Archive for July, 2007
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 16 Jul 2007, 11:29 PM - 1 Comment
In a few hours after I posted “How to execute a link exchange” I got a few emails stating that I went overboard on this one 
I respect everyone’s opinion and my goal was not to hurt anyone else’s feelings. My apologies if I inadvertantly hurt someone’s feelings. That was not the intention.
OK. Here is my fundamental problem with a link exchange request. When you send a link exchange request, you are almost saying that “I want to conditionally link to your content. And, really, it is very easy to satisfy the condition – you link back to me”
My point:
1. If you find content on some blog that your readers will find it useful, why not link freely?
2. And, if you don’t think your readers will benefit from the linked content, why link to it even when you get a reciprocal link?
My $.02 of course.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 16 Jul 2007, 6:07 PM - 1 Comment
Simple answer: You don’t!
Somewhere (actually, a lot of places) someone (actually Google) said that the best way to get higher up in search engines is to get a lot of links from high-quality websites. So when you are starting out, it may be tempting to go and seek out a lot of links from high-quality websites. The short-cut to the process would be to try and execute a “link exchange” program. In simple terms, a link exchange is an offer of linking to another site if the other site links back to you.
We all know that this model is flawed. The only people who will comply with this request will be people who also need links. The people who deserve to be linked are already getting linked without any of these programs. So you may end up with a lot of incoming links from sites that are also starting out. It’s of no use because you need links from websites that have a higher page rank than yours.
What is the solution then?
The solution is to NEVER venture into a “link exchange” program. Rather than that, use your time to go and build compelling content that is backed by an identity (of yourself) that will lend credibility to that content. Now, this takes time and effort and cannot be done in short-term. This is in fact good because not a lot of people will walk the last mile anyway.
In parallel, go out and build long-term relationships with people that matter to you.
Links will come if people that matter think that “their” readers will derive significant value from your content.
All the best!
Related eBook: Lasting Relationships (20 pages, PDF, Free)
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 16 Jul 2007, 5:00 PM - 2 Comments
Knowledge is power. Actionable knowledge is more powerful. Of course, it does not matter if you don’t take “action”.
Enjoy the quote.
“The competitive advantage of a company is its ability to translate knowledge into action.”
- Jack Welch
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 13 Jul 2007, 12:19 PM - 1 Comment
The original is in Sanskrit. I don’t know Sanskrit but I was delighted to find the proper translation from Isha Foundation.
Here is the original prayer
Aum…Aum…Aum…
Asatoma sadgamaya
Tamasoma jyotirgamaya
Mrutyorma amrutamgamaya
Aum Shanthi…Shanthi…Shanthihi.
Here is the translation
From Untruth to Truth. From Darkness to Light.
(From Ignorance to Enlightenment)
From Mortality to Immortality
May I be lead
Aum…Peace…Peace…Peace.
My $.02 – the timing is such that all of us in the world need this prayer. Wish you the very best!
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 10 Jul 2007, 6:41 AM - 1 Comment
I had an opportunity to talk to Michael Sampson yesterday. Michael is based in New Zealand and via his company Collaboration Success Advisors helps companies make the most of technologies related to collaboration and productivity.
Michael captured the essence of iPolipo brilliantly on his blog. Here is the link
Michael Sampson: Briefing with Rajesh Setty on iPolipo July 10
It has been an exciting journey with iPolipo. Hari and I never wanted to build “another” calendar sharing tool. That comes out in the briefing. For that, Thank you Michael.
Other quick udpates:
Posted under Announcement, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 09 Jul 2007, 6:20 AM - Leave Comment
So why not promise them just that?
This is the advertisement for UC Berkeley’s 5-day product management course.
I have a lot of respect for UC Berkeley and I have had the opportunity to work with fantastic students who have come out of that college. If an institution such as UC Berkeley has to “stretch” it a bit, you can only imagine what others have to promise to attract students 
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 08 Jul 2007, 6:09 AM - 3 Comments
Yes, both of the above have one thing in common – drawing conclusions based on flawed data sets.
Wall Street Journal and Financial Times carried stories about the new trend – reverse offshoring!!!
Bangalore wages spur ‘reverse offshoring’
was the title of the article in FT on July 2, 2007. The grounding for the conclusion is that a small company moved 20 engineers from Bangalore to Silicon Valley. Well, that was an exception. Such things happen all the time but the difference here is the brilliance of the PR team of the small company. They used an event like this to generate massive publicity and drew attention to the company in general. Hats off!
I was in India recently and met the CEOs of several companies of various sizes. One thing was clear and common – every company I met there was on a hiring spree. Talent shortage and retention were the biggest problems discussed there.
My $.02: Reverse Offshoring is happening for sure – but not at the scale that these publications want us to believe.
Related articles that talk about drawing conclusions based on flawed data:
Have a great week ahead!
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 08 Jul 2007, 5:39 AM - 1 Comment
Seth Godin talks about the importance people associate with dates like 7/7/07 and more. The reason for this, Seth says:
“Simple. People are meaning machines. We look for hints about what the future will hold and add meaning, often where there is none.“
I agree with Seth. Extending the same argument, the other possible reasons could be:
1. If so many people are doing it, it must be right
In other words, people follow the crowd – a lot of times blindly. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been stock market crashes, dot-com bubbles etc.
2. Just in case…
While it’s VERY hard to put logic behind such things, people also don’t want to be left out “just in case” there is some meaning to it. Hey, if they are anyway going to get married and it is not hard to move the date to 7/7/07, why not?
3. It’s cool…
For the next few weeks or for the rest of their lives, they can use this as a conversation starter
My $.02 of course.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 07 Jul 2007, 9:27 AM - Leave Comment
This quote courtesy of Ted Santos of Turnaround Investment Partners
If your destination is too easy to reach, probably there are many people who are already there. You won’t get a prize for reaching there. If it is too good to be true, it probably is
Enjoy the quote.
“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”
- Frank A. Clark
Posted under Great Quotes, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 04 Jul 2007, 12:54 AM - 1 Comment
I am flying to Washington DC tomorrow to attend (and speak at) the TANA 2007 conference. While I was booking my car rental at CheapTickets.com (Yes, I work for a startup) I saw an ad for HotWire.com. Here is the image
Of course, the price at HotWire was cheaper than CheapTickets.com and I had no choice (again, I work for a startup) but to book my ticket with Hotwire.com.
I really don’t get it. Unless CheapTickets.com and HotWire.com are owned by the same company, it does not make sense for CheapTickets.com to send me to a competitor site. Yes, they made money through advertising but lost money on the deal
Posted under Business Models, Main Page.
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