Independent Analysis: AI, SaaS, and Revenue Growth Strategy

I thought this was humorous. Sometime this evening on Google Chrome I started seeing the mobile version of Twitter. And along with that a 'Follow" option on my @shashib page. I clicked the "Follow" button to get the message " You Can't follow yourself" :) Ha ! ha !

Its not a secret that I love the Washington Post. Today I spent a lot of time reading the Business section almost word for word. Here are links to the articles that were interesting to me and you should check them out. A Golden Age for Cheapskates Nancy Trejos The article talks about people looking for frees tuff on the web. I remember the day I got a free pair of Asics in the late 90's I think just for giving them my email address. Michelle Singletary talks about how to get a job when your resume feels like you are overqualifed. Landing a Job When Your Résumé's Too Good for It Tom Heath @addedvalueth   Fitting everything in the Frame that discusses how a local framing business is coping with the economy. Mike Musgrove let out a secret Where Tinkerers Take Control of Technology You can follow hacdc at @hacdc to get details of their meetings and to join one. Imagine that they have rigged a device that tweets when someone enters the room at the meet...

Anita Campbell introduced me to Craig Sutton and that lead to the honor of speaking at the Learn About Web - a small Business conference in Denver on September 14th and 15th 2009. Learn about Social media, web design, and search marketing to attract more customers to your Website and if you don't have one this is your chance to start. Here is a coupon code for the Learn About Web conference CODE=@shashib  and this gives you $199 off and is valid till April 30th. Hope you will register specially if you are in and around the Denver area. This conference is very timely for Small Business folks looking for help in finding resources and guidance to get online and expand their reach. Network Solutions along with University of Maryland released a recent study " Small Business Success index" . here is a extract from the report How can small businesses improve their competitiveness in the marketplace? Use the Internet. Assuming that a venture capitalist is no...

On Thursday, April 30 from 2-3pm ET, Network Solutions will host the GrowSmartBusiness Webinar to help small business owners learn from the success of others. Join our all-star line-up of entrepreneurs and experts for this free, live webcast. They’ll discuss tips for overcoming challenges to marketing strategy and capital access. Roy Dunbar, CEO of Network Solutions, will host the conversation. Our speakers include: · Kristina Bouweiri, CEO of Reston Limo , the largest independent limousine service in the U.S. · Anita Campbell, Editor of Small Business Trends · Kelly Muccio, Founder of Lost Boys , a fashionable clothing store recently featured on Good Morning America · Surfy Rahman, Co-owner of Indique , a popular DC-area restaurant chain. Register and get the details at http://growsmartbusiness.eventbrite.com . To learn how YOU score on the Small Business Success Index, visit www.growmartbusiness.com . Please ehlp me promote this event as thi...

Photo credit by energizerbunny1017 ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/31733217@N04/2969754619/ ) The American Kennel club describes the Portuguese Water Dog Portuguese Water Dog is a loyal worker and companion. Medium-sized and robust, the breed possesses a waterproof coat and the ability to swim all day. Its coat can be curly or wavy and is black, white, or brown, or combinations of black or brown with white. Referred to as the Cao de Agua (dog of water) in its native Portugal, the Portuguese Water Dog was bred to accompany fisherman on their boats. An exceptional swimmer and diver, the breed retrieved broken nets, dove for fish, carried messages between boats and to shore, and guarded the boat for his master in foreign ports. The breed started disappearing in the early 20th century when technology made his daily job somewhat obsolete, but Dr. Vasco Bensuade, a wealthy Portuguese shipping magnate and dog fancier, saved the breed. Want to get your own go to the Portugu...

2008 trip to macchu picchu peru 222 , originally uploaded by shashiBellamkonda . Just loved this picture of Peru Rail. The train runs from Ollantaytambo to Agua Calientes.

Six steps to building a successful online community Creating value for members Giving members the ability to create and share content Rewards the efforts of your community evangelists Give your community multiple feedback channels ( not only back to you and but to otter channels) Sharing potential revenue with your community Be a part of the community Community is a group of people that share a sense of ownership Community do not form over the idea of being monetized but monetization can happen as a result of the community Example SavvyAunite .com  ( http://savvyauntie.com/defaulthome.aspx ) do you know what PANK is ? comment here and ask me or ask Mack Collier . http://laststraw.usewd40.com/ WD 40 evangelist community "The Last Straw" A Thousand Words - Kodak Blog Creating content and sharing leads to collaboration When members work together to create content ownership is then transferred from the in...

Beth Harte  The Harte of Marketing kicked off the afternoon session with PR 2.0.  here are some points from her talk and I have included tweets from the OMBC Twitter Stream You  cannot control the message about your company on blogs  or other social media channels. if you want to control the message buy an ad. Do not attempt to ghost blog for companies Understand how to work with people complaining about your company. They are empowered to give their opinion. First Step in PR 2.0 - Listen You may discover that there is not much of a conversation about you Listening Tools many of them do not give you a tone (Shashi's note) Go to the bottom of this page http://www.openamplify.com/Social_Matcbox_DC and just type negative text ( thanks @weinberg81) For research purposes monitor your competitors keywords too PR is the advocate for the customer and community @ MackCollier : If the people you want to reach aren't on Twitte...

  I am at King of Prussia in Philadelphia for the Online Media Bootcamp a day long, exclusive internet marketing training conference , just outside of Philadelphia, PA. The other speakers along with me are Beth Harte and Liana Evans ( organizers) Valeria Maltoni and Mack Collier   Here are some nuggets that were on Twitter . You can find by following the OMBC thread here http://cli.gs/msj2SD Social Media Fundamentals :  Liana “Li” Evans @MackCollier : Social media should mesh with your larger comm strategy and compliment it, not be standalone @ storyspinner MackCollier : If you engage and respond to detractors online, you can convert them into evangelists (YES!) Social media does not have the immediate conversion like SEO and PPC Corporate Blogging Session : Valeria Maltoni ConversationAge Blog best practices : distinct & objective focus, authentic voice, enable comments, regular posts Contact info on the Blog is impor...

its a honor for Network Solutions and me to be invited to speak at the April meeting of the DC Web Women . DC Webwomen is a professional organization of about 3000 members located in the DC area . Our members are professional women, students and enthusiasts who specialize in the fields of Web Design, Web Development, Computer Science, IT, Graphic Design, Web Content, Blogging, Multimedia, Marketing, e-Marketing, SEO, Web Analytics, and Social Media. WHEN:   Tuesday, April 14, 2009 TIME:   6:30 networking; 7 pm program starts WHERE:   Aquilent in Laurel, MD WHO:   Open to all COST:   $15 for DCWW Members / $20 for non-DCWW Members SIGN UP FOR EVENT: http://shashi.eventbrite.com/ I hope to see you there. Deborah Anger DCWW Program Chair and  Search Engine Marketing Expert set an email about the event to the members saying: Our next program on social media promises to be a hit! We have the social media swami (yes...

There are 81million search results for the term "google + twitter" on Google. The Twitter search does not tell me the number of searches at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=google+AND+twitter   but my theory is that Twitter shows 100 pages of results and google shows about 5 pages of results http://www.google.com/search?q=google++twitter&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_en-USUS292US303&start=640&sa=N Google's results include pages that have been tweaked and fine tuned by SEO magicians but Twitter is straight from the keyboard mentions and an occasional automatic feed. Twitter's earliest result is from 24 hours ago : AirDisa : RT @dannysullivan : so facebook is becoming twitter and digg with the diggbar is becoming stumbleupon. what next, google to become myspace?   Google's earliest result is from Nov th 2008  http://video. google .com/videoplay?docid=1848377379247478205   In terms of relevance to your search my "theory is that...

I am never tired of talking about our Trip to Macchu Picchu .When a seasoned Blogger like Sheila Scarborough asked me to guest post for http://www.familytravellogue.com/ I jumped at the opportunity. There are some things in life that form part of your “ bucket list ” and when you achieve them, you feel gratified. For me, visiting Machu Picchu in Peru was like a childhood dream come true. Growing up in India, I found that studying the Inca Civilization was exciting. I can still almost hear my middle school teacher’s excited voice as he talked about the magnificent beauty of Machu Picchu . I was thrilled to see it posted today. Read the entire post http://www.familytravellogue.com/tips-for-family-travel-to-peru-and-machu-picchu.html Other memories from my Trip Slide show of Machu Picchu http://cli.gs/P45QYn You can find all pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/drbeachvacation/ Some videos here http://www.youtube.com/user/shashibellamkonda

You know what I  mean :) I loved reading this in the Washington Post Barack and Michelle Obama's European adventure? No fancy parties or state dinners -- this is a working trip. They'll spend today and tomorrow in London for the G-20 conference; they'll meet privately with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, have dinner prepared by celebrity "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver at No. 10 Downing Street and tour the Royal Opera House. ( Gordon Brown is giving out goody bags: British ties, tea towels, candles and chocolates.) See the rest of the article here http://cli.gs/sWWR3t

I am a regular Jack Diamond show listener for the last 7 years. I love this show and in the past few weeks Jack has been talking about twitter. I sent the show an email last year asking them to be on Twitter. My reasoning was that they share a lot of stuff they do with the audience which is the uniqueness of this show. You almost feel like they are in the same room as you and everyone is hanging out together. The jack Diamond show can use Twitter very well to create a community of their listeners using twitter and enhance the efforts the station and the Jack Diamond Show team is doing with their appearances and their blogs etc. Do's Tweet when Jack, Erica , Jimmy or Ally are not on so listeners can just scroll through the tweets to find out why. Tweet when you play some songs for the first time Tweet about what is happening in the studio when a song is playing , joke etc Twitter is not always just business people want to have some fun too When ever you pos...