Earlier the website was hosted as a sub-domain on my business website – http://logicx.co.nz. Now I have moved it to an independent domain.

The theme (design) used earlier was a free theme from WordPress called NeoEase. The current theme is a paid one from http://themeforest.net/.

Blog engine is still WordPress. My hosting provider is Openhost.

I have also added some new AdSense ad units from Google. Hopefully people will click on those ads and help me recover some of my costs

Thanks…

Happy Clicking!

Almost a year ago I did a bit of a research and a short presentation on some facts and numbers related to social media. Here is the copy of that presentation. These numbers are quite outdated and I am certain these must have multiplied manifold by now.

Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2973684461_8ecfb1dd10.jpg

Here are some of the major events that have occurred around the world:

• End of Hosni Mubarak as President of Egypt after almost 30 years
• Protests in Libya
• Earthquake in Christchurch

What’s common in all of these: Social Media.

Social Media was responsible for causing these protests in Egypt and Libya. Whereas news and video footage of Christchurch earthquake were posted online within few minutes, even before any news media could get there.

It is no more an optional thing. It has become quite a necessity now to be part of it. The more you resist it, the more you’ll be left behind.

So get online and get involved!

Happy Socializing!!

The good thing about them is that the interviewees are not restricted to people from just one part of the world; neither to at what stage of their career they are at. We have just released our 25th episode of TWiST. We’ve had participants from all over the world who are at various stage of their career, though most of them are pros and have been around for a while.

My role in this is to identify potential speakers/interviewees from down under and organise recording sessions with Matt. I am also the co-producer of the show. Here are direct links to podcasts from down under:

• TWiST #11 – with Jared Quinert and Brian Osman
• TWiST #17 – with Marlena Compton, Oliver Erlewein and Farid Vaswani.

This is the link to a bonus podcast where I interviewed Geoff Horne: http://www.softwaretestpro.com/Item/4879/Bonus-Thursday/Software-Testing-Test-and-QA.

These podcasts are a great source of knowledge and helps one learn from other people’s experiences. If you are a tester then I’d highly recommend you subscribing to these – TWiST.

Happy Listening!!!

One lesson I brought home from it was – What is *Your* Elevator Pitch?

Elevator pitch is normally used by entrepreneurs (of start-ups mostly) to present their idea to potential investors; and the pitch needs to be short enough to be completed while you’re in an ‘elevator’.

The presenter recommended that every individual should have their personal elevator pitch – as in what is their vision in life, where they see their self in next 2 years, 5 years or 10 years.

Elevator pitch is also applicable when you introduce yourself. I’ve done this in past while introducing myself - “I’m a tester < period >”. And the person at other end has to guess rest of it. Instead you can make it easier on them by describing a bit more about yourself or profession - depending on the situation. I may say “I’m a software tester… specializing in process improvements… with a keen interest in technical testing…”

So – What is *Your* Elevator Pitch?

I’m sure most of you out there have one. If not – may be it’s time to prepare one

All The Best!!

Update: A video on what is an Elevator Pitch – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc

Image Source

Even the most boring office space has sources of amusement. You just need to know what to look for. One such source can be ‘office lingo’. These are phrases that bosses insist on overusing. As stupid and irritating as they are, they can lighten up your day as well.
According to HR expert Abhishek Bohra, there are simpler ways of saying the same things. “But bosses prefer to sound authoritative without realising that they simply sound corny. The only thing you can do is use your politest fake smile and bear with it,” he says.

We decode the 12 most common ones for you:

Give it your 110 per cent

Meaning: Make an extra effort towards work.

Think out of the box

Meaning: Get more creative and innovative.

Do you have the bandwidth for…?

Meaning: Can you fit more into your schedule?

I have you in my radar

Meaning: I’m tracking what you are doing.

Have 360 degree thinking

Meaning: Make sure you take all contingencies into account.

Don’t let the grass grow on this one

Meaning: I need this done as soon as possible, preferably yesterday!

Let’s brain storm

Meaning: Let’s put our heads together for better ideas (usually ends up being a useless meeting!).

Take it to XYZ level of granularity

Meaning: Pay attention to the details.

Let’s touch base on XYZ

Meaning: Let’s discuss something. This usually means you are in trouble.

Let’s knife-and-fork it

Meaning: A nice way of saying your work was crude and needs refinement.

You need to push the envelope

Meaning: Give your work more, more and more.

I can see where you are coming from

Meaning: I get your point. The only reason this is annoying is that it’s always followed by a ‘but’!

Office speak can be annoying when it’s directed at you, but it also makes for great dinner table conversation. Pick your favourite phrases and start a conversation about them the next time you have a bunch of friends over. They will come up with even better ones of their own!

Here is another one: Decoding Office Lingo

So what’s the lingo like in your office? And who are the people who generally do that? Is it your mate, manager or a colleague? It would be interesting to know.

Source

Aziz will also be receiving the ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Award 2009 on 1 Dec 2009. The award will be presented during CAFEO 27 (Conference of ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations), to be held from 30 November to 2 December 2009, in Singapore.

Aziz Merchant is the first Ismaili Muslim in Singapore and ASEAN to receive such honours.

Source

1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.

Source

Image Source

But on a lighter side – the good thing about your personal blog is that you can go back and make changes

Ali Hale in her post – Are Vampire Words Sucking the Life Out of Your Writing? has presented a short list of wishy-washy list of words which one should try and exclude from their post and mainly from the headlines of a blog post:

* Quite
* Fairly
* Sometimes
* Often
* May

These are mostly those adjectives and adverbs that make the readers either switch-off or loose interest. So as suggested by her go ahead and start making changes to your blog

]]> http://geek4eva.com/2009/09/02/a-great-advice-for-bloggers/feed/ 0 http://geek4eva.com/2009/08/30/online-business-how-to-get-more-sales/ http://geek4eva.com/2009/08/30/online-business-how-to-get-more-sales/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:53:20 +0000 Farid Vaswani http://geek4eva.logicx.co.nz/blog/?p=265 Another great post from ‘Copyblogger‘ by Nathan Hangen on ‘How to Get Past No‘ and trigger the buying response from potential customer.

What I learned was how to identify and overcome objections, which in turn taught me that sometimes no doesn’t really mean no. Many times, a customer simply wants you to help them make a decision by answering their questions before they pull out the credit card.

Their first instinct says no, but what they really want is for you to convince them to say yes.

Maybe their budget is tight and they just want to be cautious. Maybe they don’t understand your product and want you to explain it to them.

There are a hundred different reasons why people might initially say no to you. Your job is not to shrug and walk away, but to get to the truth behind the no and find out how you can really meet their needs.

Online, it’s your copy that must do the job of getting past no by knocking down every objection.

Here are some simple tips for getting past no online:

* Break the ice with a cheaper version of your product as a lower-risk purchase. They’ll get to know a little bit more about you and will feel better about buying more in the future. Even making a tiny purchase, say a $7 special report, makes it much more likely for that customer to buy from you again.
* If your product is expensive, offer a payment plan. $39.99/month for three months looks much cheaper than $119.97. Any good shopping cart program can handle this for you.
* On your landing page, go ahead and confront the most prevalent objections head on. Don’t be afraid to mention them . . . your customer has been thinking about them from the moment they clicked on your link.
…

So if you are planning to or already have an online business then this should serve as some very useful guidelines.

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