Anand’s Journey Towards The Unknown

This past month and a half has been one of the toughest of my professional career thus far! Reasons? Me, myself and my emotions.

Anand dont act like a child, please grow up!

Anand I dont trust you anymore!!

Anand you are the biggest emotional fool i have seen!!!

Anand I hate you!!!!

My actions made me hear the above sentences from people very close to me over the past month and a half. Did I give up? YES and then NO. I had given up but then I was motivated by my well-wishers to keep going. And I am glad that I did keep going!!

I have been learning to learn things in life the ‘hard way‘ for this past month and a half.When I look back to the hard times, the title of this post rings in my mind… Let me share with you all how one can learn (according to me) to “learn the hard way”

1. Be your biggest critic: Criticisms from others is the last thing one would want. But, if we can learn to take the criticisms in a positive manner and work upon them then we will surely succeed. Hence, being one’s own critic always helps!

2. Control your emotions: Emotion, this word goes hand in hand with me. Although I always try my best to hide my emotions, I end up on the wrong side. One cannot hope to do well in any field if he/she is too emotional. Emotion while at work is a dampener for sure.

3. Keep personal and professional relations aside: Another aspect I am seriously working on. Workplace relationships are not helpful at all. Thus, its always better to keep any personal relation away from one’s professional life.

4. Deserve before you desire: Do you dream of getting success before you really deserve it? Are you over-confident with what you do? If the answers are yes, better leave aside the thought that you will succeed! Patience is the key. I have always believed in “if I carry out my responsibilities to the best of my abilities, no one can stop me from doing well.” Bottomline, one should always wait for the right moment to arrive.

5. Learn to accept mistakes: I think i have been quite adamant at times in my life, to accept my own mistakes! This has resulted in a few strained relationships as well. I am learning to leave aside the bad attitude of not accepting my own misdeeds.

6. Think before you leap: Very important indeed. I have made my life a mess many a times just for not thinking enough before taking the plunge.

I can write a whole lot more here but that would make some of you go off to sleep! Lets see if you can add something more here…

So, until next time…

AK

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Hey guys,

Thanks to Anindita di, kiddo Anand is finally back here to wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Q. What is my resolution for this year?

A. To become more mature as a human being. Some people want me to. Lets see if I can make it!

BTW, no prizes for guessing the child in the pic.

Thanks for your emails asking me to blog more frequently.

Cya soon!

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Hi guys,

I am back after a while, and that too with a bad news for you all.

Bad news? Well, yes. More so if you are a blogger or a webmaster who used to be jumping for joy each time google sent you the fat pay for the AdSense clicks on your site/blog.

Confused? Ok, here is what the big G has decided…

ACCIDENTAL CLICKS ON ADSENSE WONT BE PAID ANYMORE!!

Not sure what do I mean? Read what Google says,

“we’ve just changed our text ads slightly to help reduce accidental clicks. In the past, users could click on both the background and full text of an ad, but now they can click only on the title and URL of a text ad. By allowing users to click only on the ad title and URL, we aim to decrease accidental clicks, better aligning visitor behavior with their intent. Overall, the decrease in accidental clicks will keep users on your website, interacting your content, until they intend to click on an ad.”

The image should have made it clear for you by now. There are people on the web who make a living out of AdSense only. This step would be a serious jolt for them.What do you feel, is it a good move by G or something that would seriously put back publishers and help only the advertisers.Here is what others are saying on this move,

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/3503359.htm

What do you say????

Keep thinkin’. Until then, sayonara!

Other Google related posts:

Funny Gmail Video

Technorati Tags: google, google adsense, google-adsense, adsense, adwords, advertising, blogging, internet, internet marketing, online marketing, anand, anand kedia, iamanand

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Hi guys,

During my stint of more than one year at GrmTech I have seen many a faces come and go. At times I have wondered as to what is leading people to leave the company even though it was providing enough flexibility. My curiosity drove me to explore and find out the tentative reasons as to why people do leave companies. But in an attempt to be a little different this time I tried to find out why people stay with their organizations instead.

Here’s why,

1. Better pay packages is by far the most attractive factor that acts as the decisive factor for one staying or not with an organization.

2. Opportunities for faster learning is also an improtant reason that keeps employees stick.

3. Growth Prospects (professionally)/ career or job growth is often looked upon by people as a good scope for the future.

4. A friendly and team based work culture is a must for big companies trying to keep their employees with them for long. It is seen that a non-friendly work environment affects the longevity of employees with their companies.

5. Value added job enrichment.

6. Right man at the right place concept implementation.

7. Basic utilities upkeep.

8. Participative orientation towards organizational development.

9. Human element: Humans as a Capital and not resource only.

10. People stay with companies where emotional aspects are duly considered.

11. Motivation & Morale building is also an important aspect.

12. Good people stay where leadership traits are identified & utilized as well as developed.

13. Where mentoring is done for assuming higher roles and responsibilities.

14. Good people would always like to stay in a company where they can gel well together with their colleagues.

15. Employees would always want to stay with a company where they see the possibility of their dreams getting fulfilled.

16. Challenges at work keep people motivated to go the extra mile.

17. People would always stick to companies where proper training for further development and grooming is conducted.

18. Efficient organizational policies for development and functioning also keeps employees stay put.

Its quite obvious that the non-availability of the above aspects force employees to leave their organizations. I am a complete layman when it comes to HR but the above data was collected from various sources and I shall be the happiest person in the world if it makes sense for the HR Manager of a Company.

Time to take out the blogging cap for now! Cya and Happy Pujas.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: human resource HR anand anand kedia

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Hi guys,

Just the other day in office I realized something strange happening with my yahoo messenger - the status bar just would not take more than 40 characters!! Stange, ain’t it? To me, definitely yes.

I thought may be I was doin something wrong but that wasn’t the case (Anand isnt always wrong after all!) . It actually was that Yahoo has imposed a limit to the no. of characters that one may type in the status message. I am sure many people in our office would be holding their heads in disbelief by now because they need to provide long status msgs at times to make others understand what they are working on.

Today after googling I got to know that indeed it has happened with others across the world as well. But strangely I couldn’t find a single page where there was any announcement from guys at Yahoo on this!!

Even the official Yahoo Messenger Blog doesn’t say anything. Strange for a biggie like Yahoo!!

What you guys gotta say on this? I gotta roll outta office now. Cyas

Technorati Tags: yahoo messeneger yahoo messeneger status yahoo messeneger status message yahoo yahoo messeneger status message limit

Update: Yahoo has this update for all of us.

Hey friends, Yahoo has fixed that problem!! Now you can write long status msgs again.

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As everyone knows that link exchange is still one of the most determining factors to get a better ranking in major Search Engines (SEs), hence it becomes very important to write that perfect link exchange request email at the very outset. Here are a few sure shot tips to write the perfect request email:

Be polite and courteous – That’s the first most important thing with a link exchange request. One can certainly not hope to get a link by threatening or abusing the other party. A few soft lines would certainly help.

Do not use ready email specimens – Webmasters these days are smart enough to know the advantages of link exchange so you need not explain it all over again. Certain webmasters these days have filters set up that catch such types of readymade templates and throw them into the trash bin.

Know the site you are requesting to – If you end up requesting a totally non-related site for a link then that just wont work. Make sure that you have certain idea about the site before sending the mail.

Tell the other party more about your site – One can also try to provide a bit more data about one’s site, like Google PR, Traffic to your Website, Alexa Rank, Rss Subscriptions, No. of Members (in case of communities), Technorati Rank, Position in SEs for important KWs., etc.

Praise the other Website – Putting in a few lines about the potential link partner wont do any harm. A webmaster is more likely to review your website if you have already done it and mentioned some praise in your request.

Give an irresistible offer – Most webmasters and link builders these days give out link offers from pages that are hidden way beyond the chances of getting any clicks. Such offers wont work. Make an offer that is completely irresistible. One from the home page would certainly help the cause.

Get up, close and personal – Yeah, it works! It always helps to know the name of the person to whom you are addressing the letter. Thus try to find out the name within the site or if that doesn’t work try the whois information. “Dear Anand…..” works better than “Dear Webmaster….”

Add a good signature – Always round off your link exchange request email with a decent signature that shall have your full name, organization /website, email address and phone. This helps the other guy to be sure about your credibility.

Afterall, you just would not want your email to end up being termed the dumbest link exchange request ever!!

Do add a comment if you have any more points to add to this.

See ya.

Technorati Tags:link exchange link building link exchange email search engine optimisation reciprocal link exchange online marketing

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You guys must have understood what this one is all about. Yeah, you guessed it right, I am gonna be a ‘Chachu’ soon. This has to be one of those special posts for me.

The news was broken to me by my ‘Boss’ at office who happens to be my brother too (you can put it the other way round too ). And I was like sooooooooooooooooooooo happy. My bhaiya and bhabhi in office were also happy too. Why they wont be, they are gonna be Tauji-Taiji soon.
I took chocolates and cold drinks for bhabhi while returning from office.

Imagine a chota sa baby callin’ me ‘Chachu’ - Wow yaar! I just cant wait for the day. I am so so excited. Ab to aaplog ko maana hi padega that Anand bada ho gaya hai yaar.

Chalo, lets keep it short. Let him/her come and I will share all the naughty stories of Chacha - Bhatija….. Although I would prefer it to be Chacha - Bhatiji.

Until then…………………………….. Keep Smilin’

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See what they did to me….

 

Thank You GrmTech.

Special thanks to Debashis da, Aji Sir, Prabhat da for the make-up and Debashis da for the pic.

Any comments????

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Hi everyone,

The past week has been a real experience for me. In a way, you can say, it was the most satisfying week for me at GrmTech. Reasons?

• Our team started to reap the dividends of a move that I had put forth before my Boss for approval around 15 days back.

• I was given an opportunity to be a part of a training session for the new batch of Internet Marketing Associates, which I enjoyed to the fullest when I got the chance to speak in front of the group. Thanks to our HR (Daisy Ma’am) and Leader (Aji Sir) for the opportunity.

• Also, earlier in the week, Aji Sir had involved me to make a presentation to clear some of the doubts of our content writers on how to write effective articles that would fetch links.
• While doing the presentation (my first one ever! Thanks to Manojit da for the help) I got to learn a few things on writing effective link baiting articles.

Yes, that’s what I am going to share with you all in this post. – Link Baiting is the modern name for viral marketing or viral link building.

The single biggest priority for a content writer is to provide quality content to its reader base. But that’s not all. Until and unless, your piece is not attracting links you are a dead duck in terms of SEO (sorry if I am being too harsh!) But once you write something that is really “good” then you just need to sit back with a beer-can and count the inbound links.

Wondering what qualities would fetch you automatic links? In the words of Andy Hagans (the master baiter), “packaging is queen, promotion is the crown prince and a baity title is the Sword of Excalibur.”

Here are a few sure shot tips,

Proper market research – Its important to analyze the trend before writing an article. Give your readers what they want.

Write about what is being talked about – It’s seen that latest talked about news pieces attract huge audience. Hence, a content writer needs to be on his/her toes to have a solid grasp of the recent pieces.

Give your article a good thought – Before sitting down to write an article it would always help if one visualizes in his/her mind the structure of the article (length, beginning, conclusion, etc.)

Write a catchy title – Remember your title would in most cases determine how many people would actually read your article. Make sure to think of 3-4 titles before choosing the best one suitable for you. Still confused as to what makes a good title? Here are a few tips.

Use important keywords and description – If you are looking to optimize your article, make sure to use some of the important keywords in your title and opening lines of your article. Also write a quality description.

Proper use of formatting, grammar – People like to read properly formatted articles rather than encouraging an odd color here and there. A single spelling mistake in the first few sentences is enough to kill your article before it begins to grow.

Write an enticing introduction – The reader gets an idea by reading the introduction, hence if the intro is properly knit out half your job is done!

Write a long article – Believe it or not, long articles are talked about more. Here are examples,

• http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/09/labor-day.html - look at the no. of technorati links, saves to del.icou.us, digs, etc.

• http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization - Yahoo Backlink 4763

• http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm - Yahoo Backlinks 4052

List the main points – People are attracted more towards reading content that is presented in a listed format rather than an essay style way. Something like “101 ways to…” sells morethan plain text.

Use images where possible – As they say, pictures speak a thousand words; readers are always attracted towards articles that have some catchy images within its body. Thus, the use of images won’t do your article any harm.

Write a summary – A properly written short summary of your article would make the reader to stay on to read the entire piece.

Use story hooks – Use different types of story hooks to catch people to link to you.

Think before you Spill – Be 100% sure before you show your article to the world. You can get feedbacks by submitting your articles to forums. See what people are saying. Make the suggested changes before you throw the dice because if you are doing it after people see it that would leave a bad impression and would certainly impact your audience.

Make it easy for fellow bloggers/webmasters – Try to have something like “link to this article” that would enable webmasters and bloggers to link back to your article easily and directly from your article.

Have a good rapport with fellow writers – A good writer would always respect a good piece of information. If you can make friends with some top rated writers on the web, it would act as a booster to drive more traffic to your article as they would start talking about you and referring to you.

Promote your article – There are various methods to promote an article on the web,

• promote in your website
• write press releases
• put your link in relevant forums
• use newsletters by taking out ads in the industry
• submit to social bookmarking sites (Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Delicious.etc)
• comment in blogs with links to your article.

Here’s how link baiting scores over link building,

• Get rid of writing link requests.
• Takes away worries of having to respond to link requests.
• Get rid of unlimited stress resulting out of fear of setting a link pattern or having links from bad neighborhood sites.
• Stop worrying about having to spend long hours searching for future link partners.

• Spending all your energy in monotonous jobs like submitting to web directories, etc.

So what are you thinking? Rush off and write a link bait article now!! And do not forget to tell me how many links you managed with your article at the end of it all.

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