Olorisupergal remains one of the relevant and trend setting blogs among the multitudes of blogs currently running in Nigeria. Tosin Ajibade the founder of OSG is a dynamic woman whose love and passion for writing has led her to be among the highly respected bloggers in Nigeria. In this interview with Women of Rubies, she sheds light on her passion, her driving force and future goals.
Growing Up
Growing up for me was just like a regular average child. I had a strict dad who never seized to make me forget that the fear of a Nigerian father is the beginning of wisdom. I can categorically say that is why I love writing. My Dad would make us watch news even at out tender ages and write whatever you got from them. Back then, I had few friends because of my Dad, and that answers why I still have few friends. Obedience, sharing, patience, reading, writing was instilled in me.
Why I Went Into Blogging
It was purely passion. It started as a hobby before it grew into something a lot more serious. I really love to write. I started the blog with my personal contents and articles. I just thought to have my articles kept online and not to share them. It was more like my story book; whenever I write about anything, I just have them saved online. Well, as at then, social media was not what it is now.
My Driving Force
My driving force was and still remains the passion to write; then determination and most importantly focus as the experiences have been challenging. I have always told myself how important it is to stay focused despite all distractions.
Making Money from the Blog
Starting out was quite difficult. I have always known no good thing comes easy. At the initial stage, it wasn’t about the profit since I only wanted my articles stored online but as time went on I realized I could earn a living from it. When I finally made up my mind on doing business with my blog, getting advertise on the blog was not easy at all. I literally struggled for a long time but after those few years, things began to take shape.
The Greatest Lesson I’ve Learned in Six Years
For me, learning is equivalent to growing. I can’t say one lesson is greater than the other, for all I have learned, the values are equal. I have learned so many things in the past six years and I am still learning. Life itself is about learning, growing and getting better.
How I Built A Formidable Blog
It takes a lot of courage, focus and consistency to build a formidable blog lest you get knocked out. Managing a blog/website, creating the right content, driving traffic to the blog/website, pushing your brand out there isn’t easy. Since we give to receive, when we post contents out there, we expect comments and reactions. Anyways, it has been tough and with the competitions in the industry, nobody wants to be the dullard so we keep pushing with hard works.
Next Level for the Olori Supergal Brand
For the Olorisupergal brand, we are working on the second edition of the New Media Conference which is coming up very soon. The maiden edition held 27th May, 2015 at Terra Kulture with over 300 participants.
Also, we are working on the OSG Vitiligo campaign which is part of our CSR at Olorisupergal Limited. We realized a lot of campaigns focuses on awareness of all forms of cancers, rape, HIV/AIDS, STDs, etc which are really good but a few if not none talk about Vitiligo which is also an important campaign. We had the maiden edition last year June and created awareness about the skin disease on social media.
Challenges of Running OSG
First, the issue of internet services cannot be over emphasized. The networks sometimes can be very frustrating; you can have three different internet providers turned on with no signal at all. Secondly, you can run out of ideas for creating contents in a twinkle of an eye, and by that I mean creating fresh content and recreating old content. Also, merging trend follow-ups with the website schedules can be killing considering that you have to be on top of the game. Another thing is staffing. Many times people will say they would like to work and leave in few months/years after learning a few things. We are managing the hands we have and looking forward to employing more as the brand grows than what it is presently.
A Dynamic Woman of Rubies
Although I am worth more than rubies, but yes I remain dynamic, reflective, and object-oriented (which are the features of a ruby). I believe in hard work and I think that surpasses everything because in due time, the sweats will bring the smiles.
Final Words
For anybody in any field or line of business/industry, the key thing is to understand and appreciate your field. That someone else is getting it right doesn’t mean you can’t get it better.
From understanding, you can be able to tailor your own niche and discover your potentials and business strengths.
In summary, be yourself, surround yourself with good people, get viable mentors, find the balance between your work life and personal life, I had my own fair share of difficulty but I am proud to say I found a way to balance it.