Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Yomi Adegboye, who runs a mobile news blog at MobilityNigeria.com

With all the news of the staggering growth of the mobile web worldwide, and especially the statistics of its growth here in Nigeria, one should be surprised that very few entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this phenomenal opportunity.

The latest State of the Mobile Web report from Opera says that Nigeria was the second fastest growing user of the mobile web in the world in 2008. The country’s growth rate for that year was 1854%! That is staggering.

But note that Opera’s report gives figures only for mobile users accessing the web via the Opera Mini browser alone. There are many more users using just the built-in browsers on their mobiles, or another of the various mobile browsers like TeaShark, UCWeb, NetFront, Iris, and new entrant Bolt, among others.

Why are Nigerian startups turning blind eyes to the mobile web? I see great looking and great functioning websites coming out from different corners of the country, but most have paid very little attention to mobile users. Here are a few tips:

1. It doesn’t take much more than a little knowledge of CSS to make your business website mobile-friendly
2. Remember that mobile users often are on a Pay-as-you-use plan or limited in some other way

Read more »

Paul Graham says:

One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it’s better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy. I was saying recently to a reporter that if I could only tell startups 10 things, this would be one of them. Then I thought: what would the other 9 be?

When I made the list there turned out to be 13:

Want to know what his 13 sentences to startups are? Read on

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Oyelaja Oyekan who is CEO, Cybernator Solutions and is currently building a social network called XCLUSIVE. You can find him on Facebook.

Creating your own social network is a lot like hosting a fabulous party. Like all parties, it usually starts with being an interesting person and a love of meeting people.

Bands and porn stars work too. Just kidding.

Like any party, it also takes a little bit of preparation to take cheap beer and stale chips and turn it into a night to remember.

Ning (www.ning.com) might give you a fantastic foundation for creating your new social network, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Only you can make it awesome. So its always better to build your very own social network mate.

Here’s my list of the 8 basics:

It all starts with a great idea and the host behind it

Call it a core reason to exist, mojo, or whatever you’d like, but there’s no substitute for passion and believing in what you create. If you’re not authentic, it’s hard to get people to show up and stick around.

Start by picking a passion, niche, theme, community, or topic you love. Perhaps nothing exists out there for your interest or you’re just ready to go beyond a discussion board or group page on a “one-size-fits-all” social network. Whatever the case, having a clear purpose – even if that purpose is to just hang out – is important.

Read more »

Whether you like it or not, Facebook has come to stay! If you’re a smart web entrepreneur, you need to start using Facebook to reach out to millions of Nigerian and African Facebook users who are actively involved with the most popular site for the year 2008.

In case you don’t know, Facebook is a social utility that connects people from all over the world (about 150 million). When the site was created, most people didn’t recognise Facebook’s business potentials. But today, most popular and successful sites such as CNN are using the Facebook’s utilities such as applications, etc to build their brands.

Read more »

If you are wondering what the U.S President-elect, Barack Obama would do if he were to launch a web startup, I’m hoping that this post would share some startup success secrets, considering Obama’s successful Presidential campaign.

Below are 5 reasons why I think Obama will be successful launching a web startup…

• Obama loved his audience first and showed that they mattered most in the campaign and that’s one of the reasons he raise as much money as he did throughout the campaign. He often said that his campaign was about the American people and he focused on their problems and sought ways to solve them.

Lesson: Know your audience and strive to reach them. Focus on your customers and show them love (cos love makes the world go round). Give them value, because they are going to pay you more money for value.

• Obama surrounded himself with smart people, even people smarter than he is. Even though he’s a highly intelligent man, he’s also a humble servant and is willing to acknowledge other people’s viewpoint.

Lesson: Borrow brains. You aren’t smart enough to succeed on your own. Look for people smarter than you are. If you are good at internet technology, find someone good at internet marketing to partner with.

Read more »