Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Obama, You Could Have Done This on India Visit

The President, the Uncle Sam, on his recent India visit could have done something better than what blunder he has already committed.

Sure, the President of the world's superpower has provided excellent lip service and satiated the emotional Americans, he has talked everything good but when it comes to delivering, he has miserably failed.

Unemployment grew by 4 million after Obama took the office at White House, and the deals that he has signed in India would get him an estimated 54,000 jobs in US. Yes, let the problems increase and then solve it to prove your greatness, let us hope Obama doesn't fall in any trick like this, which is the diplomacy of worst kind and not workable in today's world where dissemination of information is faster than before.


Image from Hourly Updated World News



To read a little bit on India - US relations, an excellent article can be found at Asia Times.

US invested a lot in India in the last 50 years, that includes funds for setting up IITs and IIMs, where the cream of India studied on Indian Govt.'s subsidy and later on worked in US! It's a two way relationship for sure, when it comes to trade. But, this time, in US - India trade, India clearly seems rising and Obama wants more share of that, especially in defense deals. For that, Obama spent the longest visit in a foreign country since coming to Office, 4 days, in India, where expenses were $200 million per day!! All this, for giving lip service to India, and it is not perceived as something nice in India.

An important thing to note is the role reversal that India and US have had as compared to a few decades back. Then, in '60s, US was championing investments abroad and India was protective. Now, US is protective, does not want jobs to go out due to outsourcing and wants investments from abroad. Of course, US also wants to invests in India, as he appealed India to open up their multi-brand retail market to foreign players, defense deals, etc. For that, there is no need to spend more than $1 billion and travel to the country.

He could get all the business and trade deals by paying the Indian babus, i. e. the bureaucracy in India, or the top government servants!

After all, what's CIA for? But, Obama does not possess the intellect or the common sense. By indulging into sycophancy, Indians look down on him, and not look up.

It is dangerous to see an emotional person taking the White House where a rational, intellectual and a smart one should have been. It is important for the entire world, and also for India, that US remains in control of the world. Imagine, China going at the helm of world powers, that would be a disaster for sure as there isn't a single occasion where China has ever done anything benign.

And as for the UN Security Council seat for India, why doesn't he give it to India for once? The UNO is a dead organization but it will satisfy the ego of the young country India! After all, India is, for sure a benign and a democratic nation and wouldn't cause any harm to world politics after inclusion. Practically, it's going to make no difference but help earn a goodwill among India's youth and business deals, trade deals would all take place easily. But, Obama goofed up there as well and ensured some diplomatic ambiguous statements which did not clearly say India getting a seat among the veto powers of UN. That makes more Indians to listen and forget what he says!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Starting a Free Blog or Website?

Are you starting your own free blog (Wordpress, Blogger, etc.) or a website domain? There are certain things for you I wish to share.

I have always wondered what a job of a SEO is. I still wonder what it is. I have now understood it's an interesting task, tedious and takes a bit of your time. Sure, there are many SEO websites out there and many a books as well.

A recommended one is SEO Made Simple: Strategies For Dominating The World's Largest Search Engine

You can go on for reading a book, eBook, it is all your choice. But, as with this blog, Whatever Strikes!, I can share some of my experiences.

First, you need a smooth, fast and reliable internet connection which is not really a problem at most urban centers. And then, there are just so many things!

A few of the tools are provided by Google itself, which are free for use for Blogger users (free blog owners as well as domain owners). You just got to go Google Webmaster Central or Google Webmaster Tools, as I find they are called by both names. Other website owners options like Analytics (for advanced statistics), Adsense (for revenue generation) are merged with it. To be publicly searchable, your blog/site has to be indexed in at least one search engine, preferably Google. Google Webmaster Tools does the work for you! I do not need to ascertain how important this step really is. Also, you can target your traffic to a particular country through the settings at Google Webmaster, do you wish.

I've Got a Domain Name--Now What???: A Practical Guide to Building a Website and Web Presence


The next step is to open a FeedBurner account. Thankfully, it is now acquired by Google. The options like email subscription (found towards the top right of this page), bookmarking (towards the bottom of this post) along iwth many other interesting and useful ones are provided for free.

For bookmarking, AddToAny.com would be a one-stop-shop that would provide all the solutions.

Now, comes the important part of traffic and traffic ranking. Alexa is still the most famous name in this regards, but it has the hassle of 'Claiming Your Site'. Go on Alexa.com and claim it for yourself. Other ones like Quantcast and StatBrain do it all automatically.

If you are writing on a particular topic, say photography, finance, economy, politics, etc., it is all the more easy for you to list your site under a category in a directory. Sadly, that is one problem with my site as I write anything that strikes! The first directory to claim is DMOZ, the world's largest human edited project, but claiming your site on Google Webmaster claims for DMOZ automatically. Eaton Web, Globe of Blogs are other ways to go for publicizing your blog and do not forget the big daddy of all, Technorati!

My Technorati code (as they call is claim token) came out to be G2TAKXDFPJFY. Why am I entering this? Well, I am supposed to enter it as part of verification which I thought of doing along with this post. There are others like Popdex and Blogdex, do not underestimate them.

Finally, use tools like StatCounter and Clustrmaps if you please. After having a big number of visitors, that makes a good impression. Clustrmaps shows how geographically spread your visitors and can have an appeal for visitors across the globe. Not worth missing for sure.

And the last thing to do, go on something like MyWebsiteRanking.com and check some details regarding your own site. Initially, you should be ready to take some emotional beatings as you might even start from a PageRank of -2 and other demotivating facts. Well, there is always a beginning for everything.

And indeed, you own a blog or a site, or open up one in future, do link me or check in here often!