Part 2: Making money online in Zimbabwe – the right mindset.

There are many ways that people can make money online. This article is for those who have ideas they want to employ to make more online. This mind set will be useful in getting your project to make money online a success.

Last week we discussed some myths that people have about making money online. If you have not read through that I would encourage you to do so but you can still understand this article.

The process of making money online with your idea, business or project.

1. Focusing on audience building.

The primary thing needed to make money online is an audience. If you do not have an audience, making money online is going to be not hard but impossible. With that said, the first efforts of making money with a website, social media or application is to grow the audience.

When creating the implementation plan of your idea, first figure out what to do to get people interested. Some people can figure out how to get people attracted but struggle to keep them. Audience retention is also something that makes building an audience online easier. Figure out how you can keep your audience coming repeatedly.

When you have a growing audience, you would have solved the main puzzle in making money online except one: the right audience

There are wrong audiences, for example, attracting and retaining critics of your products is not going to be helpful. Make sure that the right audience for your project is excited about what you are doing.

One way is to find out what they want and work to give it to them in the best format. People who stick to their original idea even though it is not working are waiting for quitting.

2. Focusing on gaining the financier’s trust.

In some businesses models (especially blogging and mass communication ideas), the audience excited about what you provide is not the same with those who will pay you.

In such cases, you need to make sure that the mass audience is excited and glued without losing the trust and confidence of the financiers.

A good example is that many bloggers gain publicity by criticising and crucifying local businesses for their ‘sins.’  When they approach the same businesses asking them to advertise on their blogs they get nothing.

There is nothing wrong in criticising businesses for wrong doing but just make sure you are not ‘shooting yourself in the foot.’

Therefore, figure out where your revenue is going to come from and work on gaining credibility and trust with those people or organisations.

3. Determine your business model.

Very critical in this journey is determining how you will make money and at what point. So many people have flawed models for making money. Now so many people have flawed models and that is why someone may comment that – this does not work in Zimbabwe. Most likely, they are trying out a model, which does not work here.

The models are the ways of making money online, which I will share with you in this series of articles. It is important at this point to understand that – there are many models to generate revenue online.

4. Sell as if you are helping.

Usually online, assuming the posture of someone who is helping is a working model! You will need to apply multiple step-logic in your sales process. Direct sales may not be as helpful especially for consulting businesses.

Many consultants would make more money online if they were willing to share their knowledge free. The truth about consulting business is that the application of the principles in a given situation is what makes a consultant great.

Therefore, sharing the principles with everyone interested would get the right people attracted and willing to hire you. While it may seem like you are helping people free, you are actually gathering customers free. If not today’s customers then maybe evangelists or future clients. Avoid ‘Chihwindi marketing’ – one-step logic or direct selling especially for consultants.

5. Do not be desperate.

Making money online is usually a long game – ask the Snapchat team! Having a fast-growing audience is critical to making money online but it is not the same. Your audience can grow while the pocket is shrinking and that is why getting investment is important.

Desperation usually comes when the audience is not growing as fast or when the money is not coming as expected. Making money online is usually a long game and requires some patience.

6. Keep connected to the audience.

There is a temptation to leave out working on what attracts people to focus on making the money. Making such a mistake will usually make your project fail in the near future.

The solution to this is to balance the two: making the money and pleasing the audience. Balance is not easy and requires a good team for it to work out well. Without the balance, the project will not survive.

Moving forward

With this strong background now, I think we are ready to explore several ways to make money online in Zimbabwe. We will start discussing the particular ways in the upcoming article. With the right mindset, it is possible to make money online in Zimbabwe.

What do you think is missing? Did you find this helpful? You can go ahead and ask a question. Let us discuss these in the comments section below.

This article was written by Trust Nhokovedzo. He is an online business consultant with website design background. He is fond of digital marketing especially Search Engine Optimization.