It is not what you think. I mean blogging is nothing like you have ever been told.


You say; I want to start a blog.

Your friend says; Just get a website and start writing. I am sorry to inform you, that is the fastest way to fail if you are considering going into blogging.

Let me say this again. Everything you do online start with a strategy. Brands fail on social media because they lack strategy, businesses fail in marketing because they lack a strategic marketing plan. Bloggers fail because they lack strategy and because nobody ever told them that blogging is a skill that has to be learned.


Read that line again. Your strategy must include SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If anybody needs to understand SEO, bloggers should. A few years ago I started blogging about WordPress. I didn't know as much as I do now about SEO but I found out a long time after that one of my articles was actually pulling some weight on SEO.

It was doing so well I was getting traffic from the US and other countries. It was quite impressive to see that happen, but I didn't have a strategy in place to harvest the raw traffic I was getting so they were passing free after enjoying my content. I have since taken the blog down and I almost regret doing so now.

I was looking at the article just before I took it down and I realized why it did so well. It was a long, very detailed tutorial with lots of images that I didn't really care to tag. The article was about how to set up a website.

What else did I do that made that article rank well on a search engine?

I optimized my title with the keywords I thought would make sense on a search engine. (Note that I did not research my keywords, I simply guessed them because, at the time, I didn't know there was a thing called keyword research.)

I just guess-used the keywords according to some suggestions I got from a plugin I was using on my site at the time, Yoast SEO. That plugin was really helpful. I also used subheading to map out my article clearly so that the search engine will understand and read my article as an authentic article.

Then I linked it back to some other related articles I had on the website. You might not get all I have said so I will try to summarize.

1. I chose a niche; WordPress
2. I created a strategy; how many times to post per week, topic to write about, etc.
3. I wrote a long-form (highly detailed) article.
4. I used keywords on titles and used subtitles.
5. I used images, lots of them.
6. I published.
7. I updated the article after some time to keep it fresh.

If and when I return to blogging, I won't do any of these differently instead, I will improve on everything else; do detailed keyword research, and spend more time updating my published articles than I will spend creating new ones.

Since the outbreak, a lot has changed. From the way we live even to the way we work.


But that isn't all that has changed. The economy has also been badly affected and many jobs are being lost due to the recession that is setting in.


To weather the storms, one must find a means of making extra cash.


These three skills are easy to learn and get started with within a month or less.


1. Graphic design - This skill is a high in demand skill that anybody can learn and start earning from within a month or less.




You can start with easy to learn tools like Canva, and Adobe Spark, designing social media graphics for brands who need them but if you want to go far and make good money, you need to learn how to use graphic design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel draw.




2. Web design - Many people still think they need to know how to code or be highly skilled in IT before they can design a website.


If we were having this conversation in 2006, I would have been right to that way but this is 2020 and a lot has changed.


Today you can learn web design in a couple of days.


I could setup a website in 24 hours and I don't even know how to write a single line of code.


My students are always facinated at how easy and exciting it is to learn. You can join my web design class where I teach how to build a website in 5 days. There is a link at the end of this post to contact me for the class.


3. Social Media Management - This is another skill that is highly sort after. Brands are getting on social media and want people who can help them manage their activities on social media platforms.


If you learn this skill, you can work as a freelancer charging as much as 50k to 70k monthly for each brand you work for. You could even get employed to manage social media accounts for brands.


I did this for a top IT brand for 4 years so if I tell you it pays, I sure know what I am talking about.


So there you have it. If you need more information, feel free to connect with me on WhatsApp - 07030073822.

Let's get started with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making a web page visible on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others.

But how those this even happen?

I mean how do web pages come to be visible on a search engine.

Think of it as you live in a street of about fifty housing. Each house has a bust bin placed just by the gate. Every Wednesday, waste management drives into the street from house to house collecting waste.

After collecting all the waste, they take them to a central location. Maybe a dump site and empty everything there.

Search engines work in the exact same way.

Every now and then a robot crawls from website to website picking up content that matches specific algorithms, then it collects all of these different content and indexes them on this bigger website called search engine so that every time you remember that you had like to get a tattoo just like me but do not know where to get it done, and you go on a search engine, say Google and search for a phrase like; “tattoo saloon in Lagos”, google returns to all those results it had gathered from all those many websites that meet its criteria and pulls up pages of results on your screen.
Now that phrase you searched for “tattoo saloons in Lagos” is called KEYWORDS. You need to get used to that word because in talking about SEO, you will hear it a lot.

You will also hear terms like SERP (Search Engine Result Page), Domain Authority, Keyword Difficulty, Backlinks, Trends, and a few less used terminologies. You must be wondering what each of those mean, worry not, you will learn them as we go deeper.

In pidgin English, a keyword is a word or phrase that users (me and you) search for on search engines. Ouch, I still did it in America English.

There are three types of keywords; long-tail keyword, short tail key, and localized keyword.

A long-tail keyword is a keyword that contains more than two words. Something like "content writing ideas".

A short tail keyword, on the other hand, are those keywords that contain two words or less. Something like "content".

Local or localized keywords are keywords that are location specific, like "the best blogger in Lagos". The fact that you mentioned Lagos makes that it becomes a local keyword because your search is specific to a location. Somebody said, "hotels in Santorini". Well, that passed too.

Next, we will look at some of the reasons why SEO is important

Post COVID-19 a lot will change. Already IMF is forecasting a recession that will be greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s. In Nigeria alone, it has been said that our economy will see a GDP contractions of about 3.4%.

Basically, it means that after the lockdown, we will return into a recession that we never came out of in the first place.

What happens during a recession?

People can't spend, production is disturbed, organizations downsize (jobs will be lost) and the lucky ones may have to take a pay cut.

Should you be afraid? No, you shouldn't if you prepare yourself for what is coming.

First COVID-19, as it happened, has changed how we work already, we are just waiting for it to be over then things will manifest. Businesses will embrace remote work settings more because they have seen now that it is doable. This means that skills like Digital Marketing, Coding and a number of other skills will come in mainstream demand.

That is why I am here to teach you Digital Marketing.

I have 6 years of experience working as a Digital Marketer. 4 out of those 6 years were spent working for one of the foremost IT companies in Nigeria. I also worked on freelance bases for another big IT establishment for their Ghanian branch.

So when I say, Digital Marketing, I know what I am talking about.

Digital Marketing has evolved a lot and I evolved with it. I learn web design because it has also become a part of digital marketing.

SO LET'S GET STARTED

Digital Marketing is all forms of marketing that use an electronic device and the internet to promote products and services. It includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Google Analytics, Digital Advertising, Mobile Marketing, and Content Marketing. Today, even Web Design and Copy Writing are gradually been included in the list of skills you need to possess as a digital marketer because email marketing requires that you know how to set up landing pages.

Watch this thread and in the next, I will take these subsets and try to break them down one by one.

Wanna talk to me - 0703 007 3822 (WhatsApp only)

WHY BUILDING A MAILING LIST IS BETTER THAN BUILDING SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS


Ever wondered if you really need to start building a mailing list for your business? You might even be thinking that since there are social media and your brand has been active there, you do not really need to start building a list.


Why do you think that even social media networks request for your email when you open an account with them? They know something you do not know, the importance of having a mailing list.


Whether you are a corporate business, or an individual brand, the importance of email list building should not be overlooked because email marketing could be deeply rewarding if executed properly. In fact, according to a 2019 marketing report, email marketing generates about $38 for every $1 spent, which is an amazing 3,800% ROI.


That result is also about 4 times high than any social media network will give you. Personally, I have had good success with my list and the funny part is that I do not even send them mail every day plus I use a free service for my email marketing, until now that I am moving to a better platform.


So why is email marketing still this popular even after all these years you may ask. One very obvious reason is that people who subscribe to your list have given you their consent to send them emails, meaning that they are people who are interested in what you are offering as such, are more likely to open emails they receive from you.



That isn’t the only reason. I have listed below a few more reasons;



1. It is direct. In this age of social media, our timelines are constantly being flooded with ads that we do not necessarily want to see. Many will scroll past such ads but with email marketing, content is delivered directly into your inbox. It is like meeting a delivery man at your doorpost.



2. They are inexpensive; email marketing is not as expensive as digital ads. Although you may need to use digital ads to build a large within a short time once you have your list, all you need to do is pay a few hundred dollars yearly for an autoresponder.


If you do not have much money to spend, no worries, there are cheaper alternatives. One of them is MailChimp. MailChimp allows a user to collect up to 2k contact and send around 12k emails monthly free of charge.


Sendy is another email marketing app that is less than a hundred dollars ($69) for lifetime access.


There is yet another option but a little bit technical, Mautic. Mautic is open source, free and works just the same way Sendy works however, it is techie so you may need an expert to set it up and show you how to use it. I am currently testing mautic.



3. Your list is yours; Yes, you own your list and nobody is going make some policies that will shut you out one day.



I remember when I first started using MailChimp for my personal business in 2017, I woke up one morning to log into my account only to see that my account had been restricted. Why? policies had changed and they taught I had violated their policy when in fact, I didn’t do what they said I did. I simply exported my list in a spreadsheet and took them somewhere else.



You don’t own Facebook, Mark does. You don’t own Instagram or Twitter. These platforms can come for you any time they imagine that you have violated a policy but with your mailing list, you will always be in control.



4. It is private; emails are private and people see them in their inbox and can send a response there and then. Content on social media platforms is not private. Those who wouldn't like to leave their comment in the public domain still have to reach you via your dm, that may usually not follow a thread.



Social media is huge leverage in terms of marketing, in fact, I spend a good time sharing and nurturing my audience on Facebook, however, I also do all I can to point them to my list so that I can reach them more directly.



While you keep doing so much on social media, you should put in more effort into something more sustainable and with much more guarantee, building a mailing list.

Five Ways To Make Your Website Work For You

If you run a business, you must have heard somebody ask if you have a website.


This question usually makes business owners begin to consider more seriously whether to get a website and then when.


Well, this is 2020 and, in this age, digital means a lot of things including registering your brand on the digital space. If you are serious about scaling, you should get it. It has the potentials of opening you up to a whole new world of opportunities.

The other day I was visiting a city and wanted to attend service at a certain church but I couldn’t remember the time of the service, I called my sister you attended the same church in the past but she wasn’t certain what the time for service was.


Then I remembered that the last time I was at the church, they called out their web address, meaning they have a website. I went to Google, entered the name of the church and there it was .


A few more clicks and I could see on the web banner the time of services and other announcements, just to be sure they didn’t have a program that would make them have only one service on that day.


It is good to own a website but that is not all there is to the business of owning a website, there are key factors you need to look out for to ensure that your website doesn’t turn out to be like a dead business space.


Here are a few things you should look out for in your website;


• Alignment with your brand – your website should align with the look and feel of your brand. The other day my friend reached out to me to help her review a website, as soon as I opened the URL, I saw a branding dilemma. The logo was right there on the site but the brand color wasn’t consistent across the site.


The brand has a beautiful bright green color but the website carried a totally different shade of green and other colors thrown all over the website. it made the site look messy and unprofessional.


Check that your brand visuals are properly represented across your website.


• Functionality – how functional is your website? what can it do? Does it allow people to be able to connect and chat with you directly on WhatsApp from your website or is it a live chat feature, does it make provision to appointment booking, can it be used to get more subscribers and build a mailing list?


Your website should explicitly tell visitors what to do next. If you want them to take an offer, be clear about it. If you want them to contact you, make it obvious so that even a blind man call sees it.


Your website should be functional enough to directly impact on your business and make visitors take action when they visit.


• Optimization – have you ever opened a website on your mobile device (your phone specifically) and it comes up with tiny texts that you had to turn your phone and try to zoom in so you could see what is written? That is a website that is not optimized for mobile view.


Most websites today especially those built on WordPress do not have such problems but there are other optimization issues that can happen. Sometimes, some images need to be optimized specifically for a seamless mobile experience and sometimes, it could even be a column that needs to. Look out for all of these and call your designers attention if you notice that something looks out of place.


• Ease of navigation – how easy is it to move around your website and find things? I have seen several corporate organization websites looking so messy, you will almost need a mini tutorial to find your way around the website.


Your website must be easy to navigate else people will get frustrated and move on. People visiting your website should be able to easily find things. Your services, contact details and all should be easy to locate.


Remember your business is not the only business there is in the competition. Getting on the front row is always better


• Relatable Content – this is very important because I have visited websites and left feeling a bit confused and frustrated since I couldn’t understand what the business is about.


This is common with IT companies; they use so many IT jargon that visitors who are not IT savvy easily get frustrated reading them.


The object should be to make content professional and easy to comprehend. If your content is too watered down, it could make your brand appear was an inferior brand so you must find the balance and communicate in a language your audience understands.


Final words


Your website is an online version or extension of your physical office. Is should state explicitly the things you do, services your render, your contact information, and your call to action.


From time to time, do a review of your website to ensure that it aligns with your brand. Some businesses, make some brand changes and forget to make those updates reflect on their website, that shouldn’t be. Make a few changes to the look and feel of the website at least once in two years and always keep it update to date in the backend as an extra security measure.


Would you like someone to review your website or you want to set up a new functional website that will make you business seen and known, contact me via WhatsApp - 0703007388

I have made plenty money from my mailing and I will show you how I did it.


This peice of information is not for everybody.


It is for business owners who intend to sell digital products or services.


A mailing list is a collection of email address through systems so that we can always reach them directly via those email addresses.


Last week, a client who has runs a cake baking business outside the country reached out.


She needed an automated system that could make people give her their email addresses in exchange for a small book.


She needed it up and running in 24 hours.


Here is what we did.


We quickly built a one page site, (a landing page) and then setup a free MailChimp account for her.


On the landing page, we asked people to give us their email in exchange for a 26 page ebook that will show them the exact things they needed to do to start making more sale in there cake business.


We then added a 3d picture of the book cover on the page and a space for email and name and then a download button.


Once people click the link and land on that page, they enter their email and click download, on the back end, an email is automatically sent to the email address they provided instantly.


Inside that mail, we then added a link to download the book so that once they open the email and click the download link, the book download automatically into their phone of whatever devices they are using to access the site.


That evening, the client held a class on Telegram and at the end of the class, she shared the download link and withing 1 hour, she had over 20 sign ups.


By the noon the next day, her list had grown to over 60 subscribers.


Now, we are working on putting her digital courses together and hosting them online, then we will setup a payment gateway through which people will make purchase and then be redirected to a place where they can start taking their baking courses.


When that is set, she will send emails to the subscribers on her list and be sure of some purchases.


She will also continue to grow her list with events, Facebook adverts and other means.


Imagine having 10,000 subscribers on your list. If you sell to them a course or ebook worth $10 and only 1000 people by, how much will you have sitting in your account at an exchange rate of 362 naira to $1.


Do the maths.


What we did was a simple funnel for collecting subscribers email. It is different from buying email addresses because people willing gave you their email in exchange for something of value.




We used Thrive Architect to build out landing page and we used MailChimp to collect and send out automated emails.


The beautiful part is that our client manages her MailChimp account by herself.


Do you want us to set up a state like this for you?


Reach out to Sam via WhatsApp +234 703 007 3822.


Have you got any questions, drop a comment.

In June I paid for a training that was to hold on Facebook. As the training proceeded, I went to class one day to take the day's lecture. The lecture required that I dropped a comment, I did.

Soon after I made that comment, I made another comment. By the time I tried to make the third comment, Facebook banned me from making comments. Why? They said I was commenting too much.

It was the first time I was login into Facebook that day or has somebody been commenting on my behalf? I had mix feelings of wonderment and anger. To make matters worse, I could not contact Facebook about this particular issue.

My only resolve was seeking answers on Google and the answers I got were even more surprising. Apparently, other people had been through the same trouble in the hands of Mark and his team at various points in time and all they could do was wait it out.

The simple resolve was, there was nothing that could be done about this, I simply had to wait three days before I could comment on Facebook again. That meant that I will be in class, take lectures and be looking like a zombie.


I would post on my timeline and watch people comment without being able to reply to their comments. It was frustrating.

After waiting three days that seemed like I waiting forever, I tried to comment again and it worked. In excitement, I announced to my friends and the class that Facebook had lifted the ban and that I can comment again. I didn’t know Mark had me in mind.

After making that announcement, I made a comment and as I hit the enter button on my laptop, it was, you have been banned from commenting because you have been commenting too much.

Ah, just like that? I thought okay if I cannot comment I can at least react to posts or comments. Obviously, Mark and his team were thinking ahead so they were already there waiting for me.

When I tried to like a post, it will show me that I have liked the post but when I return to the post or comment I liked early, it shows that I didn’t like it.

I even changed my Facebook password severally, that didn’t change anything either.

Posting on Facebook became uninteresting. It was meant to be interactive but now, it was one-sided and not enjoyable.

That was when it dawned on me that this thing called email list is important and that I needed to give it more attention so I started working on rebuilding my mailing list.

I said rebuilding because I had one before but somewhere along the line, MailChimp the auto-responder I was using at the time for some strange reasons, thought that I didn’t build my list by getting people to subscribe instead, I imported emails into the list.

The annoying thing was that I grew that list with Facebook ads and subscribers went straight into my MailChimp account. How on earth they came about me importing contacts remains a mystery. But that even schooled me about the does and don’ts of MailChimp.

Now I am still on that journey of building my mailing list and I will tell you how I am doing it.

First, I created an ebook, a guide on social media leverage, converted it to pdf and uploaded it on Dropbox. Then I created a landing page on my website. A landing page is a page where people can subscribe to get your material, in this case, people subscribed to get the ebook I had written.

I then created a MailChimp account (MailChimp is free for your first 2000 contacts making it a good option for those starting out) and connected it with my landing page so that when people land on the page and enter their email and name and click on download, it automatically sends their details into my MailChimp account then MailChimp triggers a mail containing a link to the ebook on Dropbox to the person email. There the person can click and download the ebook.

The process is simple and stressless. Your mailing list can be growing even while you sleep provided you have a system that keeps sending people to your landing page.

Now if you do not have funds to set up a website, you can start by creating a landing page on MailChimp.

I have put together an amazing resource that will show you step by step how to set up a landing page and start building a mailing list in an hour. It is only 1k.

Want to get it, send MCR to 07030073822.

Every business wants more exposure because businesses thrive on people and as such, the more people get to know about your business, the better your chances of making more sales.

In today's business, social media is a must-have. The methods I will be sharing with you here are mostly activated via digital media.

Here are four top ways you can grow your audience and gain more exposure for your brand.

Share on your pages - Start by sharing on your timeline consistently. I understand there that sometimes, you just feel like you don’t know enough to share and add value but that is not often the case. That is just you limiting yourself because, in your eyes, your content isn’t up to what others are doing.

Always remember that somebody somewhere is a step behind you and needs to hear what you have to say.

Sharing on your timeline will not do. If you are using Facebook, I usually advise that you adjust your post visibility to setting to friends or friends, that way, even people who are not your friends on Facebook get to see your post.

On Instagram, you cannot be working at growing your brand and make your account private. Over 70% of people who come to a private Instagram page simply walk away from the page and because it is a private account, you limit the reach of your post.

If Twitter is your fort, show up daily and do threads.

On LinkedIn, make posts and publish articles and learn how to use LinkedIn hashtags. Hashtags and LinkedIn groups also help a lot.

Post on groups or communities - Another simple way to grow your audience without spending a dime is by posting and engaging in high impact groups on Facebook. this helped me a lot and sometimes, I get over ten friends request within 24 hours because of a post in made in a group.

I belong to several such groups on Facebook but I am active on only two; Pen and Ink Master (a group for writers founded by Emeka Nobis) and Headstart Africa (founded by John Obidi).

Such groups are effective because they are usually very focused and controlled. Use the search bar to search for such groups and join them.
Important Note [/b]- Check that they are active before joining .

[b]Join a Forum – Join and post on for a like Nairaland and Medium. I have seen people use these platforms to massively reach more people, grow their audience and even complete deals.

I have underestimated this goldmine until recently. If you have an account on Nairaland that doesn’t bear your brand identity, delete the account, and open a new on with your identity. It makes finding you easy.

Run paid ads – Yes spend money on adverts. Use Facebook ads, run Instagram ads, Google ads, get on radio shows, pay to be on digital billboards, and get a space in a magazine or newspaper if you have the financial might.