The Internet is About to Take Off... Are You Ready?

March has been an eventful month for those of us interested and involved in online marketing.

By the end of this year the Internet as we in South Africa know it will change beyond recognition due to 2 major announcements one of which occurred only yesterday (March 25th).

These are the two announcements:

1. The availability of uncapped lower cost ADSL.. and a sign of real competition in this market.
2. The availability of PayPal to receive money in South Africa... I've had a PayPal account for years and I've been waiting for this announcement. One drawback is the need to have an FNB account (which I have).

Here's why these announcements are so significant:

ADSL

The main advantage of ADSL is its ALWAYS ON status... and not only that, there is the promise of faster browsing and downloads speeds for both home and office use. ADSL prices are also starting to drop significantly and this should continue bringing even more people into the Internet mainstream.

One example of the advantage of "ALWAYS ON" is the ability to search for local products and services without resorting to the local classifieds ads and other established print directories such as Yellow Pages.

PAYPAL

I recently saw a survey that concluded that those sites with the PayPal payment option sold 20% more than those sites without the option. There were numerous reasons for this:

• The far greater security associated with using PayPal... no credit card information is entered into the website at the time of the transaction resulting in far fewer opportunities for fraud. Once a PayPal account has been opened all transactions go through the PayPal secure processing system.
• PayPal allows any small business to set up a payment system from a website within minutes.
• People who use PayPal experience the smoothest check out system around.
• People spending with PayPal tend to spend more just because the system is so wells streamlined and secure. In my case I always buy using PayPal when the option is available... it really is far more easy and convenient.

OTHER POSITIVE INFLUENCING FACTORS

In addition to these very important announcements a number of other positive factors are also fueling Internet growth:

• The advent of local search and Google maps... more and more searches are revealing the occurrence of local search results in prime spots on Google's first page search results.
• South Africa's first genuine Internet Show. This will take place at the Sandton Convention centre on the 2nd and 3rd of August. Paypal is one of the sponsors and Google are lined up to do a couple of presentations on Adwords. In other words and at long last the really big international players are becoming publicly involved for the very first time.
• The World Cup

Make sure you're ready for the explosion... this means get your website marketing together and put yourself ahead of your competitors.

Next week I'll arrange the date of the next "Google Adwords and Beyond" workshop... I'll be explaining the great importance of the most recent and exciting change to Google Adwords and how to benefit enormously from this latest move.  This change was also announced this week.

For Blog

The Internet is About to Take Off... Are You Ready?

March has been an eventful month for those of us interested and involved in online marketing.

By the need of this year the Internet as we in South Africa know it will change beyond recognition due to 2 major announcements one of which occurred only yesterday (March 25th).

These are the two announcements:

1. The availability of uncapped lower cost ADSL.. and a sign of real competition in this market.
2. The availability of PayPal to receive money in South Africa... I've had a PayPal account for years and I've been waiting for this announcement. One drawback is the need to have an FNB account (which I have).

Here's why these announcements are so significant:

ADSL

The main advantage of ADSL is its ALWAYS ON status... and not only that, there is the promise of faster browsing and downloads speeds for both home and office use. ADSL prices are also starting to drop significantly and this should continue bringing even more people into the Internet mainstream.

One example of the advantage of "ALWAYS ON" is the ability to search for local products and services without resorting to the local classifieds ads and other established print directories such as Yellow Pages.