Posts in category business

Start-up? Head to Bangalore

May18
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

If you are forming a start-up or planning to start one, then Bangalore is one of the best places where you can set this up. A simple search for jobs in bangalore will give you a huge listing of career opportunities in this city. Bangalore is definitely a contender for being the Silicon Valley of India.

What makes this city such an attractive spot for start-ups?

  • Perfectly located: Bangalore is easily reachable by air, road, rail and water. So cargo freight companies have their major offices in this city. The recent upgrade of the airport also has scaled up the air traffic capacity of the city. Visitors of the city who have been travelling in Bangalore for the past decade would know what I am talking about.
  • IT Hub: Bangalore is one of the first IT mega cities in the country. What this means is better infrastructure as compared to the other cities, a tolerant government and a nurturing ecosystem of good quality labour. Even today, it is still known that to setup a tech-based startup, you need to be in Bangalore
  • Follow the Money: A lot (and I mean A LOT) of Venture capital Firms are based in Bangalore. Firms such as Accel, Sequoia, Argonaut, DFJ are all based out of Bangalore and generally try to see whether the organization they are investing in can shift their bases to this city.
  • Awesome Weather: Throughout the year there’s only one cool temperature in this city. It amazes me as to how this can be, but there you have it.

Obviously, with such great pros there have to be a few cons (the traffic being amongst the main ones there!). Hey, its not Valhalla that we are talking about right? A lot of great tech-based startups are here … Flipkart, Myntra to name a few.

So, forget other places such as Mumbai (too expensive), or Hyderabad (no good programmers). Head on to Bangalore and setup a base there!

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Confessions of an Ambush Marketer

May09
2012 1 Comment Written by Prasad

Dear Internet Surfer, I have sinned.

  • Ever since I have found about HTML forms and Emailing systems, I have been lurking around in web-pages awaiting to spring that form on you
  • When I found about javascript and the onLoad event, I welcome you to my pages and bidded for my time. The time to spring my multi-inputted trap!
  • jQuery added to my arsenal of timed web-pages and put some smarts in my traps. My traps started looking good and how!
  • CSS helped me to create the singing sirens, beckoning you to click on my lovely form elements
  • Smart written form elements and squeeze pages made me more credible to you
  • Auto-responders helped me to have an active dialogue with you … making you think that I actually care to have a conversation
  • After well timed campaigns when you swiped your credit card and transferred your hard(ly) earned money to my account, I can only do but thank you for your efforts

In case, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, then please forget the money that you paid to me and consider this as a practical lesson learnt!

Posted in foo, funny - Tagged , , ,

Google Search Update

Apr23
2012 2 Comments Written by Prasad

I had earlier posted about a starters guide to SEO. Back then my understanding of this was also developing and the only way I could add to my understanding of the subject was via experiments … that I carried out on this blog, and also at work.

Finally, we did arrive at a scalable solution. A solution for SEO which could easily be replicated and scaled for almost all my target keywords. Out of a target 5000+ keywords, we managed to get in the top 10 for a decent 3000 of them, and would have proceeded to touch base upon all of them as well (do remind me to release this as well!)

Had it not been for the upcoming Google, I would have went ahead with the plan. However, the new update effectively means that all black hat SEO tactics (which the Indian SEO industry is famous for) will be negatively penalized. So throw your keyword stuffing, badly written English to match your keywords, slightly different versions to match the keyword variants, and link submissions out of the best practices window.

I wonder what would be the extent of the penalty levied by the new algorithm on sites which are already way ahead on their link submissions. Getting those links off the 1000 or so directories is going to be tough!!

Here’s a parting thought, that Google Search is embedded in so many Digital Strategist’s plans, that people are not even considering to optimize their pages for other search engines (such as Bing). Isn’t it great how being a market leader can impact an entire industry?

Note to Self – Learn about Bing optimization and work on generating search traffic from Bing.

Posted in work - Tagged , , , , , ,

Dominos goes online

Mar09
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Prasad

dominos My family loves pizzas, so whenever we spend a lazy holiday, we generally order for them. Unfortunately Pizza Hut does not deliver in my area :-( , and the other niche brands take quite some time do deliver their wares. So we have adjusted our palates to enjoy Dominos. I don’t have anything against Dominos, no … in fact I have begun to enjoy their thin crust pizzas a lot (even when they get stale!). So when my wife asked me to find Dominos coupons, I did a quick Google and clicked on few of the top links.

Interestingly enough, one of the links was an ad by Dominos themselves. They are running ads on branded keywords, interesting I thought. On the landing page, I noticed that they are providing a decent coupon (50% off on 2nd pizza) if you order online.

The Domino’s storefront is pretty simple with you getting a list of pizzas and side orders which you can customize. No great shakes. Not a bad experience though, but nothing to ooh and ahh about. After adding the orders to the cart, I proceeded to check-out. On check-out, I was given an order receipt and also given the address and phone number of the store who would fulfill my delivery. Unfortunately, the facility for entering your own address was not that great, and I ended up entering only part of my address. After 10-15 minutes when there was no communication from Dominos (except the order confirmation with the partial address), I got a bit worried and called up the store responsible for the order fulfillment.

Now here’s the kicker, after I contacted them, they decided to check whether my address comes in their area! The order was confirmed, but the operator was prudent enough to provide me a disclaimer that it may take longer than 30 minutes! As I sat down and write this down, the delivery guy rang the doorbell (well within 30 minutes!).

All in all, it was a good experience – however the customer touch points need to be appraised of this online transition (had the operator whom I contacted been a bit more well informed about the online store, then my experience would have been far better!).

Btw, here’s the coupon code I used – FRIFRK50, and you can redeem it here.

Posted in web - Tagged , , ,

Rule by Fear

Feb21
2012 2 Comments Written by Prasad

whip

There’s an interesting article available at HBR on Managerial Tyranny. CEOs and executives since long have been utilizing this approach to achieve spectacular growth rates. This is even more true when the manager is expected to show quarter on quarter results. Out goes the nice guy approach and in comes the tyrant – a whip in one hand and measurable metrics in the other.

The Rule by Fear has been used in popular firms … everybody praises Steve Jobs on his design sense, but how many of them would advocate his iron fist approach during the hey days of Apple? Did you forget Jack Welch … he wasn’t called Neutron Jack without any reason.

So when should one crack the whip? Well, if your team is aware of the end outcomes and shares your desires to reach those outcomes. Then the means of cracking the whip and acting the tyrant is justified … until those goals are achieved.

Personally, I think that this approach can only be used to achieve results in the short term. Work culture in India at least is still dependant a lot on personal equations. If the team does not share the passion, then tyranny could be the main reason why they will leave the firm – this brings to mind the quote

You do not leave the job, you leave your boss

I wonder if this can be made sustainable?

Posted in work - Tagged , ,

Sex in Advertising

Feb20
2012 2 Comments Written by Prasad

If you have seen the latest GoDaddy Ads, then you will understand what I am talking about. I had posted this great Ad from BMW which uses sex but pulls it off quite nicely. Having said that, now take a look at the GoDaddy Ads -

How the massage, and the masseuse stripping off to bear the GoDaddy logo really brings out their hosting plans and domain registry services is a mystery to me. What is interesting to note is that the ads typically leave off by saying to view more go to their site. On checking out the full ads, the advertisement goes on to talk about the different features of the GoDaddy offerings.

Effectively, the ads that were shown on television were simply to generate traffic on their site. Again an example of one media relying on another media for it’s business. This really does not bode well with me (despite being a GoDaddy customer for the past 4 years now). This traffic is also assuming that people want to view more of Danica or GoDaddy. I wonder if some data were obtained on their traffic and conversion data post after the campaign launched. I’d wager that the traffic would increase, but the conversion rate would go down.

What do you good folks think?

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Don’t hire dogs

Feb19
2012 6 Comments Written by Prasad

don't hire dogs

Dog’s are a man’s best friend. They are considered as faithful, loyal and will always be there to lift you up. A dog will fetch things for you and do silly tricks such as sit, roll over, etc.

In different companies, there is one such breed of employees. Don’t get me wrong, I am not objectifying people, and this is an analogy, if anything. So this breed of employees … they behave in the exact manner like dogs.

They are generally taken from the street or from the wild, they do not have any formal skill set with them. It’s probably because of this reason that they are extremely loyal to the company. They are willing to go the extra distance and spend more time in the office working unrealistic deadlines and striving to satisfy their masters.

Obviously, who would want to say no to such employees! Right?

Well, wrong!! Change is the requirement of all organizations, especially the small ones and the ones which are growing at a fast pace. The problem now magnifies is because you can’t teach an old dog new tricks (yes, I wanted to work this cliché into this post!!). Any organization that is growing at a fast pace (60% – 100% growth YoY) would require such a huge influx of talent, that the loyal dog would now be forced to question his erstwhile unquestionable value in the company.

This is the risk, and it’s a huge one. Why is it a risk? Because at some point in the founder’s life, this loyal employee has done a favor and worked in ridiculous conditions. Now that the dog is tired and cannot do anything new, it has become a liability for the organization. Not only does it sadden the person, but the organization cannot put this figurative dog to sleep.

So if you are an entrepreneur or about to start your firm, do yourself a favor and do not hire dogs.

Addendum

Arjun Bakshi writes –

This phenomenon is not restricted to start-ups:-) Most “Big” organisations are not very different.
I feel HR / Organisations are lazy and want the easy way out. Have a template of qualifications and experience required to hire, short-list such people thru employee referrals and employment consultants and then hire them.
Why take the risk to hire people outside the template and take efforts on them?
In case you follow sports, the recent example of Jeremy Lin is a very good example of the malaise which also exists in our hiring practices. I am sending just one of the millions of articles on him. I think, Malcolm Gladwell also has a few artcles on a similar theme.

Posted in foo - Tagged , , ,

CRM is the new website

Dec27
2011 5 Comments Written by Prasad

http Back in 2000, the dot com market in India was booming. Every company who wanted to have it’s presence online was scrambling to find domain names, hosting, email solutions, etc. Companies such as Net4India sprung up and came up with offerings with ridiculous prices (some of these offerings still exist to date!). Executives bought these websites thinking that somehow building a website would translate into revenues. In fact even today, the average “Indian IT company” continues to dole out development costs of websites propelled by content management systems (CMS) to be around 5-6 lakhs. If you are lucky, then that figure can go as high as 14-15 lakhs :-) !!

What was the mistake then?

The single minded assumption that building a website will translate into revenues.

I still see folks who nurture this piece of ticking bomb waiting to explode and set their businesses to ruins. As a result, all derived-demand business also went bustville. It took a fair amount of years to clear the damage, and come back on track.

So why bring this up Now?

These days, whomsoever that I am talking (and you can include me in this list as well!!), is thinking about having an online enterprise. A sweet setup, where the person can run a business irrespective of where this aforesaid individual is. There are more than a fair share of success stories around, and these people have become heralded role models.

Yes, the online dream can become true. Yes.

Feels good to hear these words, don’t they? These days I am seeing a lot more structured approach, newsletters, opt-in forms, CRM systems, mass emailing systems, affiliate management systems, advertising networks, etc … the systems are all there. People just need to start using them and start churning the proverbial money mill.

But …

Back then it was IT firms, now I am seeing a large growth of Digital Marketing firms. It’s the same plot, just the players are different now. Organizations are again back to setting up websites, now with complex marketing and sales systems. But how are you doing in terms of sales? Is the juice worth the squeeze?

If you do own a website, could you share with me what are the plans that you are thinking of to generate sales? Are you creating value to generate those sales?

Posted in Technology - Tagged , , , , ,

Starters guide to SEO

Nov30
2011 4 Comments Written by Prasad

One part of my role at Pristine is building up the site traffic, be it via Paid Advertising, Referral traffic or via Search Engines.

Anyone who has indulged in Paid Advertising would know how expensive it can turn out to be if you do not know what you are doing. It can be very effective in the short term, however for long term and more sustainable results, relying on non-paid search results is far better. Hence SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

The problem with SEO is that almost everyone who has a website think that they should do SEO, and SEO is playing around with meta tags. Seems simplistic no? In the past month or so, the amount of people whom I have talked to regarding to SEO has shown how less people know about the workings. Add to it the complexity of the ever-changing algorithm of search engines such as Google, Bing, etc.

The idea behind SEO is to target specific keywords for specific pages on your site, so that when your target audience searches for those keywords, your site shows up in the search results.

Here are some tips which I would have appreciated when I started off. Please do keep in mind, that I am no self-professed expert in SEO, just that like all of us around here, even I am learning, and this post is one such humble attempt to share whatever that I have learned, and what I know works to get results. Having said that, I know it would help all of us if you could point out any errors that i have made, or make suggestions and provide additional tips!

  • Read up on your meta tags, some of them are useful. Make a note of the description and author tags, you would be working with description the most.
  • Do not target more than 2-3 keywords per page, since you have to use that keyword in all the different important sections of the page viz., description tag, title tag, h1 tag, main content, etc. you cannot really target 1-2 keywords without damaging the copy of your page.
  • If you are working with a tight budget, then use a free tool such as Traffic Travis, the demo version is free. If you have a decent sized budget, then I would highly recommend Pro SEO MOz, it not only has a very comprehensive SEO tool, but also it has an extensive knowledge base on SEO
  • Search Engine’s maintain the authority of websites, this is generally a factor of how well you write, and how many sites are linking to your content. Google especially is one search engine which rewards regular content creation, in fact the current search algo (don’t know why its called the panda update) also favors freshness of content. So the same page would rank higher if it were regularly updated.
  • Always look at the different search terms via which people are coming to your site. Those are essentially content creation triggers!
  • Many people swear by backlinking, citing different open directories to publish your site links. However, I am skeptical about this approach. The one thing I use this approach for is to check where are my competitors linking, and get my presence their as well. I think if you can create good quality content, then it will automatically fetch the backlinks that you require.
  • Search engines are also influenced by social behavior, so typically the search results shown in Google would be influenced with what your friends are sharing on your social networks. E.g- If I share this post on say Twitter and if you are following me on Twitter, then you would definitely see this as a search result!
  • SEO is a long drawn game, and it requires patience, practice and discipline. Do not expect magic to happen, it’s a slow and gradual process and does not happen over night. To hope for such miracles, either you need to be Larry Page or Steve Ballmer.
Posted in Technology, work - Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

The Blue Nothing Digest

Sep16
2011 4 Comments Written by Prasad

The internet is virtually an infinite source of inspiration, great news, stupidity and entertainment. I thought that I might share some gems which are either relevant to me, or which I think you might find interesting.

Oh, in case you are wondering what the heck is Blue Nothing, it’s a term I read in one interesting novel on Social Engineering (and it’s evils). The internet is the Blue Nothing!

Posted in foo, personal, social, work - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
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