How to start a blog in Nigeria is one of the most searched queries on Google, however, how many bloggers do you know, based in Nigeria. A larger percentage of the Nigerian bloggers you hear about are Nigerian in diaspora. Bloggers in that category have boycotted major challenges the country brings. Bloggers in Nigeria are often saddled with the thought of where to learn about blogging in Nigeria, how to monetize your blog in Nigeria and struggle to attain certain standards for their blog. There are many ways to create a blog in Nigeria and at the same time, people need to have an idea of how much it costs to run a blog in Nigeria. Fashion blogs in Nigeria are currently on the rise. Asides that, blogging platforms like blogger, nairaland and instablog are doing well. Here are some challenges of blogging in Nigeria.
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Misconception
Blogging in Nigeria is a profession with numerous misconceptions. Due to the kind of blogging Nigerians were exposed to in early years, blogging, in general, is often misconceived with gossip and tabloids. The older and uninformed audience often pay no mind to bloggers in Nigeria because the idea is that they are gossips and rumour mongers. This is due to the fact that popular music blog, Linda Ikeji Blog, brought prominence to blogging in Nigeria. However, blogging goes beyond that. Blogging cuts across every field of work. Blogging is a credible profession, capable of bringing in revenue and building a career.
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Lack of resources
Bloggers in Nigeria are plagued by the lack of essential resources. These resources include internet connection, data cost, electricity supply. Not to say Nigeria has no internet connection, there are many internet providers in the country. However, the service quality is a big problem for the regular internet user not to talk of bloggers, whose platforms are based online. Also, the cost of data in Nigeria is unbelievably high, and it never lasts as long as it should. A month’s subscription lasts a week at most. The electricity supply to power your blogging tools and devices is also not stable and in numerous places, it is absent. Apart from these things, materials like cameras, recorders and microphones to record if need be are also very expensive.
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Lack of career respect
Nigerians are used to white collar jobs. In recent times, unconventional careers have slowly become more acceptable, however, the blogging profession still suffers. Because of the lack of understanding of the potentials of blogging and bloggers, the profession suffers a lack of respect. Most careers that are not structured are not respected in Nigeria. People who opt for such line of work are often afraid of failing because their likes are considered to be dreamers, never do wells or ‘loose’. On the other side of respect’s coin, some people may see a marketing strategy in your blog, and because the profession is already undermined, they try to pay bloggers with ‘exposure’, which is disrespectful. Some businessmen and women try to pay bloggers with a freebie that is not worth much, and often dispute fees, the reason being “is it not just to do this”. That statement is one too familiar.
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Lack of credible role models
Seeing as blogging was shied away from for so many years, there are little or no credible role models or authorities in the field with long years of experience. In every industry, the experts help inspire and train the rookies, however, with blogging in Nigeria, everyone is still finding their feet.
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Monetization
A lot of career bloggers in Nigeria go into blogging to monetize. Blogging is on the list of how to make money online in Nigeria. However, it takes a lot of work to achieve that monetary value. For one, you must develop your site and approval from Google for AdSense. However, there are other ways to monetize your blog and the issue there is a lot of bloggers in Nigeria do not know how to monetize their platforms, or how revenue can be generated. Most people here think it is about uploading cool pictures and everyone following your Instagram, it is a lot more, and there are numerous opportunities for you as a blogger. Money can be generated from sponsored posts, collaborations, endorsements, direct selling, affiliate marketing, adverts, and many more. How well you monetize your blog is dependent on your creativity and knowledge.
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Building traffic
Traffic is the key to every blogger’s success. Traffic brings every other goody your way. The idea of building traffic is known however, it is difficult. The competition for traffic on the internet is unbelievably high and it is not a sky big enough for all birds to fly, therefore, you must fight. This is a challenge in the sense that there are various SEO tools that provide data and services to help bloggers increase their traffic, however, subscription for those tools are expensive. Also, the Nigerian audience is a passive one and most times only patronise gossip blogs, leaving you to compete for traffic amongst a different audience. Traffic is also something that is hard to maintain
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Copyrights and Plagiarism
So many bloggers in Nigeria are culprits of copyrights infringement and plagiarism, they copy your content and pass it off as theirs without citing the source or giving a backlink. This is rampant because of the lack of regulations of online content. Numerous news sites have their content copied by gossip sites word for word. It hurts a blogger to see their hard work being merited on by someone else without credit. It takes them back to the drawing board and reduces credibility because nobody knows truly where the original post came from. Plagiarism is something that is embedded deep into the learning culture of the Nigerian people, from the internet research assignments in primary school to that final year project in university that is the cut and paste of 30 other projects.
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Finance
Nigerian bloggers are most times financially challenged. Not to say they cannot afford to cater for themselves, however, catering to their needs as a blogger is expensive and the funds are not there. A blogger must keep their blog fresh and juicy, therefore they must attain higher reaches. A travel blogger, for example, has to think of visa costs, travel costs, accommodation, feeding, etc, which is out of this world expensive within and outside the country. A food, blogger has to invest in transport, meals, ingredients, etc. An event blogger has to invest in event tickets, outfits, and the list goes on. Not to mention the photographers and makeup artists used for professional shoots, they will not work for free.
