This series of articles that I will be doing over the coming weeks will discuss Market Research. We will be showing you how to evaluate the potential of your website. In this series we will show you the importance of knowing your target market and how to take advantage of the internet to meet them. Following this series will help you evaluate whether your market is saturated or difficult to compete in. It will help you decide whether a website will be an investment or a drain on your finances.

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I went out today and shot some snakes. In the action I got a Mozambican spitting cobra in full spit. I know that this particular shot is sought after by snake photographers and consider myself very lucky to have gotten this shot.

Spitting Cobra spitting

Tomorrow I will add a gallery of snakes to Mpumalanga Photography

Christmas is coming and here are a few gift ideas. I know everybody is starting to worry about Christmas and thinking what will I get for the mother in law, What about my sister? Well here are a few ideas that I have come up with.

I could talk about bath time goodies, perfume, ties and socks, biltong slicers and so many other ordinary gifts. I however want to look at something with a difference.

Kidnap your sisters kids and shoot them. I know I would be enormously grateful… no I am kidding. You could however have some portraits done and printed on canvas. But here is the thing rather than studio portraits get the photographer to come to you and shoot the children in their natural habitat. Children in their natural habitat are always more photogenic than in a well lit studio being made to pose like this and like that.

The great thing is with modern technology, these portraits can be turned into works of art. Your children playing in the garden can be turned into a feaux water colour or even an oil painting. Photographs can be printed on various materials from satin paper to Studio canvas.

Other ideas for gifts could include a picture of the classic or exotic car that your brother in law owns. Maybe a photo you took in the game reserve, or on the biking adventure.

I have seen prints anywhere from the standard Jumbo size right up to an A1 photograph, thats a full 900mm x 600mm hanging on walls. Memories are captured and retained. What Grannie doesn’t want a group photo of the children to hang on her wall?

Children’s Photography

1. You are unable to see the goods you are bidding on at Bid or Buy. You are reliant on the honesty of the seller.

2. If you are unhappy with the service of the supplier and you negatively rate them, they will revenge rate you. Bid or Buy management have no problem with this concept

3. The ratings system is poor and is no indication of the real quality of the seller. Many people give positive ratings else they get tit for tat poor ratings. Bid or Buy management benefit from this bad rating system

4. If you complain vociferously about the poor systems at Bid or Buy they will just Ban you. If you are not in the forums you cannot scare off other potential buyers.

5. Its an auction where you can be bidding on an item made to look good in theory but a poor quality item may be despatched. In the time in the forums and on Bid or Buy I saw many complaints poorly handled.

6. If you ask questions about how a system works, you get no answers from Bid or Buy.

7. Many of the sellers are unethical. Seriously they resort to blackmail in order to get positive ratings.

If you want to attend an online auction like Bid or Buy you are taking huge risks. Real life auctions where you can touch and feel the goods are a risk, but buying an article from some faceless individual with no real come back. Is that not a real risk?

I paid for a membership at Bid or Buy and enjoyed it for two weeks after being banned because I was less than complimentary about their systems. I am going to warn everybody about the dangers of bidding on items at Bid or Buy.

Making Money from Bid or Buy

Bid or Buy has a flawed rating system

I advertise Bid or Buy through offerforge. The statistics from the offerforge show me that Bid or Buy is gaining great exposure but I gain buggerall in return. From 2130 impressions of the advert I had a 21% click through rate, thats a whopping 450 click throughs with nary a registration.

Is the Bid or Buy affiliate system also flawed. Statistics tell me that a buy in rate of 2% is expected. So 0 out of 450 leads me to believe there must be a problem.

1. In the past weeks 80% of videos accessed at you tube have given me the dreaded Video is not available message. Unless You tube remove the videos and leave all the metadata, those damned videos exist. I spent yesterday trying to access a video I know exists. Ed Dale said so. I gave up in disgust.

2. YouTube allows a max upload of 10 minutes or 10 MB, Zoopy allows 100mb and no time limit. Isn’t that awesome?

3. YouTube crashes on at least 50% of the occasions that I upload. Zoopy has not crashed yet despite a 70mb upload.

4. The Zoopy interface is much cleaner

5. Zoopy does not give me the message that the Video is not available

6. My Inputs remain on the front page of Zoopy for longer

7. Zoopy has Blogs, Podcasts, Videos and Photos all in one place.

8. Zoopy is a South African creation, just like me.

9. Did I mention the problems at YouTube

Best designed websites

I have seen many of the best designed websites never appearing on the Google pages. Use of Shockwave Flash, Javascript and Ajax on a website may win awards, but do awards satisfy the business owners need for sales? I believe that website design not unlike the advertising industry has become yet another artistic masturbation forum. The sites are designed to impress web designers, advertising executives and win website design awards. Are best designed websites actually any good for a commerce oriented business?

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I visited a site and commented on someones whine about receiving 16 speeding fines and was accused of being negative, damned right I am negative about breaking the law. If you want to be a criminal, take the punishment. In that case it would seem that the individual is a serial criminal. He should not be paying fines, they should be taking his license away. In 20 years of driving including powerful motorcycles, I have received a maximum of three speeding tickets. 16 in one month seems excessive and foolish.

There are no degrees of crime. If the law says its a crime, its a crime, There are only degrees of punishment to suit the specific crime. I have been listening to people whining about having to pay speeding fines and for jumping lights etc. In my opinion, there is not enough of a crackdown on these crimes. If you are willing to play the game, take your punishment without whining. You deserve it.

The prevailing attitude that speeding is not serious, that overtaking on barrier lines is a misdemeanour, not stopping at robots and stop streets is not serious, leads to the lawless attitude. You got a fine for breaking the law? You want my sympathy? Forget it. Pay and stop whining.

In order to stop this lawlessness we need to start with ourselves. Don’t break the law, no matter how piffling you think it is. Set an example for others. Clean up crime starting with yourself. If you behave like you are above the law, you set a negative example for others. Rather be Positive and solve the problem. Be part of the cure not part of the problem. If it is to be. it will be because of me. THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR BREAKING ANY LAW.

Update 10 July 2009.

An alternative to womf has been created at http://lowveldnet.co.za/community. Our Goal is 1000 users within 3 months.

Caxtons have entered into an agreement with an Australian Company to supply them with a forum. I fail to see why South African businesses are not good enough. As I understand it WOMF supplies Caxtons with many localised domains like lowveld.womf.com.

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Some preliminary keyword research. I have looked at Herbalife as a possible product. My basic keyword research is based on keywords I have seen in discussions about Herballife. Saturation in this market is not defined by the uptake of the product but the competition you have to beat. In all likelihood there may be a niche market that could be found for this industry but I am willing to lay odds on that the keyword research has already been done by marketers that have all the skills you don’t. I am willing to bet that finding a niche that has not been oversubscribed is damn nigh impossible.

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