Many bloggers in Kenya have come up with different types of blogs in various niches in recent years – managing to build popular blogs catered to different segments of the Kenyan population.
As part of the how to start a blog in Kenya series, today we look at the categories most of the popular blogs in Kenya fall under.
Popular blogs in Kenya: News sites
These blogs mostly feature commentaries on Kenyan politics – with posts dedicated to recent news, breaking news, news on developments in the 47 counties, news touching on cabinet secretaries, governors, senators, MPs, MCAs, senate, the judiciary, national assembly, private sector, public sector and general news items touching on the top concerns of Kenyans – like health, corruption, Kenya’s relations with other countries, security within and outside Kenya, the economy, tribalism and a few trending issues that have Kenyans talking on social media.
Some of the news sites can be categorized as general news site covering many topics in one single blog while some are more niche publishing posts on a few select topics.
Some even lean to opposition parties like CORD / NASA while some, pro-government news sites, lean more towards the Jubilee Party.
Featured in some of these sites are also news happening in neighbouring countries like Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and even countries like South Sudan, Burundi, United Kingdom and the United States.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Sports blogs
These blogs publish articles covering games in Kenya and other countries. There are many blogs dedicated to Kenyan football teams, players and managers.
Some of the blogs also publish posts on English Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, La Liga and more football news from other leagues around the world.
Also shared on these sites are stories, tips and news related to sports betting in Kenya.
Like the popular news websites in Kenya (online versions of Nation newspaper, Standard newspaper, The Star newspaper, The People Daily and others) some of the sports blogs in the country also publish news stories on athletics, motor sports, basketball, baseball, golf, hockey and other sports.
Some of these blogs also publish articles sharing information on what is going on in the lives of top players, managers and club owners.
Occasionally, they publish profiles of athletes and share quotes from top players around the world.
There are also lots of opinion posts on what certain players, managers, teams and clubs can do to improve their odds at winning trophies and giving the best they’ve got to their teams and fans around the globe.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Personal blogs
Many Kenyans who have started their own blogs have opted to go the route of personal blogging.
Blogs like these publish posts on whatever it is the owner wants to share with their readers at the moment.
There is a lot of strong opinions shared on such blogs.
Sometimes there are commentaries on things happening in Kenya and around the world.
Some posts touch on the lifestyle of Kenyans.
Others also share tips on various products and services Kenyans use. Detailed how-to posts and reviews Kenyans can use to help them better exercise their consumer rights are published by some bloggers – helping fellow citizens make the right buying decisions whenever they are out there shopping online, in shops, chemists, showrooms, malls or supermarkets.
Some of these blogs also publish articles inspired by a blogger’s own life, successes, failures, struggles and current projects they are working on.
Most of these blogs cover a lot of topics that appeal to different people – all under one domain name. The variety and choice to be had with such blogs makes them appealing to more Kenyans starting their own blogs.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Fashion blogs
Popular with women, fashion blogs in Kenya, share tips to help Kenyan ladies look their best.
There are many of them – with make-up tips, with latest news on fashion trends, with how to posts, with reviews of various items of clothing (shoes, hand bags, dresses, skirts, tops, casual wear, official wear, hair products, nail products) and most important of all lots of photos of beautiful and pretty young ladies showing other Kenyan ladies how to dress their best.
Such blogs also share the price of the various items they review and where to buy them online or offline.
Some promote African-inspired fashion as well. Some bloggers behind these blogs also come up with their own designs (some inspired by the culture of the different tribes in Kenya) which they turn into clothes they sell online on their blogs.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Food blogs
Food and cooking blogs in Kenya mostly share recipes for Kenyan dishes and cuisines from other countries and cultures.
Most posts are dedicated to sharing tips on how to prepare different types of dishes. There is a lot of these types of posts to suit meals and different occasions one may have in mind.
There are tips on how to prepare breakfast, lunch or supper – or even prepare food for picnics.
Some bloggers behind these blogs prepare the dishes themselves, share how they prepared them – and even accompany their instructions with great looking photos and videos to ensure whoever is reading their blog or watching their embedded videos makes great dishes for themselves, friends or family.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Entertainment blogs
They are many here in Kenya. And most entertainment blogs cover a lot of topics. From recent news concerning Kenyan celebrities, the latest music releases in Kenya in various genres, the latest shows, opinions and commentaries, lifestyle tips, some celeb gossip, news on Kenyan actors and actresses, labels, managers and more.
Posts in most of these blogs usually consist of some photos accompanied with short text.
Occasionally they include videos or strong opinions that don’t sit well with all their readers. But then some like to court a little controversy – to get read more and increase sharing of their content by their readers on social networking sites and messaging apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Business and freelancing blogs
These blogs target business owners and freelancers in Kenya.
With the unemployment rates in Kenya on the high, these blogs have sprouted to help Kenyans start and grow their own business.
They share tips to help Kenyans get started as entrepreneurs.
Sharing lots of tips to help them run profitable businesses online or offline.
Most of these blogs cover everything business and freelancing.
Some of them have niched down a bit and only cover freelancing topics – some even going deeper to focus only in any one of the following areas: virtual assistants and business outsourcing, freelance writing, transcription services.
Some only promote agriculture among the young and old in Kenya by focus mainly on topics to do with agribusiness.
They publish tutorial-type of posts, success stories of people who decided to do agribusiness, posts on which breeds to buy, where, how to take care of plants & animals… and where to find market for one’s livestock.
Some only share tips for those who want to go into the matatu business and become part of the ever growing public transportation sector in Kenya.
From these blogs, Kenyans get lots of tips to help them grow their small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by bootstrapping their operations, getting loans they use wisely to grow their business or by bringing local and foreign investors on-board to expand their operations and capture more market share in and outside Kenya.
Some of these blogs also share, with business owners, tips on accounting, payroll, banking, insurance, nurturing leads and KRA taxation matters.
The freelancing blogs in Kenya also offer a path to those who want to make money online in Kenya, money that they can then use as capital to start their own limited liability companies here in Kenya.
A lot of these sites also share motivational and inspirational stories for the aspiring entrepreneurs ready to put in the hard work to build great businesses that solve problems for Kenyans and citizens from other countries.
Popular blogs in Kenya: Technology blogs
There are many popular blogs in Kenya in the tech niche.
Mostly published on these sites are articles on the technology sector, news on start-ups here in Kenya and beyond our borders, app reviews, profiles of investors, entrepreneurs and various leaders in the IT and tech space, gadget reviews, tutorials for different software and hardware (smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop PCs, smart home gadgets, smartwatches, accessories for the various devices and more).
Also published on these sites are opinions touching on developments in the telco and tech space in and outside Kenya and reviews that share the prices of items reviewed and how to get them online or offline.
In conclusion
Most blogs getting lots of unique visitors and pageviews every day fall in the categories listed above.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t well-liked and widely-read local blogs that don’t fall in the above categories.
There are some great blogs on relationships, love, weddings and marriage, health, motoring, photography, literature (poetry, short stories, writing and publishing – of fiction and non-fiction), travel, lifestyle and Christianity.
Some blogs cover city or town specific content with reviews of establishments in the towns and profiles of leaders living in the specific towns or cities targeted by such blogs.
I have seen some blogs that only write about one of these places: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nyeri, Thika and Kisii. I bet there are more of this type of blog, besides the county-type blogs.
Most of the blogs in Kenya also run on WordPress (the self-hosted version) though there are some blogs that are powered by the free WordPress.com and Blogspot (Blogger.com) by Google.
To you now. The popular blogs by Kenyan bloggers you visit a lot do they fall in any of the above categories? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Also do share your thoughts, in the comments section, on why some blogs in Kenya are popular – whether they fall in any of the categories above or not.
Thanks for sharing this. What I believe is that every blogger dreams of getting tons of traffic. This is because, with good traffic, you will make a killing. At the moment I am struggling with my blog trying to get meaningful traffic that will give me some good earnings.