How to Start a Lifestyle Blog in Nigeria

Are you thinking of starting profitable a blog in Nigeria preferably a lifestyle blog? This article is for you. In this article, I will be explaining in detail what a lifestyle blog is, the different types of blogs in Nigeria, and most of all how you can start a lifestyle blog in Nigeria.

Lifestyle blogs are now becoming a trend in Nigeria just like news blogs, and most of all business blogs and this is because over 70% of Nigeria’s population are youth. And anywhere youths are fashion, trends, interior decor, exercise, and food are always the subjects of the matter.

Although lifestyle blogs depict the interest of their owners, it still attracts thousands of people (traffic) especially when there is consistency, sincerity, understanding, and more. Many lifestyle blogs in Nigeria are popular due to these reasons. As time goes by I will explain more about these characteristics so that you can also assemble them to build a beautiful brand for your lifestyle blog.

What is a Lifestyle Blog?

Yes, what really is a lifestyle blog? I feel we need to understand this first before we go deeper into this article because many of us usually confuse its meaning. It is part of this reason many people call a blog that is full of news, gist, and gossip like that of Linda Ikeji a lifestyle blog. So what really is a lifestyle blog?

A lifestyle blog is best described as a digital representation of its author’s everyday life and interests. This representation could be in fashion, food, exercise, decoration, and more.  A lifestyle blog is often an extension of its author so to say. If you read a lifestyle blog often you can be able to tell a lot about its blogger or its owner.

Who is a Lifestyle Blogger?

A lifestyle blogger is someone who makes a digital representation of him or herself online through a blog. This could be through writing, videos, and images. A lifestyle blogger shows you how they see the world, telling you about fashion, food, exercise, and more from their point of view.

Popular Lifestyle Blogs in Nigeria

These are the most popular Lifestyle Blogs in Nigeria as of today.

1. SisiYemmie.com

The lifestyle blog talks about foods (local and intercontinental), how to cook them, and family in general. It is owned by Sisi Yemmie. She is also a YouTuber.

2. CassieDaves.com

This blog often talks about fashion, skincare, and photography. It is owned by Cassandra Ikegbune.

3. DimmaUmeh.com

DimmaUmeh.com formerly known as ThatIgboChick.com majorly talks about make-up and skincare. It is owned by Dimma Umeh. She is also a YouTuber. I watch her videos often on YouTube even though I’m not a lady. Yes, I will not deny it.

How to Start a Lifestyle Blog in Nigeria

How to Start a Lifestyle Blog in Nigeria. The step-by-step guide.

1. Choose a Profitable Niche

Although this might sound like a cliché it is true. The first step to starting a lifestyle blog in Nigeria is to figure out yourself first. What do you like? What interests you as a person? What motivates you? Do you like clothes? Do you like dressing up? Do you like makeup? Do you like cooking? Or maybe it’s fitfam?

You need to figure this out yourself. But just in case you do not know how you can figure this you can ask your best friends what they noticed you like talking about the most. Since your best friend has known you for a long time he or she is likely to know what you like. So after chatting with them and they give you a variety of things they think you are passionate about, you can then choose amongst these to work on.

Understand that perfection is not needed here. What is really needed is something you can do that you love doing the most. If you do not figure out (what you like) before venturing into lifestyle blogging in Nigeria your audience might not really understand you. You have to know yourself first before your audience can know you.

Or it can be the other way around. Sometimes, it’s not just about what you like. If making money is more of a priority to you, I suggest you choose one of the most profitable Blog niches and look out for which of these niches you may love.

2. Develop your Blog Topics

It is not enough to know your passion you also have to start developing them. If you are passionate about makeup for example; you have to know everything about it. You need to know different kinds of skin, different makeup brands, different makeup manufacturers, and more. To do these easily all you need to do is learn online and offline about makeup.

For online, there are different materials, articles on blogs, and videos you can watch on YouTube, and offline there are things you can learn when you visit makeup shops. You do not need to move from being a novice to a professional in this but you just need to move from a novice to much higher ground.

When you understand or know what you are talking about your audience will always find it easy to learn from you and trust you.

3. Choose Blog Domain Name

When it comes to actually starting a lifestyle blog choosing a domain name is the most important as this is your first step into the branding of your blog. Your blog name can be hard or simple to pronounce it does not really matter. Your domain name can also be your real name or it can be a generic name this does not really matter too. What matters is the Blog name you like.

But most lifestyle blogs in Nigeria here often bear the names of their owners. Examples are the domain names of the lifestyle blogs I gave above. They are all bearing the domain names of their owners at least in one way or the other. A good blog name makes you stand out. It makes you unique from the rest and it makes you feel powerful.

After choosing your blog name the next step is to check if the name (domain name) you have chosen is available for you to use online or it has been bought by someone else. Although domain name buying is not common when it comes to lifestyle blogs people still buy them. So you need to check to be extra sure.

There are lots of domain name checkers you can use to check. I use name.com An example; is if your name is Deborah Alonge and you want to use it as your blog name or domain name (deborahlonge.com). You will type this name into name.com to see if it has not been bought. If it is available you can use the name for your lifestyle blog if it is not you will need to use another name.

4. Get a Domain Name and Web Host

Getting a domain name and Web Host makes it official. When you are done with this your lifestyle blog will be active online. Buying the domain name will make you the owner of the domain name for life as long as your continue to renew your plan while the Web Host is will be the platform where all your site articles, videos, and more will be on.

There are many domains you can do all these registrations and activation at fair prices. Some of them are:

1. Godaddy.com

2. BlueHost.com

3. Siteground.com

4. Namecheap.com

However, this step is often techy and it will require online skills from start to finish so I will advise that if you cannot do it yourself you should get someone professional to do it for you. I have someone who is available 24/7. He is the one that manages my blog and he can get your blog running in 24 hours.

Send me an email at [email protected] if you want him and I will give you his contact or better still you can get someone else to do it for you.

5. Choose a Blogging Platform

Often the blogging platform you want to use is mostly chosen alongside setting up a domain name and Web host registrations for your blog so you might want to take a stand on this early. There are different blogging platforms in the world right now. Some of these are:

1. WordPress

2. Blogspot (Blogger)

3. Wix

4. Tumblr

But the most commonly used blogging platform in Nigeria is WordPress. In fact, among all the lifestyle blogs I mentioned earlier, sisiyemmie.com is the only blog on Blogger every other lifestyle blogs are on WordPress.

6. Start and Launch your Blog

This is when your blog outlook comes into play. Here you need to choose a theme that suits your blog brand. There are many themes online that you can choose from. Some of these themes are free while some are expensive. You need to choose the best one among all these.

If the theme you are choosing is premium you will need to pay for it before you can install it on your WordPress blog and if you do not have much money for this you can simply install a free theme to use for the main time. I know lifestyle blogs in Nigeria that are using free themes despite the fact that some of them are monetized so yours should not be different, especially as a beginner in the blogging world.

After installing the theme you want to use for your lifestyle blog the next step for you will be to design the blog to your taste. And by this, I mean adding little tweaks to the theme layout/appearance. This could be choosing your favorite color, adding a gallery, adding social media following icons/widgets, adding a suitable footer, using a customized font, and more

7. Write and Publish your Posts

Remember what I said earlier about lifestyle blogs often expressing the thoughts of their writers? When writing your articles for the blog make sure you are writing on topics you enjoy reading and writing on. Make sure you are writing in a way that is unique to you only. Write in a way that is therapeutic and soothing to you.

And after writing each post go through it again for spelling errors or confusing sentences and correction when there is a need for correction. You might not be able to correct everything to 100% but you can correct obvious mistakes and errors. After doing all these you can then upload your posts with images. These images could be your pictures or it could be royalties free images.

It depends on you but I will say your lifestyle blog often stands out when you use your own pictures more. Read our guide on how to become a content writer in Nigeria.

How to Make Money from Blogging

There are many ways you can make money from your lifestyle blog in Nigeria when a good amount of traffic starts visiting your blog regularly.

1. Sell Merchandise

This is when you sell your own products to your readers. This could be shoes, skirts, cups, jotters, bedsheets, and more. If your buyers are from abroad you will make your money in dollars and if your buyers are from Nigeria you will make your money in naira.

2. Affiliate Marketing

This is when you promote certain goods or services to your readers to buy by sharing links of the seller’s websites. When your readers buy these goods you will get a commission. However, the percentage depends on the website in question. Read our article on how to start affiliate marketing in Nigeria to learn more.

3. Google Adsense

This is when you permit Google to run advertisements on your blog. The revenue generated from this is often small if your traffic is not high. So this is often optional. Read our article on how to make money on Google for my guide on this.

4. Sponsored Posts

This is when a person or business entity pays you to post an article on your lifestyle blog to promote a product or service. The pay for sponsored posts is often big than Affiliate marketing sometimes.

5. Advert Placement

This is different from Google ads. In this type of ads, businesses or people pay you to advertise on your blog. This can be for a day, weeks, months, and sometimes for a whole year. It depends.

Top Blogs Niche in Nigeria

There are 5 major blog niches in Nigeria and will be giving a brief explanation of them according to their popularity in Nigeria.

1. News Blogs

There are blogs that share news about the latest happenings in Nigeria and the world. These news blogs cover politics, entertainment, gossips, gists, and more. News blogs are the most common kind of blogs in Nigeria.

2. Business or Finance Blogs

Business blogs are blogs that talk about ‘how to start a business in Nigeria, the latest happenings in the economy, investments, and more. This blog is an example of a business blog because it mostly covers business topics.

3. Lifestyle Blogs

This lifestyle blogs are blogs that talk about fashion, food, exercise, and more from the view of its author or owner.

4. Sports Blogs

Although sports blogs are not common in Nigeria, they exist. Sports blogs usually talk about everything around sports. They cover football, basketball, lawn tennis, volleyball, and other games. But mostly in Nigeria sports blogs talk about football.

5. Tech Blogs

A tech blog covers the latest innovations in Information Communication and Technology world. These subjects may cover blogging, SEO, website designing, robotics, and more. Read our article on top blogging niche in Nigeria to find out more.

Conclusion

Creating a blog in Nigeria, especially a lifestyle blog is blog easy. If anyone told you it is, they lied. It demands time, persistence, patience, and more. However, if you like your lifestyle and you are passionate about blogging it will not be too much work for you. All you need is to start first.

Image Credit to Pexels.com

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