₦airaland Forum

@ OP, it's so very obvious that you're a Blogger fan. And it's understandable since your blog runs on Blogger.

Well, let me clear some possible misconceptions you created about WordPress.

First, Wordpress is secure! The only thing is that you handle the security aspect yourself. Yes, some sites get hacked, but by registering your site with a reputable, security-alert host, by installing necessary hacker-proof plugins, by updating your themes and plugins promptly, and by using a secure password, you'd be absolutely fine.

Secondly, get it clearly that one doesn't need need have a PC to to WordPress. With the WordPress official app, you can update your blog on the go.The app is available on iOS and Android app stores.

neocortex:
Point of correction, religion never came from anywhere, it was created by men to
control others.
When muslim and christians who always claim moral superiority commits crimes that
can be linked to their holy books, it is apt to blame religion for such crimes.

Well, your opinion. And you're entitled to it just as I'm entitled to mine.

Interesting15:
For clarity sake (especially to our Muslim friends)

Before you say 'See how these Christians behaves",

You need to know that this woman is not a Christian. Anyone can claim to be a Christian and wed in a church, but not have a relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

A good proof that she isn't yet a child of God is the tattoo on her arm.

God is love.
Jesus is Lord forever.

Now you know how it feels when Christians attack Islam and blame all Muslims for the actions of some overzealously foo.lish perverts who call themselves Muslims.

We all need to understand that religion didn't come to corrupt man. It's man who is seeking to corrupt religion.

I decided to check for Nigeria on urbandictionary.com. And here are some crazy (but probably true) definitions I found.

Nigeria
African country where my friend Malbota Nwadeyi lives. He has promised to give me 25% of the $3.6 million dollars that he is trying to move to America. However, he needs my help to transfer the money overseas.

Nigeria
A country in West Africa that is the lagest oil producing country in Africa. It is also the largest black nation in the world. The country is humid and tropical, but full of coruppt leaders that sell the countries oil to the U.S. and keeps the profits for themselves. They don't even bother to put it into the country. Just into their own pockets!

Nigeria
1) n. A nation in northwester section of the African continent. Very hot, humid, and home of oil, rebellions, and internet scammers.

2) n. The scam capital of the world. See 419.

3) n. A member of OPEC, one of the few in Africa.

Nigeria
Where your bike, mobile phone and most of the money in your bank account would most likely end up if you lived in Birmingham, Nottingham or North London.

Nigeria
to cheat or defraud with a scam.

Nigeria
Any enclosure or exclosure including buildings, towns and cities that is overly populated by people of nigerian origin.
A "nigeria" can often be discerned by its populants unconvincing american accents, american brand clothing and (in younger circles)over use of the term "eh blud".*
*(english translation:excuse me brother)

One can often discourage the formation of a "nigeria " in an area by regularly shouting "IMMIGRATION" at random intervals

Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nigeria

To those saying it's upside down, can't you see that the speaker slit would have been on the spot where Nokia was written if that were to be the top? Or is there a rule that says the name must be at the top? Some Nigerians are just resistant to innovation.

Ogun state is really maximising the advantage of its proximity to Lagos. Nice one!

.

xheyi:
Fellow bloggers, it has been a major threat as to coping post from a website like news on ones blog. What will b d take of this website on ones blog or website?, is there any legal action the website can take on one?

Contrary to what most people think, Google ordinarily won't do anything to your blog for copying and pasting from other websites. However, if any of the websites you copied from should report you to them, they would remove all your pages from their rankings. But they still won't pull down your blog or do anything to it. So, if you're not expecting any traffic from Google, you can fire on.

Note, even if the website you copied from doesn't report you, you'll never get traffic from Google for copied post because the original owner of the content gets indexed first. That way, Google knows you're not the owner of the content, and there's no point duplicating results by ranking yours too.

However, if the website you copied from reports you to your hosting company, the company can pull down your blog because it's domiciled with them. That's if the hosting company is in the the US or other developed countries where copyright is taken seriously. In any case, they won't do that until after warning you to delete all copied posts.

So, if you're not looking at Google for traffic, you're free to copy and paste, but you'd do well to include a link to the source. In reality however, copy-and-paste blogging makes zero sense. Look at this: If you copy a news item from Punch's website, would you still expect me to read it on your own blog after already reading it on the source website?

It's either you find a way to craft unique content or go home. Not blogging at all is better than copy-and-paste blogging that fetches zero results, except for those who can invest heavily in other traffic strategies, most of which are poorly understood by beginners.

fidorocks:
I just installed google analytics on my site but then am so confused with all the stats and reports on traffic coming to my site.
Who can explain this in a language I understand.

Thought analytics helps rank higher in the google index and for searches?

My blog is www.legalfido.com

Google Analytics does NOT help to rank higher or index better. It only helps you to monitor your blog's progress. It reveals which countries you're getting visits from, how many visits you're getting, which devices they're using to assess your site, and which operating systems are used. It also reveals how many visitors are redirected to your site from search engines, which keywords your site is ranking for, and how many visitors access the site directly, among several other details.

So, again, it's basically a not a tool for boosting traffic. It's no more than a monitoring and intelligence tool. But you can use the data you get from it to boost your rankings. For example, if you notice that your blog is ranking for a certain keywords, you can pull more traffic from those keywords by publishing more posts around them.

bioemmy:
Lolzzz..

No real sins bro.. Mistakenly clicked on some of my ads ooo.
I just purchased the AdSense self and made like $150 in a month plus on a blog that generate up to 20,000 Page view per day. I have cried and learnt my lesson. just don't want to take chances with this my second trial.

Mistakenly? You'd better tell the truth.

Google understands that there might be error clicks, so they give the benefit of the doubt for few user-generated clicks. For them to ban your account, that means many/several clicks must have come from your end. And I doubt if that would still pass as "mistakenly".

I do mistakenly click on my ads once in while, and I've not been banned since almost 2 years back, when I started with Adsense.

fighal:
I'm asking this question because my site if mainly focused on Nigerians, it was built mainly for Nigerians. So is it advisable to use a local host to host my site? And do local host provide security?

Even if your site is focused on Nigerians, that doesn't stop you from going with a foreign host. As much as I advocate for Nigerian products and services, I take web hosting services as an exception for many reasons.

First, many web hosting companies in Nigeria are experimental businesses that only purchase reseller packages from foreign companies. Once these businesses aren't getting the profits they're projected, they fold up, leaving their clients to start from scratch.

Second, most of these companies are built so heavily around one or few individuals that if anything happens to the stakeholders, the whole business suffers. Remember Syskay?

Third, most web hosting services in Nigeria suck when it comes to customer service. When you contact them about your plan to purchase hosting with them, you'll be dealing with angels. But when you run into problems after becoming their customer, they'll turn into devils! They'll ignore your calls and emails and leave you biting your fingers.

Fourth, many of them offer crappy credentials in the name of trying to offer cheap plans. Why on earth would any company offer a plan of 1GB disk space and 2.5GB bandwidth. Most of the time, beginners who really don't know what these mean are conned into buying them, only for them to start running into bandwidth issues shortly after.

Fifth, many of their staff don't have enough technical knowledge to handle even simple support issues. And that's why they don't help most of the time -- not necessarily because they don't want to help. After all, you can't help with what you don't know jack about.

Sixth, the present state of the Nigerian economy won't just allow some businesses to run smoothly. Web hosting is one of them.

I know this won't go down well with Nigerian web hosting services and their apologists, but the truth needs to be told. All I've written is based on personal and referred experience as well as several stories of woe that I've read here on NL.

If you think most Nigerian hosting companies are reliable, ask yourself why Nairaland, the newspaper websites, websites owned by tertiary institutions and reputable organizations, and the most popular blogs in the country are not domiciled with Nigerian hosting companies.

PS. Read well between the lines, and you'd see that I never generalized. I understand that there might be few exceptions. My points apply to most, not all. But it's hard to tell who would falter in the next minute.

ubiquitousade:
how do you drive traffic to these sites

now if it's by Search engine, how long will it take to see around results

I drive traffic through SEO -- by crafting long and detailed review posts that are well optimized for the target keywords. It usually takes between 3-7 months to start seeing results for a post that you will get to rank for.

Chillinmasoul:
The question is how many Nigerians still but Amazon product?

Amazon niche sites are not targeted at Nigerians. They're targeted at buyers in countries like USA, UK, Canada, etc. So, if you're looking at this model of online business, you must be ready to offer information that is catered to a foreign audience.

kingpado:
how does one withdraw his/her money to a Nigerian account from this amazon affiliate?

Your first step is to get a Payoneer card (apply at Payoneer.com and follow these steps).

Once you receive the card, activate it. You'll be sent your US virtual bank account settings (if you're not sent, apply for it).

You'll then submit the US bank account details to Amazon. So, each time you're paid to that account, the funds automatically reflect on your card, and you can withdraw the Naira equivalent at the ATM.

boi21:
God bless whoever who wrote this article. You hardly find Bloggers who will explain shii to you. Evwrything he wrote is right. That's it. Beem there

God bless you, too.

Emmafe:
I no fit laugh i swear. You use 45,000 page views to make $11. I make $11 with just 1,000 - 1,500 page views (No Black Hat). If i can get 45,000 page view, i'm 100% sure i will make $600.

I wonder how people are quick to laugh at things they obviously don't understand. If you don't have comprehension issues, you should have seen "today so far" over the part where $11.25 dollars was written in the screenshot. I uploaded the screenshot around 9am that day, and that $11.25 was my earnings from 12.00am and 9.00am that day. Just so you know, I went on to earn over $40 that day.


Did you see the figures for "last 28 days" and "current balance" in the earnings? If I was earning just $11 per day as you thought, how would that amount to over $800 per month? How would the "last 7 days" earnings amount to $259.44 with just $11 per day?

And really, if $600 is all you can get with 45k page views as you said, then that's a real sorry case. With my own 45k page views per day, I earn between $800 to $1100 per month.

ibuzzngr:
Thanks for the info Webincome, can amazon niche site work with our blog? Although we are currently using AdSense to monetize our blog and we receive between 3000 to 5000 per day, we would love to know if amazon can work for us....we our blog focus mainly on Entertainment, News and Lifestyle.

Thanks

Amazon affiliate doesn't really work with entertainment blogs, especially those targeted at Nigerians. They work best for product review sites targeted at buyers in developed countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, etc).

Franciscototee:
Hello, i want to know if ones account has to be approved by google adsence before using the Amazon affiliate niche

Amazon affiliate has nothing to do with Adsense. But using both on the same blog can be counterproductive.

Now, what's the essence of this thread?

I never planned to sell anything here (unlike what some people might expect).

My aim of creating the thread was to motivate wannabe bloggers to be more creative. There's more to blogging topics than entertainment and celebrity gist (even my BLOG A isn't an entertainment blog, although it's targeted at Nigerians).

More importantly, there's more to making money blogging than Google Adsense.

You can create your own Amazon affiliate niche now, and you can start earning something cool within the next 6-9 months. So far you're able to choose a niche that isn't competitive, you'd be fine.

There are many articles on the web that would teach you this. Just Google "How to Create an Amazon Niche Site", and you'll see many step-by-step detailed guides that will explain all you need to know. Similarly, you can visit Blackhatworld.com, and enter "Amazon niche site" in the search box. You'll see threads by members who have achieved success at this strategy. That's one badass forum you should read if you want to learn practical strategies for making money online.

Aside affiliate marketing, other monetization options include creating your own digital product and information marketing.

So, know that there are unlimited opportunities online. Just look beyond the only ones you've been looking at, be willing to WORK HARD and PLAY BY THE RULES. And you'd be just fine.

I'm not going to go into details of how you can create your niche site because I already directed you to places where you can get the information online.

Please don't send me PMs (I don't get them anyway). And don't send me emails regarding this.

I hope I've inspired someone.

Enjoy!

Now, here's what makes BLOG B interesting:

The 1288 visits resulted in 297 clicks, which in turn resulted in 38 orders from Amazon.com. That means the site had a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 23 percent. And that's because the visitors are highly targeted ones who really want to buy the products I reviewed on the site. So, if this same site starts attracting 12,000 monthly visits in the future, one could expect about 3000 clicks, and about 10 times its present monthly earnings (about $1,500). Remember, 12,000 monthly visits is just 400 visits per day.

With Google Adsense, you can NEVER get a CTR of 23 percent. The best you can get is between 5-6 percent (although I've not met anyone whose CTR is even up to that). For most bloggers I know, the CTR is usually within 1-2 percent. So, with my own usually CTR of 1.4-1.7 percent, BLOG A needs to attract about 14,000 visits every day and generate about 45,000 pageviews daily just to earn between $25 and $50.

So, to earn a decent income from Adsense, you need huge traffic. That's the point I'm trying to drive home here.

Let's imagine, BLOG B was also monetized with Adsense. Even at a CTR of 3%, it would have generated only about 38 clicks in the last one month. And with a cost per click of $0.20, it would have earned a meager $7.72 over the last 30 days. That's a frustrating figure, you know?

On the other hand, imagine if BLOG B were generating as much traffic as BLOG A. It would be generating around $30,000 to $40,000 per month. And yes, some badass affiliate marketers I know (not Nigerians, though) earn as much monthly. That's the earning potential of affiliate marketing.

As you can see, BLOG B attracted just 1,288 visits in the last 30 days. That's not even near what BLOG A attracts in a day. But ironically, BLOG B earns at least $100 per month, and will most likely hit $200 this month.

I'm not done yet. I'll reveal some more insights shortly.

$100 (about N35,000 at the moment) might look too small, but it means a lot to beginners. Besides there's always room for growth over time. As you can see, the site has earned $115 so far this month, which means chances are high that it will gross $200 by the end of the month.

Guess what? BLOG B attracts less than 100 visits per day. See the following screenshot, which is it's traffic report for the past 30 days.

As you can see, BLOG A attracted 410,000+ visits and generated over 1.2 million page views over the last one month.

So, making a decent income from Adsense is not easy. And it's not for those who are generating just 200 to 500 visits per day.

Now, there's an easier alternative that won't require as much work and time (you'll still work very hard, though). And that's niche affiliate marketing. I particularly recommend Amazon Niche sites for a start because you can start getting results within as little as 6 months.

Look at the screenshots below, showing one of my Amazon niche sites (let me call this BLOG B), which presently earns at least $100 monthly.

The figures look attractive, right?

What you really don't realize is that the blog attracts about 14,000 visits and generates about 45,000 page views daily. And to get it to that level took me 3 long years.

Here's the traffic report of the site for the last 30 days (as retrieved from Google Analytics):

I see many newbie bloggers getting worried over rejected Adsense applications. But they really don't know that making a decent income from Adsense alone requires massive (I mean, very massive) traffic, which usually takes years to build (or huge amounts of money for those who want quick results through paid promotion).

For example, here is a screenshot of the Adsense earnings of my top earning site (let me call it BLOG A), which I monetize with Adsense and selling ad slots directly to advertisers:

omonnakoda:
You do not have any successful blogs you are jobless and ignorant. Stop making noise.

Thank you.

LECTURE CONTINUES...

Taking blogging as a business

A business is any venture that is engaged in for the purpose of making a profit. If profit is your reason for going into blogging, then you're actually going into a business. And you really need to take your blogging as such.

If you think blogging is all about opening a free blog on Blogger, stealing posts from other sites, spamming Nairaland and Facebook groups with your links, putting up Adsense ads, and sitting back to watch your bank account grow fatter, you're dreaming! I mean, you're only chasing shadows. If that has worked at a time in the past, I'm cocksure it doesn't work again now.

So, what are the things to do before starting a blog?

Just as you would need a business plan to start a physical business, you also need to plan your blog carefully even before launch. Here are questions you need to ask yourself before getting started:

1. What topics are Nigerians interested in and are searching the web for? (If entertainment is your only answer, no problem. Later on, I'll reveal how you can build an entertainment blog that will stand out from the shitty crowd).

2. What topics are you really passionate about, interested in, or knowledgeable on? It doesn't have to be a topic you know so much about. But you must be interested in it and be willing to research extensively about it.

3. Are you targeting a Nigerian audience or a global audience? The Nigerian front is less competitive and you really don't need stellar writing skills to make a mark. On the other hand, the global front if more competitive but much more lucrative. And you'll need to really have world-class copywriting skills for you to be taken seriously.

4. What types of information would you be offering on the blog?

5. Who exactly are your target audience? Wannabe farmers, wannabe small business owners, fashion freaks, tech gurus, job seekers, students, etc.

6. How will you create unique content for your blog? If you're not a good writer and are not willing to pay someone to write good articles for you, then blogging isn't for you. Try something else.

7. What monetization methods will you adopt? Adsense, affiliate marketing, information products, freelance services, etc.

8. What traffic strategies will you adopt? Search engine optimization is by far the most reliable for bloggers who want an "autopilot" blog that pulls in traffic even if they don't publish new posts. Social media, forum marketing, etc is more appropriate for those who publish "transient content" like news updates and entertainment gist.

9. How much would it cost to start the blog? While Blogger is free, I always recommend WordPress, which offers much more in terms of functionality, aesthetics, user experience, and optimizability.

10. What materials would I need to start blogging? Some would say you can use your smartphone, but to me, that's cumbersome. Your best bet is a PC. And it goes without saying that you need a reliable Internet connection.

In addition, you'll need to have a lot of free time on your hands because blogging requires investment of time and effort. If you're able to set aside at least 2-3 hours a day for blogging (and you're consistent with that), then you're fine.

Most importantly, you'll need a mentor. Now, don't ever rush to anyone who calls himself a mentor. A real mentor is someone who has achieved what you're also trying to achieve and has proof of that (not just word-of-mouth claims). Also note that you don't have to meet a mentor physically. Their are many bloggers out there who can be your mentor as far as blogging is concerned. Some of them are Jon Morrow of SmartBloggers, Neil Patel of QuickSprout, Sonia Simone of Copyblogger, Tom Ewer of LeavingWorkBehind, Brian Dean of Backlinko, and many others who teach practical and scalable tips on how to build a successful blog.

Achieving success in today's blogosphere requires learning new things everyday. I mean tips on how to grow your traffic and audience. Your aim here is to discover working strategies and replicate them for as long as they continue to work.

Let me stop here for now. I'll be back later.

babarazy:
Nice info op. But, are you a successful blogger?

Thanks for your question. It all depends on your definition of success.

If what you mean by success is income, then I'm successful. I have a blog that earns at least $900 in Adsense every month. I have another that earns at least $150 from Amazon affiliate program (and I'm even building another that is already making money). And I have a third blog, where I make money from information marketing and freelancing. Finally, I have a fast selling ebook titled, "How to Get Your Dream Job in Nigeria", which also fetches a decent income monthly. You can Google the title to see for yourself. If you're still doubting, I can show you screenshots of my earnings from Adsense and Amazon.

If what you mean by success is the number of people I've helped in one way or the other to establish profitable online businesses, then I'd also say I'm successful. Here are some of the blogs owned by people I've mentored (blogs that I'm sure are already making cool money consistently):

homeremediesbox.com (Adsense, affiliate marketing)
(Adsense)
reviewcious.com (Adsense)
sheiscomplete.com (Freelancing)
nigeriafashiontrends.com (Adsense)
naturalhealthbag.com (Adsense, affiliate marketing)

Those are the ones I can remember for now. Feel free to contact the owners and ask if they know Abass Toriola.

Empredboy:
Nice points. Please can i open a google Adsense account on my free blog?

Which blogging platform are you on? If it's Blogger, the answer is YES. If it's , the answer is NO.

omonnakoda:
Not everyone is in it for money.I have come across a blog that is very good and almost a secret. But then wisdom is often a secret and often scorned, pearls before swine and all that......Some blogs may only be appreciated after the creator dies. So success is not about money always but touching lives and like a good book a good blog will be useful in 1000 years.
With respect the last sentence is silly for someone who is positioning himself as a dispenser of insights.
Come back when you have a "successful " blog and CAN BOTHER to edit. Rubbish!!!

Of course, this post wasn't aimed at those blogging for fun or as a hobby. It's targeted at those who want to make a living blogging and see successful blogging as profitable blogging.

Well, I think your comment on my last sentence is sillier because I don't see how it should give you headaches or palpitations. And for your info, I have a number of successful blogs, and all I'll be revealing here is based on 5 years of blogging experience. I don't need your opinion on my words at all.

DJBIGGY:
forget all that yans.... u can still be an entertainment blogger and be successfully any day. problem is that Nigerians are messed up lazy and want the easy way out. what stops a health blogger from copy issues from health sites and claim they wrote it.

there are a thousand and one product in the open market and online market. what make you unique us content, content, and still content.

if Nigerians can learn to be innovative, blogging can still take over as the best entrepreneurial business one can. offer.

Please learn to read between lines. I already stated this in my post: "I'm not saying you can't build a successful entertainment blog now,..."