Seven tips for effective reciprocal linking
[Michael Fleischner] Reciprocal linking...does it work? Yes it does. One can debate the value of reciprocal linking compared to other linking strategies. And without a doubt, one way links far outweigh the value of a reciprocal link. However, if done correctly, reciprocal linking can be a powerful SEO strategy for your website.

Massmart sales show growth over half-year
[Nicola Mawson, Consumer Industries Correspondent] Massmart Holdings sees sales grow but not as well as in 2006.

Promoting your product with search engine optimization
[Michael Fleischner] I've heard it time and again, "Paying for online marketing is killing my business." Many of the small businesses I consult with, and even some of the larger ones continually complain about the cost of online marketing and advertising, especially when it comes to pay per click advertising.

Using offline marketing to grow your online business
[Michael Fleischner] Whether you are an Internet marketer or generalist, turning prospects into buyers is a top priority. Many marketers are continually testing the success of various media and integrated campaigns. One of the most frequently asked questions is the effectiveness of "off-line marketing" as it related to driving traffic and conversions on your website of landing page.

Don't impose food price controls, warns World Bank
Food prices have risen nearly 75% within a decade and will continue to do so, hurting the poor, warned the World Bank's annual Global Economic Prospects 2008, which suggested that governments ease control over food prices and provide targeted safety nets.

New car sales slump again in December
Local new vehicle sales continued its downward spiral in December with sales of new vehicles down 18.1% compared to December 2006 and 14% down on November 2007.

Retail brand directions for 2008
[Graham Leigh] People want to shop – what are the trends that are driving how they shop, why they shop and where they shop? Of great interest is the evolution of the South African retail branding landscape considering the momentum of technology and our growing globalisation. Will retail brands push the branding envelope? Will the market demand that the envelope be pushed?


Interest rates, power cuts ‘trim retail sales'
[Nicola Mawson, Consumer Industries Correspondent] Actual figures will begin to appear this week.

Predictions 2008: Fighting a recession and increasing trust
[Louis Columbus] With the risk of a recession hanging around throughout 2008 like a high maintenance relative who doesn't know when to go home after the holidays, business intelligence is going to be the foundation for fighting back bad economic news, and creating entirely new approaches to measuring marketing, manufacturing, services, pricing and operations performance.

StockFood South Africa - the leading source of food images caters for your every need - Great Stock!
If the love of food is your business or daily passion, StockFood.co.za offers the most comprehensive collection of food and related images worldwide - with some 200,000 exceptional rights-managed and royalty-free.


St. Dalfour's organic tea rise in popularity - Cornucopia Industries
Finally, a product that is healthy as well as delicious. St. Dalfour teas are organically grown in the French gardens of St. Dalfour and are free of pesticides and chemicals. Made from the Camellia sinensis tea bush which is known to contain properties that protect against cancer, the tea promises to offer much more than just a good taste, but a healthy effect that lasts long after the taste has dissipated.

Start counting your pennies, say experts
[Xolile Bhengu] It seems South Africans are far too lax when it comes to managing their finances.

Consumers warned not to borrow after December
[Bathandwa Mbola] Consumers have been advised to borrow money responsibly and wisely, around this time of the year.

Campaign takes to the road
Dettol tasked ComutaNet to develop a new taxi branding campaign to promote the brand's new range of deodorants and build immediate and substantial brand awareness amongst the commuter market segment.


Appletiser gets into Shape
Appletiser has announced that the brand will exclusively sponsor the Shape Healthy Eating Challenge, set to launch online 1 February.

Meat retailer makes the cut to list on JSE
Best Cut Limited will be coming to the market via a reverse listing into the Integrear cash shell.

Step into fitness
Ground-breaking engineering and designer craftsmanship birthed the innovative fitness shoe that gives you a work out while you walk. Developed by Darren James and Dr David Cook, the FitFlop is a remarkable piece of footwear that helps to improve fitness levels of the wearer and also assists in toning major muscle groups.


John Lewis is top of the shops
A clean sweep for the Partnership as department store group is voted UK's favourite retailer and Waitrose comes in second.

New product innovations of the year
Wasabi flavoured sorbet, powdered peanut butter, beer with nicotine and hot dogs coated with yogurt were among the most unusual new product innovations reported worldwide in 2007 by Datamonitor's Productscan Online database of new products.

SAB keeps cap on beer price hikes
[Nicola Mawson, Consumer Industries Correspondent] If you enjoy a beer or three, be prepared to dip deeper into your pocket.

SABMiller's offer for Grolsch opens
The offer is a cash offer for all the issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the capital of Grolsch of EUR48.25 per share.

bidorbuy acquires SA jobs portal
bidorbuy.com Inc, a Delaware company and the parent of bidorbuy (Pty) Ltd, South African online auction and shopping website, has acquired top-ranking online jobs website jobs.co.za as the latest addition to their group of South African online businesses.

The whey to growing strong, healthy kids
Children need good, healthy food if they are to do their best at school. So…


Real French bubbly with local label
A first for South African retailers, Woolworths has launched its own-label imported bubbly for lovers of the finer things in life, enabling them to enjoy a real French champagne for less than R200 per bottle.

Hope for homeless animals
USA - The year begins on a high note for thousands of animal shelters nationwide that will receive donations from the 2007 Tree of Hope fundraiser, hosted by Petco and the Petco Foundation. The 36-day campaign generated more than US$2.5 million from donations given by the company's customers, vendors and associates.

St Moritz Gourmet Festival to get a taste of Africa
The South African Gourmet Festival, producers of the Good Food & Wine Shows, has been invited to take a team of leading SA chefs to represent the country at the St Moritz Gourmet Festival, taking place at the end of January.

Ten things you need to know about social networking
[Liz Tascio] Next year US$1.38 billion is expected to be spent on ads on social networks - here's the bang for the buck and the pitfalls, Harry…

The smell of success
[Nigel Hollis, Chief Global Analyst, Millward Brown] We use our senses every day to assess the environment around us, but up until now marketers have operated in a two-dimensional world and have missed the benefits of sensory branding. In this article, we look in particular at the benefits that smell can have on sales and brand loyalty.


The real cost kitting out your kid
[Lauren Cohen] As any parent with school-going children knows, the cost of uniforms, books and what-have-you is substantial. Well, it may actually be more than you think – and it seems the private schools are quite brand specific.

Online holiday shoppers' satisfaction sinks
Compared to last holiday season, online shoppers are 7.5% less likely to buy offline from the retailer in the future. This was due to a number of factors, including higher petrol prices. Industry related factors included an increase in competitive online shopping activity as shoppers look to stretch their limited resources further and aggressive discounting by online retailers.

A recycled laptop's journey, Part 2: Doing the job right
Precious, rare earth and base metals -- such as indium, lithium, bismuth, ruthenium, platinum, nickel and gold -- are essential to producing PCs, and prices for them have been rising dramatically in recent years.

Going green takes on new meaning for retailers
[Leseja Mokgata] Study shows that SA stores are keen to get in on the act.

SA, China discuss economic, trade relations
Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met Monday, 7 January 2008, to discuss economic, trade and political matters between South Africa and China. The two foreign ministers hosted bilateral discussions within the context of celebrating 10 years of diplomatic relations between South Africa and China.

SA wine exports back on growth track
South African wine exports are on the rise again, reflecting a 16% volume increase for the first 11 months of 2007 compared with the same period in 2006, according to industry body, South African Wine Information and Systems (SAWIS).

Special delivery: Bringing SMBs into the global shipping network
[Andrew K. Burger] Of the Web's many attractions, the potential to tap into a global marketplace has perhaps been first and foremost for businesses. If you are a manufacturer, distributor or merchant, designing and launching a Web site is but one piece of putting together and solving the e-commerce puzzle, however. Before you start taking orders, you'd best be sure that you can deliver - literally.

Price reduction, anyone? - Right Stuff
With every New Year comes new challenges, opportunities, new jobs, perhaps a new school for the kids... as well as the inevitable (and usually dreaded) price increases. No matter what, you can always be assured that one or more services that you subscribe to will send you a letter or e-mail advising you that, despite their greatest efforts (hmmm...), they have no alternative but to increase their fees for the new year... just like last year, the year before that, and the year before that one.

New members join MDDA board
The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) is a statutory development agency for promoting, supporting and ensuring media development and diversity, set up as a partnership between the South African Government and major print and broadcasting media companies, in terms of the MDDA Act No. 14 of 2002.

Banging on the boardroom door: Let customer service in!
[Andrew Petty] USA - Was it the "Year of the Frustrated Customer?" Here are a few highlights: Airline passenger complaints to the US Department of Transportation were up 70%, as last summer saw the worst delays in 13 years of record-keeping; Verizon was ordered to pay US$1 million to customers the company terminated for "excessive use" on a plan that was advertised as "unlimited"; and the state of Minnesota is body slamming Sprint with a lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of its residents who claimed the carrier extended its contracts without their informed consent.

Identity theft soars because ID forgery is easy — fraud service
[Chantelle Benjamin, Chief Reporter] Identity theft grew by more than 100% last year, and older black people are the main target and are hit hardest.

Corn and cotton costs on the rise
Record ethanol production, competition for acreage with soybeans, and wheat, high oil futures prices, the weak US Dollar and global demand might push corn and cotton futures prices to record highs in 2008, predicts T & K Futures and Options Inc.

Project Bang blowout
[Walaika Haskins] An announcement by Dutch game developer Engine Software that its first WiiWare game, "Project Bang", had the gaming blogosphere buzzing Wednesday about a March 2008 launch date for Nintendo's WiiWare, a game development and download portal, in Europe and possibly the US.

PS3 slims down for Japan
Sony said Thursday that it will stop selling the two original PlayStation 3 (PS3) models in Japan and focus on the new slimmed down version amid fierce competition from rival Nintendo.

Econet cellphone lines appear on the SA market
Econet simcards have become the latest commodity not readily available in Zimbabwe but to flood markets in neighbouring countries.

Can iTunes fix online movie rental?
[Paul Hartsock] For a customer intent on renting rather than owning movies, visiting a store full of empty shelves and scratched DVDs is an exercise in frustration. Downloading movies on a rental basis could potentially solve the problem, if a service could do it right. iTunes has already mastered the art of selling music. If reports of a rental service pan out, does it have the power to kick the whole field into gear?

Going digital is a lifestyle choice
[Atul Gupta] ‘Digital lifestyle' is a term to which many people can relate. Its prevalence in society as a way to describe the mass appeal and acquisition of next generation multi-media, multi-functional equipment reinforces the ubiquitous quality of the technology itself.


The DIY Internet: Parallel universes?
"People are inherently selfish - they want to read about what directly affects them, such as local or community news," said Steve Boriss, associate director at Washington University's Center for the Application of Information Technology. He envisions a future news community consisting of millions of local sites that use technologies similar to RSS feeds to deliver content.

Making money with open source, Part 2: Only one chasm
OpenITWorks CEO Michael Grove contends that it is a mistake to think of commercial open source as its own business model. Instead, open source is one of many possible means to an end of making a single software business model successful -- that of selling value to customers through software. Businesses should focus their strategic planning on how to best monetize their value propositions, through open source or something else.

Will Hollywood turn Blu?
[Chris Maxcer] The latest salvo in the war between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps over which high definition format will replace the ubiquitous DVD may be little more than pop and flash - but effective nonetheless. Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD formats have various technology industry supporters behind them, but the biggest backers come in the form of the Hollywood studios.

Gates predicts end of the keyboard
[Keith Regan] Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates gave his 11th and final keynote address at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday, a speech laden with predictions that technology will grow ever more personal and interconnected in coming years.

The winner of the holiday console horse race is...
[Walaika Haskins] As sales numbers for the holiday season begin to surface, it appears the video game console industry sustained the heavy momentum it enjoyed throughout 2007.

Axiotron goes mod with Mac
[Katherine Noyes] USA - Apple may or may not be planning to announce a Macintosh tablet computer at the Macworld Conference & Expo later this month, but in the meantime hardware vendor Axiotron announced last week that it has begun shipping its own Apple-authorised Mac tablet.

Uncertainty rules as weavers return to work
[Sipho Masondo] Bethelsdorp Hand Weavers employees have returned to work – and to an uncertain future.