Social media platforms have become an indispensable part of our lives. From connecting with friends and family to discovering new products and services, social media has completely transformed the way we interact with the world around us. But did you know that your social media presence could also be turned into a lucrative business? In this article, we’ll show you how to turn your social media accounts into a money-making venture.

1. Define Your Niche

The first step towards turning your social media presence into a profitable business is to define your niche. What are your passions and interests? What topics do you have expertise in? Once you have a clear idea of your niche, you can start creating content that resonates with your audience.

2. Build Your Audience

The next step is to build your audience. You can do this by consistently creating high-quality content and engaging with your followers. Use hashtags, collaborate with other influencers in your niche, and participate in online communities related to your niche.

3. Monetize Your Social Media Presence

Once you have a substantial following, you can start monetizing your social media presence. There are several ways to do this, such as:

• Sponsored posts: Brands will pay you to create posts featuring their products or services. Some platforms that can help you find sponsored post opportunities include AspireIQ, Tribe, Heartbeat, and Influence.co.
• Affiliate marketing: You can earn a commission by promoting products or services and including an affiliate link in your posts. Some popular affiliate marketing platforms include Amazon Associates, ShareASale, Commission Junction, and Clickbank.
• Paid memberships: Offer exclusive content or perks to your followers in exchange for a monthly fee. Some popular platforms for paid memberships include Patreon, OnlyFans, and Ko-fi.
• Sell your own products: Use your social media presence to promote and sell your own products, such as digital products, e-books, or courses. Some popular platforms for selling digital products include Gumroad, Shopify, Teachable, and Udemy.

4. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

To maximize your earning potential, it’s important to optimize your social media profiles for search engines. This includes using relevant keywords in your profile descriptions, captions, and hashtags. You should also ensure that your profiles are complete and up-to-date, with high-quality profile and cover photos.

5. Track Your Results

Finally, it’s important to track your results and adjust your strategy accordingly. Use analytics tools to track your follower growth, engagement, and revenue. Analyze which types of content perform best and focus on creating more of that content.

To signup for these platforms 

1. Sponsored posts:

• AspireIQ: https://www.aspireiq.com/
• Tribe: https://tribegroup.co/
• Heartbeat: https://www.heartbeat.com/
• Influence.co: https://influence.co/

2. Affiliate marketing:

• Amazon Associates: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome
• ShareASale: https://www.shareasale.com/
• Commission Junction: https://www.cj.com/
• Clickbank: https://www.clickbank.com/

3. Paid memberships:

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/
• OnlyFans: https://onlyfans.com/
• Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/

4. Sell your own products:

• Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/
• Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/
• Teachable: https://teachable.com/
• Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/

In conclusion, turning your social media presence into a profitable business requires time, effort, and a solid strategy. By defining your niche, building your audience, monetizing your presence, optimizing your profiles, and tracking your results, you can turn your passion for social media into a lucrative venture.

  

 

Twitter is a powerful social media platform that can help you make money online. With over 330 million active users and a global reach, Twitter provides opportunities for individuals and businesses to monetize their accounts. In this article, we'll discuss how to make money with Twitter, whether you're a beginner or an experienced user.

1. Build Your Twitter Following

The first step to making money with Twitter is to build a following. You can do this by creating quality content, engaging with your audience, and using relevant hashtags. The more followers you have, the more opportunities you'll have to monetize your account.

2. Use Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money on Twitter. You can promote products and services in your tweets and include affiliate links. When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you'll earn a commission. Be sure to disclose your affiliate links to comply with FTC regulations.

3. Sell Products or Services

If you have a product or service to sell, Twitter can be an excellent platform to promote and sell them. You can tweet about your products or services, provide a link to your website, and encourage your followers to make a purchase. Twitter also allows you to create a "Shop" section on your profile to showcase your products.

4. Offer Sponsored Tweets

Sponsored tweets are another way to make money on Twitter. You can partner with brands and tweet sponsored content to your followers. When creating sponsored tweets, it's essential to disclose your partnership and maintain transparency with your audience.

5. Participate in Twitter Chats

Twitter chats are a great way to engage with your audience and build relationships with other users. You can participate in relevant Twitter chats and share your expertise. By doing so, you can gain new followers and potential customers.

6. Use Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads is a paid advertising platform that allows you to promote your account or tweets. You can target specific audiences based on interests, location, and demographics. Twitter Ads can be a powerful way to reach new followers and potential customers.

In conclusion, making money with Twitter requires time, effort, and dedication. By building your Twitter following, using affiliate marketing, selling products or services, offering sponsored tweets, participating in Twitter chats, and using Twitter Ads, you can monetize your Twitter account and earn a living online. Remember to create quality content, engage with your audience, and stay consistent to build a successful Twitter account.

 

YouTube has become a popular platform for creators to share their content and earn money. With over 2 billion active users and billions of daily views, there is a significant potential for creators to monetize their content and earn a living from YouTube. In this article, we'll discuss how to make money with YouTube, whether you're a beginner or an experienced creator.

1. Join the YouTube Partner Program

The YouTube Partner Program is the first step to making money on YouTube. To join, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months. Once you join, you can monetize your videos through ads, sponsorships, and other methods.

2. Enable Monetization on Your Videos

Once you're accepted into the YouTube Partner Program, you can enable monetization on your videos. This means that ads will appear on your videos, and you'll earn money based on the number of views and clicks on those ads. To enable monetization, go to your YouTube Studio and click on the Monetization tab.

3. Use Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money on YouTube. You can promote products and services in your videos and include affiliate links in the description. When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you'll earn a commission. Be sure to disclose your affiliate links to comply with FTC regulations.

4. Create Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is another way to make money on YouTube. You can partner with brands to create sponsored videos or product reviews. When creating sponsored content, it's essential to disclose your partnership and maintain transparency with your audience.

5. Sell Merchandise

If you have a significant following, you can sell merchandise related to your brand or content. You can sell t-shirts, hats, stickers, or other merchandise on your YouTube channel or through a third-party platform like Teespring or Spreadshirt.

6. Crowdfund Your Content

Crowdfunding is a way to receive direct support from your audience. You can use platforms like Patreon, Kickstarter, or Indiegogo to raise funds for your content. In exchange for their support, you can offer exclusive content or other perks to your supporters.

In conclusion, making money on YouTube requires time, effort, and dedication. By joining the YouTube Partner Program, enabling monetization on your videos, using affiliate marketing, creating sponsored content, selling merchandise, and crowdfunding your content, you can monetize your YouTube channel and earn a living from your content. Remember to create quality content, engage with your audience, and stay consistent to build a successful channel.

 

As a student, it can be challenging to make ends meet. Between tuition fees, textbooks, and living expenses, it's no surprise that many students look for ways to earn extra money. One option to consider is blogging, which can provide a passive income stream that can help supplement your finances. In this article, we'll discuss how to make passive income as a student with blogging and provide tips and strategies to help you get started.

1. Choose a Niche

Choosing a niche is the first step to creating a successful blog. A niche is a specific topic or subject that you will focus on in your blog. It could be anything from fashion, travel, or food, to tech, personal finance, or lifestyle. Choose a niche that you are passionate about and that has a significant audience.

2. Create Quality Content

Once you have chosen your niche, it's time to start creating quality content. Write blog posts that are informative, engaging, and provide value to your audience. Make sure that your content is well-researched, properly formatted, and optimized for search engines.

3. Build an Audience

Building an audience is essential to monetizing your blog. You can do this by promoting your blog on social media, guest posting on other blogs in your niche, and networking with other bloggers. Building an email list is also a great way to keep your audience engaged and up-to-date on your latest blog posts.

4. Monetize Your Blog

There are several ways to monetize your blog, including:

• Advertising: You can display ads on your blog through ad networks like Google AdSense or by working with brands directly.
• Affiliate Marketing: You can earn a commission by promoting products or services on your blog and including an affiliate link.
• Sponsored Content: You can work with brands to create sponsored content, such as product reviews or sponsored posts.
• Digital Products: You can create and sell digital products, such as e-books, courses, or printables, on your blog.

5. Keep Learning and Growing

Blogging is a constantly evolving field, and it's essential to keep learning and growing. Stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices in your niche, and continue to improve your writing and marketing skills. Attend blogging conferences and webinars, read blogs and books on blogging, and join blogging communities to learn from other bloggers.

In conclusion, blogging can be an excellent way for students to make passive income. By choosing a niche, creating quality content, building an audience, monetizing your blog, and continuing to learn and grow, you can turn your blog into a successful passive income stream. Remember, blogging is a long-term commitment, and success takes time, so be patient and consistent, and you'll see results.

For some reasons, our phones encounter technical challenges that crash essential apps that our lives revolve around such as WhatsApp.

 A WhatsApp user./Courtesy

The purpose of this story is to tell readers that all is not lost once WhatsApp does not work.

One way of starting the journey to technological recovery is by restarting your phone. This will make the operating system be reconfigured including for smoothening social media programme’s working.

If the problem still persists, consider uninstalling the app. Once it is removed from your phone, go to Google Play Store and reinstall it again. Make sure you retain earlier settings to help you return.  

Once the app is successfully installed, you will “return” to your earlier apps where you have membership status. However, you will not have access to earlier conversations in the groups listed.

On the group settings, you will receive a notification saying, “You were added”.

The advantage of not lefting groups before uninstalling Whastapp is because admins will be reluctant to add you back. Some of the founding admins may have left the said groups or others just stake their heads and say, “good bye. Good riddance”.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

Use of mobile phones to tell news stories is increasingly becoming the norm rather than exception. Packaging news should consider how the final product will look like when readers access it on their phones.

Reuters training course Introduction to Digital Journalism sponsored by Facebook Journalism Project.
 

Reuters, an international media organization has partnered with Meta to roll out a digital media course called the Reuters Training Course: Introduction to Digital Journalism. This is the link to join the training: https://reutersdigitaljournalism.com/?l=en&utm_medium=organic+social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=digitaljournalism&utm_content=reuters&utm_term=english2

The course benefits both young and veteran reporters since it offers both technical insights and refresher about the enduring legacy of traditional media which digital press is riding on as it is relatively young and being developed each day.

MWINGI TIMES correspondents are part of the program and a number have been trained and awarded certificates for excelling in media.

The are editor-in-chief Musyoka Ngui and correspondents Daniel Mwanzo, Ronney Mwandikwa and Kipngeno Kenneth. More will graduate in the coming days too.

While congratulating the team, the editor urged them to apply the new skills learnt in order to improve MWINGI TIMES visibility in its regions of operation; Ukambani, Mt Kenya East and Nairobi City counties.

“Let’s apply the new skills learnt as well as reinforce the timeless principles of journalism we know”, said Mr Ngui.

In the inaugural course offered online for free, students are taught the following courses: digital newsgathering, verification and reporting, publishing effectively on social media, wellness and resilience and operating as independent media in a turbulent world.

STORY By MWINGI TIMES CORRESPONDENT

HAVE you ever received a strange call from an unknown number with a country code outside Kenya? If the answer to this question is yes, chances are you were a target of international mobile phone fraud.

 Safaricom Manager of International Voice Mr Thomas Bwaley. Speaking in a Facebook video, he told customers to exercise caution when dealing with strange phone numbers. Since they are premium rated calls, it is best not to return such calls to avoid losing money from such costly ventures./Courtesy

The flashing by use of international phone numbers is known as Wangiri fraud. It is done through missed calls.

Safaricom Manager-International Voice Mr Thomas Bwaley said the best remedy for such callers is that do not return them. He further explained that such callers operate on premium rates where a single phone call per minute can cost as high as KES500.

“Wangiri is a Japanese word meaning one ring and cut. That is why in Wangiri you find missed calls of a number that is international”, he told netizens.

In a video posted on Safaricom’s Facebook page yesterday, the manager explained that at first, the caller flashes your phone number. Flashing is where a caller terminates a call before it is picked. He said the aim of the caller is to have the person flashed to call back.

The International Voice Manager added that the callers trick mobile phone users in large numbers.  It is a broadcast method of making flash calls. “They do not target just one individual but they do a global broadcasted missed call”, he explained.

The fraudsters make money by having the unsuspecting receivers of missed calls return the calls. That is why it is important to ignore the missed call.

The international fraudsters increase their tricks once you call them back by making you wait for their response as they play other appealing sounds such as music in in the background, he said. Their aim here is to delay you a little bit more as they make money from you without your knowledge.

According to the Communication Authority’s latest report on mobile phone subscription, Kenya is a big market for fraudsters since it has over 65 million registered phone numbers. This makes them possible targets of Wangiri fraud.

Both the customer and mobile network operator lose money when Wangiri scam goes on.

“The best way to protect yourself from the Wangiri fraud is to never call back strange numbers”, advised Safaricom, the most profitable company in East and Central Africa.

Repetitive Wangiri callers can be reported by sending the number to 333, says Thomas Bwaley. It is free of charge.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

Mobile service provider Safaricom has a way of preventing sim swap by enabling owners of mobile phone lines to white list the lines.  This prevents any other person from visiting a mobile phone shop and initiating a sim swap.

 

The self-whitelisting enables the owner of the mobile phone line to lock it hence preventing any unauthorised sim swap.

This is possible by dialling *100*100# from your Safaricom line.

“This is a service that ensures that a customer’s line/SIM card can only be replaced by visiting a Safaricom Shop or Care desk with your ID, or by calling Safaricom customer care”, says Safaricom on its website.

Self-whitelisting prevents customers from losing money deposited in their mobile phone wallets to fraudsters.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

Rarely does a day end without a public alert of victims lamenting they have been impersonated by social media bandits.

Impersonators main motive is to obtain cash from unsuspecting social media users./File

One way of stopping the criminals is by announcing to your followers that indeed it is true that someone is using your image to borrow money from unsuspecting followers on social media while masquerading as you. This will make your friends to avoid the said impersonator like a plague.

Another way of stopping the menace is by copy pasting the link of the account they have opened and warning your friends to delink themselves from the suspect account.

Still, explicitly tell your followers not to send any money to the account number given by the impersonator. This is because the main motivating factor for impersonators is to milk money from social media netizens.

Where possible, counter the impersonator’s narrative by publishing your official addresses where users can reach you. This will make the impersonator shy away from pushing the agenda of alternative phone number, email address or social media page that is not yours but theirs.

According to our survey, most of the victims of impersonation are ladies. Strangers use their photos to benefit. Other vulnerable persons to online fraud are the elderly who may not know how to go around the social media sphere.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

 IN the recent past, MWINGI TIMES has received reports of Facebook users complaining identity theft. Usually, their accounts are taken over by hackers who change passwords and go on to solicit for money from their contacts.

An illustration of the secretive world of hackers. MWINGI TIMES/File
 

This identity theft has led to many issuing warnings to avert the economic losses arising from fake solicitation of money from users.

From our records, we understand that the perpetrators of this crime may be known to both the victims and the friends. Some shamelessly negotiate for the minimum amount to be sent if the one they had requested was not immediately available.

 A case in point is where a hacker asked our reporter who is a friend to one of the victims to send KSh500. When he feigned that it could be a cybersecurity breach, he said the money was not available. The hacker desperately went on to beg for whatever money the reporter had to be sent to them. Our reporter never sent the hacker any money.

A conversation our reporter had with a hacker on Facebook. He did not succeed in swindling us. MWINGI TIMES

The Communications Authority reported last year that cyber attacks increased by 37.2 per cent between January and March when 28.2 million cyber threats were detected.

Below are some ways to make sure that your Facebook account is hack-proof.

For starters, have a strong password that cannot be guessed easily by a cyber-criminal.  Avoid simple passwords such as writing your maiden name, home town or date of birth as your Facebook password.

A strong password has a mix of numerical and both upper- and lower-case alphabets. Throw in some symbols like !&?* to confuse the hacker more. Space out the password to avoid aligning it in any particular order.

Another way to seal your Facebook account from hacks is by use of two factor authentication. This is where after a password is keyed in, the user is supposed to get a log in code sent to the phone number or email associated with the account.

If the hacker gets to know the password, they will not go past two factor authentication stage since they have no clue or access to private address of the user.

Minimize use of public Wi-Fi. Avoid free things. “Free” things are not free. It is in some of these public internet provisions that users’ passwords and other log in credentials are stolen by admins and/or other malicious users.

Use genuine Facebook application. Update it to the latest version that is able to handle some of the security challenges posed by today’s hackers.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

Kelvin Mutisya, aged 29-years-old describes himself as an enthusiastic young man who enjoys the company of computers, mobile phones and more screens, big or small.

Kelvin with friends from Kazakhstan and another from Kenya. They are Paul, Dana and Kelvin respectively. Photo/KELVIN MUTISYA

Kelvin Mutisya, an Information Technology guru. He is passionate about using ICT to improve daily living. Photo/MWINGI TIMES

Kelvin was admitted to South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU) in 2012 to study a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He later changed to Bachelor of Business Information Technology (JKUAT).

After three months in the Kwa Vonza- based university, an exchange programme came up between SEKU and Wonkwang University in South Korea.

He says he was lucky to be among the four students picked to study abroad. “There were only four opportunities. They were from the School of Engineering, School of Pure and Applied Sciences and School of Economics and the School of Humanities. I was lucky to be chosen from the School of Pure and Applied Sciences”, he tells MWINGI TIMES.

Mutisya says that there is a huge technological difference between Kenya and South Korea. Understandably, South Korea already has 7G internet while Kenya only has up to 4G. It is however trying to roll out 5G. 

An aerial view of the Wonkwang University. Mutisya was awarded a scholarship to go and study here in 2012. He was a student in Seku. Photo/FILE

Being a tech country, South Korea has free Wi-Fi installed in transit buses, trains, restaurants, toilets, public and recreational parks. “Wi-Fi is almost everywhere in South Korea”, says the youth from Kitui South Constituency.

“LG and Samsung originate from South Korea. You can imagine finding even the smallest kids with the latest model of tech”, said Mutisya during an interview in July 2022 on the sidelines of Senator David Musila gubernatorial campaigns where he was part of his media specialising in editing and graphic design.

Safe browsing

Kelvin Mutisya thanks the Government of Kenya for introducing the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) where pupils are exposed to technology from a young age. He advises parents to support their children by ensuring they only access safe internet.

A statue of a Buddha priest in the middle of Wonkwang University, South Korea. Photo/FILE

It was not all easy during his stay in South Korea. Mr Mutisya says that apart from technological divide, he also faced language barrier and racism.

“Majority of South Koreans are Buddhist. Even the university I was in is a Buddha university. There are Christians and a few Muslims especially foreigners.

If you want to greet someone in Korea, you have to bow. That’s their culture regardless of where you come from. If you defy, your greetings may be mistaken for rudeness. Imagine greeting 50 people or more per day. That’s enough exercise to burn some calories (jokingly)” explains Mutisya.

Racism

Kelvin’s friend from Ghana was jailed for 15 years. He was dating a Korean partner who accused him of rape. He narrates the unfortunate incident, “Korean ladies and guys love hanging around guys of colour. But as for taking that friendship serious…Mmmh maybe the ladies fear stigmatization of being told they have a Black friend or boyfriend so they can do anything to avoid the stigma and that’s how my Ghanaian friend was jailed.

He had met this lady at a club and had a few drinks together. They left the club later together and found themselves in the guy’s residence. As for what happened next, I can’t speculate”.

As Kenyans embrace technology on a daily basis, Kelvin urges the government to do more in fighting cybercrime. He says Kenyans should avoid clicking internet links they are unsure of their safety. 

He also urges users to shun installing apps which are from unknown developers. This creates a backdoor or gives access to your devices. “Before allowing any programme to access or make a change to your device you must first understand its role and weigh the usefulness or its value on your device.

It's also advisable from time to time to backup your files and factory reset your device. Just a caution to erase something that might have installed in your device unknowingly”.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

 Kitui governor Charity Ngilu has no doubt a massive following on social media with thousands of fans trooping to her verified Facebook and Twitter pages for major moves ahead of August 9 general elections.

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu thanks her Twitter followers on hitting 400,000 mark. Photo/COURTESY

Collectively, Ms Ngilu has slightly above 700,000 followers. Her biggest fan base is on Twitter where she commands over 400,000 followers. 

On Facebook, the number is lower with only 300,720 friends following her campaigns on the biggest social media channel in the world.

Mama Ngilu thanks her followers who wish her best. But does the online presence translate to the “ground”?

The tech-savvy county boss seems to enjoy the limelight as thousands of her fans share, comment and like the topics she posts.

On May 20 this year, Ngilu invited her Facebook friends to follow her on Twitter handle @mamangilu. She said, “Let the conversation continue. THANK YOU!”.

Machakos governor Dr Alfred Mutua follows only five people on Facebook. In turn, he has 782,000 followers and counting.

While his Facebook account has predominantly county grassroot projects, Makueni governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana has less pomp but more action, according to our online reviews. He is the least followed Ukambani governor.

The use of social media is relatively cheap compared to advertising since one only needs netizens to view their posts plus a highly competent social media manager to weed out internet gaffes. An additional knowledge the landscape will come in handy too since having data bundles alone is not enough to gain popularity online.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI

 Hackers threaten personal security online by preying on gaps left behind by our browsing history.

Stay safe online by not exposing passwords and other log in credentials to malicious netizens. Photo/COURTESY

This could be by using public Wi-Fi and failing to log out after you are done with the task at hand or just having a weak password such as your date of birth or your maiden name which everyone in the village knows.

Below are a few steps to take in improving online security especially on social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter.

Password. Use complex password that cannot be cracked easily by intruders. This can be achieved by mixing upper case and lower-case alphabetical numbers as well as numerical and symbols to be part of your new password. Such as this Yta143>%.

Log out. Once you borrow someone’s phone or computer, ensure you sign out after you are done with browsing. This denies the malicious users from hijacking your social media account and pretending to be you once they happen to get access.

Notify. Tell your friends that your account has been compromised and efforts are being made to restore it. Warn them not to send money or any personal and private information solicited by the hacker.

Remote. One can review their sign in credentials and remotely sign out websites they visited and are exposed to hackers. This denies the hackers a chance to take over your social media account.

Recovery. The phone number or email address used to log in should be easily available to you for restoring online security once attempts are made to compromise it. The email and phone number will receive codes and links for restoring the hacked account.

STORY By MUSYOKA NGUI