Joburg Moyo Meet Up

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in...@jh-01.com

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May 9, 2008, 4:36:35 AM5/9/08
to SA UX forum
Hi all,

Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who came to last nights
meet up and for making it such a success. I think it was pretty much
unanimous that everyone would like to meet again so I'll get cracking
on that. We can also discuss formats for future sessions - we were
split between wanting presentations / sharing and just hanging out and
drinking :) I don't want to get too formal too soon so I'll be looking
for a middle ground which we can discuss in time.

It was really great to meet the people I have not met before -
especially Larry from Eskom who only found the UX Forum last Friday
and decided to come along anyway - rad! It's interesting that Larry's
thinking of a career change from programming so he was just checking
out the conversation and 'culture'. We also had some project managers
and BA's which added to thinking and talking more broadly about UX.

I for one really benefitted from the discussions about our day to day
experiences with clients, what it means to do this kind of work in SA,
the SA market for UX and some discussion of process - thanks for the
insights and support.

People who attended: in no particular order
Larry
Jane
Kathy
Vlad
Darryl
Lisa
Emily
Craig
Helga
Liezel
Isabella
Patrick
Jason

Laters,

J

Larry

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May 14, 2008, 8:46:09 PM5/14/08
to SA UX forum

Thank you, Jason. I was captivated listening to the guru's articulate
UX knowledge. It motivated me to mention UX to fellow colleagues,
expressing my desire to be involved in a similar role with forthcoming
projects. Thus far, it has been surprisingly well received...

I'm spending all my free time researching User Experience Design,
Interaction Design, Human Factors, User Expectations, User-centered
Design, Usability et al. Gosh, so much information to assimilate!
Concepts and ideas are slowly becoming clearer. UX is such an
exciting field, it's rather difficult to drag my body to bed.

May I suggest "BarCamp" to spread the word?

- http://barcamp.org/BarCampJohannesburg
- http://barcamp.org/BarCampCapeTown
- http://barcamp.org/BarCampDurban

Larry

Patrick Homan

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May 16, 2008, 4:35:19 AM5/16/08
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Howdy ppl

2 questions:

1. Can anyone recommend any good SEO companies in SA?

I've seen that pretty much every web design company I've come across offer SEO as a service, but I'm highly sceptical about their effectiveness in this area. It seems that they simply use the SEO 'buzzword' to attract new clients but rarely have any practical experience.

I've had relatively good success with doing my own SEO, but now need a company that specialises in it.

2. Can anyone recommend any good Digital Marketing companies in SA? Specifically Online marketing.
A friend of mine is nearing completion of his latest online dev project & is in need of assistance with online marketing.
==============

And now some fodder for discussion:

Do you guys agree that SEO & Digital Marketing go pretty much hand in hand? 
I personally think that if your online marketing is good & done the right way, then your site should be easily findable. I see these two fields merging to become one in the future. Wot u reckon?

:)

Patrick Homan
cell: 083 320 8098


AJK

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May 16, 2008, 4:56:57 AM5/16/08
to SA UX forum
A company in Cape Town specialises in SEO, called QUIRK.
They are expensive.

Depending on how much you are willing to pay, you can go to them or I
can recommend some reading (notes and websites) for you, which will
give you more than enough.

Web marketing focusses on people.
SEO focusses on Search Engines.

What they do share is the focus on "trying to sell themselves".

jh-01

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May 16, 2008, 5:35:42 AM5/16/08
to sa-ux...@googlegroups.com

Pat –

 

We’re working with Purple Cow on one of our projects and they’re pretty good. They also offer copy editing (getting them keywords in).

 

If you’re looking specifically for the copy editing side and some best practise and audit type work also try Marc (he’s on this forum).

 

Digital marketing: there are loads. A good start would be those listed on Biz Community.

 

J

 

 

 





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Marc

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May 17, 2008, 6:30:01 AM5/17/08
to SA UX forum
Hi Patrick

Most of the best SEO people in SA aren't web design or development
companies, but rather affiliate marketers and the like - these guys
work in the most competitive SEO environments and their livelihood
depends on achieving practical results. In my experience they are the
ones who are always on top of the latest developments, as they're at
the coalface literally in a daily basis. Web design/development
companies tend to take a snapshot of SEO at a given moment and then
implement this for clients on an ongoing basis, so they're usually not
up to speed, especially in competitive online industries.

So the best people to talk to are the ones who do SEO for a living,
rather than those who offer it as an additional service. In Jhb, one
of the best is a guy called Mark van Diggelen, who cut his SEO teeth
in the ultra-competitive SEO market of online gaming, and now operates
SA's foremost online gaming platform supply company, SkillPod Media.

Another excellent SEO person in Jhb is Warren Aronson, who was one of
the founders of Aqua and now runs a suite of affiliate marketing sites
- he's probably too busy on this to do SEO for anyone else, but he
might be prepared to - for a price of course!

I can put you in touch with both of these.

In Cape Town, there's also Vinny Lingham (yes, I know, a dodgy name if
ever there was one, but he knows his stuff) - www.vinnylingham.com. He
runs an SEO company called incuBeta - www.incubeta.com.

On a personal note, as Jason was kind enough to point out, I do SEO
writing on a daily basis, some of it for these affiliate marketers -
and I've also worked for an international SEO marketing team in the
online casino industry - one of the most competitive markets. So I've
got a lot of real world SEO experience - would be happy to chat :)

Cheers
Marc
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