I remember a chance meeting with the Vice-president of Google Africa last year was making mention of internet traffic coming from Nigeria. He made particular mention of Nairaland and said and I quote “the kind of traffic coming to that site is unprecedented, way too massive”. He mentioned one more site: Linda ikeji!

LIB has no doubt become a brand. One of the trailblazers in blogosphere in Nigeria – likes of Bellanaija, Nairaland, Linda Ikeji, Notjustok.com and very few others blazed the trend in year 2005/2006 and these have so far remained some of the biggest in Nigerian and in Africa in their chosen niches. Most searches on Google on Nigerian contexts usually end up with these sites on the frontpage!

What Stand LIB OUT

Linda Ikeji started this, like most others as a hobby, and I can tell you for a fact that she didn’t start making dime till around 2009/2010 ( a lesson for most copy and paste follow-follow bloggers all over the place that start blogging today and want to buy jeep tomorrow from blogging).

One thing that stands Linda Ikeji out is this: she sure knows how to present news, updates, breaking new, gists, gossips, even advert posts like a girl next door, talking directly to you in a most appealing way. In journalism, news should be like a woman skirt that would arouse your curiosity to want to know what’s the ‘koko’. LIB headlines are way creative, compelling, appealing and catchy

As a website/blog developer, have used Linda Ikeji site as a basis to train many blog owners but I tell them; carve an original niche for yourself, your brand and your internet property. Be original, be compelling and flexible in your write-up – or why do you think most Nigerian youths don’t buy or read Nigerian newspapers except to find jobs but come on Nairaland politics section and argue politics ferociously? Imagine in a country of over 170 million people out of which age bracket 15 – 35 make roughly 50 % of the population, some of the most widely read newspaper struggle to sell and circulate less than 500,000 copies in a day and someone is condemning most of the print media outfits reporting mostly rigid politics and in politician’s payroll? That’s issue for another day
Apart from very dependable marketing LIB do, many advertisers and agencies who know the unlimited leverage that strategically placed online advertisement brings to them prefer to advertise on LIB and few other sites. Why? Because LIB is a signature and has a face attached to the brand! Whatever she posts on her site, hate it or love it, she put her signature to tell you that, “yes na me post am, na me be authority”. Why? Because these advertisers have a target market they want to reach and they believe they will get if from LIB platform. No question ask.



Why LIB Has Succeeded

When people ask me, “why is it that Linda still host on free blospot and making millions but yet you emphasis on us having our blog hosted with emphasis that Google itself doesn’t like free blogs”

I tell them, it is simple. Linda herself knows that she was “half-sleeping on a bicycle” (although Lindaikeji.com, .net etc she could have used have been ‘taken’ and so goes all out in term of exclusives, gists, gossip, updates, advert sourcing, events, “celebrity-famzing”, brand Plugins and much more to stay ahead of competition. And she does all these with so much aggressiveness, passion, energy, dedication, constantly even if it means causing sorrow, breakups, homewreckage, backlash and lot more. Some may say over-ambitiousness

Google love one thing: Organically built backlinks. Not paid-for backlinks and the new form of backlink is Social Media (Google itself is investing so much resources on Gplus and Google Hangout). LIB has been able to spread her site like no-man business. Even Nigerians in Diaspora rely so much LIB and Nairaland for info back home.

LIB Biggest Albatross

Plagiarsim
Bluntly speaking, LIB is the biggest culprit in term of plagiarism. Of course hundreds of bloggers come to her site to copy and paste, but LIB is the most popular and in cynosure of most eyes. Forget the “bad belle”, “Pull Down Syndrom” sentiments being whipped up to attract sympathy. This is for fact. I remember very well when Ladun Liadi Blog which started in 2010 was still relatively new, LIB copy directly from LLB. Yes, for fact! Intially, she would copy directly from Punch, and other dailies and soft sells and give reference but Linda got too comfortable and became “me sef be authority na”. Forget the sentiments that likes of TMZ, Perez Hilton etc do plagiarism. Google take issue of plagiarism seriously especially when proved.

If you are comparing with case of Nairaland, maybe the person still need his brain to do “intelligence press ups”. Nairaland is a forum and the best at that. Fullstop (a story for another day)

Unnecessary Public stunts

When God blessing you, you don’t shout and attract silly and avoidable exposure especially when you are benefitting from causing pains to other people’s lives, brands, and relationship. The like of Bellanaija (she inspired Linda Ikeji to start her blog) has gone ahead through the medium of her blog to marry a billionaire but you hardly know her face!

“Oshofree”

Likes of Ladun Liadi, Stella Dimokokus, Bellanaija have gone a step further to establish customed domain and hosting. If you are running a business of your own, have a well structured organization
And for all that would be shouting “ah hatred”. Sit down for a minute and analyse these and other independent facts. Lets move away from “APC vs PDP” syndrome and mentality and for once critically analyse facts and issues with prejudice


What Next

Most of her competitors and haters are seriously praying that the situation as it is now remain for a long while. However, check LIB twitter page; over 300,000 followers. She definitely will bounce back. She has the name, resources and wherewithal. But Linda may have to forfeit her ranking built over the years on her new website. And getting the trust of advertisers who by now have gotten info that LIB was shut down on the premise of plagiarism would be carfeful commiting their adverts and fund. May however, take a year or more to fully bounce back


Sammy
A Business/ICT/Media Professional
Lagos

i agree wt d op up to d point that Linda shld rremain faceless n in d background. She shld shout to d roof tops let pple know that there is money in blogging

again how can someone wt over 300k twitter followers take yrs to bounce back? Na lie she will b back in a day or 2

plagiarism is a crime but can news item be stolen? Some will say question 4 d gods bt CNN, BBC, Aljazzera all report d same news and no one complains

LIB will b back