Simple answer: I'm a content creator, and I believe most creators never get to use their full potential to make the money they should be making.
Long answer: here's my story.
I started creating content back in 2014, writing poems and songs. I wasn't online back then, but it made me a little popular around school.
In 2018, I discovered blogging and threw myself into it. Between then and 2020, I created and deleted blogs more than once. But through all of that, I was also quietly building something else: a community of readers on Facebook that grew to over 1,500 people, coming back every day to read.
Then in 2020, COVID hit. I went into business to make a living, and in the middle of that, I started Techinika as a blog.
Since then, I've launched a LinkedIn newsletter (and later stopped it), created content to teach Kinyarwanda, created content to teach technology, and shared my opinions on LinkedIn. Out of all my platforms, only my YouTube channel is formally monetized, through Google AdSense.
Looking back, I have probably made more money through content and communication than I ever made through coding. And I say that as someone who is not particularly popular and doesn't have a big following. So imagine: if the little I had was already worth that much, what happens when a creator actually has fame and influence behind them?
That question is why I built Agaseke. I believe the things that worked for me, even with a small audience, can work for other creators too.
Building private communities
At its core, building a community is about giving people the thing they care about, and letting them know each other around it.
Book reading. Cybersecurity. Movies. Languages, mine was Kinyarwanda. Business. Music. Whatever it is, you can build a community around it.
Look at your content and the people who follow it, and ask yourself: what do they actually care about? You will be surprised how willing people are to pay to belong to a community built around something they care about.
Most creators never do this. Done well, it is a game changer. Agaseke helps you build that community.
Using content as distribution
I am not a salesperson. Most of the people who ever trusted me to do something for them found me through my content, before we ever met, before they saw me deliver anything in person. By the time we talked, they had already decided I was the guy.
This worked especially well when people wanted to learn how to do something. They came to me to teach them, I suppose I'm a decent teacher, and I've made real money from that alone.
I watch content creators advertise other people's products constantly, but almost never their own. It doesn't have to be a shop in town or physical merchandise. You can condense what you know into an e-book, a book, a newsletter, and sell it to the people who already choose to listen to you.
Chances are, the people who love listening to you will also buy your merch, tip you, or subscribe to your paid newsletter. I used Buy Me a Coffee for a long time, but I noticed that if your audience is local and pays with mobile money, Buy Me a Coffee makes it hard for them to actually tip you.
So I built Agaseke to be a local Buy Me a Coffee, one that also lets creators sell digital products directly through the Agaseke shop.
And by the way, when I say "creator," I don't mean you need to be a big influencer. I'm not, and these methods still worked for me. You can be a writer, a poet, a teacher, a YouTuber, a traveler, whoever you are. Anyone who creates consistently, owns a niche, and is willing to put in the work will eventually see the results.
This experience is what led me to build Agaseke. I talk to creators whenever I get the chance, because I'm not building this just for me. I'm building it for every creator out there.
I want to build with you, and build for you.
