If you’ve been looking for a way to make money online in Nigeria, starting a blog might be a good way to start making money online. You can earn up to ₦500k or even more monthly from your blog as a beginner.
The good thing about this blogging business is that you can start with little or no capital. You can start your blog with a free domain name and hosting plan and upgrade later.
Your blog can be your voice, your portfolio, your resume, your personal brand.
Henry Chen
In this blog post, I’ll show you step-by-step how to start, grow, and monetize your blog in Nigeria. I’ll keep it simple and easy to understand, so you can get started quickly.
What is Blogging?
Blogging is like having your own online journal or diary, but it’s available for anyone to read on the internet. It’s a way to share your thoughts, ideas, knowledge, or experiences with a wide audience.
Bloggers typically write articles or posts on various topics, and these posts are organized in reverse chronological order, with the most recent one appearing at the top of the blog.
How to Start a Blog in Nigeria
Starting a blog in Nigeria is not hard. Here are some simple steps to follow to set up and start your own blog in Nigeria:
1. Choose a Topic (Niche) for your blog
When you want to start a blog, it is essential to have a specific topic(s) that your blog will be focused on. Here are a few things to consider when considering a topic or niche to choose for your blog:
- What are your hobbies or things you love talking about?
- Choose topics that provide enough room for discussion and have various aspects.
- Consider how profitable the topic is.
- How many people are searching for that topic or related topics?
2. Choose a Name for your blog
The first thing you’ll need to start your blog in Nigeria is a name for your blog. Choose a name that correlates with your blog topic. For example, if your blog is about food, you can have a name like GleeFries.
Choose a unique name that has not already been used by others to avoid trademark issues.
3. Get a Hosting plan and a Domain Name
After you have chosen a name for your blog, the next thing is to get a domain name and web hosting. A domain name is the address of your blog; this is usually your blog name plus an extension. An example is jdveritas.com. JD Veritas is the blog name; when you add the “.com” extension, it becomes the domain name.
It is advisable to keep the domain name as short as possible. Also, consider using a .com, .ng, .net, or .com.ng extension for your Nigerian blog. You can get a domain name for as little as ₦1,300 from Domain King.
A hosting plan, on the other hand, is a web server that hosts all your website files, images, videos, and content and makes your website accessible online. You can get your hosting plan for as little as ₦750 per month and get a free .com.ng domain name on DomainKing.
4. Choose a Blogging Platform
Just as you need a kitchen to cook, you also need a blogging platform (CMS) to blog. A Content Management System (CMS) is a dashboard where you can control your blog.
You can write and edit posts, change the theme of your blog, and manage many other things through your CMS Dashboard. This makes blogging simple and easy for you.
There are many blogging platforms you can select from. WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, etc. The most commonly used is WordPress because of its simplicity and because it has so many plugins, themes, and extensions that can add extra features to your blog.
5. Set up your Blog
After you’ve chosen your blogging platform, the next step is to install this CMS (WordPress) on your Cpanel hosting. It’s actually very easy to install WordPress on your host’s Cpanel (control panel).
This doesn’t require much technical know-how. It’s an easy process and can be done in a matter of minutes. Most hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation.
6. Design and Customize your Blog
After you’ve installed WordPress on your Cpanel and your blog is up and running, you may want to customize your Blog by changing the Theme, editing the Theme templates, etc.
You can do this by logging into your WordPress dashboard. Access the login page by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin, putting in your username and password, and then logging in. You can now change anything you want on the site through your dashboard.
7. Publish your first Blog Post
Now that your blog has been set up, the next thing is to start writing blog content and articles to publish. Your first blog post can be about what your blog is about. Or you can just start with articles relating to your niche.
Your content should be easily readable and moderately lengthy. Your main aim should be to provide quality content for your readers—articles they’ll enjoy reading.
How to Make Money with your blog
To make good money from your blog, you should be able to get a substantial number of views. Getting organic traffic to your blog is the main and probably the most stressful part of blogging. After you have generated a good number of visitors (traffic) to your blog, you can monetize it and earn through:
1. Display ads
This is the most common and easiest way to make money with your blog as a beginner. To display ads on your blog, you’ll need to sign up for Google Adsense and register as a publisher. Google will automatically start to display ads on your blog when it is approved and you will earn per click and views on those ads.
To get approved for Google AdSense, you need to have a good number of quality and original blog posts, a responsive theme, an easy-to-navigate website, and significant monthly blog views.
Even though Google Adsense is by far the most popular ad network for bloggers, it’s not the only one. There are many other Google AdSense alternatives you can use to display ads on your site and get paid.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting other people’s products and getting paid a commission for every sale you make through your unique link.
So, you can include your affiliate links within your blog posts where relevant, and you’ll receive a commission anytime someone purchases a product after clicking on your affiliate link.
To start earning through affiliate marketing, find a list of the top affiliate marketing programs in Nigeria and sign up as an affiliate. By doing so, you’ll be given your unique affiliate link, and you can see how many clicks and sales your link has generated.
3. Selling Products
If you have your own products, you can use your blog to promote your products and get sales. It’s just like affiliate marketing, but in this case, you are promoting your own product and getting the full amount paid.
This is most effective when you have a large community of readers who trust you. They’ll be more likely to patronize your products because they trust you.
4. Post-sponsorship
When you have a wide blog audience and strong influence over them, businesses and brands will want to pay you to promote their business on your blog post or even make you an ambassador.
5. Offering Services
If you offer services that may be needed by your readers, you can also promote your services on your blog. You’ll be surprised at how many clients you can get from your blog.
Conclusion
In conclusion, starting a blog in Nigeria and turning it into a source of income is an exciting and rewarding journey. To make a good amount of money from your blog, you’ll need to have a good number of views and a loyal community of readers.
So, take the first step today and embark on your path to blogging success in Nigeria.
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