How do you make use of your smartphone, are your smartphones just tools for taking selfies, sending messages, making and receiving phone calls or connecting with friends on social media platforms? I'm not saying putting your smartphone to such use is lame, all I'm trying to say is that there's so much you can accomplish with just that smartphone in your hand.

A year ago I observed a weird scenerio in a banking hall where a lady who owned a Samsung smartphone was told to launch her phone's browser in order to check her mailbox by the customer care officer. She genuinely opened up and said she didn't know how to go about it. I thought it was quite a shame on her path. I mean, what then was she now doing with the smartphone? Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook I guess.

The sole purpose of this post is basically to inspire every Nigerian to make the best use of their smartphones.

Well, here is my story:

I kicked off blogging on the 11th day of June, 2016 at around 6:00pm with just my smartphone as I had no money to get me a laptop, ever since then it’s really been an interesting journey, not saying it’s been smooth all the way. By the way, my blog is of the music niche. I made my first blog post on that same day, the day I launched the blog, and it was a news on the shooting of Teenage music star Christina Alum while she was in a concert. Being a new blog on the block I wasn’t expecting much backlink traffic on that post. As time went by my blog began building itself an audience, very little in number though, but an audience anyway. At least at that point I could comfortably look at my blog’s stats at the end of each blessed day and flash that sought of smile broad enough to convey 10 persons across the Niger River.

My blog’s first major breakthrough in terms of being indexed by Google came around August. The blog post that fetched me such staggering amount of traffic was an article I published on my blog and submitted here on Nairaland, with the aim of building quality backlinks to the said post’s original source. (Links that go from another site to yours are called backlinks because they point back to your pages.) I had no idea Nigerian bloggers around every nook and cranny of the world would be interested in such an article. I later understood why. The post was quite informative and bloggers most especially from the Nigerian community could empathize with everything I wrote, because it was basically about the struggle of a newbie blogger. It quite resonated with the struggles they had during their early stages of blogging too.

I recall waking up on a Friday morning to check my blog’s stats, what I saw almost knocked me out. Thousands of folks from Nairaland had flooded this very blog just to read the blog post. As one would expect I got reviews, good and bad. I wasn’t too concerned with the positive reviews and feedbacks i got as much as I was with the negative reviews. I enjoyed reading every criticism because it opened my eyes to my many shortcomings as a blogger and made me realize there still was more than enough work to be done. First of all, my Writing Style was heavily criticized, Was I even writing in accordance with SEO? Maybe, I wasn’t. Now that was something I had to work on; Secondly, my blog’s theme was frowned at. I was told to work on that. Did I just hear you ask if Your Blog Design Matters? Well it does.

“Put your best foot forward.”

“First impressions count.”

“Are you wearing clean underwear? What happens if you get hit by a bus and have to be taken to the hospital?”

Aside from the fact that your mother most likely uttered all of these to you at some point in your life, what else are these phrases telling us? Simply put, Your blog is an extension of you. It’s your most powerful personal branding tool (short of yourself.) It says a ton about who you are, what you’re passionate about, what you believe in, etc. In the world of blogging, content might be king, but design is at least the court jester. And we all know the court jester is really the one keeping things together. My blog’s theme aint perfect yet, but I’m currently working on bringing it close to perfection; Lastly, I was scolded for launching my blog on a free hosted platform. Some even said I wasn’t a serious individual for making such a move. But it was wisdom on my path, as initially launching this blog on a free hosted platform was more like initiating a test drive.

My blog’s success in terms of traffic and publicity ever since I launched the blog six months ago has been in the style of a Merry-Go-Round, Up and Down, Round and Round. You know. Some months are just exceedingly great while other months see me struggling to accept the fact that all the hard work I put into researching, writing and publishing numerous blog posts could earn me just a handful of readers and visitors. I should be in despair during such times, right? But I’m not.

My blog might fall short of being inducted into the Hall of Thriving Blogs, but it did get me a job in 2016. A freelance writing job where I only have to sit back at home, write, publish articles and get paid weekly. Within the span of four months my blog has fetched me three job offers. Imagine achieving such feat with just your smartphone. I’ve been offered jobs on three huge blogs. Two of which are Nigerian, the other being a foreign blog. I could only take one so I wisely chose the best. The act of juggling both tasks, I mean minding my blog and the blog that pays me has negatively affected the growth and productivity of my blog, but that would be fixed in 2017. There’s so much I plan on executing come next year: Like purchasing a domain and setting up a proper music blog.

Thank you so much for reading through.

See Original Post:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/12/20/a-quick-look-at-how-my-blog-fared-in-2016/

it's quite nice to know that someone somewhere wants to share his story so that others Can learn from it. Whoever says there are No jobs is probably a lazy thinking human Who lacks the ability to use his/her brain.

I also write but have not ventured into blogging yet. Thanks for sharing,

Thepasserby:
it's quite nice to know that someone somewhere wants to share his story so that others Can learn from it. Whoever says there are No jobs is probably a lazy thinking human Who lacks the ability to use his/her brain.

I also write but have not ventured into blogging yet. Thanks for sharing,

You welcome

Well my blogging story is quite similar to yours except the job offers aspect, though i havent been consistent cause of my nysc which i'm currently undergoing. Anyway goodluck in your newly found career but i advice you to get a laptop with the first of your earnings, i dont know how youve managed with a phone for 6 months.

Great job @OP. very inspiring and uplifting work.

NCP:
Great job @OP. very inspiring and uplifting work.

Thank you so much

Wow this is really nice. Congrats brov

Congrats dear. Keep it up.

Hope this is not infinix products promotion
Congrats sha.... wishing you more success

IAMMUIC:
How do you make use of your smartphone, are your smartphones just tools for taking selfies, sending messages, making and receiving phone calls or connecting with friends on social media platforms? I'm not saying putting your smartphone to such use is lame, all I'm trying to say is that there's so much you can accomplish with just that smartphone in your hand.

A year ago I observed a weird scenerio in a banking hall where a lady who owned a Samsung smartphone was told to launch her phone's browser in order to check her mailbox by the customer care officer. She genuinely opened up and said she didn't know how to go about it. I thought it was quite a shame on her path. I mean, what then was she now doing with the smartphone? Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook I guess.

The sole purpose of this post is basically to inspire every Nigerian to make the best use of their smartphones.

Well, here is my story:

I kicked off blogging on the 11th day of June, 2016 at around 6:00pm with just my smartphone as I had no money to get me a laptop, ever since then it’s really been an interesting journey, not saying it’s been smooth all the way. By the way, my blog is of the music niche. I made my first blog post on that same day, the day I launched the blog, and it was a news on the shooting of Teenage music star Christina Alum while she was in a concert. Being a new blog on the block I wasn’t expecting much backlink traffic on that post. As time went by my blog began building itself an audience, very little in number though, but an audience anyway. At least at that point I could comfortably look at my blog’s stats at the end of each blessed day and flash that sought of smile broad enough to convey 10 persons across the Niger River.

My blog’s first major breakthrough in terms of being indexed by Google came around August. The blog post that fetched me such staggering amount of traffic was an article I published on my blog and submitted here on Nairaland, with the aim of building quality backlinks to the said post’s original source. (Links that go from another site to yours are called backlinks because they point back to your pages.) I had no idea Nigerian bloggers around every nook and cranny of the world would be interested in such an article. I later understood why. The post was quite informative and bloggers most especially from the Nigerian community could empathize with everything I wrote, because it was basically about the struggle of a newbie blogger. It quite resonated with the struggles they had during their early stages of blogging too.

I recall waking up on a Friday morning to check my blog’s stats, what I saw almost knocked me out. Thousands of folks from Nairaland had flooded this very blog just to read the blog post. As one would expect I got reviews, good and bad. I wasn’t too concerned with the positive reviews and feedbacks i got as much as I was with the negative reviews. I enjoyed reading every criticism because it opened my eyes to my many shortcomings as a blogger and made me realize there still was more than enough work to be done. First of all, my Writing Style was heavily criticized, Was I even writing in accordance with SEO? Maybe, I wasn’t. Now that was something I had to work on; Secondly, my blog’s theme was frowned at. I was told to work on that. Did I just hear you ask if Your Blog Design Matters? Well it does.

“Put your best foot forward.”

“First impressions count.”

“Are you wearing clean underwear? What happens if you get hit by a bus and have to be taken to the hospital?”

Aside from the fact that your mother most likely uttered all of these to you at some point in your life, what else are these phrases telling us? Simply put, Your blog is an extension of you. It’s your most powerful personal branding tool (short of yourself.) It says a ton about who you are, what you’re passionate about, what you believe in, etc. In the world of blogging, content might be king, but design is at least the court jester. And we all know the court jester is really the one keeping things together. My blog’s theme aint perfect yet, but I’m currently working on bringing it close to perfection; Lastly, I was scolded for launching my blog on a free hosted platform. Some even said I wasn’t a serious individual for making such a move. But it was wisdom on my path, as initially launching this blog on a free hosted platform was more like initiating a test drive.

My blog’s success in terms of traffic and publicity ever since I launched the blog six months ago has been in the style of a Merry-Go-Round, Up and Down, Round and Round. You know. Some months are just exceedingly great while other months see me struggling to accept the fact that all the hard work I put into researching, writing and publishing numerous blog posts could earn me just a handful of readers and visitors. I should be in despair during such times, right? But I’m not.

My blog might fall short of being inducted into the Hall of Thriving Blogs, but it did get me a job in 2016. A freelance writing job where I only have to sit back at home, write, publish articles and get paid weekly. Within the span of four months my blog has fetched me three job offers. Imagine achieving such feat with just your smartphone. I’ve been offered jobs on three huge blogs. Two of which are Nigerian, the other being a foreign blog. I could only take one so I wisely chose the best. The act of juggling both tasks, I mean minding my blog and the blog that pays me has negatively affected the growth and productivity of my blog, but that would be fixed in 2017. There’s so much I plan on executing come next year: Like purchasing a domain and setting up a proper music blog.

Thank you so much for reading through.

See Original Post:
https://blarckbillboard./2016/12/20/a-quick-look-at-how-my-blog-fared-in-2016/

nice info man