By Reno Omokri
In today’s world, except in very few circumstances, poverty is a lifestyle choice, or a function of ignorance, because there are endless opportunities to create wealth with minimal effort and average intellectual input.
And this information needs to spread like wildfire in Africa, because our continent is unnecessarily plagued by poverty that can be addressed if African governments know what they are doing.
Take a country like Nigeria. There are 100 million active mobile phone lines in Nigeria, with the vast majority being Internet-enabled smartphones.
Yet, there is no concerted effort by the government to mass communicate to its citizens how to make money via the Internet legally.
In fact, in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. The Buhari administration has so demonised the Internet and wealth making that any prosperous-looking youth is automatically suspected of Internet criminality, with proof of his or her criminality being their prosperity.
The Buhari junta expects Nigerians to be poor, and when you as a Nigerian have refused to be poor, you become suspect in the eyes of this government of the Taliban.
Yes, there are scams on the Internet, just as there are scams off the Internet. One of the biggest of those scams were the many promises made to Nigerians by General Buhari in 2014-2015, of which the most prominent were to end fuel scarcity because it is a scam (fuel subsidy has increased), to pay job seekers an allowance (instead, he increased the number of unemployed), to defeat Boko Haram (he added killer herdsmen and bandits to the mix), and to fight corruption (let me not even go there!).
However, that is only a little part of the story. The truth is that whereas you needed to mine the Earth for minerals and crude oil, in today’s world, you are likely to make much more money mining the Internet.
Look at the biggest corporations on Earth. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba. They are all internet-based. Nobody needs to engage in Internet scams, romance scams and credit card fraud. Use your cunning to make money off the Internet legally.
Instead of just having the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arresting young people willy-nilly, even if they are innocent, what the government ought to do is ask the National Orientation Agency to start a mass mobilisation campaign to educate Nigeria’s 100 million phone users on creative and legal ways they can make money off the Internet.
Elsewhere, I have written about 21 ways people can make money off the Internet. I will now increase that list to thirty.
21 Side Hustles You Can Still Do With or Without a Full Time Job:
- Online voiceover artist
- YouTubing
- Quora questioner or answerer
- Fiverr
- Bitcoin
- Amazon publishing
- Affiliate marketing
- Forex e-trading
- Stock day trader
- Virtual assistant/PA
- Data entry
- Music reviewer
- Chat-based customer service agent
- Online marketing
- Web designer
- Blogger
- Shopify merchant
- SEO Optimisation
- Survey taker
- Online tutor
- Stock photographer
- Podcaster
- CV/Resumer writer
- eBay trader
- Online proofreader
- Instagram influencer
- App creator
- Professional app reviewer
- Dropshipping
- Internet-based recruiting
- Online music reviewer
- Project writer
- Online personal fitness trainer
- Online editor
Over the past few weeks, I have written or video recorded step by step guides on how to make money from these specific ventures. And today, I will give guides to one more of these opportunities.
It is possible to do a guide for all of them, but space will not permit me. So here goes:
A Step By Step Guide To Making Money From Amazon Kindle Publishing:
1. Create an Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Account. If you already have an Amazon account, use it to sign into the KDP system. If not, create a new KDP account.
2. Add a new Kindle ebook (a “new title”). Since this is your first book on Amazon, you won’t have any titles listed yet. Click the box that says “+ Kindle eBook” to add a new Kindle book.
3. Enter your book title and subtitle. Your book title is critically important. Readers start judging your book the instant they see the cover, and the title is the first thing they read.
4. Enter the Author name. If there is more than one Author, enter the other names using the Contributors box.
5. Enter your book description
6. Verify your publishing rights. If you are the Author of the book, choose the radio button that says: “I own the copyright and I hold the necessary publishing rights.”
7. Choose your keywords. Think about these carefully. When you fill in these boxes, what you’re really saying is: When people enter these words in an Amazon search, I want my book to come up.
8. Choose two categories for your book
9. Choose the right age range (if this applies).
10. Choose your book release option.
11. Select DRM rights. Make sure you enable DRM. Digital Rights Management prevents people from copying your book and sending it to other people for free.
12. Upload your book and book cover.
13. Preview Your book.
14. Choose your territories (preferably, all territories).
15. Choose your royalty and pricing.
16. Publish
Amazon Direct Publishing is a very profitable endeavour. And let me give you an idea for a book. If you used to be a scammer, why not consider turning a new leaf and write a book tentatively titled ‘Memoirs of a Repentant Scammer’.
Believe me, such a book will be an international bestseller. And instead of ending up like Hushpuppi, you could be signing a deal with Netflix for your book to be made into a movie or TV series.
No joke! Fifty Shades of Grey, perhaps the most successful book published in the last ten years, was self-published on Amazon Direct Publishing by the British author, E. L. James (whose real name is Erika Mitchell.
E. L. James has herself expressed shock at the groundbreaking success of her book, which she wrote in a state of excitement, after watching the ‘Twilight’ movie series.
These are her exact words, “The explosion of interest has taken me completely by surprise.”
The book series has now sold 180 million copies worldwide, and has earned E L James £114 million. And this is the work she did as an amateur, like you. It was a hard first book. She had no experience. All she had was access to the Internet and a smartphone and laptop. The very same thing you have in your hands while complaining that you are unemployed!
Originally published at Thisday