A Sad Morning! But It's Just Fine.

I did everything today what I am use to doing. Woke up, got freshed, prepared and had my cup of tea. Got the newspapers -- Time of India and Economic Times.

Got very excited with the news. ET talks about lowered Interest on Mortgages and TOI talks about India's Historic Win over English Cricket Team. WOW, I am so happy.

Then I opened google reader to see what my blogger friends are saying. There was just one update. Ron Shevlin writes about ending his blogging. 

Well let me tell you guys, Ron's blog was my favorite one. I am very sad to read this post from him. But I remember Abhimanyu, Arjuna's Son, in Mahabharatha and the holy lesson from it. He dies inside the Chakrabeu (a War Technique used by Kauravas forming Concentric Circle and a epicenture of Power) just because he didnt know how to come out. All he knew was to break the circle and get inside, and he did it best. But at the end, he lost his life in the trap. Sad!

It is true that we like few things at times and want to prove ourselves on certain parameters. We get into it and then realise that this is not something we wanted to do. We want to get back but we will have two opposing forces not allowing us to.

1. Inertia -- have been doing for long; and now how can I get back!!

2. Fear -- we fear of losing of what-ever is achieved from it.

I am happy that Ron has overcome both of these factors, and come up strong to end his blogging. His departure is a huge loss for the social media sector; and it has happened when there are not many good Marketing Analytics blogs around. But I am sure someone else will come up to fill this gap, and a perfectionist like Ron will create something more exciting somewhere else. I would love to follow his writings in Aite Group site/blog.

The only thought that is coming to my mind now is -- Why the Hell Favorites have Short Life? Today it proves again ... Good Things Come in Small Packets.

All the best Ron. Have Great Career Forward! Kill it, but please do not destroy it. Let your blog remain.

Why Do You Blog?

Why Do You Blog? This is one of the common question people ask me. I have lots of reasons to do it. One of them being sharing my experiences to people around the World and get their views. This is a two way medium and I enjoy learning in this way than reading a book and giving lectures.

Many people find this reason of mine satisfactory, while others cross question. One of my friend asked me today, "Do you waste so much time just to do this?" Well, I had no answer for him. I told him to see my blog for the answer, and this post is the answer for it.

First thing is I don't feel I am wasting my time. I do it because I enjoy doing it. If I had not been blogging I would have been playing Age of Empires, Football or Chess. These are my favorite games. But the problem with the games is, you need a opponent and each time you win you need a better opponent to remain motivated. In team games, you will also need the team members and the necessary amenities!! And in this busy life, and an urban life its not easy to fulfill these requirements. So I choose to write blog.

Believe me, I started this out of my passion for Analytics field. And later took it forward as there were not many blogs that talk about Marketing Analytics, specially those who talk about the Technical Details. I am trying to address these in my blog.

Lately I found that blogging has helped me a lot; much more than I had thought it would. Few of my achievements are:

1. Strong Personal Network : I know a lot of people out of my college and companies I had been. This is possible by Networking Sites also, but blogging enhances without your personal effort of networking. I get at-least five Facebook and LinkedIn request every month. All this with lots of love from my readers. I simply love this.

2. Job offers : I get at-least one job offer every month. I don't know if everyone in the industry gets it, but I feel its the blog effect. Most of these offers mention reference to my blogging.
Other interesting thing is, you don't have to prepare for the job interviews!! People know your knowledge, and in the right way.

3. Marriage Proposals : Not many, but I have received a few. It is so great feeling to get such message from people you don't know. Things move or not, its certainly something to cheer.

With all these things in mind, I consider Blogging as one of the best possible medium to create Personal Brand. But when you consider Financial Factor, it has not helped for me directly. It has, however, opened doors for me to earn more!

This is all I have to say. Now its your turn. I am interested to know what you feel. Please share your experiences, views or comments. I would love to know what you think.

Death of Personal Blogs?

Most of the highly rated blogs are maintained by group and not by individuals. Seth Godin says in his blog post. And he asks if this is the death of personal blogging?. He says, NO. I agree with him.

Seth has taken the Top 10 Blogs from Technorati or from Alexa or Feedburner. But if you look closely, you will find every new ranking ranks the blogs differently.

(Group Victory is different from Individual Victory.)

Seth is the most successful bloggers, in Marketing Domain, in terms of most rankings. He has huge numbers of feed readers, he has huge number of fan following in Facebook Blog Networks, and he is in Top 20 in Technorati rankings. He might have been trying to move up, and not making it might have forced him to write this post.

But is it necessary to have good ranking? Well yes! If you are involved in any sector then it does make feel good if you reach the top in any rankings. But can you compare Best Movie Award to Best Actor Award? Well, not!
I would take the group bloggers as Movies where the individuals are not as important as their competitors who come close solely. So Seth, there are no reasons to feel bad. Just keep up your good work! You are anyway the best actor in the industry. No matter what the rankings say and how your movie perform.

May be we need some way to measure individual performance. Technorati does not rank blogger but ranks Blogs. A Blogger Ranker is the solution to this issue. Anyone does that? Or shall I start a business out of it? Suggest me!

Google Destroying Intellectual Value?

Today I had a discussion with a Professor of Economics and an Economic Researcher. Both had wonderful view about Google. They say, Google is destroying the Intellectual Value of the Information Creaters.

In their Own Words:

• After Google has come, all the focus has gone from the Information Creation to the Information Integration and Publishing.
• The Print Media is dying, and all the focus has gone to the on-line publishing where Intellectual Property is not protected.
• The free information distribution mode including blogs are creating so much of buzz where they are hardly of any value. Most of the information present in these formats are junk.
• People can copy and reformat, and republish same material creating so much of redundancy.
• The concept of Knol where a portion of revenue is shared with the Writer is hardly of any value to them. It just pays off very little. And all the profit goes to the platform and not to the writers. Google just benefits from it.
• Blogs and Knol provides platform to anyone to judge and reward. This creates a difficult situation for great researcher as the common man hardly understands it.
  
• Information collectors, Interators and Good presenters are highly rewarded. This is making people to believe in searching and copying rather than in doing serious research.
  

I just have one thing to say to them. They don't understand business and are not able to cope up with the changed situation.

Professors and Researchers will have to understand business logic and need to create value readers. They cant just run away with saying people are stupid, who don't understand or value their findings or writings. This is just not done. They will have to find wrong inside themselves and have to respect the people's views. Need to digest the Information Area, and not blame Google.

Google's Knol is one of the best platform for any underdog to put his views. This has made World more flat and now the information world is not dominated by few Media agencies and so called intellectuals. But by the group of the entire mass who is interested in the information. Everyone in the world is in the same plane, and one needs to build his profile in the open market to be successful in the long term.

I however don't say, Professors are totally wrong. There are problems with the free information distribution. Most of these websites and blogs are filled with advertisements. It really pisses off sometimes, but readers have the right to punish them. They just need to do is to learn on how to punish them.
e.g. They can mark "Don't Like" in StumbleUpon.

The other weakness I see is that of the profile and linked profile. It is the disadvantage of extreme freedom and democracy in all areas, and it has entered Information Space too. A new guy who thinks to blog from company like Google can quickly have good traffic, if his friend bloggers link his website from theirs. But I doubt he can really sustain with just help, if he does not have quality.

I support Google's fight for right to information to all. They have done a remarkable job. But few points that Professors have put up are alarming. We need to make sure how good researchers and information creaters are rewarded. If they are not valued and left behind, it will hurt the World. World will just become a place of smart players trying to fool each other.

--
Wonderful follow up by Deep Sherchan. Thanks a lot Deep.

5 Most Valuable Marketing and Analytics Blogs

5 Most Valuable Marketing and Analytics Blogs are listed below. No offense, if your's is not here; had to choose some five. Some tough call but I made it today.

5. Seth Godin's Blog
It is always fun to read his blog. Some critical thought and some humor; great flow in writing and very much readable. Not so much visionary and strategic thoughts, but cool views better read.

Godin is a writer of the book "All Marketers are Liers" and "The Dip". First one is a cool book and is full of criticism to the traditional marketers. Second one just sucked me.

If you are a Marketer, you have to read his books and follow his blogs. But do all these to know what you should not be doing. His recommendations are not that great, and they are as poor as IMF's suggestions for the developing countries; good to hear, hard to implement and if you implement, you are sure to fail.

4. Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik
Always comes with great articles; mostly heavy and highly informative write-ups. I like the way he presents technical stuffs in a business friendly way.

It however is very much limited to Web Analytics and is bit more tactical than strategic. Not always readable and usually posts with repetitive thoughts. His blog is more a Book than a blog. But this is certainly a blog no Analysts can miss out.

Avinash has written a book "Web Analytics : An Hour a Day". The name sounds like a Marketing campaign and is not different from Godin's one, but the Book is very well written. Great write-up. It has covered all areas of Web Analytics and is written for Analysts in a very tactical way.

3. Smart (Enough) Systems by James Taylor
James is a serious writer. Not a great flow in the language but very informative posts. The blog surrounds around Decision Management Systems.

James has software background and adds more technical stuffs, which bores people like me. But James articles on Business Rules and EDM are something hard to find else where. Blog is both informative and suggestive.

2. Marketing Geek by Michael Fassnacht
Its a underdog blog. Not much read and has fairly low page rank compared to other picks. It is all because Michael teaches others to market very well but he does not do it himself. Very few links in the blogs and not of any SEO work done. His articles too are very well thought but not framed well. In overall, Michael is a genius, who is very lazy.
Now you might be wondering why did I rate his blog so high. Read any of posts and you will find. The internal insights, the strategic vision and the well-thought recommendation that he makes is simply great. I just love his writings and I am waiting for the day when he comes with a book on Marketing. Great Blog.

1. Marketing ROI by Ron Shevlin
If you are a blog reader than this should not surprise you. Ron is by far a better thinker and presenter than most bloggers. He is one of the best criticizer I have seen around, and he criticizes anyone anytime.
Sometime I feel, Ron should have to be in Risk Domain and not in Marketing. Had he been looking after the Financial Institutions, the crises would have never come. He is always ready with don't do this and don't do that.
But good thing is he has few recommendations too. Most of his posts have great flow and posses mixed humor. Adding all of these, he is the pick of this year.

If you are a Marketer or a Analyst, or a Business leader having Business Development role, you have to follow these blogs. If you don't, believe me, you are really missing something.

How Good is Technorati Blog Ranking?

I had a poll on this topic in my blog and I am sharing the result with you all here.

(Total Voters - 7)
28% - Very Good
14% - Good Enough
42% - Ok as long as we don't have anything better
14% - Total Crap


I had this poll to follow up the great discussion going on between Avinash Kaushik and Eric Peterson. Avinash uses Technorati to rank order the Web Analytics blogs and Eric is against using it.

The poll has shown that Technorati is good, but we need something better.

What's your say?