It’s been over three months that I’ve been living with an Amazon Kindle. For those of you contemplating investing in an Amazon Kindle, this review would come in mighty handy.
Amazon was one who practically created a market for eBook readers when they launched Kindle, very successfully way back in 2007. The first model was clunky but the technology was path breaking. The success of Kindle spawned an entire generation of rival products. In keeping with competition, the Kindle2 is a far improved product.
The biggest advantage for ebooks like Kindle is that they use the E-Ink technology that closely mimics the printed paper. You are almost tempted to touch the screen and feel the roughness of the paper!
Kindle and other eBooks which use E-Ink technology greatly scores over iPad or reading from laptops. That’s because iPad and netbooks use LCD screens which need to be lighted from behind. Kindle’s E-Ink technology does not need lighting and works on reflected light from the surroundings. This automatically means that Kindle uses much lesser power and consequently its battery life lasts for weeks.
Another advantage is that you can read Kindle even while sitting under bright sunshine. Try doing that with an iPad or a netbook and you’ll only be seeing a glaring screen. However, the Kindle loses out as the sun goes down. Since Kindle does not have backlighting, you will have to switch on your light and read it just the same way you would read a normal book.
Another huge advantage that the Kindle has is the wide range of books to choose from. That’s where the sheer might of the world’s biggest book store comes into play. It’s the reading content that becomes important. Even though Kindle may lack in coolness and features like the touch features of its competitors, it beats the living daylight off its competitors when it comes to book titles.
TR Santhanakrishnan, CEO of TaurusQuest, who has been using Kindle for over six months, draws an analogy with the Blackberry. He says, “Blackberry did not have touch screen for a long while and yet it was significantly better for a business user than iPhone.”
The Kindle allows you to highlight sections of a book and take notes, just like the same way we would like to jot down on a real book. Using technology to mimic real world actions is what makes the tool endearing to use. It is also intelligent enough to remember the page where you last left reading. When you switch on the Kindle much later, it opens up that exact page for you to restart reading.
So, why buy a Kindle or for that matter any eBook reader? The biggest reason is the portability. You can load hundreds of books and carry them on a single device. No need to lug big books. It makes perfect sense to buy one if you are a regular reader.
If Amazon was smart, they would vastly discount the hardware. Even though, Kindle is the highest selling unit on Amazon.com, they actually earn far more money in terms of book sales…which is really where they make a fortune. So, follow what Kodak did a decade ago. They sold their click cameras at dirt cheap rates and made money on film rolls.
In the month of March, there have been reports that Barnes and Noble’s new ebook reader, the Nook, had been outselling the Amazon Kindle in the US. With the advent of iPad and its stupendous success (it has already sold 10 lakh units in US alone), it has further eaten into Kindle’s market share. Unfortunately, neither the Nook nor the iPad is available in India yet. So, if you are in the market to buy a good ebook reader, Amazon Kindle is a safe option.
Source- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/the-good-and-the-bad-of-amazon-kindle/612594/0
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In the four years of its existence, Twitter has been better known for its rapid growth and adoption amongst celebrities rather than for its business success. Talk about revenue models and you’ll be greeted with radio silence. Someone even made a tongue-in-cheek remark that the $170 million that they raised through venture capitalists was their revenue model!
When Twitter made announcement of its Promoted Tweets concept, it had a semblance of a revenue model. Its earlier revenue model was based on selling its content to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! to display real-time search results. Thankfully, Twitter stayed away from plain vanilla banner advertising or installing Google Adwords.
Now, let us get back to Promoted Tweets. What is it? It’s a new advertising programme that will show contextually-relevant tweets based on the search keywords in Twitter’s search page. Twitter will test run this new advertising programme in its search page and based on the response, will move this to user’s regular tweet streams. As an extension, it will also start syndicating Promoted Tweets to Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Twhirl and TwitterBerry.
This looks suspiciously close to Google’s super successful contextual advertising model, AdSense. Where they differ from Google’s AdSense is that instead of showing ‘ads’, they will be showing a tweet from the advertiser. These tweets will not be separated out in a different section the way Google does it for sponsored search results on the right side of the page. Instead, the Twitter Promoted Tweets will be placed on top of the search results. A user will know it’s a paid tweet when he moves the mouse over the tweet to reveal a yellow background.
I would have preferred a better distinction of the Promoted Tweets without any user intervention. Promoted Tweets don’t yet appear for Indian users and so, I can’t verify if they really differentiate paid tweets from the natural search results by using the word ‘promoted’. The good thing, though, is that Twitter has promised that they will display only one promoted tweet for a particular search result. The promoted tweets will behave just like a normal tweet. Meaning that the tweet can be replied to, retweeted or bookmarked.
So, how does the Promoted Tweet work? Advertisers will bid for keywords to have their tweets appear on the search results, much like how Google AdSense works. The higher an advertiser pays for a particular keyword, the greater are the chances of its tweets appearing on search results.
What I really like about this model is a system Twitter has introduced called the Resonance Score. Twitter considers nine factors that are based on how effective the tweet behaves with respect to engagement with users. This means that if a particular promoted tweet does not get retweeted or bookmarked enough, it will slowly get pushed out of the system. In other words, if the tweet is not popular, it will be killed. This forces the advertiser not to treat the tweets lightly. Just because they have paid for it does not mean they can publish whatever advertising message they want to. This forces them to be creative.
Not surprisingly, the companies that have proactively been using Twitter from the beginning are the ones who are the first to try out the Promoted Tweets concept. The companies that are trying out are Sony Pictures, Virgin America, Starbucks, Red Bull and Best Buy. I have not heard of any Indian businesses that have tried it yet, but I won’t be surprised if the first few companies are FastTrack, Cleartrip and Club Mahindra.
There are some detractors for this new medium, though. Questions are raised on the relevance of the promoted tweets idea. If a company is already being very active on Twitter, building up a healthy number of followers and engaging in conversation with them, why should it pay extra to send out the same message? The answer may lie in the fact that for any keyword, there is bound to be a lot of noise. For example, if a person were to search for ‘Maruti Suzuki’, the search result will have tweets from users in addition to those from Maruti Suzuki. By paying for Promoted Tweets, Twitter will push the Maruti’s tweets on top of the search results.
I am glad that Twitter is trying out this model to get in revenues. I am always wary of companies that give out free stuff for too long. Every company needs revenues to survive, let alone succeed. I am fine with dealing with a few ads as long as they are not very intrusive. I am fairly confident that this will be the same sentiment with other users as well. Look at Google. We still use it even with the advent of sponsored search results. As long as the ads are not intrusive and the company is transparent in letting us know which ones are paid for ads, we will be fine.
To me, the success of Promoted Tweets lies on how targeted the message is. If Twitter takes the effort to find out who I am, what my interest areas are, who are my friends are and what am I tweeting on and then shows relevant promoted tweets, the chances of it succeeding is much higher. Knowing Twitter team’s creativity, their strong focus on users and their ever-growing reach and popularity, I am confident that Promoted Tweets will be a success.
Source- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/promoted-tweets-to-generate-more-revenues-for-twitter/609493/0
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One of the oft-asked questions by newbie bloggers is, “How can I attract more visitors to my blog?” I often receive email requests which ask for tips on how to increase their blog’s traffic. First, I’ll start with an honest answer. I wish I knew all the answers myself.
Well, I don’t. But what I do know is a series of sure shot lessons I’ve learnt that’s helped me make my blog get a significant readership over the last nine years of blogging. Let me start with tips that will help you expand your blog’s reach.
Kick out the secondary blog addresses like http://yourname.blogspot.com. Buy your owndomain. It costs less than Rs 500 and it’s a small price to pay. Show you are a professional. Show you are serious enough.
This has been my blog’s best marketing tool. My email is ‘Kiruba@Kiruba.com’ and I don’t use any other free emails. Every time I send an email, I promote my site in a subtle manner. My point is, why promote Yahoo or Hotmail, when you can promote yourself. The best part is that one can use GMail for domains, which means that you get all the best features of GMail and yet retain your own identity.
Use it in your email signatures. Use it in your business card. In your letter pad. Heck, I even have it on my helmet.
It’s the equivalent of ‘you scratch my back, and I scratch your back’. Sign up with Blogrolling.com. Add up your frequently read blogs.
If you are using blogger.com, activate the ping option. Pinging is an easy way of letting other sites know that you have updated your blog. They help push your site to the top on account of freshness of content.
It is important for you to be found. The easiest way to do this is to list yourself in important directories. It takes manual effort but its well worth it. Why wouldn’t you want to be here?
Many people use Newsreaders to subscribe to their frequently read blogs. Don’t miss out on this crowd. Make sure your site has RSS feeds. If you don’t know what this is, ask a tech friend.
When people visit your site, they invest in their time and internet time. And more importantly, they think about you. Respect that. Don’t make them turnback empty handed.
Let’s be honest. We love receiving comments. And invariably check out the commentor’s blog. It’s an effective way to introduce your blog to others. However, be honest in your commenting. Don’t comment for numbers’ sake. Comment, so you can engage in a discussion.
I hate reading long posts. And am sure so do others. If you can’t help it, at least break it into smaller paragraphs and provide sub-headings.
Like I said, these are my personal opinion. I am fairly sure these will work for you for sure. If you have a point that’s helped your blog, we’d love to hear it from you.
Source-http://www.financialexpress.com/news/10-tips-to-make-your-blog-better/606401/0
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Email:Kiruba @ Kiruba.com
Phone :+91-44-42733619
Mobile : 98415 97744
Snail Mail :(Home)
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Chennai, INDIA
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