I’ve just downloaded mine, and can’t wait to get into it this weekend!

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You might not have noticed, but I have been very quiet lately. That is about to change.

There is nothing quite like taking (being forced to take?) eight months of “take it easy” due to health issues (and a new baby!), to reassess ones life and career. And trust me, I have been doing a lot of thinking, scheming, planning and …reassessing. So, there are a lot of changes afoot, and I thought I would jot some of them down here quickly.

1. I am moving to Joburg
This is mostly motivated by the fact that I had become really unhappy with my daughter’s school (I think I will do a blog post on this later), and I was looking for alternatives. I realised that I was also displeased with the whole education standard/process and that I need to move out of the system. So the kid is starting the American International School in August, which I am very excited about. The school is 7.5 km from Dainfern and the surrounds, so I will probably be moving there.

2. I am rather fed up with social media
I am still very, very much interested in the technology/start up scene, and am putting most of my focus there. I will still be available as a consultant or strategist to third parties, but I will be taking more of an assessment and advisory role (I really like Toby Shapshak’s title of “bullshit detector”!)

3. I am going to write. And then I am going to write some more.
I’ve always wanted to, but have never really followed through. So expect many many more posts on this blog, columns with Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian’s Thought Leader and anyone else who will have me. Heather Ford and I promised each other we would write a book each, and I think our timeline for an outline was the end of this year, so I am in big trouble there.

4. The CrowdFund is ON.
And Geekspace is soon to follow. I was unable to do the project justice because of my health issues over the last 8 months, but I am ready to tackle both the projects now. So I will be posting updates shortly, and we should have our first startups in action by the end of the year.

5. BEE Bible is ON
My main money making focus for the next 12 months is going to be the BEEbible, which is a directory of BEE verified businesses in SOuth Africa. There really isn’t one out there, and if you know how BEE works, you will know that there really SHOULD be one.
So this is going to be taking up a lot of my time and energy, and I am really looking forward to getting very involved in this project.

6. Kids focused sites are ON
I am also going to be setting up a site to help divorcing parents do best by their kids. My boyfriend (Baby Zac’s father) has been going through the most acrimonious divorce possible since 2007 (you will, of course, know that I had nothing to do with the break up of the marriage) and I am horrified by the effects this has had on their two small kids. I have spoken to many psychologists and other professionals, and we are going to put together a website that will help parents navigate a separation in the most child-friendly manner possible.

I am also launching a little side website for fun ways to spend weekends with your kids. Now that we often have four (!) kids under our roof, entertaining them all is a challenge (although, to be fair, four kids really entertain each other). I am hoping to rope in other parents who blog to help me populate it with ideas and venues for weekend getaways.

7. Todays Deals etc
The Todays Deals (aggregator of most group buying deals in SAfrica) is published daily. Sign up to get via email if you haven’t done so already. I t beats having to wade through 15 individual emails from the group buying sites.

There are plenty of other things going on to, but I will write about them as they become more relevant. I will also be updating the design of this blog to be more “Tumblr” like, so that snippets of information can be posted and shared quickly.

Thanks for listening :-)

By now it’s old Twitter news that the team behind DailyMaverick.co.za is launching a daily newspaper, the iMaverick, which will be available for the iPad as of August 15.

The deal goes like this: for R395 per month for 24 months, you get the daily “newspaper” as well as an iPad2. Think of it as a cellphone or data contract. If you do the most basic of maths, and disregard interest etc, the subscription works out to about R8,75 per day, plus you get the iPad.

On the face of it, R395 sounds like a lot of money. But that’s only because we have this perception that stuff on the web should be free. Unfortunately, that isn’t a very sustainable model. The iMaverick team will produce a daily newspaper that is well over 100 pages each day. There will be at least 5 times as much content as in the free, website version. There will be top writers, a top editorial team and a first-class reading experience overall.

To put things in perspective, the Business Day costs R11.50 per day, and there are about 37,000 copies sold/delivered each day. The readership is in the region of 90,000. A lot of the “news” is from syndicates, news agencies or press releases. The DailyMaverick has about 100,000 readers, but is free. All content is original, and revenue is from advertisers.

Still, just because I know that the iMaverick is worth paying for, does not mean that 25,000 people will agree. (That’s the number of subscribers iMaverick is hoping to get in the first 12 months).

Who are the most likely subscribers going to be? I think pretty much anyone who pays for the Business Day and who is a daily web user will want to read iMaverick. Given that that is mostly the corporate market, I don’t see price as a stumbling block as long as consistency in quality and perceived value is delivered. But I also don’t think that offering the iPad as part of the deal is a draw card. Chances are the potential reader already has an iPad, or can easily buy one for cash (They are only R4400).

So who is going to get excited by the deal? People who cannot afford to buy the iPad, but really want one. Maybe the option to buy it over 24 months will be attractive, but paying an extra R211pm for the privilege of getting iMaverick might be a stumbling block in itself, especially for the price sensitive folk. (How many of them are paying the R218pm fee to read the Business Day online? Not 25,000 that’s for sure.)

What I would have done differently: The Maverick team announced iMaverick over two months before launch, presumably because they want to see the response and the uptake. But if that is the reason, I’m afraid they might be bitterly disappointed. They really should have announced the subscription price without the iPad. And to sweeten the deal, they should have had a special pre-launch subscription for 12 months: say R180 p/m with credit card monthly billing. That way, they could really assess whether the venture is viable, and calculate their burn rate (more) accurately. And, assuming a positive response, they could then take those numbers to advertisers, thus shortening the cycle for successful sales of inventory.

I would also have milked the “help us help you” part of it. The one thing DailyMaverick has is a loyal following, made up of readers who are looking for a quality online local read, and are struggling to find it elsewhere. I would have appealed to them for support far more strongly, along the lines of “Look. South Africa needs this. We can make it happen. But we need to know you will be prepared to pay for it. Sign up now, so we know we are appealing to your tastes and needs with this offering. And in return, look forward to a stupendous read in two months time”.

In the meantime, enjoy this video!

Disclaimer: I occasionally write for The Daily Maverick, and the editor is a good friend of mine. I am hugely excited by iMaverick, and wish it the best of luck!

So there are about 9 sites worth following in this genre (I have set up a daily list of all the deals available on one page on www.TodaysDeals.co.za. Please visit!). And they all offer pretty good deals, but I am still not convinced that this model is going to work here in South Africa.

Having monitored the deals for the past week or so, I have noticed a trend: hair treatments, manicures, pedicures and massages are the most popular. Which is great for me as a consumer, because I enjoy getting up to 60% off. But the thing is, I will never pay full price for any of those again. (Well, maybe the hair treatment I will, since I have a favourite hairdresser).

I am not exactly sure of the business model behind the local sites, but in the US the retailer offers a 50% discount, AND gives half his revenue to Groupon. So in effect, the retailer gets 25% of the full price. There are strong arguments why this is still a worthwhile deal for the retailer – for instance, he is introducing his business to a new customer base, he can upsell, get repeat business etc etc.

I am just not sure whether this applies to South Africa. Getting a discount at Codfather is great, but most people who buy the voucher will already know about Codfather. They are not going to be new customers. And getting 60% off a manicure is also cool, but probably won’t result in repeat business because the buyer will wait for another “deal” so she doesn’t have to pay full price.

Then there is the problem of apathy. We as consumers are being spoilt for deals, and know that a new one is just around the corner. So if we don’t buy that spa voucher *today*, it ok since we can buy one next week from one of the many sites offering them.

Also, 9 sites is a bit of an overkill, and I am sure some will be exiting the market this year. I think it’s a lot off work to pull this off, and you need a strong sales team (Groupon USA’s main advantage over its competitors is its vast sales force). Sales teams are notoriously difficult to put together, and even harder to manage.

Having said all that, the sites are still in business, and a lot of the deals are “closing”. Elan from Avusa/Zappon recently tweeted that Zappon made R130,000 in revenue in its first seven days. That’s not bad (but included “in-house” deals like Sunday Times subscriptions and R50 for R200-vouchers from Exclusive Books). Just don’t expect any of the sites to be worth gazillions, like Groupon US is.

If you want to get all the daily deals in one email, please sign up at www.Today’sDeals.co.za.