Tag: Niabusiness

Today, we have the founder of FreelancerKenya.com, Walter Akolo, sharing his experiences, observations, tips and strategies that you can use to start your own blog in Kenya and grow it into something popular, bringing in many readers (customers) attracted to the free and premium content you create.

He tells you what to do to grow your blog (lessons he has learnt as one of the top bloggers in Kenya), monetize it and still have enough time left for other things that are important to you.

So, once again, we welcome Walter.

1. Why did you get into blogging and decided to start your own blog?

I started blogging so that I could help more people to start earning online without being conned.

There was a lot to learn about but few people giving free, genuine information on earning online.

2. How long have you been blogging, on what topics – why? (share your story)

I have been blogging for two years. The topic is making money online. This was based on my prior experience of being conned and losing a lot of money.

I decided that I would strive to help as many people as possible to make money online without losing a dime.

3. How are things going so far? Have you been able to achieve the goals you set out when you first started?

Things are great so far. I have gone past the goals I had set when starting. I never thought I would get this far this fast.

4. Here’s what most people ask themselves when their blogs still get little traffic: How do I get more? What do you tell such people? What can they learn from your story growing your site?

A blog is like a little baby. It has to be taken great care of. It is most difficult when starting. Traffic needs to be worked on almost daily for a new blog.

I would advise people to enroll on traffic courses or online courses that have something to do with traffic.

There are lots of free and paid courses out there. Some of the things to look out for include SEO, forum marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, social bookmarking, article marketing and directory submission.

5. How many hours do you spend blogging every week, today, a month ago, a year ago, and what are your reasons for spending that amount of time on your blog?

On a normal week I spend approximately 4 hours on my blog. However, I did not blog at all last month and over the last six months I haven’t done much on my blog apart from marketing.

This is because my blog is at a level where it gets traffic whether or not I am active there.

However, I have decided to continue blogging and marketing vigorously so that I stay relevant in the market.

6. What’s your definition of great content? How do you go about creating great content yourself?

Great content is content that is useful and helpful to a reader.

If a reader had a burning problem and lands on a blog, the content should be able to successfully guide them out of their problem.

7. Networking is said to be a good thing. What have you done, or do today, to connect with other bloggers, leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners in your niche and other niches?

I follow, subscribe to and communicate with lots of bloggers on my niche and others.

For Kenyan bloggers I have even formed a friendship with some and we always exchange notes on how to better this awesome niche.

8. What’s the one thing you’d spend most of your time doing if you started a new blog today? Where would your focus be? (do share your reasons please)

I would focus on marketing the blog. This assumes that all the content I write will be of great quality. Without marketing, even the best of blogs will never be seen by anyone.

9. What can one do to create a blog that says what’s been said over a thousand times differently and still manage to attract readers and get their content shared?

This is where personality comes in. It is important to add personality into a story.

This can be done by story-telling, humor and persuasion skills.

Therefore, a reader who has always ignored the same information from one blog may be compelled to read that information from another.

10. People are obsessed with getting more traffic, money, comments, followers…Tell me, what should they really focus on when they start worrying over the numbers – for example how they only have a few followers and people come to their site after working really hard on their site for months?

They should focus on marketing their blog through the traffic getting methods I have mentioned above and more.

11. What’s your advice for someone who starts a blog because they simply want to make money online – and they think that blogging is the best way to achieve this goal?

We all start blogs to make money. But if that is the primary goal, the blog may not make as much.

Top blogs usually focus on solving a problem.

The more people’s problems are solved, the more they will be willing to come back again and again and even spend money on the blogger’s products.

12. How much effort did you put in your blog before you made your first USD 100 from it – and how did you make the one hundred dollars?

I put in real effort. I would do a lot of research on search engine optimization and implement.

I even did a whole course on affiliate marketing which focused on blogging. My first $100 was through my first eBook. I only started selling after I had acquired a good following.

13. What steps did you take to go from someone that doesn’t make money blogging to someone who makes money blogging?

The first step was the idea of helping people to make money online.

After that I took other steps such as market research, identifying problems, solving them in my blog and marketing the solution oriented blog posts.

Email marketing was one of the best decision I ever made since it gives me repeat buyers. I give lots of free information via email so when once in a while I sell something, lots of people buy.

14. What are some non-blogging things you had to deal with in your life in order to keep growing your blog into what it has become today?

I had to ensure I was more organized so that I could balance between my faith, my family and my career.

I also had to do a lot of prioritization since there are a lot of things that are more important than blogging.

15. What is the best advice you received that has helped you stay with your blog and continue improving it? (If you remember where the advice came from, mention names please)

The best advice I ever got was from Mark Ling of Affilorama who taught me about email marketing. This has been one of my biggest assets to date.

16. Any ebooks, courses, products or services that you highly recommend other blog owners to get now?

They can get my free eBook on blogging by signing up to my mailing list (click the link below to head to Walter’s Freelancer Kenya blog).

Apart from that they can look for Blog Post Promotion by Kristi Hines, AffiloBlueprint by Mark Ling’s Affilorama and the lots of free training over at QuickSprout.com.

What do you take from all this? Please share in the comments. To check out Walter’s blog (and sign up via email to receive updates from him), click here.