She Was Scammed 3 Times Trying to Make Money Online – Now She Runs a Successful Digital Marketing Agency Earning Over KSh1 Million Per Month

After losing her job as a business development associate in early 2020, Joan Munala became desperate to find ways to earn money online in the tight pandemic economy.

However, with no experience in digital business, Joan became an easy target for numerous work-at-home scams promising quick riches. She lost over Ksh200,000 in just 4 months.

Devastated but determined, Joan picked herself back up through grit and smart pivoting.

Today she runs a thriving digital marketing agency helping companies across Kenya grow their online presence.

Joan’s company now easily generates over Ksh1 million in revenue monthly, with an entire team working under her.

This is the story of how Joan turned repeated failure into ultimate success and prosperity through relentless persistence.

Her journey exemplifies how belief in oneself can overcome any adversity when you keep rising up after setbacks.

Laid Off and Desperate for Money

Joan was let go from her Nairobi office job along with 25% of staff as Covid ravaged the economy.

With a baby on the way, Joan desperately needed to replace her lost income quickly. But jobs were scarce. She required a creative solution fast.

After researching popular remote work options, Joan discovered an exciting new possibility – affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing allows individuals to earn commissions promoting brands and products they believe in through links. Joan saw stories online boasting how people make serious money through affiliate programs.

Eager at the income potential but unfamiliar with the landscape, Joan signed up for several “affiliate bootcamp” courses costing Ksh15,000 each, trusting their promises to get her started.

The Affiliate Marketing Scam

The so-called courses Joan purchased were nothing but scams designed to bait desperate people seeking online income solutions.

The material contained no actionable instruction – just vague concepts about dropshipping, Facebook ads and selling courses. There was zero guidance on actually becoming an affiliate marketer.

When Joan asked for her money back on the useless courses, she was bullied and threatened instead.

“I felt so stupid and ashamed. I realized people prey on the vulnerable with these false promises of easy money,” she recalls.

Down Ksh45k but not yet broken, Joan turned to Google again looking for legitimate ways to earn online.

This led her to digital marketing.

The Cold Calling Scam

Joan came across forum posts discussing how digital marketing specialists earn lucrative pay building brands’ online presence through search engine optimization (SEO), social media management and pay-per-click advertising.

A quick Google search popped up dozens of listings for digital marketing jobs. Excited by the income figures listed, Joan applied for 5 positions.

Joan was quickly contacted by one firm offering her a “Director of African Business Development” role handling digital marketing for top multi-national companies.

The steep salary of Ksh150k a month sounded almost too good to be true, but Joan jumped at the opportunity without deeper scrutiny.

Only after joining did she realize the whole operation was a scam call center pretending to sell digital marketing services but actually just extracting payments from unsuspecting businesses they cold-called daily.

“I was embarrassed that in my desperation I had fallen for yet another con. But it gave me firsthand insight into how digital marketing scams operate,” she notes.

The MLM Trap

By now feeling discouraged but still in need of income, Joan came across an old friend on Facebook promoting an ecommerce MLM company.

The friend described how she earned supplemental income referring customers to the online health store and convincing others to also join as distributors under her in the downline.

Intrigued by the promises of bonus cars and luxury travel for top sellers, Joan paid $299 to become a distributor.

She spent weeks aggressively pitching the products to anyone who would listen. But she made less than $50 in retail commissions while accruing big monthly website and inventory fees.

After losing her paltry upfront investment, Joan cut her losses and resigned from the MLM company in 4 months. She had fallen for yet another false income promise.

“I was sick of being taken advantage of. I decided I would find a way to make money online, but by actually starting a real business solving problems – not chasing shortcuts.”

Taking Her Experience to Start a Real Business

After losing time and money to various online scams, Joan took a step back to reflect on her overall experience.

That’s when the lightbulb went on.

Despite no formal training in digital marketing, Joan had gained a tremendous insider’s view into the industry after being on the receiving end through those job scams.

She realized that if she could combine this hard-won knowledge with her natural business development abilities from her old job, she was uniquely equipped to legitimately help companies with digital marketing.

Joan set up a basic website and began cold pitching local businesses in need of affordable online presence management. She sold her service as cost-effective execution of digital tactics she had learned about like:

• Search engine optimization
• Pay-per-click ads
• Social media management
• Affiliate marketing
• Email marketing
• Inbound strategy

The sales began trickling in week after week. Joan had finally struck upon the right business model leveraging her skills.

Growth into a Multi-Million Shilling Company

As Joan delivered impressive digital marketing results for her early clients on a lean budget, word spread fast.

Within 8 months of launching, she had grown her client base to 28 small companies paying an average of Ksh25,000 per month for digital marketing services.

That allowed Joan to rent an actual office and hire a team of contributors to take on more clients and bigger contracts.

Today, just 2 years after starting from scratch, Joan’s agency manages digital marketing for over 65 notable brands across Kenya, with monthly recurring revenue exceeding Ksh1 million.

Her humble startup now employs over 15 full-time staff while she still personally oversees client accounts.

And the large affiliate commissions she pays out to her associates every month provide income streams for others just like she needed when starting out.

Joan’s Top Lessons From Her Journey

For aspiring online entrepreneurs and those rebuilding after failure, Joan highlights 3 key learnings:

1. Bet on yourself

Rather than see herself only as a victim after being scammed, Joan leveraged the knowledge gained to pivot into a legitimate business tailored to her abilities.

2. Start hyper-small

She started with just 1-2 clients to prove her model before reinvesting every shilling to methodically grow the agency.

3. Persist through setbacks

Early struggles like bad press from old scams only strengthened Joan’s resolve to power through with pure hard work and excellence.

Joan’s story of turning online scams into ultimate success offers inspiration and powerful lessons for aspiring digital entrepreneurs everywhere:

• Knowledge gained through failures contains the seeds for future success if applied correctly.
• With grit and smart pivoting, victimhood can become victory through relentless determination.
• By starting small then relentlessly delivering value, thriving businesses can be built from any experience.

Joan stands today as living proof that belief in oneself can overcome any setback or adversity on the path to achieving dreams. Now she is paying that mindset forward by empowering others to turn passion into prosperity through Kenya’s digital revolution.

The future belongs to the resilient. Your time is now!

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