Should Nigerians Blog for Money?

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Blogging is one of those things people do now in Nigeria and for some, it is for fun while for others, it is for the money it can bring.

One debate which has been going on for a while among bloggers and internet entrepreneurs is whether it is right to start blogging for money or even keep running a blog for the purpose or making money.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that people should be free to choose what their intentions are when it comes to blogging. Blogging for money should not be seen as an aberration especially in a country where there is a large number of unemployed university graduates.

If one is living in Nigeria, things like internet services and electricity don't come cheap. There are some countries where people see having those things as normal but in Nigeria, things like constant power or free internet would be considered abnormal and so if one were to engage in blogging which is time consuming, I think they should be some sort of financial kickback.

Do you then think that Nigerians should blog for money? Does it pay to start a blog for the purpose of making money? Can blogging be enjoyable even if there was no money involved? Well I'd say yes in answer to all the questions.

One may blog for money and get some satisfaction at doing it. If one is already rich or has a good paying job or some solid assets already laid down and just wants to blog for fun or as a way of reaching out, it's all good.

Rich people do blog and so do poor people. Politicians as well as journalists also do run blogs in Nigeria. Businesses and individuals also run blogs and in Nigeria, it can be done for fun or for the money.

As a Nigerian, there is a lot to talk about in the blogosphere since it is a big country and there are over 1000 languages and tribes. It can range from issues such as ritualists in Ibadan to sex scandals in Nollywood or from bad roads in Lagos state to places to eat and lodge in Abuja. Blogging can be a useful tool to interact with and educate the people of Nigeria.

It is said that there are over 150 million people living in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and of that number, telecoms report have shown that over 30 million people use the internet. So, I think this is more than a huge number for bloggers to target and there should be no limit as to what to talk about.

Blogging for money is part of what motivates a lot of young Nigerians into blogging and the most favoured monetization strategy seems to be platforms like Google Adsense. A few Nigerian bloggers are also known to make millions from selling direct adverts too and reports about that also attract more and more Nigerians into the blogging industry.

Blogging for fun is what rich and/or comfortable people do just to air their views or prepare themselves for the future. Some Nigerians engage in blogging just for the fun of it perhaps because of the power it attracts or for the fact that it allows them to publish their opinions online and generate a lot of followership. It could very well be just because of the power it gives to the blogger that encourages them to keep blogging. Most people who blog not for the money tend to do this on free blogs like on blogger, Hubpages or Wordpress accounts.

Businesses also blog for publicity and ultimately to make more money since it allows them to interact with customers and publicize their products and services. Whether they are releasing a new product or doing a sales promo, blogs have been shown to be a powerful tool for businesses since it helps them to advertise to the huge online community.

Should Nigerians blog for money? Why not? As long as they are doing something meaningful to inform the society and they get rewarded for doing so, I think it's not a bad idea to do your blogging and also make money doing so.

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday March 27, 2014 at 12:50:39:

Comments:

Re: Should Nigerians Blog for Money? Posted by Chidi on Sunday March 30, 2014 at 20:56:3:

I would like to make money as a blogger. How will I start?