On the 16th of September 2014, the popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, broke the news of her #24m brand new 2014 Range Rover, the internet went wild, people congratulated her (I did too), haters hated, age and marriage prosecutors and detectors sounded their alarms, inspiration was rekindled for many (myself included) and plenty new BLOGS were opened.
Just last week, the news of her newly acquired #550m house in an exclusive playground of Nigeria’s obscenely wealthy, Banana Island, made us relive the September 2014 experience but of course, with more intensity. I mean, it’s more than half a billion!
The news of her new house and its worth was definitely overwhelming and I, sincerely, am happy for Linda Ikeji. You might think its just blogging, but only bloggers can explain how hard a work it is to source for contents online, fish out which you think is appropriate for your kind of audience and then go through the hassle of romancing our network providers in this country to get a single post published. Linda Ikeji does this consistently, morning, afternoon and night. Keeping you entertained, informed to her blog’s niche taste. I admire her strength and staying power and I am excited it is paying off NICELY!
As much as we can attribute her level of success in Nigeria blogging sphere to the First Mover Advantage (In marketing strategy, first–mover advantage, is the advantage gained by the initial (“first-moving”) significant occupant of a market segment.), her staying power has brought her thus far.
Which takes me back to the many bloggers springing out of Linda Ikeji’s success. Yes there is enough space for everybody.
According to internetlivestat, check out the number of internet users in Nigeria
If you can create an idea around a platform/blog which would be appealing to just 0.5% of the 81m+ internet users in Nigeria alone then you would be commanding 405,000 users. This is excluding the users from other countries that would naturally find your blog in the World Wide Web.
99.8% of blogs which was opened during the Range Rover period closed down in 3months. 99.9% blogs that have been opened between last week (the banana Island era), will become redundant in the next 3months.
Staying power
Staying power is the ability to maintain an activity or commitment despite fatigue or difficulty. It took Linda Ikeji years to get to where she is now. It didn’t happen in days, neither did it happen in months. It took years. Its somewhat rude and discomforting when people approach me to teach them how to blog and make money instantly. Such messages gets zero response from me, because I basically wouldn’t know how to respond to such ignorance especially when I know blogging is not juju.
Nigerian Factor in blogging
It’s clear that the Nigerian factor, which is unfortunately negative, has a negative effect on running businesses in this country, be it online or offline. Tosin Alabi of africancosmopolitan once shared her experience as regards being a blogger in Nigeria and being a blogger in the western world.
In her words, she said “Many Nigerian companies approach bloggers for brand exposure (meaning they acknowledge your value & influence). However, the remuneration and manner of approach they bring to us sometimes isn’t the most encouraging.”
She also did give an instance of a mail sent to her by a foreign brand and the one sent to her by a Nigerian brand, click here to see the difference.
A business/brand owner would approach you as blogger for brand exposure but wouldn’t see the need to pay you for such services. Sometimes they see you sharing their business as them doing you a favour and you wonder what planet you are living in. This and many more factors makes blogging and growing to the height you would want to get to a bit difficult in Nigeria, however, this is where your staying power comes into play.
What’s your blogging goal?
Who are you target audience?
Would you be meeting needs with your blog contents, passing information or doing both?
What is your reach plan?
As much as I have come to understand that blogging is about following trends and evolving as it suits your vision and mission, some questions have to be answered, decisions made, and execution well mapped out.
Blogging involves time (a whole lot of it), finance, networking and consistency. So asides Linda Ikeji’s Range Rover and Mansion In Banana Island being your blogging career drive, do you think you have what it takes to be a blogger? Do you have the staying power?
In subsequent post, I will endeavor to share some essential blogging secret. Till then, let me get back to blogging.
9 comments
Very articulate. Impressed . I have high admiration for the work you do and I am very convinced you will reach your goal. Proud of you…Always ….Leonhart
Thank you Leonhart
This is a brilliant post Elsie! Very deep, insightful and educative! The Linda’s mansion story is quick reminder that consistency (staying power) and purpose is all one needs to remain at the top. This is an inspiration to anyone and everyone doing something to make a difference. Going with the herd may never get you heard. The goals and niche truly matters. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Nonye.
Quite noble of you to pick this up and educate the vast majority of uneducated ‘would be’ bloggers, who might make the mistake of going into this completely for the money without checking if they’ve at least got a passion for it. One would recall the kinda names Linda was called by famous celebrities who she’d probably feed comfortably now, well such is life. Something to learn from! Nice one Elsie dear, yours is on the way, keep at it, ur hardwork ‘ll pay off
Impressive
Hello Elsie! thank you for the mention, thiis post is APT!! So informative xx
Aunty Elsie abeg no vex o cuz my words are not against u or blogging but against your hero Linda. I disagree that she is the epitome of hardwork and all that. Honestly, I find it quite disturbing that people especially women co tinue to idolize her. First of all y r we idolizing her? For her character, success in blogging or her money? Most people idolize her for her money. Her house as u mentioned and her range. Frankly that is an abhorrent thing to do and will lead to nothing but ruin for our nation and society. Celebrating wealth but saying nothing of the means of achieving it. That’s y even ritualists, criminals, corrupt politians, all are role models. Where is this leading us? And yes Linda is in that class. Let’s look at her character. She has had a number of scandals, with her marriage, even if that were not her fault, she is extremely vain and irresponsible. Everyday we wake up to pictures of her latest handbag and this and that and that. What has she ever done for her society she’s making money off? I have entered for competitions in foreign blogs. Outsiders have given grants to Nigerians. Scholarships, what have you? What has she done? Nothing. Just handbag n shoes and whatever. How has she contributed anything to her society? Except build a big house for herself. She’s making money for herself. How is that heroic? We might as well celebrate every civil servant making money n feeding his family. Is it the quantity of money? Then let’s celebrate all the drug barons and yahoo boys. The fact that women look up to her shows a noticeable lack of female role models. We cannot celebrate her character, it is vain and irresponsible.(when you consider her neglect of social responsibility)We cannot celebrate her wealth cuz wealth alone does not deserve celebration but rather the means by which it is gotten. Doing so will lead and is leading to a total breakdown of our society. To her blogging success, let’s look at her blog…its still a .blogspot and free after how many years of blogging and profits. That means its limited. She has severely limited blogging skills. Her posts are poorly edited and laced with errors. Her news of times is unverified or outrightly fake. Most of what she puts out is direct slander and libel. If our legal system was active and effective she would probably be in jail for being unable to pay damages from lawsuits right left and center(go research gawker v hulk hogan)So her blog’s success is a combination of three things, dumb luck, a poorly educated population with low standards and a faulty legal system. She is in fact little better than the original people that started yahoo. Shall we call them creative and pioneers too? I find it saddening that women will see the house and car and that’s it, they have seen role model for their daughter. I pray God helps our society.