As “Publishing for Excellence” at “Web Design with Passion” demands consistent learning, experimenting, an adaptation to trends and almost daily reassurance of the script’s leading SEO performance, the global Semiomantics Team is currently testing the new script and exploring different ways of presenting themselves or their products and services online.

I am very pleased with the more adventurous ways we can explore with the new Semiomantics XO 2012 for WordPress… and I know we haven’t even started! I am looking forward to creating the Wedding Website on this extraordinary WordPress based script.

With sliders being an important part of the Trend 2012 as Website Design and “the Look” are concerned, I am currently experimenting with a fading slider – although extremely frustrating with often failing Internet connections and extremely slow lines down here… it feels like the sun flare is targeting us specifically and knocking us out completely!

Besides using sliders in the header or sidebar widgets or even blog posts and pages, we can now use them even in the background – which opens a lot more creative options and perspective.

At the Ycademy Seminar, we will work on becoming familiar with the new features of the XO 2012 and improve our knowledge of CSS3, HTML5 and jQuery so we are in a position to ‘play’ with the script, explore new avenues and, last but not least, adapt XO to our customers’ needs.

To be continued. . .

As you can see on the above screenshot, my article on Hot Water is on Google Top 10 right away… and this on 14 million search returns! That’s what I call cool – and it’s Semiomantics, what else?

Jokes aside, this is indeed a fantastic SEO performance – and here I am not talking about my own performance but that of  Monkey Valley Resort – the new website I am still completing! Seeing it grabbing positions 3 and 4 on Google Top 10 within just a few minutes just makes my heart smile!  Results like these – especially where my customers are concerned – give me the daily kick to continue these sometimes really not easy and very strenuous and time-consuming tasks, especially on terribly slow connections these days and a computer that’s running regularly out of memory… I will have to live with this for a small while still… but can’t wait to upgrade… drastically that is!

Besides, I was told that as per mid 2012 we may have optic fibre cables in South Africa and connections comparable to Europe… they’re as far as Nigeria… and we are at the far tip of the continent. So there’s hope and more on that in another post :)

Attending the eTourism Africa Summit 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa, a week or so ago, I expected to hear more about how Social Media Marketing Africa would get a chance to participate in the global market – never mind to compete. The focus being on “Africa”!

Why do I ask this?

I’ll get to this in a second; just listen into a very brief extract of how Damian Cook, excellent presenter at the eConference, painted the power of Social Media Networks bundled within 60 seconds… I started shooting too late with my simple digital camera… so you just get the end of it, however, it’s enough to get the picture.

It’s very much a picture as to how we in South Africa – never mind Africa – are losing out on business online, at least almost!

Social Media Marketing in Africa

Social Media Marketing in Africa will only get off to a fly when the most urgent matters are being addressed and – solved! We need to be able to compete internationally as the Internet is global and business happens increasingly via the Internet. It means good and affordable lines, reliable fast connections… and the other issue is the payment gateway – namely PayPal – that I addressed in an earlier post.

As the server is down I have to write here today. More on this to follow!

If you can’t see the video above, try this link to YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/wegotop#p/a/u/0/RmD9kRu-daU

let’s try to get a Shop on Empire Avenue once again!

Trying to verify the code with Empire Avenue again…

You don’t need a major setup for such an exercise, anything around your garden or favourite hangout place can serve the purpose: here I just did a simple Black and white Seagull Photo in Kalk Bay Harbour.

The black and white seagull with a distinctive yellow beak marked with a dash of red was sitting at a distance on the greyish-blue plastic cover of a boat rocking gently in the sea. Her greyish-blue eyes observed me all the time.

If you compare the two birds you immediately spot the more aggressive one. Accordingly, and depending on what you want to express as a digital photographer, the rather placid background of the black and white Seagull Photo is more suitable here – compare it with the aggressive species HERE.

On the above Dietes Bicolor Flower Photo – which is rather a white blossom unfolding with many tiny droplets covering the fine white flower petals like an acqueous network that fashion designers would dream of as an exquisite material – just think of wedding gowns – it was this fine texture that fascinated me as it was giving the flower an absolutely magic texture.

Today, with the sun up already, the same dietes bicolor is a light yellow and standing strong on its long stem turned into the full sun. No good time to take a picture…

If you wonder how to present your photos online in a personalized way (without building content for social networks) and in an optimized way – meaning that you can gain visibility on search engines like Google, then I recommend the Best WP Photo Blog Theme as I set up recently HERE, just as an example.

As mentioned earlier, my pictures are resized to small formats and reduced in weight for faster loading times. The best originals will be available as Stock Photography in due time. It’s mainly a matter of loading time, as my connections here are so pathetically slow now that it even takes many attempts covering often as much as 5 minutes with many time outs and spinning browsers to upload a simple under 100 kb photo as the one I am showing here on my blog.

This white Flowering Quince Photo was taken in the early morning as the first sun rays crept over the mountains and filtered softly through the trees. I used my simple NIKON Coolpix P90.

To present this image in a personal and optimized way, I will add it to the little online photo collection I am building on the Best WP Photo Blog Theme powered by Semiomantics HERE.

Of course, these photos are always presented much smaller and the quality is tuned down to make the photo lighter for fast loading times. The original will be available as Stock Photography.

PayPal and E-Tourism Africa on Google shows a major ranking result: position one of 48,300,000 search returns – within 24 seconds!

YEBO! Welcome to the Formula One on the Internet!

That’s Web Design South Africa – fast, visible, efficient and mega attractive! Oh yes: and it’s affordable too – which means Fun and along the principles of “Ubuntu”!

Just talk to me – details on my CONTACT or NAME tab!

Each speaker of this year’s Eid ul-Fitr Celebrations 2011 in Cape Town expressed the need to come together in peace respecting each others’ differences and celebrating what unites us in their speech. Although much remains to be done and nothing is ever finished as this is a process and part of our evolution, I believe our vibrant Rainbow Nation in all its cultural and ethnical diversity… and yet united by a mutual affinity to music, sports and a love for our comparatively young nation full of promise and possibilities: South Africa – has all it needs to stand as one and move forward as a modern beacon… simply by looking inside, connect and transform – with Love and Compassion

It just occurs to me that what I tried to capture in the three photos I added to my articles were about exactly that: Expressions of Connectedness.