Kush Srivastava's Blog, page 26

Don’t Drink and Poo!

A decade back, I would have never talked about it even in my dreams but today, courtesy of working in the health and sanitation sector, I feel compelled to narrate this incident. Just yesterday, a very dear friend of mine happened to narrate to me a story that changed his life for good.

As a youngster, I am sure you must have gone to parties or discos or farm houses and might still continue to visit the likes. And at times these places tend to be located a little away from the city where you wouldn’t generally find any kind of habitation or people especially during the late hours.

My friend happened to visit one such place with some of his friends, a farm house, located nearly 100 km away from the city. They had a blast. They got extremely drunk and while returning, one of my friend’s friend got a direct call from the nature to the extent that he couldn’t afford to control the same for another 70  km left to be covered.

No matter, how fast they drove, it would have taken at least half an hour to one hour before they could reach home. So, they decided to find a place where he could cater to his instinctual urge. Finding no community/public toilet, they decided to take a halt at a hamlet and thought of requesting local folks to help them find a toilet.

To their surprise, they couldn’t find any toilet in the entire village and he was left with no other option but to venture into the bushes. The bushes came along with its own set of challenges and fear. There could be snakes searching for their prey, there could be thief eagerly waiting to bounce at the opportunity of making a buck or two.

But he didn’t have any option but to fight his fears on this very occasion. So, he decided to walk a midst the bushes to look for a suitable place where he could take it all out of his system. After roaming around for a couple of minutes, he finally found a place, where he could see some light in the background.

As he was about to begin with the rituals, a huge shadow came from behind and he became seriously terrified. In order to calm himself down, hallucination was one reason that he could think about for what he was perceiving. But this reason couldn’t last for long as the very next moment, the shadow spoke to him: “what are you doing here?”

Relieved that the shadow was indeed a man who knew the language, all his senses that had become numb due to the overdose of alcohol came right back and he got up from the posture that he was in.

Turning round, he could see a man with his lath standing in front of him. Taking note of the situation, he realized that he was about to poo right next to this man’s house, who had seen him approaching and had come outside of the house.

He knew that it was in his best interests to apologize to this man, which he did. The man replied, “This is not the place, we go to another place which is around 1 km from here” and the man provided directions as to how he can approach the place.

The path that the man had shown him was an isolated place. There was no electricity and it was extremely dark. The urge was high enough to motivate him to venture into the unknown. After walking for another 20 minutes, he finally managed to reach the place of his redemption.

To his horror, the place smelled very bad. In the moonlight, he could see a couple piles of excreta lying everywhere. He felt like puking but he couldn’t have afforded to wait. With no option in hand, he sat down at a place which he refers to as the only possible place. As he was about to conduct the ritual, he could feel something on his leg.

He took out his mobile and realized that a huge object was trying to crawl up his leg. He took out his mobile to see what exactly it was. The moment he put on the torch, he just froze seeing a huge snake trying to crawl up his right leg.

Finding some courage, he caught the snake and threw it away. Thereafter he ran as if a 100 m sprint was going on and managed to reach the place where his friends waited for him. Without narrating the event, he got into the car and had to hold on to his instincts for another 45 minutes.

On reaching home, without bidding good bye to his friends, he ran to the door and went inside. His friends found the behavior a little different from what is expected. But they decided to call it a night.

It was only when they met again the next morning that he could explain things to his friends. On one hand, they all broke into laughter, but on the other hand, a thought struck all of them and suddenly they all stopped to ponder over a very major issue that seems to plague the have-nots in our society, which is lack of toilet facilities, leading to all sorts of health and sanitation issues.

There are more than 600 M people in India who do not have access to toilets, leave alone clean toilets.  It’s a pity that even after nearly 7 decades of independence, we have not been able to provide them with a basic facility like providing a toilet, which makes me wonder why no one thought about it before PM Modi started the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and if it was indeed thought over then why the hell it wasn’t implemented.

Without trying to conduct a post mortem for what has happened in the past, what I would suggest to all of us is to do our bit when it comes to helping the have-nots to achieve a dignified way of living. It could be donating a toilet. It could be donating money. It could be anything that comes under the ambit of charity and trust me, by doing so, the kind of satisfaction one will derive will be no less than what one derives in any sort of meditation.

Bhind Moraina!

बड़े दिनों बाद आज कुछ लिखने का मन कर रहा है और वो भी अपनी मातृभाषा हिंदी में. अक्सर आपने भिंड मोरैना की बातें सुनी होंगी. हम ज्यादातर भिंड को डाकुओं से जोड़ते हैं, और एक बाहरी इंसान के लिए भिंड का अस्तित्व केवल डाकुओं तक ही सीमित रह जाता है.

लेकिन अगर आपको किसी भिंड में रहने वाले इंसान से मिलने का वो सुनहरा अवसर मिलता है, तो आपको प्रतीत होता है कि भिंड में डाकुओं के अलावा भी बहुत सी ऐसी चीज़ें और बातें हैं जिससे आम तौर पे हम अनदेखा कर देते हैं.

और आज जिस कहानी के बारे में मैं यहाँ पे वर्णन करने वाला हूँ, वो एक ऐसे इंसान की है जिससे एक हसीं गलती हो गयी, उसे इश्क़ हो गया और वो भी किसी और मजहब की लड़की से. वैसे तो प्यार या इश्क़ करना कोई बुरी बात नहीं होती लेकिन अगर यहीं इश्क़ या यही प्यार भिंड जैसे छोटे ज़िले में किसी और मजहब की लड़की या लड़के से हो जाये, तो इस्पे तलवारे भी खिच सकती हैं.

लेकिन इश्क़ करने से पहले कोई ये तो नहीं सोचता है ना, कि इस हसीं गलती का क्या हश्र होगा. कहते हैं होनी को कौन टाल सकता है. और कुछ मायनो में ये एक होनी ही थी. अक्सर दोनों साथ में ट्यूशन पढ़ने जाते. दूर से आँखों ही आँखों में इकरार हो जाता और उस एक हँसी के लिए वो लड़का ना चाहकर भी पढाई में ध्यान देने लगता.

अपनी पुश्तो में एक लौता ऐसा लड़का जिसने पढाई करी. माँ बाप को लगा कि आने वाली पुश्ते इसी लड़के के चलते सुधर जाएंगी, पर उनको भी इस बात का बिलकुल भी इल्म ना था कि वो पढाई क्या क्या रंग दिखाने वाली थी.

दिन बीतें और फिर साल. वो दोनों बड़े होने लगे और बचपन का वो प्यार और गहरा होने लगा. भिंड में मिल पाना तो दूर अगर कोई साथ में खड़ा हुआ भी देख लेता तो कहानियां बनने लगती. नेता अपने हित में मजहब पे बात को ले आते और घर वालों तक बात पहुचने पे शमर्सार होने के अलावा उनके पास और कोई चारा ना होता.

इसलिए दोनों केवल फ़ोन पे ही बात किया करते. और एक दिन इस बात का पता सबको चल गया. मानो पैरो के नीचे से दोनों के ज़मीन खिसक गयी. लड़की का बाहर आना जाना बंद हो गया और लड़के को उसके माँ बाप ने बाहर पढ़ने भेज दिया, ये सोचके कि कहीं कुछ गलत ना हो जाये.

लड़का भी अपने माँ बाप की कसमों से बंधा बाहर पढ़ने चला गया. लेकिन इश्क़ का परवान ज़ोरो पे था. दोनों छुप छुप के मिलते और हर रोज़ फ़ोन पे बात करते. इस बात की किसी को भनक भी ना होने देते. ४ साल के बाद जब वो लड़का पढाई कर और इंजीनियर बन के भिंड लौता, तो उसे पता चला कि लड़की के माँ बाप उसकी शादी के लिए रिश्ते ढून्ढ रहे हैं.

लड़के ने सोचा कि वो लड़की के माँ बाप से बात करेगा. हिम्मत जुटाके उसने लड़की के पिता को फ़ोन लगाया. और आगे कुछ ऐसा हुआ जो लड़के ने अपने सपनो में भी नहीं सोचा था. लड़की के पिता ने लड़के से विनती करी, कि वो लड़की की ज़िन्दगी से चला जाये. उन्हें इस शादी से कोई इंकार ना था, पर वो डरते थे कि भिंड जैसी छोटी जगह में अगर उन्होंने ऐसा कुछ किया तो या तो दंगे हो जायेंगे या फिर उनको भिंड छोड़ के भागना पड़ेगा.

लड़का भी दुविधा में आ गया. वैसे तो उसमें दुनिया से लड़ जाने की हिम्मत थी, लेकिन वो इस दुनिया में अकेला ना था. एक तरफ था उसका और लड़की का परिवार और दूसरी तरफ थी वो लड़की जिसके लिए वो कुछ भी करने को तैयार था.

लड़की के पिता के आसुओं ने उसको बहुत प्रभावित कर दिया था. वो भिंड छोड़ दूसरे शहर नौकरी करने चला गया. लेकिन अपने को वो उस लड़की से बात करने से ना रोक सका.

आज आलम ये है, कि ४ महीने में लड़की की शादी है. लड़के के बहुत समझाने के बावजूद लड़की ने लड़के को बोल दिया है कि वो खुदखुशी कर लेगी. लड़का करे भी तो क्या करें.

क्या आप कुछ सुझाव दे सकते हैं? क्या लड़के को लड़की को भूल जाना चाहिए? या फिर उसे भगा के ले आना चाहिए?

हमारी सोसाइटी में आज भी, अगर महानगरों को छोड़ दें, तो ऐसे बहुत सारे शहर और ज़िले हैं, जहाँ मजहब के नाम पे, जातिवाद के नाम पे लोग इंसानियत भुला देते हैं.

जहाँ तक मुझे पता है, हर मजहब इंसानियत को ही मुख्य तौर पे सबको अपनाने का सुझाव देता है. फिर क्यों हम ऐसी मान्याताओं में पड़के इंसानियत भूल जाते हैं. क्यों हम अपने दिमाग का इस्तमाल ना कर कुछ लोगों के बहकावे में आ जाते हैं. क्यों हम भेड़ चाल का हिस्सा बन, इंसानियत को अनदेखा कर देते हैं.

सोचिये अगर आप के साथ ऐसा हुआ होता, तो आप क्या करते. क्या तब भी आप भिंड के अधिकतर निवासियों की तरह इंसानियत को अनदेखा कर देते और अगर आप प्रशासन में होते तब क्या आप इन दोनों का साथ नहीं देते.

सोचने की बात है. कहते हैं ज़िन्दगी आगे बढ़ जाती है, और लोग सब भूल जाते हैं. लेकिन पूछने वाली बात ये है कि क्या हम अपनी ज़िन्दगी को ऐसे आगे बढ़ता देखने के लिए तैयार हैं?

Source for Image: http://thinkingparticle.com/image/ate...

Banka BioLoo! Sanitation Personified!

Long time no see! Ya, the past couple of months have been no less than a roller coaster with destiny taking me to all nooks and corners of the land which we all refer to as India.

From Kolkata to Jamshedpur, from Delhi to Hyderabad, it has been quite a journey meeting new people, hearing different perspectives and opinions, getting to know the World of management consultancy and ending up with a social entrepreneur.

But there is one meeting that I would want to refer to in particular and that’s with Mrs. Namita Banka, MD of Banka BioLoo Private Limited. To put it simply, the lady is energy personified. She cannot sit still. She needs to be on the move and doing her bit. She has big plans and she wants to make it big.

She can be referred to as the symbol of a modern 21st century lady who believes that things can happen. Her belief makes her do things which in times to come will surely change the way the sanitation industry is going to operate in the coming 2-3 years time.

She has been a pioneer in WaSH sector with big media houses such as CNN and Bloomberg giving recognition to the efforts that the lady has put in. With a plethora of awards to her name, she is all set to change the lives of those in need.

With a co-founder like Mr. Akhilesh Tripathi with immense amount of operational experience and an intellect par excellence, and providing the much needed support to her vision, don’t be surprised if Akhilesh ji and she becomes a household name in say 2-3 years from now.

In my blog, today, I salute the lady and many more who have contributed big time in changing the lives of the deprived lot in our country thereby ensuring that the efforts result in creating an equitable World.

Source for Image: http://iseeindia.com/2013/11/09/banka...

The Exploration!

For the past couple of days, I have been conversing a lot with some old friends, family members and some new friends that I have made over these past couple of days. 

Don’t know why and how but somehow the conversations have revolved around the basic theme of what we all want from life. Might be that we all are if not a little concerned but surely trying to find answer to the biggest mystery that seems to surround us all. 

If you are wondering how and when we will be able to decipher the same, then my dear friend, I must tell you that it might take an entire lifetime to do so, not sure for certain that you will be able to reach the pinnacle of discovering the same.But the journey of being able to explore the same seems to be exciting in itself. 

As far as I am concerned, life for me is discovering who you are and then trying to live life to your own sweet will. But I must be kidding when I make that naive suggestion that we don’t know who we are, right!

Well, to be brutally frank, we don’t want to know our inner self. We are too engrossed in the nitty-gritty of life so as to ignore the real aspects associated with the same. The biggest question though is why should we all try to delve into the deeper and inner aspects? After all, we are all happy living the way we are                              

We can go on debating on whether the kind of happiness that we all experience in our day-to-day life is real or not, but let me present a perspective which might ring some bells in your mind.

Consider a state A, where you are happy (though I would want to call it pseudo happiness) and consider another state B, where you know for sure that you will be healthier and happier. Wouldn’t you want to go  from A to B? The only catch here is that while going from A to B, you might have to face certain challenges and might have to delve into certain kinds of explorations which you might not be prepared for at the moment.

Would you then want to give up to the fact that you might not have the courage and possibly the skill set to be able to explore the world in order to reach state B? Would you be tame enough to treat pseudo happiness as the real happiness or would you want to explore the myth behind the same? Would you want to continue living in the hope that some day someone would come and give you salvation or would you be brave enough to explore your own path to salvation?

These are questions for which answers can only be found once we dive into the exploration of our own lives. This, in no way, implies giving up your life as a professional and move into the woods to do the same. Just that, you need to modify the way you live and think and perceive a tad bit and you will notice a considerable amount of change in your psyche.

This will surely lead to a better understanding of who your are and would in turn result in a much healthier and happier lifestyle. 

The choice is yours. Whether you want to continue living your life in a web created by the who’s who of your personal society or you want to make yourself feel free from the pseudo bonds that you seem to have accepted as the real truth.

Just need to go out there and start exploring and that is what our life might have wanted from us the moment we took that first little step in the enclosures of our protected households. 

Source for Image: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/125...

Connecto! Journey of a Start-Up

Every start up has its own share of fun and challenges. And so does, Connecto. If you are wondering, how it might have all begun, it was an idea and a desire to satisfy a need that made the founders of Connecto embark on this wonderful start-up journey.

A need that we all as consumers want to be satisfied, when it comes to website browsing and a need which makes us feel like being catered to by the very owners of the website, be it an e-commerce one or a blog.

The founders were quick to realize the gap in the services that needed to be filled and they went on to develop this wonderful customer engagement tool which allows the website owners to engage their customers in a more meaningful manner, sending customized messages, offering them to fill survey or feedback forms or even request for a call back.

Initially, it was difficult to convince the website owners about the effectiveness of the tool. With the belief that the founders had in their tool and in order to instill the same kind of belief among the website owners, the founders decided to offer this tool free for a month.

The proposition put forward by the IITian founders was that only if the website owner was convinced of the tool and only if the tool helped them get better conversions and ROI on their sites, would they discuss the terms and conditions of the tool.

It didn’t take long for the website owners to realize the power of this wonderful tool. Since then, the founders have received considerable acceptance for their tool.

Those who have used it want to continue doing the same and those who haven’t been lucky enough to get a taste of the same, are eagerly looking forward to receiving the wonderful service provided by this wonderful tool.

Yes, the start-up has had its own set backs. Going around convincing the owners wasn’t easy. Yet, the founders stuck to their beliefs. Initially it was perplexing for the founders as to why the website owners weren’t able to understand the value addition that this tool brought along with itself.

The founders decided to change their approach and decided that they would offer their tool for free in order to overcome the barrier presented by the mindset of the website owners and a rigid approach towards conducting business.

What followed was extremely pleasing to see. The website owners backed by the wonderful results witnessed by them concerning their conversion rate and ROI, became open to the possibility of Connecto doing wonders for them.

Today, as we look back on the journey of this wonderful start-up, it has been a tremendous learning and eye-opening experience for the team.

What lies ahead are exciting times! With an intention to meet needs of the consumers and with an intention to partner the website owners and the various businesses around the World in their journey of growth and success, Connecto is all geared up to keep innovating and keep evolving their product/tool at the same time developing new ones.

Source for Image: http://www.inqbation.com/lean-startup...

Accountability and Transparency in India: Perspective of an “Aam Aadmi”

People have given their mandate and it is believed that the new government will be and can be the one stop solution for all our problems. Whether it would be or not is yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure that there is hope amongst the population.

And one such hope that makes me excited on a personal level is that people who are given the power and the responsibility to execute scheme of things in their respective domains will be held accountable for what they are doing at the same time, the decisions, impacts on the population and the basis of the same will be made known to the public.

I believe this will not only empower the population to express their opinions and take part in the decision making process but also it will create an atmosphere of transparency which would enable the population to develop a resonance with the entire concept of a welfare state.

The question though is, how on earth this can be made possible. People have got used to a way of living that encourages corruption and jugaad, be it getting a driving license or a passport made or be it availing any other service from the bureaucrats and other government officials.

The secrecy act, that was implemented at the time when British ruled India still remains on paper and in practice and even in the Right to Information Act, 2005; the secrecy act has not been repealed. But is the government the only entity to be blamed in this case?

Well, not really! It is the people who need to contribute on a personal level. Imagine a scenario, where everyone refuses to bribe a government official for the service he/she is supposed to provide and consider it as their right to be correctly informed, then would the government official have any other alternative than to serve you in his/her best possible ability.

The point that I am trying to make here is that we should try to be the change that we wish to see in others. We cannot expect others to do their part and continue to loiter around without any sense of responsibility towards our nation and her citizens.

The idea is to adopt a comprehensive and multi-sectoral approach wherein both people and the government they elect, along with the government commit to this culture of transparency and accountability.

The question that arises here is where should we start from? Some would say that education is the key when it comes to developing the all-important morals and ethics in an individual and the schools need to be structured in such a manner so that utmost importance is given to these wonderful aspects not only in theory but also in practice.

It is no hidden truth, that children learn the most by observing others in their vicinity, be it the teachers in schools or parents at home, or their peers with whom they play and have fun. All stakeholders in this case need to do their bit and contribute to the development of a child who thinks and does things keeping in mind the value system and the ethics, dharma that India has been known for since our Ancient times.

We just need to rediscover that dharma and play the game by the rules that dharma seems to support. A good initiative in this regard could be setting up gurukul like schools where in the students can be made to learn the importance of living an upright life. The teachers that need to be recruited for such schools need to be people who are genuinely interested in improving the state of affairs in this sector and have lived accordingly setting an example for all to emulate.

Though, I would want the infrastructure to be of the highest quality, yet even if to start with; the infrastructure doesn’t match the likes of international schools, it can do without if these values and morals are instilled in the lives of the students.

When these kids go on to become government officials, I am pretty sure that things are going to improve. They would frame and implement policies which would have an in-built transparent character and in turn would take responsibility for their actions. The ideal case would be when they would not need anyone to monitor them from above for doing what they are already supposed to do.

In this ideal scenario, there would not be any need for a grievance redressal committee; there would not be any need for multiple bodies on which the government exchequer is wasted and this money in turn would be utilized for implementing various development policies, be it in agriculture, healthcare, employment sectors etc.

But we aren’t living in an ideal world, so to say, and we need to discover solutions to all our woes keeping in mind that the ideal will take some time and enormous effort to implement. We can start by implementing the ideal at the same time we need to provide support to this ideal initiative.

The support could come from the Civil Society, known for keeping the government on its toes for implementing the various schemes in an efficient and effective manner at the same time making sure that the government is held accountable for the responsibilities that it has undertaken.

The Civil society in turn needs to be supported by the big shots in the politics and corporate world. On part of political world, the legislature should leave no stone unturned when it comes to enacting laws which would prove to be a blessing in disguise for the common folk who will feel empowered by the state to fight for his/her rights, and there shouldn’t be any sort of delay in enacting the same.

The laws should be such which enables, encourages and makes it easy for people to do good rather than the bad. On part of the corporate world, the corporates need to understand that they have a social responsibility towards the various stakeholders whose lives they seem to effect and that they need to do business but in a responsible manner.

A good initiative in this regard is the 2% initiative, wherein the corporates would be made to invest 2% of their profits in CSR activities, thereby ensuring that the corporates contribute in this process of nation building.

Transparency should become a norm and secrecy an exception. Yes, I agree that certain truths about our national security needs to be hidden in order to make sure that they are not misused, but the rest on which a number of times politics is played and people are kept unaware just because the big shots will get a chance to exploit them in some way or the other needs to be made public.

A culture of information sharing on a voluntary basis needs to be instilled in the minds of the government officials for which adequate training should be provided in institutes like LBSNAA.

Every government department who is in the business of providing services to the citizens needs to have a charter in place where in a timeline is mentioned with regards to how many days it will take for a particular official to implement his/her duty and a clause mentioning what and how one could redress one’s grievance in case the official doesn’t fulfil his/her duty.

If at all such a situation arises, where an individual needs to appeal for redressal, it should be made sure that the redressal process is fast and cost-effective. Special courts and tribunals can be instituted for different departments in order to handle the departmental mess.

This would not only reduce the burden on the likes of High courts and the Supreme Court, but would ensure that justice is provided to the people in a cost-effective and timely manner, because justice delayed is as it is justice denied.

The right to information Act is an excellent initiative in this regard when it comes to moving towards a culture of transparency. But the lacuna in its implementation needs to be filled and it should be ensured that the very ideology behind implementing the same is pursued.

Decentralization is another aspect where in if people are given the responsibility of deciding what is good for them on a community level, will in itself lead to transparent functioning. Though there will certainly be a need to put in place a fully functional social audit system, monitored by the likes of SDM and DM in the respective districts.

This would not only enable people to take control of their lives but would also ensure that they understand the difficulty and the various challenges that are faced by the government when it comes to implementing various schemes. This would in turn enable them to develop an attitude of bonhomie towards the government and a collective approach towards problem solving.

Coming to the various welfare schemes that are being implemented, per se on a policy level one can go on debating on the utility of the same; but on an implementation level certainly improvements can be made.

Some of the factors that have marred the various schemes from effective implementation are hoarding, corruption etc. One reason that one can associate with this is lack of transparency and information sharing.

People are not aware of what they are entitled for, whom they can approach and talk to in case they don’t get what they are entitled for. Rights based awareness generation is the need of the hour. Various NGOs, Anganwadi centres and the likes of SHGs can be made aware of the various schemes that are being implemented by both central and state government and they in turn can disseminate this information to the people at large.

Till the time rural electrification and internet connection is taking place, it should be ensured that information display boards are put up at panchayat level or block level in the local language wherein people can come and read about the various entitlements and then demand the same from the government officials in charge of disseminating their duties.

In case the government official goes back on fulfilling his/her commitments, the social audit body should be mandated to look into the same and recommend disciplinary proceedings against the official which should then be taken up on a high priority basis by the state government. Same applies to any other sector be it healthcare or be it agriculture.

The need of the hour is to have:

An attitudinal change on part of the government officials;

Rise in awareness quotient on part of the people;

Accountability mechanism for quick and cost-effective redressal on part of the state and central machinery;

Social auditing at community level;

A platform for information dissemination and opinion sharing;

Education of the highest quality on the lines of gurukul;

Tribunals in various departments for reducing the work load on the HC and SC;

Reforms in criminal and civil codes and the justice system with concepts such as Amicus Curie and Alternate Dispute Redressal given importance;

A will/desire on part of our government to improve the existing scenario;

Responsible voting behaviour on part of the people;

Being the change one wishes to see in others on part of the population;

Participation in decision making on part of the people at local level through decentralization;

Skill set development at community level to be able to work along with the government in a collective manner;

I am sure, if the above is implemented it will lead to an atmosphere and culture of transparency. People and government will start working towards nation building in a collective manner and the day will not be too far when the ideal would become a reality.

Sound monitoring mechanisms would encourage righteous behaviour. A strong accountability system would restore faith of people in the government and a better and a brighter future for India.

That is what one should not only hope for but should also contribute to the same at one’s own level. Isn’t it?

Source for Image:  http://beautifultrouble.org/principle/take-leadership-from-the-most-impacted/, http://www.commirza.com/accountability-up-and-down-is-gold/

Deciphering SEO!

Since the time I have started writing a blog, I have become familiar with the 3 letter word SEO. Though, my blog is not commercial as in it is not helping me earn money, yet I thought of doing some research on this 3 letter word in order to understand what this term might mean and what implications it can have for those who are into the business of making money via blogs.

Below is a humble effort to being able to help those who seem to find themselves on the other side of the table when it comes to making money from their blogs or websites and hopefully this small effort might prove to be a blessing in disguise for the same lot.

Here I present my analysis of what SEO is and what steps can be taken in order to improve your site rank. By the way, I would also like to thank one of my clients who helped me understand and decipher the mystery.

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with one of our clients and he told me that his site rank (http://www.alexa.com/) has taken a beating for the past couple of months and is headed in a downward direction.

The reason that he could think of was switching from one platform to another and he was totally perplexed on how to go about improving his site rank.

Without further delving into the conversation that we had with our client, this problem is quite common when it comes to websites trying to figure out a way where their rank could go up in order to drive more traffic on their websites which they wish would result in increased conversions on their site, whether it be lead generation or actually subscribing to lets say their blog or say selling some product via their website.

Some of the common strategies that one can think of when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or to put it in a lay man’s language, to be able to increase one’s website’s visibility on search engines like Google are:

1. Original and well written content on your website is the need of the hour. You should make your site dynamic and should try to update your content on a regular basis, keeping in mind the relevance for your customers.

2. Increase your visibility by participating in all relevant forums and let search engines find you through back links.

3. One should choose a SEO-friendly URL

4. One should also try to keep the design of one’s website SEO and user friendly.

5. No matter how much you think that meta tags have lost their relevance, they surely play a big role when it comes to SEO and search engines.

Hope this helps. You can also watch a video that I am attaching along with this post. For further queries you can sign up on http://connecto.io

The Virtual Salesperson

Too much text to read can be so boring. And if you happen to be on a website with lot of content on it, then it is a given that you will get bored to the extent of exiting the website page.

How wonderful it would be if someone comes up to you and says, “Do you need any help? What are you looking for?”

The entire idea of establishing yourself online and using the wonderful features that IT presents, is to be able to do things conveniently and efficiently.

And if this were to be marred by the complexity and density of the content on the website, the entire purpose might be defeated.

But what can you do as a website owner? You surely have lots and lots of information to share to your prospective customers. You want to show every little detail that your service or product has to offer.

You want your offers and deals to be shown to your prospective customers whenever they visit your site. You want to know how they might find your website or your service. You also want to know their opinions.

Now, if there is a product in the market, that does just what you want and that too in a manner in which your customers don’t feel intruded, then won’t you be eager enough to explore the same.

Won’t you want an option wherein a product or what we can hence forth refer to as a virtual salesperson comes on board and caters to your prospective customers on your website.

Sounds interesting? If it does, then why not visit our site http://www.connecto.io and give us a chance to let you explore the wonderful product that we offer, which does all of the above that I have mentioned in this blog post.

So, what are you waiting for? Come on our website or give us a call @ +91-9794542565 and get to know what difference this product can make to your turnover and conversions on your website.

The ConnectO team will be eagerly looking forward to hearing from you. Let us join hands in enabling you to become best at what you do.

Conversions! The Bottom Line

Can you imagine what will be the fate of an e-commerce company, say selling apparel online if there were to be no conversions i.e. if there were to be no sales from the site in spite of people visiting the site?

Well, in all probabilities the business is going to suffer losses and will eventually need to shut down the same, thus bringing a doomsday for the start-up and the investors who had invested their hard-earned money in the company.

The biggest question therefore is how to ensure that the people or in this case the prospective customers who are visiting the site, which we can also term as the traffic on the site, end up subscribing/purchasing a product etc. thereby leading to fulfillment of the aim of the company that was formulated the first time it came into existence.

Some of the things that I am about to mention here has come from various sources from the internet. The thing is that I would like to share with you, in order to ensure that you get the best out of what you are doing.

First thing first, it is extremely important to let your customer have a wonderful time interacting with your site. There should be no bugs on the site, which deter the customers from playing with your site.

Second, many a times what happens is that you tend to give too many details which are unnecessary from the customer’s point of view and you end up annoying the customer more, without letting him know in what way a particular proposition will benefit the customer. Thus, the sales pitch needs to be precise and to the point, at the same time, should be informative to the extent of being able to show the utility of your product or service.

Third, having too many CTA (call to action) on a single page is a nuisance for the customer. Trust me, it’s better to have just one main CTA and the rest should direct everything towards this one CTA.

Fourth, the “thappa” is very important, when it comes to internet. So, if you have say a particular logo (say of visa) on your site, you are considered to be a credible website. Because people believe in the “thappa” effect, therefore you need to get at least 2 to 3 credible thappas on your website in order to develop a sense of trust in the customers for the website.

Fifth, never be satisfied with your conversion rate. There is always a scope of improving it further. keep analyzing and keep testing the same which would result in conversion rate optimization (CRO).

If you can keep these little yet great things in your mind, then I am sure, you are going to love what you are doing, which will get reflected in increased conversions and in turn increased sales and ROI.

Source for Image:  http://blog.statcounter.com/2008/07/conversion-update/

Connecto: The New Kid on the Block

I woke up this morning with a strange feeling of being wired up. No matter where I go, I tend to be surrounded by wires and signals running all over my being. Yes, you can call it by what ever name you want, be it the internet revolution or the IT revolution, the fact is that we all are living in a Matrix (taking the liberty of borrowing this word from the famous movie), wherein we can be tracked every moment where we are going, what we are doing, what intentions we might have and what behavior might be expected of us.

Whether it be walking on the road with our mobiles in our pockets or whether it be browsing the internet, we are being tracked for every movement we tend to make, be it the mouse on which we move our fingers or be it the smart phone which we might be using for browsing the internet or sending a message to our friends on whatsapp. 

If you are feeling that your lives have been intruded, well to certain extent yes. But as you might be aware that there are always two sides of a coin, one which you feel happy about and the other which you don’t really take great pride in, so is this very aspect of making our lives go digital.

Without going into the cons, as cons are in itself defined to be such by the impact that they are making and by the very nature of usage of the pros, let me try to focus on the pros of the same.

One thing is for sure, that our lives have become simpler. If you have any sort of doubt regarding this, let me cite a couple of examples which might leave you on the pro side of things.

Imagine the kind of hassle one had to go through while paying, say an electricity or a phone bill. How much effort was required when it came to booking a train ticket! How wonderful it is that we can now book a cab or a taxi using the wonderful facility of a phone or internet!

On part of the consumers, so far so good. Let me now talk about how this has altered the way businesses are being run and what impact it is having on the sales or generation of leads and ultimately the ROI, which indeed becomes the bottom line and can be a key determinant when it comes to existence or non-existence of an entity.

How wonderful would it be for an e-commerce company if they can have a software product or a tool wherein they can gauge how much time a customer is spending on a web page or a particular page and they in turn can pop-up customized message based on the intent and understanding of the need of the customer! For instance, a girl might be looking to buy a top (say) and then suddenly a pop-up message like, “hey, we have the most fashionable tops at lowest of prices, please click here.” or say, something like, “Do you need assistance in buying a top, please click here.”

Won’t you feel wanted and catered to by this virtual sales person? And this indeed can go a long when it comes to acquiring and retaining a customer from the point of view of an e-commerce company.

This, I have cited for an e-commerce company in particular but can be made applicable to any other company, whether it be a broker looking to acquire leads, or be it a travel company like makemytrip.com which is on a constant endeavor to satisfy the customers’ thirst for choosing the best possible travel deals which fits in perfectly well with their budget.

And one such product/tool that does exactly what I have stated above is Connecto (http://www.connecto.io/). It can be called no less than a revolution in this world of digital marketing, wherein it can help the businesses understand their customers’ intent and buying behavior and in turn enables them to engage their customers in a more focused and customized manner, which ultimately shows up in increased sales and increased ROI (defined by the sales achieved per $ of money invested in digital marketing).

The wonderful thing about using this product is that you don’t really have to spend money like you would have spent, say on any social networking platform like the facebook or linkedin and even better is the ROI that you get by using the features offered by this product/tool.

My take on the product is:

“If you are an e-Commerce company looking to increase your sales and customer base; if you are an NGO, trying to reach out to your investors or people in general;

if you are a property broker looking to generate more leads;

if you are a travel site looking to engage your customers in a better manner in order to increase your conversion rate;

if you are a blogger who wants to interact with your clientele which in this case happens to be the readers; or

if you are any person with any kind of presence on the internet in terms of having a website; you got to grab this opportunity of using this wonderful product which comes with an initial free trial period and then depending on the impact it is having on your businesses, you can decide to upgrade it or not. 

You just need to visit http://www.connecto.io/ and sign up for a call back and then the efficient customer service that these people have, will get in touch with you and will help you better your prospects of minting money. With excellent service, coupled with a team of programmers from  IIT Delhi, this seems to be the best bet when it comes to real time data analytics and constant and meaningful engagement with customers on a real time basis.

Source for Image:  http://www.connecto.io/