Geek Ink
Geek Ink was my attempt to create an online geek culture platform, and was the project that helped me develop my understanding of online content creation. During the development of this site, I learnt about:
- SEO
- Regular content creation and its impact on site growth
- Taking advantage of trends
- Promoting content on social media
- Popular and unpopular content styles and topics
- YouTube content creation
I could write about the growth of this site, but they do say a picture is worth a thousand words:
The site peaked in 2014, although 2015 was very similar in terms of traffic, with both years clocking in at roughly 27,000 views. Unfortunately 2016 required that I shift my priorities as I began studying part-time at the University of Cape Town, in addition to my regular work day. Naturally this saw the site traffic take a massive hit as I was unable to keep up with my regular three posts a week. Eventually, other priorities slowly took over and I decided to shut down Geek Ink.
However, the time and energy I put into website did not go to waste. It not only taught me a lot, but also helped me land my first position as a copywriter in 2017.
Managing the Open Art community and events
The Open Art Cape Town community became Facebook official in 2011, but I had been running the group for a couple of years prior to the launch of this page. What started off as an excuse to get together with like-minded friends to draw and socialise, soon became a much larger gathering for people from all over Cape Town.
As one of the two original co-founders, I grew the group through social media and word of mouth. I successfully created a space for professional and amateur creatives to meet and share advice, discuss their favourite artists and art media, or just chat about the ups-and-downs of life. I achieved this by organising and hosting events several times a month at The Drawing Room Cafe, which become our informal home for many years.
In addition to these regular events, I also hosted a group exhibition in 2017, which I marketed on my own. I designed flyers, created social posts, and put the word out to hopefully bring in enough people to get some sales and make my money back.
Thankfully, enough people attended the event that I did manage to break even, which I consider a huge success as a one person team who had no prior experience in events.
The group carried on with its regular meets until the arrival of Covid 19 in March 2020. As South Africa began discussing a way forward, I felt it was necessary to put our meetups on hold until the pandemic was resolved.
The group is currently on hiatus due to COVID-19.
The Remote Copywriter 