Affiliate Marketing: Where both sides benefit

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I've always wondered how life would've turned out had I gone down the path of a financial advisor...well this is me giving it a shot so ALL STUDENTS pay attention!!! Ever heard of affiliate marketing? No? Well the definition on Wikipedia gives it as such: "Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts".

Basically what that means is that affiliate marketing is promoting other people's (company's) product and earning a commision in return (if a sale is made). So you're essentially working for a company on an "unofficial" basis. As an affiliate you basically do a number of tasks such as promoting other people's or the company's product using a special link with a code only being used by you embedded into it, this is required by the advertiser to track the leads referred by you. Should someone buy that product (or in some cases complete a task like signing up or completing a survey) using your link, it gets tracked by the advertiser and you are rewarded a commission, which is a percentage of the sale price but can also be a fixed amount as set by the advertiser. This way both the advertiser and the publisher is benefited. Advertisers get more sales of their product when many publishers/affiliates promote their product and Affiliates in turn generate revenue by promoting the product.

Affiliate marketing isn't so simple however...this is due to the fact that the product you are advertising should be advertising friendly for your specific market. This brings us to the fact that not all products or services can be marketed on this new platform. However depemding how well one can communicate with their public almost any product on earth can be marketed with the correct insight and knowledge so this will serve as a key factor in whether your company ends up being a success or not.

The end of an era

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A Little Intro:

The reign of the keyboard and mouse is slowly coming to an end. I mean we may not see it right now, but gradually technology is moving away from the point and click system and going into a more intuitive system. The way we use computers has remained largely unchanged for nearly 40 years. Even with the advent of touch screens and tablets in the past 10 years, we have only experienced a slight modification of the familiar point-and-click paradigm. Hoewever this will change very soon, we are currently going through the most significant evolution in the way we work with computers since Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh in 1984.

I will be rasing just a few interface revolution just to support my theory:

• touch and mulitiple touch
• gesture control
• voice
• HUD
• wearable computers
• holographic displays
• bain machine interfaces

The above points that I have rasied are both from protoypes which you see at science exhibitions and actual devices which are currently being made, so keep your eyes peeled!!

Business App of the year

A lil intro:

The build up and excitement over the last few weeks leading up to the first ever MTN Business App of the Year awards event, proved worth the wait as the ICT industry awarded innovation in application development. The awards, which took place at "The Venue" in Melrose Arch, it saw the announcement of the FNB Banking app team winning the overall best App of the Year for 2012.

Nomalanga Nkosi

The General Manager for Business Marketing at MTN Business, Nomalanga Nkosi says "The MTN Enterprise Business team congratulates the FNB Banking app team on this achievement and title. The team's passion for application development, innovation, alongside an understanding of the broader business market, expertise and dedication has certainly paid off. We found an innovative application, born from a forward-thinking and creative idea that will no doubt positively impact the way business will be undertaken going forward, and will empower businesses to conduct work seamlessly and effectively."

There is a need to develop apps that address the demands of businesses and individuals. The awards aim to recognise local app developers that are spearheading innovation in this space.

Hayley Horan, the journalist for Creative Space Media says "The event was a huge success and one that we are proud to have initiated. We commend and thank every application developer who entered the awards as they exhibited the depth of talent and creativity we have in the South African ICT market. Selecting the finalists and the winner was certainly no easy task and it certainly points to the enormous talent that exists out there."

With various award categories throughout the evening, winners included:

• FNB Banking for the best iOS consumer App
• Health ID for the best iOS enterprise App
• FNB Banking for the best Blackberry App
• TransUnion Dealer Guide for the best Android enterprise App
• FNB Banking for the best Android consumer App
• Rapidtargets for the best HTML5 App
• Matchy for the best Windows App
• Plascon Inspire Me for the most innovative App
• PhraZApp for the best Garage developer App

I think awards like this serve as a good indication as to how companies like MTN are dominating the respective fields they're in and doing a good job of making sure services for all customers are met. GOOD ONE MTN!!!!

Banking in a new way?

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The future is something no-one can truly predict or fore-see, this is a fact on almost all aspects of life. However the same sentiment cannot be shared for cellphone banking which is full of predictions which may come true. For example using your cellphone to pay for your bill or your grocery purchases isn't some distant, dreamy idea.

This idea would truly be something extraordinary in the market we live in which is confined by the plastic cards called debit and credit cards. Jonathan Houston the digital marketing lead executive in the Deliotte consulting technology division said, "It is obviously far fetched to think that the use of debit and credit cards will be completely eliminated, but a time will come when you open a bank account, you will be asked to choose between having a card or a phone (as a means) to pay". This raises the question just how far will technolgy grow(in terms of banking) in the 21st century? Houston answers this by saying "The rapid convergence of mobile and banking technology which started  with such simple functions as money transfer was increasingly making the cellphone a virtual bank itself".

Bankers say that South African's high mobile penetration rate made it the perfect maket to launch banking technology and products using cellphones to reach an under-banked and unbanked population estimated at more than 11 million. An initiative which particularly caught my eye in terms of banking which took place in May was by FNB which launched a person-to-person payment option called "Geo Payments", using its banking app which allows users within close range of each other to make payments to one another without using their bank account details. This shows great promise for our local market.

Girl Power

In commemoration of women's month, I would like to focus on the predominatly women-owned company BLT SA. To dwell deeper into what BLT is all about and what they exactly do I chose an extract from BLT South Africa products manager Clinton van den Berg, "Durban-based materials handling equipment specialist Big Lift Trucks (BLT) South Africa offers a range of MecLift variable reach trucks, designed for diverse materials handling applications, including the efficient handling of electrical cabling." The company is generally considered a baby in their respective industry of shipping due to the fact that it was only recently established in January of this year. A range of other products the company offers is container handling equipment, including the supply of new and refurbished variable-reach trucks, mobile container handlers and terminal tractors. What really makes them unique in a sense is that they are a distributor for equipment manufacturer B&W Mechanical Handling Equipment, which supplies a range of harbour equipment, including link conveyors, grab hoppers, surface feeders, radial boom stackers and mobile ship loaders.

Charity Gumede(marketing director of BLT) says "the company has been well received by the local industry so far, although competition in the market has been tough." she went on to add on that by saying “we are working in a very demanding industry, but we are holding our heads high. We ensure that we provide the best service possible and keep up to date with the latest industrial technology. We are also committed to providing productive and dependable equipment for our customers.“It is important to build good business relationships in this highly competitive sector and we have managed to secure supply, service and distribution agreements with some of the world’s most respected materials handling equipment manufacturers. This enables us to offer the local market the latest international products.”

Local businesses like this are the type of establishments that spur on other aspiring South Africans, especially females to take advantage of the oppurtunities available to them in our ever growing country.

Collaborations still the way to go

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When companies like Coke and Spotify come together one can only dream of the endless outcomes that are possible from such a partnership. Now what makes such a collaboration special is that they will be focusing on four main pillars which are namley global, technological, social and music.

As far as technology is concerned, Spotify is incredibly proud of its platform that allows people to share across the world. “We’ll be working really closely with Coke as a technology partner to do things that only Coca-Cola could think of with music,” explained a Spotify executive. “We want to bring new experiences with music to consumers everywhere.” For those of us who don't already know Spotify is a music streaming service offering digitally resticted streaming of selected music from a range of major and independant record labels, including Sony. EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal. Now for all those techno boffs who are still trying to find out how such a partnership would benefit them, Spotify has announced that users will be invited to Spotify through live shows, unpacked events, and Coke even mentioned that a Hackathon took place to cater to the more technologically inclined. Meanwhile, Coke will be building content on top of the Spotify platform to deliver to users not only as a marketing effort but as a way to curate the content already available in a more useful, and convenient way.

Coke has always thought of itself as a company which incorporated music in its marketing and this is evident through a series of advertisments they had back in the 50's which featured music icon Ray Charles. According to The Verge (a channel on Dstv based on technological advances in the 21st century), the AT&T app will give users the ability to check out locations where certain songs were originally recorded. Pretty cool stuff for the music buff. Through such a partnership one may say both companies are sending an indirect message to the public in terms of trying to draw in new audiences. From a communication aspect this greatly benefits Spotify and Coke on the basis that its constomers will get the image that both companies are trying to grow and cater to their growing needs by not being one dimensional but also beig able to offer other services. I give a HIGE thumbs up to this collaboration!!

Dancing to technology's tune...whether you like it or not



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Throughout my brief blogging stint I've tried to refrain from talking about topics which would put me in the ''common pot'', because let's face it, for the passed 6 weeks it's either been about Sanral and the whole e-tolling debacle or about some form of corruption in politics. I've tried to be very exclusive about my topics and the stories I researched and blogged about. However this streak of mine may be put to jeopardy today through the topic I'm about to raise, I'd like to believe there's always a new and fresh angle to a story depending on the brains in front of the computer screen.

I've decided to look at this whole viral video incident in which a 17 year old girl was raped. The reason I've decided to raise this topic is mainly for two reasons, the first being that most of my blogs stretch out to more of an international platform so with this blog I decide to bring it on a more local front and focus on events which are taking place on our own soil. The second reason is because the incident itself is a perfect example of just how powerful technology has become in our country and how huge of an effect it can have when used irrespective of whether it's for the wrong or right reasons.

The story states that four boys were accused of raping a 17 year old mentally ill girl in South Africa, Soweto and shot a video of the occurrence with a cellphone which eventually went viral and would come to spread on the internet on the 18th of April. The accused were arrested on the 17th of April, by which time the video was all over the country. As painful and raw as the story is I decided not to look at it from the angle of the individuals who were involved but from the view of the technology which was used and the impact it had. What really caught my attention about this event is the way in which it spread and the exposure it recieved, to say it spread like WILDFIRE would be an understatement. Hard news is somethimg we're almost immune to in South Africa yet this particular story just had a particular vibe about it which slapped you by the ear and forced you to listen. This my friends is the power of technology in the 21st century!!! I look back 20 years ago and companies would have had to sell their souls to get the kind of exposure this story got at that same speed. Even in todays times, no matter how good a company's communications and marketing team is they'd have to do somethimg pretty special and daring to get people talking like this. We're living in a age where almost all age groups are familairising themselves (if not already familiarised) with social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Media is being served on a platfrom where one can read a particular article and share his/her views with other individuals around the country at super-sonic speed.

So there you have it, whatever form technology may come in whether it be viral videos or social networks, it should be taken as a serious force to be reckoned with when it comes to tools which help one to communicate with the general public. Just the pure influence it has on how people percieve information in the media places it head and shoulders above any other platform in current existence