Just how many opportunities online have you missed? How many hours do you spend online? Now how many of those hours are dedicated to aimlessly, blindly searching for things that add no personal gain (financial, educational, social or otherwise) to your person? Plenty, I suppose. It is not enough to be Internet active; you have to be an Internet activist.
Internet active generally applies to any and all activity online ranging from facebooking, to googling how Manchester is still ranking sixth or maybe ‘how to naturally grow my hair ten inches in two months’ (yeah! fat chance) to downloading ‘free gaming apps’ that can make professional gamers tear up in frustration or a very interesting search on how to become a successful ‘yahoo yahoo big boy’ without being caught- endless list really which yields basically three things; waste of time, money and resources. Internet activist is all these and more, more being key.
Being an internet activist means contributing to the Internet almost as much as you gain, and gaining better than you receive. Many do not even care to know on whether there are opportunities for them on the net, as long as their Facebook is running and they can find search results on ‘how to make Amala with rice powder’ no matter how unnecessarily irrelevant that is, they are happy, and the Internet has served its purpose.
Why be a big-time net user without being one of an earner from it? I reject that in the name of the web! So here, the Internet is not an oracle to be prodded for answers without actually gaining something from it, though to be fair we have some badass tech-savvy money-driven Internet activists like Bamidele Onibalusi of Writersincharge.com for seriously impressive and money fetching blog revolutions.
There is Nasir Abdulqadir Yammama of Verdant App; a mobile farmers guide to agricultural boom for Africans, he can do anything creative technology, (Currently in Forbes 2017 list of 30 under 30, now ain’t that something?). Some marketers on social media sites take full advantage and make serious cash, and some heroes in the world of web and software development, but a strikingly frightening majority do not seem to see beyond entertainment on social media apps.
Internet users think the Internet exists primarily for one or a multiple of the above reasons only, and I couldn’t agree less. Here are some eight things the average surfer does on the net and some productive suggestions:
1. Facebook
And I know none of you can argue! Facebook has become a second home to an average smartphone user, whether or not his network service is strong enough to load the images and posts on time. We post everything, from our travel plans to the death of family members. We spend so much time on Facebook scrolling past ads and marketing pages without actually realising they might be our opportunity for financial freedom. Yes! Money can be made on Facebook while still having fun by advertising your products or services to your vast friends and to many many groups with hundreds of thousands of followers.
2. Google
Google, the great oracle. I have come to you this greyish day, past the morning roosters and wilting farmlands seeking guidance, show me the way, tell me how to have more followers on twitter, my Chiefdom’. Such a self-limiting mindset. The amount of educative and financial aid materials to be found cannot be over-emphasized though it will only be fair to point out that some of us actually take advantage of it. We basically Google-home school ourselves, and properly learn how to take the net bull by the horns and make some real money, through back-bursting hard work, of course, many usually go there for the recipes and natural ways to bleach tips and as of recent, memes and GIF’s many of which are admittedly funny.
There’s an enormous amount of educational sites on Google a handful of which offer online courses both paid and free, for example, Udemy. You can download a massive amount of books from PDF Drive which stores millions of books and from many other sites.
3. Twitter and Instagram
These two are together because they are kindred, one being better than the other depending on whether we prefer more pictures or more news. While having followers on Twitter and Instagram is needed depending on your venture, usually for online marketers to increase client-base, it is NOT the priority. The main thing is to have followers as customers that make you profit. So yes, it should not be all gossip and jamming, do some money jazzing too!.
4. Games
The IOS store /play store wasn’t mainly created for you to download games, Brother! No really it wasn’t. Just go check those monetised mobile game applications. They are being downloaded, that means people are making money, which means you too can do it if you have the skills and talent, which means you also can make money, which means I can stop talking now and move on to the next one.
5. Blogs
Blogs are not only fashion or gossip based. Did you know that already? Oh!. Some years ago, 2006 to be precise, a 25 year old Nigerian woman started blogging in a cyber cafe as a hobby. Today, she is hands-down the highest paid entrepreneurial blogger in Nigeria. How? Even though Miss Ikeji’s blog is pre-dominantly an entertainment based one, and has been tagged a controversial blog by some and rightfully so, she had consistently posted engaging, current and entertaining content that made people thirsty for more, the more she posted, the higher her views, the more people wanted to advertise with her. Easy peasy.
6. Ebooks and magazine
Honestly I just include the magazine to give us a more diversified outlook, but we mainly concentrate on Ebooks, Enovels to be precise. While the discovery of ebooks especially the free ones is a milestone to the average African who likes to have an unquenchable fire for reading, it could drag us away from the classical paperback which needs to be purchased. But unsurprisingly, given our literary and intellectual record, ebooks do substantially more good than harm as long as you know where to get them. And what is more, you can write some pretty good ebooks in your field of expertise and earn some decent money too. I did.
7. Shopping
While shopping online is at its easiest – just load the site, get your card and voila! It is still more than just a shopping site. Most sites like Amazon and E-bay also make provisions for sellers. You can be a seller too. Just get your product whether original or fairly-used, upload it with all necessary information and sell!. So by all means buy…and sell.
So, yes, you can make the best use of the time you spent on the net to learn, play and earn some income.
