The Rising Profile of Bloggers in Africa
https://admateacademy.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-rising-profile-of-bloggers-in-africa.html
Blogs stand out as one of the most effective content marketing channel and it is one of the most used by digital marketers. A compilation of a global revenue earnings from blogging is unavailable, but individual bloggers earnings show that an average blogger earns about $1,000 yearly for paid content posted on their site, (BloggingTips).
Some established individual bloggers are reported to earn up to $24,086 on the average annually, while corporate bloggers earn $33,557. On the averagely, we should be looking at an estimated global revenue earning from blog content marketing of about $100 billion annually. With such earnings we would understand why blogs are one of the most effective and the most used digital media channels by marketers.
What is a Blog?
The term blog originated from the word 'weblog', an online logbook or journal. A blog is a social media site, and often they form part of a website that functions as a journal requiring regular updates. A blog is where individuals and companies publish content about themselves or their brands, which they broadcast on the Internet. Blog posts provide real-time interaction with its followers, and it is usually informal, allowing you to leave a comment, like or share post to friends and connections.
A Blog is defined as a regularly updated website or web page, typically one that is run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style. I find this definition to be grossly inadequate, considering how and what blogs are currently being used for. I would rather define a blog as a web site that is published either by an individual or corporate organization that post frequent updates, with the sole purpose of engaging users real-time.
Blogs are also the most effective and the best way to market content online, and they are also the most used social media channels for digital marketing. The best social media platform is Facebook, a clear leader and the most widely used by marketers, and also ranked as the highest revenue earner in 2016. In the Business to Business category, LinkedIn took the top position as the best B2B social media channel and the marketers favourite in that category.
The Proliferation of Blogs:
Blogging in Africa in the past few years have taken a new dimension and the number of bloggers are increasing. Bloggers cover different endeavour, especially in areas such as sports, fashion, gossip, technology, entertainment, digital marketing etc. Despite the proliferation of blogging sites, blogging in Africa is still very much in its infancy stage. The issue with blogging in Africa is that there are very scanty statistics or financial reports available about African bloggers that capture their activities, such as revenue earnings, number of visits, followers and good content.
Africa Ranking, a bloggers' rating website, which like most others, also based its bloggers ranking on Alexa results, in its last competition nominated LindaIkeji Blog of Nigeria, as the leading blogger in Africa for the month of March 2017. The Alexa top African bloggers ranking for the same period, also listed Linda Ikeji Blog in first position, while others such as Techweez of Kenya and 2oceansvibes of South Africa followed in second and third places. The ranking of bloggers are a monthly exercise on Alexa and the results often change base on the number of visits to the site.
Another South Africa based blogs rating host, African Blogger Awards, co-founded by Murray Legg, Global Head of Strategy for Webfluential, organized the 2016 edition of the competition, which was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In his remark, Murray said the award is getting bigger and becoming more inclusive as it grows. and he is impressed that the competition has continued to attract increasing number of quality entries each year from world-class content creators and social media influencers across various platforms.
The 2016 African Blogger Awards contest featured winners in five main categories, which are the Best Blog about Africa category, won by Africa on the Rise from Nigeria in first place, and The Threaded Man from South Africa in second place. The Best Instagrammer in Africa, went to Gareth Pon from South Africa (who is a third time winner in that category), and was followed by Alessio La Ruffa also from South Africa. The best Twitter Personality in Africa award went to JJ Omojuwa from Nigeria, and in second place was Xtian Dela from Kenya.
Others include, the best Facebook Profile in Africa award which was won by Xtian Dela from Kenya (also the 2015 best Twitter personality), and he was followed by Kenyan Weddings from Kenya. The Best YouTube Channel in Africa went to Chris Rogers from South Africa and the runner-up was Sibu Mpanza from South Africa.
There were three new categories in Women and Girls Empowerment, which was won by Mummy Tales from Kenya in first position, followed by Araba from Nigeria in second place. In the Public Health category, Nigeria Health Watch from Nigeria came first, and was followed by Ghana Health Nest from Ghana in second place. Nigeria also came first in the Social Issues and Citizenship category with Africa on the Rise, and Circumspecte from Ghana came second.
These developments in the African blogging stratosphere, is clearly indicative of the rapid growth that is currently being experienced in Africa. However, the competition does not presently garner sufficient spread across the continent and also does not take into cognizance appropriate ranking processes. Rankings that you present find online are mostly Alexa rankings and they are not continental ranking, in the true sense of the word, but rather they are mostly country-centric.
These ratings are non-monolithic and shallow, and are often based on only number of visits to sites that subscribe to Alexa, excluding other key measurement indices such as revenue earnings, followers, quality of content, engagement, visitors to the site and population of the country of origin; rather results are collated using Alexa, a commercial analytics websites that is subscription based, and produces results of only sites that signed-up with them.
Conclusion
Some established individual bloggers are reported to earn up to $24,086 on the average annually, while corporate bloggers earn $33,557. On the averagely, we should be looking at an estimated global revenue earning from blog content marketing of about $100 billion annually. With such earnings we would understand why blogs are one of the most effective and the most used digital media channels by marketers.
What is a Blog?
The term blog originated from the word 'weblog', an online logbook or journal. A blog is a social media site, and often they form part of a website that functions as a journal requiring regular updates. A blog is where individuals and companies publish content about themselves or their brands, which they broadcast on the Internet. Blog posts provide real-time interaction with its followers, and it is usually informal, allowing you to leave a comment, like or share post to friends and connections.
A Blog is defined as a regularly updated website or web page, typically one that is run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style. I find this definition to be grossly inadequate, considering how and what blogs are currently being used for. I would rather define a blog as a web site that is published either by an individual or corporate organization that post frequent updates, with the sole purpose of engaging users real-time.
Blogs are also the most effective and the best way to market content online, and they are also the most used social media channels for digital marketing. The best social media platform is Facebook, a clear leader and the most widely used by marketers, and also ranked as the highest revenue earner in 2016. In the Business to Business category, LinkedIn took the top position as the best B2B social media channel and the marketers favourite in that category.
The Proliferation of Blogs:
Blogging in Africa in the past few years have taken a new dimension and the number of bloggers are increasing. Bloggers cover different endeavour, especially in areas such as sports, fashion, gossip, technology, entertainment, digital marketing etc. Despite the proliferation of blogging sites, blogging in Africa is still very much in its infancy stage. The issue with blogging in Africa is that there are very scanty statistics or financial reports available about African bloggers that capture their activities, such as revenue earnings, number of visits, followers and good content.
The absence of data has therefore made most of the rankings lack credibility, and most of the ratings we find on the Internet are not comprehensive enough, neither can their earnings be substantiated due to lack of an audited financial report. In that regard, all existing blogging sites ranking cannot be considered acceptable or regarded as the genuine ranking of bloggers.
Issues with Ranking of Blogs:
Issues with Ranking of Blogs:
Africa Ranking, a bloggers' rating website, which like most others, also based its bloggers ranking on Alexa results, in its last competition nominated LindaIkeji Blog of Nigeria, as the leading blogger in Africa for the month of March 2017. The Alexa top African bloggers ranking for the same period, also listed Linda Ikeji Blog in first position, while others such as Techweez of Kenya and 2oceansvibes of South Africa followed in second and third places. The ranking of bloggers are a monthly exercise on Alexa and the results often change base on the number of visits to the site.
Another South Africa based blogs rating host, African Blogger Awards, co-founded by Murray Legg, Global Head of Strategy for Webfluential, organized the 2016 edition of the competition, which was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In his remark, Murray said the award is getting bigger and becoming more inclusive as it grows. and he is impressed that the competition has continued to attract increasing number of quality entries each year from world-class content creators and social media influencers across various platforms.
The 2016 African Blogger Awards contest featured winners in five main categories, which are the Best Blog about Africa category, won by Africa on the Rise from Nigeria in first place, and The Threaded Man from South Africa in second place. The Best Instagrammer in Africa, went to Gareth Pon from South Africa (who is a third time winner in that category), and was followed by Alessio La Ruffa also from South Africa. The best Twitter Personality in Africa award went to JJ Omojuwa from Nigeria, and in second place was Xtian Dela from Kenya.
Others include, the best Facebook Profile in Africa award which was won by Xtian Dela from Kenya (also the 2015 best Twitter personality), and he was followed by Kenyan Weddings from Kenya. The Best YouTube Channel in Africa went to Chris Rogers from South Africa and the runner-up was Sibu Mpanza from South Africa.
There were three new categories in Women and Girls Empowerment, which was won by Mummy Tales from Kenya in first position, followed by Araba from Nigeria in second place. In the Public Health category, Nigeria Health Watch from Nigeria came first, and was followed by Ghana Health Nest from Ghana in second place. Nigeria also came first in the Social Issues and Citizenship category with Africa on the Rise, and Circumspecte from Ghana came second.
These developments in the African blogging stratosphere, is clearly indicative of the rapid growth that is currently being experienced in Africa. However, the competition does not presently garner sufficient spread across the continent and also does not take into cognizance appropriate ranking processes. Rankings that you present find online are mostly Alexa rankings and they are not continental ranking, in the true sense of the word, but rather they are mostly country-centric.
These ratings are non-monolithic and shallow, and are often based on only number of visits to sites that subscribe to Alexa, excluding other key measurement indices such as revenue earnings, followers, quality of content, engagement, visitors to the site and population of the country of origin; rather results are collated using Alexa, a commercial analytics websites that is subscription based, and produces results of only sites that signed-up with them.
Conclusion
The establishment of an African bloggers platform must be given urgent attention. Bloggers from various African countries needs to come together to forms chapters, which will in turn become African Bloggers Association (ABA). It will be the responsibility of this body to establish processes that will capture bloggers data, particularly, revenue earnings and provide a truly continental coverage. It is only then that Africa can begin to feature and become recognized by many of the existing global bloggers rating organizations.
This is an amazing and helpful article.
ReplyDeleteAfrican bloggers are truly on the rise!