Judging by the attitude of some Nigerians to Linda Ikeji’s acquisition of a half a billion Naira home in upscale Banana Island, Ikoyi this week, a lot of people don’t believe she earns her money only from blogging. Several people have started circulating rumours that the Forbes ranked successful blogger makes money from other undisclosed sources.
One particular rumour confidently making the rounds is that Ms. Ikeji got some dirt on a politician and approached him and that the politician compensated her with a N500 million home. The story is as fake as it is unbelievable but Nigerians often need a reason to doubt genuine success, especially when there is a feeling that your success should not pale in comparison.
Whilst there may be some genuine grievances in some corners about when Ms. Ikeji or her more outspoken younger sister brag about high end purchases like thousand dollar shoes and bags, Linda’s intentions are genuine. She is not seeking to stir up envy but trying to help young Nigerian women forge a new path. Traditionally most young women rely on men for even their most basic of needs, Linda’s entrepreneurial success and business acumen help to demonstrate that there is an alternative to the age old tradition of “money for hand and back for ground”.
So how much does Linda really make and how did she move from “Mushin to Mohits” in a sense in just about a decade without joining politics, or sleeping around with politicians.
The Herald in this report has uncovered how Linda really makes her billions.
- Google Adsense: According to information at our disposal, Linda Ikeji and bloggers in her bracket (eg. Perez Hilton) typically make $50,000 to $80,000 monthly in income from Google. So that means Linda makes N10 million to N16 million per month in Adsense revenue. Quite a nice chunk of cash from the world’s foremost technology company.
- Headline Banners: Linda charges N1 million per month for a 728 by 90 banner ad, the ad that appears around the Welcome To Linda Ikeji Blog placeholder when you log on to the site. Jumia has reportedly paid Linda N12 million for the whole year and their banner ad remains on the desktop version of the site 24/7. Occasionally other advertisers also opt for the space and Linda will share the space for two companies. So this year Linda will probably gross a minimum of N18 million from this space.
- Side Banners: Linda charges between 500k and 700k per month for side banners and she has a minimum of 6 to 8 advertisers at any given time bringing her earnings to a minimum of N3 million monthly.
- Sponsored Posts: Linda reportedly charges 50,000 per sponsored post and she reportedly does about 5 to 10 of these a day which brings her daily potential earnings in this regard to N500k and monthly total to N15 million. Here is an example of a recent sponsored post on LIB http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2015/10/martell-300-promo-win-your-very-own.html#more
- Page Takeover: Should you log on to the Linda Ikeji blog on a desktop site now, you will notice an MTN advert in the background. Our sources tell us that cost N4 million per week. So potentially Linda makes N16 million monthly from that space.
On an aggregate Linda can make anywhere from N50 million to N 70 million per month in advert revenue. When you do the calculations that comes to a maximum of about N 840 million per year or almost a billion.
Now you see why Laura says her big sis is Linda “Chopping Money” Ikeji. A report from PWC released late last month said the Nigerian media industry is currently valued at $4 billion but projected to grow even bigger by 2019, so it means Linda may be chopping this money for quite a very long time.