Students in Kenya are always looking for ways to make money. You can find a lot of opportunities online, but you have to be careful about scams! There are many ways you can make money online in Kenya and still attend your classes. Therefore, these are part-time gigs that will allow you to attend classes and work during your free time. In this article, I will share some genuine tips on how I managed to make money online as a student in Kenya. You can also use these approaches to earn an income as you study.
Here is a list of ways you can easily make money online as a student in Kenya:
- Online tutoring
- Social media management
- Freelance writing
- Affiliate marketing
- Become a transcriptionist
- Photography
How to be Successful Making Money Online As a Student in Kenya
There are some things you should know before embarking on the different ways to make money online as a student in Kenya. Here are the things you should consider if you want to be successful in the online world of making money:
Creativity
The online industry has all sorts of people trying to showcase their skills. Therefore, you must figure out how you will stand out from the noise. You must make your services stand out and win the trust of your prospects. The only way you will achieve this is by being creative. For instance, let’s say you decided to be a photographer, how will you make your online photography stand out? The best way to do this is to check what your competitors are doing. Take time to analyze their shoots and determine what they are missing and focus on that. You will be successful.
Hardwork
Nothing comes easy in this world. You must have determination and patience in what you are doing. Before people start buying from you online, you have to win their trust. At this point, it’s the quality of your work and determination in reaching out that will sell you. If you decide to be a freelance writer, for instance, you must showcase your skills before clients start hiring your services. What does this mean? You must have a portfolio of your work that will be used by clients to assess your ability to deliver. All these require hard work on your part.
Network
You will never succeed in the online industry alone. You must have a network of people with similar interests working together for a common goal. In this way, you will be able to learn from each other and grow fast. For me, I worked very close with Frank, my closest friend whereby we advised each other on the steps to take. In this way, we were able to make money online while studying at the Technical University of Kenya (TUK). You can also follow our approach or join Facebook freelance writing groups.
Having said that, let’s now look at how to make money online as a student in Kenya.
1. Online Tutoring
Online tutoring is an easy way to make money online as a student in Kenya. The good thing with online tutoring is that most of the sites offering these jobs are free to sign up for. As a university or college student in Kenya, you are an expert in a specific field; either English, Maths, Science, etc. There are many highschools students and parents looking for tutors in specific fields. This is to enhance their performance in the subject.
What you need to do to become an online tutor is by signing up on one of the platforms offering these jobs. As a Kenyan, you can start from Kenyaplex which has free sign-ups. On this platform, you will be matched with students or parents based on the skills you possess. For example, if you are good at English, you will be matched with a student looking for a tutor in the English subject. Another free online tutoring platform you can join is Classgap. In both, your skills will determine the number of students you will be matched with. The more skills you possess the better for you.
Compensation will be based on the hours you spend per week tutoring students. Thus, this is one of the best ways on how to make money online as a student in Kenya.
2. Social Media Management
There are many companies and brands, not all in Kenya but worldwide looking for social media managers. You don’t need special skills to become a social media manager. Just imagine the number of hours you spend on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram per day. Can you earn money by spending time on social media platforms? Fortunately for you, the answer is a strong Yes. When browsing your social media platforms, you will come across company and brand pages. These pages need constant updates and content to engage with customers.
To get hired as a social media manager, start by looking at the available pages online to see how often the content gets updated. If you notice that it takes time before new content is added, then that’s an opportunity for you. This simply means that the owners are quite occupied that they get little time for their social media campaigns. If you want to get this job, you must approach the company or brand professionally. In your pitch, you must give a reason why you qualify to be hired.
How to Get Hired as a Social Media Manager
To get hired, you need to pitch for the job. How do you go about this? The first thing is to scan the pages and get the contacts, either an email or phone number. Create a compelling pitch and send. Remember, the way you structure your message will determine whether you get hired or not. Here is an example of a winning pitch I used and got hired:
Hi there,
While going through Facebook, I came across your social media page. I must admit you have really nice and engaging content there. Keep up the good work. However, I realized that it takes quite long before you add new content on this page. This keeps your customers and followers waiting for long which, in turn, leads to higher bounce rates. As a result, this may hurt your business.
I understand the type of content you need for this page to keep your customers and followers engaged. As a social media manager, I will create content and keep up with all engagements. If you need fresh content that is updated regularly on your page, please reply to this email and we shall strike a deal.
Thank you!
You can as well use this approach to get clients.
3. Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is one of the untapped business ideas in Kenya. This gig could not miss on this guide on how to make money online as a student in Kenya. This is the common way Kenyan students make money online. However, to be successful in this, you need to know how to start and where to get those writing jobs. The good thing is that freelance writing is absolutely free if you know how to go about it.
To make it as a freelance writer, you need access to a computer or laptop and reliable internet. The two most common platforms you can get freelance writing jobs for free are:
- Upwork. Signing up for an upwork account is aboslutely free. You just need an email account and a good grasp of the English language. Additionally, you will need to know how to write compelling articles that move people to take an action.
- Fiverr and Freelancer.com. These are also free sites to sign up for freelance writng gigs. They work similar to Upwork. Your success on these platforms will depend on your ability to convience clients that you can deliver. How do you do this? It’s only through the proposals and pitches you send to prospecting clients. Make sure your proposals talk a lot about the client and his or her needs. Dont spend too much time talikng about yourself in the proposal as the client will get bored.
4. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing simply means selling a company’s products and getting paid a commission. This is an easy way you can make money online as a student in Kenya. There are many companies, both the local ones and international looking for affiliate marketers.
Jumia and Kilimall are examples of local companies looking for affiliate marketers to help promote their products. You can sign up for the Jumia Partner Program absolutely free and start promoting their products. The good thing about this is that you don’t need to own a website to participate. You can simply promote these products through your Facebook page and direct people to Jumia. I used to make approximately KSh. 350 per day when I started out as a Jumia affiliate using my Facebook account. This is a good amount that translates to approximately Ksh. 10,500 per month.
Amazon is an international company you can work for as an affiliate. However, to qualify for their affiliate program, you need a website.
5. Become a Transcriptionist
In simple language, transcription involves listening to audio and converting it to text. There are many companies looking for transcriptionists both in Kenya and internationally. In most cases, these are companies that interview people therefore, they need to convert those interviewees to texts so that they can be read or published on different platforms.
The most common platforms you can get transcription jobs online are Scribie, Rev, and QA world. Signing up for these accounts is absolutely free of charge. You just need to pass the tests and start working. This is an excellent part-time gig for students in Kenya as you have the liberty to choose when and how to work. Make sure you have good headphones or earphones with noise cancellation capabilities to enhance audio clarity.
6. Photography
Photography is another way you can make money online as a student in Kenya. There are two ways you can do this; one, you become a photographer and advertise your services online, or take captivating photographs and sell them online.
There are many events in the country that needs professional photography. The good thing is that most of these events take place over the weekends when most students are free. You can utilize this time to make money instead of sleeping or partying. You can acquire photography skills by interacting with other photographers. Position yourself at joints where people hang out over weekends like Uhuru Park Gardens and Karura Forest. After taking some of these photographs, utilize social media platforms to advertise them for more clients.
You can sell some of your photographs on online stock photography websites. If you have good capture capabilities, your photos are in high demand on platforms like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. Sign up on these platforms and you could be making money from your photos.
Wrapping Up
Making money online is easier due to the high internet penetration in Kenya. Through this guide on how to make money online as a student in Kenya, I have outlined some of the things I did to make money. You can also follow the outlined steps to start earning a living instead of sitting and waiting for your parent to provide everything. However, you should know that the online world is full of con artists. Therefore, you should be careful with all online transactions. If you need help on any of these, feel free to contact me and I will provide assistance.
