Freelance Consultant's Diary

There will be occasions when your website might be thrown out of a search engine (or banned or blaclisted) for no reason at all. Actually you may not even have done anything wrong at all and you may still be thrown out. Why would that be? If you follow standard web design practices and a substantial number of websites start to employ the same tricks, it is not uncommon for search engines to penalize all websites so that they can control search engine manipulation - so common among SEO firms. In other words, you are simply a victim of search engine algorithm change. What can you do if a search engine blacklists your website? You can write to them. However, except for Google , do not even expect that your email will be read by a human being. You might simply receive an automated response. With the huge number of websites on the Internet and the number of emails that the search engine staff might receive, it is unreasonable for you to expect that someone will actually read that email. Mos

What is common (and of interest to businesspeople) among Brangelina (the relationship of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), TomKat (the relationship of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), Revenge of the Sith, Paris Hilton & Paris Latsis , and Carrie Underwood (the latest American Idol)? Well, these popular culture "events" can actually throw your business planning into chaos due to the enormity of their impact. While businesses can plan for certain events, for instance, release of a movie or the finale of a TV program, but the divorce of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston was totally unexpected and no one could predict when Paris Hilton would accept a proposal from Paris Latsis? While people are affected by political and economic events, the engagement is less powerful than cultural events. President Bush would love to get the kind of audience Michael Jackson received the day of his verdict for his proposal to privative Social Security . What does it mean for you? Have a contingenc

In terms of an effective product recall strategy , I have argued that there need to be two fundamental elements: Development of a strategy at the same time the product is launched so that in case of a problem, everyone knows what to do. Be proactive in recalling rather than dragging your feet. Guidant Corporation did neither of the two. When first report came out that that the company continued to sell defective cardiac defbillators, the process of delays and denials started. Only now the company has finally decided to recall a series of devices (Ventak Prizm, Contak Renewal, Vitality AVT, etc.). There is a very important reason why we at iProceed insist that our clients have a product recall strategy in place and always demonstrate the highest ethical values - the impact of lawsuits. A few recent examples of drugs like Vioxx, Bextra , Tysabri , Adderall , etc. show that when companies delayed their recall process, they were hit with more class action lawsuits and attorneys find it ea

In March this year, I had a chance to have lunch with Sanjay Behl (at the conference on India and its neighbors at the Harvard Business School ), the head of marketing at Nokia India. It was quite exciting to hear about the rapid growth of mobile phones in a poor country like India and how Nokia has been creative in customize its offering to the local situation. In other words, Nokia is an excellent case study for all those companies that have huge businesses in the developed world but are struggling to grow because of the mature nature of the market. Countries in Latin America, South East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe are among the fastest growing new markets for mobile services, according to new consumer research by Nokia. The study found that brand, handset quality, and network service quality are strong market drivers in New Growth Markets that sometimes outweigh the cost factors that industry watchers typically expect. I have even come across studie

When I had argued that our healthcare system is ready for structural changes (as a result of a collapse due to it being totally dysfunctional), I did not know that the problem was even worse. Apart from 45 million uninsured Americans (US is the richest country in the world), there are as many as 16 million adults that were underinsured in 2003, meaning they did not have enough financial protection to cover their health care expenses. (Related article: Business opportunity in providing healthcare to uninsured Americans ) In a study, "Insured But Not Protected: How Many Adults Are Underinsured?" The Commonwealth Fund's Cathy Schoen, Michelle Doty, Sara Collins, and Alyssa Holmgren find that inadequate coverage — much like no coverage at all — creates obstacles to care and other burdens. Underinsured adults are almost as likely as the uninsured to go without needed medical care and to incur medical debt. Lower-income and sicker adults are most at risk of having inadequate c

An unconfirmed report by The Wall Street Journal says that Procter & Gamble is sharply cutting its advance purchases of television commercials. My reaction was "So some advertising folks are finally getting it!" In fact what surprises me is that there are still so many ad executives who continue to spend their dollars on television advertising - what is clearly a very low ROI channel . The report says that P&G will reduce its spend with cable channels by about 25 percent. So where is the money going? Product placement is clearly happening. I had talked about this in the past in the context of what you need to do when traditonal advertising is not effective . The approach that I like is what you see on a program like the Queer Eye for the Straight Girl. I had used the example of Crest Whitestrips placement by P&G . If P&G were to do what the Journal is reporting, it is nothing surprising to us here at iProceed . However, since it has become public knowledge n

There will be occasions when your website might be thrown out of a search engine for no reason at all. Actually you may not even have done anything wrong at all and you may still be thrown out. Why would that be? If you follow standard web design practices and a substantial number of websites start to employ the same tricks, it is not uncommon for search engines to penalize all websites so that they can control search engine manipulation. In other words, you are simply a victim of search engine algorithm change. (Related article: How to do marketing for your website? ) What can you do if a search engine blacklists your website? You can write to them. However, except for Google , do not even expect that your email will be read by a human being. You might simply receive an automated response. With the huge number of websites on the Internet and the number of emails that the search engine staff might receive, it is unreasonable for you to expect that someone will actually read that email.

For the longest time, I have been arguing that there are enormous business opportunities in the healthcare sector - more specifically, in providing healthcare services to the uninsured . During last couple of days, two more interesting pieces of data were made available that make the argument even stronger. Health insurance premiums will cost families and employers an extra $900 on average during 2005 to cover the costs of caring for the uninsured, according to a report released by Families USA, a non-profit, non-partisan organization. With the added cost, the yearly premiums for a family with coverage through an employer will average $11,000 in 2005. By 2010, the additional costs for the uninsured will be $1,500, and total premiums will hit $17,000. In 11 states, the costs of the uninsured will exceed $2,000 per family. General Motors is reporting that its huge healthcare commitments are primarily responsible for its problems ($1,500 comes out from the profit of each car to pay for he

When General Motors' Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner announced that it will reduce its manufacturing employment level in the U.S. by 25,000 or more people in the 2005 to 2008 period to generate annual savings of approximately $2.5 billion, my reaction was, "Too little, too late." When a business leader uses layoffs and plant shutdown as the only ways to create shareholder value , it is time for her/him to stop leading that enterprise. It is the easiest way out. Even an idiot can cut costs by doing this and make the business look profitable. It does nothing to improve the overall, long-term outlook of the business. (Related article: How to implement cost-reduction programs? ) Let us briefly look at what GM's competitors are doing while it is trying to cut costs and shut down plants. Hyundai has recently invested approximately $1.4 billion in North America and has now facilities in Alabama, Michigan, and California. The company does not stop talking

On the heels of eBay's acquisition of Shopping.com , which I did not think was an excellent strategic move, comes the announcement by E.W. Scripps that it is acquiring Shopzilla.com . In my opinion, this acquisition makes perfect sense as does the acquisition of About.com by The New York Times . Why these acquisitions make sense? Steady decline in newspaper subscriptions. Loss of interest among 18-34 males in watching television . Explosive growth in online advertising and search related to shopping Particularly for Scripps, which owns some of the hottest online properties in its portfolio, acquition of Shopzilla is an excellent strategic fit. As Scripps will face challenges in its newspaper and TV stations business, investment into its online business will provide it with the resources for a gradual business model transformation . What does it mean for you? The world of advertising is undergoing structural changes with greater emphasis on pay-for-performance. If your business m

I have been scratching my head all day today to figure out why eBay , a great company that I admire immensely, will acquire Shopping.com . Not that Shopping.com is not a good company, but somehow I do not see a business model fit between the two. eBay has been very successful in its niche and so has Shopping.com, but the two types of shoppers that they attract are so far apart in their approaches to shopping. While eBay is characterizing the acquisition as a way to provide more opportunities for its sellers, I believe that eBay wants to tap into the pool of 50 million visitors to Shopping.com website. With its 60 million users, eBay will have access to approximately 100 million visitors allowing it to become even a larger player in attracting online shoppers - the people that Google , MSN , Yahoo, Amazon , and many other websites are chasing. The other reason why eBay is interested in diversification is the modest growth rate in the auction business. Through its aggressive strategy, e

Pfizer is providing an excellent example on how not to deal with product problems and recalls . While the drug industry has some unique attributes, there are several learnings that are applicable to other sectors as well. I have written extensively on Pfizer's mishandling of the recall of Bextra , it seems that Pfizer has another situation to deal with - a somewhat likely recall of another blockbuster drug Viagra. Based on the data presented so far, I think that the number of people affected is still small (unless others have not yet come forward). However, it is interesting to watch since that is how most drug problems come to light. If we go back and look at the recent recalls of other drugs, for instance Tysabri, Adderall XR (in Canada), Vioxx and Bextra, the first reports were generally of isolated cases. Thus, I do not expect a recall of Viagra right away but this could be the first step in the process. How has Pfizer responded to Viagra controversy so far? Let us review the t

You might have heard that The New York Times had to cut back its staff and it is planning to charge for its online content. There is no doubt that it is one of the best English language newspapers in the world that I have read, but I ended my hard-copy subscription more than two years ago. In fact I get most of my mainstream news from Google News , and to read perspectives and other interesting tidbits, I visit blogs. Blogs are redefining how content is delivered today. Some of my readers read my articles without realizing that they are reading a blog (which is fine by me - that is the way I like it), but an increasingly large number of people are reading blogs the way they should read them. I have also written extensively how my friends in corporate America are still afraid of blogs and have no strategy in place to exploit them for a whole range of value-creating purposes. "Since I don't get it, I will ignore it," is the mantra. Let me mention some of the blogs that I r

In this article I want to address the importance of mining of blogs and other online content by companies so that they can make sure that they know what is being said about them and accordingly respond to it. Your advertising and public relations efforts will be useless if there is a lot of negative content on the Internet about you. We live in a world where almost anyone with access to the Internet is now a publisher. You buy something at Wal-Mart, bring it home, you don't like it, and the next thing you do is to post a message on your blog about the product. Even though it may be an isolated incident of a bad product, but that information will remain on the Internet forever and will hurt your brand. People's decisions are influenced by what they read on the Internet. Let me give you an example. We recently received an unsolicited commercial email (or SPAM) from a Margaret Mayor at Freesites.com, a company that runs a business called AllFeeds that offers a program called &

There is no doubt that you appreciate the power of networking. But networking is not something that happens only at professional events. You can successfully network at even at social gatherings. When I first went through sales training, my coach Chuck Steinke said, “All things being equal, you buy from a friend. All things not being equal, you still buy from a friend.” In other words, the more friends you have, the better off you will be. However, it is not easy to make friends and expand your network. It requires commitment, strategy, and patience. I have found that it is more difficult to network at business gatherings, well, just because people are more business-like. In other words, if someone does not see immediate benefit of knowing you, they want to meet someone that can be a potential customer or supplier or partner. Howsoever frustrating it may seem at conferences, but if you are not somebody , people do not even bother to say hello. Social settings, though, are quite differe

The spa industry in the United States has steadily grown over the years and has become the fourth largest in the leisure sector. With as many as 15,000 locations in 2004 ( iProceed estimate), it has become a leading destination for well-heeled consumers who visit day spas, spa resorts, fitness spas, destination spas, and more recently, the medical spas. I recently attended the Spa & Resort and Medical Spa Expo in New York City and I was impressed how this industry attracts as much $12 billion from American consumers primarily through small enterprises. While some of the spa services have come under pricing pressure due to higher competition, spas have tried to offer more high-value services. At a time when supermarkets and mass merchandisers are selling spa-quality personal care products, spas are gradually transforming their business model to focus on anti-aging, rejuvenation, and even medical treatment. Hence, the emergence of the medical spa. A medical spa (or med-spa or medi-

Advertisers now know that a lot of traditional advertising is not producing a desirable ROI while the cost of online advertising , while relatively more effective , is going up. For many startups and small businesses, a huge advertising budget is simply not an option. In other words, if they can not get creative, they may never be able to get their message across to the target market. (Related article: New advertising options needed to achieve good ROI ) One simple step that almost anyone can take is to focus on public relations (PR), apart from using advertising, word-of-mouth marketing or even guerilla marketing . The reason most business leaders tend to prefer advertising (over PR) is that it is easy to do. You pick what you want, pay for it, and the ad is there exactly as you wanted. However, with PR, it can take months before you see results, it is not easy to do, and you may not get the kind/type of exposure you would like to have. However, it generally costs far less than adve

Dogpile , the meta search engine, recently did a simple study on three search engines: Google, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves. They could not include MSN Search since it is still new to the search space. What they found was that with a sample of 10,000 queries 86% of the time they had a different #1 result on each website and 32% of these queries did not produce any overlapping results in top three positions. In another finding they found that just 3% of all paid and algorithmic results were shared by all three search engines. What does this mean for your search engine strategy? There is absolutely no way you can effectively optimize your website for all search engines or even for top five. Since each search engine uses a different algorithm and keeps changing it frequently, you simply can not make sure that all search engines will always like your website. In fact, in our research, we found that techniques that can get you top rankings in MSN may actually get you banned in Yahoo. Similarly, w

Just early last week, I was discussing Google's business model with a client. What we were wondering though was that despite having people like me abandon even our corporate email addresses (I still use my iProceed.com email address on my business card, but forward all my emails to Gmail.com ), we still had no choice but to find another website like Yahoo to track my stock portfolio or to read my RSS feeds. I now realize that we were thinking about these issues while Google was putting finishing touches to its latest offering that will literally allow people like me to end our relationship with Yahoo for ever. Why is Yahoo so bad? (Related article: Yahoo is excellent at nothing but simply executes well ) Yahoo mail (that we all used at one time) is simply not good enough any more compared to Gmail. Yahoo search is simply useless since the results are almost always manipulated either by spammers or the so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms. In fact, MSN , that came to

Drug prices are among the highest in the United States. Of course, we are the richest nation in the world. Plus, due to the high cost of doing business here and the process of getting a drug through the approval can cost between $800 million to a billion dollars. All Americans understand that, but there is one more reason why the drug prices are high - we do not believe in a global market for drugs (or for other non-defense products), whenever it is not convenient for some corporations (who can then influence public policy). The myth that is disseminated by the drug industry (with the support of some lawmakers) is that the rest of the world has price controls and we don't. So Americans should pay higher prices because we get access to drugs sooner. (Related article: Why are drug prices higher in America ?) All these arguments are totally baseless and don't add up. They also defy all logical arguments based on globalization and free markets. In fact what shocks me the most is

The Guardian newspaper is reporting that scientists in Newcastle, England have successfully cloned a human embryo, a breakthrough that places them at the cutting edge of stem cell research. The clone was created as part of the group's research into new treatments for diabetes. At the same time, another group, lead by scientists in South Korea under the guidance of Woo Suk Hwang, also announced that it has perfected the technique to clone human embryos. That team went one step further than the Newcastle researchers by creating stem cells tailored to patients with specific medical conditions. All this is happening while we are struggling to even find the raw material to do research. Now, as one of my friend put it, I am excited about stem cell research because it may allow us to live for 250 years simply by allowing us to replace the organs that go bad. Well, it is my silly fantasy, but you understand what I am getting it. At this time I see two areas of technology that will have th

Now that the talk of the town is globalization, it was no surprise that I got to attend a panel discussion on "Creating a Global R&D Organization." And I must say that the panel members were pretty distinguished, as they like to describe them - Christopher de Souza of Novartis , Robert Gould of Merck , Vicki Sato of Vertex Pharmaceuticals , Phil Vickers of Pfizer , and the moderator was Anil Khurana of Access International Partners, a group of management consultants . I think we are all convinced that the cost of bringing a pharmaceutical product into the market (currently estimated to be somewhere between $850 million to a billion dollars) is simply not sustainable. As the market for drugs and healthcare globalizes (which I am convinced is going to happen no matter how much the drug firms want to delay it), the cost pressures will simply be too much to do all the drug development work in the developed world. (Related article: Offshore outsourcing of Pharma R&D ) Ano

Written with Jay Srinivasan, Director at Siemens. Before Siemens, Mr. Srinivasan was the Director of eBusiness Strategy at PricewaterHouse Coopers and Director of eCommerce at Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation. A modified version of this article has also been published in the Global Finance Magazine . Recently we volunteered our time to help organize a conference for entrepreneurs. When we needed to print a brochure for the attendees, instead of running around to find if anyone knew a printer, we just went to PrintIndustry.com (operated by Printing Industry Exchange, LLC, Ashburn, VA). In a matter of hours, we had several bids from all over North America, and as we later found out, from printers outside North America, but who were working through their agents here. Similarly, when we needed a new logo design, we posted a bid on Elance.com (Mountain View, CA). Again the bids poured from all over including Romania, Bulgaria, India, and Pakistan. But what happened to all those e

The marketing of prescription drugs (almost always to those that have health insurance coverage) is a stupendous task. Just look at the advertising budget of pharmaceutical companies. In fact, the research-driven pharma sector actually spends more on marketing than on R&D. It is not easy to convince an over-medicated nation to buy even more drugs. For the same reason, pharma tries to use the government to let it sell more drugs. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent $758 million on lobbying from 1998 through June 30, 2004, including $92 million by PhRMA itself, $54 million by Pfizer , $34 million by Merck and $30.3 million by Schering-Plough . The total is more than any other industry spends on lobbying, according to the center's report. I have been trying to find growth opportunities in a highly underserved segment - the uninsured . Marketers often wrongly assume that all uninsured Americans (I am using the term

While there never was any consistency in search results (sometimes referred to as SERPS also), things are only getting more confusing now. At least since end of March, we have noticed on our portfolio of websites that there is absolute chaos. Here is what we are finding at each search engine. Google In every session that you do a search, you are likely to get different results. The definition of session in this case is starting the browser. It does not matter if you have deleted cookies or not - the results are still the same. We have confirmed this with unique search terms, e.g. MYNIPPON and similar other unique names that we use for our domain names. What is consistent though is the number of backlinks and pages indexed. In other words, Google, as always, is in turmoil. MSN Currently producing the most stable results. In fact in many ways we find Google results to be the cleanest. They have been able to keep crooks out so far and their results are of the highest quality. It could ve

The travel firm Thomas Cook, not known much in the US, but a big player in many European and Asian countries, has announced that it will offer "sun and surgery" package deals to India for patients tired of waiting for operations in Britain's National Health System. The firm says that it is using Britain to test the market. Thomas Cook will offer deals that include flights, operations, accommodation in a private hospital and even recuperation time on the beach. Many clinics in Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, and Europe have already been offering such packages for Americans who want to have plastic surgery overseas , simply because it is so expensive to have surgery in the United States, and if a procedure is not covered by insurance, there is no incentive to stay in the United States. (Related article: India emerges as a healthcare destination for Americans ) In my opinion, the American healthcare system is ready for a big jolt from globalization . It is no secret that or health