Nicisms

I can’t see why anyone would want to stop me to be honest.

My Tumblr, nicharry, has revived my ability to post content online without too much thought, reactively and instinctively in a short space of time.

I am besotted with Tumblr.

Let me explain what the service is, in my opinion, for me. It’s a lifestream sort of a blogging platform. A stream of consciousness I think sums it up relatively well.

Tumblr has legs in the market right now for one simple reason. It’s simple to use. I have a “Share on tumblr” widget added to my browser. I click it and automatically a popup appears and allows me to share video, audio, photo, links, quotes and other types of media. The little widget handles the linkback to the source and posts to your Tumblr immediately.

I’ve also installed the Tumblr desktop app for Mac OSX which allows me to tumbl from my desktop. Simple, easy and effective.

Furthermore the type of content that I’ve come across on Tumblr is incredible. It’s alternative, different, cutting edge, pushes all the boundaries and seems to not abide by the regular rules and regulations of producing content. It’s a place where anyone and everyone can find a home.

It subscribes to a very similar model to that of Twitter. You can follow people’s Tumbles and they, in turn, follow yours. You can see everyone who you follow in your Dashboard and follow their content as it is published.

The person who got me on to Tumblr is Wes over at BlackNotes. If you have some time, head over there and read Wes’s Tumblr, you’ll be occupied for hours.

But for the moment head over to Tumblr, register, choose a theme and tumbl-on.

On Sunday the WeBlogtheWorld US Bloggers tour of South Africa kicks off. As you might know I am fortunate enough to be tagging along (who says blogging doesn’t pay?).

I am/will be blogging on ±6 different platforms. Count them with me: SA Rocks, this blog, Homecoming revolution, Zoopy, possibly the Zoopy blog, and maybe TechLeader blog (but that’s if I have time) as well as being supplied with some space on the Bizcommunity blog too. Phew, lots of blogging.

So I have decided that it’s best for me to split up the content. This trip is filled with so much stuff and so many angles that I can easily break up the content in to various channels.

For this blog I have chosen to try and get as many interviews, chats and discussions with the international bloggers up here as possilble. So look out for the interviews and contact me via the comments section of this post with thoughts and suggestions on what you’d like to hear them talk about.

On the other blogs I will be showcasing South Africa, the people, the places we visit an the reactions of the bloggers to the country that we are privileged to live in.

I’ve just had contact from organisers of the Speak UP! blogging census.

Seems as though the big guns in the blogosphere relating to number of bloggers is Cape Town. I find this one a tough pill to swallow. I think there were some extenuating factors to consider. But that’s just me as a JHB resident talking!

Apparently there were ±1000 responses to the census which is relatively good considering there are only estimated to be ±7000 bloggers (allegedly) in SA who are active. So 1/8 turnout isn’t too shaby. Not fantastic, but not too shabby.

Here’s the slide I received about location.

I am still very interested to see what the final results will be. Apparently they are coming out on Monday so keep your eyes peeled for those.

I have had a roller coaster ride experience with Google. Spanning from utter reverence to complete disdain, to fear, concern, joy, revolution and many more experiences that all have left me with an impression of Google here or there.

My most recent experience of Google was a two day festival of emotion and reactions.

Many people wont have a clue what I am referring to here but I recently saw a serious drop in traffic on SA Rocks:

Those red arrows…never good. I freaked out. Emailed people, tried removing things I thought might be problematic. And then Mr Jason Bagley tweeted the answer in geniously casual fashion: “check out Google Webmaster tools – might be able to spot something happening in there.”

Yes, the answer was there. SA Rocks has a problem. I am not going go in to much detail other than to say that thousands of invisible links are injected in to the SA Rocks template occasionally. I didn’t even remember this issue and consider it a problem. But it was. Google had booted me off their indexes. Not. Good.

The drop in traffic is the result of having every page, every search term, every SEO effort that you have put in for over two years vanish off Google. Gone, kaput, over. Again, I freaked out. This is where the angst, anger, frustration and a mass of other emotions began to flow. I hated Google. I hated the fact they could almost literally grind my hard work to halt by simply removing me from their service. It’s a shocker. And they are strict. If you haven’t made use of them yet, I suggest you head over and get on top of Google’s webmaster tools. They will prove to be invaluable should you one day be booted off Google.

I received a message in my Webmaster Dashboard alerting me to the fact that I had been removed from Google. I then Googled SA Rocks, South Africa Rocks, Rocking, SA or anything that I knew would pop SA Rocks on to the top of the ranking somewhere on Google. Nada. Nothing. Niks nie. Kak myself.

But it wasn’t too bad.

I was alerted to the problem by the helpful text-person talking to me on my dashboard. I figured it out, invisible links, google, spam, bam. Went to the origin of the links, manually removed them and then applied to be reevaluated by Google. This is an absolute must if you ever want to be visible on the known web again.

Then I honestly thought that I would be waiting for weeks. But I didn’t I waited for two days and was reinstated to the Google Indexes. Thank goodness. Can’t tell you how glad I am that this is over.

Be sure to check up on your website, Google yourself, your websites and your profiles.

UPDATE: Apparently there has been some sort of a mixup regarding the Zapiro book launch. It seems as though there is someone from the PR company and Charity organisations involved with Zapiro didn’t really know when the book launch was so instead she led us to believe that the launch was at her event which was a charity event and hence we were asked to pay.

On a side not: I still maintain that media should never pay to promote events or attend functions.

I absolutely love Zapiro’s work. I think the man is a genius and one of South Africa’s great heroes. With that said, I think he has made a shocking error with his book launch.

It is not clear whether Zapiro is calling the shots or whether his PR agency has completely and utterly lost their minds. Either way I am a bit shocked.

To attend Zapiro’s book launch as media is going to cost R200 per person. Crew of two = R400 for the event. I have done many weird, strange, odd, different and uncomfortable things in my time in the practice of journalism. I have NEVER paid to cover a story or promote an event.

Zoopy was told to pay R200 per person to attend the event and were basically told that we should feel lucky because media gets a 50% discount. Really? Media get a discount, well gee-wizz-wow I am bowled over at your kindness.

Direct quote from “events coordinator”:

As per our discussion earlier, unfortunately we don’t allow any media to attend any of our upcoming events for free.
Our normal price per person to attend the event is R427-50 including VAT, however we offer Media a discounted rate of R200-00 per person including VAT.
Should you still be interested to attend the event, please contact me before the end of today and have your credit card details ready to process the payment online as we only accept payments upfront to pay the venue. Our system is set-up to only accept credit card payments when a booking is made 5 working days prior to an event.

So in return for our R400 Zapiro’s book launch will get national exposure, a professionally produce media video and the possibility to be featured on some of the biggest news websites in the country. That sounds like a fair trade to me.

I am sorry but I don’t care if you are a journalism intern, the editor of the biggest magazine or Jeremy bloody Clarkson, media should not have to pay to attend any launch of any book that could aid in the sales of that book.

Absolutely ridiculous.

The frustrating thing is that Zoopy (and I am sure many other media organisations) have covered Zapiro launches and events very successfully and for free in the past:

If you want to read Zapiro I suggest you visit Mail&Guardian online every day and have a look at Zapiro’s free.

Again I need to state that I think that Zapiro cartoons and all of his work is absolutely incredible, so don’t make us pay to help you spread the word.