An Open Letter to RIM (BlackBerry) CEO Thorsten Heins

Dear Mr. Thorsten Heins,

Congratulations on successfully running the Research in Motion (RIM) Corp for the past six months. I am not too sure whether you have found out what is ruining RIM, but I sure do know that almost every employee at RIM is working towards making sure that you are still in business next year, this time around. I am sure you must have been reading the latest media news about RIM going kaput over the next couple of years. If there is any truth in those news then, I, as a loyal customer of RIM have some tips, which I am ready to share, free of cost, just to make sure that RIM is still in business over the next few years.

Reasons Why I love my BlackBerry Bold Phone:

• Ease of use: I bought my Bold 9780 over a year ago, and I absolutely loved the way it functioned! I had never used a BlackBerry (BB) phone before and I was quite amazed to see that it was so easy to use, set-up and carry around!
• Easy email access: This has to be the best feature ever! Any Android, Symbian or iOS phone cannot beat it. I can easily access all my personal and official emails at a single click! Drafting and sending an email is so easy when compared to the other OS enabled phones.
• Amazing Qwerty Keypad. Period.
• Powerful Camera: One of the best camera I have seen in a smart phone. The only one better than this might be either iPhone or the phones from Sony.
• BBM: The BlackBerry Messenger is one of the most powerful and awesome messenger around. I don’t need to pay any money or install a third-party app to talk to a friend who is in the US, UK or even Africa! A simple BBM Pin would do and it keeps me connected with everyone I know, who owns a BB phone!

 

Why I don’t want RIM to shut shop:

• No QWERTY: Have you noticed? There are very few smartphones which have the qwerty type feature available? Almost all mobile phones have got big screens with similar touchscreens and qwerty touch screens. There are probably millions of customers like me who hate touchscreens, simply because they are made for the content consumers and not content creators! It is extremely difficult to type on touchscreens unless you get used to them!
• Email trouble: One of the prime reasons why BB rules is because of the amazing ease with which I can access my emails.
• No BBM!: What will I do?
• Secure Emails: Once RIM is out of business, I know my emails, chats, and browsing won’t be secure (as there will be no more BB phones or BB services!). The government agencies have been trying hard to bring RIM to its knees and share encrypted user data from a long time!

 

What can RIM do to avoid a shut-shop situation?

I have seen and used android phones owned by my friends, and I can completely vouch for the fact that all of them look almost the same! The only thing differentiating them are the featured apps and customized look. I sometimes feel that the Android operating system has been borrowed heavily from the iOS. So how can RIM create a powerful value proposition in the smart phone market to propel its sales northwards?

• Bigger screens: Have you checked the screens on most BB phones? They have got the smallest screens in the smart phone market! One of the major reasons, I feel, people are shying away from BB phones is because of the screen size! Everyone loves to watch a video or a movie on the move nowadays and the restrictive screen size doesn’t really help. Increase the screen size by 30% and see the wonders!
• Cut down the internet rates: Here in India, the internet access rates for BB phones are exorbitantly high! I pay INR 599 for unlimited internet access which includes browsing, emails and chat. And, these are the rates for a 2G internet service with my carrier. The rates for 3G are even higher. Compare this with Apple or other Android enabled phones, which have internet plans starting for as low as INR 99 per month with more than 1 GB download free of cost and includes browsing, emails and chat. Same feature, different phones, different prices. Partner with cellphone carrier networks, reduce the access costs and just see how many youngsters buy a BB phone and sign up for the internet services!
• Stop re-bundling the OS versions: Come on, you have to agree. There are no significant changes between the BB OS 6 and OS7. If you build a hype around an OS, please make sure to stand up to it! I could hardly notice any difference between the OS 6 and OS7! The same goes with phone models as well. Within two moths of purchase of the Bold 3, I was shocked to see that there was a Bold 4 and a Bold 5 available in the market with almost no significant improvement in features, except for a touch screen! Seriously? Is this how innovation is happening in RIM nowadays? It looks more of Research in Loose Motion rather than Research in Motion! There are HUGE expectations from OS10, please do not ruin it!
• Introduce low-cost phones: Even the most basic model of BB in India costs INR 8,500 or more (and there are only two models available in this segment). And, this is one of your biggest market these days! Haven’t you learnt anything from the success of the BB Curve? If you want to increase your customer base, then re-brand and launch four phones each, in the range of INR 6k to 10k and watch the wonders. Gone are the days, when BB phones were exclusively meant for enterprise and corporate customers. If you do not target the youth and provide value, you might as well not enter the market! Similarly, try to have at least four phone models in every cost segment.
• Where are the touch screen phones?: I have heard a lot of people complain that BB does not have a good touch screen model. You might say there is BB Torch or something, but you have to agree, that they are not even half as good as a BB Bold or a BB Curve! A good BB touchscreen phone will set the smart phone market on fire!
• Limited Edition phones, Really?: Stop this right away! The latest BB Porsche Edition is a complete eyesore. And, I am not the only one who feels this. At a whopping INR 1.5 Lakhs for a cellphone, it does look retarded. Spending so much in partnering and coming out with a useless phone won’t do any good. Instead, a better looking cellphone which is appropriately priced is something that we can do with!

These small tweaks will really help you, trust me, for I am a customer! your marketing and research team might give you a different opinion, but for emerging markets like India, this is what will work.

Yours Sincerely,

Shriharsha Bhat

A BlackBerry Fanatic!

Images: GUIM.co.uk, GForGames.com and GizmoCrave.com

3 Types of Writers to Stay Away From

How many times have you come across a blog post which you thought deserved the award for the crappiest article/blogpost? It is one of those times, when you visit a blog thinking “This should be a nice read”, but end up swearing “Why the freaking bejezuz did I spend my time on that article, it was so crappy!” The internet has become a benevolent place to find help on almost every topic, right from ‘how to knot the tie’ to ‘how to spank the bai’ 😉 But it is also true that since most of these articles are written by amateurs, the quality has gone for a toss. In this post, I try to explore, the 3 types of writers to stay away from.

Bad Writing: Source – Chronicle.com

The first kind are those writers who write just to get that much needed SEO juice for websites and blogs. These writers do not have any formal qualification in English. They are home-grown or rather in this case office-grown writers who have written on a variety of SEO driven topics for their companies or blogs. Usually, these articles focus on specific keywords or search phrases and hence make no sense at all. They just keep on revolving around the keyword and never ever make a wee bit of attempt to understand the fact that real humans too read articles apart from search engines. For example, a person writing on ‘how to spank the bai’ will use the keywords “spank the bai”, “how to spank the bai”, “spank kaamwaali bai” and so on. Thus, that person’s entire efforts goes into writing the words “spank the bai” at least 20 times in a 150 word article.

The second kinds are those who get their basics wrong. These writers have little to no skill in writing English and write sentences after converting them from their native language (which is usually Hindi, Tamil etc) to English. So, “Maine aaj CST ka train pakda” usually becomes “Today I catched the train to CST” rather than “I took the train to CST today”. It is a classic example of Hindi to English conversion. I am not saying that it is a mortal sin, but think about it; If a person with good communication skills, and intellect were to hear this, then he/she would burst out laughing! First of all, there is no such word as “catched” (in case you missed it). The proper word here is either caught or took. Just like every language has got its own grammatical nuances, English too has a wide variety of its own. However, if you fall in the above category, then do not feel bad. A majority of people in developing countries talk like this and it is nothing to be ashamed of, unless you are interacting with people globally. There are many websites which offer free English speaking tips and advice and are delivered right to your email in-boxes. I use a handy website known as DailyWritingTips.com to help me out with my writing skills and technique. Try it out if you want.

The third are those kinds who have an amazing article title or book title, but the article itself does not make any sense! I have come across many such articles over the Internet, but the Banana Republic Award has to go to Meera Nanda for writing the book The God Market. I have never ever read such a crapworthy book. You might remember that I had reviewed one of the best crappiest books ever to be written here, but this one takes the cake! I literally tore the book and used it to light fire during one of my camping trips (and there was no shortage of petrol or kerosene to burn either!). The thing about such out of context articles/books is that they work on the concept of attracting readers towards them, but do not have enough substance to hold on to. And, since nowadays anyone and everyone can write an article or a blogpost, it really is disturbing to see that people miss out on a very important aspect called as ‘engaging the reader’.

Have you come across such posts/articles? Or, are there any other ‘types’ of authors you wish would take a hike?

Plan Your Career – Learn from The Avengers!

Again, aloha after a while! I simply cannot seem to write for myself any more (except for my company and its various blogs)!

Have you watched the movie “The Avengers” yet? If your answer is no then you are really missing out on a piece of history in the making. As I write this post, the Avengers has officially grossed $1.2 Billion Dollars!  But, this post is not about how the Avengers ruled Hollywood in 2012.  This post is about how Disney’s proper planning gave The Avengers the awesome success (which it truly deserves) and how you can learn from it.

The Avengers –  Source: Hollywoodreporter.com

Marvel studios, planned the movie as early as in 2005. The idea was to introduce the audiences to individual heroes from the Avengers comic first and then come out with a big budget mega flick. Yes, most of the movie audience knew about the characters of the Avengers, but no one knew how their favourite superheroes will ever shape up in a movie. The plans for the Avengers were big. The production house was set to spend at least $200 million on the entire movie. Spending so much for a movie IS a big deal, unless you go by the name “James Cameroon”. Hence, the producers decided to test the water before they actually got behind making the Avengers one of the biggest kick-a$$ movies in Cinematic history!

The studio began introducing its “Future Avengers” in 2008. In this year, they introduced audiences to Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (both box office biggies). Next in line were Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor which were released in 2011 (again, box-office successes). Oh, and BTW did I mention that Iron Man became so immensely popular, that Marvel and Disney decided to friggin make a sequel – Iron Man 2 even before their “planned” Avenger movie? All these movies set the dice rolling for the Avengers. Movie characters and roles were introduced in these movies to make way for their characters in the Avengers. Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Loki etc were introduced in the previous planned instalments.

What did this do? Well, the sheer awesomeness with which the movie was planned and rolled out at a perfect time blew away everyone! The bosses at Disney and Marvel had taken a huge risk by planning something so elaborate. In fact, everyone had their doubts over Disney’s plan after their previous movie “John Carter” tanked at the box office. The losses by this movie were so huge that they needed a miracle to come out of the situation. And, voila! The gamble of introducing the Avengers in a planned way to the audiences really paid off! The movie not only fared well with the audiences, but also with the critics giving it a thumbs up all the way.

What can I learn from the Avengers, You ask? Two things actually – Planning and Taking Calculated Risks

Planning: You have probably heard this so many times that by now, you are seriously contemplating if this article is dumb. But, trust me, planning you career is the most effective way of moving up the professional ladder. You have to plan your approach for getting educated (which college, what field, which majors etc), starting your job (which industry, which company, business?, pay scale, job responsibility etc), mid career analysis (industries worked for, level of responsibility, position in an organization etc) and retirement as well (when do you want to retire, how much would you want as retirement benefits etc). This alone can help you in becoming a rockstar in your personal and professional life. If you haven’t done it yet, then go ahead and try to outline your career and see where you stand. The Avengers became possible only because the studio heads had planned it well in advance (did I mention it was planned way back in 2005?)

Taking Calculated Risks: No gain without pain. Risks always pay off, but, they can either work for you or against you. This is where you should learn how to take calculated risks. While planning your career, plan out the risks associated with it as well. Risks like, marriage (it is a risk!), kids, family, job-hopping, recession, bad job profile etc will come your way. This is where you will be required to take calculated risks and make smart moves. For example: its a smart move to perform well and stay out of the limelight during recessions, Job-hop when you have a healthy bank balance or when your better half has a stable career etc. Such risks are known as calculated risks. If at all, you fail in your endeavours then you always have a back-up plan which will save your A$$. Disney and Marvel knew that the movie would cost $200 MN to be made and hence made prequels. These prequels were big-budget but sure to be block-busters owing to the immense popularity of the characters. On the other hand, if they had directly released the Avengers beforehand, then nobody would have been sure of the movie’s success, simply because there was no build-up. Calculated Risk!

So, learn from the Avengers and plan your career if you do not want to be just an associate or executive all your life!

Marvel Avengers Assemble! They totally could have had a cool symbol or something!

Book Review – the Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi

Ok, this review is quite late. But, I had to post it, as I read the book only a couple of months ago. This is a book review of the book, “The Immortals of Meluha” by Amish Tripathi. I recently read its sequel, “The Secret of the Nagas”  and, I felt that a review is in order, especially as its been quite some time since I did a review. The third and the final book of the “Shiva Triology” will be published early next year.

First things first. I bought this book a few months ago from Landmark, because i really liked the cover page. I did not expect it to be a good book, mostly because it was written by an Indian author. And, most readers will agree with me, that Indian writers/authors, except for a few, have very bad writing/storytelling/narration skills. The book promised (on the back cover) to be a thrilling read as it had a new story-line with a modern take on, the centuries old myth of Lord Shiva and his rise to power.

The book starts with the journey of Shiva from the Mansarovar mountain ranges to the plains of Meluha – an immortal city, ruled by the Suryavanshi’s, where law and order is a way of life for people. Discipline, rules and laws laid out by the earlier “Dev” – Lord Ram is followed to the T by the citizens of Meluha. They are prosperous, happy and shrewd Kshatriyas who will fight for keeping their King and family out of harm’s reach. However, there is something that is worrying the King, which, as prophesied will end, at the arrival of the Neelkanth – literally meaning “the one with the Blue Throat”.

Naturally, Shiva, who is the protagonist of the story arrives at Meluha, with his tribe, leaving his hometown behind because of hard circumstances and consistent raids by invaders. Staying true to the prophecy, it is revealed in the first few chapters that Shiva is the Neelkanth and he will be the saving grace for a dying Meluhan race and the cause of their worries. What makes these Meluhans immortal and how Shiva tries to save them, forms the basis of the story and takes various twists and turns before addressing another important aspect of the story, which leads to the storyline of the second book of the “Shiva Triology”.

Some characters who shape the book are:

• Lord Shiva – the prophecised Neelkanth, the taker of all worries and the giver of happiness and peace.
• Sati – the ever faithful, strong, and emotional warrior princess of Meluha, later married to Lord Shiva.
• King Daksha – the ruler of Meluha
• General Parvateshwar – the army general of Meluha. One of strong character and  immense battle capabilities
• Bhrahaspati – the trusted aide and best friend of Lord Shiva in Meluha. Also, the chief scientist at Meluha
• Krittika – the loyal aide and friend of Sati

The story is well woven and does not lose pace at any point of time. The battles and the fights between the Suryanvanshi and the Chandravanshi empires has been written very well. I especially liked the chapter in which Shiva enters Sati’s life and tries to woo her. It literally took me back in time and I could visualize the story, as if it was happening then and there. The chapters are very well edited and I found very few editorial mistakes in the book. It is also worth mentioning that the author has written the book with a very unique and different storyline and based it on the lives of Shiva and Sati. The book captures the essence of the olden ways of living but also adds a modern twist to the tale with a vey casual style of writing and does not describe everything endlessly. For a reader like me, endless describing ruins the main plot of the book, and hence, I found it very easy to read, understand and comprehend, every aspect of the book, without the need to put it down and scratch my head.

There are some pitfalls though. The characters have not been etched very well. Lord Shiva – the great Neelkanth, has not been portrayed as someone who can wreak terror for enemies and at the same time, be the savior and giver of his friends. Lord Shiva’s character does not command the presence or the awe, which is necessary for the protagonist of the book. I feel, that a bit more detailing on the character could have helped the author in creating a very charismatic personality of Lord Shiva. Similarly, the character of King Daksha has not been given importance. Sometimes, its easy to forget that there is a character known as “Daksha” in the book. As a person who did not expect to find anything good about the book, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted by the fact that finally, atlast, one young Indian writer has arrived to help put Chetan Bhagat’s insanely rubbish books (which we categorize as bestsellers) at rest. Its high time, that crappy writers like Chetan Bhagat, Meera Nanda, Madhuri Banerjee etc really stuck to writing only newspaper columns and spared us from unreadable books. Amish Tripathi through his Shiva Trilogy has arrived, as a very skilled writer.

All in all, this book is a must read for any avid reader (even if you are an atheist, this wont hurt your sentiments), written in a very simple language and engaging narrative.

Book Rating  – 3.5 out of 5

If you’d like to buy this book then Flipkart is offering the book at great discounted rates. Head over to Flipkart.com and order your copy now!

Click here to read the review of Book 2 of the “Shiva Trilogy”, – The Secret of The Nagas by Amish Tripathi

P.S. – I do not get any commission or percentage of sales from Flipkart for recommending their site! It’s just that they really offer good deals, especially on books!

7 Tips and Tricks on How to Cope with the Latest Google Panda Update and Algorithm

I haven’t posted for a very long time. And, by this, I really mean, a very long time. Almost over a year! I have been quite busy and with online marketing duties and promoting some of my company websites like www.littleitaly.in, www.cees-edu.org, www.elock.com etc. I dedicated my “blogging time” for content promotion of these websites. However, recently after being influenced heavily by the Inbound Marketing Blog at Hubspot, I thought, maybe, it was time to come back and blog about the things I normally work on.

Over the past couple of weeks, quite a few people have asked me about the latest Google Panda Update and to be honest, I had never gotten into the nitty gritties of the latest algorithm development from the search engine giant. Google currently holds the number one position when it comes to PPC ads, display and banner ads, including the overall search engine and organic search market due to its display ads, adsense and adwords network. Over 65% of people use Google.com for searches and queries. Over the past few years, lot of content farms, black hat seo practitioners and extremely low quality content providers have been able to put many low-grade websites stand out and be displayed on top of the search engine rankings. This led to many high-quality, deserving and relevant websites rank lower in the search queries (mainly, because they did not have hundreds and thousands of articles on their website, built around a single keyword).

To stop these blatant search engine black hat techniques and in order to make relevant websites feature in relevant search queries, Google worked on a new algorithm and launched the latest Google panda update or search algorithm in February 2011. You can read about this on the official Google blog for understanding what this update is all about and the changes done. Since its first version, the Google panda update has constantly updated and is now in its 2.4 version.

Image Source: www.zhimmer.com

This Google panda update algorithm has been launched to identify and berate content content and content farms, which were gaining top search listings with very shallow or minimal content on their websites. It is also aimed at discouraging content copying, aka, scraper sites which have very less original content on their websites. This update, according to estimates has affected almost 12% of the entire US search results.

So, how can you or your website cope with this recent Google panda update? I have jotted down some tips and tricks below, on how to cope with the latest Google panda update and algorithm.

1. Heavy Templates: First and foremost, cut down on heavy templates. Use templates for your website (if you are using a CMS), which are minimalistiic in design and offer great space to publish more relevant content or content blocks related to your products or services. Simply putting in a block from the available template (like a calendar, most commented posts etc) is not going to help you in any way to optimize the website and fare better in the searches. This activity will help you in staying afloat during the next versions of the Google panda update

2. One keyword, one relevant article: For the Google panda update, its all about relevancy for Google and the people who search. If your information is not relevant then it should not feature in visitor searches, only because you have written hundreds of article on the same keyword with minimal content. Instead, focus on identifying the most important keywords and building articles with relevant content around them. For example: if you are using the keyword “Green Buildings”, then it makes much more sense to write articles like “How to get a certification in Green Buildings”, “How are Green Buildings important to the environment” or “Importance of Green Buildings to the construction industry” etc, instead of writing tons of articles on “what are Green Buildings” and repeating almost the same content, over and over again. Remember, no one likes to beat around the bush. Get to the point with correct and relevant content.

3. Do Away with Keyword Stuffing: Do not bombard your article of 150 words with 25 instances of your keyword. The optimum instance of one keyword in any article is eight. Stick to it, and you will be getting relevant visitors to your article and website. Better still, if you really do need to put in more keywords then do this.

• Use the keyword in alt+text of the image (and yes, always, as much as possible, accompany an article or content with relevant image and reference source)
• Use the keyword in the URL of the article or the content page
• Use the Keyword in the Title of your article or content page
• Use the keyword in the Page Title, Meta description and the keywords option, available in your publishing tool

Watch this video by Matt Cutts on the Google panda update:

4. Do away with useless ads: Do you know that people are on your website to get some information? If you do, then you are among those website owners who focus on relevancy! If you did not, then, I urge you to cut down on the space you have provided to all those PPC and display ads on your website. A simple tweak in your Google AdSense account should do the trick (more on this, later). Anything more than 20 – 25% webpage space, dedicated to displaying ads is a strict no-no. It kills relevancy of the content and your website, to the incoming search term. Ads are meant to enhance visitor experience with value added information and not cause irritation. So, moral of the story? Do away with unnecessary ads and focus on getting more content published in that adspace.

5. Do away with empty content: The Google panda update also focuses on identifying pages with empty content and removes it from the indexing bot. Hence, dont keep any pages with empty content on your website. Its going to hurt your rankings, and not going to help in any way as well. Worse, please do not link it to other pages on your website!!! Do you really plan on murdering your search rankings?

6. Do away with auto-generated content: – Instead, opt in for good content writers who can give you planned content, for the keyword you want to rank high for! Investing time in content writing and SEO is the key to get found on Google and other search engines as well. So whatever you do, do not ignore these basic aspects.

7. Why are you copying my stuff? – You think, “Oh, what the heck? I need content for my website. I will just go ahead and copy it from some related industry blog or website! That ought to solve my content writing woes.”  Think again. Is Google really that stupid? The latest Google panda update takes care of all this and more. It can, in a matter of seconds, find out if you have copied content from some website or blog and made small changes to it. Do not EVER, blatantly copy from other websites. Instead, you can refer to a website and build upon a point or probably, give credit to the website for the original content. Most of the times, it is highly recommended that content should be original. However, you can always build upon existing content and add value to it! If you feel that content from your website is being copied, then use Tynt.com. Tynt is a publishing tool as well, which gives you great insights for content copied from your website, social shares etc. I use this tool for the CEES website to track sharing and content copies. And, best of all, its free!

So there you are! These were my very personal 7 Tips and Tricks on How to Cope With the Latest Google Panda Update and Algorithm! As you can see, content was, content is and content will always be the king!  Well, at least for Google 😉

Do you know of any such tips and tricks? Feel free to share it with me!