Linda Ikeji is a famous blogger in Nigeria who in 2013 made it onto the list of Forbes influential bloggers which is no easy feat!
Her blog provides news, beauty tips, and celebrity gossip to her readers.
She started blogging when she was 17 years old with no background in journalism or writing experience.
Today, she has over 3 million followers on Facebook where she posts almost daily.
With so many people following her work, Linda has been able to make a living for herself by running the blog as well as taking advertisements from various companies.
She has been able to launch her own beauty line as well as a clothing line via print on demand.
She was also named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2014 and awarded an honorary doctorate from Babcock University.
Linda continues to work hard to provide her readers with the latest posts and information on entertainment news.
She has been in the spotlight for her success and achievements as an entrepreneur while being one of Nigeria's most successful bloggers to date.
Her blog began when she had just finished school with no further ideas about what career path to take until she discovered blogging.
Linda Ikeji has proven that no hobby or past-time is too ordinary or irrelevant to be unprofitable.
She started her blog in 2006 with no particular intention of making money online. Her blog posts feature the latest society gossip, celebrity talk and details of her personal life.
The blog’s original content, sensational articles and close engagement with readers have earned her a huge following in Nigeria and the diaspora.
Our estimates reveal her blog’s income stacks up to $65,000 every month. How did this ordinary Nigerian achieve this extraordinary income?
Let’s find out…
With a free blog from Google’s Blogger.com, a knack for gossip and less-than-perfect writing skills, Linda Ikeji was able to start a ‘business’ with literally no startup and running costs.
Today, lindaikeji.blogspot.com has become one of the top go-to websites in Nigeria and, arguably, the most successful and influential social platform in her country.
Early in 2013, Linda spoilt herself with this new Infiniti 2011 Model FX35 SUV (valued at several thousand dollars).
In addition to income, Linda has used her blog as a platform to effect social change. In 2011, she brought attention to the case of a teenage Nigerian girl who had been held in a maximum prison for nearly four years without trial for stealing a mobile phone. With the support of some her blog’s most avid followers, the young girl was released from prison and returned to her parents.
In her interview with NdaniTV below, Linda shares the story of how she built a seemingly ordinary blog into an incredible success.
For a lady who had a failing modeling career in a country with one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, her extraordinary success is another evidence of the immense opportunities in Africa for people who can transform their natural God-given talents into wealth. Linda Ikeji now makes a full living from her blog and has joined the coveted club of entrepreneurs who enjoy the rare privilege of working from home in their pyjamas!
How does Linda Ikeji’s blog make money and how much does it make?
In our How to make money from blogging article, we described a blog as an electronic version of a real life paper magazine or newspaper we’re all used to. Given the current trend, we expect that blogs will gradually but surely replace hard copy newspapers and magazines as the world goes online and paperless.
As you already know, newspapers and magazines make a major chunk of their money from advertisements, and not sales of the papers.
Because millions of people are always interested in finding out what’s new in society, politics, fashion, business etc, anyone who’s got a product, event or service to sell pays the magazines/newspaper publishers to have their adverts placed in the papers.
Due to this exposure, more people get to know about what they’re selling and buy from them. The advertisers and magazines both make money and everyone’s happy.
This is exactly the same way online magazines (blogs) make money. But unlike newspapers whose distribution is constrained by physical boundaries, blogs can reach anyone anywhere in the world. And you don’t need to be a professional publisher or have an expensive printing press to own one! It’s simply amazing!
We could go on and on about the amazing power of blogs and how you can make money from blogging, but let’s focus on Linda Ikeji’s blog for now. You should read this article if you want to find out more about making money online.
Now that you have the background, let’s take a dive into all of Linda Ikeji’s money makers!
Money maker #1 - Private placements
Just like with paper magazines, interested advertisers contact Linda to place ads on her blog. The three yellow callout boxes in the blog snapshot below shows ads from Airtel (one of Nigeria’s largest telecom companies), HP (the global computer giant) and Naturessence (a popular hair-care product). What a band of heavyweight clients!
Money maker #1 - Private placement ads on Linda Ikeji’s blog
The sweetest thing about private placements is that you get to set your own rates. These advert banners can fetch very handsome prices depending on the banner sizes and their position on the blog.
For example, the Airtel banner (No. 1) at the very top of the blog is likely to cost more because of its central and strategic location. Smaller-sized banners are likely to cost a lot less.
Very often, private advertisers pay Linda Ikeji to have their adverts as the backdrop of the whole blog. It’s called a ‘site takeover’ and usually makes Linda a lot of bucks!
From the ads on her blog, it’s pretty obvious that the advertisers are targeting the overwhelmingly young demographic who constitute the blog’s loyal following. 18 to 44 year-olds make up 85 percent of the blog’s audience, with the 25-34 age bracket alone making up more than 50 percent!
According to Google Ad Planner, Linda Ikeji’s blog receives up to 90,000 unique visitors from across the world (especially Nigeria and the USA) everyday. These people collectively view the blog up to 250,000 times a day!
No business with interests in Nigeria would slip past an opportunity to reach such a large audience of young people! Smartphones, fashion, music, movies and anything that rides the modern technology or cultural trend would be particularly interested in gaining exposure through her blog.
Our research reveals that Linda Ikeji’s blog fetches an average of 4,000 Nigerian Naira (approx. $25) per day for each privately placed ad banner. On our last count (9 May 2013), there were 27 of these private ads. This amounts to roughly $675 per day alone from private ad placements! Money maker #2 - Pay-per-click (PPC) adverts
Unlike private placement ads that pay a daily, monthly or weekly advert rate, Pay-per-click (PPC) adverts only make money when people click on them.
The major PPC adverts on Linda Ikeji’s blog are from Google Adsense and Ad Dynamo. You can easily tell which ads are PPC by looking out for tiny red (Ad Dynamo) or blue (Google Adsense) symbols along the top or bottom of these banners.
Money maker #2 - Pay-Per-Click ads on Linda Ikeji’s blog
Google Ads and Ad Dynamo pay quite different rates per click. So, for the purpose of our evaluation, we have chosen a conservative estimate of $0.30 per click for both types of ads.
Applying a (conservative) Click through rate (CTR) of 2 percent, it becomes apparent that about 5,000 of the blog’s 250,000 daily views lead to clicks on PPC ads. For those of us who do not know, CTR is the estimated percentage of blog views that lead to ad clicks.
At $0.30 per click for an estimated 5,000 clicks per day, we conservatively estimate that Linda’s blog makes (on average) $1,500 from PPC adverts alone!
Money maker #3 - Brand Endorsements
Having built up a large loyal following that spreads beyond Nigeria’s shores, Linda Ikeji has attained a celebrity status for herself. Not by any singing or acting talent, Linda has built a solid fan base by sheer gossip blogging!
Businesses are usually very keen to exploit the power of connectors and celebrity symbols in society. This is exactly why football stars, celebrity actors, musicians and comedians across Africa are fast becoming ambassadors for several product and business brands on the continent.
As at when we checked (May 2013), Linda endorsed the Nokia Asha phone that featured her mobile app. It’s a bit difficult to put a price on these brand endorsement deals due to their negotiated nature. We have deliberately left out the income from these endorsements to preserve our conservative estimates. Linda Ikeji’s efforts have really paid off!
From Money makers 1 and 2, we can infer that Linda Ikeji’s blog makes an average of $2,175 every day. This figure does not include brand endorsements and full-page takeovers and reflects our modest estimates of her blog income within the last 12 months.
With a monthly income that comes up to $65,000, Linda is definitely in the league of very successful bloggers who have made a fortune out of a mere hobby.
She joins the Top 7 Money-making Bloggers Africans should learn from who make a full living from their blogs and earn monthly income in the tens of thousands of dollars!
While this may sound like a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s not! Running an internet business like Linda’s requires sincere dedication, 100 percent originality in content, hardwork and discipline. When all these elements are well combined, the rewards can be astounding and are totally worth all the hard effort!
Linda was indeed a Smallstarter in every sense. Do you have some qualities and talents you can monetize through an internet business like Linda’s?
Remember, you can find more interesting success stories and business opportunities like this one in the Business ideas section of Smallstarter.
To your success!
How Did This Ordinary Nigerian Achieve This Extraordinary Income?
як Alannah Kroeger (2021-10-18)
Linda Ikeji is a famous blogger in Nigeria who in 2013 made it onto the list of Forbes influential bloggers which is no easy feat!She started blogging when she was 17 years old with no background in journalism or writing experience.
Today, she has over 3 million followers on Facebook where she posts almost daily.
With so many people following her work, Linda has been able to make a living for herself by running the blog as well as taking advertisements from various companies.
She has been able to launch her own beauty line as well as a clothing line via print on demand.
She was also named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2014 and awarded an honorary doctorate from Babcock University.
Linda continues to work hard to provide her readers with the latest posts and information on entertainment news.
She has been in the spotlight for her success and achievements as an entrepreneur while being one of Nigeria's most successful bloggers to date.
Linda Ikeji has proven that no hobby or past-time is too ordinary or irrelevant to be unprofitable.
She started her blog in 2006 with no particular intention of making money online. Her blog posts feature the latest society gossip, celebrity talk and details of her personal life.
The blog’s original content, sensational articles and close engagement with readers have earned her a huge following in Nigeria and the diaspora.
Our estimates reveal her blog’s income stacks up to $65,000 every month. How did this ordinary Nigerian achieve this extraordinary income?
Let’s find out…
With a free blog from Google’s Blogger.com, a knack for gossip and less-than-perfect writing skills, Linda Ikeji was able to start a ‘business’ with literally no startup and running costs.
Today, lindaikeji.blogspot.com has become one of the top go-to websites in Nigeria and, arguably, the most successful and influential social platform in her country.
Early in 2013, Linda spoilt herself with this new Infiniti 2011 Model FX35 SUV (valued at several thousand dollars).
In addition to income, Linda has used her blog as a platform to effect social change. In 2011, she brought attention to the case of a teenage Nigerian girl who had been held in a maximum prison for nearly four years without trial for stealing a mobile phone. With the support of some her blog’s most avid followers, the young girl was released from prison and returned to her parents.
In her interview with NdaniTV below, Linda shares the story of how she built a seemingly ordinary blog into an incredible success.
For a lady who had a failing modeling career in a country with one of the world’s highest unemployment rates, her extraordinary success is another evidence of the immense opportunities in Africa for people who can transform their natural God-given talents into wealth.
Linda Ikeji now makes a full living from her blog and has joined the coveted club of entrepreneurs who enjoy the rare privilege of working from home in their pyjamas!
How does Linda Ikeji’s blog make money and how much does it make?
In our How to make money from blogging article, we described a blog as an electronic version of a real life paper magazine or newspaper we’re all used to. Given the current trend, we expect that blogs will gradually but surely replace hard copy newspapers and magazines as the world goes online and paperless.
As you already know, newspapers and magazines make a major chunk of their money from advertisements, and not sales of the papers.
Because millions of people are always interested in finding out what’s new in society, politics, fashion, business etc, anyone who’s got a product, event or service to sell pays the magazines/newspaper publishers to have their adverts placed in the papers.
Due to this exposure, more people get to know about what they’re selling and buy from them. The advertisers and magazines both make money and everyone’s happy.
This is exactly the same way online magazines (blogs) make money. But unlike newspapers whose distribution is constrained by physical boundaries, blogs can reach anyone anywhere in the world. And you don’t need to be a professional publisher or have an expensive printing press to own one! It’s simply amazing!
We could go on and on about the amazing power of blogs and how you can make money from blogging, but let’s focus on Linda Ikeji’s blog for now. You should read this article if you want to find out more about making money online.
Now that you have the background, let’s take a dive into all of Linda Ikeji’s money makers!
Money maker #1 - Private placements
Just like with paper magazines, interested advertisers contact Linda to place ads on her blog. The three yellow callout boxes in the blog snapshot below shows ads from Airtel (one of Nigeria’s largest telecom companies), HP (the global computer giant) and Naturessence (a popular hair-care product). What a band of heavyweight clients!
Money maker #1 - Private placement ads on Linda Ikeji’s blog
The sweetest thing about private placements is that you get to set your own rates. These advert banners can fetch very handsome prices depending on the banner sizes and their position on the blog.
For example, the Airtel banner (No. 1) at the very top of the blog is likely to cost more because of its central and strategic location. Smaller-sized banners are likely to cost a lot less.
Very often, private advertisers pay Linda Ikeji to have their adverts as the backdrop of the whole blog. It’s called a ‘site takeover’ and usually makes Linda a lot of bucks!
From the ads on her blog, it’s pretty obvious that the advertisers are targeting the overwhelmingly young demographic who constitute the blog’s loyal following. 18 to 44 year-olds make up 85 percent of the blog’s audience, with the 25-34 age bracket alone making up more than 50 percent!
According to Google Ad Planner, Linda Ikeji’s blog receives up to 90,000 unique visitors from across the world (especially Nigeria and the USA) everyday. These people collectively view the blog up to 250,000 times a day!
No business with interests in Nigeria would slip past an opportunity to reach such a large audience of young people! Smartphones, fashion, music, movies and anything that rides the modern technology or cultural trend would be particularly interested in gaining exposure through her blog.
Our research reveals that Linda Ikeji’s blog fetches an average of 4,000 Nigerian Naira (approx. $25) per day for each privately placed ad banner. On our last count (9 May 2013), there were 27 of these private ads. This amounts to roughly $675 per day alone from private ad placements!
Money maker #2 - Pay-per-click (PPC) adverts
Unlike private placement ads that pay a daily, monthly or weekly advert rate, Pay-per-click (PPC) adverts only make money when people click on them.
The major PPC adverts on Linda Ikeji’s blog are from Google Adsense and Ad Dynamo. You can easily tell which ads are PPC by looking out for tiny red (Ad Dynamo) or blue (Google Adsense) symbols along the top or bottom of these banners.
Money maker #2 - Pay-Per-Click ads on Linda Ikeji’s blog
Google Ads and Ad Dynamo pay quite different rates per click. So, for the purpose of our evaluation, we have chosen a conservative estimate of $0.30 per click for both types of ads.
Applying a (conservative) Click through rate (CTR) of 2 percent, it becomes apparent that about 5,000 of the blog’s 250,000 daily views lead to clicks on PPC ads. For those of us who do not know, CTR is the estimated percentage of blog views that lead to ad clicks.
At $0.30 per click for an estimated 5,000 clicks per day, we conservatively estimate that Linda’s blog makes (on average) $1,500 from PPC adverts alone!
Money maker #3 - Brand Endorsements
Having built up a large loyal following that spreads beyond Nigeria’s shores, Linda Ikeji has attained a celebrity status for herself. Not by any singing or acting talent, Linda has built a solid fan base by sheer gossip blogging!
Businesses are usually very keen to exploit the power of connectors and celebrity symbols in society. This is exactly why football stars, celebrity actors, musicians and comedians across Africa are fast becoming ambassadors for several product and business brands on the continent.
As at when we checked (May 2013), Linda endorsed the Nokia Asha phone that featured her mobile app. It’s a bit difficult to put a price on these brand endorsement deals due to their negotiated nature. We have deliberately left out the income from these endorsements to preserve our conservative estimates.
Linda Ikeji’s efforts have really paid off!
From Money makers 1 and 2, we can infer that Linda Ikeji’s blog makes an average of $2,175 every day. This figure does not include brand endorsements and full-page takeovers and reflects our modest estimates of her blog income within the last 12 months.
With a monthly income that comes up to $65,000, Linda is definitely in the league of very successful bloggers who have made a fortune out of a mere hobby.
She joins the Top 7 Money-making Bloggers Africans should learn from who make a full living from their blogs and earn monthly income in the tens of thousands of dollars!
While this may sound like a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s not! Running an internet business like Linda’s requires sincere dedication, 100 percent originality in content, hardwork and discipline. When all these elements are well combined, the rewards can be astounding and are totally worth all the hard effort!
Linda was indeed a Smallstarter in every sense. Do you have some qualities and talents you can monetize through an internet business like Linda’s?
Remember, you can find more interesting success stories and business opportunities like this one in the Business ideas section of Smallstarter.
To your success!