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I've always thought I was too boring for anyone to want to hack my web accounts. Turns out I was wrong - someone hacked into my gmail account and used it to send sales letters to my database. Thankfully, the people who hacked me write so badly that no one actually believed that the email could possibly come from me. A few sent me short notes to warn me that I'd been hacked. So guys, thank you

I used to follow a blogger called Caroline Middlebrook, who was a former software developer. Turns out she quit blogging and developed a software package called Imautomator, which submits your links to a number of free social bookmarking sites.  The free service allows you a daily quota of 10 links to be scheduled for submission to 15 social bookmarkting sites. Not a bad deal, if the package is

Crowds at Spring Fair being entertained.  (Image courtesy of ILKA) I'm presenting an Introduction to Blogging workshop at the St Giles Association on the 25th September. The event aims to empower small business owners and NGOs in my community to use social media to promote their businesses or cause. It's also a way to help raise money for St Giles. Basically, I donate s couple of hours,

Today's post is a list, because I have a variety of stuff to communicate.1. Had a friend from out of town come over to visit for a couple of days. 2. Then we went to visit my family in Phokeng. It was all good and i loved hanging out with my mother, older brother and his family and my older nephews ( older sister's kids).3. Lost my cellphone on the way to Phokeng ( I made a stop at a McD's and at

Earlier this month I set up a blog and online store for my friend Neo2. So yesterday she emailed me saying asking me to educate her on making her blog and online store financially viable.As you can imagine, there are no magic answers. Online businesses demand just as much hard work as brick and mortar businesses, and my setting up the blog for her was the easy part.The hard part is making sure

So yesterday my personal Facebook profile signed up the 400th "friend." What does it mean to me?Not all of the friends listed there are personal friends: some are colleagues I met through study and work throughout the years, some are neighbours, or friends I met online, or friends I grew up with or met at varsity, or fellow writers. Some are family members (my brothers, sisters and our inlaws,

I've just finished reading Changing Jamie by Dakota Chase, and it's a sweet, coming of age/coming out story that I think many teenagers should read.The ebook tells the story a teenaged boy who has come to the realisation that he's gay and comes out to his mother, school and falls in love with Dylan, a popular athlete at their school. Dylan does not fit in the stereotype of brainless jock, so the

Today I learnt that when you establish an online presence and people begin to notice you, you also attract a number of critics, even personal attacks. Today, one of the readers on a page I manage went to my personal Facebook page and criticised me quite heavily for something that he thinks I didn't do. I had several options:1. Delete his messages2. Ignore him3. State my case4. Fight backI'd

One of the challenges I face when talking to my clients about the value of online communication versus broadcasting, is the issue of reach. How many South Africans can they potentially reach online? Is having web presence good value for money, or something that they should do because gurus tell them they should, and maybe years down the line they're going to start getting the benefit?Indra de

Working to the beat of OneLove music videos from Malawi. I don't understand half the stuff they're saying, as I don't speak the language, but I have to say the music rocks! I'm enjoying much more than I expected, and nope, I'm not just saying that because it's mu job to promote OneLove:-)Read on Botswana's Sunday Standard that Google will be available for full function in Setswana language in

I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks aggressively promoting the blogs and web sites that I work on for clients.Traffic is still coming in steadily, but I know a lot of people make resolutions at the beginning of the year ( and decide to trim their non-essentials) so I think I should remind them why they liked these sites in the first place. So I'm open to guest-blogging, republishing some

I'm buried under a mountain of bids from developers and web site designers who responded to the job advert I placed. I've decided not to start reading them until Tuesday, so I deal with the whole batch at once. Want to make the decision by Friday.Anyhoo, the next time you need to have done by a freelancer, check out www.getacoder.com, www.getafreelancer.com and www.freelanceswitch.com. Obviously

I regularly receive the following statements on one of the blogs that I manage:Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!Hey, I found your blog while searching on Google your post looks very interesting for me. I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!I read a few topics. I respect your work and

I've been invited to join a panel of judges of the 2009 South African E-Commerce Awards. The Awards are run by Jump.co.za, a South African online shopping search engine."These awards have been designed to recognise and reward those companies and organisations that have demonstrated excellence through the use of the Internet, with specific emphasis on E-Commerce. The Awards are open to South

Hi,visit my blog: http://productspammerisselling.wordpress.comNo spam!!!!If you report my blog at wordpress, you will die!!!!Visit us!!!!LOL! Now I'm really motivated to visit this web site and buy their product.

Last week I suggested that readers Ask Me Questions. BeckyJoie at Leaders in Learning wanted to know:1. How do you, as a blogger track readership and elicit comments from your readers?2. Do you have a mission statement for your writing? I have goals and a vision for mine but am curious about others. I'm thinking about blogging on this and wondered about your views on the idea since you come

The client I was uneasy about approved the blog framework, with only minor changes. So I’m very happy that that project is almost completed. I’m also happy with the response the post I have on Female2Female is getting today. We’re chatting about how women feel about carrying condoms in their purses. Please feel free to join the discussion.And finally, last call for people who expressed interest

Working in my home office is very different from working in the living room of my house. I didn't realise how much noise I automatically ignored while I was working in the house, until I moved into this very quiet space, where the only noise is the tip-tap of my keyboard, the laptop's fan ( yup, suddenly I hear it!) and the occassional music when I choose to play it. This is sooo nice!The only

Today I was chatting to a friend of mine who's a PR manager for a multinational IT conglomerate, and we were brainstorming about how he could use Twitter more effectively in his business.We were also talking about mutual acquaintances who are also on Twitter, and the conversations that they are having etc. And it struck me that I'm not listening to many of these conversations. I'm not even

Finally I can give the details of the BIG PROJECT I've been working on since mid-December.It's a web portal of OneLove, a Southern African Campaign that began rolling out across southern Africa in October 2008. The campaign began in Tanzania and will cover Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The campaign aims to get us thinking and talking

When work gets hectic, I sometimes wonder if blogging is a good idea, and that the time could be better spent writing more creatively or even spending time on myself and my family.And then something happens that reminds me why I find blogging so fulfilling. Like yesterday - I received a comment from a childhood friend of a friend, asking me if I have our mutual friend's contact details. I have

Congratulations to LOOK & LISTEN for winning the 2008 South African E-Commerce Award. Also well done to the category winners, some of whom have fantastic sites I enjoyed visiting. The full anouncement of the winners and URLs to their web sites is hereThe South African E-Commerce Award is run by Jump Shopping, a South African online shopping search engine. It recognises and/ rewards companies and

Today, just before noon, I received an email from Baby’s school: A very unfortunate incident took place earlier today between the SA Police and a gang of high-jackers who were fleeing the scene of a crime. During the incident, the hijackers opened fire with a AK47 rifle and fatally wounded the policeman who was in pursuit of the high-jackers.The letter explained that our kids were safe, and

I have a big apology to make today. I inadvertently spammed my whole address book through Facebook. I was trying to learn how to use the invitation feature, and I accidently clicked on it to send invitations to my whole address book.Emails even went to lists that I belong to.That is not cool, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people were ticked with me. Firstly, not everyone in my address book

Just came across a pre-school that allows parents to monitor their children via the Internet. Opti-Baby Centres feature web enabled cameras that monitor the movement and everyday activities of your child. This offers you the unique opportunity to view your child any time of the day. I think it’s a fantastic use of technology to give parents peace of mind, so they can periodically view their