Monday 28 January 2013

FORGET LINDAIKEJI! Meet Nigeria’s Super Bloggers Who Make (wait for it) N20m Plus A Month

A growing community of young Nigerian bloggers is leading the way in Nigeria’s new media revolution

Ikeji (Linda Ikeji’s blog), Aloba (Maestromedia) and Bello (Onobello).
Tosin Ajibade’s fingers were busy on the keypad of her Apple iPad. She frantically strung words underneath the memorable pictures she had just taken at an award ceremony held at the Tafawa Balewa Square auditorium, Lagos. She immediately posted the words via her blog, olorisupergal.blogspot.com real time and synchronised them on her Twitter acccount. The reactions were instant and numerous.
For Ajibade, blogging has become a way of life. The young lady, now widely known by her name, OloriSupergal, spends most of her waking hours writing stories, updating her postings and searching for interesting content. And she is fast becoming a hit among numerous visitors to her 100 per cent entertainment website – visitors scouring for information on the Nigerian showbiz scene.
A leading light in the new media revolution in Nigeria is Uche Eze-Pedro. Her creation, Bella Naija, started out in 2005 as a blog, but has been upgraded to a full website with vast audience that spans from Ghana to Canada. There is a chance that four out of 10 web surfers have stumbled upon her blog, which basically is a lifestyle site. Bella Naija takes a look at the diary of the Nigerian social and fashion scene. The site has been doing so well it recently attracted mention in a CNN documentary.
In 2010, celebrity blogger, Abiola Aloba got bitten by the blog bug while still editing Encomium Lifestyle, a special publication of the Encomium magazine. Many ideas, he said, were then running on his mind, ideas he could not execute as an employee. Aloba felt he was being stifled. He needed a platform that would give him independence and relevance, and blogging readily came to mind, thus the birth of maestromedia.blogspot.com. Within two years, the fashion writer cum photographer is not regretting dumping his salaried job for the world of the geek. Now, his blog is a hit among visitors yearning for news and information on fashion, socialites and celebrity parties.
Linda Ikeji has earned herself the sobriquet of ‘Queen of Blogging’. Prior to joining the frenzied world of e-stories, the University of Lagos English Language graduate was a fashion columnist for a struggling celebrity magazine. After two years of toiling in the news room, she quit. As Linda couldn’t stop writing, which has become a passion, blogging provided a relief route. She, therefore, created linda Ikeji’s blog in 2005. For five years, she worked her fingers on the keypad to the bone, posting  various topics and subjects that included music, movies, fashion, gossip and even sex issues, with no financial returns. But she persisted until 2010, when some of the stories posted on her blog began to ruffle feathers. At a point, Linda averaged about 1 million unique visitors each month to her blog. And with that came the much-needed recognition and substantial earnings. In August 2012, Forbes Africa described her as a success and a case study for the business of blogging.
With over 400 blogs and full websites focusing on various subjects that span politics, music, movies, fashion, sports, gossips and lifestyle, Nigeria now has one of the most dynamic blogging communities in Africa. Analysts said the numbers could triple by 2015 with the uncontrolled slide of the influence of mainstream media and the opening of a new vista of market opportunities for bloggers who are reaching a wider number of target audience. Meeting these challenges has made many to upgrade to a full website by registering their own domain names. “Blogspot.com limits you in many ways as it does not allow for various segments. More people and corporate brands seriously want to associate with websites that are very credible and reliable. They prefer sites that have excellent service delivery in terms of the quality and reliability of the information disseminated via their websites,” Ajibade said.
Terrence Sambo, a stylist and blogger, believes fashion sites have made fashion to be more democratic. “There is a lot of social media influence. Technology has made the business of fashion journalism a lot more democratic. Video presentations are becoming a lot more commonplace these days on many blogs, along with live streaming of shows. A lot more people are able to connect with the industry real time, rather than wait to buy monthly magazines,” said Sambo, founder of onenigerianboy.com and editor of Men’s Style Blog.
The rise in the number of bloggers in Nigeria is already yielding positive implications with a number of big-time information technology companies such as Microsoft and Google setting offices in Nigeria. This also means improved technical output and more revenue for bloggers.
TheNEWS investigations revealed that apart from building social capital, blogging has made many millionaires. Many more Nigerians are making regular income from blogging; many, indeed, quit their jobs to become full time bloggers. This revenue is coming through Google Adsense and individual advertisers. The entire e-community in Nigeria is said to be worth over N100 million, and still growing strongly as the advertisers’ base spikes.
PSN

No comments:

Post a Comment