Thank You For Telling Me About Me

My dear Sweet Potatoes!!! Or Sweet Pereroes in my oyibo accent.

Thank you so very, very much for responding to my survey! I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who actually took the time to do the survey. You guys totally love me! *insert wide grin* Thank you so much. I cannot put a price on the value of the information and insight that the survey gave me. I was surprised by some of the answers (in a good way), but I am so, so grateful for your honesty. Thank you. Now, let me summarize some of the results:

About your nationality:

Most of my Sweet Potatoes are Nigerian. No surprises there. But I was not prepared to learn that the number is as high as a whopping 84% (based all over the globe). Woooooot! Thank you, fellow comrades! The next group of Sweet Potatoes are African, not Nigerian, and finally, it’s everyone else.

About why you read Verastic:

86% of you read it for the personal stories, and for this, I am truly sorry. I know I haven’t given as many personal stories as before, and walahi, it’s not on purpose. When I started blogging, I was semi anonymous (real name, no face) and unmarried, so it was easier to go all out, and because I was single, I had lots of stories about this man and that man. But now, Igwe is just putting sand in my garri. I have warned him to stop following me up and down. But I am just making excuses. I can and I will do better. Some of you indicated wanting me to blog more about Igwe. This one go hard oh, but I will try. I have put in a conscious effort to not be that girl who gets married and forgets the life she once lived or the dreams she once dreamed. I don’t want to turn my blog into the Bae Blog.

The next highest percentages of what you like reading were humor, satirical points of view, and women’s issues. Toh! I have heard you, and I will act accordingly.

About reading my book and coming to an event:

Most of you indicated that you will read anything I write. Awww. Thank you! Please watch out for my dictionary, which I will be publishing soon. Tehehe. And a lot of you asked for the book already. Chei. I’m just going to cover my face in shame and walk away. Per attending an event, 90% said yes. I need the other 10% to come here and explain themselves right this minute. How dare you! Who do you think you are sef? Sebi it’s because I asked you?

What you’d like to see more of:

Most people want more posts. Next, people want videos. See as you people are just putting somebody under duress. So because I put video there as an option, you had to select it? Okay, Kontinue (Dame Patience voice). I have heard, and I will act accordingly. Promise. You have no idea how happy I am to know how you really feel. Some people even wrote gospels for me about what they want to see more of and why – Hi Quaggar! And I so, so appreciate it. I read, digested, and analyzed every single word. I am gingered.

Now, a few people mentioned wanting less sponsored posts, so I want to address that. First of all, why are you people trying to spoil my market? How did I ever offend you? Seriously though, sponsored posts work in a variety of ways. For some campaigns, I get to decide the date and this is nice because I know ahead of time that XYZ date will be for sponsored posts. For some other brands/campaigns however, I send them the draft and they review it for grammatical and legal correctness (you know in America, small thing na law suit), then they tell me when they want it to go live. Sometimes, I only have 24 hours notice, and some of these campaigns pay more money for them to be able to be the top post for 24 hours. So when I put up a sponsored post and I don’t post again till the next day, that’s probably why.

This also explains why there are sometimes three sponsored posts back to back: it’s because the reviews all coincidentally came around the same time. Just be patient and please understand that blogging takes a lot of time, and for me, this isn’t just a hobby anymore. This is a business. But it isn’t just any business, and I certainly did not get into it for money. It’s my passion. Now, my passion needs to feed me, or else, it’s just a hobby. I don’t want a hobby.

Also, on the subject of sponsored posts, let’s discuss the giveaways. Some have expressed their disappointment via comments that the giveaways are never open to people in Nigeria or even just outside America. I know, and I’m sorry. I do not make up the rules, nor do I have control over that. Brands decide what they want to do. It really all boils down to money: how much will it cost them to giveaway XYZ and how beneficial will it be? I’m only the messenger. Would it be beneficial to an America-based company to give away a $50 product which they have to ship for $100?

Not to worry, I am working on doing giveaways for Sweet Potatoes in Nigeria. It’s only a bit challenging because my feet are not on the ground. Perhaps, that, too, might change soon, even if just for a week *wink, wink* I once did an air time giveaway, and it was nice, but I think it’s the only one I’ve done specifically for Nigeria. If you have any ideas of what kind of brands/products you’d like me to do a giveaway for, please let me know. I want to learn. Hep me to hep you to hep us.

Once again, I cannot thank you enough for the insight you gave me through this survey. I feel a renewed sense of direction. Let’s raise our glasses and toast to more of everything you want on Verastic. Thank you. If there’s something I forgot to address, please let me know in the comments and I’ll respond.