It's easy to feel completely overwhelmed on the Internet today. There's just so much new terminology; so many new techniques, strategies, buzzwords, all mixed-in with copious amounts of content, news feeds and status updates that even seasoned online veterans can get a bit disoriented in this digital information minefield.

What's equally staggering, is the number of businesses we've identified who've invested significant amounts of money in getting themselves a website and then, go on to leave these websites to collect cyber-dust without putting in place mechanisms to ensure that they extract their fair value from their online investment.

We'll be brutally honest and tell you that most websites which we've stumbled across in South Africa do not meet even the minimum criteria for being effective, value-adding online destinations. Websites suffer from poor design, outdated technology usage, poor advice which resulted in website owners going for flashy graphics over sound navigation and structure.

These are but some of the major problems we've identified on the South African Internet today. This is besides the complete neglect of mobile; e-mail marketing services; mailing list creation and management; SMS automation; CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems and content management systems for the easy updating of their websites.