From Rickshaw Driver to Six Figures A Month - An Internet Success Story

SYED TALAL JAN 14, 2016 26 COMMENTS

From Rickshaw Driver to Six Figures A Month
An Internet Success Story

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If you re a regular read of ProPakistani, you ll know that citizen empowerment throu
gh access to internet and information technology is something we believe in very
strongly. Today, we have a story that showcases exactly that.

Usman Khan, a 33 year old from Lahore, used to drive a rickshaw. Having dropped
out of college before he could finish his FA, there weren t many income streams av
ailable and like a large segment of the population, he did what he had to do to
feed his family of 3.
indexUsman s breakthrough came in the form of a regular customer named Omair, who
worked at a software house on M.M Alam Road. Regular conversations during daily
commute revealed a sharp mind and Omair took Usman under his tutelage.
His first foray into online work was through a video portal called SabMaza. Howe
ver, even after 2 years of efforts, it didn t amount to much. The competition was
simply too fierce and his experience too limited. It wasn t wasted time though, Us
man stresses. What he learnt during that time was the art of optimizing a site s
o that it ranks as highly as it can on search engines.
When we asked Usman about how he went about learning the ins and outs of generat
ing organic traffic, he chuckled and said:
I didn t even have the money to get an internet connection. I drove rickshaw durin
g the day and for Rs 40 per hour, I went to internet cafes and worked. I read al
l I could about how Google indexed websites and how I could make mine rank near
the top. I wasn t great at English so I bought a dictionary and kept it with me. I
t was slow progress but I persisted.
Armed with experience and information, his new venture was more modest. A site c
alled MobileRingtones, which provided precisely what its name suggests, was his
next project.
What might seem like a fairly mundane idea was to be the breakthrough Usman was
seeking. Today, the site gets over 25,000 unique visits a day. Two months ago, U
sman also launched a companion mobile app and it has already seen over 10,000 in
stalls.
All in all, MobileRingtones nets him well above six figures on a monthly basis.
A far cry from the mere Rs. 10,000
Rs. 15,000 he earned while driving a rickshaw
.
Speaking about the reversal of fortunes, Usman says:
I feel blessed. I ve seen bad times, really really bad times. Schools calling us t
o give a deadline for fee submission, tuition centers doing the same, I don t wish
that on anyone. Last month, I closed over 1900 Euros in revenue. Next month pro

mises to be even better.

Today, Usman has moved on to better and bigger projects. What struck me during m
y conversation with him was his desire to see his story be one among many rather
than a one-off. While his extenuating circumstances meant that he just had to k
eep trying till he succeeded, he realizes not everyone has the same reservoirs o
f patience.
Honestly, I have a ton of ideas on how to generate income via the internet. If s
omeone s poor and uneducated, like I was, I want them to know that all is not lost
.
ProPakistani has featured its fair share of people who have earned millions thro
ugh hard work and talent but arguably, smaller stories like these are what matte
r more.
I distinctly remember moving back to my old neighborhood after 5 years and seein
g the very same sabzi walay, the same shop keepers and the same chowki daars. Wh
ile their faces were wrinkled and grey streaked their hair, they seemed to be st
uck in a time loop, doing the same things they had been doing for years.
When I talk about the power of the internet, what I mean is the power to break t
his cycle. Barring some miraculous stroke of luck, Usman would have remained a r
ickshaw driver for years, maybe moving up in the food chain as time went on but
it would have been at a slow pace.
The internet handed him the reigns to pull himself out of poverty through hard w
ork and determination alone. And him succeeding in doing so tells me that a digi
tal revolution in Pakistan is truly underway.