Profitable Online Business in Nigeria.

Here is a list of online business in Nigeria. Most of the business listed in this article can be done completely online, which means you don’t need a physical office address or a shop before venturing into this business.

Take note that it all depends on the scale of your business. You can start very small and expand your way into a very large business. On the other hand, if you have enough money to start big from the first beginning, then you don’t have to hoard your investment capital.

There is no point in holding back when you can invest enough capital.

So here is my list of top online businesses in Nigeria.

Blogging as an Online Business in Nigeria.

You’ve probably heard about blogging more times than you care to listen.

Blogging is one of the most popular means of starting a business online. Most Nigerians are into blogging, even though they don’t know much about the blogging business.

Blogging is like an online portfolio. The main aim of blogging is to make money, but many people don’t understand the basis of making money from blogging.

When it comes to making money from blogging, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is Google Adsense and other advertising methods.

What If I told you that the richest bloggers do not display Google Adsense on their blogs? Would you be surprised that you can actually make huge money from blogging without relying on Google Adsense?

The major problem is that; most “bloggers” so to say don’t really understand blogging in the first instance, they choose a topic with huge search volume, they copy and rewrite articles on the topic and publish it on their blog.  As luck will have it, they will get some crumbs traffic from Google, and start monetizing their blog with Google Adsense.

This is the poor and unproductive way of blogging, and you should never start your online business in this manner.

Now, let me show you what blogging as a business means:

Choosing Your Topic:

The first step to starting a blog as a business is to make a list of five things you’re really good at. Don’t spend much time making the list, as a matter of fact; you don’t have to think while making the list.

Just pick up your pen and book, and then write the first five things that come to your mind. It might be your hobby, something you love reading about, something you find extremely very difficult to do, something that inspires you, just come up with the random five (5) things that comes to your head.

Look through the list, and sort out the ones you’re really good at. If you can’t do this on your own, you can send a message broadcast that looks like this:

“Hey guys, so am about to make a decision on what I am really good at; of the following five(5) items, what do you think am really good at?”

Send the message out to your friends; your close relative and those that know you very well. Give it time and make a table for their response. You can easily deduce what you’re really good at when their response is collated on the table.

The above exercise would make it easy for you to choose a blog topic.

The next few paragraphs of this article would assume you’ve chosen your preferred topic already, so let’s move on with that.

Once you’ve chosen the topic you consider your strength; it must be something you know a lot about, or something you love reading about…

This is very important because your success as a blogger depends on how well you’re able to show your competence on the topic you choose to blog about.

Planning a blogging business:

Just like any other business, the first thing that should come to mind is how to make money from the investment.

You need to have a master plan of how you intend to make back the money you invest and the time you invest. So let’s walk through the process of planning your blogging business.

I said earlier; when you intend to choose blogging as an online business; you need to forget about Google Adsense and other display network! It is important that you get this point because like a normal business; your main source of income should not be solely depended on a third party platform.

While planning, let’s talk about how you intend to make profit from your blogging business…

First, there are two ways of making profit from the business; it’s either you have a product that you intend to be sell, or you have a service you intend to render.

Take for instance, you have a blog about tourism; you might choose to sell an EBook guide with comprehensive details on where to visit in Nigeria. Or you might as well have an offline tourism business and use the blog as a marketing funnel for your business.

So think deeply about your choice of topic; what do you think will do well when it comes to monetization? Products or services?

 If you run a tutoring blog; an EBook Product would do well, provided you don’t have time to organize offline tutoring classes.

The main reason for thinking about this at the very beginning is for you to develop your product even before you begin the blogging business.

If your choice of monetization is an EBook product, then you should get to work on writing comprehensively about the product. Make it your best product, conduct a research of the market and see what people are having problems with in your niche.

Let’s say your niche is about tourism, you can write extensively on places to visit for honeymoon in Nigeria, if you discover that people are always asking this question on popular Nigeria forum. The most important thing is to conduct extensive research on your niche and try to solve a problem with your product.

The plan is to make sure that your product is ready for sale before you start blogging.

Once the product stage is settled, the next stage is to actually setup the blog…

Setting Up a Blogging Business:

This process is not as complicated as it may seem, the most important thing is to conduct proper research before you commence the blogging business.

One of the most important thing to do is choosing a domain name and a reliable hosting.

Before you choose a domain name, you need to think deeply; you have two major options; you can either go the branding way or choose a domain name based on keyword popularity and search volume.

Since it is an online business; I would advise that you choose your domain name based on keyword popularity…

When keywords are embedded in your domain, it gives you some SEO (search engine optimization) benefits.

It’s important that you understand the basis of keyword research using various online tools; my favorite tool is the Google Keyword Planner under the AdWords Platform. It is free and fairly accurate, even though the data analyzed is restricted mainly to Google search engine.

Once the keyword research is properly done; you can move on to the next stage of hosting the blog.

It’s a business blog, and as such, it’s very important that you invest some amount of money into it.

You should get a reliable web hosting, which usually comes with a free domain name for lifetime usage. Set up the blog on WordPress (it’s fairly easy to do this, or you can hire a professional to help out in case you don’t know how).

Once your blog is up and running, the next stage is to create quality contents for your blog.

How to Blog:

Content is king as far as blogging is concerned.

Remember, we are treating this blog as a business, not as a hobby. So I would likening your content to the goods you have in your regular physical shop.

Back to my example of a tourism blog, for this type of blog you would need to convince the readers that you know a lot about tourism, you would need to share pictures taken by you, videos of your adventures and a complete review of places you’ve visited and you think people should visit.

For every blog post you make, the number one objective is to convince the reader that you are a real tourist, and you are capable of showing them what tourism is all about in Nigeria.

So when creating your blog post, have it at the back of your mind that your aim is to convince the reader, and to do so, you’re expected to create unique contents that they won’t find elsewhere on the internet. What this means is that a considerable amount of time should go into planning each blog post.

When you run a blog as a business, you don’t have to publish post on the blog every now and then, no!

A single blog post in a month with information that solves people’s problem worth much more than a thousand blog post of refined internet junks that reader can find elsewhere.

When you create a blog post, give it all that you’ve got, don’t hold back in sharing explicit information on your blog. Use every available piece of information you find to make the post resourceful.

As a tourist blogger for example, you would do well by leveraging on the power of videos, HD pictures and other relevant information about the places you’re writing on.

Another important aspect of blogging is promotion…

It is very easy to write an epic blog post but still get lost in the huge world of the internet. If you don’t promote your blog post, it might take a lot of time; months or years before you get noticed on the internet.

This is why it is very important to promote each blog post on social media and other relevant platform as regards to your blog niche.

If everything is done as appropriate, you should start making sales within the first six (6) months. The good thing about blogging as an online business is that, once you take the pain to follow the rules, the moment you make your first sales, you are on your way to many more sales (most of which would be passive sales even without making any marketing effort).

If you intend to start a blogging business, you best guide is to read a comprehensive details about blogging and understand how the business works, then you can move on to setting up you own blog, creating your product and making profit from your effort.

IMPORTANT: If you intend to know more about blogging, I have a comprehensive EBook guide that would teach you the ABC of blogging, how you can turn a blog in to a 6-figure business and make money while you’re sleeping. 

It goes for #3,000. You can contact me through my email to order for your own copy of the EBook. (adeaugustus@gmail.com)

Freelance Writing as an Online Business in Nigeria.

For over three years now, I have been making steady income from the freelance writing business.

Freelance writing is one of the most lucrative business online; not just in Nigeria but in the entire world. The reason for the profitability of this business is not far-fetched; the internet runs on fresh, unique contents.

Freelance business comes with many perks; one of which is the flexibility of working anywhere you want, at any time of the day. Most regular job or business does not give you this luxury.

How to Become a Freelance Writer:

The first step to becoming a freelance writer (as a matter of fact; anything) is to understand what it means to be a freelance writer.

The role of a freelance writer is simple, you basically write for people and they get the credit for your work (In most cases) while you get paid for the work you’ve done.

As a freelance writer, the number one thing (which is probably the most important thing) that you should know is that; the moment a client pays you for your work, then you don’t have any right to call it your own or use it elsewhere, because it’s been bought. Once this is understood, let’s look deeply into how to become a freelancer writer in Nigeria.

Becoming a freelance writer is not a difficult task, so far you are able to write properly, all you need is a guide in the right direction and you’d be making money from your writing skills before you know it. Freelance writing is one of the fastest ways to make money online.

First you need to decide on the type of freelance writing you would love to get into. Just like blogging, you can’t be a master of all trade. You need to pick a market/niche in the writing world, and get really good at it.

The difference between freelance writing niche and blogging niche is simple; blogging niche writes about a particular topic, freelance writing niche offers a service in a specific genre.

The most common niche in freelance writing are the ones listed below:

Copywriting: This is perhaps the most lucrative niche in the freelance writing world. What a copywriter does is simple; they basically persuade people to take action through their words. Most often, copy writers would persuade readers to buy or register for something through their articles.

The reason why copy writing is the most lucrative writing niche is not far-fetched; internet marketers are always trying to sell a product or service to internet users, and as a result, they would always need the service of a good copy writer to help persuade their audience in buying what they have to sell.

Internet marketers can pay as much as $1000 for a single piece of copy writing work. The charge really depends on how established you are as a freelance writer. Just as you might have guessed; the copywriting niche is lucrative and also very competitive as well.

So for a new comer, you would have to show that you are really good at what you do before you start making serious income.

This explains why it might be a little bit difficult to get your first contract as a copy writer, but once you’re able to secure your first job and you got a good review afterwards; then you’re on your way to making a huge income for yourself.

Fiction Writing: Fiction Writing is another popular niche. You might be wondering; who pays others to write their fictional story for them?

Well, people do it; especially amazon publishers. A lot of writers are making money from publishing short story books on amazon. These writers might have as much as 50 fictional books listed on amazon book store.

What this means is that, there is a constant demand for fictional writer. As a freelancer in this niche, you would mostly work for a single client for a very long period of time.

Some might even ask you to sign a contract that forbids you from working for anybody else while you work for them.

This niche is rewarding, and it is mostly perfect for writers that love writing fictional stories. It’s a perfect niche for writers that does not get bored of writing easily, and are capable of wild imaginations.

Getting a job in this niche is not as hard as getting a job in the copy writing niche. You would however have to work hard in other to gain your client’s trust and respect over time.

Technical Writing: This is also a very lucrative freelance writing niche. Because most of what you would be writing about as a technical writer requires the use of field specific terms, you would have to be familiar about the field you’re writing on.

This makes the technical writing niche a little bit broad with various sub-niches. There is engineering sub-niche, gaming sub-niche, programming sub-niche etc.

It might be a little bit difficult to get your first technical writing job; this is not necessarily because you’re not good at what you do, but due to the specific target of the audience you’re writing for, it might take a while before the right job opportunity comes around.

One of the benefits of being a technical writer is the recurrent contract with clients. Once you offer a very good service to your client, then they would always come back to hire you, because it’s also difficult to get a good technical writer in a specific niche.

Blog Writer: This is the most common type of freelance writing job. I am into blog writing, and I make serious income from it on monthly basis; both from Nigerian client and overseas client.

Job opportunities for blog writers are numerous, even though the market may look saturated from afar, when you get closer, you would realize that the market isn’t as saturated as it looks, and the competition isn’t fierce.

All you have to do is look into the right places for opportunities, be good at what you do and treat your clients in professional manner.

Although the pay for blog writing isn’t as much as other freelance writing niche, the availability of opportunities covers for the average pay. If you meet the right client, some of them are willing to pay as much as $150 for a 500 words article.

As a freelance blog writer, you don’t need to be an expert before you take on any job. Once you’re good at making inference, you can always read about five (5) or four (4) different articles on the topic you’re about to write on; then come up with your own unique article.

I do this a lot, and you can also use this method to make good income from the freelance writing business. Always remember that there are no new ideas; all you need to do is steal a few different ideas from different places and mix it together to make your own new invention.

Academic Writing: This is also similar to technical writing because the task you would be expected to complete as an academic writer would be very specific, and you knowledge on the topic of discuss must be very sound.

I generally advice newbies to stay away from this niche, even though the pay is above the average for most freelance writing job.

It takes years of practice to master how this niche works, and you would need to read articles, journals and understand your client’s work before you can do a really good job in this niche.

In general, I would advise newbies to start from the level of blog writing niche, and you can slowly work your way into other niches as soon as you understand the nitty gritty of the freelance writing business.

Setting Up Freelance Writing Portfolio:

It’s a little bit difficult to convince a stranger that you’re good at something when they haven’t seen you in action.

This is why having an online portfolio as a freelance writer is very essential. For a new comer; I would always advice that you start a blog and post quality articles on the blog.

This blog would be your online portfolio and you can always direct your clients to this blog to check out samples of your writings and access how good you are.

So how do you set up a writing portfolio?

The first step is to get a blog and buy a domain name. I would advise that you get a domain name that is branded along your online identity. You can choose to name the blog after yourself (this is what most freelancer do).

Setting up a blog like this should cost you more than #5,000. This is a good investment, considering the importance of the blog to your business online.

Once the blog is up and running, you can at first publish five (5) or ten (10) articles on the blog and then make a monthly schedule of publishing on the blog.

How to Get Freelance Writing Jobs in Nigeria:

Getting a freelance writing job is easy, provided you don’t live in Nigeria. Don’t get me wrong; I am a Nigerian and I earn a reasonable income from the freelance writing job, and I will quickly show you how you can also get numerous freelance writing jobs as a Nigerian. But first you need to understand how the freelance writing business works.

Generally, people from the 1^st tier countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Auckland etc.) they prefer to outsource most of their jobs to foreigners because it’s cheap labour.

However, they prefer to hire a native speaker that is willing to charge them fairly and not bill them excessively.

This is what you would be taking advantage of; you would generally identify yourself as a native speaker and get as much job as you can.

Many people will criticize this method, but it’s simply the fastest as easiest way to get the right standing as far as freelance writing is concern.

 I don’t see anything wrong in this method because we as Nigerians speak and writer better than most native speakers. We have been writing in English since day one in school and that should count for something.

So you can pick up a pen name for yourself, after all, as a freelance writer, most of your works will never be credited to you, which means you stand to lose nothing. Pick up a pen name for yourself and create an online identity around that pen name. It’s as easy as that.

You can setup a twitter account for your pen name, and name you blog based on your pen name.

Where to get freelance Writing Jobs in Nigeria:

Getting freelance writing jobs becomes very easy the money you create a pen name for yourself online; I would list out popular places where you can easy get a good start as a freelance writer.

1.       Nairaland: This is a popular forum in Nigeria. I was not going to list it here, but I have a post on Nairaland about my writing business and I have gotten several clients through that post. This is an indication that you can also get clients from Nairaland. (Nairaland.com)

2.        Freelancers:  Freelancers is a popular online website for freelancers, it was merged with another freelancing websites (oedesk) about two years ago, which means they have huge user base and there is always a job to bid for. (freelancers.com)

3.       Iwriter: While it might take some time to get noticed on the freelance writing website, it should be noted that, once you gain the right traction, you’re on your way to making serious income on daily basis. (iwriter.com)

4.       Fiverr: This is one of my favorite spot for scouting for freelance writing job. On this platform, all you have to do is list your gig on the website and promote the gig through various social platforms.

Fiverr also have a way of displaying your gig to users on their homepage. On fiverr, freelancers are placed on levels, depending on the amount of sales they’ve made and times they’ve spend ton fiverr. There is a way of fast tracking the process of getting noticed on fiverr, but I won’t cover that in this post.

5.       Warrior Forum:  There is a section on the warrior forum called “ Warrior For Hire” You can sign up on this forum and list your writing service in this section. It should be noted that it would cost you about $15 to have your service listed, but the exposure you get on the forum makes it worth it.

There are other freelance writing market, and I might expand the list as time goes on. But the ones listed above are good enough to start with, provided you’re just commencing your freelance writing business online.

As a bonus tip on how to become a freelance writer in Nigeria, I would advise that you focus your energy on foreign clients. The reason for this is simple; the pay is better, and you stand a chance of gaining international recognition once you’re good at what you do.

Guest posting on popular blog is also another way of getting noticed online as a freelance writer. Come up with a unique blog post idea; write everything possible on the topic and forward the post to popular blogs within your desired niche.

In your by-line as a guest poster; add links back to your live portfolio blog and introduction about your freelance writing business. The guest posting idea gives you wide exposure to different type of audience across the globe.

I would also advise that you stay away from craigslist and other listing website as much as possible.

IMPORTANT: If you intend to know more about freelance writing, I have a comprehensive EBook guide that would teach you the ABC of freelance writing, how you can turn your writing skills in to a 6-figure business and make money online.

It goes for #3,000. You can contact me through my email to order for your own copy of the EBook. (adeaugustus@gmail.com)

Web Hosting as an Online Business in Nigeria

Web hosting is one of the lucrative businesses in Nigeria. It requires little capital to start, and the beauty of this business is that; everything can be done online; without owing your own personal server; or a physical office address.

The simple idea to making money from the web hosting business is by being a hosting reseller. The business plan is very straightforward.

You would buy a hosting reseller account from established hosting companies; then you sell it off to people that requires small disk space and bandwidth for hosting their personal blog or website.

Most hosting company would work with you behind the scene; it’s just like having a franchise business; but in this case, you name the business after yourself, or give it a name that pleases you. But all your products and services are provided by the mother company.

This is called White Label Reseller Hosting. The company would give you the opportunity of naming the business after your brand.

And none of your customers would know you’re affiliated with the mother company, they would see your business name in the store front and every other things that has to do with the services you’re rendering to them.

How to Become a Hosting Reseller:

Becoming a hosting reseller is easy, provided you have the membership fee (which is basically your start-up capital).

On the average, you would need about $100, to sign up for the smallest reseller package. Depending on the hosting company you sign up with, the allocation of disk space and bandwidth for your account determine the amount you pay the parent company on monthly/annual basis.

Most hosting company will offer you Enorm domain reseller account; this allows you to handle the domain registration and migration process for your client.

Once you choose your preferred mother company, the next thing is to decide on how to make your business stand-out amidst numerous hosting companies.

As a Nigerian, this is a big opportunity, because we have few reliable hosting company in Nigeria right now; you can offer your service at a very attractive rate, and you would have numerous customers coming your way in no time; considering the number of blogs we have online in Nigeria right now.

So create a hosting package plan, and put up your website (This will be more like your store). Put everything in place and set the ball rolling.

Promoting Your Hosting Company:

It’s very crucial that you promote your new business through various means in other to start making sales.

You cannot just set everything up and let it sit down there without doing adequate promotion.

So in other to promote your new hosting company, you can budget a small amount of money for Facebook ads promotion, Google Adword, and Sponsored post on popular blog.

If done properly, the return on investment for this particular business is very huge, and once your name is established as a reliable hosting provider, you would be making serious income on daily basis.

It should be noted that the reseller hosting account usually comes with unlimited Cpanel hosting account, this makes it very easy to be autonomous with your business.

S/N	Hosting Name	Price
1	Green Geek Hosting	$20/mo
2	HostGator Hosting	$20/mo
3	Blue Host	$20/mo
4	InMotion Hosting	$27/mo
5	Just Host	$20/mo

This business is much more profitable provided you’re into web design, freelance writing or app development, mostly because your clients would always need the service of a web hosting company, and you can always recommend your hosting company to them.

IMPORTANT: If you intend to know more about web hosting reseller, I have a comprehensive EBook guide that would teach you the ABC of web hosting reselling business, how you can turn make 6 figures from the web hosting business on annual basis.

It goes for #3,000. You can contact me through my email to order for your own copy of the EBook. (adeaugustus@gmail.com)

Sport Betting as Online Business in Nigeria:

I am sure you’ve heard of online betting and sport betting several times; you might have even take your chances by participating in the bet. What if I tell you that you can make millions from this business?

Online betting is one of the most profitable online businesses in Nigeria. If you understand the business very well; you stand a chance of becoming a millionaire within a year of commencement.

Now, let me make some clarification as regards the business.

When I say sport betting is a profitable business; I am not referring to the “betting” side of it; but rather am referring to the “bookmarking” side of the business. Placing your money on sport betting is a big gamble; and it’s not a sure way to make money online.

But the profitable part of the business is if you’re the bookmarker; if you’re the one that host the betting; think of being the owner of websites like nairabet, merrybet or 9japredict. 

The owners of these websites are making millions every week, and they hardly lose their money to the sport betting.

The house always wins!

For you to better understand the business; let me explain how it works to you; Take for instance Mr. A is placing a bet of #50 that Manchester United will win its match against Chelsea, and Mr. B is placing a bet of #100, that Chelsea will win the match, now as a book marker; I have studied sport trend and I am of the opinion that Chelsea will win the match; so I set my website odds to 1.2 for Chelsea win, and 1.5 for Manchester united win.

What the odd means is that, I will multiply the bet amount by the odd to calculate the winnings of right gambler.

Remember that the total number of money I have with me both from Mr. A and Mr. B is #150, now let’s assume that Chelsea did win the match, it means Mr. A would lose all his money, while Mr. B will get #120, from me.

Deduct the #120 from the total #150; this means I gain #30, without placing my money on any risk.

I hope you understand how the business works now? Now let’s imagine I have about 1,000 users on my sport betting website, and I made 30 from them each; that’s about #30,000 in profit from a single match. Remember that in a single weekend, they might be ten of twenty games lined up.

This is just a rough estimate of the profits you can make from this business.

How to Start a Sport Betting Website:

Starting a sport betting website like nairabet is not as difficult as it is to promote it and gain recognition and expand user base.

The first step to starting a sport betting website is to choose your preferred sport. Although most bookmarkers will deal with all kinds of games, but you can standout by having a niche for your business. 

You can choose to host Football betting alone; you can as well choose to host a single type of league. 

The truth is that; this model won’t get you massive audience compared to when you deal in all kind of games, but it will get you the right audience who will invest any amount of money into the game the love and believe in.

If the niche idea doesn’t sound interesting to you; you can as well deal in all kind of games; the most important thing is to understand each games and stay updated about them to know who the odds will favour.

The next stage is getting a website; it’s easy to get a hosting account, and a domain name. You can do this within minutes.

The part that is a little bit challenging in the process is getting a good software to run your business online. There are various ways of getting this done.

 As a business, you don’t have to hire a developer to build you sport betting website from ground up for you. There are various cloned script on the internet, that you can get for a particular fee, and they would work effectively.

Buying cloned script is cheaper than investing your money on custom design; it’s not only cheap as regards to capital, it’s also saves time.

Once your website is up and running, the next thing to think about is the promotion stage.

How to promote Sport Betting Website:

I said earlier, that one of the most difficult stages in starting a sport betting website is the promotion stage. You need to invest some money into promoting your business in other to gain recognition.

The best method to promote sport betting website is through social media, Facebook ads, Google AdWords and paid reviews.

Another tricky method is to make sure that your odds are fairly high when you’re starting out. This method might mean little profit initially, but when you gain ground and you have enough customers, then you can reduce the odds to what your competitors are using and gain more profit from your business.

IMPORTANT: If you intend to know more about starting a sport betting business, I have a comprehensive EBook guide that would teach you the ABC of sport betting business, how you can turn your passion for sport into a 6 figure profit business.

I also have the premium clone script for sport betting website, and I can sell this script for you provided you’re interested.

It goes for #3,000. You can contact me through my email to order for your own copy of the EBook. (adeaugustus@gmail.com)

Other online business in Nigeria:

• ·         Affiliate Marketing
• ·         PR Agency
• ·         E-Commerce
• ·         Blog Flipping
• ·         Membership Sites