My starting blogging was something I never imagined. In 2011, I saved some money from my school transport fare by trekking to school instead of taking an Okada (commercial motorcycle). I used the money to purchase internet time from the cyber cafe—Oyi’s Cyber Cafe in Nkpor. That was my first time accessing the internet from a computer instead of a Java phone, which we only used for downloading games from wapking.com and other Java game blogs.
I entered google.com, which I had always used whenever I wanted to download games, and searched “how to make money online.” The first websites that came up were 2createawebsite.com by Lisa Irby, Shoutmeloud.com by Harsh Agrawal, and blogtyrant.com. That led me to study blogging from these three websites for the next year. Mind you, I knew absolutely nothing about tech or the internet except downloading games and playing on my Java phone.
After studying and learning blogging for one year, 2012 I needed money to start, but I had none. My family wouldn’t give me any money to put into an internet business when I was supposed to be in school and paying attention to my studies. So, I sought blogging communities on Facebook. That was how I encountered the Wapka website-building and panel PHP framework. I ran the Wapka blog for the rest of 2012.
I needed to get serious, so I joined my friends to hawk Dr. Iguedo’s Goko Cleanser, a herbal medicine popular in the entire Onitsha Metropolis. I worked with them for one year and got some commissions that were enough for me to get a new laptop, buy hosting, and also buy a domain name for blogging. I opened my first blog then (howtokreate.com) to teach people my research and tips for blogging. I made my first money with it from my website design advert. I was designing blogs for clients and charging a fee.
In 2015, I pivoted to entertainment and music blogging because that’s where the money and traffic were, too. I opened a few blogs at that time, including the popular anavibes.com, and also contributed to okhype.com. That pivot gained me relevance among Southeast entertainment and beyond. That was when my life changed, until 2018, when I moved to history blogging.
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Why and how I shifted to historical writing
I shifted to history blogging because I loved reading history, listening to oral stories, and watching documentaries. This has always been my passion, but I never paid it much attention until that year, 2018. I had already established myself by saving enough and acquiring a few assets. I did all that so I could follow my passion without running out of funds.
I moved my then blog, crumour.com, from entertainment to history. In 2020, I also moved my online shop in Nigeria, nzeora.com, to focus on history since I was leaving the country for a long time and did not trust the management to be honest and transparent with the business while I was away. This caused me to stop the production of my branded gadgets from China.
Moving away from entertainment and marketing to history blogging was difficult, but I needed to pursue something I was passionate about, instead of just chasing the money.
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