Launching in February 2015, Design4T.com is South Africa’s first crowd-funding platform for customised T-shirts.

Design4T.com enables groups, organizations or individuals to create and sell custom apparel with no upfront costs. In addition, local governments and non-profits can use this innovative platform to raise funds for initiatives.

"We’re extremely excited to introduce this new platform to South Africa," said Design4T’s co-founder & director, Claus Lauter. "Design4T.com is unique in that it gives people a quick, easy and no-cost way to start earning money for a special cause or idea by creating and selling T-Shirts online. The cool thing about this model is that there is no risk for the seller and buyer."

Here’s how it works.

First, the campaign creator designs a T-Shirt using Design4T’s custom T-Shirt building tool. That process takes place right in the browser and it is extremely easy to do. Then a campaign page is created. A goal is set for a number of T-Shirts the campaign creator wants to sell. The more T-Shirt sold, the cheaper each shirt becomes. Shipping and fulfilment is handled entirely by Design4T, and the shirts arrive around two weeks after a campaign closes.

How much does it cost?

Using the Design4T platform is 100% free. Design4T only charges a fee for successful campaigns that covers the raw material, production, and delivery of each product. The seller chooses the selling price and keeps 100% of all profits.

About Design4T Products

Currently, sellers can design and print on a variety of high quality pre-shrunk Fruit of the Loom shirts. Design4T’s screen printing partners are audited to guarantee high standards of quality and socially responsible practices.

About the Design4T Team

Design4T was created in 2014 by a team of highly dedicated entrepreneurs and online marketing experts with the mission to make a successful business concept available for South Africans. Design4T has a top class customer service team to help ensure customer satisfaction, and offers in-house design and marketing services to enhance and amplify sales to Design4T campaigns.

For interested journalists, Design4T is offering free access to the website at http://www.design4t.com/ and an information-packed training course called Design4T University.

For more information, you can watch a video showing an overview of Design4T at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS1oyyVRIk0

For additional information, contact:

Design4T (Pty) Ltd.Claus Lauter, Director199 Loop Street, Graphic CentreCape Town, 8001, South Africa

Phone: ++27 (0)21 200 6643 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: www.design4t.comCompany registration number: 2014/271026/07

WINNING THE SEO LOGIC

I have a story to do with search engine optimisation and have been doing it since 1997 which is long before Google even existed. The story I am going to tell here is about my recent website and how I managed to get to the top of Google in one month and shows up today listed number 2 on Page 1 of Google.

WEB DESIGN COMPANY

We were a web design company. Two years ago, looking at Google trends, I saw that the demand for Web Design on the search engine was dropping fast. I then woke up to the fact that there is a proliferation of web design companies and in addition clients were also training their own staff to manage this role from their offices. With the introduction of fantastic technologies like WordPress and Joomla being able to create and update your own company website has become easy. Not so with search engine optimisation.

THE STORY

The question I asked was do I stay in the business of web design where every Tom, Dick and Vuzi are selling their service for a few measly bucks or get into something else. I decided to re-position my company but how and what to do? After much thinking I decided all I could do was related to the web and the technology behind it, I am too old to start again on a new career. For a while I thought that owning shopping cart websites was a way to go and bring in income over a spread of sites from Gift products to clothing stores. This is definitely something to look into as I have managed to turn over a certain amount of income but found it to be seasonal and more importantly it takes all of your time sourcing products and getting them delivered at reasonable costs, particularly since you can no longer trust the Post Office (do we still have one)? I still have an Ecommerce site but treat it more as a hobby even though it is in the top two listings on Google for its target market; it’s just that I don’t have the time to keep sourcing new products (all other sites offer the same thing).My next strategy was to then turn my Web Design company website into a SEO website offering services, some of which were unique. This is what I did but by the time I had finished re-branding and writing content after researching with a lot of friends (who were all trying to please me) I realised that the things I was saying did not have much or any resonance with them at all. I felt like I was talking to a brick wall (the site was too technical I reasoned).

THE ANSWER

Everyone has heard something about the power of video on the Web and how it is trending even on mobile. YouTube is South Africa’s second highest search engine. The future of video is bright and I predict as soon as the bandwidth issue has been resolved the Web will turn to video overnight! The cost of video has come down a lot too since the inception of really good quality HD equipment but the hosting is still very, very high. Typically in America to live stream you are talking about USD$50 per month which comes with restrictions like you cannot link the video to your own website. You actually need to pay $350 – $500 per month to get any kind of ownership as to what you can do with your video. Also what about the time lapse between America and South Africa the streaming has major bandwidth issues.Live streaming from South Africa is still in its infancy but the big guys like DSTV and SABC and others have been doing it for a while now. In fact they are gearing up for more as we see you can stream movies to your devices from these broadcasters. However I am talking about streaming out to the public from a company website not streaming in from an entertainment point of view.If you have a company and want to do brand promotion, conference, training sessions or product demonstrations you can reach thousands of people in the country and around the world using the power of LIVE video.

This is what I set out to do by re-positioning my company to a video broadcast company. I did this by aligning all our strengths, which were:

• Technology – can we leverage the technology we have or build it to offer live streaming?
• Video – can we build a mobile outside broadcast system?
• Video – do we have any experience in shooting films?

The story ends here in so far as we spent nine months developing what was required and were now ready to go live but we needed some hook to get us high on the search engines as this is the most important and cheapest medium we have to promote our new brand.

THE HOOK

After visiting Events companies to offer our services and after talking to our existing clients where we received warm receptions’ and best wishes we ended up with nothing. I decided to sift through the many uses on the web for live video and ended up with a very tight well defined market which was live wedding videos so your friends and family overseas can see you LIVE on your wedding day.  That was going to be our hook.

THE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION THAT WORKS

Last month in December I set out to totally re-position our website to Wedding Videos. So our search engine keywords which were, “web design South Africa” was changed to “wedding videos Johannesburg”.

I did all the keyword research I could and spent hours viewing competitor websites both here and overseas. It doesn’t just happen where you go after certain keywords and lambast the search engines with them. What you need to be able to do is to say something different while keeping your keywords in mind. What I have done that is different is to promote the Live Streaming aspect of weddings. There is much to say about that and all the information is different to what anyone else is saying, relevant to weddings.

That is the secret. Google has become very “intelligent” for a computer and understands so much about the content of a website and what it needs to look for when indexing and ranking you. It needs to be treated with the respect of a human being in order to have a meaningful relationship with it. Although the above sounds simple it is not. Your content must be relevant and that is the tricky part, keeping it relevant in my case to the goal of “wedding videos Johannesburg” as opposed to “live streaming videos”.

Now Google indexes your pages all the time and publishes your links on whatever page it deems fit but every so often it does a major re-shuffle (Google dance is not dead) and at the time of writing this started on Google yesterday 13 January 2015 (maybe a day or two sooner).Prior to this shuffle we had our pages on page two of Google like we had ALL of five links at the bottom of page two. Today (this may change over the days) but www.epnet.co.za is appearing number 2 on page one of Google for “wedding videos Johannesburg”.

We feature as well for many other keywords like wedding video prices, etc. So the whole job was done in one month and we now have one of the most powerful mediums promoting our brand without wasting time and money on AdWords, Social Media, links to other sites or anything else. The lesson I have learned to getting ranked high on search engines is create ONE set of keywords that you MUST get ranked for and build in the others during your journey of writing your content. Your other keywords will also feature highly as long as you are STRONG on the one approach.

You will only be strong for the one set of keywords if you are different from your competitors and the one set of keywords will strengthen all the other words you want to be strong with. You must also have a different story to tell. Simple logic does the trick. By the way we also feature very strongly on Google for live web streaming, as a spinoff and is where we also want to be positioned. 

On the dawn of Youth Dynamix’s 15th year anniversary next month, we reflect on how the youth market has transformed in this short space of time and how marketers have had to adapt to survive.  

There’s no doubt, the marketing of goods and services have undergone a profound transformation over the past 15 years. Regulatory advances, new technologies and increasingly open global markets have all played their part in changing how the youth react and interact with products and services.  

The information conundrum….

Children and young adults are more significant forces in the marketplace now. But, while new technologies offer more access to information overall, many young consumers today lack the necessary skills to cope with the increasingly complex, information-intensive marketplaces they’re faced with.  

With many companies struggling to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive open market, they’re forced to bundle related products and offerings, making it difficult for consumers to compare them. As a result, young consumers have had to learn more about markets in order to make good decisions.  

“Show me, don’t tell me”

The youth’s ability and willingness to trade with a company depends on their level of confidence in it. That’s why it’s so important you don’t ignore brand activations. There are very few marketing activities as powerful as brand activations. This because they involve experiential, interactive, emotive and sustainable involvements with the brand. Overall, brand activations offer a more holistic view of the product and allow for an emotive connection with the brand – you cannot offer using new technologies alone.

Be sure to get the most out of your budget…

All engagement and communication campaigns developed by Youth Dynamix (YDx) include an element of measurability.  This gives you the assurance that you’ve met your ROI and have made a relevant impact in the market.   YDx is a youth & family specialist research and marketing agency.

To activate your brand in the youth market, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 071 551 8200.

www.ydx.co.za

Johannesburg – December 2014 ‒ 21 ICONS South Africa in conjunction with its proud sponsors, Mercedes-Benz South Africa, will launch a series of activations and exhibitions at various consumer touch points around the country.

The events will demonstrate that the project has built an integrated, multimedia platform to impart key attributes and messages of extraordinary South African leaders of the past and present to the public and to connect with local and international audiences.  

The 21 ICONS project is an initiative aimed at documenting the lives of iconic individuals through fine art portraits, intimate conversations and short films, behind the scenes photography, written narrative as well as feature length documentaries into a truly converged visual experience to shape perceptions and transform societal norms, and impacting the communities around them. 

The first leg of the campaign kicked off on Saturday 22 November at the Cape Town and OR Tambo international airports where promoters handed out copies of the City Press, the projects chosen print media partner, and created awareness and hype about the ‘Me & My Icon’ selfie competition. Members of the public are encouraged to snap a selfie with a 21 ICONS collectable portrait poster inserted in the newspaper and post the picture alongside a short personal message to the featured icon on the 21 ICONS Facebook page. Readers can enter the selfie competition until 7 December 2014 and on 10 December an official draw will be held at Media 24 head offices and the winner of the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class will be announced. Each week the ten best entries are selected by the City Press editorial team and 21 ICONS South Africa will ensure that all the personal messages reach the relevant icon. Weekly prizes are awarded to the top three entries including Momentum Asset Management unit trusts, Nikon Coolpix cameras as well as 21 ICONS Season I collectable coffee table books. The 50 overall winners will then be entered into a lucky draw for the chance to drive away in a new luxury Mercedes-Benz C-Class. With an extended entry period until midnight on Sunday 7 December, readers can enter during this period using either the poster of Paralympian athlete, Zanele Situ who appears in this week’s issue or next week’s icon, writer Miriam Tlali whose portrait will be revealed. 

The airport activations will continue until Sunday 30 November and Monday 29 December at Cape Town International Airport and OR Tambo International Airport respectively where Season I’s unique short films and exquisite portraits as well as the latest Mercedes Benz C-Class will be on display.  

The winner of the ‘Me & My Icon’ competition will emerge from a lucky draw and be given the keys to a new Mercedes-Benz C-Class during the car handover scheduled to take place at The Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town on 13 December.

Supporting competition content will be aired on the V&A Amphitheatre screens ahead of the competition closing date and the Season I short films flighted during the competition period.   

Early next year the 21 ICONS project will also be showcased at the V&A for an extensive, full-spectrum indoor and outdoor exhibition.  

The promotions intend to encourage the community to actively engage with the icons and these platforms offer a unique opportunity to align the brand with a remarkable collection of South African leaders. 

About 21 Icons South Africa21 ICONS South Africa is an annual collection of photographs and short films of South Africans who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their fields of endeavour. These men and women have been an inspiration through their extraordinary social contribution. It is not a definitive list and does not denote any ranking. 

The short film-series documents the conversations between Steirn as the photographer and filmmaker and the icons. Each short film provides insight into both the subject and photographer's creative approach to the portrait. 

Season two of 21 ICONS South Africa is proudly sponsored by Mercedes-Benz South Africa, Momentum Asset Management, Nikon, Deloitte and the Department of Arts and Culture. Season two debuted on Sunday 03 August continuing for another 20 weeks, one of 21 short films will be screened every Sunday on SABC 3 at 20h27.  

On each of these Sundays, a poster of the icon’s portrait, taken by Adrian Steirn and his creative team, will be published in the City Press to form a memorable collection that everyone can own.Media partners include SABC 3, City Press (Media 24), Provantage and Mxit. 

Social Media:21 Icons engages with the public through:Twitter: @21Icons Website: http://www.21icons.com Mobisite: www.21icons.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/21Icons Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/21ICONS/ iTunes App Store: http://tinyurl.com/lf3cfzm Google Play: http://tinyurl.com/ovtcy45 

On behalf of 21 ICONS South Africa 

I spoke with Prof EN Barkhuizen from the Talent Management Blueprint Conference and asked her for some of the Key Takeout’s from the conference held on 16th and 17th of October which unpacked Talent Management and Organisational Energy and behaviour

‘Are we making a Difference? ’Was her biggest question for Industry Leaders.

‘There are Only about 100 scientific publications on talent management. ‘There are 32, 4 million people aged between 15 and 64 years (working age population) in South Africa.

Of these 13, 1 million (40%) were employed and 4, 5 million (3, 8%) were unemployed.

This report further pointed out that 41, 0% of the unemployed were students

15, 0% were discouraged work seekers.

38 236 doctors and 5 560 dentists.

The doctor-to-population ratio is estimated to be 0.77 per 1 000.

But because the vast majority of GPs – 73% – work in the private sector, there is just one practicing doctor for every 4 219 people.

(Source: RSA.info, 2014)

From the above stats, it is apparent that we clearly need to become more Talent Intelligent.

Other staggering Stats from hashtag Marius Meyer were the following:         

Human Capital is the biggest concern for CEOs (PwC).        

Only 18% of CEOs feel confident that they have the right people in place to execute strategy (CEB).        

Human Capital is the biggest risk in business (HCI Africa).        

Skills crisis is the top obstacle to economic growth.        

Strikes cost SA R 200 million+ per day.        

SA losing R12 billion a year due to absenteeism.        

Only 19% auditors feel they use HR optimally (CG Index – Institute of Internal Auditors)        

Only 5% employees understand business strategy.        

World-wide 13% of employees actively engaged.        

Companies with engaged employees outperform others by 202% (Dale Carnegie).

Companies with good HR Practices outperform others by treating HR as critical business function, these companies are 105% more profitable.

Average ROI on wellness programmes: 300%.

‘So what do we do about all this? ‘I asked like Dr Lynne Derman, who is a renowned expert in the field of organisational energy and whose Doctoral Study was the first to investigate organizational energy in the South African context.’

‘I am passionate about employee well being, in fact managing talent effectively gives business a competitive advantage.

Aligning Talent Management with Business Strategy is imperative. It is equally important to be equipped with the correct tools‘.

For more information on individual and organisational well-being visit goldfish-consulting

Link: http://goldfish-consulting.co.za/services/talent-management

Right Click Online Marketing Pvt Ltd, one of the largest aggregators of online coupons and deals in the world, announced the launch of it's voucher site in South Africa with the domain name www.vouchercodes.za.com. 

RcM (Right Click Media) is an online venture of highly qualified digital marketers with a combined experience of 60 years in online shopping, having presence around the world with sites having TLD names (Top Level Domain) in 12 countries in APAC, Middle East, Europe, and now Africa. It is head quarteded in New Delhi, with support center located in Dehradun, India. To know more, visit www.rightclick.media.

Vouchercodes.za.com is a deal/discount codes website displaying latest coupons and deals from all top online shopping sites in South Africa across various categories. Over the years, online coupon and voucher sites have played a significant role in increasing the penetration of online transactions in countries such as UK, USA and China. Some of these sites are valued at a staggering USD 1 bn! With the launch of Vouchercodes.za.com in South Africa, the benefit of shopping online with the help of coupons is now going to be available to the users here, and will possibly be instrumental in becoming growth catalyst for the industry. To take benefit of discounts, user will need to visit Vouchercodes.za.com from their desktop or mobile browser, search for coupons from their favorite online shopping portal, and use the most lucrative one they find here. on the shopping site.

MAMMOTH BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) NAMES LAUREN SHANTALL (PTY) LTD AS ITS PREFERRED COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND BIG DATA CONFERENCE

Lauren Shantall (Pty) Ltd is proud to be managing the social media and communications for the two-day Mammoth BI Conference held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on November 17 – 18, 2014. The two-day conference and workshop will house some of the world’s foremost thought leaders in Business Intelligence, Big Data and Analytics.

The Lauren Shantall (Pty) Ltd stable of clients also include top local décor and lifestyle brands such Plascon, Inhouse Brand Architects, Willowlamp, Indigenus, GreenFin/MediFin and Probio. Lauren Shantall (Pty) Ltd provides an integrated communications offering, spanning social, digital and traditional marketing and perception management, also focusing on design and environmental clients.

Head of Business Intelligence at Saratoga, Mammoth BI Founder and Curator and self-proclaimed alchemist at TEDx Cape Town, Jason Haddock said, ‘The focus for the Mammoth BI Conference is to build a strong BI community in South Africa, dispel myths around conventional ideas on Big Data, create, and harvest a local community understanding in Business Intelligence’.

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY: Lauren Shantall (Pty) Ltd

Hotel Izulu, the 5 star Hotel in Ballito, will host its latest wine market on Sunday the 26 October 2014 from 12:00. Oak Valley Wines will pair with the latest culinary offerings created by Executive Chef, Jennifer du Toit. 

Guests can look forward to Marinated Seafood Salad with Shellfish Vinaigrette, paired with Oak Valley Rose, or the mouth-watering Seared Tomato and Mozzarella Quiche and Fresh Watercress, paired with Oak Valley Sauvignon Blanc. Another option to consider is the Thai Fish Cake with Coriander Pesto, paired with Oak Valley Semillon and the Crisp Pork Belly on Carvery, Cider Sauce paired with Oak Valley Shiraz. Lastly; Rosemary Lamb and Aubergine Skewers paired with Oak Valley Cabernet Franc.

Tickets are R195 for adults and children (3-16) R70, which includes a cold drink, a child’s meal and ice cream for dessert. There is ample space for children to play while the adults enjoy the food, wine pairing and live music from ‘Afritude.’

A new pancake stall will be on offer as well as the famous Izulu Deli! The Deli offers  Soup, Cheese Boards, Breads, Biscuits and Hotel Izulu’s famous Fudge. All featured wines will be on sale for a special price as well as wine coolers.

Reservations Essential: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 032 946 3444

Darren August takes us through a few of the experiences and relationships with his own teachers, growing up, which changed his life. He retells the stories of others too, and will surely awaken your school memories. As an experienced motivator, the book leaves not only teachers encouraged to inspire others, but everyone else will feel inspired to reach their potential and live their calling too. 

This book offers a few giggles as we see things from the perspective of a child, but is mostly introspective of the role we play in the way in which children perceive themselves. Teachers and parents will find it particularly motivating – with practical ways you could change young lives, for good. 

This book is a great resource. It’s a celebration of teachers, as instrumental parts of society – it will definitely have you thinking of the teachers that have impacted your life. Scheduled for release in October 2014 – this book is set to motivate every South African reader to once again restore the dignity of ‘The Noblest Profession”. 

About the Author 

Darren August is the Founder and CEO of Dazz Consulting – A dynamic training organisation committed to seeing people thrive and succeed.He is a Corporate Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Life Coach, Entrepreneur, Radio Host & former Lecturer.He is passionate about Life; People and Education and together with his wife – Arlene, they believe in maximizing every opportunity to impact the lives of others. 

To order, for interview requests and other queries, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --- 17/09/2014

Verifying the identity of an individual has never been easier with the new real time ID verification with photograph checks from V-Report.

No matter if you are opening accounts within the retail or banking sectors or assisting the job market in finding alternative employment, this verification can reduce your risk as well as the occurrence of potential fraud. Have you ever wondered how many times you have had a fraudulent identity document in front of you, but been none the wiser. Now V-Report can take care of the guesswork for you.

When using our new ID verification with photograph checks, you will receive real time confirmation to your inbox confirming the validity of an individual's personal information as well as the photograph on file associated with that individual at the South African Home Affairs Department. V-Report has two ID Verification with photograph checks on offer, the first option will verify the name and surname to the identity number provided and supply the associated photograph. The second option has more demographical information supplied, such as age, gender, citizenship and death status with the associated photograph being supplied.

Shane Meintjes, MD of V-Report said "V-Report has been on a drive to supply and source quality services and checks for our clients to help reduce fraud and the risks involved, we believe that our new real time ID verification checks are a big step in the right direction."

Once again, trying to assist clients as speedily as possible in making decisions, V-Report will soon be bringing the big four credit bureau's Transunion, Experian, Xpert Decision Systems (XDS) and Compuscan with real time credit checks to your inbox. Another positive step in the right direction we believe.

V-Report for your perusal can be found at www.v-report.co.za, 

We can be contact on (011) - 432-4416 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. anytime.