Seriously, I have a professional ‘crush’ on Linda Ikeji

What’s the big deal about blogger and media entrepreneur, Linda Ikeji? Lekan Otufodunrin writes on the missed opportunities that Linda and others have taken advantage of.

I had my first email account, lotufodunrin@hotmail.com in 1998, a year after Linda Ikeji, Nigeria’s number 1 blogger, finished secondary school at 16 going to 17. By 2006 when she started blogging, I had mastered the use of the Internet with a number of Online publications to my credit.
Using mass e-mailing on Hotmail.com, I launched the Nigeria Online Christian News Service in 1999 and did the equivalent of blogging from some international conferences I attended. I had a few free websites and wrote for some international publications.
I was relatively so proficient in the use of Internet that I conducted seminars for journalists and Church leaders. I completed a book on Basic Use of the Internet which I ended up not publishing.
Above all, I had been a graduate journalist since 1985, long before Linda dreamt of blogging, which according to her in an interview last week, was “just a place for me to be creative because I love to write stuff down.”
Fast forward 2016, Linda has made so much money and name from blogging which I can’t lay claim to. I have not done badly myself as a journalist and new media user, but I could definitely have accomplished much more professionally and financially.
Apart from Linda, I know other later-day internet users who have made better use of the new media than I have done.
The difference between me and Linda is that I have not paid enough attention to developing and fully utilizing the new media skills that I had the advantage of learning during a three-month Advanced Media Course in Thomson Foundation, Cardiff, Wales in 1998.
The first time I made money from an online publication was in 2000 when a reader of my Nigerian Christian News Service offered to pay for an announcement about his Christian organisation. For no justifiable reasons, I have since stopped publishing the news service that not only earned me some revenue but provided me some links to some international organisations.
Two years ago, I moved the Christian News Service to a website, but I can’t remember when last a story was updated on the site. A year ago, I got a call from a company in China that wanted to advertise on the website. The discussion ended when I could not provide the necessary analytics to show that the traffic on the site was good enough for the advertiser.

Is it Linda’s fault that I didn’t think of blogging and owning a proper news website during those years I was not working full time for any media organisation? Is Linda to blame that I have not been able to ensure regular updates on the site which I pay annual fee for.

If I, like many other journalists and traditional media organisations have been comfortable practicing journalism and information dissemination the way we are used to, which unfortunately is proving not to be as viable as before, can we continue to fault what Linda and her co-adventurous new media entrepreneurs are doing?
If Linda and some other online publications can make the kind of money that traditional media houses with large number of experienced staff and facilities can’t make and are unable to pay their salaries, who is to blame for our woes if not us.
While Linda’s revenue model with her blog, now a website is still a mystery to many professional journalists, the young lady has again raised the bar in media entrepreneurship with the launch of her own social media platform, Linda Ikeji Social (LIS) said to be a combination of blogging and social networking.
Before LIS, Linda launched:

• Online TV network (Linda Ikeji TV),
• Online radio station (Linda Ikeji Radio),
• Music website (Linda Ikeji Music).

At a time some media organisations are shutting down, while those still in operation are battling to survive, Linda to use the very apt headline in a report by Venture Africa is “building a media empire amidst recession.”
With LIS and other media projects, is Linda not taking on too much at a time? she was asked in an interview last week. Her response is a lesson in how anyone who wants to remain relevant in the media industry should be thinking.
” I’ve been blogging for ten years and I’m bored. I want to do something else. I’m 36, this is the time I have the energy and passion to run this. Besides, I’m delegating. I have a staff of over 30 people working here. So it’s not too much really. I think people try to limit themselves. I don’t limit myself at all. I feel like there’s absolutely nothing I can’t do.”
Are you still wondering why I should have a professional crush for this model turned emerging media mogul ?

Linda’s template for online publishing and entrepreneurship may not be the best for anyone to totally want to emulate, but what cannot be denied is that she knows somethings I will need to know and do as as a media professional now and the years ahead.

For journalists who are yet to take the social media seriously, another quote from Linda’s thought provoking interview is worth thinking about.
” A lot of us are on social media, but not everyone can say that it has changed their lives so tremendously,” Linda stated.
If Linda’s website is ahead of all the websites of major media houses in the country on the global website rating platform, www.alexa.com, it’s time admit that journalists and media organisations in Nigeria have somethings to learn from her.
My ‘crush’ for Linda is nothing but admiration for her creativity and tenacity as a media entrepreneur.