Since its inception in 2020, The Marketing Mill has trained nearly 50 young people in content writing, SEO, web development, and digital marketing, hiring more than half of them. And they plan to double this number by 2022 by offering paid internships and SEO and writing courses.

The company was founded in South Africa but has since spread its roots to other places in the world. Many members of the team have operated from places such as Greece, Bali, Amsterdam, Spain and the USA, but most are back in SA now.

In 2020 Travel Tractions expanded its business offering to include The Marketing Mill and improve its rapidly growing internship program. At the same time, the agency created and implemented an online content marketing course with a strong focus on SEO copywriting to be used internally.

Now in 2021, a second course focussed on SEO has been created to advance the internship offering even further. As explained by founder, Matt Davison, "we are very passionate about showing people how to make an income online. And when Covid-19 hit our travel marketing agency, we had a lot of free time on our hands. It made a lot of sense to develop a course to formalize our learnings in a structured way".

The team has plans to create even more courses and release them to the public at a later date to educate even more people. To stay in the loop on all things related to the digital marketing course, you can sign up for course updates on learn.themarketingmill.com.

More about the paid internship 

As many graduates will tell you, finding an entry-level position after graduation is no easy task, especially if you have no prior experience. Standing out from thousands of other applicants is nearly impossible without a giant neon sign saying “pick me”. 

Most graduates also dream of traveling the world, but can’t afford to do so without working. With The Marketing Mill, not only can you earn money but you can also work from anywhere in the world. It is not unheard of to find Travel Tractions team members typing away while camping in the bush or at a beachside cafe. 

With a focus on learning and remote working, an internship at Travel Tractions offers the perfect entry-level job for graduates or even students. With part-time and full-time options as well as flexible hours, gaining work experience and knowledge about digital marketing has never been so convenient for young adults. 

Plus, the interns get one-on-one mentorship from a senior team member during their first six months, helping them to expand their skills and deepen their knowledge. During this time they learn a range of tasks including writing, editing, SEO, social media, and other aspects of digital marketing. And if the individual shows dedication and ability, there is a potential for a longer-term employment. 

Contact Details:

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Websites: https://traveltractions.com/ and https://themarketingmill.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/

Travel Tractions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traveltractions/ 

A crucial factor that affects your Google rankings ( SEO ) is the loading speed of a website. You are losing business if your website is loading slowly on the internet. Ensure that your website is loading as fast as it can by developing the website and to make sure you are in the best hosting environment. Aura Host offers the fastest hosting in South Africa, here’s why: 

CPU Power

Shared hosting is taking 1 server and allocating a little bit of resources to each Most other hosting providers have a very high share ratio, which means 1 server could host 1,000 or more clients. Since a CPU can process only so much data at a time, if only a small number of those websites has visitors, the CPU would be overloaded and the website slows down. Aura Host has a very low share ratio, ensuring that your website can load extremely fast. 

RAM

Random-access memory is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code. The more you have, the less work the CPU has to do, and the faster websites built on WordPress can load and be developed. Aura Host is very generous with RAM allocation. All clients that move to us has immediately noticed the difference in site loading time. It makes developing a site fast and productive. 

SSD Hard Drives

An SSD is flash storage and has no moving parts whatsoever... SSD storage is much faster than it’s HDD equivalent. HDD storage is made up of magnetic tape and has mechanical parts inside. They're larger than SSDs and much slower to read and write. All of our servers run on SSD’s.

Location

Unlike some other S.A. hosting companies Aura Host actually hosts it’s servers in South Africa and not offshore. It makes a huge difference in loading time. If you want your website to attract users from South Africa, you need your website to be as close to them as possible for the basic reason that it has less distance to travel and loads faster.

Data Centre Security

We use technology-driven measures to provide perimeter, building and access-control security. The perimeter fence is backed by high voltage barriers, video surveillance and response systems. Outdoor and indoor access zones, including colocation racks, are monitored by video surveillance. Biometric access control systems and progressive access policies allow unattended access to authorized visitors. Security personnel are on site 24/7 to ensure the safety of our visitors.

Connectivity

Aura Host is a vendor-neutral data centre and welcomes any telecommunication and content provider to grow the network ecosystem. We also host a local PoP of the INX-ZA internet exchange and have dual redundant fibre links into both Johannesburg and Cape Town NAPAfrica exchange points. Cable management by Aura Host ensures scalability and reliability. All racks are provisioned with 100Mbps by default, upgradable to 1Gbps. Additional CAT6 copper and fibre can be provided. We provide optional internet transit connectivity via multiple upstream providers as well as large scale peering at both the INX-ZA and NAPAfrica internet exchange points.

Backup / Support & Reliability

Aura Host provides a free monthly backup plan, stable hosting environments, free SSL certificate. For more active users, more rotational backups can be provided. Assistance with coding, development, email and general technical problems. 

For too long small businesses have been sitting on the sidelines of Google search results, watching the more prominent brands dominate on every generic and niche search term. And even though SME’s are trying to compete, they simply to do not have the resources or skill to push out enough targeted content or have the budget to compete for search advertising placement bids.

Challenges Most Small Businesses Face Breaking Into The Digital Sphere

Small businesses starting out don't always have the capital to push into developing a website in the first place. If your products or services are not web-based, it often seems a waste of money to invest in this platform from the beginning, but unfortunately, that decision means you’re losing out on customers who are online looking for your services.

If you have made the transition to online and own website, you now have to think about marketing it to gain traffic. Using other sources like social media, SEO, Google Ads, Email, Display Ads, Remarketing, the list goes on.

Having a website costs money, you need to spend on marketing, website hosting fees, development and upkeep.  You can try to do it yourself, but you either don’t have the time, or it’s just not your forte.

What small businesses in South Africa need right now is a platform that is easy to use and manage. A service that lets them highlights their brands most import information and offerings at a minimum cost (even better if it's free). Unfortunately, there wasn’t an option for many small businesses until now.

Introducing The  nichemarket Community

nichemarket is the brainchild of two seasoned digital marketers from sunny Cape Town, South Africa.  For years we have been helping businesses build their brands online and noticed a common trend.

The corporates had the budgets to dominate every marketing channel from social media and email to Google Ads and Organic search results. And even though online marketing costs much less than traditional advertising, smaller brands did not always have the budget, the time or the expertise.

After turning away so many promising small businesses, we decided we want to create a destination where they too can thrive and get their piece of the internet pie.   And that’s how nichemarket was born, a social marketplace community that is fully set-up to get your brand visibility online and lower the barrier to entry, instead of having to compete with larger corporations.  

nichemarket acts as an entrepreneurial hub for small businesses to promote their services and consumers to find their services online.

You sign up for FREE and create a business profile for your business, and we do the hard work of marketing your business to the South African Public.

What Do You Get With A Free nichemarket Business Listing?

So now you probably asking, what do I get with this free business listing and is it worth my time!

The Simple Answer:

It takes 5 minutes to sign up and your business get tons of online marketing benefits for free!

The Longer Answer:

By signing up to nichemarket, you can enjoy the following for FREE:

• A Fully Optimised Landing Page for your brand which can even act as a website if you do not have one yet.
• With 19 categories to choose from, you get an equal opportunity to dominate your niche.
• Free exposure to an average of 70 000 visitors to our site per month.
• A chance for your brand to reach and interact with a broader audience in both your local area and the greater South Africa.
• Increase your credibility by getting customers to rate and review your services online.Access to expert advice as our blog now provides over 500 in-depth articles on business and digital marketing from a wide range of local and international experts.
• Access to expert advice as our blog now provides over 500 in-depth articles on business and digital marketing from a wide range of local and international experts.

Give Your Brand A Kickstart With nichemarket

With more benefits and zero downfalls, we can’t think of a reason for any South African business not to register. To get started head to www.nichemarket.co.za and hit sign up!

Helpful links:

• How to Join The nichemarket community
• How to Create a nichemarket Business Listing

Pro- Rank is a family owned marketing business, and like many businesses in South Africa, Pro-Rank has experienced financial difficulty in the past. We understand how hard it is succeeding in today's world, especially with this ongoing economic crisis in South Africa. It brings us great pleasure to grow businesses successfully through our online marketing efforts. We like to think of ourselves as "business friends" and not "business associates". 

Pro- Rank have been assisting companies in marketing their services and products online from 2013. What makes us different from other marketing companies is we value our clients, and work with them closely to assure the success of their marketing campaigns. 

Many people assume that smaller businesses are not professional enough, or do not offer the same "value" as bigger businesses. We believe this isn't true. Smaller businesses go the extra mile to assure clients are happy with their quality services, personalized relationships and competitive pricing. Bigger companies are more about numbers and contracts, somewhere along the line, the relationship is lost. 

The founder of Pro-Rank, Andreas Pepas, started to learn online marketing in 2010. He had left South Africa to live in England, but struggled to find a decent job. He eventually found work as a waiter to pay the bills but highly disliked his job. It was the one night, after work, where he stumbled across search engine optimization. He enrolled in several courses and took several years of learning and practice to master SEO.  Andreas Returned to South africa in 2012. In March 2013, Pro-Rank was Created and Andreas continued to learn different aspects of internet marketing to promote businesses in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has always valued the relationship he has with clients, and always gives 100 percent to ensure clients are completely satisfied with his services. 

Real & Works updated their range of Google NAP listing solution for local businesses interested in optimizing their online presence and drastically increasing the required criteria for Google 3 pack selections that leads to faster and better ranks this fuels increased customer inquiries.

Real & Works, a company providing SEO marketing solutions for local and international businesses, launched an updated range of Google NAP listing services for clients interested in making their business more visible.

The company has extensive experience providing comprehensive and superior marketing services, including fully managed SEO packages, page optimizations, local SEO solutions and project management.

More information can be found at https://realandworks.com/local-nap-listing-ranking-in-2019.Whenever someone searches for a local service online, Google shows a map among the organic search results without requiring people to perform another click. This pack of local businesses is displayed after any paid ads and before the organic search results, so it is very important for local businesses to get featured into this pack.

Specifically, when a potential customer is not searching for their business name but doing a search for the type of service they offer, Google will list the most relevant businesses in what is called a 3 pack. Thus, of the top 3 businesses on Google, the customer is most likely to select one of these 3 and very seldom search for other options.

According to Real & Works, there are two main aspects of optimizing for the Local Pack. First, clients have to prepare their GMB page and then they have to optimize their website for a local SEO run.

When creating or claiming their GMB profile, every small business owner has to include the business name, business type, the premises address, hours of operations, the main phone number and a link to their website. This is an essential component to get their listings higher, so it is very important that their NAP (name, address and place) is exact and correct.

The fastest way to get listed in the 3 pack is with the help of a professional team that knows exactly how to list businesses on Google.

Real & Works offers a wide range of services for local businesses, including fixing old citations to get high authority citations, featuring businesses on high authority sites that lead to high authority NAP citations, and getting their clients’ businesses ranked in the 3 pack.

Interested parties can find more by visiting the above-mentioned website or mailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We feel that using the correct integrations can help you save a lot of valuable time and can be great tools for your digital marketing strategies and making them a success.

Below is a list of integrations that you need to apply that is imperative to run a successful digital marketing strategy:

1) Facebook Pixel – Vital to track Facebook ad performance on a website

A Facebook pixel is code that you place on your website that helps you track conversions from Facebook ads, optimize ads based on collected data, build targeted audiences for future ads, and remarket to qualified leads.

Visit Facebook Pixel

2) Google Analytics – Vital to track a websites visitors behaviour on the website or prior to reaching the website.

Google Analytics offers a very robust set of tools, statistics and reports to help understand what is really going on with a website. 

• Learn where visitors come from and what they typed in to get there.
• Understand what visitors do once they arrive to the website.
• Learn how the website can convert more visitors into customers.
• See which keywords resonate with prospects and lead to conversions.
• Know which online ad or creative is the most effective (A/B Testing).
• Figure out how to develop not only more leads but higher quality leads.
• Track how many visitors completed a certain action (purchase, lead inquiry, call, etc).

Visit Google Analytics

3) Google Tag Manager – Vital to track conversion points or track events completed on a website by a visitor. This works together with Google Analytics.

Google Tag Manager is a tool that is often misunderstood, overused, and abused. It allows you add marketing tags (snippets of code or tracking pixels) and conversion points on your website without having to modify the code. Saving valuable time.

Quite simply this tool allows for streamlined marketing strategy automation and to allow marketers to focus on the important aspects of your strategy, lead generation.

Below is an example of how Google Tag manager works.

To be very honest, the possibilities of how the Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager work together are endless!

Visit Google Tag Manager

4) Facebook Ad Campaign – Vital to run digital advertisements on Facebook social network.

Facebook currently has an active monthly base of 2.20 billion users.

An advertisement campaign created by a business on Facebook that’s served to Facebook users based on user activity, demographic information, device use information, advertising and marketing partner-supplied information, and off-Facebook activity.

Facebook ads are so important to businesses because of the extra reach, exposure, and detailed targeting options that allow you to reach your specific audience. Having a business page on Facebook simply doesn’t allow for optimal reach, growth and exposure as Facebook have implemented algorithms that restrict the content from your business page from reaching your full audience. At the moment only 6% of your audience will see your posts that are posted on your Facebook business page.

Running Facebook ad campaigns allow for you to select who sees your ads. You can simply add budget behind a specific post and select your defined target audience and the post will begin reaching a far larger audience within minutes.

Visit Facebook Business

5) Google Adwords – Vital to run digital advertisements on Google Search Engine.

As of 2017, Google processes 3.5 billion searches per day. Each time a search is processed. Google displays adverts amount the search results.

Google AdWords is paid advertising platform or pay per click (PPC) advertising platform to advertise on the Google Search Engine. The way it works is simple: People use *keywords (or search terms) to search for specific products and services. If the keywords you’ve chosen match what people search for, your paid ad appears next to or above organic Google search

*Keywords are words or phrases that are used to match your ads with the terms people are searching for. Selecting high quality, relevant keywords for your advertising campaign can help you reach the customers you want when you want.

Google Analytics is one of the best tools for lead generation. If your campaigns are set up properly, it has the potential to send extremely targeted leads to your website.

Google AdWords allows you to focus on people who are searching for exactly what you have to offer.

It could include products or services. This means you can continually refine your searches so that only those who want to buy your products or services are sent to your websites through this platform.

Visit Google Adwords

6) Infusionsoft (CRM & Email Marketing automation) – Vital to keep track of potential leads and nurture them to become qualified leads.

“Sales and marketing software that gets you organized, delivers personalized service, and closes more sales.”

With Infusionsoft your customers will enjoy personalized, relevant communication from their first website visit through every repeat purchase.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with your leads and potential leads. It helps you improve your profitability.

Email automation is the most effective way to engage in email marketing because it enables you to send out messages to your customers at designated times.

An email automation system can save time by setting up the email platform to send messages when customers take specific actions. Automation sounds very robotic, but in fact, it allows business owners to develop closer relationships with their customers by maintaining effective communication and brand awareness.

Visit Infusionsoft

6) Zapier automation – Vital to provide a streamlined lead funnel and to guide your leads through your nurture process.

Zapier is an online automation tool that integrates with a vast amount of apps/software, such as Gmail, Slack, MailChimp, Most CRM’s and over 1,000 more.

For example; when you receive a lead via a Facebook ad, you can have that lead inserted directly into your CRM system and you can send yourself an email notification that you have received a lead.

Zapier, is used to create streamlined lead flow and to direct your leads through the lead flow automatically, without you having to manually guide each lead through a lead. Saving valuable time for optimisation and lead generation.

Visit Zapier

6) Live chat – Vital to provide a solid and responsive communication channel between you and your potential leads.

Live chat is one of the more flexible tools you can use on your website. It helps you support customers in need of help. It allows you to increase your sales by engaging the right prospects at the right time as well as by generating a ton of new leads.

If a potential lead has a query about your service. They can simply contact you via Live Chat and find the answer to their query out immediately and make a decision to use your services.

“Many online consumers want help from a live person while they are browsing online; in fact, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of browsing is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.”

An online chat system provides customers immediate access to support. Wait times are often much less than a call centre, and customers can easily multi-task while waiting.

Let us know what other great integrations you use in the comments.

View article on Techsite.io

Media Contact:
Galactic Digital
Contact Person: Bruce Vorster
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Address: 8 Gie Road, Table View, Cape Town, South Africa, 7441
Website: https://galacticdigital.co.za

South African innovation consultancy enhances services for long-lasting business impact Johannesburg, South Africa 22 March 2018:  iShack Innovation Consultancy, leading technology and marketing consultancy, has redefined its website and product portfolio to provide enhanced solutions and services to its clients. With a proven track record and exemplary client list, the company now provides hands-on consulting expertise across both online marketing and innovation engineering.

“We are committed to providing a digital customer advisory service that’s designed to fit in with our client’s business objectives,” says Richard Bensted, Managing Director, iShack Innovation Consultancy. “We provide a full-service consultancy with highly skilled professionals and we focus on maximising client return on investment.” The online marketing division of iShack Innovation Consultancy focuses on strategic advice, advanced search engine optimisation, Google advertising and social media advertising. The innovation engineering division focuses on mobile application development and enhancement, artificial intelligence, blockchain tech

nology, exponential technology consulting and enterprise software engineering. Each division delivers measurable results to clients, crafting tailored solutions that focus on the challenges and pain points experienced by business.

“We are committed to supporting the growth and expansion of your business,” concludes Bensted. “Through our use of exponential technologies, innovation and digital consulting, and our extensive expertise in SEO and digital advertising, we can help you to reach more customers, expand your brand and take your business to new levels and into new markets.” iShack Innovation Consultancy has an impressive client list that includes Abland, TUHF Limited, Dodo Shoes, CTU Training Solutions, Bidserv Industrial Products, JLL, One on One Productions and Cliff Central, and High Street Auctions.

The company was started by two South Africa entrepreneurs, Richard Bensted and Wayne Berger, and the freshly designed website and portfolio reflect their awareness of the new digital landscape and the demands it places on the business. To find out more about iShack Innovation Consultancy visit https://www.ishack.co.za/ or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About iShack Innovation Consultancy
iShack Innovation Consultancy has been providing clients with exceptional service, solutions and innovative ideas for more than ten years. Established in 2005, the agency has a long list of well-known clients and success stories that showcase how both Richard Bensted, Managing Director, and Wayne Berger, Chairman – the founding entrepreneurs – have focused on client service, deliverables and measurable return on investment. To find out more about iShack Innovation Consultancy visit www.ishack.co.za, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 082 823 8618.   provides a range of solutions and services that are ideally suited to subscriber-based companies in Africa. Our comprehensive portfolio of services and our extensive technology-driven expertise help companies streamline their business

For more press information or images please contact:Tamsin OxfordCoffee This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   

On November 16th, digital strategy firm Britefire will be helping hotel, guesthouse and B&B owners get better results from their marketing efforts. At an afternoon seminar called “Packed” they will take participants step-by-step through the fastest, most powerful ways to get the best out of social media and search marketing.

Godfrey Parkin, Britefire’s CEO, said “We want to make our expertise available to business owners who normally can’t afford the time or fees to attend one of our corporate-level workshops. In just a few hours, they will learn how to save time, save money, and grow their business, without having to be a geek. We will focus on powerful insider hints, tips and tools that are instantly actionable – things which give a significant competitive edge, but which are free or really inexpensive to implement.”

Packed was developed by Karen Parkin (who architected the vast Marriott International hotel booking site, and has taken independent guesthouses to 90%+ occupancy). It is led by Godfrey Parkin (author of Digital Marketing – 8 Steps to Online Success, who always gets rave reviews from participants in his social media boot camps).

The seminar will begin at 14:00 and will end at 17:00 on November 16th and the attendance fee is R450 per person. The Cape Town venue will be selected once the organisers have a better idea of attendance numbers.

“We will cover a lot during the afternoon. But we are really good at explaining these concepts, and everyone will get a digital workbook so they have the notes and links they need when they get back to work,” said Karen. “If our other participants are anything to go by, they’ll go away inspired, excited, and confident!”

Some of the topics to be covered are: the 10 rules for powerful social posting; the best tools and sources for free images, free video, and free social platform management; how to run your own YouTube channel effectively; how to easily automate much of your social media; how to guarantee great clickable listings in Google search; how best to use social advertising; and how to integrate all your activity for major savings in time.

Britefire is in the business of helping companies to thrive in a world of digital disruption.

More information on Packed, and to book, the website page is at http://www.britefire.com/seminars-workshops/packed-social-media-hotels-guesthouses-bnb/ or phone 021 794 7838.

Contact details: Godfrey Parkin, CEO, and seminar facilitator: 021 794 7838   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Britefire (Pty) Ltd
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: 021 794 7838
www.britefire.com

Event organiser Kinetic has confirmed that industry-giant Performanta has signed on as platinum sponsors for this year’s anticipated 6th edition of their successful flagship event; the IT Leaders Africa Summit.

The event, taking place from 18 - 19 March 2015 at The Maslow Hotel in Johannesburg, is set to go beyond your usual routine business conference, evolving to deliver on a more exciting, topical, trendy and current platform, utilising both the latest technologies coupled with the latest in conference trends internationally.

Together with Performanta, the event aims to deliver an expert-lead agenda that features an educational conference program backed by the latest in technology workshops and demonstrations. 

Performanta’s workshop; Safeguard your organisation now, your wallet will thank you later; focuses on measuring your organisation against the industry on 10 information security and privacy measures, derived from real-world assessments.

Performanta Consulting was established by Anthony Olivier 4 years ago, aligning information security consulting services to the Performanta Technology & Services stable. Performanta Consulting has provided services to primary South African banks, insurance companies, brokers, mining companies, service and retail organisations. Their key differentiator: senior, qualified, experienced consultants, integrated frameworks and fair pricing. Furthermore, the team has assisted in addressing security problems in seventeen African countries and has a thorough understanding of the continental landscape.

As thought-leaders in the industry, they are amongst the most active South African participants in industry conferences, blogs and podcasts.An expert-led advisory panel will lead the summit with industry giants Robert Sussman, co-founder and joint-CEO of Integr8; Hugo Timmerman, Head of IT Southern Africa at British American Tobacco; and Tunde Coker, MD of Rack Centre (A Jagal Group Company).

The event also features over 35 speakers, keynotes, panel discussions and numerous educational workshop sessions hosted by key industry providers, all sessions led by some of today’s most notable individuals who are shaping the IT landscape in South Africa and beyond.

Speakers, just to name a few, include; David Visser, CIO of Coca-Cola Southern Africa; Anthony Hlungwane, Group IT Director of Mr Price Group; Sal Laher, CIO Eskom; Rocky Gwewera, Global Head of Infrastructure Architecture at Sasol; Stephan Ekbergh, CEO and founder of Travelstart; and Sunil Joshi, MD and CEO of Neotel.

Some sponsors and partners include; Telkom Business, HP, Performanta and Blue Coat Systems, SITA, Airwatch, Kofax, Dimension Data, Neotel, Meso Systems, Sage Pastel Accounting and ERP Africa, and Blackberry.

For more information on the event to register to attend or to sponsor, visit www.itleaders.co.za or contact the event organisers Kinetic on +27 21 180 4700.Follow the event and stay up to date on Twitter. @ITLeadersAfrica and join in on the conversation using #ITLAfrica.

SEO & Online marketing solutions for small businesses On the 22nd of February, SERP SEO Solutions launched it's host of out-of-the-box marketing solutions via it's innovative online store.

Along with the launch they are running a competition giving away web design vouchers valued at R1000. SERP is a provider of Marketing Services for website developers. They offer a powerful range services aimed at providing website owners with access to tools & services used to help improve a websites local search visibility. To celebrate their launch they are giving away vouchers to be used at their site. Some of their many services include- Article writing, Web Design, Monthly SEO Packages and more.

Visit their web-page at www.serp.co.za/competition and read the competition guidelines to stand a chance to win a R1000 voucher which can be used for any of their services. Competition closes on the 18th of March 2015.

Contact Information:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.serp.co.za/contact-us