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The economy is nosediving, people are getting laid-off from their jobs, inflation is rising while the higher institutions keep churning out more and more graduates into the labour market on an annual basis to come get jobs that are not available.This is our reality in this part of the world.

However, there are various ways smart individuals are helping themselves out without waiting for the Government. Learning how to make money online is one sure way that is helping a lot of people. It helps me, my friends, my students and a lot of other people and the truth is that it can help you too.

Just in case you have been wondering how to make money online in Nigeria too, either to support your current income or to face it as a primary business, this guide will really help you.

After reading this write-up, you should be able to lay your hand on at least one of the online business opportunities that I will be sharing with you. I will not only be sharing the business ideas, I will also be sharing the details of how to start and the needed tools where applicable.

I am doing this because it’s part of what I lacked when I was starting out. About a decade ago, I used to scout the internet for how to make money online in Nigeria. Fast-forward to this day, a lot of young people in Nigeria still search for this topic and it is only normal for those of us who have been able to lay our hands on this knowledge to share it with others.

I have taken my time to break every online business idea I share here down into the finest details possible. However, if you eventually need more information, just contact me using the comment box below and you will sure here from me if you need more help.

My 5 Best Online Businesses To Make Money In Nigeria

While there are different ways to make money online in Nigeria, the 5 shown above are my own top 5 based on the following criteria;

1. Sustainability: When I was still a newbie online, there’re a lot of businesses that we were rushing then which are no more today. You all have examples of such. So, in my opinion, it is not worth it to focus on such businesses if your goal is to have a business that will continue to make you money consistently for several years to come.
2. Control: I have also been part of some businesses that were so good but eventually crashed as a result of not having enough control over them. If you do not have control over the key aspects of the business that makes you money, you do not have a business.
3. Ease of Entry: I have carefully selected for you businesses that you can start easily, even today. Though, business wise, easy entry into any business has its own downside too but I will teach you how to overcome that.
4. Tools: One of the reasons why a lot of people read, read and read without taking action is when what they need to kickstart are not available. But if the tools you need are easy to get or even what you probably already have, the chances that you will try it out are very high and so are your chances for success.

So, I hope you understand the criteria for my list now. It does not mean these businesses are the only good businesses online, but they are my own best based on the above criteria.

Now, let’s quickly dig into the list of the businesses and how to go about them.

Below is the list of 5 top online businesses you can launch easily and successfully even if you are a newbie;

• The Business of Your Talent
• Online Mini Importation
• Blogging
• E-commerce
• Information Marketing

THE BUSINESS OF YOUR TALENT

Making money online does sound like a mirage to a lot of people. In fact, those who have the talents that can easily be monetised using the power of the internet are the ones affected most. May be they think this requires them to become a web designer or a programming guru, I do not really know.

I come across people like this on a daily basis and I always wish I have the unique talent they have. So, under this category, how do you go about it?

The first question you need to ask yourself is – what talent do I have?

What do my friends call me for? What problems do people usually bring to me? What is it that I know how to do best more than most people? What did I study in school? What skill(s) do I have? What is that one thing I can do in my life more than most other people?

Let me give you some examples. I used to offer a lot of free tutorials for my colleagues while in school then. If I had knowledge about the internet then, I could be making money with it and the business would have grown so big by now. Using a tool as simple as Whatsapp would have solved the problem of having a platform. All I would have needed to do was to add interested pariticpants to the group after a payment of say N500. Having 10 of them would have made me N5,000. No digital or online business could be easier than this. This is a good digital business idea for students. You can teach anything, any time and from anywhere.

Today, I train people on different topics on business and entrepreneurship and I get very interesting feedback from my audience every time I train. So, I have this blog to monetise my talent. It’s as simple as that. I will elaborate more on this under blogging.

Some people can tie gele (head gear) very well more than a lot of other people. Some people can cook more than other people. Some people have knowledge about herbs more than a lot of other people…and so on and on. You too should think about what it is that you can do more than a lot of other people.

I really want you to pay attention to my choice of words here: I am not saying what (only) you can do best than every other human being on earth, I am saying what you can do more than just some other people. If you can at least find one, you can launch an online business to make money with it.

While some people are really talented that they can even be referred to as geniuses, most of us are not. We are just a bit more brilliant on some things, courses, subjects, skills more than a few others. These few other people are our own audience that will pay us for the knowldege gap. Do you understand?

So, come up with that thing you know to to do better than some other people. The next step will be reaching out to these people to help them.

How Do You Make Money From Your Talent Using the Internet?

One thing you should know is that there are a lot of challenges (ranging from the very serious ones to the silly ones too) that people are facing these days and the first place they take their issues to is Google, social media or the internet generally.

So, if your talent is something that provides a solution to a particular challenge and you are findable online, then you can make money with that.

How do you become findable online?

Start with your free social media account (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap, and so on). This may sound so simple and ordinary to you but that’s where it starts from for a lot of us. Social media platforms offer you free advertisement for whatever it is that you offer.

From today, start investing the time you spend reading, liking and commenting on other people’s posts into making posts about what you know and watch how people start to offer you opportunities.

See an example below;

The fellow that sent me that SMS is a follower on Facebook and a friend (but sent the SMS with a number I didn’t have). He read one of my posts on my Facebook wall and sent me the above SMS. A lot of other people don’t have my number but they do send me inbox messages and write nice comments under the posts for appreciation.

Most other people will just like. The rest will read but will neither like nor comment but they are watching and keeping the value they get through your posts in mind.

Your benefit will come the day they face a challenge in the area of what you do post about. be it health, career, finances, legal issues, politics, academics, business and so on. Obviously, if I had offered something to sell in a post that touched my friend so much that he even sent an SMS, do you think he would have bought or not?

Some years back when I started my Forex Trading venture. Posting my analyses on my Facebook wall attracted a lot of followers to me and kick-started me on a good journey.

I started getting invites to speak in different Forex events for brokers. Also, I started getting offers as an IB (Introducing broker) for many brokerage firms locally and internationally. In fact, I got all this from mere posting on my Facebook wall. I was not even using Twitter so much then and Instagram was not available yet.

So, who can do this? The answer is anyone. And what can you share with people? Any thing! As long as it makes sense. Even if it does not make sense, as long as it entertains people, they will pay attention.

Think of the online/social media comedians that are springing up every day. They are a typical example of the strategy I am sharing with you now. You do not need a website or a blog. You can add those ones when you blow and ready to scale.

Some Ideas for You

If you know how to cook better than an average Nigerian girl, share the information with people. Do you know about health? Write short notes and share with people on your social media pages. If you know physics, start sharing information about it on your wall or open a Youtube Channel to start teaching people even for free. You can easily earn money with Youtube when they place ads on your videos if you attract good traffic.

Also, one day, somehow, someone somewhere will bring you a money-making opportunity through those posts or videos.

You can get invited for an interview on the subject you write about on radio or TV, you can get invited to speak at an event, you can set up a blog from there, you can start recommending/selling products related to the subject you write/teach about about, you can be invited to be a co-author for a book, you can get an opportunity for product review for a pay and so on.

In fact, this is something you can start right now with your phone and your social media accounts. Give it sometime to grow and see it work out for you. Just make sure that you give valuable information. In this time and age of information overload, no one will notice you if you don’t give excellent value.

ONLINE MINI IMPORTATION

In my opinion, this is another online business young people can do in Nigeria and it is easy to start if you have the right information. I will make sure I give you everything you need to start and succeed in it based on my own personal experience doing it over the years.

For more than 4 years now, I have been buying stuffs from amazon.com down to Nigeria on my own. I didn’t see it as a business opportunity because the end cost is always such that it wont be profitable if I buy to sell. But today, it is possible.

Later, I got to know about online importation from China and that made a lot of sense to me. The items are always very cheap and the quality are not so bad if you know how to go about it.

In fact I used to order for a particular mini massaging machine (picture below) I used to sell to my clients from my natural health business.

How did it happen? A pharmacist friend was trying to network me into a networking marketing business and one of their products was the massaging machine. They were selling it for N16,000 then and she really convinced me that the machine was working (along with other products) for a particular health challenge. Fortunately for me, this particular health challenge was my best selling as at that time. I didn’t waste time, I started ordering for it from them.

One day, it just occurred to me that I could import this machine at a cheaper price. The MLM company can keep their commission. So, I went online to search and got the exact machine on aliexpress.com for $13.66 and about $3 for shipping. That;s roughly about $17 which is equivalent to about N6,000.

They were selling their own for N16,000 but I was getting mine down to Nigeria from China for around N6,000 maximum (visit this link for confirmation). That’s N10,000 saving/profit for me on each machine. Ask me how many of the machines I bought…lol

That’s just a page of my order on November 23rd and 25th of 2016 and that’s 8 pieces in all. Imagine how many I would have bought in a period of 6 months or 1 year. This was even before I discovered other chinese websites where I could buy at cheaper prices than what I was getting from aliexpress.

So, hope you get the gist. Online importation could really be profitable if you can get highly profitable and selling products.

Where Do You Order From?

As you may be aware by now, there are some popular websites online where people order from from China. However, as for me, where I buy from depends on what I am buying. But not to go beyond the scope of this write-up, I will limit the sources to China only.

My number one site when it comes to ordering from China is www.aliepxress.com followed closely by www.1688.com. I do not waste my time on the other ones. There is no other online store in China, that I know of, that offers lower prices on major popular items than 1688. I use aliexpress if I am buying small quantity because 1688 sells in bulk most times (depending on what you are buying).

One basic advantage of aliexpress over 1688 is that the site is in English and you can get your items imported to Nigeria free of charge through NIPOST. The only time NIPOST may ask you to pay like N500 or 1k is when the item is bulky.

The only downside to this is that you may need to wait for about 2 weeks or even up to 45days in some cases before you get your item. In most cases, I use Aliexpress for personal items only.

As for 1688, that’s my go to site when buying items for sale. Normally, this means I will be buying in bulk and at a far cheaper price than what I will be getting from Aliexpress.

You need to know that buying from 1688 is a bit technical as the site is in Chinese. It is actually a local e-commerce site for Chinese people only. That’s why the prices are ridiculously cheap.

See how it looks on Firexfox below;

If you want it to come up in English, simply open it on Google Chrome which should automatically translate to English for you. See an example below;

How To Order From 1688

As I have informed you earlier, buying from 1688 is a bit technical but easy if you can follow some easy steps.

The site is originally meant for China citizens and residents and therefore, you can’t register on it unlike aliexpress. If you can’t register, it means you can’t order by yourself directly.

So, what we do is to use the middlemen who have registered account on the site and can help you place your order. That is what I do do too each time I have anything to buy. The good thing is that these guys have Nigerian bank accounts you can pay into for your order and their own charges.

Before you contact these guys, you need to first search for the products you want and just send them the link. All they will do is to visit the link and order straight once you pay. You will calculate what you are buying as they give you the exchange rate from Chinese Yuan to Nigerian Naira.

One of the agents I use for this purpose is called NBC Logistics. All I do is search for what I want (using Google chrome) and send them the link via Whatsapp. Let me show you an example in my own case. See the image below;

As shown above, I have sent her the links to the 2 products I wanted to buy. She visited the links to get the prices in Chinese currency (which are the same prices I saw when I on the pages too) and she will add their own fee and give you the final price.

When they make your order, they will advice you on the shipping with the fees as well. Let me show you an example of what that looks like below;

The good thing is that you wont be paying for shipping until your goods arrive Nigeria. Their representative in Nigeria will call you, tell you how much to pay in Naira and same account details to pay into. You can also visit their office to pick your package after payment. It is as simple as that. If you need the contact details of these guys or any other info on making your order, just let me know in the comment box below.

How do you Know What To Important for Huge Profit?

I will give you some insights here and you will go with whatever works for you. Personally, I am not a crowd person. I don’t like to sell what others sell just because they say it is selling especially if you are a newbie. My reason is simple.

If for example breast enlargement pump is the selling thing in town and every marketer, data and report is saying so, that is fine. This means a lot of the big boys marketers are selling it already. You will know because you will be seeing their adverts on Facebook and everywhere.

If you are a newbie, the chances that you will beat these guys in their own game are very slim. Very very slim.

For example, if I am the one teaching you what to buy and how to buy and sell it, chances are that I know more than you. So, if we are selling the same thing, I may sell more than you and the truth is that I will.

Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you should not sell what is selling, I am only saying you should be careful.

In fact, as a Jumia vendor myself, I get mails from Jumia regularly sharing with us the best selling items on their platform. Sure, th3 vendors that sell those products sell a lot. Hundreds and thousands of the items on a daily basis in some cases. But if you have a chance to ask these vendors, they will tell you how much they make from the sales…just little!

When it comes to the numbers, there is a big difference between selling more and selling profitably. Jumia shares a list of what are selling most, not the list of the most profitable items. When you sell what the majority sell, especially online, you do not have price control and invariably, you do not have profit control. Do you remember what I told you about control at the beginning of the write-up?

Usually, I only check the list and browse the products to check the numbers. I do not check them to sell those products. My business strategy is simply different.

So, when starting out as an importer, you really want to import what will make you money. When newbies make money, they become really motivated and want to go for more. The creative part of them comes to play and they become smarter. When they don’t make money, they become dull and frustrated.

Below are some product ideas for you;

• Health products: this is my number 1 of all time. The reason is simple – people simply don’t want to die! Anything that affects their health is something they want to get rid of as fast as possible. If you do your research/market survey and you realise that a particular health-related product is selling or will sell, then go for it.
• Consumables: Anything people use regularly that they have to buy over and over again is a cashcow. If you have information about any, go for it.
• Cheap but valuable products: There are some products that are cheap in China to buy but are very scarce and valuable here. If you are able to find anyone, it’s a good business for you.
• Security and Safety Products: Products that are for security and safety will always sell. Just like health, safety of life and properties is really important to people and they will pay any amount on this.
• Popular Products: How many times have you seen adverts about Andrea Hair Growth oil online? Several times, right? That stuff sells like pure water and it’s cheap to buy and easy to sell. Every guy now wants beard. If you go for a product like this, you will make a lot of money if you get your marketing right. I even have a little tweak I make to common viral products like this to maximise profit.

Let me just give you an idea of how profitable this product is;

To source from China (using 1688.com) costs 2 Chinese Yuan which is about N120 each. That’s even if you are buying 50-200 units. If you are buying more, the price will go down as you can see in the image above.

Do you know how much this product is sold for in Nigeria? See an example below from Jumia;

This is even because some of these vendors are forced to sell at reduced price due to competition. Though, some of them sell for as low as N600 or N700 and even at that, the profit is huge.

If you are selling independently, say on Facebook or on your own e-commerce website, you can sell for as much as N2,000 – N4,000 especially if you use my usual tweak for selling popular products like this online.

My tweak is simple: I do just 2 simple things to play on the emotion of the buyers so that they can choose to buy from me at my own price and they will still be happy doing so. That’s what I do whenever I decide to sell popular items like that. Just watch out for my post on Online Importation soon where I will explain the tweak.

The list of the categories of products you can import is a bit long but I have given you the most important ones up there. If you also think of any, add it in the comment box below for others to learn.

Also, below is the list of the products you should avoid if you are just starting out;

• Bulky Products: You will have issues with these products in the area of shipping. In most cases, shipping fees are charged based on the weight of your package. So, even if the items you bough are profitable, the profit will disappear by the time you pay for shipping. This happened to me some years back when I bought a printer from US. It was a good deal until I got my bill for the shiping. The size did not even occur to me until I got billed some good amount in USD which neutralised what I saved in purchasing the printer.
• Costly Items: I personally like to avoid items that cost more than $10-$15 because by the time I add my own profit, it will be entering the range of ‘highly risky’ for what majority of Niigerian buyers can buy online. The truth is that, buyers just pay for stuffs online in Nigeria and they don’t expect to get any thing delivered to them. They just pay based on faith as long as the money is not what can kill them or what will really pain them. Say 1k to about 7/8k or even 10k. When it’s more than that, they avoid it and that will reduce your potential sales and profit. Even if you are genuine.
• Emotion: Do not import any product based on emotion. Just because you like it or you think it will sell is not enough to import a product unless you want to use it yourself.

How To Market Your Imported Items

There are various ways you can market your imported items online and even offline. Again, I will start from the simplest ones which are your personal social media platforms. You do not have any excuse. Put a very nice picture of your product on your personal Facebook wall, your WhatsApp status/story, your IG, Twitter and so on. Write something about the product and how it will help people then wait for the enquiries and then the sales.

Just make sure you make the ordering process simple enough. You don’t need to start with a website if you don’t know how to make one and don’t have money to get one up. In fact, I don’t recommend that for newbies. Use the free tools you already have.

If you want to up your game for more sales, open a Facebook fan page for your product. Give your page a unique name based on what you are selling or a sweet generic name. Start uploading a very clear picture of whatever you are selling and boost the posts for paid adverts.

You can start boosting for even as low as N1,000 or N2,000. Relax and watch the enquiries fly in and the sales.

Caveat: If you are selling health related products, be careful with Facebook adverts. Chances are that you will get your ad account disabled/banned as Facebook has a strict policy for such products. For example; weight loss products, herbal remedies and so on. One of these days, I will write about this too.

With your paid Facebook ad, people can order simply by sending you a WhatsApp message of their details. If you really want to increase your sales, make sure you offer ‘Pay On Delivery‘ option. No matter how much  online sellers hate this thing, buyers still prefer to pay on delivery. So, offer it.

How do you do that? I will give you 2 companies that can help you achieve pay on delivery;

Visit www.ace.com.ng to register an account. It is free. They offer pay on delivery services for online merchants to Lagos, PHC and Abuja. At least, you can start from those places. It will convince some people to trust you that you are genuine. And in real fact, these 3 places are where people will buy your stuffs most.

The second company that offers Pay On Delivery services for online merchants in Nigeria is God Is Good Logistics (www.giglogistics.ng). The only issue with GIG is that they require a down payment of N50,000 for this service but a good side here is that they cover almost every where in Nigeria with their payment on delivery services.

There are many other companies that claim to offer this service but these two are the best in my own opinion when it comes to delivery and payment remittance.

You can scale your business again after successfully selling on social media by having your own e-commerce website. I will cover this under e-commerce businesses.

You can also apply to become a vendor on Jumia or Konga or any other site that offers that. Jumia seems to be the easiest to get started with. I had a good experience with them when starting out with my stores on their platform. The others wasted enough time to set me up. In fact, an enough time to make me lose motivation. So, check them out and go with which ever one works best for you.

Jumia has a very robust learning facility both online and offline for their vendors. You shouldn’t have any problem selling with them.

BLOGGING

This is one online business venture that I really love so much as it offers several passive and sustainable ways of making money online even for Nigerians. The only challenge with blogging is just that if you are not smart enough, it may really take you a long time (long enough to make you lose your motivation) before you start making money.

Nevertheless, blogging still remains one of the easiest ways for beginners to start making money online even from day one if you know your way. In this section of this (long than expected) post, I will cover the following;

1. How to get ideas to blog about (Niche)
2. How to set-up a blog – including the tools and resources
3. How to make money with your blog even from day 1

Because I didn’t plan to make this post too long, which is already happening, I will be brief with these sub-topics but also dedicate a whole post for them later. So, let’s learn about blogging.

A blog is like a mini website that gets updated regularly. It gets updated regularly because you add new information to it on a regular basis.

There are different examples of blogs based on what you use it for. So, we have lifestyle blogs, political blogs, news blogs, academic blogs, health blogs, business blogs, and so on.

Sincerely, no one type of blog is better than the other. It all depend on  your passion, talent and goal. Though, you do not need to have all these 3 criteria to start blogging. Having one or two of them is just fine.

How To Get Ideas To Blog About

Talent: If you are really talented about a topic, why don’t you start a blog on it? Whatever it is, be rest assured that there are millions of people worldwide who are searching for that information. If you think this is not so, just type your desired topic in google to see the kind of results you will get. www.strictlybusiness.ng is an example of a blog I started around my talent (sharing knowledge is one of the things I do best).

Although, some topics are more popular than others and they therefore have more potential readers. However, I do not really bother myself about such issues. My goal is always on the money. That you have more readers does not necessarily amount to more money…don’t get it twisted!

Are there some challenges around this topic that people are looking for solution for and are ready to pay for it? If the answer is yes, I just ask some other few questions and then launch.

Passion: Whatever it is that you are passionate about, you are not alone. There are a lot of other fellow enthusiasts like you all over the world who can’t wait to read from you. Are you passionate about pets, food, plants, climate change, water, poverty alleviation, entrepreneurship, girl child education, health and so on? You can start a blog on it to make money.

Goal: Whether your goal is to make money, gain popularity or just get your message out there to those who need it, you can achieve it with blogging with time.

I will be covering ‘How To Choose A Blogging Niche’ in another post that will be live soon.

How To Set-up A Blog

There are five main steps you need to follow in order to start a blog. If you follow this guide exactly, you’ll have your own blog set up in 30 minutes or less;

1. Choose a great blog platform
2. Choose a name and web host for your blog
3. Design your new blog
4. Add content to your blog
5. Market your blog

STEP 1: Choose a name and web host for your blog

Choosing a platform for your blog is easy. There are 2 most popular platforms you can use. They are www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.org. Although, I recommend wordpress. In fact, I use them for all my websites and blogs. In fact, I can’t even count how many of them I have.

Also, I do not recommend that you use the free version. It’s just a waste of time. rather, go for the paid version straight from the onset.

The free version of wordpress looks like www.yoursite.wordpress.com and the disadvantage of this is that people wont take you seriously. Unless it is a site you use for some free information sharing for a closed group who know you very well.

Actually, this does not mean you can’t start with free wordpress and migrate to the paid version later. However, this is an avoidable stress. Most readers and potential customers won’t take you serious.

STEP 2: Choose a name and web host for your blog

The next will be to get a domain name for your blog. My recommendation here is Namecheap. They will start you up with little money. Next is to get your hosting package where you will host your website files online and my recommendation here is Greengeeks.

Believe me, I have used several domain registrars and hosting companies both locally and internationally, those two I mentioned above are my best. They are both newbie-friendly and their support is very superb. Especially the guys at Greengeeks, they will get anything done for you with a simple chat with any of their support staff online. I strongly recommend them.

STEP 3: Design your blog

To design your blog, you can watch videos online. The steps are really pretty simple and before you know it, you are up online. May be one of these days, I will make a video on how to design a blog using wordpress. Pending that time, just do a simple search on Google/Youtube.

That is how I started too and most people I know. You can get a blog up and running in 30minutes.

STEP 4: Add content to your blog

I will suggest you don’t focus too much on making your blog beautiful at the beginning. Focus so much on the functionality and good content. Once people are able to visit and enjoy the information you share, you are on your way.

You can beautify with time. I just have to tell you this because I can’t remember how many blog projects I abandoned while trying to make them really beautiful only to see other ugly blogs offering same thing I had in mind and people/readers love them.

People don’t really care about the beauty of the site as much as they do about the functionality and the value it offers. It is a blog, let it serve the purpose of giving people good and valuable information.

When I started my first health blog in 2014, it was really ugly but that didn’t stop it from making sales worth millions that the MLM company whose products I was selling gave me several prizes and awards. From 2015, I started adding more and more information to it and it started taking shape. If you visit the same blog today, the changes have been so tremendous.

Most of my proteges in the natural health business usually disturb me that they want a blog like mine but I always tell them to focus on the main thing – and that’s the functionality of the blog.

STEP 5: Market your blog 

After investing a great amount of time into making good and valuable contents, it is time to let people know about it.

There are several ways to market your blog and its content. One of them is by building and growing your e-mail list. Growing your email list is an amazing cycle. You get subscribers, email them when an article goes live, they go read it, like it and then share it with people. Then those people subscribe and the cycle delightfully continues.

Another way is via social media. Register social media accounts for your blog to share its content. Don’t be shy to boost your posts too to drive traffic to your blog from social media.

Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) is another way which I wont be able to cover in details here but in another post. Having a great SEO in place for your blog gives you an opportunity to enjoy organic traffic from search engine.

Some Tools and Resources

If you need to designs banners and images for your blog, use canva.com. They have a free version that works very fine. That’s where I design all images for all my blogs and websites. Do not let any graphics designer hold you to ransom.

For your email newsletter and autoresponder services, I recommend Aweber. There are many of them out there and I have tried quite a lot of them. At the end of the day, Aweber serves me just fine.

How To Make Money Blogging In Nigeria

There are several ways to make money with your blog in Nigeria and I will identify and briefly explain some of them below;

1. Selling your own products: One advantage blogging offers you is that it presents you as an authority to your readers and followers. Therefore, they trust your opinion on issues around what you blog about and this is an opportunity for you. Give your blog readers valuable content and they will buy your products. Simple!.
   Example of products you can make and sell on your blog include an ebook, a video course, physical products, software, an app and so on. How much can you make doing this? It depends on how big your followership is and how valuable your product is.
   During the 2014 end of the year (December) holidays, I was at home and was dull. So, I thought of creating an ebook on something my blog readers have been asking me about. So, I went to work and finished it same day. Took my time to edit and put everything together. Created blog posts and newsletters to market it and sales started pouring in and I was selling the ebook for N8,500 each. I sold the ebook for N8,500 even up till early this year when I reduced the price to N5,000 in order to give way for some other ebooks. Do you get the idea? You can create an ebook on virtually any topic on earth as far as your followers are ready to pay for it.
2. Selling other people’s products: In fact, what pushed me to become a professional blogger was to sell the products of a natural health company I signed up to promote in late 2013. After trying all sorts of strategies to sell those products with no success, I resorted into blogging and I started getting sales. Then, I fully focused on it as my business strategy for selling those products and it works. It is still working till today. You can use your blog to sell your network marketing products and affiliate products for commissions.
3. Advertisement: You can sell adverts on your blog. Think of lindaikeji or Jide Ogunsanya’s blog as examples. They churn out contents that attract readers and advertisers bargain with them for spots on their blogs to advertise to people. It’s that simple. To achieve this really, you need to get some good traffic down to your site daily. You can also join ad networks for advert placement on your site. You can use Google Adsense, adroll and so on.
4. Sell your blog: For some of my blogs, I do get offers from companies that want to acquire them. You would have read about several blogs that this has happened to too. You can be lucky enough to get such offer as well if you can build your blog into something really big enough to attract big brands for aqcuisition.
5. Email Marketing/List Building: Having a mailing list is our own online oil bloc. And if there is anything that becomes so easy for any successful blogger to do, it is building a list of raving fans who are always ready to read and buy from you.

When you start getting high quality traffic down to your blog, the next step is to get them to sign up on your mailing list so that you can sell to them over and over again. Watch out for my article of List Building 101 for bloggers where I will share with you strategies I have used to build a huge list of loyal subscribers in my different niche blogs and how you can do the same.

Those are the major ways to make money with your blog. With any of those strategies (except #4), you can start making money from your blog right from day 1. When I started www.planbwellness.com, I posted very cool articles about the particular health conditions that I wanted to sell products for and people started making enquiries and orders almost immediately.

In another post on blogging, I will share with you how to use great contents to drive traffic to your blog for big sales.

E-COMMERCE

Simply put, e-commerce refers to commercial transactions conducted online. This means that whenever you buy and sell something using the Internet, you’re involved in e-commerce.

The most popular example of e-commerce is online shopping, which is defined as buying and selling of goods via the internet on any device. However, e-commerce can also entail other types of activities, such as online auctions, payment gateways, online ticketing, and internet banking.

It was August 11, and the year was 1994. Around noon that day, Phil Brandenberger of Philadelphia logged into his computer and used his credit card to buy Sting’s “Ten Summoners’ Tales” for $12.48 plus shipping.

That story may not sound too exciting today, but at that time, this particular transaction made history. Why? Because it was the first time that encryption technology was used to enable an internet purchase. Many consider that moment as the first “true” ecommerce transaction.

Needless to say, e-commerce has grown by leaps and bounds since then. BigCommerce cites that e-commerce is growing 23% year-over-year, and according to eMarkerter, global e-commerce sales are expected to top $27 trillion in 2020 — and that’s just statistics for the retail sector.

That’s a lot of growth (and money!), which is why if you’re interested in doing business online, you need to know the ins and outs of the e-commerce industry.

Ever than before, more and more people are getting access to the internet and the internet has become like a second home to many people. They practically live their lives on the internet. If you are looking for one of those people, yours truly is number 1…lol.

These are the people that ask Google about issues concerning their health, marriage, finances, family, career and so on before they even talk to any expert physically. These are the people that are sustaining e-commerce.

Truth is some people find it easy and time-saving shopping online than driving to the stores. They buy anything and everything online. If you think this is not true, I am happy to tell you that children diapers, as funny as it may sound, is one of the best selling products on Jumia. The vendors that sell them sell thousands of them on a daily basis.

So, what does this tell you? That you can sell anything online and I will show you how…but will do that in my own business development way. I like to start small and scale. If you don’t want that, you can start from the last step.

Step One – Decide on what to sell

I have a lot of young people who are already selling something, either a product of their own (such as skin care products, make-up products, etc) or other people’s products. There are also those who render services such as tailoring, hair dressing, catering/cooking and so on.

You can go e-commerce with any of these.

Step Two – Start With Social Media

If you are already a good cook or caterer, you can take your business to the next level with e-commerce. As explained under ‘Talent’ up there, start your journey by sharing your works and products on your free social media accounts to create awareness and build your brand.

As you are getting known and making sales, you can then move on to create a Fan page and start selling with boosted posts and adverts on Facebook, Instagram and co.

Step Three – Launch Your Online Store

This is where it gets interesting. This is where you really need to be creative. As a professional cook or caterer, who says cooking or making cake is the only way to make money?

After you have been able to build your own brand from scratch, then you would have gathered enough followers who believe in your judgement on cooking and catering. So, aside selling your own products, you can start selling other people’s products such as flours, cooking ingredients, and so on.

If you still do not have what it takes to run your own e-commerce business on your own, you can become a vendor selling all these things on Jumia, Konga and so on.

All you need is to list these products and promote the link to purchase them on your social media platforms.

For anyone that has anything (either a product or service) to sell, this is doable and you should start now from the first step using the free resources you already have. Do not wait till you get every thing set.

If you need any help on this with your product or service, just shoot me an email via planb@strictlybusiness.ng and I will be more than willing to assist you. You can also use the comment box below to reach me.

INFORMATION MARKETING

This remains one of the oldest and most reliable ways of making money, not only on the internet but generally. Almost all professions can be linked to this business idea.

But What Really Is Information Marketing?

Just as the name implies, Information Marketing business is the business of providing useful and highly valuable information to information seekers that either help them solve a problem or prevent them from having one and then charge them for it.

It’s that simple and it’s something anyone can do. Whether you are a newbie or an established entrepreneur, information marketing is something you should give a shot.

In fact, in one of my ebooks,  that one of the several ways an established entrepreneur can make money is by offering information on what is working for you.

Why? Because that problem you just solved in your business or life, that goal you just achieved in your business or life is something some other people are battling with and they will be ready to allow you guide them because you have a proof of having the solution.

How to Create a Profitable Information Marketing Business in Nigeria

Below are 5 short steps you can follow to create an highly profitable information marketing business here in Nigeria;

1. Find a niche that is hungry for your information – Just like blogging, information marketing works best when you pick a niche where people are looking for information and not a specific product. For example, people who want to lose weight, get pregnant or small business owners who want to learn success strategies are much better niches than people who like to buy DVDs or people who buy discounted products. Do you get that? If the people you are targeting are already pre-disposed for information, it will be easier to sell it to them. So, if you are already an health professional, why not think of using your certificate, authority and knowledge to package and sell info products? If you are a successful caterer, why not package something to teach other people how to achieve the same? If you took a product, used an herb or a particular diet to reverse your diabetes, why not package the information and sell it? The opportunities are limitless!
2. Solve a problem for that niche – Your information product must solve a problem for the niche. It can’t just be a collection of information about the topic. For example, what problems do people who want to lose weight have? Lack of motivation? The wrong kind of eating plan? Small business owners want to know how to run successful online advertisement, make more sales, scale up their businesses and so on. If you can identify the problems in a niche, you’ll be hitting on a great topic for your information product.
3. Make the product – This is where you decide which format your information product will be. Will it be inform of an ebook, video course, audio program, a book, an app, or a combination of some or even all of them? They all have their advantages and disadvantages. But for anyone who is just starting out, offering an ebook is just fine. I recommend you start with just an ebook. You can put that together pretty soon and start cashing out fast if your product is highly valuable. When it comes to information marketing, the quality of the information and not the style, tone or length is the most important.
4. Market your product – Your information marketing business won’t go anywhere without any sales. Come up with an online sales page (something like this) for your product where you convey the major benefits of your product and let your market know why they need to buy it. Be clear about how your product will help them. By sending visitors to your sales page using different online marketing techniques, you can ensure that you’ll get the traffic you need to get sales. You can write and distribute articles to get traffic to your website. Also, you can create a blog to market yourself and your product. Additionally, you can invest in pay per click marketing and pay to have ads displayed that lead back to your website.

Of course, there are a lot of other fantastic profitable business ideas online such as Online Network Marketing, Forex/Crypto Trading, Affiliate Marketing, Vlogging and so on (which I will actually write about later), but the 5 above are the easiest to start and succeed with based on my personal experience and the experience of majority of those I have mentored.

At the beginning of the write-up, I also shared with you, my criteria for choosing these 5 online businesses which include sustainability, control, ease of entry and availability of tools and resources to start immediately.

Consider this as just an introduction. You will definitely be reading a full guide on how to go by each one of them from me very soon. Don’t forget to register on my mailing list below so that you can be notified when I publish them.

Lastly, of all the topics I have promised to write about in the above article, let me know which one you have interest in most. Which ever has the highest interest wins and that’s what my next write-up will be on. So, go to the comment box below to let me know your interest.

Have you tried any of the online businesses above? What has been your experience? Or are you planning to start any of them? Tell us which one below.

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