redrumz:
I am very surprised up till now Nairaland doesn't have SSL enabled by default. The reason for having SSL/TLS enabled can't be over emphasized. However I won't argue with the decisions seun as made thus far for the platform just my suggestion

However for those interested in enabling SSL/TLS on their website, there is good news. It's possible to have it for free. There has been an initiative by the Internet Security Research Group to provide SSL for all web application

Find it here : https://letsencrypt.org/

If you find the documentation a bit too technical just follow the instruction here https://certbot.eff.org/ it automatically enables HTTPS on your website for free and even does the auto renewal.

It will be nice if Nairaland have this basic layer of security. Just imagine someone doing an MITM attack on one us ones password and other details will be in clear

Please Nairaland web admin enable HTTPS abeg. even https://www.bellanaija.com/ has it already. And please don't tell me that it will reduce speed it absolutely not the right justification

Let me know what you think.

KR.
@redrumz

Thanks for sharing.

Please share more value and less linking.

kelvinnaira:
OK..
Heres the first approach, forget about keyword research, traffic, money etc now.. Lets do it from the root..

This your blog, what is your ideal reader persona? That is, who are you ideal readers to be like? Is it for youths or prople between 25-50 years old, are they working/busy and highly intellectuals or just some small small pikin wen dey use phone dey visit site to site...

When you first get what ur ideal reader persona is, we can then push up...
(i knw say i nr reach to teach u oo.. Bt just manage the small one i dey give)

Well said my Oga Kelvin

I couldn't have put it any other way.

Brightgem:

Sadly this newphases person is sort of not ready to grow far as I am concernd. I thought we cud relate since we will he/she blogs in health which I do writting original stuff by myself pls tell me what I cud do better on mine www.yourhealthattitude.com I already try to promote using facebook for I dntreated a page there too. thanks in advance.

Bros Bright.

As they say in naija.

Bros calm down, bring down heart.

There are still ways you guys can come together.

Dialogue may bring disagreements, but they also breath room for better bonds.

I know what he says might sound too blunt to you, but you also have to understand that Vicky is working towards a vision same as your doing.

He is just giving his view like a site visitor to your site that chose to actually comment.

And sometimes that view might not confirm with your view.

So my brother, calm a bit and please don't take it personal, you hear. It's just his view.

kelvinnaira:
Now i get the ging..
Alright, lemme correct something, There are authority sites waiting to link to you really.. you might not have known it yet but if your contents are really great, Small business and entrepreneur blogs are waiting for you. I.E Wealthresult.com That my darlington friend.
you can also establish a relationship with my Writing money ATM.. Bamidele Onibalusi, hes also got a blog in that small business niche.. others plenty, just do the google thing.

Talking about the name, Cool
just a suggestion, I think you should get a side project going, even if the growth is slow.

Kevin my man

I humbly take a bow.

Thanks for the heads up.

Plus it would be a pleasure if you could humble us with your work.

Brian

karkinase:

would reli love to blog on the automobile industry..

Nice niche, particularly the repairs niche.

But before you take me by my word.

Do a Google search and know if there are others covering it or just blog posts.

If there is, do a keyword analysis for the keywords they target. Then look at their content, posts pages and comments.

This should give you a general idea what the niche is all about and where you can get fresh ideas.

Brian

SegilolaSalami:


I don't have Google Analytics. I use a wordpress plugin called SlimStats. According to SlimStat right now, my bounce rate for the month off May to date is 17.3%, 680 visits, 300 new visitors, 1.8 pageviews per visit, longest visit is 15 hits

Hi Segilola

You have to know that sometimes the stats that wordpress and some plugins offer may be a tad wrong.

I didn't notice this earlier, till i switched to google analytics.

for instance did you know that when you visit your own site wordpress stats counts you as a visit.

Now here is where it gets funny. what if your working on a page or post, each time you preview or refresh a page, its counted as well.

Analytics doesnt do this as it sees your ip as one view and one view alone.

Hi Vicky

Wanted to ask what your opinion on call to action buttons.i.e signups, tip sheets, free guides and sales pitches.

Must of the blogs and sites bloggers have posted seemed to lack them in total, which tends to tell me that they overlooking a source of subscribes and another source of income from targeted sales.

I feel we need to enlighten them on the need it in Nigerian blogs.

What do you think?

vicky6055:


My bounce rate is 72% which is practically normal for a blog.... Segiola do you have google analystics... I want you to use it to check your bounce rate... your active users... returning users and new users.... Dont trust alexa it is estimation...

Did you know that bounce rates are normal from 80% to 40% for blog

NOw tell me your bounce rate when you checked your google analystics

So true vicky.

Segilo, please look through your google analytics or if your on wordpress look at your stats.

ajixkhid1:


Morning brother
Please can you help me review this site
www.michelleaigbe.com
Which is owned by my sister .. BT am taking over soon fully.
I took in charge around late march
N around April I was able to get 10,000 page views in total .
I feel am nt having enough yet even with it been a gossip n entertainment blog
N dats niche m definitely comfortable
N its easy 4 me to right something tangible
Tho I don't really post BT 10000 page views in a month does it shows prospect
Tho I use Facebook group as my source of traffic
Pls how can I grow it more .
Like get comments and all that

wow truly your not.

But the whole design layout of the site needs a rework.

i see a former lindaikeja type switchover that is needed.

And some targeted ads are needed

karkinase:
I really want to start blogging but getting started is just the problem, thou i ive a niche in mind. We love smone who can guide me thru. the nitty-gritty and basics of blogging 101...lets chat on whatsapp 08096633061.

Whats your niche about, lets talk here.

It will surprise that there are 100s of people that can help point you in the right direction

Brian

Naijastaytune:
i will like you to also check mine... http://naijastaytune.com

Nice site

Seems your header image ain't showing.

But i must say your the first music and entertainment, lifestyle site i have come accross without ADS, nice. But sadily you will need the ads as your page views increase.

i don't know if this is really needed by you, but i feel you need an addon by the top right that shows how many people like your page and site on facebook. Since the top part of the page shows first, its bound to give you some street cred. While giving readers a sub concious reason to stay on.

SegilolaSalami:
I am not a marketing expert and I have only been blogging for about two months.

On my blog http://www.segilolasalami.co.uk/blog/ I update the latest episode of my podcast show, I write useful tidbits, write recommendations for children's books with downloadable illustrations

One strategy that I have found to get people to read my content but not necessarily on my website is by submitting my blog feed http://www.segilolasalami.co.uk/feed/ to RSS directories. For me that is a win because these people may not have found my blog otherwise.

I also linked my feed to twitter, so immediately I post a new article it goes directly to my twitter page which is linked to my facebook page. Twitter has been the number one source of traffic for my blog, then facebook and even reddit.

Now I will admit that my blog itself only gets about a 100 pageviews per day but has an amazing bounce rate of 16%. As my blog is niche (compared to say celebrity gossip) I am happy with the figures. Obviously I would like to still grow it but I understand that it may take a bit of time.

What do you guys think?

UPDATE: Here's an article I wrote about what I do to increase exposure for my blog http://www.segilolasalami.co.uk/increase-your-blog-exposure/. Feel free to check it out if you would like to increase your blog exposure

Hi Segilo

Nice blog

i actually tried that sometime back and the increase in views was a tad surprising. Lke i though Rss was dead, but who knew it could help.

kelvinnaira:
I never wan talk yet, just observing.. Vicky and brian.... Interesting 2..
I think you both should change your blogs name now before its too late.
@vicky.. Unless you have a future plan for ur blog (like maybe u wish to expand and make it a news portal in d next few years..)

@Brian... Urs is carrying a family name coupled with a character, unless its you and your brothers and sisters that re interestingly running ur blog, (and maybe make it a family business) you should be thinking branding and know what to do if you have been reading neil and his quicksprout...

If you ve also been reading Brian Dean, you should knw his outreach link building strategies will not be easy for you to carry out. No authority site will like your domain name, doesnt show authority..

I nor dey insult una oo.. I know say una be bosses oo.. I be learner

will be participating on this thread soon...

Hi Kelvin

Thanks for the frank talk.

i really appreciate it.

Good you noticed i said i read neil and the rest.

But you should know, my niche area ain't a large niche, so some of the things Neil and Brian teach might not work for me.
i have already done the research and know what my total organic volume looks like from the keywords my persona's are looking for, thus optimizing my site for them.

I know they don't hang out at any of the authority sites in Nigeria that cover my niche, so going after authority sites that are not focused on my niche is won't work for me.(of which they are just 1 for my niche the others are blog posts for which i am in talks with those bloggers on an affiliate program via my site that will help them while doing guestposting for them)

The idea behind my name and not the brand Palm Permutations, is quite simple. just like neilpatel.com is known for SEO, content development and internet marketing. Thus do i want The Ahamefula to be known for Oil Palm.

Yes accepted it would have been better to brand for Palm Permutations, But i like my name more and it gives it's authority so that my visitors can trust they at the right place and they can buy what i am offering.

Brian

p.s Love to engage with you sometime kelvin, and hopefully see what your site looks like.

deturla:
Hi Guys, I must say this is one of the best threads I've seen in this section.

I've definitely learned a lot. Please i'd need a detailed review of this blog as I am a new blogger, www.deedeesblog.com!

I'd appreciate the feedback. Thanks

Nice site bruv.

But I bother that your in a niche that's already over flogged and flooded.

The lifestyle, event and entertainment niche in Nigeria is just over covered by too many people. Making it a lot of work for a blogger to try and catch up with number 1-10 on Google.

You could do a lot of social share, but it will only work were your content is new and exclusive to you, before its then copied by the other thousand and one other blogs that cover the same niche.

But it's brings in the daily traffic, just not the traffic that will click ads.

Still, love the site setup and theme arrangement.

davidmolly:
Nice work ladies and gentlemen this is a site that I just set up

The site is about Gaming
You're to download Android Games PC games and PSP games www.Gamecribs.net

Recommendation is needed check out and tell me before I go for Adsense
Thanks

Wow nice site.

Love the arrangement and optimization for mobile.

You did a good job with it so going for absense is a good option.

But also try affiliate marketing for some games and do some paid game downloads as well.

Nicely done

SlimHan:
yh. It helped. Will be getting a custom domain soon. Can u suggest any good host? Am thinking of godaddy or domain king. Thanks

You can try some of the Nigerian hosts, I used hostgator before I found out about cheaper naija host companies.

Hi Nancy

Nice one on the write up for your plant.

But you are going about this wrong.

You see Nigeria is an oil palm producing country that focuses on palm kernel nut product for soap production, very few companies here actually refine it or fracture it.

Thus the reason why most people don't get what palm oil fracturing is here.

Most of our palm oil is still used as Crude palm oil and that's where it stops, cos there is a local market demand for CPO.

So far only two major companies are refining Palm oil here.

Pz wilmar
Presco

Why I tell you this

Because you need to focus your attention on enlightening Nigeria on this topic.

This is where I can help.

I will contact you via mail later.

Brian

http://the-ahamefulas.com/difference-between-nigerias-palm-oil-and-malaysias-palm-oil

Depends on what you are refining for.

Crude palm oil

Or

Refined Bleached and Deodorised Palm Oil.

If it's crude palm oil(red oil), you done really need much

A separator, to separate the palm fruits from the fresh fruit bunch.

A boiler to boil the palm fruits so that the oil can be easily separated from the fruit.

A press to squeeze the oil out

Storage drums to store the squeezed oil

Bottles or jerry cans to pack the oil for sale.

Labour to work the process.

All in all about 250,000 to N300,000 should get you the machines (small scale)

If you are refining for RBD palm oil, then your looking at over N12 million.

Here you will need

A separater
A pressure boiler
A vacuum press
A degummer
An earth or chemical bleacher
A Deodorizer

Brian
http://the-ahamefulas.com/difference-between-nigerias-palm-oil-and-malaysias-palm-oil

SlimHan:
nice blog... By arrangement, u mean what? Pls break it down maam. Thanks alot

Hi slim

By arrangement he means you have to get rid of those options in your side bar.

As I presume you done use them.

Go to your widget option under appearance and remove the options that are not relevant I. E

Meta, log in and categories. And the double search.

Use wp-admin to login in to your site or just add it at the end of your url. I. E .com/wp-admin/ this should get you to the administration panel of your WordPress site.

Here click on appearance and click on widgets the check your page and post widgets to remove what you don't want.

Your site speed Is also a tad slow. But since your running a free WordPress blog, speeding it up might be a problem without plugins.

Hope that helps.

Olajhidey22:


Thanks for the response brianromel.

So what do you suggest?

Hi Ola

You might need to contact your domain provide for help on a 301 redirect. They are in the best position to help you with it.

tuk2ato:
So mamador and power oil aren't groundnut oil?

nope dear. they ain't.

jboy73:


Go straight to the point

What you have been doing because others say it works is wrong for you. Find you own way that works for you.

Olajhidey22:
A lovely discussion going on here. Kudos guys.

I'll really need you guys to help review my website http://www.gospelbreed.com and give recommendations where necessary.

This is a platform for downloading gospel song, and the distinctive part of it is that I entertain my readers with relationship stories.

A little challenge I had was that I recently changed the domain name (Last week) an ever since then my site visitor has drastically reduced despite the fact that i did a 301 redirecting for all my pages from the previous web url.

Please kindly give your recommendation, suggestion and criticism. I'll be so glad to lear from my mistakes.

http://www.gospelbreed.com

Hi ola

Sometimes a 301 redirect might not work, for some reason it ends up doing this for some people I who do it.

vicky6055:
Actually I didnt like the pictures especially that from similarweb.com which is a wrong estimation very wrong estimation.

Although keywords seem to be my problem at the moment ..... I have been wondering what how you acutally integrate them

Dude if you got Yoast seo plugin. use it to optimize your posts. The look for the keywords via google keyword planner.

dav8id:


I really love what you guys are discussing here ..

I'm not a good writer but I forced myself into blogging ...
I blog and share my agro and importations experience on my blog..

trust me..I now getting about 800-1000 daily visitors ,even with my poor writeup ..

and I must say my blog is really paying me ..

my blog is paying me in naira ..yes people now hire my service and I due got paid between #150,000 to #500,000 for just a consultation service ..

pls let this discussion continue ..

www.davidprof.com

nicely done bruv

Laive:
You Finally Created Your Blog
.
That's good news... But you went the wrong way my dear! It will take a miracle for your blog to gain popularity. MindnFingers would have been better if it was self-hosted and had a Top Level Domain like: www.mindnfingers.com.
.
"Any Topic Is Welcome"
.
If you must run a successful blog, then you must know your target audience. Don't write on different topics just because you need content. You can't practice medcine and law at the same time. Your blog readers should know you for ONLY one thing. My signature shows you what I am known for.
.
Should I Help You?
.
Blogging is a hubby/career that can make you rich. But that comes with a lot of hard work and committment - writing at night, researching, tearing papers, lighting the candles, etc.
.
But I can help you out. It all starts with a good domain name, a specific niche (or area of interest) and quality contents.

Somebody give this Lad a Medal

Well said Laive

vicky6055:
I think you need to see my site www.newsphases.com

The main thing is not gathering traffic because my site seeks to create an awareness which Africa lacks....

You might not understand what am saying .... but many people are suffering today and I want my blog to stretch a helping hand unto them..

Thats why I need to find ways to meet them....

Stay Healthy, Stay Wise

Hi vicky (Peter sam)

i have taken a look at your site and i like that it focuses on the health care niche. Which is a good one and a really good niche to go for.

Truth, there are a lot of people suffering from medical issues and there is a need to create awareness for it.

The question is how can your site create that awareness?

1.The way to do it is by finding people who are interested in this lack of awareness and are willing to help

2.These people will have to come from both Nigeria and the rest of the world

3.They would have to be people who are geniuely interested in helping to change the status quo

4.They would also have to have the finance and funding for effecting the required change.

5.They may work for a group or organisation that can help gather more funds and people of like minds.

The million dollar questions are

How do you find these people?
what kind of Persona's do these people fit?
where do they hang out on the web?
whats their job profile?
What organisations do they work for?
Why would they like to get involved?

Once you can answer these questions.

Then the next thing is
1. Draft content that is unique to your site(Blog posts) that these kind of people will be interested in
2. Optimize the your content and posts with the keywords these people use.(with a friendly dose of call to actions and opt-in forms)
3. Promote the content in places they frequent.
4. Send outreach emails and messages to them(facebook, twitter, linkedin) about what you have written and ask them to share.

The above questions may seem like impossible questions, but they are questions that make people go to google or bing for answers. Try see what you can learn about Persona(readers persona's) and how you can find develop the reader persona for your blog niche.

p.s

I like your current content but it might need keyowrd optimization. So that it focuses on what people are searching for and like me your traffic comes from nairaland and social media, which are good places to grow any blog niche related to nigeria.

karlxavier:
Good day house, for people that have Palm kernel, you can as well sell to us any quality at your disposal. You can send me an email if you have Palm kernel for sale and what price. We are interested in buying all your Palm kernel products. Just give me a call or send me an email. Karlxavierkarl@gmail.com

.

Hi Karl

Nice one, currently i am looking for a palm kernel seller or agent who stays in and around lagos. i.e Lagos, lagos ibadan, ogun area.

Know anyone and how much are they selling per ton

fayahsoul:
I use crude palm oil most of the time because it's natural and taste much better than those other refined crap.

You use crude Palm Oil, thats red oil for cooking stews, soups and frying yam eggs, fish and chicken.

Please share your recipe on doing it without getting that Strong palm Oil taste or changing the color of the meal you are using it for.

Also which of the vegetable oils do you use, the locally sold one in bottles or the brand names i.e Mamador, Power oil, devon kings or union oil.

Sodia:


yah, well if u say so ooo, but i hav used godaddy 4 over 2years now no issues.. in fact o prefer foreign hosts to Nigeria Host or domain registrar

Well said Sodia

Using godaddy and 1&1, no problems so far. Love their new domain plan, might actually buy it for an online store i am planning on.

So i then to use google anaylitics alot to track where my site traffic comes from.

Over time i have come to notice some realy strange urls refering visitors to my site, these url's don't end in .com or the usually formats.

usually they end in

.xyz
.zx
.ml

At first i thought these were google or some other search engine indexing spiders, but have come to understand that its not the case.

Has anyone experienced the same thing and what did you do to solve it.

vicky6055:
Please brainromel

I was looking for an experienced Nigerian Blogger to respond who has crafted his way into blogging with extreme traffic....... not someone who copied some blog post from a site...

Please understand!

Hi vicky

I just posted that as the best response for you.

I understand what you asking for, but is that type of blogger with extreme traffic the right option for you.

I read alot of Jon Morrow smartblogger(former Problogger), Neil patel, Quicksprout, Brian Dean and Copyblogger articles.

One thing they have taught me for my own blog is that there are a lot of ways to build traffic and subscribes for ones blog, and that what works for one might not necessary work for another.

In Nigerian blog's, i have noticed that our main focus is on attracting tons of traffic and growing traffic for our blogs, albeit not the right kind of traffic. This why you see a lot of blogs who focus on on niche i.e Agro, having posts and articles on them about tech, gossip and entertainment. because thats what they believe is the big traffic turner for them.

Then they include so many ads that have no relevance with their site or their niche, sometimes this pays off with a high spike in unique and New visitors, but their bounce rate is also so high and their conversion and click through rate so low. Since aside from the tech or gossip post, their visitor wasn't interested in their ads or what their site was truly about.

Since the course of starting my blog http://the-ahamefulas.com , i have used some of neil's, jons' inbound, growth hacker and a lot of other internet marketers info to set it up and run it.

True it falls under one of those blogs that Jon stated that no matter what can't seem huge traffic, This i understand, as tons of traffic wasn't the reason i set up my blog.

I set it up for the persona's i have researched that are looking for the right info in that business niche and will pay for that info. i know that these persona's overall monthly search on google are between 370-550 and on bBing are 200-300. Thats a total of about 550 -850 users looking for solutions i offer per month.

Because out of that monthly number, i work on converting 50% of them to subscribers and 3-5% to customers.

For me, its better to focus on making my site more inbound focused than ton of traffic focused.

I understand that this might not work for you Vicky. but i would advice you try it and see what results you get.

Brian