ViperChill Re-Design and BIG Changes
Despite how long I’ve wanted to do something as radical as this, I’ve never been able to bring myself to accept such a big change. Partly for the fear of letting others down who have come to know this site for what it is and what it offers, and partly because this is a complete u-turn in what I’ve been offering and doing for the last 2 years.
What am I talking about? I’ve decided I no longer want to be focused on doing services, and want to continue my passion for blogging and helping others succeed on an information level, rather than client level.
10 Comments / 
June 1st, 2008 / 
PluginHQ
ViperChill Updates & eBook Changes
While I like to keep most of the blog posts informative, I also like to write on a personal level and have as many operations in this company as transparent as possible. With that in mind, here are some status updates…
Reputation Management Growth
With the shift into being one of the main sites that solely focuses on Reputation Management, it’s interesting to see how others follow. As I spend a lot of time in not only brand monitoring but niche monitoring, I have been watching this industry grow on a daily basis.
3 Comments / May 16th, 2008 / PluginHQ
Practicing what you Preach - Our Blog
A lot of our posts refer to how readers can increase website traffic or get more subscribers to their blogs, something we still need to work on but aren’t doing a bad job. So when it comes to statistics we personally have to improve to have any credibility, this time I’m not just talking about traffic or backlinks though, here are some stats I took on July 29th, 2007:
- 53 Feed Subscribers
- 89k Alexa
- 247 Posts
- 220 Comments
Feed Subscribers - Starting off with 53 actually wasn’t too shabby, although there are a lot of blogs with more subscribers in this niche and it is a number I really like to see rise (probably more than any other). As I write this post (different day to when it goes live) the number is sitting at 221, that’s over a 4x increase and something I’m really happy with, no doubt this number will increase even more in 2008.
Alexa - The alexa is actually better there than it is now, so you may feel I’m strange for mentioning it, to be fair the current alexa has only dipped over the last month or two when I’ve been away in south africa and just didn’t have the time / energy to make any blog posts as I got my outside of work priorities a bit messed up. During the months from July to now though the alexa was usually around the 50k mark which although I don’t care about it too much; is an improvement.
Posts - I’ll be honest in that I’ve had a lot of fluctuations with my posting. I had started a new blog and spent a lot of time writing to that (it had massive success) but I neglected this one in the process and realised that was not a good idea. When I have been writing here it’s been pretty consistent and hopefully with a high quality of cotnent aside from the last few months where I have been away. The current number of posts is 294 which is nearly a 50 post increase in the last 5 months.
Comments - The previous comments to post ratio was less than 1 comment per post, this is due to the fact that when I started the blog I wasn’t writing for readers, for some reason I tended just to write for search engines and to have new content. Now I interact in the search marketing industry and write for readers, there are currently 911 comments on the site, thats a huge increase in the comments to post ratio.
2 Comments / December 28th, 2007 / PluginHQ
3 Months in South Africa - My Summary
After having wrote the hardest blog post of my life, and being very open and sometimes a little uncomfortable, I thought I would lighten things up and get a bit personal in a good way, showing off some of my time in south africa.
I arrived at Cape Town international on September 24th, greeted by the two SEO guru’s I had spoke to frequently on messenger and via email, Lyle and Carl. Getting to the office it was a pretty pleasant surprise, quite nervous about meeting all my new colleagues, was a nice touch that there’s a pool table in the office (and some google beanbags).
We will actually be in a new office by the time I get back to South Africa, something even swankier that I promise to add some pictures of. It certainly wasn’t all work though, I discovered that South Africa is a beautiful country.
I found some time to have a drink (occasionally) as well, well…quite a lot actually
I had quite a few apartments in south africa (long story), here’s a quick variety of pics from them:
Finished off with a few things I’ve learned:
- South Africa is dangerous but not as bad as what most people make out. Yeah I would never walk the streets in the dark but I’m not sure I would do that in many places
- Social Media is definitely up and coming, bluesouth and rival companies in SA are starting to offer related services and even things like online reputation management
- The Internet is pretty slow, and sadly it’s also very expensive for a limited bandwidth line. I pay less in england for “unlimited” fast internet then I would for an average speed, 2gb capped connection in south africa.
- People are awesome, I’ve met some fantastic people and the majority of ’strangers’ are surprisingly easy to talk too. Something you don’t really experience in England, well not as much anyway.
MERRY XMAS EVERYONE
9 Comments / December 25th, 2007 / PluginHQ
The Hardest Blog Post of My Life
That might seem like an exaggeration but it’s really not. I spent about 10 minutes thinking up a title for this post, originally there were pleas for support (which I really need) and other titles were ’showing off’ the success that has been had in South Africa which probably isn’t very reader friendly. Before I continue with the post, here’s a few things I would like to add:
- I’m signed to an agreement that I won’t discuss any clients or their details (although some will follow)
- I have an employer to respect and won’t blatantly look for more ViperChill work
- Colleagues will read this and I don’t want them to think I don’t care about my job
First of all, as you may have guessed from those bullet points, I have signed a 12 month contract (minimum) to be the Social Media Manager for Bluesouth. Yes I’m 18, and yes that’s a big decision, but the potential is huge and the amount of new clients that we have brought on these last few months and new ones joining us in 2008, it’s an amazing opportunity and an amazing time to be involved in the company.
I’ve been working on clients such as Hewlett Packard and they are delighted with the work we are doing, some huge automotive companies I can’t mention and sites for large english newspapers. Once again, I would love to show how much traffic the whole team at bluesouth is getting for these sites and the clever ideas we have successfully executed but it’s not my position to do so and I don’t fancy breaking any contracts.
Although it might seem like everything is perfect, I do have some issues.
- I won’t be in South Africa forever. As much as I like the country, I don’t see myself living here for the rest of my life and still have no idea where I want to end up. As soon as I’m 21 I do plan to check out america but whether I will like it as much as I hope I will is another matter.
- ViperChill is still a dream for me. My employer knows this, and that’s the only reason I wouldn’t sign on to the company for more than 12 months. I still think I have what it takes to run my own company and start making the kind of money and having the kind of success I have generated for others on my own terms. I think I’ve done a pretty good job amassing the income I have and pulling the clients (I will soon be showing off) that ViperChill has worked for recently but it’s not constant good fortune.
- I hate keeping quiet. SEOmoz were a company that helped me fall in-love with open blogging and hopefully I’ve kept things pretty open on this site and not restricted things to readers. If only I could show off the work we are doing and the results we have achieved, I think I might have a little more respect in this industry but it’s something I can’t do and it’s also something that is very frustrating to me.
Issues I have, and your help is more than welcome
It’s a difficult situation for me, in england (where I am now for the next two months, chillaxing) I don’t really know that many people in the same niche (personally) so find it difficult to talk to anyone about the situation I’m in. Anyone I want to talk to in south africa is behind the company that I’m heavily involved in so telling them something like “I’m only here till I can make it on my own” is not really encouraging and not exactly true, it really depends on the potential and opportunities that are offered to me in south africa.
So…the questions I have for you all:
1. When do I stop. Is it when I don’t think I’m learning anything in south africa / sick of the work / really want to do my own thing?
2. Do I keep blogging. The main reason I started was to help build my name and bring in more clients. I can’t be open about the success we are having so the posts won’t be as interesting as I would like and if I’m not able to take on new clients from it is it really worth the time?
3. Should I still work? 4 days a week I’m sitting at home in my apartment (in SA) not doing anything really productive apart from general living, would it be wrong to use that to do private work, after-all it is my own time but I hate working full days. I just feel like I’m ‘missing out’ on opportunities by completely shutting off.
4. Am I being an idiot by writing this post. I’m sure my naivety really show’s off my age in this one but I like to think I have a decent head on my shoulders. After-all I’ve just spent the last 3 months in a strange country without knowing anyone before I left but I have made some amazing friends that made things a hell of a lot easier. I’m sure I’ll have missed out some points I would have liked to add but maybe I’ll add them to the comments.
I’m looking for advice from anyone, but now linking to people that I would really like input from, and hopefully they can give their thoughts.
43 Comments / December 22nd, 2007 / PluginHQ
