BLOGGING: “I COMPETE IN THE BUSINESS AND MARKETS, I DON'T HATE MY COMPETITORS” — DIDI-OMAH SAYS DURING AN INTERVIEW

During an interview with Didi-Omah Augustine Chinazaekpere, doacWeb's Founder & CEO, on his blogging journey. He reveal how he started his blogging career, how he distribute his contents online without paying, mistakes and opportunities in blogging, how to making money from blogging, and why he remain the top in content aggregators.

As known, Didi-Omah move further to discuss how young bloggers can make more money and get fans doing blogging with purpose.

QUESTIONS DIDI-OMAH AUGUSTINE CHINAZAEKPERE ANSWERED:

WHY DID YOU GO INTO BLOGGING?

I love writing, yeah. I writes ideas, notes from my brain and heart. 

I first heard about Linda Ikeji from my secondary school marketing teacher, Mr Andy at SS3 when he was taking us on the topic: Internet Marketing. He mentioned Linda Ikeji's Blog and Linda Ikeji; urging us to take part of her field.

I took that advice seriously, went home, did researches about her and her blogging career. I followed her on Instagram and Facebook.

I started blogging with Facebook, by creating Facebook page. During my studies of Linda Ikeji, I move to Blogger CMS, which we know as "blogspot". I indeed followed her up, she created her blog at first using blogspot, I did.

She migrated to WordPress, I migrated to custom website built with PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML. Because I am a programmer.

HOW DID YOU LEARN PROGRAMMING AND WHY?

I learnt programming online and during my lectures in school. I was tutored basics of web programming & WordPress more (one on one) during my 3 months industrial training at Global Gaint Soft Limited, Uniport, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria.

I didn't put interest in WordPress, that's why till date, I don't know how to build a site with it. WordPress is good content management system (CMS) to create all kind of websites and blog, blogspot can't, because it focus on blogs creation alone.

Why I put interest in programming, because I love studied. Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube and more are built with programming ethics and languages. So I choose programming my custom site, than using third-party CMS. 

That's where I didn't copy Linda Ikeji. She migrated to WordPress, I migrated to programming our own website and content management system (CMS): now known as doacWeb.

WHEN DID YOU START BLOGGING AND WRITING?

Writing from age 12 around. Blogging from 15 years on Facebook. Moving fast, at 16 years after my WAEC, I move to blogspot. I love moving fast. 

I wasn't taking the blogging serious, I was even learning monetisation; yeah!

How to make money from my blog and any type of websites.

Now I am good at monetisation and blogging.

I stop blogging by March 2019. What brought me back to blogging was when I was introduced to writing for Opera and get paid by my brother, Progress Didi, that was 2020, during the Covid-19 period. I wrote for Opera News Hub, I stopped that same year, and returned back to managing my site on blogspot.

I learnt how to publish professionally from Opera, that's the advantage I got there.

I begin professional blogging in November 2020; my dad bought me my first domain name from Google Domains in December 27, 2020: www.doactalk.com. That is where my blogging career open fully. With the knowledge I have gotten and keep updating, I made money quick from monetisation.

You know when using blogspot or WordPress to build a blog, without purchasing a custom domain; automatically you will be using their subdomain, so mine was www.doactalk.blogspot.com. Just for you to know.

WHY DID YOU USE .COM AND WHAT IS DOACTALK ABOUT?

Let me start from DOAC, it's gotten from the first letters of my name: Didi-Omah Augustine Chinazaekpere (DOAC).

Doactalk is “Didi-Omah Augustine Chinazaekpere Talk”.

Doactalk was a talk and news blog, yeah! I writes on talk and publishes news on Doactalk, using blogspot.

.com is for commercial purpose, I didn't use Nigeria top level domain, which is .ng, because I want to serve the world with my business. Serving only Nigeria is like offering services to my village. I didn't even purchase a com.ng, is till the same. I want pure commercial for the global market to see and get it. That's it, look at www.doacweb.com, you see.

WHAT ARE YOUR MISTAKES AND OPPORTUNITIES AS A BLOG START-UP?

My mistakes was adding over 25 ad networks to Doactalk, when starting.

I finally get used to Google AdSense and Adsterra for monetisation using ad network till date.

Opportunities: I learn from my failures, Ogbonge Blog too. I was enable to meet more bloggers in Rivers State. Doactalk was gaining more audience from Indonesia and Nigeria, our contents automatically showcase on Phoenix, Google News, and others after publishing.

That's all I can say.

HAVE YOU FACE ISSUES OR REJECTIONS?

Many issues, with advertisers, I do direct advertising on Doactalk. That is our primary revenue source till date.

I had issue with Radio Nigeria, claiming that I publish fake news, they published it on their official news website.

Some comes from readers and nothing took me to Court. The truth is that God is with us, despite threats of taking matters to Court, it end in close communication and 89% of all issues we are winning, and the remaining for the third-parties favour.

Rejection: I face rejection and set backs a lot. Rejected by Phoenix at first, later reapplied and get approved.

Rejected by Opera News till date, they won't approve me if I apply for our contents to be displayed on it's platform.

That's all, I can tell you, there are more but let me hold it here.

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCE SERVER DOWN BEFORE AND WHY?

Ahhh, when using blogspot, no.

When we migrate to our custom cms, still bearing Doactalk, we lost all our contents. Because we were migrating from blogspot to our programmed cms, just being new then, lead to lost of all contents. 

It wanted to happen again in March 2024, after we returned back from the downtime as doacWeb during balancing our web server.

Yes. We have experience server downtime due to large audience pooling in at a time, we are still growing, we will get a larger web servers to solve this issue.

At this point, Germany & USA are our two most visiting countries to doacWeb.

HOW BIG IS YOUR DATA?

Hmmm.

Our contents are hundreds of thousands at the moment. Our registered users are growing, our email subscribers are over 8,000 and is growing daily.

Remember doacWeb is primarily a content aggregator, blogging/publishing hub and social platform for all.

HOW DID CONTENTS FROM DOACTALK GET AUDIENCE, WHEN YOU WERE STILL BLOGGING PROFESSIONALLY?

We do content marketing, we have content distribution networks, we partnered with over 20 news aggregators and content curators.

We have Google News, Phoenix, Flipboard USA, FeedSpot India, Blogarama, Feedly and others.

We hardly post on our contents on social media, but you will them there. Readers shared our interesting, engaging contents to anywhere they want to; that how we also grow.

“To go viral, go engaging”.... That's my word, and we use it to get what we want.

WHY DO YOU MOVE TO CONTENT AGGREGATION BUSINESS, FROM BLOGGING?

Moving from blogging to hosting contents from many websites and blogs, is a big break. It's not easy, but I am happy I did.

doacWeb being a big content aggregator, having audience from 180 countries actively, have over 800 websites and blogs displaying contents daily and regularly on it's platform.

Due to my love for blogging, doacWeb allows users to register and publish blog posts on it's platform — you see no matter the run, we still hold on to blogging, where we came from.

doacWeb is a news aggregator, blogging hub, advertising media and social platform for you and me.

You don't even need to create a blog, to own a blog; doacWeb do the content management, your create the contents for free. You must register to access these features.

Another good thing is the advertising: advertisers and you, anyone can advertise from 1,000 Naira on doacWeb, showing your advert to people who will patronize your business. Promote what you do on doacWeb from 1,000 Naira. That's another good about it.

To advertise, you can visit www.doacweb.com for the WhatsApp contact. Yeah!

HOW DO YOU GET ADVERTISERS?

Simple, more audience leads to more advertisers.

How do social media get advertisers? it's their users. Your audience are your money, the more you reach people that is the more people enrich you.

It goes this way: The rich reach more people, the poor pour out people.

The people have the money, you offer them a valuable service to solve a problem, they pay.

Audience = Advertisers = Income.

No audience = No advertisers = No income.

That's the maths.

I have never cashed from Google AdSense or Adsterra, simply put any ad networks.

All my blogging money comes from direct advertising.

WHY MOVING FAST FROM BLOGGER TO OWN A BLOGGING HUB, TURNING YOU AN EX-BLOGGER?

I don't know, I just want to be moving fast, failing fast and learning quickly.

I compete in the business and markets, I don't hate my competitors. I don't kill the competition, it makes the ecosystem healthy. I love my competitors as partners in the business and game players in the markets.

So the world is moving fast, coming to end of age; I have to follow it, move fast, don't follow trends and following my purpose.

From Doactalk on blogspot to doacWeb on our programmed system. From talk and news blog to content aggregator and cms. That's the way, I don't just know why?

We are not satisfied with the level and services, we are currently offering, more features will be added to doacWeb with time.

Ex-blogger: Many think Didi-Omah is now an ex-blogger, even the media. The truth is that I can't leave writing, so I can't leave blogging. I don't usually blog often and daily as before: but I still write, creating publications and keep blogging.

HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY?

You know, seriously you know. Only direct advertising for now, and we are working to create more streams of cash flow to our wallet from doacWeb with time.

Now, let me mentioned the three sure ways: Ad Networks, Direct Ads, Sponsored Posts... include others: Affiliate Marketing, Paid Partnership, Selling Products or Service, etc.

When using blogspot, blogging as Doactalk, I made money from: Sponsored Posts and Direct Advertising. Mainly sponsored post for Doactalk.

Now, doacWeb is primarily Direct Advertising.

Making money online, in blogging, think I need to talk more on these:

1. Display Advertising

Display ads are a classic and reliable choice. Think banners, sidebar ads, and pop-ups that grab your audience's attention. Platforms like Google AdSense make it super easy to get started.

Simply sign up, place the ad code on your site, and watch the revenue roll in. It’s a straightforward way to monetize your traffic with minimal effort.

2. Direct Ad Sales

Why not take control and sell ad space directly to businesses? By cutting out the middleman, you can negotiate higher rates and build strong relationships with advertisers.

Create a dedicated “Advertise with Us” or “Advertise” page on your site, outline your traffic stats, audience demographics, and offer attractive packages. Personal touches like this can significantly increase your ad revenue.

3. Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is another fantastic option. Collaborate with brands, individuals, companies to create articles, videos, or social media posts that promote their products or services. This approach not only brings in revenue but also adds valuable content to your site.

Just make sure to clearly label sponsored content to maintain trust with your audience.

Selling ad space can be a game-changer for your website’s revenue. Whether you choose display ads, direct ad sales, or sponsored content, there’s a method that can fit seamlessly with your site’s style and audience.

Then you will be talking on the secondary ways of money from your blog: Affiliate Marketing, Paid Partnership, Selling Products or Service, or Selling your own creations. You can even do dropshiping business and content marketing on your blog.

Just look for the ones suitable for you and your audience, that are paying.

WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO YOUNG BLOGGERS?

Blogging is not for everyone. Those who are dedicated to blogging to keep blogging; those that quit, please do go back to blogging. There are many ways of making money online, not only blogging.

Blogging is fun, yes. But it's also a great marketing and SEO strategy. 

Stay top of mind. If you blog regularly (and share your posts on social media), your audience will remember your business more easily.

I love blogging, I love doacWeb. Remember to go viral, go engaging. You need to create engaging contents to get engagements and drive audience, making your blog viral.

Blogging doesn't make you wealthy, it is the strategy and system you use in the blogging that pays you. Be good at monetisation and focus on your audience, content remain the king.

Learn from your competitors, don't copy them; because when you copy them, you likely loose your brand style and fall your business — I suffered from these. Don't kill the competition, be one of the big player as possible in the competition and the markets; the competition make the market, the business healthy.

Create your concept, build your brand, mind your business, serve communities. Be unique, don't flood your site with ads that will cause you loose audience, making you outdated and broke in time to come.

Build connections, pray for big breaks. Give back to people who helped you, give back to the society, help.

To end my words, love and keep loving!

© DIDI-OMAH DIARY, 2024