Of Relevance

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Yesterday, at the 27 dinner I had an interesting chat with Andy Higgins from Bid or Buy fame. Andy is also involved in Payfast.co.za, which is the latest payment gateway to hit our web scene. One of the features that Payfast is working to implement is credit card transactions (right now they enable EFT transfers).

Any discussion around payment gateways of course always leads to the “Why don’t we have PayPal here?” questions. Andy made a very good point: we don’t not have PayPal here becasue of exchange controls, as most people think. Rather, the Reserve Bank is very wary of allowing a money system that is “two directional”.

In other words, they are happy to accommodate a system to which you deposit money, and that money gets passed onto someone else (such as a credit card merchant). Not so happy with a system to which you can deposit AND withdraw money.

With a two directional system, you could start treating PayPal as your bank, especially for your savings account. I can see why that would make the Reserve Bank very, very nervous.

I suppose they are erring on the side of caution. We can scoff, but then again we are not in the financial crisis that the US is. Nevertheless, I would love to have 30 minutes with the person/team responsible for making these decisions, so I could explain to them that in this instance it is actually hampering our online economy. Probably our economy, period.

(Having said all that, I think there are ways to get a two directional PayPal account anyway. I am toying with some of them now, and am just waiting to find out if they are strictly “legal”. Or rather, if they are strictly “illegal”. If not, I will post on the topic in due course. And if you have an overseas account, you can get two directional PayPal).

As you may well know, South Africans registered for iTunes cannot purchase from the iTunes store, which can get rather frustrating. If you want to buy music not available for download from Musica.co.za and the likes, you have two options:

• Get dubious music from a Russian MP3 site. Songs cost about 20 American cents.
• Get a US iTunes account.

Getting an iTunes US account:

1.    Buy an iTtunes voucher from eBay. I started off with a $10 voucher from this seller, and the process was painless. (Just email him after you’ve paid, and he’ll email you the voucher code. Remember there is a time difference, so you might have to wait half a day or so).

The real bonus here is that for reasons I do not understand, you will pay considerably less for an iTunes voucher if you buy it on eBay, than if you bought it from Itunes. For instance, My $10 voucher was just over $6, and you can get a $200 voucher for $95.

2.    Once you have the voucher number (which you have to redeem in 24hrs), go to iTunes and log out if you are logged in.

3.    Go to the iTunes store, and click on “Redeem” in the right hand column.

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4.    Enter the voucher code when requested.

5.    When you are asked to login, choose to create a new account.

6.    Do not enter ANY credit card information. I suggest you use a gmail or other non .co.za email account. For the address, use a valid town and matching zip code.  I use 234 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215.

7.    Continue with the registration process, and guess what? You’re done!

Your account will be credited immediately with the full value of the voucher, and to replenish you simply need to buy more vouchers off eBay, as you need them. You are now able to download music, movies, tv shows etc, as well as the daily free stuff that iTunes gives out.

Enjoy!

Let me say this upfront … writing a book is not easy. It is time consuming. It’s discouraging. It’s frustrating. But on top of all of that, somehow it also manages to be fun.

So it has been a while now since I decided to write a book on Social Media, but I am happy to report that it is almost ready to go. Of course, I have been saying this for about a month now, so don’t hold your breath for the full version just yet. It is tentatively titled “Social Media made simple” and it aims to explain the concept of Social Media, and how it can best be practiced in a simple, coherent and concise way.

What I can share today is the Introduction. It’s a .pdf download, 4 pages long, and is a quick read. It outlines the path of the book, and I would really appreciate any comments you may have. You can email me at eved@ideabank.co.za for lengthy criticism (yes, I can take it) or just drop a line below.

Introduction to “Social Media made simple”