In our previous articles on this topic, we have covered many of the obstacles facing Internet Marketers in South Africa and in other countries outside the U.S.A. If you haven’t seen these other articles yet, please read them. These previous articles outline the difficulties facing non US marketers and mention certain obstacles, offers and euphemisms that further complicate things.

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt7

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We were talking about the problems I encountered after I had bought the bookstore. Well firstly, the whole bookstore was in php with cpanel control panel, my sql and a whole lot of Greek terms. You remember I had worked with online and offline editors in wysiwyg and a little html. Well now I was lost.

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt6

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We have covered quite a few problems facing South Africans already and here are some more. Overseas companies, particularly those in the U.S.A, offering opportunities, services and resources, usually require a fixed email address, at the time of joining. This is to prevent temporary accounts and others such as Hotmail, from being used, as it is very easy to cancel, or change, after joining and the marketer is left with a useless address, in his contact list. South Africans have another problem, in that most of our suffixes, such as .co.za, telkomsa, za, are not allowed. Usually your country is required and many of the drop down menus have small, insignificant countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mauritius, Ivory Coast listed, but not South Africa. So we have to get ourselves an email address with an overseas company, just to comply. Why?

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt5

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By now, you are probably wondering what other problems I’m talking about and how they are affecting our chances of success. If you have been involved for a while, you have probably encountered a few of these yourself and if you are a newbie, you are likely to still come across these problems soon.

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt4

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As the internet is still relatively new to South Africa, we don’t have many experts, or experience in the field. Those calling themselves experts, have only a limited knowledge and are far too expensive, when compared to overseas competitors. Simple things like service provision, web hosting, design and site building, software, tools, optimisation and advertising, are grossly overpriced. In most cases, they are bought overseas and resold here. I was given a quote, last month, of R120 ($17) per month, for basic, small webhosting service, excluding the domain registration and excluding the internet service provision. That was only the hosting! I was quoted R6000 ($857) for a designer, to look at one of my websites and to make a couple of small changes. It is crazy. We pay between R8 and R12 for an mp3 song, which costs from 10c to 90c in the U.S.A.

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt3

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Recent political changes, have reversed the fortunes of the South African population, in that the previously disadvantaged black community, now have money and the fine things in life, including access to the internet. Whereas before they wouldn’t have been considered a viable market, they are now able to access the internet and dabble in small business. They want more. The whites, on the other hand, now find themselves out of work, unsure of the future and desperately seeking an alternative means of income. Both groups make good target markets, and both are particularly keen on using the internet to improve their lot in life. Remember, the internet is the biggest employer in the world and does not recognise age, colour, education, physical disabilities, wealth etc. People hear of the successes achieved on the internet and are fooled into looking for a quick fix. The internet and marketing via this medium, gives everyone an equal opportunity, well, almost everyone. Not South Africans, unfortunately.

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Internet Marketing In South Africa pt2

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For those of you not living in Africa, or those who live in the larger cities, you may not be interested in this topic and in fact, may find it quite boring, but for those of you, who, like us, are battling to get reasonable internet access, there is hope.

We have battled for ages and tried every means possible, to get away from this dreadful dial up modem and the restrictions placed on us, by Telkom and over the past 6 months, we have intensified our efforts and have documented our progress in a series of articles.

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Will We Ever Get Better Internet Access

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Okay, we hoped we had possibly found a way around the hill problem. The head honcho of PMB Computers had agreed to come out and see where I am suggesting they install a repeater station.  If you have been following this series on internet access (or lack thereof in South Africa) you will know how many attempts we have made so far, in trying for faster internet connection, here in our part of South Africa. If you haven’t been following, you can see the other articles under the category South Africa on my blogsite at http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness in the archives, under SA Business.

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We Are Still Battling For Faster Internet Connection In SA

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Those of you who have been following my weekly ordeals, in trying to get meaningful internet access, will remember, that the guys from PMB Computer Services, came out to my smallholding, to conduct a signal test. You will also remember, that they found no signal at all, as a pesky hill was in the way. I ended off, by saying it looked as if I’d have to take a spade and start digging the hill out. Well since then, several other events have ocurred. The previous articles in this story are available on my blog at http://dersalsites.com/southafricanbusiness

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We Are Still battling To Get Faster Internet In SA

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The legendary Kruger Millions, refers to treasure allegedly hidden by, or on behalf of, President Paul Kruger, in the latter stages of the South African Boer War, between 1899 and 1902. Some people believe that the amount involved is largely exaggerated, while others think that this is  amongst the largest undiscovered treasure chests in the world. According to written and verbal reports, the Kruger Millions could be valued as follows. The total gold production from 1884 to 1900, exceeded R170 million, at the then price of gold, which was R8,50 per Troy ounce. No official records say just how much of this belonged to the Government, but it is known that the Government mined gold before they evacuated the Witwatersrand in 1900 and it is also known that nine days before the outbreak of the war, the Transvaal Government, headed by Kruger, seized the gold that was about to be shipped to Europe.

  Shortly after this, it also took possession of all the native gold, in the hands of all the banks. The government banned any export of gold and on March 20 1900, the Treasury was authorised to commandeer gold coins from all the banks. This was estimated to be in excess of R1 000 000.00 and was supposed to be in exchange for security to an equal amount. The British banks refused to accept unminted gold, in exchange for the R510 000 in coins, taken from them. During the period from September 1899 to May 1900, 947 000 Ponde, or gold Pounds, were produced at the ZAR Mint, with a total value of     R1 894 000.00. According to some reports, silver coins, to the value of R94 342.00 were also produced by the mint, at that time. Although the actual amount is not material, the fate of these coins, if they were in fact produced, might very well be. At today’s prices this missing treasure is estimated to be worth in excess of $ 247 000 000.00

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The Legend Of The Kruger Millions

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