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Copycracker:
It's almost become cliche.

If you've spent enough time around the blogosphere, you have probably heard this countless times.

Content is King.

But that's only a part of the equation.

Because just having great content on your blog won't automatically transform you to the next Linda Ikeji.

Okay, maybe she's not a prime example, seeing as she mainly posts about celebrities and other weird stuff. But you get my point.

Just having great content is not going to suddenly make you viral.

So the new line should be "Content is king, and Traffic is his Army General."

The not-so-new formula is this: Great Content + Traffic = Blogging Success

Feel free to ask Linda Ikeji if you think this formula is rubbish.

Now, for the sake of newbie bloggers reading, let's quickly define "Traffic"

Traffic (when it comes to blogging) is simply the amount of people who visit your site and read your blog posts. If you're interested in being a successful blogger (emphasis on successful), you're going to need to drive traffic to your blog.

There's no way around this.

Because what good is all the great content in the world if nobody knows it exists?

That's like someone who offers a service but doesn't tell potential customers about his service. That will leave you poorer than when you started, without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.

Okay. Enough.

So you see, traffic is really really important. I cannot overemphasize this.

Now, let's talk about ridiculously simple tips to increase your blog traffic today...

1. Create Great Content

This is an absolute no-brainer. Content may be King but Traffic is the General. And no great General will stay in the service of a terrible King for long, before chopping off his head.

I think you can probably find examples of this in the movie "Troy" or any of the seasons of "Game of Thrones"

So yes, we are talking about traffic but you absolutely have to need to have great content on your blog.

A few tips on creating Great Content (I'll create a blog post on this sometime soon and let y'all know about it):

- Start with the headline

8 out of 10 people always read the headline and then as you go further down the post, the numbers reduce. So make sure you spend a lot more time working on your headline than you spend writing the post.

Yes, do this.

When creating your headlines, ensure they tap into a burning need that your reader has. That way, they stop whatever they're doing and read your blog post.

- Craft an engaging, conversational article

Remember when you were studying for Chemistry for WAEC, and anytime you try to read Ababio, you'd fall off to sleep?

Yeah, that was because Ababio was written in a plain, boring, unengaging manner. Almost like he didn't give a f##k about you. Because obviously you needed that knowledge to pass Chemistry, and he had already gotten paid for the book in your hands so basically you had no choice. You just had to suffer through his book.

It's not the same with a blog.

Your readers have the power to choose. If you bore them, they will not continue reading.

So write in an engaging manner. Write like you were talking to one person. Like that person was in front of you and you were having a conversation with them.

Absolutely do not bore your readers.

Okay, enough. Let's move on to the rest.


2. Promote your Content.

Once you have great content, this is the next logical step. Logical, because unless you think your content is shit, you will do this naturally.

I mean, why go through all the stress of creating great content, only to then let it lie fallow and wait till Thy Kingdom Come before the world knows about it.

At the very least, you should have shared your content on Facebook. Then you could always add Twitter to that.

So far, in my experience, Facebook and Twitter are beautiful, amazing places for sharing blog content. Now let's dive into the nitty gritty of this.

Facebook
- When you share your blog post on Facebook, ensure you write something engaging in the post. Like an intro, of sorts.

A lot of posts on Facebook don't get read because Feel free to take a part of your post that connects emotionally with your target audience and use that. Just make sure your intro isn't too long. All you want to do is tell them a bit about what your blog post is about.

- Also, make sure you're a member of Facebook groups within the niche you blog and comment there regularly. Be active in those groups.

Follow Gary Vaynerchuk's "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" formula- Give value, give value, give value, before you try to promote your blog post there. Obviously, I don't mean do all of this in one day. You need to have been providing value there for a while before you promote your blog post. That way, you're perceived as an authority, not just one of those annoying people trying to get us to join MMM.

Twitter

- Look for hashtags related to the topic of your blog posts. Find those that are trending, join in the conversation by once again giving a lot of value, before you then promote your blog post.


Email

- If you have an email list, you can easily shoot your subscribers a short and sweet email that gives them an idea of what your blog post is about, and if you don't have an email list, build one.

- Another really cool way to use email is as part of The SkyScraper Technique created by Brian Dean of Backlinko.com. You can find out more about that by following this link: http://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique


3. Guest Blogging

This one is no secret.

Bamidele Onibalusi of Writers in Charge practically owes a huge part of his success to guest blogging.

So guest blog, and don't just guest blog for any Tom, Dick or Ekaette, but do it for popular blogs within your niche and do it for free. Only ask that you may put your name, a brief description of what you do and your site in your author's bio section.

This way you benefit from the huge traffic already pouring into the popular site. We'll talk more on how to guest blog sometime later.


4. Keyword Research

Ah yes, keywords.. Finally!

Imagine you want to learn how to do something so you go to Google, and type for example, "How to make eba", you're going to get a list of pages that have content surrounding the theme of "eba making". Some might be exactly what you're looking for, others might just talk about the different types of eba.

You will notice though, that the pages at the top of the first page of that Google Search result page will either be an exact match for what you typed in or will be the closest match to what you typed in.

What you typed into that Google Search bar = The keyword (s)

So basically, keywords are what people are looking for. If your post directly addresses what they are looking for, your post will stand a higher chance of being displayed on that first page of a Google search, moreso if your post title and content is the closest to an exact match to their keyword.

So let's remix what I earlier said a bit.

Content is King, Traffic is his Army General and Keyword Research is his most trusted Adviser.

You can use tools such as Google's Autosuggest and Google's Keyword Planner to come up with keywords for blog topics. Actually, if you're serious about driving traffic to your blog, this is a definite must.

I mean, what better way is there to drive traffic to your blog than to post about topics people are already looking for?


5. SEO

For newbies, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is a fancy way of saying you basically make it easier for search engines to both find and rank your content.

So you've done your keyword research, and created great content, but you still can't see it on search engine result pages.

You might need to tweak it a little bit, like so:

- Make sure the keywords appear closer to the beginning of your title and keep the character count in the title at about 60- 70. Any more, and you stand the risk of having Google chop the rest of your title and replace it with "..."

- Have only one H1 heading in your content. There should be one main heading for each article which should contain your keyword.

- Use long-tail versions of your keyword in your subheadings

- Avoid filling your article completely with your keywords. This will grant you no love from Google or worse, your site might just end up in the Internet's kirikiri or Yaba Left if Google is feeling magnanimous.

- Images in your content should contain alt text and your alt text should have your keyword. That way, they also rank in Google's Image search and the search engine doesn't have to keep wondering what your image is.

For now, these will suffice.


There you have it. 5 ridiculously simple tips to increase your blog traffic. Do all these and you should see a jump in traffic and probably even start to get your own share of haters.

When they come, remix Chamillionaire's "Ridin" song and sing to them like so:

' They see me blogging, They hating
They trolling, trying to stop me getting traffic, trying to stop me getting traffic (3x)

My blog is so dope on Google Ranking
My Content is great and my SEO is amazing
My SEO is amazing (3x)'

You get the idea. Any comments, questions, and even trolls are welcome in the comment box.

My name is Tomi Joshua, and when I'm not getting my fix from online marketing at www.fayarspark.com, I'm remixing song lyrics and blogging at 500nairawriter..com

Theirs is a tale of true love that loves against all odds. They got married on July 9, 2016 and their wedding pictures went viral online. Isaac and Constance Obasogie shared their love story in this exclusive interview with Kemiashefonlovehaven

Where did you meet each other?

Constance: In 2009 at the Delta State University, Abraka, where we were undergraduates. Isaac came to check on my roommate.

Isaac: I went to see a lady called Nancy because she had a message for me from my dad. As I entered the room, I observed that a particular bed was high and I asked who was using the bed. Nancy explained that her roommate is on a wheelchair. Though Constance was not around that day, as I was about leaving the room, the spirit of God told me, “Tell her that she can walk.” I told Nancy and she said, it’s true because Constance knew that she will still walk. I visited Nancy again and luckily, I met Constance.

Constance: I had gone on a trip to Lagos and when I returned; Nancy told me what he said. In 2010, he came to check on Nancy again, who wasn’t around and I saw him for the first time. He left. He came another weekend and we started talking about me and how I coped with my challenge. He asked how I was making it to class. I explained to him that a friend helped to take me for lectures which wasn’t regular. In the first semester of my 100 level, I missed a lot of classes due to this. So, Isaac volunteered to be taking me to and fro classes and church. He now assured me that as long as he was in school, he would come to take me to class and church. I didn’t believe him initially but he came. He was studying Physics Electronics and I studied Mass Communications. We worked around our time-tables and he would have shuttle between campus, my hostel and his.

Isaac, when you graduated, who was taking her?

Isaac: I had to stay back in school after graduation so as to help her with her movement. If I left, there would be nobody to help her to class, church etc. I was exempted from national youth service and I was offered a job in school. I stayed back for two years and did other menial jobs to survive. After she graduated, we came to Lagos.


Did you tell anyone in your family?

Isaac: No, I didn’t tell anybody.

What was the attraction to you when there were other girls who were not challenged?

Isaac: I can’t explain. First I saw a woman who is respectful. Every man wants a woman who is respectful. Character, to me, is beauty not the physical looks. Also, she won me over with the food she cooked. I asked her if she would be the mother of my children and she told me that she knew the first day I knocked on the door that I would be her husband.

Did your family members know her as your fiancée?

Isaac: No, none knew. They knew that I had a friend who is on a wheelchair, a gospel artiste, who we went out to minister together. They never knew we were courting.

Constance, what made you think he would not deceive you?

Constance: I always pray on any issue. I knew I needed someone that would be caring for a husband. So, before I got admission to school, I prayed and told God that the man that would be my husband would come to my house and knock on my door. I also said he would not be fair, or too dark or too hairy. I gave all these conditions so that when he comes, I would know. I told God that I don’t want someone that would see my condition but someone that would see my strength. Naturally, Isaac understands me. He does not see the weakness. He knows how to operate the wheelchair.

At what stage of the friendship did he ask you out?

Constance: Almost a year after he met me.

How did you cope in school especially with snide remarks?

Constance: We were students and we didn’t come from rich homes because they would have said we started dating because he had money or because I had money. In my hostel, girls liked him and called him ‘Bobo’. There was a particular girl who told me that he would not marry you because all men are the same. I told her that all men are not the same and if it’s God’s will, we will get married. I took a bet with her because I was too sure.

How did he propose?

Constance: After my graduation, we came to Lagos and a year after, he got a job. I got mine two days later. But he lost his job after six months in 2015. I am still working though.

I was going to work one morning when a man on motorcycle snatched my bag! It contained my phone and other valuables. During break at work, Isaac came and we went to MTN office to retrieve my line. It was then he decided to propose.

Why did you propose on the day her bag was snatched?
Isaac: I wanted to make her happy and I knew a proposal would do just that.

When you told your parents that you were getting married, what was the reaction?

Isaac: They said never! I told them that this is what God really wants for me. They said that I am the first son of seven children and that it’s a shame to the family. My father didn’t agree and said I should go and marry but he would not come.

Did they come for the wedding?

Isaac: No.

But they must have heard and seen on social media?
Isaac: Yes, they saw it and my eldest sister called to congratulate me. Others—my parents and younger siblings didn’t. I have not called my father but I intend to apologise for disobeying him. However, if I had married a woman not challenged our wedding would not have been celebrated like it was. I pray that nothing will separate us and I know she is going to walk.

How did you feel when you didn’t see your in-laws at the wedding?

Constance: I felt sad but I know in this part of the world, it’s not easy accepting a condition like mine. I believe it a lack of understanding and that with time they will understand. I put myself and my parents in their shoes and tried thinking of the reactions. I just believe that parents should allow children take some decisions of life without hindrance. In life, one should expect good and bad experiences and mine is no exception. With faith, we will conquer.

Is this challenge from birth?

Constance: No, according to my mum, it started when I was two years old and before then I was walking. I fell ill, was taken to the hospital in Benin. It was leg pain and I could not stand on the leg. The doctor said he was going somewhere. That was around 1986-87. They took me home, next day she went to another hospital and I was paralysed and could not walk or talk again. No hospital admitted me and I was taken to a Chinese hospital, where it was diagnosed that all my nerves had collapsed. I always thank God because now I can talk, I’m a songwriter, a poet, I sing and I do all sorts. I went to school, graduated, have a job and now married. I know very soon we will have our children.

Do you quarrel?

Constance: Not really even when there is a small argument, we settle it. It must not pass that minute.

How have you handled the issue of finance in marriage?

Constance: We don’t have big money but the little we have, we are sincere and open to each other. We plan, and we both know that our money is ours. Couple should be open to each other.

How many children do you plan to have?

Isaac: We pray for a set of twin boys and then a girl.

How do you cope with a physically challenged partner?

Well, since she is the one employed now and goes to work, she cooks everything in the morning. We have structured our apartment in a way she can move around freely with her wheelchair. She washes clothes and we do chores together. When I was working I would take her to the office and then go to my office.

Constance: Whenever he is not around, a tricycle operator helps transport me to the office. I’m coping very well.

Do other women try to discourage you?

Isaac: No. My mind is made up that this is who I want and who I will spend the rest of my life with.

Aside your job, what else do you do?

Constance: I’m a gospel artiste; write songs, and a motivational singer. I have over 300 songs that I have written. I also make beads. All the accessories I used for my wedding were designed by me.

Indeed, Christmas is a season of love!

It has also proved to be a season of revelations as billionaire Femi Otedola’s daughter Ifeoluwa aka DJ Cuppy reveals wealthy footballer, Victor Anichebe, as her lover.


Though speculations have been rife on this intimate affair, there were no tangible proofs on whether 28-year-old Victor and 24-year-old DJ Cuppy were dating.


Victor Anichebe is a Nigerian footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Sunderland.


Kemiashefonlovehaven reports that DJ Cuppy put paid to rumours when she granted an interview to Ebuka Obi-Uchendu on the TV programme Rubbin’ Minds.


She said, “We have been in for well over a year. This is the first time I will talk about him. I am really happy, really happy and its refreshing to be with someone who is open-minded, hardworking and understands as well.”



How did they meet?


She revealed:


“It’s a funny story. It was a set up. I was complaining of how I could be single forever to a stylist I was working with and she was like, ‘Oh! I know a client who is complaining about being single forever.’ I was in New York and she (stylist) said we should go for coffee. I was like hhmmmm.

He was like hmmmm.


“I happened to be in London and he was in London as well and we went for coffee and the rest is history.”

Ogbonna is Kanu Nwankwo's younger brother.

But for the alimony he paid to his ex wife, who is a Briton, and who bore him two children, he would have been regarded as very rich like his brother who was a footballer in big football clubs such as Ajax, Arsenal, Inter Milan, and some other clubs.

Ogbonna, also a footballer, played football in England and had a stint with the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

His British wife dragged him to court on the ground of infidelity in 2013.

Anyway, that’s not the news.

Ogbonna is now engaged to celebrity blogger, Linda Ikeji’s sister, Laura and very soon, the couple will announce a date for their wedding.

Meanwhile, not all knew that the dude befriended actress Ebube Nwagbo between 2007-2008.

He reportedly dumped Ebube when he couldn’t cope with her alleged waywardness.

Though Ebube denied been dumped, she was quoted in an interview:

“He did not dump me. We had a mutual agreement. Nobody dumped the other. The relationship did not survive. We were dating; we had a relationship. But ours was just like any other relationship. However, the press did not give us any moment of rest. They married us and divorced us on the pages of newspapers and magazines. People kept writing things that were both true and untrue about the relationship in the newspapers.”

Ebube blamed journalists for the crash of the relationship.

“Oh yes, I blame journalists. They kept writing about us. Everything about me became news to them. I guess that is the price you have to pay for being a star. It was just too much. Anyway, I have learnt my lessons.

Asked if she was jealous of the girl in his life then (2008) and the pretty actress said:

“Why should I be jealous of her? I was the one that allowed her to be there in the first place. Please, there is no need for me to be envious of any babe in his life. I have moved on. It was not as if I was flaunting my relationship with Ogbonna. We were just like every other couple. But as it is now, nobody is going to know anything about my private life again.”
According to reports, Laura, a fashion entrepreneur whose business was set up for her by her blogger sister, Linda, started dating Ogbonna less than a year ago after meeting him through a mutual friend.

Ogbonna and Laura even spent their last Valentine together in Texas, United States of America. They went to Ghana where they privately celebrated Laura’s birthday on March 15, 2016.

Laura Ikeji got engaged to Ogbonna on December 17.

It came to many as a shock when OAP, Toke Makinwa headed for the High Court in Lagos a few months back and filed for a divorce from her 18-month-old marriage to fitness coach, Maje Ayida. She also instituted Maje and his Baby Mama, Anita Solomon, as respondents.
Who is Anita? In her book “On Becoming” which Toke finally launched on November 27 in Lagos, she dedicated some chapters to revealing what transpired in her crashed marriage.

Excerpts:
The Other Woman
“Who was that girl?” I asked
“That’s that girl”
“Which girl?”
“The girl I told you about. Her friends are always calling me to say she really likes me and has a crush on me. Her name is Anita.”
“So that’s the Anita girl they say you are dating.”
“I’m not dating her. How can I date someone that is always saying ‘can I come and see you? I’ll bring my friend that you think is cute’?”
I accepted Maje’s explanation and concluded that Anita was not important. So I’ll be with Maje and she’d call and I’d tell him, “The girl that has a crush on you is calling.” And it would be nothing.


Kemiashefonlovhaven exclusively gathered some fact about the ‘Other Woman’ in Toke’s crashed marriage
Anita is a lawyer, a mediator and an Internet marketing coach.
She said of herself, “I have a full time job...lucky me, and a part time job I love more. As a mediator I see a lot of people in distress, and it pleases me when we settle disputes and bring people back together. As an internet entrepreneur, I love helping people create the lifestyle they desire. Making money online has been quite fulfilling, teaching people how to do what I do is the bomb!” (sic)
The half Lebanese, half Ibibio was Maje Ayida’s girlfriend even when he was courting Toke—a fact the pretty OAP accepted in her book:
“I had been with Maje from when I was an immature teenager, through my twenties, and for most of those years, Anita had been the standard I had to live up to. I had lightened my skin at some point – Anita was half Lebanese and half Ibibio, and Maje made me feel like he preferred her lighter skin.”

Definitely, Maje must have left Anita to marry Toke, an act, Kemiashefonlovehaven learnt, irked Anita’s family members when she got pregnant last year.
Her son, Micah is over 12 months old and she adores him.
Anita, who isn’t a fair-skinned as Toke indicated, is a simple and laid-back dresser and currently adorns natural hair.
Still puzzling how a simple, unassuming lady could have given Toke a run for her fashion sense and fame. She seems to be peace-loving because anytime any of her followers of talks about her baby, Maje or Toke, she keeps quiet.

On chapter 8 of her book Toke revealed that Maje infected her with Sexually Transmitted Disease. Guess the source of the disease? Toke wrote:

For a case that is in court, many are of the opinion that Toke shouldn’t have released the book that’s said so much about the respondents. Will Anita Solomon, take legal steps?
Time will tell.