BLOGGING IN UGANDA: WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL, THE CHALLENGES INVOLVED AND ADVANTAGES OF BLOGGING

The blogging industry in Uganda is growing rapidly and in the near future we shall have people who are making millions off their computers and blogging websites just like some of the most popular bloggers around the world who hit it big when blogging became a very big business in the early 2000s. 

Today, there are very many Ugandans who are starting up blogs and some of them have already started making money off their blogs through advertising and other monetisation strategies that are available.  

We can talk of the likes of Ian Ortega of Bigeye.ug, Mukama of Howwe.biz and others out there. 

But do you know what it actually takes to become a very successful blogger in Uganda? Well, it will take a lot of your resources in terms to time, money and also a lot of patience. 

There is nothing in this world that comes easily my friend, even blogging. 

Let’s now take a very good look at some of the things that are good and bad about blogging in Uganda and also what it actually takes to become a very successful blogger in Uganda.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT BLOGGING IN UGANDA

You have seen some successful bloggers out there and you would wish to be just like them and make lots of money and also may be become very popular like them but then, you are not sure whether you are doing the right things that will actually make you become very successful at the game of blogging and then you ask yourself, what does it really take to become a very successful blogger and it seems no one knows the answer. 

You should not worry, you are in the right place and I will give you some tips and an overview of what it actually takes to become a successful blogger.

1. Start a blog as quickly as you can

In Uganda today, the blogging industry is just at it’s beginning stages and so the bubble has not yet burst. 

If you can just start a blog today, you might be one of those who will have the benefits of first movers in this industry especially in our country here in Uganda since there are very few Ugandans who are actually blogging.  

Most people in the other developed countries wished that they had started their blogs at the time when other people like Peter Cashmore of Mashable and Micheal Arrington of Techcrunch were cashing in on theirs. 

If you can start your blog today just may be in 4 years or 5 years you may start making some good amounts of money off your blog, though it is not a guarantee since you must work on it.

 It is very easy to start a blog and the good thing is that you can start a blog for free using the free hosting and sub domains from platforms like blogger, wordpress, and others. 

If you have got some money then you can decide to have your own website and also purchase a custom domain.

 A custom domain is a domain that is a top level domain like .com, .ug, .org,.net and more. If you look at a blog like bigeye.ug.  

They are using the .ug custom domain. Sub domains are domains like me.blogspot.com, me.wordpress.com.

2. Make sure you update your blog regularly and even every day if you can

The most successful bloggers update their blogs everyday and if not several times in a day. 

Some of the blogs like TMZ, Perezhilton are updated every day and very many times in a day and this has made them very successful since they get lots of traffic from their readers and very good rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. 

After setting up your blog, you should make sure that you start updating it regularly. Do not blog once a month or thrice a week. If you really want to be very successful, you should blog everyday at least. 

Some popular blogs like Ghafla.com from Kenya which is an entertainment blog make around 50 posts in a day. 

According to Ian Ortega who is the founder of bigeye.ug, initially they used to make at least 10 posts in a day on the website and they ensured that they updated the website daily and that’s one of the reasons why the website grew very fast.

3. You need to be patient and consistent

To be successful in blogging you will need to develop enough patience and perseverance in order to achieve the most extraordinary results in blogging. 

I know of one blogger who is very popular in Nigeria called LindaIkeji who wakes up at 4.00 am to blog and updates her blog throughout the day and sleeps at midnight.

 Her blog gets over millions of page views in a day and this has caused the advertisers to run to her for advertising spaces and she is earning some good amounts of money from it. She has now expanded her business to include a social network, and even an online television network.

 To achieve that massive success, it took her around 6 years of being consistent and blogging everyday and working hard. It is mainly a game of patience and working extremely hard.

4.  You should be passionate about the art of blogging

If you are passionate about blogging and you truly love writing and playing with the keyboard, then this is something that is perfect for you.  

Your passion will keep you going when the going gets tough and you feel just like giving up and moving onto other things in life. if you love blogging, you will more likely go very far with it since the love for it will keep you going.

 Very many people have started up blogs and some of them have left the blogs just after six months and moved onto something else while others quit after a year or so.

 In order to be successful you must keep writing blog posts and updating your blog regularly so that you can always keep your readers coming back for more of what you have to tell them.

5 You should ensure that you do not copy other people’s work and that you are original

Some people out there are always looking out for the easiest ways out of life and they will do anything to get ahead of life easily but in the world of blogging, you cannot get there very fast. You will have to be a little bit patient to get there. 

If you try to avoid writing articles by just copying word by word what other bloggers have put up, you will be penalised by Google and they will ensure that your blog does not appear on their first page or even their second page when people search for it online. 

You should ensure that you are writing original articles and they are also of value to people out there. 

This will allow people to like your blog and also Google will put your blog on its first page which will actually increase the chances of your blog being seen by very many people online. 

If you continue copying articles and you do try to apply for Google’s adsense, they will reject your application. It is always good to be original so that you are not competing with anyone in any niche. 

You should be able to get a niche that you can actually dominate without copying anything.

6. Make sure you are adding value to your readers and this will keep them coming back to your blog for more of your content

If your blog is adding value to your readers, they will most likely keep coming back to your blog just to have more of what you actually have to offer.

 You can add value to your readers in different ways and this could be entertainment, inspiration or just tutorials that your readers can follow and use in their daily lives.  

If your blog is not adding any value to your readers, they will not visit it again but if you are adding value to them, they will reward you with lots of traffic and also more readers to your website.

THE CHALLENGES INVOLVED IN BLOGGING IN UGANDA

Every good thing has its challenges and the bad side of it and this also includes blogging.  If you are just starting out on the journey of blogging in Uganda, there are some challenges that you will actually face. 

So blogging is not just about writing articles but it also has it’s unique challenges that you must actually overcome if you want to become very successful in it.

 So now, let’s look at some of the challenges that you will face while you are blogging in Uganda.

1.  High cost of equipments like Laptops, modems

The art of blogging is not cheap and nobody says that it will actually be easy. 

If you are planning to start blogging, you will need to set aside some money to start buying some tools that you will use in your journey of blogging and these are Laptops or modems. 

 A Laptop will help you while you are writing articles and a modem will help you if you want to access internet so that you can be able to upload your originally written articles onto your blog.

 You could use your smart phone but still there some features on your blog that may not be visible on your smart phone.

 So you will need to sacrifice some money in order to help you buy some equipment like Laptops and modems. All these will need some money if you want to kick off the blogging business.

2.  High internet/ Data costs

If you are serious about blogging you will need to blog regularly and this actually means that the costs of buying data will also be high. 

You will need to buy data regularly and load it on your simcard that you insert in your modem so that you can access internet. 

This actually means that you will need to plan for the data costs and you will incur since you will need to buy it regularly in order to access internet. 

You will need to buy a data bundle and can help you access internet efficiently and that means buying something like 1GB data bundle or 2GB or others. 

You cannot use a 10MB data bundle to do blogging because it will not help unless you are just using it to browse through websites and read through the articles on a blog.

3. Unstable power supply

Uganda being a third world country, there will always be disruptions in the electricity supply and so you will need to get used to load shedding and the switching off of power unexpectedly. 

This will affect your blogging momentum simply because you will need to get an alternative source of power like solar energy or a generator if you are willing to continue with blogging. 

You will need  a stable source of power if you want to become successful  at blogging since you will need to blog regularly and if possible even everyday especially if you still have little traffic that has been generated on your website. 

This all means you will need to fork out some good amount of money to solve the problems of power in your home or place of work like office.

4. Slow Internet Speeds

Some Telecommunication networks in Uganda have very slow internet speeds and this will affect your blogging especially if you are just a new blogger and would like to make very many blog posts in a day.

 If you are working with a very slow internet speed, then loading a page on your blog will take minutes even hours and you might just end up uploading only one article for the whole day but if you have very fast internet speeds, your articles will be uploaded quickly and you will be able to update your blog very quickly and fast. 

So you will need to get a simcard of a telecommunications company whose internet speeds are fast and reliable. This will help your blog to be updated quickly and fast without wasting any time of the day.

5. Plagiarism

You should be aware that there are some people out there who will pick up your well written articles and upload them their blogs or websites without you permission or even just providing a back link to your blog. 

This is called plagiarism and it is a habit that Google actually does not like and if they discover that the articles on a certain website have been copied and pasted word by word, they will penalise that website by ensuring that when people search online for the website, they will not see it online.

 If you are out there and you are planning on copying, make sure that you actually avoid the habit because it will be doing a disservice for your blogging business.

6. High costs of hosting and buying domain names

If you are planning to start a professional blog with it’s own custom domain, you should be ready to pay for the costs like hosting the website and also the domains that are renewed every year.  

You will need to spend large sums of money on hosting if your website is going to become very big and even grow quickly because getting a server space that is cheap will not actually be easy. 

You will need to get hosting of around 1 GB depending on the type of website that you do have and are willing to run. 

Although it is possible to initially avoid the cost of hosting and buying domains through the use for free hosting and domain platforms like Blogger and Wordpress but in the long run, you will need to go professional and do the hosting yourself and also buy a custom domain since these domains are shorter and will easily be remembered by your readers.

ADVANTAGES OF BLOGGING IN UGANDA

Now that we have looked at what it takes to be a successful blogger in uganda and also the challenges that are faced by Ugandan bloggers, it is now time to look at some of the benefits and advantages of blogging in Uganda.

 Blogging has very many advantages for all those who are planning to start blogging. It is a lot of fun and you will enjoy the benefits. Without wasting any time, let me give you some of the benefits of blogging in Uganda.

1. You will be able to make money and lots of it

One sole reason why very many people are starting out blogs is because they want to make money and lots of it. 

It is true and very true that some people around the world are actually living off their blogs and have even managed to open up other businesses with the money that they got from their blogs. 

There is a Nigerian blogger called Linda Ikeji who was able to even buy a mansion using the money that she got from her blog and even add on it a very nice Range Rover 2016 model onto it.

  That’s the power of blogging and that’s the power of using a computer and a modem in a very responsible way. 

If you are consistent and also very patient, I assure you, it will not be long before you start making some good amounts of money off your blog. It will take a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice to get there but it is very possible. 

There is also another Kenyan student called Samuel Manjani who was dismissed from University for failing his exams but decided to start a blog called Ghafla.com that has now become one of the biggest websites in Kenya and now he is making huge sums of money just off blogging. 

So if you are unemployed and would love to try blogging, I urge you to start off today because you just never know where the power of the keyboard could actually lead you.

2. You will become famous and popular

Some people love being popular and famous, that’s what they value and love.  How did you know about Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook or Larry page the Google founder? 

Well, if you could know about these guys, then just take a good look at yourself out there being talked about after having created a very popular website with your own effort. 

All the women and girls will wish you were actually there’s if you are a guy and all the men will wish to have a piece of you if you are a woman. If that excites you, then you should kick off your blogging business today. 

You will become popular because people will want to know the person behind the popular website and they will look for you every day and night but please do not hide from them.

3. You will be able to make new friends

Through blogging you will make lots of friends and you will be able to share a lot of things with them.  

If you are offering value to these people, they will hit on your comments and also add their views on the subjects that you are discussing on your blog and they will also be able to introduce you to things that you actually thought were not possible.  

So if you are out there and would also love to make some friends online, you can also start a blog and may be you will begin getting some interesting comments from your readers who love your website and they will give you some good support and also put their thumbs up for the good work. Your loyal fans will be by your side throughout the journey. 

These are some of the advantages and top reasons why you should actually start off a blog in Uganda and also some of the challenges that are involved in the world of blogging for those who would like to venture into the world of blogging.  

For those of us who are already in the blogging industry, keep moving forward and keep playing with the keyboard, you just never know where this art of blogging could lead you to.  To our success in Life.