Start Your Own Online Shop Using Ashop

Sam wanted to start a store to sell his products, ranging from clothes to used electronics. But he did not have enough market in his area. One day, he decided to go global, by going online. But the problem was, he was a computer illiterate. Although he knew just the basics, he had zero knowledge of web designing or scripting. This how he found Ashop.

Ashop is a sort of software for creating an online store very easily. It's a one-of-a-kind site that offers to manage almost everything, from design to traffic handling. It's features include a rich What You See Is What You Get(WYSIWYG) editor, comprehensive text and video tutorials, a customisable template system and much more. And one of the most things that are the best here, is the customer support. If you ever require any kind of help, there are many ways and means by which you will get help here. The site is well built and makes a fine impression on the mind of a budding online seller.

What I like the most is the web optimization the provide. For instance, your Page titles will be embedded with tags to get a better page ranking. They would also provide you with free SEO tools and services. The page URLs would be search engine spider friendly.

Of course, the most crucial thing is the pricing. Ashop provides a great value for money with apt services for an amount which is the most reasonable and most competitive in their field. They take care of everything, absolutely everything, you just have to supply the products.

Now Sam can certainly relax and make money by selling his products online. He just has to supply his goods and make good deals online. Isn't it a fair deal? So, go, have a look at the ecommerce software

Tata Finally Unveils 'Nano' The Swanky Rs.1 Lakh Car

At last, after five years of speculations, Tata Motors finally unveiled the world's cheapest car, named 'Nano' in the Indian Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi. The car costs $2000 or Rs.1 lakh. The car is all set to target the middle class, and who knows, it may be the largest selling car in India after Maruti 800. The mini-car is sure to put Indians in the driver's seat. Ratan Tata, chairman of the second largest, and one of the oldest companies of India wants every Indian to drive, just as Capt.G.R Gopinath, the founder of Air Deccan, want every Indian to fly.

Well, now let's look at its dimensions. Its 3 metres long, 1.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres high and has four seats. Unfortunately, there is very little boot space. The car is a rear mounted, 33 horsepower, MPFi engine, which boasts a mileage of 20 kilometres a litre. Moreover, it is in accordance with Euro IV standards, which makes it less polluting than other vehicles. The car actually reminded me of the Small car used by Inspector Klauseau(Steve Martin) in the movie Pink Panther

The production of the car may start this year in Singur, Orissa. There was quite a controversy on this issue as the farmers there weren't willing to give up their lands for the factory construction. Or perhaps, the Tatas did not provide enough compensation. But as history goes, the Tatas are well known philanthropists. Or maybe, it's just good old politics. Even during the launch, protesters gathered at the venue as the media coverage was very large and the protesters hoped to get some exposure.

With the launch of this car, Tata Motors has has started a new era, which will see many competitors slugging it out to make the cheapest car. For example, Bajaj, the two wheeler major and the pioneer of the autorickshaws, plans to tie with Renault and develop a $3000 dollar car. Even Hero Honda plans to produce a similar car, but maybe it's electric version. But, the best part is, thanks to this competition, millions of Indians and others will be benefited from this launch. For instance, Maruti Suzuki is expected to slash the rates of the small segment cars. Now it's time to hope for an electric version so that it is cost, user and environmental friendly.

I Want To Know What You Did For The Environment Last Year...

The year 2007 was full of anti-nature events. Indian and Chinese economies continued to boom which could be a natural disaster. And America was still adamant and hasn't yet signed the Kyoto Protocol as its economy will decline! We all saw people protesting in various parts of world for many causes related to the environment and global warming. All were busy cursing the their respective governments for doing nothing. But I must ask, what did WE do? I mean what did you do? Did you curse the government? Or you did something which could make the earth a cleaner place?

Let me tell you what I did. I saved some electricity by switching on the computer only after 10 pm and used it for not more than 1 hour. I mostly travelled by public transport and used my vehicle less often. Sometimes, along with my friends, I managed to organize some electrcity-free hours in our area. And one of the most important thing was stopped the use of polyethene bags and switched to cloth bags. Also, an article on what pro-nature-measures are to be taken was posted in this blog. You can view it here.

So,what did YOU did last year for the environment?

How The Mumbai Dabbawallahs Show Accuracy Without Technology

Mumbai is considered to a city of dreams. The only difficulty faced here is time. It's really difficult to cope up with time. And so Mumbaikars are very well known for their swiftness. The heart of businesses in Mumbai is its southern part. You must see the influx of people in the mornings into this region. And the biggest problem for the working people is food. They all prefer food which is homemade and hygienic. And this is how the Dabbawallahs come into picture. Many have heard of them. But have you ever thought how they work? Well, here's an insight.....

To get a better understanding, we'll mark a place here in Mumbai. Let this place be Mulund. You can see it here in the map in the right top corner. Mr.Batliwala(a fictitious name) has his office in Fort(the lower dot). His wife prepares food at around 8 am. And it should reach him before 10:30 am. As she packs the tiffin, the dabbawallah arrives, sharp at 8. The dabbawallah first takes it, along with many dabbas or tiffins to a central area in Mulund which is decided by them. The second dabbawallah takes several such packs of dabbas from other dabbawallahs and takes it to the Mulund railway station.

The time is now 8:30. Here with the help of another dabbawallah, he puts all such packages on a cart, and boards it in the next local train towards Mumbai CST. Now, other dabbawallahs already on board receive this cart. As the train moves towards the southern part, the number of such carts increases enormously. And as the train reaches the southern region, the carts reduce one by one as most of the offices are in the south. The train now reaches CST, its final stop. The time is now 9:45. The carts are quickly removed and the packages are sorted according to the areas. The next dabbawallah takes his package and delivers it to that particular area, from where the tiffins are sorted on the basis of their final destination and many other dabbawallahs deliver the tiffins to their respective destinations. And thus, by 10:30 am, Mr.Batliwalla gets his tiffin.

On an average, a tiffin is handled by around eight to ten dabbawallahs on its way. All this sounds really simple, but it's quite difficult considering the transport system and the time. Yet, all this is done everyday without any delay. Based on the location the customers are charged somewhere around Rs.250-300 a month. That is around 7 dollars a month! Be it bright sunlight or a rainy day, dabbawallahs are never deterred.

But did you notice the most important thing? Nothing at all is written, only the tiffin are marked according to their destination. The only so called technology used here is the local train. These dabbawallahs, around 1-2 thousand in number, deliver more than 200,000 tiffins in a day! And that too without any paperwork or the use of computers or mobiles or any damn thing, for that matter. These people illustrate the fact that humans can still be ahead without machines..........

What do you think about this? Do you know any other organisation working with such precision without the use of technology? Please leave your comments......

A futuristic and impartial search engine is finally here!

Yes, you heard that right. Google seems to be growing old and partial day after day, making webmasters sick of so the called 'PageRank'. Today, the biggest headache for administrators is to customize their websites according to the search engines, which employ complex algorithms for indexing the websites on the basis of links. So, even if a person writes something that deserves the real publicity, he is devoid of the same, and the reason is - poor links. Such a pathetic scenario literally begs for a change.

Well, for now, there is no need to worry, as Earthfrisk.org has come to the rescue. It is an out-of-the-box search engine which has the capability to rule the Internet. It is based on an entirely different concept which may prove to be useful for people to get apt results.

This Search Engine displays combined results from premier search engines which include Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, Clusty and many others. But the best part is, people can rate and comment the sites themselves to improve the results. All this forms that concept which is termed as Color Value(CV), which is analogous to pagerank.

And to add to the fun, they have started their toolbar, currently for Internet Explorer and Firefox(Hope they extend it to Opera and Safari). Bloggers can also add their own logo and make a custom toolbar which can be placed in their blogs, thereby increasing traffic to their blogs. They can also promote their posts using this toolbar.

On the whole, I can say Earthfrisk has the scope to rule the Internet search industry, with revolutionary concept, which will not only benefit webmasters, but also people who need apt content to go through.

*This is a sponsored post.

Poll : Who's the Indian of the year 2007?

The year 2007 was a year full of events for India - good as well as bad. Many Indians/Indian Organisations made their marks in the form of good business men, or sportsmen, or actors. Maybe, 2007 is the luckiest year for Indians, who are on their way to conquer the world. But who is the best? Please cast your votes on the right. If you think someone else deserved the credit, you can add your opinion in the opinions page....

1. Dr.R Pachauri
   He won the Noble Peace prize for for his notable work on policies dealing with climate change and global warming. He shared the nobel prize with former US Vice-president Al Gore. Born in Nainital, India, he completed his Industrial Engineering from North Carolina University. He headed many big companies before being elected as the chief of IPCC.
   



2. Ratan Tata
   He catapaulted Tata Steel to the 5th position from 56th! He achieved this by the takeover of Anglo-Dutch steel manifacturer Corus for around USD 11 billion. Tata is the chairman of Tata group, which consists of many companies ranging from manifacture of fertilizers to manifacture of automobiles. And yes, he will be launching the much awaited Rs. 1 lakh car in January,2008.
   


3. Team India
   They stunned the whole cricket world after clinching the the first Twenty20 World Cup, after defeating Pakistan in the final match. But the most important thing is, they did this without a coach and amidst criticism from all sides after their humiliating exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup. ALso, the good thing is, all players contributed equally in this victory, which is unlikely most of the times.
   


4. Vikram Pandit
   He stunned the world after being elected as the chief of CitiGroup, the international conglomerate which includes banking and other financial services. Born in Nagpur, India, he was the former board member of Nasdaq. He also was the president investment and banking section of of Morgan Stanley. CitiGroup ranks 6th in the Fortune 500 list and market capitalization of more than 250 billion dollars.
   


5. BSE Sensex
   The Bombay Stock Exchange continued its upward trend which started in mid 2006. It closed above twenty thousand points, which is double than last year's ten thousand. Many so called 'analysts' said that the Sensex would undergo severe losses due to corrections and government policies. But BSE proved them wrong and bulled theough the 20000 mark. The index is also the world's biggest index with over 800 companies listed.
   


6. The Ambani Brothers
   After splitting their empire last year after their father's, Dhirubhai Ambani's death, Mukesh and Anil Ambani,have literally doubled their wealth. Maybe, they split their empire just to double it and also gain some media attention. Now, their shares have doubled, their services have improved, and at one point, Mukesh was the world's richest man surpassing even Bill Gates! Now, the brothers are the world's richest.
   


7. Amitabh Bachchan
   The Star of the Millenium is even more ambitious now. He is still India's favourite. The 65 year old's stunning performances include Black, which was specially made for the Oscars. but unfortunately, it wasn't nominated. Even at this age, he continues to maintain his charm. You'll find him in most of the films, and advertisements. He restarted his career after his company ABCL incurred severe losses. ANd from then on, there was no looking back.
   

These were some of the most influential Indians. If you have anyone else on your mind, you are free to post your opinion.....

What's Your Quote today?

One of problems after settled life include an insurance policy. You just say 'insuran...' and hundreds of them jump to get you. In such a situation, it's imperative to find it difficult to choose the best and the most secure one. And what's more, these days, insurance types are many...life insurance, family insurance, automobile insurance, health insurance and the list goes on and on.

After selection, the problems do not end, unfortunately. The problems simply expand! How much money should I spend? How can I reduce premiums? what term can I select? These questions just keep bugging you. Earlier, people had to go to big offices or you can say, looked like offices, to select their insurance policy, or to pay their monthly or annual premiums or even make claims. But now, everything can be done by the click of a button. As the advantages increase, the headaches arise once again with the emergence of frauds, which itself turns into a problem. To find a good one becomes a problem.

The other day I came across a great site offering quoting services. You can also check it out here. This site offers many types of insurances which include universal, term, employer group policies, whole life policies, and other life insurance policies. And the most important thing about them, they are not frauds. SO what are you waiting for? Go ahead get a quote today for all of your insurance needs!