Looking for a loan? Try peer-to-peer networks

There are variouos websites which have come up recently which facilitate lending among members of a network. These websites connect borrowers with lenders. There are some micro-finance websites (like https://www.microplace.com/ and http://www.kiva.org/ ) which allow people to lend to poor borrowers in developing countries. This concept is simillar to an idea developed by a Ventures team for a business-plan competition in Hong Kong this year.

The following article talks about a website which links up borrowers and lenders and takes a cut (comission) for facilatating the transactions. So if you guys have excess money, you can use the following websites to lend. Or if you need urgent financing, you know where to look! Read on to find out more….

Posted by Aditya Maru

From The Economic Times

WASHINGTON: Saddled by student loans and credit card debt, Ryan Little was looking for relief. Like many, the 30-year-old insurance agent turned towards banks for a loan but he ended up finding a much better deal elsewhere, on the Internet, through a website called Lending Club ( www.lendingclub.com ). Little eventually borrowed 10,000 dollars from 30 people he didn’t know and had never met through Lending Club, a “peer-to-peer” or social lending network.

Networking Sites doing better than sex, porn

Posted by Aditya Maru

22 Sep, 2008, 1259 hrs IST, REUTERS

CANBERRA: Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a Web guru.

Bill Tancer, a self-described “data geek”, has analysed information for over 10 million Web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing.

 

Some of his findings are great trivia, such as the fact that elbows, belly button lint and ceiling fans are on the list of people’s top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection. Others give an indication of people’s interests or emotions, with an annual spike in searches for anti-depression drugs around Thanksgiving time in the United States. Tancer, in his new book, “Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters”, said analysing Web searches did not just reflect what was happening online but gave a wider picture of society and people’s behavior.

‘Friend Locator’ could become next craze for social networkers

A new social network site, Gypsii, launched in Feb of this year, allows users to search for and identify their contacts. Imagine knowing the real-time location of your friends on Facebook! This will add a whole-new dimension to social networking. Some SMU students have undertaken projects recently which make use of such technology. With real-time location, you can know if your friend is in the next street or vacationing in the Bahamas! Follow the link to find out more..

Posted by Aditya Maru

http://www.livemint.com/2008/02/13132302/8216Friend-locator8217-c.html

Guerilla Marketing

Heres a link to a website that will give you the lowdown on Guerilla Marketing.

Posted by Aditya Maru

http://weburbanist.com/category/guerilla-marketing/

As Russia Advances, High Tech Gets Left Behind

Here is an article which provides an insight into the entrepreneurship climate in Russia.

Posted by Aditya Maru

By Steven Pearlstein

Wednesday, July 11, 2007; Page D01

 

MOSCOW Most Russians know plenty about Roman Abramovich, the 41-year-old former commodities trader who parlayed his interest in former state oil and aluminum companies into an $18 billion empire that includes England’s Chelsea soccer team and the governorship of the Arctic province of Chukotka, where reindeer outnumber people.

And they know all about Mikhail Prokhorov, 42, Russia’s nickel czar, who caused a minor diplomatic incident this year when police raided his infamous Orthodox Christmas bashes at a French ski resort after receiving reports that he’d flown in private planeloads of Russian prostitutes for the event.

But few Russians have ever heard of Anatoly Karachinsky or Arkady Volozh, who are as close as it comes to a local Bill Gates or Sergei Brin.

How To Make Money From Your Website – Part III

In continuation with the series, this article explains how search engines rank pages. This may be helpful to entrepreneurs looking to develop a website which will receive a higher ranking on the search engines.

Contributed by Pawan Gupta

How Do Search Engines Rank Pages (or your web-site)?

Before you try to add your site to the search engines, you should understand what they look for when they decide how to rank your site. Just because you’re listed doesn’t mean you’ll get traffic.  You have to make sure your site is search engine ready.

The general rule of thumb is that most engines use a “formula” to determine keyword relevancy. The technical term is called an “algorithm”, and each search engine has its own unique algorithm that it uses to rank pages.  

How To Make Money From Your Website – Part II

The following article explains very briefly how Google makes money. It is a continuation on how to earn money by starting a web-site. The program, AdSense, is truly an innovative program, which has given Google what is commonly known as First Mover’s Advantage. Google’s story would prove to be the premier example of how making the first move can revolutionize an industry. The revenue generated from AdSense is so great that it allows Google to provide free services like OpenOffice which otherwise would cost upto S$500) if MS-Office were used.

   

Contributed by Pawan Gupta

                                             

What makes Google Click?

Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages. All this is managed through a program they call AdWords.

Now you can earn a share of the revenue that Google earns from AdWords by placing these same text ads on your site.  In other words, you’re helping Google advertise and they pay you a percentage of what they earn. This program is called AdSense.

How to Make Money From Your Website

The following is an article which highlights how individuals can make money out of websites. Often, it is unclear as to how website owners make money. The following article can clear any doubts. This article will help anyone who might want to start a website. Moreover, this article will help absolutely anyone immaterial of the business the website is in.

Contributed by Pawan Gupta 

Now that you’ve created a website, how do you make money from it? There are at least two ways in which sites can make money:

1. Advertising Revenue
2. Selling Goods and Services

I shall deal with the second case, “Selling goods and services”, in another article. In this article, I will address the issue of how your site can actually make money from advertising.

Making Money From Advertising

If you look at many websites, you will probably notice that there are banner advertisements displayed on most pages. If you are a newcomer to the scene, you might think that you must either be a company or that your site must be famous before you can get advertisers, just as it is the case in hardcopy publications.

In reality, anyone with a website can get advertisers. While it is true that if your site is well-known, you may get companies contacting you to offer to advertise on your site, you can get advertising revenue even if you are just starting out and your site is relatively unknown.

The way to do this is to join as an “affiliate” of various sites, either directly, or through an affiliate network. An affiliate network is simply an intermediary where you can select from a variety of advertisers.