Online Marketing Scenario in India - Growing Fast but Few Publishers
By Arnab May 5, 2007 filed in Miscellaneous, Internet Marketing, Newsletter
I continue to receive mails why not many Indians seem to be earning a decent living off the Internet (relatively speaking of course). The answer might be simple but the solution is probably not. Lets look at some data to understand why !
** On May 23 2006, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that India will become the world’s biggest Internet Market in about 5 – 10 years. Google is known for making accurate predictions of global Internet trends. (Source Google Conference as reported by Reuters). Logical Conclusion: The number of people going online in India is growing rapidly and is expected to continue doing so.
** In 2005, India’s first Affiliate Network (AffilateCurry.com) was launched. The Network soon had a lot of Merchants willing to pay the signup fee. However, they have been disappointed with the traffic generating capability of the 5000+ affiliates who have signed up on this network. Most affiliates who have signed up have placed Affiliate Banners & Links, but the traffic has been too little to be of any significance.
** India’s Biggest Portals all have their own stores (Rediff, IndiaTimes, Sify) and hence cannot be treated as True Publishers.
** In a survey we conducted with 67000 Fresh Graduates (Fresherjobs.com), in which 5400 youngsters took part, 99.3% of the candidates had been online for 2 or more years, but only 1.6% had their own website or even a single page HTML uploaded on any web server. And these were all College Graduates well versed with HTML, FTP, Hosting, etc.
The answer really is staring us in the face. While our online market is growing by leaps and bounds, the local marketplace is not. While online traffic in India is booming, the number of Indian websites that can cater to this traffic and meet their different needs is not. Most of the traffic goes to the Big Portals or to Non-Indian websites, typical of a Global Village Flat World scenario.
In Advanced Internet Economies like the US, everyone who earns well online, has a few websites at least. Time is invested in creating original content, news, opinions, perspectives, videos, anything that would be of interest to someone else searching for similar info. Effort goes into growing these sites and managing them till they have a loyal following. Due to all this effort traffic is generated 2 fold - new through Search Engine Placements (because content is good), and old through visitors coming back (because content is good). Once you have this traffic, you utilize one of the multiple channels to monetize it. Successful online business Model !
There are many of us, though, who do not have traffic being generated that we control. And we might need a radical change in our thinking to achieve this. I will be the first to admit that I was a victim to the thought process that whatever traffic is required, can be purchased through PPC. Not too wise. And not long term either. Ultimately businesses outbid me for all the lucrative and interesting keywords. And though I have been explaining Internet Marketing to many friends over the last 4-5 years, I finally got down to creating this website and newsletter only 6 months ago. Inertia, I think is the word. Or is it lethargy 
?
Like I said, the answer to the original question is simple - We need websites (Static HTML or Blogs) with good content and ongoing effort to keep new+fresh content flowing to make money. The solution - to make it happen - is tough. But I am sure we will succeed, we just need to get going. And fill up the huge void in the Indian Online market - that of Publishers. There is a lot in commissions and Advertising Revenue waiting for Indian Publishers in the coming years. Here’s to hoping we have as many Online Millionaires right here in India, in the next 5-10 years, as we have amongst Non Resident Indians across the world.
Amen !
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May 5th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Very good article. I have earn good income per month on kokkada.com. I working on village. Internet connection is one of the main problem.
May 5th, 2007 at 10:05 am
This article aboutIndians not making it big was realy good and we need more of such articles
I am one of the frustrated lots and would like more pointers as to where we are going wrong
Peter
May 5th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Dear Sir,
The keyword to this article is Foreign Exchange differential value. 1 dollar = 44 rupees. Can you guess what I mean to say??????????
Every coin has two side. The good and the bad.
if not I will reply back with my answer within two days or else try to find out.
Regards,
Mukhtar
May 5th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Mr.Chatterjee,
i am impressed
May 5th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Very Good.Can’t we make a forum to solve this problem?I think,lack of awarness and absence of Indian company in the internet marketing may be the reason behind this poor performance.I expect some initiative from your part.
Jayanti Ghosh,Kolkata
May 5th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
every time i want to earn online, i get a message saying that first i have to make a payment to register etc. thats not fair. i want online work without paying ~ i want to earn. please help.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Eye opener and informative article.Waiting for next article.
thank you.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Hello Arnab & Pankaj,
I really have anticipated this revolution in India, and even started to cater India.
Keep us motivated,
And yes,I want to have your permission to be published it to my list as well as on my website.
Thanks & Regards,
Vikash Kumar
May 6th, 2007 at 5:58 am
1 dollar = 41 rupees. It will reduce the Indians income. I lost 800Rs this month on google check.
May 6th, 2007 at 11:12 am
It is a fact that Indians are not earning as per their potential.We should find out a more effective system to help all
May 6th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Mukhtar/Navas - Rupee strengthening is eating into our Profits as well. But I guess we will just have to grin and bear it
In the long run, publishers will emerge who will generate revenue directly in Rupees by becoming the link between Indian Merchants and Indians looking for Goods/Services on the Net. These publishers will remain insulated from these Forex Rate variations.
Jayanti - Well said. A forum will help. That is exactly what we are trying to create here, an online forum with the ability to discuss issues and answer queries online. Let us know if you have additional ideas !
Sarpras - Hats off to you for being able to earn online from a Village. Please keep us updated if bandwidth issues get better with time.
May 6th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Can i know,wahat are the ways you people are using for online advertising in india?
May 7th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Dear Arnab !
Very informative article. Your effort of affiliatecurry.com was a great step.
I think a good payment gateway service for Indians may increase our ecommerce status.
We have to start creating our own products instead of depending google alone.
with regards
netpreneur
Sujai.G
www.AreaPartner.com
May 7th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hi Pankaj, Arnab and friends,
Well an interesting topic which forced me to write my views
As per my experience & observations, few reasons due to which Indians are still not making much money online are -
- Internet Penetration and awareness is low. I am still struggling to find a decent Broadband Service Provider in my area (Dwarka, New Delhi). I have a Broadband connection but having issues with it especially in night time from last 4 months.
Thankfully, it looks that it has been solved now. I had to do a lot of follow ups and speak to my service provider technically and write mails to higher ups to get this problem solved.
Few people have the patience and technical competency to troubleshoot their PC and Internet related issues. Hence they find offline earning methods easier and more reliable. The quality of Internet connectivity and service is not of good standard in India. This comes from the fact that I have been using Internet for more than 8 years now and have worked with a reputed private ISP also.
Luckily I am a Computer Freelancer and thus have managed to make my PC and Internet Connectivity up despite so many issues.
Most of the people in India don’t use Internet and Computer because they (individuals) don’t have the patience and skills to run their businesses on Internet.
- Internet is full of scams. I will rate 90% -95 % of the online opportunities as scams. The newbie’s loose their time, energy and money and thus looses interest in money making. Few people are stubborn like me to still continue after having similar experiences in past 1 year. People mostly look for quick money making, don’t do any due diligence & research for Online Opportunities and they thus get scammed and develop a view that every online opportunity is a SCAM. Most of us are like this.
- People are not much tech savvy, are afraid and lethargic to try new things which are required to Make Money Online. Most of the people to whom I have spoken or approached here want quick money making methods which are not known to me.
- Mindset. People don’t want to try something new. They have the traditional mentality to do job for an employer and not work for themselves. They want to see proofs and examples rather than them becoming live proofs of being Successful Online Money Makers.
They will invest money in offline businesses in large amounts but not on Online businesses.
From the above mentioned points (which are my views only), I still would say that things will change and in coming few years there will be lot of Indians in the top Internet Marketers list. Also I am not perfect too. I still get lazy sometimes and am not still successful in Online Money Making world. But, Yes, I have not surrendered and still continuing with high hopes
and aspirations. I have learnt a lot from my mistakes and am confident that I will definitely be able to make good comfortable income online.
If you have the Right direction and Magnitude, you will surely achieve your targets.
Wishes for your online success.
Yours friend
Rajesh
http://real-easy-cash-for-simple-net-tasks.blogspot.com/
http://innovation-incentive.blogspot.com/
May 7th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Hi Rajesh,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your expierence with everyone. Your points are well stated and we do see these happening around us everyday.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
It is with no doubts that I agree to Arnabs article that there unimaginable volume of business to be churned out from the indian industry using online marketing strategies.
But, what concerns me to get into the this kind of business is the effort that has to be put in helping people understand advantages or lets say the abilities of the online marketing industry…
Eg: I am sure the some of the business men in Gujrat are much richer, than a common entrepreneur
who is well versed in the internet industry…the question is how do we first market the idea to these people?
The only method I see is through a direct face to face interaction or the standard insurance agent strategy, other methods if available I am sure are completly out of bounds even for the thousands of management graduates passing out every year.
And without the involvement of people(Client in this case) any website with what ever intention … seems to fail here …as it looses the incentive to keep it going??
Any comment on this thought?? Please help? I am still confused on how to approach the Indian industry …which still thinks computers is just a waste of money
Regards,
Ghost
(A worried Indian)