Comments on: iblog: South African Blogging Platform

By: HASH

HASH — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:08:48 +0000

We all know how hard it is to find quality .com’s though…

It would be nice to have an Africa TLD. I wonder if it has ever been presented?

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:04:58 +0000

I think you’re right, a .com would be first prize and a lot easier!

The comment about the .af TLD was tongue-in-cheek, but I can remain ever hopeful for our own version of .eu!

By: HASH

HASH — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:01:29 +0000

Hi Mark, when you do decide to move out of just SA, I would highly suggest you pick up the country TLDs for where you plan to move into.

If you have a .com, it’s not such a big deal. If you only have the .co.za then it’s more important. Most countries outside of SA won’t take part in a .co.za site, but they will in a .com.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:57:09 +0000

Hash, thanks for the writeup and kind words about iblog.co.za. A quick update- we’ve now got just over 6,000 bloggers and are still growing rapidly!

With regards to being SA-focussed, I think Leo is spot on, although hopefully we can grow to incorporate all African bloggers in the future. However, that does present a slight problem in terms of domain name… would we use a .co.za domain name? Or a dot com (expensive for a good one)? Or will we wait until the .af TLD is released?!?

By: Africa Roundup « David McQueen

Africa Roundup « David McQueen — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:52:57 +0000

[...] comments on blogging platforms in South Africa and Kenya. Benin gets the Zambian Presidents views on Aid vs Trade. Emeka brings another angle to [...]

By: Rob Gilmour

Rob Gilmour — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:29:10 +0000

Thanks Hash for profiling Iblog, RSAWEB has been involved with the project from an infrastructure perspective for the last 2 years. The key to furthering technology in Africa is through partnering. Knowledge is often closely guarded and slows growth in technology, however through partnering we can achieve far more. The knowledge we have gained through Iblog’s huge success has taught us a lot about infrastructure scaling and the needs of a Blog service. Partnerships between non-competitive mutually beneficial technology companies should really be promoted, especially in Africa where we often have further to catch up.

Great Blog.

By: HASH

HASH — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:42:16 +0000

Henk! Okay, I’ve fixed both of those items. In fact, when looking at the browsers that people were using, I found that the number of Firefox users has grown to 44%. Not bad at all.

By: Henk Kleynhans

Henk Kleynhans — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:10:48 +0000

iBlog is pretty cool, quick & easy registration to boot.

On another note, I see in your About section that you’re hoping to visit SA one day and that only 25% of your site visitors use Firefox.

As I had the great pleasure of meeting you in SA last month, I reckon that needs an update.

And maybe you could run a little mini ‘The Price is Right’ competition regarding Firefox usage.

My guess is 41%!

By: HASH

HASH — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:36:19 +0000

Leo, I agree. I took out the paragraph where I was talking about them being just focused on South Africa instead of all of Africa. I missed that once sentence though…

In this case, I think the focused growth in a niche market is the right strategy.

By: Leo

Leo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:15:19 +0000

Sometimes though, focused vision and targeting a specific niche is what will help drive growth.