I started blogging in early 2010 when I was in my last year at KU. Few people were doing it then and I thought it was really cool. I cleared school and started my first job that very year and that is when I really dived into blogging. I loved being able to connect with my few ‘fans’ constantly updating them on what I was up to and asking them for advise every now and then.
It was a passion of mine and I sought refuge and comfort in it through the many challenges like starting life on my own, heartbreaks and many youthful challenges. I also used it to celebrate my accomplishments in life. It was perfect and I loved it.
My dream at the time was to do what I loved for a living. Though I was earning a decent living, I yearned for the day I would do what I loved for a living. I was therefore constantly hungry and searching for some way to make this happen. And it did. Not when or how I imagined, but we normally make plans and God laughs, right?
Motherhood changes you. I always thought that I was career woman. The kind that gets 3 kids, hires someone to look after them and continues climbing up the professional ladder. I was never going to be the stay at home mom! How? Having kids made me realize that I wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted to still make my own money while taking care of my kids. I wanted to wipe their butts and tears, to experience their firsts and to have the chance to mold them from an early age. I also wanted to be independent. To not lose myself and to fulfill my God-given purpose.
8 years, an IT consultancy job, a husband and 2 kids later, I now stay home with the kids and work online full-time. I have a number of income streams for my blogs but today I will be focusing on the Jumia Affiliate Program.
About Jumia
Jumia is definitely the biggest online retailer in Kenya. The company was launched in Lagos in June, 2012 and has since expanded to other African Countries Among them Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Tunisia, Cameroon, Algeria among others. It’s competitors are Konga and Kilimall.
The Jumia Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is, in my opinion, the fastest and easiest way to earn from your blog or social media platform. This is how it works: you recommend a product/service to your audience through a review on banners on your blog’s sidebar and when a purchase is made through your link, you get a commission on the sale. The biggest online retailers offering affiliate programs in Kenya are Jumia and Kilimall.
In countries where shopping online is the norm like the US, bloggers and other digital marketers earn thousands of dollars a month from big online store like Amazon, Clickbank and the like. Unlike earning through Google Adsense, you do not need that many visits to your blog. You just need to have a very specific niche and an audience in the buying mindset.
I first debuted my affiliate marketing career on Amazon. At the time, there were no affiliate programs in Kenya and most of my content was for the international audience. Amazon has every product you can think of in this world but the competition was insane! Their cookie also lasts for just 24 hours which means that the customer you send to them has to make a purchase within 24 hours for you to get a commission. I could not get my hands on all the products I tried to promote and was forced to rely on customer reviews and manufacturer provided information to write about the products. That sucked!
I started experimenting with content written specifically for the local content towards the end of 2014 and it blew my mind on how low the competition was. I was able to rank for most of the keywords I targeted with so much ease.
On 4th June 2015, I came across an article that stated how Jumia had started an affiliate program. I joined the program that very day.
I started by writing reviews to products that I already had in my house. It was refreshing because here I was, with a chance to earn some extra coins reviewing items I already had first hand experience with. I ranked almost immediately. My first sale had a commission of around three thirty something Kenyan Shilling and the rest is history. I was sold.
You can read some of my earliest reviews here, here, here and here.
Over time, I have perfected how to get the most out of the affiliate program with the least of time and work – because being a full-time mom is not easy and still remains my number one priority. I will be sharing the tips I have learned along the way with you guys in the newsletter. Make sure therefore to subscribe by leaving your email address below.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
How it works is that a blogger/influencer recommends a product to her/his readers, when a purchase is made, the blogger gets her/his cut in form of a commission. To be able to earn from a company, you need to have a partnership or some form of agreement. Each link is tracked by a cookie to determine which affiliate sent the sale. Some companies have cookies that last for just 24 hours (e.g. Amazon) which means that an order has to be made within 24 hours of sending a visitor to the online store for the marketer to get a commission, while others like Jumia last for as long as 30 days. The percentage of the commission varies from company to company and even from product to product.
Jumia Kenya is one of the online stores that offer affiliate marketing in the country. Another one is Kilimall but we’ll discuss it in a future post.
The most positive thing about having a partnership with a big online store like Jumia Kenya is that you get to sell products on your site without ever having to deal with inventory, and two, there are so many products that you will find the perfect ones to promote no matter which niche your blog falls under.
If you are a mom blogger, you can promote women and baby stuff, fashion bloggers can promote clothes and beauty products, fitness bloggers can promote exercise and nutritional products, food bloggers can promote kitchen appliances while technology bloggers can promote phones, TVs, Computers and more. You just have to find products that resonate with your readers
How to Register as a Jumia Kenya Affiliate Partner
Registration is fast and easy.
Just head over to JUMIA.CO.KE
Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the ‘Make Money With Jumia’ Menu
Click on ‘Become an Affiliate Partner’
Fill in the details (names, email, phone number, country, website) and then click on ‘Start Earning’
Your application will be reviewed and you will receive an email confirming your partnership into the affiliate program.
You will then get access to your very own Affiliate Partner’s account where you will be able to generate links, get codes for banners to add to your site, track your conversions and commissions, and receive payments at the end of the month.
Start Earning
Once your application has been approved, you will be able to receive newsletters in your email with all the information you need to start earning from your blog. Carefully go through the information you are sent to at least get the basics as far as generating links and adding banners to your blog are concerned. Though we will get into the details in a later post, it is important to just mention the tools used to send shoppers from your blog or social media profile to Jumia Kenya which translates into money in your pockets.
Banners
Banners are normally placed below the header of the blog, at the footer or on either side of the blog’s sidebar. In your Partner’s dashboard you will see a menu called ‘Tools’ and that is where the banners are. Just choose the banner you want, the dimensions and grab the automatically generated code and add it to your blog. (I’ll show you how you go about this later).
Below is a banner I have just generated for groceries because everybody needs to eat, right? ?
Text Links
These are used when you are writing a narrative and you include the name of the product with a link to the merchant’s site. Text links have the highest conversions because they appear very natural in your blog post.
e.g.
I received the Xtreme Fitness Exercise Trainer about a week ago and I’ve never been happier with an all round workout product. It gives me the resistance I need to increase the intensity of my crunches and leg raises. The grip on the rollers is steady and the support on the kneel very comfortable. My core is getting tighter and well toned… The trainers key features tell it all.
Image Link
This is where you add the image of the product in the review and link to the merchant’s site. Image links work best when added alongside text as shown below.
I received the Xtreme Fitness Exercise Trainer about a week ago and I’ve never been happier with an all round workout product. It gives me the resistance I need to increase the intensity of my crunches and leg raises. The grip on the rollers is steady and the support on the kneel very comfortable. My core is getting tighter and well toned… The trainers key features tell it all;
- Intense, yet effortless core training!
- You can achieve tremendous results for just 5 minutes a day
- Among the parts of the body it targets are abdominal muscles, arm muscles, back muscles, shoulder muscles, glutes and thigh muscles.
- 6 training levels and 44 different exercises to choose from. Read more reviews…
Using a Buy Now Button
The ‘Buy Now’ button is the ultimate call to Action. Once your reader has read and is impressed with your review or mention of the product and how it can impact on his/her life. It is time to tell them what the next step should be; to make an order. And what better way to do that than to tell then ‘Buy Now’?
Why You Should Listen to Me
They say that those who can do, and those who can’t teach. This makes me very cautious especially when it comes to online mentors who claim that they can teach you to do this or that.
I will be the first to admit that I am not the highest earning Jumia affiliate marketer in Kenya. I can however confidently state that I am one of the most consistent ones.
Due to the 14 day return policy, it takes a second to get your payment once you close your very first order. You also have to meet the monthly minimum threshold.
Ever since I received my very first payment in August, 2015, I have received a payment every month since. This is definitely a very good source of residue income for me.
Not only that, I got a certificate for the highest earning affiliates in Feb, 2017, and a trophy earlier this year in 2018.
Let’s talk. Even though I will be exploring this topic in detail in later posts, do not hesitate to talk to me if you have any question regarding affiliate marketing or making money online in general. I just might answer your question in the the next post on this series.
Are you a stay at home mom/dad? Are you employed and simply looking for a source of residue income to complement what you are already getting? Is your dream to leave your job eventually and work from home? I would love to hear from you.