We’re also building a variety of web properties in hopes of diversifying our revenue streams. So yes, we’re today announcing yet another project: IT Training.

Through this new project, we are partnering with some amazing IT Trainers to bring you quality IT training. It used to be (and still is) the case that there is no reputable school for programming or web design or graphic design or whatnot. We aim to change that.

The Internet is here and we aim to use to change IT Training in Kenya for good.

Please check out our IT Training Kenya!

Through this new project, we are partnering with some amazing Sales Trainers to bring you quality sales training. Trust me, your staff needs additional sales training.

We are working on a solution to provide timely and convenient online sales training soon.

Please check out Sales Training Kenya.

We thought Gerald’s would be an amazing story. I hope you agree.

Q. Gerald, tell us about yourself and what you do.
I graduated from JKUAT university with a Bsc Science degree specializing in Mathematics, Chemistry in 2002. After university, I didnt want to become a teacher so I went to a college in Westlands to learn web design and other IT related studies. It was in that college that I learnt about Internet marketing.

I took it upon myself to learn SEO, PPC advertising etc and other forms of internet marketing. I also read stories of people that were making good amounts of money on the internet and this intrigued me.

The challenge was that there were no colleges in Kenya that taught Internet marketing well and the ones that touched on it were offering very shallow or basic information.

After college, I got a job with a tour company whose main source of business was the Internet and my work was to get more leads for the company through my self taught skills. After a few months business started increasing for that company and they had to move from a house they were operating in to a big office in town. From there on I increased my knowledge in Internet marketing.

I worked for 6ys for that tour firm until i resigned in 2009 to start my own company to help businesses make money off the Internet. The company is called Ebiz Connect Solutions – http://www.ebiz.co.ke.

In the process of time I also opened up a tour company towards the end of 2009 with a friend of mine. Our main source of traffic/business was from the web. This tour company, for its small size, has been doing very well and is able to compete with the big players in the tourism industry.

Q. How did you find out about selling sites and how did you start?
I stumbled upon selling of sites just by reading discussions going on in the internet. Thats when I came to learn about Flippa.com. I needed some money for personal issues so i decided to list one of my sites on Flippa.com and even though i didnt sell it at the price that i listed on that auction site, someone contacted me and we concluded the sale later.

[ For the readers: Gerald built and sold the website: www.cutedogbreeds.com ]

Q. www.cutedogbreeds.com?? How did that come about?

Since dogs have a huge fan base around the world, in 2007 I decided to built a site where people could upload photos of their dogs and rate them. To make some money, i incorporated Google Adsense into the site.

Q. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Concerning building a business off the web, the main challenge is that there is so much information to digest on the internet that it can incapacitate you from doing anything. There are too many “experts” out there trying to tell you what works or what doesnt and some of this information contradicts one another.

You also need to be cautious of sites peddling “secrets” that will teach you how to make thousands of dollars per month online. Yes there are genuine business persons that are making millions off the web but there are many more lying to unsuspecting people. Research first.

The other challenge is being consistent. Its easy to build a site but the hard part is marketing it. If one is not consistent and strategic in marketing, you will end up not making money and will end up dropping the project and start another one and this can become an endless cycle

Q. What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in Kenya?

For internet entrepreneurs some of the challenges are;
- Slow internet connections
- Lack of proper training in Internet marketing
- Limited startup capital to run the business

Q. What was critical to your success?

Not giving up. Also you need to treat making money online as a serious business and not just something you try

Q. What about the competition and marketing, do you need to advertise, print flyers participate to conferences or is it mostly word of mouth?

Just like any offline business, for your website to be seen, one needs to advertise. Whether offline or online, you need to have a budget for marketing your business. From personal experience, I prefer marketing my internet businesses online as this is more effective.

There are various methods you can use to market your business online. Some of them include optimising your site and building backlinks to your site in order to get high rankings in Google. You can also use PPC (Pay Per Click) to advertise your services. PPC is very effective if done correctly. My tour company gets a lot of business by advertising through PPC

Q. Do you think that in order to “make it big” online you have to live in a western country? Or does Kenya offer more or less the same opportunities?

You dont have to live in any western country to be a success. You can do it right from the comforts of your home. Our tour company is doing well and we are selling travel all over the world right here in Kenya.

Q. Where do you see yourself and your business (es) in the next 5 years?

Making passive income from Affiliate marketing about $3000 per month

Q. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Create a plan and strategies my income expectations and how to execute each goal consistently in order to reach the expectations that I have set.

Q. What advice do you have for internet business entrepreneurs in Kenya?
Building an internet business takes time, effort and money. Many want to try and cut corners believing the lie that one can make money quickly and fast.

-

That is all for today, readers. You can get in touch with Gerald by visiting his website: www.ebiz.co.keSimilar Posts:

• An Online Strategy For Companies in Kenya
• Making it as an Online Freelancer [Interview]
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In case you have not realised it yet, computer programming skills are as necessary for success today as reading and writing have been for the past few centuries.

In fact, “You’re a second-class citizen if you don’t know how to read and write today, and in twenty or thirty years the same will be true for people who don’t have basic computer programming skills. Those who don’t understand–at the very least–the concepts of order-of-execution, variables, data structures and recursion will be as socially and economically disadvantaged as the illiterate are now.

I have been taking CS 101: BUILDING A SEARCH ENGINE from Udacity for a few weeks now. I must be honest and say that the course represents one of the very best learning experiences I have ever had. The course instructor, Professor David Evans, is naturally gifted at teaching complex ideas in simple terms.

If you have ever wanted to learn how to program, you have the most golden opportunity to do it now. Have you ever been frustrated when you hired a “techie” who played around with you? This is your opportunity to make sure it does not happen again. Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Learning to code is never a wrong move. Especially in today’s world.

Just to show you how accessible a good ICT education is today, following the CS101 class, Udacity are introducing the following (among others):

CS253 – WEB APPLICATION ENGINEERING
Description: Web applications have the power to provide useful services to millions of people worldwide. In this class, you will learn how to build your own blog application starting from the basics of how the web works and how to set up a web application and process user input, to how to use databases, manage user accounts, interact with other web services, and make your application scale to support large numbers of users.

CS262 – PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Description: This class will give you an introduction to fundamentals of programming languages. In seven weeks, you will build your own simple web browser complete with the ability to parse and understand HTML and JavaScript. You will learn key concepts such as how to specify and process valid strings, sentences and program structures. Then, you will design and build an interpreter – a program that simulates other programs.

Yes, you read right. In about 14 weeks you can go to a complete and utter beginner to someone who can create their own simple web browser. How cool is that?

Personally, I think this is a godsend for us in the “developing world”. In my opinion, our tertiary education systems are not at an acceptable level of quality, especially for computer science and similar disciplines. Udacity and others like it represent a great, great opportunity for us.

Nicolas Pottier of Nyaruka puts it best:

Suddenly, the very best education is available to everyone. Suddenly it doesn’t matter if you live in America or Rwanda, the opportunity is yours. And that’s why I think the greatest effect of Udacity will be felt not in America, not in Europe, but in developing countries like Rwanda. Because the improvement in quality over what is offered here is astronomical.

I fully expect that everybody who finishes the eight week Udacity course will be better prepared than those who finish four year university programs in Rwanda. And that’s not unique to Rwanda. Every developing country suddenly got a world class computer science school donated to them. [Read More]

Are you as excited as I am?

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Cryptography means “secret writing”. It is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties.

Udacity will be offering a course on Applied Cryptography starting April 16^th 2012. The course is free and open to everyone.

I do not know about you, but I would love to learn how to make money from “nothing but numbers”!

See you in class?

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Well, have a look at this:

I will cast a powerful SPELL to get you whatever you want for $5
Spell Caster, Master Shaman Crystal Indigo will perform an extremely powerful spiritual spell for ANY need that you desire. Want to find your true soul mate? Want an ex- lover back? Need more money? Want to lose weight fast? Do you have a serious problem that needs fixing?The spell I cast will quickly and dramatically change your life!

YES, now you can get services za “Daktari” online, for $5…

Link: I will cast a powerful SPELL to get you whatever you want for $5

What do you think?

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From NTV Kenya:

The upsurge in the number of husband battering cases continue to dominate debates in various parts of the country but in Mombasa the issue has been captured in a different way. One café in the coastal city has chosen to put it in black and white. Aroma Café has written pro-men messages for anyone to see and the management say it is their way of discouraging the vice that has given Central Kenya a bad name. The high-class restaurant has even gone to the extent of preparing cookies labeled “Love Men” in their effort to condemn husband beating.

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Imagine you’re a email spammer. Your strategy is to send out thousands of unsolicited emails everyday hoping that some unassuming individual will purchase your product or inadvertently get infected by your malware/virus, so you can phish for credit card and banking details.

So here’s the situation. You’re dealing with millions of people whom you don’t know. You might not even know their age and gender, the basic demographic yardsticks. You can data mine email archives on a zombie computer to create personalized and convincing email messages but you’re always going to be dealing with a barrier of not-enough-trust.

You don’t know the audience well. So how do you increase the chance that they’ll even open up your email and clickthrough on the links within it? By treading on common ground and leading with the familiar. People might not know who you are but they know Angelina Jolie, who incidentally is the most popular celebrity name used by email spammers.

2.28% of all emails sent in July 2008 contained her name in the subject field. As a personality famous worldwide, she’s an alluring referential point spammers use to breach the walls of unsavvy targets. The familiar is powerful. That’s why you’ll see domain urls that are almost identical to official institutions or receive emails that use the addresses of people you know.

But that’s not all, spammers also love to use current events as bait. Events like political elections, conflicts between nations and major sports events like the Olympics are all fodder used to hook unassuming users into clicking on links or videos loaded with Trojan viruses.

When you want to get someone to do something, you need to arouse their interest first. You might not know every single person who reads your site, but that’s fine. Because you do know what they are generally familiar with. Use those references to bridge the gap and connect.

Every single blog post or salesletter you write can be filled with comparisons, analogies, metaphors, name-drops, references and citations that make your offer/idea more vivid. More familiar. More enticing. So focus on getting your audience interested first, because if they tune out right from the start, they’ll never absorb your pitch or give you a second chance.

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What is a blogger to do in such instances?
Before you go ahead and to defend yourself, you should take some time to ask yourself:

• Why the dislike? Why doesn’t so and so like my post?
• What may happen if I don’t address the issue causing the dislike fast?
• Does the reader who dislikes my post (or me) have a valid ground?
• Did I let emotions take over me when I was writing this post?
• How can I make things right?

After answering the questions above you can:
1) Apologize for having offended someone or calling someone names

I am sorry for calling John a jerk
I didn’t mean to offend …… in any way

2) Admit that you were wrong and accept correction

I didn’t get the facts right. I have made corrections already

3) Tell a reader that you stand by your opinion or belief

I was just stating my opinion on …… so take no offence

4) Ask a reader why they dislike your article and ask for their reasons

You stated that you didn’t like my article and never stated why, could you please share your reasons?

5) Explain something the reader night not have understood very well

When I said …………… all I meant wa s……………..and not what you are ……………………..I hope that helps. Let me know if you still have a question.

6) Ask reader to stop using inappropriate language to get your attention

I understand what you are trying to say. I just don’t think that is fine to fill my wall/page with inappropriate language.

7) Refer a reader to other sources that may help them understand the message you were conveying in your article

Check them out this article (add a link to the source). It gives out more info on ………………….

Bloggers should also remember:
Not to respond when they are upset
Some of the comments that usually show up in the dashboard aren’t always pleasant. Some are filled with information that can make a post and the whole blog a better place. Some of them are filled with hate.

A blogger should stick to typing or saying things that will help their blog fulfill its purpose. Harsh remarks may help but so are carefully thought out answers; even if the answer makes the blogger look like a weakling. Bloggers shouldn’t be quick to show how muscled they are.

Not to ignore a reader
Well one can decide to take some time before responding to a comment. That is fine. Bloggers should just remember that every time a reader sends an e-mail or leaves a comment on their blog, they would do anything to see how the blogger reacts after reading their words.

It may not be entirely possible to respond to every comment or e-mail in certain circumstances. A blog post addressing several issues (even if it takes more than a thousand words) can do in such occasions. But it won’t hurt if one takes time to respond to each comment or e-mail individually.

To you now.

What would you tell a reader if they didn’t like one of your posts/views?

This is a guest post by Philos Mudis. He blogs over at Eapost.com where he regularly shares his views on blogging, entrepreneurship and more.

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Well, you’ll be pleased to know that we have been working on this very feature! We have been busy building what I think is the most elegant discount management engine in the whole of the WordPress world. You’ll be able to offer all kinds of discounts and sales offers – and we all know what that means, right?

It is no secret that discounts and other sales offers increases your sales. Especially in a tough economy, companies such as yours should discount their products and services to increase sales. The advantage of this approach is that it attracts attention–and has the potential to get prospects that ordinarily would not buy to try out your goods and services.

To learn more about our new feature, visit: Introducing Complex Discount Rules

DukaPress Discount Rules (click for larger image)