Forget Twitter, soon everyone will be “Yammering”. Yammer is the new networking site for companies. Through private, internal communication, staff in an organization can keep in touch with one another. Pre-designated groups can also be formed to enable group conversations. This micro- blogging service was launched in September 2008 and is unlike Twitter as messages are not available for public display. Over 70 000 companies use Yammer as a way to communicate. Only those with appropriate email... (more...)

Landing Page Optimisation One of the most critical factors in determining how many of your visitors will convert into sales or leads depends on the design and layout of your page and site as a whole. Without a well planned and thought out structure, you may as well throw your money down the drain. Landing Page Optimisation or LPO is a procedure within Search Engine Optimisation that aims at increasing conversions by analysing  and modifying existing key pages. Relevant Content Make sure that the... (more...)

Facebook- the social media site that has taken the world by storm. With 1 million users in 2004 to over 400 million users in 2010, Facebook has become one of the most common ways to communicate with people not only on the other side of the world but next door too. Despite the number of users, Facebook has recently been taking slack from many of its followers. It has slowly been increasing the amount of data that can be shared with “friends” on Facebook. Between December 2004 and April 2010,... (more...)

Google SA launched YouTube South Africa in an effort to make searching for and streaming video quality simpler and faster for South Africans. The South African version of the immensely popular video sharing social network runs off of www.youtube.co.za. It is not immediately clear how much content will be hosted on local servers, but it is definately clear that speed is a big reason for the service becomming local. As part of the launch a partnership agreement has been signed with the SABC and e-tv.... (more...)

The Ramp Foundation, started by Ramp Group, is a N.P.O focused on inspiring, educating and equipping entrepreneurs in South Africa. Most entrepreneurs in South Africa struggle to get the capital required to fund their ideas. The Ramp Foundation seeks to provide these ambitious entrepreneurs with the capital outlay. Net Prophet Bursary The Net Prophet Bursary was established to assist those who have the innovation and desire to succeed but do not have the financial backing to do so. If you are an... (more...)

Adriaan Pienaar AKA ‘Eddy Rockstar’ gives us some insight into the lessons he has learnt while building Woo Themes You can start up your business from anywhere Start an International Business – Not a South African business. (Change your view about your business to that of a global one) No Funding – Bootstrap & Monetize – If you plan and manage your business properly, you can continue growing without having to slow down, while you wait for funding Marketing the Stigma Branding:... (more...)

The important things to consider when you are looking to raise funding for your new business, or business idea, you need to concentrate on the following: Have a great team You need a good plan Be a good networker Build a ‘Great pitch’ (if you can’t deliver your message in 1-2 sentences, then it’s not simple enough for a funder) Have a good demo Be persistent (don’t give up) Remain passionate about your business Show potential Build products, not services (service ... (more...)

Sanlam Investment Management host a corporate challenge every year for 3 days. This years’ support charity is Cotlands. JD Internet Consulting took part in the mini challenge event on Wednesday 5 May 2010 at the Johannesburg Zoo. This mini event was intended to replicate the Sanlam Investment Management South African Challenge. The team members taking part and thus representing JD Consulting were Paul von Zeuner (Team Captain), Jonathan Houston, Nick Duncan and Megan Trow (the only girl on the... (more...)

By definition LSI is an indexing and retrieval method that makes use of a certain mathematical technique known as the Singular Value Decomposition. The theory behind LSI, however, is not of importance to us. All we need to know is how LSI works. LSI considers other, somewhat related , words on your site with regards to ranking. In other words, excuse the pun, words taken from sites considered to be “authority sites” are set aside in a database that Google references when determining how to rank... (more...)

Ready to depart from the station How you ask? Well, either you have the bank balance, or you have the connections. For the moment, it’s the latter for me. Thanks to Red Pepper Books being a member of the esteemed ABSA Rewards loyalty program, we were invited to be part of a, for many, once in a lifetime experience and total treat. This exclusive occasion was only open to a select 72 people for the day (we were two of those). It all begins… 08h30, we met at the Capital Park Station in Pretoria,... (more...)