Blogging has become one of the best ways most Nigerian youths used to elevate from unemployment and poverty.
But the question is, How do I (you reading this) start a profitable money making blog in Nigeria as a complete beginner?
While the question above may look so deep and technical, In this post I will guide you step-by-step from scratch to the end so that you can start your own profitable blog as a complete beginner with no coding/programing knowledge.
Therefore, each step would consist of web hosting choice, domain choice, the best theme, WordPress installation, plugins, site optimizations, SEO, Sitemap submission, blog niche, and more.
Quick Intro: Hi, my name is Isaac Johnson owner of finbaze.com, Here I share latest side hustle update, affiliate marketing strategies, tool and tips to help boost your productivity and finance online – If this sounds like the information you’ll be wanting, feel absolutely free to subscribe to our push notification so that you will be notified when I publish another useful contents like this one.
This post is exhaustive and would also consist of ways you can use to monetize your blog with little traffic, so don’t be in a hurry…
Read carefully to the end.
That being said, now let’s get started.
How Do I Become a Blogger in Nigeria?
How to become a blogger in Nigeria is when you choose a blogging niche or area you want to focus on, choose a domain name for your blog, buy a hosting service, and install blogging software like WordPress that will run and manage your blog online.
So, blogging has majorly to do with 3 things. Your domain name (blog name), web hosting (the service that will help your blog run online), and the blogging software (WordPress).
How To Become A Successful Blogger In Nigeria
With my years of experience in blogging, here’s what I’ve learned, to be a successful blogger in Nigeria consists of just 4 important steps.
- Choose a niche or area to blog about.
- Launch your blog
- Optimize your blog for SEO and
- Get Traffic and Make money.
Note:
If you miss No.3, you might end your blogging career, this also means that No.4 is almost impossible.
But not to worry, this guide is all you need to rank on the Search Engines (Google and Bing) and get free traffic to your blog for money.
All in all, understand that if you don’t have traffic or people coming to your blog, you will make 0$.
So, the essence of this guide is not just how to start a blog, but how to get people to your blog for income.
Let’s now get started so you see how to make a blog and become a money-making blogger in Nigeria.
Choose a Perfect Blog Niche
While starting or creating a profitable blog in Nigeria, you need to understand the niche you want to focus on. That way, you won’t find it difficult to produce new content for your blog.
When I talk about a niche, I mean the area in which you’re very good. It may be your hobby, a craft you are really good at, or anything you are comfortable doing and understand well.
Choosing your niche depends on you, but to me, I would choose the most profitable niches because my primary aim here is to start a profitable blog.
Therefore, below is the list of profitable blog niches to start in Nigeria;
List of Top 5 Most Profitable Blog Niches in Nigeria
The following niche may not be what you are good at, but they are more profitable in Nigeria.
1. Review Blog
Products review blogs are the best when you really want to make money blogging in Nigeria because you really don’t need to know much.
If you can buy the product, use it and find out the reactions or even ask people who already made use of the product and gather your information.
You can put up great content on that particular product. It may be a cosmetic review, mobile review, online platforms review, online business review, and many more.
Yes, you can also promote affiliate products in a review blog and make more sales than in an ordinary news blog.
2. Business and Marketing Blog
Business and Marketing blogs are some of the best profitable blogs in Nigeria. But you need to know about business, marketing, and its strategies.
Because so many people are searching for business ideas, and how to market their existing businesses either online or offline.
But if you have never tried and failed in a business and later succeeded, I don’t think it is possible to go into this niche.
As a matter of fact, it requires a piece of previous knowledge in business and marketing to help other businesses grow.
So if you already have an idea in business and marketing, then you can start a profitable blog in Nigeria under the business and marketing niche.
3. Personal Finance
Personal finance is another profitable blog niche to start in Nigeria, if not the best. It has a wide range of branches, which include how to make money, investment, and more.
If you have an idea of how to change people’s life using personal finance, then this niche is for you.
However, you don’t just teach; you need proof in other to keep getting an audience in this niche, else you would just lose traffic after the first visit. Indeed, it’s a good niche to start a Profitable Blog in Nigeria with.
4. Fitness Blog
Another one is the fitness niche. This niche is another best niche to start a Profitable Blog in Nigeria. In fact, there are many men and women who want to burn fat, build muscle, and more.
Especially those who are pregnant and would require some kind of special excises which would not affect their baby.
If you are a fitness specialist, you would make a lot of profit in this niche.
Either by selling affiliate products or by offering subscribed (Do it Yourself) training, especially for pregnant mothers or anyone.
5. Travel Blog
The travel niche is my second favorite to start a profitable blog in Nigeria with. This is because it focuses on so many experiences, both international and local.
You really don’t need to travel to the UK, or the USA to get the experience. You can tour your own local hotels, airport, restaurants, and more.
Example: Best Hotel In Port Harcourt, Rivers State
However, there are so many local guides on google local guide connect . They can help you get an insight into the surrounding locations, hotels, restaurants, beaches, and more.
All you need to do is log on to Local guide connect, then search for any local guide in any city you want to explore. Then again, look through all their reviews to find what to write about.
Web Hosting and Domain Choice
While starting a profitable blog in Nigeria, another factor you should take seriously is the web hosting and the domain name of your blog.
Choose a Short And Memorable Domain Name
Take, for example, you want to start a business and marketing blog, and you never had any idea of a name to use.
A domain name is your brand/business name.
Example: Forbes.com, Google.com, Goal.com, and Finbaze.com, these are all domain names. every website or webpage requires a domain name since they serve as unique identifiers on the internet.
A website domain name or URL tells a web browser HOW and WHERE to retrieve a resource.
Then you decided to mix your full name with business and blog at the end (e.g. johnsoncompanyname.com).
Though it may not be too bad depending on your name, mixing your name with a business blog or any other niche is not professional.
Therefore, you have to think of a professional name to use for your domain. The name has to be short and memorable, so your visitors can always remember it easily. (see how simple our domain name looks – finbaze.com).
Then again, the name has to come as a search keyword. You can do this using Google keyword planner or WordStream .
Let’s find out how to use the google keyword planner to find a domain for your new blog based on a business blog.
Step 1:
In order to find a name that is keyword-related to your blog, you need to use google keyword planner. I have personally used it and it works perfectly.
Head over to Google keyword planner then click on the “Go to Keyword Planner” button, just like the image below.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a google ads account, google would require you to sign-up using your existing google account.
When done with every process, click Continue, and then click the Discover new keywords.
Next, choose Start With Keywords and input any business-related keyword. Then select the location where the keyword is focused.
Though the location does not matter for the domain name idea. The idea is to find names you can mix to form a domain. Which can rank better and be easy for your visitors to remember.
Now we are going to search for the keyword “Business Mongo” and find out what we get as an idea for our business blog.
However, you don’t need to use the name we used; you need to find another name for different ideas.
During the search, I found three (3) keyword ideas to use as the domain name.
Note: These are just ideas. You will get broad ideas from which ever keyword you type-in, then choose whichever one fits and looks good for your business
Step 2:
Now next step is to search if the domain names are available. But here you can use whichever name you want, in my case i used “finbaze.com” name because that is the only name that makes sense to me.
To do the search, let’s go to the Domainking.ng Domain Registration Page and input the name “Your Domian Name” in the box which says “Enter Domains Name“. See the image below.
After inputting the name, click on the search button, then you be redirected to a page. There you can find similar names, in case the one searched for was not available.
If the domain name is available, then go ahead and pay for it, the price of a
.COM Domain is ₦6,300/yr,
.NG is sold for ₦6,200/yr, while
.COM.NG domain sold for as low as ₦1,200/yr.
Then you would also need reliable web hosting to start a Profitable Blog in Nigeria.
Below are my recommended web hosting;
Choose A Reliable Web Hosting
In order to successfully start a Profitable Blog in Nigeria. You also need affordable and reliable web hosting for your blog.
The following are recommended;
- Domainking.ng (recommended)
- HostGator Webhosting
- NameCheap Webhosting
Because every website needs to sit on strong hosting to avoid downtime. Because the website needs to be available when visitors need to access information from your blog.
I recommend you go with What I’ve used and Trust ➡️ Domainking.ng
But if you are comfortable with self-managed hosting, and you can fix technical issues when it arises, then go with the shared hosting from NameCheap or HostGator.
WordPress Installation, Plugin, and Theme
Now that we have really understood how to search for keyword base domain names using google keyword planner.
And have also understood how to search and buy a domain with hosting. Now let’s understand how to install WordPress, plugins, and themes for our blog.
[These steps would show you how to start a Profitable Blog in Nigeria.]
Step 1: Cpanel Login
After buying your domain and hosting, the next step is to install WordPress on the hosting using Cpanel and Softaculous.
Let’s assume you bought hosting using Domainking.ng which I recommend.
Now follow the below instructions to install WordPress on the server.
First, you need to log in to your Domainking.ng dashboard, enter your account email address and password, then click login.
After that, you will be redirected to your account dashboard. “it looks like the image below”
Now click on ➡️ “SERVICES” and click on your hosting account.
Now when you click on that, you will be redirected to a page where you can quickly navigate directly to your account cPanel Login, as seen in the image below.
After clicking on the “Login to cPanel” button, BOOM, you’re on the cPanel Section.
Note:
After gaining access to your account cPanel, I advice you bookmark your cPanel url for quick and easy access.
Step 2: WordPress Installation
Then scroll down to the Software section of the cPanel and click on the WordPress Manager by Softaculouse. See the sample below.
After you’ve clicked on the WordPress Manager by Softaculouse. Next is to click on the install button on the WordPress Management panel.
Immediately, a pop-up box would appear containing spaces to fill your website information.
Like selecting your domain and setting up your username and password. See the image below.
Here all you need is just your admin Username, Password, Email (any email), and your preferred language. Then leave the rest empty, scroll down and click on Install.
After the installation is completed, you would see a link to your dashboard and a link to the blog home page. Click on the link to log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Step 3: Recommended Theme
Now that you have logged in to the WordPress dashboard, the next step is to install the WordPress theme.
Though while installing WordPress, it comes with three (3) default themes. Which are Twenty Nineteen, Twenty Twenty, and Twenty Twenty-One.
These themes are light and AMP-enabled, especially the Twenty Twenty and Twenty Twenty-One themes.
Also, there is another best free professional theme to start a profitable blog in Nigeria, which is the Astra theme.
Although the Astra theme has some premium features which might limit your design but looks more professional while used for blog only.
However, I would prefer the Twenty Twenty theme because it is AMP-enabled and very lightweight. So search engines like Google would love your blog.
Now to install new WordPress themes, check the left sidebar and click on Appearance, then click on theme and select Popular.
After then, hover on any theme of your choice and click install after installation then you Click on activate to activate the theme. See the image below.
But if you want to go premium, here’s a list of some quality themes you can buy from me at a discounted price – note, these are not nulled themes, rather they are premium paid themes I bought myself and use for my previous clients.
➡️ [Get It Here]
Step 4: Recommended Plugins
Now that we have understood how to install the WordPress theme. Let’s now go ahead with the recommended plugins.
These plugins are a must-have to start a profitable blog in Nigeria.
Below are the recommended plugins.
How to install Plugins in WordPress
Installing plugins is easy as installing the themes. Just follow this simple process. Navigate to your sidebar and click on plugins. Next, click Add New button above to add new plugins.
Once it opens, you would get a sample image below. Then You can search for the above plugin.
After your search, click Install Now and repeat the search till all the above plugins are installed.
Next is to activate the installed plugins, to do this, navigate to plugins on the left sidebar and click on Installed plugins.
Immediately it opens, you would see the list of plugins you have just installed. Then, click on activate to activate the plugins. See the image below for a sample.
How to Set Up Your WordPress Blog for Better SEO
Regardless of everything we have done from the beginning to this stage. If you are starting a profitable blog in Nigeria without a proper SEO setup, then you haven’t done anything.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Because we need google and other search engines like Bing, Dock Dock Go, and others to find and index our blog.
Permalinks settings
Then we need to set up and index our blog so they can be found on search engine result page.
Permalinks
Now, what the hell are permalinks, Mr. Isaac?
Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your individual blog post or page on your WordPress site. Permalinks are also referred to as pretty links. By default, WordPress URLs use the query string format which looks something like this:
http://www.finbaze.com/?p=2565
However, by going to your WordPress Settings » Permalinks option page, you can modify the settings to change these query strings into human-readable strings. Example:
http://www.finbaze.com/2022/07/start-a-blog-for-beginners/
There are various different formats that you can use. Day and name, mon and name, numeric, post name, and other. Any format that is not the default one is SEO friendly.
It just comes down to your preference after that.
But for better SEO and human understanding, it is best recommended to use the Post name structure. See the example image below.
Yoast SEO Settings
Yoast SEO is another important SEO Plugin you need to set up. To do this, simply navigate to the sidebar and click on SEO.
Then click on the configuration wizard to get started with the step to step guide to set up your Yoast SEO. See the example image below.
After clicking on the configuration wizard, the below image is what you would get, follow the steps one after the other till finish.
For this first step, choose Option B, since you are just starting a new blog and would not want google to show it on search till you are done.
Then click on next and follow, it is all simple.
Site Optimizations
While trying to start a profitable blog in Nigeria, you need to make your website load faster. This way, visitors with a 3G network can access your blog and be happy to come back.
To do this, you need to set up the WP Super Cache plugin which we installed earlier. How do we do that? Now navigate to the left sidebar, find and click on the WP Super Cache URL.
Once it opens, it would look like the image below. Then enable caching and click on the update status button, after then click on test cache to see it works.
Then go to the Advanced Tab and enable the recommended options. Which are listed below;
Then click on “Update Options”.
Sitemap Submission
A site map enables Google to index your site faster. So to submit your sitemap to Google first is to create an account with Google search console.
After creating an account on the search console, the next step is to input your site URL and verify. Now, verifying your site is important and very simple.
All you need to do is download the google verification code, which comes in HTML form and upload it to the root of your server.
How do we do that? First, add your website or blog URL to the google search console, see the image below;
After that, click on the continue button and you would be redirected to a page to download and install an HTML verification file to your website.
The code would be in HTML form, though there are other means of verification. This is the simplest solution.
Next is to download the Google HTML Verification File and upload it to the root of your website server, then click on verify.
But before clicking on verify, see below on how to upload a Google HTML Verification File.
How to Upload a Google HTML Verification File
Here is how to upload a Google HTML Verification File to the root of your server.
To upload a Google HTML verification file to your server first is to log in to your cPanel dashboard, then click on File Manager. See the sample image below.
Immediately, you would be redirected to your website files. If the website is an addon domain, navigate to the left sidebar, find and click on the name.
But if it is the main domain used while registering for your hosting, then click on the Public_html.
If the file opens, then click the Upload button above and select the Google HTML Verification File. See the sample image below.
If the upload completes, go back to the Google search console and click on verify. Then the next step is to submit your sitemap.
Now click the sitemaps link on the left sidebar of the Google search console dashboard.
Then copy this sitemap_index.xml
and past it in the box which says “Enter Sitemap URL” then click Submit.
How to Monetize Your Blog With Little Traffic (Bonus)
Now we are done with creating and submitting our blog to google.
What next?
Well… creating and submitting your blog to Google is not all.
The main thing is content, content is king and is the only way you can use to monetize your blog.
Why did I talk about content? Without blog content, you can not review products for marketing purposes.
And you can not be approved for google AdSense without having good content on your blog or website.
The whole information about “how to start an authoritative, profitable blog in Nigeria” you found here is contents.
So below are ways you can monetize your blog in Nigeria:
Note: You can never monetize your blog without knowing how to write quality blog content.
This is not about knowing how to write.
Remember we talked about going into a niche you know things about, right? now is the time to make the most out of your website/blog.
Post quality content and optimize them properly for SEO, with this you can be found on search engine result page (SERP).
How To Optimizing Your Blog Posts for SEO
Often beginners make the mistake of thinking that installing and activating WordPress and other WordPress SEO plugins that’s all they need to do.
No Comrade.
SEO is an ongoing process that you must keep up with if you want to see maximum results.
All top SEO plugins allow you to add an SEO title, meta description, and focus keyword to every blog post and page. It also shows you a preview of what users will see when they Google your website.
I recommend that you optimize your title and description to get maximum clicks in search engine results.
When writing your blog post, simply scroll down to the SEO section and take full advantage of it.
Why Optimize Your WordPress Blog Posts for SEO?
Optimizing your blog posts for SEO helps you consistently get more traffic to your WordPress website from search engines.
Since search engines are often the largest source of website traffic, this can be very valuable to your blog, online store, or small business website.
If you’re simply publishing your blog posts and not optimizing for WordPress SEO, then you’re limiting the amount of traffic you can get and the money you can make.
With that said, here is my blog post optimization checklist to optimize your blog for SEO like a pro.
1. Plan Your Content with Proper Keyword Research
Many beginners just use their best guesses to write about topics they feel their users would be interested in.
You don’t need to rely on blind guesses, especially when you can do keyword research to find out exactly what your users are looking for.
Keyword research is a technique used by content creators and SEO experts. It helps you discover topics your users are interested in based on the search engine data.
Then, you can use these keywords to plan your content strategy. This will ensure that you write about topics that people are actually looking for, and it’s a great way to build an engaged audience.
We recommend using keyword research tools like Semrush. They offer in-depth keyword data, competition analysis, keyword position tracking, and tons of other useful features.
2. Find Semantic Keywords for Your Focus Keyword
After you have done your keyword research and discovered keyword ideas, it is time to pick one that has the highest search volume and low competition.
This will be your focus keyword. It’s the search phrase that your users are most likely to use to search for your article.
If you are using All in One SEO, one of the best WordPress SEO plugins, then you can set the focus keyword in your article’s SEO settings. This allows you to see how effectively you have used it in your article.
Next, you need to find the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. These are the searches related to your focus keyword.
The easiest way to find them is to simply enter your focus keyword in Google Search and scroll down to the bottom of the results where they’ll be listed.
You need to incorporate as many of these keywords in your content, so you can have the most complete content for your readers.
It’s very important that you don’t try to stuff them in your content. This would look odd to your users, and search engines are pretty good at detecting keyword stuffing.
3. Write an Effective Blog Post Title
The title of your blog post is extremely important for search rankings.
A good blog post title makes your article more relevant to the search query. More importantly, it motivates users to click on your article when they see it in the search results.
You can make your blog post title more SEO-friendly by using your focus keyword in the title.
Aside from adding your focus keyword, we also recommend making your headline catchy and click-worthy. That’s because your organic click-through rate (CTR) plays an important role in SEO.
The best way to do this is to use a headline analyzer tool. This will evaluate your headline and offers tips to improve your headlines to make them more engaging and click-worthy.
AIOSEO has a built-in headline analyzer tool that will give your headline a score and offer tips to make your headline even better.
4. Make Internal Linking a Habit
Once you have blogged for a while, you will have enough content that you want users to read. With internal linking, you can send new readers to check out your older relevant posts.
Internal linking is a great way to develop a contextual relationship between your new and old posts. It also allows you to pass relevant link juice to your older articles.
WordPress makes it easy to search for your old posts right inside the post editor. Simply select the text you want to link and click on the link button.
A text pop-up will appear below your highlighted words. Then, you can start typing to search for the older articles you want to link to.
5. Add Images and Videos to Your Blog Posts
Adding images and videos to your blog posts makes them more engaging and interesting for your readers. Content that readers love also tends to rank higher in the search results.
When adding images, you want to be careful about image copyrights. Often beginners copy images from other sites to use, which can get you in legal trouble if you do so without proper permissions.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of places to find royalty-free images to use in your blog posts.
You can also use your original photographs or use other web design software like Adobe Photoshop or Canva to create your own.
Once you’re finished creating your images, you need to make sure to optimize your images for SEO.
Videos are even more engaging than images. You can convert your blog posts into videos by creating slideshows, vlogs, and more.
Join my telegram group and ask your questions. I would be glad to help you.
6 Comments
Pls I’ll need a video guide on how to properly index my sitemap to google.
That’s just where I’m having a challenge.
Very detailed guide, I love this.
This is the most important element of online business in today’s world
Thanks for this
You’re welcome Godstime
Hi Johnson, Please I need help building a website for my business website.
Kindly message me on whatsApp via 08165227952
Kindly Explain More about creating a quality content sir.