What I have been doing

Doing all sorts of things except updating this place. Why so? no one knows. You know what, as I write this sentence I am being pinged on Google Talk by a friend who is asking a perfectly timed question: “Last post on TechnoDiary - Oct 20 ?? Why?”. Such a great coincidence because he doesn’t know I am writing this post.

Alright, lets find answer(s) for this post’s title. I have been:

• Optimising sites
• Making money online
• Hiring freelancers
• Shopping:
  • PSP 3004 (trying to find a gamer in me)
  • iPod Touch 2G (simply rocks)
  • ASUS EEE 1000H laptop (gifted to my sister)
  • Cheap headphone (works perfectly fine)
  • 8 GB pendrive
• Reading books:
  • A briefer history of time
  • The Google Story
  • Let’s dive into Python
• Watching movies
• Hanging out with friends once in a while

The above list summarizes quite a lot of things which kept me occupied in last few months. Besides, I did have semester exams which I don’t think deserve to be in the list above. Cheers.

Learned a Lesson

There was a guy (kinda friend) who used to ask me hell lot of questions about websites, blogging and all. I helped him every time and anytime, of course free of cost and favours.

Few days ago he started a few blogs in the same niches I blog. In simple terms he is now a competitor. Am I stupid? or what? did I help him only to make him so knowledgeable that one day he’ll challenge me directly (or indirectly). And more frustrating thing is he’s out of touch, both online and offline.

Lesson learned: "Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll steal your fish."

I am writing this post in too much of anger. I might delete it once I am cool.

Just bought - HP Deskjet F4185

Price: $74 (MRP is $105, I got a good deal I think)

Shipping: Free

Product Specifications

My old HP 3550 was almost dead and I also needed a scanner/copier, so bought this from ebay. This is my second purchase from ebay, first one was a $5 wrist watch. I hereby admit that I had a wrong perception that all ebay sellers were scammers and bidders were fakers. Sorry guys. :)

All of a sudden I am consuming more information than ever before

In last seven days I have seen some abnormal (positive) behaviour in my online activity. Like:

1. Started using Google reader, tracking 60 feeds daily.

2. More active on twitter now (mostly in read only mode though).

3. Checking Sphinn’s upcoming section more times daily

4. Using Gtalk more than ever before

5. Reading IBNlive.com every hour or so

6. Watching business channels online at in.com (and on television, I have started watching BBC, CNN for news on global economic crisis).

7. Checking out random presentations on Slideshare

So, what brought these changes? I am still wondering.

Google PageRank is like Paris Hilton

Because people keep declaring it as unimportant but never stop talking about it. Yes, this post ends here.

Bears Have Taken Over

I am not disheartened by The Great Indian Markets Debacle yet (it will take some more time), ok it’s not only Indian it’s global in fact. I do have some positions which I have been holding from few months, at that time I thought markets couldn’t go lower than that, but here we are.

Whilst USD-INR exchange rate providing me some relief, I am looking for some more opportunities to invest in. Reliance Industries, JP associates, Reliance Capital and few other fundamentally strong stocks are there in my list of candidates. I am just waiting for the markets to show some signs of getting bottomed out. Fingers crossed.

Three Crucial Decisions

Over the last two years I have been experiencing steady growth in my business. Spikes and valleys are inevitable in every business, so are in mine. I am sharing with you three decisions which I think were very crucial in my growth:

1. Targeting long tail

Top rankings for big keywords was all I wanted in my initial strategy, wasn’t really successful in doing so, lack of patience being the obvious reason. Then later I started targeting long tail keywords and fortunately the niches I was targeting were full of thousands of long tails.

2. Hiring

I was reluctant to hire anybody because I used to give importance to short term benefits over long term stability. But hiring had to happen due to lack of time. Now I consider it the best decision I ever took in my business, willingly or unwillingly - that hardly matters now.

3. Going official

Some 7 months ago I officially registered my firm in the name of Impact SoftTech Private Limited. It changed nothing else (except the taxes) but made me more serious about business and that’s the most important thing.

Having done a lot more than people usually do in my age, I am still nowhere near the stage where I could tag myself ’successful’. Lot more and bigger things to be done. Wish me luck, I wish same to you :)

Some Quotable Quotes I Practically Follow

1. "Sometimes majority means fools on one side"

2. "If I am wrong, don’t scream, just prove me wrong"

3. "Fail to plan means plan to fail"

4. I am not supposed to be - "Jack of all trades and master of none"

Cash Cow Is Necessary To Let You Innovate Fearlessly

Last evening I asked my friend Amit Sethi why he is not blogging these days, his answer was again a question, rather an interesting question:

I am in a fix, should I write the way I want to write as yet or something serious that will get traffic?

In simple terms he was asking whether to blog for money or the way blogging is supposed to be done. What I feel is that you need to feel secure before you can do what you want to. Cash cows are very important, they make one feel financially safe and let him innovate and think freely.

Google has adsense, Microsoft has windows/office.. Yahoo has ..oops yahoo doesn’t have one, they will have a search deal with Google nevertheless.

Back to Amit’s question, I think he should blog in both ways, who says one can’t have more than one blog.

You can see that TechnoDiary is ad free and you probably know why.

Dollar thrashing Rupee - Good for us, but for how long?

It was only in my dreams that I could think of US dollar trading at above 45 INR. But, it’s all happening these days thanks to US(global?) economic crisis. Dollar closed at 47.81 INR today, which is an appreciation of over 20% from 39 point something INR earlier this year. Which means we are getting 20% more for the same earnings.

Not good for the Indian economy but really great for Indian webmasters and exporters. Indian exporters however are not much benefiting from the rupee debacle because overseas clients are asking for good discounts and less demand is backing them.

For me and other fellow webmasters in India, it’s like a Diwali gift. But what I think is if the slowdown gets prolonged then it will considerably affect the online budget of companies, and as a result we will also see some downside in our earnings. Great exchange rate will tend to get neutralised with decreased volume of advertisements. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I predict the USD to trade at 50.00 INR in near term. Do you second me?