7 Ways to Grow a Successful Blog in Nigeria

As a Blog Trainer, I often get asked, “Sam, what are your best tips for starting a successful blog?”

Even though I have often shared a few tips here and there with these guys, I figured it might just make sense to do a thorough write-up on how to start a successful blog in Nigeria without losing your mind.

However, a lifetime ago, I shared a really powerful post with ViralWriter Community on How to Become a Successful Blogger. [blog is no longer online though]

In that blog post, I shared ten different tips on how to be a successful blogger; some of which are still very valid and useful for beginner bloggers.

So in a way, the following strategies are the hybrid version of some of the best ways to start a successful blog in Nigeria without going crazy!

Okay, I have noticed that everyone wants to become really successful at whatever it is they do, in this case, blogging.

I am not sure I know of anyone who doesn’t want to achieve success with their blogs.

I know I do want to get to that point where I can cross my leg, relax and munch on some pizza knowing that I am living the internet lifestyle.

You see, I want to get to that point where like, Ryan Biddulph of BloggingFromParadise; I can travel all across the world enjoying myself to the full.

Let me guess.

You want to take your girlfriend to the Grammys; to trips across the world, and yes, become a highly placed person in the society in which you belong.

Well, that’s cool but you will need to first know and understand how to start a blog and make money to be able to achieve these feats and any other I didn’t mention above.

But hey, I should warn you that this is a really long article…

…and it is over 2000 words long.

So, please take your time to read it and read it carefully.

If you have to bookmark, please do it so you can read it later, at your leisure time.

So, you’ll like to pick my brain?

Here you go!

How to Start a Successful Blog in Nigeria – My 7 Simple Tips!

So, if you have been searching and researching how to start a successful blog in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, then I will suggest you bookmark this post for a later read.

Really, growing a successful blog isn’t hard at all, you just have to take your time to carefully read this post and apply the lessons shared in it.

#1. Define your target audience and serve them

This strategy has to be the first on this list as it stands to be the most important.

A sage once remarked, “He who doesn’t stand for something will definitely fall for everything”.

And guess what, that’s exactly what happens to people who fail to clearly define their purpose in life. People who fail to know the reason why they do what they do.

What’s your BIG why?

You don’t get to know your big why when you are yet to define what it is you are wired to do or the people you are meant to serve.

I have been around the internet-web for quite a while and I know exactly what it means to find your voice and speak into the void (internet village) your knowledge and experiences about topics so dare to your heart.

So fellas…

• Who do you help?
• Who are your target audiences?
• What message do you share with/to them?
• How do you plan to take them from where they are now to where they ought to be?

These and many more questions are what you will need to pose to your-business-self and sincerely answer them if you were to get past the first stage of growing a successful blog.

So you are asking, “Why do I need to answer these questions before am able to start a successful blog?”

I will be very straight and sincere with you.

You don’t grow a blog, let alone grow an audience who are hungry and as such conglomerate around your blog by serving them junks and perhaps, brilliant stuff that just doesn’t fit into their necessities.

Got my drift?

Glad you do!

You see, when you have successfully crafted for yourself a niche, it becomes easier to drive your target audience in into reading your blog and yes, it makes promoting your blog relatively easier and a fun thing to do.

The more narrowly your niche, the easier it is for you to weave and churn out contents that cater to your audiences’ needs. I should add, the more easily your advertisement and promotional contents/messages become clearer to them. You know that means for more sales, right?

Take my advice: Take your time to check the market structure to see what people are interested in and if you have a serious passion for that thing, go ahead and start out with it already! And be sure to remember that in your quest to learning how to start a successful blog, knowing and filling your niche is the first key ingredient.

Read This: 3 Major Ways to Skyrocket Your Blog Traffic

#2. Get a matching domain name and a top class web host

Well, so many people want to learn how to create a blog these days.

In fact, in every 5 Nigerian families, there is always one or two bloggers.

I think that just goes to show that blogging is the next crude oil.

So, more often than not, you will find some of these lads and lasses online googling terms such as “How to Make a Blog”, “How to Start a Blog for Free”, “How to Blog for Money”, or even “How to Start a Blog Business”.

I know this because I spend most of my free times on Quora answering such questions.

And you find out that some of these guys are really desperate to make money online doing anything so long it puts food on their tables.

Well, I will have to say this…

…You can make money by blogging online, but it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

You will have to go through the rigors of learning how to set up a blog, create content for your blog (blog writing), design your blog to make it look good and friendly for end-users, learn and apply different SEO and SMO strategies, drive traffic, and all sorts.

Trust me, it’s not easy but it is quite possible to do all these things and make so much money blogging online!

I hope that is clear enough.

Is it?

Now, let’s talk about finding a matching domain name and a top class web hosting company!

I had to exclaim that just so I know you heard me clearly. Oh, wait… I mean just to know you read well the subheading. 🙂

A lot of people in the bid to quickly open their own online shop, call it a blog, they hastily buy just anyhow domain name and will now have to hassle about changing and redirecting the old domain name to the newly gotten name.

That’s a lot of trouble. Not so?

Well, others are calmer in the areas of getting a good domain name but are not when it comes to getting a top class and yes, a reliable web host.

See, you don’t want to do one thing right and the other wrong. It just goes to hurt your whole effort. Trust me it can be really tiring and frustrating too. I am speaking from firsthand experience and I know what the H*** am saying!

So, folks, you want to really take my advice, perhaps, my one-million-dollar strategy of starting a successful blog?

Then you have to make sure you get a perfect domain name and a good, fast-blazing, and reliable web hosting plan from InterServer.

By the way, have you heard about my FREE WordPress Installation Service?

You should click the link above to read how you can start your own blog for FREE on WordPress.

It would also make huge sense to check out Oleg’s wonderful post where he extensively shared the 12 Critical Things to Do Before Making Your Website Live. This is one article I have recently been pointing my clients to when I want them to get the whole idea I share with them when working on their website projects. That way, my life becomes much easier. 🙂

Read this: How to Start a Blog – The Complete Beginner Guide for 2018

#3. Let quality be your forte

Quality not quantity should be your forte!

People should know you as one who is quality-filled in their content and everything they do.

I bet the reason why you read the blogs you read or the books you consume is, largely because of how quality-filled, useful and helpful they are to improving your knowledge and growing you as a person.

Dig that?

And hey, when you are about quality, it wouldn’t, at any time, come across your mind to steal other people’s intellectual property (content).

Instead, you will learn and know how to tap into the recess of your mind to fetch out quality and excellent-filled words that will later make for an article published on your blog or other people’s blog, just as I am doing here.

The moment people see that you are about sharing quality write-ups, they will pay more attention to you and what you share and as such come chilling around your blog in consumption of your blog posts.

And you can be sure that they will definitely turn your blog into a community of like-passion men and women.

But remember, it starts from the place of QUALITY, not QUANTITY!

#4. Regularly update your blog

How often do you update your blog?

Do you update your blog daily, weekly, or monthly?

I do believe that you are a direct reflection of your blog…

…And how often you update your blog shows your level of commitment to life and everything else in-between.

When you are not consistent with sharing your knowledge with the people that make up your audience, you simply are telling them that they shouldn’t trust you, that you are a joke and are not in for serious business.

See, there are a lot of reasons why people blog.

There are some people who are just in it for the fun, they share the things that interest them and they publish whenever they deem fit.

And there are some who know that blogging is more than fun, but a serious business. Hence, they run their blog as a business.

So, if you are about value and helping people, then you must change your outlook towards blogging and begin to run it as your second business or even major business.

Remember, these people are coming to read your blog because they feel you have what it takes to solve their pained-points, that is, their problems and worries in a VERY special way.

So, you mustn’t let them think otherwise of your person, else you risk the chances of losing them to your competitors.

By the way, if I was you, I would choose me a good posting frequency as this helps your readers expect your habitually good and well-woven words.

For me, I like to publish my masterpieces on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. I publish interviews on Saturdays and I use the other days to actively promote the blog posts. I will talk about that in the 6^th point.

After all, said and done, people and Google love blogs that are up to date, not dead blogs.

#5. Make your blog interactive

How do you make your blog interactive when you are not about sharing invaluable and quality pieces?

How can you get them coming around when you are not updating your blog frequently?

Interactive blogs are blogs who have a human perspective and one that encourages feedbacks, shares, comments and allows for interaction.

If you seek to grow your blog and make it really engaging, then you will want to carry your readers along by sharing their contents as a guest blog or write and celebrate them in your next blog post.

That way you can be sure they will share the heck out of the post, which will mean for more website traffic and of course help you make even more money online.

Another great way to make your blog interactive and go viral is to simply make use of ‘share buttons’ on your blog, which people can use to share the heck out of your post.

The more people stop by your blog, the more the chances of them dropping their two cents thoughts on your great blog posts.

It’s that simple!

And believe me, this is how to start a successful blog and make money online helping people.

#6. Actively promote your blog

To grow a really successful blog requires that you follow the 20/80 percent rule.

I can already see you asking, ‘What is 20/80 percent rule?’

Well, what that simply means is that you write and publish blog posts 20% of the time and actively promote (write for other blogs in the same niche as you, comment on blogs from around the web, share your blog posts on social bookmarking sites such as Klinkk, Kingged, and a host of such sites and of course on social networking sites) your blog and her posts 80% of the time.

Religiously doing this is surely going to bring about a lip-smacking and an outrageously humongous result for you, that you will have no choice but to find and thank me for sharing these strategies of growing a successful blog with you.

Let me remind you, gone were the days when the ‘Build it, they will come’ works for digital marketers. Not anymore. You want to drive massive website traffic and make huge money online, you will need to get your hands REALLY DIRTY as to sharing the word about your blog to the world around you.

Recommended for you: 5 Reasons Why You Should Power Your Website With WordPress

#7. Make your blog’s design highly profession

Again, your blog is a direct reflection of who you are.

If you have a not-so-cool website, then people will believe that you are a not-so-cool person.

So how do you prove them wrong?

You prove them wrong by simply creating a really COOL, SLICK, COZY, SPECTACULAR website, which will concurrently bedazzle them into finding their way to your domain “blog” every now and then.

That simple!

If you have to hire this out to a website designer, please, by all means, do.

And whatever you do, you must make sure to get one with a track record of creating scintillatingly and sparkling and yes, highly professional designs.

I mean there are some blogs I visit and read, not because of their high and qualitative write-ups (though it’s also a huge criterion), but because of their amazingly great design.

Neil’s Quick Sprout is an example of how thoroughly a website should be designed.

Really, it has this menacing way of drawing you in to keep clicking, reading, commenting and sharing the blog posts.

Isn’t that why we all want to create a blog?

Isn’t this our definition of a successful blog?

You can trust that when the above keep happening consistently on your blog, you would have grown a successful blog that makes so much money for you.

Before I wrap this post up, I just want to share with you this infographic from Infographic Journal. They shared 5 Useful Tips on How to Start a Successful Blog.

Also, I believe this video by James Stafford will show and help you start a successful blog and make money from your passions wherever you are in the world!

Wrapping Up on How to Start a Successful Blog in Nigeria

Initially, I was going to share just 3 strategies on how to start a successful blog in Nigeria, but the “god” of words had to turn things around by blessing me with words that have eventually filled up the white space on my visual editor.

So I want to believe that if you will but follow the strategies I have so well shared in this masterpiece, you would have doubled your earnings online as per the huge success of your great blog.

Now, I know this is a lot to take in in one single post, so please do well to bookmark this page and revert to it later, at your leisure time.

As you must have noticed, I took my time to churn this out and it shouldn’t be a bad idea if you will reward my time for writing this by helping me share the heck out of this post via the social networking sites that you are on.

Also, a line or two of your thoughts about what you’ve read and learned from this post will not be a bad idea.

In fact, it is the singular most important thing and what actually gets me motivated to write and write in-depth articles like this one.

Thanks for indulging me by sharing and commenting your two cents on this post!

By the way, if you want to learn how to start a blog, grow your blog, and make money blogging, you should totally check out my Blogging Course!