The Economic Times on Sunday SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2011

22

entrepreneur

Google Made Me Rich

The story of web entrepreneurs who made plenty of money, thanks to Google and a great idea

ALANKAR

:: Nupur Amarnath

t 27, Amit Agarwal grew restless. A techie working in Bangalore, he wanted to live with his family in Agra. But what about the monthly pay cheque? Idea: a tech blog that will help him get freelance assignments. So in 2004, labnol.blogspot.com was born. The first post was the review of a new printer he had bought. And soon he was fielding questions from people who had the printer or any other gadgets. Agarwal didnt know it then but the blog would become his full-time profession. Seven years later, he is still writing the blog (now labnol.org), and no longer looking for freelancing. The blog with 4.5 million page views per month has him clocking in 14hour workdays. The only difference: he works from home. Back then, I didnt think

or know that a blog could be my source of income, he confesses. His source of revenue: Google AdSense, the Google service that places contextual ads on blogs. The blog and Google stay his chief source of income, with 75% of the revenue coming from it. With little to no capital required, taking your business to the web is clearly the way forward. But decoding the web is not that easy. As yet another tech blogger, 27-yearold Amit Bhawani, found out. Starting as a personal blogger (amitbhawani.com now techadvices.com), the MBA graduate from Hyderabad has 300 domain names registered under his company Digital World Solutions with 40 sites and blogs operational, covering technology, health, education and automobiles. Bhawani started blogging as a

22-year-old in 2006 and soon realised that its the only business where theres an assured 100% year-on-year growth. Last year he made `1.2 crore from his blog with 70% of the revenue coming from Google AdSense. Unlike Agarwal, Bhawani has a team of content writers (four on the rolls) and is soon planning to move out of his home office and set up a team of 16 writers to feed his 40 websites. Its easy to make money online and you keep hearing offhand stories of webpreneurship. But its difficult to find any guidance, he says. There are no agencies telling you what to do, and competition will misguide you. The web is the only source. But as Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development and supporter of many internet-oriented businesses, famously

said, Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. In his five years as a web entrepreneur, Bhawani says the three Ps that help you are passion, persistence and patience. But a few pointers never hurt.

Find a Niche
While studying to be an engineer, which he never got down to pursuing, Rishi Sachdeva, 27, realised that theres no specific service that caters to NRIs who wish to deliver flowers to India. His mother had a small florist business catering to local clients. His idea: to provide similar or better virtual environment. He started aryanflorist.com in 2004, when he was studying engineering. Based out of Yamuna Nagar, he built a

SPINNING MONEY ON THE WEB

Seven webpreneurs on how to make the online format work for you
*Figures are business estimates by online research agencies based on the adspend and traffic on the website. The entrepreneurs refused to share actual business figures

Saameer Mody|40
Location: Mumbai Company: 1takemedia YouTube Channel: youtube.com/1takemedia Business: Distribution of alternate content ie. short films, documentaries, indie films, etc Started in: 2006; Joined YouTube: 2008 Before Google: Less than 1,500 viewers a day After Google: 14 million views, adding 50,000 views a day Service Used: YouTube Partner Programme Money Matters: `9,460 a day* Google Gyan

Rishi Sachdev|27
Location: Yamuna Nagar Company: Aryan Florist Website: aryanflorist.com Business: Worldwide flower and gift delivery Started in: 2004 After Google: 30-fold increase in order volumes Service Used: AdWords Money Matters: `46,000 a day*

Being online doesnt get traffic. You have to network offline. We are present at all film festivals, take part in seminars and connect via social media

Google should keep an eye on clicks from network partners to ensure that they are not spamming to generate more business for themselves. Once you have established your credentials, channelise towards search engine optimisation. The idea is to feature on the first page of Google for key search words
Google Gyan

The Economic Times on Sunday SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2011

23

entrepreneur

network of 100 florists within India to deliver too early. In December 2007, the same set of anpan-India, even to remote villages like Sangrur imators designed web content and in Punjab for an additional cost. Today, the desimad.com was launched. But Merchant and company has started delivering gift items like his men were still struggling with the numbers champagne, chocolates along with flowers and thus getting the advertiser interested. In and has a pan-world presence with a network 2008, Desimad started uploading on YouTube. of 250 florists in countries like the US, the UK, Within 7-8 months, YouTube started paying up and as soon as the YPP started we got reguUAE, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Sachdeva has Africa and Europe on his list lar cheques within 45 days from them, very ennext. After setting up the website in 2004, de- couraging for a start-up, and now we are one of signed by a Delhi web designer, he only used the leading partners with the YPP he says. YPP is Googles way of sharing advertising Google AdWords to popularise the site. When I started out, there was no one to help revenue with its most popular and successful me out. I made mistakes in reading the Ad- video creators. Once in the YPP, ads start apWords clauses, how to get traffic to the site and pearing overlaid or next to their videos. The the search keywords to be used and learnt content developer gets 68% share of the revfrom them, he says. The first five years of enue while Google pockets 32%. Theres a fair bit of handholding from business were spent in understanding how Google works and how to increase his sites vis- Google, as they advise on what content will ibility. The money that came in was pumped fetch us more views, key searches, feature back into advertising. Result: what started as a placements on youtube etc, Merchant says. `200 per day ad spend has spiralled into But over time, he has found out that some`50,000 a day (AdWords works on a pay-per- times what they think will work and what actually does are poles apart. Take for instance, click model). some of our nursery rhymes on There has to be a key differenthe Hooplakidz Channel on tiator to your blog, site or servWith little to youtube gets YoBoHo nearly ice you offer that will drive 50,000 views a day. people onto your site, says no capital For 40-year-old Saameer Raju PP, a tech blogger who required, online Mody, part of the YPP, runs the site techpp.com YouTube has been helpful (started in 2008). It started businesses are the in getting the numbers. as a personal blog in 2005 way forward. But Mody, along with two and took on a life of its own friends, started 1takemeas a consumer and personal decoding the web dia.com to provide opportech blog in 2008. In 2009, Raju is not easy tunities within the Indian quit his job with Infosys to start Film & TV Industry. The site full-time blogging. The blog has 2 million page views per month with 1.23 million also had job postings a sort of yellow pages unique users. Raju says hes working harder for the Mumbai film industry. In 2009, we than he has ever done in any job but hes hap- took the next step by deciding to set up a dispy with the results. AdSense contributes 60% tribution platform for short films and docutowards his monthly kitty of a few lakhs while mentaries through YouTube, Mody says. The 1takemedia channel on YouTube has Tribal Fusion make the rest. over 14 million views and is adding over Get the Numbers 50,000 views a day for its library of over 1600 Ultimately its all about the numbers, read the videos from over 800 independent and astraffic on your site. It has to be more content piring filmmakers. According to Mody, creative than resource intensive as the people theres been a 400% jump in the companys will come back to you only if they like what they revenues. The way content is consumed tosee, says Hitendra Merchant of YoBoHo New day is changing and its this evolution that Media. Merchant hosts 35 YouTube channels keeps me going, he says. and nearly 10,000 videos on Bollywood, Hollywood, general entertainment, cooking, kids Optimise your Earnings and yoga and is part of the YouTube Partner Mody is now planning to launch a video app Program (YPP). An old hand from the music in- for Apple and Android platforms, which will dustry, Merchant was in music marketing with generate revenues through AdMobs from HMV and Times Music for some time. In 2007, Google, one of the worlds largest mobile adhe joined promoter Shripal Morakhia who exit- vertising networks, offering solutions for dised out of ShareKhan in 2007, to launch a serv- covery, branding and monetisation on the moice for digital downloads. The licensing hassles bile web. He also regularly conducts short film contests including the recent exclusive brandstopped the idea from taking off. Then they decided to create entertainment ed contest called Gorbatschow Pure Shorts. content for mobile phones, but were few years Agarwal of labnol.org has started making tech

videos for YouTube and monetises it through YPP but as he says its a work in progress. Once the idea takes off and you have the eyeballs, the rest is a matter of channelising the same resources to develop more content. M R Hari of Invis Multimedia that runs indiavideo.org is an old hand at developing video content. It was in 1996 he got into the industry and made several cultural videos for Kerala Tourism. In 2004, they realised that DVD is on its way out. And indiavideo.org was born. But how to monetise it? In 2008, their YouTube channel started. From less than 1,000 views a day they are at 50,000 views per day at present. This is amazing as most of our content is serious and educational in nature, he says. But more than numbers, aligning with Google has had other benefits too. Like using YouTube as a host server rather their own, which helped in cutting down on bandwidth, server and security costs. Our annual savings in this regards is more than `10 lakh. Plus, we are free of technical hurdles and save on manpower too, he says. While Indiavideo made `25 lakh last year from YouTube, they follow suggestions from YouTube and AdSense that help in maximising revenues. Our group is one of the earliest certified marketing partners for AdWords. We use the skills of the advertising team in increasing revenues from advertising by selecting most searched topic in content production, he says. Also, since 50% of their viewership comes by way of related videos, they have started setting up brand pages of clients on their host site with videos uploaded to our brand channel in YouTube. This has become a major player in multiplying our revenue and we are seriously thinking of a shift in policy, he says.

Raju PP|29
Location: Bangalore Company: Techpp Website: techpp.com Business: Personal & consumer tech blog Started in: 2007 After Google: 2 million views a month, with 1.23 million unique users Service Used: AdSense Money Matters: `4,60,000 a month* Google Gyan

You have to scale the blog to stay topical. Extend your coverage area

Hitendra Merchant |39

Location: Mumbai Company: YoBoHo New Media; YouTube Channel: youtube.com/bollywoodbackstage, youtube.com/hollywoodbackstage, youtube.com/desimad, youtube.com/hooplakidz, youtube.com/ anandayoga, youtube.com/aniskitchen, youtube.com/nehabhasin Business: Video content on entertainment, health, cooking, children, etc Started in: 2008 Before Google: 30,000 views After Google: More than 2 million video views per day across 30 channels Service Used: YouTube Partner Programme Money Matters: Approx `30 lakh a month*

What Next?
Sachdeva of Aryan Florist has hired a UKbased web service agency to carry out search engine optimisation (SEO) plan for Aryan Florist that will help to get it on the first page of Google search engine as a search response to certain keywords. I will keep using AdWords but I want Aryan Florist to grow organically too, he says. And after that he plans to have a physical presence for his company through florist and gift shops. Mody has also launched an education-related video content channel called Pocketgyan which will have tutorials for engineering students and will extend it for other subjects as well. You could have started your online venture just for fun and it paid for some time but you cant sustain it without continued focus. Its not rocket science, says Bhawani of techadvices.com. After all, failure can be a click away. I

Youd be surprised as to what can get you more traffic online. For instance, a nursery rhyme gets us our maximum hits at 50,000 a day
Google Gyan

Amit Bhawani|27
Location: Hyderabad Company: Digital World Solutions Website: techadvices.com (tech blog), mastergadgets.com (gadget blog), androidadvices.com (Android blog), helpfulhealthtips.com (health blog), autoadvices.com (auto blog), hyderabadadvisor.com (city blog) Business: Websites and blogs on technology, health, automobiles, city info Started in: 2006 After Google: 1.2 million views per day Service Used: AdSense Money Matters: `1.2 crore last year

MR Hari |47
Location: Thiruvananthapuram Company: Invis Multimedia YouTube Channel: youtube.com/indiavideodotorg Started in: 1996; Joined YouTube: 2008 Before Google: Less than 1,000 views a day After Google: 50,000 views a day Service Used: YouTube Partner Programme Money Matters: Earned `25 lakh last year from YouTube alone

Name: Amit Agarwal|34

Location: Agra Company: Digital Inspiration Website: labnol.org After Google: 4.5 million views a month and 1,25,000 subscribers Service Used: Google Adsense, YouTube Partner Programme Money Matters: Few crores per year

Google should update their view meter. Their counter for Google measuring views is not reliable. In certain cases, we know Gyan that the video has been watched by more than 1 lakh people but the counter shows 10,000. Using YouTube as the host server you save on bandwidth, server and security cost. Secondly, it rids you of all technical hurdles and saves manpower

One area where Google can improve is support. The premium AdSense partners do have dedicated account managers but the smaller publishers can only reach Google by email or though online forums. Also the YPP is still relatively new. Google can help in the training area so that the quality of produced content can get better. They do have initiatives like YouTube Next in the US maybe they can introduce something similar here
Google Gyan

Start with a generic brand name even if your blog is a personal blog. Its difficult to pitch a personalised blog (with your name) as a viable business brand to get advertisers in the future. Never under estimate the power of your social connections and start sharing your blog content with them which can go viral and help you reach a broader audience
Google Gyan