Have you noticed that huge increase of Nigerian owned blogs? Go to the celebrity and entertainment section and you will be slapped by the number of topics on mostly celebrities with sources to individual blogs. This trend would have called for celebrities if these bloggers were reporting news the way they see it, but most of these blogs are copycats who just go to Linda Ikeji or any other popular blog and lift their content and paste on their websites. Go to all these blogs and you will notice that it's all one and the same content.

This brings me to the real meaning of "Blogging" cos it seems a lot of people have derailed in this respect. Blogs are a way through which an individual can air their mind mind. Initially, it was very similar to what a diary does, it's just that unnlike diaries which are personal and private, Blogs are not. Now that blogs have become more va va voom and commercial, one would expect that these bloggers will act as journalist and fish for their stories, but no way. They just keep copying other people's content verbatim. That's why most blogs in Nigeria today are entertainment blogs.

What stops a photographer from starting a blog about photography and taking pictures of different Nigerian scenaries, cities, towns cities and uploading so that NIgerians can appreciate the look and feel of the Nigeria that they have not been opportuned to see.

What is wrong with a political analysts having a blog where they will air their opinion on political events, very similar to what Jarus is doing currently.

Why can't students who are proficient in mathematics start a blog where they can solve difficult maths question and also get dies from other mathematicians.

This is what blogs are supposed to be and not all these recycled "Tonto Dike slaps Jim Iyke in broad daylight", Genevieve wears red dress to Chidi's birthday", "Tiwa Savage says she loves her fiancee".

What's your opinion in what blogs have become?

I've noticed same here buh i think because most of these entertainment bloggers draw their inspiration and content from Linda and Bellanaija, they feel its a faster way to make money simply cuz most Nigerians love entertainment news, gossip and co. and many are also diving into the Entertainment sector as Actors, musicians, Tv hosts etc. Its the same with some webmasters. They'd either create a social network (facebook clone) or a dating site.

Afam4eva: Have you noticed that huge increase of Nigerian owned blogs? Go to the celebrity and entertainment section and you will be slapped by the number of topics on mostly celebrities with sources to individual blogs. This trend would have called for celebrities if these bloggers were reporting news the way they see it, but most of these blogs are copycats who just go to Linda Ikeji or any other popular blog and lift their content and paste on their websites. Go to all these blogs and you will notice that it's all one and the same content.

This brings me to the real meaning of "Blogging" cos it seems a lot of people have derailed in this respect. Blogs are a way through which an individual can air their mind mind. Initially, it was very similar to what a diary does, it's just that unnlike diaries which are personal and private, Blogs are not. Now that blogs have become more va va voom and commercial, one would expect that these bloggers will act as journalist and fish for their stories, but no way. They just keep copying other people's content verbatim. That's why most blogs in Nigeria today are entertainment blogs.

What stops a photographer from starting a blog about photography and taking pictures of different Nigerian scenaries, cities, towns cities and uploading so that NIgerians can appreciate the look and feel of the Nigeria that they have not been opportuned to see.

What is wrong with a political analysts having a blog where they will air their opinion on political events, very similar to what Jarus is doing currently.

Why can't students who are proficient in mathematics start a blog where they can solve difficult maths question and also get dies from other mathematicians.

This is what blogs are supposed to be and not all these recycled "Tonto Dike slaps Jim Iyke in broad daylight", Genevieve wears red dress to Chidi's birthday", "Tiwa Savage says she loves her fiancee".

What's your opinion in what blogs have become?

Simply put .. Nigerians like bandwagoning .. we are only in it for the hope that something financial will come through from it and not for the passion that others from the western world engage in it

Nice topic.

I opened my first blog in 2009. It was basically to archive my political and other writings. I write many political and related articles, close to 30 in a year, published in newspapers. I realized the articles were scattered and didn't have them in one place. Sometimes I needed to google them to find. Some I don't know where they are today. So I decided to open a blog in 2009. I now have over 100 articles there.

Later, earlier this year, I realized career is another aspect I have passion for. I have been active on NL career section since 2008, and I realize readers respect my opinions on issues. Also, in real life, I do advise a lot of younger folks on career and education. All these motivated me to open another blog to focus on career and mentorship. I enlisted a couple of respected friends to come write for the blog. I'm trying to poach Ajanlekoko and Debosky from NL career section too. Unlike my political blog, which is just to archive personal opinions, my career blog has a bigger perspective, beyond me. So I decided to give it better publicity. I did a little research and checked similar niche bloggers in other climes. My aim is to make the blog a go-to for articles and analyses bordering on career and mentorship in Nigeria.

I want to be to career what Linda is to entertainment and Sahara Reporters (though not a blog, but a news site) is to politics. I believe I have what it takes. The major constraint is, as an 8-5 worker, its not been easy for me. But I know it's a matter of time.

Unfortunately, entertainment is what sells most in Nigeria, so Limda, Bella and co are the biggest crowd pullers. In the process of researching I met an American blogger. What he blogs on is Christian Personal Finance. So narrow a niche you may say, but believe me the blog turns traffic in US and he now makes close to 1m per month.

I don't reckon with bloggers that have less than 70% of their blog content as original. 95% of my blog content is original. Many bloggers are just copycats.

In other climes, you can blog on anything and make a name and money for yourself. Huffington post is world's no 1 blog, followed, I think, by Mashable.

Beyond the Linda-wannabe entertainment copycats, there are however a few Nigeria blogs that are doing fine. Jide of ogbongeblog.com is one of them. He blogs on tech and related stuffs. He is one of the few original-content filled blogs and his concept is creative.

Overall, I still believe Nigeria is underblogged.

Tell them! Most don't even have the passion, they just see it as another line of income. That's why the level of plagiarism is appalling.

Nothing is wrong in blogging for money, we must get that clear.

You can even make blogging a career. The American guy I mentioned above does blogging full time and that's what he earns his income from.

We should however be creative about it, not copy-catting.

Jarus: Nothing is wrong in blogging for money, we must get that clear.

You can even make blogging a career. The American guy I mentioned above does blogging full time and that's what he earns his income from.

We should however be creative about it, not copy-catting.

unfortunately it has become an all comers affair
90% of the bloggers out there have zero passion about it and are just looking for a quick buck
from the lailaikeji clone to the those who dig up old photos and make up stories
let just one person come up wiath a successful tech blog and you will see a sudden influx of tech blogs

there are many successful tech blogs already na

Well, this is it; I hear it is possible to make money via blogging. I didn't pay much attention to really finding out the know how, or what it's really about. Why should I? I just want to make money, cool money and within six months I should start turning something in. I don't have to worry myself, all I need to do is, visit news sites and other blogging sites to get my contents. 80% of the Nigerian bloggers do this(copy and paste), and they are doing it big, nevertheless.

So, I found out one thing or two, I even see that I could start with little or no funds at all. On a daily basis I browse the web; social network, and do things that interest me on the web. In other words, data is no problem. Now, my blog is ready on a free platform. I get my contents so easily. All I've to do is spy on others' sites, and get (my) contents once they post it and keep my blog updated. . .

You know, I really can't blame people for this, it's just that they see that, people are doing something to make money. They don't want to do something really questionable to make their money. They see a good way to make money but they got it all twisted and that's really not their fault 'cause they met some people in the game doing it like they are [going to be] doing it(copy and paste) and they are not doing bad.

The thing is most people doing it the wrong way, see blogging as 'a means to an end'. If they really have passion for blogging, they would generate contents by themselves and not copy others. Truth is, some "copy and paste" bloggers don't even have interest in writing at all. It's just a means to an end for them. Look at their sites and you see that they even copy extensive contents without giving credits. There are times when entertainment bloggers have to blog on the same story and you see some bloggers posting the same story in a different way. But the "copy and paste" bloggers would just copy one of the available stories.

This phenomenon is not just limited to new bloggers 'cause recently I was working on a music promotional site and we posted a story, just 8 lines and I saw the same on another blogger's site(the same niche) word for word. This blogger's site is older and gets x10 our own traffic per day. I was like wow, but not offended, I was just happy someone copied our 'crappy' post.

Jarus, you are very on point

oyb:

unfortunately it has become an all comers affair
90% of the bloggers out there have zero passion about it and are just looking for a quick buck
from the lailaikeji clone to the those who dig up old photos and make up stories
let just one person come up wiath a successful tech blog and you will see a sudden influx of tech blogs

There are successful tech blogs already.

Radio and television stations are the major cause of the problem. They keep collecting adverts from fake seminars guys that promise attendants they can start a blog and make more than N300k monthly by just copying and pasting.

Ajibel: I've noticed same here buh i think because most of these entertainment bloggers draw their inspiration and content from Linda and Bellanaija, they feel its a faster way to make money simply cuz most Nigerians love entertainment news, gossip and co. and many are also diving into the Entertainment sector as Actors, musicians, Tv hosts etc. Its the same with some webmasters. They'd either create a social network (facebook clone) or a dating site.

That defies the essence of blogging then, curation maybe but blogging no. Google actually has a way of dealing with plagiarism and that is why many of such blogs can never rank in search engines, most of them were actually hit by Penguin 2.0 cos Google knows who published first and thats why i will always advise bloggers to claim their Google authorship. If you dont have content to write, you could simply do microblogging with Tumblr than copying someone's work to your blog.

Jarus: Nice topic.

I opened my first blog in 2009. It was basically to archive my political and other writings. I write many political and related articles, close to 30 in a year, published in newspapers. I realized the articles were scattered and didn't have them in one place. Sometimes I needed to google them to find. Some I don't know where they are today. So I decided to open a blog in 2009. I now have over 100 articles there.

Later, earlier this year, I realized career is another aspect I have passion for. I have been active on NL career section since 2008, and I realize readers respect my opinions on issues. Also, in real life, I do advise a lot of younger folks on career and education. All these motivated me to open another blog to focus on career and mentorship. I enlisted a couple of respected friends to come write for the blog. I'm trying to poach Ajanlekoko and Debosky from NL career section too. Unlike my political blog, which is just to archive personal opinions, my career blog has a bigger perspective, beyond me. So I decided to give it better publicity. I did a little research and checked similar niche bloggers in other climes. My aim is to make the blog a go-to for articles and analyses bordering on career and mentorship in Nigeria.

I want to be to career what Linda is to entertainment and Sahara Reporters (though not a blog, but a news site) is to politics. I believe I have what it takes. The major constraint is, as an 8-5 worker, its not been easy for me. But I know it's a matter of time.

Unfortunately, entertainment is what sells most in Nigeria, so Limda, Bella and co are the biggest crowd pullers. In the process of researching I met an American blogger. What he blogs on is Christian Personal Finance. So narrow a niche you may say, but believe me the blog turns traffic in US and he now makes close to 1m per month.

I don't reckon with bloggers that have less than 70% of their blog content as original. 95% of my blog content is original. Many bloggers are just copycats.

In other climes, you can blog on anything and make a name and money for yourself. Huffington post is world's no 1 blog, followed, I think, by Mashable.

Beyond the Linda-wannabe entertainment copycats, there are however a few Nigeria blogs that are doing fine. Jide of ogbongeblog.com is one of them. He blogs on tech and related stuffs. He is one of the few original-content filled blogs and his concept is creative.

Overall, I still believe Nigeria is underblogged.

Nice write-up.

BOLAJIAJANI:
There are successful tech blogs already.

How many are based in nigeria, and how do you define successful?

i visit lifejacker, addictivetips, makeuseof, majorgeeks, instantfundas, every day. they give me great tips on software tols, give-aways etal

i am yet to see anything like that here

maybe there are coherent gadget blogs, but i kind of doubt that too

oyb:

How many are based in nigeria, and how do you define successful?

i visit lifejacker, addictivetips, makeuseof, majorgeeks, instantfundas, every day. they give me great tips on software tols, give-aways etal

i am yet to see anything like that here

maybe there are coherent gadget blogs, but i kind of doubt that too

Maybe he's referring to Techloy or Asemota's blog.
The problem I have with those bloggers . . . is that they don't do any tech. They just reproduce news stories, local and international. Mister_Mobility makes a bit of effort, but too weak for any serious techie. Surprisingly, he's got some decent following, as is typical of Nigerian noisemakers

Jarus:
All these motivated me to open another blog to focus on career and mentorship. I enlisted a couple of respected friends to come write for the blog. I'm trying to poach Ajanlekoko and Debosky from NL career section too.
Overall, I still believe Nigeria is underblogged.

The guy does not come cheap o!
Your people need to talk to his people.
As my former paddy, you fit get in touch, i know his PA. i can help you get the rates down,sha.

mbulela:
The guy does not come cheap o!
Your people need to talk to his people.
As my former paddy, you fit get in touch, i know his PA. i can help you get the rates down,sha.

No wahala. Blank cheque awaits.

I think doncaprio.com is doing really pretty cool, your thoughts ?

Most would die a natural death

Not easy finding myself in this Niche, too make FP not easy this days, unlike before i do have 5 to 6 FP post per day, but now if you hit am one's nah to Thank God be that.

O dey make money frm ds blogs.
How do dy mak money ccos I don't see adverts in most of d blogs,so how?

Its Junk Journalism.
They just copy and paste junk news sometimes with word for word wrong english.

Linda Ikeji copies from others also.

Afam4eva: Have you noticed that huge increase of Nigerian owned blogs? Go to the celebrity and entertainment section and you will be slapped by the number of topics on mostly celebrities with sources to individual blogs. This trend would have called for celebrities if these bloggers were reporting news the way they see it, but most of these blogs are copycats who just go to Linda Ikeji or any other popular blog and lift their content and paste on their websites. Go to all these blogs and you will notice that it's all one and the same content.

This brings me to the real meaning of "Blogging" cos it seems a lot of people have derailed in this respect. Blogs are a way through which an individual can air their mind mind. Initially, it was very similar to what a diary does, it's just that unnlike diaries which are personal and private, Blogs are not. Now that blogs have become more va va voom and commercial, one would expect that these bloggers will act as journalist and fish for their stories, but no way. They just keep copying other people's content verbatim. That's why most blogs in Nigeria today are entertainment blogs.

What stops a photographer from starting a blog about photography and taking pictures of different Nigerian scenaries, cities, towns cities and uploading so that NIgerians can appreciate the look and feel of the Nigeria that they have not been opportuned to see.

What is wrong with a political analysts having a blog where they will air their opinion on political events, very similar to what Jarus is doing currently.

Why can't students who are proficient in mathematics start a blog where they can solve difficult maths question and also get dies from other mathematicians.

This is what blogs are supposed to be and not all these recycled "Tonto Dike slaps Jim Iyke in broad daylight", Genevieve wears red dress to Chidi's birthday", "Tiwa Savage says she loves her fiancee".

What's your opinion in what blogs have become?

.

Hmmmmm nice... This is one of the reasons why i still stay put to my health blog www.healthable.org. My dreams is to make it big like Mashable.

Nice thread. I've heard lots of people complain because of lack of passion. While it's true that there is nothing wrong in blogging for pay, it's stupid going to a lindaikeji or a bellanaija to copy and paste to your blog and expect money to roll in. Most of the blogs in Nigeria are entertainment related. This is because it is the most readily available niche. People don't want to go into serious niche like education, health, arts et al. When i heard of blogging in 2009, what came to my mind was just pouring out my mind. Money wasn't my motivation.
Jarus, congrats on the rating your blog just received. Surely going places.

question: Its Junk Journalism.
They just copy and paste junk news sometimes with word for word wrong english.

Linda Ikeji copies from others also.

You're right on that but because it's Linda Ikeji, no one bats an eyelid. Bloggers have to learn to be original.

u said it all , what sells in Nigeria is gossip and celebrities (but I can't just imagine why someone should leave his work and be watching another person wear red pant to linda party, kiss Emeka etc).
And u wonder why dance tune with no recognizable lyrics sell more than a beautifully composed music.
.
Nigerians don't just get attracted to letters but just splash a good pix on ur blog and u see someone stop by to see what went wrong. I'm guilty of this . Even though I like Jarushub but sometimes I feel it is too wordy. Example on the analysis of Nigerian players , even if there is no pic of individual players , one big pic of scoring or celebrating goal would add to the appeal

I blog for fun and passion..not for money.. The money is there already... Entertainment niche usually attract more traffic than other niche.. U all saying.. Dat bloggers do copy from linda and bella naija.. LIE... Both of dem too copy other blogs.... Blogging for fun is much better than blogging for money...

@ Jarus please what s the name of the foreign site please.

Afam has said it all: the challenge is originality. There is nothing wrong with trying to make money while blogging, but how original is the content on your blog? I started blogging over two months ago on entrepreneurship but before that I had spent years studying the topic and even at that I still have to work hard to come up with something original. I'm an 8 to 5 worker as well but by making my blog a weekly affair, I am able to pace myself, read, write and research and come up with something original. If you blog for the sake of money alone, and not because you want to share a part of yourself, the interest will wane with time and you'll be an also-ran.