When this trend spreads (and I say “when”, not “if”), this will be a tax on the utility of the web that must be counterbalanced by the utility of the intervening pages. If they are really good, with lots of useful, curated data that you wouldn’t easily find elsewhere, this may be an acceptable tax. In fact, they may even be beneficial, and a real way to increase the value of the site to its readers. If they are purely designed to capture additional clicks, they will be a degradation of the web’s fundamental currency, much like the black hat search engine pages that construct link farms out of search engine results.

I’d like to put out two guidelines for anyone adopting this “link to myself” strategy:

1. Ensure that no more than 50% of the links on any page are to yourself. (Even this number may be too high.)
2. Ensure that the pages you create at those destinations are truly more valuable to your readers than any other external link you might provide.

Even as the web moves to “linking in”, I’m “linking out” more than ever. I’m trying to promote good work done by my friends (Rajesh), highlighting stories in which they are featured (Ajay/ Ramya/ Melody/ Sakshi and Rajesh/ Dina/ Rajiv), responding to their e-mails (Saurabh) and comments (Harshil and Sumant) and saying “thank you” for their thoughtfulness (Jinal) by linking out to them. My hyper-linking is partly motivated by my need to stay in touch with my friends (even as I spend a year halfway across the world), but it is also partly motivated by my desire to bring back the culture of linking out into the Indian (business/ technology/ social media) blogosphere.

It’s a mixture of these two motivations that has prompted me to restart The Best of Indian Business Blogs weekly digest which Rajesh, Gautam, Palin, Ranjan and I had started sometime back.

The basic idea was simple: we wanted to form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs. The thinking was that the combined reach of our readerships would direct a few hundred visitors to the linked blogs every week. It worked well for a while until our busy schedules made it impossible for us to find time to compile the weekly digest.

In its new improved avatar, here’s how I see The Best of Indian Business Blogs weekly digest working out —

- Every Monday, I’ll link out to five posts by Indian business/ technology/ social media bloggers.
- If you believe that it’s worth our time to promote the culture of linking out in the Indian business/ technology/ social media blogosphere, please link out to five posts of your own (which may or may not be the same as my five posts) and let me know by a trackback/ comment/ e-mail.
- I’ll update my original post for the week by linking out to everybody who has joined the initiative.

The next edition of The Best of Indian Business Blogs weekly digest is due Monday, August 25. I’m hoping that you’ll join me in linking out to our fellow bloggers.

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Interestingly, another friend Neha Tara Mehta wrote the story and she tells me that the idea of the story came out of a conversation we had a couple of months back.

Here’s the full text of the story –

Blogos-unf@ir!

Neha Tara Mehta, Hindustan Times
August 09, 2008

It’s not all fair on the blogosphere, with an increasing number of women bloggers being harassed with hate mails and nasty, anonymous comments, often with sexual undertones and even stalkers.

Popular mommy blogger The Mad Momma who writes The Brat The Bean and Bedlam calls trolls (people who post nasty comments on blogs) “pestilence”. “They can’t accept the fact that somebody who they think is typically bovine and child-centric could have an opinion, on say, Tibet. These people find it annoying and mystifying that I am just a mommy and my blog is popular.”

The Mad Momma gets nasty feedback not only on her blog but also on other blogs. “My six-month old daughter has been called snot-eating and shit-sniffing. There was a post that said that my husband earns Rs 40 lakh a month and that I pretend to be poor when I write about recycling things,” she says.

Earlier, The Mad Momma would publish the trolls’s comments on her blog and rip them apart, believing they should have their free say. “Now, I don’t bother. Why should they get cheap publicity on my blog?”

What makes matters worse is that nasty comments and personal attacks may be taken to be statements of facts by many readers. According to Blogging India: A Windows Live Report, 2006, nearly 45 per cent netizens believe that blogging content is as trustworthy as the traditional media.

‘Chic-bloggers’

With men constituting 76 per cent of all bloggers in India, the common perception is that “chic-bloggers” get more hits simply because they are women. “I resent this. I use a unisex pseudonym, write about things of general interest like cityscapes, humour and relationships. I find it painful that my identity has to be defined by my gender and not the quality or content of my writing,” says Ramya, who writes as IdeaSmith.

Says Annie Zadie, “Women bloggers get a lot of nonsense — a lot of it is gendered nonsense. Some is vaguely flirty and sometimes it begins to seem threatening.” She adds, “I don’t think I would have got certain comments if I were a man. There are those who try to make your writing sound like that of a juvenile, dumb blonde.”

The Mad Momma attributes trolls to the anonymity of the net. “You get to drop the veneer of being civilised. It’s so easy to call a woman a slut.” Agrees Ajay Jain, president of the Indian Blog and New Media Society. “Going by mentality of some of the men in the country, women bloggers are easy targets.”

Venomously yours

There seems to be a direct correlation between a woman blogger defying social norms and being a target of vicious attacks. Marketing professional Saakshi O Juneja gets a lot of abusive comments for her posts on domestic violence, homosexuality, single women and arranged marriages. “Since a big part of your life is up on your blog — from your dog to your pictures and your vacation, people get more fodder to get back at you.” Trolls bare their fangs with comments like, “You are not getting married because you are a faggot.” Says Saakshi, “They don’t leave any aspect of your life when they start attacking you — not even your mother, father or dog. There are threats like — ‘watch out, you are going against society.’”

For Ramya, the threat of such attacks means she has to curtail her freedom to choose subjects to write about, and how strongly she expresses her views. “If political riots break out, I would hesitate to blog on them — not because I don’t have an opinion, but because I would worry about being stalked as a single woman who travels alone,” she says.

What’s the way to deal with trolls? “If you are willing to demolish them intellectually and not personally, they will leave you alone,” says Annie. Says Saakshi, “If you are really serious about blog, you have got to be hard skinned. These things don’t bother me.” She often puts up abusive posts — as long as they make a valid point.

Virtually yours

The real-life example of a virtual stalker, say women bloggers, are road-side Romeos. Saakshi had a run-in with one Mr Datla Chiranjeevi Raju on her blog. “He sent me his photographs and mobile number. In spite of my warning him, he continued to barge my blog with his lewd love confessions.” Next, he started posting comments on his own blog using her name, also using her photo. She finally got him off her back by ripping his posts apart on her blog, and getting the blogging platform to shut down his blog. “But he still mails off and on.”

One of the earliest woman bloggers in the country, Melody routinely gets love-sick, sexually explicit mails and comments from her readers. “I blog with my name and photos. When you start a blog, you start with the premise that it will be open to all, and you will be exposed to psychos.” It’s this reason, she says, that many women bloggers choose to blog anonymously.

Says another woman blogger who has been stalked and considered going to cops, “The trouble is that you may make it worse by lodging a complaint. With cyber cells, there is more protection than earlier, but controls are still not adequately in place. The stalker won’t be put behind bars for life and may get back to you.”

What makes it easier for trolls and stalkers is that it is hard to pinpoint them. “It can be difficult to pinpoint the individual from the IP address. The person may be writing from a cyber café,” says cyber security analyst Subimal Bhattacharjee.

Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal is seeing an increase in the number of bloggers seeking his advice on such cases, but most choose not to take legal action because it is a long process. “Identification is the most tedious. Increasingly, we are seeing that network service providers are willing to disclose the identity of persons who own blogs attacking others only on court orders.”

Till better controls are in place, it’s ladies first when it comes to being slammed on the blogosphere.

Posted on Gauravonomics Blog

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I was quoted copiously in Indian daily DNA in a story on whether blogging in India is mature enough to act as a change agent.

A good approach to answer this question is to compare social media usage in India with social media usage in China –

Social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

Social media usage in India and China also have significant differences in terms of the topics that drive conversation. Richard Edelman has written an interesting introduction to the Chinese blogosphere –

Social media in China has two constant themes: the rich/poor divide and nationalism… The best Chinese bloggers are… incredibly impressive, committed to change, convinced that they were part of a new China where individual expression and frank speaking will win.

This type of strong activism isn’t really visible at least in the more popular Indian blogs.

In the interview, I also talked about how brands can use social media to build authentic relationships with customers and citizens and how individuals can use social media to build solid reputations as experts in a topic.

Here’s the complete text of the story –

Blogging Pains in Mumbai
Surekha S
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 20:34 IST

In the US elections, blogs are seen as an effective medium to sway voters’ minds. But in Mumbai, the impact of desi blogs to bring about social change is minimal, say bloggers

In a bid for the presidential seat, US senator, Barack Obama relies on a team of bloggers whose sole job is to quell any negative publicity during the course of the campaign. And the fact, that Internet-savvy Obama is successfully harnessing the power of the web is a point worth noting.

Which makes one wonder whether the blogging medium in Mumbai, and the India, has that kind of power. Can it be used as effectively here for political campaigns, for promoting companies, products or to bring about a social change?

“The Batti Band campaign, which saw the participation of a large number of Mumbaikars, was promoted primarily through blogs,” says Gaurav Mishra, who has been blogging for the last three years. However, he says, that while activism through blogs is very strong in China, it has still to pick up in India.

As the head of sales and marketing for a national automobile company, Gaurav writes about how marketing is changing, how people are tired of being bombarded by commercial messages, and how marketing needs to adopt a more humane approach. “Though blogging as a trend is picking up, the blogging community is still very small. It is not big enough to bring about a change in the election results, but it surely can mobilise 3,000 to 5,000 people”, he says.

With the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook, the next trend is blogging to bring about change. And this trend is seen not only among youngsters, but also among companies and marketing agencies, that have recognised the potential of a blog to reach out to a new generation of users.

But we still have a long way to go. Ramya, a suburban resident who has been blogging for the last four years, says, “In India, Internet usage is low, and blogging is still a new concept. It surely will be ineffective in political campaigns as among the voters, only a small section have access to the web.”

The bottom line is simple: Blogging as medium of change and a tool to spread awareness is picking up, but the impact is marginal. “Most people do not understand the scope of the medium. Also, there is the question of reliability and responsibility. There are many random blogs, and most of them deal with personal issues,” says Ramya.

Nineteen-year-old Yashashri got hooked to blogging around two years ago thanks to her brother who was an avid blogger. “You can write about your experiences, you can use it to spread messages and most importantly, it helps connect with like-minded people across the globe,” she says. “It can also act as a platform to talk about socially relevant issues and get the participation and perspective of people miles away.”

Most people in Mumbai blog at a personal level, and see it as a means to connect with other people. Nikita Banerjee, a journalist with the magazine Animation Reporter, sees blogging as a great medium to meet new people and make new friends. “Blogs are also a good place to showcase your work.”

Even our celebrities have got into the act. “Though blogging is becoming increasingly popular, it still seems far fetched to think of a day when every second person will have a blog. In India we still do not feel the desperate need to be heard,” says Mishra.

And more importantly, will the blogs have traction among surfers? “We need more blog readers, but more than that we need knowledgeable people to write. Authenticity is driven by the person writing the blog. It is not about how well you write, but how much you know about what you write,” says Mishra.

And while it might take us a few more years to get there, we seem to be on the right track.

Posted on Gauravonomics Blog

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 4

- Sanjay Anandram and Vijay Anand explain why startups should choose their investors/ board members carefully.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time getting their product and their team right, but few spend as much time getting their investors and board members right. When I set up my own startup, I’ll do well to follow Sanjay’s and Vijay’s advice and look for investors who’ll not only invest in the business but also help me build it.

- Vijay Anand and Snigdha Sengupta point out that all is not well with the Indian version of BarCamps.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most of my friends who attended BarCamp Mumbai 3 were disappointed by it. Vijay and Snigdha wonder if we have interpreted the concept of unconference wrongly and appeal for a more conversational, startup-focused BarCamp. Well, I personally like the idea of Startup Weekends. If you are in Mumbai, you may get an invite to one soon.

- Jinal Shah wants to make sense of the chaos of the social web.

My top-of-the-mind views: Many practitioners are beginning to see social media conversations as a valuable, but under-utilized, opportunity for ‘free’ qualitative research to provide insights that can be used to develop both products and messages. The tools aren’t quite in place yet, but with natural language and machine learning algorithms becoming increasingly intelligent, this may become a big business opportunity soon. I personally see another model evolving simultaneously — the wisdom of the crowds aggregated via social media outsourcing.

- The Sans Serif blog looks forward to the upcoming Hindu vs ToI battle in Chennai

My top-of-the-mind views: The Jains have proven time and again that nobody else gets the newspaper business like they do. With the launch of The Times of India in Chennai, The Hindu will learn that it has already lost the battle it is preparing to fight.

- Harish B analyzes the launch of Tata Sumo Grande

My top-of-the-mind views: Harish writes an interesting, if partial, analysis of the evolution of Tata Sumo as a brand and the launch of the new Sumo Grande. I’m privy to the inside story on the brand, and look forward to an interesting conversation on the topic with Harish if and when we meet up.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Gaurav Mishra Week 2, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2, Gaurav Mishra Week 3, Rajesh Lalwani Week 3, Ranjan Varma Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 4, Rajesh Lalwani Week 4.

Posted on Gauravonomics Blog

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 3

- Rajesh Lalwani believes that companies offering pro-biotic products in India are under-utilizing Internet in general, and social media in particular

My top-of-the-mind views: The health and wellness category is perhaps the one in which Internet in general, and social media in particular, can play a make-or-break role. The category has unique characteristics that make it a perfect fit for social media: it is an extremely high involvement category, patronized by an upwardly mobile (Internet)-savvy consumer base, and marked by frequent purchases of low ticket size products. Rajesh does a great job of identifying the gaps in how companies offering pro-biotic products are approaching the Indian market, and I see some of these gaps being filled very quickly.

- Sudhakar Ram, Founder and CMD of Mastek Ltd, looks forward to Mastek Ltd, looks forward to the third wave of Indian outsourcing

My top-of-the-mind views: Most industry insiders agree that it will be difficult to sustain the growth rates of 40-50% in the IT/ ITES sector if it stays rooted in the labor arbitrage mode. Sudhakar urges Indian IT companies to start making substantial investments in building intellectual property and creating solutions that have strategic impact and top management visibility within client organizations. Many Indian IT companies have adopted this approach of late, but with limited success. It will be interesting to see how many Indian IT/ ITES companies are able to move beyond labor arbitrage and transition to the ‘third wave’.

- Vijay Anand, founder of Proto.in, says that Indian entrepreneurs need to be more aware of their environment.

My top-of-the-mind views: Vijay gives a lot of invaluable advice in his post, including making your offering environment-proof, factoring in the negative use cases, thinking change-the-world big, and remembering that the world is a balance of chaos and equilibrium.

- Kamla Bhatt believes that a pure-play corporate blogging approach may not be successful in India

My top-of-the-mind views: Kamla believes that Indian corporates are more likely to embrace social networks than corporate blogs. I think that corporate blogs and corporate presence on social networks serve objectives that sometimes overlap but often don’t. Therefore, corporates in India will do well to use both, based on the context, the community and the nature of the conversation. Expect a longer post on this topic sometime soon.

- Atanu Dey dissects the food-versus-fuel dot-corn debate

My top-of-the-mind views: The mandated increase in the use of corn-derived ethanol as fuel in the US has led to much chest-thumping, with both camps strongly supporting their stands. Atanu Dey separates out the various issues involved in the debate in his trademark erudite style.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Gaurav Mishra Week 2, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2, Rajesh Lalwani Week 3, Ranjan Varma Week 3.

Posted on Gauravonomics Blog

Subscribe to my book-as-a-blog ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ by Email

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The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 2

- Kamla Bhatt interviews ITwoFS’s Karthik Srinivasan on plagiarism in Indian film music

My top-of-the-mind views: While the Indian music industry is very vocal about piracy, it’s especially silent on the issue of plagiarism. ITwoFs (for IIFS, or Inspired Indian Film Songs), whose tag line is ‘Chronicles of Plagiarism in Indian Film Music’, is a website by communications professional Karthik Srinivasan devoted to exposing over 500+ instances of such ‘inspirations’ by Indian film musicians. Kamla does a great interview to bring out Karthik’s range of knowledge about music. Karthik, by the way, also writes a fascinating 100 word review blog at MilliBlog.

- Maninder points out that the Idea Rocks India’s MSN microsite is a wrong idea

My top-of-the-mind views: Idea Cellular is promoting ‘Idea Rocks India’ as India’s ‘first online singing contest’, but instead of creating their own website, they have hosted the contets on an MSN microsite. Maninder points out several reasons why the brand, and the property, are being shortchanged in this execution. To, me, this is another example of how agencies and brand managers do not benefit from the digital medium in spite of spending money on it, because they approach it from a mass media paradigm.

- Kartik Varma, co-founder of iTrust.in, writes a three part series on startup financing in India at Pluggd.in: part 1, part 2, part 3.

My top-of-the-mind views: Kartik uses his experience in raising funding for iTrust.in to give some valuable insights on how much capital to raise in the first round, how to calculate the valuation of your startup, and how to read through the various clauses on a term sheet. I have been tracking the Indian startup scene for a while now because I want to start one of my own, and Kartik ’s series tells me that there is still much about running a startup that I don’t quite understand.

- Mayank Bidawatka, Head of Marketing at RedBus.in writes a guest post on Pluggd.in to demystify SEO and SEM concepts for startups.

My top-of-the-mind views: Mayank’s post will serve as a great starting point for a startup trying to build online presence. I totally agree with Mayank that SEM is more important to kick start your web presence initially, while SEO is more important over the long term. Therefore, even as I fine-tune the SEO for my new project ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, I have started a Google AdWords campaign to give it the initial push.

- Sudipto Majumdar, CTO of Zapak, outlines the rise of gaming cafes in India and Sashi Reddi, founder of FXLabs Studios, predicts that 2008 will be the breakout year for the Indian gaming business.

My top-of-the-mind views: I haven’t really tracked the Indian gaming industry so far, except pushing for a brand-centric business model for mobile advergaming, but Sudipto’s and Sashi’s posts have triggered enough interest in me to start a separate gaming category on this blog.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2.

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The Idea

For a while now, Rajesh and I have been discussing how business bloggers in India don’t do enough to promote each others’ content. Out of that discussion came the idea of forming a network of influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is at the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 1

- Rashmi Bansal from Youth Curry interviews the young founders of CMYK Health Boutique Private Limited, operating the ‘Four Fountains’ spas

My top-of-the-mind views: Four Fountains is unique because it’s a brick and mortar startup, in a world obsessed with online and mobile. I also like the attitude of the team, their belief that they will make things work once they leave their jobs, their persistence in letting go of their first discount retail chain idea and moving on to the more marketable affordable spa idea. There are learnings in the interview for everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur.

- Namrata Balwani, Business Director, Media2Win on what ails online advertising in India

My top-of-the-mind views: My pet peeve is that agencies approach digital media with the ‘interruption marketing’ paradigm prevalent in traditional media instead of the ‘permission marketing’ mindset that is appropriate for it. I believe that digital media works well for two extreme objectives — generating leads and building communities — and for little in-between.

- Vijay Mahajan of BASIX on why the waiver of mass debt in Indian budget 2008 only benefits large farmers

My top-of-the-mind views: As I said in the Hindustan Times Young India Forum panel discussion, the big question after the Indian Budget 2008 is: where will the money to fund Mr. Chidambaram’s generous budgetary allocations, including the Rs. 60000 cr. debt relief for farmers, come from? The other big question raised in this post is: will the election-motivated debt relief package actually benefit the small farmers it is supposedly meant for?

- Manoj Dawane, Chief Executive Officer, Mauj Mobile on the future of the Indian mobile-VAS industry

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, Mobile VAS will drive not only mobile usage, but also web 2.0 usage. In fact, mobile will be one of the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian web 2.0 startups, including social networking sites.

- Venturewoods, Ashish Sinha from Pluggd, Pranav Dharma from Startup Duniya and Aditya Mishra on the Jason Calacanis “startups need workaholics” controversy.

My top-of-the-mind views: Aditya, Veer and I discussed this topic in our recent podcast with Aditya Mhatre from Indicast. We agreed that startups do need people who are totally passionate about the business and people who work for large organizations are indeed in for a culture shock if they move over to a startup. The big insight was that entrepreneurs should set an example for their teams by being passionate about the business and practicing frugality themselves.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Rajesh Lalwani, Ranjan Varma.

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Alootechie, which has established itself as the Indian online industry’s news monitor, has a new look and a new focus.

I have known about the revamp for a few weeks now through conversations with Sidharth, Ravneesh, Saket and Asfaq, so when Ravneesh told me today that the new website was up, I knew what to expect.

Apart from the staple Indian and international digital industry news, the new magazine-style homepage displays a featured news story, an interview of the month, job and event boards and several guest articles. Inside, Alootechie has extended its coverage to include mobile and gaming.

While the present website is still work-in progress (watch out for the newsletter, podcasts and vidcasts), I must congratulate the Alootechie and Webchutney teams for the really cool revamp.

My favorite part of the revamped website are the guest posts, which are basically expert opinion pieces written by industry insiders. While each topic covered in the first set of these guest posts deserves a separate post on this blog, here are my top of the mind thoughts on some of them –

- Sandeep Singh, Business Director, Quasar on the future of the digital advertising agency in India —

The specialized agency model has come of age and has proved itself to be a successful one. The success can be seen by the interest large global advertising networks & VC’s have shown in the space. Now, with specialized agency model getting more specialized and niche (search marketing agencies, mobile marketing agencies, social media agencies, and digital creative hot shops making their presence felt) the scene is heating up further.

We will soon see a deluge of digital agencies and, apart from the top half a dozen integrated digital agencies, the only players to stand out from the crowd will be specialized search marketing agencies, mobile marketing agencies, viral marketing agencies and social media agencies.

- Manoj Dawane, Chief Executive Officer, Mauj Mobile on the future of the Indian mobile VAS industry –

VAS revenue predictions (are) estimated to reach Rs 4, 600 crore by the end of the current fiscal from Rs 2, 800 crore in 2006-07, according to Assocham. Going ahead, content, platform and exhibition are the key factors that will mould the existing structure of the industry.

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, Mobile VAS will drive not only mobile usage, but also web 2.0 usage. In fact, mobile will be one of the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian web 2.0 startups, including social networking sites.

Kalyan Manyam, Founder, Indyarocks on how can an Indian social networking site differentiate itself –

The possible areas, where a new SNS can differentiate are: 1. Innovative ways of communicating and sharing 2. Localization through Entertainment or Education.

My top-of-the-mind views: I think Language (English vs. vernacular), mode of access (Internet vs. mobile) and social dynamics (global vs. Indian) will be the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian social networking sites.

- Sunny Saurabh, Co-founder, Antya on people-powered search engines –

Simply put, a human-powered search engine is a search engine that takes into account human intelligence and leverages the power of the community to provide the most relevant information to the end user. India today attracts over a billion searches per month. As more and more people come online every year, the need for relevant information increases.

My top-of-the-mind views: I think people-powered search engines will be the limited in terms of both scope and scalability and their promise of more intelligent search results will only be realized once the semantic web takes over.

- Venkat Ramna, Chief, Valuepitch Interactive on how negative search results can erode the equity of consumer brands –

Search phrases on corporates can be categorized as brand words, negative words and research words. For negative phrases (icici sucks), one can expect negative results; for phrases pertaining to research (icici bank reviews) it’s ok to expect some negativity along with the positives; but for brand phrases (icici bank), finding negative results is a bad brand association.

My top-of-the-mind views: It’s obvious to me that online reputation management will involve much more than only search engine optimization.

Sachin Bhatia, Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer, MakeMyTrip on online reputation management for brands –

With e-commerce growing in India, the Internet becomes a great place for people to both review and then buy a product. Therefore it’s critical for brands to ensure that they are positively mentioned online, that positive reviews are far greater than negative comments that customer ratings are high for their products and this can then lead to immediate and higher conversions.

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, brands will need to embrace social media because social media will be the only cost effective to reach consumers.

Namrata Balwani, Business Director, Media2Win on what ails online advertising in India –

With over 30 Million active internet users, and mobile internet also coming up, this is no longer a medium to ‘test’ but to integrate into the marketing plan. Some of the leading websites in India have more users than the total readership of leading English dailies! And the brand can directly interact with the consumer.

My top-of-the-mind views: My pet peeve is that agencies approach digital media with the ‘interruption marketing’ paradigm prevalent in traditional media instead of the ‘permission marketing’ mindset that is appropriate for it. I believe that digital media works well for two extreme objectives — generating leads and building communities — and for little in-between.

So, I don’t agree with all the opinions in these guests posts, but I think, if done well, they have the potential to start off discussions around the Indian digital media industry. Going foward, the challenge for Alootechie will be to ensure that its guest posts are of consistently good quality.

In summary, it’s a step in the correct direction for Alootechie, and, if you are interested in understanding the Indian digital media industry, I would strongly recommend that you check out the new Alootechie.

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Invite designed by Melody

When: Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 8:00pm
Where: A/65, Sea Lord, Opp Taj President, Cuffe Parade, Bombay, India

Peruvian-Colombian blogger Juliana Rincon Parra is the Latin America and Video-Blogging editor on Global Voices. She is also great fun to spend an evening with (based on first hand recent experience).

Here’s an opportunity for you to meet up with her and discuss the state of Latina American blogosphere, the nuances of video-blogging, or just hang out.

You can find out more about Juliana at her Global Voices profile or her Facebook profile.

What’s more, here’s a bonus for the regulars at my parties. Unlike the usual party at my place, where I spend most of the time cooking dishes or mixing drinks, I’ll not enter the kitchen at all. So, not only can you spend time with Juliana, you can also (finally) spend time with me.

The event is free and pizza and wine/ beer is on the house. Bring along a nice bottle of wine, if you must, but otherwise, just bring along your blogger friends and your sense of fun.

If you are not in Mumbai, let me know you are coming to the event by adding a comment below, registering for the event on Facebook, pinging me on Twitter, sending me an e-mail, or calling me up at +919223366624.

If you are not in Mumbai, please pass along the invite — e-mail, blog, tweet or share on Facebook — to your Mumbai blogger friends.

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I have already written about why I love Patrix’s blog -

- Patrix has an intuitive understanding of how conversations are created on blogs, and, as I try to understand the nature of online conversations myself, I find myself looking up to him as something of a guru.
- Patrix has an innate curiosity about technology and popular culture and the ability to write from an enthusiast’s perspective, something any blogger would do well to emulate.
- Patrix is one of the most generous people I have known, online or offline, and, via DesiPundit and his own blog, he has probably done more to promote desi blogging than anybody else.

Patrix belongs to the second most widely seen species of desi bloggers, the doctoral-student-blogger (the first, of course, is the journalist-blogger) and I’m sure that you’ll meet many more bloggers from this species in the ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ interview series.

Patrix says that he doesn’t like being in front of the camera because he isn’t photogenic. So, I took the liberty of using a picture from a