My last day at WHBS - Hello AEL Data

March 25, 2010 will be my last day at WHBS. It has been a great pleasure and incredible experience working with amazing people. Thanks to one and all at WHBS for the support and kindness.

After a short break, I'll be joining AEL Data in April 2010 to head their E-learning venture. Looking forward to starting a new journey with new challenges at AEL Data.

Bad ideas are not really bad

Good ideas bring changes and changes bring advancement and success. Whether your ideas are good or bad, do keep your ideas coming. You can't have good ideas unless you generate a lot of bad ideas.

Don't hesitate to put forth your ideas even if they make you look stupid, waste money or time. People laugh, ignore and resist not just bad ideas, even the good ideas are not welcomed by many as they bring changes, that are frightening.

You can have nine bad ideas but only one good idea, and that one good idea can make you successful. People with more ideas are more successful than the people who have no ideas.

Entrepreneur, scientist or an artist, we all fail more than we succeed. Sometimes our ideas fail at planning and sometimes at the execution. But as much failures as we face, our ideas are refined and the probability of generating good ideas increases and we become more successful.

People ask me the secret to generate good ideas, and I tell them generate more bad ideas and learn from the failures after all bad ideas are not really bad.

Transfering domain - Google Apps to GoDaddy

I was thinking that transferring a domain from one registrar to other is very simple. But I was wrong, there are many who finds it a nightmare like one of my friends who contacted me last week for assistance in transferring his domain from Google Apps to GoDaddy.

He had his domain registered with GoDaddy through Google Apps when he created an account in Google Apps. Since his domain was not directly registered with GoDaddy, he had the following issues:

• Had to go through Google Apps for anything he wanted to do with his domain
• Renewal cost is about 20% high
• Limited options

To address these issues, he wanted to transfer his domain to GoDaddy instead of having it with GoDaddy through Google Apps. I thought of posting the steps involved in this transfer as this may be helpful for others like my friend.

The process of domain transfer from Google Apps to GoDaddy involves the following four steps:
1. Initiate
2. Authorize
3. Accept/Decline
4. Completion

1. Initiate
a. Initiate Domain Transfer and Make the Payment

1. Go to www.godaddy.com
2. Choose 'Transfer Domains to Go Daddy' from Domains drop-down menu
3. Enter the domain name that you want to tranfer and continue to Checkout
4. Create an account in Go Daddy if already don't have an account
5. Make the payment
6. Based on the WHOIS database, a Transaction ID and Security Code will be sent to the email address that is provided as Administrative Contact Email
7. Make a note of these Transaction ID and Security Code

b. Unlock the Domain

1. Go to www.google.com/a and login to your Google Apps account
2. Click on Advanced DNS Settings under 'Domain Names'
3. Login to "Sign in to DNS Console" using the GoDaddy Google Sign-In Name and Password
4. In the Domain Control Center, click on the domain name that you want to transfer
5. Click on the "Locking" button and unlock the domain

c. Request the Authorization Code

1. Go to www.google.com/a and login to your Google Apps account
2. Click on Advanced DNS Settings under 'Domain Names'
3. Login to "Sign in to DNS Console" using the GoDaddy Google Sign-In Name and Password
4. In the Domain Control Center, click on the domain name that you want to transfer
5. Click on the link "Send by Email" next to "Authorization Code"
6. The Authorization Code will be sent to the email address that is provided as Administrative contact email
7. Make a note of this Authorization Code

2. Authorize

1. Go to www.godaddy.com and login to your account
2. Click on Transfers tab under Domains tab to see the Pending Transfers
3. Click on the Domain Name for which you initiated the Domain Transfer
4. Click on Authorization button provided at the top right and click on 'Begin Authorization of Domain Transfer'
5. Enter the Transaction ID and Security Code when asked and click Next button
6. Enter the Authorization Code and click Finish

3. Accept/Decline

1. Go to www.google.com/a and login to your Google Apps account
2. Click on Advanced DNS Settings under 'Domain Names'
3. Login to "Sign in to DNS Console" using the GoDaddy Google Sign-In Name and Password
4. In the Domain Control Center, you will see the Domain name for which you initiated the Domain Transfer
5. Click on the button 'Accept/Decline' provided next to the Domain Name
6. Click on the 'Accept/Decline' button to accept the Domain transfer
7. A Domain Transfer Confirmation email will be sent by Go Daddy to the Administrative Contact email.

Note: If not accepted or declined within 5 days then the domain will be transfered to the New Registrar automatically

4. Completion

1. Go to www.godaddy.com and login to your account
2. If the Domain Transfer is successful then you would see the transferred domain listed under Domains -> My Domains
3. Under Domains -> Transfers, you would see a message "You have no pending transfers"

Hope these steps will be useful when you plan to transfer your domain from Google Apps to GoDaddy.

Thought Leadership

It has widely been a tradition for businesses to blindly follow the footpaths and the ways of what a successful company does. They don't hesitate to imitate each other and saturate the market with the same kind of offerings instead of offering something new and different. For any business to create its identity and build a sustainable organization, 'Thought leadership' is essential.

'Thought leadership' is a term used for a person or a company who actively promotes innovative ideas in the pursuit of doing things better and different from others. It enlivens the old processes and methods with new ideas to create a unique identity and makes a person or a company the pioneer in the industry.

As said by M.K. Gandhi "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win." Thought leader is one who shows willingness to risk group rejection and win the peer-base using logic, knowledge and actual demonstration.

As rightly said by Elise Bauer, a distinguishing characteristic of a thought leader is "the recognition from the outside world that the company deeply understands its business, the needs of its customers, and the broader marketplace in which it operates."

Great brands and organizations like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc., built on the very same 'Thought Leadership. To remain competitive, organizations need 'Thought leaders' and these thought leaders can be created only by encouraging new ideas let that be from top level professionals or bottom level trainees.

Online presence with Google Apps, 110mb Hosting and GoDaddy

No matter what your organization deals with, an online presence or website for the organization has become a fundamental requirement for every business. It not only helps augment the organization's image but also helps business marketing and sales, thus resulting in increased profitability.

For the startups and the businesses who want to have their online presence/website in a cost-effective and professional way can consider using the services of:

1. Google Apps Standard Edition - for efficient email system with your domain name, Google Calendar, online office tools, etc.
   
2. GoDaddy Domain Registrar - for registering a domain with full DNS control
   
3. 110mb.com Hosting - for free web hosting space for hosting website
   

Let us see, how these 3 services can be used efficiently.

1. Sign up a Standard Edition account with Google Apps: During the signup process, you will be asked to enter your organization domain name. If you already don't have a domain name registered then it will provide you an option to register a domain for your organization with GoDaddy for just $10. After registering a domain name and completing the Google Apps signup process, you can:

• Create up to 200 user accounts for this domain
• Provide email addresses with your domain name to every user
  
• Make use of online office tools such as word processor, spreadsheet, presentation
• And much more
  

2. Create a web-hosting account with 110mb.com: For large amount of hosting space and bandwidth with no ads, you can create an account with 110mb.com web-hosting.

3. Find the IP address of your 110mb.com server: To configure your domain to use 110mb hosting server for web hosting, you need to know the IP address of your 110mb.com hosting server. You can find this IP address from:
http://www.110mb.com/check_your_site

4. Login to your GoDaddy account: If you have registered your domain with GoDaddy via Google Apps, then the login credentials for your GoDaddy account will be available within your Google Apps account at Domain Settings -> Domain Names -> Advanced DNS Settings.

5. Setup DNS to use 110mb.com Hosting service: Within your GoDaddy account, click on your domain name and take total DNS control and MX Records to do the following changes:

• Delete all the records except one under the 'A (Host)'
• Edit the record that is left undeleted under the 'A (Host)'. This record should have Host Name= @, Points To Ip Address= IP address of of your 110mb.com hosting server and TTL= 1 Hour.
• Edit the CNAMES (Aliases) record with the Host Name 'www'. This record should have Host Name= www, Points To Ip Address= @ and TTL= 1 Hour.

6. Add your domain in 110mb.com: Login to your 110mb.com hosting account and add your domain in your 100mb.com Account Profile.

Once the above specified settings are done, you can create/upload the web pages of your website from the File Manager of 110mb.com.

Hope this post helps.

Marketing an anti-recession tool

Recession - a period of economic decline, when majority of the organizations in a country endure low sales, less profits and huge losses.

To overcome and sustain this critical period, the very first step considered to be taken by any organization is, 'Cost-Cut'. It is a right decision to go for 'Cost-Cut', but is it a right decision to look for cost-cut in marketing budget?

Recession being a period of low sales and profit, most of the businesses prefer to reduce the marketing budget. But, it need to be handled the other way. The sales and the profits can be maintained and increased in recession time, if an aggressive marketing posture is adopted with increased marketing budget. This will also provide a huge competitive advantage over the competitors who adopt the philosophy of cutting back on promotional efforts during recession.

To meet the extra budget for marketing and use the recession as an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the business, an organization can think of cost-cut on the following:

• Layoffs - Fire the dead wood
• Efficient usage of resources
• Operational cost-cut

Since marketing serves to foster and maintain consumer-brand relationships, it can be used as an anti recession tool.

Think your products need no marketing? Think again

In this hyper-competitive market, marketing plays a vital role in creating a sustainable and profitable business. For a business not to invest in marketing is like winking at a girl in the dark - the person who winks at the girl knows what he is doing but no one else does.

To get more publicity and bring in new customers, every business needs marketing. If you think your business and products are good enough, and don't require any marketing/advertisements to attract and bring in new customers then think again.

Without any marketing, if you have good business/products, a few customers may make a path to your doors even though you live in the depths of the forests. But to bring customers in sufficient numbers, you would better need to construct a highway (execute effective marketing campaigns).