Pamela W. Holloway 
In the Nigerian blogosphere, Our Planetary Laila Ijeoma commands a whole lot of appreciation, not simply because she owns www.LailasBlog.Com; a leisure internet site that reports trending Nigerian news examine with the aid of tens of millions month-to-month. On June 30, 2016, Laila took an ambitious step of leaving behind her over N5million per annum financial institution task to become a complete-time entertainment blogger, risking the whole lot to take a bet on her passion. She traded her lucrative activity to pursue what changed into nonetheless at that point, only a hobby she becomes passionate about; however, nowadays, the decision has come to be one in all her first-class turning factors. In a chat with Saturday Woman, she says she has no regrets a year after taking this huge jump of religion as she now has all of the time to awareness on her circle of relatives and continues to grow her weblog even bigger. Laila Ijeoma Why did you dump your bank process for full-time blogging? I commenced running a blog as a joke in 2012;
I wasn’t seeking out money because I turned into already gainfully hired at that time. All I wanted to be turned into an outlet to proportion my existence with Nigerians, inspire them with my stories. So I began a Facebook group called, ‘True love for my man’- that should be around 2010. That becomes the primary social media account I used to collect people collectively, and we chatted about love and heartbreak. My huge dream had always been to have a top Nigerian talk display, so I later started a display on the radio. I subsequently had to put it on preserve because it was so traumatic.
Being married, a mum to 3 boys, running on the financial institution, there has been plenty to do in only 24 hours every day and the whole timetable almost ‘killed’ me, so I needed to drop the radio display. Along the line, I found running a blog via a colleague at the bank wherein I worked; he owned a blog after he introduced me to it that fateful day, I was given hooked. I found out I may want to reach out to humans through it with much, much less pressure as compared to a radio show. I instructed him I would like to have mine, and he helped me set it up. I didn’t even take it critically then.
But as I kept on sharing stories and studying feedback from my target audience, I knew this became what I changed into born to do. I have usually been a science student in college; I knew not anything about running a blog, and I had 0 celeb friends, 0 celeb resources for my tales, but I didn’t let that forestall me. How hard was it juggling being a banker, blogger, wife, and mother of 3 boys? It becomes a crazy, disturbing schedule! Daily, I awoke at 4 am; go to bed on occasion 12 at nighttime. And tomorrow, I nonetheless should go to work. No excuses. I became able to run my existence like that for four years because I became fuelled with the aid of passion.
I love blogging; there’s this irreplaceable, lovely pleasure it brings me. As with each new assignment, the beginning is normally slow. How lengthy did it take for your site visitors to skyrocket? It took approximately 6 months after I made the first post on my blog for my visitors to start skyrocketing. Did the visitors immediately translate to cash for you? No, it didn’t. My visitors didn’t translate to so much cash until 2014. That become the 12 months this particular employer contacted me and ran an advert with me that lasted for a full 12 months and modified my life.
Would you say blogging is moneymaking in Nigeria? As lengthy as you are a passionate blogger, as long as you’re in running a blog due to the fact you revel in what you are doing, so long as your weblog, its concept, its contents are authentic, no longer a rip off of another blogger’s internet site; running a blog is the exceptional element which can ever happen to you. The rewards will blow your mind! It’s already an open mystery that running a blog can make you a billionaire. You get plenty of unfastened stuff from manufacturers too. People call you up. They want to put it on the market for your internet site, and they are handing out their services and products to you free of charge to assess them and share along with your readers.
Then you have the best reward; you’re known as a voice that may begin a change. You are respected. People want to study what you’ve got to mention about a scenario. Readers are so addicted to your blog that they wake up in the morning and may wait to read what is on Laila’s Blog these days. As a blogger, you can work from home in your pajamas. So you decide upon blogging to banking? I did banking for 10 years in one of Nigeria’s high-quality banks, and I loved it. But I wasn’t self-fulfilled; I wanted greater. Again, I became already running a blog for over three years alongside my day process. The truth is, as time went on, it became more difficult walking my blog, financial institution task, family, and looking after myself correctly.
I wanted to awaken in the morning to the pleasure of knowing that everyone I had to do for that day turned into write approximately the trending testimonies in Nigeria and now not leave out any story simply because it came about while I became offline. I additionally desired to spend more time with my very supportive husband and children every day. How might you compare your income now to while you were a banker? It has been gratifying, spiritually, family-clever, and financially. You recognize that you should worry about approximately getting your paycheck on the month’s cease with a regular daily task.
There are days I worry- what if I don’t make money this month? That become why earlier than I stop my financial institution activity, I made certain I saved up my earnings and had at least 6 months’ income set aside. I virtually had complete year earnings stored up before I made the bounce and resigned. If you don’t plan well, matters can genuinely go wrong, and your goals received pop out the way you deliberate them; you may fail, and existence turns into depressing. I’m so happy I conquered my fears of what if something is going wrong and takes the jump. My friends, circle of relatives, dad, and mom idea I become crazy once I first referred to it.
But after they noticed I wasn’t going to cease blogging and that I had prepared for the worst, they rallied spherically and supported my selection to leave banking. Having them at the back of me made me more potent, and I left. Any regrets to this point? None in any way; my earnings tripled. My youngsters wake up inside the morning they see mummy. Mummy takes them to high school, mum brings them lower back, mum tucks them into mattress every night time, mummy helps them with their college assignments, things I couldn’t do earlier than. I love what I do now, and it gives me so much joy. I omit my former colleagues now and then. What are the challenges you face as a blogger, particularly those extraordinary to the Nigerian blogosphere? My biggest challenge is internet network; there are instances I awaken to blog, and I discover my internet isn’t as rapid as I need it to be. Sometimes, it’s totally down, so I can’t find even a weblog.
The second venture is power; a computer is a blogger what the Bible is to a Pastor. Laptops can best work if they’re charged. Because I am online for at least 18 hours daily, I spend lots of gas on generators. What stands you out from different bloggers? You may be very positive that out of the over 50 memories you read on Laila’s weblog in an afternoon, at least 50% are our original memories. Again, we deliver memories as they are taking place. You will examine breaking news, trending testimonies first on Laila’s weblog earlier than they appear on different websites. In your estimation, what’s the destiny of running a blog in Nigeria inside the subsequent 5 years? These days, with a computer, all of us can build a worldwide commercial enterprise from his/her bed room, with a bit of creativity and sheer determination.
Every day, we have over a hundred new bloggers coming online. Vlogging is now a huge thing! Five years from now, I see extra, more youthful human beings doing massive things, conquering barriers, becoming millionaires through running a blog in Nigeria. I also see running a blog in Nigeria turning into an extra expert. I am a registered member of this CAC registered bloggers association known as The Guild of Professional Bloggers in Nigeria. Aside from blogging, any destiny plans? I actually have this massive ardor for taking care of orphans and prone kids, children under 18 years who are at excessive risk of lacking ok care and safety. Right now, I even have 10 underneath my care, youngsters my husband and I deal with. We have plans of taking that wide variety up a notch. Any hints for upcoming bloggers who look up to you? One Mr. Mohammed Mustafa Ahmedzai as soon as said ‘The simplest task in the world is beginning a blog, but the toughest job is preserving it.”
And that is true because persistence topics in running a blog and maximum upcoming bloggers don’t have that! Experienced bloggers will let you know which you ought to begin handiest to consider making money out of your blog at the least after 6 months of running a blog. But every day, I get emails from new bloggers with 1-2 month antique blogs asking you how to observe for Adsense. These new bloggers apply for AdSense, and in maximum instances, they’re rejected, and you see them give up running a blog. From the day every person starts evolved running a blog until the day he/she ends her running a blogging career, there are plenty of troubles you’ll face.
Solving those problems and transferring beforehand is not clean as it sounds! And that’s any other cause upcoming bloggers end running a blog without difficulty. So my first tip for them will be to have staying power. Without it, their eyes shall now not see the billions running a blog can drop in their financial institution accounts. If your major cause for running a blog is money and you have no patience for incomes, you definitely are now not going to earn from blogging! What’s your biggest wish in existence? I want to make the world a higher region by saving abused and prone children and ensuring their oppressors get critically punished for their wickedness.
