Pixelsmith Studios has always been about connecting, promoting and celebrating South African creatives. This brainchild of Ruan Smit, Matt Davison and Neal Strydom has become a design-oriented hub for over 800 creatives. Used by Animators, illustrators, VFX artists, game developers and more, the online environment encourages sharing, learning and expertise development amongst local creatives. Since its inception in 2010, the site has become a popular place to find reliable tech reviews, networking connections, local and international artist interviews and more.

2021 has seen the site be redesigned, optimised and given a whole new purpose. More recently, The Marketing Mill made a strategic investment in the site. This was done to enable creatives to make money online through services on the site and help to create an income for digital creators in South Africa. Now if you head to http://pixelsmithstudios.com, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of proudly South African digital products for your creative projects.

While we’re initially opening our doors to Illustrators and Graphic Designers in South Africa for free, we’re also setting the foundations so that we can expand to assist Animators, Game Developers, 2D and 3D Modellers and VFX artists, encouraging them to open stores on our platform. Signing up is completely free for a year, and artists will take 90% of the proceeds for the sale.

While not the first digital marketplace in South Africa, Pixelsmith Studios aims to be the best for both sellers and customers. Ruan Smit explains that “there’s not currently a beneficial place where South African creatives can promote and sell their work. We wanted to create a site where we could empower designers in SA to sell designs and services to an international audience.”. The goal of the site is to build a network and digital marketplace not just in South Africa but one that has international opportunities. Pixelsmith Studios was started to help creatives gain more exposure and essentially help build their career. The team behind Pixelsmith Studios has always had a passion for helping people and looking after fellow creatives. This has become increasingly important over the last year during this difficult time. Covid-19 hasn’t made things easy and creatives need a way to sell their products online and that’s what we have adapted our site for.

But this doesn’t mean that the original purpose of the site has been abandoned. Creatives will still be able to promote themselves, network, find jobs and help each other out on the subdomain, creatives.pixelsmithstudios.com or hop on our Discord server. Here you can find a like-minded community of over 100 creatives who are passionate about what they do. If you need feedback on your creations, advice or are looking for work, our Discord is the place to go. 

SEOPros web design is a division of the award winning SEOPros digital marketing agency that started out in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga with a small, but dedicated team with one united focus – to become the best website design and digital marketing agency in South Africa.

Since then the company has experienced phenomenal growth and yesterday, Founder and CEO of SEOPros, Louis Schoeman has announced the opening of a new website design office in Pretoria.

When asked what it is that SEOPros does different to set it apart from all the other companies that offer website design Pretoria services, Mr Schoeman replied  “ In today’s digital age, web design is a vital, if not the most important element of the overall online marketing success of any business. All marketing channels lead to a business’ website and studies and experience in web design have taught us that a website that does not convert is pointless.  Having a professional converting website is probably the biggest investment that any business owner can make. Our expert team of developers make sure that they create a website that specifically targets a customer’s industry and converts prospective visitors into clients. We serve all industries including B2B, B2C, Ecommerce, Enterprise, Education, Non-profit, Start-ups.”

He continued by saying that the website design team in Pretoria has a website portfolio of more than 150+ professionally designed websites that include mobile compatible optimizations. They have clients in almost every industry and over the years they have learned which website layouts convert the best. With their website design team in Pretoria’s critical approach to every industry, they make sure that they have every angle covered for a conversion friendly website. They make use of the available tools such as sitemaps and Google Analytics and they are very data-driven in their web design strategies. They also make sure that they stay on top of improvements on web design at all times. “Our website design team is passionate about what they do and over the years they have succeeded in growing our client’s businesses by 174%” 

Mr Schoeman concluded by saying that he and his website design team is looking forward to assist businesses, not only in Pretoria, but around the country with exceptional website design services –“ if a client’s business succeeds – so do we”. 

You’ve got ideas. You’ve got talent. And as a young creative, you just need the world to see your amazing creativity, artwork and execution, right? 

Now here’s your opportunity: Submit your most impressive creation for the official Loeries T-Shirt, in partnership with Barron, and you and a partner could be VIPs at Loeries Creative Week in August. 

To enter the competition 

1. Give us your design of what you think the ideal Loeries T-shirt should be. No limits… 

2. Go to loeries.com and download the T-shirt template. Post your creative design to Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag: #LoeriesBarronDesign. Share your designs with the world and get your people liking and loving your posts. The 20 most liked designs will be shortlisted and the Loeries committee will select the winning design. The winning design will be used for the Official Loeries T-shirt at Creative Week.

The winner receives two VIP tickets to Loeries Creative Week, 19 to 25 August, 2019, in Durban (Travel and accommodation excluded). 

Barron has been creating unique corporate and promotional products for over 25 years and is also the proud sponsor of the Media Innovation Category at the Loeries this year. It is a category focused specifically on new methods and approaches to advertising, on any media platform.  

Loeries CEO Andrew Human explains that “the Loeries Africa Middle East celebrates creativity and brilliance in the advertising and marketing space. It rewards brand communications that make us feel something, question the status quo and rethink our way of doing things. We’re delighted that Barron is sponsoring this competition, and we fully expect some unique and interesting design entries.”  Loeries Creative Week takes place in Durban from 22 to 25 August. Go to loeries.com for more information and to book your tickets

The Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Bill holds untold benefits for South African businesses looking to participate in the global marketplace.  

But alongside that comes ramifications for every business operating in South Africa – and your website is not immune from landing you in hot water under POPI.  

So what should you look at in order to ensure that your website is secured and meets the requirements of these rather stringent data privacy laws?  

President Zuma signed POPI into effect at the end of 2013 and we really haven’t heard too much about it since then.  

This makes sense though, as we expected at least a year’s delay while a commission was established and a Commissioner appointed. To be fair, the economic dip has probably put the whole thing on the back burner too.  

Now however we’re a year after the POPI Bill was signed into effect and the first prosecutions can’t be too far off.  

You can bet your bottom dollar that they’re going to be looking for companies to make examples of, which is no joke when you consider they were talking two years’ imprisonment or fines of R10-Million as a starting point for transgressions. And if you haven’t appointed a Privacy Officer, those penalties will be levied against you as the CEO or MD, personally.  

So does your current website meet POPI requirements, or are you going to have to do an overhaul before you fall foul of the law?

Hand-coded vs. CMS

CMS or content managed website solutions like Joomla and Wordpress have become very popular over the last few years, and this makes perfect sense –there’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time.  

Most websites have the same basic functionalities and once you’ve perfected those you really want to put your energy into what differentiates the site: your look and feel and content.  

On the other hand, with contiguous updates and changes to browsers and browser standards, CMS platforms that are regularly updated can really extend the longevity of your site, making it much more forwards compatible and responsive than traditional hand-coded websites could ever be – for literally a portion of the effort.  

This really is your first port of call when it comes to website security: making sure that your website stays updated and you meet these contiguously changing browser standards.  

Yes, there are those who are going to say to you that you open yourself to more risk by utilizing open-source, easy accessible software, but the benefits way outweigh any risks. With a hand-coded site you have no guarantee of security measures at all.  

The good CMS platforms all have basic security features built into them, and where vulnerabilities are identified, updates usually plug these very effectively.

Speaking of security…

On a hand-coded website any security features will have to be created by hand, which ties you to the developer and the way they’ve structured their security. Do you even know where to begin checking if this security is effective?  

One of the really cool features of good CMS platforms, like Joomla, is that you have companies of top developers who create dedicated security products, like full firewalls that empower you as a non-technical person to manage your own security at an advanced level, and pretty much mitigate all the potential threats.  

You have functionality that enables you to block countries that are known for high volumes of hack attempts and even to identify specific users and block them by IP address. If you don’t know, an IP, or Internet Protocol address is the numerical equivalent of your URL.  

To put it very simply, the Internet registers the computer or device you’re reading this article on as an IP address that uniquely identifies you and where you are based geographically. It can be traced back to you as a specific user and can even identify the device you were working on.

Hosting & backups

Probably due to lack of knowledge, people have a very shotgun approach to choosing a web-hosting company. Sadly not all web-hosting companies play in the same league.  

The server you host on is going to make a huge difference to the security of your site and, aside from POPI implications, a hack on your website can get your domain temporarily blocked or even permanently banned by Google and the other search engines.  

A really good web-hosting company will give you three great security features – regular virus scans with reports, good c-panel access so that you can manage a lot of technical issues and backups yourself, and most importantly will run regular backups of both your website folder structure and the linked databases.  

The fastest way to restore a hacked site? Roll back to an uninfected version and fix the vulnerabilities from there.  

When it comes to Google and other search engines identifying your site as a harmful site, time really is of the essence, because someone who sees that horrible message saying that this is a potentially harmful site is very unlikely to visit it again.  

Multiple incidents can also see your domain permanently banned and Google can take a very long time to reverse blocking or banning: at minimum you’re looking at seven days. I’ve currently spent nearly three weeks trying to get a client’s site revisited to have a block removed. If you’ve ever had to try and get hold of Google for anything, you’ll know that it’s basically impossible to actually speak to a person not involved in AdWords sales.  

Can you really afford to be without your website as a marketing tool for three weeks or more?

Common vulnerabilities

Without fail, every time I’ve been called in to fix a hack in the last few years, I’ve seen that the vulnerability lies in forms.  

So much so in fact that I only use forms where they are specifically requested or required by the client now – and never on my own sites.  

Like all the other bells and whistles we’ve become accustomed to – sliding banners, video content and responsive design – forms are just one of those things that companies seem to believe they must have in order to have a professionally developed website.  

There is definitely a place for forms, but the truth is that not every company needs them.  

For some companies forms generate a number of enquiries; for other companies they generate little to no enquiries and an email link works just as well.  

Whether or not forms make a difference to the number of enquiries you receive is something that only you will know, making this a decision that can only be made by understanding at your individual circumstances. 

If forms are not elements that return customer enquiries for you then your safest bet is to forgo them altogether.  

If you do decide to go with forms, then I’d spend the extra money to bring in a security expert who can pay special attention to securing the forms on your website, particularly if you allow for any kind of document upload.  

If you do have to go with an upload facility, be very specific about the types of files you allow to upload and always use a captcha to prevent automated virus injections.  

Aside from viruses and hacks, the other vulnerability that forms create is that they store POPI-protected information on the backend of your website.  

If a hacker has gained access to your site, he can probably gain access to that contact information. This is a clear infringement of POPI.  

POPI governs how data is collected, stored, managed, secured, used and transported, and someone gaining access to confidential personal and contact information that you’ve collected for your business is a direct violation of the Bill – one that you can face severe penalties for.

Your Privacy Statement & the Openness Principle

The last immediate thing you need to worry about under POPI is the Privacy Statement on your website.  

Your T&Cs basically state the terms and conditions for using your website, while your Privacy Statement speaks to the elements of POPI: what kind of information you gather, how you will utilise, manage and store this information, who you will share it with and a high level overview of the steps you take to secure this information.  

Under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), T&Cs, contracts and elements like Privacy Statements must be written in plain, simple English that the layman can understand – so you can’t hide behind technical lingo, jargon or legalese either.  

An important element to understand with your Privacy Statement under POPI is a factor called the openness principle.  

If you openly state how you will be using, sharing and managing the data you collect, and someone still elects to give you their information, then you are pretty much on the right side of the law.  

So you want to ensure that every form has a checkbox where people agree to the terms of your Privacy Statement and T&Cs. Hyperlink the Privacy Statement and T&Cs wherever you mention them and always include the disclaimer that you reserve the right to change them without notice. Make this a required field, so that if they don’t agree to your terms they cannot submit their data to you.  

If something goes horribly wrong with a data leak or it can be proven that you are flouting the law, you will probably still be prosecuted, but for the most part the openness principle is going to be your saving grace under POPI.  

An interesting fact here is one of the provisions of the Bill: you are required by law to report any infringements to the Commissioner yourself – not reporting an infringement can see you face penalties too.

POPI in the real world

Obviously POPI is going to impact business on a much deeper level than just your website – and the Bill has a lot of implications for the way we conduct marketing in the digital space.  

From ongoing training of staff to access control around information and even appointing a Privacy Officer, POPI has the power to impact pretty much every aspect of your business, and it has ramifications for a number of your internal processes.  

If you haven’t looked into the POPI Bill, or given it any thought, I’d strongly suggest you do that now.  

If you don’t you could find yourself crippled with a massive fine or even imprisonment… and following the international lead you can be sure the Commissioner will be looking for companies to make examples of once the commission is in place.  

A NOTE TO THE EDITOR:

Chemory Gunko is a seasoned Creative Director, a certified NLP Practitioner, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Practitioner, Energy ReSourcing Practitioner & Life Coach, among others. She works as a marketing consultant and provides copywriting, SEO, graphic design and Joomla! website services.  

SUBMISSIONS & ENQUIRIES

Chemory Gunko
Cell: +27 72 335 4195
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.joomla-websites.biz

The eCommerce Africa Confex is proving to be Africa's most influential eCommerce gathering as we bring you face to face with the key individuals in the industry. The conference agenda will cover all things eCommerce, from how to expand your business into Africa to the survival and flourishing of SME's and small businesses. 

Raphael Afaedor, Co-Founder of Jumia and CEO/Co-Founder of Supermart, together with Simdul Shagaya, CEO and Founder of Konga.com will both be sitting on a panel discussing how to sell into Africa and grow your business beyond South Africa. 

Raphael is part of the advisory panel that has been consulted to tailor the event agenda. He co-founded one of Nigeria's largest online stores, Jumia, in 2012 and has since left to start Supermart, an online platform that allows the consumer to shop from over 18 000 grocery items. Simdul is the CEO and co-founder of recently Naspers-invested, Konga.com which is known as Africa's answer to Amazon.com. He was on Forbe's list of "The 10 Most Powerful Men in Africa 2014" and also won "Entrepreneur of the Year" at the 2013 All Africa Business Leaders Awards. 

SME's and startups can gather valuable insight during a panel that will discuss what small businesses, without the big corporate budgets, can do to build a business that will not only survive but thrive and flourish in the eCommerce industry. Panellists for this discussion include:

• David Muller, Managing Director of CyberCellar

• Phaedon Gourtsoyannis, Founder of Cape Coffee Beans

• Gary Hadfield, CEO of loot.co.za

• Olivier Chas, Managing Director and Co-Founder of CitySlicker

The eCommerce Africa Confex takes places on the 3rd and 4th February 2015 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Should you wish to register as a delegate or are interested in sponsor or exhibitor opportunities, please contact Greg Johnson on 021 180 4700 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

{pp}SME owners can now get an online presence on the internet that is quick, easy and cost effective. Lutho.com,the South African based online marketing company, has a exclusive website package that is affordable to small and medium sized business owners.

Lutho.com has developed specialized software that allows any small business owner to get a quality website and a professional looking email address set up at their own domain name in only two hours.The Lutho system provides for the content (such as news, product listings, photos and documents for download) to be easily self-managed by the clients without the frustration of waiting for a web developer to make the changes for you.