Number 1 on Google!

Posted on March 13th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,952 views

I didn’t make the SA Blog Awards list this year. Apparently I was nominated for a category that was subsequently scrapped.

Reading a few blogs found via amatomu, it is an understatement to say that these awards, begun by Jon Cherry in 2005, provoke a great deal of bitter controversy.

Jarred Cinman provides a biting overview of the current state of affairs on Thought Leader, in which he contributes his own controversy with the following observation:

‘Let’s just get one thing straight right off here: there is no such thing as a “Web 2.0 expert” in South Africa.

There is no one who can stand back and proclaim pre-eminent understanding and knowledge of blogging or any other aspect of the next generation of the internet.’

The reasons for this dearth of web 2.0 experts, according to The Cinman, is our lack of adequate and inexpensive broadband Internet in South Africa, along with the fact that the vast majority of South Africans are simply too poor to be able to afford it.

I tend to agree with Mr Cinman there. South Africa does not foster Internet innovation. South Africans who innovate online do so from outside of this country.

Justin Hartman spells it out more directly on his own personal blog:

"The SA Blog Awards is a farce and provides absolutely no value or true reflection of the state of blogging in South Africa."

Hartman was also upset that a category (Most Controversial Blog) for which he had nominated blogs was dropped.

Someone also asked him why this blog (cape town news) did not appear in the list of top blogs, but received no answer.

I’m unsure how much winning an SA Blog Award means. There’s no financial reward, there’s no additional publicity. No SA Blog Award winner is going to receive a cheque for R1 million and be interviewed on TV or radio

If the SA Blog Awards are going to mean anything to South African bloggers, the organisers are going to have to think big.

This blog did not make it onto any top blog award list, but it has made it to the Number One position on Google for the following keywords, beating out newspapers such as The Cape Argus and The Cape Times:

• cape town news
• "cape town news"
• capetownnews

Google provides this blog with 40% of its traffic. Its Google PageRank recently increased to four (from three).

Tags: amatomu, Jarred Cinman, Justin Hartman, Number One on Google, SA Blog Awards, SERP, Thought Leader
Filed under SA Blog Awards | 6 Comments »

The South African Blogosphere FAQ

Posted on October 2nd, 2007 by Richard Catto 4,010 views

What is this thing that people call the South African blogosphere?

It’s a collection of (mostly) South African web sites that have installed upon them blogging software.

What is blogging software?

Blogging software is the upgrade to classic web sites.

A classic web site contained mostly html and image files which mostly displayed as static (unchanging) web pages. The ability to interact with a clasic web site was, for the most part, very limited. There was no software behind the site which managed it as a whole and had built-in features that engaged visitors. Updating the site involved changes being made offline to html (and other) files and then uploaded via FTP. FTP remains an arcane and elusive protocol to master by many internet users today who find it beyond them technically.

Blogging software replaces that old model with something that is more accessible, especially to those who are not technically inclined. It allows a person to update their blog via a web based editor.

WordPress is one of the most popular blog software packages that is used by many South African bloggers. WordPress calls itself a personal publishing platform. Simply put, it affords almost anyone the ability to get their stories published online, without having to worry about a myriad technical details.

Where do I find the South African blogosphere?

Blogging software is designed to interact with various blog indexes to update them whenever anything new is published on them. This is something that classic web sites did not do – one needed to manually add them to search engines, and even then, there was no way for search engines to know when a site had been updated and needed reindexing.

Blogs are programmed to tell a whole bunch of, mostly American, blog indexes (including google) when they have been updated. If you are a South African blogger who mostly desires a local audience, then you need to add your blog(s) to the South African blog indexes, which are amatomu.com and afrigator.com. Instructions, which tell you how to do that, are found on both of them.

Both of those South African blog indexes display a list of South African blog sites known to them in order of popularity, as well as a list of the most recent blog posts. By browsing the list of recent posts, you will be able to pick out articles that interest you. You can also browse by category and do keyword searches.

There are two other South African blog related sites that you should be aware of – muti.co.za and sablogger.co.za. Those two are not blog indexes, instead they are social networking sites to which people can submit stories that they find interesting. Many of the submitted articles are from blogs, but not all. One can browse those sites to find out what other South Africans found to be interesting content.

What is the South African Blogosphere about?

Anything and everything really.

It’s a very interesting diversion from reading the mainstream media web sites, that most South Africans spend almost all their time online browsing.

You will read a diverse selection of opinions and monologues, some that will resonate with your own beliefs, others that may make you want to punch your monitor out, and still others that will just bore the life out of you.

Along the way, you will discover interesting people that will engage you and cause you to think about what you think you know and believe and hold dear. You will discover new things, new people, fresh ideas. You will grow.

Most bloggers desire to interact with their visitors via comments left in response to their articles. If you have an opinion about what was written, you should submit your comment. You will soon discover that it can be a lot of fun and that it can lead to new exciting friendships with people you might ordinarily never have come across.

What should I watch out for in the South African Blogosphere?

The usual suspects – disinformation, slander, general unfounded nonsense masquerading as fact, vociferous arguments about nothing, bad people.

Bloggers are often referred to now as citizen journalists. Being a journalist implies having a responsibility to report things accurately. Journalists still make mistakes. Bloggers, however, have no responsibility at all to report factually. They can make up anything they like, so take care about what you choose to believe. Many bloggers, including myself, will cite sources at the end of, or in the body of their articles so that the reader can see for themselves where they got their information.

Not all bloggers take care to meticulously research their articles before they write them. They may authoritatively state utter nonsense, and you may be inclined to take what they write at face value. It’s general laziness – laziness on the part of the writer and laziness on the part of the reader. Truth does not simply fall out of a tree like a ripe apple – it must be searched for. Remember that at all times.

How do I become a blogger and join the South African Blogosphere?

The best type of blog to have is one at your own domain, typically a co.za domain. You will need to have your domain registered and hosted and blogging software deployed on your server space.

I do recommend that you register a domain in one of the .za domain namespaces if you intend blogging primarily for a South African audience. I recommend WordPress to power your blog, and I recommend that you host it on a Linux platform, not Windows.

There is more to do and an expense associated with this option. It is also the most flexible and any and all advertising revenue that you manage to derive from your blog is yours to keep.

If you prefer to start off with a free blogging option, then I suggest you register with either iblog.co.za or wordpress.com. iBlog.co.za uses the WordPress blogging platform too.

If you would like any advice in this regard, leave a comment and I will endeavour to give you useful answers.

Tags: afrigator, amatomu, Digg, iBlog, muti, reddit, sablogger, South African Blogosphere, StumbleUpon, WordPress
Filed under South African Blogosphere | 3 Comments »

Whose the DADDY of social networking sites?

Posted on September 26th, 2007 by Richard Catto 4,540 views

It’s not Digg, neither reddit, nuh uh del.icio.us, nor muti, amatomu is not-the-mama, afrigator who?

It’s StumbleUpon!

If you want traffic, get onboard StumbleUpon today!

I discovered this yesterday when I installed Alex King’s beautiful WordPress plugin called Share This. It’s a thing of total beauty. Customising it with your favourite social site is child’s play. I added Muti to it in under 5 minutes, including the little muti thumbnail graphic.

Ironically, the first site I shared one of my posts with was StumbleUpon which produced a very healthy flow of traffic. Seeing that, I was encouraged to stumble more of my posts, and I experienced a sudden rush of people from all over the world. A heady experience when that happens.

Share This doesn’t spread a whole row of tiny little graphics across your web site (that no-one can decypher), instead it places a simple green distinctive Share This icon to left of the words. Clicking on it, brings up a window which allows your visitors to share your posts with all the social sites you have installed, as well as send your post to friends via email.

Alex King is working to integrate his amazing plugin with ShareThis.com who offer a very useful service. It integrates with facebook, so I was able to share a site with a friend directly onto her facebook wall. I think it would be better, though, if it went to her facebook email.

Okay, so now I have to thank Candy Tothill for introducing me to StumbleUpon. Thank you, Candy! She is a published South African author and she is also an avid blogger – insidecandy.blogspot.com.

Tags: afrigator, Alex King, amatomu, Candy Tothill, del.icio.us, Digg, Inside Candy, muti, Plugin, reddit, Share This, StumbleUpon, Web traffic, WordPress
Filed under StumbleUpon, Web traffic | 6 Comments »