General Knowledge Ques and Ans::>

1. The third carnatic war was fought in
(a) 1730-32
(b) 1748-54
(c) 1700-61
(d) 1720-21
Ans: (a)1748-54

2. Berar was annexed to the British empire by
(a) lord Curzon
(b) Dalhousie
(c) lord Cornwallis
(d) lord Wellesey
Ans: (c) lord Cornwallis

3. "woods despatch" of 1854 resulted in the
(a) establishment of Indian universities
(b) Abolition of Sati system
(c) Establishment of technical schools
(d) Abolition of child marriage
Ans: (a)establishment of Indian universities

4. Vasco-da-gama landed in India at
(a) Bombay
(b) Cochin
(c) Madras

(d) Calicut
Ans: (d) Calicut

5. The founder of Muslim league
(a) M.A.Jinnah
(b) Sir Syed Ahmed
(c) Shaukut Ali
(d) Maulana Azad
Ans: (b) Sir Syed Ahmed

6. The period of the Indus Valley Civilization ranges from
(a) 2400-1700 BC
(b) 2500-2000 BC
(c) 2000-1500 BC
(d) 1000-500  BC
Ans: (a) 2400-1700 BC

7. The Vedas are the main source of information for which civilization
(a) Indus valley civilization
(b) The Aryans
(c) Jainism
(d) Buddhism
Ans: (b) The Aryans

 8. Alexander invaded India sometime around
(a) 500 BC
(b) 400 BC
(c) 525 BC
(d) 327 BC
Ans: (d) 327 BC

9. Gautham Buddha was born in the year

(a) 537 BC
(b) 400 BC
(c) 525 BC
(d) 563 BC
Ans: (d) 563 BC

10. When was Guru Nanak born

(a) 1469 BC
(b) 1538 BC
(c) 1345 BC
(d) 1432 BC
Ans: (a)1469 BC

11. Which line divides a circle into equal halves?
(a) Radius
(b) Diameter
(c) Secant
(d) Tangent
Ans: (b) Diameter

12. Who was the first Indian to hold the post of Governor General in India?
(a) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(b) Dr. K M Munshi
(c) C Rajagopalachari
(d) Annie Besant
Ans: (c) C Rajagopalachari

13. Who was the India’s first Deputy Prime Minister?
(a) Sardar Vallabhai Patel
(b) Morarji Desai
(c) Choudhary Charan Singh
(d) Jagjivan Ram
Ans: (a) Sardar Vallabhai Patel

14. Who was India’s first woman Cabinet Minister?
(a) Dr. Vijayalakshmi Pandit
(b) Rajkumari Amrit Kaur
(c) Dr. Annie Besant
(d) Sheila Dixit
Ans: (b) Rajkumari Amrit kaur

15. Which British Governor continued in that position even after India became Independent?
(a) Sir Archibald Nye
(b) Sir Henry Knight
(c) Lord William Bentinck
(d) Warren hastings
Ans: (a) Sir Archibald Nye

16. Who was the only Indian woman to become the president of the United Nations General Assembly?
(a) Indira Gandhi
(b) Reita Faria
(c) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
(d) None of the above
Ans: (c) Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit 

17. Who was the first Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission?
(a) C.M Trivedi
(b) D.P Dhar
(c) Shankarrao Bhaurao Chavan
(d) V.T Krishnamachari
Ans: (d) V.T Krishnamachari

18. Who was the first Indian woman to become a Governor of a state?
(a) Padmaja Naidu
(b) Sarojini Naidu
(c) Annie Besant
(d) Indira Gandhi
Ans: (b) Sarojini Naidu

19. The first Indian Commander -in-chief of free India was…
(a) Air Marshal S Mukherjee
(b) Gen. Rajendrasinhji
(c) General Cariappa
(d) Gen. Gopal Gurunath Bewoor
Ans: (c) General Cariappa 

20. Who was India’s first President?
(a) C. Rajagopalchari
(b) Dr. Rajendra Prasad
(c) Pandit Jawaharlala Nehru
(d) Lord Mountbatten
Ans: (b) Dr. Rajendra Prasad

21. Who was the first Indian woman to be decorated with Bharat Ratna?
(a) Indira Gandhi
(b) Mother Teresa
(c) Aruna Asaf Ali
(d) M.S Subbulakshmi
Ans: (a) Indira Gandhi

22. The term Grand Slam is associated with?
(a) Billiards
(b) Chess
(c) Cricket
(d) Bridge and Tennis
Ans: (d) Bridge and Tennis

23. Who was the first Test centurion in Indian Cricket?
(a) Vinu Makand
(b) C K Naidu
(c) Lala Amarnath
(d) Pankaj Roy
Ans: (C) Lala Amarnath

24. Which of the following describes Triathlon correctly?
(a) Swimming – Cycling – Marathon
(b) Cycling – Sprint – Hurdles
(c) Cycling – Swimming – Half Marathon
(d) Marathon – Swimming  - Cycling 
Ans: (a) Swimming – Cycling – Marathon 

25. Who was the author of the famous storybook 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'? 
a) Rudyard Kipling
b) John Keats
c) Lewis Carroll
d) H G Wells
Ans: c) Lewis Carroll 

Obama’s biggest woe

  

Stubbornly rising unemployment refusing to respond to Obamanomics!

Obama: the true democrat

US President Barack Obama appears to be a true Democrat. He has agreed to postpone his nationwide television address on job creation initially scheduled for 7 September by one day on the request of his political rivals, the Republicans. If such a request had been made in any other democracy, especially in the so-called emerging world, the response would have been in the opposite: advancing the address by one day. So, Obama’s positive response fits very well to the definition of democracy given by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen in his 2009 book, The Idea of Justice.

According to Sen, democracy is ‘government by discussion’, and that discussion is not just a media blitz, which one sees in many discussions made by both despotic and democratic leaders with their subjects.  The discussion has an ethical and moral backdrop leading to consensual government eventually since it is watched by Adam Smith’s ‘impartial spectator’ or driven by Sen’s ‘obligation to satisfy one’s conscience’. Both these concepts are same because impartial spectator is nothing but one’s own conscience telling him every time when he makes a move whether he is right or wrong.

But the world media branded Obama as ‘caving in’ to Republican pressure, a connotation that does not go well with the head of the most powerful state on the earth.

Economists see this type of an action by a person from a different point. Driven by the popular adage that ‘one does not harvest a honey comb simply to lick his palm’, economists believe that every human action, or for that matter every animal action too, has an economic value and strategy.

What was the strategy of Obama in this case?Selling Obamanomics to Republicans

Obama’s state of mind is not at peace these days. He has to seek a re-election next year, but his popularity is falling day by day. One commentator in a US blog has said that Obama’s election on the previous occasion was done by Americans who did not have wisdom to see things properly. He is being bombarded from every front. Economy-wise, he had to oversee an administration that had no alternative but to make a strong protest against the downgrading of the US sovereign debt with its economic outlook being changed from positive to negative by the Standard and Poor’s, a global rating company. His plan to raise the US government’s debt ceilings has been thwarted by the Republicans who hold majority power in the House of Representatives. Economy refuses to bounce back despite the liberal pouring of stimulus packages into it since 2007. Consumer confidence is at its lowest, economic growth remains closer to one percent and unemployment is on an upward journey refusing to relent. The latest data show that unemployment at the end of June rising to 9.1% of the labour force and remaining unchanged at that level at end August. The ratio of the employed to the total population stands at about 58%, down from a peak of 65% a decade earlier.

These are not in fact ills perpetrated by Obama. They were started in early 2000s by his predecessor and Obama’s sin has been the failure to put the sick giant into the cage at the appropriate time.

So, his strategy is to make the Republicans too share the unpardonable sin. Eventually, if anything goes wrong, in the eyes of the Americans, the Republicans too would be responsible. So, it is simply weakening your enemy by accommodating him first and making him a party to the whole of the sinful activities going on there.

So, it is a nice and may work strategy.

Alan Krueger: Strengthening of Keynesian Club in the White House

On Obama’s side, he has nominated the Princeton University Economist and labour market specialist Alan Krueger to head the White House Council of Economic Advisors. He was earlier US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s Deputy in the Treasury and therefore is considered an apt person to fill the post. He also has faith in Keynesian type policy prescriptions that advocate the government’s role in driving the economy out of a recession.

As an academic, Krueger is ranked within the top 40 most leading economists of the world by publications he has made by IDEAS/RePEc ranking, an outfit of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis of USA (http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.person.all.html).

So, Obama administration has a lot of hopes on Krueger to take the US out of its current malaise of surging unemployment and lead the economy along the path now known as Obamanomics. Krueger’s contributions are specifically important for Obama to make his now rescheduled nationwide address on job creation for Americans.

Karen Weise of Bloomberg Businessweek has summarised various theories propounded by Krueger with others during his academic career spanning for about three decades (available at www.businessweek.com ). Weise’s elaboration just gives a taste of what Obama could expect from Krueger, provided he still has an unchanged loyalty to his old ideas.

Krueger’s foot print

One such research study is on the drop in unemployment in USA in 1990s. Krueger with a colleague from Harvard found that the proliferation of temporary job placement agencies contributed to increase employment and thereby reduce unemployment during that decade. This is obvious because such job placement agencies facilitate the job seekers to find temporary jobs rather quickly without having to go through the hassle of doing the search by themselves. So, Weise has tagged that Obama could rely on such intermediaries to improve the efficiency in the job market by helping prospective job seekers to find their future employers more easily.

Of course, Obama could rely on these temporary job placement agencies to speed up employment and reduce the unemployment rate. But it does not help the US economy permanently. That is because in a prolonged recession, temporary jobs will be gone first and along with that, temporary job placement agencies too would go out of the window.

In another study which Krueger did with a Swedish colleague in 2011, it was established that the longer a job seeker has to do the job searching, the more frustrated he would become making him less active in his job searching efforts. As a result, even when the economy starts showing an improvement, the unemployment rate does not fall immediately. What does this entail on Obama who is seeking re-election to Presidency in a year’s time? He should create jobs rather quickly so that the job search time would get shortened. But it is not a simple task.

Krueger did research on education too. In a study he did with a Princeton colleague in 1992, he established that every extra year of schooling will enable a person to earn 16% more and smaller classes help students to acquire more skills than bigger classes. These two findings entail an unusual obligation on Obama. He will have to spend more on education so that students could be in schools longer and in classes not too large.

 Offshoring, Outsourcing and Bazaar effect

Krueger’s most important finding has been the impact which the recent trend of offshoring has made on US job creation. In a study he did with a Princeton colleague in 2009, he established several important facts: offshoring though beneficial to US corporate sector has transferred about a fourth of US jobs to overseas locations; jobs created in location specific industries like education, medical care, tourism and construction are not so vulnerable to offshoring and professions for which there is a licensing requirement do not suffer due to offshoring activities.

If Obama takes these findings seriously, it is bad news for countries which are planning to solicit US foreign direct investments or FDIs to their countries.

What Krueger and his colleague have found was the simple truth established by the German economist Hans-Werner Sinn earlier in 2004 relating to the German economy and now known as the ‘Bazaar effect’. What Sinn found was that German enterprises in a neck-breaking race for cutting costs and remaining competitive were increasingly relying on outsourcing and offshoring to procure much of the inputs needed for the production line produced in cheap labour countries. This helped German industries to remain competitive and increase exports, but at the cost of losing some 1.6 million manufacturing jobs at home and low economic growth due to much of the value addition produced outside the country. So, Bazaar effect has made the other two leading industrial nations, USA and Japan, too poorer with prolonged economic recessions which do not respond positively to stimulus packages proposed under the Keynesian type of policies. The simple truth: you pump money into the economy to create jobs at home, but that money creates jobs elsewhere.

The casualties of Obamanomics

 The failure of Obamanomics has been found elsewhere also. According to Timothy Carney, the senior political columnist of the Washington Examiner, Obama administration in a bid to promote clean energy had subsidised two companies, namely, Solyndra and Evergreen, and sponsored another company to produce cellulosic ethanol. All three had declared bankruptcy and the last one had gone out of business without producing even a single drop of ethanol. At the same time, some other companies like General Electric and Goldman Sachs also supported by Obamanomic policy have become big money makers without creating jobs at home.

What is wrong with US employment? There are many.

The US employment and unemployment data are published by the Bureau of Labour Statistics or BLS every month after collecting the data through a sample survey known as ‘Current Population Survey’. For this survey, 60,000 households representing some 110,000 persons are surveyed by 2200 interviewers. This is a large survey compared to many public opinion surveys which interview only about 2000 persons

US unemployment data: why not use a loose definition like Sri Lanka?

According to the BLS Website, a person who has a job is employed and an illustration in the webpage shows that a person who works for 40 hours per week is considered as employed. Unpaid family workers are also counted as employed if they have worked at least 15 hours per week. So, an unemployed is a person who has no job (or has not worked at least 40 hours in the preceding week), is available for work and has made active efforts to find a job in the previous four weeks.

This is a tough employment and unemployment definition compared to the much loose definition used by Sri Lanka, though it conforms to ILO requirements. In Sri Lanka, an unemployed person is a person who has not worked at least for one hour in the preceding week for pay or as unpaid family workers. But prior to 1990, Sri Lanka used a little more restrictive definition by which a person to be categorised as unemployed, he should not have worked at least 20 hours in the preceding week.

If Obama too follows a loose definition like Sri Lanka, USA too could have reduced its unemployment rate dramatically.

The Bazaar effect on unemployment

 The root cause of US unemployment has been its high wages which have caused its jobs to fly away to low wage countries. This is the impact of Bazaar effect found by Sinn. Bazaar effect has not adversely affected the exports of both Germany and Japan, and as a result both countries have continued to generate trade surpluses year after year. This was partly due to relying more on outsourcing than offshoring and where offshoring has been practised, goods manufactured in off-shore centres being brought back to the home country for re-export to other destinations. It was also partly due to historically high import propensity of Americans who use much of the German and Japan produced goods.

But this was not the case with USA. Historically, it ran a wide trade deficit facilitated by its ability to print US dollars as the world’s central banker nation and dump them on other nations. Hence, the stimulus packages introduced through Keynesian deficit financing and special packages sponsored by the Federal Reserve System did not help to create domestic employment or output but employment and output elsewhere. The main beneficiary was China which could afford to maintain a high export growth, a high economic growth and a high foreign reserve accumulation.

Worried about unemployment? Take a voluntary wage cut

If USA wants to reduce unemployment permanently, US workers should be prepared to take a substantial wage cut and improve its economy’s competitiveness. When Krueger took up the position at the White House, as reported by www.bloomberg.com/news , he took practically more than a 50% salary cut from $ 369,807 per annum from Princeton to $ 191,300 from the White House, leaving aside his other earnings by way of delivering high paid special guest lectures etc. This is an example which all Americans have to accept today for otherwise their destiny would be very fragile and dark in the future.

USA is still the technology powerhouse in the world. As Wikipedia, the cyberspace encyclopaedia has reported, it still leads by a significant margin the rest of the countries in the world by the number of patents in force: its 1.9 million patents in force is significantly higher than the 1.3 million patents in force in the second highest country in the list, Japan. However, with regard to the new patents granted, it has been overtaken by Japan in recent years. In 2008, it granted approval for 141,871 new patents when Japan approved 239,338 patents. However, in 2007, USA was marginally above Japan (available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_patents). Though it has slipped one notch down in 2008, it is still a country to be reckoned for generating new technology in the world. This competitive advantage could be used by USA only if it becomes competitive with respect to wage levels too. This is why Milton Friedman blamed USA’s minimum wage policies for the wide spread unemployment in that country in the Friedman family book on Simple Economics for laymen, Free to Choose.

Will Keynesianism help the USA?

Critics charge that Obama’s White House is filled with Keynesians, Obama himself leading. Adding one more Keynesian to its staff will make it a fully-fledged Keynesian Club. Hence, Obama’s much-publicised nationwide tele address on 8 September will not have many surprises. It will simply continue the current stimulus-driven economic policy package pursued by Obama administration.

The ability of this package to deliver quick results will be the determining factor of Obama’s re-election to Presidency in a year’s time.

(W.A. Wijewardena can be reached at waw1949@gmail.com )

Aanaimuganthan aran (Vinayakar songs )by Dr. Seerkazhi Govindarajan.

New Implant Can Monitor Tumors Continuously

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Sensing oxygen: This implantable sensor measures the concentration of dissolved oxygen in tissue, an indicator of tumor growth. The biocompatible housing also contains a transmitter, analysis unit, and a battery.
Credit: Technical University of Munich

BIOMEDICINE

New Implant Can Monitor Tumors Continuously

Researchers ultimately hope to combine the tiny sensor with a device to deliver targeted chemotherapy only when the tumor becomes more aggressive.

• BY KATE BAGGOTT

Audio »

A team of medical engineers in Germany has developed an implant to continuously monitor tumor growth in cancer patients. The device, designed to be implanted in the patient near the tumor site, uses chip sensors to measure oxygen levels in the blood, an indicator of growth. The data is then transmitted wirelessly to an external receiver carried by the patient and transferred to his or her doctor for remote monitoring and analysis.  

"We developed the device to monitor and treat slow-growing tumors that are difficult to operate on, such as brain tumors and liver tumors, and for tumors in elderly patients for whom surgery might be dangerous," said Helmut Grothe, head of the Heinz-Nixdorf Institute for Medical Electronics at the Technical University of Munich.

The roughly two-centimeter-long device, dubbed the IntelliTuM (Intelligent Implant for Tumor Monitoring), includes a self-calibrating sensor, data measurement and evaluation electronics, and a transmitter. All the components are contained within a biocompatible plastic housing.

The device sensor detects the level of dissolved oxygen in the fluid near the tumor; a drop in that measure suggests the metabolic behavior of the tumor is changing, often in a more aggressive way. So far, researchers have tested the device in tissue grown in culture. The next step is to test it in live animals.

Most monitoring of tumor growth is currently done via CT scans, MRI, and other forms of external imaging. "The advantage of an implant over external imaging is that you can monitor the tumor on the go," says Sven Becker of the Technical University of Munich. "This means patients would have to pay fewer visits to the hospital for progression and postsurgery monitoring of tumors. They also wouldn't have to swallow contrast agents."

While the device is currently calibrated to monitor oxygen, its chips can also be used to monitor other signs of tumor change or growth. "Oxygen levels are one of the primary indicators of tumor growth, but we have also found a way to activate the pH sensors by recalibrating the device from outside the body," says Grothe.

The team also plans to incorporate a miniature medication pump that can be set to deliver chemotherapy directly into the tumor environment, if and when the monitoring chips show that the tumor has become more aggressive.

It's still not clear who will be the best candidates for this type of device. "Most folks who are not good candidates for [tumor removal] surgery will not want surgery to implant this so that they can be monitored," warns Eugene Woltering, professor of surgery and neurosciences at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

Woltering, who was not involved in the research, does believe the device may be ideal for those for whom complete surgical removal of the tumor is impossible or not desirable.

"Those individuals could have these implanted in sites where we left tumor behind to act as an early warning system," Woltering said. "If it could drip some chemo in the affected area, then the local concentration of chemo would far exceed the diluted chemo concentration that would otherwise reach the tumor in the blood's total volume."

Black Button - Short Film

Black Button

WOULD YOU PRESS THIS BUTTON FOR A MILLION DOLLARS? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PRESS IT? A CLASSIC MORAL DILEMMA UNFOLDS.

Ifound this week’s film, Black Button, on YouTube where it has become rather popular. That makes sense since it is a good film, but more so than that it is also emblematic of the uniqueness of YouTube and the possibilities for filmmakers there.
Black Button is minimalistic in design and execution, but is the kind of tautly paced, well-written film that really shines in the short format. The film centers around a classic hypothetical and moral quandary; lost and confused in a stark white room the main character, Mr. Roberts, is offered ten million dollars by a mysterious older gentleman to push a black button. The catch? If he does, someone, somewhere will die. This premise sets the stage for a provocative conversation between the two as they discuss the implications of such a choice.

There is a lot to like about the film, the visual aesthetic is stylish; stark and ultra-exposed in order to create the depth-less white set. As mentioned, the pacing is excellent, sucking in your attention and never letting it flag and the shot selection wrings the most dynamism possible out of the limited set. The two strongest aspects though are the excellent sound work and superb acting. Fantastically creepy, disorienting sounds emanate during the payoff that heighten the affect nicely, and quite simply Robert Grubb steals the show with his turn as the elderly gentlemen.

As accomplished a film as it is, especially for a $200 first time effort, Black Buttonlikely would have found success on the festival circuit, but instead on YouTube it has become a phenomena, garnering a half a million views and over 6000 comments. It’s hard to imagine garnering as much exposure or feedback from any other means than the online video giant. But also because of the community-nature of the site, the feedback is often a lot more substantial than other sites. Thirteen video responseshave been posted already by fans of the film, and questions generated by the short prompted the filmmakers to post two new “making of” segments to YouTube as well, extending the level of interactions possible between independent filmmakers and their audiences. Now if only YouTube can perfect some revenue sharing…

-YouTube Awards 2007 - Top Six Finalist, Best Short Film
-WINNER: Fitzroy Short Film Festival (Melb, Aus)
-WINNER: DearCinemaFest Short Film Festival (Int.)
and more...

Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits before him at a desk and in between them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless. The catch? Pushing the button will result in the death of a human being. What would you do?

EDIT 1: Some people have observed a similarity in the premise of this film and an revival episode of The Twilight Zone in 1986. Please note (1) We had never seen the episode and only learned of it long after we'd finished the film. (2) The Twilight Zone weren't the first to do it. There was a short story before that, which was in turn based on an old premise called the 'Faustian Bargain', around since the 16th century (deal with the 'devil'). An almost identical premise exists in several cultures. Richard Kelly is even making a film with this premise called 'The Box'. (3) Our film is similar in premise, but different in plot, characters, dialogue, aesthetics, setting, moral meaning, religious undertone, twist etc. Each version, including ours, aims to bring something new to an old idea. Please have the respect to not accuse us of plagiarism.

Short Film - House Wife

The film is about loneliness of a married woman. In this male dominated society, in most of the cases, women are considered competent only to take care of the kitchen and Kids. Many women with excellent skills and abilities are forced to remain at home just because they are women and they are not suppose to earn, because earning is suppose to be a 'Man's Job'. Being idle can be a terrible experience for any able person. The housewife in this short film is one of those women in our society who are just killing their valuable time and abilities sitting idle at home.

Short Film - Karma

Karma talks about how the monsters of lust and greed compel the protagonist to go to any length to satisfy them leading to a disastrous fate.

மறைபொருள் - maraiporul - tamil short film

Dhuruva Natchathiram (Pole Star) - Tamil Short Film HD

இன்னொரு மீன் by: என். சொக்கன்

*****

விஜயராகவனின் வீட்டுக்கும், அலுவலகத்துக்கும் பதினைந்து நிமிட நடை தூரம்தான். ஆனால் தினந்தோறும் ஒரே பாதையில் பயணம் செய்யவேண்டியிருப்பது கிட்டத்தட்ட நரகத்துக்குச் சமமான சிரமம் என்று அவனுக்குத் தோன்றியது.

இந்த ‘தினந்தோறும்’ என்கிற வார்த்தைதான் இங்கே முக்கியம் – எத்தனை வளமான சூழலையும் வறட்சியானதாகத் தெரியச் செய்துவிடுகிற சூட்சுமம் அதற்கு உண்டு. பார்த்த காட்சிகளையே திரும்பத் திரும்ப பார்த்துக்கொண்டிருப்பதால் மனம் அலுத்துச் சலித்துப்போகிறது, ஏதேனும் ஒரு மாற்றம் தட்டுப்படாதா என்று ஏங்கச்செய்துவிடுகிறது.

அப்படி அவன் ஏங்கிக்கொண்டிருந்தபோதுதான், அவனுடைய பயணப் பாதையில் ஒரு சின்ன மாறுதல், வழியிலிருந்த ஒரு சிறிய கல்யாண மண்டபத்தின் அருகே திடுதிப்பென்று தோன்றிய புதிய கடை. அதன் வாசலில் ஏகப்பட்ட மீன் தொட்டிகளை நிறுத்திவைத்து வண்ணமயமான விளக்குகளால் அலங்கரித்திருந்தார்கள்.

அந்தப் பிரம்மாண்டமான தொட்டிகளுக்குள் நீந்தி விளையாடும் பல வண்ண மீன்கள் விஜயராகவனின் புதிய பொழுதுபோக்காயின. காலை வெளிச்சத்தில் அவற்றைப் பார்ப்பதற்கும், இரவின் செயற்கை வெளிச்சத்தில் பார்ப்பதற்கும் இடையிலான வித்தியாசங்களைப் பட்டியலிடும் அளவுக்கு விற்பன்னனாகிவிட்டான் அவன்! சோர்ந்திருந்த அவனுடைய வாழ்க்கையில் ஒரு பெரும் மலர்ச்சியாக இந்த மீன்கள்.

சீக்கிரத்திலேயே விஜயராகவனின் அன்றாட நடவடிக்கைகளில் மாற்றம் தெரிந்தது – மீன்களை அதிக நேரம் பார்த்து ரசிக்கவேண்டும் என்பதற்காக, வழக்கமான நேரத்துக்குமுன்பாகவே கிளம்பத்துவங்கினான் அவன். செயற்கை ஆக்ஸிஜனின் தொடர்ந்த முட்டைகளிடையே சுழன்று சுழன்று திரும்பும் அந்த மீன்களுக்கு, செல்லப் பெயர்கள்கூட வைத்துவிட்டான் – அவற்றைப் பார்க்கப்பார்க்க, தன்னை ஒரு சின்னக் குழந்தையாக உணர்ந்தான் விஜயராகவன்.

ஒன்றிரண்டு வாரங்களுக்கு இந்தப் பொழுதுபோக்கு தொடர, திடீரென்று அவனுக்கு ஓர் ஆசை தோன்றியது – யாரோ வளர்க்கும் மீனைப் பார்ப்பதிலேயே இத்தனை சந்தோஷம் என்றால், நாமே ஒரு சில மீன்களை வாங்கி வளர்த்தால் என்ன? வீட்டில் தொட்டி வைத்து மீன் வளர்த்தால் இதய நோய் வருகிற வாய்ப்புகள் குறையும் என்று எங்கோ படித்ததை நினைத்துக்கொண்டான் அவன்.

ஆனால், மீனை எங்கே வாங்குவது? எப்படி வளர்ப்பது? அவனுக்குத் தெரியவில்லை.

‘அதனால் என்ன? வாசல்முழுக்க மீன்களை நிரப்பிவைத்திருக்கிற அந்தக் கடையிலேயே கேட்டால் ஆச்சு!’, என்று சொல்லிக்கொண்டான் அவன்.

அன்று மாலையே, தனது செல்ல மீன்களை ஆசையாகப் பார்வையிட்டபடி அந்தக் கடையினுள் நுழைந்தான் விஜயராகவன்.

உள்ளே புகுந்ததும், குப்பென்று தீர்க்கமான ஒரு வாசனை அவனைத் தாக்கியது. லேசாக மூக்கைத் தடவிக்கொண்டபடி உள்ளே நடந்தான்.

அறையின் மூலையிலிருந்த பெரிய மேஜைக்குப் பின்னால் ஒரு மீசைக்காரன் அமர்ந்திருந்தான். புதியவர்களிடம் சகஜமாகப் பேசும் பழக்கமில்லாத விஜயராகவன் அவனை நெருங்கி, ‘மீன் வேணும்’, என்றான் திணறலாக.

‘எந்த மீன் வேணும் சார்? எவ்ளோ கிலோ?’, என்றபடி கீழ் ட்ரேயிலிருந்து ஒரு மீனை எடுத்து, நடு உடம்பில் வெட்டினான் அவன்.

10 Ways to Turn Your Blog into a Lead-Generation Machine

BY ANN HANDLEY 

Sometimes when I hear companies talking about creating a "machine" for their lead-generation efforts, I think about Dr. Seuss. Specifically, I think about all the fantastical and imaginative machines he created in his 46 children's books--like the Super-Axe-Hacker, the Utterly Sputter and (my favorite) the Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz, a mighty machine that rapidly fires explosive sour-cherry stones.

Of course in real life, businesses can't flip the switch on a Triple-Sling Jigger to instantly produce prospects. But what if you could create a kind of machine for lead generation on your own company blog, allowing it to help you continuously fill that sales funnel?

39% of b2b marketers in North America find blog posts to be valuable marketing content.
--Focus research, June 2011

Blogs are a great way to increase your digital presence, making you more visible and "findable" via Google, Bing and the like. They can also be a great way to generate leads. Your blog can function as a kind of triage for your sales team, fielding and answering questions organically via the content you produce there. However, it can perform that function only if you effectively create momentum with visitors who are likely to buy, turning them from mere passersby into something more.

Here's a 10-step prescription to increase your visibility and attract more qualified folks to yoursite. It may not shoot cherry pits, but it will help you convert your traffic into leads.

1. Make your blog an extension of your main website. A visitor's first experience with your company might be through a blog page. He or she might never land on your main site's homepage, so link your blog visually (mirroring the navigation and design of your main site) as well as technically. Maintain the blog as a subdomain of your main domain (something like blog.website.com) versus putting it on a separate domain entirely. Blogging on the same domain that hosts your company site ensures that all inbound links to blog pages also juice up the search mojo of your main site.

2. Solve or share, don't shill. Your blog should focus on your customers. It should either solve their problems or share your resources. Don't shill your stuff. This may sound obvious, but too many business blogs seem to be a repository for press releases, regurgitated marketing-speak and other pablum. News about your company and its products and services might be fascinating to you, but it's not what will ultimately attract and engage prospects. Write about what they care about.

How can you determine what to write about? Use inquires or "Frequently Asked Questions" as fuel for blog posts. Ask your frontline folks: What problems do our customers ask about? What advice do they need? What problems do our products or services solve? Also, check your search logs: See what keywords people use when they land on your site to get a sense of what problems they have and what words they use to describe them. (Of course, questions your customers don't ask but you wish they did--or Frequently Unasked Questions--also are great blog post fodder!)

3. Show up. Half of blogging is consistency, or just showing up on a regular basis. (Naturally, the other half is producing great stuff!) You don't have to blog every day, but you do have to create a schedule that's sustainable for you. Hiring a freelancer or a staff writer or editor can help keep you on track with regular content, especially if you are a reluctant writer. But if you can't afford that, use an editorial calendar to plan a posting schedule (and stick to it). An editorial calendar, by the way, is simply that: a calendar on which you plan what post will be published when.

Showing up also applies to the ongoing care and feeding of the community you're creating through your blog. Encourage conversation and engagement by responding to comments (even negative ones). Be part of the conversation, not above it.


 

4. Avoid War and Peace posts. The best blog posts are punchy and concise, focusing on a single idea. Think short paragraphs or bullet points. And don't bury the important information. Open with a declarative sentence that sets up the key idea. Framing blog posts this way not only respects your reader's busy schedule, but also helps address the anxiety a lot of us feel about writing. A blog post can also be a graphic, image, video or even an embedded PowerPoint presentation.

5. Pen a killer headline. I sometimes spend more time writing a headline for a blog post than I do writing the entire post. Why? Because every blog post creates a new page on your site, and every new page creates another opportunity to boost your ranking for one of your targeted keyword phrases in Google or Bing or other search engines. Your blog post title becomes your web page title, so titles matter!

An intriguing headline, or title, is also critical to attracting actual humans to read your post. The title of an article is not merely a promise to the reader (an idea of what's in store), it's also the pitchman for the entire post: It entices people to either click or … not.

6. Link to other resources. Throughout a post, link specific words or phrases to other resources on your site. You can link keywords to resource pages you've built around those words, or you can link to specific landing pages where you've posted related offers, like the ability for visitors to sign up for a companion webinar, request a white paper or get a free trial.

7. Embed companion calls to action. In addition to linking within the post itself, remember the real estate around the post. There are a few areas prime for calls to action on any blog page, including the "leaderboard" spot at the top of your blog, the sidebar on either side of the post and the often-ignored space immediately following a blog post.

The first two spots are great for banners or buttons. But the space under the post is key: Assuming readers get through the entire post, they should always be given an opportunity to learn more with either a companion offer or related piece of content. (Hint: This is also a good place from which to link to landing pages that require e-mail registration.)

8. Offer subscription services. Allow your visitors to subscribe to get regular updates to your blog via e-mail and RSS. Essentially, every time you publish a post, a subscriber is notified to check it out. Plug-ins to allow subscription options are likely available for your blogging platform of choice (most e-mail marketing providers offer plug-ins that can be integrated into WordPress and other blogging platforms to turn your blog into a comprehensive list-building system). There are also a number of third-party services that can collect names and contact info for you. FeedBlitz and Google FeedBurner are both free services.

9. Trick out with social bling. The more traffic you attract, the more opportunities you'll have for generating leads. So be sure to outfit your blog with social-sharing icons, particularly the big three: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Doing so subtly encourages your visitors to share your content and allows you to reach your network's network, which is a key attribute of social media. Of course, this assumes that you are actively participating in social media, i.e., engaging in conversation, and not just broadcasting headlines.

10. Remember one final thing. Fundamentally, a blog is an opportunity: It's a way to connect with customers in a real-time, accessible way. But your blog needs to be part of your business, and part of your lead-gen efforts. Talk it up in e-mail newsletters, in print collateral and on packaging materials. A blog won't magically drive business without active and ongoing promotion and participation--no matter how much inspiration Dr. Seuss imparts. 

A version of this article was originally published in the September 2011 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Customer Capture Contraption.