2

Doing Business in Rwanda

By
Kirsty
– January 26, 2012Posted in: Web Development

Hmm… this might not be the wisest of titles for a post given that I’m in Rwanda on a tourist visa and that the Rwandan government is very internet savvy. But… what the hell! This is such a safe country, this can be my way of living life on the edge!

So I’ve got my little Kigali website that is gaining in popularity with expats and locals alike. The monetising model for the site is a lot different from my other sites given the nature of business in Africa and how far along things with the internet are here. So many businesses don’t have websites yet, so even if they did want to advertise, I’d have nothing to link to. Few businesses know about Google Adwords so that makes earning through Adsense here impossible. I’ve never come across a business here with an affiliate program, so that’s out too. Plus businesses that do have websites aren’t really up on the whole SEO thing, so I’m not going to get emails from people who want to game Google.

So… things are done differently here and I’m getting a good look at it now as I’ve just completed my first two advertising deals for the site. The first deal was with two Sudanese guys who are young, but very established businessmen. They run a couple of gyms, have something to do with farming, and now they’re starting a web empire and going for it in a big way. They have 15 staff members and already get 10,000 people a day having only been in operation for three weeks. Their site, Kigali Konnect, is aiming to be a classifieds and business directory site aimed at everyone in Rwanda (it’s in Kinyarwanda, French and English) and they wanted to advertise on my site to help them reach the expats here.

It was a really interesting meeting and I was excited to see that they have a similar vision for what the future of websites in this part of the world could hold. They’re aiming to make similar sites for Cairo, Kampala and Khartoum and see this market as very new. They realise that getting in now is a big advantage and agree with me that people who overlook Africa for business opportunities are missing out. They’re interested in possibly partnering up in some way down the road and they’d be very interesting to work with.

My second meeting was this morning with a Rwandan woman who is in the early days of starting up a recruitment agency for nannies, housekeepers and guards. She does the training, security checks and all that fun stuff and people looking for these services get in touch with her to find staff. Given that my site is aimed at expats and that it will often be found by new arrivals, I think it’ll be a good place for her to advertise.

I had to educate her a bit on the standard banner ad sizes and I offered to, for a small fee, create a suitable ad for her. She was very impressed with my site and kept saying things like ‘You are doing a great thing!’ and was very happy to get my advice on what her ad should look like and even happier when I offered to help her redesign it. I also suggested she post to my forum for free and offered to send her some interview questions so that I can feature her, and her business, on my website in an article. I feel like she left the meeting very happy. Not bad considering she was very surprised to find out I was a woman! She was expecting to be meeting a man. I guess ‘Kirsty’ isn’t a common name in Rwanda…

I do all of my business by email however I don’t think this sort of thing will fly in Rwanda. But these face-to-face meetings have been really fun and I think creating relationships is very important here. I firmly believe that there is so much opportunity here and in East Africa in general (I have a friend out in West Africa who says the same thing) and I’m really excited to being getting into the website scene at an early state. I’ve got another exciting partnership blooming for my Kampala site idea, so my mini Africa web empire could be expanding.

I like the personal nature of business here (at least what I’ve found so far) and the importance of a handshake and a meeting. It’s nice and I’m really looking forward to seeing how things unfold over the next few months!

8

I’m Heading to The Philippines to Shovel Mud

By
Kirsty
– January 8, 2012Posted in: Volunteering

Flooding in Cagayan De Oro

My beloved disaster volunteering organisation, All Hands Volunteers, has just announced a project in Cagayan de Oro after a typhoon struck in mid December causing flooding, 1,200 deaths (with lots of people still missing) and destroying or damaging over 50,000 homes.

I’d been watching their website closely since they sent an assessment team a few weeks ago. My inside source told me that there was a less than 50% chance of a project being announced so, while I was watching, I wasn’t giving too much thought to actually going. But a couple days ago a project was announced and I’ll be heading to The Philippines on February 4th for a month of muddy work. Amazingly, I found a flight all the way to Manila from Kigali for under $900 and another flight down to Cagayan de Oro for about GBP30. Bargain!

I spent a couple years following All Hands around the world but last year I only got to work with them for two weeks in Haiti. I had hoped to go to Japan but my parents were concerned about the nuke plant and radiation and strongly asked me not to go. For once, I listened to their concerns but I felt a bit sad missing that project. I’m looking really forward to seeing a bunch of old friends and it’ll be so great to get back into the disaster volunteering scene after too long of a break.

I’ve been to The Philippines before for five weeks about 4 years ago and it’s one of my favourite countries. It’ll be great to visit again and it’ll be really fun to get involved in the community in Cagayan de Oro rather than just passing through as a tourist. I’ll only be back in Rwanda for a month before leaving for The Philippines which seems a bit too short, but I guess that’s just the way things go! It’s nice to feel like Kigali is a base for me that I can leave and return to.

So I’ll arrive in Manila on February 5th and leave on March 11th. I really love this kind of work. Shovel and wheelbarrowing mud and rubble around has before some kind of sick obsession. It’s a damn fine fitness regime, that’s for sure!

If  you’re travelling in the area and want to help people, meet and work with Filipinos and volunteers from all over the world, get muddy and have an amazing experience, check out their project page and send your application.

0

Interview: Jason Demant of Unanchor.com

By
Kirsty
– January 5, 2012Posted in: Interviews

I’ve been in touch with Jason for several years and have seen his site Unanchor.com go from an idea to a full fledged business. It’s an interesting idea and I thought you guys might like to know a bit more about it.

What is Unanchor and why did you decide to build it?

Unanchor puts a new spin on the traditional travel guide. We work with local experts around the world and essentially ask them — “if you had a close friend or family member coming to visit your town for the first time for only 3 days, what would you take them to see?”. They take this information and write an extremely detailed self-guided tour itinerary and we sell it for a few bucks on our site.

It was my own frustration with travel-planning that led me to start the site. I was in Beijing for a few days and started researching what to do and how to get around. It was overwhelming. I found literally over 1,000 things to do on TripAdvisor in Beijing. I just wanted someone who knew the city well to put together a logical itinerary with detailed directions. This was the beginning of Unanchor.

What made you initially start traveling? Why did you decide to build your site abroad?

My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I are both from the Silicon Valley. We both had cubicle jobs that we didn’t love (or hate either). So we started saving and eventually quit our jobs, sold all of our stuff and traveled for a year through Asia. While we were traveling I became interested in entrepreneurship and started thinking about what problems I was interested in trying to solve. I launched the first version of the site while traveling.

When our year trip was up I wanted to continue to work on building the site, but unfortunately it wasn’t making enough money yet to support me and my wife. My wife wanted to be a teacher, so we compromised by having her apply as an English teacher in South Korea. The job pays so well that we’re able to both live comfortably on just her salary. She teaches while I’ve been able to work on Unanchor full-time. It would be very difficult to make this situation work in the United States. The cost of living in South Korea is significantly lower and the pay she receives is great.

Did you have any experience with this sort of thing (HTML, site design, programming etc) or did you just work it all out as you went?

I primarily worked it all out as I went. I had built websites and dabbled with HTML and CSS when I was younger. I also took some Computer Science classes while in college, but I hadn’t touched it for almost 5 years. I downloaded a PHP, MySQL and Javascript book and taught myself. It was surprisingly easy.

Eventually, though, I realized that my programming skills weren’t going to cut it and it’s more fun to work on a business with a partner. I advertised on a few forums and websites about the fact that I was looking for a co-founder. A few people reached out to me, but there was one person who was clearly more passionate about the idea than the others. He’s now my equal co-founder. He takes care of the technical side of the business and has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I’m very lucky.

Did you have to use much of your own money to get this thing off the ground… or investors… or were the costs minimal?

The costs were pretty minimal and we’ve invested only our own money so far.

How has Unanchor been going?

Things are going well and are getting exciting. We just announced our public launch. We work with writers around the world now and have over 90 itineraries and cover 75+ cities.

Along with our public launch we’ve also released a new way to view our itineraries. You can check out an example for New York, San Francisco or Paris.

What’s coming next for Unanchor?

We’re always looking for new local experts to work with. We’ll continue to come out with new itineraries. Finally, we’re really excited about our new iPhone application. We’re putting the finishing touches on it and it should be out towards the end of January.

What are some challenges you faced building your website while living in Asia?

One of the hardest parts is the lack of an extensive entrepreneurial network. I’ve been able to connect with a few other entrepreneurs while living in Seoul, but on a recent trip to San Francisco it really hit me as to why the Silicon Valley has the reputation that it does. There are so many people building businesses and launching websites. It’s easy to network, get advice and meet others that are in a similar situation.

Other than that I have no complaints. The Internet in Korea is unbelievable. The lifestyle here is also great. It’s a wonderful place to live.

4

December Earnings & Spending Report

By
Kirsty
– January 2, 2012Posted in: Earnings

I earned $4270 in December which is a lot less than November’s monster month, but still around the $5000 mark which I’m more than happy with! Decembers are annoying in this business because everyone goes on holiday which means nobody to do ad deals with. I was able to complete some good deals early on in the month but also have about $1500 owed to me for work I’ve already done or have agreed to do. That’ll go onto January’s earnings which gives me a nice start to the New Year.

Earnings Breakdown:

  • Adsense – $343 - Same old, same old.
  • Affiliate sales – $644 - Something went a bit haywire this month… two of my affiliate networks (Clickbank and Trade Doubler) that have a bunch of travel insurance affiliates earning for me didn’t have a single sale. Not a one. I’ll usually earn between $200-300 with these guys combined, so it’s a bit of a shock and I’m not sure what’s happened. Fortunately I have a good month with Linkvana referrals at $200 to cover the loss a little. World Nomads sales seem to be on a slow but steady decline.
  • Advertising – $3220 - After a crazy number of ad sales in November, things seem to have come back down to earth to a bit below my usual monthly amount. This was a good mix of renewals and some new deals, the best being a recurring monthly payment of $500 for ads across five of my sites on several pages per site.
  • Ebook Sales – $63 - Nine sales.

Spending Breakdown:

I didn’t really seem to spend so much in December with $771 spent on the usual things.

  • Web Hosting – $128 - Dreamhost fees.
  • Domain Renewals – $32 - Go Daddy renewals.
  • Link Building Services – $206 - These are the monthly fees for two link building sites I’m using: Linkvana (14 day trial for $5 affiliate link/50 free outsourcing credits affiliate link) and Build My Rank.
  • Article Outsourcing – $400 - I outsourced a bunch of articles to Linkvana for the first time in awhile. If I’m paying $147 each month fof membership, it makes sense to use it!
  • Ebook – $5 - Monthly cost to sell my ebook.

Sorry for the short update this month! I’m about to leave on the long trip back to Kigali but wanted to get my update up before I go… so it’s a wee bit rushed. I’m looking forward to getting back and working hard for a month or two to get all of the little jobs I’ve been avoiding finished.

I’m still on the lookout for at least one more website to buy so I’ll kick up those efforts in the New Year. Otherwise it’ll just be me working on existing projects, trying to find a partner to work on the Kampala city guide site with me, attempting to finish this crazy Kigali map idea of mine, and, of course, chipping away at my Africa backpacking site.

Happy 2012! Talk to you again soon from Rwanda!

0

2011 Yearly Wrap Up

By
Kirsty
– December 30, 2011Posted in: Random Ramblings

Dad and I in Scotland

Happy New Year! Following on from my 2009 and 2010 Yearly Wrap Up posts, here’s one for 2011! It feels like this year has been a bit quieter in the travel department than my previous years but, looking back, I think it’s actually been just as busy in reality. I guess having a home base in Rwanda and taking trips from there makes things seem a bit less hectic. But I still managed to cram a lot in and keep busy while taking plenty of time to relax and enjoy the simple life in Kigali. Compared to last year it was really quiet but I think I like that.

2011 Travels

  • Kigali, Rwanda (lived here the whole year)
  • London (April for a few days)
  • Dublin (April for a few days)
  • Scotland (April for a couple of weeks)
  • New York (April for a few days)
  • Leogane, Haiti (2 weeks in May)
  • Lake Bunyoni, Uganda (visa run for 2 nights)
  • Bangkok (2 nights in August)
  • Bali (10 days in September)
  • St. Catharines, Canada (3.5 weeks in December)

Highlights

Things I Learned in 2011

My Friend Cherilus and I in HaitiI learned in 2010 that my travelling days were behind me and I feel like that’s been confirmed this year. I’m not really excited anymore by travelling just for the the hell of it. I still love visiting friends and volunteering and travelling with some purpose in mind (sporting events, parties etc) but I’m not really so into backpacking around, checking out famous sites and all that stuff the way I used to be.

I figured out that there are people out there who can make some pretty cool WordPress plugins. If I can think it up, it seems like someone out there in elance world can make it happen. That’s been a pretty big revelation for me because, now that I have some money behind me to invest back into my business, it’s great to know that I can have custom plugins build that’ll do exactly what I want them to.

I also realised that buying established websites is a great way to push my business forward. I think I got lucky when I bought The Blighty Traveller but I’d love to find a few more of those gems. It’s a great way to invest back into my business and expand things at the same time. If I can find two or three sites (that don’t suck… that’s the hard part) a year to buy, I’d be pretty happy.

2012 Travel Plans

For once I really don’t know what the year holds for me. I know what sorts of things I want to do, but I’m also pretty content in Kigali and happy to see where life takes me and to just go with the flow. Actually, looking back at my plans for 2011, nothing really happened that I predicted. Here are a few ideas for 2012…

  • Stick around Kigali until early June, soaking up the sun, spending more time working on my French and guitar and working on my Kigali website.
  • All Hands are currently assessing in The Philippines to see if they’ll launch a project in Mindanao. If they do, I’d likely for for a month or two around February.
  • Find a couple of causes to volunteer with in Kigali… one will be building a website for the Rwandan street boy’s home. Not sure what else.
  • Pop up to Kampala for a couple of weeks and get started on my living in Kampala site. Hopefully find a writer to work with who knows the city because I certainly don’t!
  • Spend the summer in North America learning about natural building and visiting interesting intentional communities.
  • Hang out with some Australian friends who are coming to Canada on a working holiday visa.
  • Visit a friend who lives in Bogota, Colombia.
  • Go to my friend’s wedding in Toronto in September.
  • Go back to Rwanda… ?

Goals for 2012

Last year’s goals are pretty much the same as this year’s. I didn’t accomplish much on my backpacking in Africa site but I did make a bit of progress with French and my Kigali site.

  • Africa Site - I think this has been a project of mine for three years now! I know I keep saying I’ll work on it but never do. Who knows if I’ll ever get this project finished. I do have a few articles lined up for the New Year so I’ll keep plugging away at it. Even if it never develops into the one-stop travelling in Africa site that I hope, it’ll at least be a site with some good info and hopefully interesting to advertisers.
  • Living in Kigali – I’m really happy with this site. I love the content, I think its really useful to new arrivals to Kigali, I like the layout, the maps and the ratings and the rest of it. I like how most expats in the city know about the site. My goal for 2012 is to figure out a way to turn the site’s popularity into some revenue.
  • Learn French – Still working on this one! I tried taking some classes which helped a bit. I’ve been doing some work on my own and my friend speaks French so I’ll have to bug her more to help me. I think I’ll try to find someone to give me one on one lessons for a few hours a week.
  • Learn Guitar - I’ve been making a wee bit of progress so I’ll keep plugging away and hopefully learn some more, bit by bit.
  • Learn About Natural Building - I’ve always been pretty interested in alternative building methods, sustainable living and all that stuff. I’m looking forward to finally spending some time learning about it by taking workshops around the US and maybe Central and South America too. It’ll also give me an excuse to travel around the US which is something that’s been on my list for ages.

Little Party in my Yard in KigaliI’m not sure much has changed from how I felt at the end of last year. I was talking last year about wanting to find a place that felt like home and not wanting to move around so often. I really love Kigali and, while I want to spend the summer in the US and Canada, I can see myself leaving all my crap in Rwanda and heading back there afterward.

Earnings wise, I had a great year in 2011 and I’m excited to see what 2012 has in store. If things keep going well for me I think I’ll eventually start thinking about investing in some sort of offline business, maybe in Rwanda. This is something I haven’t thought too much about but I really think there are lots of business opportunities in Kigali and if one crosses my path, I’ll give it some serious thought.

I hope everyone had a fun 2011 and that 2012 has some great things in store! I’m really excited to spend the next 5 or 6 months in Kigali but also looking forward to seeing what the summer has in store. Hoping for another happy and healthy year for everyone. Happy New Year!

2

Anyone Heading to Kampala to Live?

By
Kirsty
– December 17, 2011Posted in: Web Development

…I thought not. :-) But I’m sure there are more than a few people out there who are so I’m going to duplicate my living in Kigali website for Kampala and aim the thing at expats in that lively city.

I really like Uganda and, while I haven’t spent much time exploring Kampala (yet), I really love the vibe there. It’s a lot more chaotic, dirty and crazy than Kigali (most places in the world are) but I really like a bit of chaos and I could see myself spending a lot of time in that city in the future.

I’m kind of at a strange crossroads where I’m fed up with travelling around and feel like I want to base myself somewhere – establish something a bit more permanent. I have a bunch of things I’d like to do this year that will involved travelling around the US for the summer plus I’d like to do some more disaster volunteering (could be sooner than I think… The Philippines?) but I think I’d still like to keep a base somewhere.

Kampala is a nine hour bus ride or a very short flight from Kampala and I could see myself bouncing between the cities as I get to know Uganda a bit better. I’ve loved working on the Kigali website and I know I could make one work for Kampala as well, a larger city with a lot more expats and more web-savvy businesses. While these sites might not make me much money to start, I see a lot of potential in these two countries and having the main websites for expats coming to town will be a lucrative thing in the future, I think. Regardless, I really love how making the Kigali site has made me get out there, visit new places, try to things and reach out to people and building a site for Kampala will give me the same excuse to get out there and experience the city.

So… I’m sitting down at my parent’s kitchen table here in Canada and have just started the living in Kampala site. Literally just started. So I’m not sure if anyone’s interested in following along as a site goes from a WordPress shell to a complete design to a site filled with a bit of content but, if you are, check out the site (living in Kampala) and follow along as I make the changes. My plan for this site is to get things built, add a bit of content and get it ranking (and with my Kigali site it started ranking on page one of Google without any content at all), then take a trip to Kampala around April to fill it with some more content and search for a writer to partner up with.

I’ve also registered livinginnairobi.com so maybe East Africa will become my base by default as I work to create a bunch of city guides! Who knows. I love working on these sorts of sites and I love this part of the world so I’m looking forward to getting started.