Justin Hartman of Afrigator has just compiled a list of the Top 45 Female African Bloggers, and I thought I should share it here. The list includes only 3 female Nigerian bloggers, namely Blacklooks, Ladybrille and Ore’s Notes.

See the full list of the rankings on Afrigator’s Blog.

My guess is that the criteria for the rankings are based on the blog’s audience reach and following as well as Afrigator’s unique ranking system which takes into consideration page views, unique visits, links from blog posts and finally links from blogs.

I personally follow Black looks and have reviewed Ladybrille here on StartupsNigeria. I’m just discovering Ore’s Notes and will check it out. Again, I’m surprised that the most popular Nigerian celebrity and fashion blog, Bella Naija did not make it to the Top 45 list. Perhaps, the blog is not listed on Afrigator. Meanwhile, StartupsNigeria is currently ranked 67 in Nigeria and 1420 in Africa.

If you are following any of these Nigerian blogs, tell us what you think.

It seems that Bella Naija has felt my nudge or should I say my tease, as I got the scoop yesterday that the most popular celebrity and fashion site in Nigeria has rebranded into a full-fledged celebrity news site for Nigerian entertainment fans. I reviewed the site here on my Blog Day 2008 post.

Bella Naija is a Nigerian celebrity blog that passionately publishes fashion & entertainment news, info, gossips and gists as well as profiles Nigerian & African celebrities around the world. The site aspires to become Africa’s Number 1 music, style, movie, tv and beauty website.

The site which started since July 2006 as a blog (with a blogspot sub-domain) has become the most popular celebrity, fashion and entertainment news site for Nigerians in the diaspora and back home.

The new Bella Naija site was designed by Antigravity Inc., a leading web development company based in Atlanta, Georgia with over 100 clients including organisations and individuals.

This article was published by a Nigerian blogger named Olusanjo Dayo Edunjobi and shares 10 tested and proven ways to drive free traffic to your blog. Dayo writes on Internet Marketing in Nigeria and just released his ebook on blogging in Nigeria titled: Blogging Made Easy.

If you have a blog or you are about to start one, I recommend that you read these great tips on blogging.

Here it goes…

1. Niche and Content is King
2. Get Involved in the Community
3. Social Networking sites (or Bookmarking sites like Sturvs.com)
4. Conduct Blog Contests
5. Use Article Directory
6. Get Your Stories in the Press (prlog.org or free-press-release.com)
7. Submit Your Blog to Blog Directories (Afrigator.com or Amatomu.com)
8. Visit and Comment on Other Blogs
9. Freebies
10. Banner Exchange

For business blogging ideas that can make you money in Nigeria, you can read this article.

Imagine what it would be like fusing western and african cultures through fashion! That’s exactly what Ladybrille (brilliant lady) is committed to achieving in order to develop Africa’s fashion industry.

Through its blogazine, Ladybrille delivers fashion-focused coverage of Africa’s fashion, music and movie industries, via leading designers and trends, events and award shows and much more.

Ladybrille is a site for the African woman in the West, educated and globally conscious of fashion trends and styles,  but craves fashion designs, products and entertainment that captures her 24/7 lifestyle of being both African and Western.

Ladybrille is also for the Western woman who is a style assimilator, wants to cultivate her passion for fashion, and wants to keep abreast of Africa’s young, urban yet contemporary and explosive fashion industry.

The site is owned and edited by Uduak Oduok, an Attorney, Model, Journalist and Fashion Business Owner.

Last week, I posted a list of 10 business blogging ideas that could be successful in Nigeria. Today, I am publising another 10 business blog ideas that could make you money.

11. Movies Review Blog - Reviewing Nigerian movies could make you money. The Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood has grown to become the third most lucrative movie industry in the world after America’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood. You could write reviews on movies, analyse them and rate them and can get lots of opinions from Nigerian movie lovers.

12. Photography Blog - I experimented on this niche blog early this year while taking lessons from Digital Photography Blog written by Darren Rowse (the problogger), and my focus was on image blogging (i.e blogging about pictures and giving my opinions about them). I was doing this as a hobby, but later had to focus my energies on StartupsNigeria.

So a blog that reviews nice sites and places, photos of nature, animals, etc in Nigeria could get attention from people who are interested in visiting Nigeria. You could also share tips, advice and ideas about photography, as well as photography equipments such as cameras, camcorders, etc

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