₦airaland Forum

This should be a pretty interesting thread

For naijans (and indeed other nationalities on this forum) who are now in the diaspora, how much money did you have on you when you first arrived at your destination?

Me? $20

Note: This doesn't apply to those who stay abroad temporarily or as students or who go abroad with the intent to stay only for a short period of time. In other words, only those with green cards/permanent status or those who had a "second coming" (like me) need post

and how was it before?

smartsoft,

sounds like u and the graphics guy have some synergy going on

U 2 should join forces and conquer the web world. Good luck!!

What you want to do is one of the hardest selling techniques ever: cold calling

[list]
[li]Request a meeting to see the head honcho, to discuss how to attract customers to the hotel[/li]
[li]If they agree:
[list]
[li]Go well dressed, with your presentation to match[/li]
[li]Tell them how, though biz is good, it cd b better[/li]
[li]Tell them how they can ease the customer experience by allowing them to book online[/li]
[li]Show/tell them of sites owned by the competition and how their biz has improved[/li]
[li]Tell them how they could entice those in the diaspora by offering online services[/li]
[li]be prepared to answer any questions as well as have ready-made answers to questions you know they may ask[/li]
[/list]
[/li]
[li]If they don't agree, thank them for their time, and simply move on to the next potential customer.[/li]
[/list]
I hope this helps

If the company is as big as u say it is, then the site doesn't reflect that, in my opinion. Maybe it's the color scheme.

Try spicing it up. How? With what? I can't really say. However, look at sites for microsoft, oracle, etc for inspiration.

One other thing: Definitely reduce the number/size of your images. It took 109 secs to load on a 56K modem. In these globalization days, you just never know what connection your customers will be coming in on.

I hope this helps.

Perhaps balancingo out the left and right columns - right now, the right column seems to be "hanging". I would suggest adding background color to both columns so they appear to be of the same height.

What kind of templates bro?

Wireframe templates: MS Visio

Graphics templates: Photoshop, Fireworks, etc

HTML templates: any WYSIWYG like Homesite, Dreamweaver, frontpage, etc

The goal is to create a standard page, sort of like a clay mould, that forms the basis upon which other pages will be created. This ensures consistency across the board.

I hope this helps.

A quick visit to my best friend, google, could help with this. For example, I got this site: http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/columns/writerfp.html , which based on what I read, seems to give some pretty solid advice.

I hope this helps.

I can bet you that other than Omotola browsing the site and taking photos for the site, she knows nothing of the site, doesn't check emails, respond to emails, care about stats. In fact, if she even knew a thing about how to reserve a domain name/the fact that it expires after a while, make i naked baf for bafroom LOL. All she cared about was the the site look better than genevieve's, which the webmasters obliged by abusing the use of flash (they should be hung, but thatz a topic for another day ).

Anywayz, that name was catchy though. Kind of like Genevieve's, I have had to do google searches ever since her old domain name went RIP. Itz a pity she lost it. Having said that, all is not lost. She can alwayz come up with an even catchier domain name.

As for the price: given her status in naija, and I am spking from an american point of view, $325K sounds dirt cheap. That name can never be forgotten. Considering it is a Nigerian name though, I doubt there will be any takers sha.

To the webmasters in naija: I am used to reserving my domain names here for 10 years at the least. Isn't this the case over there? If not, y not? Just asking. Even if she would have lost the name after 10 years, at least, by then she would have retired which means people would have probably forgotten about her anyway

My 2 cents as always

Orikinla wrote:

Lest you forget, our N3 million is less than $30,000.

Dude, you are comparing apples and oranges: you have to look at it as what you can buy. My classical example is getting my hair cut. In the atlanta area, it's about $10 on average, $12 if you want to tip. At present exchange rates, thatz about N1600 at least. In Nigeria, I can get my hair cut for N30 (N40 without light), in the calabar/uyo area, tip N70 and I still wdnt hv spent $1

As for the nollywooders being broke, I will say some, not all. Most hollywooders are broke too. Not all start off making $20million a movie. Everyonez gotta start somewhere. Also, just because you are nollywood doesn't mean you have to start off living in VI, VGC or Ikoyi or that trendy area of Abuja (abi na Wusu district? ). By broke, I mean by their standards, and not the "common man's" standards. If you hand babatunde the grass cutter civil servant N250K a month, I bet he would be organizing special fasting sessions just for you

Now, if you asked, "who is really making nollywood money?", I would say it's those of us in the diaspora, who will buy a VCD at N500, bring it with them to their destination, copy it and rent it at $2 a movie (atlanta area), or sell it (both video and disc versions - average price, again atlanta area, $10).

For those who say they are broke, let them go get another job for a while, taste the eva wine there and come back and letz c if they will be saying the same thing.

As always, my 2 cents

Based on nigeriaone's triple post (and having visited his website as well ), I would definitely delete his name from the list of potential site designers

Zogo,

With a good marketing strategy and good customer service, any business is lucrative. In the web dev arena, working on sites and having a site where you showcase your work also helps.

In my opinion, web dev is at the stage in naija now, that it was in the US in the 90s. Now is the time to hop on. Once the market gets saturated with sites, the biz will stagnate and pick up slowly, as people conclude that even though the backend works, they need to improve the user experience in order to make addicts out of customers

As far as training, I will defer this issue to someone who actually lives in PH, although I will say this: If you want to take this biz seriously and the only places in naija to learn this stuff r in sokoto, then u should be willing to relocate there for a while

I hope this helps.

- Why do the British pronounce "Thames", "Timms" and "Wimbledon", "Wimpledon"?

- Why does Hawaiian pizza have canadian beef?

- Why do Americans pledge allegiance to their flag whereas other countries do so to their country?

- Why do girls who wear revealing mini-skirts struggle to hide what they were proud of displaying standing up?

- In the US, why do most bottled water companies include that their water has 0% cholesterol?

Some beer commercial (cant remember which) where the dudes are fishing and get lured away by fish who r fishing them. The killer for me is at the end when the fish picks up his "catch" as if he were the fish and tells his buddy to take a prize picture LOL ("dude, its all about the lure").

I think its bud light, but am not sure.

It all boils down to the almight $$ -

There is a market for hip hop (of which white suburban kids make up the majority ), and the creators of these videos know that sex sells. So they pack as many pretty girls on there as possible so as to generate sales. On the TV side, the execs know that people want to c risque-dressed women. More eyes on watching means more ad revenue which means more bonus for the CEO at the end of the year.

What gets me with most of these videos is how they start out: When the rapper is doing his very first video, it is always in some hood. Probably where he grew up and done there most likely because he can't afford for much money to be taken out of his paycheck, courtesy of "recording expenses". The women are hood rats, the houses are dilapidated, and 99% of the pple have gold teeth. The minute he hits platinum, watch his next video. All the women on there look like they r from another planet.

Exploited or not, people hv to pay their bills, and fortunately/unfortunately, in capitalism, anything goes. There is a lot of $$ in the hip hop industry and as nature doesn't like a vacuum, if one rapper doesnt do it, another will.

As always, my 2 cents

Nah man,

Just a general statement. I suddenly remembered what I was taught in my psych 101 class

People,

The very first step in resolving addiction is admitting you have a problem LOL

Pple have forgetten God. Y? Abi you no dey read bible? Wetin bible talk about end days?

Perhaps you have forgotten God yourself, via his word.

he he. Just kidding o!

Mine?

On a project, this designer came up with the craziest design for a website the company I worked for just won a contract on. This was way back in 2002. 3 years out of university. I didn't know CSS at the time. As senior User Interface Engineer (at my age, I was so immature and was always full of myself. Na big name o! ), I was livid, and swore that it couldn't be done and still keep to our principle of less than 30K per page. The powers that be said to go with it. I did, using at least 50 tables in the process.

To make a long story short, it came up to about 60Kb. The designer, who just graduated from art school and had less than 3 months working experience decided to take a crack at it. His page? 100% CSS and 12Kb

Needless to say, I picked up on CSS right away and I learnt 2 valuable lessons that day:

- if you think you know it all, think again, because you don't know jack

- Pride definitely cometh before a fall

That is another reason y i chose my username, my2cents, because I assume that until someone has proven otherwise, everyone I meet is smarter than I am

Chxta,

In as much as I don't agree with Afeni, I wouldn't go as far as calling him, or anyone else for that matter, an idiot, just because you don't agree with him.

If I still remember my university history well (present US history students, let me know if I am wrong), the electoral college system was set up because the "founding fathers" didn't trust the people at the time to make the right decisions when it came to who the president should be, neither did they think the people then were capable of making the right decisions. So, if the masses voted for A (say, based on popularity) but the ogas felt that A didn't have the political know-how, say, they would then turn around and vote for B. Secondly, in the US these days, it is common practice for all electoral college votes to go to one candidate, simply because the popular vote did. In the past, this wasnt the case.

Y I don't think its good for Nigeria? Cos of my first reason above. There is no need subverting the will of the people.

Chxta, as for your saying that the electoral college is how Bush stole his way into office (by the way, I voted against him twice), I don't agree. Clinton came in the same way. The good thing with the US is that, good or bad, right or wrong, they stick to their laws. If the supreme court hadn't come back with its decision, as the constitution stated, there would have been another president as of noon on Jan. 20th that year, as specified in the constitution.

If it were naija, am sure you would agree that there would have been a coup.

As always, my 2 cents

1) Reduce size of header flash, if not remove altogether. Also, image doesn't span content area and looks "broken"

2) The site's design is oh so simple, yet oh so heavy - 47.6 seconds on a 56K modem. Recommended time for such modems is 8 - 10 seconds

3) Put in a photo of the team members, at the very least, management

4) I am a proponent of keeping it super simple (KISS), but considering your clients, the site looks way too simple.

If I were to grade u, I would give you 4/10 at the most. Nothing personal. Functionality is there, but you want a site that will make we want to come back over and over again, even if it is just to admire the design or have my buddies admire the design as well ("Hey, u don c dat cool website? Nna man, dem try o!"

A Nigerian in Tibet? Now thatz a site I wanna c

Sorry to say but, given it is naija, don't be surprised that the very person who says no to a coup will turn around and take N20,000 from someone planning such a coup.

Some of us are very scary. Comparing such pple to Esau in the bible who sold his birthright over a plate of soup is an understatement.

Nigeria is known to defy many natural laws. Sad, but true.

And as for you guys coming from foreign lands, you'll be surprised we'll give you a run for your money. We'll match you ride for ride, baffs for baffs

If e go b competition, man no go come then . I am not into competition. All I have are a pair of jeans and a tshirt I bought from walmart.

Such a get-tegether should be about meeting ourselves and getting to know each other, not who is wearing the latest prada, guchi or sean jean.

2fine4u,

Just like when you travel to another city for either a party, vacation or convention, am sure you can always book a decent hotel.

This is where my security issue comes in. I don't live there and know no one there either. So top-level security features would have to be implemented from the minute I land murtala mohammed airport. The logistics alone would be scary.

Sounds like a good idea.

However, and sorry to sound negative, without necessary security measures, I think it will end up being an easy target for folks of the underworld.

I could be wrong and I hope I am. Considering most of us would be coming from the diaspora, security is a valid issue.

To Jalal:
I actually know of a couple in Iceland

To all:
The mere fact, global village aside, that we are willing to go to some of the most remote places on this earth, to me, shows how bad it is for our country. If Nigeria were as it was in the 70s and early 80s, when other nationalities were actually going to Nigeria for vacation and jobs, there would be no need to go to these places but for vacationing.

It is a pity that in search of "greener pastures (I am still yet to find it o!)", some of us are willing to do things and go places that they hitherto wouldn't have gone.

Yeah,

In my opinion, open source in particular, will only be the domain of hackers and developers, which combined am sure make up only a minority of the computer users out there.

MSFT has gotten pple hooked. It is definitely the Coke of its time.

temitwice,

Yep, I agree with the pk thingy, however, the US has lost and need to learn and move on.

Truth be told, they need to work on their tactics. Also, they need to make sure more of their players play in europe. Just like the NBA is the port of call for basketball players worldwide, europe is the port of call for footballers worldwide. You can't have a team where at least 8 players are in the MLS and expect them to go very far.

As usual, my 2 cents

Seun,

On fifaworldcup.com, they have a section where you can watch every single goal of the competition. If that's not enough 4 ya, they even have archives of previous world cups (I just watched the one wey Zico missed penalty kick ). What's more, it's free!!

Enjoy!!