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AFRICA • TECHNOLOGY
Paul Aroloye
OCT. 25, 2017
I am a tech blogger in Nigeria. What does it actually mean? In this article, we are going to have an in-depth look at how to become a tech blogger, requirements, types and niches in technology.
When you search for tech blogs in Nigeria you see techpoint, misstechy, specspricenigeria, naijatechguide, techslize. Each of them can be classified as tech blogs but they have different tech niches targeted towards a specific audience. That brings me to a point regarding tech niches we have in Nigeria and rest of the World.
So what does it actually take to become a tech blogger in Nigeria? You have selected technology as the niche you want to blog about and create content on. But it doesn’t end there, you need to know some key aspects before you can become a tech blogger.
This is the key to blogging because a blog is a personal website. So it has to be something close to your heart. We all have our passions. So it’s a good thing you express your passion using a blog which could generate some passive income over time. Who says your passion can’t be profitable? Pick a passion, create a blog and monetise your blog so that you make money while you sleep.
This is an important requirement you must possess: having knowledge or interest in a specific field of technology. I’m not saying you have to be an expert before you start a tech blog. But at the very least you need a little knowledge in an area that is in your comfort zone.
An example: A young man who likes downloading TV shows, movies, software, applications, android games and apps, can open a review tech blog talking about software he has used, how they performed, where to download them. He moves on to writing guest posts for big software company and getting sponsored post requests which would fetch him extra income on the side.
You need to have existing knowledge about the tech blog niche you want to write about. Indeed, when creating content for your tech blog, you have to do some research so that the little knowledge you have about the topic will result in the creation of original content. Having knowledge about the topic discourages “copy and paste” lazy bloggers.
You obviously need an initial amount of money to buy your domain name and account for hosting fees. You have to get rid of the .blogpost or .wordpress hosting names for more professionalism and credibility. You can remove them by purchasing a hosting plan. Don’t be scared when you have to spend the initial money. The truth about blogging is that you need to spend money to make more money. Old time bloggers know that blogging is an investment; you invest your content and get rewarded for your effort either by Google AdSense or other ad networks.
You cannot become a tech blogger in Nigeria without a domain name. I use Namecheap to search and register my .com domain names because currently you can buy a .com domain from Namecheap for as low as $8.8 (equivalent to 3,300 naira using N375/$1 conversion rate by AbokiFX). For Nigerian based domain names like .com.ng or .ng, I use Registeram.
This is also something you cannot do without. Choosing a website or blog platform should be based on how easy the platform is to learn and use. The perfect blog platform should be very easy to use for you: as I said above, a blog is a personal website so you are going to be the ADMIN of your blog. If you never had any experience with blog platforms you can always learn WordPress and Blogger, they are really easy to use and manage.
I am currently using shared hosting from Hostgator that I find quite expensive so I will advise new tech bloggers to use Nigerian hosting like Whogohost. I have used it for some of smaller websites with less traffic so for new bloggers, I advise you to get a good affordable hosting company. You don’t need to be paying N5, 000 per month; start small and when you get bigger you can change hosts to handle your bigger traffic.
If you use either WordPress or Blogger or any other website/blogging platform you need a website template (the overall framework of your blog) unless you want to build it from scratch. I won’t recommend it as it takes much more time. You can easily setup WordPress or Blogger within 5 minutes, it’s really easy!
What should a website template have?
Every blogger needs a solid internet connection to support him/her. In Nigeria it is recommended to have two active internet connections in order to fight internet failures. A backup internet is always a must. I use both Spectranet 4G and GLO 4G networks in Nigeria.
When starting a tech blog in Nigeria, you need to have a primary or core tech niche, and then have 2-3 secondary tech niches. I remember back in 2013 when I started my tech blog, I thought that tech blogs were all-round blogs that cover any tech related topic. After I started blogging I realised there were different types of tech niches. For example in Nigeria we have those specific ones:
Some tech blogs like naijatechguide combine two or more niches together to make a more robust tech blog. So be specific with your primary tech niche because you will find yourself creating content for that specific tech niche more easily and more often.
Paul Aroloye is a tech blogger in Nigeria, his blog is www.nairatips.com where he shares his personal experience in the Information Technology to his audience for them to learn and acquire ICT skills.
