You Don’t GAIN Followers. You GET them!

Haha look at me, only two days with a Premium Account and I’m already bossing people around. Forgive me, but I have to put this out there. My friends asked me for tips on how I got people to follow my page, and this is what I told them…

I operated under a FREE WordPress page for a year before I upgraded to my current account with the view of making some money out of it and most importantly pushing myself to discover and become the Writer that I want to become.

So I had a full year with the Free Blog, but just because it was free and unable to make money, it did not mean I could just sit back and treat it as if it’s not important. I had to have vision, I had to look forward to the day when I would start paying for it – the most important goal is to make sure I at least break-even on the money I spent.

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SO WHAT DID I DO?

Create Content

Continue creating content. You cannot expect people to follow a page that looks like it has been abandoned. Your readers want to know if they can trust you. If you are writing about something that they relate to, your readers will be eager to know what happened since you posted. They want to know if you conquered that demon, and sometimes they want to talk with you and share experiences and build relations. If you’re not posting frequently, you might lose these readers.

I was a full time Law student this year, so I was not always able to make time for my blog, but I knew that I had to push to make it look alive. 600 Followers is still very modest, but it gives me hope for growth. So make sure you love blogging, maybe write about something you really love instead of what you think people will read.

Follow, Like and Comment on other Bloggers’ posts

One of the first lessons that I learnt when I started Blogging is that another Blogger’s success does not mean your failure. With this mindset, you should search for other posts in your niche or topic, like a few of them and make sure you read some – there is a lot of awesome content and people out there.

Today alone, I discovered three Blogs that I not only enjoy, but really love reading through ( If I knew how to link I would link them). I got to know these blogs through the exchanging of a few comments, which then led to me scrolling through their pages and discovering the Gold mines that I found.

So do that too, One big aspect of being a blogger is the Marketing factor. You are your very own Publisher, if you don’t make the effort to bring readers to your site, then you will be sucking your thumb forever…this is not that Buy Followers thing on Instagram…lol

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              Author’s Note

I hope that helps shed some light into the grind that goes into creating a blog with sufficient following, let alone, making money. These tips are not the professional standard or the Formula to getting Followers, but a personal account that’s working. It is in no way the place to end however, so let us keep learning new ways and share…PLEASE leave a comment

Why choose a career in Blogging?

This is my first post as the proud owner of a Premium WordPress account and I’m very excited for the journey ahead. Trust me I am under no illusion that this will be an easy journey, but making a success story out of this will be a victory not only for me, but for anybody who chooses to take their future into their own hands and create something to be proud of and hopefully survive out of.

As it stands, I already live my life walking on the thin line between Bravery and Stupidity. It may be called stupidity because I am currently still a Law student, all I have to do is stick to it and complete my studies, get my degree, and let Life lead me into a respectable profession that would probably guarantee me a stable living, as well as bring much honour to my family simply for having a lawyer for a son.

But I choose to call it Bravery. I’m still just pushing through the learning phases to becoming that honourable lawyer, but what value does honour and respect have when I go through the entire year suffering from depression caused by the sucking out of my life and replacing it with a promise of stability?

My housemate, who later became a close friend laughed at me once during a conversation with the gents. He referred to the fact that coming to this point in my studies, I have studied Politics and Law, both which tried to teach me how to survive in the system. he laughed at the fact that instead of adhering to the structure that was being laid for me, I was instead focused on trying to Beat the system.

He was right. I am trying to beat the system. I was born in a black South African family two years after the end of Apartheid. My mother was one of eight children and she studied and became a nurse. I’d say she did well enough that by the time my older sister and I left High School, she was able to put us both into University. My sister now studies Medicine and I study Law.

You would think that this is a beautiful success story in itself, but you have to ask yourself why I chose to study Law in the first place, or even better, ask yourself why I chose to continue my studies further by going to University.

Well, long-story-short, A black child in Africa is not really given a choice. Very few people like me have the option to leave school and go join Daddy in the family business. Coming out of school and not going to University is automatically seen as a failure. I’m not trying to blame anybody here, that’s just how the system works.

But we live in the 21st century here – the age of the Internet – and while most people turn to the internet for entertainment, for news gossip, NetFlix and cute kittens on YouTube, there is another world of people who have made the internet into their very own Work Space. The world is growing faster through technology, you can either complain about it, or turn to face the music…my friend added another option, “..or you can dance to it”.

And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do by pursing a Career in Blogging…I’m trying to dance to the music. I love writing, it’s still a raw talent, but this is my platform and opportunity to harness and develop it and myself. If you find yourself being carried by the wind of Life, floating in unhappiness and dissatisfaction, I suggest you commit a situational suicide.    Don’t hear me wrong, I’m not saying kill yourself, but I am offering you the opportunity to kill whatever situation is causing you dissatisfaction or depression.

There is a belief going around that Millennials are lazy and entitled. They say we have no patience and they practically label us as unfit for the Workplace. Well, I think they may be right. We are not fit for the Workplace because we grew up in the technological era. We adopted our personalities from movie characters and television, when one thing began to bore us, we would simply change the channel and find what was right – we lost the attention span as a result. But for everything that we are NOT in the workplace or in the current society, there is something that we are in the online world.

The old systems are failing us, so it’s time to make a change. I don’t want to watch my time fly away because I was too busy trying to please somebody who was already comfortable in his own system that was tailor made for him. Let’s become entrepreneurs, let’s become creators, let’s build our own system that our grandchildren will try to escape out of.

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Right my Wrongs.

What is it going to be this time? It’s with this question that I open my mind – I’m currently in the mood to write something that’s motivated by this burning eagerness to right my wrongs.

I spent countless hours and precious brain cells dwelling on the things I did not understand. I spent so much time thinking my talent was a crime that was holding me caged in a cell of creativity when what I had to do was finish my notes on objectivity, impartiality and judges and the Law.

I spent so many days in so many ways allowing a book and it’s author to write my life. I’ll probably hate myself more because I could write a book about my life, dedicate it as a present to my future with lessons from my past.

I’m sure it would help me when I need to get around certain obstacles that I don’t need to get tangled in, like that time when I thought I needed to write a rhyme on each page just to make my story sound right.

But I’ve still got time, I’m far from my prime and my youthfulness has given me a drive to survive and every time I come across as flooded by useless thoughts I’ll remember to dive straight into my words, write them down and just hope I don’t drawn in myself and my mind – which is probably what had me feeling so encaged in creativity, neglecting the opportunity to write my life.

Now I can right my wrongs, I’m feeling blessed because I can write my wrongs with precision and persuasion and oozing a creativity that has set me free from the cage where the books and their authors and judges had me convinced and convicted and sentenced to a life unwritten.

Stop Writing.

I need to stop writing because I might just be good at it. Okay maybe that’s too extreme, maybe I can just stop publishing my blog posts – they might be better off as drafts.

Yes maybe drafts are better, I can pile up all my thoughts and they will never be seen and I would never revisit them just in case I get tempted to post them and let the whole world see.

I’m surely no Shakespeare, my English is far too simple – but oh how convenient, people cannot handle complicated, they don’t even understand my previous post.

Oh snap I need to stop writing. I might just be good at it and I’ll get what I wish for; write some books and get rich and famous – then my biggest fears will come true and I’ll end up like my beloved Avicii.

Many times I never stopped to think what the consequences of success could be. Everyone who’s holding my secrets might just come and spill the beans just to get their name on the community mop and wipe away all my innocence and privacy – I don’t want to be rich and famous.

So maybe I should stop writing or maybe I can just stop making sense, I can never try being boring so I’ll start now with the mathematics that birds don’t dwell on and neither did I when I passed through the tunnel and became man and then boy and then faded into thinking – yes surely I’ve lost them and they’ll never read me again…I can continue writing never to be famous today.

The Boys in Africa

I couldn’t believe in time travel until I realised it was simply being explained the wrong way. Numbers and fancy science sound smart but look around you it’s all in your face.

Heritage and culture are vital. It is shameful to forget these principles, if you do – you are lost and we won’t waste time letting you know. You’re African bro, you need to behave like It, sound like it and be proud of it.

There are no boys in Africa, only men. You need to provide bro, there’s no time to “find yourself”. Come to the city, up the street and downtown the gents hustle. Your friend might make a fortune and you cannot afford to fail. One way or another, you need that money bro.

BOOM! It’s Globalization all up in your face bro. Hollywood and Wall Street have taken over. “While I had no money I still had Sauce. If you ain’t got no sauce then you Lost”. So we run up to the College to get these degrees – but we can’t even afford these fees.

It’s no use writing these truths, or even having the consciousness to see it…because as along as I cannot get the rhythm and beat, I’ll never afford something to eat. The Boys are into Fashion these days mama, success is measured by Instagram Likes.

I’m beginning to feel out of place and unwelcome, because I started treating women with respect and they started calling me weak. I tried to help prevent the same fate for the next generation and then my grades fell…but for some reason it came with no regrets because I don’t want to gain the world while losing my soul.

O’ mama, maybe if Daddy never left us the boys in Africa would have had a back-bone, a role model to hold onto, a prototype to imitate. But I guess he too was lured by the changing times, the freedom to follow his dreams, practice his Constitutional rights and “Find himself”. And then you had to work overtime to school us and win-some-bread.

You left us home with a gift though, entertainment on television to keep us happy. That’s when Lil-Wayne became a father figure and Facebook my playground where I downloaded so many friends who wished me happy birthday – none was there to share my cake…but that’s nothing new, it’s just the life of The Boys in Africa, “Thank you Tata Mandela”.

Blogging, My new found Love.

Alone I sit in my dark room, it’s about midnight in Johannesburg, South Africa. Okay, so I’ve never been a huge fan of Social media – my last Whatsapp chat ended about an hour ago and I’m not about to go DM some stranger for a cheap conversation about how pretty her hair is on her latest Instagram post.

Instead, I’m checking my Emails. It’s the WordPress notifications telling me that I’ve caught another follower and she’s brought two new likes along with her. She probably doesn’t know it, but her fiddle on that like button has just put a smile on my face – this is the Fiftieth person who doesn’t think I’m talking nonsense

I notice another Email, this one is a bit older but I guess I missed it when I checked ten minutes ago. It’s a comment, “well written” it reads and I might as well jump through the roof…this is awesome. I only started this blog because I talk too much and didn’t want to bother people anymore, but here are a bunch of strangers from all over the World – bothering themselves by reading through my Blog posts…”Wow I love them”.

And now I am addicted – Addicted to the affection and now I just want to write more. I want to pour out my ideas and these thoughts which I once thought were crowding my mind, well now I can finally air them out. I can create a world for my thoughts and they can finally be the star of the show. I’ve always wanted to be the best but way too often I have been the Jack of all trades but master of none. But here, writing, I’m a natural and all I want to do is impress.

But first, let me write this post. I’ll write it now while I’m still beginning. I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to view my Blog, read my stuff, like my content, Follow and especially those who have left me some feedback…as much as this started as a hobby, it has become a gateway to achieving my dreams. But until then I just want to make all my readers happy to waste a minute or two inside my handwriting. Love you ❤