How to Succeed as a Teacher-Blogger in Africa

     

One of the easiest ways teachers can develop their writing skills as well as make a lasting mark in their world is through blogging.

There are thousands of educational blogs today owned by teachers. Many of them are already a hotspot for academic research and engagement.

Regrettably, most of these blog sites are owned and run by non-Africans. We have few Africans who are blogging in education niche. This means the niche is still very much untapped and open to African teachers to take advantage.

I encourage African teachers to go into blogging, making Africa their primary target of interest.

In this post, I show you 5 ways every African teacher can make it as a blogger-teacher here in Africa.

#1.   Just start

According to the popular saying, ‘the taste of the pudding is in the eating.

I am not yet a guru blogger. But I remember I developed the interest of blogging for a very long time now because of my drive for writing. When I started, it was an entire mess, but at least today, I have improved.

And you will be surprised, I learnt on my own. Like the popular saying goes, ‘Practice makes for perfection’.

If you’ve never done it before, it means you’re starting as a newbie blogger. I have to advise you to take it easy. Never try to swallow an elephant at one shot.

You wouldn’t want to spend unnecessary money starting a blog with a customized domain (something like www.yourname.com), where you would need to pay for a domain name and hosting etc. So, I suggest you start on a free platform.

There are many of them out there, but Word Press (www.wordpress.com) and Blogger (www.blogger.com) remains the best for you, but I will recommend blogger.

(Go how to download afree presentation on how to open a blogger blog and make your first post).

#2. Capture a regional interest

Try to narrow your writing to the African context, with global relevance…

Being a teacher, your chosen niche should at best focus on education and learning. This is important because this is where your readers feel you have expertise and they would readily listen to your expert advice.

But beyond your chosen niche, it would be more relevant to your target audience if you will capture a regional interest in your writing. Of course, your writing must have a global relevance, but capturing a regional interest in your writing makes it more practical and engaging.

It helps readers see your work as something done out of firsthand experience, not as a doctoral dissertation.

#3. Be original

Content rules when it comes to blogging. And one of the enemies of quality content is plagiarism (copying other author’s original work without authorization). And be sure no one wants to authorize you to continually use his original work in your blog.

Of course, you can copy others’ works and give credit to the original source. But the problem is that when you do that, you’ve only succeeded in increasing their page rank with search engines while decreasing yours. Besides, your readers would rather visit the original source than repeating visits on your sites.

Simply put, you need to be original. 

Try to write first by experience and practical knowledge. You can as well get a lot of information from others’ works. After all, no man is an island of knowledge. But the wit here is the ability to tinker and rearrange the items, make relevant additions and subtraction, infusing your own ideas and so on. And you’re already having an original piece.

Mind you, if you’re mentally lazy, you can’t do it!

#4. Join a community

You need to network with others. And the easiest way to do it is by joining an online community of those who are doing what you’ve started doing.

Be socially engaged- relevant Facebook groups/pages, Twitter, Linkedin, forums and other helpful communities where you share ideas as well as ask questions. If you are always having a meaningful contribution in these communities, I bet you that is one of the easiest ways to market yourself.

We have a Facebook Group,AfricanTeachers’ Network where you can collaborate with others for mutual benefit.

#5. Give it all you’ve got

Blogging is not a lazy man’s job. Even if you’re not blogging full time, it is nonetheless expected of you to be passionate with what you’re doing with blogging. This is the only way your effort pays.

Do you know that even search engines such as Google usually watch out to see a blogger’s commitment and consistency to providing useful and original contents over a period of time before pushing up that site to its top search position?

You may not be a 20-post-a-day blogger; but being consistent at posting 2 or 3 times every week is enough testimony that you’re in to do something reasonable, and the world will be ready to patronize you.

The moment you start blogging, you’re a newbie at first. But don’t remain at that newbie state; keep learning on how to improve on blog contents, designs, promotion and all that.

Simply put, give it all that you’ve got, and you will reap good in the long run.

You can download thisfree guide on how to start blogging with blogger as a newbie.

To learn more, join our class at #TeacherTeachTech…

From an original article on our sister blog, The African Teacher