www.Naeem.co.za

2008 has been a roller coaster of note, looking back on it, it was a time of huge gains, losses, experiences and much much more.

In the real world,

- March 15th, Married! – Naeem.co.za & Saaleha.com – a union of internet junkies
- Honeymoon to Singapore, Langkawi Island and Malaysia’s Kuala Lampur
- A few weeks later, trip to the far east – Hong Kong and China’s Shanghai, Guangzhou & Beijing
- Hijacked! Got my South African colours when 2 gunmen stormed my home and made off with my car.
- The Autostyle Durban Motorshow – even bigger then before.
- Recovered! My Audi was recovered in Soweto, in mint condition with a newly fitted windscreen.
- Bought another house. This time on the doorstep of our local Masjid, bigger with alot more ‘room for potential’.
- Autostyle voted 2008 Best Automotive Website. That’s the 3rd year in a row.
- Autostyle moved into its stunning new  Johannesburg showroom.

My online adventures never cease to amaze me, always learning new technologies, ideas & meeting all sorts of amazing people.
- WordPress is my App of the year!
- MyUmmah.co.za is fast establishing itself in the South African muslim niche. What started as an online storage for Islamic content I find – now receives over 11 000 page impressions a month with just over 6000 visitors.
- Kasa.org.za A quick wordpress powered website for Khitmatul Awaam: South Africa’s first non profit hajj & umrah foundation.
- SoccerStuff.co.za – A little sideline service from our Autostyle team. We do loads of imports and many agencies & corporate gift companies we work with indicated the need for custom branded soccerballs. Yes we are jumping in on 2010mania
- MuslimJobs.co.za – a little job portal for our muslim community, plans are to revamp it and add some extra features to it.

2009 promises much more new projects, challenges and more importantly trying to uphold a balance between work, life and most importantly becoming a better muslim.

2008 proved that the Almighty truly does work in mysterious ways.
There is Hikma (wisdom) in all the good & bad we go through.

Social media continues to build bridges and networks individuals like never before. Kaitlen Foley runs the InsideIslam news blog over at the University Madison Wisconsin. We met through Twitter and opened up a whole new angle on their blog by getting in touch with several Muslim South African bloggers.

I have taken up the post of guest blogger for their project and hope to contribute some meaningful and beneficial Islamic content over there.

Check out http://insideislam.wisc.edu/

We have made it 3 years in a row.  Winner of the Jump Shopping E-Commerce Awards.

2008 proved to be quite a challenge, most of our changes & upgrades to the Autostyle online store consisted of productivity, order processing, and behind the scenes stuff. To the visitor, it would seem that nothing has changed cosmetically.

Our highlight this year include
- breaking the 130 000 visitor & 1.8 million page impression figure

- moving over to Mygate, a faster, more secure and more cost effective payment processing gateway. We now also run a tight integration to process First National Bank ‘cell point’ transactions

- 2 weeks ago we launched our ‘autostyle discussion forum’, a place for us to engage our customers, as well as a little motoring enthusiast community.

Future plans are already underway for a design update, a few shopping cart upgrades and more. Lets hope 2009 see’s us take the award again!

A non profit website for a non profit hajj & umrah foundation. Khitmatul Awaam

Khitmatul Awaam Services started a few months ago offering South African muslims an affordable hajj & umrah tour package. Their volunteers consist of learned Islamic scholars, doctors, lawyers & other professionals.  I was fortunate enough to be a part of the team and setup their website.

Once again, I have used WordPress as the CMS for their online presence. The ‘blog’ function of wordpress acts as their official press office, while a few static pages give visitors an overview of the foundation.

The response has been phenomenal. Rumour has it that the Saudi officials, so impressed by their professionalism & image, might appoint them as a second Hajj accreditor for 2009. Making them a modern & transparent opponent to the SAHUC foundation. If SAHUC & KASA had to compare websites, Kasa wins it outright

Visit http://www.kasa.org.za

I always believe, any career that you choose, any skill that you develop and learn – you should apply it for the greater good. Money should not be the sole purpose of your skills & career.

Earlier this year a company called Khatmatul Awaam started, they aim to offer a non-profit Hajj & Umrah travel agency.  I commend their efforts and encourage the public to show their support. Even if you do not book trips through them, merely a thumbsup and complimentary email will raise their spirit and score you some reward.

I’m glad to be a part of this project and sincerely hope my contribution of a full blow wordpress powered website will be a boost to their project & ideaology.

I will post a full link as soon as their content is up.