I wish I were a Nigerian blogger

Yes I wish I were a Nigerian blogger for a number of reasons. Apart from the obvious fact that with the population of Nigeria, it is easy to strike gold in a field that is all about numbers, such as blogging. In addition, the Nigerian people seem to understand the dynamics of media and they (businesses,artists, promoters etc)  make use of every potential of the media, including online media. It is therefore not surprising to see a variety of adverts on Nigerian blogs, which is obviously not case in Ghana. The 2012 Zeitgeist report, which was recently published by Google even dimmed my hopes of making a fruitful career from my blog even further. The report studied an aggregation of over one trillion searches (or queries) that people typed into Google Search this year. The search engine outfit then used data from multiple sources, including Google Trends and internal data tools to find out what users have been looking for.  Out of the top ten general searches in Ghana, only Azonto, Atta Mills and Ghanaleaks were related directly to Ghana, (note that ghanaleak is largely known for carrying lewd photos and sextapes).  The top searches were as follows: 1. Loving You, 2. Facebook , 3. Whitney Houston , 4. Tubidy , 5. Whatsapp , 6. Azonto , 7. JustBeenPaid , 8. Eddie Murphy , 9. Ghanaleak , 10. Atta Mills. In Nigeria the top 10 general searches were as follows  1. Jamb, 2. Mozat  3. Boko Haram , 4. Asuu Strike, 5. Google news , 6. Eskimi , 7. Whitney Houston, 8. Vanguard news , 9. NNPC recruitment,10. Facebook. Majority of the top searches are directly related to Nigeria meaning that Nigerians want to know more about things happening in their country.  So why wouldn’t blogs that write about Nigeria get enough traffic and make some money from adverting platforms such as Google Adsense, Ad Dynamo and others? In fact, Nigerians are so proud about their own so much that they want to know what goes on within their country and even with their celebrities. It was therefore not surprising that for Nigeria,  the Zeitgeist report also compiled a list of top ten most searched musicians and actors respectively. So who in Ghana is searching for the Jackie Appiah, Joselyn Dumas, Asem and co that I write about? In fact sometimes when people see the headlines on twitter, they ask subtly, ‘and so what?’ hmm do I need a new job or do I have to relocate to Nigeria? LOL!!!]]>