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17 Uncommon Traits of Billionaires

What special traits do the billionaires of this world possess that others don’t? Is there any special skill or uncommon trait I must possess before I can become a billionaire? What trait propelled the school drop out billionaires to success? Were people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg born to be billionaires? Well, read on to find the answers you seek.

In this article, I will be revealing to you 17 uncommon traits of billionaires. So if it’s your dream to become a billionaire, then you might as well start developing these billionaire traits gradually. Without wasting much of your time, below are 17 uncommon traits of billionaires.

Becoming a Billionaire – 17 Uncommon Traits of Billionaires

1.  Billionaires start small

Most self made billionaires were not born billionaires. They were born like every other human but they desired to be exceptional. Sometimes, most people believe that billionaires such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg emerged overnight to become billionaires. That’s definitely not true.

Most of the billionaires today were nobody’s sometime ago but they started small and kept at it. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Jerry Yang and David Filo, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started from the Dormitory of their various schools.

Jeff Bezos, Henry Ford and Steve Jobs started small in their garages. Ray Kroc started as a salesman; Larry Ellison started as a freelance programmer; Li Ka Shing also started small while Dhirubhai Ambani started as a petrol station attendant. The illustrations above prove that most billionaires had a humble beginning; they started small.

2.  They think Big

“I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.” – Donald Trump

Another uncommon trait of billionaires is that they think big. They refused to allow their creative imagination be hindered by race, age or background. Though they started from scratch; they dreamed big and worked towards that dream. They didn’t just emerge billionaires overnight; they desired it, they hungered for it and worked towards making that desire a reality.

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” – Warren Buffett

3. Billionaires take calculated risk

“To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.” – Bill Gates

Most people abhor taking risk but billionaires know how to take calculated risk. Instead of shying away from taking risk; what billionaires do is to put up a strong risk management strategy and then go ahead to take that risk. Their ability to take calculated risk is the reason they emerged billionaires.

“You must take risks, both with your own money or with borrowed money. Risk taking is essential to business growth.” – J. Paul Getty

4. They are competitive

“When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.” – Donald Trump

“And obviously from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.” – Richard Branson

The fourth trait of billionaires is competitiveness. Most people dread competition but billionaires thrive in competitive environments. They believe that competition brings out the best in them so they seek it out.

“You don’t have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.” – Henry Ross Perot

“The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all but goes on making his own business better all the time.” – Henry Ford

“We have always had a pretty competitive ferocious battle with British Airways. It lasted about 14 years and we are very pleased to have survived it.” – Richard Branson

5. They are focused

“The wise man put all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.” – Andrew Carnegie

Take a look at billionaires and you will observe they are focused in their dealings. They don’t try to do many things at once; they focus on one. When it comes to business; billionaires are focused. Bill Gates and Larry Ellison focused on software; Aliko Dangote, the richest black man in the world focused on commodities. Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and Carl Linder focused on fast foods.

“Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense to those who know what they are doing.” – Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, George Soros, John Templeton and Peter Lynch focused on stocks as their preferred investment vehicle. Donald Trump is focused on real estate. Michael Milken focused on junk bond and that’s why he was referred to as the junk bond king. Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani focused on fashion while Anita Roddick and Mary Kay Ash focused on beauty care (cosmetics).

Michael Dell and Ted Waitt focused on computers while John D. Rockefeller and J. Paul Getty focused on oil. Andrew Carnegie and Lakshmi Mittal focused on steel. Sam Walton, Philip Green, Ingvar Kamprad and J.C. Penny focused on retailing. Walt Disney, David Geffen, Martha Steward and Oprah Winfrey focused on entertainment while Henry Ford focused on automobiles. The list goes on and on.

“The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.” – Andrew Carnegie

6.  They are driven by passion

“Passion is what drives me forward. Passion is what makes me go to bed at 2am and wake up at 6am.” – Aliko Dangote

Listen to billionaires speak and you will sense a kind of passion in them. Billionaires are passionate about their calling and they pursue this calling with vigor. It’s this passion in them that keeps them going; despite their wealth, their passion keeps them working for long hours.

“Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.” – Warren Buffett

7. They are goal getters

“I intend to be, the richest man in the world.” – Howard Hughes

Billionaires are goal getters. They spend time to set goals that are high and challenging but realistic and attainable; and they don’t rest on their oars until their set goals are achieved. To them, life without goals set and achieved is life wasted.

“We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you are aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, ‘she cared.” – Mary Kay Ash

“I think I am very goal oriented. I’d like to win the America’s cup. I’d like Oracle to be the No 1 software company in the world. I still think it is possible to beat Microsoft.” – Larry Ellison

“A good goal is like a strenuous exercise, it makes you stretch.” – Mary Kay Ash

8. They thrive on criticism

“Dare to risk public Criticism.” – Mary Kay Ash

I have never seen a billionaire that hasn’t at one time or the other been criticized. Bill Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, J. Paul Getty and other billionaires have been heavily criticized. Henry Ford was even called an ignorant man by some scholars.

“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts.” – Larry Ellison

But billionaires don’t get weighed down by criticism; instead, they get inspired by criticism. Billionaires welcome criticism because they see criticism as a feedback to improve themselves.

“Never be ashamed! There’s some who will hold it against you, but they are not worth bothering with.” – J. K. Rowling

“Embrace bad news to learn where you need the most improvement.” – Bill Gates

Becoming a Billionaire – 17 Uncommon Traits of Billionaires

9. They have strong self imposed standards

“I am stingy and I’m proud of the reputation.” – Ingvar Kamprad

Get close to a billionaire and you will see a strong willed individual with tough self imposed personal standard. Billionaires don’t compromise their standard; they stick to their self imposed standard no matter what it takes.

“Remain true to yourself and your philosophy.” – Giorgio Armani

“People say I am cheap, and I don’t mind if they do.” – Ingvar Kamprad

10. They believe in themselves

“You are nuts and you should be proud of it. Stick with what you believe in.” – Trip Hawkins

Strong self belief is an uncommon trait possessed by billionaires. Billionaires display a high level of self confidence. They have little belief in fate, they strongly believe in themselves and their ability to achieve their set goals. Billionaires take charge of their destiny; they don’t leave it to fate.

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash

11. They are persistent

“Sheer persistence is the difference between success and failure.” – Donald Trump

Billionaires are tough and unyielding. They believe that when the going gets tough, the tough should get going.”  Billionaires are known for being persistent and tough; they press on even in the face of hardship and failure. Billionaires know that without persistence, nothing can be achieved.

“Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Ray Kroc

“When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.” – Mary Kay Ash

12. They are committed

“I’m not afraid of turning 80 and I have lots of things to do. I don’t have time for dying.” – Ingvar Kamprad

Unyielding commitment is another uncommon trait of billionaires. Despite acquiring tremendous wealth, billionaires remain committed to their call. An example of this uncommon display of commitment is that of Warren Buffett and Ingvar Kamprad; these two men have pledged commitment to their companies until death. What a tough commitment.

“It’s my job for Oracle, the number two software company in the world; to become the number one software company in the world. My job is to build better than the competition, sell those products in the marketplace and eventually supplant Microsoft and move from being number two to number one.” – Larry Ellison

13. They learn quickly from mistakes

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It’s best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.” – Steve Jobs

Billionaires make mistakes, just like every other human and their mistakes sometimes lead to business failures but billionaires don’t get bugged down by mistakes; they don’t bow their head in defeat. Instead, they quickly acknowledge their business mistakes, correct them, learn from their failures and move on. They fail but they don’t quit. Instead, they get inspired by their failure and use their failure as a stepping stone to success.

“Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

14. They thrive on pressure and uncertainty

“You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.” – J. Paul Getty

Billionaires thrive on tension; they thrive on uncertainty. When the billionaires started the entrepreneurial process with nothing, there was no security for their initial investment or guarantee for success. Though they made it through the process; they still thrive on uncertainty despite their wealth.

When Bill Gates dropped out of school to build Microsoft; there was no guarantee of success. There was also no guarantee of success for other drop out billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Larry Ellison and Li Ka Shing. Yet, they emerged successful.

“Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine and eminently unsatisfying.” – J. Paul Getty

Becoming a Billionaire – 17 Uncommon Traits of Billionaires

15. They use money as a means to keep score

“I don’t make deals for the money. I’ve got enough much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it.” – Donald Trump

Billionaires are driven by passion; not money. They use the money acquired from their businesses as a landmark; a target and a sign to move on to other business challenges. Billionaires use money as a means to keep score; they are not driven by the quest to make money.

“Money was never a big motivation for me except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.” – Donald Trump

“If only your goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Being first is more important to me. I have so much money. Whatever money is, it’s just a method of keeping score now. I mean, I certainly don’t need more money.” – Larry Ellison

16. They are opportunists

“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” – John D. Rockefeller

Billionaires are opportunists. They are always on the look out for people’s problems because they always want to be the solution to people’s problems. Billionaires move in when others are moving out; they see opportunities where others see problems. Billionaires are like the ancient alchemists; who try to turn lead into gold. Billionaires will always attempt to turn problems into value; they believe in creating value out of nothing.

“Buy when everyone else is selling and hold when everyone else is buying. This is not merely a catchy slogan. It is the very essence of successful investments.” – J. Paul Getty

“A good businessman must have nose for business the same way a journalist has nose for news. Once your eyes, ears, nose, heart and brain are trained on business, you sniff business opportunities everywhere.” – Orji Uzor Kalu

17. They use debt to their advantage

“If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” – J. Paul Getty

Debt is a double edged sword that can make or break you but billionaires have mastered the art of debt management. In fact, there is no billionaire that is free from debt. However, while others advocate staying away from debt; billionaires use debt as a financial leverage to get richer. While others use debts to acquire flashy liabilities such as cars, houses, etc; billionaires use to to invest and acquire income producing assets. The keyword here is “income producing.” To become rich in life and stay rich, you must be able to know the difference between good debt and bad debt, assets and liabilities, capital gain and cash flow, etc.

“Be careful when you take on debt. If you take on debt personally, make sure it is small. If you take on large debt, make sure someone else is paying for it.” – Rich Dad

“Financial leverage is the advantage the rich have over the poor and middle class.” – Rich Dad

Secret Rich Plan: How to Get Rich Fast without Money Insurance Loan

Do you have a secret rich plan? Do you want to learn how to get rich fast without money insurance or small business loans? What if you had the secret plan of the rich; will you get rich quick? If your answer to the questions above is yes, then read on.

In this article, I intend to be very blunt and that’s why I titled this article “How to get rich fast and quick using the secret plan of the rich.” No sentiment or resentment. It is strictly written for those who desire to be rich, without them applying for a small business loan or borrowing from their life insurance money. Follow this advice and you are on your way to becoming rich.

Now what makes me so sure of these steps and what proof do I have that the steps work? Well, I can confidently say this is the exact formula applied by the Ultra rich people. It was the exact formula that produced the school drop out billionaires of today.

People such as Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, Oprah Winfrey, Debbi Fields, Mary Kay Ash, Robert Kiyosaki and Martha Stewart have become ultra rich by applying this same formula. It is this same formula I am also applying because it has been tested and proven by these successful entrepreneurs. So if you are ready to get rich quick, then read on.

Secret Rich Plan – How to Get Rich Fast without Money Insurance or Loan

1.            Make up your mind to be rich

“I intend to be the richest man in the world.” – Howard Hughes

This is the very first step to take if you want to get rich quick; it is one on the secrets of the rich. You must make up your mind to become rich first; you must envision it and see yourself achieving it. But it is also important you bear in mind that though getting rich shouldn’t be your primary aim. Now why do I emphasize you must make up your mind to be rich?

“I always knew I was going to be rich; I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” – Warren Buffett

I am emphasizing this because getting rich begins with the right mindset. If you don’t believe you can get rich, you will never get rich. You must develop the mindset of the rich. You must think big and you must see life as a game which you must play to win. You must be willing to take risk with both your money and borrowed money. You must be willing to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes as fast as possible. In all, you must think like the rich.

“Money is just an idea.” – Robert Kiyosaki

“The biggest challenge you have is to challenge your own self doubt and your laziness. It is your self doubt and your laziness that defines and limit who you are.” – Rich Dad

2.            Discover your Passion

“Without passion, you don’t have energy. Without energy, you have nothing.” – Warren Buffett

After making up your mind to become rich; after you’ve worked on your mindset, the next thing you need to do is to discover your passion. What do you love doing? What interests you? What’s your hobby? Do you have any special skill or talent?

This is the time to do a little soul searching to find out your strengths. Take out a piece of paper and make a list of those things you love to do. I emphasize on finding your passion because you can never get bored doing something you love doing. If you don’t love it, it’s not your passion.

“It is not really work if you are having fun.” – Pierre Omidyar

“Passion is what keeps you going when the going gets tough.” – Warren Buffett

3.            Research and see if your passion can be of help to other people

The next step to getting rich quick is to carry out a preliminary research to see if there are other people who share the same interest with you. You will also have to find out if your passion can be of service to other people. If there are enthusiasts of your passion but they aren’t willing to pay for it, then you must abandon that passion and look for another. If a market exists for your passion, then it is time to go to the next step.

4.            Draw up a plan

“A plan is a bridge to your dreams. Your job is to make the plan or bridge real, so that your dreams will become real. If all you do is stand on the side of the bank and dream of the other side, your dreams will forever be just dreams. First make your plans real and then your dreams will come true.” – Rich Dad

Another secret of the rich is this; the rich operate on plans, the poor do not. This means that things do not just happen for the rich, they planned and worked for it. So at this stage, you have to draw up a plan of your life. Not just a plan to get rich but a plan of how you want to run your life. This is very important because a plan will help you identify opportunities and threats to your plan of getting rich. If you are really serious about getting rich, then create a secret rich plan and stick to the plan.

“In order to be a player on the fast track, you will need to have a plan on how to gain more and more control. On the fast track, it is control, more than money that counts.” – Rich Dad

Secret Rich Plan – How to Get Rich Fast without Money Insurance or Loan

5.            Build a business around your passion

“To build wealth today, you must be in your own business.” – J. Paul Getty

This is the real key to getting rich quick. It is one of the open secret plan of the rich. It is the same secret Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and other extremely rich individuals used to get rich. This is the secret why some school drop outs became extremely rich and it is the same secret I am also applying.

After you have discovered your passion and drawn a plan; the next step is to build a business around that passion of yours. It has to be your passion so that you will never be bored doing it and you don’t need to take a business loan or borrow from your life insurance money to start a business. If you don’t build a business around your passion, skill or talent, then you are not going to get rich quick. As an illustration:

Bill Gates, Lawrence Ellison, Steve Jobs discovered they were fascinated about computers; they built a business around it and became one of the richest men in the world.

Oprah Winfrey discovered her passion for speaking and talk shows; she built a business around it and became the richest black woman in the world.

Aliko Dangote discovered his passion for trading and making deals and became the richest black man in the world.

Robert Kiyosaki discovered his passion for teaching and built a business around it.

Larry Page of Google and Jerry Yang of Yahoo were youths when they discovered their passion for the internet; they built a business around it and became billionaires.

Donald Trump took his passion for real estate development and investing; built a business around it and became a billionaire.

If these successful entrepreneurs can do this and become rich, why can’t you? You don’t need to re-invent the wheel, all you have to do is follow this proven strategy of getting rich and you will become rich.

“If you want to be rich, you need to be a business owner and an investor.” – Rich Dad

“The richest people in the world build networks; everyone else is trained to look for work.” -  Rich Dad

Secret Rich Plan – How to Get Rich Fast and Quick

6.            Serve more and more people

After building a business around your passion, you need to figure out a way to affect more lives with your business. You need to serve more and more people. The more people you serve, the more money you will make and the richer you become.

“The major difference between a big business and a small business is the number of customers the business can handle.” – Rich Dad

7.   Stick to the process

“Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Ray Kroc

This is the most important secret of the rich. After going through the stages listed above and you fail to obey this one, everything you have done will be in vain.

To get rich fast, you must be willing to put in the required effort and commitment in building your business. It is not going to come easy but the reward is worth it. You are going to face business challenges, you are going to be on the verge of giving up but don’t.

“In the course of building a business, the process is more important than the goal.” – Rich Dad

“You can always quit so why quit now.” – Rich Dad

The Ultimate Blogging Toolkit for Making Money Online in Nigeria

Ajaero Tony MartinsMy Fellow Nigerian,

For you to have gotten to this page, it means you are very interested in learning the ins and outs of doing business on the internet and making money online as well. Well, I want to personally congratulate you because you are about to take a bold step into a world of financial abundance.

Now you might think that your dream to start an online business with forever remain wishes but I want you to know that it can become a reality today; only if you are willing to take action. For those of you that don’t know me, I will make a brief introduction. I am Ajaero Tony Martins, an entrepreneur and investor.

I am not a guru, computer programmer or a whizkid. I am simply a Nigerian entrepreneur that started from scratch and built a fortune. This business blog you are reading now is just one of my web assets; I am talking about web assets that put thousands of dollars in my pocket monthly without me doing anything. So I think I am qualified to tell you what works and what doesn’t.

I make money online right here in Nigeria by building blogs and that’s exactly what I am going to teach you how to do. Even if you are an internet novice; as long as you can hold a mouse and read an ebook, you can make money online…..take it or leave it.

                Now what do I have to offer?

Without mincing words or wasting your time, I will hit the nail on the head. I am here to teach you how to make money online right here in Nigeria. I am here to show you exactly how I became famous online while still making my cool dollars from the comfort of my home. I am here to show you how to set up a money making blog in less than three hours and begin to make money from it in seven days or less.

The “Ultimate blogging toolkit” happens to be the first ever information product I will be offering on StrategicBusinessTeam.com and I am brought it out because of the repeated calls and questions I keep getting from my fellow Nigerians about how to make money online. Since the moment I wrote the article “How to Make Money Online in Nigeria”, I have been bombarded with questions about what it takes to start a blog and make money with it. So based of this clarion call, I decided to assemble the “Ultimate Blogging Toolkit.”

                What is the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit all about?

Like I have explained several times, I am not a guru or programmer. I did not become a successful internet entrepreneur overnight; I started somewhere. That is what I want to help you do; that is what the ultimate blogging toolkit will help you do. The ultimate blogging toolkit contains the exact blueprint and tools I used to start my career as an internet entrepreneur. And that’s what I am going to give to you today.

                How will the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit Help you Achieve your Goal to Make Money Online?

Inside the “Ultimate Blogging Toolkit”, you will practically learn:

  1. 1.     How to setup a Blog like StrategicBusinessTeam.com in 30minutes and begin to make $5 – $10 daily income guaranteed.
  2. 2.     You will learn how to extract a minimum of $100 from that simple blog every week. Mind you, I make much more than this amount.
  3. 3.     You will discover the ultimate secret to making money online. If you don’t know this particular secret, then you will never make one Naira on the internet.
  4. 4.     You will discover how to convert your hobby, skill, talent or passion into a Cash Machine.
  5. 5.     I will be using my blog www.StrategicBusinessTeam.com as a case study to show you how I generate income 24/7 even when I am in the rest room.
  6. 6.     You will learn how to research and get a highly profitable niche that others don’t know about. This is the ultimate secret that the so called Gurus will not tell you.
  7. 7.     You will learn how to become a respected authority on the internet that people will beg for your advice with their cash in hand.
  8. 8.     You will learn how to make a minimum of $25/week by partnering with Amazon.com (the world largest bookstore) and Clickbank.com (the world largest affiliate marketing company) and CJ.
  9. 9.     You will learn how to build a Blog with $0 capital. No money involved, No risk involved and yet; you will still make $5 – $10 per day guaranteed.
  10. 10.                        You will learn how to make at least $10 per day from your Virtual Real Estate Blog using Google Adsense, InfoLinks, TextLinkAds, Adbrite and BuySellAds.
  11. 11.                        You will discover the ultimate reason why most Nigerians will never make a dime on the internet even if they attend all the seminars and buy all the ebooks or software in the world. I will also tell you how to avoid being a part of these Nigerians.
  12. Apart from learning all these from the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit, I will also be giving you the same materials I use setup a Niche Blog in less than 30 minutes.

Now I know you are overwhelmed with this offer but that’s not all.

                What Exact Materials Can I find inside the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit?

If this is the question on your mind, then I am going to answer it. Inside the ultimate blogging toolkit, you will find the following materials:

  1. a.      How To Launch Your Own Money Making (Affiliate Marketing) Content Website In The Next 5mins Or Less, And Start Generating Income From Google Adsense And Other Affiliate Programs In 7 days Or Less………………………..Value: $197.95
  2. b.      How to create a blog and sell it for huge profits…………………….Value: $37.00
  3. c.       101 High Profit Businesses You Can Start On The Internet With Little Or No Money…………………………Value: $97
  4. d.      An Mp3 audio titled “17 hidden ways to make $50 a day from your blog”……………….………..Value: $147.00
  5. e.      How to make at least $25 per week from affiliate programs such as Clickbank.com, CJ.com, Amazon.com and paydotcom.com still using your simple blog……………………..Value : $47.00
  6. f.        How to make at least $5/day with hubpages.com…………………………………Value: $27.97
  7. g.      How to start from zero and grow to $50 in 30days…………………………..Value: $19.95
  8. h.      How to make money from your blog…………………………………..Value: $39.97
  9. i.        How to make money with Google Adsense……………………….Value: $97.95

Do you know that Google.com is paying Nigerians in US Dollars every month? All you have to do is generate clicks on their adverts and you will get paid. For example:

If 1 click = $0.50

Then 10 clicks per day = $0.50 x 10 = $5 per day

100 clicks per day = $0.50 x 100 = $50 per day

  1. j.        How to succeed with your blog…………………………………….Value: $17.95
  2. k.      An MP3 audio that contains information on how to start your own Internet business; part 1&2……………………………………Value: $95.57
  3. l.        Black Belt Marketing: How to market your website/blog and drive insane traffic………………………….Value: $147.00
  4. m.    33 Days To Online Profits…………………………..Value: $47.95
  5. n.      118 Most Useful WordPress Plugins………………………..Value: $27.97
  6. o.      7 Totally Free Ways To Get More Traffic…………….Value: $30.00
  7. p.      27 Free Marketing Tools…………………..Value: $17.95
  8. q.      101 Copywriting Tips: How to write a web copy or sales letter that forces money out of the pocket of your visitors………………………..Value: $17.95
  9. r.       Search Engine Manifesto: “How to Rank Your Web Pages HIGH in TOP Search Engine Popular Results For Maximum Exposure and increase the value of your blog!”…………………..Value: $97.95
  10. s.       SECRETS TO WEB TRAFFIC OVERDRIVE: Traffic Building Techniques to Increase Visitor Flow to Your Websites and Explode Your Business Profits!……………Value: $27.97
  11. t.       Traffic Generation Course………………….Value: $17.97

What do you have to do to gain access to this life changing offer?

Now if you are to calculate the total value of the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit in Naira, it will amount to over N100,000. But if you want to be a partaker and tap into this once in a lifetime offer. If you are willing to kick start your career as an internet entrepreneur. If you desire to learn how to set up a money making blog that pays you for life? If you desire to be among the Lucky Nigerians that I will take by the hand and show them teach how to make at least $100 in the next seven days.

All you have to do is to make a sacrificial deposit of N5,500 only (Five Thousand Five Hundred Naira) into the bank account provided below and text your name and email address to my phone number provided below.

WARNING!!!!!! Please this “Ultimate Blogging Toolkit” is not for everyone. It is strictly for Highly Motivated Nigerians who are willing to put in the necessary work to begin making money online while I provide the necessary information and guidance.

Please if you want to learn how to “Make $1,000 in 2 hours” then this toolkit is not for you. This package is for Nigerians who are willing to work with me for the next 30 days to setup a system from scratch that will be generating nothing less than $100 every week.

But Why Am I Charging N5,500 Since I Should beGiving the “Ultimate Blogging Toolkit Away for FREE?

Now before I proceed, I want to clearly state that I am not doing this for the money, the reasons I am charging N5,500 dor the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit is because:

a)      This is not the regular make money online package you buy with nothing achieved. This is the exact blogging tools I used to set up my own money making blog. This means that you are buying a tested and proven product that produces results.

b)      If you read the article I wrote titled “How to Make Money Online in Nigeria”, you will discover that i have already given out so much information. In fact, i have explained the untold secret of finding and creating a niche blog from scratch. But just like I explained above, most people feel the information is not enough so I will be sharing more in-depth step by step details in the ultimate blogging toolkit.

c)       From personal observation, i have come to discover that Nigerians don’t attach value to free things. In fact, free things makes us lazy.

I have come to observe that once you make a small financial commitment towards a course or project, you will be highly motivated to profit from it. But if you invested nothing, you will be non-chalant towards the project. After all, you have nothing to lose.

d)      I am charging N5,500 because I am sure of the information I will be sharing with you and my integrity is at stake here. I am charging N5,500 to also keep Nigerians with the “Get rich quick” mentality” away from my package. I only want to work with serious minded individuals.

So if you are among the few chosen ones who have decided to end the year financially free, then i urge you to take action now. The Choice To Riches Is Yours.

Four Unquestionable Reasons Why You Should Grab this Package Now Before I Change My Mind.

  1. 1.       If you are tired of being average. If you are tired of your 9 – 5 Job; then order your own package now.
  2. 2.       You will be learning the secrets to making an extra $100 -$500 per week by just working for 2 Hours everyday. This secrets will definitely make your neighbours envious of you and you will be respected online as an expert in your niche.
  3. 3.       If you have attended seminars or bought materials in the past without results; then please take advantage of this package because it will be the last package you will buy online.
  4. 4.       If you want to end the year 2011 with an account balance of maybe an extra N200,000 – N500,000 – N1,000,000 or N2,000,000. Then please rush and grab your own package now.

Are You Scared Or You Think This Will Just Be Another Fruitless Make Money Online Package?

I know most of you have fallen for the sweet talks and promises of the so called internet marketers but please I want to make one thing clear. I am not an internet marketer; I am not a guru. I am simply an entrepreneur that knows his line of business like the palm of his hands. Now for those who are scared of the fact that I may not deliver on my promises or I am just another internet marketing fraudster, then I want to offer you my unconditional money back guarantee.

My Unconditional, No Question Money Back Guarantee for Those Who Will Be Willing To Take A Chance And Buy the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit

Now for those of you who are scared that I might just be another fast talking scammer, I am offering you a NO QUESTION MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. If you do spend time online, you will come to observe that my name “Ajaero Tony Martins” is well known and respected on the internet when it comes to business and entrepreneurship issues.

So for the sake of this Ultimate Blogging package and to further reduce your fears, I am putting my integrity and reputation on the line. If you take a chance and buy the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit and you are not satisfied with wthe information contained in the package. Just call me, tell me that the package isn’t up to your expectation and I will refund your N5,500 in full. No questions asked, No Stories and No Risk onyour part.

Now to further tell you that I am a man of my words, I will allow you keep the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit worth over N100,000 without asking you for anything.Now I see no reason why you can’t take me up on my challenge and order this package. I have simply removed the risk you will be taking. If you are not satisfied with the information, I will refund your money in full but you will still keep my N100,000 worth of Materials to yourself. Isn’t that fair enough?

So if you are prepared to write your own success story. If you are prepared to write your own check, then please just order my package and leave the rest to me. To buy the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit, please pay into any of the bank account provided below.

Bank Details

Bank: Diamond Bank PLC

Account Name:      Ajaero Tony Martins

Account Number: 001 645 5402

Bank: GTBank

Account Name: Ajaero Tony Martins

Account Number: 004 370 2249

After you have made the deposit, please call or text me your name and teller number. Once I confirm your deposit, I will rush your package to your email box in less than ten minutes.

Phone Number: 08022628615

PS: Please I only have limited copies of the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit. Once I exhaust the copies I have, I will stop selling.

PSS: After buying the package, I will continue to keep in touch with the you and provide mentorship advice to you. That’s why I can’t keep selling it for long.

PSSS: If you are highly motivated to grab this offer but for some reasons, you can’t. Just text or call and let me know. Your success is my concern.

For those who dare to take my offer, i am waiting to write your success story. GOD BLESS YOU.

How to Make Money Online in Nigeria

Today, I will be sharing with you a simple but powerful strategy on how to make money online in Nigeria. And to make you understand how simple it is to make money online, I will be using StrategicBusinessTeam.com as a case study to show you how I make money blogging. I was prompted to write specifically on this because I receive questions from Nigerians on daily basis asking how they can make money online. Some of the questions I receive frequently are:

  1. a.      How can I make money online?
  2. b.      Is making money online for real or a scam?
  3. c.       What genuine ways can a Nigerian make money online?
  4. d.      How can I start an internet business?
  5. e.       How can I make money with Clickbank.com and Google adsense?

So in this article, I will be teaching you exactly how I make money online in Nigeria and how you too can. All I need from you is to keep an open mind and learn.

    How to Make Money Online in Nigeria by Blogging

Is it Possible for a Nigerian to Make Money Online?

Many Nigerians still believe that the “make money online” or “make money blogging” concept is hype but I stand to dispute that ideology. If you must know; some people in the U.S and other European countries make a full living online. Darren Rowse makes a full living from blogging and Jeremy Shoemaker makes an average of $140,000/month from his network of blogs. Same goes with John Chow. If you have been on the net for maybe a year, I believe you must have heard of Ewen Chia. He is the internet’s No 1 affiliate marketer. He made $1,000,000 in 48Hours from just a single product. He is second only to John Reese, who made this same amount of money in 36Hours. You might say making such amount of money online is possible for these individuals because they reside in countries with thriving economy, so I think I will come home.

Have you heard of NairaLand.com? It is the most popular forum in Nigeria and it rakes in nothing less than $1,000 a day. Now check $1000 X 365 days, that will give us about $365,000 per year. Now convert it to Naira and see for yourself. The owner “Seun Osewa” built and still continues to run that website right from Nigeria. But that is not even the main gist. The main gist is that the owner “Seun Osewa” said he is going to sell NairaLand.com for a non negotiable sum of 25 Billion Naira and that’s the truth, NairaLand.com is worth at least 25 Billion Naira.

Are you still in doubt? Then maybe you have not heard of Lateef Olajide; the Nigerian high school drop out who made $36,000 within a space of 30 days from one single product. The product was an eBook on Dog bite prevention and the worst part of it was that Lateef Olajide didn’t write the eBook; he knows nothing about dogs and he hate dogs. Yet, he made $36,000 from a subject he hates. Can you beat that?

Now the cynics may say that these Nigerians didn’t make their money from blogging but let me tell you this: I am a Nigerian and I make money blogging in Nigeria. This is my business blog so you are free to take a look around and judge from what you see. Am I the only one blogging in Nigeria? My answer is no. Lateef Olajide also owns one of the largest internet marketing blog in Nigeria.

Have you heard of Onibalusi Bamidele? As at the time of writing this, Onibalusi is just seventeen years but he owns one of the fastest growing young entrepreneur’s blog and makes nothing less than $3,000 every month. You can check him out at YoungPrePro. If this seventeen year old Nigerian can do it, then what stops you from blogging in Nigeria? What stops you from making money online with blogs? My answer is nothing. Only your doubts and skepticism can stop you; no one else can.

Why you should start your own blog today

The new trend online is that people are growing tired of sales pitches and less personal marketing techniques. They are tired of ads that scream “Make $1,000 in one hour.” I want to tell you that it’s easier to sell a product to someone you’ve built a relationship with. Blogs are a powerful communication tool that you can use to communicate with friends and family and also to market to other people. Moreover, Google and other search engines love these types of sites! By setting up and marketing your blog, you can stand to make some pretty decent cash and you will instantly become a BIG PLAYER in the Internet marketing world once you build your blog followership or readership.

How to Make Money Online in Nigeria: My personal experience

I have written a lot of articles online with respect to making money online. One of my most popular articles is titled “How to build a successful blog” it’s published on JohnChow.com. Now if you are still in doubt about the possibilities of making money online in Nigeria by Blogging, then I see no reason why you are reading this article. In fact, I was almost tempted to refrain from teaching Nigerians how to make money online because of the high level of self doubts I see. Instead of stopping my teachings and seminars; I started giving away my materials for next to nothing.

Now back to my personal experience, I want you to take a good look at this blog you are on now. I launched this business blog on the 7th of October 2009 to share business development strategies and startup advice with aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners. But today, this blog puts a lot of dollars in my pocket everyday even while I am asleep.

Take a look at the top of this page and the side bars on your right hand side; you will see banner adverts. Those ads make me money even when asleep and I also pull in some small profits from Amazon.com; the world largest bookstore. But majority of my income comes from GOOGLE. All this took me less than three hours to set up. If you are ready to set up your own money making blog, please read on as I share with you below, my seven step guide to making money online by blogging.

   How to Make Money Online in Nigeria by Blogging

1.            Develop your mindset

This is always the first point I stress whenever I am sharing information that challenges you or requires you to take action. Before ever venturing online to make money or earn a full living, you must first see yourself achieving it. You must believe it is possible and achievable regardless of your region or country; whether United States, U.K, Ghana or Nigeria. You must see blogging in Nigeria and making money online as a possibility; all I am saying in essence is that you must challenge your self doubt and laziness. Ultimately, you must be prepared to leave your comfort zone. After challenging your self doubt, you must set a specific goal or target. What is your expectation online? It might be to make your first $100 or to become an expert in a niche. Whatever goal you set, make sure it is achievable.

2.            Find a niche and choose a topic

 Now what is a Niche? A Niche is simply a small group of people with a common interest. Examples of popular niches are football fans, Students, Teenagers, Sports Betting, Forex Traders, Weight Watchers, Pool, Arsenal Fans, Chelsea Fans, Man U Fans, Singles, Game lovers, Housewives, Nursing Mothers, Careers, Dating, Education, Marriage, making Money and so on.

Therefore Niche blogs are going to be blogs related to different topics that a select group of people are interested in. The reason for this is because there may be a lot of people interested in a particular topic but don’t know where to go to get more information about that topic. That is where you come in; to provide the content they need and in return these visitors will buy products from you or click on your ads to generate a nice income for you. Niche blogging is more powerful because you don’t have to compete with other competitors for the same crowd. Armed with the right knowledge, you can go into a niche and completely dominate. A good rule of thumb in niche blogging is that your niche must be a high paying, low competitive niche.

How to find a high paying, low competitive Niche

The Basics of Keyword Research

The first step is to compile a list of niches you have interest in. Examples are book lovers, students, football fans, basket ball fans, game lovers, photographers and so on. If you are short of niche ideas, you can rush now to the following websites for more ideas and research:

Amazon – www.amazon.com is by far one of the best sites to do your niche market research on. Search any of their department for niche ideas. They have certain sections that tell you exactly what’s selling in their marketplace, some of such sections are:

  • Hot New Releases
  • Most Gifted
  • Most Wished For
  • Movers & Shakers

 EBay Pulse – pulse.ebay.com will give you the breakdown of current trends and cool stuff that is selling on eBay. It also gives you a list of popular searches, largest stores and most watched items

 Google Trends – www.google.com/trends is used to compare certain niches to see if it is the right time of year to launch a blog. This will compare the world’s interest in chosen niche markets.

Traffic Potential – After you’ve identified a few potential niches you want to see if the traffic is there or if people are even searching for information or products in this niche. I usually use Google Keyword Tool – adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Next I will enter my main keyword, in this case I found a niche pertaining to “digital slr” which basically is all about digital camera/photography. So enter “digital slr” (without quotes) and it returns a number of keywords I can target. As you can see, this niche is getting a lot of traffic. I normally focus my efforts on keywords getting between 14,000 and 30,000 searches per month and narrow it down from there. Here are the potential keywords that I found:

  • Sigma digital slr
  • Digital slr review
  • Best digital slr camera
  • Digital slr photography
  • Digital slr lenses
  • Best digital slr

I will continue to use this example throughout this article, so you can have a full example of how to research a niche and setup a blog around a certain topic. Is it Profitable? – This is by far the easiest step in niche research to see if there is money in your particular niche. Essentially, there are several ways to monetize a blog and I will be explaining them here in this article. But first, you will want to check the keywords and see what advertisers are paying per click. The keyword cost per click (CPC) has to be at least $1.00; this will let you know that we have businesses paying money for their business/product to get exposure. So I did a search for the 6 keywords I’m targeting to see if they are averaging at least $1 CPC.

As you can see collectively, this set of niche keywords is averaging $1 CPC. Now we want to check to see if there are any related affiliate programs that we can promote. There are two ways we can go about doing this; a Simple Google Search like niche keyword + “affiliate program.”

After searching it returned over 220,000 results or possible affiliate programs that I can promote and make money from. The second way you would find affiliate programs is by simply searching the big affiliate networks where businesses or vendors go to tap into an affiliate program. You can search these networks for your niche to see if there are any good products to promote.

                Commission Junction – www.cj.com

                Shareasale – www.shareasale.com

                Clickbank – www.clickbank.com

How to Start a Niche blog on your personal strengths or skill

Now I will explain how to build a niche blog on your strengths, hobby, talent or personal skill and still make a hell of money from it. Building a niche blog on this model will fit those who love to write and talk about their hobbies. You can make money online by simply by writing or talking about your personal life, hobby or anything else. It is very possible to turn any hobby, talent or skill you possess into a cash machine. But I think it’s worthwhile you know that not all blog niches are inherently profitable because the topic you choose, often determines the future size and profitability of your blog to some extent.

When going this route, it is important to pick a niche that you are genuinely interested in because the natural passion you have for the topic sustains the content creation process and will actually make the whole chore of blogging enjoyable. So the first thing you would do is create a list of topics that interest you. So my own list would be something like this:

  • Making money
  • Reading
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Investing
  • Writing
  • Martial Arts

So I would start with Entrepreneurship and investing, since I love building businesses and investing money. Entrepreneurship is my passion, I love teaching people how to start a business and that’s why I created StrategicBusinessTeam.com. Apart from my passion for entrepreneurship, I also love the game of investing. Now I don’t know what your passion may be but if you want to dive deeper and see if there are sub niches that you can blog about. Do a simple Google blog search http://blogsearch.google.com to see what others are blogging about and see if you can carve a niche out of it. When writing about your passions and interest, it is important to also check the search volume and see the traffic potential so you will not waste your time writing about a topic that doesn’t make you any money.

3.            Join a community related to your niche

The third step to making money online in Nigeria by Blogging is to join a community related to your chosen niche. For instance, if you have researched and discovered that a niche exist for guitar players, all you have to do is join social networks and forum for guitar players. Joining this forum will help you see the problems or needs existing in the niche.

I am a member of several communities related to business, entrepreneurship and investing. These communities bring me closer to my targeted niche. Using these communities as leverage, I can have a sneak preview into the minds of entrepreneurs to know the challenges they are facing currently. When you address the problems of people and offer them a solution, you draw them closer to yourself and make them loyal readers of your blog.

4.            Start your blog

After carrying out your research and identifying one or two communities related to your niche, your next step is to build a blog. But as one of my mentors ‘Steve Pavlina’ advised; don’t just build a blog on your niche. Instead, build a complete website around that niche.

Today, I see some blogs with post summaries interfaced on the home page. Instead of making your home page a summary of your recent articles, make it a static page just like I did with StrategicBusinessTeam.com and link to all other pages and posts. I don’t know if my ideology is right but I think its okay for me. Also, it is my team’s long term strategy to implement a forum on this blog when the traffic rate reaches our target figure. We also have other long term plans for this blog. That’s what I mean by building a complete website around your niche, not just a blog. Building a blog does not require you to be a web savvy or a programmer. With just the simple ability of holding and clicking a mouse, you can install a blog.

5.            Add valuable content to your blog

The primary reason I advised you join a community related to your niche is for the purpose of generating valuable content that will attract readers and turn them to loyalist. There is a saying that goes online that “content is king.” Your content will be considered valuable by readers if it solves a problem or address a certain issue. Content is the main reason why highly niche related blogs command more power than personal blogs. Except you are a celebrity, musical star or an award winning movie star, nobody gives a damn about your personal life. I write this because I see individuals launching blogs in their personal names or domain names like www.JohnxxxMark.com

If you intend to build a professional business blog with a high market value, then you must register a professional domain name that reflects the niche. Examples of professional domain names are ABCMarketing.com, GolfPro.com, BloggingTips.com. A popular internet marketer John Chow once confessed that one of the greatest mistakes he made online was registering his blog in his personal name JohnChow.com and he advised his protégés to avoid this mistake.

Having digressed a little, let’s go back to the importance of providing valuable content on your blog. Your content is your leverage to position yourself as an expert in a niche. Your blog is your gun, content is the bullet. If your content is strong, the impact on your readers will be strong but if it’s weak, the effect on your readers will be like pouring water on a rock. Don’t substitute quality for quantity. Even if you are publishing one article per week, make that article a ‘never to be forgotten‘ article. Write something that readers will love to bookmark or return often to read again and again. What’s the essence of writing or publishing daily articles that are worthless or valueless? There are trillions of content online so yours must be unique to enable it stand out from the crowd.

How to Make Money Online in Nigeria starting from Today

6.   Monetize your blog and Make Money

The next step after building your blog is to monetize it. Monetization of a blog is simply the process of adding a money generating system to your blog. There are several ways you can make money online with a blog and some of them are:

a)            Direct Advertising – This is monetization strategy where you generate income by selling adverts directly on your blog at your own fixed rate.

b)            Third party ads company – these companies will act as third parties by connecting you with blog advertisers. Examples are BlogAds.com and Adbrite.com

c)            Cost per click ads – These are ads displayed on your blogs by third party companies where income is generated on a pay per click basis. Examples of companies that offer pay per click services are Google Adsense and Clicksor.com

d)            Affiliate programs – You can monetize your blog with affiliate programs. Programs that pay you for every referral or sale you generate. You can source for such programs individually or through affiliate networks. Examples of such network are ClickBank.com, Cj.com and ShareASale.com

You can also generate income from your blog by selling links through TextLinkAds.com and InfoLinks.com, or you can sell your own products such as eBooks and software. You may also choose to generate income by selling services or doing product reviews. Whatever income stream you choose, just make sure it blends with your niche or blog theme.

7.   Promote your blog and make money

The last but not the least step is the promotion of your blog. This is the most important step in the process of making money online with blogs. Blog or website promotion is all about generating traffic or visitors to your blog. No matter how beautiful or valuable your content is, if there are no visitors, then your entire blog will be worthless. You are reading this article today because I promoted it using different means. If I did not market this blog, you won’t be here reading this article and if you don’t come to my blog to read my articles, I will not money.

So the end point of this is that your blog traffic or visitors is directly proportional to your income. You must exhaust all marketing avenues to make sure you blog content reaches the targeted audience. You must promote your blog both online and offline. I can’t exhaust the blog marketing or promotion techniques here in this article but I will explain in details maybe in forthcoming articles.

How to Start a Profitable Successful Blog Site with No Money

How do you start a blog with no money? What does it take to build a successful blog from scratch? What’s the success secret of this business blog? How was I able to start and build this blog “StrategicBusinessTeam.com” to profitability without any marketing or advertising budget? If you are interested in the answer to the questions above, please read on.

The fact that you are reading this article proves that you have interest in building your own profitable blog; whether now or in the future. So I will strictly be focusing this article on the step by step instruction for starting a “profitable, successful blog.” I emphasize the word “Profitable and successful” because they are two components you want to see in your blog. Your blog can be successful in terms of monthly traffic, subscribers and page views; yet, that same blog can still lack profitability.

Before I proceed, I want to state categorically that there are excellent articles that go into in-depth details of how to build a successful blog. So what makes this article different? The big difference between this article and others is that this article is focused on my own personal experience in the business of blogging.

I am neither an expert blogger; nor am I an internet marketing guru. I am simply an entrepreneur that satisfies a need for a profit. What this means in essence is that this article will not go into the technical jargon or generic details of building a business blog. Instead, this article will focus strictly on the business side of building a blog.

This article is about how you can replicate my success strategy and start your own profitable blog site. I started this business blog from scratch with no money; and today, I can confidently say that i am impressed by its growth rate.

 Now how did I do it? How did I build this blog to grow without any marketing or advertising effort? How was I able to hit a monthly unique traffic of 90K (as at Oct 2012)without even aiming for it? Well, just read on.

 How to Start a Profitable Successful Blog Site with No Money

Please this is not the regular step by step guide to starting a blog. I am strictly focusing on starting a profitable, successful blog with respect to business principles. So I will shun some conventional wisdom and generic guidelines. If you are ready to learn, then let’s proceed.

  My Kick Ass Strategy to Starting a Profitable Blog

1.    Why do want to start a blog?

So you want to start a successful blog? Have you ever asked yourself why you want to start a blog? You may think this is unnecessary but in reality; it might turn out to be the underlying line between success and failure. Why do you want to start a blog?

You must answer this question before even developing the idea for your blog. People start blogs for different reasons and this simple reason may be a determinant factor to your success or failure in blogging. The reason you start a blog will determine your mindset and approach towards blogging. If you start a blog simply for the money; you may never get it.

I started this StrategicBusinessTeam.com to fill a need; I started this business blog to help entrepreneurs solve their intricate business challenges in return for a profit. And this is the sole reason why I don’t consider myself a blogger or internet marketing expert. I am strictly an entrepreneur; I serve and solve other people’s problems in return for a profit, not wages or salary.

And because I am an entrepreneur, I have to think like one. This led me to work on developing my business or entrepreneurial skills. This blog is not a job, neither is it a hobby; it’s a business. But something I want you to note is this; I did not start this business blog solely for the profit; if I did, I would have sold it off a long time ago.

The primary reason why I started this blog was because of the leverage. Yes, I want to use this blog as leverage to greater heights in the future. The profits may be pouring in but the leverage is more important to me and I don’t mind sacrificing the profits to increase the leverage. Leveraging this blog can be done in several ways but I think that’s a topic for another day. Leverage is the reason I started this blog; what’s your own reason for starting a blog?

2.   Find a Niche

You’ve probably found a tangible reason why you want to start a blog; the next thing will be to find your niche. Just as you find a market for your product or service; you also have to determine your niche online.

  • Who are the main targets of your blog?

A niche is simply a group of people with a common interest. Vegans are a niche, angel investors are a niche and so also are dog owners. Before I started this blog; I researched and decided to target the following niches:

  • Entrepreneurs and business owners
  • Aspiring entrepreneurs

If you can’t figure out a niche to target; then you have no business starting a blog. Without the customers; a business has no cause to exist, so also does a blog without a niche.

3.   Define the blog mission

What’s your blog’s mission? What do you aim to achieve with your blog? These two questions make the big difference between profitable, successful blogs and the average blogs. A blog mission may not be important to you if you are starting a personal blog; in this case, your personal mission will be your blog’s mission.

But if you are serious about building a successful business blog that will stand the test of time; if you want to start a profitable blog that will grow with or without your personal effort, then you should forge a mission statement for your blog.

4.   Set your goals and objectives

To build a profitable blog, you must set goals and objectives. You must have both short and long term goals for your blog; your goals will be the benchmark on which to judge your blog growth rate. You can use traffic, income or subscriber base as a yardstick to analyze your blog growth.

5.   Define your brand strategy

This is one of the most important factors most people overlook when starting a blog from scratch. Your brand strategy in the long run is going to determine the value of your blog, its relevance and its overall potential. Now how do you define your brand strategy?

It’s quite simple. Your brand strategy begins with you answering this question: Are you starting a personal blog or a business blog? Your personal blog is your personal brand; it’s a blog that reflects your life values and culture.

Now is StrategicBusinessTeam.com a business or personal blog? Well, it’s a business blog because it’s not attached to me; it’s a business blog because it has its own core value and culture. I can go on vacation for a year; yet this blog will keep growing geometrically because it has been programmed to run on auto pilot without me. StrategicBusinessTeam has its own life to live and I have mine.

The worst thing with a personal blog is that it might live and die with you but a business blog lives on because it doesn’t depend on your personal influence to survive. Business blogs also hold more value than personal blogs. Asset transfer and sustained growth in a personal blog is quite difficult without retaining the founding blogger.

How to Start a Profitable Successful Blog Site with No Money

6.   Develop your overall strategy

Another essential factor that will affect your quest to start a profitable blog is your overall strategy. Your overall strategy should be one that you will stick to no matter the storm. It’s a proven strategy that almost guarantees success and every other strategy will be hinged on it.

One of the reasons I was able to build StrategicBusinessTeam.com to this level with no marketing or advertising budget was because I started it with the mindset of an entrepreneur. I started it on the same principle I use to build my offline businesses. I started it with an overall strategy; a strategy I have tested and proven in my offline businesses. What’s my overall strategy?

“My motto is concentration. First honesty; then industry and then concentration.” – Andrew Carnegie

“Concentrate your energy, your thoughts and your capital.” – Andrew Carnegie

Well, I have just told you my overall strategy. It’s CONCENTRATION. I don’t diversify my marketing effort; I concentrate them. I don’t try to do many things at once, I concentrate. I did not start a blog trying to generate multiple streams of income; I concentrated on one income stream first. I did not start 10, 20 or 50 blogs; i started one and i still own one. I did not look for multiple traffic sources; I concentrated on one and that’s why this blog is effortlessly growing geometrically. You don’t need 100 blogs to make an impact, you just need one.

So if you are going to build a profitable blog, then you must define your own overall strategy. Mine is concentration; what’s yours. Only you can decide that.

7.    Build the blog system

This is where you build the structure that will host your blog; this is where you put up the necessary system that will house all your operations. Your blog system includes domain name registration, choosing your hosting platform; choosing a blog platform and setting up the blog. This process is similar to finding a location for your offline business, obtaining permits and buying your office equipment.

Now what is the best small business blogging platform? I don’t know. What I can advice is that you choose a blog platform you understand its technicalities. Seth Godin built a successful blog on Typepad, Dave Lucas built a blog on blogger; while Steve Pavlina built a profitable blog on WordPress. Success can be achieved on any platform, just make sure you understand its ins and outs.

8.   Define your operational tactics

Your operational tactics entails how you want to run your blog; your overall budget and the time you’ll allot to building the blog. When I started StrategicBusinessTeam.com from scratch; I was strapped for time because of my offline business commitment. I also made a policy that I will run the blog on lean budget until it begins to fend for itself and pay its bills. Now, my blog is run full time by my team. That was my operational strategy and it worked for me because I planned it before even starting this blog.

You want to start a profitable blog? How often will you publish articles? How much time will you devote to you? How will you schedule your limited time to make sure every system is well taken care off? This you must plan and sort out before even starting a blog.

Most people have asked me why I disabled the comment module on this blog. Well, it’s an operation tactics that works inline with my overall strategy; concentration. I will rather concentrate my effort on writing quality content that yields result than waste my time moderating comments. I have less time so I chose to concentrate my efforts on things that matters most. That doesn’t mean you should follow my steps; find an operational tactic that work best for you and stick to it.

9.    Define your income strategy

What is your income strategy? The root of this question boils down to why you want to start a blog. Are you building a blog for cash flow or capital gain? Are you building a blog to hold or flip? Are you building a blog for earned, passive or portfolio income? These are questions you must answer because they will determine how you generate revenue from your blog; they will determine your monetization strategy.

I have seen bloggers brag about how they make thousands of dollars from their blogs but most of them are only thriving on earned income; meaning they make money by keeping an online job. I will give an example; if you run a blog that directly generates $50/month but you earn $5,000 from by providing writing services, then you are still an employee working for a salary. If you stop writing, your income will drop because you are on earned income.

I have also seen bloggers who generate full revenue from their blogs without even having to run it. I consider these individuals true entrepreneurs. Even if they go on vacation for a year; their blog income will keep growing because it doesn’t depend on them. This is what I call passive income and it’s what I’m concentrating on. There are two types of bloggers; those who build a business and those who build a job, which one do you want to be.

10.   Define your Monetization strategy

Is your blog going to generate income from selling advertisement, doing product endorsement, offering paid services, selling own products or selling affiliate products? This you must answer if you want to start a profitable blog from scratch. But it’s worthwhile you know that your monetization strategy depends on your desired income strategy and overall strategy.

11.   Outline your marketing tactics

To start a successful blog and grow it to a substantial size; marketing must be done. To build StrategicBusinessTeam.com from scratch to this level without any marketing budget; I had to devise a marketing strategy that will be executed in synergy with my overall strategy. My marketing strategy was “To provide valuable life changing content” and my overall strategy was “concentration.” I don’t try to do everything; I only concentrate on my core marketing strategy.

StrategicBusinessTeam.com don’t generate a dime of traffic from StumbleUpon; i just recently activated a Facebook fan page and it’s not too active on twitter. Over 80% of this blog’s traffic comes from search engines and word of mouth because these are the two marketing tactics we decided to concentrate on. So find a marketing tactic you are strong at and concentrate on it.

Concentrating on a particular marketing strategy doesn’t mean ignoring other  proven profitable marketing channels; it’s all about mastering a particular formula before moving on to another. It’s all about having a core marketing tactic and other complementing tactics.

How to Start a Profitable Successful Blog Site with No Money

12.  Define your exit strategy

This is where most people miss it out; they start a blog without an exit strategy and that’s why most blogs disappear after the founding blogger dies. Except you run a personal blog; it’s advisable you factor in an exit strategy in your blog’s plan. Are you going to sell your blog in the future or hold it?

My initial plan is to diversify this blog into a network of blogs; and grow it to the level where it won’t need me anymore. But that was in the past. My new plan now is to turn over all the operations and control of this blog to a holding company. I want to build a full fledged business around this single blog. My exit strategy is to become a watchdog; not an active participant in the operations of this blog and with an exit strategy like this, this blog will continue to fulfill its mission even after my death. This is my blog exit strategy; what’s yours?

13.   Stick to the process

Starting a profitable blog and growing that blog is not an overnight affair; it’s a step by step process and this process will never be complete without challenges and setbacks. I have had my own share of setbacks with respect to blogging; ranging from technical challenges to human error to financial crisis.

These things are unpredictable but you have to face them and to face these unexpected challenges; you need persistence and focus. You must know what your ultimate goal is and you must be prepared to make sacrifices to achieve such goal; you must stick to the process.

As a final note, these are my thirteen step strategy to starting a profitable blog from scratch. These strategies are not all about blogging technicalities or knowing how to write amazing articles; they are about blogging business intelligence.

How to Make a Million Dollars Fast

Can anyone make a million dollars fast from scratch?

                What can I sell to make a million dollars fast overnight?

                What can I do to make a million dollars in a year?

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how devilishly expensive it is to be poor.” – James Baldwin

        How to Make a Million Dollars Fast in a Year

Using this article as a medium, I will be pouring my heart out, all in a bid to reveal to you the best kept secret on how to make a million dollars fast in less than a year. This is going to be a no-nonsense guide and straight to the bone talk so I will suggest you grab a cup of tea, sit back and read carefully. Before I proceed, I want to clearly state that:

a)            This guide to making a million dollars fast in less than a year is exclusively for entrepreneurs, or should I say it’s for those who have the guts to take a little risk. Employees may not find this easy except they are willing to go beyond their comfort zone.

b)            This is an elaborate guide that needs to be read twice or thrice and applied systematically. So I will advice you bookmark it for future reference and usage.

c)            This one is going to come as an appeal. If you find this article highly informative, then help us empower your family and friends by simply sharing this article with them through any media of your choice. Thanks.

Having said all this, let’s proceed.

“A million dollars is the starting point.” – Rich Dad

Many people wish to get to the millionaire status but they don’t know what to do or how to go about it. I want to state categorically that there are many ways to make a million dollars but I will be restricting this article to achieving this goal by following the entrepreneurial process; the process of starting a business from scratch. Below is my step by step guide to making a million dollars fast in less than a year.

“The principle of becoming a millionaire is the same everywhere, regardless of the currency.” – Anonymous

Now to be sincere with you, making a million dollars is not a big deal anymore. The reason i say this is because anyone can wake up tomorrow and make million dollars. In fact, it is now easier to become a millionaire starting with nothing. Today, with just a laptop and an internet connection, you can make a million dollars in six months or less; if you have the right knowledge.

Secondly, there are now several easier routes you can take to make a million dollars. So it is up to you to choose the route that best suits you and you have no excuse to not to hit the goal.

  8 Smart Ways to Make a Million Dollars Quick

  • Play the lottery and get lucky

If you are a gambler, you can play the lottery, get lucky and win a million dollars. The problem however is that if you lose the money, you need another bit of luck to repeat the process.

  • Marry a rich person

You can marry someone rich and become a millionaire. Yea, most people marry for money these days so it’s no big deal anymore. But it takes a great deal of heartache to live with somebody you have no affection for.

  • Being a celebrity or superstar

You can make a million dollars by being a super star; maybe a footballer, musician, celebrity, etc. But it takes years of consistency, hard work, large number of fans and lots of media power to become a celebrity or superstar.

  • Be a crook

You can make a million dollars fast by being a crook; maybe a drug dealer, gun runner, money launderer, public fund looter, etc. However, you may never enjoy your money in peace as you will be constantly hounded by the police, the government or your associates.

  • Savings

You can make a million dollars fast by being a good saver or better still, a penny pincher. If you start early and you have a good job, you can save your cash in the bank and become a millionaire. The only hitch is that you won’t know what to do with your million dollars other than to lavish it and even if you want to invest in something worthwhile, the fear of losing your money will never allow you.

  • By inheritance

You can make a million dollars by inheritance. Yea, a lot of kids were born with a silver spoon and left a large inheritance. The only hitch with making money this way is that if you lack the competence to run the system that generates the money for your inheritance or if you simply have poor financial control of your life, you will lose that inheritance in due time.

  • Be self employed or build a business

You can make a million dollars by being an entrepreneur. Yea, you can make a million dollars by building a business or simply by being self employed like a forex trader, stock trader, craft man, etc. This was exactly how i made my money. To achieve this, you need initiative, skills and knowledge of the business you are venturing into.

  • Become an investor

You can become a millionaire by being an investor. However, your choice of investment vehicle may be stocks, real estate, IPOs, startups, etc. You can also choose to be an angel investor, Venture capitalist, etc. To do this, you need to be financially intelligent. You also need adequate knowledge, a good team, access to information, analytic skills and most importantly; Money.

       How to Make a Million Dollars Fast in Less than a Year

1.  Prepare your mind to make a million dollars

To make a million dollars in less than a year, you must see yourself actually making it. You must believe it is achievable. Ultimately, you must prepare your mind to face the challenges associated with your dream of making a million dollars fast. You must also be prepared for disappointments and set backs along the way.

Preparing your mind also entails abandoning the employee mindset of working for a paycheck. It’s all about transiting or changing your mode of thinking; it’s all about thinking like an entrepreneur. In the process of preparing your mind to make a million dollars fast, you must also develop the necessary entrepreneurial skills needed.

“To be successful, you must act big, think big and talk big.” – Aristotle Onassis

One of such skills is that you must develop a tough skin towards rejection and criticism. You must not give up on your dream just because somebody said it’s impossible.

2.  Set a goal to make a million dollars fast within a year

The next step is to set a goal to make a million dollars within a time frame of one year. After setting the one year goal, break it down into monthly, weekly and objectives. The goal and objectives must be written down. Writing it down will help you must make sure each new day is fully utilized to the realization of your goal.

3.  Look into yourself and list out your strengths

One of the easiest and fastest ways to make a million dollars fast is to utilize your potential. Every human being is blessed with a gift or has a unique talent that needs to be discovered and harnessed. Even if you think you are not gifted, there’s definitely something that drives you crazy; something you are never tired of doing. Something you are very passionate about, something you can do and do excellently well.

It could be an acquired skill, an in-born talent, your hobby or just anything that thrills you; even if it’s the world’s craziest idea, it’s your strength. Debbi Fields took her passion for baking cookies and made a lot of money out of it with her company; Mrs. Field’s Cookies.

Bill Gates discovered at an early age that he loves tangling with computer programs and this passion evolved into Microsoft. Oprah Winfrey utilized her gift for speaking and became the richest black woman in the world; while Rachael Ray took her passion for cooking and became a famous millionaire.

No matter what your strengths are, you can make something out of it. All you need to do at this stage is list them out in written form. Now if you feel you don’t have any talent or skill to leverage upon, which I doubt; then you have to ask yourself the following questions:

  • What do I have around me that I can leverage upon to make a million dollars fast?
  • What drives me crazy?
  • What do I know that others don’t?

The answer to this question may be the skills or expertise of a friend, someone else product, an eBook or software (which you can find in abundance on the internet). Once you can figure this out, you are still on track to making a million dollars.

4.  Analyze your strengths or idea and figure out if it interests others

After listing out your strengths, you need to go to a quiet place and reflect on your strengths. Analyze each of them and tick the ones you are very strong at. After analyzing each one of them, you will need to carry out a preliminary research to know which of your strengths or ideas has potential for success in the market place.

This research might require you ask questions, read journals, magazines and books and even spend time on the internet. Any of the research vehicle you choose, just make sure it yields the desired result.

5.  Draw a plan on how you intend to profit from your strength or idea

If you can get to this stage, then you are half way down the road to making a million dollars in less than a year. This is where you sit down to draw a plan of how you intend to leverage your strength or idea to make money. This is where you to convert the results of your feasibility study into a business plan. Your plan is going to contain tactics and strategies that will help you surmount business challenges and achieve your goals faster.

  How to Make a Million Dollars Fast

6.  Make sure you are legally protected

Many budding entrepreneurs strive to pass through step one to five, only to bypass step six and proceed to seven. This single business mistake has resulted in the death or painful loss of brilliant ideas and opportunities. I have also seen smart entrepreneurs being launched into a world of tremendous wealth simply because they protected their ideas.

Never test run your idea or launch it without first protecting it using patents, trademarks, copyrights, non-disclosure agreement or conformity forms. If you are leveraging someone else idea or product, be sure to obtain a license, distributive rights or exclusive right from the owner. Legally protecting your idea will cost you money in the short run but it will be highly beneficial to you in the long run.

7.  Test run your idea and note down the result

After protecting your idea, you can now test run it to see its workability and identify flaws. Test running your idea might require you to; give out free samples of your product, grant access to experts to scrutinize your idea or join a focus group. The end point of your test running should be to gather feed back and improve or proceed with the idea.

If the product is not yours, you will still need to test the market with it. Nobody wants to be stuck with a dying product.

8.  Assemble a team to help you expand your idea

If you are smart and open minded, you will assemble a team during the test running of your idea because few will see potential in your idea and will want to be part of it. If this happens, then you need to be selective of who you bring on board as team member. But if not, then you will need to find your own team. Whichever way it works, just make sure your selected team members sign an agreement highlighting their roles and stakes to avoid future dispute.

9.  Form strategic alliance with stronger external teams

After kicking off with your idea alongside your team, you will surely meet some business challenges and some progress. You may decide to maintain status quo and work strictly with your team but if you need accelerated growth and speedy achievement of your goal, then you need to seek out external assistance.

You need to form strategic alliance with stronger external teams; teams bigger than yours. This will reduce your overhead and help you grow faster while still running on a lean budget.

10.  Stick with the process until you make your first million dollars

Finally, we are at it. What else do I have to say, what advice do I have to give at this point? If you have steadfastly gotten to step nine, I say congratulations but I’m still sorry to say that all your effort will be null and void if you ignore step ten; the most important step of all.

In the game of entrepreneurship and life in general, many start the race with enthusiasm but along the way, most lose their enthusiasm and others their focus. Only about ten percent will make it to the end of the race. Are you going to be among this ten percent? Only you can decide that.

As a final note, this is my ten step guide to making a million dollars fast in less than a year. Reading this article will never make you a millionaire, implementing the tactics or steps will. If you are determined and committed to the process, you will make a million dollars. At this point, I leave you with this quote:

“Anything the mind can conceive and believe; it can achieve.” – Anonymous

“Becoming a millionaire or billionaire is not the real challenge, maintaining that status is the real challenge.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

Business Opportunities in Nigeria

What are the best investment opportunities in Nigeria? Are you in search for small business ideas in Nigeria? Then read on as i share with you a detailed list of 15 fastest growing small business opportunities in Nigeria for 2013.

For quite sometime now, my email box has been filled with request from fellow Nigerian entrepreneurs asking for the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria which they can invest in. Before I proceed with any detailed explanation, I want to state clearly that there are untapped small scale business opportunities in every industry both in Nigeria and all over the world; you just need to dig deeper to find such niches.

Now for those landing on this blog for the first time, i think it is important i introduce myself briefly. Business Opportunities in NigeriaI am Ajaero Tony Martins (+2348022628615); an entrepreneur and investor, with a passion to share my knowledge and also learn from others. I own the biggest business blog in Nigeria and probably the fastest growing entrepreneurship blog in the world.

While there are untapped business opportunities in every industry, this article will be pointing out the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria. If you are non-Nigerian or you’re a Nigerian in Diaspora wishing to start a business in Nigeria; then you will find this list of fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria very useful.

A lot of things have been said about my country Nigeria and her harsh business terrain. If you are a non-Nigerian entrepreneur or a Nigerian in Diaspora; then this is my take about starting or doing business in Nigeria. If you are an experienced serial entrepreneur or an entrepreneur with guts; then you should know that one of the best places to invest your money and build a business is in a developing terrain.

Nigeria is a developing country and one of the best places to invest or build a business is in a developing environment. Though the risk is high, so also is the reward. Like I said; if you are an entrepreneur with guts to take on business challenges like Richard Branson; then this article is for you.

If you are hungry for entrepreneurial ideas and information; then sit back, grab a cup of coffee and read on as I present with you a detailed list of 15 fastest growing small business ideas and opportunities in Nigeria.

    15 Fastest Growing Small Business Opportunities in Nigeria for 2013

Before I begin listing the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria; let me tell you how I came about this list.

Sometime ago, I handed out a task to some members of my strategic business team and that task was to research and get a detailed report on the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria with moderate risk and strong profit potential within a defined time frame. After several weeks of painstaking research, my business team reported back to me with an in-depth list of 500 Hottest Business Opportunities in Nigeria for 2013.

Well; if you must know why I mandated such task to be carried out, then I am going to spill it. As at the time of this writing, I am currently developing a strategic diversification plan with my business team and we are looking at the various options of business opportunities available.

So while I am not going to tell you the specific industry i will be breaking into; I am going to share with you a short extract from my list of 15+ fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria, as researched by my team.

What if You Don’t Have the Money or Capital to Start a Business?

Now i know Nigerians are enterprising and industrious, but the inability to access the necessary funds or capital is what is holding back most Nigerians. The Federal Government went a step ahead to initiate a programme called “YouWin” and to be sincere, i really laud this proactive measure.

But the problem is that YouWin can’t finance everybody’s business; you must learn to raise money on your own without going to the bank. So in response to this, i wrote an article that reveals 100 Alternative Ways to Finance a Business Without Going to the Bank.

So without wasting your time, below is a brief extract of the fastest growing small business opportunities in Nigeria.

    15 Fastest Growing Small Business Opportunities in Nigeria for 2013

Agricultural Sector

1.            Catfish and Poultry Farming

The first of the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria is catfish farming. The primary reason I listed catfish farming as one of the fastest business opportunities in Nigeria is because it’s an emerging industry that hasn’t reached its peak or full potential. The major players in this business are usually regional players. What this means in essence is that each major player in the catfish farming industry is focused only on a particular business terrain within the geographical location of the farm.

So all you need to do is look for a region with a growing demand that haven’t been covered by a major player and situate your business there. As for poultry farming, the ban imposed by the federal government of Nigeria with respect to the importation of live or frozen poultry birds has only helped explode the demand. Snail farming is also another under-exploited money maker.

When accessing any of these business opportunities listed above, you must note three important facts. One, food is one of the basic necessities of man, thus making catfish, snail and poultry farming a huge potential. Two is that the population in Nigeria is estimated to be over 150 million and growing so that entails a growing demand for food. Three is that even if the local market with 150 million Nigerians gets saturated (which I strongly doubt as this niche is still in its adolescent phase), there’s still a growing demand for catfish all over the world. So do your own in-depth analysis and put your money to work.

However, you are free to use our own analysis and research on How to Start a Poultry Farm.

Textiles Sector

2.            Importation of wears

Importation of clothes (designer wears) into Nigeria is another fast growing business opportunity you can tap into but I must warn you; you will be breaking the law if you engage in this business because there’s a ban by the federal government on the importation of wears. I listed this business opportunity for those who have the entrepreneurial guts to take calculated risk.

Update: The ban on importation has been lifted by the federal government of Nigeria.

Another reason I listed the importation of wears as one of the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria is because the ban cut short its supply thereby leaving a gap of demand that can only be filled by brave entrepreneurs. Please don’t assume I am trying to hype you or something; I am a player in this line majoring mainly in men designer wears which is imported from China and India. I source corporate wears from Hong Kong because of the quality of their finished product. Enough said.

3.            Sewing of specialized uniforms

If you don’t have the entrepreneurial guts to go into the importation of wears; then you can set up a small scale textile firm that will specialize in sewing uniforms. The demand for uniforms is on the increase in Nigeria; from the crèche to the labor market, uniforms are highly in demand but it’s advisable you do your own detailed research before venturing into the business.

Transportation Sector

4.            Inland water way transport

Inland water way transport is one of the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria. In fact, I believe the niche is still untapped because I am yet to see a modern commercial boat or ferry service system in Nigeria. Though there are a few operators in this industry; I am yet to see the modern facilities being used by the developed countries.

Another reason inland water way transport business proves viable is because population in states such as Lagos, Ogun state and Rivers is rapidly on the rise thereby resulting in the congestion of roads. Since the roads are becoming heavily congested; the next means of transportation the inhabitants of these heavily populated states will resort to is water transport. With proper planning, a good management team and adequate funding, you can break into this untapped industry and carve a niche for your business.

5.            Haulage and logistics

Haulage and logistics is another fastest growing business opportunity in Nigeria. Though it’s considered a risky business; you can breakthrough if you have a strategic business management team on ground. Good management is the key to surviving in the business of haulage and logistics.

6.            Outsourced bus service

This is similar to haulage and logistics but the cargo in this case is humans. I am not talking about the regular road transport bus service; in fact, I don’t think I have seen the idea for this business been utilized by anyone.

Now in this case, you are providing transportation services to firms and corporate entities. Some corporate organizations can’t afford an in-house transport system for its executives and staff, so this is where you come in. You provide the cars or buses, provide the drivers and you are paid on a monthly bases or contract bases for the use of your transport services.

Another area of target is schools. Most schools would like to provide transport facilities for their students but they can’t afford it and this is where you come in. You provide a bus service system and send out a proposal to schools to use your bus services. Just imagine 20 or more young schools jointly using your student bus service system and you will catch the vision of this idea.

Information and Communication Technology

When it comes to ICT, I will say Nigeria is lagging behind when compared to the western world. It may sound like bad news to you but to entrepreneurs and investors, it is good news. ICT is still an emerging trend that hasn’t reached its peak so a lot of opportunities exist for both local and foreign investors. I won’t go into the capital intensive business opportunities that exist in the ICT sector; rather, I will stick with small and medium scale business opportunities.

7.            Cyber Café

The demand to stay connected to the rest of the world is rapidly on the increase and the cost of internet connection is still on the high side when compared to what is obtainable in the western world, thereby making cyber café an alternative for internet users; and an investment opportunity for entrepreneurs. This business can be started either on a small, medium or large scale but I will prefer a large scale because size can be a competitive edge for you in this business as customers won’t like to be kept waiting.

Customers of this industry want speed and efficient service and most importantly; they want to be sure to find a vacant computer system anytime they want to surf the web without having to wait in line. If you can get a good location; provide speedy internet access and provide complementary services; you are in for a breakthrough.

8.            E-Services

Just as the world is going e-crazy; so also is Nigeria catching up with the trend. E-services provision is still a virgin business opportunity that hasn’t fully been tapped. Under the umbrella of providing e-services; you can find the following fast growing business opportunities: E-payment, bulk Sms services, web design and hosting, database management services, e-portal management, etc.

    15 Fastest Growing Small Business Ideas in Nigeria for 2013

Education

The need for education is on the increase and the burden to provide quality education is getting heavier for the government to bear thereby, leaving room for private and institutional investors. The following are ways you can tap into the potential opportunity.

9.            Schools

A lot of institutional and private investors have gone into building quality schools and providing quality education but the potential has not been reached. With a population of over 150 million Nigerians, where 65% are below 40; there’s still untapped potential in this niche.

You can access this business opportunity from different entry levels. You can tap into this niche by providing either crèche, primary, secondary or tertiary education but all entry levels holds strong potential. Please carry out your own analysis before investing in any level of this business opportunity.

10.          Seminars

Not everyone loves being educated within four walls of school. Some prefer street smart education or high speed learning and that’s where you come in. You can set up a seminar company that organizes coaching services according to the current needs and trends of the society.

11.          Training centers

Specialized training or educational centers is another fast growing yet untapped business opportunity in Nigeria. Examples of specialized learning centers are Leadership training schools, entrepreneurial centers, training centre for the gifted and physically challenged, training centre for hobbies and crafts, etc.

12.          Tutorial centers

With the proliferation of academic and professional exams, tutorial centers have joined the list of fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria. You can access this business opportunity by choosing or specializing on a training need. You can focus your proposed tutorial centre on any of the following: ICAN, GMAT, WAEC, JAMB, GSCE, CIS, job interview training, etc.

         15 Fastest Growing Small Business Opportunities in Nigeria for 2013

Green Energy and Technology

With a global increase in the awareness of environmental degradation and its hazard, the world has resorted to finding an alternative “green energy.” Nigeria is not left out in this global awareness that has created massive opportunities for smart entrepreneurs and investors. If you feel green is the next business trend on board, then below are the fastest growing business opportunities in the green energy and technology sector of Nigeria.

13.          Waste management

With an increased awareness in the need for environmental conservation; opportunity has popped up in Nigeria in the area of waste management. When analyzing the waste management business opportunity, I observed that two factors are responsible for the potential in the business and you must make sure these two factors are in place before deciding on an area of service.

One is a bursting population and the second is a strong environmental policy and its enforcement. So far, two states in Nigeria that has taken the lead with respect to these two factors and these states are Lagos and Imo state. But I believe great potential still lie in other states of Nigeria. Do your own personal research before venturing into this industry.

14.          Waste recycling

The next fastest growing business, yet untapped business opportunity in Nigeria is waste recycling. I don’t need to expatiate on this as the details are clear. You can venture into either bottle and can recycling or nylon recycling. You can even embark on a waste to green (manure) project as Nigeria has a huge demand for organic and inorganic fertilizer.

15.          Alternative power

The last but not the least of the fastest growing business opportunities in Nigeria is alternative power supply. In recent times; Nigeria has seen an explosive increase in the demand of power supply thus creating an avenue for smart entrepreneurs to capitalize on. Solar energy, Wind energy and bio energy are some of the alternative power supply system that are currently making waves in the country but the present alternative power supply service providers cannot meet up the demand thereby leaving room for other creative investors. With a good plan, adequate capital and a strong business team; you can break into this niche.

As a final note, I want you to know that of the numerous small business ideas, opportunities and potentials available in my country Nigeria, I believe the ones listed above are potential money makers but I emphasize you do your own feasibility study before investing a dime in any of these business opportunities.

  More Business Opportunities and Small Business Ideas in Nigeria for 2013

How I used Article Marketing as a Strategy to Increase traffic to my blog

In this article, I will be explaining in detail how I used article marketing to promote and increase traffic to my blog. There are many published articles out there that shares tips on how to promote your blog and increase traffic but I don’t want this article to be another trash in the pack.

This article is not about how to use article marketing to promote your blog and increase traffic. This article is all about how I used article marketing as a strategy to kick start and increase traffic to my blog and how you too can. What’s the difference? The big difference is that this article is based on personal experience; this article is all about what works and what doesn’t with respect to article marketing.

I will be as down to earth as possible with the aim of showing you how to use article marketing to increase your blog traffic. This article is going to explain in detail everything you need to know with respect to article marketing so it will definitely be lengthy. To make it easier to for you, I will suggest you bookmark or print it.

As a side note, please feel free to share this article with your friends on Digg, Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. You will be doing a lot of good by sharing this article. Having said this; let’s get down to business.

                How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

 

When StrategicBusinessTeam.com was in the planning phase, I made up my mind not to spend a dime on buying ads until I knew what I was doing. My business team advocated we invest in advertising to gain accelerated growth but I insisted we grow fundamentally from the root. I insisted the blog be run on bootstrap financing until it starts generating enough cash flow to pay its bills.

                “Patience; it’s the most important attribute to creating wealth, it’s the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves. Let your business grow naturally, not by pressing your luck.” – J. Paul Getty

So when this business blog was finally launched this blog on Oct 7th 2009, we had no adverting budget; all we had was a well laid out marketing plan to be carried out on zero budget. Call it blogging on steroids and you won’t be wrong. When we hit the World Wide Web with this business blog, we had less than 10 articles published on it with zero visitors.

The first step I took towards marketing this blog was to submit all the articles initially published on my blog to some selected article directory.  Article marketing is a very powerful blog marketing strategy that can yield instant result. The trick here is to submit quality content to these article submission sites and once the articles get approved, you will start getting some trickles of traffic.

Most webmasters and blog marketing experts often advocate the importance of writing quality content and submitting the content to as many articles directory websites as possible. Well, they definitely have a point there but I would just tell you how I went about mine.

With utmost sincerity, the initial 10 articles written and published on this blog weren’t the best of content; and it was these same articles I submitted to the article directories. I told you earlier that I was practically blogging on steroids; I had other business engagements offline and it was my plan to grow this blog part time.

So writing the best of content back then was definitely out of the way because I had less time to write. But instead of waiting for all lights to go green; instead of waiting for the right time to write the very best of content, I kick started with what I had. I believe that singular act makes me an entrepreneur.

                “You’ve got to stick it out. You’ve just got to.” – Steve Case

                “Most people are waiting for the perfect time to start a business; they are waiting for all stars to line up and all lights to go green. Unfortunately, that perfect time will never come. To be an entrepreneur, you must start with what you have on ground and pick up the rest along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki

I am not recommending you tow the same path with me; I did what I had to do because I had less time. Please it’s advisable you take your time to produce quality content because the web is full of great content. To find an audience and increase your blog traffic, you have to write exceptional content. I will discuss more on this later on.

                How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

 

Before I launched this blog, I aggressively surf the web in search of information with respect to building a blog. I voraciously read every piece of information I came across; I stored a few relevant information and discarded the rest. This is the reason why I advocate you write an article worth reading and sharing; so that your article won’t get trashed. I read voraciously because I have had several business failures; I failed several times in my venture to build an online business.

                "To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all that is possible to know about that business." – J. Paul Getty

It was in the process of seeking information that I stumbled upon the blogs of some successful bloggers. I mean bloggers such as John Chow, Darren Rowse, Tim Ferriss, Steve Pavlina, Brian Clark and Leo Babauta. These men forged my path to building an online business; they were the sign posts on my entrepreneurial journey to building a successful business online. I really owe my online success to these men. Having deviated a little, let go back to the business of the day.

I have always been an advocate of the doing more with less principle. I think I picked up the “more with less” bug from Leo Babauta of ZenHabits. Robert Kiyosaki prefers to call it the “power of leverage.”

                "People without leverage work for those with leverage." – Rich Dad

                "Leverage is the reason some people become rich and others do not become rich." – Rich Dad

When I commenced blogging, I had less time but wanted to do more and I think I stuck it through. Just like I said earlier, most internet blog marketing expert advice their protégés to submit content to hundreds of websites to achieve maximum result with article marketing but I think otherwise.

                “Study conventional wisdom; then shun it.” – The Mafia Manager

To succeed in any field of life, you must adhere to the laws of success and the laid down principles of successful individuals. So instead of hitting hundreds of article directory sites with the aid of automatic article submission software; I decided to heed to Pareto’s principle of 80/20.

                N.B:   “There are a lot of black hat article marketing tactics out there but I don’t think it’s the way to go if your utmost priority is to build an online business that will stand the test of time. I have read success stories of those that made it with black hat article marketing tools such as Article spinner, automated article submission software and the rest. While I am not condemning the black hat marketers; I believe it’s not the way to go for me. However, if you feel like giving the black hat marketing technique a trial, then feel free to visit BlackHatWorld, it’s the number one black hat forum on the web.

With respect to article marketing, Pareto’s principle states that 80 percent of traffic will generated by 20 percent of article directory sites and of the total articles you published in these 20 percent article directory sites; 80 percent of the traffic will be produced by 20 percent of your articles. Quite complicated you might say but it’s the truth.

                “Defy convention where it’s appropriate. Only a few people dare to step outside; and people take notice of that.” – Johnny B. Truant

So instead of going through the stress of submitting your articles to over 100 article directory sites, why don’t you stick the top twenty percent top traffic generators. When I started applying the article marketing strategy, I submitted articles to a lot of sites but in the long run, I had to prune down the sites I submitted to and concentrated my efforts.

                "Concentrate your energy, your thoughts and your capital.” – Andrew Carnegie

So if you are going to achieve maximum result with article marketing, then you have to shun conventional wisdom and concentrate your efforts. Below are the websites I submit my articles to.

a)      EzineArticles: My articles received a lot of views on Ezinearticles but the clickthrough rate or traffic generated to my blog was poor compared to the article views.

b)      Articlesbase: My articles also received a lot of views on articlesbase but could not match ezinearticles in terms of view performance. However, articlesbase generated more traffic to my blog than ezinearticles.

Other article submission websites I occasionally drop articles on are IdeaMarketers, GoArticles and SearchWarp but none of these can be compared with the two listed above. So having shared with you how I kick started my blog traffic flow with article marketing, I believe you are highly motivated to jump in and do the same.

However, I want to drop a word of caution with respect to marketing your blog using article marketing. Never spam the article submission websites with worthless content; In fact, spamming the article directory with worthless content is the fastest way to ruin your online reputation. Make sure that every single article is worth your effort.

Now how do you make sure your article hits the bull’s eye and yield the expected result? What tricks and tips did I use to increase my view performance rate? How did I achieve maximum result with article marketing? How did I increase the clickthrough rate of my articles? These may be the questions on your mind. Well, the following tips will provide the needed answers.

                How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

 

                Seven tips to increasing your articles view performance, clickthrough rate and blog traffic

1.            Write a Hard Hitting Headline for your article

With respect to article marketing, your headline is probably the most important factor that can make or break your article marketing campaign. Your reader’s attention is either gained or lost in the headline section of the entire article. Without a captivating headline, how will your potential visitors read your entire article?

Your article’s success lies in the headline. If you really want to know important a headline is; grab a daily newspaper and observe how they captivate readers with the headline. In retrospect, I think you are reading this article now because my headline captivated you and you clicked on it to see what I have to say.

Writing captivating headlines is a skill that can be learned; only if you are willing to. You can head over to Copyblogger and FourHourWorkWeek to get free expert advice that will help you improve your headline writing skill rapidly or better still, you can take a copywriting course.

 

2.            Make sure your headline contains your most important keyword

I don’t think I need to blow much smoke on this because the point is clear. Never write an article on assumption. Your article must address a problem or issue and that issue should be your keyword; your pointer or tracker that will help potential visitors find your article or blog.

                How I used Article Marketing to Kick start and Increase traffic to my blog

Take a look at the headline above and you will see how I strategically incorporated two significant keywords into it; “article marketing” and “increase traffic.” Without these two keywords in the headline; my entire article will be worthless.

Now how do you find ideas for articles related to your niche? How do you come up with the best keywords? I will suggest you do a little keyword research and Google keyword tool is probably is the best place to start. It’s the tool I used and still use to carry out my keyword research; I don’t use a paid tool.

 

3.            Be personal; don’t talk or refer to the crowd

One thing about me is that I don’t preach what I don’t do. Whenever I write an article, I write as if I am talking to someone close. Take a look at this article; I wrote this article for you and you alone, not them. I am not shouting out to the crowd, I am talking quietly to you. The same goes for my referrals; I don’t refer you to the crowd. I refer you to personalities; personalities such as Tim Ferriss and Steve Pavlina.

So I expect you to do the same when writing an article. Write as if you are writing to a friend; write as if you are having a one on one conversation with your reader. Connect to readers one on one.

                “People either identify and connect with your story or they don’t. Have a story that’s worth telling.” – Michael Margolis

 

4.            Be specific; eliminate irrelevant points from your article

When writing an article with the aim of using it in an article marketing campaign; you must be specific and straight to the point. If you are writing about “parental care,” stick with parental care and don’t deviate unless your deviation has significance. Try as much as possible to eliminate the irrelevant points from the article but don’t drain the juice.

                “Get very good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size and the right amount.” – John Jantsch

 

5.            Your content must flow logically

Don’t start your article from the end except you know how to do it creatively. Your article must flow logically that even a novice will be able to comprehend your message without much ado. Your article must flow from the headline and introduction to the body and conclusion in an easy to understand format.

I emphasize the need to make your content flow logically because there are some readers online who are always on the fast lane. I call this group the “super surfers.” They hardly stay on a website for more than a minute; they are always in haste. Their patience is measured in milliseconds. Once your blog take a little longer than normal to load; these super surfers are gone.

It’s advisable you write your article bearing these super surfers in mind. Your headline must be good enough to attract the attention of the super surfers. And even if the super surfers get attracted to your headline and click on it; there’s still a problem. Super surfers don’t read articles; they scan.

So when employing the article marketing strategy in promoting your blog; make sure your content flows logically. Make sure key points are bulleted; this will help make the article easier to scan.

 

6.            Your content must be emotional

                “It’s not about being digital; it’s about people. It’s about passion conversations; not product conversations.” – Robbin Phillips

Do you know why John Chow hits digg first page on a regular basis? The reason is because he writes emotional content; same goes with Brian Clark, Steve Pavlina and Tim Ferriss. These successful bloggers write content that pierces you emotionally; they don’t speak to your ears, they speak to your heart. You should aim to achieve the same with your written content.

                “Learn to be a storyteller. Narrative – it’s what makes us human. Big media does it great; you have to as well.” – Brian Clark

 

7.            Make every word in your resource box count

You may write a powerful article that attracts tons of visitors and connects with them emotionally but if your resource box is not well crafted, those tons of visitors will only end up as viewers; they will never visit your blog. I think I will share my own personal experience with article marketing resource boxes.

I have been tweaking my article marketing resource boxes to find out which one performs best but I think a lot of factors affect your article clickthrough rate and one of such factors is the resource box positioning and visibility. If ads are displayed before your resource or your resource box is displayed in an obscure position, it will affect your clickthrough rate negatively.

I have written a resource box in this format (please note that these examples are only illustrations and should not in any way be linked with the author of this article).

“If you find this article informative and you want more in depth information on how to build your own successful business from scratch; please visit the Strategic Business Blog.”

I think this article resource bio worked for sometime until I made an observation that readers wanted to know the personality behind the article so I rewrote my resource bio to look like this:

                “Ajaero Tony Martins is an entrepreneur, investor and prolific blogger. If you find this article informative and you want to learn more, feel free to visit his business blog to pick his brains for free.”

Now I can’t tell you which resource bio style will work best for you because different resource bio work differently in different niches so that’s left for you to find out. But with respect to my own experience, the second resource bio outperformed the first one.

So these are my exact step by step tactics to promoting and increasing traffic to my blog using the article marketing strategy.  As a final advice, I want to state clearly that it is better to write submit a single well crafted, resourceful or valuable article than submitting hundreds of worthless, irrelevant articles. Enough said.

10 Successful Bloggers You Must to Follow

Today, StrategicBusinessTeam.com will be publishing its own list of highly successful entrepreneurial bloggers. We are not just publishing this list for fun. We are publishing this list to help direct our loyal readers to the valuable content of other entrepreneurs who we believe are worth being role models.

As it is well known by all, there are lots of entrepreneurs who have broken the success barrier in the blogging industry and are also impacting the life of millions of people. These bloggers are simply replicating what the likes of Aliko Dangote and Warren Buffett are doing offline; online. The selection of these successful bloggers is based on the following standard:

a)            The teachings of these entrepreneurial bloggers have impacted the lives of millions of people.

b)            They are leaders in the making and they practice what they preach.

c)            They are worth being modeled after.

d)            Most importantly, the blog content of these bloggers is entrepreneurship or business related. Meaning, the content must have a direct or indirect impact on entrepreneurs.

If building a business successfully is your utmost priority, below is my list of highly successful entrepreneurial bloggers you must follow.

                10 Highly Successful Bloggers You Must Follow

1.            Steve Pavlina – StevePavlina.com

Steve Pavlina; a full time personal development blogger, whose message has and is still transforming the lives of millions of people all over the world. Steve's life is a grass to grace story of how he transformed from being a convict to becoming one of the most popular people on the internet. He is one of the bloggers i hold in high esteem because of his strong personal principles and straight to the bone teachings that have the power to propel entrepreneurs forward. Some of his written contents that can stir up your entrepreneurial spirit are:

                10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

                How to Make Money From Your Blog

                How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes

                33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity

                How to Stop Complaining

 

2.            Tim Ferris – FourHourWorkWeek.com

Tim Ferris is an angel investor and best selling author of the "4-Hour Work Week" He has been on the list of Fast Company's Most Innovative Business People of the Year. His blog attracts thousands of readers weekly. I became a fan of Tim Ferris after i read the articles he wrote on his blog; articles that can sharpen the startup investment skills of entrepreneurs and investors alike. Some of them are:

How to Create Your Own Real-World MBA – II

How to Create Your Own Real-World MBA

Why Grow? And Other Wisdom from 37Signals

 

3.            Brian Clark – copyblogger.com

Brian Clark is a successful entrepreneur and blogger. He successfully started copyblogger.com from scratch and grew it to significant status. I frequent Brian's blog specifically to improve my copywriting skills. Some of his content i find very useful are:

        The Glass Ceiling, the Inner Circle, and
the Key to Building a Popular Blog

                How to be interesting

                The first rule of copyblogger

                Seo copywriting: The five essential elements to focus on

                10 secrets to more magnetic copy

 

                10 Highly Successful Bloggers You Must Follow

4.            Dan Rowse – Problogger.net

If you are an entrepreneur in the blogging/information industry and you are looking for hard core blogging tips that will help you build a successful blog, then Problogger is the place to go. Dan Rowse is a pro when it comes to blogging and that's why his blog is No 1 in the blogging niche. Some of his written works i find valuable with respect to entrepreneurship are:

                9 Proven Tips for Creating an Extraordinarily Successful Blog [Lady Gaga Edition]

                The Unmissable Secret of Long Term Blogging Success.

                How to Get Things Done When You're Feeling Overwhelmed

                How I Make Money Blogging: Income Split for June 2010

 

5.            John Chow – JohnChow.com

John Chow is a self proclaimed Dot Com Mogul. With an army of over 100,000+ (subscribers) standing solidly behind him, John Chow is definitely the man to beat.  I specifically added John to the list because of his entrepreneurial guts; which saw him going head to head against the powers that be (Google and Digg). You can read some of his entrepreneurial challenges below:

                Banned From Digg

                How to Start a Tech Site

                The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores

                Blogging for Dollars – It’s Not Just a Hobby

 

6.            Glen – ViperChill.com

When it comes to no nonsense blogging or internet marketing strategy, Glen is the guy to listen to and the reason is this: Between 18 – 20 years of age, Glen has built and sold several websites, at the same time doing some social media consulting for HP, Land Rover, etc. Some of his straight to the bone articles are:

        7 life lessons I applied to internet marketing

                6 things I wish I knew about blogging 4 years ago

 

10 Highly Successful Bloggers You Must Follow

7.            Robert Kiyosaki – RichDad.com

Now that it's Robert Kiyosaki’s turn. I just don't know where to start and the reason is this: Robert Kiyosaki is my most respected mentor, his teachings was the propelling force that pushed me into becoming an entrepreneur and most of all; he has through his teachings made me a smart investor.

Robert Kiyosaki is an entrepreneur, Educator, self help financial guru and Investor. He predicted the global financial meltdown in 2008. He is also the best selling author of the Rich Dad series which includes the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad." Robert Kiyosaki is the inventor of the "CashFlow Game" and the owner of the Rich Dad Brand.

You have to keep an open mind when reading or listening to Robert Kiyosaki because his principles are known to evoke either love or hate. His teachings are highly controversial and centers on entrepreneurship, personal finance and investing. You can read some of his written works below:

Are You Sure You Want to Be “Rich”?

Crooks and Thieves

                The game of risk

                HENRY's Message

                Financial D-day is Coming

                Are You Getting Used to the Crisis?

 

8.            Matthew and Adam Torren – YoungEntrepreneur.com

Matthew and Adam Torren are the founders of YoungEntrepreneur; a website dedicated to helping young entrepreneurs get ahead. Being young entrepreneurs themselves, these two guys really know where the entrepreneurial shoes pinches and they are doing all they can to help other entrepreneurs overcome startup business challenges. Some of their tips entrepreneurs will find helpful are:

        The One-Page Business Plan – It Might Be All You Need

            Why Your Brand Needs to Engage the Senses

            Building Brand Loyalty: Getting Your Priorities Straight

Brand 101: 6 Critical Q’s & A’s You Need to Know to Create Competitive Advantage

 

                10 Highly Successful Bloggers You Must Follow

9.            Michael Dunlop – IncomeDiary.com, RetireAt21.com

Nothing inspires me than seeing young entrepreneurs doing exploits and Michael Dunlop is one of such entrepreneurs. Whenever i read his write up or profile, i get fired up in spirit. Though young, this guy has lots of entrepreneurial experience to share with anyone willing to learn. Some of his hit teachings are:

                10 Reasons Why You’re Not Making Any Money Online Yet

                How To Monetize Your Blog – How I Really Make Money from my website.

                Making Profits Out of Your Home Business Blog

 

10.          Leo Babauta – ZenHabits.net

If you are in dire need of hard core tips for personal excellence and effectiveness, then Leo Babauta's blog is the place to go. Some articles you will find helpful there are:

        the best goal is no goal

            How to be Insanely Productive and Still Keep Smiling

                10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life

Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

These are ten successful bloggers i will recommend you follow because of the message they share. Spending time on the blogs of these entrepreneurs will not only affect your personal life positively but will also help you build a better business.