My Journey as a Blogger and Digital Publisher – Memoir by Micheal Ace

It feels good to update this memoir now (by the way, today is 28th January 2025). It’s been a year + since I wrote and published this article and it’s fulfilling that I still have something to add and subtract.

I have had a successful life as a blogger, so here is not a pity story. It’s a success note. Blogging has built me both personally and professionally. Come to think of it, I actually made my first million from it. It was good while it lasted.

But I was in church a few months back when the pastor quoted Deuteronomy 1:6: “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:”

That verse was meant for me. I knew at that moment that this is done. I have tarried. It’s time I face my fears and move!

The first blog I ever opened was myaceworld.wordpress.com (WordPress.com still keeps that blog). I opened it then to document and publish the poems my colleagues and I wrote on Facebook back in 2015/2016.

Later, I bought myaceworld.org and then myaceworld.net as an attempt to have my own domain on the blog. At some point, I couldn’t renew the domains, so I moved to blogspot (by Google), using aceworld.blogspot.com.

My first attempt at commercializing a blog was with aceworld.com.ng, a domain I bought in 2016 together with a hosting package at Whogohost (now GO54).

After much struggle, I eventually got an AdSense account approval on the blog in 2017, and I was making some daily cents.

Later, I moved the blog to Qservers. The migration was prompted majorly by server downtimes I experienced then. My decision to choose Qservers was influenced by my HOD at Evans Publishers where I served as an intern in 2018. She used Qservers for almost all her clients.

After a while, my AdSense account of almost a year was disabled by Google. I lost the $70+ inside. The account was closed before I had a chance to cash out. That was my fault for buying traffic from some untrusted sites.

I could not get another AdSense account on the domain (aceworld.com.ng) so I moved on. I bought another domain, aceworldpub.com.ng (I still own this) and moved my literary blog over. I applied for AdSense again and was approved at first attempt, in less than 3 weeks.

*Sips this black, bitter coffee I’m forcing down my own throat for a reason I don’t know*

Back to my story.

My joy was short-lived after working on the blog for months only to boast off less than $1 a month, typical of a literary blog with no traffic. I was discouraged and spent most of my time then writing poems, articles and reviews which were published far and wide, across the African continent and beyond.

In September 2019, I was part of a team that built and ran erogospel.com, a literary blog that published erotica. I was still an active Facebook poet with over a thousand poems to my name.

During this time, in order to survive in school, I got employed as a news writer at gistreel.com, a gossip blog, and also herald.ng. Both employments lasted a couple of months.

And then OperaNews came my way towards the end of 2019. I fought my way into getting a 3-month contract and in those three months, I delivered articles which were paid for, and I saved some money.

The contract ended. I didn’t ask for an extension, and I wasn’t offered. I had saved enough, so I decided I was going to revive my dead blog. If Opera could make so much money from their content mill to pay us all, my blog could thrive too.

I did a 100% revamp, drafted all the published literary content and changed my niche to Scholarship & Education.

All this while, from 2017 thereabouts, I was publishing chapbooks for colleagues for some fee in the literary space. This is what later became ACEworld Publishers which is now available at aceworldpgs.com/sap. We have now evolved into a digital book publishing outfit with services including global book distribution across Amazon, Kobobooks, Lulu etc, ISBN Issuance, Copyright Registration, Bookstore, and others.

Exactly one month after I revamped my blog (Nov 30, 2019), I made $7.05. And in the following month, I made $21.77. I sustained myself with the savings I had from Opera’s contract and continued to work solely on the blog. In July 2020, I had my first cashout of $101.67 from Google AdSense.

Before the end of 2020 and during the outbreak of COVID19, I built idealhealthng.com. I couldn’t get an AdSense approval on it because it was a health blog, and I believe Google has some reservations against such niche. So, I decided to monetize with affiliate marketing via Amazon Associate. It was a poor attempt as I made only $4 (which I have dashed Amazon). I promoted the blog on Quora and covid19 content gave me a lot of traffic at launch. After 4 months of traffic decline, I sold the blog for #40,000. A decision I think I still regret.

By this time, I was already making a living for myself with my blog and monthly earnings from AdSense.

In March 2021, I hired a friend, who also happened to be my brother in the street to work with me on the blog and I placed him on a monthly stipend. Otuke still works with me.

Since that time, I’ve gone ahead to hire and train more than 20 different people as staff and paid interns.

By this time, I was already an experienced On-Page SEO specialist, WordPress designer (a service I still run till date), a Professional Blogger etc. I have had my great deal of trials and errors. Experience taught me the best things in life because I’m a do-it-yourself kinda guy.

At a point, Qservers didn’t seem to meet my traffic need any more, so I moved to Namecheap with their Shared Hosting plan.

October 31st, 2021, I launched latestopportunities.com, a blog designed for sharing education and career opportunities.

The following day, November 1st, 2021, I launched futuresyllabus.com, a platform designed to actualize my desire to impact and share knowledge in respect to skill acquisition.

Both Latest Opportunities and Future Syllabus are part of the remarkable successes I can record today. They are works in progress, and so much more is left to do.

In December 2021, I took a Digital Marketing course on Grow with Google Africa and got certified by Google. I also took a SEO course on HubSpot Academy and was certified as well. Details on this, as well as the certificates are available on my LinkedIn Profile.

In April 2022, I bought the latesthiring.com domain and used it as a career counselling blog at first, later changed to a career forum using WPForo and now back as a career blog. Till date, I am still trying to figure out what exactly to do with this domain as my plan for it initially didn’t actually work.

Update: Latesthiring.com is a failed project, because it never survived: from a blog, to a forum, to an event management platform, to a job listing site, and then to a directory site with career resources. Currently, I have let go of the domain.

In July 2022, my well monetized blog was hit by Google’s core update. This changed the dynamics of things, earnings on my now two AdSense accounts were reduced by almost 90%.

While doing my best to put my traffic and earning graph on the rise again, I started building and re-establishing other platforms to survive without Google AdSense.

This is what gave rise to the

• Sale of paid courses on Future Syllabus,
• Sale of direct ad slots on Latest Opportunities,
• ISBN issuance service at ACEworld PGS
• Publishing packages and add-on services also at ACEworld PGS
• Then the Guest Posting Services.

In November 2023, I decided to move the blogs, websites and markets from the CAC registered “ACEworld Art and Literary Enterprise” to the now “ACEworld Publishers Global Solutions” in a bit to accommodate the growth of the projects we have built around education, career and business, and even with more that’s in work. See more at aceworldpgs.com.

*I am done with my coffee and what I taste at the back of my tongue is enough to lose faith in everything black*

It’s over a year already and a lot has happened. The main AdSense account I lived on for about 4 years was closed in 2023. I sold the second account I kept as backup. And the third account which Latest Opportunities and Latest Hiring were registered on was closed of recent also (I had actually abandoned it for a while).

I didn’t reapply. I will not reapply. I have happily closed that chapter of my blogging career. I have moved on, because according to Deuteronomy 1:6: “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount:”.

My journey in blogging and digital publishing hasn’t been smooth, but no matter what the future has in place for me, I would never trade the experiences for anything.

Managing these projects has given me substantial knowledge and experience in skills such as

• SEO
• Web Design
• WordPress Management
• Ecommerce
• Learning Management Systems
• Email Marketing
• Meta Advertising (on which I have built a personal career and taught over 3,000 students)

With growing and evolving knowledge in

• Organic marketing
• Copywriting
• Graphic Design
• Human Resource

and more.

I’m open to career opportunities and offers. And guess what, blessed are those who work with me for they shall receive quality service and experience peace of mind.

I am also open to collaborations and networking offers for my existing projects.

Thank you for reading.

My name is Micheal Ace, born Oyedokun Adedotun Micheal.