EmogInspiration

Yesterday marked the birth of a new industry in Nigeria.
Though it has been going on for quite sometime, a group
of people have come together to build a structure out of
what seems to be a large industry that has the capacity to
grow into a formidable voice in Nigeria. The venue was
Elomaz hotel, Maryland Lagos. The event was a gathering
of Nigerian bloggers with the intention of exploring the
possibilities of collaborating and increasing the interest and
knowledge about blogging.

The event had in attendance about 80 bloggers as well as
potential bloggers. Coincidentally, a world bloggers conference
tagged blog world and new media expo was taking place in Las
Vegas. The event started with the recitation of the second stanza
of our National anthem which is our prayer for our nation. The
convener, Adeolu Akinyemi welcomed everyone to the event and
introduced himself as well as gave a brief history about when and
how he started blogging.

Then subsequently, everyone present introduced their selves.
This set the stage for a platform for everyone to get to know
each other and come together to harness the possibilities that
exist in blogging. They were people from diverse backgrounds,
doctors, students, businessmen and military officers. Some were
active bloggers, others had stopped at one time and were on
their way to starting all over and others intended to start from
the beginning.

We had five facilitators, Anu Oluwadare, Gbenga Aijotan,
Olumide Alabi, Gbenga Sesan and Adeolu Akinyemi. Gbenga
Sesan gave a description of what blogging is all about and the
benefits that are attached to it. He further explained how he
started blogging and writing articles news papers refused to
publish for political reasons. He used his blog as a vehicle for
publishing these articles.

Olumide Alabi spoke on domain names. He gave insight into
the definition of domain names and the reason why everyone
should own one. Owning a unique domain name will give you
more visibility and will make people find you easily. Gbenga
Aijotan, of NaijaBrains.com, spoke about online media
advertising. He discussed the possibility of attracting corporate
adverts on blogs having built loyal traffic. He listed the benefits
of blog sponsorship to include the opportunity to hand-pick, the
choice of displaying adverts in different ways, ability to negotiate
payment rates amongst others.

Adeolu Akinyemi coordinated a discussion around how bloggers
can network to improve the possibility of returns on time invested
in blogging, and also a clear need to build the industry. Anu spoke
on RSS feeds and the need to use an RSS reader for feeds. Adeolu
concluded by emphasizing the need for everyone to have a blog and
why blogs die in the first place. He went further to encourage
everyone to keep blogging.

Blogging gives you an online presence, you never know who might be
reading and the value you might be adding to that person’s life. I believe
that consistency will go a long way in shaping your life and also give you
an edge in whatever you decide to be focussed on. Start a blog today
and become a voice in whatever you choose.

The stage is now set for us to take blogging to the next level in Nigeria                                                      and also to earn income from referring people to start a blog. This is only                                                   one of the advantages of starting a blog today.