Linda Ikeji, Africa’s Richest Blogger – Making a Cool $1 Million a Year?

Linda Ikeji

 Some time early last year, an American friend called and asked whether I had ever visited an internet site called http://www.lindaikeji.blogspot.com or whether I knew of the young lady who runs the site.  I replied in the negative, but promised to check out the site immediately.  I said I had heard ofhttp://www.bellanaija.com.  I immediately accessed the site and was amazed at some of the things there, especially the celebrity gossip, which she has popularized.  I am not a frequent visitor, but once in awhile I check into the site.

We are talking of an extraordinary young woman, beautiful, sexy, charismatic, very bright, entrepreneurial, who by those who keep tabs on the internet, is quite high on the higher level of those who have used their laptop and internet modem to become very rich.  And that’s Linda Ikeji.

So some time ago, I read about some of the ten richest bloggers in the world, including their their monthly incomes, starting with Michael Arrington ($800,000), the youngest Pete Cashmore ($600,000), Mario Lavanderia (PerezHilton, $400,000). Vitaly Friedman ($190,000), Timothy Sykes ($180,000), Jake Dobki ($110,000), Collis Ta’eed ($110,000), Gina Trapani ($110,000), Matt Marshall ($100,000), and Ewdison Then ($60,000). 

But if we were to go by Alexa rankings, then Linda Ikeji should have been included amongst the top ten richest bloggers in the world.  Let’s take the last two mentioned bloggers, Ewdison Then, his Alexa ranking is 8,440 and he is making $60,000 a month; Matt Marshall’s Alexa ranking is 2088 and he is making $100,000.  Linda Ikeji’s Alexa ranking is 2,531 – then who says she is not making $100,000 a month given that her site has become the go to site for advertisers.

Then, the conjecture is that she must be making a cool $1 million a year, and guess what, that is with a laptop and a modem, and also guess what, at 34 or thereabouts, she is single, beautiful and according to her seriously looking for the right man.  If it weren’t for being in Nigeria, it is without a doubt that investors would be flocking to buy her site.

Next time you begin reading about the richest bloggers in the world, and it doesn’t include the name of Linda Ikeji, you should know that the list is incomplete.  So who is this Linda Ikeji?  Well, a lot has been written about her, especially from the site that gave her a first taste of blogging – www.bellanaija.com.  And we are reproducing her write-up below:

She has been called the “QUEEN OF BLOGGING” ; Others call her the “MOTHER OF BLOGGING” in Nigeria.     She earns more than N3 Million every month from her blog. Her office? A laptop and a modem. Her blog talks about naija entertainment gist ,celebrity gossips ,fashion,news and events. She is highest paid Nigerian blogger .     We talking about the popular LINDA IKEJI     Linda Ikeji was born September 19, 1980 . A native of Nkwerre LGA, Imo State, Nigeria .She was born in to a struggling family, the second of seven children. She grew up in a Christian catholic home.  At a tender age of 10 years, Linda started writing as a hobby.

Linda doesn’t live lavishly

The fiction she penned down were praised by her friends and family and over time she cultivated a passion for news.   Unlike many teenagers her age, Linda loved watching newscasters and interviews and by the time the opportunity presented to attend university in Lagos, her course choice was decided: Mass Communication.  She was admitted to study English Language in the university to her disappointment, but she decided to make the best of it.     To support herself and her family through school, Linda began working at the age of 17, doing everything from being a waitress and ushering to modelling and bar-tending, none of which paid a lot in the late 90′s.  She started modeling in 1998 and quit in 2005.   She became a fashion columnist for a struggling celebrity magazine. After two years of toiling in the news room, she quit.   In 2004 , after she completed her university education, she worked hard to break into the journalism trade, launching her media company, Black dove Communications, a modelling agency and events management outfit.     The name Black dove was inspired by silverbird..a name and a bird. it so happens that her favourite colour is black and favourite bird is the dove.     She stayed within her comfort zone which was modeling so instead of being in front of the camera , went behind the camera by running an agency, recruiting models, training models, getting jobs for models.   ” I still have the modeling agency but I am not running it anymore”, she once wrote.     She also started what she describes in her first ever blog post as her “true passion”, her magazine called, FM & B.   The first issue was released in 2006 and after discovering how capital-intensive and time-consuming magazine publishing was, only two more editions made it to print.     The blogging bug bit her in 2006.   Fortunately, in that same year, Bella Naija, another popular Nigerian blog, carried a story about Linda herself and for the first time, Linda began to see a new possibility to take her writing to the world. Blogging had all the charm: it was free except for the cost of an internet connection, easy to do and gave you access to millions of readers instantly. From that first Bella Naija blog post, she was sold.     Linda Ikeji started blogging fully in 2007 to share things that she was interested in with her readers.   Five years later, http://www.lindaikeji.blogspot.com has grown to be one of the most visited sites in the country.   As a regular source for news, entertainment, celebrity gist, gossip and many more, her blog continues to attract thousands of visitors   It took her four years to start making money from blogging.   She was patient enough     She once said:“I never even thought that I would make money from blogging. I didn’t start blogging with the mindset that one day I would make money from it. I didn’t even think that was a possibility, it never even crossed my mind. I didn’t say to myself that OK let me blog now and maybe in five years time, I will make money from it. I never imagined that it would ever happen. In fact, in 2008, 2009, I was putting free ads on my blog, I was telling my blog readers, please give me your ads and I will put them for free. But then in 2010, people started asking me for my advert rates and I was like ‘really?’ I didn’t even know what it was until I now asked a few people and they gave me their own advert rates so that is how it started.”     She has acquired two brand new cars, her dream car -a 2008 Toyota Camry which she bought two years ago a 2011.   ‘Been dreaming about this car since I first saw it two years ago, was finally able to afford it two days ago, after saving for almost four months. And the best part is, I have a blog to show it off, at least now some people go no say ‘levels don change’ lol.’, she wrote.     Recently acquired an Infinity FX 35 SUV worth about N8 million.  Being a wonderful child to her parents , she bought a multi-million 5-bedroom duplex in Surulere for her parents.   Linda Ikeji has earned herself the title ‘Queen of Blogging’ . Linda was persistent, focused on what she did even though there was no financial return but five years later it has yielded great profit, a talk of all.  She found a new path, Blogging .     But she persisted until 2010, when some of the stories posted on her blog began to ruffle feathers.  At a point, Linda averaged about 1 million unique visitors each month to her blog. And with that came the much-needed recognition and substantial earnings.     In August 2012, Forbes Africa described her as a success and a case study for the business of blogging.   Her blog gets over 50,000 visits daily and is a hot spot for online advertisers and people wishing to attract web traffic to their websites or blogs