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Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. — Bill Gates  

  By June 1^st, this site would be 2 years old and I can now include professional blogger to my profile having accrued more than 200 Thousand US Dollars revenue from this site alone in the span of two years with a cost profile of less than 1 thousand US Dollars. So Dipo Tepede is a Professional Blogger, Social Entrepreneur and Business Consultant. It’s great to have results in whatever one chooses to sojourn in but I can’t say I had a well planned out strategy when starting this blog; it was simply informal, unstructured and sporadic. I was able to tweak it as I moved along and there were plans to change the theme to give a more comfortable feel but I received a block from my dear readers and commentators who are comfortable with this theme.  

  Some years ago before I came to this earth, there was a man called Mahatma Gandhi; he was revered amongst his people and the international body at large. He was a tiny anorexic-looking man with a lot of proven wisdom; his prophesies came to bear, his life integrated his words and he was looked upon as a savior in the then generation. Men and women sought for his advice and wisdom. There was a particular woman that came with her son for his solution to her son’s addiction to sweet things. On discussing the issue with Gandhi, she was told by Gandhi to come 2 weeks from that day with her son. Two weeks came by and the woman came with her son to see Gandhi. Gandhi took her son to a private room for 30 minutes and handed the son back to her mom. 

   She realized the son’s addiction to sweet things had stopped after some few days and decided to meet with the solution provider. She asked Gandhi what he said to her son that made him give up the addiction; Gandhi simply replied “you are asking the wrong question; the question should have been why did I ask you to come back in two weeks” So she asked him why he wanted them to come back 2 weeks after. He told her that he was also addicted to sweet things and had not been able to solve the issue so he needed two weeks to prove the solution before prescribing it. When he realized that it worked, he was able to empower her son with the same solution. 

   I have had so many people ask me question about blogging and the money value derived from it; I try my best to avoid the question because of Bill Gate’s quote above. I also know that there is no formula to successful blogging. Some school of thought would say; get the traffic and the money would flow in while some would say build a community and the money would flow in. None of these schools of thought are absolute because each has their individual flaws; high traffic requires high maintenance and full monitoring while building a community breeds familiarity and we all know familiarity breeds contempt. The answer to successful blogging is found in the decision and adjustment that your model blogger made while making it big.  

 

  This was what Gandhi was trying to tell the woman reiterated by the quote of Bill Gates above; it is not what I successfully did that did the magic, it was the experience I went through to get to the point of power to do what I did successfully.  This is where so many people get it wrong when they hear someone made money in something; they ultimately believe they can make money the same way without going through the bleedings that the person went through. They do not understand the covenant that the person engaged in to get through the journey. Whenever someone tells you he/she is successful in doing something, it is best you learn from the adjustment and choices that the person made through his/her experience.

 

 

In the coming months ahead, I will be using the experience and wisdom acquired from blogging to teach those who are interested in passive income or those who are interested in making it big in the blogosphere. I have always referred to blogging as a hobby or a platform for personal expression and creativity not a strategic income earner. I was very wrong with this particular perspective because recently when I received a check of 525 USD from Google, I had to change my opinion about blogging. 

    Prior to this event, I had received more than this amount from Google but the timing at which this 525 USD came was a life saver; I had made budget on the monies I was aware I had for one project or the other when my wife asked for my daughter’s school fees bill. I had overlooked this particular bill, now I had to re-budget; it was really a long exercise on my part and I did not relish doing it again. As I was thinking about how to play this out; my wife told me a DHL guy needed my attention and was I happy to hear the word “DHL” because I knew my monthly Google check had arrived. 

   It was not that I have not been receiving this particular check monthly but the fact that it came as an over budget really made me glad. I started imagining the huge potential associated with workers that needed extra pay to settle one bill or the other; all they need to do is write something creatively that can help their fellow brothers like a banker writing his experience in drawing liabilities for the bank. You can imagine the amount of bank staff that need help from a real brother going through the same pain or a football fan writing strong opinion about the premiership, champions league, etc. You can imagine the traffic and the subsequent passive income that follows. 

   There are various ways in which you can make money from your blog; let’s use mine as example; I make money by selling commodities, advertising and partnering with Nigerians in diasporas for a particular project or the other. I can never forget the day a lady paid 10 million naira into my account without knowing me or seeing me; though we have executed the deal, I have still not seen her physically except through pictures. I don’t need to tell you that INTEGRITY is the number one driver for successful business. Blogging brings some level of trust which is needed for business execution. 

   My major advertisement on this blog is Google Adsense and it brings in trickle dollars that I now really appreciate it. Unfortunately, this month has not been too good because I have been having mis-targeted ads; these are ads that have nothing to do with my contents so it is difficult for those that come to my site to click it. I have medical and pharmaceutical ads on financial-target contents. Though I have complained to Google about this problem and I hope they solve it soon so I can keep on making my usual dough.  

   I get mails from Nigerians abroad to help them with one thing or the other especially on investments and I get my commissions on this. This is one my highest revenue earner. I am always humble to be of service and there is definitely grace in this level of making money. Before I delve deep into blogging, let’s get to the elementary principles of making money;   

   The first principle to blogging is passion; if you have no passion for the subject matter, you would drop as the challenges get tougher especially times when you are so busy and you definitely need to be constantly placing your content. Constantly can be daily, weekly, 3 times a week, etc but a pattern should be established that your readers can follow. If you are a marketer in the bank and you are passionate about helping other marketers out, it is not the money you get from blogging that would sustain you interest but the drive to help someone out there. Money is a natural by-product of a job well done so it is better not to focus on the money, focus on the passion. 

   Some readers have some ideas about me being fond of money; I laugh at this thought because I talk about money and business does not mean I am too particular about it. I am very strict when it comes to business because I know the end results of laisez-fait attitude to business especially receivable collections. I am a start-up entrepreneur and I know the difficulty associated with relapse in cash flow; it can crumble your business. Profit is the health of any venture not the reason for the venture. For you to get the profit, you must do business. My aim of starting this blog had nothing to do with money but a lot to do with personal growth. I remember putting my first Google ads and praying it would be able to take care of keeping the blog afloat. 

  On a different note, I got interviewed recently by a very respectable blogger and was asked the question below in bold fonts with my answer coming in italics: 

 

 

 

Behind the entire internet processes and the razzmatazz of business, what drives you?

 

 

Like I mentioned earlier on, my drive towards anything on this earth is growth, empowerment, development and change. These are my passion; it’s my joy to see someone change from one level to another. I am also happiest when I am involved in anything that causes change like motivating youths and teaching through my blog. This is why I do them for free because it makes me happy but the business angle comes in to sustain the projects.

 

 

I realized that God gave me business talents to control organic growth of empowerment projects that I am venturing in and may venture in the future. My “keke POeT Project” was derived from Mohammed Yunus – Nobel Prize Winner for Peace in 2006 who was able to use business to salvage the poor of Bangladesh through microcredit. I am also coming up with ways to influence my community and hopefully win a Nobel Prize in the near future. I foresee other projects like film and television production. You would definitely need a strong business skill to make your investors happy when making films but you would derive the joy of passing your message across.

 

 

 

The answer above says it all; business is expected to sustain your vision. If you are interested in the remaining part of the interview, you may check www.adeolakayode.com. I am not sure when it would be posted. 

 

   

  

Back to blogging and making serious money from it, I would start from June 1^st to share with those who are interested in tapping my experience of 2 years and what I use in making money from blogging. Unfortunately, I may not use this platform to convey my message to avoid conflict of message; if you are interested in making money through blogging, you may check my profile on POeTSolvers Article Conference from the 1^st of June and I hope you smile to the bank like I do. You can even practice your writing skill by signing on to the POeTSolvers Article Conference. 

 

 

 

   I am gone now; it’s my team against Manchester United. How I wish there was a football blog published by a Nigerian I could read and get an informal analysis. Anyway, see you soonest. Ciao…….