Archive for July, 2008
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
The word ‘free’ must be one of the most powerful words on the internet.
Even after knowing about the marketing trick of giving away watered-down knowledge products as bait, I still find myself clicking into these offers.
I can’t help myself.
So what if the price of admission is my e-mail address?
So what if I will spend the rest of my life receiving offers for other must-have products at a less than free price?
So what if a few trees had to be sacrificed so that I can print out one or two of the multi page free report?
So what if my hard drive is sagging under the strain of hundred of unread PDFs?
At least I won’t be missing out on…what? At least I have a Gmail account to catch the resulting spam.
Speaking of free…
I see the US government is considering denying children access to social networks at public libraries to protect them from predators online.
Even as regular book borrower, I have never used the computers at our local library branch. It would be interesting to know what children (and adults) have access to here.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Today I am feeling sick – nauseous and dizzy.
It has nothing to do with the two donuts I just ate with my second cup of coffee. It isn’t even the flu, nor a bug brought on by another rainy Cape Town day.
Actually it is brought on by an article I just finished reading about Knol in relation to SEO.
As if a poor new internet marketer does not have enough to worry about. To name just a few:
Blogging! Traffic! Adsense! Analytics!
Oh and in a South African context there are now Demographics to contend with.
Did I mention TRAFFIC?
I barely have the basics of SEO taken care of, when an article appears in my inbox this morning.
Apparently Knols are already receiving prominence in Google searches.
Of course for those who are already writing lovely Knols, it is no big deal. What about us who barely have blogging covered on our CVs.
I guess you’ll have to visit us on the 4th and 5th pages in a Google search 
Posted in google, marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
My local post office might just be busy again tomorrow morning. Possibly not as busy as it was when Sasol’s Inzalo share offer came to an end during July.
The only way I knew anything was going on was when I tried to pick up a parcel at Kenilworth Centre Post Office, after work one day. Apparently our driver could not pick up post for a few days during office hours either.
I had not seen any advertising or heard anyone speaking of the share offer, until the first deadline of 3 July. Word of mouth advertising probably caused the sudden interest, because the deadline had to be shifted until 9 July. A few more days wait for my parcel!
Vodacom recently announced their BEE Share offer. As a telecommunications company more is expected of them where advertising is concerned. So far so good!
The website for YeboYethu is up and running and a webcast of the announcement is on site. No proper prospectus, although there probably will be after the offer it’s officially available.
I will take a good look at that offering, for sure! The closing date is 11 September, but knowing us South Africans, it will probably close a week later when we finally wake up.
Posted in advertising | No Comments »
Monday, July 28th, 2008
My first reaction to Facebook Connect was to go and delete all my personal information from Facebook! I haven’t yet!
Maybe I am in the minority – I have seen very little criticism on other blogs – but giving companies access to my personal details seem far too intrusive. I will certainly try my very best to not let companies get information about me that easily.
On the other hand, those adverts for paid surveys will hopefully become reduntant, as all our details will be there for companies to use at will.
I can imagine the lengths ‘they’ will go to to get us to add their companies to our Facebook accounts. Competitions, incentives and whatever else. This is of course speaking as a consumer!
As a website owner I see the benefits 
Posted in Facebook | No Comments »
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Last week I received a forwarded e-mail. It’s been doing the rounds for a few years. It claims that all I have to do is pay R150.00 to the person who sent me the e-mail, write my name and banking details on said e-mail and forward to my network.
If there is one way to make me go crazy then it’s this type of thing. People who can least afford it and who are most desperate for money are the ones who suffer the most from this and other similar schemes.
Personally I don’t know of anyone who would actually fall for this e-mail, but it is still doing the rounds, so someone must be falling for it.
It’s the same with money making programmes being sold on the internet. In actual fact there is nothing new about this. The same people who fall for stuffing envelopes are the ones who get taken in for a ride. I don’t understand why people advertise knowing the consequences.
Surely if I get taken for a ride, I will not want to pass that experience on to someone else?
As for me, I will not participate in any scheme that costs me money. In the same way as I would not pay my boss for my job!
With a bit of logical thinking, we can all save ourselves from the unscrupulous out there who have no concern for the poor person at the end of the line.
Posted in internet | No Comments »
