YouTube today is one of the best mediums to reach your potential customers and companies today are seriously starting to take YouTube seriously to build up their brand. This holds truer for online businesses since all their potential customers are online users who obviously access YouTube as well. Over time, I have seen many international videos about new businesses going viral but have rarely seen an Indian video do so. This is even more surprising considering our daily increase in number of Internet Users and in the number of startups launched every day.

Here are few possible reasons that I can think of:
1. Lack of Creativity ( I doubt this is the case)
2. Lack of seriousness towards Search Engine Optimization, professional bloggers etc.
3. Maybe there are good viral Indian marketing videos and I don’t know about them (If that’s the case let me know)
4. Lack of belief that YouTube can help

Let’s look at 2 examples. The first one, posted below, is called, “Marappan – Online Recharge Viral for Vodafone” and has only 70K hits.

While this other video, “A Dramatic Surprise on Quiet Square” is just a perfect example of advertising with 32 million views (seriously wow!!!!).

As I compare these 2 examples, I can think of the possible reasons for the difference in the number of views:

1. Title – The title of the video shouldn’t be too direct. Last thing you want is to tell everyone that this video is an advertisement right in the title. Make the title a bit dramatic/mysterious etc but don’t give everything away in the title.

2. Mystery – The video should have some element of mystery that encourages the viewers to go on and continue watching. If mystery isn’t there, consider the YouTube advertisement as a failure. I was so hooked watching the 2nd video. Btw, does anyone get the girl on the bike and her role?

3. Funny – At the end of the day, your advertisement should be funny or should have some WTF moments. Make sure you put those in.

4. Length – You should really aim to make sure you stay in that 2 mins limit. I have seen some advertisements that go on for 4 mins on YouTube and that is just a deal breaker. Nobody has enough curiosity or free time to watch something random for 4 – 5 mins.

5. Professional Help – Make sure you take some professional help when it comes to shooting the video or making sure it goes viral. There are firms out there that help you attain that 1 million view you are hoping for.

YouTube Marketing can really help a lot of Indian Startups as it is super cheap when compared to digital marketing. Ok, I really need to see that 2nd video again (very curious about that girl on the bike!!).

One of my favorite topics to talk about is the difference between “Economic Development and Economic Growth”. In India there is always a stress on economic growth and given our strong growth at the moment, we are very hopeful of our future. But is economic growth enough for our success?

Economic Growth is the increase in the amount of the goods and services produced by an economy over time. It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or real GDP. (Wikipedia) On the other hand, Economic Development is an increase in living standards. One of the ways to measure development is the Human Development Index. Development tries to capture change at a larger level since HDI takes into account life expectancy, education etc. which has a huge impact on productivity leading to growth. Thus, development focuses on the overall improvement in the life of every citizen.

In India, we are currently growing at 8% every year which in some ways is a problem because there is no “trickle down effect”. Ideally, we would want the benefits of the high economic growth, to trickle down to the poorest of the society so that the gap between the rich and the poor doesn’t increase further. As I end this entry I am reminded of Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner and founder of Grameen bank, and his words that it is important to break the cycle of poverty because currently generations and generations of families are stuck in this cycle of poverty. It’s a simple, obvious but a very great observation.

Moody’s recently made it clear that it will be reviewing ratings for approximately 114 banks in Europe and 8 more based through out the world.

Moody’s also said that it can possibly cut down some ratings by up to 3 levels after considering banks’ investment models.

Major global banks that will be considered are Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Nomura.

The banking stocks didn’t do so well on Thursday. Barclays fell by 1.5 percent whereas HSBC fell by 1.2 percent.

It will be interesting to see how the European economy/banks are affected by the change in Moody’s ratings.

This weekend, thousands of customers of giant banks moved their accounts to smaller banks as part of “Bank Transfer Day.”

A record number of 659 members joined Boeing Employees’ Credit Union in Seattle on Saturday. Similarly, Texas credit union saw many new customers join.

These credit unions can’t sell stocks and don’t have to pay taxes unlike giant banks.

There is still no specific number of how many people actually moved their bank accounts on Bank Transfer Day. This might have been a loosely coordinated event but due to recent events such as major banks (especially Bank of America) charging their customers a fee to use their debit cards, the move has harnessed a lot of attention.

You might expect the big banks to get worried over this but that’s not the case? Why? Because generally the people that move to credit unions are not profitable customers. They have small balances and buy very few products from the bank.

Credit card processing, like many other things, is now mobile.  With a variety of companies coming out with sleek savvy devices to process credit cards I decided to see what the buzz was about. I did research online, as well as asked friends who have firsthand experience with some of the devices.  The processor I chose to use in this review is Pay Anywhere.  I will highlight some of the pros and cons to the device.

Pros

First, the device itself looks cool and you obviously can accept credit cards anywhere.  The interface on the phone is easy to navigate and just as easy to pick up on.  The card reader, which was shipped free of charge, securely attaches to the phone and works on the first try.  It took a few business days for the reader to arrive, but I was able to accept credit cards by manually entering the card number through the application, which is also free to download.  Being able to begin accepting credit cards before the reader arrives is a huge plus.  It has reliable hardware and the phone (iPhone in this case) can charge and sync while the reader is attached.  The receipts are e-mailed to the customer instead of being printed out saving money on the cost of paper and allowing you to advertise your business as taking steps to “go green.”  Finally, the fees associated with Pay Anywhere are not as costly as traditional credit card terminals. The fees were manageable at 2.69 percent plus $0.19 for cards that are swiped, and 3.49 percent plus $0.19 if you manually enter the card data.  The difference in fees is because manually entering a card is less secure than physically swiping the card.

Cons

The biggest con with this device is the length it takes for the funds to get into your account.  It takes about three days.  That isn’t bad if you’re a big business who doesn’t need to see that money right away, but if you are a small business or start up business this can be an issue.  The next con is the processing fees.  Above I mentioned that it was a pro but there are some cases that the fees are also a con.  Let’s say you are using the device at a bake sale and you are selling your pastries for a dollar each.  If someone buys one pastry you are paying a fourth of that (about $0.22) in fees.  Again, this is also a pro because the fees are lower or the same as the majority of its competitors.

Overall I would suggest Pay Anywhere to anyone interested in mobile credit card processing.  It is a cost and energy efficient way to accept credit cards.  It is ideal for anyone who receives business away from the businesses home office and is backed with 24/7 customer support.

Toyota, the Japanese auto manufacturer, reported that it expects its annual profit to drop by 31%. The reason provided for this massive drop was the recent powerful earthquake which cost Toyota approximately $4 billion.

Toyota stated that it does not expect to have any profits in the first half of the fiscal year but plans to cover half of the costs in the second half.

Other manufacturers in Japan have also been reporting similar results due to the earth quake that damaged a lot of property in Japan, including a nuclear power plant.

Toyota, which is currently the no. 1 biggest automaker in the world, will probably lose its ranking due to the loses from the earthquake.

A close friend of mine came to me few days ago asking about merchant accounts. His dad is starting a new apparel store in Long Island. While initially, it’s going to be a small store but my friend’s dad does hope to expand it soon. This is why he is already thinking of the possibility of accepting credit cards from his future customers. This prompted me to do some research and investigate merchant accounts in detail.

For those of you know who are not quite familiar with merchant accounts, they are accounts especially targeted towards small businesses who wish to provide their customers with the option of credit/debit card payments. In today’s digital world, millions of transactions are conducted every day through credit/debit cards. In the last few years, getting a credit card has been so easy that almost everyone has one. After all, it is easier and safer to carry a small card than to carry large sums of money with you all the time. Due to this boom in credit card users, it has become almost mandatory for new businesses to accept credit cards for customers’ convenience. North American Bancard offers exceptional merchant services and has been doing so for many years. But it’s wise to analyze all your options thoroughly before settling down with anyone provider.

In the rest of this article, I discuss the numerous advantages and disadvantages of getting a merchant account.

Advantages

• Customer convenience – As I mentioned before, most customers don’t carry much cash with them these days. Though, you can always find several credit cards in their wallet. Moreover, the competition among retailers is extremely high these days. So if customers can’t use their cards at your store, they will just move on to another store down the block which does accept cards.
• Take your business online – Customers don’t just like to use their cards in stores but also in online stores. So, if you have a store then you should consider taking it online to make it easier for your customers to place orders. And once you do that, you can use your merchant account to accept payments online.
• Faster transactions – Merchant accounts are not only convenient but also fast. If your business accepts a lot of checks then you know that it can take quite some time to cash them. Instead, you can simply accept payment through cards so that transactions take only few seconds.

While there are several advantages of getting a merchant account, I will only discuss the main ones. Now, if there are advantages, they will most certainly be disadvantages. It’s your duty to carefully examine each advantage and disadvantage, weigh all the options and decide whether getting a merchant account for your business will be a smart move.

Disadvantages

• Security – As soon as one starts talking about digital methods, there are always security issues involved. When a customer uses a credit card terminal to swipe his/her card, the information from the credit card (i.e. card number, customer’s name etc) gets stored in the retailer’s database. Thus, it is retailer’s responsibility to keep that information safe.
• Frauds – I am sure you have heard of fraud cases regarding credit cards. This consists of a person using a credit card that belongs to someone else. These kinds of frauds can be avoided by verifying the customer’s identity before accepting the card.
• Fees – Getting a merchant account and providing your customers with a convenient way to pay don’t come free. How much retailers are charged depends on several factors? It is extremely important for small business owners who are thinking of getting a new merchant account to find out about the fees that they are going to be charged.

I hope you learnt something from this post. Merchant accounts are extremely important for businesses to dwell in today’s world. And companies such as North American Bancard are at the forefront of satisfying small business needs. However, one needs to be extremely careful before getting one.

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Schmidt steps down, Page the new CEO

Google took the world by shock when it announced that Larry page will be the CEO of the firm starting April. Page will be replacing Eric Schmidt as CEO. This is a very interesting move by Google which has raised multiple questions given when Google is facing competition from Facebook and Twitter.

This is similar to Steve Jobs, founder Apple, coming back to run Apple when the firm was facing serious issues. Though, in Google’s case there is no such urgency as Google dominated the search market last year as well and generated 29 billion dollars in revenue last year. Popularity of Facebook, Twitter etc. which aren’t in search business but nevertheless are eating into Google’s revenues are a concern for the search giant.

Major goal of Page who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin will be to run day to day operations and also to get Google back to top in Web
development. Page is also expected to speed up decision making while Schmidt will look into deals and government outreach as executive chairman.

Most believe that Page would need a strong shoulder at Google who can look at operational chores for him while he can focus on making Google capable of competing against Facebook and Twitter.

You probably know that Dow Jones had been going down for five consecutive days until today. The streak was finally ended due to positive results reported by retail giants Wal-mart and Home Depot. Dow Jones Industrial Average incremented 103.84 points to 10405.85.

Impressive quarterly results led to 93 cents rise in Home Depot and 63 cents rise in Walmart. Walmart’s earnings rose 3.6% in the latest quarter while Home Depot’s earning rose by 6.8%.

The economy is still struggling because of the recession. The consumers are, once again, trying to spend less and less which is plunging the economy into a deeper hole.