Blog Type Results - Pretty Funny...

There are some pretty cool things out there...

My friend Andrew Thornton had this on his blog, so I decided to give it a try... 

It's funny how accurate it is.

I think this will make those of you who have hung out with me laugh and say - oh, yeah, that's Marsha...

I wonder how it's done... Must be that magic computer programming stuff. 

It's magic math...

Here is my result (based upon my blog):

ESTP - The Doers

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

To try this on your blog, click the title and you should go right to the site.

Thanks Andrew!!! Hope you're feeling better!

Blog Type Results - Pretty Funny...

There are some pretty cool things out there...

My friend Andrew Thornton had this on his blog, so I decided to give it a try... 

It's funny how accurate it is.

I think this will make those of you who have hung out with me laugh and say - oh, yeah, that's Marsha...

I wonder how it's done... Must be that magic computer programming stuff. 

It's magic math...

Here is my result (based upon my blog):

ESTP - The Doers

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

To try this on your blog, click the title and you should go right to the site.

Thanks Andrew!!! Hope you're feeling better!

Updated Website Launched

It has been months in the making!!!!

But this morning Dave launched the updated Marsha Neal Studio website.

I thought it was funny how he was on his way out the door,

on a conference call,

pulling on his jacket,

grabbing his keys, wallet, laptop 

(our regular "do you have everything" list).

And I got the thumbs up - it's live!!!

So it should be a bit easier to navigate and have a cleaner look overall.

I'm going to go check it out!!!

Any suggestions would be appreciated by me,

groaned at by Dave....

Updated Website Launched

It has been months in the making!!!!

But this morning Dave launched the updated Marsha Neal Studio website.

I thought it was funny how he was on his way out the door,

on a conference call,

pulling on his jacket,

grabbing his keys, wallet, laptop 

(our regular "do you have everything" list).

And I got the thumbs up - it's live!!!

So it should be a bit easier to navigate and have a cleaner look overall.

I'm going to go check it out!!!

Any suggestions would be appreciated by me,

groaned at by Dave....

Storyofstuff.com

This is a 'must' visit site. You will be amazed to know about the effects of material economics...

Reduce waste, and save the planet.

"Save our world. Good planets are hard to find."

Cheers

Santosh

Teaser #1



Teaser #2



Teaser #3

Storyofstuff.com

This is a 'must' visit site. You will be amazed to know about the effects of material economics...

Reduce waste, and save the planet.

"Save our world. Good planets are hard to find."

Cheers

Santosh

Teaser #1



Teaser #2



Teaser #3

Storyofstuff.com

This is a 'must' visit site. You will be amazed to know about the effects of material economics...

Reduce waste, and save the planet.

"Save our world. Good planets are hard to find."

Cheers

Santosh

Teaser #1



Teaser #2



Teaser #3

Icy Images

I love the way the ice surrounds everything 

(as long as you don't have to go out in it).

Sunday morning graced us with this icy world outside.

The Dark Eyed Junco were around (they are here for the winter) getting what food they could find under the leaves under my feeders.

This little bird, the Dark Eyed Junco was one of my mom's favorite birds.

I have to admit that they are one of my favorites too - very active birds.

Very entertaining...

Can I say, my empty feeders...

I can't wait until we have one of the storms that coats the trees with thick ice. 

It's magnificent to look at, and I'll have my camera out for sure!

Icy Images

I love the way the ice surrounds everything 

(as long as you don't have to go out in it).

Sunday morning graced us with this icy world outside.

The Dark Eyed Junco were around (they are here for the winter) getting what food they could find under the leaves under my feeders.

This little bird, the Dark Eyed Junco was one of my mom's favorite birds.

I have to admit that they are one of my favorites too - very active birds.

Very entertaining...

Can I say, my empty feeders...

I can't wait until we have one of the storms that coats the trees with thick ice. 

It's magnificent to look at, and I'll have my camera out for sure!

Decal Pictures

Here is my favorite picture of the new decal pieces that I'm working on.

I am working on using my actual drawings, photographs and computer altered things. 

The latter being things such as the above round pendant on the left - those things that look like flower heads are actually pictures of small red berries that I played around with in my photo/draw program.

I really enjoy doing stuff on the computer, but feel like I get sucked into it at times, and that my life gets away from me. I've got to learn to limit myself...

Here are some pictures of the decal pieces after the kiln firing. There are grouping of birds (Chickadee and Dark Eyed Junco so far), flowers and other abstract things:

I've been trying hard to keep with my own drawings and altered images. Sometimes it is hard though when I just want something done and don't want to sit and fool with drawing something out (like a line of insects...). Maybe I'll just have the staple lepidoptera, odonata, orthoptera, hymenoptera, coleoptera ... (butterlies/moths, damselflies/dragonflies, grasshoppers, bees, beetles...). I hope I got those names right - it's been a while!

This next picture is a step in the water slide decal process. I've printed and cut out the decal, and put them into water to remove the paper backing. Then I put the decal on to the glazed surface, squeeze out air bubbles, let dry, then fire it in the kiln. 

The iron oxide in the ink from the laser printer transfers to the glazed surface and becomes part of the glaze - so it will never scratch or rub off.

Oh, the possibilities.... So this is where my line of work is heading... Tucson this year will be interesting with all this new stuff!

It's great to be experimenting again!

Happy Holidays!

Decal Pictures

Here is my favorite picture of the new decal pieces that I'm working on.

I am working on using my actual drawings, photographs and computer altered things. 

The latter being things such as the above round pendant on the left - those things that look like flower heads are actually pictures of small red berries that I played around with in my photo/draw program.

I really enjoy doing stuff on the computer, but feel like I get sucked into it at times, and that my life gets away from me. I've got to learn to limit myself...

Here are some pictures of the decal pieces after the kiln firing. There are grouping of birds (Chickadee and Dark Eyed Junco so far), flowers and other abstract things:

I've been trying hard to keep with my own drawings and altered images. Sometimes it is hard though when I just want something done and don't want to sit and fool with drawing something out (like a line of insects...). Maybe I'll just have the staple lepidoptera, odonata, orthoptera, hymenoptera, coleoptera ... (butterlies/moths, damselflies/dragonflies, grasshoppers, bees, beetles...). I hope I got those names right - it's been a while!

This next picture is a step in the water slide decal process. I've printed and cut out the decal, and put them into water to remove the paper backing. Then I put the decal on to the glazed surface, squeeze out air bubbles, let dry, then fire it in the kiln. 

The iron oxide in the ink from the laser printer transfers to the glazed surface and becomes part of the glaze - so it will never scratch or rub off.

Oh, the possibilities.... So this is where my line of work is heading... Tucson this year will be interesting with all this new stuff!

It's great to be experimenting again!

Happy Holidays!

Excerpts from interview with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw- CNBC TV18

Watch this video...

Nice stuff

Cheers

Santosh

Excerpts from interview with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw- CNBC TV18

Watch this video...

Nice stuff

Cheers

Santosh

Excerpts from interview with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw- CNBC TV18

Watch this video...

Nice stuff

Cheers

Santosh

Etsy shop updated with items!

I have listed a few scarves and some of my pendants up on Etsy.

I never knew how long of a process it is to get an item, get a picture - don't forget editing, gather information, and getting it all pulled together - pshew...

Here is my awesome cousin Sarah modeling one of my scarves for me yesterday.

She did a great job! It's like she's done this before or something... 

She's hired for the next round too!

And of course Chloe wanted to get in the pictures.

She was actually going for the plastic flowers behind Sarah at this point.

Any feedback on these pictures for Etsy would be appreciated.

I was thinking that if this apparel line takes off,

I will have to hire a professional photographer to take the product shots.

Lots more scarves and infant apparel to be uploaded soon!

Etsy shop updated with items!

I have listed a few scarves and some of my pendants up on Etsy.

I never knew how long of a process it is to get an item, get a picture - don't forget editing, gather information, and getting it all pulled together - pshew...

Here is my awesome cousin Sarah modeling one of my scarves for me yesterday.

She did a great job! It's like she's done this before or something... 

She's hired for the next round too!

And of course Chloe wanted to get in the pictures.

She was actually going for the plastic flowers behind Sarah at this point.

Any feedback on these pictures for Etsy would be appreciated.

I was thinking that if this apparel line takes off,

I will have to hire a professional photographer to take the product shots.

Lots more scarves and infant apparel to be uploaded soon!

The Excitement of Pulling Things Together

I can't wait....

I just get so excited (and then I picture myself as a Jack Russell Terrier - thanks to Joan Miller for the visual of what dog I would be if I were a dog...).

Things are so hectic at times, but they are SO coming together.

I've got a kiln firing now that has a bunch of glazes pieces - that are glazed in just a clear glaze. They are porcelain, so the pieces will be white. These pieces are my blank canvas for a lot of new decal pieces I've been working on, and if time allows, I will get some done Mon/Tues and fired Tues/Wed then pictures on Thurs!

I've been playing around with the idea of using a lot of my actual sketches and drawings in black and white format for some time now. I just love the doodles in my notebooks - I have wanted to put them to use in their actual visual self, and not just as texture plates as I have been.

By doing this - by using my actual drawing - I can play around with scale, placement, arrangement, the way the images work together on one piece - or maybe they will be a set on a couple of pieces...

It has been a bit frustrating on the back end of things because I've been trying to steal time to figure out how to use my computer programs, get a lot of images from photos from this garden season as well as from my bird camera (thanks Dave for such a cool gift - no more missing birds at the feeders - although, there are mostly squirrels in the pics). Then b/c of all the images, my computer ran out of space - so I got an external hard drive. Our server broke, and then my pc died... so now I'm starting to learn how to work my new fancy pants MacBook Pro. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL.... figures! But hey, I got a Mac!!!

So I'm hoping that this is really perfect timing - although, all the work now that Dave and I have been doing on my website - we're having compatibility issues with the shopping cart - so that is also fun to deal with. Luckily Dave is really good at figuring stuff out. I just have to be careful that all the stuff I'm piling on him doesn't come back to kick me in the butt.

So look for new decal pieces through this blog (maybe I'll figure out Flickr too) and then finally on my Etsy shop.

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday!!! I can't wait for a little bit of snow to make things pretty again around here. Everything tends to be a bit blah with all the brown. Maybe I'll just go out at night time to see all the pretty Christmas lights instead!

The Excitement of Pulling Things Together

I can't wait....

I just get so excited (and then I picture myself as a Jack Russell Terrier - thanks to Joan Miller for the visual of what dog I would be if I were a dog...).

Things are so hectic at times, but they are SO coming together.

I've got a kiln firing now that has a bunch of glazes pieces - that are glazed in just a clear glaze. They are porcelain, so the pieces will be white. These pieces are my blank canvas for a lot of new decal pieces I've been working on, and if time allows, I will get some done Mon/Tues and fired Tues/Wed then pictures on Thurs!

I've been playing around with the idea of using a lot of my actual sketches and drawings in black and white format for some time now. I just love the doodles in my notebooks - I have wanted to put them to use in their actual visual self, and not just as texture plates as I have been.

By doing this - by using my actual drawing - I can play around with scale, placement, arrangement, the way the images work together on one piece - or maybe they will be a set on a couple of pieces...

It has been a bit frustrating on the back end of things because I've been trying to steal time to figure out how to use my computer programs, get a lot of images from photos from this garden season as well as from my bird camera (thanks Dave for such a cool gift - no more missing birds at the feeders - although, there are mostly squirrels in the pics). Then b/c of all the images, my computer ran out of space - so I got an external hard drive. Our server broke, and then my pc died... so now I'm starting to learn how to work my new fancy pants MacBook Pro. RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL.... figures! But hey, I got a Mac!!!

So I'm hoping that this is really perfect timing - although, all the work now that Dave and I have been doing on my website - we're having compatibility issues with the shopping cart - so that is also fun to deal with. Luckily Dave is really good at figuring stuff out. I just have to be careful that all the stuff I'm piling on him doesn't come back to kick me in the butt.

So look for new decal pieces through this blog (maybe I'll figure out Flickr too) and then finally on my Etsy shop.

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday!!! I can't wait for a little bit of snow to make things pretty again around here. Everything tends to be a bit blah with all the brown. Maybe I'll just go out at night time to see all the pretty Christmas lights instead!

Chloe as Disco Elf

Here is something very cute from Office Max called Elf Yourself. My sister April send us one last year with one of Chloe's pictures. So we've continued the tradition with 5 Chloe faces this year. Enjoy Disco Christmas Chloe!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/khwT7FqZqWJAIVGjbGCF

Here is a link to make your own:
http://www.elfyourself.com

Enjoy!!!

Chloe as Disco Elf

Here is something very cute from Office Max called Elf Yourself. My sister April send us one last year with one of Chloe's pictures. So we've continued the tradition with 5 Chloe faces this year. Enjoy Disco Christmas Chloe!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/khwT7FqZqWJAIVGjbGCF

Here is a link to make your own:
http://www.elfyourself.com

Enjoy!!!

Marsha Neal Studio Etsy Shop

My Etsy shop is set up - Finally!

I can't believe how long it takes to get it pulled together - just the background info and policies. No items yet, but that should happen as soon as I get a cool background, the pieces, camera then item descriptions together. So like another billion years maybe... hopefully not. I've got some fun pieces to put up, and don't have time to fool with my actual website shopping cart since both Dave and I are head cold sick right now.

Here is a link to my Etsy shop so far. If anyone has any comments or advise - please let me know. I'm flying by the seat of my pants on this one (and as medicine head, trying to fend off this cold!)
http://www.MarshaNealStudio.Etsy.com

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Marsha Neal Studio Etsy Shop

My Etsy shop is set up - Finally!

I can't believe how long it takes to get it pulled together - just the background info and policies. No items yet, but that should happen as soon as I get a cool background, the pieces, camera then item descriptions together. So like another billion years maybe... hopefully not. I've got some fun pieces to put up, and don't have time to fool with my actual website shopping cart since both Dave and I are head cold sick right now.

Here is a link to my Etsy shop so far. If anyone has any comments or advise - please let me know. I'm flying by the seat of my pants on this one (and as medicine head, trying to fend off this cold!)
http://www.MarshaNealStudio.Etsy.com

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Management-Ally 9: Believe in strangers

Some forwarded me a link to join a new website www.yepme.com. They claim to be India's first recommendation Engine.

The offer of sending invites and recommending places allows you to accumulate points and thus you are eligible to get your free Reebok shoes (the prime reason for me to click the link)

It makes me wonder, why would someone listen to a recommendations of a complete stranger?? Can i really be an 'influencer' to promote some service or product, that will influence a person from Mumbai or Bangalore to try it. Sounds, far fetched.

I never asked the person sitting on the neighboring table in a restaurant what he had ordered or how the food tasted. Neither do I ask someone at a retail outlet about a particular product. Then why would I go online, read a recommendation of some completely unknown, and the decide. And most cases, I go by the waiter/chef's recommendation or the salesman's advice...I am sure this will be true in most cases.

This thought reflects in my earlier blog about online behaviour. Is our online behaviour vastly different from our real life behaviour??

Also, the fact that someone 'earns' points and there-by rewarded for giving recommendations would kill the purpose of being an unbiased 'reviewer' of a product or service (i am assuming that this site only promotes positive recommendations, and you are rewarded for the same, i might be wrong too)..

Reviewers site, i have seen are usually a message board for venting up. Most of the comments are from people who have an unpleasant experience with the company or brand. This strengthens the saying - a happy customers says to 3, and an unhappy one to 3000.

I think the more workable model for the review/ recommendation sites to be successful would be to get the customer response as soon as they have experienced the product or service. Here a judicious mix of micro-blogging through mobile (SMS) would be the best way...

Cheers

Santosh

Management-Ally 9: Believe in strangers

Some forwarded me a link to join a new website www.yepme.com. They claim to be India's first recommendation Engine.

The offer of sending invites and recommending places allows you to accumulate points and thus you are eligible to get your free Reebok shoes (the prime reason for me to click the link)

It makes me wonder, why would someone listen to a recommendations of a complete stranger?? Can i really be an 'influencer' to promote some service or product, that will influence a person from Mumbai or Bangalore to try it. Sounds, far fetched.

I never asked the person sitting on the neighboring table in a restaurant what he had ordered or how the food tasted. Neither do I ask someone at a retail outlet about a particular product. Then why would I go online, read a recommendation of some completely unknown, and the decide. And most cases, I go by the waiter/chef's recommendation or the salesman's advice...I am sure this will be true in most cases.

This thought reflects in my earlier blog about online behaviour. Is our online behaviour vastly different from our real life behaviour??

Also, the fact that someone 'earns' points and there-by rewarded for giving recommendations would kill the purpose of being an unbiased 'reviewer' of a product or service (i am assuming that this site only promotes positive recommendations, and you are rewarded for the same, i might be wrong too)..

Reviewers site, i have seen are usually a message board for venting up. Most of the comments are from people who have an unpleasant experience with the company or brand. This strengthens the saying - a happy customers says to 3, and an unhappy one to 3000.

I think the more workable model for the review/ recommendation sites to be successful would be to get the customer response as soon as they have experienced the product or service. Here a judicious mix of micro-blogging through mobile (SMS) would be the best way...

Cheers

Santosh

Management-Ally 9: Believe in strangers

Some forwarded me a link to join a new website www.yepme.com. They claim to be India's first recommendation Engine.

The offer of sending invites and recommending places allows you to accumulate points and thus you are eligible to get your free Reebok shoes (the prime reason for me to click the link)

It makes me wonder, why would someone listen to a recommendations of a complete stranger?? Can i really be an 'influencer' to promote some service or product, that will influence a person from Mumbai or Bangalore to try it. Sounds, far fetched.

I never asked the person sitting on the neighboring table in a restaurant what he had ordered or how the food tasted. Neither do I ask someone at a retail outlet about a particular product. Then why would I go online, read a recommendation of some completely unknown, and the decide. And most cases, I go by the waiter/chef's recommendation or the salesman's advice...I am sure this will be true in most cases.

This thought reflects in my earlier blog about online behaviour. Is our online behaviour vastly different from our real life behaviour??

Also, the fact that someone 'earns' points and there-by rewarded for giving recommendations would kill the purpose of being an unbiased 'reviewer' of a product or service (i am assuming that this site only promotes positive recommendations, and you are rewarded for the same, i might be wrong too)..

Reviewers site, i have seen are usually a message board for venting up. Most of the comments are from people who have an unpleasant experience with the company or brand. This strengthens the saying - a happy customers says to 3, and an unhappy one to 3000.

I think the more workable model for the review/ recommendation sites to be successful would be to get the customer response as soon as they have experienced the product or service. Here a judicious mix of micro-blogging through mobile (SMS) would be the best way...

Cheers

Santosh

November 2008 Recipe

Ok, it is better late than never for this November Recipe (posted in December)...

To start with, Thank You to my sister Teren.

Here is a picture of my sister Teren...

with the butt spud...

If you weren't there Thanksgiving day to help me make the mashed potatoes,

I don't think I would have ever gotten through those 5 or was it 6 bags?

Ok, hopefully you will find yourself a butt looking spud in the mix so you can giggle at it too!

But if not, then just remember this picture of my sister Teren after peeling this one.

We of course had to grab the camera to remember the moment...

She saw a butt, I saw boobs...

must be the breastfeeding thing...

Mashed Redskin Potatoes (Teren's Recipe)

First thing, is have a big pot to boil water - a pot with handles.

Fill that pot with water and get it on the stove for boiling!

For flavoring your spuds while boiling we add: salt, freeze dried red onion & garlic to the water.

If you have fresh - go for it. But around here, we go for quick and easy...

Scrub the dirt from the redskin potatoes (some we peeled because of the people that don't like to eat the skin... Dave's Uncle Ricky...hahahaha... no seconds for you... Mr. Smarty Pants... there is one in every family - well, lots in our family actually...).

I think that we used almost an entire 5lb bag of spuds (see picture for individual size) to make this recipe (times 5 or 6 because we had 34 people to make mashed potatoes for - big dinner!)

We cut the cleaned/skinned potatoes into small cubes and boiled them until fork soft.

Fork soft meaning you can cut through one with a fork (someone might not get fork soft - sorry!)

Strain the spuds and put them back into the pot - but not on the stove!

Remember to turn off your stove (those of you that are like-Marsha-minded...).

With a small handheld mixer blend the potatoes with:

butter, milk, salt, & pepper (for regular mashed spuds)

the above + minced garlic + minced onion + chive & onion cream cheese (for garlic-onion mashed yummy-these-are-the-best-mashed-spuds-ever kind).

For measuring these ingredients, it was really by eyeball and many tastings to see what it needed.

Basically almost a stick of butter for one 5lb bag.

Milk - I would say start with about 1/4 cup and add more little by little (if they are too dry).

Minced garlic - a little goes a long way.

Same with the onion (we like red onion in this house!)

I think that is about it for the Redskin Mashed Potatoe recipe from my sister... Enjoy!!!

November 2008 Recipe

Ok, it is better late than never for this November Recipe (posted in December)...

To start with, Thank You to my sister Teren.

Here is a picture of my sister Teren...

with the butt spud...

If you weren't there Thanksgiving day to help me make the mashed potatoes,

I don't think I would have ever gotten through those 5 or was it 6 bags?

Ok, hopefully you will find yourself a butt looking spud in the mix so you can giggle at it too!

But if not, then just remember this picture of my sister Teren after peeling this one.

We of course had to grab the camera to remember the moment...

She saw a butt, I saw boobs...

must be the breastfeeding thing...

Mashed Redskin Potatoes (Teren's Recipe)

First thing, is have a big pot to boil water - a pot with handles.

Fill that pot with water and get it on the stove for boiling!

For flavoring your spuds while boiling we add: salt, freeze dried red onion & garlic to the water.

If you have fresh - go for it. But around here, we go for quick and easy...

Scrub the dirt from the redskin potatoes (some we peeled because of the people that don't like to eat the skin... Dave's Uncle Ricky...hahahaha... no seconds for you... Mr. Smarty Pants... there is one in every family - well, lots in our family actually...).

I think that we used almost an entire 5lb bag of spuds (see picture for individual size) to make this recipe (times 5 or 6 because we had 34 people to make mashed potatoes for - big dinner!)

We cut the cleaned/skinned potatoes into small cubes and boiled them until fork soft.

Fork soft meaning you can cut through one with a fork (someone might not get fork soft - sorry!)

Strain the spuds and put them back into the pot - but not on the stove!

Remember to turn off your stove (those of you that are like-Marsha-minded...).

With a small handheld mixer blend the potatoes with:

butter, milk, salt, & pepper (for regular mashed spuds)

the above + minced garlic + minced onion + chive & onion cream cheese (for garlic-onion mashed yummy-these-are-the-best-mashed-spuds-ever kind).

For measuring these ingredients, it was really by eyeball and many tastings to see what it needed.

Basically almost a stick of butter for one 5lb bag.

Milk - I would say start with about 1/4 cup and add more little by little (if they are too dry).

Minced garlic - a little goes a long way.

Same with the onion (we like red onion in this house!)

I think that is about it for the Redskin Mashed Potatoe recipe from my sister... Enjoy!!!

India ranks 4th in world with 81 Million Internet Users

Strange.. Most of the Internet stats report from India claim that India has an internet user base of 30 Million to 38 Million. But to quote by Internet Governance Forum - India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world with 81 million internet users even as the world aggregate touched 134,85,72,040 by the end of 2007.

For reading the entire article click economictimes.com

I do not know the methodology which was followed and how the figures were arrived to.. But at 81 Million users, we can emphatically say that Internet in India is no longer a medium for niche audience, but is a 'mass' media.

It is high time that we marketers recognize this and have a proper online marketing strategy - and not do online campaigns as an after thought.

Cheers

Santosh

India ranks 4th in world with 81 Million Internet Users

Strange.. Most of the Internet stats report from India claim that India has an internet user base of 30 Million to 38 Million. But to quote by Internet Governance Forum - India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world with 81 million internet users even as the world aggregate touched 134,85,72,040 by the end of 2007.

For reading the entire article click economictimes.com

I do not know the methodology which was followed and how the figures were arrived to.. But at 81 Million users, we can emphatically say that Internet in India is no longer a medium for niche audience, but is a 'mass' media.

It is high time that we marketers recognize this and have a proper online marketing strategy - and not do online campaigns as an after thought.

Cheers

Santosh

India ranks 4th in world with 81 Million Internet Users

Strange.. Most of the Internet stats report from India claim that India has an internet user base of 30 Million to 38 Million. But to quote by Internet Governance Forum - India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world with 81 million internet users even as the world aggregate touched 134,85,72,040 by the end of 2007.

For reading the entire article click economictimes.com

I do not know the methodology which was followed and how the figures were arrived to.. But at 81 Million users, we can emphatically say that Internet in India is no longer a medium for niche audience, but is a 'mass' media.

It is high time that we marketers recognize this and have a proper online marketing strategy - and not do online campaigns as an after thought.

Cheers

Santosh

10 things i have learnt from the Mumbai terror attack

I have learnt -

1) Life has no guarantee
2) Terror has no name, no face, but follows a religion
3) We expect too much from too few
4) Better to die once like a soldier, than live forever
5) Media are like vultures, they are where the dead bodies are
6) Politicians are like hyenas, they feed along with the vultures
7) India was invaded - yesterday, today, and will be invaded tomorrow.
8) We all live in fool's paradise
9) The war in future will be fought in streets and buildings not on fronts
10) The bells toll for me

I have also learnt, that I too shed tears...

Santosh

10 things i have learnt from the Mumbai terror attack

I have learnt -

1) Life has no guarantee
2) Terror has no name, no face, but follows a religion
3) We expect too much from too few
4) Better to die once like a soldier, than live forever
5) Media are like vultures, they are where the dead bodies are
6) Politicians are like hyenas, they feed along with the vultures
7) India was invaded - yesterday, today, and will be invaded tomorrow.
8) We all live in fool's paradise
9) The war in future will be fought in streets and buildings not on fronts
10) The bells toll for me

I have also learnt, that I too shed tears...

Santosh

10 things i have learnt from the Mumbai terror attack

I have learnt -

1) Life has no guarantee
2) Terror has no name, no face, but follows a religion
3) We expect too much from too few
4) Better to die once like a soldier, than live forever
5) Media are like vultures, they are where the dead bodies are
6) Politicians are like hyenas, they feed along with the vultures
7) India was invaded - yesterday, today, and will be invaded tomorrow.
8) We all live in fool's paradise
9) The war in future will be fought in streets and buildings not on fronts
10) The bells toll for me

I have also learnt, that I too shed tears...

Santosh

Management-Ally, Part 8: Online Behaviour – Why people don’t behave the way the do…

It has been quite a while since I have written anything under the Management-Ally series. I had in my early days of blogging started the following series:
1. Management-Ally: Topics of interests that would give my perspective of Management related topics.
2. Manage-Mentally: The topics under this heading were usually humorous in nature. It gave my view of a specific management related topic in a lighter vein.
I have decided to re-start writing articles under these headings. Under this Management-Ally series, I wanted to cover my thoughts on Online Behaviour – why people don’t behave the way they do in real life
There is a vast difference in the behaviour of people when they are online or offline. We all have been conditioned to the fact that Internet enables an easy and convenient way of communicating with each other. But these online interactions are not necessarily, an extension of our real life behaviour but a medium for surfacing our deep rooted feelings/actions. A common example would be – You would find it hard to say no to a friend of yours when you are face to face, but when you are online chatting, saying no would not be hard.
My main line of question is - has the Net increased social interactions, but of a different kind?
Why does the same person, behave differently when he/she is online? Taking the Freudian principle and tweaking the ‘Iceberg’ model a little bit, we can get into the different stages and the effect of the same on the user’s psyche.
When a person is online there are 4 stages that will affect his online behaviour.
The Normal Stage
The Interlinked Stage
The ‘attached’ Stage
The ‘detached’ Stage

The Normal Stage:
When the user is online, and interacting with people he/she knows (either through email/Instant Messaging, writing scrap). This phenomenon is predominantly the way any user would behave when in online space. It is usually happens – when you know others, and others know you.



The Interlinked Stage:
In this stage the user would react the same way as in normal stage in most of the instances. However, there would be instances where he might behave in a manner we would not have in real life. Example, in a particular situation, a person may not say no when he is face to face with the other party (especially, if he/she knows the other party); but saying no through an email or message (SMS) would be easier, and they might just do that. This is usually true – when you want to send comments/feedback on articles, blog scrap, or you are using a known identity and chatting in a chat room.



The Attached Stage:
This stage of people you would find usually in the virtual world scenario – There.com, secondlife.com. Also such behaviour is found in chat rooms, where you can log on as anonymous user. Here your behaviour would have some semblance to what you do in offline world. However, you would transgress a lot, and would do be willing to do things you normally would not do. However, if the online space is some place where others know you in real life – you will still behave in the normal way in some instance.


The Detached Stage:
Creating anonymous online avatars, extreme online gaming, geeks who are well versed with the ways of the Internet, and want to have some fun at somebody’s expense are some of the places you would find such behaviour. P2P sites where you upload/ download stuff that are not legal – the reason is not that you want to break the law, it is more to satisfy the ‘rebel’ in you.



Conclusion:
Online behaviour of a person need not be same as their real life behaviour. As a medium, Internet gives the user an option of being anonymous, and thus a reason for them to behave in a manner that will not be similar to their off-line behaviour.
As an advertiser we need to understand, the place, the reason, and the age (number of years using internet) of the target group, before we make ads, targeting them. We currently live in a world, wherein we use the findings of the offline behaviour of a person, and create communication messaging for online medium
It would be great to do a proper research on the online behaviour of the TG, before we have empirical data to substantiate the above theory.

Management-Ally, Part 8: Online Behaviour – Why people don’t behave the way the do…

It has been quite a while since I have written anything under the Management-Ally series. I had in my early days of blogging started the following series:
1. Management-Ally: Topics of interests that would give my perspective of Management related topics.
2. Manage-Mentally: The topics under this heading were usually humorous in nature. It gave my view of a specific management related topic in a lighter vein.
I have decided to re-start writing articles under these headings. Under this Management-Ally series, I wanted to cover my thoughts on Online Behaviour – why people don’t behave the way they do in real life
There is a vast difference in the behaviour of people when they are online or offline. We all have been conditioned to the fact that Internet enables an easy and convenient way of communicating with each other. But these online interactions are not necessarily, an extension of our real life behaviour but a medium for surfacing our deep rooted feelings/actions. A common example would be – You would find it hard to say no to a friend of yours when you are face to face, but when you are online chatting, saying no would not be hard.
My main line of question is - has the Net increased social interactions, but of a different kind?
Why does the same person, behave differently when he/she is online? Taking the Freudian principle and tweaking the ‘Iceberg’ model a little bit, we can get into the different stages and the effect of the same on the user’s psyche.
When a person is online there are 4 stages that will affect his online behaviour.
The Normal Stage
The Interlinked Stage
The ‘attached’ Stage
The ‘detached’ Stage

The Normal Stage:
When the user is online, and interacting with people he/she knows (either through email/Instant Messaging, writing scrap). This phenomenon is predominantly the way any user would behave when in online space. It is usually happens – when you know others, and others know you.



The Interlinked Stage:
In this stage the user would react the same way as in normal stage in most of the instances. However, there would be instances where he might behave in a manner we would not have in real life. Example, in a particular situation, a person may not say no when he is face to face with the other party (especially, if he/she knows the other party); but saying no through an email or message (SMS) would be easier, and they might just do that. This is usually true – when you want to send comments/feedback on articles, blog scrap, or you are using a known identity and chatting in a chat room.



The Attached Stage:
This stage of people you would find usually in the virtual world scenario – There.com, secondlife.com. Also such behaviour is found in chat rooms, where you can log on as anonymous user. Here your behaviour would have some semblance to what you do in offline world. However, you would transgress a lot, and would do be willing to do things you normally would not do. However, if the online space is some place where others know you in real life – you will still behave in the normal way in some instance.


The Detached Stage:
Creating anonymous online avatars, extreme online gaming, geeks who are well versed with the ways of the Internet, and want to have some fun at somebody’s expense are some of the places you would find such behaviour. P2P sites where you upload/ download stuff that are not legal – the reason is not that you want to break the law, it is more to satisfy the ‘rebel’ in you.



Conclusion:
Online behaviour of a person need not be same as their real life behaviour. As a medium, Internet gives the user an option of being anonymous, and thus a reason for them to behave in a manner that will not be similar to their off-line behaviour.
As an advertiser we need to understand, the place, the reason, and the age (number of years using internet) of the target group, before we make ads, targeting them. We currently live in a world, wherein we use the findings of the offline behaviour of a person, and create communication messaging for online medium
It would be great to do a proper research on the online behaviour of the TG, before we have empirical data to substantiate the above theory.

Management-Ally, Part 8: Online Behaviour – Why people don’t behave the way the do…

It has been quite a while since I have written anything under the Management-Ally series. I had in my early days of blogging started the following series:
1. Management-Ally: Topics of interests that would give my perspective of Management related topics.
2. Manage-Mentally: The topics under this heading were usually humorous in nature. It gave my view of a specific management related topic in a lighter vein.
I have decided to re-start writing articles under these headings. Under this Management-Ally series, I wanted to cover my thoughts on Online Behaviour – why people don’t behave the way they do in real life
There is a vast difference in the behaviour of people when they are online or offline. We all have been conditioned to the fact that Internet enables an easy and convenient way of communicating with each other. But these online interactions are not necessarily, an extension of our real life behaviour but a medium for surfacing our deep rooted feelings/actions. A common example would be – You would find it hard to say no to a friend of yours when you are face to face, but when you are online chatting, saying no would not be hard.
My main line of question is - has the Net increased social interactions, but of a different kind?
Why does the same person, behave differently when he/she is online? Taking the Freudian principle and tweaking the ‘Iceberg’ model a little bit, we can get into the different stages and the effect of the same on the user’s psyche.
When a person is online there are 4 stages that will affect his online behaviour.
The Normal Stage
The Interlinked Stage
The ‘attached’ Stage
The ‘detached’ Stage

The Normal Stage:
When the user is online, and interacting with people he/she knows (either through email/Instant Messaging, writing scrap). This phenomenon is predominantly the way any user would behave when in online space. It is usually happens – when you know others, and others know you.



The Interlinked Stage:
In this stage the user would react the same way as in normal stage in most of the instances. However, there would be instances where he might behave in a manner we would not have in real life. Example, in a particular situation, a person may not say no when he is face to face with the other party (especially, if he/she knows the other party); but saying no through an email or message (SMS) would be easier, and they might just do that. This is usually true – when you want to send comments/feedback on articles, blog scrap, or you are using a known identity and chatting in a chat room.



The Attached Stage:
This stage of people you would find usually in the virtual world scenario – There.com, secondlife.com. Also such behaviour is found in chat rooms, where you can log on as anonymous user. Here your behaviour would have some semblance to what you do in offline world. However, you would transgress a lot, and would do be willing to do things you normally would not do. However, if the online space is some place where others know you in real life – you will still behave in the normal way in some instance.


The Detached Stage:
Creating anonymous online avatars, extreme online gaming, geeks who are well versed with the ways of the Internet, and want to have some fun at somebody’s expense are some of the places you would find such behaviour. P2P sites where you upload/ download stuff that are not legal – the reason is not that you want to break the law, it is more to satisfy the ‘rebel’ in you.



Conclusion:
Online behaviour of a person need not be same as their real life behaviour. As a medium, Internet gives the user an option of being anonymous, and thus a reason for them to behave in a manner that will not be similar to their off-line behaviour.
As an advertiser we need to understand, the place, the reason, and the age (number of years using internet) of the target group, before we make ads, targeting them. We currently live in a world, wherein we use the findings of the offline behaviour of a person, and create communication messaging for online medium
It would be great to do a proper research on the online behaviour of the TG, before we have empirical data to substantiate the above theory.

Where Did Autumn Go?

It seems like just yesterday we were looking at the beautiful leaves on the trees.

Then overnight, they all fell off and into our yard.

I had thrown out my back on Friday

and Dave said no to me trying to help clean up the yard on Sunday

even though I was feeling a bit better...

(and I know better, I've got to admit he is just about always right!)

So here are some pictures of the big pile of leaves that he made for Chloe on Sunday.

She isn't walking yet, and was a bit unsure at first...

But as you can see by the smile on her face

(the "ham" face as Dave calls it)...

She loved it!

So for now, the trees are bare.

My garden has gone to its winter rest.

The birds & squirrels are cleaning out the feeders every day.

And I am working on new designs for my new infant apparel line

with my friend Kim from AspenWear.

The website is still being updated - it is getting an overhaul - very time consuming!

We're busy as ever!

Hope everything is well with you all!

Thanks for reading...

Where Did Autumn Go?

It seems like just yesterday we were looking at the beautiful leaves on the trees.

Then overnight, they all fell off and into our yard.

I had thrown out my back on Friday

and Dave said no to me trying to help clean up the yard on Sunday

even though I was feeling a bit better...

(and I know better, I've got to admit he is just about always right!)

So here are some pictures of the big pile of leaves that he made for Chloe on Sunday.

She isn't walking yet, and was a bit unsure at first...

But as you can see by the smile on her face

(the "ham" face as Dave calls it)...

She loved it!

So for now, the trees are bare.

My garden has gone to its winter rest.

The birds & squirrels are cleaning out the feeders every day.

And I am working on new designs for my new infant apparel line

with my friend Kim from AspenWear.

The website is still being updated - it is getting an overhaul - very time consuming!

We're busy as ever!

Hope everything is well with you all!

Thanks for reading...

Goodbye - God of Offside

Thank you Dada


Cheers

Santosh

Goodbye - God of Offside

Thank you Dada


Cheers

Santosh

Goodbye - God of Offside

Thank you Dada


Cheers

Santosh

General Elections in India - Canvassing Digital Style

The US Elections and the results have been historic. The way the campaign was fought and the results there of, are the cocksure way of the way the wind blows. Much more the results (it was a foregone conclusion that the anti-incumbency votes would prevail in this election), I was keener on the way the election was fought.

The use of Online and digital media in the US election was awesome. It will be talked about and replicated in the developed world and maybe in countries like India too.

India is going in for its General Elections in early 2009. In the meantime there are lot of states that would be going to elections. The elections in Delhi are slated for end of November. Already candidates sending emails to residents of specific locality has come in news articles.

India has substantial online users (close to 35 Million) and a large population who have mobile phones (over 300 Million in the last count). Reaching out to this audience would be of paramount importance to all parties.

From an advertising point of view digital is a cost effective and an efficient medium. The best part of digital medium is that of optimizing the campaign in between and also the targeting and customization that is possible.

The social networking sites talks about millions of registered users.. and sites likes Orkut claims to have 8 Million profiles from India... Not a bad place to canvass, eh. Imagine targeted banners, where in you can put the local candidate’s photo on the banner ads...

A study by researchers from Princeton and Michigan Universities, together with the US Student Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) New Voter Project Mobile Voter and Working Assets found that text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by close to 5 percentage points. This is an increase similar to ‘quality phone call’ reminders, but at a fraction of the cost.

Where does this leave the Indian politician, and what he/she can do to reach out in this networked digital world? Discounting the fact, that most candidates are of the dinosaur era, and their internet and mobile awareness might be no different from an trained orangutan:). Here are some digital tactics they can adopt for this elections..

Online
Campaign Website
Candidate profile on popular SNS - Orkut/Facebook
Emailer activity
Banner ad campaigns - targeted
Online Webcasts
Online give-away collaterals like Ringtone, wallpaper, downloads, etc


Mobile:

SMS
Shortcode
IVRS
MMS
WAP access


Campaign Website:

Each party should have a specific campaign website. The website should highlight what their manifesto is, list of their candidates, A video clip from their leader, Discussion board, The leader schedules, the problems that they will address - national and local (interactive map format).. Polling booth details, etc, etc

SNS sites:

All the candidates needs to have their profile pages on popular SNS sites,, with their complete bio, what their contribution to the society was, is and will be. People can post scraps and the campaign managers’ needs to respond to those at the earliest. Photos, party symbols, ad collaterals can all be linked to for downloads. RSS feeds for alerts from the candidates needs to be provided.

Email Activity:

Regular email activity (once a month/fortnight, based on timelines) can be sent to selected database in each candidate’s constituency. The mails will be from the candidate and personal in nature. I read somewhere, that a candidate from one of the constituency in Delhi is doing this activity.

Banner ads:

The party can go for a pan-India banner campaign that will be targeted banner ads. The banner ads are customized based on the candidate, and the message talking about the local issue pertaining to that state/constituency

Webcast & Online take away collaterals:

These can be part of the campaign website - where in the user can download various branded collaterals, and also watch webcasts of the candidates or the party leaders in action.

The party can also look at online mock campaigns to see what the user reactions are - this would be done independent of the campaign websites. This would give the campaign managers a dipstick into pulse of the public and can optimize/change their campaign tactics


Internet through its shallow penetration may not be as effective as the other forms of traditional mass media. But, the truth of the matter is most of the 'influencers' - the intelligentsia, the media people are all Internet Savvy. They look at information on the net, which is reproduced and picked up in the traditional mass media formats. Hence it is imperative that the parties give a serious thought and have Internet as part of their marketing strategy.

India has the second largest mobile population. Close to 27% of India population are mobile phone users. This medium can be really effective in the coming general elections.

SMS: One of the best and simplest forms of sending the message across would be through the SMS. It is cheap and it is targeted. The message can be localised give the candidate name, the party symbol, and the date of election, etc. The fact that the service providers and handsets now have an option of sending vernacular messages helps

Shortcode: The power of shortcode is that it can be part of all the marketing collaterals; and people have an effective way of being in touch with the party/candidates. The shortcode can also be used for pull message - giving all the information which the general public is seeking for..

IVRS: We, culturally, are a society, wherein sound holds an important part. Us ne vachhan diya, mard ki zuban, etc are of paramount importance in our society. Hearing/listening to someone is more comfortable than words... and IVRS - with recorded messages can play an important part in the canvassing.

MMS: Sending MMS clips to people can also be effective, when canvassing through the mobile space..A 2 minute clip which is 'viral' in nature can be really effective in creating WOM (Word of Mobile)

WAP Access: 25 Million people accessed information through their mobile phones last year. And a WAP site would go a long way in terms of communicating more than 160 characters or 2 minute sound/video clips.


I am sure - this elections will be fought in villages, street corners, public grounds, print, TV, radio, and of course the cyberspace.

Cheers

Santosh