How to Blog in Nigeria - Multidox .:.:. Blog

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Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday September 23, 2010 at 17:31:1:

Want to learn how to blog? Want to start your very own personal or product blog?
Well, with the increasing number of internet users in Nigeria and the development of newer web technologies, varying forms of blogging have been developing such as web blogging, video blogging(vlogging), photoblogging and so on. However in whatever form it may come, the basic steps required to blog still remains the same.

What is a Blog ?
The term "blog" comes from the word weblog and it refers to changes or updates you make to a website or web. Initially, setting up a website required that you design and publish your web on the internet and it becomes a simple website. That website will continue to exist as it is until another change or log is made to it. So, for every update you make to a web, a log is made and hence the term weblog or blog.
A blog means to change or update a website. However due to the advent of better web content packages, updating a web site has been made more dynamic and easier.
Nowadays, to start a blog, all you need to do to set up a blogging platform and you're ready to go.

So are you in Nigeria and want to start blogging? Well, here are the basic things you will need:

- Register your own domain name
- Get web hosting for that domain
- Set up a blogging platform
- Start blogging

If you want to also make money online with your blog, then you should just include a third party advertiser like Google adsense in your blogging code.

Registering a Domain name in Nigeria
Now you have decided you want to set up a blog and the first thing you may need is a domain name.

Tip: Select a domain name that will suit your blog's niche for example forexsecrets.com if your blog is about forex trading topics.

A domain name is a unique address for your website. Although some free blogging sites and websites offer free sub-domains, there's nothing as good as having a domain name for yourself and it becomes a good SEO asset that you can build on without risking your account being deleted by wordpress or blogger. A paid domain name adds a good rank to your blog especially by search engines unlike if you were just blogging on a free domain.
A domain name is like a plot of land and you may build on it. It is yours and you can add value to it.
Domain names come aster the prefix www and when you register one, your web address becomes a www.yourdomainname.com or .net or .org according to the extension you have selected. Those extensions I mentioned are for top level domains(tlds) and they are good for setting up a blog. The best tld is a .com as it ranks higher on Search engines. Better get a .com than a .net and a .net than a .org and so on (.com >.net >.org >.info)
To register a domain name in Nigeria, there are two ways to do this:
- Paying in Naira (Mostly through a Nigerian company and/or website by bank deposit)
- Paying by Credit card (With international merchants like Aplus, Netfisms, Godaddy, Enom and Yahoo)

Cost of purchasing a domain name in Nigeria
Buying a domain name could cost you around $12 a year although some companies(like Netfirms, Yahoo or Godaddy) do promos that allow you to buy them for as cheap as $8 in the first year and then increase to around $12 afterwards. You can make payments directly on those sites using a Nigerian bank issued card like Visa or Mastercard. If you decide to pay in Naira, you can purchase domains through Nigerian retailers for around N2000 - N3000 and the payment is mostly done by bank deposit or local online payments.

Getting Web hosting for your Blog
After having registered a domain name, it typically takes around 48 hrs to do that, the next thing you need to do is host that domain for that year
If you are a newbie to blogging and web hosting, the best thing I suggest you do is look an affordable host that may equally allow you to pay by the month. One good host is Hostgator and another is Bluehost and you can make payment for the month and see how their system works and it may cost around $4 -$6 a month.
Web hosting services available in Nigeria cost around N3000 - N10,000 per year depending on the package and company offering it. Some Nigerian web hosts especially offer you a free domain name if you host with them.

Choosing a web host: You need to make sure that your web host allows you to blog or permits a blogging software like Wordpress. Other things you should look at is the Quota and Bandwidth available in the package. Don't just select a host because it is cheap, choose one because of the whole package.
Once you have subscribed to a web hosting plan, you will need to direct your dns to that host e.g for Bluehost - ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com. You will be able to get this by logging into your domain account and set the dns to the required settings.
Note: Most Nigerian we hosts that offer you free domains may not give you free access to your domain as it will already be configured to be hosting on their web and you don't need to set that up and if you want to move your domain elsewhere, you may need to pay a premium for that domain.
Within 48 hrs of paying for web hosting and setting up your domain pointers, your site should be live and will be showing only a welcome page until you build your blog on it.

Setting up your Blog
So now you have a website and what remains is adding the framework and back-end technology that will add content to it. What you no need to do is set up the blogging platform by installation if your web hosting provider has not set it up for you. Some web hosts may actually sell you a ready to use as a package and this is most useful for new bloggers who don't want to go through the whole technical process of setting up some geek website. Some people just want and blog, to type and get their content published on the web, well for them, packaged blogs are much better.
To set up your blog now, what you need is to select from an available platform such as Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, Spaces or other Custom package. Wordpress is the most popular for bloggers since it is relatively easy and powerful to use.
To set up Wordpress on your blog, just log into your web hosting account and click on the wordpress package ther. If there's non, search for it on add-on packages and install a new version. If you still can't install it from your web host, you may go to the wordpress.org websitr and try to install it using your web hosting log in details.
The installation would request that you feed in some details such as your blog name which should be related to your niche for e.g. Solar Energy experience, Coffee Drinker, Mobile tips or just Gardening with Ngozi. So just use Wordpress and select a suitable title for your blog to serve as the general theme on which your blog posts will be based. You may also choose to install your blog on a folder such as /blog or on the home page. Once you are through with your installation, it will indicate success.
With Wordpress installation, you will also need to set up s username and password for you blog profile and you can add your photo too and your profile will be published with every blog post you make. Once you've set up your bloggin platform, you can start blogging right away. In case you run into any problems, you may contact your web host since their package comes with a blog and they should be able to help you. You may also visit the Wordpress site and get help on any package related problems. You may just view the help section in either of them and this can help you going. The good thing about blogging with Wordpress is that for very problem you may encounter, there are already people who have encountered such and have provided solutions on Wordpress forums and blogs.

Start Blogging Now that you've set up your blog nicely and have everything you need to make a first blog post, the next thing you need to do is create and publish your first blog post. Although a default blog post will read "hello world", you can still delete that and publish yours. You already have the framework required and what remains now is the ideas and generating topics that are suited for your blog. Working on your blog's niche: You already know what category of topics that will suit your blog, having set up the domain name and blogging platform, what you need to do now is focus on that niche and see which kind of blog posts you should be making that will improve your strengths. These are topics that will easily identify with your blog an easily rank well in search engines. You need to conecptualise and see what pattern you should follow in publishing your blog contents and the ones that will easily take you to the top without wasting your energy in places where you would hardly make any difference. Every website has its uniqueness and it is your duty to find out what yours it and optimize it. Examples of popular niches and blogs which use them include blogging tips (problogger), technology(Labnol.org), make money online (Johnchow.com) e.t.c.
Writing a topic: This may probably be the hardest part of running a blog as it concerns generating a topic out of your head and putting it in words. To write a topic or blog post, what is required is to decide on the title first which should be in line with your blog's focus. If your niche is in "Nigerian movies", your title may read "The only Nigerian girl", or other title based on a celebrity scandal or upcoming movie premiere. Once you have decided on the topic of your post, you should now direct your energy towards it and write an informative post.
How long should a post be? Normally a longer post will do well in serch engines but may be too weary for a human visitor to read. So you need to find a balance between satisfying search engine robots and your blog readers, hence keeping your blog post between 200 - 500 words is cool. When you are through with compiling your first blog post, note that it is not published yet. You can choose to save it first before publishing or publishing and saving at the same time. Publishing it is what makes it available to the world on the internet but just saving it will make it available only to you for later publishing. The wordpress tool also allwos you to preview and edit your write-up before publishing it on the web and it also has a lot of other features including adding some cool plug-ins such as a feedburner subscription box which can help send your latest posts to your blog readers. Keeping a feedburner subscription box is what a lot of top bloggers use to carry their audience along and some blogger have much more than 100,000 people subcribed to their blog by this means even without the help of search engines.
Getting Blog Readers: The more the number of people reading your blog, the more likely they would tell their friends about it and in turn bring more visitors. Don't expect a tonne of visitors on the first day and don't even lobby for it since you still have scanty blog content but wait till you have sufficient readable content before going on mass publicizing your blog to an intended audience. The good thing about Feedburner subscripition blog is that it can help bring bakc continous traffic to your blog without search engine traffic although search engine traffic will help you for getting first time visitors but repeat visitors will come mostly through Feedburner since they will get an email once you make a new post. So the way you can get such regular readers is by installing Feedburner box in your blog and you can do this through Wordpress or just by going to Feedburner.com and subscribe for the service and lalter paster the code in your template. The best way to get blog readers is by having good content because a blog with good content becomes a reference point in the minds of your blog readers and they don't need to be going through Google to find you when all they can do is type in your blog address and they are in a place they would call a second home.

Conclusion That's about all there is in setting up a blog in Nigeria. Once you start blogging, don't let your fans down and try to always post honest and readable content on your blog. Keeping blog updates once or mor a week will also help make your blog get more popular and that would increase the value of your blog

Comments:
Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Ngozi on Monday February 28, 2011 at 10:31:33:

Thanks a lot for this insight. I started my blog some few months ago and this inspires me to continue working at it

Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Peter Essien on Monday February 28, 2011 at 10:32:18:

Is it possible move my blog from blogspot to a new domain without losing my traffic?

Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday February 28, 2011 at 10:33:12:

I think it is possible to do so but you need to set up the new blog first and then use a redirect on blogger to your new page. I think blogger already has a way to help you publish to your own domain if you want

Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Amadi on Friday July 29, 2011 at 11:15:6:

I need help in setting up a blog for myself. How can i start my own blog?

Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday July 29, 2011 at 11:18:29:

You can learn how to setup a blog in Nigeria here

Re: How to Blog in Nigeria Posted by Olasupo Ridwan on Sunday July 31, 2011 at 21:49:41:

Diz iz gud 4 starter lyk me.But I'll nid guidelines frm a professional jst 2 get through.Diz iz my fb ID;OLASUPO RIDWAN and my phone no is 08165220424.www.naijanewsblogger.blogspot.com. TNX.