By Samuel

These days a lot of people are interested in creating their own blog/website. The motive is pretty obvious; to make money...no thanks to lack of jobs and the present state of the economy.

Most of these people after reading success stories of people like Linda Ikeji and Seun Osewa of Nairaland.com all want to rush into blogging to make their own money too. But what they don't know or understand is that it's not a get rich quick scheme. It requires a whole lot of dedication, determination, time and hardwork.

Most of us know Linda's story, Linda Ikeji's blog was created around the time when not so many people have access to internet, a year or so after Nairaland.com was created (visitors and contributions back then were nothing to write home about), but these guys didn't give in 'cause their sole aim I believe, wasn't to make money quick but doing what they know how to do best.

You don't just go in today and expect to start getting money, it just doesn't work that way. And the funny thing is that the first thing these new generation bloggers aim at after a few post on their blog is getting Adsense approval or Affiliate marketing, but you don't even have what it takes to support it yet *lol*. No quality/unique content, most just copy and paste stuffs from other sites on their own blog. How do you expect me to come read the same thing I've already read elsewhere on your blog? With this, there will be no traffic, which means no clicking...so how the hell are you even going to make money from that Adsense?

You need to get your sh*t together first (excuse my french). Post unique stuffs, make yourself stand out among the others, give your visitors something that'll keep them coming back.

Below are some few tips

Identify your audience

Before you create content, you should identify your target audience (same as choosing a niche). These are the people you want to visit your blog/site. Once you have this sorted out getting traffic won't be herculean task.

Know what your audience want

The key to getting traffic is knowing what your audience want or are searching for. You can use powerful tools like "Google trends" to explore related keywords your target audience might be searching for. Understanding related terms to your blog/site's content helps you create more relevant content for your visitors which in turn gives you more traffic.

Create valuable content

Give your visitors the best possible experience they can get by creating unique, specific and quality content. This will keep them coming back and reduce bounce rate as they know they can't get what you've got to offer elsewhere.

Don't frustrate your audience

It's annoying when you visit a blog and ads keep popping in your face from every corner, it causes distraction.
*. Make sure to fix broken links
*. Don't force people to register before they can use your site.
*. Try as much as possible to always avoid grammar or spelling mistakes.
*. Make sure their are not too much ads in a page on your site.
*. Make navigation easy for visitors, use navigation bars that calls out important sections of your blog/site which is clear about where it takes them e.g 'Home', 'News', 'Contact Us' e.t.c

Make your blog/site mobile-friendly

More than 60% of internet users in Nigeria today access the web using their mobile devices. Make sure your blog/site is mobile friendly, loads and displays correctly on a mobile device. Click here google webmasters tool to check if your blog/site is mobile friendly.

Now that you've known all these, you can proceed to creating your own blog and making it the best among peers. Goodluck.