All posts in Jobs & Money

TreeHugger.com is looking to hire a remote online marketer

by Chris M on February 26, 2008 in Jobs & Money with 3 Comments

TreeHugger.com and PlanetGreen.com (part of Discovery Communications, home of Discovery channel, TLC, Animal Planet etc..) are looking for a smart, hard-driving, communicative marketer to help us market everything from specific posts to content areas to the overall site to other online sites.

This job involves a lot of tactical work. We’re looking for someone who can market specific posts to sites we have relationships with and sites we don’t. We want to drive traffic to specific posts and areas as well as build the number and quality of incoming links. We also want to push into areas of the web where we are less well known e.g. international, kids and other areas we may be unknown in (a recent site on an erotica site brought us tons of traffic as an example).

We need someone who can create compelling post marketing emails that are done in a respectful, high signal-to-noise fashion such that we can develop lasting relationships with other sites due to our ability to make their jobs easier for them.

We need someone who can comment on other relevant stories on other large sites, knows how to work well with digg and other popularity engines and understands the nature of the web. We want someone who enjoys analytics programs and figuring out how to drive traffic to a site in an honest and respectful manner.

Title: Online Marketer

Location: Virtual but needs to work pretty close to Eastern time.

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Does infrastructure hold Webtrepreneurs back?

by Chris M on February 19, 2008 in Industry News, Jobs & Money with 1 Comment

In my experience as a web entrepreneur, I’ve learnt that South Africa is probably not the best place to try making a living purely online. By this, I obviously mean monetizing websites or running a website as the only revenue stream.

Infrastructure plays such a massive roll in making money online. From our slow ADSL lines to expensive local bandwidth and hosting costs, to our postal service. Setting up an e-commerce website from a development point of view is a fair sized project, but not extremely difficult. From a business point of view, sorting out the payment system and the infrastructure to ship merchandise is an absolute nightmare. Handling your credit card gateway is a tricky mission, one which seems nearly impossible in South Africa. I’ve ordered many products from overseas, which clearly arrive in South Africa and then get lost between the postal service/delivery guys and the final destination.

I’ve got a number of friends who operate extremely successful websites overseas, specifically in the UK and US, and on a number of times, they’ve laughed at what my limits are. I’ve also been involved in a number of web startups from the development side of things and the systems are dead secure and very user friendly, but the infrastructure always holds the whole process up.

What should us South Africans be doing to get past this?

Free Advertising Spots on Job Farm

by Chris M on January 26, 2008 in Jobs & Money with No comments

I recently talked about Job Farm, a new South African job portal website, which I feel has some excellent features and is definitely a place to frequent if you are looking for a job!

Job Farm is giving away free advertising spots for February and March! They are offering 5 spots based on a first come, first serve basis! The following advertising spots are available:

  • Leader Board (728x90px)
  • Custom Square (175x150px)

Ok, next step is that you email us immediately to book your spot. You can send that mail to stuff[at]jobfarm.co.za

Once you’ve confirmed that you’re going to take an ad slot, we’ll give you 24 hours to send us your ad for insertion. If you need us to create something for you, then we’ll do so at a cost of R450.

The website I presume has had massive traffic recently and a lot of exposure, it’s the perfect place to advertise and what better than for free! I’ve entered and I suggest you hurry up and enter too!

A new South African job portal now live!

by Chris M on January 24, 2008 in Jobs & Money with No comments

We all know Gumtree, Carreer Junction and a few others, but now there’s a new one live in South Africa – Job Farm.

Job Farm

The website has a number of great features and a clean interface. Here are some of the features:

  • Button display Full Time or Freelance Job
  • RSS Feeds for new jobs being entered into the system
  • Categories for different job types
  • Most applied to lists
  • Widgets for your website

That’s a pretty decent list of things to encourage users to start looking. I must admit, the ability to grab an RSS feed is very useful, not completely unique, but very neat!

I’m going to play with the widgets and see how they work and perhaps display one on my website :)

More jobs up for grabs at iMod.co.za

by Chris M on January 14, 2008 in Jobs & Money with 6 Comments

Seems as though many agencies are looking to employ at the moment. I received an email earlier from an agency and here are some is some more information. Please note: these are not random jobs that I’ve found on Gumtree or Facebook. Nor are they jobs which arrive as automated newsletter. I was contacted personally.

Both positions are permanent roles and might consider contracts if candidates prefer. I have a copy of the Open Source Architecture role and a web spec for PHP developer, so if anyone is interested, pop me an email

Both roles are based in Cape Town.

More job specs:

  • Contact Rosie on rosie [at] quiglies.co.za

    Feel free to contact me for anymore information and I will pass it on accordingly.

    In-House SEM salary survey results!

    by Chris M on January 11, 2008 in Industry News, Jobs & Money with 18 Comments

    In-house search engine marketers are doing quite well financially. According to salary survey results released by SEMPO. Respondents reported a wide range of salaries, from virtually minimum wage to those exceeding several hundred thousand dollars per year, with the average falling in the $60-70,000 range. And not surprisingly, experience was a factor in how much search marketers earned.

    “While there are a good number of six figure salaries people need to understand all the salary levels represent reality,” said Duane Forrester, co-chair of SEMPO’s In-House SEM Committee and Lead SEO Program Manager with Microsoft. “SEMs need to be realistic about their careers and plan as they would for any viable career opportunity,” says Forrester. “On the other hand, if you’re ready for a six figure job, go get it! There are a lot of good jobs out there.”

    Another key finding was that roughly one third of SEMs are managing monthly budgets in excess of $200,000. “We anticipated a lower ceiling of monthly spend closer to the $100,000 range so we were pleasantly surprised,” said Forrester.

    More salary and budget findings from the survey can be found on the SEMPO website.

    If only the South African market would realize the massive potential for search engine marketing!

    Job Available: Junior Graphic Designer

    by Chris M on January 10, 2008 in Jobs & Money with 20 Comments

    MFW Clothing Company is an import and distribution company for progressive streetwear brands such as Mooks, Carhartt, Tonite and Pointer.  MFW is seeking a junior graphic designer to join their team to work on various projects including website design and an in-house promotional magazine.

    Work experience is a bonus but not essential for recent graduates, however they must have a creative portfolio and have a feel for the type of brands we manage.

    You will work in a laid back and fun office with a small and easy going team.  Projects that you will be working on are fresh and new and you will experience a lot of creative freedom.   You will need to be diligent in managing your own time and workload and must be able to solve problems independently.

    Requirements:
    Dreamweaver, Fireworks, HTML, ImageReady, Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Freehand, Microsoft Office

    Essential Requirements:
    Talent, Enthusiasm, Sense of humor

    Working hours are Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm.  Our offices are based in Long Street, Cape Town.  Salary is negotiable.

    Kindly submit a cover letter telling us a bit about yourself as well as a one page CV with reference details and samples of your best work to jack@mfwclothing.co.za. (under 2.5MB).  Tel:  Jack:  0844404983

    Job Available: Junior webdesigner position

    by Chris M on January 9, 2008 in Jobs & Money with 2 Comments

    Hey all,

    I’ve been really lazy in terms of posting job offers lately, sorry about that! I have a connection who is looking for a junior web designer position. It’s nothing fancy and it’s suitable for someone who has just finished school or a short xhtml/css course.

    The job would entail:

    • Designing website layouts
    • Converting to css/xhtml
    • Perhaps a few other things here and there

    The job is located in Gardens, in Cape Town, at a lovely little business of around 14 people. The CEO is a great guy and the working environment would be one which you could learn a great deal from. It’s a great position if you are just starting out and want some industry exposure. The salary is not huge, but neither are the requirements.

    If you are interested, please contact me and I will put you through to the right people.

    10 Absolute “Nos!” for Freelancers

    by Chris M on December 12, 2007 in Jobs & Money, Marketing with 6 Comments

    I came across this post the other day and have wanted to post it ever since. I finally got to the end of the queue and the article is ready for posting, so here it is, finally.

    I can related to Samuels experience completely, it’s an interesting and very accurate analysis!  Here’s what his opening paragraph is:

    “When I first started freelancing as a college student, I was eager to do any website and would say “Yes” to anything, regardless of my skill set or the time involved. It was just nice to know that someone needed me for a skilled task. Unfortunately, I quickly found myself working all the time, eating Ramen noodles, and not getting anywhere in terms of paying off my wonderful college debt. To make things worse, these people were also giving my contact info out to other such people (you know, the lady who has been thinking about selling dog sweaters online and has a $100 budget for an e-commerce site, 1000 brochures, and a guaranteed #1 Google search result for the words “dog”, “sweater”, and “love”).

    Anyways, now four years later, my world (AND financial success) now requires ample use of the answer “No.” And here are ten questions I nearly always answer “No” to:”

    1. Can you show me a mock-up to help us choose a designer/developer? No.
    2. Can you give us a discount rate? No.
    3. Will you register and host my site? No.
    4. Can you copy this site? No.
    5. Can I pay for my e-commerce site from my website sales? No.
    6. I have a great idea. Do you want to…? No.
    7. Do you have an IM account? No.
    8. Can I just pay the whole amount when it’s done? No.
    9. Is there any way you could get this done tonight or this weekend? No.
    10. Can I be sure you won’t use this work in anything else? No.

    This is probably one of the most accurate articles I ‘ve ever read. I can relate to almost every single point he has made above and they are all spot on!

    He goes on to explain each point above in a little more detail, so make sure you read the original 10 Absolute “Nos!” for Freelancers.

    Excellent Job Opening – New Product Strategist

    by Chris M on November 21, 2007 in Jobs & Money with No comments

    This is honestly an excellent oppurtunity for anyone looking to get their foot in the door with online movement and marketing! It’s a Cape Town located job and just have a read of this fantastic article!

    New Product Strategist – Uniques Selection Personnel
    The New Product Strategist reporting to the Development Manager will be responsible for bringing new connectivity, telephony, internet products and applications to market by conducting research, overseeing trials and actively seeking out new opportunities: Continue reading →

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