Ok, I need to be frank here. Travel blogging is about the hardest niche in the blogging sphere. Why? I’m sorry I really do not know because running a travel blog in Nigeria makes it more difficult for me.
As a budding travel blogger who’s been having a swell time doing so, I think it’s just fair that I share some tips that helped me with you.
I really hope they are helpful.
Below are 10 things you must do before starting a travel blog in Nigeria
1. Have a note book
You kuku heard me right. I actually mean you need as a matter of fact have a special note book where you will record very important information. Prime among them is usernames and passwords (I can bet you don’t know how many usernames and passwords you’d need to run your blog). As a complement, I’d advice you double save these information in one draft in your mail box.
2. Read popular books:
Doing this will help you with the following:
Learn different writing styles and ideas. The reason why I emphasized on popular books is because they became popular because many people have read it. Hence you can need to read it to tap some ideas which will help you sharpen your style.
3. Read other popular travel blogs
For you to be unique, you have to study the niche you are about entering. Know what their similarities as well as how they all differ so that you can stand out and be unique.
For foreign travel blogs, check out: Nomadic Matt (World’s most popular), Journalist on the run and Expert vagabond.
In Nigeria, the list is though, endless but the following will do:
Social prefect, Naija Nomads and Tripzapp
Don’t joke with forums too! Eat
www.nairaland.com and nct.com.ng like you’d do to your first meal after fasting.
This will save you from a whole lot of troubles. Trust me. nairaland’s travel section and nct’s tech space will give you immense knowledge in tourism and tech simultaneously.
So now that you’ve done the above, let’s go to the realest deal:
4. Think very well before choosing a domain name.
I have lost count of the times I have seen people regret their actions after making a mistake with their domain name choice.
Below are the following mistakes (using hypothetical examples):
Choosing a short-term name:
Bola is a 200level student of Unilag. She wants to own a blog where happenings in her school will be published. So she chose UNILAGHAPPEN .COM. awesome is what her friends will say before congratulating her on a feat. But what will happen if Bola graduates and worst still get posted to the north for her compulsory one year NYSC?
Choosing a restrictive name:
Wale loves Ankara so much that he chose to own a blog aimed at educating people on the in and out of Ankara fabrics. Hence he tagged his blog Ankaraville .com. can you guess what will happen if he suddenly decides to talk about Swiss lace or about aso-oke tomorrow?
Choosing a difficult name:
I wondered what Ekenne was thinking when he decided ekenixglobalfootwearx.com.ng is the perfect address for his footwear blog. When I asked him, he said he wanted to be unique. Then I went mute.
5. Have a steady flow of income.
Yeah! If you observe, there are millions of blogs in the world. A huge number of them have long been abandoned- this is why they will always occupy the bottom spot.
You can check the rank of your blog here on www.alexa.com
The reason behind this is because many blog owners only have a starting plan- no finishing. They don’t have a steady stream of income which will help them foot bills such as internet subscription, domain name renewal, gadgets fixing etc. please get a side job or a sure sponsor who can help you because if you don’t, you’d fizzle out in no time.
Some bloggers have a full time job while they blog at their spare time and when the blog starts bringing in money, they leave the job after saving enough to focus on the blog.
6. Be a slut on social media:
continue with the other useful tips here:
http://www.nomadicnegro.com/travel-blog-nigeria/