COVID Times Marketing - Who are selling and buying

Travel and Hospitality Industry are the worst hit. Many travel agencies have closed their operations indefinetily, because revenue generation has hit the bottom line. Travel industry which normally operates at their peak in Sepetember-March months every year looks frozen out this year with few signs of thawing though August is half past.Indian travel industry starts their marketing effort from June-July normally, but this year bearing a COVID impact there is very little action.

Some Positive signs of galavanizing this industry into action once again are:

• Religious Tourism are showing the signs of opening up again. Many temples and shrines inviting tourists. People of Indian origin who had postponed their India visit earlier can't wait more beause it is mostly the domain of the older generation.
• Domestic tours will start again, it may help travel agencies survive.
• International tourism though looks a far off gamble, you may still target them because 3-4 months lead time is considered normal.
• Strict adherence to Social Distancing, Sanitization and Safety assurance are the buzzwords. People want to come out again, but safety requirements has to be assured.
• Vaccines and Drugs claiming to cure the disease has added an impetus to confidence in people coming out.
• European Travel Industry has opened for european countries, it may spark off similar action in Asian Countries.

In a nutshell one may say though times are difficult one may adapt to the changing situation and can still earn by making some adjustments to their preferences and bend over backwards.

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7 Golden Rules for Google PPC Bootstrapping

Google PPC on Bootstrap is a challenging task, which can be rewarding too if your project succeeds. If you have too many projects and you don't know which ones to pursue and ones to drop it is better to bootstrap and let them prove by themselves which are profitable. I run few projects on minimal spent and have been successful in picking the right ones in the long run for more focus and calculate the right ROI and traction they will give to investments.

1. Keep the Budget as low as Rs500. Just enough to kick your ads.
2. Keep keywords limited to Highest probability Converting ones.
3. Quickly identify Keywords which doesn't convert through real stats. You will be surprised, How many keywords which relates well with business and attracts relevant traffic still are poor in terms of converting. Filter them out ASAP.
4. Keep the margin you earn through product or service as close to the Daily Budget as possible, so that even a single sale will give you break even
5. Everytime you get the second sale immediately add the revenue earned to the Google Account.
6. Let the Projects which could not earn for themselves die, the survivors you will find are burgeoning with profits for you.
7. Start experimenting and expanding the projects which have More than Rs1500, account balance. You will find the business is growing by leaps and bounds.

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How Internet changed the Fundamental Laws of Economics

There is a law in economics which you must have learnt in school days. Perhaps still being taught, why bank's rate for keeping your money with them can't be zero. The law is deduced from three kinds of motives why people would keep money with them rather than in bank and why incentives like interest are required to make them keep it in bank. The law formulated long back when internet was not even in the wildest of imagination among the best of world's economists. Internet made it possible, keeping money in banks won't limit its liquidity and thus nullified the motive ascribed for keeping cash for transactions, which actually is better if it remains in bank. This Law seems done for in the internet era, where it is now possible to reverse the motive and fearing reversal in rate of interests Banks will give you lower interests for Fds for longer duration. You can sense what is in store.

There is another law which every student of microeconomics, studies. It is called the Law of diminishing Marginal Utility. This Law says if I have two umbrellas the first one has greater utility than second one, which can work as a spare or for some other purposes which are of lesser significance than first one. So Marginal Utility of second one is lesser than first one and successively third, fourth etc will have diminishing successive marginal utility. There is an exception associated with this law and this is it is not applicable on a drunkard, who tends to enjoy every successive glass of wine more than the previous one. Just like a drunkard enjoys every successive drink more than the previous one, if you serve data about something of interest it seems to have similar impact. More data you share with your client More they demand! The greatest gift of internet based advertising for businesses is that it can generate great amount of data relevant to their business. You will find the impact of data sharing that you have generated is so great that it can effectively countervail the impact of law of diminishing utility. You can see it clearly in international Arms market, Saudi Arabia who already has state of the art Thaad missile defence system from USA, is going for S400 by Russia which is a similar product. Why? because both are dependent on Data fed to them which are different. Same is the case why India and many other countries have aircraft of so many makes, when they all promise to serve them the same. Answer lies in they have been marketed using trustworthy data which makes each of them unique. We are living in the age of abundance of Data, each of us generate and has appetite to consume. Let us drink in some data with our customers all the time.

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Tech Support from India: The Good and the Bad

Tech Support, as they prefer to call themselves, are call centers, mostly concentrated in the Nearest to Capital Region (NCR), Delhi, India. The major chunk of this pie are Noida & Gurgaon. There are many factors contributing to the mushrooming growth of this industry in this region.

First, they are the industrial hub of near to Delhi region, famous for excellent infrastructure, which are busy during daytime, but would otherwise remain idle at night but for these kind of Call Center industry who work during night. So, the kind of infrastructure they get is far superior to what they would get at the same cost during daytime.

Second, the region is full of well trained, highly skilled call center people, who are available at night for some decent extra income. Many of them have shifted full time into this industry.

Third, the resources both tangible and intangible become readily available at night, combined with the opportunity to present their services to the best paymasters of the world, the US people, who by nature’s design are about 7 to 12 hours behind in time zone, desperately seeking services of these kind. A perfect match of demand and supply!

What is Technical in Tech Support?

If this is a call center industry who are dab hand at registering the complaint of brand consumers and helping them services, reach out to them, what is technical in them, one may wonder. Actually, the bad part of this, very little! Most of the solutions offered are common sense application, which tech savvy people themselves, can fix easily.

No Doubt, there is a big need of professional help for these kind of daily tech nuisances, despite the apparent simplicity of the problems. Software issues even minor ones, can be quite handful and solution though simple may not be everybody’s cup of tea. However, very few of these so called tech-support companies, devote time and money into mastering these technical stuffs or hiring someone with such capabilities. So, only few of them fulfill what they promise. Rest of them are just champions of words and at best be described as con artists, who know how to pull a fast one, selling some fictitious service bundles.

More important, they gain the insight into what consumers are actually looking for, from their experience while actually working for some brands like HP, Dell, Microsoft etc. You can say, the expertise these companies bestow on their employees for serving their customers, are used in fooling their customers buy some fictitious bundles by their ex-employees or even existing ones!

Role of  Search Engines

Search engines are the first place where a person seeking the solution for his problem would go and type a search query. Here, the Search Engines, like Bing and Google connects a person in USA to the Call center in India and the rest is fate. Google, the most dominant search engine, provides most of the opportunity.

The Ugly

Google, till recently, used to provide dedicated support to this industry through some “Google Authorized” agency and some self proclaimed “Operations Partners” of Google who were also privileged to use google.com email ids. The free adwords voucher program of Google, run through its privileged partners, increased the number of players exponentially. Many new entrants knew the free route to enter this industry. It was an era when Google Adwords free vouchers used to arrive with a covering letter shamelessly suggesting all you have to do is to open a New account (errr… with New Business Address). It helped Google push the  CPC astronomically higher. There were other perks too into the bargain. I have witnessed an account which had the privilege to use trademarked term of brands they pretended. I was not buying into the client’s story, initially. However, I could myself see, just as claimed by the client, the ads first got disapproved and magically all of them termed approved the next day! My jaw dropped! 

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Who are Building Mousetraps, Nowadays !

Mousetraps are still in demand. You will always find them, in some corner of a weekly vegetable market. I myself purchased one, though it didn't work up to my expectation and later I bought a ratkill, a chemical pesticide, which worked perfectly. Mousetraps are replaced by chemicals now, and we tend to spend money on few of its alternatives when rats start giving us nightmares!

Mouse inside a household are menace. They pollute your food, make holes in clothes, bedsheet and tear apart some important paper documents. Nobody can live peacefully with them. They are not dull like cockroaches, but a very intelligent creature, who knows how to run away from you, steal your food and bite your clothes, papers and everything you love in the most inconspicuous manner. So, if they have entered inside your premise, you can't afford ignoring them. You will try to buy the best solution. This is what Demand, actually means!

I'll get you rid of mice menace

Mice are not those rodents alone. They appear in many forms before us, sometimes even as humans around us. People who face them in real life are as desperate seeking a solution, as I was a few days ago, trying to get rid of those real rats. Every Organization has a lot of rats inside. People are always searching for a better mousetrap! If you can promise, I will give you a better mousetrap, people are all ears to you. They will start following you. Just look at the great following of some Babas or religious leader promising peace and heaven after death. That is what the promise for a better mousetrap is. A Sales Pitch! People fall at their feet!! You can make such a promise. All of us can make such a promise and get paid! Identify the mice which are bothering your prospect and start selling your mousetrap to them. Claim that you have a better mousetrap, in your ads. If you are selling flowers on a website, you may conduct a research and write something like this in the caption, "From the data we collect from you guys, interesting facts emerged! x% of these flowers were sent by 20-25 aged people, 40% of them asked us to deliver on their marriage. Most Recommended by the website for those who love someone." I have given you an idea around which you have to create a trustworthy story. See How many of the visitors leave without purchasing. This is how you sell a mousetrap!

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Is Google's Vertical Search really a threat to online Directories?

What are Vertical/Specialized Search?

Those of you who haven't recently searched on Google for Hotels or tickets, may not be knowing, what this vertical search is. Google, has a while back launched services similar to many booking engines already available for such type of services.

These Booking engines, are already big clients of google, regularly availing adwords platform, for driving traffic on their portal. Some of them are not happy over this move by Google and have threatened lawsuit. Google, to mitigate the aftermath has listed some of these service providers, with great degree of prominence, prompting users to book their tickets through their site.

You should google on some such terms, like - Hotels in delhi- to know in depth, How it looks like!

Is the threat Real?

Is Google really trying to kill such booking engines, or, is it trying to play a longer game, which though now looks like a friendly approach towards, these Booking Services, might be a long term plan to eliminate them.

So, the fear is real, and maybe Google won't need them in future.

Value Addition or Just another Google' UI Experiment?

Let us postpone the possibilities of future, and concentrate on what it offers in terms of user experience to a searcher. After all, the person searching for something, needs to be convinced that the product or service is genuine. Let us think about it from that angle.

Google's SERP for these searches has been spammy for a long time. Google has inserted, map, local listing and a lot of nonsense, into SERP, for these terms.

Who doesn't know, what kind of crap Google's local listings are!

It is full of spams, with self written testimonials by businesses. Many businesses listed there often use others' brand names for stealing their queries. In a nutshell, it is not something which deserves such a high position in search result. It is bad for Good Businesses who lose customers to bad ones because of these listings, and also, for consumers who get cheated because of these fake listings, reviews and ratings which features with a lot of prominence in SERP. In the long run, they are harmful for Google too.

It is around Trust, not the Artificial Buzz

The listings which are really beneficial for users is not a very easy task to achieve. It is not the rave or rant of any xyz, that should feature with such a prominence, but, it is rather how much genuine they sound. So, actually it is not into How big the buzz around something is, rather how much real people are behind that buzz, that is important, which Google does not tell you. But, that is the greatest requirement of our time!

So, the future doesn't belong to the one, who features with prominence there.

The Future belongs to those who can prove, the testimonials, they are showing, no matter if they are fewer, are by the real people, whose only intention was to avail their services.

People are already exposed to a lot of social networks and they know, what are the comments they should trust and what they should ignore or suspect.

Coming back to Google's Specialized Search and similar online directories, If you can't help users take decisions, for which they will feel obliged to thank you, then you don't deserve to be where you are. Same goes with Google, if people start hating you after following your suggestions, then certainly, you will too lose their attention.

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Attracting B2B Queries through Adwords, for non B2C Advertisers

B2B are Suppliers, Wholesalers, Exporters, Importers... They have an entirely different need when it comes to advertising. An improper pitch may attract too many B2C queries which may be very irritating for businesses. Queries which are B2C are waste of resources both cost wise and also time wise. Here are some Best Practices.

1. Proper Search Traffic Segmentation through Keywords

   Google Adwords is an easy solution for those who want relevant traffic within a short span of time. Like any other Google adwords campaign, here too segmentation is the key. Proper segmentation is the key to Successful targeting. Just like real world situation where there are different marketplaces for Wholesalers & Retailers. In search marketing too there are different keywords you should be using for each of them. Whereas product specific queries like wallet, bags, watches etc, work well for B2C, they require supplier, wholesale, exporter... etc., as tails to generate B2B prospects.

2. B2B Specific Content Creation 

   There should be a clear cut pitch on the Landing Page about the B2B nature of the business. Don't talk about a specific product, talk about Product Catalog, Manufacturing Process, Business Partners etc. Thrust should be on showing Business Credentials & not mere Product Qualities. Content should provoke thinking about business profit, margin & other benefits of association, not merely Product discount gimmicks. 

3. B2B Specific Ads

   Writing Ads which clearly talks about B2B nature of business, like 50 pcs., min. order for leather wallet./ Become partner in toys sale/ Supermarket Supplier requires franchisee to expand reach./ Supermarket Supply quality for sale, Order Min. 50 pcs. / 20% off on Supermarket Quality Supply of Corp. Gift. Min. Order 50 pcs./ 20% less than NYC supermarket rate, 50 pcs min. etc. Just get creative with compelling needs of your prospects, whether it is price or quality.

4. B2B is Branding

   Good brands which has better presence across the channel attracts business people. Retailers love to buy in bulk goods which they can sell easily. Branding takes the pressure off from retailers. If you manufacture something which is known to a lot of people or you are looking like aggressive on that front people will love to send you B2B queries. Manufacturers, Suppliers.... should not only look for B2B partners, they should also create awareness about their products through different means. Here adwords may prove expensive for starters, but other means like Blogging, PR, Brand Display through Public Shows are must. Whenever you get some B2C queries through adwords, be generous to pass them to your partner or ask people to contact your reseller, instead of handling them yourself.

5. B2B Marketing is Idea Marketing

   Generate an idea to create demand at the bottom level. You can get a Big Order from a Supermarket if people start demanding it. Advertise on B2C queries, send few toys, bags ... of your brand and send them a voucher asking them to buy from a Retailer and avail x% discount. Probably they will use it themselves or pass it to some friend or relative, but when they start demanding it in market, they will surely demand it from you !

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Freedom of Speech, Expression on Internet- Who will guarantee?

Freedom of speech is the fundamental right of every individual in any democratic country. People across the globe have fought for it for ages and then only they earned it. People behind the French Revolution of medieval era  believed everybody should have freedom of speech, even if they are against their views. Every state on earth who flaunts democratic values guarantees this, at least in theory.

People living in different corners of the world have believed that freedom of speech have existed in the democratic nation they belong to.

People could talk freely in street, address a meeting and write something in a newspaper and any medium they chose. So, it led them to believe that they are the part of a society that honors this freedom.

In every media of expression that existed before internet there was a period of latency, which allowed the party targeted through this to adjust and reciprocate after a reasonable gap, or in some cases even negotiate before the cat goes out of the bag.

However, on internet this latency period does not exist and things go viral in real time.

Hence, the hypocrisy which was always there in the system of governance has got exposed and their hypocrisy get revealed in the action they take against people.

Palaghat incidence near Mumbai, where two girls were arrested for a facebook update is an important indication.

It is not that it was not into existence before. the hypocrisy was always there. The people who expressed faced it. Only difference is that people who express their views through public channel were few but now they have become too many.

So, what was said on a random meeting in street, now gets posted on a social media channel like, facebook, twitter or Google Plus, and they invite real time action. The absence of latency provokes some people and they are just ready to break the law and this fundamental foundation of democracy.

The moot question is whether common people on earth would be able to enjoy this freedom in future, if it finds resistance from the top.

Common people who are walking in the street did not and should not hesitate in expressing what he or she feels whether in real life or on internet. But, the danger is that a piece of writing on internet may land him into a jail, and later on the authorities may shrug their shoulders blaming misinterpretation by executing personnel. They don’t care the grieved person has got famous in a way they never wanted to be. Some may even face dangerous repercussion afterwards. In some developing countries people may even lose the case just because they could not hire a good lawyer. This might mean people would be scared of expressing themselves on internet. This is not something for which people have fought for in different parts of the world for a very long time.

I don’t know if any insurance company offers a policy which offers indemnity against such a situation, but I think people may create a general fund for such kind of people, who would need it to get justice from their state. Either people themselves or the website should take initiative in this direction. People debate a lot on kind of law to prevent the misuse of law. However, it is rarely the law which is at fault! The fault lies with the people executing it and the very nature of the internet media which exposes the hypocrisy of states which they have actually preserved through ages.

People won’t need law alone to fight against infringement on their fundamental rights, they would also need some kind of financial support to fight the injustice, properly, and feel secure that some powerful person may not be able to show the legal muscle against him. More than the laws securing your freedom, you need to feel free, because only then you can express freely. Suppression of this freedom is dangerous for healthy progress of mankind and all efforts should be made to secure this freedom.

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Retail Industry: The Rise of Indian Online Retail Shops

A decade ago, Indians would browse through portals like Amazon or ebay to sneak peek what people worldwide are buying and what they should pay for something in their nearby retail shop. 

Shipping costs were higher & ordering through Indian websites were risky because reputation of Indian portals were not very good.

Time changed ending an era of web spam and fraudulence. Good reputation became the bottom-line of any web related business and abundance of reviews, feedbacks and forums changed every rule of this game. Suddenly people started feeling secure shopping online! What a big change! The magic of internet- You just don’t notice the 180 degree difference through which it rotates you, till you genuinely start analyzing, after a while, the changes and the agents of change. True for individuals and societies at large, alike.

Flipkart, Cromaretail, Infibeam… are the places where I feel transaction is secure, products are genuine and pricing is the best. Probably you too feel the same. Very likely people near you are also of the similar opinion. Few years back, perception was just the opposite. A major barrier crushed, through remarkable services and transparent feedback system. Thanks to the parallel development of social networking platform, which makes experience sharing a viral phenomenon. Cheaters were obliterated and good ones started gaining ground.

Retail industry thrives on variety and volumes of the inventory. 

Online retail is a slightly different game with volume being a non playing factor, because retailer don’t need to keep the inventory with themselves, they can be shipped directly from manufacturer/supplier’s warehouse, just in time, as opposed to the nearby retailer who has to maintain the volumes of each variety to serve them in real time. If online retail goes on growing, it might change the buying behavior in its favor for good. If, much likely internet tablet explosion, becomes a reality the landscape may change completely.

Probably this may go to the extent of online booking and scheduling the morning milk online and the vendor dropping you the bag everyday, because number of orders in your locality would make this economically viable. Let us postpone this for a while till we start seeing some major signs of it, because to some of you it might sound like a fiction. However, internet has proven it again and again that it may behave stranger than fictions.

There has been uproar on foreign direct investment in retail sector in India. A big apprehension against FDI in retail is that it might kill unorganized retail sector in India. However, the future seems to be of online stores killing them more likely rather than a WalMart or J C Penny chain. Whether you welcome FDI in retail or not, a major change in retail sector landscape is going to take place, where each player shall have to reposition themselves. It is going to be an overhaul of the entire value chain system, which means it is going to be a clash of retailing models and not just Indian vs. foreign retailers. 

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Conversion Mystery- Clues to get the insight into clueless

Chemists working in a lab knows there are many complex reactions which cannot even be balanced and fully understood but they can predict the speed rate of the reaction by knowing the single slowest part of it. This way they can even speed up the process and slow it down by simply applying a suitable catalyst.

Same is true with an assembly line producing car, bicycle or any other engineering good. The rate of producing the outcome is independent of the complexity of the processes involved. It only depends on the slowest of them all. If you can figure out the slowest process you can control the speed of the outcome.

The principle and its application goes far beyond manufacturing the chemicals in a lab or goods in a manufacturing plant. If a panel of judges not knowing each other are giving marks for a performing contestant. A single, the most sensitive one, who uses maximum variation on scale would be deciding the outcome of the whole event, provided we assume others are behaving  predictably or you may say they choose what you and most would choose and ignore what you and most would ignore !!

On the web we have many tools to identify which part of the funnel is slowest to pass through the conversion stage, and we have many tailor-made solutions for them too. Google analytics does a decent job figuring them out and any person having report in his hand gets creative enough to think of the probable solutions. Not a tough job!! Through some hits and trials and playing around with presentation people do improve upon some parts of the abandonment phases in the funnel.

However, the improvement in the eyes of cruel judges who holds the key to winning the war on the internet is not an easy task. They see what you can’t see. They figure out what you can’t figure out. They are the people who choose others over you. They are the people who leave you for something better than you. They are the people who goes to your competitor. You should look appealing to the most cruelest of them all. The most abnormal ones, the most weirdest of them all. Make these people speak about your site, through all around feedback. You won’t get clue about them from any analytics tool on this earth. It has something to do with feedback gathering mechanism.

Feedback is more important than routinely analyzing stats about traffic and conversion. Create occasions to make people speak. Get yourself into a ring with your competitor and ask people to rate. Hear the harshest voice from all around. If you want extraordinary success, you need to think beyond what you yourself and people like you think.

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5 Tips for instant improvement of a Google Adwords Campaign!

Many features within an adwords account are often ignored, or are not configured optimally. Using them may bring great results almost instantly.

1. Use of Automated Keyword Rules

Use filters to enhance bidding at top positions. You may apply rules to attain a better position, whenever your ad falls below certain position. It is very helpful in campaigns where sighting your ads at top position matters. It is must have for packers & movers, florists, gifts and other websites where people tend to fall in love at first sight.

2. Use of Call Extension

This is the best ad extension which should be used! You should enable it within ad extensions tab, by entering your telephone number. Whenever a visitor clicks your ad on a mobile interface, she can connect with you instantly. It should be enabled for any kind of campaign.

3. Use of Social Extension

If your plus one count is above 100, it reduces your CPC. Of course there is a threshold and if your ad is running, you should not miss this opportunity. it also helps you hold your visitor on Google plus, whom you can pitch later on. A must have extension.

4. Video Ads

Very few people really knows the magic. Ads on youtube are cheaper than what you may think. Just highlight your URL in the ad and let visitors search for your website. Great for traffic at very low cost.

5. Use of Remarketing

Just start collecting the number of people who abondanoned your site through the purchase funnel. You can pitch them differently, using a different combination of landing page and ads. Each time they visit a site of their choice, your custom ad made for them only start showing. You can show them new offers, and target them through a different landing page too. Something great for Real Estate business!

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“Rich Media Rocks 2012” by Microsoft in Delhi, India

Rich Media ads or interactive ads, which after the advent of  “Permission Marketing” theories, and Google’s hyper emphasis on unobtrusive advertisement had made it   a bad word for content on internet. A simple, clean and clear-cut presentation became recipe of acceptance for visitors, publishers and advertising platform providers. A good presentation on a page should meet all the three goals: the goal of the visitor , the goal of the publisher and the goal of the advertiser. A publisher should neither provide content solely for Visitors, who are selfish enough to leave the moment their goal is met, nor for the advertisers alone who would benefit mostly from interruption and turn the visitors off. Somebody has aptly described a path between Permission and Interruption as Intermission, which provides a refreshing break which is beneficial for all. So, rich media has actually room in the sphere of Good User experience. Microsoft sponsored conference on March, 1st, 2012 was to spread this sort of awareness among Marketers and Advertisers.

Nivelle Taraporewalla, the opener, claimed he was under-prepared and offered some unquestionable insights. His observation that web has moved beyond desktops to many new devices and applications of which TV too would become a part of it, raised no questions. A country Director of a company like Microsoft seldom offers views which even remotely touches the borderline of debatable topics. Should they drop a hint and people start reading between the lines. So, his presentation was more to do with his position rather than his unpreparedness.

Pushkar Sane, was the next speaker . His view on why you shouldn’t interrupt Facebook friends, with blunt marketing pitches, sounded convincing. He coined “Friends or Facends!” to demonstrate how relationship may sour because of insensivity, which touched the nerve of the audience. He elaborated it with many examples, how taking things for granted, may harm you in the long run. I overheard many people praising him during lunch time. I myself acknowledge such speakers leave everlasting impression on audience.

Trevor Yeats talked about Microsoft products as was expected of him. His presentation was very well prepared and appeared flawless. People asked him many questions and it appeared like the audience had warmed up by then and a momentum was set in. I asked him, why Microsoft sells its Banner ads through direct sales unlike Google which anybody can target through auction bid, from right inside the adwords dashboard. He answered, that it has something to do with Google’s focus on Search and Microsoft’s on Portals, though its a notable point. 

Farshad Family shared his insights on web tracking and how facebook cookies and other related means are used by Neilson’s tracking software to successfully predict the demographics and consumer behavior. He was demonstrating how this software is capable of improving the targeting of ads and how they boost the ROI. It was an interesting session.

After break John Paul Stift and Andrew Young, both from Microsoft presented useful insights, on purchase behavior, attracting through creating experience, converting interest into action and fostering long lasting advocacy. One of them, I don’t remember exactly, claimed a very high level of CTR through rich media engagement.

Oded Lida Greiss shared his own experiences and success with Rich media campaigns. He impressed everyone with his case study on trappers, whose campaign he himself had created. He shared how this campaign turned viral and drove sales and traffic astronomically. A large part of his presentation, the visuals, were non-english. People talked to him about cost of such campaigns and cost effectiveness, because they appeared to be very unique, a kind of their own. He replied, such costs are “redundant” compared to the cost incurred on purchase of the ad slot itself. A diplomatic sort of answer!

After that there was a lucky draw of visiting cards for Xbox 360. I had given them my name written on a piece of paper. When they picked one, it was a Lucky Piece of paper, but it was announced that it had the name of a Microsoft Employee (undisclosed) on it and hence disqualified. They announced another winner. Well, I had given them my name on a piece of paper and it appears the wise people of Microsoft thought, its uniqueness must be diluted by introducing more “piece of papers”. I suspect it must be the mind of Trevor Yeats, who had announced that “People are very enthusiastic about the Lucky Draw”, soon after I gave my “piece of paper” at the reception. Anyway, I just wanted to participate, and am happy I did.

(P.S-----> I have relied upon my own note and memory on what the above mentioned people have said. I checked for videos and other sources, which were not available at the time. Many things may not be accurate or may even have quotation shift error . Fans and followers of them need to take no offence, I would be glad to correct myself. I was the first to publish it, and there are many resources available now on the web. Some of the speakers are publishing it on their own too. )

Also See:
Google Engage Partner Meet Up & Google Adwords Display ...

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Should you have Different gates for Cats and Kittens?

An old debate! Sir Isaac Newton, the great scientist and probably greatest of his time, had two cat holes in the door of his laboratory. One for the Big cat and other a small one for the kittens.

People have debated, why the simple fact that one big hole is comfortable enough for both Big and small ones didn’t strike the mind of the great scientist. I have read all kind of arguments related to this. Was it a foolish decision or was he knowing something more than what an ordinary smart person may think?

Let us first think what the two holes would do. A big one is good enough for both the big cat and small one, but the bigger can’t jump through small one. Thus, the smaller one gives the kitten opportunity to jump through at the same time the big boss is taking his majestic leap through the bigger one.

If you remove the smaller hole, the kittens will just be queuing behind the Big cat for entering and leaving. They would be more happy and playful with the smaller hole adjacent to the big one.

We deal with cats and kittens in our daily life and both demands, and you should know deserve, equal respect from us. Our clients are not equal, our businesses deal with variety of people and our abilities in making them playful and happy make us succeed. We should have a special gateway for people to enter our life without them being bullied by big cats, leaping through the door.

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Online Encyclopedias: Wikipedia Still Rules!

An encyclopedia is must for first hand information on anything we want to learn. We frequently come across various terms and concepts which we are not familiar with and then try to get some information about it.

For over a century people have relied upon Britannica Encyclopedia, which for many is still the Gold standard in this field. However, the ease of search on internet has spoilt our habit and we have sacrificed accuracy of knowledge in favor of what satisfy us fast and easily.

To fulfill this need  of fast and free content on the internet were born several online versions of encyclopedia. First one which I could trace was MSN Encarta, which though was not free, effectively, took the attention off from Britannica Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta closed completely in 2009.

First genuine attempt to create truly free encyclopedia on the web came in the form of Nupedia, which reincarnated as Wikipedia in 2001. This open source, free to read and edit encyclopedia has more or less  established itself as a good resource and despite its inherent limitations it just can’t be ignored.

However, Wikipedia has been criticized for its inaccuracies, bureaucracy , polluting the web with anonymous false facts, providing platform for criminals to publish illegal misinformation, and for what people have termed it –“The Single Most Dangerous Website on the Internet”.

To fix its inaccuracies and inherent problems with wikipedia, its co-founder Larry Sanger, started Citizendium. Citizendium aims for the articles to reach an approved status, accorded by its editorial team. They are also known for verifying the actual credentials of the editors. However, it has been learnt that it is more bureaucratic and reportedly the environment there is more uncivil than wikipedia. Some users have even complained that Sanger himself is the most abusive person there. As a result it could not grow as per expectations and with time number of users have drastically come down. It has also been learnt that it has been into financial crisis too.

If you want a very high standard of reliable content, then Scholarpedia may be the right option for you. This encyclopedia can be edited only by people with proven credentials. You shall have to apply for becoming an editor there and you would be approved to edit the topics which they consider you fit for. Given its structure, its growth is very limited and slow, and doesn’t offer you content on all kind of topics.

The most serious competitor of Wikipedia ever was and possibly is to the present day is, Google’s Knol. Although, it had been perceived as Wikipedia Killer initially, there is no immediate threat to wikipedia from this. Google has done little for this project except for allocating a server and bunch of softwares. The project suffers critically from Google’s indifferent attitude and has been frustrating enough to compel its best contributors to leave the project. Shortly few months before there were rumors about Google going to shut down this program. Despite all speculations Google’s Knol is still there, though they are not paying any attention to enforce the terms of services on users there because of alleged lack of interest and human resources from Google. As a result of which it has become spammers’ paradise.

Google Knol’s structure provided some definite edge over wikipedia and other similar sites. It has no bureaucracy and you can write alone or in team. Some of the knol members had formed Knol Publishing Guild, which promoted a value system among knol writers. To display its badge, one needed to have got approved after writing a bio knol and shown some degree of proficiency on the subject. It is all history now. After Google itself donated to Wikipedia recently, users have taken it as a sign of disinterest from the side of Google. Several knol writers have started feeling that Google is slowly killing this project. So, unless Google shows some major sign of revamping the system, it is taken as- dying a slow death.

Apart from Citizendium and Google Knol, no encyclopedia or anything like that has wikipedia like ambition. Though it is too early to write off either Knol or Citizendium, it looks less likely that they would be competing with Wikipedia in near future.

P.S.----> Google to Shut Down Knol, officially reported on 11/22/2011 01:40:00 PM.

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How Adwords has changed from 2006 to 2011

Google Adwords has changed a lot, since I started using it for marketing.

In 2006 everything was simple from interface to managing. Google kept on introducing new features and things became more complex thereafter. People were shy of targeting content network. I remember, clients used to tell specifically – No content targeting. Now, scenario has changed and people do want to see their sites on premium content listings. Those who were targeting content initially were very fortunate people. Lesser advertisers targeted it. Still lesser monitored them closely, and very few knew the real magic of this network. 

Now the scenario has changed completely with many advertisers monitoring it and in many segments there is nearly war for impressions. Publisher network too has gone smarter, they too monitor the result very closely and knows the optimal layout to make the battle fiercer.

Search Targeting too has evolved with idea of match types and adtext writing becoming more common than before. It is no more confined within the network of professionals, rather advertisers are highly familiar with the concept within their niche.

Keeping watch on their competitors is very common among advertisers. This is also because internet has now become the premier weapon in their marketing arsenal, which earlier used to be TV and print media. If you change your ad, response is visible in your competitors ad too. Finally, the advertising has become highly competitive and survival requires a lot of patience. 

Positioning yourself with respect to the cost effectiveness is highly challenging, and cost limits need to be sharply defined. When to be aggressive and when to become passive is the key to keep yourself living in the competitive market. Most advertisers who had made PPC, their sales channel are facing sharp decline in their ROI. Entry of bigger players who understands the importance of branding keeps them ahead of those who only calculates immediate sales.

Advertisers who can play bigger game and have long term goals are more likely to win this game rather than those who have limited short term goals. Better advertisers with better goals will eventually eliminate those with inferior goals. Goal setting was always the focus of adwords campaign management and it looks like it would always be. 

Earlier, cheapest click was considered to be the goal. we saw proliferation of bid management tools and techniques. This has become obsolete now. It gave way to conversion based strategy and bid based strategy became inferior. Now, conversion based strategy too has become obsolete, because conversion may not come immediately and concept of conversion needs refinement. If sales was your conversion consider abandoning it. Rather, focus on long term. Improving user interaction on your site might be a better idea. 

Start seeing sale as a function of engagement rather than something which comes instantaneously. Trying to improve this engagement is a better idea rather than just focusing on some immediate outcome. Those who have understood it are only likely to stay longer and those who cannot would surely make an exit now.

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Optimizing the Conversion Funnel

Landing Page is where a visitor lands after clicking an ad. She has certain assumptions, which she has made about you reading the adtext. If she cannot find what she expected, she may get turned off, or if she finds something more exciting than expectations, she takes a step forward . There are many moments of truths, from adtexts to landing page to thank you page. You must woo her at every stage in the funnel, asking her to wait, there is something more! The tesed and proven driving force in a funnel is the counter-intuitive nature of your presentation. If you promise a package for Rs7000/yr in your ad & she gets 2 years offer instead on landing page for the same amount, she is bound to get crazy for it! If your ad says, you deliver roses for Rs500, but on landing page you pomise, if she want to get it delivered second time, it is just for Rs300, she feels a compelling urge to order through your site. In this case people who order for the first time would increase more than who would order the second time, it is the hope which increases the sales. This was what you can achieve by suitably presenting your package in the funnel, revealing the Wow factor, in each step. However, this is not limited to presenting the offer alone. It is true with, very aspect of the web presentation. The site navigation, layout, colour and overall theme, everything contributes for better or worse. People conceive the package wholesome first and then they drill down. Not only what you say matters, but also the entire theme and ways of presenting it matters. Optimization is a two way process - 1) keep on identifying and adding what will bring delightment. 2) Keep on identifying and removing what will turn off your visitors. Both way you can gain. Fortunately there are tools to achieve this and most of them are free. You must track your conversions through conversion tracking, analyze them using Google Analytics, and experiment using Website Optimizer. Analytics lets you know the figures where you should improve & Website Optimizer lets you experiment with different versions of your page and hence choose the best one. Analyze the analytics data, and pick the tasks for improvement, most of the time, it is not the one magic big change you need that may turn the results but routinely doing several small changes which would change your story.

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Applying Dunbar's Number in Social Networking and Communication Management.

 

Dunbar's number is the theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom you can maintain stable social relationship at a given point of time. These are the relationships in which people not only knows each other but also can figure out how another person is related to each other.

 

Dunbar says this limit is directly proportional to the size of neocortex. For Human beings Dunbar's number is approximately 150.

 

Ever since Dunbar has hypothesized this number after observing many primates and past human societies, people have taken this number to be the ideal size of community.

 

You have only one neocortex in your brain and you cannot split it for several communities, i.e., between online and offline world. You can amass thousands of friends on facebook, twitter, linkedin, google… but won't they consume the processing power of your neocortex in your brain and you just can't refresh it on different network, nor can you divide it between online and offline world.

 

Your network of friends on social media and your friends who count among Dunbar's 150 are not the same. You can walk through a crowd of millions of people and also communicate with them, but they are not into your actual network! Here the processing power of your brain limits the actual size of your near and dear ones.

 

People have talked about developing weak ties to beat the limit of Dunbar's number. But, does it actually beat it? Had it been really true, Dunbar's hypothesis would have shown no link with numbers, because differences in likeability, affection and love a person shows for others is a known fact. So, had it been possible, Dunbar’s number would never have existed, because given this possibility, where strength of ties is different for every individual or animals, would have given Dunbar different figures and in that case he would not have hypothesized a limit.

 

So, whether weak or strong, if they are consuming the processing power of your neocortex and tie is worth calling mutual and engaging association, they would count among 150! You cannot decide upon warmth of the relationship that may develop as a result of numerous personality traits, sometimes anatagonistic and sometimes attracting, and, let us not forget, the Dunbar's limit is consistent with observations in many animals and past human societies.

 

Hutch Carpenter has an interesting post where he throws light on what this Dunbar's number actually counts, and how to cultivate more friends through Scooble's number. As he shows in the diagram, "You connect when interests and attentions coincide, Drive by interactions." He has rightly pointed out, you can amass more friends through this, but you cannot violate Dunbar's limit. So, the moment tie becomes closer enough it will come under Dunbar's limit. If you have achieved Dunbar's limit, then your gain might be loss somewhere. So, someone somewhere might be moving out of your network, if you are getting closer to someone.

 

Rather than trying to beat this number, just identify who are your 150. Have you reached this limit? Answer in most cases would be no. Have an action plan to raise your real network to this limit. Reaching this limit would mean you have reached the peak of your networking potential.

 

 People within this limit don't only know you but also who others are known to you, and mutual sharing and caring goes on. If you are on Twitter, make a Dunbar Twitter List, If on Google Plus, dedicate a Circle for Dunbar Limit, to practically do this and see the outcome. Here you would understand the real dynamics of Dunbar Limit and practically see How people are coming in and going out and what you need to do to raise this circle to the maximum possibility.

 

An important point to ponder here is, the number itself is not the hard limit. It is just a projection. Limiting factor is the size of your neocortex brain. So, the number itself may not be accurate. It might be higher or lower than what is quoted, but important point is the existence of this limit, and its relation with size of the neocortex in brain.

 

So, it may not be limited to networking alone but in many other things where neocortex’s processing power is involved. Regarding this number as limit, has led us to see the magic of limited space messaging when it is close to this limit.

 

Is it mere coincidence that twitter allows 140 characters, and adwords ads have 130 character limits! Isn't it because honoring this limit leads to the most possible exciting experience where each character we write sums up to the highest possible and conceivable form of intelligence, that can be experienced at a glance!

 

Also Read:

1. Red Signal to Green on Landing Page

2. User Behavior Anatomy: How You should Write your Ad Copy

3. Can You Become Lance?

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Google Adwords Free Vouchers - Google Freeconomics!

Adwords free Coupons or vouchers, are readily available to you through different sources in different denominations.

Google distributes it through agencies, blogs, books and even directly. Many qualified companies and individuals receive it in tons. I myself get vouchers from google to be given to new advertisers. These vouchers mostly of Rs2500 and Rs5000 (USD100), are supposed to be distributed to New Advertisers.

However, lure of free has attracted many quacks who are just using them to run free PPC by creating new accounts. Last year many advertisers were banned because their account was identified as such.

Many people call me just to get free vouchers. These people typically won't talk about anything else, not even about their business! There are agencies which have become Voucher Traders and few offered me a deal too.

Well, I use my vouchers for my own clients who would like to start a new account for their new business or even new clients who are also willing to pay something. I ignore People who are writing or calling me just for vouchers, because most of them I feel are not genuine advertisers, and so are not worth giving attention.

The greatest problem is that Rs2500 vouchers have become so common that some of them you would find in your nearby dustbin, just go and give it a try, and it is a fallacy that only Qualified individuals and companies can give Rs5000 vouchers. I have learnt, Google directly gives them to anybody they wish to, if she bothers to call their toll free number and asks for it, and answers some questions to their satisfaction that they are intending to spend a decent amount per day.

Reality is that most such accounts vanishes after voucher amount gets exhausted and in many cases reincarnated as a New Business again, till the website and account holder gets banned by google.

Problem lies in identifying the genuine new users. I personally feel, they should be given to an account having passed certain amount of spent. Google can do it easily, by imposing the condition that although vouchers would be credited at the time of creation of account, it would be effective only when it passes certain amount spent threshold. It might be an effective check against all these voucher scams.

Free vouchers which are free for apparent (or imposter?) newbie actually are actually additional cost to genuine advertisers. It inflates the bidding, and puts extra burden on people who are paying for clicks by forcing them compete with people who are just fiddling with bid. Increasing the number of players in the auction is beneficial for Google. It earns extra by allowing new advertisers into the auction free of cost, by creating pressure on people who actually pays.

Recommended:

1. Your ads are not Running - Contact us for support!
2. Adwords Authorized Resellers - Beware of Them!
3. Adwords Reseller India - Google seeking Partners!
   

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Ads on Twitter - Would Twitter Always Serve Third Party Ad Tweets?

Twitter till now have no revenue model. However, there are third party applications available, which are promising, advertisements on twitter platform. There are three kind of models available for marketers to advertise on twitter.

• 
  
  CPM model of advertisement, through Be A Magpie. In this auction only the highest bidders ad gets triggered at the rate decided by the second highest bidder, for the same category. So, if you are bidding through this model, you need to bid very high for your ad tweets to appear. You have to prepay and there is no guarantee your ads would show up till you continuously try to bid more and more. Once you pay for it, keep checking the bids.
  
  
  
• 
  
  New CPC model of advertisement offered through twivert, cashfortweet and perhaps many others. In this case you pay per click, and there is fairly higher chance of your tweet ads being displayed. You need to sign up through twitter ID and they have O auth too!
  
  
  
• 
  
  Directly contact few Highly influential twitter account holders and ask them to tweet about your product. Recently Jeremy Shoemaker of shoemoney fame reported having been approached by an advertiser. Best for marketers if they can do it, however, twitter account holders, Beware, your reputation might be at stake if followers detect it.
  
  
  

Twitter's TOS prohibits automated tweeting which are intended to spam the system, and perhaps the first two are in violation of it. Third one is a difficult one and if you can do it, you are plain lucky. Great Twitterers, have great followings because of their integrity and if they start serving deceptive ad tweets, followers may not take it kindly. Advocacy may be an option, the silent the better.

All the models above compromises the quality of tweets. Won't it be better, for twitter and twitterers that twitter opens up the system for advertising, may be even through Google adsense's link units in tweets to end all these Not so Ethical looking practices.

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Attempts to turn Seth's Advocacy for Sympathy Click into Mass Movement

Seth had said - "If you like what you're reading, click an ad to say thanks." in his one of the controversial blogpost Ads are the new online tip jar, Also, see the first person to react via trackback, Cem Sertoglu of Turkey, Seth further reacted in another blogpost - Beating the status quo, that he didn't mean to advocate Click Fraud, as has been misunderstood by the practitioners of click advertising, rather he wanted to beat the status quo of only hardcore click throughs. Seth's Logic - As clicks would increase, Revenue would increase for Publishers and Advertisers would get more Attention, from people who had mild interest in the advertisement. But, converting mild interest into sales is Profitable. Profitable for the advertiser, for the publisher and for the online industry at large. That is seth's Logic, but from the perspective of Pay per click managers who struggles to eliminate these unwanted clicks everyday, through more focused creatives and more focused targeting, it is not a profitable scenario at all. People practicing ppc knows how tough it is to fight unwanted clicks from researchers and seasonal flurry of traffic on even Search Keywords are. On Search, people are typing in the keywords in the search bar to find what they are served actually, yet it may not be profitable all the time. If you add further load of people who have intent to only click on your ads, it becomes worse. So, converting mild interest into sales is not an easy task, it is far from reality. But, think of the situation where people only click on the ad to just say thank you to the publisher! PPC model is not meant for thank you clicks. It works around conversions and cost of conversions in reality, which are not always within such a comfortable margin to accomodate sympathy clicks, in fact it always pose challenges because its an auction, and competition keeps on pushing up the cost of click. Publishers can benefit from Higher cost of clicks by having Remarkable content (Courtesy Seth who made Remarkability the popular concept), which has the ability to attract relevant traffic and hence good advertisers who would like to compete there for grabbing the attention and click of this traffic. 

It is more than a year now since Seth wrote that controversial post, but why I am discussing it now is the reason I saw, someone trying to advocate sympathy clicking via adwords! There may be others too, but this is the site, I came across, advocating sympathy clicking(or Thank You Click), and asking you to spread the message across the web. Who needs sympathy clicks? Those who have failed to generate quality content, and hence quality followers. Why Seth is advocating it, Perhaps because of This - "I can say this because there are no ads here... ".  Well the website I am talking about has no details of its founders and only have a contact email, in contact.  I also checked its whois info , which does not reveal anything. So, the person behind it does not want to come into light. But, Google should be knowing him, because he is running adwords ads! Does he deserve conversion? You would decide. Can you openly display the badge of a website which does not even reveal a valid contact address?

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