About Me

Hey! I’m Abass Toriola, and I hail from Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

I’m a “retired” freelance writer, serial blogger, and Internet marketer with over 7 years of experience in online business. I’m also a licensed and practising medical doctor.

I make a living with my laptop and can work from anywhere I find myself (as long as there is power supply and a reliable Internet connection).

While I’ve had my fair share of failed projects, I presently have a good number of money-spinning web-based assets to my credit, and I earn most of my income online.

My aim with this blog is to help as many Nigerians as I can to realize their dreams of setting up successful online businesses and making money online.

To achieve that aim, I share, in detail, my own stories and experiences. If I have succeeded at something in online business, you can learn about it here. And if I have failed, you can read about that, too.

I’m completely transparent in sharing things relating to my online businesses. I love being practical and straight-to-the-point. And I hate fakism and bullshit.

I firmly believe that there is no reason why almost anyone with the interest and right tools can’t follow the same paths with me. I’m sure you can match or even exceed my achievements, and this blog is my way of teaching you how to do just that.

If this sounds interesting to you, sign up for my free newsletter, and you’ll instantly get a copy of my FREE e-book: How to Make Money Online in Nigeria (Click here to download your copy).

And… If you really enjoy reading long stuff, then you might want to read my story.

Here’s my story…

I made my first attempt to venture into online business in 2005, when I stumbled upon some websites that promised to pay members for reading emails. I soon discovered that most of these websites were scams. And the few genuine ones among them offered insanely meagre rates that won’t add up to $10 in one year. So, I backed out.

In 2006, a friend introduced HYIP (high yield investment programs) to me, and I quickly jumped at the opportunity. But I soon got burned after transferring my funds to a “high paying” website, which turned out to be another scam. Again, I retired from online business.

For the next 4 years, I stayed away from online business. Each time I came across a business that seemed promising, my sad experience would quickly discourage me.

In 2010, I went into bulk SMS reselling. I was very zealous, and I adopted every strategy that could attract clients to the business. Yet, no success. After about 7 months of running the business in mediocrity, I closed shop.

However, what seemed to be my breakthrough came in August 2011, when a close friend to whom I’ll forever be grateful introduced freelance writing to me. He had been writing since 2009 and had observed that I had the required skills and equipment.

My friend explained to me everything about freelance writing: basic terms I must understand, how to hook up with clients via outsourcing sites, how to handle projects, how to convince clients to choose my bid, how to satisfy my clients, and virtually every piece of information I needed to get started.

Scriptlance.com was my first ever source of reliable online income. I registered with the site and luckily got my first client within 3 days — even though I had no writing sample to show.

Within my first 3 months with Scriptlance, I won just five projects or so. But I never stopped placing bids like crazy, despite the huge costs of Internet access (I went to the cybercafé every day to place bids and check my email. Though I already had my laptop at the time, I didn’t have enough money to buy a modem or a monthly internet plan.)

In October 2011, I got a new client — an Indian medical doctor — who hired me on a long-term deal. I wrote about 15 articles for him every week. Although he paid me rates that I now laugh at whenever I remember, I was glad that I got a promising online business at last.

Then came January 2012. More clients came my way, and I started earning a healthy monthly income. Along the line, I raised my rates gradually, and my clients were paying readily. I was paying my bills and I even had some amount — though small — to save monthly.

But something happened on July 9, 2012, which I won’t forget anytime soon. Scriptlance.com was acquired by Freelancer.com. At the time, I was ranked the 3rd best writer on Scriptlance — a feat which helped me win new projects easily. So, you can imagine how devastated I was.

Freelancer was a no-no for me. Though I had registered there since I started this business, I never liked the site because of the stiff competition. It had millions of registered members, and each project attracted hundreds of bids — unlike Scriptlance, which had much fewer members at the time.

After some days, I put the bad news behind me. (Of course, life must continue.) I mailed all my clients, telling them that I’m still available for their projects, the sudden “demise” of Scriptlance notwithstanding. Many of them kept hired me repeatedly over the next several months.

In late 2012, I registered with Elance, and I was able to get some additional clients due to my huge portfolio.

But my orientation changed afterwards. I realized I’d been somehow unfair to myself by working at bidding sites for so long.

So, following the recommendation of some expert writers, I started my new blog (ContentMarketingPlus.com) in March 2013. And since then, my monthly income had multiplied exponentially, my rates increased, and I landed more jobs.

Now, my monthly income trumps the monthly salary of most 8-4 workers in Nigeria. (No bragging intended.) Yet, I work for less than 5 hours daily (not even daily — I don’t work every day).

To date, I’ve written more than 1000 pieces of content — articles, ebooks, reports, sales letters, newsletters, etc. Yet, I’ve not even neared the peak I’ve always dreamt of.

Even though I’m still experimenting with blogging, website flipping, and affiliate marketing, I’m yet to hit it big with those — despite my deep knowledge about them. So, as of present, all of my online income is from freelance writing.

UPDATE — March 5, 2014: I’m now making additional monthly income through affiliate marketing and information marketing. In subsequent posts, I’ll be sharing tips on how I set up these additional income streams.