₦airaland Forum

A woman with a dream worth pursuing and a loyal, kind, understanding heart.

The worst topic to discuss on the Nairaland Forum is Nairaland itself. Should I remove the YIM feature now?

Someone is already experiencing the downside of the new feature. Spam!

Miracles, miracles, miracles. I'm full of anticipation!

It's a nice one.

What's bad about the move?

Healthcare workers often succumb to addiction problems. Perhaps it's because of the stressful nature of their jobs.

Can you give us the lyrics to some of his songs, and a short bio? Thanks!

I'm back. Wecome to Nairaland and special thanks to nike4luv and hot-angel for welcoming her!

Welcome. I'll be right back.

Ok, I can see the difference in this one but the first one was unbelievable!

Actually, you can braid your hair. Please be warned that it's a time-consuming and potentially painful process that may not necesarily make you any more attractive than a clean cut and shave with a few curls.

Both of you should indicate where you reside. Nigeria or London?

The probability of that is very very low. You people have been waiting for thousands of years!

Article written for Mr. Shina Adegoke of Technology Times
http://www.seunosewa.com/technology.times

My name is Seun Osewa. I’m the 23 year old webmaster who runs Nairaland.com - the Nigerian forum with 17,000 members. I may be the first Nigerian to make enough from a website to justify running it full-time, because from my site alone I earn more than some graduates working in top banks.

I started out in April 2003 by moving to Abeokuta to take advantage of free Internet access offered by a family friend who managed an ISP. I wanted to be a web host(1), but after 3 months I ran out capital ran out because I could get only one customer. After this, I researched so many business opportunities but nobody was willing to provide an untested young man like me with enough capital to execute any of them.

Towards the end of 2003, I stumbled on the idea of web publishing - I would create a site that would attract many Nigerians and then sell advertising the space on the website. So I started a blog, but I I couldn’t serve my target audience well because I lacked interest in popular topics that Nigerians are crazy about, such as celebrities and showbiz. So I kept learning and searching for more lucrative opportunities on the net.

By the end of 2004, I realized that the only hope for me lied in web publishing, because no capital was forthcoming for all my other ideas, so I decided to try again with Forums. Forums are wonderful because they can cover topics that even the website owner has no interest in. Thanks to the support of a GSM Ezine publisher (John Sagai Adams) and another entrepreneur (Yomi Adegboye) my first forum (2) grew to several hundred members in a few months (3). But the traffic was still not enough to attract advertising to even cover my Internet costs.

So during March 2005, I started work on a new Forum called “Nairaland, the Nigerian Forum” where Nigerians can discuss absolutely anything. In April, I opened it to the public and directed all members of my old forum to the new one at www.Nairaland.com ! Since then, our rate of growth has increased gradually from 10 new members a day to 30 to 100 or more today! By th end of 2005, we had more than 5000 visitors a day and I was making enough to justify the employment of an additional employee (though I haven’t done that)!

Right now, I am experimenting with new websites and business ideas and I hope to diversify my income. I’ve bought valuable domain names (they are cheap). I’ve launched Naijarita News, a fake news website that mocks everybody. And I’ve offered to help some people sell their products over the Internet. Nairaland.com, hovever, has proven to be infinitely more popular than these other ones, because we cover everything: romance, business, politics, games, and of course technology (4).

I’d like to urge fellow young people in technology to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and not as job-seekers. Look for problems that people are having, solve them, and make your money. In an under-developed economy like ours you do not even have to be innovative to make it. You just have to be focussed on solving the real problems that people are experiencing in life or business.

Seun Osewa’s email address is , and his website is www.nairaland.com

1) http://web.archive.org/web/20030824032734/http://www.seunosewa.com/

2) http://web.archive.org/web/20041022113854/http://www.mobilenigeria.com/

3) http://www.mobilenigeria.com/

4) http://www.nairaland.com/

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t4cash, thanks for sharing your own tips. Hope there's something to learn from my story, too?

Asking us to email you to beg for an evaluation copy of your product is almost an insult. We do not have such time. You are unwilling to provide a special promo code for Nairaland members, so why should we offer you our forum for free advertisement?

I do not want people making hateful hurtful remarks on this site, whether or not the misguided person making those statements consider them to be "truth".

You're joking, right? I know you are not a nitwit, so you must be joking.

I would just restore it from my backups to make it exist again!

What would you do if you catch your partner in bed with another woman today?

The best and only thing you can do for your friend is to get her to a competent, trained counselor.

1) Is the boyfriend so violent that she's afraid to dump him out of fear of what he might do? If so, the police would also need to be involved and you'll need to push her to use that option.

2) Is she afraid of being alone if she dumps the boyfriend? Then do her a favor and be there for her after the deed is done.

However, please note that depression is a medical condition. The stress in her life is only a contributory factor. For an introduction to depression from a reputable source, visit:
- www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depression.cfm

I don't think I've ever done that.

When was the last time a dog's tongue made contact with your face?

Thanks for sharing. Can you list some of the free-to-stations that people are watching in Nigeria right now?

- continued from 'Lagos Skyline Pictures' -

Also, anyone in Abuja should also post recent Abuja day and nightime skyline. Last time i was in Abuja (2002) I noticed it was begining to get a decent skyline, but still no pictures online. Please guys big up our country. Show the world pictures.

Nope. You?

I don't think there's any need for this. The risks far outweigh the potential benefits.

Wow, Trae, this topic you have started is indeed interesting!

I've come accross some ads promising that. You can watch AIT TV in the US.

I don't. I wear T-shirts on trousers for casual outings and office and native 'buba' and 'sokoto' when going to a bank or somewhere important. I don't really care whether what I'm wearing is African or European as long as it's comfortable.

I'm experiencing the same difficulty: "Sorry. But some of the details that we require are missing. Please press the 'Back' button in your browser, or click here to return to the download page."