Part 4: Making Money Online In Zimbabwe – Consulting

Subject matter experts can make money online. Consulting and offering services are low entry businesses. The required resources are less for a consulting business. I want to share how to make money online is possible as a consultant or service business owner.

Last week, we discussed the power of influencers online and how anyone interested can become an influencer. This week we are moving on to address people who are experts in their subjects and they seek to make money online while here in Zimbabwe.

The power of the internet makes it possible for a consultant to work in other countries while here. It is easier to be known as an expert world over using the internet than any other way. Making money online for consultants means getting more clients for the consulting business locally and internationally.

Opportunity in consulting online

I was so surprised to find out that people would appreciate when I share what I know. In my few (nine) years of experience, I have noticed that many people do not know the value of what they know.

In Zimbabwe, for example, we have too many expert programmers, management consultants, accountants and marketers who are lying low. These people could make a huge difference by sharing their knowledge, discoveries and experience with others all over the world for a fee.

The internet presents an opportunity for an English teacher to start teaching the language to people in countries far away. It pains me when I see people who are intelligent die poor because they could not convert their knowledge into cash! I am a bit emotional about this – forgive me if I sound too harsh – am trying to be helpful.

How to make money online as an expert.

1 . Position yourself as the go-to person.

When you keep talking about something people will acknowledge you as an expert in that area. If you are a professor in project management but never mention it anywhere, you will not benefit from that knowledge.

Using the internet, you can write blogs, create videos, record podcasts and post on social media content that shows your expertise. It was not this easy before the internet age. Self promotion is one way to get noticed as a subject matter expert online.

2 . Training people for revenue

In my opinion, if consultants offer training services, they would make money. The people who are admiring your posts, social share and other content are likely to be willing to take your training classes for a charge.

To establish a training business, it is important to share very valuable information for free. If you get people to fall in love with your free content they will be willing to pay for anything you have for a charge.

You may need to learn how to determine what content to give away free and what to sell.

3 . Offer online training (recorded and live classes).

When you get started on training people, recording the videos and offering online courses is the next step. When you create an online course, especially with videos, it becomes possible to earn money from anywhere in the world.

If you are an expert in any topic, you can create online classes and sell them. Some people object to this idea because of piracy. If you do not create the courses, will you ever get money from what you know? Piracy is a global problem but you cannot decide to let go of that problem because of that.

There are online platforms where people can create courses and start selling them with little investment e.g. Teachable.com.

4 . Sell expert resources.

Another way for making money online is to create guides, books and resources for sell to people within your audience.

Keep the learning edge sharp

What I am sharing here is not all there is to learn about making money online as a consultant. If you are reading and there is a missing point, please share with us all in the comments below.

My goal in sharing these posts with us is to contribute to Africa’s digital economy. The Digital world presents some of the easiest ways to earn money from anywhere in the world.

Let us discuss our thoughts and ask questions 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.