How To Identify Affiliate Marketing Frauds

With the present economy, many individuals are looking to complement their earnings by trying out money making opportunities on the internet. Many individuals would really like to run their own business. 

 

Operating your own business brings independence and freedom that an average job doesn't allow. Responding to only to yourself and operating when you want is a very suitable thing. However, most individuals don't have the capital required to begin their own business while Others are afraid by the threat involved.

Affiliate marketing is a fantastic opportunity for those who want to venture out on their own. The minimal risk and zero starting costs make it an attractive option to many. 

 

Affiliate marketing programs are perfect for those people who are motivated and self beginners. 

They are also excellent for those who want to set their own working hours. The internet has helped up change so many aspects of our lives. We can study and work from home with the help of a computer and high speed internet access. 

However, there are unfortunately lots of fraudsters out there ready to take either your money or your work to use for their benefit. Many of these email scam programs and work at home schemes have little hope of amounting to any kind of living.

Unfortunately, these fraudsters have made their way into the world of affiliate marketing as well. There are some excellent affiliate marketing programs to get involved with; the trick is how to spot the fraudsters. The face and manner of the internet and affiliate marketing is constantly changing. 

This makes it very difficult to produce a definitive list of do’s and dont's. However, there are some signs that one can look for. If your company displays any of these signs it does not mean for sure that they are con artists. However, it should warrant further investigation.

An affiliate marketing program should always provide you with some support. This can include an agent that you can contact with questions or problems. A legitimate company should want you to do well. The better you do the better they do. It should at very least contain a toll free phone number, email address and fixed street address. 

If your company is an online affiliate marketing program, the lack of an email or web page should definitely raise some red flags. Other things such as no phone or address do not mean necessarily that they are trying to scam you. However, you need to investigate them with a fine tooth comb. A good test is to send the company an email with some basic questions. If it takes them weeks to get back to you then you need to give this venture careful consideration.

 Again, they may not be out to con you but if they are poor at communication, this could be a sign of other internal problems. If the company has no website then you should consider something else. Legitimate affiliate marketing programs generally have a detailed website with all the information you need.
One should be suspicious of companies that operate only by email. A website is fairly easy to create so why hasn't this company invested the time to do so? Also, a website leaves a bit more of a trail to a company. If they do end up scamming you, the chances of tracing the people via a website are much better then tracing them through masses of email addresses.

Many of us would love the opportunity to work for ourselves. We would love to quilt in the day job and start our own businesses. However, the costs of starting a business combined with the risk involved stop most of us before we even get started. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make some money by working for yourself. 

The costs are none and the risk minimal. One needs to use some caution when signing onto a program. Make sure there is adequate support available to you. Make sure the company is contactable and that they answer queries in a timely fashion. 

Be incredibly cautious of companies that have no website. These factors do not always mean that the company is out to scam you; however they should be looked at carefully.

Stay Safe.

How To Have More Fun By Being Creative

You are not limited like a super computer because your brain is not limited and that's where creativity comes from your brain. It doesn't come from thin air, it comes from within you and you already have the tools needed to exercise it. 

So, the first thing is to begin absorbing as much information as you can every day. Grab as much knowledge and learning as you can find. Read, watch, and listen to everything available good and bad. 

 Don't judge anything at this point of development because it's not the content that is important, only the process of absorption. Keep your mind open to the infinite possibilities that each piece of information presents. 

The more you know, the more you'll want to know, and the more your brain will be exercised. Prepare to be amazed at little facts that add a bit of color to your conversations with people. 

They will begin to see you in a new light. Next, focus on a creative activity every day. This is as simple as doodling. 

Doodling is a creative activity. Don't let anything hinder you. Just doodle away, mindlessly. You will unleash a little bit of creative thinking and it will be encouraging to see something you created. In addition to doodling, practice drawing something specific for a couple of minutes each day. 

 You might unleash the artist in you. Or, grab a camera and start snapping photos of anything and everything. Don't try to be "artsy,” just snap away! You might find you have a knack for photography. Keep a journal and make a point to write in it at the end of each day. 

 Describe your experiences using words that capture your five senses. What did it smell like, taste like, feel like - you get the idea? You may discover a writer lurking in your brain.

In a short time you'll have built yourself a tiny portfolio or doodles, art, photographs and writings and you'll be amazed at the growth of your creativity. You might actually enjoy those exercises so much that they will become a part of you and you'll be addicted to them. 

You've heard it said - Think out of the box. Well, not just yet. Be aware of constraints or blocks to your creative process. Constraints are actually a good thing. It's your brain telling you it needs more knowledge about that which you are struggling. 

Constraints are the brain's mechanisms to force discipline upon you. Discipline forces you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is great, but limitations are too. There must be balance. 

Who knows, your idea might be the next great idea to change the world. Have a wonderful time.

14 Important SEO Myths You Should Know About

Myth #1: Only the First Rank Matters

 Many ebooks and other resources that business owners use will place an important emphasis on the need to be at the top of search results, whether that be on Google Search, other engines, or even in places like social media.

But surveys have shown that people quite often will look at other results and they will scroll down through the page.
Being on top of a second page, for example, can be quite beneficial for traffic.

Also, search ranking is only one part of the puzzle. Now Google places other results on the page like social recommendations and local results as well, which means there are many more avenues open to you, and being in first place is no longer as crucial as it once was.

Myth #2: You can do SEO Without Outside Help

Doing SEO simply means that you follow a set of techniques and procedures to improve the chance that web users will go to your site.

 It is true that anybody can learn these techniques, and, if you are a web site owner and you want to do your own SEO, then you can spend the time to learn and apply those techniques.

But SEO can be complex and touches many areas such as marketing online, coding, technical aspects and PR skills. Most business owners simply do not have everything required to do a great job at SEO, and that is why so many agencies exist that offer help.

An IT worker or online marketer is often not enough if you want truly good results.

Myth #3: META Tags are Very Important

It used to be that every page on your site needed Meta tags in order to rank well.

Those are small pieces of code that would give Google a list of keywords and a description.

The search engine would use those to find out what your web site was about. Now however, those do not affect your ranking at all.

 Both Google and Bing stopped caring about META tags awhile back. However, Meta tags are not useless.
 For example, the description tag is the text that often appears next to the link that shows up in the search results, so it still serves a useful function.

Myth #4: Keyword-Rich Domain Names are Ranked Higher
Back in the dotcom days, it used to be that the URL you used was very important.

Google placed a lot of importance on the domain name, and if you could get a name that had your keyword in it, you would gain a big advantage over other sites.

This is why a lot of companies in the late 90′s bought domain names for a lot of money.
But now, the indexing process only looks at the actual content of your pages, and not the domain name.

The domain name is still important, because people still get to see it, but it will not give you a higher rank.

Myth #5: You have to Submit Your Site to Google or Other Search Engines

All search engines used to have URL submission forms where you could send your site to Google and others. In fact, they still do, but that process is unnecessary.

The crawlers that these engines use now are sophisticated enough that any new site will be found in a matter of days, if not hours.

The only time you would have to worry about submitting your site is if for some reason it was not indexed automatically after a couple of days.

Myth #6: Submitting a Sitemap will Boost Your Rankings

Google offers a webmaster interface and from there, you can submit a sitemap, which is a XML file containing links to every page on your site. Some site owners take the time to submit such a file every time they make a change, but that is not necessary.

Submitting a sitemap does not change your rankings. All it does is add pages which may not have been indexed already. If your site is typical and has links to all your pages, then it is not needed.

Myth #7: SEO has Nothing to do with Social Media

Before the advent of Facebook and Twitter, SEO was the one and only technique to get traffic in an organic way.
But now, social media is everywhere, and the line is quickly blurring between the two.

While some marketers still consider SEO and social media to be different beasts, the truth is that they are very closely linked. For example, Google now places their own social network, Google Plus, into its search results.

If you can get enough influential people to talk about your product and link to your site, then their recommendations will show up in any Google search result that their friends do.

 This clearly affects SEO. On the flip side, Facebook has also entered search, by recently introducing their Open Graph engine, which searches based on friends and interests.
 So the two spheres are closely linked, and they are becoming closer all the time.


Myth #8: Google does not read CSS Files

The Google bot used to be fairly primitive and only saw text, which is why many people concentrated on the text part of their web site.

 But now that engine is very sophisticated and reads JavaScript, CSS, and more.
The crawler can definitely see whether your site’s presentation is appealing to users or not.
For example, if someone searches on a mobile device and you have no mobile layout on your site, you may be missing out.

Myth #9: You Need to Update Your Home Page All the Time

Some people think that by updating their home page content all the time they will rank higher, or by not updating it their ranking will drop. In most cases that is not the case, because if you have a sales page that offers a product, then there would be no reason to update that page unless something about the product changes, and Google expects that.

Myth #10: The H1 Header has Greater Value than the Rest of Your Text

The structure of your page is seen by Google and other engines, but you have to realize that many sites are structured very differently. As such, no one specific tag has more value than another.
 An H1 tag is simply a header that corresponds to a CSS entry in order for the user to see your page a certain way. It does not make Google rank your page any differently if you use H2 tags instead, or if your keywords are mostly in the text and not in a specific CSS tag.

Myth #11: Linking to Other Highly Ranked Sites Helps Your Ranking

Some sites try to link to many other high authority sites in order to help their rankings, but that does not help at all.
Google uses PageRank to decide how your site will rank, and that algorithm is based on how useful your site is to others, and as such it will only look at how many other people link to you.

Whether you link back to them is of no importance. Otherwise, any site could rise to the top simply by linking to millions of sites, which is simply not the case.

Myth #12: Using Automated SEO Methods is Always Spam

Many people use automated SEO methods that do not fall into the spam area. Many companies have very big sites and they use automated scripts to do a lot of the grunt work of SEO.
Whether or not a method is spammy is based on what the result is, not on how automated it is.

Myth #13: PageRank is the Only Factor that Matters

The algorithm that Google uses to rank sites is PageRank, which determines how useful a site is to others. But according to Google, search result rankings are also affected by hundreds of other inputs.
 Some of these inputs are easy to see, like having your site being recommended by others on Google Plus. This proves that not only PageRank matters.

The company is staying tight-lipped on how many inputs there are and how important each is, but it is clear that there is more going on than just PageRank. With that said however, it is still widely believed that PageRank is the most important factor, and a PR10 page is always better than a PR3 page.

Myth #14: The Title Tag is Hidden from Search Engines

Most of what Google sees on your site is the text that is visible to users, such as what appears on the screen and is rendered in a web browser.
As such, it would be easy to think that the title is not picked up. However, your title is very important for SEO, because it is the text that appears on the link people will click on.

Not only is Google using it to help your ranking, but people will also see it when they go to click on your site.

Source: Sitepronews

Anybody Can Wish For Success And Riches, Facts To Know

Failure in life is not an excuse because God never created a failure. He created every man with a seed of greatness. In every life, God deposited a gift. 
 
It is the proper development of this gift that is called success. Failure is as a result of our inability to develop whatever potential God has deposited in us.

Harvey Mackey rightly noted in Swim with The Sharks that, “Find something you love to do and you will never have to look for a job, a day in your life.

" Years ago, most successful people on earth were those born into poor families. They work hard to acquire whatever they desire for life. They had passion for success. They see every adversity as an opportunity to greatness.
Do you know what your real goals are? Are you working towards that goal? No matter your age, if you do not have a visible knowledge of your goals and what you want to accomplish in life, then, I challenge you to stop what you are doing in the next thirty minutes and write them down. 
Create your own mission statement, define who you are and know exactly what you are striving for in life. 

Remember to keep your faith in God, do your part as a Christian or Muslim, and no matter how many clouds may appear on your way to true success in life, believe the sun will surely shine again.

According to Yue Fei, "Do not let a day pass without accomplishing something. Otherwise you will regret it when your hair turns gray." You can only achieve financial success with peace of mind by being disciplined, steady and constant in holding to the right principles.
A life without definite plan to financial freedom is useless, and having a well-conceived plan is not enough to transform your dreams to physical realities, but the determination you put to it is what gives that dream a value.

Your dreams to financial success starts with goal setting and may sometimes require you to spend the necessary time to gather information, outline the necessary steps to achieve that goal, develop a workable timeline and take the right steps to reach your financial success. 

Do you have a plan to reach your financial goals Why do many people have dreams that are never fulfilled? What steps must you take to achieve your financial success in life? 

Can you achieve financial success in your career or vocation without a viable goal? Can you acquire enormous wealth in life without sustained action, commitment and focus to make that dream a reality?

It was Lee Maranz, one of American most successful franchisers who said, "If you have a strong belief in yourself, in what you are doing, and what you want to do, no adversity is too difficult to overcome." Many people desire financial success in life without the commitment to reach that goal. 

Achieving your financial success may sometimes require you to work on yourself to understand and overcome the sources of your fears toward success. 

It is difficult to achieve financial success if you are afraid of the challenges that come with it. Many people stand on their own way to financial success. These people want to succeed but do not believe in success. 

Many of such people will acquire wealth and later sabotage it because they were not prepared for it. If you are serious about achieving financial in life, you must first get serious in dealing with the sources of your fears towards success.

Sometimes you may require support or coaching to know the sources of your negative beliefs towards success. 

And if you think you do not require extra support or coaching and you want to make the same mistakes over and over again, don't expect any better results.

If you also desire to achieve the financial success you desire, then, it is time to get up and work. Be opened to the new insights that will assist you to achieve financial success. 

The resources you need to create some awareness about the possible sources of your fears and to acquire some new behaviors that will attract financial success to your life can be found, which is a guarantees for your financial breakthrough and prosperity in life. 

They will surely transform your life from poverty to everlasting success with peace of mind.

And if you want to achieve that success you ever desire, make today the day you stop giving excuses for your past failures. Decide upon a definite plan now and how you are going to achieve that plan. Write it down. Commit it to memory.  Decide exactly when you want to achieve that goal. Then begin to put your plan to action because your future is what you make it…..:)

16 Secrets Of Top Marketing

But what are you still doing in your comfort zone? The comfort zone is a dangerous place. Ideas are not enough. You must be action oriented to improve your future. Don't just think but act. You get results not only from thinking but from thinking and acting. You have ideas. You want to achieve.
You want opportunity. "I wanted to", "I was going to" cannot put on a light bulb, not to talk of moving you forward. Aren't you tired of hoping and criticizing? Stop defending status quo that locks you down. GO on the offensive now with your Cisco Internet work PLUS….. I mean Connectivity or Networking.... What is the use of ideas without action? Start becoming the achiever you deserve to be.

 MAKE SURE THERE IS NO STANDING ROOM FOR EXCUSES ……. Begin Now !
1. Commitment – Determine a marketing plan and commit to it. The more repetition, the more it is remembered.
2. Investment – Your payoff will be the highest if you invest in learning about marketing.
3. Consistent – Do not be tempted to change your plan. People learn to trust you, your image, and your message.
4. Confident – What should you be concerned about when you advertise? 5th concern is Price; 4th concern is Selection; 3rd concern is Service; 2nd concern is Quality; 1st concern is Confidence.
5. Be Patient – You must have patience to be confident.
6. Assortment – The more Marketing tactics you arm yourself with, the more people you reach.
7. Convenient – Be convenient for your customer and it will be easy for them to do business with you. Time is valuable and your customer knows it too.
8. Subsequent – Marketing begins “after” you make the sale; your performance and follow-up on your promises win the customer.
9. Amazement – Encourage excitement for what you offer. Are you the best, have the widest assortment of products, quickest turn-around etc
10. Measurement – You will have many methods of advertising in operation at one time, some will be a hit and some will miss.
Reduce your marketing budget 50% by asking people “Where did you hear of us.” This will help you utilize the advertising means that is garnering you the most responses.
11. Involvement – Prove you care by staying in touch and listening to your customer. Customers pay you back by referring their friends.
12. Dependent – Build a marketing network and become inter-dependent on others. Develop co-marketing ventures that increase your exposure in ways you never thought of.
13. Armament – Equip your company with the necessary tools including a web site, cell phone, pager and other technology.
14. Consent – Seeking consent from your customer to market to them is how the web is becoming effective.
Signing up for e-newsletters, email sale notices or free product is one way a web marketer can keep sending a marketing message to a customer repeatedly.
15. Augment – Fine-tune your marketing by eliminating what did not work and increasing what does.
16. Content – Have killer content in your message. Talk directly to your customer with a clear direct message. Have a nice day and stay safe.

Link To 1,800 Sites+ Different Places For FREE

IMT Website Submitter - submits your website to 1,800+ places for FREE! -(Updated 09.11.2017.)

IMT Website Submitter  ( You will have to Log in on the IMtalk website).

IMT Website Submitter submits your website/blog to 1,800+ different places.

All these 1,800+ websites are manly "who is", "about us", "website statistic", etc. type of services.

This tool creates pages about your website/blog on everyone of these websites, resulting in about 1,800+ different pages in some cases with backlinks pointing back to your website.

Yes some of those backlinks are no-follow and some of them are do-follow, but bottom line is that these are well established websites regularly crawled by Google and other SE, so your pages and backlinks/URLs on those websites will be found and your website/blog will get backlinks/mentions and will be visited and indexed more frequently by Googlebot and many other search engine bots like Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, etc., which is the main purpose of this tool, backlinks are just nice bonus.

Have a nice day.

Some Ideas To Start Up Catfish Farming Activities

Catfish farming consists of two most important types, which could either be operated separately or as an integrated process. 

The two divisions are the Nursery Fish farming and the Grow Out Fish Farming. The grow out fish farming is dependent of the nursery fish farming because you can't grow fish without the nursery. 

But, like I said, they can be operated separately by two different farmers. 

The nursery involves the inducement of the female fish to lay eggs, which are then fertilized, incubated and hatched. 

Those little fishes are known as fries.

These fries are then nurtured from between three and four weeks into fingerlings which is the size suitable for use in the Grow Out farming.

A catfish farming is a major investment operation. And so, starting one needs careful consideration.

In between the nursery and grow out operation is what we referred to as the primary operation.

It involves the nurturing of the three or four weeks within which they could grow into post fingerlings, mini juveniles and juveniles respectively.

 These can then be nurtured for between four to five month into grow out or table size fish suitable for sale and consumption.

Going in catfish farming involves the following

Step One: Land To Use

This is very important. One has to acquire at least half plot of land in a suitable location. 

This means, you must consider good access road, closeness to market and labor.

 If the land is already available, it is good. Then we apportion it as follows:

1.   Location of ponds 2.   Location of farm house  

3.   Location of water supply and lastly, location of drainage facility. 

The last point is very important, as you don’t drain your water to constitute public nuisance. 

Step Two: Pond Planning

Here, one has to determine whether one wants to go into a big or small-scale commercial venture, secondly, the pond system to adopt, Re-circulatory system, earthen pond or concrete/plastic pond or both.

Once the pond was dug and the area has been developed, there is nothing one can do to undo the work and recover the cost. 

And so, extensive evaluation must be done by someone planning to start a catfish farm before he finally decides whether it is wise for him to pursue the project.

Construction Considerations

• Where should the pond be located? Does the site have enough supply of quality water (from wells or springs)? There are minimum water flow rate requirements in building a pond for a catfish. Will the source meet them? Employ professionals to test whether the water supply volume and flow rate meets standard requirements.
• Is the water supply suitable for catfish farming? Try growing a few catfish using water taken from the target source.
• Is the area suitable for pond construction in terms of soil composition and permeability? Ideal soil for pond construction is one with good compaction property. One resource you can run to check on this is your local soil management office.
• Catfish farming will require some water movement. Will you be able to obtain permits and other necessary licenses for the operation?

Step Three: Water Supply Source

The best water for catfish farming is from bore hole. One or two must be sunk to guarantee steady water supply.

 Overhead tanks for holding water should also be installed. 

The mechanism of pumping of water must be back up facility. The system must not fail.

Step Four: Pond Construction

It is advisable to engage the service of a consultant. The success or failure of this project depends largely on construction of standard ponds that can stand the test of time.

Pond Design and Construction

One major consideration in designing a pond for catfish production is the flatness or steepness of the area and the source of water supply. 

For a generally flat area that has access to a well, a level pond could be built. 

Watershed ponds are built for steeper areas near a natural source of water. 

The depth of the pond is also crucial as this influences the availability of oxygen for the fish. 

And so is the amount of fish per surface acre of water.

For one to get the most profit for a catfish harvest, it is necessary to determine buyer requirements when planning the season’s production. 

Consider what buyers demand in terms of weight, frequency, size and price. One can sell the season’s harvest to fish processors or directly to consumer. 

The latter results a greater return to the farmer.

10 Lucrative Farming Businesses In Nigeria Updated In 2022

1. Rice Farming - Nigeria has one of the world's highest Rice consumption statistics. Rice is by far one of the most popular staple food among Nigerians, almost everyone eats rice daily in Nigeria.  

 

By statistics of about 9 years ago in 2011 alone, Nigeria spent Over N991 Billion on Rice importation and the rice we import is said to probably be nothing less than 5 years old in storage.  

 

That means we spends billions buying Rice that might have lost it's nutritional value. Any Entrepreneur in Nigeria who continues to practice Rice Farming is sure to be smiling to the bank. 

 

A bag of Rice is currently sold for between N18,000 Local Rice to N42,000 Foreign Rice, depending on the quality and source. Any Farmer who is able to invest in large scale Rice Farming in Nigeria and produce for example 100,000 Bags of processed Rice in a year and sell at wholesale price of about N18,000 per bag, he will be making 18,000 x 100,000 = N1,800,000,000 per 100,000 bags.  

 

 

You can achieve the above figures conveniently with less than a million capital investment. There is good logistics and plannings to achieve this.

 
2.Cassava Farming-The popularity of cassava as the major source of food for Nigerians dates back to ages. Between Garri and Rice, it's hard to tell which one is the most popular as both are the most consumed food staples in Nigeria, I think if one is King the other will be Queen. 

 

A bag of Garri costs almost the same as a bag of rice, and apart from Garri, there are many other food stuff that are processed from Cassava in Nigeria. The introduction of the high yield species of Cassava has made it possible for Nigerian Cassava Farmers to produce more Cassava. 

 

Most land areas are good for growing Cassava and 1 Acre, when properly planted and managed can produce Thousands worth of Cassava sales in a year!

 
3. Plantain Plantation - One thing I like about Plantain is that when planted once, it keeps producing year in year out continuously. Like Rice and Garri, Plantain is widely consumed in Nigeria and any food that is popular in Nigeria is always a huge income earning business due to the population of the country, The largest country in africa. 

 

 I really haven't seen many farmers in Nigeria taking advantage of the opportunity in Plantain Farming to create more wealth for themselves. Plantain is highly priced and is always in high demand all year round. Fry it, Boil it, Roast it, it will never get angry with you, that's how liberal Plantain is. Millions of Naira is currently lying fallow untapped in this sector of Farming in Nigeria. 

 

 4. Poultry Farming- Everyone knows how 'Cashy' this is, it doesn't need much introduction and yet it's still not fully tapped in Nigeria. What we currently have in Nigeria are few well managed,Some scantily equipped poultry farms here and there. 

 

Yet to see a full fledged, high tech Poultry Farm in Nigeria, except Obasanjo Farms and few others, as it is in The USA and Europe. Any Entrepreneur who is able to fire this up will have huge Cash profit to contend with. The reason is because Nigerians eat chicken more than most other farm animals as it is relatively affordable in whole and 60% of our consumption is still imported. The egg in poultry production is yet another goldmine! 

 
5. Pineapple Farming - Money is sweet, everything sweet is money, and Pineapple is sweet. Ask any Australian Farmer and he will tell you how huge the income in Pineapple Farming is in their country. Any juice maker that doesn't have Pineapple flavor variety in his product line is not yet in business. That tells you how popular Pineapple is, not only in Nigeria but Worldwide.

 
Nigeria seems to have better soil for Pineapple Farming than Australia where Farmers are making it big in the business. A Pineapple sells in a market in Lagos for about N300 depending on size -- If you are able to harvest one million in a year, you'll be sure of at least N120 x 1,000,000 = N120,000,000. 

 
6. Beans Farming - A bag of Beans costs twice more than a bag of Rice and Garri, the Northern Nigerians are making it big in Beans Farming, supplying almost all Nigeria and beyond. But one thing is that, this same Beans also can do very well in the South East, South West, and South South Nigeria soils.
7. Catfish Farming - Catfish Business is really hyping in Nigeria right now but how many are really getting it right? Get it right and you are in money. A single Catfish sells for Like N800 in Restaurants and about N500 in open market.

 
8. Goat And Ram Rearing - It's mostly in the Northern part of Nigeria that Goats and Rams are reared in commercial quantity. You can also engage in this productive Farm Business.   

 

In The USA and Australia, Farmers are among the very rich people - Get involved in professional Goat and ram rearing and make money for yourself. A full grown Goat or Ram sells for between N25,000 to N80,000, very high especially during Ramadan the Islamic festive season.

 
9. Snail Farming - Snail Farming is gradually picking up in Nigeria, -- but if you don't hurry up, others would have made the money before you realized what you've missed. The potential in this business for you is about N10,000,000 Annual revenue.

 
10. Maize Farming - You never know the profit in Maize Farming in Nigeria until you try it, and one thing I like about it is that everything happens fast. 

 

It takes less than Four months between planting and harvesting.  Irrigation is currently very important, So Stand up. Get involved in any of these Farming business and you will never regret it. Stay Safe and Have a nice day.

6 Steps To Starting And Managing A Snail Farm

Snail Farming is very lucrative, and many are waking up to this business of snail farming . 

Apart from the fact that snail farm is easy to manage, snail farming does not require much technicalities or capital as snails can easily be picked around for the take-off. 

1. Snail farm is easy to setup - with little structure and little fund, you're good to go.

Hotels, Restaurants and other eateries are people that will constantly demand your supply. You could get standing orders from these group of people for the supply of snails to them at agreed times and rates and you know what that means?.. Constant money into your pocket.

The giant West Africa snail called Achatina Marginata is the most desirable specie for snail farming due to it's high yield capacity. 

There are other good species but I will focus on Achatina  Marginata  in this blog post because, it's easy to find. 

Archachatina Marginata

Achatina-Achatina is very good for commercialization as well, because of its profitability. 

This is because of the volume of eggs it lays at once. Each achatina lays 300 to 500 eggs at a time in clutches, three times a year. 

Therefore, if you start a farm with about 1000 snails, in one year you would be getting about 1.5 million snails going by the number of eggs they produces.

Having decided on the specie, let's take you through the step by step how to setup your snail farm in a small scale level and starts rearing your snail towards harvest.

2. Snail Farming Environment - Snails are easily dehydrated, and wind increase the rate of moisture loose in snail which in turn, leads to the dryness of the animal. 

To prevent snails from losing water so quickly, the snail house must be located in environment that is protected from wind.

A low plain, downhill site surrounded with enough trees is perfect for snail farming. You may plant plantains and bananas around your snail farm to prevent the impact of wind.

3. Type of Soil For Snail Farm - Snail's major habitat is the soil, and soil contains some of the components and chemical substances that it needed to survive.

 However, not all soils are suitable for snail rearing. The shell of the snail is mainly calcium and it derive most of them from the soil. Snail also lay it's eggs on the soil and drink water out of the soil. 

Hence, the suitable soil for snail farming must contain these elements.  Must be balanced, not waterlogged, not too dry, and must not be acidic. The most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loamy soil with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil and acidic soil must be avoided.

Achatina fulica - The East African land snail

4. Getting The Sails For Farming - To start up a snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly from the forest instead of buying from the market after they have been exposed to sunlight and have dehydrated. 

This is because snails drink a lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this stresses them out, and reduce their fertility capacity.

The intending snail farmer could pick the snails from the bush with a very simple technique; clear a little portion of land during rainy season and sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw, plantain, banana etc at about 5o'clock in the evening, when you go back there about 7pm or 8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing. 

Repeat the procedure until you get enough quantity.

Another way could be to pick up snail eggs littered in the market place where it is sold and through a technique, check the fertility of the eggs, because some of them must have lost fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. 

The eggs are later put inside a container containing wet sand and covered with coco yam leaf. Between 21 to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby snails. You start feeding them and gradually you raise a snail farm."

5. The Snail House (Snailery) - Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you are breeding in small scale. 

For larger population of snails, you can dug a trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire all around to prevent the snails from escaping. 

Remember that snails can reproduce fast and become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled. 

Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature.

Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and snakes or other predators from eating the snails in your snail farm. 

But aside from these bigger predators, you should be wary about smaller ones like ants and termites. Your construction must have these predators in mind.

6. Snails Foods and Feeding - Snails especially Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits though they can utilize other ranges of foods. 

Feed your snails leaves, fruits, or even formula from the feed store. Aside from food to grow tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells.

Leaves: Coco yam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage and lettuce leaves.

Achatina Achatina - Giant West African Snail

Fruits: Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana, tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears. and cucumber.

Once they start growing, separate the big ones from the small ones. 

 It take more than a year for the Achatina type to grow to harvest size. Others mature in two years. 

 One thousand snails after a year or two sold at the rate of N500 each (highly reduced price) will give about ? ....You can do the math! Isn't that a good investment? Have a nice day.