It is always nice to know, that your articles are actually being read and even nicer, to hear from some of the people, who have read them. In response to our 6 part article series, on the problems faced by South African internet marketers and the continuing saga of trying to get better internet access, I have received many emails, from fellow South Africans, who are still in SA, or who have left our shores. They all agree, that we are seriously disadvantaged, in the internet world.

We have been touched, that they actually took the trouble, to write to us and that they have even signed up for our mailings. By the way, you can find all these articles on my blog, in the archives, under the heading South Africa. But, it goes to show, how many can associate with our past experiences and although varied, the biggest problems, for the most part, seem to be similar.

As we have mentioned, in our previous articles on the subject, there is no getting away from the fact, that America owns and controls the internet. Sometimes, it seems that they are the only ones using it. No matter what program, email promotion, or search you follow, you inevitably end up at an American site.

Although we encourage feedback and love hearing from you, we will not tolerate spam. Each and every day, I receive comments in strange languages, hate mail and all sorts of advertising links, some even to porn sites. I simply delete these. If you have no worthwhile comment to make on a relevant subject, please don’t waste your time and mine. You will be deleted.

Okay, now for some of the points raised by our readers. One strongly critical comment came from a South African lady. She said that on seeing our articles, she thought “Thank God” there are other South Africans, trying to make marketing in SA easier. On closer inspection, she condemned us for being just like all the other US marketers. She even picked us out for using American spelling and language.

This is a valid point and I can see how, with only an hours reading, she arrived at that conclusion. We are definitely South Africans and we write in South African English and spell correctly, but as we said earlier the US controls the internet. Their software is designed to work on their terms, not ours. We submit all our articles to sites that check them, alter them and syndicate them. Surely you have noticed when typing on Word or Excel that the program keeps picking you out on your spellings and grammar. The same applies here. The reviewers assume we have spelt incorrectly.

The same goes for products, books, tools and other things. We can promote them, but we use the tools and sales pages given us by the merchant, who is American. We cannot go changing that material. You may have noticed the live clock on our blog. It also gives the time in the USA. So we can join together and help one another, but until we have all the facilities, banks, products, programs, software designers and means to rival the US, we will just have to accept that some things can not be changed.

Payment portals, are another problem. PayPal is by far the most popular, but they don’t cater for South Africans. Sure, you can make payments through them, but you cannot hold a merchant account, receive payments, or draw from the account.

No matter what program you join, or what product you choose to promote, the sales copy will be American. They use American terms like “sloppy joe”, the spelling and grammar is different and of course the price is always in Dollars. This is simply because these are their products and they make the rules.

The thing is, you can’t get away from their supremacy. They do control the internet. Most programs, scams, affiliate plans and products are American. You can’t change that fact. The payment portals, used by the world, are geared up to accept currencies in US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, UK Pound, Euros and Aussie Dollars. That’s it. Definitely not the Rand.

What this means, is no matter how hard you try to establish a S.A identity and be different and market at home, you still have American tools, scripts, payments and so on. There is no getting away from it. It is a numbers game. SA has about 5 million regular, home internet users, US has about 800 million. We just have to adapt or die.

So, yes I’m guilty of using American sales copy. But in my defence, I must point out, that we have been marketing online, for a few years now. We have established a business by doing so. Only recently, we decided to try, to change a few things and to help others, with the typical non US problems. This takes time. I do not have all the answers yet and we have to keep alive while trying to make these changes. The point is, at the moment, if you don’t sell US products, then what are you going to sell? This transformation will take a lot of work and a lot of time.

The next biggest problem, is access. So few South Africans, have decent, fast internet access, at home. You can’t do all your marketing from work and it is a real pain, using dialup. We have very little coverage here and although there are around 28 million internet users in SA, most of these only have access from work. I have been covering this topic in another series of articles.

This payment thing, becomes a problem, when joining most affiliate programs too. They don’t tell you, but they normally only pay into PayPal accounts and you can’t have one. So you can promote to your heart’s content, but you will never earn your commissions. When joining affiliate programs, watch out for this. Most use PayPal.

Many have asked for a South African business. They want to deal locally, in our currency and with our local market. Unfortunately, there is no program I can recommend at this stage, but we are trying to adapt one, for local use.

We have encountered many setbacks, that make it all the more difficult, to succeed on the internet, but we are trying to overcome these, both for our own good and for you too. The thing is, they have to be dealt with one at a time and as we don’t live there and have to communicate with each company by mail, this is a time consuming task. They also don’t really see us as a big enough market, so are not very willing to make changes.

We have teamed up with a few of the top US marketers to try to alleviate our problems and will keep you informed of our progress. Make sure to join our mailing list, visit our blogs and let us know what problems are affecting you. We stand a better chance of fixing them, as a group, rather than a couple of individuals. Share your frustrations and your solutions with us.
 
Hope you find success and please keep in touch. We must help each other. Tell all your friends about us and we will keep you posted, as to future developments. So, again, to all of you, please feel free to contact us, with any problems, suggestions, complaints, enquiries, success stories, messages of hope, or anything else. We love hearing from you all, as long as it is not hate mail, or scams, or spam.

Although my articles are largely aimed at South Africans and those who have left our country, either temporarily, or permanently, they are by no means only for South Africans. I just try to find interesting topics, with a local perspective, like rugby. No matter where you live, we may be able to help you, or vice versa. At least, we may be able to entertain you with our writings. Please feel free to join in. Due to the large amount of spam we receive daily, we haven’t advocated the use of email, so just leave a comment on our site, or blog.

Best regards to all of you and good luck, in what ever you are doing. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for our free newsletter mailings.

We will be using our blogs more as a sort of SA group focus. Like our headquarters and will start giving you a few gifts every now and then. Tell all your pals, especially the ous from SA, that this is where it’s happening. Lekker bly.

If you are a SA oke, then you love rugby. Get a fee fixture list and score sheet for the world Cup, by going to my blog and clicking on the menu on the right, where it says “Page - Rugby World Cup.”

Derek Robson is an up and coming, South African internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet. He and his wife Sally have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. For daily postings and the other articles on Internet Marketing In South Africa, check his blogsite, at: http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness  

To remain informed of our progress, in trying to find satisfactory alternatives, by newsletter and mail and to get recommended tools and lessons and to start your journey to wealth, sign up here. It’s free. Click this link: http://www.dersalsites.com/newsletter/  We will even throw in some free software for you, when you join.

Make sure you get our course on Internet Marketing. This is a comprehensive course, comprising of over 243 pages, with pictures and videos, to help explain exactly what to do. This is a fantastic e-course and is broken into 13 lessons. To get your free course, click here  http://dersalsites.com/course/  

Sally has a passion for gardening. Visit her website at http://dersalsites.com/gardening/  and her blog at: http://dersalsites.com/sallysgardeningtips/

The Secret is no longer a secret. Find out more about the Law Of Attraction and how you can apply it in your life to get anything you want. Look at this http://dersalsites.com/loa/

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