DesiWiki aims to become a comprehensive source of information for Indian Startups. It is started and maintained by Desistartups. Although still in very early stages, it nevertheless contains amazing amount of information on all aspects of starting up a business in India.

It hasn’t been officially launched yet. So, it is a sneak peek exclusively for this blog’s readers. Do check it out, and if possible, contribute to it as well.

Cool concept.

Hey Guys, I have switched this blog’s feed management to FeedBurner, so update your feed link to new link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/paraschopra

Check it out here.

Inspired by WhyDoesEverythingSuck.com and learning from Kroomsa.com, following is why I think most internet startups suck:

• They Give Away Things for Free
  When the business model depends on free, only a very few lucky companies can survive. Advertising, at best, should be a secondary source of income for a startup. How would startups keep on innovating their services when they are giving away stuff for free. Where is the motivation, dude? On the other hand, when you charge for what you are offering, there is a direct incentive to improve your services in order to attract higher prices or more customers, which directly translates into better earnings. Thus, charging for something you offer kick-starts a positive feedback loop which reinforces itself. And, that is good for a startup.
• They are VERY easy to start
  This directly translates into absence of vision and low barriers to entry. When you don’t have to invest time thinking about why you are doing something, you end up doing a quick but messy thing. This is especially true for startups. Today, starting an internet startup is so easy that anybody, really anybody, with a basic knowledge of web can start a so-called internet company. People find it cool to have a company these days. And, successful startups are seldom cool. So, in a nutshell, either try to do something not-so-cool and/or try to do something hard, which will force you to think about the reasons for your motivation.
• There are Gazzilions of Internet Startups
  While for the industry and consumers, it is good to have so much of choice, for entrepreneurs it not so good to have an idea and then discover that there are already tens of internet startups offering *exactly* the same service or product (and, chances are, for free). How is your new internet startup going to make money when some freaks are offering the same thing in a better package, at a better price and with a better marketing budget. So, get a little away from Internet and think if you can do something useful in traditional fields where there is a moderate amount of competition and where barriers to entry are higher.

So, now we agree that most startups suck, what should you do to prevent your next internet startup from suckage?

• Do away with relying on advertising solely.
• Don’t give away stuff for free.
• Repeat, Don’t give away stuff for free.
• Don’t jump at every idea you get. Give it the sweet time it deserves.
• Think about entering into an industry/category/idea where barrier to entry is low and there is not too much competition out there
• Know when an idea is a project and when it is a startup. Mostly, what you call a startup is actually a project. So, call it a project.
• Do something serious. Really. There are a lot of problems waiting to be solved: poverty, digital distribution, literacy, government accountability, etc.

Lastly, one suggestion: Do justice to your time. It is more important that you think.

Have a look at it here. Like it?

Now, that’s what I call innovation.

Russell Beattie is really a very provocative and in-your-face writer. In his WTF 2.0 post, he writes about how deluded all those so-called entrepreneurs are who keep churning out amazing web apps without a slightest idea of how they are actually going to make money. If you are interested in Web 2.0, make sure you don’t miss his post.

If you notice, I have recently (yesterday, to be precise) released my first ebook: How to Start an Online Business: 11,520 Free Resources for the Internet Entrepreneur.

Now, as I have finished writing and publishing the ebook, it is time to promote it. I am looking at ways to advertise it on various blogs relating to this subject. However, with so many ebooks on the same subject (of making money online), how do I make sure that my ebook stands out from the crowd?

The answer is design. I want the advertisement banner for the ebook to look killer, professional and cool. While researching on the internet about how to create such an advertisement banner, I stumbled across ScribblesAndWords.com, a design firm by Jay. In an instant, I was mesmerized by the banners he has created. They look so beautiful. In addition to banners, he also does Copywriting, Blog Header Design and Blog Consultation for a very reasonable fee.

Looking at the banners he has designed, I am considering asking him to design a banner for my new ebook. Maybe, I should ask him to optimize the look and content my my website as well.

What do you guys say?

Well, after a week of back breaking work, my site and my blog can be seen in its new avatar. The design is cool looking and I have fixed many broken links, spelling mistakes, grammar errors, etc.

Hope you like the website in its new avatar.