Nokia Lumia 1520 Review

Forget the processor, memory and other technical things that brands have been fighting over on whose superior over the past few years. These days, it’s phone size. Phones have been consistently getting bigger and it’s no surprise to see some truly big phones launched. One phone among these new smartphones with a huge screen is the New Nokia Lumia 1520. The first big handset launched in India after the Microsoft buyout, the phone has garnered a lot of interest from both, the tech community and the average person on the street. We got out hands on one of these models; let’s see if it’s worth the hype.

Design:
Like we mentioned, the phone is quite big. It’s not as if we have trouble holding it, it’s just a big phone. The construction feels really solid and the bevels around the huge 6 inch screen are quite slim; more on the screen later. The polycarbonate un

ibody construction has become something of the norm for the Lumia series and we’ve been quite pleased with it since its inception. The only thing we didn’t really like was the location of the camera – its susceptible to smudges because out fingers always landed on top of the lens.

Display:
The display on the phone is a 6 inch Full HD one and its does look stunning. It’s one of the best we’ve seen on smartphones and everything, to the tiniest of details is scarily clear. The response time of the screen to touch was brilliant and we’re convinced that this is the screen to beat for any future handset out there.

Technical Details:
The phone is powered by a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and comes with 2GB RAM. It also has 16GB internal storage which is expandable up to 64GB by using a micro SD card. The connectivity options are excellent with HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot and it’s one of the few devices to be 4G enabled. The battery in the device is a 3,400mAH and it lasted an entire day for us with heavy use. 

Camera:
The cameras on the Lumia series of phones have garnered a lot of attention. The Lumia 1520 comes with a 20 MP camera on the back. For every photo a user takes, it captures it in two resolutions – a 5 MP one and a 16 MP one. Image quality is course excellent. However, we’ve observed that if you do know a bit about photography and can assign parameters accordingly, you can take even better photos than what you would in auto-focus mode. The video recording is nothing short of stellar. Videos are captured in Full HD and are crystal clear in every aspect. 

Performance:
When we used the device, we’ve found it to be nothing short of spectacular. The phone runs on the latest version of Windows 8. The fast processor and 2GB RAM aid in making multi-tasking a breeze. The camera is also superb and would easily stand up to other phones in its class. The battery life too is fantastic and lasts a long time – good news for power users. Overall, we were impressed with the phone and the OS. Windows has come a long way in the mobile space and it’s refreshing to see it to make an entrance with a bang.

Verdict:
The Nokia Lumia 1520 is an absolute beast of a phone. It combines states of the art hardware with some intelligent design features, least of which is the 6 inch Full HD display. It is quite possibly the best Windows Phone on the market and we had a ball using it.

Summary:  
Nokia has launched an ambitious device in India. The Lumia 1520 features top-notch hardware and is a top of the line handset that is sure to grab a lot o attention in the Indian market. 

Micromax Canvas Blaze Review

Micromax has become one of the most well-known brands in India. The company has introduced new handsets on a regular basis and the Canvas Blaze is the latest model to be released. Building upon the trending Canvas platform, this device is primarily targeted at the youth segment. The Canvas series of phones are phablets, that is, they combine some features of a tablet and a phone into one; the most prominent one being a big display.

Display:
The screen on the device is a 5 inch touchscreen with hardened glass. It has a resolution of 480 X 854 pixels; the screen clarity is quite good considering the segment the phone falls into. The colours appear quite vivid and image sharpness is also quite acceptable.

Technical Specifications:

The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor clocked at 1GHz and also features 768mb of RAM.  The phone runs stock on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean; we expect Micromax to roll out an upgrade to Android 4.3 soon after the launch though. Like almost all Android devices, the storage can be expanded using a memory card and the phone offers a host of connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE and 3G.

The one interesting thing to note on this device is that it’s one of the few, if not the only device to support 3G-EVDO networks. That is because it’s a dual-SIM phone with one slot for MTS’ CDMA network.

Camera:
The main camera is an 8MP one while the 0.3 MP camera on the front completes the set. The main camera shoots great pictures with sharp outlines and vivid colours. The balance of these images is quite good and overall, we liked the quality of photos. Videos are recorded in 720p HD and look acceptable. There is the distortion that you’d expect from  a camera in this range, but it’s nothing that we’d complain about.

Battery:
The 1850 mAh battery provides enough juice to last a long time. The battery lasted an entire day and some more when we used the phone for watching videos, listening to music and surfing the net. Also, we noticed that the phone does charge quite quickly and this is something we really liked considering the target audience of the device.

Performance:
At the core level, the phone is directed towards the youth. From that perspective, the phone functions as you’d expect it to. A huge emphasis is given to the media (images, camera, videos, music, etc.) side of things. The battery life is quite impressive and the core design of the phone reaches out to the target segment, Micromax has joined hands with telecom major MTS for the launch of this brand new device. 

The Micromax Canvas Blaze comes with bundled offers from MTS which include 2GB of free data, 1000 free minutes for MTS to MTS local calling, and 120 free minutes for other local and STD calls, all of which are applicable per month for six months.

Verdict:
The college-going crowd will love this phone. The primary audience of the phone has been kept in mind while designing all the aspects as we believe the phone is bound to be a big hit in that segment.

Summary:
Micromax has achieved a phenomenal amount of success in a relatively short span of time. The Canvas Blaze is another offering in the Canvas line of phones from the Indian mobile manufacturer. The phone is catered towards the youth and has an impressive set of features that would entice the target audience.

Alternate Link Building Avenues – A Panacea To The Current Chaos

Keeping pace with the recent Google updates, the most important challenge that lies ahead of all we digital marketers lies in finding continuously authoritative link building avenues. These avenues don't only need to be viable as a long term opportunity for building links but also very authoritative from the Search Engine perspective. Below are the few methods which can be used for building relevant links in the current scenario-

Flippa Auctions
Flippa is a marketplace where the domains are being auctioned and purchased 24*7. When one has a site which deals in cloud computing, the job is simple. All one has got to do is go to flippa and search for cloud computing. We get an extensive list of all the top ranking domains for sale. Eg: We searched for the keyword 'cloud computing' & these are few of the 87 results that flippa threw back –

 Based on the USPs of each of the domains (the USPs are provided), we can pick up the one which comes closest to our domain. For eg : - For a domain related to cloud computing, we can pick up something like cloud computing point. We analyze the backlinks to this domain using open site explorer. And with that, we have got our hands on to an extremely rich avenue of links which can definitely help a site.

Also we have scope to analyze the most Active Listings, New Listings, Just Sold Listings, Ending Soon Listings, Top Ranking websites & much more. Given below is a screenshot of the active listings which again provides us with a couple of potential domains.








  
Moodle CMS
Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is a global development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education.

Moodle is provided freely as Open Source software. Basically this means Moodle is copyrighted, but you have additional freedom. You are allowed to copy, use and modify Moodle provided that you agree to: provide the source to others; not modify or remove the original license and copyrights, and apply this same license to any derivative work
We can use the same moodle for getting a backlink from .edu sites for domains.

Moodle is used by a variety of institutions and individuals including:

• Universities
• High schools
• Primary schools
• Government departments
• Healthcare organizations
• Military organizations
• Airlines
• Oil companies
• Homeschoolers
• Independent educators
• Special educators

In terms of community discussions, there is a lot going on Moodle. There are Forums, Events, Registered Sites & Connected Sites. The CMS gives a sureshot avenue of link using Registered Sites & Connected Sites option. However it also gives a chance to get backlink from .edu sites using Forums as most of the people active on these forums are from different international universities.

If there is a particular service which a site offers in a particular geographic region, we can get in touch with the university representative and have a backlink from a particular .edu site. For eg: If we have a domain which is an internet service provider in Canada, we can get in touch with a Canadian University representative and offer Internet Service for the university students. Such people always prefer discounts for the students since they are managing studies with work. That again is something which can be used to build on for a good pitch.

Surveys
Another potential avenue for linking building is survey. There's generally a two-step process to attracting links with surveys.

The first step is asking people to participate. If it's on a particularly interesting topic, we will reach out to bloggers, experts, and industry news sites to ask to spread the word both on their blog and on social media sites which will be a great way to attract the first wave of links. One can use a site like Monkey Survey to create the survey.

The second step is releasing the results.  These results can be released on the sites like  Survey Savvy

These are just a few techniques which can be used in the current mayhem that Google updates have been playing upon digital marketers. However our quest just cannot end here as Google always has & will focus on providing the best search to its users. Quality Link Finding & Link Building is an ongoing process which needs to be filtered from time to time keeping abreast with Google updates & changes in algorithms.

Author bio:
Aaditya Shah works as a Search Marketing professional at SMG Convonix. He loves every aspect of digital marketing especially content outreach & link building. Closely follows Google updates & algorithm changes & loves to continuously experiment with SEO to decode the mystery around web search. A complete foodie!! -his hobbies include playing Cricket & watching movies.  

Reel Rewind 2013

First movie I watched in 2013 would be G I Joe Retaliation; it was not exactly a worthy successor to the first version even if it was slightly high on the action quotient. I felt the storyline succumbed to usual save the world plot before the villain hits the red button, something similar to the ending of Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.

Iron Man 3 was the perfect summer blockbuster that brought out character of Tony Stark we all wanted to see, Shane Black did not just bring in the regular heroics coated with CGI awesomeness of the man in Iron Suit but the movie packed enough soul to become highest grosser for 2013.

On other super hero movies watched this year, Superman’s reboot may have done well commercially however there was something lacking in the story and too much CGI destruction used to portray raw and brute power Superman possesses which dampened all the excitement generated during the first half of the movie, Wolverine’s return to silver screen was much better than the Origins movie and I liked Ross Emry’s cinematography and pacing of story in James Mangold’s direction.
Thor 2 was a kind of passable flick for me, some type of filler for Marvel towards the year end.

Tom Hiddleston is great at playing Loki’s character, I felt that the director missed on concealing Loki’s return twist towards the end, as it was very much evident that he does not die in the fight with Malekith on Svartalfheim.

Next disappointment came in Star Trek: Into Darkness, in spite of J.J Abrams sticking to all lens flare tricks and camera angles throughout the movie, this one fizzled out all the hype and buzz created by introduction of character Khan in Benedict Cumberbatch Chris Pine playing Captain Kirk continued to be portrayed as a brash and impulsive character deciding to sacrifice himself for the crew towards the end, enough to evoke some strong emotion of grief from Spock.

This series needs a new director seriously if Paramount Pictures decide to take audience for another ride to places in galaxy never traveled before.

Fast and Furious series lives up every time to basic expectation you have from a high octane flick like this, we keep seeing something new and different in terms of action, stunts and Paul Walker would surely be missed in upcoming sequels. He became a strong central character in this series next to Vin Diesel, only problem was with the movie ending was the airport runway fight scene which seemed like an endless stretch of land mass on which a plane just does not take off.

Vin Diesel played to his strength as an actor again in Riddick movie, carrying entire story on his performance it was an enjoyable movie sci-fi movie overall, watched with no expectations and was not disappointed.

Elysium, Oblivion and World War Z were my best sci-fi movie picks for 2013, all these movies were strong on story and screenplay, Marc Forster created a realistic zombie pandemic, though all infected population was quiet swift in attacking people around and not just walking around slow and lazy to be shot in the head. I could strongly relate to characters portrayed by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon in all of these 3 movies. At times A-List actors tend to become a casting mistake in sci-fi movies which was not the case here.

Elysium and Oblivion portrayed a near perfect abode floating close to earth, like an object of desire and the only solution to end misery of human population on a degraded and barren earth, such concepts draw you deep into thinking how badly are we ignoring the upkeep of our own planet hoping to shift somewhere else some day, but what if such place never existed or could never be built.

One romance movie that moved me a lot this year was The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrman created a masterpiece out of this adaptation, first the soundtrack got me hooked and then I like the way Leonardo Di Caprio tries to woo his leading lady back in his life, with a hope that she would return to her true love on her own will even though he had all the money and luxury in this world to get her back, creating a period drama on a backdrop of a love story is really commendable.

One movie I would surely regret missing out on this year would be undoubtedly Gravity, I hope Pune get's an IMAX screen very soon.
 
Here’s a list of some Hindi movies also which I liked this year, as it has being a great year in terms of box office collections for two main blockbuster movies Krrish 3 and Chennai Express, with Dhoom 3 yet to work its magic on big screens.

Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, Kai Po Che, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Chennai Express, Krrish 3, Ram Leela, Aashiqui 2, D-Day, Special 26, Go Goa Gone, Aurangzeb, Saheb Biwi aur Gangster Returns, Ek Thi Daayan, Race 2, Fukrey, Mickey Virus, Raanjhanaa, Shuddh Desi Romance, Grand Masti.

Nokia Lumia 525 Preview

Let’s face it, not everyone has tons of money to spend on a top of the line mobile phone. A lot of really high-end phones have been launched recently, but is the majority of the public really consider buying them? This is where value for money phones comes into the picture. They do contain most of the key features and possesses enough girth and muscle to get things done. They do leave out a few things but then again with the target price-point, they’re giving you bang for every buck. In the same segment, comes a new phone courtesy Nokia. The Nokia Lumia 525 is one such phone. With anticipation building before its launch, we preview the latest device from Nokia.

The Lumia Series:
The Lumia series came about as a result of Nokia and Microsoft’s partnerships. The phones run on Microsoft’s Windows Operating System and have been well-received by the marketplace. The first phone came out in 2011 and since then Nokia has come out some really great phones. Now that Microsoft has bought out Nokia, expect to see a more integrated Windows environment in Nokia phones. 

What’s new?
The Lumia 525 release market gives an indication about the kind of phone it’s going to be.

The phone will be launched in India, parts of South-East Asia and Africa. The phone will also feature a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1GHz processor; a first for a device in this price range. Also, the phone features Windows 8. The screen is a 4 inch WVGA screen with Nokia’s Super Sensitive Touch technology. Also, the RAM sees a bump up to 1GB – great for faster speeds. The phone is also expected to feature tons of Nokia’s apps – Maps, Photo editing and from a more visual perspective, the phone is also going to be sold in different colours. According to Nokia, the phone will be sold in three colours - dazzling orange, radiant yellow and luminous white.

What we expect:
The device will be launched in India very soon. While it will be launched in Singapore first, we expect the device to garner a lot of interest in India. Given that it does have some good features in addition to a proven operating system like Windows 8, the allure of two technology behemoths Nokia and Microsoft is sure to attract a host of people. A huge selling point for the phone is built-in Microsoft essentials like Office and Outlook – great for people who like to work when on the move.
 
Verdict:
Honestly, while Nokia has released some devices in the ‘value for money’ category, we feel this is the pick of the bunch. They’ve clearly learned from their mistakes of the past and have resorted to create a better handset for the markets in which the phone’s launch is going to take place. We’ll be eagerly waiting to see how well the phone performs in the Indian market, but as of now, we think the phone’s is a good place and won’t do too badly.
 

Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 Preview

Introduction:

Samsung is the market leader in the mobile phone industry right now. Not only that, it seems that Samsung comes out with a product that is not only a blend of the latest technology and design, but also something that takes the device as well as brand, Samsung, into the upper echelons of the industry, farther from the rest.

In late November, Samsung launched yet another ambitious product – the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2. In this preview, we’re looking at the device, some of the features we’re excited about and what we expect from the handset in the Indian market.

The Basics:

Samsung's Galaxy Grand 2 sports a 5.25-inch screen with a resolution of 1,280x720 and 16:9 aspect ratio. Those are pretty impressive features to start off with. Add to that a 1.2 GHz processor and it’s pretty obvious this not a slouch of a phone. The camera on the back is 8 MP and there are rumours that this camera has seen a few upgrades. We’ll have to wait and watch. Android 4.3 is operating system on the phone. Apart from this, the battery has been upgraded to a 2600 mAh one to address the perennial complain of battery drainage among smartphone users.

What’s New?

First the big one, the phone is a dual-SIM model. This is great news, particularly in the Indian market where there is a huge demand for these phones. Also, we’re excited to see a phone in this segment have some of the features mentioned and can’t wait to try it out. According to the manufacturer, camera specific apps such Best Face, Best Photo, and Continuous Shot come preinstalled. This is a nice touch and along with other preinstalled apps, it’s great to see a manufacturer do something like this. That’s not all; the phone will be released in 3 colours – white, black and pink.

Something Missing:

Yes, we know this is a preview but we couldn’t help but lament the 4G incompatibility of this device. Yes, 4G in India is still some way away, but it would have been great to see it on this model. HSPA+ is standard though and with 3G there’s plenty to keep you satisfied for the moment at least.

What We Expect:

Overall, we are curious to try out this device and experience it. Being a dual-SIM model with high end features, it sure such to appeal to a niche crowd who have for long been asking mobile phone manufacturers for a phone similar to this one. Also, putting out phones in different colours is a trend these days and Samsung seems to following it with colours like White and Black, but adds an unique dimension with a pink coloured device.

Summary:

Samsung for long has released handset after handset hoping to eat into every market segment. However, one area has remained quite unchartered and this phone aims to address that. On paper, things look promising and when this phone does release, expect it to sell like hot cakes.  

Social Itinerary and Civic Issue Management

If you fancy yourselves as a traveller this one should interest you, we all like to visit places of our interest in different ways depending on the type of travel we undertake. Whether travelling with friends or family we like to do some planning on how to reach the venue, which route to take, what's the best time to move, which dhaba or food joint to stop on the way etc etc.

Once your trip was over we used to share our experience among friends earlier, then came the era of blogging and social media which allowed us to open up our experience to like minded travellers who could benefit from our experience and have a smooth journey. There are many internet blogs and forums abundant with such information. At times reading so much material on the internet and leaves you more confused. 

This is where a service like JoGuru comes handy when you want to filter out the right info related to your travel plans in the form of an itinerary, check out an article featured on this portal which explains in detail what this start up from Pune aims to do in making lives easier for globetrotters.

Another site which caught my attention this week is ChangeBhai, this portal allows you to report civic issues along with pictures, was surprised to see some issues reported from Pune already fixed. If such help is available for citizens on internet we should make use of it for overall betterment of our community. Lot of arm chair activists give up when it comes to taking a civic problem heads on and what remains is a diarrhoea of tweets and posts on social media.

Hats off to people who have created this portal and taking issues that concern the common man to the right authorities which may go unnoticed due to social apathy and lack of awareness on methods to deal with such problems.

Google Nexus 5 Review

The Nexus 4 took Google to a new level in the mobile handset category. A great, slim, high performance device that sold for a mid-level price, it was also sold as is, that is, under no contract from a carrier. The phone was an international super hit. As with every great thing these days, the launch of its successor was awaited with baited breath. Now that we have the phone in our hands, let’s see if it lives up to the expectations.  

Sleek Design:

The phone is quite sleek. Its looks are a bit understated; it’s looks nothing more than a slim well designed phone. Our test handset, which was the black coloured device, enhanced this feel with its all black tone. The phone has a uni body construction and is made of polycarbonate. The SIM card slot and power button are to the right of the phone while the volume rocker is to the left. It all makes for a phone whose basic functionality is quite high. It's surprisingly light, at only 130 grams and 8.6 millimetres thick. Overall, this phone just feels great to hold in the hand. 

The Awesome Screen:

Google increased the size of the screen from 4.7 inches to 4.95 inches. It also uses Gorilla Glass 3 which gives ample protection against scratches and fingerprint smudges. The screen is a Full HD 1080p one. Clarity and picture density is amazing on the screen. With a high pixel density of 445 ppi, we’d expect nothing less. It’s great for reading text, playing games or watching a movie.

Camera:

These days, a high quality camera on a smartphone is pretty much a requirement. The 8 MP camera on the Nexus 5 takes quite decent photos when used with the auto settings. However, once you get a big deeper into the camera and adjust settings such as exposure and contrast diligently, the camera performs well. Low light performance isn't exactly poor, but again you need to manually tweak a few things to get the best out of it. 

As far as videos go, Full HD 1080p videos look great. Again, low light performance isn't the greatest, but it’s acceptable. We do genuinely hope that the next camera software update that’s expected to roll out will fix this because the camera is quite frankly the weakest link in this fantastic phone.  

Android 4.4 KitKat:

There isn’t a world of difference between KitKat and previous Android version. KitKat really is a solid improvement over earlier versions of the software, and the Nexus 5 shows it off quite well. Things like Messaging are now integrated with Hangouts that combine all of your messaging and chat under ine single hood. You can also now search keywords from within the phone dialer, which is a bit like having Google Maps business info integrated perfectly into the app. Also, the dialer has been completely redesigned. Icons and other symbols seem starker, cleaner, and larger and personally, we like it!

Processor and Performance:

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.26GHz, 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU, the Nexus 5 is like a supercar in world of phones. The device is astonishingly fast and games such Asphalt 8: Airborne which usually eat the processor run smoothly. Multi-tasking is an ease and we were astounded that the phone handled anything we threw at it with considerable ease. The phone comes with LTE and NFC and while LTE isn’t operational in India, NFC works like a charm.

Battery Life:

One complain about the Nexus 4 was that battery life wasn't that great. Google has bumped up the battery to 2300 mAH. However, battery life was rather inconsistent. We had varied battery life ranging from an entire day to a measly few hours. The screen takes up a huge chunk of the battery life and using it optimally is a great way to prolong battery life. 

Verdict:

Overall, the Nexus 5 lives up to its expectations. Combining a great UI with some smartly designed features, the phone performs and exceeds expectations in many areas. KitKat looks fantastic too and the display is one of the best we've seen. The only downside was the less than stellar camera and rather inconsistent battery life. Apart from that, it’s one of the best phones money can buy. 

Summary:

The Nexus 5 was one of the highly awaited phone launches of the year. After using it, we can see why. Intelligent design, a great display and a brand new version of Android make it one classy device.  

Why does it make Sense switching to Nexus 5

Google finally announced the much awaited Android 4.4 KitKat release yesterday along with Nexus 5 handset manufactured by LG which went on sale in 10 countries (Great Halloween treat!). The initial handset inventory got sold off in 27 minutes flat, that goes to prove a strong potential Google has got for Christmas to compete with flagship phones from other companies.

More importantly Nexus 5 got listed immediately on Indian Play Store with a coming soon tag and priced at Rs 28,999 for 16 GB and Rs 32,999 for 32 GB version. Android ecosystem seems to be up for a major overhaul after KitKat OS announcement where Google intends to go with one single version of Android running on almost all devices post Jan 2014, which is a bold move and more concrete step taken to do away with Android OS fragmentation issues.

This does not warranty automatic upgrade for handsets with low configurations released earlier, however Android OS bandwagon would be less crowded post 2014 with version 4.4 targeting major share.

Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Sony and LG could be sweating over Nexus 5 soon as their current crop of flagship phones are going to be left far behind in terms of performance and pricing. Also being a stock Google device dependency of being at mercy of these companies to push across new OS upgrades that take too long also goes away.

 There are rumors that Samsung may go for an early Galaxy S5 release next year to compensate for a less blockbuster response to Galaxy S4 sales, they have already announced that the next version of Galaxy phones would be based on 64 bit processing capacity and we may also see more RAM packed in OR better graphical processing power under the hood.

Samsung is not showing any signs of a shift in design, build and quality of it's Galaxy flagship phones. Note 3 is the only phone which comes with a different build quality now and TouchWiz OS gimmicks would continue to be offered as new features which most smartphone users do not actually use.

Both Sony and HTC has received decent response on Xperia Z1 and One phones which can provide them much required impetus to challenge Samsung's Android smartphone dominance in India.I am not sure how successful LG has being with G2 however Nexus 5 has got just the right pricing for Indian market which can boost prospects for this company next year.

Apple's iPhone 5C has got limited success until now where it has launched and 5S would be priced under premium category going beyond Rs 50,000 range as the case is with all new Apple iPhone's which get launched in India. I am doubtful how would Apple push their device adoption even with 5C (expected pricing around 41/42K) and EMI schemes across smaller cities and town in India?

Google device upgrades have being more balanced and well paced compared to yearly ritual now adopted by most companies, There's a limit to the upgrades we're going to see in smartphone hardware and software, and as the market saturates, the pressure to compete on price is going to become more intense. In such scenario a phone like Nexus 5 can be a value for money upgrade, which has got me planning to sell my S4 and go for this phone as it launches in India.

Would you go for Nexus 5 with the price it would be launched in India or prefer to wait for Galaxy S5 Or iPhone 5s, It would be interesting to read through your response on this.

Decoding The Content Outreach Mystery

As Google started diminishing the scope of link building via directories, articles & so many other avenues which were a big hit with digital marketing world, one of the avenues which became an overnight hero for link building was content outreach via guest posting. However most of the search marketer struggle with this aspect of link building because of the rejections or poor response they get from blog webmasters. 

Here are a few tried & tested strategies which can be implemented to ensure a quicker breakthrough -

 Size of the mail used for pitching up the content to the blogger

My thoughts here would be conflicting with a lot of bloggers. Everyone is of the opinion the larger the content used for pitching up the content, better is the conversion rate.

I would definitely differ here-

Always the first mail that you send for your content outreach across should be clear, short & crisp. Once I see that the blog webmaster is showing an interest, I slowly start giving him a brief overview of how he & I both can benefit from a long term relationship. I try to understand what kind of content he needs, the work that he does in online as well as offline world, whether he has access to other domains, if he knows other people who blog in a particular niche. This way I start building up on a simple mail & eventually end up making more than one content live using minimal efforts, time & energy.

Often there is confusion whether our real identity or a dummy account should be used for content outreach. I have tried both & both are equally effective as long as you can make a connect with the webmaster via your email.

Also it is my observation that more people are likely to respond if you were to state that you are from a digital marketing company. This might be a small aspect but definitely helps. Given below is the sample mail that I used for one of my campaigns. I have kept it short & simple yet I managed to get a quick response.

 Do your homework before you pitch the content

Every blogger no matter how big an authoritative domain he owns is always on the hunt for the content to serve his audience. There are always specific points in the content, subject title & images that he is looking out for. The best way to know the preference of the blogger is to actually go through the previous content pieces he has been posting. This is one of the easiest ways to know what kind of modifications needs to be done in the content before it is send across to the webmaster.

 Have your content generated as per the guidelines of the blog webmaster

This is the best antidote to your backlog in content outreach. Get in touch with the blog webmaster, get to know what he actually wants to put forward in front of his audience. Get a kick ass content written from your content writer as per the recommendations. This way you are eliminating all the possible chances of your content being rejected.


 Become a tracker for Blog Carnivals

You just can't afford to miss out on blog carnivals if you want your content to go live regularly. This is the best place to build long term alliance with blog webmasters of different niches. There are numerous sites which offer info on the details of these carnivals. One of them is http://blogcarnival.com/bc/.

These are just a few steps that one can follow. Obviously there are a lot more approaches that can be tried & followed for success in content outreach.

The above pointers might seem to be very simple to follow & they actually are. Follow these rules & you will be bang-on as far your content outreach plan is concerned.

Author Bio:

Aaditya Shah works as a Search Marketing professional at SMGConvonix. He loves every aspect of digital marketing especially content outreach & link building. Closely follows Google updates & algorithm changes & loves to continuously experiment with SEO to decode the mystery around web search. A complete foodie!! -his hobbies include playing Cricket & watching movies.