I figured that Bolton had a massive impact on the South African blogging community so what better way to illustrate this than by using him as a case study. I must say that I had massive amounts of fun putting this presentation together as it reminded me of the shenanigans that went on during that brief twelve day period. If you haven’t heard of Bolton then best you view the presentation below and get some tips on how to grow traffic to your blog!

What I really like about the podcast series is that it’s short (generally around 15-20 minutes), the content is relevant to the industry and the production quality is superb. In a time when information overload is a major concern this podcast series gives you bite-sized bits of information on the go.

To my embarrassment I’ve been meaning to blog about The Digital Edge for some time but as you can see from the lack of posts on my blog lately time has simply not been on my side. Today however I do have a reason as I’m featured in the latest podcast titled Reprobates and bloggers.

The latest installment looks at the state of the South African blogosphere to see what was really happening. It features top SA bloggers as well as Fred Roed and Afrigator‘s other brother, Mike Stopforth. This episode is quite long but I really won’t mind if you skip to the end to listen to me!

For a few months we’ve been working with Alistair Fairweather and his dev team at 24.com to try and make this work and I think that as a phase one we’ve done pretty well.

I really believe that this is a significant step in the social media space in Africa. For the first time one of the largest media companies in Africa have opened up their doors to work with an independent and at the same time we’re gaining further credibility within the industry.

From an Afrigator perspective this step moves us closer to becoming the authoritative figure within the space as we are now able to easily aggregate blogs from a portal that was once closed off to the outside world. The 24.com platform is by far the largest of its kind in Africa and it now opens the doors for us to apply a similar model to other blogging platforms.

In the blogging space in South Africa we’ve noticed two very different schools. One is the early-adopter space that are generally all members of Afrigator already while the other is the niche, closed communities that are often much larger than the early-adopter one. These closed communities, while much larger, are not really aware of what’s happening outside their space and I think it’s safe to say that 24.com Blogs is one of them.

By integrating with Afrigator, 24.com bloggers are now exposed to a very different audience than before. In addition these bloggers are now able to get detailed stats about their blog which is something that was not possible prior to this move.

I am of the belief that early-adopters need to be exposed to the closed communities in just the same way. There are some extremely valuable and influential bloggers within the 24.com network and we hope that this integration helps shift perceptions and encourage bloggers to interact outside of their normal environments.

I guess time will tell what happens but for now I’m really pleased to be involved in helping to change the landscape.

Now I, along with many others I suspect, have been lured to a marketing sales pitch for time share by QVC under the guise that I’ve won a massive prize. In the last five years alone I have had at least five separate attempts from QVC and guys like QVC to try and get me to go and listen to their pitch. On all occasions, except the first of course, I had declined to go.

I recall our last incident when I received a call from a QVC-type company to inform me that I’d won a 42″ flat screen TV and that I should come and collect it from their office. I told them to get lost and they then phoned my wife to tell her that I said they should make arrangements with her to come and collect the TV.

In my mind this form of sales is the lowest common denominator. You trick people into believing they’ve actually won something and then you steal there money on timeshare that most simply don’t need. Then, when someone like Donn calls your bluff you sue him. Come on guys.

You can cut this any which way you like but what QVC are doing is simply a scam. This might well get me a lawsuit as well but to be honest I don’t care. It’s about time we all started to speak up about this because these guys are persistent buggers that refuse to give up.

In the UK there is a thing called the Do Not Call list which marketers have to adhere to. This is a great initiative with a high penalty for those who ignore the list and recently a similar DNC list has appeared in SA.

My name is on that list although I’m not sure if marketers in SA actually adhere to the local DNC list. That said, every one of you should add your name so that we can prevent crap like this happening over and over again.

To Donn, all I can say is that I’m truly sorry you’re going through this. QVC need to get a grip and let off the small guys. They must know that their efforts are tricky and if not then they’re really out of touch with reality.

I think this is a pretty good response rate, all things considered, but for me the interesting bit was seeing that 88.4% of SA bloggers earn zero revenue from their blogs while the additional 11.6% earn no more than R3,000 a month.

As you can see, of the people who do earn money, the average a blogger makes is between R1 and R200 a month. 24.com have said that “blogging for the most part is not about making money” but I have to wonder if this isn’t because there hasn’t really been a viable method to earn revenue from blogs.

I have believed for a long time that bloggers don’t make money from their blogs not out of choice but simply because there hasn’t been a model that is tailored to them. I speak from experience since I’ve tried Google Adsense, Affiliate Marketing and various other forms of revenue generation and to be honest getting a cheque from Google once every six months for R750 just doesn’t cut it for me.

Most blogs don’t generate that much traffic so PPC and CPA are models that simply don’t work. These are great revenue streams if you’re generating 1 million plus impressions but if you’re only doing 5,000 it becomes a lot more difficult to make any real money.

I think this slide further validates my position on launching Adgator into the SA market. As with Afrigator, everything we’ve done has been based on our own personal experiences and Adgator is no different. There is a lot of money being thrown around in online advertising and I think it’s time bloggers shared in the revenue.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t like advertising that much and the thought of bombarding my limited readership with dodgy ads is not something I take lightly however I do feel that if the value proposition is right then I’d be happy to dedicated a spot on my site. If I can truly see earning potential then I’d take the plunge because R750 a month is a lot better than R750 every six.

Adgator has been doing phenomenally well since we launched it some two weeks ago and the good news for bloggers and advertisers is that we’ve just finished building the backend interfaces. This means bloggers and advertisers who’ve shown an interest and/or signed up will be getting login details to monitor their earnings and track campaigns.

Adgator has been an unbelievable learning experience. While we may have honestly believed we were ready for a launch I know now that there was no way we could have prepared ourselves for the massive uptake of the program. That said, the technology is now complete, we have most of the data we need and we have an exciting advertiser coming on board from 8 December. Money will start to filter through to the bloggers who’ve signed up and the earning potential is going to increase considerably in the new year.

I know that guys have itchy feet but in the coming months the average money earned by a blogger through Adgator is going to be a lot higher than R200! I can’t wait to see the blog survey stats this time next year…

One of the key points I raised in the presentation (sideshow here, video here) was that we were going to implement a revenue model for the website and in turn share the revenue with the bloggers. Ramon was the first person to ask how we planned on doing this but at the time we were still unclear as to the model and in truth it’s taken us almost 11 months to figure this one out.

Enter Adgator – a newly launched product, under the Afrigator stable, that links our blogging network to advertisers and helps to monetise blogs in a way that Google Adsense and other forms of online marketing simply can’t do.

The more I’ve been watching the collective growth of our network the more I’ve come to realise just how powerful blogs are in relation to other traditional websites. As an example, the top 100 blogs in South Africa (as measured by Afrigator) account for more than 1.7 million unique users and serves over 5.6 million page views each month.

This makes the network as powerful in terms of audience reach to South Africa’s #1 local website, News24, which also serves around 1.7 million uniques each month ~ (Nielsen Netratings – Q2 June 2008).

The scary part for me is that more than 1,200 blogs registered on Afrigator haven’t implemented our tracking code so they can’t be added to these figures and if you had to add them to the mix I have little doubt the network would look a whole lot different.

So, with a total network cap of 3.2 million unique users and 7.9 million page views I’ve often wondered how we can use this network to all of our advantage and I believe Adgator is the answer to this pondering.

The concept of Adgator is simple. Sign up as a blogger, insert a piece of code into your blog theme and we’ll go out and find advertisers who are willing to spend money. Each time a blogger sees one of our ads on their website they know that they’ve made money. Initially we’ll be sticking to a CPM model because that’s what advertisers understand and we will share 50% of the revenue with bloggers.

This model means that a blog serving as little as 2,500 page views a month can make R300 for doing nothing and if you’re lucky enough to be a high-traffic blog your earnings could be as high as six figures. Our aim with Adgator is to be as transparent as possible and all blog owners will have their own access to our system so they can track their earnings in real time. In our reporting we break down cost, revenue share and total income so the blogger knows exactly who’s getting what.

As an advertiser or media planner the value proposition is easy to quantify. Without realising it at the time Afrigator has been indexing, filtering, categorising and profiling blogs in a way that is perfectly tailored for this business model. Instead of throwing a banner up on a major traffic website we can now offer real, targeted advertising to markets and audiences that fit an advertisers’ needs perfectly.

Adgator excites me in a way I can’t describe. The possibilities are endless really but to start off we’ve invited 100 of SA’s top blogs to the network for a pilot program. Invitations were sent this morning and we’re in the process of finalising some exciting advertisers that will really compliment the product and blogs that the creatives appear on.

In the first quarter of 2009 we plan to implement this blog ad network in Kenya and Nigeria so watch this space for more details on these announcements.

If you’re a South African blogger and you didn’t get an invite but want to be a part of the network please visit the site and sign up. We’re certainly not going to limit the network to 100 blogs and the quicker we can build the network the better.

I’m sure you’ll have some questions, please feel free to ask me anything…

Disclaimer: This is not authoritative. It simply highlights the data that we have available on Afrigator and is not meant to be conclusive in any way.

Erik has a great post about the pothole theory and part of this theory is how we find it easier to care about those matters closest to us and why fixing a pothole in your road is seemingly more important that addressing some of the larger issues we are faced with today.

This kind of sums up why I haven’t written about Stormhoek before because I’ve been unsure of how I could contribute. Also, I wasn’t sure if blogging about this would actually make a difference but that’s a naive take to things.

I’ve learned in the last few days just how powerful blogging can be and hey, let’s face it, Stormhoek grew into the powerful brand that it is through the use of blogging and social media.

Many people feel very passionate about this issue as real jobs are at stake here and the future of Stormhoek is in jeopardy. In particular I’ve been impressed with people like Stii and Eve, read this great article on Bizcommunity, who’ve really tried to make a difference.

I think that as an online community, who’ve all benefited from Stormhoek sponsorships, we should try our level best to help Graham, Chris and the rest of the team by helping them recover some of the R6 million that is owed to them. Unfortunately I can’t afford to Own a Vine but I hope that others who can will help fight the cause and help save the company.

At the very least, let’s get the message out there!

Let me start by saying I think the SA Blog Awards has the potential to be a really good thing but every year, without fail, something goes wrong which undermines the integrity of this competition and to be fair I haven’t really cared about it until now.

After some delay the voting went live on Wednesday for the blogs that had been nominated by users and there are a couple of issues which need to be addressed.

Judges

Seriously, what’s up with this? The competition is nearly finished as we still don’t know who the judges will be. I’ve tried on a couple of occasions to find out what’s going on here but no one has a clue and there is little response from people who are seemingly involved in the process.

Categories

I was particularly upset to see that a lot of the categories that were up during the nomination phase have been removed. I realise that this was probably due to the lack of nominations but surely some explanation could have been provided?

Incorrect Placements

As an organiser I would assume there is a level of control over which sites get featured in which category but it seems that the SA Blog Awards is a free-for-all when it comes to this. For example how is it possible for Nudjit (a site which I started) to get accepted into the Technology category if the site was only launched a month ago? I thought this was the blog awards for 2007.

I also have an issue with Thought Leader being in the category Best SA Blog. Everyone I have spoken to agrees that Thought Leader is a platform (similar to Planet Blogs) but with a push it could be a group blog.

I haven’t spoken with either Vincent or Matt about their thoughts on this however this isn’t an issue with Thought Leader but rather an issue with the organising committee who allowed this to happen. You can twist this any which way you want to but Thought Leader isn’t a blog as much as Nudjit shouldn’t be in the blog awards this year.

Communication

While these issues above aren’t the be-all and end-all of things I do have a very serious problem with the communication. I personally have no idea who runs the competition (I know Jon Cherry is involved) but right from the start communication by the organisers has been appalling. I really would have liked to see what the motivation was for removing categories, why no one has bothered to explain why there are no judges for the competition and overall what the status was/is on the competition (i.e. delays, processes, etc.).

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

Mike was very opinionated about people moaning and not doing anything about this so in the spirit of his post I’m going to offer my assistance for the next blog awards. I’m not sure if the organisers will want me after this post but at worst I can assist them with the communication aspect which is the biggest flaw in my opinion.

In the article Kriel claims,

“I am passionate about freedom of expression and I was exercising my constitutional right when I posted the blog.”

He goes on to say that,

“Media in South Africa need to wake up quickly, there is an entirely new face to the media worldwide, influenced by cyberspace.”

Some other bloggers feel quite opinionated about this issue and are all claiming, directly or indirectly, that Kriel was fired because he blogged – not because he broke company policy.

While Kriel may claim he has some constitutional right to say what ever he feels I think we need to look at some of the facts.

1. Kriel is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years experience in the industry. Does this experience not bring with it some common sense when writing about critical operational information in a blog post or do the rules of the real world not apply to a blog or the cyberspace, as he puts it?

2. In order for Kriel to be an employee of the Sowetan (Avusa) he would have had to have signed a contract of employment which would have, in no uncertain terms, contained a clause preventing him from sharing the information he did in the blog post. I know my contract with Avusa prevents me from bringing the company’s name into disrepute and also prevents me from sharing operational information with competitors and/or the world.

3. Kriel chose a blog to share his disgruntled views however this doesn’t change the fact that he disregarded his contract of employment and in doing so made this a company policy issue – not a blogging issue. The Sowetan’s actions where justified and exercised to the fullest and there was nothing wrong with the final decision of giving Kriel the boot.

4. Did Kriel really disclose company information? I think so. For Kriel to even discuss an internal “Climate Survey” conducted for operational purposes is just not on. Avusa is a listed company and as such this post on company morale and the fact that there is a banning of all new appointments can and will have a direct impact on the share price of the company. I’m no stock broker but I do know that share prices are affected by perception and creating this vastly negative impression on the whole of Avusa is gross misconduct. Simple!

5. Taking this to the extreme we also need to look at the possible liability the Mail & Guardian have in this matter. Should Kriel plan to take further legal action what stops Avusa from taking direct action against the M&G for posting the offending blog post in the first place?

Thought Leader is a strictly moderated website and goes through an editorial work flow before a post or comment goes live on the platform. This means that whether M&G realise it they could become liable for every piece of content on the Thought Leader website and Avusa could argue Kriel’s post was a form of industrial sabotage by the competing newspaper.

While I honestly don’t believe the M&G did plan any form of sabotage (I know these guys personally!) I do have to question why the post ever made it onto the website in the first place. In my mind, someone should have canned it during the editorial process.

I have to just add that I’m tired of this being a new media issue – it isn’t and we all need to get a little perspective. If anything, Kriel’s ignorance to the rules of engagement online and his petty rant in a public forum have actually had an adverse effect for blogging in this country.

His actions have created this moronic impression that you are entitled to say whatever you want to and simply disregard any ethical or contractual obligations you may have because the constitution allows you this right.

As I see it, anyone who still uses the word cyberspace needs to wake up quickly – there is an entirely new dimension to what you’re allowed to do online and it’s influenced by real world rules.

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Within hours I stumbled upon the follow two websites.

Now this kind of thing is happening almost every single time I post a new item and it’s really pissing me off. Not only is my content being scraped but I’m sure this is having an effect on my Google rank? The only good thing about these above-two sites is that they’ve swapped the order of the words in my heading around so it almost looks unique but still……

I have to figure out a way to stop this but I just don’t know how.

We’ve hit the 20,000 mark before on Afrigator but this is the first time we’ve sent such big traffic to blog sites since the launch of the Afrigator Trends page. This got me thinking about the stats we track and I decided to play around and these are the results.

The table above uses data over a nine day period and shows all the metrics we have for total page views and clicks sent to blog sites. You can see from this table that we sent 104,536 clicks to blog sites and we tracked a total of 851,598 page views*.

From this I worked out the percentage of traffic we’re sending to blog sites in relation to the page views being recorded and this ratio shows that members of Afrigator get 12.28%* of their total page view traffic from us.

From the averages row I worked out the frequency at which we’re sending traffic to blog sites and below are some pretty cool, but utterly useless results.

• We send an average of 11,615 clicks to blog sites daily.
• 483.96 clicks are sent every hour.
• 8.07 clicks are sent every minute.

This effectively means that we’re sending a new user to a blog site every 7.44 seconds.

* Disclaimer: It is important to note that not every blog site signed up with Afrigator adds the tracking code to their website. This means that our Page View and Traffic Average figures are only as accurate as the sites we collect this data for. The Page View and Traffic Average figures would be vastly affected if all the blog sites used the Afrigator tracking code.

The total and average click through statistics remain unaffected and accurate despite this.

Not only has the design changed but I’ve redone my Profile, Projects and Contact page and brought them more up to date with what’s going on in my life. I’ve also taken on a new Blogroll strategy and I’ve decided to only link to people that I regularly interact with so I’m hoping to meet more people over the coming months and increasing my real-life blogroll.

There are several changes that will happen in the not too distant future:

1. There will be a rebranding of MyBlogLog and the exact timing and new brand are still unclear. There are thoughts by some that it may be called YahooBlogLog or MyYahooLog.
2. A new website redesign is in the works.
3. A new “Widget 2.0″ is coming with some hover features.
4. Offensive photos on MyBlogLog will also be removed so that it can be used on more conservative business blogs.
5. Some sort of method to turn off your presence for some types of sites will be added.

Now I’m sick with flu at the moment so my sense of humour is probably not what it should be but it would appear that Bullard’s article is simply a moronic tactic to get reaction out of the blogosphere and to build up publicity for the Sunday Times. youngBLOOD has said as much in his blog post this morning and I’m even more perplexed than before as everyone who was complaining last night seem to be all smiles today.

I know I’m no highly-paid, well-respected journalist for a major sunday newspaper but can someone humour me please?

A interesting point I got out of Bullard’s response was that he’s a columnist that has never based any of his commentary on fact and that’s was has made him last for 13 years. He goes on to say that had he based his article on fact then he’d simply be a journalist however that’s what makes him a columnist.

So, the question has to be asked Mr. Bullard – are you then just in fact a glorified blogger? It seems as if The Times’ new Editor in his blog post this morning might concur with me?

It would appear by your statements that your column simply does not go through the “journalistic” procedures of being proof-read, checked for facts and approved by the editor so I’m struggling to see the difference between you and I? Oh wait, it’s that huge salary you get paid.

Bullard goes on to say that as a journalist he has responsibilities unlike “us” bloggers when writing which makes me see red. How can he claim to have responsibilities when he can go on a scathing attack like he has against 70-million people world-wide and create a vastly negative impression to his huge Sunday Times readership?

If this is Sunday Times’ reaction then I’m appalled.

UPDATE: This is just for some great fun! I think I’ll take this stance from here on in.

My good friend Vincent Maher has hit hard at Bullard and rightly so and I support him and the entire blogosphere 100% in the demand of a public apology by the Sunday Times.

My quote on Vincent Maher’s blog:

I always had the utmost respect for Bullard but now I have to say – what an utter, mindless, self-serving wanker. That gun-shot wound has simply opened the moronic floodgates.

How the Sunday Times can endorse this rubbish and pay Bullard for writing such drivel is beyond me. Support the plight and join the facebook group.

The ultimate reason why this article has pissed me off is because Bullard is simply negating the entire blogosphere in one fell swoop and portraying a negative outlook to his readers who probably don’t even understand what blogging is. My entire effort on Afrigator the last month or so is meaningless since his readers now think we’re all axe murders.

If he bothered to do a little research he’d find out that blogging can be a more powerful tool for breaking news than normal traditional media but I guess none of that’s valid because it isn’t filtered by sub-editors, editors and publishers?

In closing I might add that possibly there is justification in “looking at legislation to gag legitimate publications” as Bullard so poignantly put it?

You can read more response to this at the following “would-be” serial-killer blogs:

• Wired Gecko
• Nic Haralambous
• Uno de Waal
• Marius
• Shaun Dewberry
• Neverness