29

Oct

CEO BLOGS: The next best thing

CEOs have a lot to worry about, the least being the bottomline. Sometimes, surviving everyday troubles can take the life out of you. To make matters worse are nasty comments being made on you and your company both in the press and online. There has to be some way to not only emerge as a thought leader but also stem the misrepresentation. Importantly, it’s about creating a great working rapport with employees, investors, friends and potential recruits. And blogging is the way to go.

A CEO blog that carries illuminating, insightful and sometimes, entertaining information is more readable than something that is a mere press release. After all, nobody wants to worship anybody. They all want to know how to make the most of your blog post. And even if they don’t benefit monetarily, they should atleast be able to read a heartwarming, inspirational or entertaining story from the person heading the company. That’s the real ice breaker.

If you can call press releases as formal wear, CEO blogging is business casual. It’s a unique tool for CEOs to share their personal reflections, insights, news, musings and information, all dispensed in a direct and conversational style that invites discussion. It is a great platform where they can share their thoughts about the trends and issues they face, ask questions that genuinely bewilder them and, to varying degrees, talk about their personal life, hobbies and passions.
As an external recruiting tool, a CEO blog can be quite effective. After reading the blog, many like-minded companies and individuals might want to partner with the CEO.

Conventional wisdom suggests that you spend all of your time closing deals. But, the fact is that blogging will be the best idea and lead generator. The point isn’t to sign as many deals as possible; it’s to sign the right deals under the right terms. Developing a reputation as an industry leader will enable that.
Some examples of good CEO blogs include Bill Marriott (Executive Chairman, Marriott International), Richard Edelman (President & CEO, Edelman), Colin Byrne (CEO, Weber Shandwick EMEA, Mark Cuban (proprietor, Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres & Magnolia Pictures), Ross Mayfield (Chairman & co-founder, SocialText) and Matt Blumberg (proprietor, Return Path), among others.

Somebody once said that we’re defined by the stories we tell ourselves. Indeed, in a world where others’ perception of you is a function of a Google query, you need to own your online presence, and CEO blogging is the way to go.

Welcome to CEO blogs. Welcome to business casual.

P.S: I specialise in generating content for CEO blogs. You can reach me here: zahid@writewing.in

232 days ago Short URL Comments

People/Technology

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11

Jul

Nettigritty’s customer service is laudable

When one of my friends suggested the Bangalore-based Nettigritty.com as an efficient website hosting provider, I opted for it without raising my brows. And I haven’t regretted it since 2007.

The best happened only today. My friend had set me up on the self-hosted WordPress platform. When I was having trouble trying to manually update the WordPress version (I had version  2.6.1, which cannot be done automatically), I asked them for help. And they agreed to do it themselves even though that wasn’t their job.

They did it for this site and my other site (bollywoodviews.com) without so much as a quibble. I was taken aback by their level of customer service and said so.

These are times when customer service is excellent only when you are about to sign up. After that, they don’t bother to address your issues. In such a scenario, Netti Gritty comes as a welcome relief. And yes, before I forget, their turnaround time is another remarkable feature. They are so prompt that you wonder if they are waiting to serve you even when you don’t need them. That’s the real mark of customer service: going beyond your calling.

Thank you, Netti Gritty! You make us all proud.

708 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Technology

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29

Mar

Nokia app for The Diary of Z

For many years, you have been following this blog online and through RSS feeds straight to your inbox. Since, the world is increasingly turning mobile, it was about time this blog and its sister blogs (bollywoodviews.com & astrofreak.com) were available on your smartphones.

Now, the app titled ‘The Diary of Z’ is available under the ‘Applications’ section in the Ovi Store for all Symbian phones. Download it. It’s free worldwide.

Happy reading!

812 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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28

Mar

Nokia app: You can make your own for free

While it’s expensive and time-consuming to make an iphone app, it’s very easy for Nokia’s Ovi store.

All you have to do is visit ovi.nokia.com and click on the button that says something like ‘Make your own app’. And you are set to go.

With easy steps on uploading and cropping icon, company logo and related stuff, you are done creating the app in minutes.

The added advantage? Nokia already has two advertisers who are ready to monetise your app if you choose to…

Which means, if you are running a blog, you can create an app for it, so people can access your rss feeds on their smartphones….

I have done mine. It’s in the waiting list now… Once Nokia approves it, it will go live.

Posted by Wordmobi

813 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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30

Oct

Shah Rukh Khan in Mind Blogs 1.0

Cover of Mind Blogs 1.0 co-authored by Zahid H Javali

Cover of Mind Blogs 1.0 co-authored by Zahid H Javali

Did you know that I met Shah Rukh Khan and alerted him on two threats to his life? Well, read more about it in the new book, Mind Blogs 1.0.

Mind Blogs 1.0 is a non fictional book of anecdotes and essays brought out by my custom publishing firm, Write Wing Media. This book is in collaboration with two other writers – Christina Daniels and Nirmala Govindarajan.

The slugline reads: Three Bangalore writers go offtrack and find themselves. If that’s making you ask what’s the book about, just visit the book blog (<strong>http://mindblogs1.wordpress.com</strong>) and know more on how you can make it your own and also be part of its sequel.

The book is priced at Rs 250. The ebook is available on Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/32t88mt) and Pothi.com (http://tinyurl.com/355q5oy). Author-signed paperbacks are available at 25% discount with free home delivery in India at Flipkart.com (http://tinyurl.com/34skkk6).

Buy. Now!

962 days ago Short URL Comments

People

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25

Mar

Twitter takes over blogging

Ever since Twitter bowled me over with it’s 140 character functionality, blogging has taken a back seat.

It’s good and bad.

Good, because there are many things that go unsaid because you either don’t have the time to blog or don’t find it good enough for a blog post.

Twitter breaks those restrictions…. The more irreverent and personal, the better chance of tweeting the idea. It’s an opinion and idea bin that everyone can be part of.

In a few months, I have over 1500 tweets and over 300 followers. Sometimes, I tweet 25 times a day and sometimes zilch. It all depends on your free time and state of mind.

What do you think of Twitter?

Posted by Wordmobi

1181 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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07

Jun

Kangna discovers blogging

Six-year-old Kangna

Bollywood hottie Kangna Ranaut is the newest entrant to the world of blogging (http://blog.realkangnaranaut.com) after Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Shilpa Shetty and who have you?

So what’s different? For one, she’s the hottest girl on the movie ramp. Two, she’s a victim of mischievous publicity… from rumours about her appearing nude in the sequel to Raaz to her marriage with Shekhar Suman’s actor son Adhyayan (she has split with him).

Kangna will use this website (http://www.realkangnaranaut.com) as a platform to air her views and clarify all the doubts that her fans are currently digesting, assimilating and eschewing.

Kangna, Kangna. It’s all fine if you are using this site as a way to interact with your fans. But clarifying rumours? I think, that is by itself a full-time job and only a jobless person will want to do. And what’s the joy of a rumour if it doesn’t enjoy a long ride?

1472 days ago Short URL Comments

People

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06

Aug

Blog going great guns!

The Z Files is going from strength to strength. From a mere 5 visitors a day only six months ago, it’s now recording more than 100 visitors a day.

Accordingly, the Technorati ranking that once stood at 16 lakh is now down to 11,000. With an Authority of 354 and the total visitors crossing 21,000, The Z Files is here to stay for a long, long time.

Do keep visiting, commenting and re-visiting. It is your support that will keep me going.

Thanks again!

Z

1777 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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12

Apr

New tech blog

Guys: Since the blogger platform wasn’t really helpful in getting enough traffic to my blog, i have opened my tech blog on Word Press and migrated all the stuff here. Do visit and let me know what you think.
http://tech100.wordpress.com

1893 days ago Short URL Comments

Movies

03

Apr

How to make money from your blog

Okay. Okay. The topic is instant eye-grab material. You will be salivating to read the next few sentences on how to monetise your blog. I have read tons of stuff on how to monetise your blog and here is what I have found out…

1. First and foremost, get your own domain name. Many affiliate marketing firms and even text link ads don’t work on platforms like WordPress. (I am soon going to start my own blog where I own the domain name).

2. Write content that’s genuine, honest, insightful and original. In the beginning, just keep at gaining a steady readership through your content.

3. Once you gain a critical mass of readers (both through RSS feed subscribers and site visitors), that’s when you should begin to monetise your blog.

4. Many sites like reviewme.com and kontera.com will not even accept you if your traffic rank is below 500,000 hits a month. Therefore, it’s important to get there with great content.

5. Promote your blog on social networking sites, emails, messengers, chat status messages, and through other blogs and websites… it could even be stuff like leaving an insightful comment on other blog posts.

6. Linking to other popular blogs and asking them to reciprocate the gesture works wonders.

7. Make the most of link festivals like April Fools Day to make unrealistic announcements that you made an X amount of money through your blog and so on. This will let many people forward your blog post and you will get so many more new visitors to your site. After that, it all depends on whether your site has enough engaging content to keep them hooked and they don’t mind the con game.

8. Read. Study. Assimilate from the success stories of other bloggers, most notably John Chow dot Com. Last heard, this guy made a cool $31,000 (Rs 12 lakh) from his blog in March 2008. This is how he made his moolah…
* Private Ad Sales: $15,230.00
* Affiliate Commissions: $7,729.37
* ReviewMe: $5,000.00
* Text Link Ads: $2,031.90
* Kontera: $1,000.00
* TTZ Media: $384.24
* FeedBurner: $45.73
* Subscription: $20.00
* Grand Total: $31,441.24

Here’s a detailed report on how he managed it ( Blog income report March 2008). I highly recommend his blog. Not only will his reports inspire you, but subscribing to his blog posts should give you enough dope on how to go about making your blog more profitable.

1902 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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02

Apr

How to create a blog

Lots of us are now getting into blogging. But not many know that blogging is more than just maintaining a gripe diary. If it’s a way to show off your writing skills to many, it’s a way to earn some extra cash as well. In fact, some people are earning their monies by indulging in this full time. It’s the latter part of the blogging feature that’s creating many dotcompreneurs. And there’s money to be made through Text Link Ads, affiliate programmes, Google Adsense, selling products and so on. From my experience of the different blogging platforms available (xanga, typepad, blog.com, blogsome, tblog.com, blogspirit, blogger), I prefer WordPress the most. It’s easy, has a lot of customisable features and brings out the joy in blogging like nobody else.

My friend Jason Pereira has painstakingly done a lot of research on how to set up a blog, generate traffic and even monetise it. You could read his long post here… HOW TO CREATE A BLOG

1903 days ago Short URL Comments

Technology

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06

Feb

Online scam: Identity Theft

I always believe, forewarned is forearmed. With online scams increasing by the thousands and lakhs, here is what you can do to secure your identity online… Read more about this Here.

Happy surfing!

1959 days ago Short URL Comments

Business

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