Author: Shepherd Yaw Morttey

5 useful things you can do with Google Maps right now

Google maps are just used to help move around with ease.

But there’s more to it than we know of, such as checking current and future traffic, adding stops to your trip, and showing you a way to navigate around a building, amongst other fantastic stuff it can do.

Add stops to your trip

As a traveler, you can’t make a 4/5 hour trip without a few stops on the road to take a piss or have lunch or fill your fuel tank.

Once you program the destination of your trip using the map in your car, you can also add stops on the map and choose from various Gad stations and grocery shops and restaurants to stop at on the map.

For planned stops, tap on the three dots in the top right corner of the app and select “Add stop.” Tap on the empty slot, and you can search, add from the map or select from “Gas stations,” “Groceries,” “Restaurants,” “Cafes,” “Fast food,” and “ATMs.”

Check current and future traffic

If you want to check the traffic in your area, you need to turn on “traffic” by tapping on the diamond-shaped layers icon on your phone app or by selecting the menu button (three bars) on your desktop.

The main reason for doing this is self-explanatory as one would not love to be late for to anywhere at all they are going to.

For computers, you’ll see a box with “Live traffic” and an upside-down triangle. Select the triangle, and you can choose “Typical traffic” to see what traffic will be like later in the day or week.

Avoid paying tolls

It also helps you in saving some money on a trip.

Usually, on a trip, you might meet about 3-4 tolls on your way, but instead of going to pay for those tolls, you can tell your map to show you free access routes.

Just tap “Route Options” while searching for directions and toggle “tolls” off. Be careful, though: This could add a lot of miles to your trip!

Share your location

There are certain times that you want to share your location with someone who wants to come to your current location; you can send them your live location using Google Maps to get the directions to where you are quick.

Also, when you are somewhere, and you want others to see where you are, sometimes in cases of safety.

You can also share your location while you’re driving. Once you’ve started a trip, swipe up from the bottom, and you’ll see “Share your trip progress” as your first option.

Save your favorite locations

You visited a place one time without planning to, and you loved the place and so would love to visit again but don’t want the risk of forgetting the name of the location or routes to the place?

Or want to save information about a store or restaurant to review later? You can save the location on your google map. Maps lets you set Favorites by selecting the “Save” icon. Choose it as a “Favorites,” “Want to go,” or “Starred places,” and it will show up on Google map.

And you want to consult your list, head over to the left menu inside the app, then choose “Your Places” and “Saved” to consult your lists.

July 1, 2021
How to become a successful YouTuber and earn money

YouTube content creation has also become one of the fast-rising digital marketing ways many people earn money through these, be it young or old persons.

People miss a few things in trying to create content and make money off it and end depressed and give up in the end because they realized it’s not as easy as it looked.

It would be best if you were very patient.

Being a YouTuber is not something that will get you money at once; it requires a lot of time and patience.YouTube is such a competitive platform that demands much patience to get to your destination. Having patience and so much focus is very painful on YouTube.

You should be able to learn new stuff as the days go.

It would help if you considered learning new stuff from those in the game before you for a new YouTuber. Watch the videos and see how they do things because they’ve been around for a long and are making huge numbers. Watching other videos can teach you a thing or two on how to be successful as a YouTuber.

Develop unique content.

YouTube is full of similar videos of what you want to do, so what you’re bringing is nothing new to the viewers. But that doesn’t mean you break out and also be successful.

It’s all about craft and how you do your work. It would help if you had a different approach to your content, for example, creating a breakdown of music videos. Know that hundreds if not thousands of YouTubers are also into the analysis of music videos.

And the possibility of another YouTuber breaking down the video you’re planning on working on is very likely, but still doesn’t you can’t work on that exact video. You can work on that same video, and that’s where you have to prove your uniqueness to your viewers.

Set up SEO

YouTube is a very sophisticated search engine, and people use it a lot to discover new content. Because people are always searching on YouTube, you have a better chance to be found, seen, and enjoyed by choosing the right keywords.

If there are videos similar to the one you’re looking to create, look at the exact words you typed in for the results. Then try a different one to see how the results change so that you can see what a word or two of difference can make. Research the keywords you’d like to use, their popularity, and the keywords your competition uses.

All this is done just so when users search for videos on YouTube, and your similar content will also pop up as a suggestion.

Don’t be a time waster and make the video boring.

Some YouTubers spend minutes explaining a simple thing that can take just seconds sometimes. If you do that, most users will be bored and search for another video to watch.

For instance, you make a video on how to make a fruit smoothie. You don necessarily need to make a 15-to 20-minute video explaining teaching how to make a smoothie.

You can make it a short video of a maximum of 3-5 minutes because many YouTube users don’t like to waste time on a single video like that, most times because of data usage.

Identify a topic or aspect not majored by anyone and make it your major

Do you have a skill or knowledge of a specific topic that doesn’t already have a significant YouTube channel dedicated to it?

Or maybe you love assembling and dissembling a computer, and you feel like not many people prominent in that. Focus on that with good tactics. You’ll soon attract people who love the anatomy of computers to your page.

Make sure you get the tools/gear to make and edit YouTube videos.

Another essential part of establishing yourself to be a successful YouTuber is to make sure you have a set of tools ready to record your videos and edit them.

Having these tools will enable you to make your content how you want it at its total capacity. Having your tools and editing skills is vital because many YouTubers don’t have their gear, so they go out to borrow.

What happens when you don’t the complete kit, but you record the videos anyway because they come out with low quality. No YouTube user would watch a video with low quality when they can get other videos with good quality.

Know how to monetize your page

First, you create a channel and give it a name. Secondly, you need to have an Adsense account, sign the terms and conditions, and comply with YouTube’s community guidelines.

After all that, you must have at least 1000 subscribers and reach 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past 12 months. Those are the main things you require to join YouTube’s partner program and earn money through your YouTube channel.

Conclusion

YouTube content creation can be very lucrative if taken seriously. Know the requirements needed to monetize your channel, have a different style with your content, try not to be a time-waster when explaining things in your video, go straight to the point, and don’t make the video too long to lose viewers and subscribers.

June 30, 2021
Ways your local business can benefit from digital marketing

The digital world has been advancing at a fast rate ever since the Covid-19 came into the system, and one might say that’s a good thing, or another might also oppose that it’s a bad thing.

As a local businessman or woman, you’d realize that many people have taken their business to the digital world; you’d ask yourself why? Well, people love to feel comfortable and safe, and digital marketing gives them.

In this piece of work, I’ll be discussing with you ways in which your local business can benefit you if you move it to the digital world.

The mobile phone advantage

Without a doubt, mobile phone users have grown to outnumber any other technology device users worldwide.

And for your local business to grow in the digital world, you need to reach out to the mobile phone users who do their buying online on their phones.

That’s currently the new trend. They discuss the price and everything with the vendors and then get a dispatch rider to deliver their said products to them at their said locations. With this, if you build your digital marketing website or platform mobile phone friendly, you’ll tend to reach out to 1000s of users who might be interested in your product.

For example, a make-up kits vendor online. As such a business owner, all you have to do is get a good advertisement for your business and set a friendly atmosphere with users who patronize your business online. In terms of the cost of establishing your business, this is less expensive and very effective, and very comfortable for the business owner as they can also go about other companies while running the company online.

It allows you to target a specific market.

Reaching your targeted people in a marketing campaign is one most important aspects of your business as a marketer. This also depends on the tactics you employ in your marketing campaign.

For example, we call an SEO (search engine optimization) which allows your website or platform to be found in search engines. It will enable local companies to optimize for location-specific keywords for their specific type of business so that when users type them in a search engine, it will readily serve up the information they need.

And if your business is at or near the top of that list, users will likely click on it, and you will have reached your target customers, all because you optimized your website for local SEO. The positive of this SEO is self-explanatory as it gives your business exposure for customers to reach out to you.

Lower cost

A good and well-organized digital marketing campaign can be less expensive and less time-consuming than the traditional way of opening a business.

With traditional marketing, you have to find a good location for your market, put a shop building that will be your shop or office, and employ a few workers you’ll be paying monthly. Calculating the cost of all these is quite expensive.

But with putting your business online, all you have to do is have social media presence, develop good marketing tactics for your business, pay for a few advertisements on tv or with social media influencers. Your business is set and ready for the world.

You interact with your consumers

Interacting and providing your customers with good engagements helps you to know what your customers want. With online marketing, you’re on a platform where you can directly interact with 1000s or your customers simultaneously.

This interaction is essential because you wouldn’t know what your customers want from you without it. You can also create polls where customers review and let you know what they like and dislike about your products, which gives you an insight into what they want and what to bring into the market next time.

As you know, it is more expensive to attract and convert new customers than it does to retain existing customers.

Customer loyalty can be challenging to establish, but as you take on the habit of interacting with them, it will be long before you gain their trust.

Gain brand credibility with your local business

No one will come to the marketplace and shout for the whole market to hear that you’ve got the best product out there, so people should patronize you.

If any business brand is to gain credibility, it’s going to happen online. For instance, as fast food online vendor, how good your food is and how good your customer services can gain you a lot of credibilities. Useful and interesting content helps a company to gain the trust of its customers and industry experts.

It can be effective to the extent that competitors start to reference it also in their content. How will you know you’ve gained in the industry?

Well, you can see it in the search engines. You’re a reference to customers in the market if your brand ranks on top in search engines on google. High rankings on search engines attract more people to patronize your business.

It provides fast income generation

With online marketing, your money comes as your products are going. You also have no employees to pay salary to. It all depends on how well you brand your business and run it.

And whatever profits you get on your sales on solely yours alone, and if you have a business partner, it will be for you and your partner. That’s one of the advantages of taking your local business online.

Conclusion

Suppose a company lacks a solid digital footprint. In that case, it severely hampers its ability to communicate with existing customers and find new ones, and one can get used to the traditional way of doing business.

Still, that lack of a digital presence also leads to a lack of trust in the brand. However, suppose a company implements a robust digital marketing plan covering areas such as social media and content marketing. In that case, it can have a positive impact on a brand’s bottom line.

June 29, 2021
Mistakes to avoid when applying for online/MoMo loans in Ghana

Loans aren’t always a bad idea if you go about it right. As a businessman, taking a loan could be one of the best decisions for it.

The problem is that many business owners don’t know how to go about it when applying for a loan. While physical loan applications at banks are time-consuming and full of procedures and on top of that stressful, online applications are far easier.

Technology has presented us with several online platforms to submit loan applications. Financial mistakes almost always end up costing you money, so I’ll discuss with you a few mistakes to avoid when next you apply for a loan online.

Don’t settle for a high interest rate

Fees, terms & conditions, and other extras are all well and good, but no matter how nice they sound, you should never settle for a high-interest rate. There’s just no need! And yet, it can be all too easy to lose sight of the rate you’re going to end up paying.

When looking for a loan, consider what you’ll be using it for. Maybe you’ll be putting it towards getting your license to start a car business. Once you know what you’ll be spending it on, you can track down a loan that fits the bill and still offers a great rate.

You don’t repay the loan on time

The loan process doesn’t end once you’ve been given the money. At a given specific time, you’re going to have to pay the money back. It might sound simple, but you’ll be surprised at how the days will go by and easy it will be to forget that you have a loan to repay.

This mistake is especially common if this is your first time applying for a loan. While a seemingly harmless mistake, but it could adversely affect your credit score and your chances of landing another loan in the future.

Mark payment dates in your calendar, throw a reminder on your phone, or better yet, set up an automatic transfer via online banking so that the payments take care of themselves. It’s that simple!

Consider your budget

What are you planning on using this money for – Paying off medical bills? A loan may help you out of a rough financial situation, but it also leaves you with outstanding debt and interest to repay.

But it can be all too easy to get caught up in the loan pre-approval process and find that you haven’t asked – or answered – the most important question of all: will you be able to repay it. You shouldn’t take loans you can’t be able to pay back just because you can take the loan.

Consider MTN quick loan; for instance, taking a loan as fast as that can offer you exciting possibilities to take care of whatever you’ve got.

But borrowing more money than you can afford can quickly see your expenses getting out of hand, which is the last thing you want. Instead, check your budget, add the repayments, and run the numbers. If the application is successful, will you be struggling to keep your head above water? Or will you be able to manage it easily?

Make such calculations and ask yourself those questions and decide if you need to take that loan.

Ideally, any personal loan repayments shouldn’t come to more than 15-25% of your income. If it’s more than that, it might be time to consider other ways you can get the money together. Perhaps you could find ways to save a little cash.

Don’t apply for loans from multiple online sources

As easy as taking a loan sounds, you shouldn’t take multiple ones at a time.

Because even if you take them within a three-day space, it’s still going to be a problem for you when it’s time for you to pay. A business person might argue that the business that he’s going to operate with loans will pay off so he can pay back from loans on time.

But that’s not true why because even if you’re a salary earner, taking two loans from two online platforms can be very hard on you when you pay back with your salary money. You might end not paying on time because you’ll be contemplating using the money on something else, and that’s going to attract penalties. For instance, there are a couple of online loan platforms in ghana, like Mtn quick loan, Fido money loans and Vodafone loans which was recently introduced.

Taking loans from MTN quick loan is very simple; you have to follow a few prompts, and you’re done. The same applies to the other loan platforms, so the simplicity might tempt you to apply from all three agencies because you can, but that can cause serious financial problems soon.

Thinking you can take the loan and refuse to pay

Most people think because the loans are applied and not in person, they can run away with the money, but they’re wrong. This is because they apply for the loan with your details and these agencies have access to your details, which they can use to trace you.

Some of these agencies online even make you add a guarantee’s number in the unlikely event that they don’t hear from you. And some people don’t inform the people whose details so when the time for the money comes, and the agencies start calling them, they’ll also be frustrated and give away your location.

By then, you would’ve incurred a lot of penalties on top of the initial interest, which I’m not sure you thought of when you planned to run away with the money. So basic ideal thing you have to do is take a loan you can afford to pay and make payback at the right time to avoid penalties that you can avoid.

Conclusion

Ever since being introduced, online and Mobile Money loans have helped pay fees for students, starting a small scale business amongst others, but for some, it has become a devil to them rather than the angel it is.

And that’s because they made some mistakes they could’ve avoided, so read through this piece of work and learn some mistakes to avoid when applying for online loans in Ghana.

June 29, 2021
7 ways students can leverage technology to make money in Ghana

Modernization has brought a lot of change to things in society. One can say the availability of technology is one of the post changes it has brought.

It has developed culture so that one can make a living out of technology and build a life for himself.

Being a content creator on YouTube or any social media platform

Being content can be very lucrative, considering you put much effort, time, and dedication into it. A content creator on YouTube or any social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or tik tok can make you a lot of money.

Content creation is making funny videos, tutorials, or any creative thing to catch viewers’ eyes. For example, you can decide to make a video with steps to prepare jollof rice at home. Content is how good the creator makes it.

So your uniqueness needs to be your tool for working. And be aware that there are other content creators out there who also do what you do. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful in your work. As I said, content is how good and unique the creator makes it look.

Small scale e-commerce

With this, you need capital to start it and a social media platform where you sell your products online.

You get a trusted buyer and make sure you have a good market for your products so that when the products are ready to be sold, you’ll not have a limited market and make them lose their value.

For instance, you buy a sneaker at GHS 200 and then sell it at GHS 250, so that’s GHS 50 profit off one sneaker, so imagine selling 20 sneakers in a month. That’s a GHS 1000 profit from the sales of your sneakers alone.

One thing about being an online vendor is that you need to have various products to sell. You don’t have to sell just one product because the market for one product might be down during a season and when that happens, and you have other products to sell, you don’t have a problem, unlike being in the trade of only one product.

Freelancing

If you have a skill that you think people can pay for, then freelancing is the choice for you. It doesn’t require any form of investment or capital or build a presence. Returns from freelancing can be near-instantaneous.

As an online freelancer, you get access to all sorts of clients worldwide, provided you build your online platform properly and make the name with your craft to attract clients. When you start, it is helpful to focus on building your profile. Your profile will be more robust by getting more positive reviews, and you will get more gigs.

A lot of people around the world are freelancing full time to earn a living. It pays very good to make a living out of, and there are massive opportunities. As a freelancer, you should choose a skill where you have a great deal of knowledge and confidence.

Become a social media influencer

Building a presence on social media with a large for business purposes can be a very successful venture if taken seriously.

Building a platform with a large following means many people have access to the stuff you do on the platform, so people can trust you sell ads for them. Building the brand is an essential part of selling ads on social media.

There are many social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, amongst others. You first have to build the brand you want to portray and attract many followers to the brand. Create an interaction on your platform with your followers. For example, making a unique platform on Instagram with about 20,000 followers and interacting with them about the usual stuff like sports, entertainment, politics and promoting businesses.

A robust personal platform gives whoever wants you to sell ads on their products confidence that you’d be able to deliver the service with ease.

Become an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing has also been a very lucrative venture from which many people make money these days. One might not know what affiliate marketing means but might be practising it.

“Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to a person for sales generated from its referrals. With affiliate marketing, sometimes it doesn’t even require any capital; you arrange with a retailer to sell their stuff and get a commission after the sales.

You can even be able to add up some value to the commodity’s price to get more money from that particular sale.

Content writing

Content writing is the creation of articles, create written materials for websites and blogs. To be a content writer, you need to have good grammar, good writing and research skills.

And to write content in a specific field, you need to research to have accurate knowledge in the field of content you’re writing. This content can include text for graphic, podcasts and e-books. As a content writer, you should also be able to use modern word formatting tools.

So basically, content writers are responsible for vividly explaining topics on a website.

Find a remote job

You can stay at home and be employed remotely. As a remote worker, you can even work for companies outside the country and still get paid for your work.

That means if you work for a company that’s based in Toronto, you’ll get paid based on what’s typical for that area rather than where you live. You can earn an NYC salary while living in Accra.

It had many advantages because you can still go about other stuff you’ve got going on in your life, and even travel and carry your work along with you. It has a very flexible schedule too.

Conclusion

Technology has advanced, and so has our minds. The latest covid -19 restrictions have, in a way, opened people’s minds to the idea of leveraging technology to make money out of it opening online businesses, working your jobs from home, amongst other lucrative ventures one can venture into to make money digitally.

June 29, 2021
Why SHS students in Ghana should start considering a career in Software

Currently, globally the software development career has been high in demand and produces many prolific individuals in our society, including a billionaire.

And there’s no denying that as a student in senior high who’s about graduating should consider this as a career for yourself.

The high availability of jobs

Currently, many businesses/individuals are looking for young people to fill in technology roles. Log onto your go-to jobs site and type in the word “software”.

How many jobs popped up? Probably thousands. The thing is, software development skills are no longer confined to the tech industry. Having these skills is a bonus for most jobs. All good businesses have websites and apps, and the requirement for IT know-how is huge.

So SHS students who’re yet to graduate and are thinking of a career to choose, I’d advise that you consider software development.

The remoteness of the profession

If you are someone who does not like the routine 8 to 5 work schedule, software development will offer you many remote work opportunities even here in Ghana.

As long as you are producing code at an adequate rate and creating what is required timely, it is not uncommon for many code workers to work remotely.

Such is the coding landscape when the opportunity to freelance and offer contract services to companies is higher. Likewise, many software developers have seized the opportunity to create their own companies and businesses because of the skills gap.

Some students might think it’s a difficult career because of how coding looks on screens, but the only thing I can say is that nothing is too difficult or easy.

You need to put in effort and dedication and do the work to your full capacity.

You can be your boss as a software developer

As a software developer, normally, you work as a freelancer. Companies can contact you to develop something for them. Such contracts expire after your services for them has been granted.

This allows you to also work on your personal projects. You also decide what to develop without being directed what to do. I know most young people love to feel free and do things on their own, so this poses a great opportunity to be your own boss as a developer.

As a freelance developer, too, you have the liberty to look through the tech environment and see what innovations are in high demand at a point in time. For example, currently, mobile phone applications like games and sports apps are on the rise, and as a matter of fact, a young developer like you knows what the young market consumers like yourself want.

Continuous learning opportunity

As a software developer, you’ll always be on alert to learn new stuff as the days go by due to the gradually evolving technology.

With this, you can choose not to learn any new stuff and keep on with your old work, but as the technology ecosystem continues to evolve, you’d find yourself having no choice but to join the ship and learn new stuff eventually.

As a young senior high school graduate coming into the software developing industry, you have the upper hand in learning new stuff because your mind is still active ready to accept new knowledge.

Software development also requires teamwork to be really successful, and as SHS students, teamwork is not something you’ll be new to. As a matter of fact, teamwork is one of the major things you learn in school when you come together with your colleagues to do project works.

Technology has become the standard of our economy

Technology is extremely fast-moving, so as a Software Engineer, you need to be able to learn new programming languages and technologies and adapt to the continually changing environment.

Alongside learning about technology, developers will often have the opportunity to develop their knowledge about the business and sector they are working in, as these are also ever-changing.

And what more great opportunity is there for young high school students like this? As a young graduate, this constant change is an amazing learning opportunity, keeping your mind fresh and the job interesting! What better reason do you need to get started in Software Engineering?

Conclusion

Software, as I said, has become the job haven across the world, and most people miss out on that opportunity to join ship because they have no idea what it is and what it entails, so I hope the idea of a freelancing job as a software developer, the opportunity to learn more on the job and the ultimate idea of being a billionaire if dedication, innovation, and hard work are put in work.

June 28, 2021
MTN Free Facebook: How to Subscribe
MTN Free Facebook can be enjoyed daily by all subscribers who are on the MTN Free After 1 promo.

MTN Ghana’s “Free after 1” aka “MTN Nkomode” promo will continue to run till the end of 2017. The promo enables subscribers to pay GHS 0.25 for their first call and the remaining minutes are free.

How to Activate MTN Free After 1 and Enjoy MTN Free Facebook
1. Dial *550# or Send a blank message to 550
2. When dialing, remember to follow the prompts to activate
3. Once activated, you will receive a message confirming Subscription
4. After subscription, make a call that lasts more than 1 minute to either an MTN number or on off-net number
5. You will then receive 50MB free to browse Facebook
Kindly remember that if you have a lifestyle data plan on MTN Ghana, it should be used up first before you can enjoy the free 50MB.

You can only enjoy the MTN Free Facebook after the first minute of the first call in a day. The amount of data you get is 50MB. The data is valid until midnight and making more calls will not result in more data.

There you go: MTN Free Facebook and the chance to talk more. Don’t forget to read about aYo, Insurance from MTN Ghana.

Will you subscribe to this? Let us know in the comment below.
June 26, 2021
Vodafone Made For Me (Made4Me): Bundle Code, Offer and Price

Vodafone Ghana is back again with a new promo product to get customers hooked on. Recently, a lot of people have said that the Vodafone X Bundles are just not enough.

With the introduction of the Vodafone Made4Me, there is more option for Data and Voice subscriptions. Subscribers now have the flexibility of offers and an increased seemingly value for money.

This is especially interesting as Vodafone Ghana is now providing 4G LTE connections.

What is Vodafone Made4Me?

Vodafone Made4Me also called “Made for Me” or M4M is a special daily data, voice or a combination of both subscription service from Vodafone Ghana which presents Vodafone prepaid subscribers with new exciting tailored offers in the forms of data and airtime each day.

Unlike many other bundles and offers, the Vodafone Made4Me is dynamic in nature and the packages that are presented to the subscriber change with each day.

A lot of subscribers, however, enjoy the “very cheap” data plans which have a lifespan of between 24 hours (1 day) and 4 days.

How to Activate Vodafone Made4Me Offer

To activate the offer, the subscriber would have to dial the shortcode for the bundle which is either *5881# or *530#. The subscriber would then be presented with various offers to choose from.

Upon choosing an offer, the subscriber would receive an SMS alert confirming their choice. They can then start to enjoy the bundle.

Popular Data offers that come with Vodafone Made4Me

2GB for 2 Days

Vodafone M4M gives 2 GB worth of Data for 2 Days at the price of just GHS 3. To activate this offer, dial *530# on your Vodafone network.

Make sure you already have at least GHS 3 worth of airtime loaded. If the offer appears, select it to subscribe. If you don’t see this offer, it means you are not eligible for it on that particular day, You can check again the next day.

5GB for 4 Days

Vodafone Made for Me gives 5 GB worth of Data for 4 Days at the price of GHS 5. To activate this offer, dial *5881# on your Vodafone network.

Make sure you already have at least GHS 5 worth of airtime on your account. If the offer appears, select it to subscribe. If you don’t see the offer among the list, it means you are not eligible for it on that particular day, You can check again the next day to see if it shows up.

5GB for 1 Hour

For those who need a lot of Data for a short period of time, especially for downloads, the Vodafone Made4Me offer has you covered.

You can get the 5 GB worth of Data for 1 hour, also at the price of GHS 5. To activate this offer, dial *530# on your Vodafone network.

Make sure you already have at least GHS 5 worth of airtime on your account. If the offer appears, select it to subscribe. If you don’t see the offer among the list, it means you are not eligible for it on that particular day, You should check again the next day and you might have it.

400MB for 1 day

If you are not a heavy data user, 400 MB should be able to take you through the day. on Vodafone Made for Me, you can get 400 MB worth of Data for 1 day, for just GHS 1. To activate this offer, dial *5881# on your Vodafone network.

Make sure you already have at least GHS 1 worth of airtime on your account. If the offer appears, select it to subscribe.

In the situation where you don’t see the offer among the list, it means you are not eligible for it on that particular day, You should check again the next day and you might have it.

Conclusion

The Vodafone Made4Me offers are very good and you should definitely explore them.

However, you should mix them with other offers as abusing a particular offer would make it “disappear” from the list of offers.

June 14, 2021
MTN Xpress Loan: How to use this new service to get up to GHS 1000
For a lot of people who have read our article on MTN Qwikloan, the first Mobile Money Loan service but could not access the service due to one reason or the other, we are happy to inform you about a new service called the MTN Xpress Loan.

What is MTN XpressLoan?

Xpress Loan is a borrowing or credit service on the MTN Mobile Money platform that allows regular MoMo subscribers to access a loan/credit facility through their mobile phone in a few minutes.

Existing MTN Customers can use the loan service to access loans. There is no need for savings or paperwork and the money is sent directly into the subscriber/applicant’s MoMo account.

How to qualify for MTN Xpress Loan and Loan Fees

To qualify for MTN XpressLoan, you must frequently recharge your MTN number with airtime and also use your mobile money account frequently.

Fees on loans are not fixed. Therefore, it is important to read very well the instructions to get the loan below. This is because all the fees you will be paying will be shown to you during your loan application process.

How to borrow money from MTN XpressLoan

To borrow money from XpressLoan, follow the following steps on your phone:
1. Dial *170#
2. Enter option 5 (Financial services)
3. Enter option 3 (Loans)
4. Enter option 2 ( XpressLoan)
5. Enter option 1 (Get a loan)
6. Enter your Mobile Money pin and hit submit
7. Enter option one ( View offers)
8. Enter the option for your preferred amount (There are usually options available between GHS 50 and GHS 1000)
9. Enter option 1 to confirm your repayment plan
How to repay your Xpress Loan

If your loan is overdue, XpressLoan may auto deduct money from your Mobile Money account to repay your loan on a specific date.

To pay your loan in full, make sure you have enough money in your account on the due date.

You can follow the following steps to repay your loan:
1. Dial *170# to access the MTN Mobile Money menu
2. Enter option 5 (Financial services)
3. Enter option 3 (Loans)
4. Enter option 2 ( XpressLoan)
5. Enter option 2 (Repay my loan)
6. Enter your Mobile Money pin and hit submit
7. Select the amount you want to pay
Your loan amount will be paid and you will be eligible for new loans

How to get bigger loans from MTN Xpress Loan

To get bigger loans from XpressLoan and almost all the other Mobile Money loan services, follow the following steps:
1. Always pay your loans on time
2. Use your MoMo account frequently and try to keep some money in the account always. Don’t always withdraw everything
3. Keep your phone line active and use it for more calls or receive more calls from it.
June 13, 2021
How to use less mobile data when browsing on your phone
When was the last time you bundled mobile data? How long did it take? Well, for a lot of people, data just runs too fast, and we end up blaming our Internet Service Providers. Like I said in a post sometime back, I don’t believe Internet Service Providers steal our data.

Data usage is all about habits and a few tricks. I used to be very frustrated with how my mobile data was running until I reviewed my habits.

The key to saving your data usage is knowing that apps have become more data-hungry and are constantly pushing new versions for an update.

Earlier, web surfing used to be mostly in text. Now, video streaming services have gained widespread popularity, and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have also integrated video services as a mainstream appeal.

It has become increasingly difficult to reduce data usage on Android and iOS.

However, by adopting a few strategies (mostly available in the apps themselves) and changing a few habits, you can save more data than you think. We will look at how to use less data when browsing the web generally and also focus on WhatsApp’s data-saving features.

Here is how to use less mobile data on phone:

Use data compression in Google Chrome

You know the Google Chrome browser right? It’s one of the browsers I recommend for mobile users.

Google Chrome is one of the most popular Android browsers. It has an inbuilt feature that can significantly reduce data consumption on Android.

When data compression is turned on, all of your traffic is passed through a proxy run by Google. This means that your data is compressed and optimized (size reduced) before being sent to your phone. This results in lower data consumption and also speeds up the loading of pages without any significant change in web content.

To use data compression
- Open Chrome
- Tap on the 3-dot menu on the upper right corner
- Tap on Settings and scroll down to Data Saver.
- There you can tap on the upper right corner to toggle Data Saver on.
https://mfidie.com/stop-snapchat-instagram-using-data/

Watch and configure WhatsApp

Yeah, WhatsApp. It’s very popular here in Ghana and comes with a few settings to reduce data consumption. You can also change a few habits on WhatsApp and you will be using much fewer data. Let’s look at which settings and habits to change.

Let WhatsApp save data during calls

Did you know WhatsApp has an option to save data during chats and calls? It allows you to lower the amount of data it uses during voice calls.

To activate the data saving option, enter Settings, then Data Usage. In the options, check Low Data Usage.

If you experience low-quality calls after activating the setting (less likely), you can turn it back on.

Turn off auto-downloading of media

You can set WhatsApp to download multimedia files automatically only when on Wi-Fi. This helps you save data and prevents the downloading of unnecessary media files, especially if you are in a lot of groups.

In the Settings > Data Usage menu, there is a section for Media auto-download. Selecting ‘When using mobile data’ gives you a menu to check whether to download images, audio, videos, and documents or none of these (by keeping all options unchecked).

Cut down on WhatsApp Status

This is not a setting, but rather a habit. You need to cut down on the number of WhatsApp Status you watch in a day.

When you first get the status feature in the WhatsApp update

For a lot of people, they don’t realise watching videos on status is almost identical to streaming video on youtube – In both instances, you are viewing video content from the internet. Like the earlier part of this article stated, watching videos online takes up a lot of data, so limiting your WhatsApp status viewing would drastically save you a lot of data.

So there you have them. Are there any other tricks or tips you have for improving data? Let us know in the comments section. Don’t forget to also read our data saving tips for Snapchat and Instagram.
June 10, 2021