24 Mar, 2010
domain names GoDaddy Redbus URL
Often users find themselves in tricky situation of registering domain and trying to find out that is available and still has some relevance and meaning to your audience is quite a daunting task.
Keep it short -
- Long domain names are prone to mistyping. User will be quite turned off while typing the lengthy names.
Make sure it is easy to spell and pronounce -
- Weather/Whether may be pronounced the same but spelt differently. This can create confusion and lead to mistakes.
- If you are telling your URL to people, make sure it’s easy to pronounce and interpret.
Use Simple & Plain english -
- Opt for Basic words and avoid multi-syllabic words.
- Don’t make up words and don’t substitute numbers and abbreviations for real words to avoid confusion.
- If you are combining words make sure your words are distinct when written without spaces
Keep it descriptive -
- Try using words which describes what you do, otherwise users will be left scratching their heads to work out your domain name. Redbus.in is the best example.
Right domain extension for your market -
- Use .com for international, .in for India. If its nation specific brand choose extension related to your country. Redbus.in caters to indian market.
Personally i recommend to book your domain through GoDaddy, quite convenient and hassle free service they provide.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
21 Mar, 2010
Full Scale Launch Minimal Launch Product Launch Soft Launch
This week i will focus on “Product Launch” and every facets of it.
Your product is nearing completion, beta testing is wrapping up, the product is looking in good shape and its time to turn attention towards bringing the product to market and making the best possible impression.
A well executed launch can mean the difference between success and failure for your product. If you do it in right it can give you substantial initial revenue momentum and set up your product up to beat its competitors.
Types of Launches –
- Soft Launch
- Minimal Launch
- Full Scale Launch
Soft Launch – Companies adopt this launch of their product isn’t fully ready yet and they want to deploy to a limited set of customers. Startups often do this because of lack of finance and marketing resources. Additionally this kind of launch provides company to reach customers hands quickly to get some quick feedback and iterate the product.
The demerit of soft launch is that more often they generate little or no revenue since it doesn’t have the momentum of a big push.
Minimal Launch – Minimal launch is generally considered when your resources and funding are limited. Generally products which adopt minimal launch process aren’t important for company strategy and overall success. Companies sometimes do fail to plan early enough and then have to scramble and do a minimal launch because they ran out of time.
Minimal launches can be very effective if you use resources wisely and it may provide revenues necessary to expand their marketing campaigns on an ongoing basis.
Full Scale Launch – A full scale launch is designed to maximize awareness, generate as many leads and sales as possible and let people/industry know about your company and product. Full Scale is characterized by big push and backing by marketing team. A full scale launch gives your product the best chance of success, though most companies are afraid to spend the money on this kind of launch.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
18 Mar, 2010
checkout process e-commerce shopping cart
If you intend to make a e-commerce application make sure you adopt a simple checkout process, or you already run an e-commerce app pay attention to checkout process, assess and analyze the drop and dig into the root cause of it. Just when you are about to close a sale Unfriendly shopping carts kill your site’s ability to convert sales.
Studies have shown that the average online business website loses about 75 percent of its shoppers during the shopping cart stage of transaction, which is a huge loss in terms of business. Why they drop off and how this trend can be reversed by following simple steps -
1) State total price clearly – Be honest upfront and provide total price at the first step rather than inflating the price at the final step of checkout by adding Tax, VAT, shipping charges etc. Inflated price is real shocker for users and they feel cheated and they had assumed the price displayed before checking out is the final price. Afterall honesty is the best policy 
. Recently i dropped out from checkout process at Bigshoebazaar since shipping charges was introduced at the last stage and it inflated the price.
2) Simple Checkout process - Emphasis and hence design of shopping cart should be such that it should be easy for users to buy. Try to make your check out method a short, one page affair. Having them fill up too many pages with useless information will only drive them away.
3) Include Progress Indicators - Customers need to know where they are in the shopping process. This holds truer for e-commerce sites. Label the steps clearly to let the customers know where they are in the check out process. Some of them, especially those new to online shopping, want to check and double check their actions. Make it easy for them to navigate back and forth through the pages. It gives confidence while buying and merchant credibility is built.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
17 Mar, 2010
Airtel Mobile Bazaar mobile handset SMS VAS ver-se
Airtel is going to launch mobile bazaar which is termed as M-Bazaar for its subscribers to sell and buy any items through sms. The SMS-based service enables buyers and sellers to hook up with each other through messages just like the Web portal, ebay, does for Internet users. To start with, the mobile service operator has introduced a handset segment for trading, but soon subscribers will be able to trade in other verticals such as real estate, automobiles and electronics.
Give some quick details on what you want to buy or sell – Handset Brand, model, city in which phone is needed and Price. The profile is created & the best matches would come through SMS alerts.
Airtel has been launching new initiatives in a bid to increase its revenue from value added services. As voice revenues decline due to low tariffs, mobile phone operators are looking to move into new areas such as mobile commerce, mobile health and mobile banking.
The backend service provider for Airtel mBazaar and who is powering the mobile sale is Ver-se.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
16 Mar, 2010
Airtel App Center Idea Mobile Apps Reliance telecom Socially Vodafone App Store
Mobile Apps store is also catching up in India. Witnessing the success of iPhone Apps all the major telecom players have launched their Apps in the market. Lets look at each of the respective App stores -
Airtel App Central is a centralized platform for downloading applications for your mobile from your mobile. It is an extended service offering of the Airtel Live services for mobile internet and appears integrated on the Airtel Live homepage. The Airtel Application Store contains about 1250 applications spread over 25 categories including apps for business, games, books, social networking and others which are intended at transforming your basic mobile phone to a versatile smartphone. Although many applications are free to download (note – network data charges may apply unless you are using an unlimited plan via Airtel GPRS), others are priced starting as low as Rs. 5 to Rs. 25. To access Airtel App Central, Airtel mobile customers can visit Airtel Live on their mobile phone and browse into App central or users can also sms ‘app’ to 54321 (toll free) to receive the URL or just type http://airtel.in/appcentral into the mobile browser
Vodafone recently launched their mobile App store in India phone. Vodafone App Store presently offers over 800 applications covering entertainment, utility, finance, social networking, games. The company has categorized its Apps as Newest Apps, Top Apps and Just for You Apps offering customized set of applications as per consumer’s preference with ‘tabbed browsing’. A search engine simplifies the the process of locating the right Apps for users. Users keen to avail the App Stores can send a SMS to APP to 111 (toll free) and also access the store through the portal Vodafone live! by clicking a link on the home page. Over 15% of applications are available free of charge while the majority of paid applications are priced in the range of Rs. 5 to Rs. 30.
Reliance Communications, has announced the launch of its trendy new VAS application “Socially”, A 3G ready mobile phone application that bridges the gap between social networks and everyday mobile usage. Socially can be downloaded from RWorld and users can subscribe to it at Rs. 10 / 30 days without having to pay any additional browsing charges. The new application is designed to enable users to follow the recent activity of friends and to update their status on different social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn through a single client. At present “Socially” is compatible with Symbian platforms and works well on LG and Samsung phones and also with phones running on Microsoft operating system (OS). Developed in partnership with Antarix Networks, a Singapore-based telecom start up which creates mobile communities Socially is extremely secure and brings a host of other interesting features such as alerts of friends’ activities on the idle phone screen.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
16 Mar, 2010
3G Aircel Facebook INQ phones twitter
INQ phones have arrived in India, INQ Mini3G and Chat 3G are available. Aircel has announced to launch 3G-enabled phones in India with the partnership with handset maker INQ Mobile. INQ Mobile is owned by Honk Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa.
The INQ phones are aimed at subscribers who are user of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It was just a matter of time for INQ to arrive in India since INQ has been monitoring the social networking site in India. Facebook and Twitter have been gaining popularity day by day and Facebook being the most visited social networking site in India so INQ want to encash this social wave.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
13 Mar, 2010
Argonaut Private Equity Corporate gifting eYantra online merchandising VentureEast
eYantra, India’s leading Brand Merchandising and Corporate Gifting Solutions company has raised $7.8mn in second round, led by Argonaut Private Equity. This Series B funding also saw Chennai-based Ventureeast maintaining its pro-rata investment, which was $2.1 million in March 2008 and $1 million in September 2008, into eYantra.
eYantra will utilize the fund in acquiring 3 companies - Bangalore-based Hourglass Essentials in an all-cash deal, Chennai-based online product customisation company and a New Delhi-based basic office supplier. These acquisitions will enable eYantra to foray into corporate office supplies which is still quite unorganized and have few players like Staples and eOfficePlanet.
There are several players like Myntra, Pringoo, iTasveer in the online merchandising market. Big questions is will they be able to catch up with eYantra, or they also molding themselves to get acquired or will they be fortunate in raising funds. Most of the online merchandising portals have focussed mainly on cool savvy portal & applications for users and somewhere deviated from the business objectives in tapping corporate clients.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
11 Mar, 2010
About Us Management Bios Product USP Sales Startups
What’s the first thing it strikes your mind on hearing About Us page, its a page where top honchos experience, credentials and achievements are written/displayed in a profound manner or simply put its basically a corporate dumping ground.
That’s where the problem lies, About us page can do wonders for your company especially in increasing sales, forging partnership and alliances.
Read the rest of this entry »
10 Mar, 2010
Apple App Store Geodesic Google talk Instant Messaging iphone Mundu IM OSE XMPP
Mundu IM OSE a product of Geodesic India Pvt Ltd is available on iPhone App store from 8th March and good news is it comes free of cost. Mundu IM OSE is developed on open standard XMPP protocol and this protocol is being used by multiple messaging systems like Google, Facebook, Jabber to name a few.
Read the rest of this entry »
8 Mar, 2010
Fourcee Infrastructure Mayfield India fund Sidbi Venture tank terminals
Mayfield India Fund and SIDBIVenture today announced a new investment in Fourcee Infrastructure Equipment Pvt. Ltd. (Fourcee). Under the terms of the investment, Mayfield India Fund and SIDBIVenture will invest Rs.50 crore in Fourcee to expand their tank terminals, add more uniquely designed containers and grow their infrastructure.
This new investment reflects Mayfield India Fund’s investment theme of adding value to growth stage companies in the consumer and infrastructure segment. The alliance comes at a time when the industry has shown consistent growth, even in these challenging economic times. Currently, Fourcee is the only company focused on providing end to end logistics solution for liquid cargo through road and railways using its own specialized designed containers. Mayfield India’s and SIDBIVenture’s investment provides an exciting opportunity for Fourcee to expand its footprint and offer unique logistic solutions in India.
Read the rest of this entry »
Often users find themselves in tricky situation of registering domain and trying to find out that is available and still has some relevance and meaning to your audience is quite a daunting task.
