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Squidoo Lens on Capsule Lifts

April 28, 2008 – 9:34 pm

In an attempt at promoting my client’s website, I’ve created a Squidoo lens on Capsule Lifts. Squidoo is an excellent tool that allows you to promote any specific product, idea, issue or simply voice out your opinion. It was started by marketing guru Seth Godin.

Here’s what you can do with Squidoo (in short):

  • Create a single page on any niche topic without any HTML or web-designing knowledge
  • Compile from various sources and multiple media such as Youtube (video), Flickr (Photos) and customized RSS feeds
  • Add all the text you want i.e. all the information in normal text format
  • Get people to click on your favorite link (that way you can promote a website)
  • Sell items from Amazon, Cafepress etc. and get paid for promoting them!
  • Earn revenue from Squidoo for driving traffic to your lens

What I love about Squidoo:

  • Very easy-to-use interface
  • Aggregates information from very useful resources through various widgets
  • Organized layout that links the visitor to every type of medium of information such as videos, photos, stores, etc.
  • Optimizes well for Search Engines
  • Comprehensive information resource for your topic can be created within minutes!

Here’s the link to my lens on capsule lifts. Become a lensmaster right now and see how addictive it can get!

This is the site am promoting: capsule lift. Link exchange, anyone?

dhaval | Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Read RSS feeds on Mobile

November 30, 2007 – 3:22 pm

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is widely used by readers worldwide for reading blogs or websites with dynamic content - like news stories or company news/blogs.

Unfortunately, if you want to read these RSS subscriptions on your cellphone, there are hardly any mobile RSS readers. You could try Google Reader or use BuzMob too (or syndicate your website content to be read on the cellphone because not all mobile browsers are HTML-friendly or have built-in RSS readers).

If you are an avid blogger and you want to syndicate your blog to cellphone users, BuzMob is an excellent solution. It just took me minutes to create RSS links of my blogs that are cellphone-friendly.

You can use BuzMob very easily on your cellphone to read your RSS subscriptions. It takes a couple of minutes to set up your personal homepage. Before you begin, you need to add the XML feeds to your account online. :-(

Follow this link if you want to use BuzMob to read your RSS feeds or go here to syndicate your content to cellphone users.

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dhaval | RSS, Syndicate your website to mobile phones, cellphone or mobile reader, mobile feeds | Comments (1)

Ten things you can learn from Google’s success - Part II

March 5, 2007 – 8:19 am

An honest brand image works - ‘Don’t be Evil’

Google is loved by users. The honest brand image they project is of an organization which is here to do good to the public at large. This has worked for Google. The very idea of projecting such a brand image makes them sound like a technological behemoth that is here to help the world in this age of ‘Information overload’. Such a brand image allows them to still sound clean regardless of the number of lawsuits it’s struggling with for all the wrongs it has done. Also there are other courtroom proceedings for copyright infringement which many of its users are not aware of. Moreover, it’s not easy to give out all the information to the entire world – even that revealing strategic defense locations of a country! But still, Google is loved by the end-user because of the brand image it carries. Think of the PR that your brand does just by projecting its purpose!

Focus

Al Ries, well-renowned management guru, says, “Focus is Revolutionary. It goes against conventional thinking although it is extremely simple”. At the end of the day, it’s the focus of your company that matters. Google has a focus. The focus is Information. To narrow it down further, the focus is to provide accurate information in the least time possible and as accurately as possible. Google follows its revenue generation model and seeks its feasibility in newer pursuits that it ventures into. The Google Ad network gets greater exposure with its increasing partnership with external publishers (websites), so also its own pursuits - like Gmail. The focus remains the same here, in terms of generating revenue for its ever growing passion to provide information. If you have a focus in your business, you know what you want from a particular resource and you can chalk down a plan for an expanding business and yet retain its focus.

Company Culture

Employee Stock Options, Free Meals, 20% Work time for something you are passionate about. To work in an organization like this is like a dream come true. It not only suffices the basic needs of the employee, but also gives him the time to explore with his own ideas! In fact, this very thing has helped Google gain more attention in the media. The culture at Google has followed the founders’ philosophy. They wanted Google to be the best place to work at. There is a lot that once can learn from Google’s Human Resource Management practices - including placing strategic locations for placing food and refreshments!

Better yourself before the Competition beats you

Competitive Benchmarking as a management practice of the traditional business. In this information age, you can not stay at the top for long with cut-throat competition. Google states that it does not have competition. The statement implies that they work as per the needs of the user. They improvisation of products at Google gain more value by adding more features as per user feedback. The ‘beta’ version of most of its products are less for the purpose of measuring the performance of the product and more so for improvising the product as per user feedback. You can be the best in the industry if you listen to the end user rather than the competition. Improve your products even when you are at the top, before the competition pulls you down with something better for the consumer.

Think Big

To put it simply, Google is doing has brought a revolution in this Internet Age not only for users but also for businesses across the world. The very reason why the Google Phenomenon is so hyped up is because it has changed the way people use the internet. When you think of it, this revolution started as a University project by two Stanford students! Thinking big and achieving it are two different things. But initially, it all starts with a thought doesn’t it? So, think big, think something revolutionary. You ought to make money, if you can change the habits of people for using your products. People don’t search for information now-a-days on the internet, they simply Google it!

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dhaval | Everything about google, Google Business, Google Business Strategy, Google Phenomenon, Google Revenues, Google search engine, Google success, Larry Page, Learn from Google, Sergey Brin, Work at Google | Comments (0)

Ten things you can learn from Google’s success - Part I

March 5, 2007 – 8:10 am


Turning an idea into a business

Ideas are like sparks -they fly off in thin air. The challenge would be to convert the idea into a full-fledged project and commercializing it into a revenue generating business. When Google started off, they had an idea - one to make it easier for an internet surfer to find precise information in the least possible time. Until the Search engine had a lot many users, the company didn’t know how it was going to generate the revenue to earn profits. Let alone profits, there was no business model in place to recover the costs! The idea struck to display advertisements next to search results. Google-owned sites that display ads generated revenues of $1.63 billion, or 60% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2006. Additionally, its partner sites which also display Google Ads generated 39% of its total revenue - $1.04 billion. You may have an amazing idea to change the world or to serve a consumer gap, but where is the money? That’s the million dollar question to ask.

Superior Technology - Quality matters

Google as a brand wasn’t built over a million dollar advertising budget. On the contrary, they did not advertise at all for their products & services. The fact is that Google is superior. When they ventured into the Herculean task of downloading the entire internet and making the information available via a search engine query, they wanted it to be precise, easy-to-find and return exactly the information that a human would look for. No. They weren’t pioneers. There were other search engine technologies at that time, but they were simply not that good with the results they got. If you are venturing into a business - quality matters.

Having things your own way

As a startup, Google had a major advantage - control over the business along with the required seed capital. Most businesses lose their liberty to venture capitalists. The control and focus of your business at its early stages is as important as the funds that the business needs at that time. Larry and Sergey, as founders cracked a winning deal with two of the most renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist firms. They had the advantage of having things their own way when it came to decision making since they didn’t hire a CEO for long, thus, allowing the founders of the company to stick to their idea of commercializing the technology. As a startup, by getting to have your own way with the business itself gives you an edge.

Word of Mouth publicity

Marketing Guru, Philip Kotler gives reference to a study while emphasizing the effectives of Word of Mouth marketing for a product. More than 60% of the consumers in the study agreed that they made the purchase because one of their close relatives or friends had had a positive experience with the product. Google has never ventured into full-fledged mass media advertising of its search engine technology. For that matter, even the latest products are first tested by opinion leaders and then brought to the public through viral marketing tactics where a satisfied user invites another to use the service. Harnessing the power of word of mouth is indeed challenging considering the fact that tracing its success is a difficult task. In the internet age, this too is not a problem though. Most companies fall prey to extravagant marketing budgets for mass media publicity with a marginal ROI. Why not interact with the consumer directly? Get your product/service tested and improvise it and let word of mouth marketing handle the rest.


Nurturing Innovation

Innovation sounds good in management books. Practically speaking, it loses its luster when the innovative idea starts to become a hindrance in the organization’s focus. Google introduced a policy where an employee could spend 20% of his/her work time on his own ideas. Although, it sounded bizarre initially to traditional efficiency-hungry managers, it proved productive indeed. Some of the best products by Google came from the minds of its employees themselves - Google News, Orkut (an ever-growing online community) and many more. This was possible through nurturing of the project in its nascent stages by the founders. As the top management and decision makers of the organization, Sergey and Larry spent time looking at innovative products that could help them achieve their goal - Make information available to users. Unlike many bureaucratic procedures that would hinder innovation in many organizations, it didn’t take a lot of time for a project to get recognized as a fruitful one and gain funding by Google. As a business, the goal is not just in making profits, but also to innovate continuously in your field of expertise. Do you have a pet project? Are you up to date with the latest technologies that can help your business’s future? In this age, it’s not hard to get beaten up by competition because an innovative idea struck before you know what’s happening! The message is clear - Innovate and make it work for your business.

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dhaval | Everything about google, Google Business, Google Business Strategy, Google Phenomenon, Google Revenues, Google search engine, Google success, Larry Page, Learn from Google, Sergey Brin, Work at Google | Comments (0)

Understanding the Online Shopper

February 26, 2007 – 1:58 pm


One can literally live off the internet. A couple of years back I had seen on BBC, an experiment conducted where they observed 5 people, who lived in a (furnished with all the facilities) room dressed in bathrobes, laptops, an internet connection and a credit card. A very successful experiment which proved that you just don’t need to go out there in the market physically to purchase the product; as a consumer online you can order anything from DVDs to books, for that matter even your basic needs - food,clothing and shelter (you can book hotel rooms online).

Online shopping is now a commonplace phenomenon. What’s an even more interesting phenomenon is how online shoppers go about making a purchase for the product.

E-bay is the third most attractive site in the US after Yahoo! (first) and Google (second). Click
here to read these stats in detail. Serious shoppers frequent websites looking for the best deals at E-bay, Amazon and other such shopping portals. Some of the factors that an online shopper would consider while buying from any of these shopping sites are:

  • Price of the product - looking for discounts, rebates, promos, etc.
  • Seller’s rating (E-bay/Amazon) - how genuine is the seller and whether a lot of shoppers have bought from him
  • Payment options - Credit Card, Paypal and other (online) Payment Gateway options
  • Shipping charges - See if there’s a deal where shipping charges are waived off
  • And most of all, features of the Product and if they really do mean what they are claimed as by the seller.
  • This is followed by a thorough research of the Product’s opinion/views/reviews/first-hand experience of satisfied OR (in many cases) unsatisfied customers.

Of course he’s going through the product’s website too.

For example, if he wants to buy a Sony Cybershot Camera, he will also check out the product’s page on the official Sony website.

Realizing the biased/neutral opinion of the promoters (the product’s manufacturer and seller), he won’t rest until he gets a first-hand opinion of a user. Therefore, the online shopper is extremely cautious. He has, at his finger tips not just praises about the product and flashy promotions with the best bargains, but even the critique’s point of view of the product. In fact, information about the product in the form of reviews, previews (in case of soon-to-be-launched products), opinions and user ratings forms the basis of the prospective shopper’s decision to purchase.

So important are these opinions and user ratings that there are websites dedicated just to that.

For example, there is http://mobileburn.com/ which is dedicated to mobile phone news and reviews and http://www.dpreview.com/ which even has forums categorized by the make of the camera. Pre-launch reviews of electronic products by test experts test the products’ endurance levels, the user friendliness of the product and even check the reality of the claims made by the promoters.

Further on, this detailed research of the product becomes a two-way dialog between the online shopper and product users etc. This is discussed at forums, blogs (dedicated to that product segment) and online communities.

For example, a Digital Camera required for Landscape Photography would be discussed not only at a forum dedicated to troubleshooting of digital cameras but also in an online community of Landscape photographers.

Although there are other online ‘window’ shoppers who may not be interested in serious purchases, let us just consider the serious online shopper who is making up his mind to purchase a product…

  • How can you, as a seller help him make this decision?
  • Do you help him in understanding the features of your product?
  • Are there any satisfied customers whose testimonials can be made available?
  • Is there are a forum on your website which allows customers to discuss the product?
  • Are you solving queries of that product through active forum participation?

There’s a lot that you can do throughout this process of online purchase to help the customer understand the product and help yourself with successful sales!

Go ahead - Understand their needs, clarify their doubts and help them make an informed decision. This will surely add more value to that irresistible bargain that you are offering. Moreover, this is great PR for your brand in the long run.

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dhaval | internet business, internet shopping, online, online business, shopper | Comments (0)

Top 5 Reasons why you should NOT have a website

February 19, 2007 – 12:26 pm

It’s easy to decide upon having a website for your organization. Especially when you know that it hardly costs around $10 or less to register your name on the internet and nominal monthly charges which form less than 1% of your company overheads to get your site up and running on the web. So, why are you setting up your website anyway? What is the purpose? and How does it actually align with your business goals? These are the difficult questions that bog you down and make you think. Let’s look at the top 5 reasons why you should not have a website

1) To show up in Google search results

It’s important to understand the role of Google in relation to your website and its purpose. You have heard that 9 out of 10 web search queries are made on Google and hence your website should show up there. That logically does make sense. That really doesn’t mean that you start making sales and fetch thousands of leads. Unless your web design is good enough and you have a method to create a database of those visiting your websites. Moreover, getting traffic to your website from search engines is not the objective - at the end of the day it’s all about sales for your company. So what’s even more significant is to convert that site visitor into a satisfied customer (more importantly a sale for your company). For the same, you need . What are you going to do for that? Have visitors to fill feedback forms/guest-books; allow them to sign up for your newsletter; let them subscribe to your product updates via RSS feeds. At the end of the day, you don’t want your site visitor to forget your company, do you?

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

  • How good will be the design of your website (in terms of compatibility with browsers, intuitive layout and information - content) if you are expecting traffic from all across the world?
  • Do you have a process by which you will be recording lead data for your website visitors?
  • Are you expecting immediate sales or just trade inquiries?
  • To put it all in a nutshell, how are you going to convert that search engine traffic into leads and finally sales for your company?

2) To multiply sales by capturing the global audience

If you are starting a website with a shoe string budget, it is kind of too optimistic of you to think that you are creating a global presence. Just because you registered yourcompanyname.com and put up a few colorful pages won’t bring people from around the world to your website. There’s a lot that goes into pulling visitors to your website - it is somewhat similar to setting up a shop in your neighborhood. The difference is that you have unlimited means to promote your website across online avenues unlike distributing flyers of your shop around the neighborhood. The best part about the internet is its reach. You can tap this global audience in thousands of ways, a percentage of which will become your sales. Optimize your website to show up in the search engine results; start a blog relevant to your website; promote your website using offline means of communication; e-mail marketing through e-zines…the means to marketing your business online is endless.

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

  • What is it that you are going to do to market your website (more importantly your business) to pull more visitors?
  • To appeal to the global audience, what are the different methods that you will use to attract customers that will ultimately become your sales?
  • What is the percentage estimate of your website visitors which can convert to sales for your company? Have you calculated the approximate numbers?

3) Because your competitor also has one

I would like to emphasize on the purpose of your company website again. It is somewhat naive to create an online presence ‘just because’ your competition has one. One of the greatest pitfalls of doing so is that most website owners tend to imitate the web design, look, and layout of the competitor’s website. This often is clubbed with inappropriate content which is irrelevant to the company: often a mission statement or long-term goals of the organization scripted on-the-fly at the time of publishing of the website. Think of it this way - you have a company with its own Unique Selling Proposition; this USP requires to be projected in a unique way on your website. One classic website that illustrates my point is: http://www.apple.com. When you go to their site, it shows that its a website by Apple - the color combination, the content font-type, the tabs, intuitive link structure and the product listing menu.

Get answers for the following before you make this your reason to have a website:

  • How are you going to beat your Competitor with your website?
  • How will you project your Company USP in terms of content and design?
  • and again, what’s the purpose of your website?

4) To let my customers reach me via the internet

Customers want to reach you via e-mail. They can easily get your e-mail address from your business card. Like I mentioned in reason no. 2, there’s a lot that can be done to pull customers to your website. Don’t just make your website easily search able on the internet, pull in more leads for your business by allowing them to subscribe to your newsletters. Syndicate your content to partner websites. Blog in your industry domain. There’s a lot that you can do.

  • Don’t just let your customer reach you. Think how you can reach them via the power of the internet?

5) Because it’s a low cost Investment

This is the most bizarre reason to have a website for your company! With almost every company having a website, it’s not a competitive advantage to HAVE one. You get this advantage only when you have a ‘good’ website - a good design, a good marketing strategy, and good content. This isn’t a low cost investment. Most companies set an annual budget separately for these online needs.

  • What’s your website budget?
  • What percentage of your marketing would be online?
  • Calculate your ROI.

What I love about the internet is the amazing ROI. It may not be an economical affair to get a classy, globally appealing website, but the ROI on that investment is so large (if leveraged) that it can beat your competitor’s local marketing road-show!

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dhaval | Search Engine Marketing, internet business, online business, small business website, website, website design | Comments (0)

The Google Phenomenon

February 13, 2007 – 11:43 pm

Allow me to begin this blog by introducing you to its very purpose of existence :D. This is an extension to one of my projects at Web-Walk. The idea is simple really. I want to write something related to the Web every week here. This maybe under subject areas of my personal interests on the web, business and/or even some news stories related to the web/technology. These will be scattered amongst explanations/articles on how the internet works and how you can make the best of it.

To begin with, I would like to write about one of the biggest phenomenon on the internet - Google! I’m currently reading The Google Story by David Vise. It’s pretty interesting and describes how the company grew as an organization to change the world.Although it boasts a little too much about how Google does no Evil (I have my apprehensions about that).

Google Google - Everywhere!

The Google Hype!

Google is just hyped up. Or is it? When these guys started off Google as their university project, the idea of downloading the entire internet seemed bizarre! With the help from a couple of Venture Capitalist companies in the Silicon Valley and superior search engine technology that would let users find exactly what they want, they started off the search engine on their website in 1998. The list of things that they have forayed into since then is endless. It’s interesting to know how Larry Page and Sergey Brin raised the money for the company and still retained control over its growth strategy - sticking to their motto - ‘Don’t be Evil’ and encouraging innovations for revolutionizing the world.

Flash: Now and in the future Google and the Internet: hyped!

Google – Advertise your Business to the world

Google, being the most widely used Search Engine (currently having almost a 50% market share in USA) not only in USA, but across the world, provides a platform for advertisers to expose
their brand to millions of users who are searching for a similar product by displaying text-only
ads next to their search results. Essentially, the essence lies in the assumption that the advertiser reaches his/her target audience who is at that time looking precisely for such a product/service while inputting a search query for the same at Google.

Google Text Ads on a publisher’s website

This is how it works -
1. Google Adwords - Allowing advertisers to design their text ads and publishing them across the entire Google Network – the Google Search Results; other websites that are coded to display Google Ads (Google Adsense). Google earns revenue for every click on that advertisement from the advertiser.

2. Google Adsense – Allowing website owners/bloggers (publishers on the internet) lease out their website space to Google Adwords clients (advertisers). Google pays the publisher a part of the profit for every click on the ads.

Link: How much does Google Earn?

Google and Click Fraud

Supposedly, Google and its advertisers suffer losses from fake-clicks. Precisely speaking, it means exactly that! You start a website. Put up content. Relevant Advertisements get displayed automatically on your site. You get people to click on the ads for a cost and earn for the clicks as an Adsense publisher! Amazing isn’t it? Not really, Search Engine Technology has advanced to quite an extent now; although, I’m sure Google didn’t see that coming.

Wiki Link: Click Fraud

Working at Google

Google is popular for its work culture. The chef Charlie Ayers, once a small-time chef for a band was interviewed and accepted at Google after 35 rejected candidates! A lot of credit for the delicious free food at Google goes to this guy. The best part about working at Google (at least for me) is free meals. Although, the idea of 20% work time for personal ideas and projects is appealing to most engineers. In fact, one of the most widely used news websites – Google News was developed by a Googler in his 20% work time. There’s an interesting video on that.

Your workstation at Google!

Video: Want to work at Google? Watch this video

I think that’s it for my first post here. I want to write more about Google; although, I see no end to it and I know that I will come back writing about it after a few posts again. Regardless of the hype, there are a lot of developments which just can’t be ignored – whether you are a casual net surfer or engaged in a business!

More on Google:

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dhaval | Everything about google, Google, Google Adsense, Google Adwords, Google Phenomenon, Google search engine, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Work at Google | Comments (0)