Over the years we’ve seen a lot of blogs come and disappear within a short period of time. Most times the owners of those blogs gave up before they could start seeing positive outcome from their blogs, some other times the authors of these blogs found something more interesting or just figured out that wasn’t what they want to do.
Blogging is a way of life; blogging is a process that involves sharing your experience or opinion on a subject matter.
Before you start a blog or go into blogging, there are questions you should ask yourself and also give genuine answers to those questions. This is where your success/failure in this profession lies. Blogging because others are doing it or because you read a sugar coated post about how much you could earn from blogging, or you’re just using it as a way out of unemployment won’t yield the desired results. But it all depends on what your desired results are.
The three most important questions you should ask yourself before starting a blog are;
•Why do I want to blog?
•What problems will I be solving with my blog?
•Who are my target audience?
Giving genuine answers to those questions would put you on the right path to becoming a professional blogger. The most important thing in blogging is to identify a problem and provide solution(s) to that problem. But that doesn’t mean blogging is limited to just identifying a problem and providing a solution, blogging could also involve sharing your opinion on a subject matter.
If you envision becoming an authority in a particular subject matter, you have to have sufficient knowledge on that niche. The mistakes I see most times in Nigerian bloggers are that most of them are confused and their blogs are directionless. There is no clear path as to why they are even blogging in the first place. You’d see a tech blog writing about “Best Happy New Month Wishes to Send to Loved Onesâ€; you’d see “make money online blog†writing about “Linda Ikeji Baby Daddy’s net worth and propertiesâ€. These are unprofessional ways to run a blog. First, their niches are not clear enough, secondly they are not solving a problem, and thirdly they are not giving any opinion on the subject matter.
Understanding your strength and resources would position you on the right track. Entertainment and news niche is not for individual bloggers; you would end up copying and pasting articles and still be the last to post the news/trends. Knowing your strength and financial capabilities would ease things for you. Another trend going on in the Nigerian blogosphere is the Viral Niche blogging trend, 99% of Nigerian bloggers in this particular niche are doing it the wrong way, these are the people that make the masses see bloggers as liars and hungry fellows that want to make money through spoiling the image of others. Like I stated earlier, you are either providing solution to a problem or giving an opinion on a subject matter.
People will only pay you when you help them solve a problem. Brands will only endorse you when you have a voice; your voice is your opinion.
So if you aren’t solving a problem or lending a voice, you are not blogging. In part 2 of this journey I will be talking about niches.
Blogging is not a Ponzi scheme; blogging is like planting a seed. You only harvest what you planted. Don’t plant cucumber and expect to harvest apples. You have to give first before you receive. This is the right mind-set and it is applicable to every business out there, online and offline.
