I GREW MY BLOG FROM $1000 IN 2009 TO $50,000 THREE YEARS LATER: AZEEZ MAKINDE OF NAIJALOADED SPEAKS AT THE NIBC 2016

The second edition of Nigeria Internet Business conference (NIBC) held on the 24 and 25 June 2016 at the University of Lagos, Glass House. The event which was dedicated to bringing the heavy weights in online industry together to talk about leveraging the opportunities in the Internet to make money.

Convened by LUKMAN FASASI, CEO of Lukman Fasasi’s blog, the event opened up with a keynote address by Mr Stephen Akintayo, a digital marketing expert.

Mr Stephen Akintayo spoke on “creating a visual business owner” A necessity to Nigeria’s economy development.

He stated that “Youths of today are only keen about making money on the internet, but lacked knowledge about online businesses. There are thousands of business on the internet, but today I will be sharing with you, some knowledge about the online businesses that exist”.

Mr Stephen further said that

“As much as money is needed to start up a business, it is not that important to grow a business”. Which means much more is needed to succeed. I’m sure you would agree with me that many people have the opportunity with the needed money to start a business and yet nothing seems forthcoming. With money, other things are still required.

We are in an era that social media is evolving so rapidly that everything is turning to visual.

He also said business idea is nothing until it receives a validation. Networking with people is very important as much as building an online profile.”

He complained of the fact that the zeal of internet business seekers to make money online is higher than the passion the business.

“You first need to build your own personality on the internet before you can truly make it online. Reputation management is necessary.

When your name is being search on Google, what does it show people? ”

Akintayo quizzed .

Stephen concluded his speech by re-iterating the importance of owning a niche, creating a strong presence onlince, building relationships on line makes one’s online business stand out amongst others.

In the panel session which had Azeez Makinde, founder of Naijaloaded share his life journey and how he started a blog with guests and participants. He shared the secret of how he grew his business from just $1000 in 2009 to about $50, 000 three year later.

Azeez in his usual charismatic manner shared how he started blogging just when he started seeking admission to study in the University.

“I started blogging in 2009, as I was also seeking admission into university. I gained admission in 2011 and as at then I grew my business from earning $1000 to $45, 000 monthly”

Makinde also added that blogging is a very lucrative business on the internet, however a blogger needs consistency to survive.

“Consistency is what has taken us to where we are today, Naijaloaded has over 96 per cent of its views on direct visit. This shows how vision driven we are”.

The founder of the Nigeria’s No. 1 information portal – Information Nigeria Kingsley Ezeani, has said that the renowned social media platform facebook has changed from what it used to be.

Ezeani, disclosed this in his speech affirmed that;

“Though Facebook is not what it used to be, but it’s a good traffic generation tool to websites. Information Nigeria, is one of Nigeria’s top pages on facebook, with over 2 million likes”.

He added that Facebook has changed it ways where all post on it now might need to be promoted.

Some other heavyweights in the Nigerian Internet business also shared some secrets of the profession to young Nigerians. Amongst these are the Chief Executive Officer of the G-text Media; Stephen Akintayo, Founder of Information Nigeria; Kingsley Ezeani, Creative Director of Tradersball; Daniel Malik, Internet Marketer Pat Ogidi, Velma Law Firm Partner, David Ashaolu among others.

See more pictures after the cut: