I was spurred into action to revive my Web Guru Spotlight Series of interviews when I came across the release of Quirk e-Marketing’s latest online marketing e-book. Rob Stokes, the brains behind Quirk has been a key figure in shaping the online marketing landscape in South Africa.

I have been watching Quirk with interested over the last few years due to the fact that they just seem to be staying ahead and being innovative in a seemingly saturated space.
So enough about Quirk, let’s chat with Rob, the man responsible for getting the Quirk Ball rolling.

Hi Rob, thanks for giving us some of your valuable time to chat and answer a few questions.
So you started Quirk the year after I graduated from design School. What lead up to the founding of Quirk?

I’ve always been a bit of a serial entrepreneur and Quirk was simply the next step for me. Quite honestly at first it was just a way of making some extra cash so I could stop delivering pizza like a poor student…

Are you positive about the direction the online media space is taking in South Africa.

I think we still have a long way to go, but it’s only going up. With SA being a relative laggard in global tech this also has some long term positives. For example you don’t see Neotel laying down copper cables. They will be fibre from the start and that will really benefit us in the long term.

Yes, I’m a glass half full type of guy

Your team are called QuirkStars and your office is called the Quirk Station, tell us a bit about this and the working environment you’ve created.

I absolve myself from all blame on these names! The seemingly silly names have evolved from my staff over the years and whilst we know they are a bit geeky, we’re proud of being QuirkStars so I guess it’s just stuck. As for the working environment, I think we have the best coffee in Cape Town! Seriously though, I think we have created an open working environment where the creative juices can flow.

Do you think the Online Industry is saturated or do you think there’s space for more players?

Definitely not saturated, but definitely fragmented. I think as the industry evolves we will start to see some consolidation and within 10 years I’m sure the online marketing industry will mirror the structure of the traditional ad industry today. I’m happy to mirror their structure as long as we don’t mirror their stereotypical marketing beliefs

What is the potential for the online industry to have an impact on the unemployment rate in South Africa

At the end of the day, pretty much anything that stimulates an economy will benefit unemployment. Ferdie Bester said to me the other day that the best thing we can do as South Africans is start a business and employ people and the internet has made that easier than ever. Now, if only our government would support entrepreneurship as well as the internet does…

How do you think we can nurture better skills in the online space in the strategic, creative & technical spaces? Should the focus be on educational institutions or industry players?

I think there needs to be partnerships between the private and academic sectors. The reality is that cutting edge online tactics evolve from industry and not academia – this is as a result of competition driving innovation.

I’d like to see more companies across the board doing their bit to work with the tremendous academic institutions in SA.

The team you have working for you seem to be a really uniquely chosen bunch and are stars in their own right. Could you give us some insight into your hiring approach?

For starters it is our goal to have a brand which people want to work for. Solving this is half the problem.

Secondly we will experiment with pretty much anything to find people. From Facebook ads to hiring bounties we have tried many things, some have worked, some haven’t, but that’s what online marketing is all about.

Once someone cracks an interview, they are generally seen by their possible team leader and our COO. It might take a few interviews, but if they prove that they have the skills, they then get to be grilled by me to ensure they will fit into our culture. I ask a lot of strange questions, but if you make it through, chances are you rock.

Apart from that, the only other unusual thing is that we work on one man one vote. Inpsired by Ricardo Semler, this means that I, as the CEO, can get outvoted on hiring people. In fact I’ll admit that in the past I’ve voted against hiring someone who the team wanted. We hired that person and I’ll admit that I was wrong and they turned out to be awesome… ah the power of democracy.

Is there a difference between online & offline entrepreneurship?

The fundamentals remain the same only the tactics change.

Many people see online entrepreneurship as this ultimate money making space similar to the way they did before dot bomb. Do you think a crash might be headed our way?

No. Some will fail, some will succeed, but I don’t see an industry wide crash.

I’ve spent the last few weeks teaching some newbies XHTML, CSS & WordPress. What do you think would be the most essential additional skills to pass on to newbies.

Basic HTML, SQL, SEO and PPC. Once you’ve wrapped your head around those concepts, marketing on the internet becomes a far easier and more intuitive process.

You’ve been very involved in the web community since I started getting into the whole meetup / (un)conference scene, has this added value to your organisation?

I think it’s important that we are a contributing member of the community in which we work. Being part of these events goes a long way to achieving that so yes, I do think we have benefited.

Would you recommend all businesses go social in this way?

I think businesses need to interact with their customers and community on their terms and in their space. If this means an unconference then so be it.

I’ve always been an advocate for giving before receiving and admire your gesture of releasing your e-marketing textbook. Does the cost of producing it really justify this type of approach?

Publishing a book is not an easy or cheap exercise. The Quirk eMarketing book took us 8 months and all in all cost us almost half a million Rand.

On the surface we will make a massive loss, but we’re not looking at book sales to drive any sort of ROI for us on this.

This is an example of capitalist driven social development. Quirk will gain from this if we can get thousands of students each year to enjoy learning from our book. These students will become our future staff and customers and it’s very difficult to put a price on that.

So that’s how we justify it from a business perspective. From a personal perspective we have done something really good here. This book will improve the lives of many people and that makes us feel incredibly good.

Lack of access to information and knowledge tools & resources is a big disadvantage for the majority of South Africans.

Do you think there is a serious business case for corporates developing capacity in this area?

YES!

We want the Quirk book to be an example to companies in all industries to do the same.

Open Education began primarily as an initiative at school level, but eventually I hope it will permeate all areas where skills are required. Imagine if De Beers wrote a Geology textbook…

Have you focused much on mobile strategies and where do you think the coming mobile revolution could have the most impact?

No, this version of the textbook is very thin on the mobile side. However as we needed to have the book ready for the second university semester of 2008 we left out a few chapters.

We plan to update the book over the next few months with about 5 new chapters of which mobile is definitely one.

Do you think consumer action or provider competition could ever have an impact on the cost of bandwidth in South Africa?
Without doubt. Both are fundamental to economic efficiency and the internet itself promotes both by giving consumers a voice and lower barriers to competition.
I found the launch of Brandseye very interesting. How has the uptake of this innovative solution been so far?

It’s been OK. Internationally it has been well received but locally the mindset isn’t fully there yet and I do acknowledge that the price makes it pretty exclusive.

However we have a plan to cater to a wider audience so watch this space…

Do you guys use Brandseye for Quirk?

Of course!

Do you think knowledge work and mobile workers are on the rise in South Africa?

Definitely!

What are your favourite tools you use as a knowledge worker on a daily basis?

Twitter, our internal Wiki, RSS

Mac or PC?

Sigh…. PC

Firefox or Safari?

The Fox… it’s the only way!

How do you feel about IE6?

Poef

What’s next for South Africa Online?

Video. Currently it’s a pain to watch online video locally. I’d like to think that in the next 2 years South African’s will forget what “buffering” means…

Any last words?

Thanks for a thought provoking interview…!

Thanks to “YOU” Rob and we look forward to hearing you speak at the Heavy Chef session on the 27th.

This month’s Heavy Chef session will see Rob Stokes, author of the e-marketing textbook and founder & CEO of Quirk e-marketing, giving an introduction to e-marketing.

Heavy Chef sessions are run by the guys at World Wide Creative on a monthly basis. They’ve been hosting top events for the last 1.5 years. I missed the last one which focused on e-commerce but definitely don’t want to miss this one.

Here are the details:

Aug 31 (Cape Town), 5.30pm – 7.30pm:introduction to eMarketing

Speaker: Rob Stokes, CEO of Quirk eMarketing

Want to attend? Email Rowan to enquire about booking your seat.

Seeya’ll there!

They haven’t forgotten to follow a few simple rules though and by first collecting your email address and asking if u’d like to subscribe to their newsletters, they’re definitely taking their own advice and using this great resource to build their own database.

I’ve got great respect for the Quirk way of doing things and for many of the guys who form part of their sterling team. they’re a truly community focused Agency always around, chipping in and showing their faces when anything online goes down.

Download the entire eMarketing textbook for free, or per chapter and learn holistic and integrated eMarketing tactics from the team at Quirk.

The table of Contents Include:

• Email Marketing
• Online Advertising
• Affiliate Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Social Media Marketing
• Viral Marketing
• Online Reputation Management
• WebPR
• Web Development
• Online Copywriting
• Web Analytics and Conversion Optimisation
• Glossary of Terms

Hot on the heals of my re-design which is dragging on a little longer than expected with all the meetings and projects I’ve been focusing on. I’m hoping the newsletter will get the nomad-one message out there and help me grow this site into a little more of a community with some more interaction and conversation.

What would you like to see?

I’m interested to know what you’d like to see published both on this site and in the newsletter, what what would be of real value to you the reader. I’ve been considering taking a stab at building an e-book which will be a guide to business communication. I’ve been doing some research and hunting around online to see what others are speaking about and what tools & methods are out there to help us take what we do further and improve the way we communicate what we have to say.

I haven’t sent out this newsletter yet but would like to get an idea of what you guys think about it. The Why Design Article published just before this one is taken from the newsletter and there are a few more just to get things going. So check out Nomadic News edition 1 and let me know what you think.

• Do you subscribe to newsletters?
• How effective a medium to you consider email newsletters?
• What do you think people would want to know from a designer?

Good day Chris and welcome to nomad-one, my humble beginnings of a blog. Having scoured the blogosphere over the past few months in the hunt for gems of wisdom on blog strategies, forgive me for using such a silly term, I was pleasantly surprised by what your site had to offer. I’ve come across quite a number of “professional blog strategists” who claim to offer miracle cures and instant success strategies but your approach seems much more grounded and based on good wholesome experience.

How did you get into blogging?

I’ve always had a personal website since I first discovered the web back in the early 90′s but I started what you would consider my first blog as a personal journal around ten years ago, as was the fashion of the time. I found it fun so kept at it.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

As I say, I find it fun, I enjoy the process of writing. I think though the biggest benefit is the people you meet. Like the conversation we are having now!

Why did blogging attract you so much to the extent that you are now a professional blogger?

Why would anyone not? Heh. Really it shocks me sometimes that people are willing to pay me to do something that I get such a kick out of.

What are the greatest challenges you experience on a daily basis?

Lack of time is my biggest challenge. That and the other side of the coin, when I am not busy it tends to mean I am not earning quite so much. That pendulum effect keeps me paranoid and working 24/7

How would you define a blog site?

A regularly updated website with a bias towards conversation.

What is a professional blogger?

Someone who earns money through blogging.

Is web 2.0 and blogging as it is today just in a trend bubble which may burst sometime soon? Any web 2.0 dotbombs on the horizon?

Markets go through cycles. I foresaw and lived through the previous dotcom bubble because the projects I was working on seemed to live in a parallel dimension where nobody had ever heard of ROI! There is bound to be a correction but I am hoping people are smarter this time round. Blogging will evolve, I believe the word “blog” is already on the way out.

What would you say are the main benefits of a blog over a regular cms based site?

Basically, what has made blogging take off like it has over the past few years
Immediacy and simplicity. My Dad can (and has) a blog. I worked on big CMS projects around the dotcom times, they were unnecessarily complex and sold by highly paid consultants to companies that didn’t need them via wined and dined IT Departments. A blog just works and is simple enough but powerful enough to get the job done.

What’s your take on synthasite type projects, and do you see potential for a build you own blog type service online?

I am all for anything that puts the power of web publishing in the hands of all. It’s like the desktop publishing revolution (in both good and bad ways).

What’s your favourite blogging platform?

WordPress, Drupal and CommunityServer in that order. I am closely watching Movable Type though.

Do you believe that a blog can suffice the web needs of most if not all companies and organisations?

When you love your hammer it is sometimes it is easy to see every problem as a nail. Not all companies need a blog, just as not all companies need to be online. Sometimes doing something really badly or inappropriately is worse than doing nothing at all. Having said that, if you want to publish a website for your company I would almost always recommend WordPress or Drupal as a CMS.

What if any is the most important point bloggers should focus on to improve their blogs effectiveness?

Focus on them not you. Blogging started out as Me-Me-Me but that doesn’t cut it any longer. It’s all about your audience and providing value in original and remarkable ways.

Do you think its possible to successfully run a portal type website off blogging software?

Yes. Absolutely. Drupal was built for that, CommunityServer rocks at portals.
What do you see could be the next big development in the blogosphere
The end of the blogosphere and the start of what replaces it.

If any, where do you see people falling short in fully understanding the power of blogging, I mean this for those who are already sold on the concept of blogging?

People both underestimate blogging and over estimate it. On the one hand blogs have massive influence, on the other hand the percentage of people who are aware of blogs overall is small. It’s strange, blogs will likely influence the next USA presidential election but at the same time if blogs disappeared tomorrow the world wouldn’t be much worse off. What I see most often is people getting comfortable with blogging and then letting loose with no sense of organization or boundaries. It can be like giving your drunken uncle the microphone at a wedding. It starts off funny but will almost always end in tears.

Do you think a blog has the power to change society, the world?

Every one of us has that power. We can all name individuals who have changed the world. Why not through a blog? I would say though it would not be a blog that changes the world but the person writing it.

Do you have any big plans for your own blogs development?

No. My blog is a part of my big plans but not the biggest part. Maybe some small plans, heh.

Well, That’s a wrap of it Chris, thanks for speaking to us and giving us some insight into what you do. You can visit Chris at www.chrisg.com. Belo is a feed of some of his latest Content from his blog. Enjoy.

You might ask, what is a professional blogger, isn’t blogging just some kind of hobby or something someone does in their spare time. If that’s what you thought you’re about to learn what you’ve been missing all this time.

One area where professionals and companies can really make some headway with their blogs is by establishing themselves as an authority on a certain subject. Chris Garret has done this in the area of consulting on blogging. Chris mentions a bit about making money from blogging and lists the key ways people make money from blogging directly. For your company though or even privately if you’re out to get yourself known and to make the right kind of connections then you better know a little bit about the subject matter which surrounds what you do. You might not want to make advertising revenue from your blog but it is most definitely a sure fire way of getting people interested in the products or services you offer to come your way and see you as an expert on the subject.

In terms of using a blog to generate interest around your company, your products or services or expertise Chris provides some insightful information in an article discussing how blogs can prove to be a successful sales generating tool. The advice ChrisG provides on his site is invaluable when it comes to how to establish your blog and get it known, how to keep it updated with the right type of content and how to make the most of it on many levels.

For example one bit of advice Chris gives on his site is concerned with commenting. Commenting is one of the beautiful things about blogs which previous generations of websites just never seemed to get quite right. For a website to be a real dialogue and to be termed as interactive you need to be engaged with your readers. I say readers firstly because content is the key to maintaining a constant flow of visitors. Engaging with them and allowing them to interact with you by commenting on what you have written takes the relationship to a new level. Once you have established yourself as a provider of good content for a specific area of interest and people have started visiting your blog they will start interacting with you. Chris provides an interesting set of tips on why commenting is a good thing for your blog (check it out here).

All in all I’ve learnt alot just putting this post together and can see Chris Garret has a wealth of knowledge on the subject of blogging and how to boost your blog and boost your business through your blog so be sure to bookmark his site (www.chrisg.com) as a priority resource for business and blog development.