From the category archives:

Ravi's Rants

Oops, I Sold A Subscription By Mistake

February 22, 2009

Something amazing happened today: A customer paid money and purchased a ‘monthly’ subscription to one of my sites.
Ok, so maybe nothing spectacular about that. But now get this…
I haven’t even launched that web site yet!
Tons of spelling and grammatical errors on the page. I hadn’t even done a spell-check. Can’t remember publishing an actual working [...]

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Typing Test: Wow, am I good or what?

December 14, 2008

Ok, I promise not to brag too much…
Here is a really cool typing test.
I’m averaging a speed of about 104 words per minute in just 3 tries (proof below)

Take the test, and share your results in the comments below.
http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/

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To Follow Or Not To Follow

October 27, 2008

If you wish to follow me on Twitter, then I’ll be honored that you chose to do so. I’ll even send you a personal “thank you” note
But if you follow me expecting me to follow you back, that’s probably not going to happen.
Many high-profile Twits (or Twitter’ers) do the Follow-Me-And-I’ll-Follow-You bit.
That’s as pathetic [...]

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Why Launch On The Saturday Of A Long Weekend?

October 12, 2008

I launched my newest product (DAP) last night.
So why did I decide to launch it on a Saturday
evening, right in the middle of a long weekend
(at least for most folks here in the US)?
My first motivation for this was one of Seth’s
posts about launches.
“it doesn’t matter much how many elephants you start with. In other [...]

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Garr Reynolds and Presentation Zen

September 28, 2008

Uncanny!
I got “Presentation Zen” delivered in the mail last night from Amazon.
And someone tweeted this Garr Reynolds video of “Authors at Google”…

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Do We Really Need Yet Another Search Engine?

September 2, 2008

We all know what turned out to be the answer to that question.
So, here we go again: Do We Really Need Yet Another Browser?
If it’s coming from Google, then it’s definitely worth checking out.
It sends my brain tingling when I read this:
Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind [...]

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Seth Godin’s Scalp Is On Fire

August 18, 2008

I’ve always talked to folks about having a sense of urgency in life. Because that’s how I operate.
I look at the young & successful, and I feel like I’m 10 years behind. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing either.
If you don’t have nowhere to go and nothing to achieve, then you just take [...]

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Are You Keeping A Tab On Your Competitors – and Yourself?

August 4, 2008

Quite frequently, I am reminded of how we take certain things for granted, while it could be something completely new/interesting/educating/shocking for someone else.
Using Google Alerts for competitive research is one such “thing”. During a chat with a friend the other day, I casually mentioned how I use Google Alerts to keep an eye on my [...]

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My Father, My Hero

June 5, 2008

Legendary Kannada film writer and director R.N. Jayagopal – my beloved father – passed away on May 19th, 2008 in Chennai.
He was 72 years old.
He was perfectly healthy – until two months ago. He went from being 100% to 0% – all in a matter of two months.
Dad: All I wanted was to be able [...]

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Low Cost Online e-Faxing: MaxEmail.com

April 1, 2008

I was recently in the market for an “e” fax solution. I looked at quite a few services. My basic requirements were these:

Reliable
Low cost (not necessarily free – because I wanted the service to be reliable and accountable)

Didn’t need a local area code – anywhere was fine, as I don’t receive too many faxes

Offer a [...]

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If I Had To Pick Just One Blog To Read…

January 19, 2008

If I had to pick just one blog, and could read only one blog for the rest of my life – including my own blog (the one you’re reading right now) – I would pick Seth Godin’s blog.
Seth’s blog is (hyperbole alert) amazing, educational, informative, remarkable, mind-blowing, extraordinary, purple, eye-opening and goose-pimple-raising good.
Seth’s books, his [...]

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Purple Shoe from Nike

January 9, 2008

It’s not really purple in color. But I did mean that it is Purple.
Why?
It’s because of the way it was successful in creating an entirely new industry of “athlete marketing” like never before. Because of how it created a frenzy among consumers. Because of the innovative ways Nike marketed it [for instance, they paid [...]

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My Chat With A (Rather Clueless) Google AdWords Support Specialist

January 3, 2008

My question was very simple: I wanted to know how I could promote products using CPA (Cost Per Action) on the Google Network and allow publishers who have access to “AdSense Referrals” to promote my products by placing a piece of code on their web sites, and when someone clicked over to my web site [...]

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54 cent refills for Starbucks Coffee

December 9, 2007

If you drink coffee at Starbucks, you’ll surely appreciate this: 54 cents Refills For Starbucks Coffee .

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How To Sell A $3,200 Product Using Free YouTube Videos

December 3, 2007

If you’ve ever wondered about the power of influence that videos – even free ones – can have in selling commercial products, look no further.
Recently, I was on the receiving end of this power, as I shelled out about $3,200 to buy a Yamaha Motif Keyboard – thanks(!) to two powerful videos on YouTube.
I’ve chronicled [...]

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Blog-o-Phobia: Fear of Criticism

November 27, 2007

I recently asked a very close non-blogger, never-blogged-before friend to start his own blog on my new multi-blog site, YehHaiIndia.com (driven by WordPress Mu – very cool software).
His immediate response was:
The problem with blogging is you need ideas and thoughts you want to write.
And you are assuming I have thoughts that are worth writing [...]

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Can I get my morning breakfast without the “Bacn”?

November 27, 2007

“Bacn” – pronounced as “Bacon” – is spam (kind of), but not really the lewd, disgusting, “killing my inbox” type.
From Jargon Watch at Wired.com:
It’s not really spam. You want to read it (and probably would), you just don’t have the time. Thanks to the folks at PodCamp Pittsburgh, there’s a new web-term you can now [...]

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Adsense For Video (YouTube) Is Here

October 10, 2007

My “Video Unit” link wasn’t available yesterday when the announcement was first made.
Was able to see it today.
“Linked” my Adsense account with my YouTube account.
Got the confirmation from Google in a few minutes (they do warn that it could take up to 12 hours).
Created my “player”, got the code.
The ads load asynchronously, and [...]

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7 Steps To Remarkable Customer Service

October 8, 2007

Going by the PageRank (PR 6), you can guess how many sites are linking to this post on JoelOnSoftware. The content is that powerful.
Here’s the summary:
1. Fix everything two ways
2. Suggest blowing out the dust
3. Make customers into fans
4. Take the blame
5. Memorize awkward phrases
6. Practice puppetry
7. Greed will get you nowhere
Post: 7 Steps To [...]

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Membership Sites: Not Easy To Monetize. Proof? NY Times

September 25, 2007

In this era of the open web, it is hard to monetize information that you can easily get elsewhere.
Want to read about what’s going on with the presence of Iranian dictator Ahmedinajad in NY City? Just Google-News it up (yes, that’s different from Googling it up), and you’ll get all the latest relevant news stories [...]

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