Linda Ikeji is the richest and the most Wack Blogger in Africa
LINDA IFEOMA IKEJI BIOGRAPHY


         Linda Ikeji with her Siblings

With the advent of social media, several lives have been changed and many have a fortune just from a computer and a connection to the Internet. Linda Ikeji is one of such persons who has benefited enormously from the world wide web and the internet.

Before we delve into our subject matter of the day, it's worthwhile for us to give our precious IB readers some basic info about Linda Ikeji.

Linda Ikeji was born on September 19, 1980, she is the second child of 7 children. She hails from Nkwerre, in South Eastern Nigeria, Imo State precisely. She has a Bachelor’s degree in the English language from LASU (Lagos State University).

 

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Early Days…
Based on info found online, Linda Ikeji supposedly developed a passion for writing when she was 10 years old. She used to write short stories which were commended by her family and friends. She was equally very interested in newscasters, watching news and interviews.

Coming from a very humble home and going to the university, she had to support herself by ushering at occasions, bar-tending, and modelling. She did so many part-time jobs to support herself through school.

As a model, she worked for several modelling agencies including 'House of Sharon', a fashion house owned by Folorunsho Alakija, the richest black woman in Africa. Upon her graduation in 2004, she tried to run a modelling agency known as 'Black Dove Communications'; hiring, managing and leasing models to brands. It was a failed venture and in 2006, her blogging career began!
Linda Ikeji as a Blogger
A blog is a platform on which a writer or group of writers share their views on certain subjects with their audiences. Bloggers are creators of contents, they update a blog with content regularly to entertain, educate and to inform their readers.

In the blogosphere of Africa, Linda Ikeji is the most successful blogger in terms of money and exposure, but in terms of content; she's zero!

80% of her contents are pictures of celebrities with 20-50 words captions. 10% are plagiarised and the remaining 10% do not meet standards of 300 unique words.

She has been the centre of attention - a topic of discussion on so many Nigerian blogs over the years. Most of the blogs only complain about her plagiarism and lack of respect for her colleagues by just copying and pasting their hard work without giving them any credits.

Her blog was shut down by Google On the 8th of October, 2014. According to the write-ups on so many blogs, the shut down was as a result of piracy and plagiarism.

How then did she become the richest and the most popular blogger in Africa?

Nigerians consume anything, they do not care whether it's made in Aba or in China.  Nigerians love to gossip. Linda Ikeji started as a gossip blog, thereby offering Nigerians just want they want. Back in 2006 when she got into blogging, not too many blogs existed in Nigeria as it's the case today!

Linda Ikeji is one of the first Nigerians to venture into Gossip blogging. She preyed into the privacy of top celebrities, taking advantage of people who confided in her; exposing secrets to generate traffic on her blog.

The more the traffic and views of a blog, the more money the blogger makes. Linda Ikeji made her money from Google Adsense and from local businesses who placed adverts on her blog.
Linda Ikeji Blog's 2018 Alexa Ranking
Many people said Linda Ikeji will beat Google on Alexa ranking when her blog was ranked the 13th among top websites in Nigeria by Alexa in 2017.


Picture credit to techcabal

As seen on the above picture, Linda Ikeji's blog was ranked globally as the 1936th website and in Nigeria as the 13th.

Let's examine her 2018 ranking.


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As seen above, there's a massive decline in both her global ranking and as well her national ranking.

She made her name when many Nigerians knew little or nothing about blogging and social media. Today it's different! Many Nigerians have become vest and knowledgeable about the usage of social media. They follow celebrities directly on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. This implies that only a few Nigerians who are still left in the dark visit Linda Ikeji's Blog to view pictures of celebrities and read her 50 words caption. Most Nigerians have evolved, they go directly to the Celebs' pages to view the same things Linda Ikeji offers them.
LINDA IKEJI 'S ACCOLADES

In 2012, Linda Ikeji was featured in Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in Africa.
In 2014 her blog won blog of the year at the Nigerian Blog awards. In the same year, she was honoured with media broad award.
She is among the most Google-searched celebrity in Nigeria, an internet sensation.
She is the richest blogger in Africa.

LINDA IKEJE ' S PHILANTHROPIC MOVES
It's written in the Holy Book, "Love covers a multitude of sins"! Her philanthropic works and love for humanity overshadow her plagiarism and piracy. It has been reported that she engages in a lot of humanitarian activities. According to Linda Ikeji herself, it derives a lot of joy and fulfilment by helping and giving back to society.

The most notable of her humanitarian initiatives is the “No Thanks, I’ll rather be self-made” initiative. The initiative is aimed at empowering the vulnerable women of the society by building up their self-esteem to believe they can be their own bosses, rather than to rely and depend completely on men.

The initiative has shaped women between the ages of 18 and 26 to engage into entrepreneurship. She donated the sum of 10 million Naira to help fund women with great business ideas but lack the funds to start their business.
SETBACKS FACED

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It will be unfair to paint the journey of Linda Ikeji as being all rosy with no thorns, she has definitely faced some stiff challenges.

She's from a humble background, struggled as a vendor, a model and even faced greater challenges as a blogger. Her fame and traffic on her blog didn't just happen overnight. She's been persistent and consistent.

She’s had to deal with a lot of censorship and restrictions, her blog was shut down by Google on the 8th of October 2014, though it was restored on the 10th, the restrictions were still kept in place.

She's been involved in several media wars with celebrities like Wizkid, Olamide, Richard Mofe Damijo and many others.

 
"BABY MAMA" CONTROVERSY


Linda Ikeji Baby Daddy

On September 17, 2018, in the US - two days to her birthday, Linda Ikeji welcomed a son, Jayce. She posted on Instagram the next day:

"Meet my son Jayce! And yes, Sholaye Jerimi is his dad. Unfortunately, he and I are a completely closed chapter."

Since the birth of her son, she has been on the fingers of Internet users. Social media took upon her as a "baby mama", something it is claimed she has always condemned. It is claimed she has always criticized single mothers in the past.

However, she claims she has never condemned single mothers. Responding to a tweet from one of her followers who said: "I know you have never bashed single mothers or baby mamas..." She replied "Never ever have I done that. Completely made up."

While presenting the pictures of her son on social media, she exposed the reasons she ended her relationship with her baby's father, Sholaye Jerimi whom she met in 2015. Read more of it in "The problem with Aunty Linda's epistle" by Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo.

The Linda Ikeji story is a testimony to the fact that stickability (The ability to consistently stick to doing one thing until it pays off) is an essential part of the success equation.
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