[crusoe]

Originally Posted by pagalguy

As sivarka said , spreading the brand. This is something we have never done. But if we had to actively go out and spread the name - what needs to be done ?

did a teeeny weeeny bit to spread the name of PG.com
suggested my friend working as a sub editor at sahara times to publish about pg.com in the web section of the suppliment.

and it was done on 30/05/2004 New Delhi issue of Sahara times !
was thinking about scanning it and posting it on site for pgites to have a look .. will do soon cause right now meo busy with college exams

[pagalguy]

Crusoe! Yaar..itna kuch ho gaya aur hame pata tak nahi!! Maan .. I need a copy of that paper! Would you mind sending me a copy of it .. I can pay you for all the courier charges ! Plzzz !

[MavericK]

Before that scan the image and upload it here

[crusoe]

Originally Posted by pagalguy

Crusoe! Yaar..itna kuch ho gaya aur hame pata tak nahi!! Maan .. I need a copy of that paper! Would you mind sending me a copy of it .. I can pay you for all the courier charges ! Plzzz !

okay i think i made it sound like a BIG deal
it wasnt actully an article or a review or sumthin i was just a snippet about PG.com
i will post it to you newayz

PM me ur address
and how cud u even think about talking about courier charges
i know ur all rich and all paying for the sites bandwidth charges but please lemme to the honours this time

[pagalguy]

Sorry mate, didn't think about it that way. Just didn't want to burden you the the cost. Thanks for your time

[theking]

gr8 news I think we PGites deserve to see the snippet as well. Please Scan it land upload it .

One small step for PG ..... one big step for CAT junta


Mihir

[padakkam]

Hi PG Junta,

from what i have read in this thread it seems as if we have to raise money without infringing on the right and liberties of those logging in here. I have a couple of suggestions:

1) The best way to make quick cash will be to allow all the mangement training centers (IMS,TIME etc) to have ads (only ads, nothing else) on our site. Im sure they will agree..

2) I feel that PG is sitting on a possible gold mine - ie online tests and materials for CAT. Frankly speaking with lots of software engineers in offices around India preparoing for CAT, they would definitely love to see an online exercise coming up on their screen daily. This could be thru emails or in the site as well.. If this scheme gets publicity, the best thing would be to tie up with a training institue to give the material for teh online tests. we can charge a fee from them for doin that..
Once we send the online exercise, we have to receive the answers from all.. And based on the answers , we can put up an all india rank.. This should be a paid factility for members. I am sure that this will be a big hit.

3) Another way thru which we could make money, is by grading (not ranking !!) b-schools. India now faces the lack of a good and trustworthy system to certify whether a b-school is good or bad.. Most of the stuff given by the magazines on this is just crap. We have a big communit of people who are well versed in the status of various b-schools, we could give each a grade (5 stars, 4 stars etc) and sell this content to a reputed magazine or news channel ...This will not only help us make money but will also give us publicity and give the people good and reliable information.

4) If the brand value of PG is to be increased, the best way would be to do any ( or many !!) of the following:
(i) Conduct a Mock CAT in some cities, online mock CATs could be better.
(ii) Send the news of PG to various news channels like NDTV , etc.. they will telecast it..

Thats all that i could think about now..
PG, you could send ur comments..

regards

pads

[Prithvi]

hi all
just goin thru the thread n came across quite a few rev models for PG all of which is basically talkin on the same line of web advertising of different training instis... well sound really achievable if we can build up real good name for ourselves interms of eyeballs.just wanted to expand the scope of products that we believe the seller might be interested in listing in this forum...
1. Banks with education loan proposal.
2. Publishers with the new offerings on CAT,GRE etc front.
3. Since it is a predominantly (well totally) a youth forum with age band of ( 20- 28 ) this forum can be a virtual gold mine for youth product merchedisers then why not let them advertise their product.....

but i guess the central issue of Revenue collection is still ambiguous as we are still not sure about the extent of funding we will be requiring if suddenly PG decides to withdraw his patronage...of hosting this portal frm Neutralweb.but a case study nevertheless gives a god bitta workout to the lill bit of gray cells that we believe we r having in the top floor....
luv
Prithvi

[voodoochild]

My thoughts on some of the issues...

Originally Posted by pagalguy

There are a couple of ideas which won't work. These include charging membership, premium membership ( not yet ) , selling merchandise. Here selling won't work because I really have to get the merchandise in place if I have to .. and trust me..I have a job to do elsewhere too .. But whatever merchandise we sell, I doubt it would cover the costs of the server et al.

Merchandise can not be the sole source of revenue, it would come into picture when we have other things going on and we need some extra cash. The biggest problem with merchandise is inventory. Which would need to be churned around, often enough, to sustain buyer interest.

Originally Posted by pagalguy

Premium membership is always based on more value added content, which I dont think can be provided for now. Why would people generate content for free and give it out on the site. Let me know what you guys think on this one.

The authors of the content would have to be compensated for their efforts. I had mentioned the Google Answers model somewhere on the thread. See the Google Answers FAQ here http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html. It is something like "pay per satisfactory answer".

Originally Posted by pagalguy

We guys in groups could get books on discounts, laptops on discounts et all .. But I am thinking that we would take atleast one more year to grow upto that level where the forum's name is synonymous with CAT/Related exams.

Yeah, we do need a critical mass/brand name to do anything of the sort.

Originally Posted by pagalguy

As sivarka said , spreading the brand. This is something we have never done. But if we had to actively go out and spread the name - what needs to be done ?

Direct advertising is something which we can't afford. So we need to seek help from our friends in the media. The way it happened with Sahara Times (Kudos to Crusoe for that one). Then organising events related to CAT/quizzes/MockCATs/GD-PI sessions. Publishing books/booklets?

Vishal

[sivarka]

Originally Posted by pagalguy

There are a couple of ideas which won't work. These include charging membership, premium membership ( not yet ) , selling merchandise.

You are right. Members are the strength of this forum. So a big NO for charging from the members, if we REALLY want to propaget our brand.

Originally Posted by pagalguy

Donations could be a way out

Right again! Don't even THINK of donations

Originally Posted by pagalguy

As sivarka said , spreading the brand. This is something we have never done. But if we had to actively go out and spread the name - what needs to be done ?

I feel the process is already on the way indirectly...

The initiative for PG Tees, recognition of this forum (as per my knowledge) by atleast a couple of MBA coaching institutes, the growth rate of number of members/posts per day in this forum, etc

As the next step towards brand building, shall we provide a couple of Mock CAT's for CAT 2004? I can bring out a reasonable number of questions without infringing anyone's (copy)rights ;-)

~Siva