Proven Ways to Make Money Through Blogging in Kenya

Proven Ways to Make Money Through Blogging in Kenya

Are you looking for top ways to make money online that are not scams?. Or maybe you are searching for ways to earn extra money. Are you passionate about something that people consult you all the time and you quickly solve it? Are you looking for ways to monetize your passion, problem-solving abilities or day-to-day hustles that Kenyans go through – be it applying for a Kenyan passport, visa, a national ID or even worse, obtaining the new digital driving license.

No matter which category you’re in, making money with a blog is possible – of course when done the right way. Many Kenyan bloggers on WordPress have succeeded in this venture, why not you?.

First, a cautionary word: in no way is blogging a get rich quick scheme. If you’re looking for quick ways to get rich online then I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news – that is not practically possible. Any online get-rich-quick scheme is a scam. Don’t be wooed by these phrases ‘make money fast in Kenya’, ‘quick ways to get rich in Nairobi,’ ‘stay at home mom makes Ksh 100,000 per month through online schemes’ or ‘make money from home by doing nothing.’

Please do not in any way be enticed by pictures of expensive cars, mansions, ‘net-workers’ sand bathing in Dubai, and in actuality, most of those pictures are photo-shopped (in an ugly way to say the least)!. Follow any of these scams, and you will end up squandering your savings, and you will waste so much time doing it.

Far apart from the other ‘make money online in Kenya’ articles, this is the only guide you will need. It’s comprehensive and easy to implement.

A few techniques mentioned in this article will require time and money to jump-start your career in blogging. However, passion and the willingness to put an extra effort is crucial to reaping better rewards.

Before you start implementing any of these methods mentioned below, you will need a couple of things that we will gladly set up for you quickly.

You will need a:

1. A domain name idea ( this will be the name of your blog e.g. optomita.com/tuko.co.ke/mpasho.co.ke etc.).

2. A web hosting account (where your website will ‘live’ on the internet).

3. A nice website theme that outlines your passion (WordPress has free and premium themes for your choosing).

4. Your undivided attention, dedication, and time.

Alright, then let's get to it! These are undoubtedly proven ways to make money with your blog in Kenya.

1. CPC or CPM Ads

Easily monetize your blog by placing ads on your site, it’s one of the most commonly used methods by bloggers. There are two ways you can do that:

CPC/PPC ads – Cost per click/pay per click ads as the name suggests, are floating/static banners that you place strategically on your website either in your content or the sidebar. You get paid every time a website visitor clicks on that ad.

CPM ads – CPM ads are ‘cost per 1000 impressions’ (an impression is counted each time an ad is shown in a result page). Each time a CPM ad is served to your website and a visitor views it, you earn revenue. They usually pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view the ad.

Google is the ‘mother dragon’ of all search engines in the world has a top-rated network for placing these types of ads; Google Adsense. With Google Adsense, the heavy lifting is done for you since you don’t have to be in direct contact with advertisers; all you need to do is place the banner in your website. Google will choose ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. If in whatever way you feel AdSense does not suit you, there are countless alternatives like media.net, PropellerAds media, Revcontent, Chitika, etc.

2. Sell Private Ads

Do you hate middlemen/brokers? So do i. With private ads, you get to eliminate all the middlemen and work directly with advertisers. If you end up with enough traffic, advertisers may come directly to you and ask you to place an ad on your website. You can even contact them directly and discuss payment details, length of the banner, where it will be placed on your site and how long.

You can sell ads in the various form to maximize your revenue: banners, buttons, links in your blog posts something like ‘proudly brought to you by..’.

3. Sell eBooks on Your Website

Remember your passion or hobby, the one that just turned into a blog? Well, you can monetize it further by creating digital products. And the easiest way to do it is through creating eBooks. Ebooks are relatively simple to create and write, especially if your WordPress blog is about a hobby or a job that you do daily.

If you have been blogging for some time and you have written some articles, then you can assemble them into a chapter or two or create a mini-series of help articles into an attractive eBook.

Since your blog is your passion, then the information will flow easily such as a chef creating ‘Kitoweo cha pwani recipe’ or ‘easy ways to cook Mukimo’ wouldn’t be hard, will it? Or ‘how to quickly apply for a Kenyan passport no mistakes, no hustles’ or maybe a tax accountants ‘a beginners guide to file itax KRA returns.’ The possibilities here are endless.

You can create a video from the mini-series of your eBook and post it on YouTube, which is also a high revenue-generating income stream for passionate people who follow their dreams and utilize their skills really well as demonstrated by @blessednjugush,@churchill, @the green calabash @mandi sarro among others who distinctly turned their hobbies into revenue streams. They are also top WordPress bloggers in Kenya who have a massive following on Facebook, as you can see blogging through your website is a cyclic pattern that can earn you money.

Once you have written your ebook, its time to turn it into a professional-looking attractive design, countless tools can help you design beautiful eBooks some are free while others have free trials or you can opt for a paid version for more features e.g. canva, pic monkey, adobe spark, pictochart, etc.

What is left is for you to integrate some WordPress plugins (free) to your website, this will enable you to sell your eBooks and also make it easy for people to download them. You can also set up an email campaign software that sends purchased eBooks to recipients, such a strategy will allow you to track and monitor your sales.

4. Get Paid to Write Product/Services Review

You get approached by companies or individuals to first try out their products or services for free within your blog niche or industry. You can also contact brands launching services or products and offer to review what they are starting per your blogs’ fan base, not just any niche. A big percentage of Kenyan bloggers on WordPress earn easy money this way.

Companies usually do a lot of market research and testing before launching a service or product, but not all have vast marketing to pay for newspaper or TV ads. Such a company will approach a blogger who is working within their industry to write a review on their product for a fee. Since you’re a passionate, attention to detail person and you have created a fan base who will take your opinion as a well crafted expert opinion about the product, more people get to try the product or service, and you get paid for it.

5. Sell Sponsored Blog Posts

Assuming you don’t like displaying ads to your audience, and yet you want to make money through your blog. The thing is some visitors in your website will get annoyed and irritated especially if you use a a big banner that covers half of your home page! Some may even get offended and use and ad blocker which basically blocks any sort of ad and you end up losing revenue.

You can still monetize a blog without ads through sponsorships. Most blog post sponsorships work almost the same way as a normal TV or radio ad. What it means is that just like a product review, a company will pay you to represent their product/service, talk about paying attention to simple details and finally promote it to your readers.

So many products and services are launched every now and then and companies find it hard to reach potential customers especially if their marketing muscle is not as big as Safaricom and their new service fuliza, or the national government bonds initiative M-Akiba.

If you are approached by a company to write a sponsored post, it’s crucial to know in detail the ins and outs of the product, ask for the product to experience and use it for a while. Also pay attention to rules and regulations pertaining to the product/service, any by-laws or consumer regulations in Kenya should be followed to the letter if there are any.

6. Create a Directory / Listing Website

Just imagine how much money the likes of Pigiame, Olx, EatOut, TripAdvisor, among other website make from charging businesses to advertise on their websites. Better still how they make money from individuals who want to put up an advert for a few hours or a few days and yet all they had to do was to set up a professional website and use the right ingredients to make it functional to their customers’ needs in a customizable manner.

Here are a few directory ideas you can explore:

(I). Create a Paid Business Directory

Remember Yellow-pages let your fingers do the walking? The big ‘business directory ‘bible’ loved and hated in equal measure by many. Love it or not that humongous book was handy to businesses and individuals alike almost every company was listed in it. If you create a directory within your niche or local industry, it can be instrumental.

Such a directory may gather reviews of local businesses, focus on particular geographical niches that sell similar products or list the best products within that niche and thereby attract a specific audience interested in the product/services and maintain a focused clientele for you.

(II). Paid Job Directory Website

Are you a passionate, HR professional? Do you find joy connecting job seekers to potential hiring firms in Kenya? Or would you like to offer a solution to the ever-present employment situation in the country? Then a job portal directory is what you need. Companies looking to hire recruits would find a job portal very useful, they will avoid so many expenses, including the time to schedule interviews, interview candidates, prepare interview questions and answers, advertisement costs, etc.

Your job board will have plenty of candidates with ready resumes in their profiles, well created personal profiles, candidates whose profiles are industry-specific. So being approached by a hiring firm to provide them with several qualified recruits will be easy peasy. Companies can advertise for a position in your blog, and you charge them on an hourly, weekly, daily, or monthly basis.

It’s even easier to create a successful job board for the Kenyan market if you narrowed down to a specific industry or niche. That way, you will be able to minimize competition since you will be the knowledgeable, go-to site for anybody who is looking for a job in that industry.

Someone who is looking for a job in let’s say the ‘accounting,’ ‘nutrition,’ ‘banking,’ ‘coffee barista’ industry will be directed to your job board since you’ve narrowed it to a specific niche.

(III). Real Estate Directory Website

The real estate market in Kenya might be a little bit confusing; the boom was experienced a few years back has all of a sudden become a nightmare to investors and real estate agencies alike. But that shouldn’t hinder you from setting up a properties listing. It can have different categories and sub-categories like rental properties, properties for sale, bungalows, apartments, villas, cottages with catchy phrases like ‘Buroti maguta maguta’ ‘spacious bedsitters along Waiyaki way,’ ‘hottest plots in Kajiado’ etc.

In essence, a real estate directory will have a feature for agents accounts. Making it easy for them to register on your site and create a profile stating their category of interest and area of expertise. The property broker will be able to list his/her properties available for sale or rent, regularly update if they are sold or no longer available for rent.

Anyone looking to sell any property would be able to register and sell it in your website for a fee, commission or any other arrangement that you may find appropriate. Even those looking to buy property will peruse through and through your site looking for a property that suits them.

(IV). Events Portal

Kenyans party hard, almost every event be it a sad or a happy one calls for a celebration. A listing that focuses on any event in different locations, with categories and sub-categories of where the event will be, who will host it, the price package if any and the age gap.

You can expand the events portal to include multiple categories like sports, weddings, medical, career fairs, music events, competitions, etc. You can also concentrate on one niche like a non-governmental charity event website or a university website that focuses on all activities conducted by every university in Kenya.

Also, you can list event organizers, planners, event companies, or a store to sell certain products related to events like party supplies, banners, posters. And to top it all you can sell event tickets direct from your website.

7. Offer Freelance Services

Since you’re already blogging about your passion/hobby, that means you are an expert in your niche. It’s high time you offered your skills and expertise as a freelancer. Freelancing in Kenya will enable you to showcase your skills, be it cooking, tax expert, accounting, immigration, research, translation, graphic designing, etc. Online writing/ academic writing jobs in Nairobi are one of the most sought after money-making streams by university students in Kenya.

Since you have already set up your blog, all you need to do is list your skills and area(s) of expertise, and you will not necessarily require any upfront investment or capital. You can start offering your services to your audience right away.

To a freelancer, a website is your office. You can invoice your clients directly from the site, send quotations through emails, create and sell online courses, request for orders, and organize meetings which you can easily hold through Skype or conference calls.

8. Become a Life Coach

Do you find joy in helping people achieve something? Do you often get calls from friends or relatives to help them solve an ‘easy’ problem? Or maybe you went through a traumatic thing that completely changed your life, and you would like to help others avoid that trauma?

Just about everyone has expertise in something because through experience and a lifelong learning process, and we gain knowledge and skills that can guide someone in becoming better in something. The thing is; as long as you’re one step ahead of someone and you’re better at something, then you can reach back and coach how to be you or even better.

As a life coach, you can offer advice, guidance, and accountability for changing one’s life to the better or even an easy way of saving money on a daily or weekly basis. Ever heard of 52 weekly savings challenge? You can use your blog to teach people how to write amazing articles if you’re a good writer, create dietary plans for people looking for weight management tactics, etc.

WordPress has plenty of plugins making life so much easier for bloggers. It comes with tools that help you set up booking forms so that your audience or subscribers can schedule coaching sessions right from your blog. Its time saving and convenient for you and your clientele.

9. Use it To Build Your Credibility

Blogging can help you build credibility in your area of work. For instance, say you’re a social justice lawyer in the frustrating Kenyan judicial system or a land surveyor in this era of investors who lose their hard-earned life savings to scammers who sell them ‘air’ instead of a greenhouse. With your expertise in survey or law, you set up a blog focusing on the many challenges faced by us.

People start reading your content, and you become famous. People begin to consult you on matters land or law. People frequently visit your blog and share your articles to their various social media profiles. All of a sudden you’re the go-to macho man!

Once you stem that authority and offer well-researched advice in your industry of interest, people might approach you to represent them in court or to do survey work for them. You could charge to speak at conferences, chamas, SACCOs where members need crucial information on contracts or how to secure their investments to avoid scam deals.

Definitely, this is not a direct way of making money as compared to others I have mentioned above, but it has worked for many bloggers, and it can work for you too. In essence, it could be the most accessible avenue to making money blogging while at the same time working in your day job. Since you are already an expert in your field and you work every day lets say in the banking sector chances are you know almost everything to do with banking, best savings accounts, how to open a fixed account and earn an interest, comparison of packages offered by various banks outlining any hidden charges again possibilities are endless here.

10. Bonus

Making money through blogging can take a lot of persistence, hard work, dedication, and sweat, but it can pay off in the long run. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that making money blogging is not possible if you put up your site and let it sit there. You need to create good content, share it on social media, frequently post articles, engage your audience, etc.

You can explore these areas too:

1. Accept donations button on your blog

2. Affiliate marketing

3. Create an online store

4. Sell online courses ‘1 week barista coffee course’

5. Create a forum ‘ujenzi kenya forum’

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