This article was published by a Nigerian blogger named Olusanjo Dayo Edunjobi and shares 10 tested and proven ways to drive free traffic to your blog. Dayo writes on Internet Marketing in Nigeria and just released his ebook on blogging in Nigeria titled: Blogging Made Easy.

If you have a blog or you are about to start one, I recommend that you read these great tips on blogging.

Here it goes…

1. Niche and Content is King
2. Get Involved in the Community
3. Social Networking sites (or Bookmarking sites like Sturvs.com)
4. Conduct Blog Contests
5. Use Article Directory
6. Get Your Stories in the Press (prlog.com or freepressrelease.com)
7. Submit Your Blog to Blog Directories (Afrigator.com or Amatomu.com)
8. Visit and Comment on Other Blogs
9. Freebies
10. Banner Exchange

For business blogging ideas that can make you money in Nigeria, you can read this article.

Blogs and social media have evolved in Africa in more recent years and is gradually getting attention in the global web space. Notable social media sites include Afrigator, Zoopy, Sturvs, Ushahidi, Muti, Blueworld, Naijapals amongst others.

If you search through Afrigator or Amatomu, you’ll find a lot of interesting blogs and bloggers that have created a space in the African blogosphere. Around the world, blogs and social media sites such as Digg, Facebook, Mashable, etc are celebrated in the widely recognized Bloggies Awards.

Perhaps we could start preparing for the 1st African Social Media Awards. The awards could have different categories such as best blogs in (celebrity, fashion, entertainment, politics, entrepreneurship, technology, jobs, etc); best social media sites (social music, social bookmarking, social networking, etc); forums (jobs, entrepreneurs, etc) and more.

The awards could be based on a voting process that allows users to vote for their favorite blogs and social media sites and nominate them for the awards category. Nominees could invite their audience to vote for their sites. The criteria would be based on the sites’ idea/concept, audience reach, design and layout, etc etc

Personally, I think that this awards will encourage people to be more passionate about blogging and social media in Africa and thus get the world’s attention that Africa is talking about Social Media. Thanks to Afrigator for that italics line:-)

So the question is: Is the African blogosphere mature enough for Africa’s Social Media Awards?

Image Via: PhotoBucket

Today, I am featuring an email interview with Ikenna “iKE” Orizu , founder/CEO, Truspot, Nigeria’s Social Music Revolution.

SN: Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?

iKE: First off, I’ll like to thank you very much for this interview. You’re doing a great job for our community. My name is Ikenna ‘iKE’ Orizu, CEO and Founder of Tru Spot! (www.mytruspot.com) am 22 years old now, undergraduate student. I love everything that’s entertaining and showcases the beauty of being African.

SN: What is the name of your start-up company?

iKE: Tru Spot!

SN: Please tell us about your start-up company?

iKE: Tru Spot! is Africa’s largest Music platform, that lets its users access music from the motherland from wherever they are in the world on almost every device that could access the Internet. It’s also a social network, where friends could see what their friends are listening to, create personalized playlists, listen to live streams, chat and discuss with new people and more.

SN: What is unique about your start-up company?

iKE: Tru Spot! is the first of its kind. It keeps users current with what’s happening in the African Entertainment scene regardless of where you are around the world, the high level of interaction with their favorite artists, DJs and on the site (which is set to advance as well) and special features like embeddable video/song players and so much more.

SN: How many people are currently using your website services (e.g. feed readers, visitors)?

iKE: Over 70,000 people use Tru Spot! and we are still growing rapidly.

SN: What kind of marketing and/or advertising strategy do you use for your website?

iKE: The success of Tru Spot! is due to the consistency of good programming with the live shows, the users who know this is a good thing and share it with friends and family and of course. Every single feature on the site plays a big part in helping market Tru Spot!. LOL, Just the name sells it too. It’s Tru Spot!

SN: What are the main web technologies/tools you use to monitor the performance of your website?

iKE: Google Analytics & Awstats

SN: What is the monetizing/revenue model for your website?

iKE: Tru Spot!’s revenue comes from ad placements and services like our Mobile store where we sell ringtones and wallpapers

SN: Which websites are the main competitors in your market segment/sector?

iKE: Hmmm, I don’t see any site yet as a competition. Tru Spot! is not like any other African music website. The difference is clear which keeps it in a league of its own.

SN: Do you have any latest web application(s) on the web space?

iKE: Definitely, Yes, We just released Pocket by Tru Spot! which allows every windows mobile enable phone to listen to the music on the site with ease and a ton of new ones in the works to be rolled out starting January 2009. Don’t worry you’ll have the first look.

SN: What do you think of new startups and innovation coming out of Nigeria today?

iKE: Love them all, gone are the days when one person owned a website and was too lazy to upgrade its features just because we had no where else to go. Now with more start-ups and innovative website launching, it keeps everyone on their toes. You either do better or give way to the most innovative ones. So it’s a good thing.

SN: What new Nigerian start-ups, in your opinion, should be watched?

iKE: iDoLike (www.idolike.net), a new blogazine that I co-founded with Ms Dolamu Adeyemi-Bajo, which is another unique startup that’s highly needed by the community and is expected to generate a huge buzz in a few months and definitely Sturvs which is the first of its kind as well.

SN: Do you have any thoughts on our Universities and their curriculum in terms of promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation amongst students?

iKE: Of course! They need to start creating more area concentrated majors on such.

SN: What do you think the Government (both Federal and State) should do to improve the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria?

iKE: As I said start with the colleges by creating more concentrated majors, organize seminars (Which Tru Spot! will begin doing next year), encourage the citizens to use web services rendered by their home web startups. Just like how China does it. Put in more money into the sector, encouraging investors to invest and help them grow.

SN: Do you have any advice for people who want to launch new startups?

iKE: Stay Focused, Be creative, and believe in your product.

SN: Do you have any business advisor/mentor?

iKE: My friends, Family and even members of Tru Spot! Their feedback and opinions are what I work with. Am doing it for them and not for me, so their opinions are the advice I get. Plus not to forget God gave us wisdom and knowledge, which I use a lot.

If you would like an interview with StartupsNigeria, please visit the Interviews page.

Perhaps your startup business model is not necessarily based on acquisition, but hey, who doesn’t want to get acquired by a huge company? I’d be glad to get the scoop first:-)

Of course, startups can still succeed with business models such as selling advertising, affiliates programs, charging a subscription fee, launching a product, licensing software, etc, but what about startups that don’t have a revenue generating business model such as twitter and seesmic that keep getting funding?

I won’t go into all the details and specifics of the various ways that startups could get funding such as personal funding, angel investors, incubators and venture capitalists. But there are a few things to consider when positioning your startup for funding or an acquisition. (Note: I’m not suggesting acquisition as a business model that startups should build their sites around).

Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you want to start a Nigerian online job recruitment site, for instance, think about huge online recruitment companies such as CareerBuilder.com who would naturally have an interest in acquiring your site in order to expand their businesses, especially if they are keen on emerging markets.

2. Once you identify companies that may be interested in your site, you could develop products and services that have a strategic fit with the overall business line of that company. Perhaps they haven’t yet exploited opportunities and services that your site is already providing or offering. This is more reason for that company to be interested in your startup.

3. Research to learn about what kind of startups they have funded or acquired in the past and for what reasons? Although the purchase price may be undisclosed, you could understand the acquisition strategy of that company from the reasons they provide on their press release for such an acquisition or funding.

4. If you have a startup and you are waiting for sponsorship, you might wait forever. Investors would naturally want to see a “business” in a startup first before making a move. They’ll want to know what kind of return they would expect on their investments, if they must invest in your startup. So develop a revenue generating business model such as advertising and affiliates in order to jumpstart your startup.

5. Search the market industry for competitors. If your startup must be acquired or funded, look around you to see what sites might also qualify for VC funding or an acquisition and strive to be unique with your unique product or service offering. Ask yourself: Is the site be a complementary service or a competitor?

What other suggestions can you contribute to the community?

Today, it was reported that Nigeria has emerged the largest telecommunications market in Africa and Middle East. According to ThisDay report, this makes Nigeria the 18th largest market in the world.

This means that Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the Middle East and African region’s largest market in the first quarter. According to the Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, Nigeria ended the first quarter of the year with 51.7 million mobile connections and hit 55 million subscribers mark.

South Africa which is now nearly 100% penetrated has less than one third of Nigeria’s population (44m v 138m) and is likely to drop to third place soon. Iran with a population of more than 70m has moved from sixth to third over the course of last year and is adding customers four times as quickly as the RSA.

Cellular News reports that Egypt retains fourth position, with a total of 30.8m, up from 29.4m in March. The market here has been boosted by the arrival of a third entrant, though as is so often the way, the newcomer’s advertising budget merely serves to strengthen the incumbents.

Algeria and Saudi Arabia have both been pushed down the rankings by Iran to fifth and sixth. Algeria passed the 30m mark this quarter, to end with 30.8m, while Saudi Arabia stopped just short of 30m, at 29.8m.

The market here has a significant element of seasonality to it as more than a million pilgrims enter the country every year for the Haj, only to depart a few days later leaving their newly acquired SIMs inactive once more.

Morocco, Kenya and Iraq all retain the same places as at March and, indeed, as of June 07. Morocco stands at 21.4m, compared to 20.51m at March, Kenya at 14.3m and Iraq, 12.75m. Tanzania, the tenth country on the list, has 10.1m customers after adding over 850k new connections in the quarter.

All ten of the top ten are into eight figures, while a further 13 countries have bases of 5m or more. In fact, such has been the spread of mobile across the region that no fewer than 52 markets have a total of more than one million customers.

Do you believe that you can sell yourself with your words, image and looks? Many marketing and advertising firms believe this, that’s why they make a heck of money through words, image and looks.

How can you brand your business start-up to become a leader in today’s highly competitive web industry?

Here are a few tips…

Name

The name of your start-up should be unique if you are to build a successful brand. If you take a look at successful internet giants such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, you will notice that their names are different from some conventional words and phrases that saturate the web space. Have you ever wondered what Google or Yahoo means? Well, the truth is: They both have no dictionary meanings. But they mean many things today on the dictionary of the web. So can you coin a word for your start-up that would become a household name such as Google?

Perhaps, you can’t coin a word just like that. But can you fuse two exisiting words together to form a unique name? Take a look at Microsoft, for instance. ‘Micro’, which means ’small’ has been fused with ’soft’ (short for software) and has built a brand name as the world’s leading computer software. Also YouTube, my favorite video-sharing site brought two words together ‘You’ and ‘Tube’ and tells you to “Broadcast Yourself”. Little wonder Google bought into the idea.

Or maybe you can modify an existing word by removing a letter. For example, Flickr - the photo-sharing site removed the letter ‘e’ from the word ‘flicker’ (meaning flash or sparkle or simply the flick of a camera button) to form the word flickr (pronounced the same way as ‘flicker’).

Again, the leading social networking site, Facebook has used its unique name to build a brand for itself. One might wonder how the word, Facebook relates to social networking? Well think of a book (or album) with many faces, hence the idea of sharing your photos (faces) with millions of people in a book - Facebook.

Other sites that have built a brand through their names include social networking site - Hi5, News site - CNN, Social bookmarking site - Digg, Tech blog - TechCrunch, and Blogging platform - Blogger or blogspot, etc

Some notable African brand names include Afrigator (a fusion of the words ‘Africa’ and ‘Aggregator’, Muti (meaning “tree” in Zulu), Ushahidi (meaning “testimony” in Swahili), etc In Nigeria too, we have Sturvs (coined from the word ’stuff’).

So if you are interested in building a brand for your Nigerian site and are confused about what to name your start-up, you can contact me for more tips.

Logo

Your start-up’s logo is the image of your site. It is the face of the site founder(s) and adds to the branding of your site. If your logo is not a product of MS Photoshop or similar image designing softwares, it may hardly have the aesthetics or features that a quality and brandable logo has and may not grab the attention of users. This also applies to photo-saving formats such as JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP and PNG. I recommend that you save your logos/images using the PNG - Portable Network Graphics Format.

The logo of your site should also be flexible and adaptable to different situations. For example, Google always modifies its logo during important celebrations such as Haloweens, Christmas, New Year Day, etc, events such as FIFA World Cup, Olympics, etc and recently Google changed its logo to mark its 10th year anniversary.

Thus, after choosing a brand name, you should design a brand logo for your startup to help you sell your site better. Remember that people remember faces and your logo is your face on the web, so make sure you use good make-ups for your webface (hmm…that’s a nice coinage - web-face:)

Also, when designing a brand logo, always use the right colors that would appeal to many people. For instance, when desiging the logo of StartupsNigeria, I put into consideration the unique colors of the Nigerian flag (green and white). Then I asked myself: What do I want to blog about? Startups. Thus, I embedded an oval-shaped cirle on the word ’startups’ that further highlights the purpose of this blog.

Although, I’m not very good with Photoshop, you can contact me if you need tips or ideas on desiging cool and brandable logos. Whatever you do, don’t use other people’s logo idea or concept. Be original. Be unique. Be you.

Design

Ok. You have chosen a brand name and designed a brand logo. Its now time to create a brand design. Yeah, your looks are very critical if you are to impress a girl or guy, am i right? Sometimes you even need to wear high quality designer clothings in order to attract people, is it not? So think of your website the same way you think of your looks. Find a good website design company or an individual to create a unique template (using PHP, etc) that would get people visiting your site more often. I recommend Antigravity Inc. Those guys at Antigravity really create simple and smart websites and web applications that might move users to make your site their default homepage.

Again try to keep it simple. That’s one thing I find unique about Google. It’s not bothered about design, yet the site’s looks can be remembered moments after you have visited the Google home page.

Thus, you can choose to design a template, tweak a free template or buy professionally designed website templates and modify to your taste and preference. If you are interested in starting a business blog, you can choose from an incredible selection of free Wordpress themes or custom Wordpress themes that can be purchased with a fair price. You can also add functionality to your blog by using plugins, widgets, etc that help boost your sites search optimization and usability.

So use your words, image and looks to attract people to you and to your site and successfully build a brand name for your site. Don’t envy sites that have built a brand name. Instead, start and build your own web brand.

Image Via: inthepicturedesign