How Much To Start A Blog In Nigeria

A how to start a blog in Nigeria guide shouldn't be too technical, from creating to writing.

Making one shouldn't be hard, that is why this guide will show you how to start a blog that is perfect in less than 30 minutes.

In addition, you will be building one of the most secured and organic traffic-driven blogs with the ability to generate money in its first week.

From doing it for a passion and living a fulfilling life, there are ample reasons to start a blog.

People are having the best of their lives through article publishing.

Popular bloggers make millions of dollars sharing their loves.

You aren't far from reaching that height, you only need to begin now by not just writing about what interests you but that which will generate revenue.

Let us take our first dive into learning how to start a blog in Nigeria that makes money.

We will be running through the basics to the advanced in a very simple way even kids will understand.

This is a depth coverage on how to build a blog to making money blogging, with an easy to follow steps.

But if you do not want the long guide, simply click here to scroll straight to building your new blog.

How to start a blog in Nigeria

In order to create a blog in Nigeria that makes money, the following steps apply:

In this in-depth guide, you will see how to do each of these activities the effective way that will result to not just a perfect blog but one that will be generating money right from the first week.

Understand its Essence and Plan

Your decision should not just because you want to start a blog, you need to understand why you need it as knowing its essence will allow you to plan for long term.

While its name is easily straight as writing, it comes with more and you should be keen to know what a blog is all about before creating one.

What is Blogging?

If you already answered to include writing and making it available online, you just hit the nail perfectly.

It practically involves you writing whatever comes to your mind and making it available online.

This can be anything from what you are eating, your new handkerchief etc.

Your writing mustn't have to make sense to be called blogging, it just needs to be online.

A typical example is a lorem ipsum post. A bunch of meaningless text.

Somebody who composes such and publishes online is also blogging.

Looking at Justin Hall, popularly referred to as the father of modern blogging, he was known for writing about his life and things of interest.

This practice remains relevant today with many bloggers publishing updates about themselves through their personal blogs.

These blogs mostly have the names of the authors as the primary domain (we'll cover this later).

Whatever you choose to write about, you just need to hit the publish button for it to be called one.

What is Good Blogging?

Writing gibberish, publishing on the web and sending readers to hell, do you call that good?

Nonetheless, it is blogging despite the posts being meaningless.

Not all kinds of writings are good. So, what should be referred to as good blogging?

Any that communicates meaning.

It is as simple as that.

Your reader should be able to relate to what you are saying without his head spinning to grab the message.

It must not be a 1000-word article to be good, it just needs to communicate.

You reader should be able to understand your point without having to do an extra job asking Google for help.

Good blogging is that which do not cause a bad experience to your reader.

Most personal blogs fall within this category with straight-to-the-point articles on their lives.

What is Perfect Blogging?

This takes steps further from good blogging.

A blog that let you take multiple actions is termed perfect.

It could be clicking buttons to share to a friend, save it to your bookmark for quicker access etc.

This invites business opportunities for you to make money blogging.

Blogs you see adverts on from big brands and some that make money indirectly falls into this arm.

And if you have thought about it, that is exactly the category we will be focusing on in this guide to help you start a blog in Nigeria.

You will learn how to build a blog that is perfect, bring people to read and make money while you sleep.

This looks difficult on the surface, but you'll see it's simple by showing you how to make money while hitting the publish button.

Choose the Best Blogging Platform

Blogging Platforms

Don't forget this how to create a blog in Nigeria guide is intended at teaching you how to start a blog without writing a single line of code.

There exist so many blogging platforms but not all are a fit for perfect blogging.

So, we will run you through the blogging platforms available and advise you on the best for monetization.

So, what are the platforms you can create your blog?

We will mention a few that are popular and show that which is perfect for you to make money blogging.

Below are some of the top blogging platforms available:

Blogger

One of the popular blogging platforms created from the hall of Pyra Labs in 1999.

It has been taken over by Google since 2003 with all blogs hosted on Google servers.

The platform hosts several popular blogs but logically, not the best to build a blog on.

It is limited and you can do a few things that you feel will improve your blog.

A beginner is usually tempted to start a blog on this platform because it is free to use but it comes with limitations.

Pros

It is a totally free solution
Being hosted by Google means you enjoy free security from the largest search engine on earth
Very easy to use. You just need to sign up with a Google account and hits publishing
You get a free BlogSpot link you can share easily with your friends
All your digital properties are in one place if you have a Google account
You might benefit from Google's AMP without doing anything. This is though achievable using third-party tools on other platforms
Ability to easily monetize with custom ads or that of Google

AMP: an acronym for Accelerated Mobile Pages and a project run by Google.

It is geared towards delivering pages that fit perfectly on users' mobile screens especially those clicking through from Google searches and products.

Cons:

Limited access to themes you can use to customise the look of the blog to your taste
Security is also limited considering that all your files are on Google. The day Google shut down the service, you will lose access to your articles and blog

Linda Ikeji, a popular blogger got her blog suspended in 2015 for alleged plagiarism. That is one of the things you suffer using this blogging platform

You have access to a few tools that will help you increase your blog revenue
Google is too busy with many products hence, the platform receives fewer regular updates which is not good for you

Medium

Another popular article publishing platform where you can start a blog but good for just publishing posts.

Famous for its clap feature and a kind of social network for content discovery or what is called social journalism.

This platform despite its features is not a good fit for anyone wanting to build a blog that is perfect.

Pros:

Another easy platform for starters
This is purely for writing posts. Hence, good if you just want to get articles out
You don't need to be tech-savvy to use it, your email is what is required
It consists of a community of contents lovers so, you can get your articles viewed by a connected population
Through its premium membership, you can make money from your articles through locking

Cons:

You are limited to only publishing
The provider can choose to display ads on your article distorting the views of your readers
To make money blogging on this platform, you must be a premium member that cost $5 per month
You can't connect third-party ad scripts to improve your revenue
You can't improve the functionality of your blog other than that provided by its owner

WordPress Dependent

This is popularly called WordPress.com. Invented in 2005 and owned and lies on the servers of Automatic Inc.

Most likely third in three of the most popular blogging platforms in existence after WordPress self-hosted solution and Blogger.

The platform works akin to Blogger but with more features compared.

It runs on a modified WordPress and available to anyone who wants to start a blog but can't handle the self-hosted version.

It is a good solution but not an ideal candidate for someone serious about making money blogging.

Pros:

It is free to use at basic
Very learner-friendly and not one you need to be technically equipped to use
You get a free blog address you can share with your friends
Have access to ample of free to premium themes you can use to change the interface of your blog
Ability to monetise through own-ads or add more when you switch to premium plan
Access to WordPress short URLs great for social network shares

Cons:

You have access to limited functionalities required for serious business
Your blog is entirely on Automatic servers, they can decide to suspend your account for 'unserious' reason
There exist few themes to enhance the look of your blog
The platform allows few custom edits hence, some ads will not work on this limiting your blog's revenue potential

Joomla

A lovely solution and one of the popular open source solutions to start a blog.

You can practically build anything from a blog, website, ecommerce to any kind of interface you want with it.

Considering community, despite being large, you might get a few answers when you encounter an issue.

Because this how to start a blog in Nigeria and make money guide is looking at making you an entrepreneur by sharing contents, we do not advice you go for it for a long-term sake.

Despite that, it is a nice option to use.

Pros:

Ability to customize to your taste
Availability of free, freemium to premium themes for a lovely interface blog
Several plugins available to enhance your blog's functionalities
You are in full control of your blog hence, you can do whatever you want with it

Cons:

Limited to a dwindling community of users
Not a free solution since you need a hosting account to install
Limited plugins for the improvement of your site's visibility and monetisation
Quite difficult to get someone to support you when you have an issue and can be costly hiring an expert
They are a few hosting companies that fancy Joomla. The reason is they want to minimize expenses by not hiring a Joomla support person unless if such is multi-skilled with other content management systems
You need a good technical knowledge to set up one

WordPress Self Hosted

This is another open source platform where you can start a blog and an independent version of WordPress.com.

If you want to walk around this solution, you can download it to your computer and build your blog smartly.

Well, we could have thought you how to do that, but it will be a lot stressful and we will be using something easier that you will love.

This solution is widely known for its huge community and several supports from hosting companies.

And with our site built on this platform, you don't need to guess this how to start a blog in Nigeria and make money guide will be based on using WordPress self-hosted.

Pros:

A huge community of users
A lot of plugins that will wow your imagination at improving functionalities
Availability of numerous free to premium themes for great twisting to improve the interface
You are the boss of your own using this solution
Many add-ons that will enable you to make money blogging about your interest
One click installs by most hosts means you don't need to be technically savvy to use it

Cons:

You need to pay to use this solution. (we will show you how to save about 42% later using this)
Everything is on you especially backups and other security updates
It might take a little time to understand how to fully utilize the platform but worth it

Decide a Blogging Genre

This is decided based on the type of contents you want to be writing about.

It can be anything from what you already have knowledge about or a broader choice that fits what you want to write about.

You need to clearly define this before you start a blog as it will give your contents a kind of direction.

Here below are the categories of blogging in existence:

Niche Based

This basically involves you writing on a selected content type. Example of niche-focused blogs could be any of:

Reviews: portals that review related products and services usually fall into this category. An instance is a technology products review website.

Affiliate eCommerce Shop: a blog operating in the form of an ecommerce store. This kind of blog mostly targets related products and optimize their content well to drive sales to a partnering business.

A good example is a dropshipping business model.

Personal Blog: contents here are mostly personal updates or experiences of its Author. This usually has the name of the Author as the identity of the blog.

Single-topic News/Service Blogs: a kind of news website only dedicated to a topic or that which are related. An example is a cryptocurrency news portal.

Pros:

The best choice if you want to focus on a field you are good at
It will help you develop your skills in a field
This kind of blog allows you to create an expert authority that will make you a known expert about a subject
Usually, it is the best for authorship and could be an avenue for making money selling your own eBooks, products and/or services
Since you focus on a single subject, it is less demanding
Businesses in the subject area you cover will be more attracted to advertise on your blog

Cons:

Topics in this kind of blog are usually in-depth and might require you to sit for hours crafting the best
Your audience is just limited to the field you cover
It is important knowing search engine optimisation in this type

Generic

The kind of blogs that falls into this covers more than one topic. Contents are grouped into unrelated categories.

Examples include:

Vertical News Blog: a news portal covering a lot of topics categorised into different arms for easy access
Broad Topic Blogs: a kind of blog with different categories. A good example is Meedul with categories including shopping, finance, travels and more.

Most entertainment and gossip websites fall into this arm.

Pros:

Operating a vertical news blog, copy and pasting makes it a choice since the same stories are found everywhere. Though to avoid plagiarism which is punishable by Google, change wordings if you want to operate this model
Generic blogs are easily monetizable by serving advertisements from ad networks.
There is more opportunity to make more revenue operating this model
This kind of blog seems busier with a wide variety of contents
With a wider coverage of different topics, you serve more audience

Cons:

You will need to write more or else, hire the services of content writers
If you employ just copying and pasting without changing text, it will affect your organic traffic negatively
You might need to have a little technical knowledge as your traffic grows to avoid slow page loading due to much contents and attachments

Either of the two you chose, it should be secured and monetizable which is the focus of this how to start a blog guide.

Choose a Perfect Domain Name

A domain name is your address on the web. An example is www.example.com.

There are conventions for naming them and it is important you understand what a top-level domain (TLD) is.

In a simple term, TLD is the last part of a domain name proceeding immediately after the name of your website (second level domain). In www.example.com, the .com is the TLD.

This can be generic or country-specific like '.com.ng'.

It is a very important aspect of your blogging journey as a poorly chosen one could halt your growth online.

While choosing a domain name for your blog, bear in mind the following:

Form a domain name that will easily be understood when you pronounce it
It should not be too long to spell
It must not necessarily be your full (brand) name, it can be an acronym of your name or business

If you want to learn more, we have written a guide that will help you in choosing a perfect domain name for your blog.

Though this will cost you about $14 if you are to buy, we will show you how to get one later for free.

After all, this how to start a blog in Nigeria guide has promised to help you save money on your way to blogging fame.

Host your Blog

You shouldn't feel bored because some terms are sounding so technical.

Hosting simply means erecting your house on the web.

So, a hosting account gives you a space to build a house (blog, website etc.) online

All your files (contents, images and other documents) resides on a hosting platform which serves them to your visitors once they type the address.

There exist several hosting providers you can create your blog on but for speed and reliability, we will be using the best that is beginner friendly.

From the next section, you will be building your blog without stress and in all, it will take less than 30 minutes.

Build using WordPress

To this end, we have the knowledge that is required to start a blog and manage it.

This section will be fully dedicated to launching your blog using WordPress and at the end of this, you will have a fully functioning blog.

If your country's financial authority doesn't allow your local cards on foreign sites, consider using a prepaid dollar card option.

For residents in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and some other parts of Africa, we recommend the use of Barter card.

This card allows you to pay for foreign products and services right from your country.

It is a virtual dollar card that enables you to make purchases on international websites.

It has to be funded from your local bank account before you can make use of it.

Creating a Barter Card

To create a Barter Card:

Click here to visit the Barter Website

Register by filling in the required information

Fund the wallet with your local currency equivalence of at least $60

(Barter provides their conversion rate per dollar on your dashboard, you can get the value to fund by multiplying the rate of a dollar to your local currency and then multiply it by 60)

Create a new card worth the whole $60 (you can always delete the card and transfer the remaining money back to your account)

Once your card is ready, you can proceed to finally create your blog, right on your device. Won't that be amazing?

Creating your Blog

For this, we will be using a platform called Bluehost.

Bluehost is a hosting provider and one of the oldest and recommended companies where you can start a blog.

The platform interface is very simple and will give you the best flexibility even if you have zero technical knowledge.

Another reason you need them is that you will have to pay nothing for a domain name and enjoy upto 70% discount as a new user.

You will enjoy a free domain name that would have cost you about $14.

Another thing you will enjoy for free is SSL certificate which is a vital tool for you to conquer online.

SSL certificate gives your blog an added level of security and search engines will treat it special as a secured location for visitors.

To get started, click the link below to register.

Once you click the link, the homepage will look like the below.

Bluehost Homepage

Click the 'Get Started' button to proceed to the next stage.

Then, you will need to select the appropriate plan.

For a starter, you should go with the basic plan. This is fine to handle a start-up blog.

You can always upgrade as your blog grows.

Once you have selected your chosen plan, click next to proceed to free domain redemption page.

Enter your preferred domain and click the next button to continue.

Domain Search

Note: if your domain is not available, it means someone has bought it. You will need to provide an available domain name.

Once you are fine with your domain name, click the next button to continue to profiling page.

There, you will be required to provide your information.

There is a section for package selection.

You can decide whether you want to pay for one year or more. Depending on your choice, there is an applicable discount.

If you are low on budget, the one year should be fine but looking at the future, the two-year option will save you some money.

Once you have supplied the necessary information and decided on the best package, you will then need to enter your payment information.

If you have created a Barter Card from an earlier part of this post, you will use the card information to make this payment.

If you haven't but has either a PayPal account or an electronic card enabled for international payments, you can use also.

Provide the information, accept the terms and click the submit button to create your account.

Once you click the submit button, your account will be created, and an email will be sent to your provided email address regarding:

Payment information
Account information (login details, FTP)

You should visit your email and use provided information to change your account password.

Make sure to use a very strong password.

Once you are logged in, your interface will be like the below.

Bluehost Dashboard

Bluehost is made for seamless use. Once your account is created, WordPress will be installed one-click.

Click the login to WordPress to access your dashboard.

WordPress Dashboard

The dashboard is where you will be spending most of your time publishing and managing your blog.

Now, you have a publishing home set up by yourself and can help your friend start a blog without stress.

You should really be proud because you are a testimony that you can start a blog without hiring the service of anyone.

Once this is done, you will need to do a couple of things before you publish your first post.

Enabling Better Security

The first thing you will need to do is building security that will put you in a secured state.

Every website is prone to damage or hacks and it will be painful if that happens when you have built a large audience.

To avoid this, we will be setting up protection from day one, right before your first post goes live.

SSL

This is an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer.

It ensures every information transmitted between the server and the browser is encrypted, preventing potential harm to the user or customer.

It prevents any harmful modifications by criminals and a very important aspect for accepting payments online and better ranking on search engine result pages.

Luckily, your hosting on Bluehost comes with a free SSL certificate.

To activate the certificate, follow the steps below:

From your 'My Sites' section, click 'Manage Site'
Once you are on the page, continue to security and switch on the 'Free SSL Certificate' button

Once you have enabled this button, your website address should have 'https://' in it within 24 hours.

This SSL certificate is very important for security and SEO (search engine optimisation).

Child Theme

A theme gives your website its beauty.

Every WordPress installation comes with a default look(theme) but you can change that to what you want.

You can buy a premium theme from a provider like MyThemeShop or try one by installing free from the repository.

Depending on where you got one, understand that you do not own the theme.

Because of this, when the owner makes an update to the theme you are using, any customization you have made will disappear.

In order to prevent this, you should always build your blog on a child theme.

A child theme is a copy of the main theme which gives you the power to customize without any fear of damage from an update from a theme owner.

It inherits properties from the main theme, but the main theme owner does not directly have access to change your child theme's customization.

But how do you install a theme?

Installing a theme is not rocket science, you can do that using the steps below.

You will first have to toggle the appearance section of your dashboard and select the theme option.

From the theme's directory page, click add new to access list of available free themes which you can see which meets your taste.

Once you have seen anyone you like, click the install option.

Once you have it installed, click the activate button to bring live on your site.

Now, you will need to go a bit further to add a child theme for your newly installed theme.

Creating your Child Theme

As you already know from the earlier section of this how to start a blog guide, a child theme inherits attributes of the main theme hence, no much difference between both.

It gives you more power of customization without fear of losing your custom designs after theme upgrade.

To create a child, there are two ways to do it but for non-technicalities, we will be using the plugin-aid method.

Note: a plugin serves as an aid to help you achieve an aim. There are so many plugins available on WordPress for different tasks.

For this purpose, we will be using a plugin called Child Theme Creator by Orbisius.

You will need to install it using the steps below:

Click plugin from your left-hand menu
Click the add new button at the top
Search for Child Theme Creator by Orbisius
Install and activate it

Once activated, you will see new menu options when you toggle appearance as seen below

Orbisius Child Theme Creator Settings

Click the option for Orbisius Child Theme Creator
You see options to switch theme and customize title, descriptions etc.
Select both and click the button to create your child theme

Once created, your blog will automatically be switched to the newly created child theme.

If you want to do any customization, you can without fear of override.

Other Tools

You already understand how to install theme and plugins.

So, there are some awesome tools you will need which will enable you to blog better.

Amongst those includes:

iThemes Security: it is a plugin that will enhance your security. Install it and implement the necessary security checks.
Rank Math: a search engine optimisation plugin that serves as your SEO Assistant. It tells you the best way to write that will give you the best appearance on Google. A must for organic traffic.
Ubersuggest: it is an important tool for content research and one you cannot do without if you are very serious about making money online. It helps you to do content analysis and see if a chosen topic is getting lots of attention from search engines. In addition to competition research, this tool does a lot necessary for your growth online.
Grammarly: an English improverment software. It has a Google Chrome extension that will assist in wordings. It helps correct errors in your contents.
Updraftplus: this is a backup plugin. You can run into issues any time and with Updraftplus, it keeps your blog and its content backed-up in case you will need to restore during a hack and similar events
Another important tool is MailChimp, an email management platform. Using MailChimp, you can implement email collection from your visitors which gives you the opportunity to mail them when you have a new post.

Write and Publish

Now that you have successfully created and set up your blog, next will be writing and publishing posts to the world.

This activity is simple using the steps below:

Toggle the post option from your left-hand menu and click add new

Once the new post page opens, it will look similar to the below:

WordPress Publishing Editor

Most things are easy to understand here.

The 'Add title' section is where you specify the title of the post
The main editor is where your post goes

If you installed plugins mentioned in the other security tools section, you will have added features like the SEO section for Rank Math and a Grammarly symbol indicating value of corrections needed to be made.

For you to become an authoritative Blogger, commit to writing a great search engine optimized content. This means you should do research before writing and always publish long content articles (usually not less than 600 words but aim for 1,000 plus).

Monetize

If you want to make money from your blog, you need to have the source implemented from day one.

Some of the best ways to make money from your blog include:

Contextual Ads

Contextual ads are automated advertisements served on your pages by third pary providers.

If you have this ads running on blog, you get paid for views and clicks. While the per click return is marginal but when accumulated, it can run into thousands of dollars depending on your traffic.

Some of the popular platforms that offer this opportunity includes:

Google Adsense
Mediavine
Media.net
Revcontent
AdThrive
Monumetric

Affiliate/Referral Marketing

Affiliate marketing gives you an opportunity to earn money by referring people to buy items and services from third party providers. An examples is, helping your friends to buy a phone and the seller giving you a commission for your role.

There are a lot of services and applications that will pay you to refer your friends. And if you see these apps being useful, you can easily make money the first week you launched your blog by letting your closed ones to know about them.

A very large affiliate community you can join and promote ecommerce products is that of Jumia KOL where you can make hundreds of thousands to help Jumia reach more people.

Product/Service Sales

One of the major reasons people start a blog that focuses on a niche is to build an authority on that subject matter.

Once you have an audience that are interested in your articles, you can sell to them products and services related to your content.

Example of such products include ebooks, online courses, softwares to a lot more.

Promote

Though it is easy to start a blog in Nigeria, bringing in readers lies in your hands.

It is important you have promotion strategies right from the start and some of those that should be on your list includes:

Search Engine Optimisation

You have used Google and possibly other search engines like Bing, Yahoo to get help on a particular topic. Those results that comes up on the pages (SERP) are not owned by Google or any of the other search engines.

The results are from websites that has contents related to your search term. With the power of optimisation, you can get yourself up there with the top results on search engine result pages.

To get started, make sure to

Create a Google Search Console account
Install the Rank Math plugin discussed earlier and activate its sitemap feature
Copy the sitemap address generated by the plugin
Go to your Search Console home and look for sitemap. Add the link copied and submit

Google and other search engines will use the submitted sitemap to understand your website. It is like a map in real world that gives direction on how to locate places

We mentioned UberSuggest earlier and it is one of the tools that will be essential to you when it comes to topic research:

It will give you an idea the search volume for your target keyword
How competitive it is
The top ranking results for that keyword as well as count of backlinks

UberSuggest is such a great tool you should use regularly while doing your content research.

If you want to get high volume traffic from search engines, you should target keywords with good search volumes and maybe start with those that has low competition and progress to tougher ones as your blog grows.

Social Media

Your blog should be treated as a brand and if handles for your name is available on major social media channels then, that is a major boost but if not, coin one that still captures your brand effectively.

Create Facebook, Twitter, Instagram pages and if necessary, add more channels like Pinterest, TikTok etc. Accounts on these platforms are free.

Some of these social media platforms support community groups. Join them and actively participate in discussions and introduce your blog where applicable.

Your early readers and users can come from these free communities while you continue building your search engine authority.

Word of Mouth and Prints

If you could start a blog in Nigeria then you will be happy to tell people about it.

And amongst those traditional means are:

Word of mouth: simpy telling your friends and relatives about your new blog. When you have a new post, you can share with them to have their feedback. In addition to being a true early readers, they can be help you to generate your first few revenues if your blog is monetized from the onset
Print: the print model simply means getting some custom made apparels with your blog name and website address. Get yourself a t-shirt that has your blog address fully written at the back. If you are the type that travel in buses, it is a good approach to promoting your new blog.

Test things and Diversify if Necessary

As your blog grows, you will continue to learn how best to present your contents to your readers.

Monitor performances through Google Analytics, Search Console and other platforms that can show you how people relate to contents on your site.

Based on statistics, continue to test different approaches to see what works best, this is called A/B testing in content marketing.

As you learn, introduce new features and scale alongside the growth of your blog's traffic. You can increase your revenue by paying a very close attention to data about your contents.

That is it on how to start a blog in Nigeria without having to break your brain on technicalities.

Hope this helps you to create your blog easily and reach more audience as time goes.

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