Internet Guide Blog

Want a hosting plan that will never crash your site when your postings the front page of Digg? Are you tired of paying ridiculous high bandwidth fees for you local traffic?
Say hello to Amazon. The book people. And now, the hosting people too.

In their own words (my own emphasis):

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites.

Amazon S3 is based on the idea that quality Internet-based storage should be taken for granted. It helps free developers from worrying about where they are going to store data, whether it will be safe and secure, the costs associated with server maintenance, or whether they have enough storage available. The functionality is simple and robust: Store any amount of data inexpensively and securely, while ensuring that the data will always be available when you need it. Amazon S3 enables developers to focus on innovating with data, rather than figuring out how to store it.

In other words, while you can continue to host your blog in South Africa (or anywhere), you can host the bandwidth intensive stuff such as images, movie clips etc on the Amazon network. You will pay a minute fraction for the bandwidth as compared to what you would pay in SA, and you only pay for what you use. (Amazon charges well under R1 per Gig of data transfer)

The main advantage however, is not monatery. It is the knowledge that your site will never crash because of over-popularity, even if it makes it to the front page of Digg.

If you are a Wordpress blogger, see info about a plugin just for you.
Also, see Ideates story about how they are using Amazon’s services.

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Here are all the SA bloggers who make it into the Technorati Top 100 000 rank. There are a couple of new additions from my last posting on this, and some rank changes too. But nothing to dramatic.

But here is something worth noting: I thought that as the year progressed, we would get more bloggers into the top 100,000. In fact, the opposite is happening: our top bloggers are losing global rank while seemingly gaining national rank. The reason? I would guess that the number of new blogs globally is diluting our contribution Not sure if that is even relevant to bloggers who are targetting the local (South African) audience, but worth noting nevertheless.

Here goes: Blog title, rank and authority in brackets (and as before, if you should be on this list but aren’t, send me a note!)

1. Tectonic 8,780 (425)
2. Cherryflava 9,435 (400)
3. So Close 14,855 (284)
4. Adii 17,037 (257)
5. Ninja Monkeys 18,134 (246)
6. Vinny Lingham 18,721 (239)
7. Afrigadget 19,100 (235)
8. Angel’s Mind 20,175 (224)
9. SA Rocks 24,745 (194)
10. Mike Stopforth 26,176 (185)
11. Cape Town Daily Photo 30,756 (161)
12. Clickatell 30,756 (161)
13. Marketing Geek 33,902 (147)
14. Hunter of Genius 34,433 (145)
15. Vincent Maher 36,090 (139)
16. Dotnet.org.za 39,264 (133)
17. Chilibean 39,921 (127)
18. Matthew Buckland 39,921 (127)
19. Aquilla Online 43,331 (118)
20. O Oui 48,026 (108)
21. Memoirs of an Ex Christian 49,721 (105)
22. Price of Leadership 52,103 (101)
23. Stii.za 52,715 (100)
24. Jo’Blog 54,773 (97)
25. Wired Gecko 55,505 (96)
26. Notes from the Underground 57,795 (93)
27. Chump Style 58,595 (92)
28. Durzblog 58,595 (92)
29. Nic Haralambous 70,762 (78)
30. The Vegan 72,963 (76)
31. Tyler Reed 76,317 (73)

32. Eric Edelstein 79,961 (70)
33. Reluctant Nomad 83,970 (67)
34. Bullog at The Times 88,524 (64)
35. Keo 90,112 (63)

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This is the official start to this blog. From today, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this blog will strictly adhere to the announced posting schedule. And since today is Monday, the topic is South African websites.

But rather than talk about a specific site, I want to ask a question: how do you find good South African websites?. Or rather, how did you find the last good local website that you came across?

There are obvious options
1. Most likely, it was recommended to you by someone you know (And whose opinion you respect), either in person, through a link on their blog or a direct email.
2. You read an article about the website or the person who founded it
3. You clicked on an online ad that led you to that website
4. You saw an offline ad for the website
5. You searched (using google etc) for a website with a specific function
6. You used an online directory, and cicked “blindly” etc

And, if you are a website owner, how do you spread the word? Do you buy online advertising? Do you use email marketing? How do you avoid being perceived as a spammer? How do you connect with the audience that is online, but is not “savvy” in this medium?

I often find that a lot of my good tips come form the printed media, but that in itself poses two problems: Not only must I remember the URL of the website for when I am in front of the computer, but I must also remember that I wanted to visit it in the first place! It’s a tough challenge for any marketer to overcome.

Of course, with the popularity of online networking and the social media that goes hand in hand with that, a lot of websites gain popularity using viral marketing. But those websites usually have a well-paid creative team behind them, and the planning that goes into the campaign makes the term “overnight click sensation” rather deceiving.

And herein lies the problem for why the online industry in SA can seem rather stagnant (it is also a leading reason for why I decided to publish Internet Guide). After all, it’s not as if you channel surf for websites. You need to know where to go, and why.

So, what in your opinion is a good way to ensure that a website reaches the mainstream audience?

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Of course we know that the web is full of cool things, but we don’t always know what or where they are.

Which is why I was thrilled to find this little gem online: go2Web20.net

It is a directory of all that is Web 2.0 - and trust me, there is a lot out there that you have never even heard of.  Together with a screenshot of all the logos and brief descriptions, this site gives you excellent search capabilities that ensure you will find something that excites you.

Some examples of sites I have never heard of before, but that seem to have a lot of promise:

1. L8R: Allows you to “email the future” by writing and saving emails 5 yrs in advance of sending them

2. Wis.dm: wis.dm is an online community where you ask questions to the wis.dm crowd and get back useful answers.

3.  Feedtwister: Feedtwister allows you to mix up to 50 feeds to generate a new list, with the info you want.

I’ve had a brief look, and I cannot wait to dedicate an hour or so to really sifting through all the info.  I am sure that there are plenty of ideas there that could easily be localised for South Africa.

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Cherryflava is worth about $200 000. That’s according to a little applet designed by Dane Carlson, and is based on two things:

1. Data from your blog as stated by Technorati (rank, links, etc)

2. The link-to-dollar ratio that applied to the AOL-Weblogs deal.

Yes, it’s not perfect. But it is fun. (Until you check your own blog’s value, and realize you can’t REALLY quit your day job)

BTW, Cherryflava is the top ranked South African blog on Technorati, but I haven’t verified if it is also the one “worth” most money. If you play around with the applet and find one that is worth more, please post it in the comments below.

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Who makes it into the esteemed Technorati Top 100 000 club? Right now, apparently only 45 of us! I cannot believe that we only make up 0.00045% of the best bloggers out there, so if your name has been omitted, or if you know of someone who should be here, please leave a comment. I will post an updated version in a weeks time, and announce any newcomers as is necessary.

In descending order, with Name, Rank, Authority, and URL

Cherryflava, 9,318 (385)
Tectonic, 10,542 (376)
Black Looks, 12,027 (320)
So Close 15,110 (266)
Vinny Lingham 16,294 (254)
Angel’s Mind 19,015 (225)
Mike StopForth 24,391 (187)
Adii 26,076 (177)
O Oui 27,956 (166)
Durzblog 30,248 (156)
Vincent Maher 34,193 (139)
SA Rocks 34,462 (138)
Chilibean 35,609 (135)
Dotnet.org.za 35,887 (133)
The Sovereign Journey 36,748 (130)
Ninja Monkeys 36,748 (130)
Afrigadget 37,382 (128)
Marketing Geek 40,838 (118)
Cape Town Daily Photo 42, 603 (114)
Hunter of Genius 43,479 (112)
Memoirs of an Ex Christian 46,241 (106)
Clickatell News 46,931 (105)
Matthew Buckland 48,065 (103)
Practice of Leadership 49,709 (100)
Chump Style 51,995 (96)
Jo’Blog 52,633 (95)
Wired Gecko 53,866 (93)
Stii.za 54,463 (92)
Reluctant Nomad 55,076 (91)
Aquilla Online 59,176 (85)
Nic Haralambous 75,939 (67)
Keo.co.za 92,317 (56)
The Vegan 100,145 (52)

Note: There is a post about the the under-representation of  SA Top Bloggers relative to  All Top Bloggers here

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Welcome to the Internet Guide Blog!

This blog is a companion to the printed magazine, Internet Guide

The purpose of the blog is rather straightforward:

to focus attention to South African web sites, blogs and entrepreneurs. Pretty much just like the magazine.

Which is not to say that I am completely blind to the effects of what is happening on the web outside this country. I do know that the Internet, in theory, is country blind, and I shall report on what I think is relevant and applicable, even if it is not local.

The posting schedule is not set in stone, but will follow something like this:

Monday: Focus on SAfrican websites
Tuesday: Focus on SAfrica blogs
Wednesday: Focus on SAfrican webentrepreneurs, blogggers, designers
Thursday: Events, happenings, trends
Friday: What’s happening elsewhere

If you would like me to feature your web or your blog, please leave a comment below. These comments are deleted as I read/deal with them, so don’t think you are the first one to do so!:-)

Note: The next post will list all the South African blogs that are listed in Technorati’s Top 100 000. Are you there? Drop me a note if you know your blog fits the criteria, and I will include it in the list.

5 Comments

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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