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Tag: adetorera idowu

Google shuts down Lindaikeji’s blog

Popular blog by Linda Ikeji of www.lindaikeji.blogspot.com has been shut down by Google due to a claim by cybersquatter with the twitter handle ‘AyeDee.’

According to Linda, Ayedee informed Google, about alleged plagiarism/copyright infringement of his works on her blog; and Google has finally shut down the blog

She explained this in 2 separate blog posts:

To the guys that want to take down LIB, here’s a message to you.. lol

So something has been going on for the past couple of days that I haven’t reacted to because I wanted to see it play out and see how far these people will go. They have gone far and it’s now time to react.

The only reason this is happening to me is because I’m number one…so I am flattered. I am No.10 on Alexa.com, more read than all the other news sites in Nigeria, so I understand why I am the target, I understand. If I were them, I’d hate me too…lol.

So here’s what’s going on. Sometime last year, some guys decided it was time to run me out of business (duh, like you can…lol). So they began to spam by blog. And when your blog gets a lot of spam, Google (which hosts my site) can take your blog down. But instead of taking my blog down, Google took my Adsense down for a few months and eventually re-instated it. So they didn’t succeed. These same people started sending strange emails to me…looking for different ways to have access to my blog. But I wouldn’t let them. If they could, they would have hacked it, but they couldn’t so they continued to look for different ways to attack my blog. Please continue…

In April 2014, these guys decided to close down the blog again. In the emails they exchanged back and forth, they said ‘plagiarism is a good excuse to finish her’. (they forget that if they succeed in closing down LIB because I’m on blogger…I could easily start a website). Now let me tell you who these guys are. They are IT people, security experts who know how the internet works. They are hackers and cyber-squatters…and only go after the biggest internet setups.

Immediately after I shared photos of my new SUV, these guys re-connected again and decided it was finally time to end LIB because there were quite a few people who were mad that I bought the car and they wanted to play on their emotions. The head of this team is a guy who goes by the name @Mr Aye Dee on twitter. They decided to use the plagiarism card. He said it was the strongest claim to make and easiest way to get support from other people. And then the campaign started with him claiming that I took something from him without crediting him or asking for permission. 100% false. If he owns a website, I’ve never visited it. He started by writing all sorts to get people to notice…and then he acted. Like I said these guys are IT experts, they know what to do to get blogger/Google to come after you. So he and his team started filling several reports, sending links of my blog and making claims to Google. Outrageous false claims. And because Google acts first before they contact the blog owner, they took down some posts and asked me to file a counter claim if I felt I had a right to re-publish those articles. Now that my blog is under Google review, these guys have started to spam it again.

They want Google to shut it down. That is their aim. Will they succeed? I sincerely don’t know. I’m not an IT expert…I know they are spamming and filing complaints, I don’t know what else they are doing behind the scenes but they are relentless.

Now let me give you guys a bit who this Aye Dee guy is. He’s anonymous on Twitter. Nobody really knows who he is but according to those investigating him, his name is Emmanuel Efremov simply known as EE by his friends. He’s the owner of 15Past8.com media group. Based in Manhattan. Gets funding from some US organization. (His number – 212 9608127). He’s apparently been stalking me for years now and have registered quite a number of my domain names…lindaikeji.net plus 8 others. He also owns 9jalife.com…yep, he owns a blog. He accuses me of copyright infringement but when you go to 9jalife and other websites he owns…98% of the things he has on there are other people’s content. You see pot calling kettle black? Lol.

Immediately he was found out yesterday, the IT expert immediately started to redirect lindaikeji.net to my blog. If you click lindaikeji.net now, it will redirect you to this blog. He panicked yesterday and quickly did it. A name he register as far back as 2011. Lol. Choi!

Not only that, he’s also a cyber squatter. Yep, he registers 100s of websites belonging to others around the world and tries to make money off them. Guess one of his aims is to run me out of blogger so I come to him and his team and pay thousands of dollars of get one of the several names he’s registered. Not going to happen, boo! Hehe

Below is an article from lawyer and blogger Uduak Udouk Africa Music Law about this guy and his cybersquatting criminal activities

“According to a twitter handle owned by @MrAyeDee, celebrity blogger Linda Ikeji was accused of copyright infringement of his works. He reported these infringing activities to Google and what resulted was a take down of his articles/works on her site. He also claimed with the rate and way things looked, Linda Ikeji’s site could be shut down within a week.

I get the fact that this guy was concerned about Ikeji’s activities and got Google to do something about it. What I don’t get is his very strong response and continued massive tweets talking about the same issue in an almost vendetta like style towards her. This got me curious to know who he was and what could be a motive behind all of these.

I began by looking at his twitter page and narrowed in on his website www. 15Past8.com. The description of the services he offered through his media group raised my curiosity. He says his media group owns “hundreds of websites.” He also claimed some of the infringing content on Linda Ikeji came from his site. Well one of his hundreds of websites is 9jalife.com because it has the 15Past8.com media group stamped on it. I did a basic search on 9jalife.com to see who owns it. The name ‘Emmanuel Efremov’ came up as the registered owner of 9jalife.com. 9jalife.com is clear it is owned by 15Past8.com media group, @MrAyeDee’s company.

For my article on Linda Ikeji, many have been saying they are surprised she does not own her own domain. Purely out of curiosity, I looked up Lindaikeji.com and noted it is owned by someone else, a case of cybersquatting. I also look up Linda Ikeji.net and see the same ‘Emmanuel Efremov’ come up. Now I am very curious. How is it that Emmanuel Efremov owner of 9jalife.com, a subsidiary of 15Past8.com, also owns LindaIkeji.net? Am I missing something?

Needless to say, I google the name ‘Emmanuel Efremov’ and lo and behold, there is a case by Volkswagen against an Emmanuel Efremov for cybersquatting. Looking at the description of 15Past8.com, the registered domain owner of 9jalife.com and Lindaikeji.net and the case by Volkswagen against Emmanuel Efremov, I am left feeling that the credibility of @MrAyeDee is shot and very weak at best. It also makes me wonder about any prior existing relationship between him and Linda Ikeji as to the issue of domain ownership i.e. cybersquatting. It is not uncommon for cybersquatters to ask you the legitimate owner of a trademark to pay them to own your own website.

If you accuse someone of copyright infringement, it is a good idea to make sure your hands are very clean and there is no connection whatsoever with a possible bad faith attempt to hijack their domain name. I am curious to see where all of these leads.” Uduak Udouk

Now talking about copyright infringement, Mr Aye Dee feels that crediting source is not enough, that I have to write a written permission to the website owner. That’s laughable at best. So if there’s a breaking news on TMZ, I will first write to the editors and wait for the 2/3 days it will take them to reply me…that’s if they even bother to.

I admit that I take content from other sites. Plenty of it sef, but the question is, which website in the world doesn’t? If you go on Bossip.com, 50% of what is there is from other sources. Daily Mail UK takes from other sites, re-writes and give credit. UK Mirror takes from other sites. MediaTakeOut quotes other sources. E! Online, Us Weekly, People and even CNN take news from other sources and give credit, so why is mine an offense to the extent that my blog deserves to be shut down? Even in Nigeria, which site doesn’t take news from other sites? Which? That is how media runs. Perez Hilton makes $10million a year from blogging and 50% of content on his site is not originally his. As long as you give credit…which I do! Except in cases where you don’t know the original source of the story or photo. So many blogs take content from my site, how many of them have I gone after? In fact, I’m happy that they do so, I have nothing against it. If I take content from another site and they approach me to take it down despite giving credit, I will take it down. But that doesn’t happen.

I try as much as possible to get as many exclusives as I can, but because I work from home my team is so small. I’ve been planning to employ more hands which I will do eventually and then get a proper office. I’m kinda glad this happened. It’s now pushing me to act and take my business more seriously.

So Mr Aye Dee, Mr EE, Mr #bringmedown or whoever you are and Jeremy Weate (look who is talking ..lol) and all the others talking, I am not afraid of you! You didn’t bring me this far and you’re not enough to bring me down. Like if you dream it, speak it, act it, hope it, envision it, see it, pray it….YOU are not enough! You can’t bring a good woman down. You can try boo, or please keep trying…but you see this lady, she ain’t going nowhere. You don’t even know who you are dealing with. You don’t know what drives me and how far I plan to go. I’ve been a hustler since I was 17, doing it on my own…on my own terms. Plus I have the backing of God…and of course my hundreds of thousands of readers. I repeat, YOU are not enough!

I have been blogging for close to eight years and I plan to be around for many more years to come, so get used it. If you manage to close down LIB, I’ll come back bigger and better. So keep trying boo! And enjoy all the attention you will get from this post…you’ve earned it. Kisses!

Oh by the way Mr EE, one of your friends who you were doing the #bringlindaikejidown campaign with has turned against you and contacted me. He’s a LIBer just like you…hehe…but decided it wasn’t fair and reached out to me. God bless you Mr Aye Dee. I hope your hustle also pays. All the best.

To others reading this, if you want to be successful in life, please prepare yourselves for something like this. People don’t go after failures. You have to be really crazy to gather to plot the downfall of an orange seller or a gate-man (with all due respect). These people go after successes. Once you succeed in any field, they will come after you…it’s inevitable. Ask everyone who has succeeded. It’s not whether they will try, because they will…it’s how you respond to it that matters.

Don’t you ever, listen to me, ever let anyone defeat you. You didn’t work so hard to get to the top for somebody who didn’t know how you struggled to bring you down. You will be disappointing God. You don’t even know how disappointed He will be. How dare you let them win? They will come for you…that’s a guarantee just make sure you defeat them.

These people are not even haters..they are excuses…they are the natural reaction to success…put in this world to take actions against people who are climbing the ladder of success. If they see you’re about to fly, they will try to cut your wings because when you fly, there’s no stopping you anymore. And that’s what they want to do…to stop you! Don’t let them distract you. Stay focused on your dreams and keep flying.

Lastly, You know how negative voices can be so loud that you can’t hear the positive ones? In moments like that just quiet the noise and listen again…listen only to the positive ones…because they are all that matters.

May all your dreams come true! May everything you put your hands into succeed. May your enemies show their faces so you know who they are…but may they never win.

Thank you so much to all LIB readers for your loyalty all these years. I keep saying you changed my life and I will always be grateful. Long live LIB.

Thanks guys and have a blessed day.
Now back to blogging!

Dear LIB readers: These cybersquatters have taken all my names o lol

Like, these Cyber-squatters are not even playing. All my names have been taken.lol. Think it’s finally time for me to move to my own domain name (I was scared before because of hackers) but there’s no Linda Ikeji available online. Unknown people have registered everything there is to register. Some as far back as 2007 when I didn’t even know what blogging was all about though I was blogging at the time. I got some people to help me look for a lindaikeji domain name yesterday…and everything has been taken. I’m kind of flattered sha, didn’t know I was that much of a big deal…lol.Anyway, I will find one weird LindaIkeji name and let y’all know soon where I am moving to. I don’t want to give any of these guys the pleasure of buying those names from them.Secondly, I also think it’s time to expand. For almost 8 years it’s been mostly me. I think it’s time to get more hands to work at LIB. Doing it mostly alone has been fun but it can be quite exhausting. You don’t go out much and I practically didn’t have a social life. Plus now I can go out more and maybe find me a husband before menopause catch me for house where I sit down from morning till night dey blog…lol. I need sex again in my life I swear…choi…lol.I’m kinda glad this happened…it’s pushed me to want to expand. Will let y’all know. Kisses

She currently blogs at lindaikeji.mobi

October 8, 2014
Tiwa savage drops 2 singles post divorce rumours

Despite the rumours making rounds about an impending divorce between Tiwa savage’s and Tunji Balogun aka Tee Billz. Tiwa releases 2 singles; My Darlin and Colours of Love.

Many have seen through this move as a publicity stunt to drive sales for her new single.

Onyeka Nwelue, Nollywood producer based in Paris has been vocal about his views on Twitter:

Could the divorce rumours be a publicity stunt or is Tiwa simply riding on the increased fame the rumours have brought her?

October 8, 2014
Genevieve clothing line relaunch

Genevieve known as one of the most fashion forward celebrities, has relaunched her clothing line St. Genevieve.

St. Genevieve was first launched in 2008 and this relaunch features light breezy dresses, blouses and chic ready to wear outfits for all types of women.

St Genevieve partners with ecommerce giant, Jumia for the launch of the collection which she called Philomena.

It was in every word a star studded event with faces like Oluchi Orlandi, Soni and Betty Irabor, Stephanie Linus and Linus Idahosa, Funke Akindele Lola Maja, Ezinne Chinkata, Anita Okoye and so on.

Photos from the launch

Photo Credit: Instagram

October 6, 2014
How to protect yourself from hackers

Following the massive leak of more than a dozen nude celebrity photos taken on their mobile devices, there has been a worldwide panic and a question of everyone’s mind; how secure really is the information you put on your personal device and online?

Neo Ighodaro in a chat with Adetorera Idowu gives tips on how you can secure your information online.

What does your job entail?

I am a Web Developer, Graphic Designer and User Experience Designer at CreativityKills, a web services company based in Lagos.

As a web developer, I develop and/or program web sites, making sure they can scale online properly. I also handle the statistics, testing and basically anything the website needs to be successful online.

As a User Experience designer, I make sure that the visual design of the website is beautiful and yet useful and accessible to the person trying to view the website. Where ever the user might be visiting from, mobile, PC or tablet, my job is to make sure the visitor has a nice experience using the website.

What is your area of expertise?

My area of expertise is web programming. It’s something I have been doing since I was about 14, and it’s something I absolutely love doing.

What is the reasonable explanation for the celebrity photo leaks?

The photo leaks were a targeted attack by certain hackers, directed at the iCloud accounts of some celebrities. If you are a user of any Apple device, you would be familiar with iCloud, which is an online storage service which automatically backs up media content stored on your Apple device, like the iPhones, iPads and iPods.

iCloud in itself was not directly vulnerable or insecure, but the hackers most likely used hacking methods like Phishing and Brute-Force in carrying out their attacks.

Phishing is where a hacker creates a fake, yet identical design to the website you want to log into and then gets you to try to log in via this fake website, and then stealing your credentials.

Brute-force is a hacking method that requires guessing. There are softwares that can literally guess thousands of possible passwords in a minute! Eventually, if your password is not strong, one of the guesses will eventually be correct, though it could take days, even months.

These two methods of hacking rely heavily on carelessness and soft password combinations respectively.

How can we secure information on our devices from getting into the wrong hands?

Security online, generally, is a mirage. There’s nothing that is truly secure online to be honest. Even top websites like Gmail, Facebook etc have had their share of hacking attempts in the past. However, we can take steps to make life harder for these supposed hackers.

First, on the matter of the iCloud leaks, Apple has come up with several ways to circumvent the hackers, like iCloud login notifications. This is good.

However, you can start by creating secure passwords. If the password you have currently have dictionary words, or your birth date, or some name. Then it is by no means secure and can be brute-forced.

There are many online tips on creating a secure password, here’s the link to one I wrote specifically to help people create stronger passwords: http://bit.ly/CreateSecurePasswords

Also, if you get an email asking you to change your password or something sensitive in your account, DO NOT visit the link in the Email, it could be a phishing web site. Manually navigate to the website on your browser, log in and change the credentials you were asked to.

Be careful when using public computers. As much as you can, do not log into an account that contains sensitive data on a public computer. For instance, if you want to use internet banking, do not, for the love of God, use an internet cafe for that. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Are there any other tech tips?

1. Always bear in mind that anything online has a potential to be bypassed or hacked, so generally a rule of thumb is, if really you do not want anything leaking, do not put it online. The moment it goes online, you may have lost the ability to control where it ends up.

2. Changing passwords regularly should be a habit. Sometimes, you may have been compromised but you may not know it because the hacker might be on a “low key”. Changing passwords, probably bi-monthly, can help purge any sitters in your account.

3. Do not use the same password everywhere. This is a trap most people fall for. If you use the same password for your Gmail as the password for your Facebook, then just know that when one is compromised, you can possibly start kissing them all goodbye.

4. Ask. You can always ask questions from a professional if you are unsure. You can use our Twitter account to ask us questions and we will answer. You can also use forums like Nairaland in asking for help.

Neo Ighodaro, is the founder of CreativityKills, a web design company he started at the age of 16. He is popular in over 50 countries to date, for FlashDP.net, a mobile web application for BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) users that lets users create custom animated display pictures. He was also instrumental bringing Paypal to Nigeria by launching a petition on change.org in May 2013.

Ighodaro can be contacted via; Facebook: http://facebook.com/CreativityKills, Twitter: http://twitter.com/CreativityKills, Instagram: http://instagram.com/CreativityKills and

Website: http://creativitykills.co

October 4, 2014
Ini Edo confirms divorce

Ini Edo has confirmed rumours flying about her separation from husband of five years, Philip Ehiagwina on her Twitter handle.

I asked for a divorce from my my ex husband cos of lots of irreconcilable differences.i never cheated on my husband.
— Ini Edo (@ini4phil) October 2, 2014

There is a conscious n malicious attempt at tarnishing my image.this whole saga is familiar let’s not forget de past.thanks n God bless
— Ini Edo (@ini4phil) October 2, 2014

Philip is an American based business man. The pair got married in Houston, February 2009.

October 2, 2014
Its Kunle Afolayan’s birthday

We celebrate with award winning director/actor Kunle Afolayan who is another year older today.

Kunle followed in his father’s footstep Adeyemi Josiah Afolayan (Ade-Love) and pursued acting after working in a bank for a brief period.

Kunle Afolayan’s claim to fame was his role as Aresejabata in Saworoide has since created many popular titles himself like: Irapada, The Figurine: Araromire, Phone Swap and more recently October 1.

His movies have won several awards like The Figurine which won five major awards in the African Film Academy. His movie, Phone Swap also won the Public Choice Award and premiered in France at the first edition of Nollywood Week Paris.

September 30, 2014
Interesting take on George Clooney’s wedding

Social media reports on the George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin wedding has focused solely on George Clooney’s being an internationally acclaimed actor and not much was mentioned of his new wife, except for the fact that she was a beautiful lawyer. The Business woman media

Here is The Business Woman Media attempt at correcting the unbalanced media representations of the pair’s who tied the knot in Venice this weekend:

“Amal Alamuddin, a 36 year old London-based dual-qualified English barrister and New York litigation attorney who has long been a high-profile figure in international refugee and human rights law has gone against the trend for professional women in her field and married… an actor.

Amal is an educated and successful career woman we’ve long admired. The high-flying barrister has notched up many career highs, including representing the controversial WikiLeaks whistleblower Julian Assange, and also has multilingual fluency in English, French and Arabic.

Amal attended St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University, earning her BA/LLB and receiving the Exhibitioner, Shrigley Award. She also attended New York University School of Law earning her LLM and receiving the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award.

A true testament to her character is her decision to find time to serve on the expert panel of Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (formed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague) to gather evidence of sexual crimes committed in conflict zones.

Singing her praises yet? Well you aren’t the only ones…

Julia Roberts called her “beautiful and smart”. Translation: she is beautiful and smart.

Mark Stephens, the solicitor who hired Amal to represent Assange: “She is a fabulously bright woman, she’s independent, has a Rolls-Royce mind and intersocial skills to die for.” Translation: she is awesome.

Amal is also a style icon for corporate women across the globe, with her easy elegance set off with her love of quirky footwear – a nice touch to her personal brand.

Now back to this marriage …

Little is known of Amal’s earlier relationships (we assume she was climbing that corporate ladder and smashing glass ceilings) but she’s tying the knot with an actor, whose name is George Clooney, we’re told.

He’s probably a nice man, but seems to be a bit clingy, as since she met him it’s hard to find a photo or footage of Amal without him hanging around in the background.

We only hope he doesn’t hold her back from conquering the world. We think this George Clooney fellow has scored big time.

He’s been quoted as saying he was ‘marrying up’… we agree”

September 29, 2014
5 reasons why you must take a holiday

In many developed countries, people take their annual leave holidays or schedule a certain time of the month to visit a country or place different from theirs. However in this part, many work more than 8hours yet fail to take their holidays. Adetorera Idowu speaks with a frequent traveler, Charles George to examine the top 5 reasons why people should and must take their holidays

1. To relax: “For me and most people I know, we take holidays essentially to relax. Work life is so demanding and consistently working takes a toll on you. If you’re working for a large institution when you have to work longer than 8 hours a day, the toll it takes on you is even greater. Holidays give you the opportunity to break out that stress,” Charles says

2. For Inspiration: when you feel stuck in a rut and your work has become a mere hum drum, A good holiday where you do what you love and are passionate about could be the boost you need for a fresh start at work and you’ll come back full of ideas.

3. Health Benefits: “I once heard of a certain intern at a bank who died because of the stress of the job. He was only 23 years old,” Charles relays. This is one of the very few sad cases of stress in the workplace. This shows that taking some time to relax helps. Some experts say that even thinking about a planned future holiday produces happy feelings in a person.

4. Reconnect with your family: If you and your partner are the average parents who work a 9-5 job and are constantly held down by Lagos traffic, therefore making family time and bonding with your kids almost non-existent; Holidays are the perfect time to refuel that fire and bring you and your kids closer together,

5. Self Discovery: holidays definitely make you a better version of yourself, whether it’s by staying in a secluded cabin by the sea side in a foreign land, or spending it with farmers and going to the stream in your native village, holidays expand your horizon and make you see the world in a different hue. You discover more about the world and also yourself.

September 13, 2014
I am living any musician’s dream life – ex Psquare guitarist

After leaving the Psquare group to improve himself at the Berklee College of music, Victor Chukwunonso Nite more popularly called Clef Nite speaks with Adetorera Idowu on times with Psquare, why he left and the release of his single debut.

When and why did you become an artist?

Well I have always known since I was a kid that I will be a musician and that directed the choices I made while growing up in school. I never saw myself doing any other thing aside music. I have been working as far as 2004 as a Music producer but officially debuted as an artist sometime in 2009

Describe your time with your former group Psquare?

Being a music student back in the days at UNN, I would say playing with P Square was one of the realistic parts of my music career because I got to actually experience and practice everything I have been learning in school. That was a big opportunity for me as not so many people get to meet that practical chance in their career life time.

Please tell me how you met the group and why you decided to leave?

I have been friends with Peter of P Square and the crew a long time ago we only started doing business in 2009 right after their Danger album release. They decided to start performing with live instruments and Peter asked me if I was interested in playing for them and I said yes and that’s how we all started playing together.

I left right after I got admitted to Berklee College of Music. I made a tough decision to leave the group because I was nowhere at expecting I would be admitted to such a high profile school. So I had the choice of playing for them touring round the whole world and going back to school to make the most of talent.

Till today I never regretted any of the choices I made because I learnt from both experiences.

How did living in Nigeria affect your music?

Living Nigerian brought me closer to the act of performing good music the way it should be done. I am currently living any musician’s dream life right now. Anyhow you might read or understand that, that’s ok too.

Clef Nite and Nneka

Describe your style of music.

A fusion between my traditional style and Pop. I would say AfroPop

Who inspired your style of music?

A lot of people inspired my style of music at some point in time. I have a long list. But God has ever been my major source of inspiration.

Which famous artists do you admire? Why?

Back in time, I have looked up to so many artists. But I will start with the ones closer to home P Square. Working with them has thought me so many techniques and how to live and act as a musician. What to do and how to carry yourself while performing on stage. I also learnt how to tackle or handle music for a business perspective. These few things has helped me lot in my career. I also admire other artists Tuface, Asa, Janelle Monae, Erica badu and others.

Most memorable aspects of your career

Well I do not think I have gotten there yet. I live my dream right now and i dream toward achieving a certain goal in my career and i know i am already on that path so every path of this process is quite memorable for me.

Clef and Nneka on 106&Park

How do you balance your music with other obligations – mate, children, job?

Music is almost basically what I do for a living so there is really nothing much to balance it with.

What should we expect from you in future after music school?

Refined music

Any plan to do music in Nigeria?

Yes, I have always started here and will ever owe it to my country to give back to it. Will releasing my single debut in few weeks both in Nigeria and the US.

August 27, 2014
Two Int’l stores that ship free to Nigeria
When it comes to shopping from international online stores, the challenge for many living in Nigeria has always been the shipping cost.

Most cannot imagine buying a product that costs only $10 and have it shipped for $25. This was the snag before some stores found a way to solve this problem- Free Shipping. But even with these stores, selecting the best and most trusted is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Below are some trusted online stores that offer different categories of products;
1. ASOS
Asos is a British online fashion and beauty store that has been delivering goods to men and women since its inception in June 2000. Ever since then Asos has been on a steady rise and has grown to become one of the most trusted international stores that delivers free goods worldwide.

Asos has grown so popular that it’s not hard to see dispatch riders with Asos boxes strapped to their bikes, signaling the popularity of the online store in Nigeria.

Personally, I found shopping on Asos easy. My delivery which was scheduled to come in 2 weeks came in much less time and I collected it from the post office at no extra charge. The goods delivered looked the same as what I saw online.

Another customer expressed mixed views.

Temitayo Nathan a regular Asos shopper said; “I love shopping on Asos. They deliver on said date, but the pictures usually look better that the actual product sometimes.”

For Rhoda, it was a terrible experience altogether; “I bought goods on Asos last year and up until now I’m still expecting my delivery. Never again!!”

I discovered that the reason a lot of people may not receive their goods is because they do not fill in their correct addresses and/or post code. Most Nigerians are not aware of the varying post codes for different streets. A quick search on nigeriapostcodes.com should solve this problem of missing goods.

2. Aliexpress

I discovered Aliexpress through consistent search on Google. Every time I put up a search to buy a product and add “Nigeria” to it, the Aliexpress site came up. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check it out. I was fascinated by how many exciting products they have that meet the need of male and female fashion lovers. The best part is that they are cheap although most are duplicates of real high end brands. The bad part is there are a lot of scams on Aliexpress and finding a credible store takes time and a lot of research.

Aliexpress is very popular not just for its fashion but human hair. Many people love to buy human hair from trusted sellers because they get quality for a much cheaper rate. “Aliexpress delivery was very fast. No complaints, nothing. Impressive,” Jahnet Kanu who bought virgin hair from Queen hair Products on Aliexpress said. “I used the free shipping option and I was surprised that it came in a week and the hair was very good”

Some have even gone as far as ordering wedding dresses from them. For many, they say ordering is more or less a gamble for those who are willing to take a risk.

Photo soucre: Google image
August 17, 2014