A Very Warm Welcome To The Online World

Crystal Clear Communications

A very warm welcome to the online world to my friend Christelle Du Toit, who finally set up a website for her writing and consulting business.

Makes her sound like The Last Of The Luddites, doesn't it? She isn't:-)

Christelle, who co-wrote "How to get quoted in the media" with me has worked with online media for quite some time.

She has worked as an online journalist, helped organisations develop their communications strategies ( including their online strategies) and is currently involved in the management of the online division of a news organisation, among other things.

We Are Struggling

This morning's session at the hospital, to pick up Mma's monthly supply of meds, reminded me how fortunate I am, despite whatever difficulties I may have. I feel like I am wrapped up in priviledge, and whenever I go to the hospital, something happens to remind me how the majority of South Africans are struggling financially.

One such instance was a young woman, in her twenties, who couldn't pay the minimum fee of R20 (a bit more than $2). For this fee, she would get a consultation with a doctor, do whatever tests she needs and get all her prescribed medicines. Sounds like a good deal, doesn't it, considering how expensive medicines can be. Except, she couldn't afford this fee.

She kept telling the clerk that collects payment that she didn't have the money because she was unemployed and hadn't worked for months because she lost her job while she was hospitalised for three weeks. (and yes, you do have to broadcast your business in public because there is no privacy when dealing with the clerk).

I thought about how much it would bite if I couldn't even afford the R20 fee to access public healthcare, and whether she had any money to at least make a good meal that night. ( I later saw her walk away from the hospital. No car or public transport money, I guess).

Of course I couldn't wallow long in that situation, because an older woman who was sitting near me, waiting to see a doctor in the outpatient clinic keeled over and pissed on herself, and then her young companion started screaming for help. It took a while to get a nurse, so a couple of us (some of the people were outpatients waiting to get help too), picked her up and put her on the bed in one of the consulting rooms. And I hoped that they would admit her into the hospital and not send her back home still wet with her own piss. Apparently she's diabetic and had gone into sugar shock. I hope that never happens to my mother in public.

That kind morning gives you a good perspective on what's important, you know? It reminded me not to sweat the small stuff because overall, I have a very good life, with very little trauma. And most of the things I regard as basic necessities, like a diet that includes a variety of vegetables and meats, or being able to go see my GP whenever I need to or to buy whatever meds I need, is actually a luxury for some people.

And no, this is not a race issue/about how Black South Africans struggle because of apartheid/the state of the economy/socio-economic situation.  We all struggle. And for the record, both parties from this morning's drama were White.

I hope that times will get better and paying the minimum fee to access healthcare services will get easier for everyone. And that the majority of South Africans will be able to afford to eat well enough... and will have some money for public transport.

Meanwhile, on the business front: I came home to find 3 emails bringing me new assignment briefs. And there is a potential for more work in the horizon, in addition to what I still need to finish. God bless long-term clients who consistently send work! They are who stands between me and the situations I observed this morning.

Feeling Fractured

I've been feeling fractured lately. I know part of it is that I'm not completely settled in Phokeng, with most of the things that help make me comfortable and relax enough to create still in Joburg. I also don't have a proper home office in Phokeng. As a result, I haven't established a rhythm of life and work and creativity that works for me yet.

Yesterday I felt worse - I had a long list of tasks to accomplish and I sat at my computer to work. But somehow I felt as if I was running very fast on a treadmill, going nowhere. In the end I only managed to finish a series of short articles that were late and then tried to catch up with emails, that's it. Which sucked.

But I do believe that things will get better. Meanwhile, this week I plan to do a major bout of  research for the course I'm co-writing so I can start drafting my first module next week, implement a realistic and thorough plan for the next 6 books in the client publishing project and finalise the edits on Tselane and the giant, which is due out for release later this month. And that's just the minimum objectives for this week. There are also a couple of small client projects that I need to turn around this week.

Opportunity to review a Joburg restaurant



Anyhoo, if you write/blog about food/parenting/lifestyle either for a Joburg-based print/online publication or on your own blog and want to check out the The Oak Leaf (one of my clients), let me know and we can discuss my comping you with the view of your reviewing the place.

The Oak Leaf Country Restaurant offers a tranquil family dining experience in the heart of Sandton, in Johannesburg. It has a supervised outdoor children’s playing area with a diverse range of activities to keep the kids occupied while allowing parents the space to relax and enjoy a delicious meal. It is located at Acorn Lane , a guest estate in Santon. Click on this link  to read a review by Laura over at Harassed Mom
and if you're keen to review the place, email me at damariasenne@gmail.com so we can discuss when, whether you are going with your family, your publication's target audience etc.

Invitation to Copyright Event on 21 April 2012

As you know, a recent workshop with a client raised my interest in South African copyright law. So I was very happy to hear that the Professional Editors’ Group, Gauteng branch will be hosting a morning event on Copyright to be held in Parktown, Johannesburg on 21 April 2012. The presentations will start at 9:30 and end by 12:45.

Their invitation says:

As editors, we need to understand legal restrictions on publishing and to advise our clients if we suspect that the manuscript we are editing could involve them in legal action. Many new members of PEG feel that they lack knowledge in this area of publishing, while some of our established members have expressed the desire to revise and update the knowledge they acquired in the past. This presentation, which has been arranged in response to direct requests by PEG members, aims to meet the needs of both groups of editors.

Our presenters are Professor Tana Pistorius, Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Information Technology Law at Unisa, and Jennie Baldree, Permissions Officer at Macmillan. Professor Pistorius will cover South African legislation and key concepts and developments relating to intellectual property, and Jennie Baldree will address the question of what publishers require editors to know and do when it comes to permissions and issues such as plagiarism.

Date: 21 April 2012
Time: 9:00 for 9:30
Venue: EES-Siyakha Conference Centre
5 Sherborne Road
Parktown
Cost: R150 per person for PEG/LAMP members and bona fide students.
(Other participants pay R200 per person.)


There will be tea, coffee and rusks on arrival and during the break.

Click on this link for directions and a map to the venue.


Registration and payment

Download the form from this link and please take five minutes to fill in the attached registration form. Send it to Ellyn Barry (ellynbarry@telkomsa.net), with your proof of payment, by Wednesday18 April to secure your booking. You are also welcome to fax your proof of payment to 011 792 5768. Please note, however, that you will need to call Ellyn Barry on that number before sending your fax.

Payments must be made into the following account:
• Account name: PEG Gauteng
• Account number: 137378106
• Branch: Standard Bank Brooklyn
• Branch code: 011245
Please use the word Copyright, together with your surname, as the reference.
Enquiries: Ellyn Barry: 011 792 5768 or ellynbarry@telkomsa.net

Alison McKay's 365 South Africa

Last night I attended the opening of my friend Alison McKay's exhibition called 365 South Africa, where she showcased the paintings that she created in 2011.  The 3-week exhibition is taking place at the Art Space gallery in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Essentially, Alison painted a painting a day from the 1st January to 31st December 2011. The paintings depicted an event covered in the news during that period.


It was a lovely event, attended by supporters of the arts, friends and family. Artist Wayne Barker gave the keynote address. And the best part is that they did manage to sell some of the paintings, which retail at R990 each VAT inclusive.

I was very happy for Alison, who showed a lot of dedication to get the series done.  Pam, who also attended the event, asked me: "Can you imagine the body of work you'd have you wrote a 1000 word flash short story every day for a whole year?"

Somehow, I couldn't imagine being able to do it. Sure,  I write and blog almost everyday, with some days being more productive than others. But I'm not sure I'm capable of coming up with a new story and finishing it everyday.

Check out the article that the Sunday Times wrote about Alison's 365 South Africa art exhibition.

The exhibition runs for the next three weeks, so do check it if you're in Johannesburg. The Art Space is at 142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

As for me and my writing life, today was hectic. I finally packed up my office equipment in Joburg to transport to Phokeng, travelled to Phokeng and then tried to catch up with work including several short articles for a client.  I also have a deadline tomorrow, so the afternoon was especially crazy. But a woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do:-)

Q & A With Pamela Moeng On Writing For Educational Publishers

This month Cambridge University Press released a paperback of  Pamela's One Of A Kind, a children's book about DNA, in Australia. The book is part of the publisher's Rainbow Reading series,w hich was first published in 2009.


It occured to me that you might be curious as to how Pam landed the assignment to write One Of A Kind and some of the other readers in the series, African Patterns, A Fancy Fruit Salad, When I Grow Up , Hurry, Thulani, Hurry! and Just Enough, in the first place (for more information about the books, go to the page called Our Books.)

Maybe there are even some aspiring authors among us who would be interested in writing educational books. So I decided to do a Q and A with her to talk about the project.  The interview is short, but I do that you find it useful.


DS: How did you land the assignment to write the books for the Rainbow Reading series by Cambridge University Press?

PM: Networks! A freelance editor who was commissioning for Cambridge phoned to ask if I would be interested in writing. I had worked with her when I was editor at another publisher - Heinemann - and when I left publishing to go to government my department contracted her as our out-house editor.

She had also commissioned me for another publisher for a business book that I had edited and written a chapter for. She knew my work and that normally I meet deadlines.

The lesson: it really is who you know. Networks are important!

DS: Did the publisher give you a brief? What did the brief require you to do?

PM: Yes, the commissioning editor/publisher briefed me on topics and age levels/reading levels. I had spent nearly ten years in educational publishing in English Second Language editing and so getting the level right was easy. Knowing that the readers must encompass math and science topics and other learning areas also made the writing easy.

My vivid imagination and my ability to picture in my mind the story scenes or see a "video" running in my head of the story unfolding helped me develop solid and detailed artwork briefs. I did six of the books and got kudos for my artwork briefs.


DS: Tell us a bit about your writing process for the books.

PM: Give me a topic and a story usually bursts from somewhere in my head without much effort. I don't know if it's "talent" or insanity!

My daughter remembers me talking absolute rubbish and making up nonsense verses for her baby brother - who was still in utero at the time. He's creative himself and whether it is in the genes or all my silly songs and stories who knows?

All I know is that writing comes easily to me and always has. Stories flow like streams bubbling over pebbles in a brook - nonstop.

DS: What was the most challenging aspect of writing the books.

PM: Squeezing time out between the day job and family obligations to write and then ensuring that the artwork briefs were done properly and aligned to the text itself so the Cambridge editor didn't have to struggle.

DS: Tell us about the artwork briefs: What was required from you as an author, what was the most difficult part of the briefing, especially as you're not an artist.

PM:  I've alluded to the artwork briefs, but I must say, although I am not an artist I studied art history and took several studio courses in art (sculpture and line drawing) at varsity.

Those courses gave me a crude artist's eye, which made the artwork easy to envisage and write out for the artist.

DS: Any tips you'd like to share with aspiring writers about writing educational books?

PM: Get the level right first time. The easiest way to do that is to read lots of material written for that level.

Browse books for that age group at bookshops and talk to children of that age to get a sense of what interests them.

Crawling around on the floor with little ones and playing games with them also helps to get back in touch with your own inner child - a real help when you are writing for children.

Blowing Judy Croome's Vuvuzela!

Congratulations to Judy Croome for being shortlisted for the AFRICAN WRITING PRIZE FOR FLASH FICTION 2011, for her story, The Place of Doves. It was a very pleasant surprise to check the site for the results and see your name mentioned there. It's great to see friends do well.

The overall winner was Jane Bauling, with her story, Settling.  Nice one, Jayne!

Did I Say Persistence Pays?

Flower girl by Alison McKay

Weeks ago I mentioned I mentioned that my friend Alison McKay, who's an upcoming artist, had started a Painting A Day series. Alison is a single mother, has a fulltime job and is also working hard to establish herself as an artist. So, the wonderful news is that a very well-known Johannesburg gallery has agreed to exhibit her series in April 2012 (for four weeks). And on top of that, last night at an exhibition, a company bought 10 of her paintings (not part of the ongoing series).

I've known Alison for close to 20 years now (maybe) and I don't know how many times we've talked about our creative careers, the challenges and how we can work around them. And sometimes, accomplishing these goals seemed like a distant dream that would never happen for both of us. But lately, she's been investing everything she can in her dream, never mind the sleepless nights. And it's wonderful to see it all come together.

Anyhoo, I guess I just wanted to say that if you have a dream, no matter how difficult it seems to accomplish, keep plugging away. Your time will also come.

Congratulations Alison. I hope more people fall in love with your art and buy it. And I'm certain the exhibition next year will be a success.

P.S. She's the friend doing my company and blog logo.


.

Lots of Writing.. And Blogging News

Yesterday I waded through the writing process like a freight train, writing, writing, editing, writing..... It's about bloody time, that's all I have to say.  In addition to normal client work, where I'm finally beginning to feel like I know what I'm doing for one web site revamp, I also wrote two articles for an online publication, sent them to a friend to edit and am submitting them today. The company  put out a call for submissions. I also finalised my workshop presentation for the conference taking place Monday - Wednesday and sent it to the client.

Blogging/Storypot news

 

There has also been some developments on Storypot. The other day I mentioned that my friend Pamela Moeng was going to share her writing wisdom by starting a blog. Well, turns out she's not. Because I had this BRILLIANT idea that she should co-blog with me here on Storypot. She loved the idea. I hope will you will too.

 

So over the weekend, I'm going to make some small changes to incorporate Pam as a team member here. I'm not sure what she's going to talk about, or how often she'll blog. I told her she should regard this as her home and do whatever she likes. As long as she plays nice with you all, of course:

So here's Pam's biography

Pamela Moeng was born in the small town of Lewistown, Pennsylvania in the United States. She grew up there and did her BA Literature at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. She came to South Africa in 1987 and completed an MA in English Education at Wits University in 1999.

 

She was a feature writer for a small weekly newspaper for three years in the USA and worked as an editor for both Macmillan Boleswa and Heinemann Publishers for a combined total of more than eight years. She has worked for the South African government in two different departments for a combined total of more than seven years in the field of communications.

 

Her published works include:

• English in Our Lives teachers guides grades 7, 8 and 9 for Heinemann
• Let’s Use English teachers guide grade 8 for Heinemann
• Learning Arts and Culture Can Be Fun learners and teachers guides grade 5 for Nasou via Afrika

She recently published six supplementary readers through Cambridge University Press for Rainbow Book Boxes. The titles include both fiction and non-fiction. She has also edited the Oxford University Press publication Starting Your Own Business in South Africa 11th Edition and contributed the chapter on women in business. She writes poetry and contributed poems to Wo(ban), a book of women’s poetry under the Arcane imprint. Her first novel was published this year by Nolly Books.

 

So? Was it a brilliant idea to get her to chat here with you on a regular basis, or was it a brilliant idea? I'm off to lunch, and to write some more.

 

Have a good weekend. And welcome, Pam. I hope you'll like it here.

 

Congratulations To Some Writing Friends

Congratulations to Po, who has a short story in the latest issue of Wordsetc. I'm very proud of you Po. That's why I'm blowing your vuvuzela :-)

Another blogging friend who's done well is Tiah. She had a story accepted for an anthology. Well, this may not be a first time acceptance for you, but it's still fantabulous, no?

Still working at a client's site, so I need to go now. Have a good day y'all.

A Painting A Day

Had dinner with my friend Alison McKay and we spent some time playing on her new blog, changing the template,adding pages and some nifty blog features.

Alison is an artist and she has started a painting series she calls 365 South Africa. Basically, she plans to do a painting a day from the 1st January 2011 to the 31st December 2011. This means at the end of the year, she will have painted 365 paintings. She already has pictures from the month of January and 9 from February done.

The paintings are all about current affairs, with each picture capturing the essence of one of the major news stories in South Africa that day.  For example, her canvas for the 9 February depicts  the Italtile plane crash, where nine people crashed and died at sea.


The painting done for the 7th about the 200 crocodiles that were found at a farm on Friday. Alison uses  acrylic paints on 200mm x 200mm x 35mm canvas, with her style being mostly urban. She's now shopping for a gallery that will show her series once it's completed ( hopefully by February next year).

I also think the artwork, with a running commentary of the current affairs news items and Ali's experiences in trying keep a fulltime job, raise a 13-year old girl and paint a picture a day would make a very interesting book and am encouraging a pitch to potential publishers.

Check out the site I'm still working on with Ali at http://365southafrica.blogspot.com/

Meet Efemena Agadama

Playwright and poet Efemena Agadama left this message on my Facebook page, after we connected:

No matter how laudable our words might be
No matter how evergreen our vegetation of words might seem
There are some paths too noble to paint with words
And there are people too amazing to honour with words
...you are one of such paths
...you are one of such people
Thanks for being a literary light

Beautiful, hey? And such an honour to be regarded like that! Sooo..... I thought I’d introduce him to you guys. He’s a regular contributor the Amnesty International blog. He has also written guest posts for a number of pubs including Little London Observationists.

He wants to “meet” other South African writers. So please guys, introduce yourselves if you’re a writer? My impression was that he likes to talk about books, so I think those of you who occasionally talk about books and writing on your own blogs will be happy to introduce to share some online conversations.

Laura Is Organising A Christmas Party For Kidz Clinics In Pretoria

My blogging friend Laura at Harassedmom is organising a Christmas Party for Kidz Clinics and you can help her make the party special for the children. The party is to be held in Pretoria ( details on Laura's blog) on the 3rd December.

Laura says: "the party is held for all children currently receiving treatment at the clinics as well as a gift is provided for each child that has come through the clinic during the year."
More about Kidz Clinics

Kidz Clinics are one-stop child-friendly centres providing free medical and psychological treatment for children who have been sexually, physically and emotionally violated.  The clinics help the abused child from the minute the crime is reported right through to the court case. The are six clinics and Laura is hosting a party for one of them.

The clinics are run by "Women and Men Against Child Abuse,"  an organisation committed to fighting for the rights of the child and to end the abuse of children in South Africa, by striving to form a multi-faceted, dynamic and aggressive offensive against any form of abuse.

Interestingly, this is one of those times when my own work and a friend's interests unknowingly collide because Kidz Clinic is one of the partners of my client Shukumisa.


What Laura needs

Laura says she needs:

• Photography – we need this because the identity of the children can not be made public so the organisation wants to speak to the photographer first. Also this is obviously going to need to be done free of charge.
• 35 Gifts – I have a list of names/ages etc of the children. Limit is R100 per gift.
• A face painter – we need this so that the children can have their faces painted and still remain “anonymous”
• Money for the lunches. The Dros will supply each child with a meal but we will have to find money to pay for it. I will have the price of the meals by monday but it will be around R30
• Sweets/snacks to be set out around the play area.
• 4 volunteers to help watch the children. They will get dropped off and fetched. Their parents are not allowed to attend the function.

For more information about Kidz Clinics here is the quarterly report for April - June 2010.

Fellowship To Honour Eugene Saldanha's Work

The Mail &Gurdian says it has partnered with Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Southern Africa to create anual fellowship in social-justice reporting to honour the work of the late Eugene Saldanha, activist, civil society leader and policy adviser, and my former boss and mentor, whose life's work was fighting for social justice.

According to the M&G, "The Eugene Saldanha Memorial Fund Fellowship will enable a young journalist to spend a year working at the paper on poverty, inequality and the realisation of human and socioeconomic rights. The fund, which will finance the fellowship, is administered by CAF Southern Africa, which Saldanha founded. It is supported by individual donations and the generosity of international private foundations with which he was associated."

I cannot tell you how excited I am that Eugene's work is going to be recognised in that manner. I worked with Eugene from 2001 to the end of 2004, and I learnt a lot from him.

I doubt my career would have taken the turn it did if it weren't for his guidance and mentorship. Yes, even the tech part can be attributed indirectly to him, because through the advocacy work we did through the Non Profit Partnership and Charities Aid Foundation Southern Africa, I learnt to appreciate what each piece of legislation can mean to various stakeholders, which led to my keen interest in the Electronic Communication Act and what it means for various stakeholders.

That work also set the platform for my interest in the Shukumisa campaign, because once again, it's all about what the law says, whether it's implemented as was intended and what else we can do to change the system for the better. Through Eugene's influence, the law and its impact on all of us has come alive for me, and it's a wonderful gift that he gave me.

Eugene also used to have such a lot of confidence in me. He'd tell people re all things communications, "Damaria can do it and if she can't, I'm sure she can find someone for you who can." So usually,people were predisposed to think I was wonderful long before they even met me or had seen the work I could actually do.

Lastly, Eugene grew to be a good friend.Underneath all the energy and passion to social justice and our jobs, he was a good friend who somehow understood the challenges of being a single parent and created an environment where childcare was not a desperate issue.

For e.g.on school holidays he encouraged us to bring our kids along work, so they can play in the work premises and occassionally spend time with us while we work.And if you had to travel with work, which I did quite a bit, there were times I or other employees could bring our very young kids, and other employees simply adapted, because the big boss made it look natural. Poor Baby, she sat through quite a few seminars on the Income Tax Act before she was even 5!

So, I'm happy that Eugene is being honoured in this manner, because it means that his work will not be forgotten. And there will be more young journos and writers and activists that he has a positive impact on, even if it is post-humously.

I didn't watch some of the games; mostly because I ended up being too invested in the process and would find myself screaming " Score! Score! Damnit, score!" when a player had what seemed to be an oportunity and wasn't using it.

So I didn't see these goals enacted by Gogos For Mandela. But it looks like fun. And the commentary in the background gives the whole video a nice touch.




So enjoy the video, and if you have a credit card, please take 5 minutes to donate something? Or you could blog about these videos; ask your readers to donate something.

You can donate at http://46664donations.sandbag.uk.com/gogos

View the Gogos for Mandela channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/gogosformandela

Guest Post: Knit A Doll For Charity

Hi my name is Sandra van Statten. Damaria is not available to blog today, and she has asked me to bring a wonderful cause to your attention.

I recently volunteered to knit some simple little dolls for an amazing organisation called Together to Grow Ministries. They include a little doll in each of the care packs they put together, which are then distributed to child rape victims at Karl Bremer Rape Unit in Cape Town.

It is a very sad state of affairs that they currently need approximately 150 dolls a month for this one hospital!

The dolls are very simple to knit and take no time at all and can easily be knitted with some scraps of wool that many knitters have lying around. The only special request is that the "hair" of the dolls is knitted with a fluffy / funky fur wool.

The reason for this is that these traumatised children are all greatly soothed or comforted by the soft feeling of the wool. The people who work with the children have reported that although they all are so very grateful for any of the dolls (and for many of the children this is the only doll they have) the fluffy haired dolls are the ones they love the best.

Unfortunately due to the current economic environment, Together to Grow Ministries is running out of money.

I have therefore decided to ask for either donations of wool so that volunteers can continue to knit the dolls, or alternatively if anyone would like to help by knitting a few dolls and mailing them to me, I would pass it all on to them. The pattern will be emailed to one who would like to help. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

My contact details are:
Tel: 082 9278171
Email: sandravs54@gmail.com

The contact details of Together to Grow Ministries are:
Website: http://www.togethertogrow.co.za
Telephone: 082 8781874
Contact: Venice Maurer

Lotsa Writing

Can't say much today. Writing my heart out, but there's so much writing to do and so little time! A day should have 36 hours, I think.

Anyhoo, I've just published a feature article on OneLove where online readers offer suggestions on how to deal with the problem of young people having sugar mummies and sugar daddies. Please throw your two-cents' worth.

And on READ SA, we're chatting about books you really wanted to read when you were young, but your parents/someone in authority wouldn't let you. And what were the reasons you were not allowed to read this book?

Have a good week!

Gogos For Mandela

Many thanks to AllDayThoughts for this video. I loved it, and laughed quite a bit a bit listening to the old ladies talk about why they play soccer.

Making The Online Thing Work

Earlier this month I set up a blog and online store for my friend Neo2. So yesterday she emailed me saying asking me to educate her on making her blog and online store financially viable.

As you can imagine, there are no magic answers. Online businesses demand just as much hard work as brick and mortar businesses, and my setting up the blog for her was the easy part.

The hard part is making sure that there is freshh content on a regular basis, that people who could potentially buy her products are informed that her business exists and is online, and that her friends and business associates help her to spread the word about her products.

" I already told my friends and the people at my church about the blog and online store," she said.

That's nice. The question is, did they hear her? Was what she was saying interesting enough for them to visit the site? I certainly didn't see comments from her friends on the site, which tells me that, even if they visited and saw her products, they were still not inspired to say or do anything. Or maybe, they would have, if the knowledge that Neo2 has a blog and online store had managed to stay in their minds. But considering the amount of info we are inundated with daily, there's also a possibility that they've already forgotten that she started a blog and online store.....

Then there's the fact that real world friends are not necessarily interested in reading one's blog. Most of mine don't actually read it, and I'm always fascinated by how suprised they get when they realise that the little blog I told them about back in 2006 is still around and being read:-)

So what were my answers to Neo2's questions?
1. What should I be doing to get sales where the blog is concerned?
Grow the number of people who visit your site daily. Tell them about how you make the jewellery. Showcase your products, offering good reasonable prices. Run promotions and competitions. Make it easy for your visitors to buy. Deliver excellent quality products so that your new customers are so happy they come back to buy more, and they tell their close friends about your products.

Just normal day to day business development? Absolutely! The rules of good business still apply.

2. I haven’t had a nibble since the Canada lady [one sales enquiry when site was launched].
Probably because you're not getting a lot of new traffic. The site needs to buzzing with new visitors everyday, and your online store needs to be buzzing with new products that totally beg the potential buyers to take them home.

3. How do I know when people are interested in buying my products?
They'll buy ( credit cad facility available), or they'll email you to ask for more information about a particular product. The trick is to make it easy for them to buy right there and then, so they don't forget and don't change their minds about buying from you.

5. Do you want more stock? [ so I can take photos, upload them on the blog and online store as part of the online catalogue]
Absolutely. New stock means new content and new products on offer.

5. How can I effectively make this online thing work?
Treat it as a business. Tell everyone you know about your products. Make it attractive for your friends and family and colleagues to tell their networks about your products. Work hard, consistently, invest in the blog and store as you would any other business. And do yourself a favour - don't count on making good returns on investment in the short-term.

8. How being online help me market my products to SA clients?
You have greater reach, because you're not limited to selling to people in your city only. And your potential customers buy by credit card, so it doesn't really matter whether they in SA or another country.

I hope many of my online readers will also find the info useful.

Update On "The Handbag Project"

Many thanks to the people who blogged about this great initiative and/contacted me to let me know that they'd like do something but are hampered by distance.

My sister, who lives in Durban, is coming up to Joburg some time this month, and she's happy to take the packages, whether they're handbags or items that can be put into the bags, down to Durban with her and drop them off. So please feel free to email me at damariasenne@gmail.com to make collection/delivery arrangements if you would still like to make a donation.