Blogging: The Way I See It

There exists a myriad of versions on the history of blogging. My job here is not to go into those details as they have practically little relevance to this article. However, I’m fond of the version that links the history of blogging to housewives who had for many years used blogs to share information among themselves, perhaps as I suppose, on how to cook meals, take care of their kids, do some basic home decorations and general home management. Their interest was never towards finance, it was strictly for knowledge sharing and preservation of it. No one bothered to pay for adverts placement and there was no need to design and redesign blogs, nor was there any natural need to blog for money.

Things however changed as time rolled by. Demand for daily means of sustenance become to drive anterior interests as attention drifted from what is was [as described above] to what it now is – an avenue for making money. But with this came diversions and today, people blog for quite a number of reasons – for pleasure, to educate, to disseminate information, to entertain, and so on and so forth. In all these, no one blogs without a view to making money, whether directly or indirectly. However, few, very few finally make it to the top as choice bloggers. The rest just hang around and before long, back out. Something must have propelled the successful ones to the top, or don’t you think so? And something must have kept them right there on top for a whole long time.

This series take a look at some of the cardinal issues in blogging – with Nigeria and Nigerian blogosphere in view. What are the myths of blogging? What is blogging itself? Why and how do I blog? How can I stay successful as a blogger? These issues swell the ranks of this discussion with yours truly in charge to take you all the way.  Don’t go away.

Myths of blogging

One of the funny questions that come my way from friends and accomplices quite often is, “do network service providers share the money from my MB [Megabyte] with you?” Mehn! That could be so weird – so let’s do the math so you can see how much I make from your megabytes as you read my blog-, lol! Let’s say I have 10,000 visitors who read my content in an hour, and network service providers like MTN, AIRTEL, and GLO decide that I get 30% of each user’ 1mb spent on my blog. 10, 000 visitors would have spent 1000 * 1mb = 10 000mb. Let’s say that each Mb goes forN2.00k only. That means, for 10 000 hits, I would have made 10 000mb * N2.00k = N20, 000.00k. wow!!!

If this figure maintains, that would be N20, 000.00k * 24hrs/day = N480, 000.00k. Jssssss. . . .what a good way to flow!!! N480, 000 in just a day! No wonder why everyone wants to blog – but that’s a myth! It doesn’t work that way friend; never does network service provider share even 1kobo of their income with bloggers or web operators of any kind. It doesn’t happen anywhere and at any time. Let’s see the second myth – get rich quick syndrome

The Get rich quick syndrome has driven many into blogging and at the same time, driven many out! Blogging is not something you do in the morning at in the afternoon it ripens for you to eat. Blogging is not same as pouring Carbide on banana to ripe the following morning. It is not a plate of beans taken with pap. Blogging does not turn one instantly into a millionaire once you’ve dropped a few posts. You don’t go to sleep only to wake up and see your bank account enlarged courtesy of your ownership of a dwindling blog. It takes a lot to have a good, functionary, workable blog. It is left for you to decide what kind of blogger you wish to become – fulltime or part-time.

7 Qualities of a good blogger

1.       A good blogger is a good writer

You have no business with blogging if you are not prepared to write good, useful and meaningful articles. In blog terminology we say that “content is king”. Worst of all, if you can’t write or won’t write, then blogging is not for you. Good blogging exercise is something that requires you to sit tight and type good contents as often as possible. A day should not pass without meaningful readership of and engagement with your blog contents. You must be able to write nice articles like the one you are reading now. I had to sit tight for about 2 hours to write this. Writing as you should know saps a lot of energy – physical, mental, psychological and otherwise. So you must be prepared to write and write convincingly well.

2.       A good blogger is original and natural

Still on content, there are different kinds of writings. There are pure essays, analysis, reviews, opinions, advertorials/sales promotions etc. in all these, your originality and naturalness counts. You don’t just write – you write to get feedback. of course, you want people to comment on the articles, so you must make it as applausive and real as possible. Who has time to waste on useless stories? Not many people!

3.       A good blogger is smart and observant

It’s good to write but writing out of context is not recommended. Your scope should relate with conventional issues, not necessarily on archaic stuffs that are now bygone. I’m not saying it’s out of place to indulge in this perhaps that is your interest. However, being observant and telling tales on what is immediate is a good way to flow.

In the next episode, I shall complete the remaining sections [as already mentioned above] of this article, “Blogging: The Way I See It”. But for the time being, I’d like to hint that in addition to the above qualities;

4.       A good blogger is hardworking and consistent

5.       A good blogger is visionary, missionary and “actionary”

6.       a good blogger is ready to pay sacrifice

7.       a good blogger is NOT money – driven

Thank you. Comments are welcome!