering to make you a site for Kshs 7,500/-. However, I find their own website to be a little lacking. For instance, this page is currently inexistent even though it is a prominent link on their site. I would also argue that since they are web designers, their site should more visually appealing.

    Churchill.co.ke – I presume this is Churchill’s (the comedian) website. It is currently down and has been down for a while. Somebody isn’t taking care of the site…

    Churchill fail (click for larger image)

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  • What is Elma?

    Posted: November 25, 2010, 12:14 pm by Kelvin

    I’m sure some of you have seen an advertisement in the Daily Nation for www.elma.bz. Are any of you, dear readers, wondering what Elma is?

    Elma is a mobile /online payment gateway for Kenya, done by Craft Silicon in conjuction with some selected banks. The service is almost ready to launch (it is undergoing final testing).

    Reportedly, it is a mobile application (that you download) that would allow you to shop and make payments (cable TV, power & water etc) from your mobile phone, using your elma account which would be linked to your bank account(s). It should also allow you to top up your M-PESA account from your bank account (but not the other way), pay school fees, make donations (to charity for example) etc.

    Source: Skunkworks Kenya.

    Is this the local payment system we’ve all been waiting?

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  • How to Increase Your Revenues By Reducing The Number of Customers

    Posted: November 24, 2010, 10:35 am by tranx

    “Would you Cut the Number of Customers you have in Half if You Could Increase Your Revenue?”

    On the surface, it seems like a strange question. As a business, more clients is always better than less clients (or so you think). But you have to remember where this question is coming from. What if you could successfully create a business in which you make the most money possible with the least amount of effort (and the headaches that go with it)?

    The High Maintenance Client
    Don’t get me wrong – you always want a lot of clients and it’s a good problem to have. However, you ideally want the best type of client. The high maintenance client is the WORST type of client because they take up all your time with calls, e-mails, fighting over bills, etc. The time you spend working with the client costs you more money than you ever make from that client.

    The problem with high-maintenance clients is that they are very hard to identify. But the fact is that the more clients you have, the more high-maintenance clients, and the more headaches you have to deal with.

    Double Your Prices and Lose 40% of Your Clients – Awesome!
    This is one of the keys to creating a business in which you make the most money possible with the least amount of effort. Maximize the revenues from each client and if that means losing a lot of clients, you are ahead. Take a closer look at that statement.

    Let’s say that you were charging your 50 clients Kshs 1,000 per month, so you were making Kshs 50,000 per month.

    Now, let’s say that you doubled your price to Kshs 2,000 per month and because of that you lost 40%, or 20, clients. You still have 30 clients, paying Kshs 2,000 per month or Kshs 60,000 per month.

    You lost 20 clients, which means less operations, less support, and less administration, etc. but you gained Kshs 10,000 per month! And that’s not just Kshs 10,000 total. With the reduced overhead and operational expenses, you probably gained even more than that in profits.

    Even if you lost 60% of your clients and now made just Kshs 40,000 per month, but you reduced expenses by Kshs 10,000, you’re still ahead. You have more time and resources to commit to those activities that will bring you more money.

    But before you just send out a letter to all our clients saying that you are doubling their prices, there are some things you should be aware of.

    How and When to Raise Prices

    • Don’t Raise Prices in a Commodity Business. This strategy does not work if you have a commodity type business. If someone can go to your neighbor and get the same product for half the price, you will lose most of your customers. This only works if you have a niche product or service that is differentiated from what other companies offer.
    • Don’t Raise Prices on Existing Clients. The way that you can implement this strategy is on new clients. You will piss off a lot of existing clients if you raise their prices all of a sudden and it’s not worth it. But when you start marketing and selling to new clients, raise the prices on them. They do not know the old price so they will not be pissed off and while your conversion rates will be lower, you will see more revenues and less headaches in the long run.
    • Get Clients First. One of the first mistakes that we ran into when we tried to implement this strategy is that we did it on a new product that we were offering. It was a type of marketing website and while it was a good niche product that wasn’t commodity based, we had no idea what the market would bear. Looking back, we should have just started selling it very cheaply and then once we got some momentum, we would have raised the price to what we think the market would bear.

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  • How to Succeed in Business in Kenya

    Posted: November 23, 2010, 10:01 am by Kelvin

    “Our greatest weakness is giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison

    I had the priviledge of hearing Joanne Mwangi, whose company, Professional Marketing Services, was voted the best of the top 100 SMEs in East Africa. Joanne spoke at length about entrepreneurship and how to start/run your own business. Here’s some nuggets of information shared by her:

    First, the most important thing about starting your own business is that you have to choose the right type of business to start. Your choice needs to be:

    1. Something that you are very, very good at
    2. Something that you love
    3. Something that can make you real money

    Do not copy what others are doing. Joanne gave an example of the ‘phenomenon’ that a few years back it was it was almost a “fashion trend” for people to go to Dubai to buy things and come sell them in Kenya. Most people who did this did it only because they heard that it would make them a lot of money. Starting a business by trying to copy someone’s success is not a good idea.

    Think Big. let your dream be as big as possible. if you think small, you will find that there’s an upper limit to the amount of success that you can enjoy.

    Other pieces of advice:

    • Do not give up until you have been running your business for at least 18 months
    • Hire right
    • Take intelligent risks
    • Accept failure and move on
    • Never stop learning
    • If you help others, it almost always comes back. Therefore, share your experience and advice with others and train and mentor others if you can.
    • Pay yourself a salary. A real salary.
    • Pay your taxes!
    • Embrace God in everythign you do.

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  • Stop Whining!

    Posted: November 22, 2010, 10:27 pm by tranx

    There are a lot of legitimate reasons for being unemployed right now. However, if you are a recent or soon-to-be graduate you should really stop whining. Just because you got a degree does not qualify you to be employed. Sorry that nobody told you, but it takes a lot of work outside the classroom to get a job.

    Many industries are hiring. There are plenty of jobs out there. Do the work to find them. Figure out what it takes to stand out and seem more qualified. Sending your resume in doesn’t count for a damn thing. Complaining and whining endlessly counts for even less.

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  • Interesting Kenyan Sites #14

    Posted: November 21, 2010, 7:55 pm by Kelvin

    Umba.co.ke – Umba.co.ke is a website where you can purchase furniture online. It is also an example of an exceptionally well designed Kenyan website. Most Kenyan online shops are, quite honestly, poorly designed. Umba.co.ke is different, the design is very well done and gives one the confidence to make purchases online. Good job!

    SokoPal – this is another Kenyan Groupon clone. I do not particularly like the site’s design but there is no doubt about the fact that a lot of thought was put into making this website – and it shows. The site is very well done and serves its purpose perfectly. Kudos to the guys behind this – may they find great success in their business.

    Flops
    Zuqka – Zuqka is a portal site for weekend entertainment around Nairobi, but with a social networking component as well (video, audio and blogs). It’s a cross-medium service too, marrying newspaper with the web. I used to think a lot of Zuqka. It strikes me as a service that should be a smashing hit as it is backed by the Nation Media Group. Therefore, I was quite surprised when a reader pointed out that Zuqka has degenerated into a “lonely spam farm”. Have a look at the comments on these pages:

    Goodness, it is quite shocking that the people behind Zuqka have let this happen. Your website can fail for many reasons but with spam-fighting tools like Akismet available for free, it is unacceptable to have your site succumb to spam like Zuqka has. The fact that the Nation Media Group is involved in Zuqka makes this all the more shameful. Bah!

    Infested Zuqka (click for larger image)

    Posta.co.ke – well, the official website of the Postal Corporation of Kenya is pretty well designed if you ask me. But it does not seem to be very well taken care of. For instance, this page is chock full of adverts for viagra and other sex-related pharmaceutical products. Clearly, Posta Kenya has a spam issue that no one knows about (or that no one cares about enough to fix).

    Rumbaa – I generally hear good things about Rumbaa – a Kenyan photography site. But over the last week I have not (not even once) managed to get the site to load up properly. The images seem to be perpetually broken AND Google warns you that some of the pages of Rumbaa.com may “harm your computer”. Someone do something!

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  • 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

    Posted: November 19, 2010, 12:43 pm by tranx

    What’s a cookie? How do I protect myself on the web? And most importantly: What happens if a truck runs over my laptop?

    In an attempt to teach the average person about the fundamental of browsers and the web, Google has released an interactive online book that explains concepts like, TCP/IP, HTML, browser extensions and malware.

    The short book, 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web, is a step-by-step explanation of the web and how it works. It was created by the Google Chrome team using HTML5, but it also features a lot of clever illustrations by award-winning German illustrator and children’s author Christoph Niemann.

    The focus of the book is on 19 different topics (plus a recap, making for 20 things). It starts with “What Is the Internet?” and then dives into cloud computing, web apps, web programming languages, browsers, privacy, security and open source.

    Source: Mashable

    In your quest to do business online, is there anything that you do not understand about the web? This is your chance to learn:

    20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web.

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  • How to Start a Successful Web Business

    Posted: November 19, 2010, 9:54 am by Kelvin

    Ever dreamt of making millions on the Internet? Then this is for you.

    This is a series of “lectures” making up over 12 hours of audio on how to start and grow your web business into a multi-million business. It covers the following topics:

    1. Deciding on an idea
    2. Building your idea
    3. Launching and marketing your idea
    4. Turning your idea into a $1M/year business
    5. What to do after you’ve made millions

    You can find all this information here: How to Start a Sucessful Bootstrapped Web App Business.

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  • 5 Reasons Working From Home is a Bad Idea

    Posted: November 17, 2010, 12:13 am by Kelvin

    Thinking of starting your business by working at home? Here are 5 reasons why that is a bad idea:

    1. Productivity – You’re functioning at about 75 percent productivity in a coffee shop or at home. The distractions are everywhere. At the coffee shop it’s the annoying person on the phone; at home it’s the cat, the dog, the neighbor, the internet is down, the TV is on…
    2. Space to think – If you’re serious about building a company –a real company, not an app or a feature – than you’re going to need space. You’re going to need whiteboards and desks and printers and stable Internet service and phone booths and meeting space.
    3. Don’t lose that third space – Without space, your boundaries between work and play dissolve to the point that you don’t know how to work and how to play. When you live in coffee shops or work at home you tend to go at one speed, whether you’re crushed for time or not. When you have an office with a product deadline looming, you stay there until it’s done.
    4. World-class teams don’t work from home – For a little while you can get away with attracting people to your kitchen table, but very soon you’ll be competing with other start-ups/companies for talent – and your comfy couch is not going to get it done.
    5. Space is cheap – Office space is cheap and plentiful assuming you don’t need super nice digs. It’s also surprisingly cheaper than you think when you do a fully loaded cost analysis. When you’re not at the office, the chances of you bringing your lunch are probably lower and the coffee is definitely more expensive.

    Adapted from VentureBeat‘s “5 reasons working from home (or Starbucks) is a bad idea“.
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  • Screw it, Just do it

    Posted: November 16, 2010, 12:12 pm by tranx

    Over the weekend, I had the good fortune to to have a very interesting conversation with a very successful Internet entrepreneur (he makes upwards of 2 million Euros a year from his websites). This fine gentleman told me something that really got to me.

    While I was telling him that I have not yet launched the project I am currently working on because of X or Y, he cut me short and said:

    “That’s not being entrepreneurial. You should just start! Before you begin anything you actually do not have any problems – do not think of how this or that may go wrong. The only thing that is wrong is that you have not yet started doing it (your project). And the only way to know if there are actually any problems that need fixing is to start doing something, not planning endlessly. As they say: Screw it, Just do it.

    Sir Richard Branson wrote a book titled: “Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons In Life“. Is that a coincidence? Or are both of these successful gentlemen trying to share on of the secrets to their successes? If you are thinking of starting something – a new project, a new business, whatever – then just go ahead and do it. Stop dilly-dallying and wasting time. Just do it.

    Peace.

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  • PayPal Stops Working For Equity Account Holders

    Posted: November 16, 2010, 9:01 am by tranx

    In what may be a bizzarre outcome following the rumours that PayPal and Equity have been working together for a more streamlined service, holders of Equity bank accounts can no longer pay via PayPal by using their Equity debit/credit cards.

    We’re not sure why Equity Bank decided to block payments to PayPal but this probably means that PayPal account holders in Kenya will continue to suffer (by not being able to withdraw to a local bank) for the foreseeable future.

    What do you think of this development?

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  • Winners of “Blue Ocean Strategy”

    Posted: November 16, 2010, 8:53 am by Kelvin

    From the competition that we had announced last week, we are pleased to announce that we randomly picked the following winners:

    All three receive a free copy of “The Blue Ocean Strategy“. Kudos to them.

    Watch out for more and better competitions from Like Chapaa. Before the next one comes around, have a look at the Chapaa Shop.

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  • Interesting Kenyan Sites #13

    Posted: November 14, 2010, 6:03 pm by Kelvin

    Communications Commission of Kenya – it is not often that you get a website done by the Government of Kenya that stands out for being well done. The CCK website does just that! The site design is well thought-out and the information on the website looks fresh and well managed. Kudos, CCK! Every other Government webmaster should look up to this!

    50-50
    NiKenya.com – an interesting domain name. But sadly, we do not think the idea behind this site is well executed. I still cannot answer these questions: “What is the purpose of this site?” “Why should I sign up?”. Hopefully we’ll get an answer soon.

    Flops
    McDave – this is an Online Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Shop Based in Nairobi. I personally think that such a business, if well done, can be very successful in Nairobi and other major Kenyan towns. Sadly, McDave does not seem to be well done. First, their design seems to be “all over the place” but the main problem is this: When you see an online shop put, on their website, advertisements from Google Adsense, then you know the online shop is suffering from a lack of purpose. If this goes on, it will not be long till you see McDave go down in failure. This would be sad. McDave should either focus on their stated business of selling fruits and “veges” online, or change their focus to something else and do that.

    Global Essence – I’m not quite sure what this site is supposed to be all about. It looks like some sort of music related information website. Their footer says “Copyright 2008 Globalessence.net All rights reserved” so we know the last time anyone put some effort into this site was way back in 2008.

    Communication.go.ke – another week, another site by the Government of Kenya down. Sigh. We do not know how long this one’s been down, but its pretty clear no one is interested in seeing it get back up. Sigh.

    communication.go.ke down, and out (click for larger view)

    Rumours
    Word on the street is that a bunch of Kenyan have just received a considerable amount of funding to build a high class Kenyan porno website. The website is to focus on amateur pornography (where you are encouraged to upload your own clips of the stuff). While I think that this website has a good chance to become wildly successful, I wonder if it is right to go ahead and do it. What do you think? Do you know of any other similar Kenyan websites?

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  • Sometimes Price Does Not Matter

    Posted: November 12, 2010, 7:23 am by Kelvin

    I got a nice email from Ramit Sethi today:

    Hey, Kelvin

    A few days ago, I threw a party in my NYC apartment. I went to the nearby liquor to buy some drinks, and when I got to the vodka area, I started trying to decide which brand to get.

    Absolut? Ketel One? Grey Goose? Vladimir?

    Interestingly, I know all the research about taste-testing for drinks. When you subject people to a double-blind test, they essentially cannot tell the difference between vodkas, wines, or soft drinks. In fact, I wrote about this extensively in my book, where I cited a famous wine study where the world’s top experts could not even tell the difference between white wine and red wine when the drinks were disguised.

    So there I was, standing at the counter deciding which vodka to buy, steeped in research, knowing full well that my friends wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in taste.

    Yet I still bought one of the most expensive bottles.

    Why?

    This will be useful to you when you sell your services to earn more money on the side.

    The bottles ranged from about $10 to $40/bottle. In my budget, $30 makes no difference to me. Yet I was throwing a party for friends. I was a little nervous to show off my new apartment. I was in a rush. All of these things add up.

    What went through my head — as someone who has extensively studied the research behind marketing and decision-making?

    “Yeah…I know all the research…but I have a nice apartment, and what if my friends think I skimped on the drinks? It’s only $30…I might as well get the good stuff….damn, I’m running late…this lady has been watching me stand here for 9 minutes and probably thinks I’m a weirdo…I should just get this one and go.”

    Notice what’s going on?

    I’m not stupid. I know that “premium” vodkas cost more, with essentially no difference in product, and the owners take the extra money as pure profit. I knew all of this logically….yet it didn’t matter.

    No matter how educated or smart you are, you are STILL subject to the same influences as anyone else. I’m influenced by social approval…and scarcity…and price.

    And so are the people you’re trying to sell your services to.

    If you like that, you may want to join Ramit’s Earn1K course.

    Does price always matter to you?

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  • Getting Free Advertising Online

    Posted: November 11, 2010, 7:44 am by Kelvin

    You. You are in business for yourself, hopefully in a field you know a little something about. And while you know something about it, chances are a lot of others don’t. That means you have something to share. And there’s your ticket to a little free advertising on the internet.

    Blogging
    First off, if you do not have a blog for your business, start one now. A little thing worth noting: Google LOVES blogs. They index blogs and their spiders are all over blogs. So, by starting a blog and writing effective and helpful content which targets your target market, you will get into the search engines. Do so effectively and often and you will be established as an authority in your field.

    Blogging is a very effective means of free advertising for your business, but let’s take it the next level.

    Article Hubs
    Article hubs are sites which collect content written by a large collection of authors into one site. What makes a hub different is that the authors put their content up there for the specific purpose of being republished. An example of this is Ezine Articles. There a LOT of them out there.

    Now, a TRULY lazy blogger would go to a site like this, grab some content for free, and republish it on their own blogs. That’s a way to go, but the real benefit comes in being on the author side of the equation. If you are running a blog site (and you should be), you are obviously writing some content. You are making the content public anyway. Why not put some of that stuff out onto the article hubs and allow other sites to republish it? One of the conditions of doing so is that the person republishing your article has to include your short bio and a link to you with the article. YOU write this bio and you can link it using your own keywords. When they republish your article, you get credit for it and, more importantly, a link to your website.

    That’s free advertising, guys. Your articles can go viral, just like a video on Youtube.

    It Takes Writing
    Yes, this method of online promotion takes writing. I know we have some lazy website owners on this site, but all owners (lazy or not) would like to get free publicity on the internet. So, it’ll take some writing.

    Happy marketing!

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  • Very Cool: Safaricom Annual Report 2010

    Posted: November 10, 2010, 7:30 pm by Kelvin

    The Safaricom annual report for 2010 is available online. Why are we writing about it on Like Chapaa, you ask? We dislike like Safaricom just as much as the next guy, but we have to give credit where it is due.

    Before any further talk, have a look at the Safaricom Annual Report 2010.

    I’ve personally never even seen company reports that look so good. Let alone a Kenyan company. Safaricom, you did well, very well. Kudos! More of the same innovation, creativity and ingenuity, please.

    Are you a Safaricom shareholder? Aren’t you proud!

    PS: Thanks to SkunkWorks for pointing this out.

    Update: It appears that this is nothing new, Zain had one just like it: Zain Annual Report.

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  • Blue Ocean Strategy (Free Book Inside)

    Posted: November 10, 2010, 2:56 pm by Kelvin

    Blue Ocean Strategy is an outstanding book. It clearly outlines the steps to developing new market space and breaking out of the trap of competing head to head with competition. Red oceans are defined as bloody battlegrounds where companies compete against each other in a head to head fashion. Blue oceans are new market space conceived by forward thinking managers to de-commoditize their businesses. Examples of businesses that have implemented this strategy are such as Curves, Southwest Airlines, Cirque du Soleil, Yellowtail Wine, Bloomberg, and even the New York City Police Department.

    Tools such as the “strategy canvas”, the “four actions” and the “blue ocean idea index” are provided to assist the reader in visualizing how to create a blue ocean in their industry.

    The authors also provide relevant direction on how to successfully integrate a blue ocean strategy into any company by selling it into the organization correctly. Finally, the very useful appendix provides detailed examples in history of continual blue ocean creation over decades. Examples given are the automotive, computer and theater industries.

    I would highly recommend this book to any business person or business student. You can purchase the book here.

    You know what? We’re giving away free copies of this book to anyone who leaves a comment below. You don’t have to say anything specific, just join the conversation. Good luck!

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  • The Kenyan Spammer

    Posted: November 10, 2010, 9:28 am by wham

    I don’t know, sometimes I think everyone in Kenya is a spammer.

    We work a lot on Internet marketing projects so we meet a lot of people and hear – or work with – lots of companies dicing into Internet marketing. One of the most popular forms of Internet marketing in Kenya is Email marketing. Rightly so!

    However, it disturbs me greatly that almost no Kenyan company gives two hoots about where they get the email addresses that they market to. It is very common to hear “hey, si you give me your list of emails I do email marketing for my business“?

    Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

    Just for your information, spamming:

    • is actually illegal in some places
    • is morally questionable
    • almost always gives a bad impression of your company/product
    • does not work as well as you think it does
    • wastes millions of man-hours each year

    Furthermore, the alternative to spamming is, in my opinion, infinitely better (in that it makes more business sense). If you market to an email list that you rightfully own, you will find that your goals are much much much easier to achieve.

    Spamming is wrong. Don’t do it.

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  • Tastefully Use Social Media at Your Wedding

    Posted: November 10, 2010, 6:12 am by Kelvin

    A few weeks back, we wrote about Event Management 2.0 whereby we suggested that it may be of great benefit for an event management company to integrate modern technology, and social media into managing their events.

    Today, Mashable shares on how to tastefully integrate social media into your wedding. Here’s a snippet of what they say:

    1. Pre-wedding preparations – Introducing wedding attendees online before the big day can help you avoid any day-of awkwardness. This will give people the chance to break the ice and virtually get to know a little about everyone else.
    2. Stay offline during the ceremony – “Be polite. Don’t tweet when you should be participating and listening, specifically during the liturgy or the ceremony.”
    3. Appoint a chief Tweeter - If you want your wedding to be recorded for posterity in 140-character posts, then let people know and even encourage them to get involved by creating a hashtag. “Tell your bridal party it’s OK to tweet!” says Howard. “Create a hashtag for sharing your event. This will make all tweets from your day easy to find later on and helps to create a feeling of celebration for your guests.
    4. Set up a social media station – There’s a way to keep a traditional look and feel to a wedding celebration and still make room for social media. A “social media station” is a place where those who want to connect or comment online can do so, without forcing the issue onto the uninterested.
    5. Live stream for those who cant make it – Thanks to the wonders of modern tech, nowadays you can share your special moments with people who can’t make it in person. Ustream is one such site that can help you share your ceremony with those well-wishing from afar.
    6. Enjoy your day

    So is there any event manager out there who thinks that there’s even a small chance of these methods succeeding?
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  • The 9 Worst Ways to Use Facebook for Business

    Posted: November 9, 2010, 1:59 pm by wham

    HubSpot has a really interesting take on the 9 worst ways to use Facebook for business:

    1. Duplicate your Twitter Strategy on Facebook
    2. Post Only Plain-Text Status Updates
    3. Don’t Allow Fans to Share Content
    4. Don’t Comment on Your Fans’ Content
    5. Don’t Share Your Fans’ Content
    6. Don’t use Facebook Questions to Find More Fans
    7. Use a Profile Image That has a Poor Thumbnail
    8. Don’t Share Your Facebook Page on Your Website
    9. Don’t Develop a Personality

    Do you like this list or find it interesting? Then click here to read the whole article (and get a free ebook on Facebook marketing).

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  • How to Start a Niche Website

    Posted: November 9, 2010, 10:16 am by wham

    A lot of money can be made by creating niche sites that generate you a little bit of income every month. Once they are up and running they have literally no upkeep and the money just continues to come in no matter what you do with your time. It is a great source of passive income. I want to share with you the basics of creating your own niche website.

    The idea behind niche websites is fairly simple. Create a website in a certain niche, obtain the top search engine rankings for that niche and get loads of visitors to your site. Place advertisements on your site to make money and update your site maybe once per month or less (or maybe never) and continue to get income month in month out without doing much work at all.

    Finding a Niche
    Finding a niche that will get enough people going to it for it to be profitable is an important first task. For this I recommend:

    How To Find a Keyword Phrase
    Finding a keyword phrase which you can rank highly in and which can bring you a significant amount of traffic is the next step towards creating a profitable niche website. One of the great tools you can use for this is the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool. You can type in a keyword and it will show you keyword phrases which people use to search for that certain keyword. For example if you type in Miley Cyrus into the tool it will show you phrases such as “Miley Cyrus”, “Miley Cyrus nude”, “Miley Cyrus naked”, “Miley Cyrus pictures” and so on from the most popular searches down to the least popular. This is a great tool to find out one keyword phrase you can focus on. All you need to to be rank first for one of the keyword phrases which gets over 500 hits per day and you can make the $1-$5 per day we talked about.

    Buying a Domain Name
    Now, this is a very important part. You want to buy a domain name that has your keyword phrase in it. This is because it will help you rank higher in search engines for that keyword. If you have chosen Miley Cyrus as your niche then you want to try all the keyword phrases as domain names and see which one you can get as a .com.

    Write Keyword Rich Content
    Now that you have your domain name and keyword phrase you want to focus on you need to make your website as SEO friendly as possible. Your title needs to have your keyword phrase, use images with your keyword phrase and include your keyword phrase in the ‘alt’ section of your images. In your content which you write for your website write with keywords in mind and put in bold your keyword phrase you are focusing on. Do everything you can to make your website as search engine friendly as possible because we are trying to get to the number one spot for your search engine rankings.

    Building Backlinks
    Once you have optimised your website for search engines then start building backlinks to your website. Try and create backlinks which include your keyword phrase, you can do this through commenting, through swapping links with others, by buying links, by using your own website to link to it. Do whatever you can to gain backlinks because the more links you have the more likely you are to get ranked higher in the search engines

    Monetise
    Make sure you put some advertising on your website so you can make money from it. Try Google Adsense for starters, and maybe try private advertising later.

    Sleep
    Now you can make money in your sleep and you don’t have to do anything. If it takes you a month to set up but then you can make $5/day for the rest of your life wouldn’t it be worth it? I think the answer is YES!

    If you really want to get into this, I suggest you take a look at this course: How to make Money Online: Niche Websites. This will guide you through the whole process and make it easier.

    Good luck!

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  • Flop of The Day

    Posted: November 8, 2010, 9:57 pm by Kelvin

    Well, well, well, www.likechapaa.com was down for 10+ hours today! What do we have to say about this? Here at “Chapaa HQ” it has been a day like no other and we are all exhausted and quite relieved that the whole mess has been solved now.

    So, what was the problem? PayPal was the problem. We’re Africans, Kenyans and so we, you know, live in Kenya. That means that all our transactions originate and revolve around our country. Unfortunately, PayPal took one of our payments (for web hosting) and declared that it must be fraudulent because it was made by a person accessing PayPal from … Kenya. Guilty until proven innocent.

    We love how secure PayPal is but come on this is crazy. Is every African person in the world a suspected criminal? Are all transactions made in Africa suspect? We have no further comments on this, just a deep dissatisfaction with PayPal. PayPal, your blanket policies leave a lot to be desired.

    To everyone who tried to access Like Chapaa today, we apologise for the inconveniences. Thank you for trying to read our stuff. We’d like to let you know that we are profitable, and we can (and do) pay our bills on time! We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!

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  • Meet RockMelt – The New Browser

    Posted: November 8, 2010, 9:40 pm by wham

    Click here to view the embedded video.

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  • Interesting Kenyan Sites #12

    Posted: November 7, 2010, 10:14 am by Kelvin

    Zetu.co.ke – this a Kenyan site made in the mould of www.groupon.com that offers deals whereby you can buy stuff at discounted prices. I must say that the site looks to be made exceptionally well. Kudos to the guys behind this! We wish them success in their new business.

    Inside Kampus – this site (from what we can tell) is trying to be a portal for campuses in Kenya. The site is well made and, while it is low on content at the moment, if done well could be a good success. Good job, and good luck to the people behind it – and please populate your site soon.

    Niaje.com – Niaje is a source for local celeb news from the same guys behind majibu.com. its a good attempt and we feel that they are just getting started. We cannot wait to see it filled up with more content – we hope that, unlike the competition, the site will really focus on being local, and not just the “big” names.

    What could have been…
    Taxi Match – Taxi Match was a site – and business – that literally formed before my eyes during the IPO48 event in Kenya. Taxi Match was so good that it won Second Place at IPO48. If you ask me, the guys behind it did a very good job in building the site, and the business. The site is based on a service that connects anyone in Nairobi to a good, experienced and trustworthy taxi driver at any time, day or night. Rumour has it that the people behind Taxi Match will not be pursuing the business further. What a shame, eh? Good job all the same!

    Flops
    The Department of Immigration – it is quite shameful to have a government website offline due to a technical issue. It is unacceptable that it be offline for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, the website of the Department of Immigration has been offline for at least a week now. Surely the government of Kenya has enough resources at its disposal to fix this? Right? Fail.

    The Kenya Department of Immigration (click to see larger)

    What do you think of this week’s interesting sites?

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  • Earning Money From Niche Websites

    Posted: November 6, 2010, 12:18 pm by wham

    Does the idea of continuous passive income from websites you can set-up and forget about sound good to you? Well that is what niche content websites are all about. Let’s take a look at this online income method.

    Before we start, I’d like to let you know that you can purchase a product from the Chapaa Shop to learn all about niche websites: “How to Make Money Online Using Niche Websites“. Okay, moving on…

    What is a Niche Website?
    A “niche website” is one that is designed with a very specific and narrow target market in mind. The type of information that it contains is carefully produced to draw in viewers who are motivated by their interest in the subject to purchase a product or products related to the topic of the site.

    Consider this example. A dog owner with a large piece of property wants to keep his dog from wandering too far from home. However, he doesn’t want to contain his entire property within a fence and likes the idea of his dog having lots of space to roam. He decides to investigate the idea of installing an invisible dog fence by doing an Internet search.

    A web developer who wants to target this customer would create a website around the keywords “invisible dog fences”. He would fill it with articles about different types of invisible dog fences, how to install them, the advantages of them over a regular fence, etc.

    He would choose an affiliate product or products related to this topic, most likely a specific invisible dog fence. Of course, visitors to the site are already motivated by their desire to purchase this particular item. If visitors find what they read on the site to be informative and trustworthy, they will be likely to purchase the advertised affiliate product. In turn, the website’s owner receives a commission for the sale.

    The website owner can also make a profit by signing up to run web ads, such as Google AdSense. The ad program will automatically place ads on the site which are related to the content of the site. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of the links, the site owner makes money.

    Identifying Niches
    If you want to be sure you will enjoy the process, one of the first steps you should go through is identifying those things in which you have some interest. Create a list by brainstorming and trying to identify everything you like. You are likely to find at the end that this includes broad topics like reading along with very specific things like collecting Makmende jokes (for example). It doesn’t matter how broad or specific things on this list are because this is just the starting point.

    Once you’ve compiled this list, you will want to identify which things are very broad and which are already very specific, and then use this to identify niche markets you could tackle. Our example of a specific item above shows a small niche that is the ‘Makmende collectors market. This is a topic for which you should be able to create or find a fair amount of content, making it suitable for this purpose.

    Your broad items will need to be narrowed down into one or more niches you might be interested. To continue on with our examples, maybe you really enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books. In this case, since it is a series of books, movies and other merchandise, it could be considered its own niche market, and therefore be suitable. Popular authors or specific genres could also be suitable, but be careful about getting too specific and targeting a single book.

    Creating The Site
    To maximize the potential you have for profit, you may want to consider getting your own domain name and setting up a site in your own hosting account. However, neither of these is required in order to make some money or to create a website. Several places online allow you to sign up and create your own blog, web page, or even entire web site, for free. Many of these will even allow you to make money from advertising, or allow you to include affiliate links on your pages so you can make some money. You can also just simple hire us, we’re experts.

    The most important aspect of your site is going to be the content. As mentioned above, your content should be focused primarily on the specific niche you identified. As far as this content goes, it is best if your content is unique. To get unique content, you will either need to create it yourself, or hire someone to create it for you (you can hire the awesome Crystal). Of course, these aren’t the only options you have for getting content.

    Making Money
    Once the site is created, you can begin monetizing it in whatever way you have chosen. If you are using a free blog or other free site to host, you may be somewhat restricted, so be sure to consider your options when choosing where to publish your content.

    Two of the most popular ways to monetize a niche website include using an advertising network, such as Google’s AdWords, and affiliate marketing. These can be used separately or together. Placing advertising usually involves signing up for the program and then placing their code into your page. Affiliate marketing is similar in that you would sign up for the program and place a special link on your page, but you’ll usually want to be sure you’re linking to specific products or services relevant to your site’s topic.

    Conclusion
    Making money via niche websites is one of the easiest ways to make money online. However, do not expect to retire off it – a niche website can be considered to be successful if it makes $2 to $3 a day. The real power comes in when you have 5, 10, 50 or even 100 such websites all working for you. Then you can retire!

    If you are interested in niche websites, how about purchasing “How to Make Money Online Using Niche Websites“? It is a nice little course that can help you greatly. Good luck!

    What do you think of this method of making money online?

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  • So you want to start a Web Startup?

    Posted: November 6, 2010, 5:47 am by wham

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    How do you like the video?

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  • 60-Year-Old Loses Job, Creates 12 Websites

    Posted: November 5, 2010, 12:06 pm by Kelvin

    “I get to work from home, I’m totally focused on what I do because I know it’s all for my family and our future, and I’m building a business that is mine, rather than working for someone else and building their business,” he said. “It’s absolutely rewarding and totally satisfying. I could do this sixteen hours a day.”

    Read the whole article here.Similar Posts:


  • Is Our Education System Broken?

    Posted: November 4, 2010, 7:42 am by Kelvin

    I know you’ve heard this one a lot. We have to get rid of this damned 8-4-4 maneno, and soon. I agree. Here’s what I really think about the 8-4-4.

    Today, let’s talk about University/College. Why do we go to university? Do we go to uni so that we can get a degree? Or so that we can get a job in the future? What is the true purpose of a university education?

    Part of a university education is the obvious training for a future career; various subjects and tests that all lead to the university degree, which brings career opportunities and higher pay. Knowledge of certain subjects and a college degree are both beneficial to have in terms of a successful future. Great emphasis is placed on this perception of what society considers success. If success is having plenty of money to buy material items, a degree can certainly prepare one for that. If success is measured in terms of the amount of knowledge acquired in certain subjects, a university education can also help one to achieve success.

    However, a university education goes beyond that. It is more than memorizing books and facts. It is more than a framed certificate on a wall that can be used to impress future employers. We all have identities away from our careers. If the objective of a university education is more than gaining the knowledge necessary to pass tests and get a degree, what is the true purpose of a university education?

    Recently, I was part of a pretty hot conversation about universities in Kenya. It is reported that the University of Nairobi – and many others in Kenya – has a bit of a problem: there is a shortage of university professors (is this true?). It is also reported that this is so because very few students go to university past the Bachelors degree (unless to get an MBA). It seems, therefore, that for most people the university is nothing short of a path to a job. Do we go to universities so that we can get jobs?

    Seth Godin wrote on this topic recently:

    College costs a fortune. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of money.

    When a professor assigns you to send a blogger a list of vague and inane interview questions (“1. How did you get started in this field? 2. What type of training (education) does this field require? 3. What do you like best about your job? 4. what do you like least about your job?”) I think you have an obligation to say, “Sir, I’m going to be in debt for ten years because of this degree. Perhaps you could give us an assignment that actually pushes us to solve interesting problems, overcome our fear or learn something that I could learn in no other way…”

    When a professor spends hours in class going over concepts that are clearly covered in the textbook, I think you have an obligation to repeat the part about the debt and say, “perhaps you could assign this as homework and we could have an actual conversation in class…”

    When you discover that one class after another has so many people in a giant room watching a tenured professor far far in the distance, perhaps you could mention the debt part to the dean and ask if the class could be on video so you could spend your money on interactions that actually changed your life.

    The vast majority of email I get from college students is filled with disgust, disdain and frustration at how backwards the system is. Professors who neither read nor write blogs or current books in their field. Professors who rely on marketing textbooks that are advertising-based, despite the fact that virtually no professional marketers build their careers solely around advertising any longer. And most of all, about professors who treat new ideas or innovative ways of teaching with contempt.

    “This is costing me a fortune, prof! Push us! Push yourself!

    From “The Loss of the University,” in Home Economics: “The thing being made in a university is humanity. given the current influence of universities, this is merely inevitable. But what universities, at least the public-supported ones, are mandated to make or to help to make is human beings in the fullest sense of those words — not just trained workers or knowledgeable citizens but responsible heirs and members of human culture. If the proper work of the university is only to equip people to fulfill private ambitions, then how do we justify public support? If it is only to prepare citizens to fulfill public responsibilities, then how do we justify the teaching of arts and sciences? The common denominator has to be larger than either career preparation or preparation for citizenship. Underlying the idea of a university — the bringing together, the combining into one, of all the disciplines — is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by-products of the making of a good — that is, a fully developed — human being. This, as I understand it, is the definition of the name university.”

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  • How Can You Do It?

    Posted: November 3, 2010, 1:36 pm by Kelvin

    Great article from Seth Godin on starting your own business:

    JK asks,

    “It’s like, how does anyone start their own business? How is it even possible? How do they deal with the crippling fear and harsh economic realities?”

    Some people believe that if you have a good job, you shouldn’t start your own gig, because it’s foolish to give up a job you can’t easily replace.

    And some people believe that if you don’t have a great job, it’s foolish to waste time (and the money you can ill afford to lose) starting something when you’d be a lot better off getting a great job or going to school until you do.

    And both groups are missing the point.

    The people who successfully start independent businesses (franchises, I think are a different thing) do it because we have no real choice in the matter. The voice in our heads won’t shut up until we discover if we’re right, if we can do it, if we can make something happen. This is an art, our art, and to leave it bottled up is a crime.

    I guess the real question, JK, is, “How can you not do it?”

    What do you think?

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  • Making Money from Your Ideas

    Posted: November 3, 2010, 11:06 am by wham

    Ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.

    That’s what I tell people when they ask me how they can sell their ideas. There’s a general misconception that ideas have some sort of market value, if only one can find a buyer. Sadly, that is not the case. Everyone reading this blog is full of great ideas. But usually we don’t have the time, talent, resources, or risk tolerance to pursue them. So we keep our wonderful ideas squirreled away in our heads, where they remain until dementia eats them.

    If you do nothing with your idea, then it is worth nothing.

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  • Will your business service if something happens to you?

    Posted: November 2, 2010, 10:33 am by tranx

    While we don’t like to think of it, there are always uncertainties in life that can come without warning. When these events occur, it is often very difficult to pay any attention to your business. Either you don’t have the time or it becomes the farthest thing from your mind.

    When that does occur, will your business continue to run without you or is it completely dependent on you? If your answer is more of the former than the latter, it is more likely that you have already built or are on your way to building a successful Lazy Business.
    Why is it Important?

    The main reason is that you never know what’s going to happen to you from day to day.

    • You could have a family emergency that needs your complete attention
    • You could become injured or sick and not be able to work for a period of time
    • There could be some sort of catastrophe where you work or live and you won’t be able to get to work or do any work for several days

    All of these things are completely out of your control and more often than, completely unpredictable on when they happen. You need to be prepared so that when they do happen, your business and your livelihood aren’t affected and you can focus on what needs your immediate attention.

    An ancillary affect of being so prepared is that you can also be gone for no reason at all. You can take a week off of work at a moment’s notice or just not do any work for several days. Your business will still function without you to support that lifestyle. Now it may not continue to grow without your leadership and vision but that is a balance that you need to be comfortable with.

    The important goal to focus on is that your business wouldn’t fall off the edge of a cliff with clients canceling their service or bills don’t get paid, etc.

    What if You Freelance or the Main Cog in the Business?
    If you are a freelancer, you have other problems. Freelancing is not a real business in the first place and you need to re-engineer what you do and how you work to make sure that you manage the business and are not the sole person responsible for service/product delivery.

    What Needs to Be Done?
    The short answer is . . . Everything!

    Every business is different in what it sells and how it operates. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t common functions of every business – accounting, service/product delivery, marketing, sales, general management, etc.

    The fact is that each of these areas should be broken down and detailed in a manual with all the functions that need to be completed. And all of those activities should be delegated to someone else to do. These are tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis like setting up new clients or paying bills on a weekly basis. You should not be doing anything that you can get someone else to do – outsource it.

    But there are a few things you should have procedures in place for so that they can be run without you. This is also a good checklist for those who want to automate their business:

    • Who is going to handle the accounting and handle the reconciliation of all the expenses and income?
    • Who is going to bill the clients, receive the payments, and process the payments?
    • Who is going to pay the bills on time?
    • How are the taxes going to get paid and any forms or legal documents get filed?
    • Who is going to manage the marketing campaigns – set them up, monitor them, and measure them?
    • Who will the prospects call or e-mail if they have any questions or would like to place an order?
    • Who will take the orders and get the information to deliver the product or service?
    • Who will handle product/service delivery and make sure that the client is set-up and receives what they ordered?
    • Who will handle client support? They will probably have questions or concerns and they need someone to talk to.

    While they might not all be completely automated so that they can get completed without any assistance or initiation from you, you should be able to easily hand them over to someone else to complete. These are all things that you need to automate today so that you don’t have to worry about them tomorrow. And you’ll notice that once you do have them handed off, you will be able to focus more time and energy on growing a successful business. . . or you can just play some golf instead.

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  • Haiya, DukaPress?

    Posted: November 2, 2010, 10:15 am by Kelvin

    You wouldn’t think that the very young, built-in-Kenya, shopping cart system would be used at such a grand event as the IPO48, would you? DukaPress was used by no less than two of the teams! I hope this means that DukaPress is not only free and easy to use but also powerful and flexible. Read about this by clicking here.

    Have you tried DukaPress? Download it or get a free online shop. 3,500 other people have done just that!

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  • The 8Pen

    Posted: November 1, 2010, 5:30 pm by tranx

    Re-inventing the Keyboard. Watch the video:

    Click here to view the embedded video.

    What do you think?Similar Posts:


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