If someone close to you (god-forbid, but just as an example) urgently needed O –ve blood and it is not available at the blood bank, what would you do?
1. You would, of course, tell your family and friends (maybe 50-100 people in total).
2. You can’t go to the newspapers, television channels, radio etc. Too expensive, too time- consuming…
3. You can send out a chain e-mail but you never know how many it is reaching…so you can never be comfortable with that lack of knowledge gnawing your mind.
You, typically, feel quite helpless…
But, with mGinger, what you can do is send a message to all the people in your locality interested in “Social Cause” informing them about your requirement. It will take no time, you will know exactly how many you are reaching and it is extremely cost effective.
Infact, we did just such a campaign for a person in Bangalore. We also did a campaign for a social service foundation looking to raise funds and they received very good response.
This brings forth a point: mGinger, as a vehicle of creating awareness for social causes, is extremely powerful since it provides precise reach in the most cost-effective manner. mGinger is, indeed, building a community.
Food for thought: is this an advertisement? Or is this information? Or is this a social/personal need? What do we call it? “Needvertisement”?
As we said, we are exploring new ideas, new concepts. Maybe we should all play a collective “naming” game coining new terms and hopefully we will create a whole new lingo together for the whole world to follow.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Why am I not getting Ads?
*You will get ads only when advertisers want to send advertisements to you.For this to happen, two things must happen:
a. Advertisers must first want to advertise on mGinger, a new medium. Since it is a new medium advertisers are approaching slowly. Many are not even aware that mGinger exists. They are taking time.
b. Those advertisers who do sign-up must want to target you. Advertisers target you based on your interests, location, age, gender, salary, occupation and many more parameters. If you do not suit their criteria, they will not send their ad to you.
*When you selected the “Max. Number of ads per day” as 10 (or 7 or 5 etc), it is only your preference. It does not mean that you will surely get 10 ads every day. It only means that the maximum that you can ever get on a single day is 10. On some days you might not receive even a single ad, on others you might receive a few but not exceeding your preference.
*mGinger doesn’t claim that it will send you any particular number of advertisements every day. Please understand that mGinger is just a medium. When advertisers come, you will get ads, when they don’t you will not get ads.
*Please do not get carried away by the hype. Here is the reality: the money you will make from mGinger will in most cases for a long time not be much. The value of the service is not in the money you make directly from mGinger but in the valuable, relevant information that you get.
It will take a long time before we can get enough advertisers on a regular basis to send you even 10% of your max preference ads. This whole industry is a baby. Out of Rs. 16,000 Crores spent every year on advertising not even 0.005% is spent on mobile advertising. So, your guess is as good as ours on how long it will take to move some of this spend to mobile.
So, this is what we have to say to you: You will see very few ads on our network for some time (how long? Maybe 4 months, 6 months, we can’t say), have patience, stick to us, we are trying our best to attract advertisers.
a. Advertisers must first want to advertise on mGinger, a new medium. Since it is a new medium advertisers are approaching slowly. Many are not even aware that mGinger exists. They are taking time.
b. Those advertisers who do sign-up must want to target you. Advertisers target you based on your interests, location, age, gender, salary, occupation and many more parameters. If you do not suit their criteria, they will not send their ad to you.
*When you selected the “Max. Number of ads per day” as 10 (or 7 or 5 etc), it is only your preference. It does not mean that you will surely get 10 ads every day. It only means that the maximum that you can ever get on a single day is 10. On some days you might not receive even a single ad, on others you might receive a few but not exceeding your preference.
*mGinger doesn’t claim that it will send you any particular number of advertisements every day. Please understand that mGinger is just a medium. When advertisers come, you will get ads, when they don’t you will not get ads.
*Please do not get carried away by the hype. Here is the reality: the money you will make from mGinger will in most cases for a long time not be much. The value of the service is not in the money you make directly from mGinger but in the valuable, relevant information that you get.
It will take a long time before we can get enough advertisers on a regular basis to send you even 10% of your max preference ads. This whole industry is a baby. Out of Rs. 16,000 Crores spent every year on advertising not even 0.005% is spent on mobile advertising. So, your guess is as good as ours on how long it will take to move some of this spend to mobile.
So, this is what we have to say to you: You will see very few ads on our network for some time (how long? Maybe 4 months, 6 months, we can’t say), have patience, stick to us, we are trying our best to attract advertisers.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Myths
Myth Number 1: I will get rich through mGinger. I will make a living out of mGinger earnings.
No! You will not! We certainly wish mGinger could make you rich, but this idea is not capable of doing that. Hypothetically, if you have thousands in your network and if advertisers have come in full blown and everybody in your network is receiving their maximum number of ads, you could. But realistically, that has a very low probability of happening
You are inherently worth a lot more, get a job or do something of your own and you will realize your full potential. View mGinger for what it is: a way to get rid of spam, a way to get useful information which is relevant to you, a way to get a bit of pocket money.
Your real gains will come from the offers you can get through mGinger.
Lets say, you spend Rs 5000 every month on certain items. When you select these as your interest areas and advertisers for these items send you “discount ads” which result in a saving of, say, 10%. Then, you save Rs 500. Instead of spending Rs 5000 you spend Rs 4500.
Or, if you plan to buy a bike and an advertiser sends you an “Insurance Free” offer, then if you buy it you save Rs 1500 (approx.).
This is your real monetary benefit. mGinger’s payout is just a compensation for taxing your brain (as explained in a previous blog).
Myth Number 2: I will start receiving mGinger ads from the moment I register.
When you said “I want a maximum of 10 ads per day” during sign-up, it doesn’t mean that you will get 10 ads every day from the moment you sign up. It is just a preference, a maximum. You might receive no ads on some days, 1 ad on some and so on up to a maximum of 10 ads on some days.
Whether you receive an ad or not depends on advertisers. Most of you understand this, but there are some who are thinking that it is an instantaneous process.
First of all, advertisers have to notice us. They have to start accepting this new medium. It will TAKE TIME. So, this is our recommendation: sign up, wait and let us go after the advertisers. Again, it is a slow process.
Advertisers typically ask for a profile. Some target students, some target salaried people, some target males, others married…they target based on interest, age, gender, location, profession, education etc. So, if you get an ad and your friend doesn’t, it is probably because your friend’s profile doesn’t fit the advertiser’s needs and yours does. There are advertisers looking for every kind of profile. So, don’t worry about yours.
The upshot is: It will take time!
How much time? Very difficult to tell. We will have better answers maybe in a month.
Myth Number 3: mGinger promised me Rs X every month.
mGinger is just a medium. You will get paid only when you get ads. You get ads only when the advertisers come to this medium and then are willing to target you. So, mGinger doesn’t and actually cannot promise you any particular number of ads per day or particular amount of money every month.
No! You will not! We certainly wish mGinger could make you rich, but this idea is not capable of doing that. Hypothetically, if you have thousands in your network and if advertisers have come in full blown and everybody in your network is receiving their maximum number of ads, you could. But realistically, that has a very low probability of happening
You are inherently worth a lot more, get a job or do something of your own and you will realize your full potential. View mGinger for what it is: a way to get rid of spam, a way to get useful information which is relevant to you, a way to get a bit of pocket money.
Your real gains will come from the offers you can get through mGinger.
Lets say, you spend Rs 5000 every month on certain items. When you select these as your interest areas and advertisers for these items send you “discount ads” which result in a saving of, say, 10%. Then, you save Rs 500. Instead of spending Rs 5000 you spend Rs 4500.
Or, if you plan to buy a bike and an advertiser sends you an “Insurance Free” offer, then if you buy it you save Rs 1500 (approx.).
This is your real monetary benefit. mGinger’s payout is just a compensation for taxing your brain (as explained in a previous blog).
Myth Number 2: I will start receiving mGinger ads from the moment I register.
When you said “I want a maximum of 10 ads per day” during sign-up, it doesn’t mean that you will get 10 ads every day from the moment you sign up. It is just a preference, a maximum. You might receive no ads on some days, 1 ad on some and so on up to a maximum of 10 ads on some days.
Whether you receive an ad or not depends on advertisers. Most of you understand this, but there are some who are thinking that it is an instantaneous process.
First of all, advertisers have to notice us. They have to start accepting this new medium. It will TAKE TIME. So, this is our recommendation: sign up, wait and let us go after the advertisers. Again, it is a slow process.
Advertisers typically ask for a profile. Some target students, some target salaried people, some target males, others married…they target based on interest, age, gender, location, profession, education etc. So, if you get an ad and your friend doesn’t, it is probably because your friend’s profile doesn’t fit the advertiser’s needs and yours does. There are advertisers looking for every kind of profile. So, don’t worry about yours.
The upshot is: It will take time!
How much time? Very difficult to tell. We will have better answers maybe in a month.
Myth Number 3: mGinger promised me Rs X every month.
mGinger is just a medium. You will get paid only when you get ads. You get ads only when the advertisers come to this medium and then are willing to target you. So, mGinger doesn’t and actually cannot promise you any particular number of ads per day or particular amount of money every month.
We are in the news!
Congratulations to all of you Gingerians! We made it to the news.
We were on TV: CNN-IBN, CNBC, CNBC-Aawaz:
• Video Link
• Story
• Story on Sify
We were on online and offline newspapers:
Times of India, Economic times, Indian Express, The Hindu , Eenadu, Dainik Bhaskar etc
.• Indian Express
• Times of India
• The Hindu
• Economic Times
• Zee News
• DNA India
• Business Standard
• IndiaTimes
• Dainik Bhaskar
• Money Control
• Yahoo News
We were also on on BBC Radio 1 (Delhi & Chennai).
We were mis-quoted in some of the articles: “For each ad received, the mobile phone user gets paid 20 paise. They can refer their friends and relatives for which they get 10 paise per referral and 5 paise for every ad their friends referrals receive”.Correction: You do not get paid for referrals. You get paid 10 paisa only when your referrals receive an ad.
Also, it was quoted as if every user will make Rs. 300 per month for sure. This is wrong since mGinger is just a medium. mGinger doesn’t promise you any particular number of ads every day or any particular amount of money every month. You will get paid only when you receive ads. And you will receive ads only when there are advertisers willing to send you ads. So, if someone is not targeted by advertisers this whole month he/she will not receive any ads and thereby make no money.
We were on TV: CNN-IBN, CNBC, CNBC-Aawaz:
• Video Link
• Story
• Story on Sify
We were on online and offline newspapers:
Times of India, Economic times, Indian Express, The Hindu , Eenadu, Dainik Bhaskar etc
.• Indian Express
• Times of India
• The Hindu
• Economic Times
• Zee News
• DNA India
• Business Standard
• IndiaTimes
• Dainik Bhaskar
• Money Control
• Yahoo News
We were also on on BBC Radio 1 (Delhi & Chennai).
We were mis-quoted in some of the articles: “For each ad received, the mobile phone user gets paid 20 paise. They can refer their friends and relatives for which they get 10 paise per referral and 5 paise for every ad their friends referrals receive”.Correction: You do not get paid for referrals. You get paid 10 paisa only when your referrals receive an ad.
Also, it was quoted as if every user will make Rs. 300 per month for sure. This is wrong since mGinger is just a medium. mGinger doesn’t promise you any particular number of ads every day or any particular amount of money every month. You will get paid only when you receive ads. And you will receive ads only when there are advertisers willing to send you ads. So, if someone is not targeted by advertisers this whole month he/she will not receive any ads and thereby make no money.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
How will a baby like mGinger grow?
Yes, mGinger is still a baby. Infact, an infant. We are just 25 days old. We have very few number of users yet.
Imagine this: We go to an advertiser and tell him that we have 1000 users in Delhi interested in clothes. Do you think he will be impressed? If you do, you need to go and talk to some advertiser once! Advertisers are impressed with big numbers. They want to reach a lot of people (result of conventionality).
For you to get ads consistently, the first thing that is needed is a large number of users in our network. But, here is the chicken and egg problem, to get a large number of users, we need to get advertisers willing to send ads to the small number of existing users. But advertisers look at us mainly when we have large number of users. You get the drift….
It is a tough problem to solve and we are working 24/7 to solve it. So, to begin with, we are looking for those daring non-conventional advertisers who understand the value of precise targeting. Slowly, as our numbers grow, we will get more advertisers.
The key thing is this: GROW YOUR NETWORK. TRUST US. We are going nowhere till we prove that this is the way to advertise.
Imagine this: We go to an advertiser and tell him that we have 1000 users in Delhi interested in clothes. Do you think he will be impressed? If you do, you need to go and talk to some advertiser once! Advertisers are impressed with big numbers. They want to reach a lot of people (result of conventionality).
For you to get ads consistently, the first thing that is needed is a large number of users in our network. But, here is the chicken and egg problem, to get a large number of users, we need to get advertisers willing to send ads to the small number of existing users. But advertisers look at us mainly when we have large number of users. You get the drift….
It is a tough problem to solve and we are working 24/7 to solve it. So, to begin with, we are looking for those daring non-conventional advertisers who understand the value of precise targeting. Slowly, as our numbers grow, we will get more advertisers.
The key thing is this: GROW YOUR NETWORK. TRUST US. We are going nowhere till we prove that this is the way to advertise.
Is mGinger fake?
We have seen some blogposts where people were claiming that we are fake. They are quite funny actually.
Think about it: How can we be fake?
Can we steal money from you?
How? We do not take any money from you, we don’t have any of your financial information.No credit card details, no bank details, nothing! Again, How?
Can we collect all your data and sell it off?
No, we can’t do that legally (check the legal document).
There are huge databases available in market which can be bought illegally at 1 paisa per record.These databases have far more specific private information then what mGinger collects.
Anyway, right now, if we wanted to get this data, all we had to do was pay 1 paisa per record to some illegal sources and acquire lakhs of users in no time. This is what a lot of agents employed to tele-market do. And this illegality is what we hate and want to erase with mGinger.
What is the track record of founders?
We have left extremely cushy jobs and opportunities, practically went against close family and friend’s advice to follow this dream. We have impeccable records from the top universities and multi-national companies.
Well, so what?
We have only one answer to this: If you are skeptical, wait for a while.Time will answer your questions and then we will welcome you with open arms.
Will this work?
We believe it will.
We believe the advertisers will soon see value in this. And they will come rushing!Our campaigns are changing advertiser’s mindset.
We invite you to think about the concept.
We invite you to believe!We invite you to a revolution!!
Think about it: How can we be fake?
Can we steal money from you?
How? We do not take any money from you, we don’t have any of your financial information.No credit card details, no bank details, nothing! Again, How?
Can we collect all your data and sell it off?
No, we can’t do that legally (check the legal document).
There are huge databases available in market which can be bought illegally at 1 paisa per record.These databases have far more specific private information then what mGinger collects.
Anyway, right now, if we wanted to get this data, all we had to do was pay 1 paisa per record to some illegal sources and acquire lakhs of users in no time. This is what a lot of agents employed to tele-market do. And this illegality is what we hate and want to erase with mGinger.
What is the track record of founders?
We have left extremely cushy jobs and opportunities, practically went against close family and friend’s advice to follow this dream. We have impeccable records from the top universities and multi-national companies.
Well, so what?
We have only one answer to this: If you are skeptical, wait for a while.Time will answer your questions and then we will welcome you with open arms.
Will this work?
We believe it will.
We believe the advertisers will soon see value in this. And they will come rushing!Our campaigns are changing advertiser’s mindset.
We invite you to think about the concept.
We invite you to believe!We invite you to a revolution!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
mGinger - A new advertising paradigm!
With mGinger we, mGinger employees and you who have joined, have started nothing short of a revolution. A revolution in the advertising space. It is a new concept, a new paradigm.
Aren’t advertisements a pain?
*You switch your TV on wanting to watch your favourite show and what do you get? A horde of Ads.
*Switch on your radio…same deal.
*Try reading some news and more ads.
*Hoardings, Tele-marketing calls, carpet-bombing SMS ads.
The list goes on and on….
They tax our brains, squeeze out our energies and turn us into zombies.
But take a second and think about this:
What if they request for your permission before exposing you to ads? What if you are exposed to only those ads that are relevant to YOU at that point in time?
Then, the nature of the exposure changes. Ads turn into “Usable Information”. They empower you both in terms of knowledge and profit.
mGinger is a revolution because for the first time in Indian history, the users are asked for permission. The users are asked for their interests. The users are requested for a convenient time and convenient number of ads per day.
Then, should you get paid for such useful information?
No! Because the information itself pays you (since you will use it).
But, the ground reality is, however precise your targeting gets there always remain some out-of-control variables which decide whether the information is useful or not. mGinger pays you for this wastage since it taxes your mind and time.
We welcome all of you to this revolution where each one of you gets empowered, gets to lead and gets the power to tell the big advertisers what you would like and what you wouldn’t. Every advertiser would like to become your friend and this gives you a chance to tell them how. Mind you, this will be a ground-up and a tough fight. A fight because we are going against conventionality, against a wildly prevalent attitude of taking us consumers for granted.
But, eventually we will win because we believe it is the right way.
Aren’t advertisements a pain?
*You switch your TV on wanting to watch your favourite show and what do you get? A horde of Ads.
*Switch on your radio…same deal.
*Try reading some news and more ads.
*Hoardings, Tele-marketing calls, carpet-bombing SMS ads.
The list goes on and on….
They tax our brains, squeeze out our energies and turn us into zombies.
But take a second and think about this:
What if they request for your permission before exposing you to ads? What if you are exposed to only those ads that are relevant to YOU at that point in time?
Then, the nature of the exposure changes. Ads turn into “Usable Information”. They empower you both in terms of knowledge and profit.
mGinger is a revolution because for the first time in Indian history, the users are asked for permission. The users are asked for their interests. The users are requested for a convenient time and convenient number of ads per day.
Then, should you get paid for such useful information?
No! Because the information itself pays you (since you will use it).
But, the ground reality is, however precise your targeting gets there always remain some out-of-control variables which decide whether the information is useful or not. mGinger pays you for this wastage since it taxes your mind and time.
We welcome all of you to this revolution where each one of you gets empowered, gets to lead and gets the power to tell the big advertisers what you would like and what you wouldn’t. Every advertiser would like to become your friend and this gives you a chance to tell them how. Mind you, this will be a ground-up and a tough fight. A fight because we are going against conventionality, against a wildly prevalent attitude of taking us consumers for granted.
But, eventually we will win because we believe it is the right way.
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