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The semantic web for publishers and bloggers

The semantic web is often referred to as the “next phase” of the world wide web. It’s also sometimes referred to — perhaps pretentiously…

Powering your site: Technology choices

Making the wrong technology choice can cripple your online business. It can mean expensive maintenance and development costs down the line. It could mean…

New launch: Easy web publishing via Synthasite

Well, well, well. The boys and girls from Incubeta — the PPC marketing company — have been busy. They’ve launched Synthasite. I’m a bit…

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a blog?

What is this? Can someone tell me.

'Beware the power of social media'

This popped into my inbox this afternoon. I know Jovan Regasek well and have big respect for the man, ITWeb and the other publications…

The future of the newspaper

From: “European papers optimistic on future — with web’s help” (Sent to me by M&G Online editor, Riaan Wolmarans.) …but European editors interviewed by…

Blogs mark the first 10 years

Interesting article spotted in the Guardian. “After a quiet start they revolutionised the web; now one is born every second. The first entry on…

Where are the great online magazines? Where?

Magazines have not enjoyed the same high profile, runaway success of their newspaper counterparts in the online world. Magazines aren’t big online. Websites of print magazines have had a rather low profile in more than 10 years of internet in this country. Compare this to the high-profile online news brands that rake in big numbers and you will see what I mean. It’s no secret that the news brands dominate the top half of the local online readership rankings, whereas very few magazines even make the top 50 sites….

Bloggers can now enter major journalism award

Just noticed that the Telkom ICT Journalist of the year award now has a “Citizen Journalist” category, accepting entries from blogs or personal websites….

Online ‘permanence’

Imagine a world where you could actively sell advertising on archived content. Well, it’s here. Content on a website should never die. Never, ever. To delete content on a website is a waste. Online articles and their links should be permanent. In the world of the dead tree, articles have limited lifespans. You read your paper, then it’s used to wrap fish and chips, is thrown in the rubbish bin, or lives a lonely life of obscurity in some dusty library archive….

It’s about branding, stupid

Online advertising is not only about clicks, leads and acquisitions… branding is important too. There are a number of competing online advertising models on the net. By far the most dominant one used by online publishers is the Cost-per-Thousand (CPM) model. CPM is the closest online advertising gets to advertising in traditional media. The advertiser pays in advance to place an advert that will be displayed to the website’s readership base, which should generate return on investment. Through the campaign there will be branding for the advertiser, click-throughs on the advert, leads and hopefully acquisition of the product. Everyone’s happy?

Why can’t we all just get along?

The media world is undergoing profound change. We know the great catalyst for these changes has been the onward march of the digital age and the arrival of the internet.

This changing mediascape is often incorrectly portrayed as a battlefield, with two main skirmishes on the go. In the first “battle”, the soldiers have grown weary or just rather bored. This battle involves traditional media (newspapers, radio, TV) versus online media. The second “battle” is a much more interesting to look at. This skirmish involves mainstream media (which in this instance includes online publishers as they mostly practise traditional journalism) versus citizen media, which includes bloggers, vloggers and podcasters….

Battle of the business sites

Websites that report on financial news and information were always going to crack it online. The web is the perfect medium for delivering up-to-the-minute financial news and data. Moreover, the LSM of the average business news reader matches that of the online reader: Both are high. The five biggest consumer-focused business sites, reporting on general financial news in South Africa, are engaged in a tussle to capture a bigger share of this lucrative reader and advertising market….

Sunday Times revamps website

Sunday Times has relaunch their site. The redesign looks great. Following the latest trend in creating wide-format sites, their website really hits the spot…

The Google plan: sell advertising everywhere

Those clever guys at Google… they’re planning to “organise the world’s information”, but also they should add that after organising that information, they’re going…

Scoop: New "Web 2.0" recruitment site launches in South Africa

Here’s a scoop for ya. I’ve just been alerted to what looks like a new and pretty serious “Web 2.0” entrant in the South…

Is Google a monster?

On Poynter emedia tidbits on which I am a fellow contributor, the big question is asked of the dot.com mega success story, Google: “Can…

We Media

Journalism on the internet is becoming a “conversation” rather than a “sermon”. Mainstream media should take note. What’s going on with the internet these…

Court judgement pasted on Google.be homepage

Here’s something I bet you’ve never seen before. See this rather long court judgement from a Belgian court pasted on Google’s normally-minimalist and clean…

50m bloggers, 6bn people — but who gets to speak?

Ethan Zuckerman, the founder of Tripod and activist site Global Voices Online, emphasised just how difficult it is to get news about Africa, especially…

The people have written

Now South Africa has its own citizen journalism website in Johnnic’s commendable reporter.co.za The relentless pace of technology is turning everyone into citizen reporters….

The future of online advertising

Here’s a prediction: Expect online advertising to increasingly resemble television commercials. Soon there won’t be too much difference between an advert you see on…

Cool newsblog by Bush radio

Thanks to Bush Radio for alerting me to their cool blog project by their trainees. It’s not quite opinion and comment, which is what we…

Broadband Africa Forum 2024

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