Author Archives: 123outsource

How to gauge someone’s learning speed at work!

September 15, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, Hiring & Firing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Although I have hired several dozen people in my lifetime for various tasks, I lack a clear method to quickly determine someone’s learning speed. I developed methods to test work competency. However, when I hire people to do tasks they have never done before, they will all fail the first time around. If you hire people to do what they already know how to do, then test their communication and their work, and don’t forget about meeting deadlines! But, if you hire people to do customized tasks like I often do, then the most important factor is how fast they learn.

Imagine that one person has worked with you for a year. They know how to do most tasks that you require of them, but they don’t cooperate, they pester you, and they never completely follow directions. Imagine that you don’t want to fire them, because then you will be left with someone else who doesn’t know how to efficiently or correctly do the tasks that you require. Please keep your eyes closed — I saw you peeking. Yes, that’s better. Now, imagine (seriously, keep them closed) that a new person arrives who doesn’t know anything, but has the capacity to learn quickly. I had a miracle unfold before my very eyes (which are closed because I’m doing an imagination drill) today. My newly hired help, learned to be an expert at a phone task in a week. Ten days ago she couldn’t function at all or get a single result after two hours of work. Today, she is doing flawless work and getting time efficient thorough results too.

Rather than just hiring someone, it makes sense to try them out and give them multiple tasks and instructions plus some coaching. See how fast they learn. If they learn fast and follow directions, you might be in luck. If they don’t, then get rid of them before you hire them. Save yourself a headache. If you give four separate tasks to someone with four separate instructions, see how they do. After thirty minutes on each task, evaluate their work and give them a coaching session. See if they learn effectively from your teaching session. Let them do another hour on each task, then evaluate again. See how they do after three coaching sessions. Three is the magic number. If they do okay, and don’t run away or procrastinate getting anything done, then hire them!

Don’t try this at home
Try this at work!

You can open your eyes now. We are done with the imagination exercise.

Tweets:
(1) Test a newly hired person’s learning speed. Give them an assignment + 3 short coaching sessions.
(2) Assign, coach, review, evaluate. See how fast your new employees learn new tasks!

You might also like:

Each rep gives a different answer!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/04/21/each-rep-gives-a-different-answer/

Hiring people who can really think!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/03/01/hiring-people-who-can-really-think/

What is the best social media network to test your content?

September 14, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Doing well at social media marketing is all about having great content. Popular content draws in the crowds and increases your interaction rate. Having lots of followers doesn’t benefit you on social media unless they interact, click, share, etc.

The problem is: what does well on one social network doesn’t always do well on other ones. Some social networks are more text oriented such as Twitter while some are more balanced between text and graphics like Google+. Others are much more photo oriented such as Stumbleupon and Pinterest. Putting aside the differences in networks, if you want to do well, you need to publish content that you know ahead of time will be popular. So, what is the trick?

Google+ is a growing network. They don’t have as many “active” members as Facebook or Twitter. My definition of “active” includes people who post several times a month, although Google+ has a high volume of members who visit their account at least once a month which is another metric of “active” that I don’t find useful. Google+ has less overall content on most topics that I am interested in. So, if you post on Google+, you might be a lot better off finding content that you obtained on a different network.

Finding Content
You can find great content anywhere. You can use Guy Kawasaki’s tips and use alltop, or some of the other content networks. I did not personally have good luck with these because their articles were not focused enough for my industry. You can Google article topic keywords. You can look on Twitter. Or you can make a long list of your favorite blogs and post their content and see what happens.

Testing Content
Being good at finding winning content is a very important part of the social media game. And yes, it is a game. Testing your content is the next stage of the game. How and where do you test your content? I recommend making a weekly list of one hundred or so articles that are very relevant or somewhat relevant to your industry or the interests of your followers. The only type of non-relevant content that does well with my networks includes travel articles with stunning pictures as almost everyone likes that. Make your list and then post these articles one by one.

Testing on Google+
I feel that Google+ is a great place to post really good content with stunning vertical photos. Photos that are horizontal, or that are not stunning tend to not add so much to the appeal of the post and don’t get that many more clicks than just publishing a really good article. Additionally, Google+ decides how many people to show your posts to. If you publish too many at once, they will not be seen by that many. You need to spread posts out on Google+, perhaps at least one hour apart for best results, even if you publish your posts on huge communities.

Testing on Twitter
I feel that Twitter is the best place to publish posts. If you publish more than two posts at the same time, you will lose followers quickly as they will be annoyed that you are monopolizing their feed. On the other hand, I had very good luck spreading test posts out every 3-10 minutes on Twitter. I got excellent feedback and did not lose hardly any members. It is not recommended to post more than 25 posts a day on Twitter or else Twitter will slow down how many profiles get introduced to your profile. However, if you did 33 posts a day for 3 days, or 20 posts a day for 5 days, you can test your 100 posts.

Analysis for Test Posts
After you post your posts, you can see which ones got favorited, shared, commented upon, etc. Keep a chart on paper or excel as to which posts got the most retweets, favorites, and comments. Guy Kawasaki puts the greatest value on retweets, while I feel that intelligent comments are more valuable as you can have a great dialogue and develop a much more close following with someone who interacts well. After you tally up the results for your 100 test tweets, pick your top five or ten and put them on Google+, Facebook, and your other networks. Please note that if you had content that performed in the top 20%, but is not on your top 5 list, but has a stunning photo, it will do better on Google+ because of the visual appeal, so you might add that to your Google+ publishing list.

Summary
By publishing only top, tried and true content, you will have a much more popular social media account. Additionally, you will save yourself the time of publishing junk on all of your networks. Yes, it takes time to test out content on Twitter, but once it is tested, you can use it on all your networks and you an use it more than once. Moreover, you can write your own blog articles based on topics that did well (that others wrote) that you published and learned were top performers on your particular network(s). Good luck!

Ignoring the warning signs

September 13, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

As I get older, I realize that in business, and my personal life, the same things keep happening over and over. I ignore warning signs, because I don’t want to end a relationship with a person, business, or spiritual group. But, as I get older, although this type of mistake keeps happening, it happens less and less, since I’m getting wiser and developing more will power.

Business is not rocket science. There is an element of skill, industry knowledge, analysis, and management suave. But, a lot of business is really just common sense. I’m reminded that as a child, I knew an elderly Palestinian man who told me that business is about having common sense and guts! He wouldn’t trust someone with a PhD to pour him a cup of coffee, he said! I know many intellectuals who can’t function in the real world. That old guy was right! A lot of your strength in business comes from paying attention, seeing the signs, and having the discipline to make the right decision.

If you see someone who lacks discipline, doesn’t get back to you, has an attitude problem, or is doing something wrong, there is a problem. Replacing people takes time and comes at a cost. That is where the apathy about replacing them happens. As I get older, I realize that the cost of NOT replacing a bad person is a cost that keeps being incurred day after day.

Keep a raised eye-brow whenever you see any bad sign in anyone. The minute you see that bad sign, start comparing them not to one other competitor, but to hundreds. In this world, you need all the choices you can get, because all of them are defective in one way or the other, so optimize your choice as well as you can.

How to optimize your Stumbleupon PPC and Organic campaign

September 13, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: SEO, Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to optimize your Stumbleupon PPC and Organic campaign

Stumbleupon is tricky. You have to do lots of stumbling to have the right to add pages to the organic search which respresents 95% of what is shown on their network. So, stumble away, and add lots of content. That is what I do. I add my best content, and some of it gets clicked on. It seems that entries with really good pictures do best. Remember, on Stumbleupon people are browsing hundreds of pages, and you will only get 5 seconds of attention unless you grab someone’s interest with good graphics. If people like your content, it will get shown more. Good luck.

Be cautious setting up your account — quirks & bugs
The Stumbleupon Pay-per-click program is tricky. Be careful how many views you authorize per day. My bank account was given a ride around the block a few times. I agreed to 100 clicks, but was billed $100 and given 600 clicks. I’m not sure what went wrong. At least I finally got some fast traffic for my blog. In any case, start by bidding on 1 click per day at a low level. Start with 1 click per day, and then adjust up later. Then use the manage function to adjust your daily budget for each campaign.

40 clicks per blog entry
I would get about 40 clicks per campaign and then use your Google analytics to see how long the average person spent reading. Many Stumblers have ADD and spend only 10 seconds on your site which is not worth paying for. But, if you attract some serious readers who spend some time and perhaps visit other pages of your site or blog, then you are in business.

See which blog gets folks who spend more than a minute on your site
I would try lots of different blog entries in your paid Stumbling campaign. Try them each for 40 clicks and keep the ones that perform well with high number of pages visited, and the highest amount of seconds or minutes on your site. Most of your campaigns will probably need to be discontinued — optimization is that way if you do it right! Identify the winners, and work with them.

Optimization is 20% strategy and the rest is trial, error, watching, and noticing. Interpreting the results can be daunting.

Good luck!

You might also like:

Active vs. Dormant Followers on Twitter
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/27/active-vs-dormant-followers-on-twitter/

The Google Algorithm has some serious issues
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/04/the-google-algorithm-has-some-serous-issues/

Running out of office space? Create a virtual office by outsourcing?

September 13, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

If only we lived in a perfect world, you could just add another cubical to your cramped office space. It could extend out the window and make a little protruding chunk hanging over the sidewalk. But, in real life you can’t do that unless you own an R.V. with a living room that extends outward (actually very affordable.)

Moving your office to another location so that you can accommodate that 9th worker could cost thousands and might be a decision you need to reverse later on. Squeezing that 9th guy in might be very uncomfortable as well. It might be better to create a virtual office by outsourcing. You can get virtual help in countries all around the world these days. There are also freelancers right here in the USA who can work from home. That way you get labor when you need it, but don’t have to commit to office space.

Shared offices are another alternative. You might have your main office in one location, but a few blocks away rent a room or two in a shared office. That way, you know where your people are, and don’t have to commit to a two year commercial lease!

Virtual assistants are a popular type of person to outsource to. Most call centers can give you someone to do phone work for you. Many will let you lease an employee for as little as eight hours a week! Imagine if you only need half an employee, rather than sawing them in half, just hire a virtual assistant in Makati City, and you have it made!

123outsource.net and our users

September 13, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: About Us | Tagged , | Leave a comment

123outsource.net and our users
 
I started 123outsource.net outsourcing directory in 2007.  I was going regularly to India for spiritual reasons and wanted to work with some local programmers. I found the winning team in Pune — fast and fun to work with.   We didn’t begin to really populate 123outsource.net outsourcing directory with sites until 2009.  In early 2010 we started calling out listings to get to know them a bit.  We put outsourcing companies all over the world.  There were web designers in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, India, and all over the world. We had SEO consultants in India, there were BPO companies, Call Centers, Accountants, and many other types of companies too. I thought this directory would be focused on India, but we have clients throughout the world.
 
Learning from experience
As I started marketing our outsourcing directory site using google adwords, I learned that we were getting many clicks from India and the Philippines.  Other counties didn’t give us hardly any traffic.  But, the inquiries were coming almost exclusively from India, and only a small percentage from the Philippines.  Although there are so many great call centers in Cebu, Manila, Davao, and other cities, we were not hearing from them.  It became clear that this was going to be more of an India directory rather than a world directory like we previously thought.
 
Pakistan comes into the picture
As my testing out of different areas evolved, I decided that Pakistan was a serious country in outsourcing too, and that I should add them to the pay-per-click system.  We got good inquiries and signups in Pakistan and Bangladesh too. I guess that those countries think like Indians — outsource, outsource, outsource!!!  But, later I found that Pakistani and Bangladeshi companies had a low sign up ratio compared to their countries’ populations, and was not worth the advertising budget.  We like to have at least one sign up per 300 clicks from a particular country for it to be worth while.
 
Browsers were not exactly in the proportions I expected. 
What I started off thinking, was that America, Canada, and the UK would be the main browsers looking for services.  This turned out to be true.  I thought we might get a little extra traffic from Singapore and United Arab Emirates since those countries have a huge Indian expatriot population.  What happened surprised me.  I knew that Singapore would be a major browser on our directory.  But, I never guessed that they would be the #1 browser country in the world.  India still gets more clicks, but India functions as a service provider and not a browser looking for services.
 
Singapore tops the list
Since Singapore is our #1 browser, I’m putting much more attention on our campaigns targeting Singaporeans. None of their neighbors such as Thailand, Malaysia, or Indonesia gave us any significant attention on the web.
 
Canada
Canada was disproportional in terms of population and clicks.  Canada is giving us almost as much traffic as the United States, but Canada has only 10% of the population of the whole U.S.  California has more people than all of Canada put together (including mooses).  We will be investigating putting more specialized effort into attracting Canadians to our site.
 
UAE
The “Maratis”, not to be confused with Marathis are some good browsers as well.  People from the Emirates are called Maratis.  To me that sounds like what people form Maharashtria are called too.  They are homonyms.  I guess if you moved from Mumbai to Dubai, you would be a Marati Marathi or vice versa.  There are only 5,000,000 people in UAE, but we are getting disproportional click traffic from there.  Since they are a business hub, I expected a good search volume originating from their territory.  But, they are averaging 30% of the total clicks from the United States.
 
Conclusion
It looks like America is not outsourcing as much as we think.  It looks like Americans will not have to worry as much as they think they will have to about losing their job to Ajit in Hyderabad or Manish in Noida.  Its the Canadians and British who have a much higher rate of outsourcing based on my site’s statistics.  I read that UK will be outsourcing more and more as time goes on.  Programming and Data Entry are the first chores to be outsourced.  I think that as a courtesy, India should offer a special type of visa to people who’s jobs were outsourced.  They should be allowed to go to Navi-Mumbai and get their job back! Please visit our outsourcing directory today!

You might also like:

LPO India in the news

Cebu call centers in the news

Outsourcing in the news

Why can’t you just press a button and become rich?

September 12, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Success | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Who says you can’t?
Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if they could just put a label on that one magic button?

I struggle daily to figure out how to run my business more efficiently, and I am always coming up with new ways to refine my techniques. But, I remember one day back in March of 2003. For some reason, my website just took off after three years of it being very slow. I can’t figure out why it all happened so fast. Business is like that. I wrote another blog article long time ago about the Chinese bamboo tree analogy. You water it daily for several years and nothing happens, and then all of a sudden it grows ten feet in one day.

The thing you need to remember about business, is that most of your day will consist of busy-work. As you grow, the next step in business is to find more refined, efficient, and effective ways of doing that busy work. Next, you find others who will do it for you and you manage them. But, in your course of daily activities, there will be some small changes that you make to the way you do things — or perhaps a few major changes. You will make a change, just like all the other changes you made, but that change will be the magic button that makes you rich.

You will press a lot of other buttons, but those ones are not the magic one(s). The problem is that the magic button isn’t properly labeled. But, there is good news. There are smaller magic buttons that can do less powerful magic in your business. I just discovered a new technique for using Google+ that gets me double the followers with the same amount of effort. That is a sort of small magic button. It took me three months to figure it out, but then — voila! I discovered another magic button for managing one of my directories. I was removing low quality listings, but found that I didn’t have enough listings. I was removing them, and then calling the service provider, and adding them back on. Now, I lowered my standards for what listings I would keep and eliminated a lot of the “duplicated” work. I just made my life a little simpler.

See if there are some smaller magic buttons in your life in addition to looking for the big one. Meditate on finding what that big button might be. If you don’t look for it you won’t find it because it is hidden amongst thousands of other buttons.

Trick-or-Treater wearing Ann Handley costume knocks on my door

September 12, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor | Tagged , | Leave a comment

This entry is purely fictional as nobody in my neighborhood goes trick or treating except to units advertising that they are “open” for Halloween.

It was a dark and windy night. Little kids kept coming to our door with expectant faces longing for an endless acquisition of candy. It all seemed so obsessive compulsive, and all at such a tender young age. A few witches, goblins, skeletons, cowboys, and others who looked like miniature members of “The Village People” came knocking. It was all so typical. I had seen it for so many decades. Nothing seemed to change.

Then a few minutes later, a girl came in very distinctive, tell-tale black glasses — the same exact kind Ann Handley wears in her pictures and uses in her graphics for social media posts. The girl was wearing the same shawl that Ann Handley wore in pictures too. What was this? Was this an eighth grader’s idea of a costume?

ME: Young lady, aren’t you a little young to be an Ann Handley look-alike?

GIRL: Well, actually, in my age group, statistically 2.3% of the market segments of eighth graders from my parent’s income bracket in my town and similar towns in California are interested in marketing including sub-segments of Social Media Marketing, B2B, email marketing, and other marketing specialties.

ME: Well, you certainly know your metrics.

GIRL: Those are segments, not metrics. However, I learned that in this neighborhood, 43.2% of homes will open their doors for trick-or-treaters between the hours of 7pm and 8:45pm, but what we call the “bounce rate” starts rising gradually after that.

ME: I guess one of us did her homework! So, what’s your favorite neighborhood to go trick-or-treating, metrics aside?

GIRL: I like the neighborhood directly East of here. They are mostly Mexican and often offer SALSA & CHIPS to trick or treaters. Unfortunately, one played a trick on us and put some habanero sauce and mixed it in the salsa without warning us.

ME: Interesting. Well, I have asked you some questions. Would you like to ask me any?

GIRL: Yes, I have walked several blocks to get to your area. I’m tired, exhausted, and have lost my will to bang on doors anymore. Now that I am in your doorway, my only question is — WILL THERE BE SNACKS?– or treats?

ME: It is uncanny how similar you are to Ann Handley. Her two obsessions in life seem to be fun marketing articles that appeal to people’s emotions, that are fun, easy to read, and packed with meaningful marketing knowledge. Her other obsessions is asking, “Will there be snacks?”

GIRL: Well, you know us eighth graders, our teachers make us do a lot of reading.

ME: Interesting. Well, you will be very interested in the types of treats I have. Since I’m tired of young children who want a happy Halloween experience — since that is NOT what this holiday is supposed to be about: I have Habanero potato chips. Wanna bag?

GIRL: Hmm. Well, I lived through it once. I was thinking more along the lines of Snickers.

ME: Well, speaking of chocolate, not that you brought that to my attention, I had habanero dark chocolate from wine country. I was going to buy the cabernet chocolate, but I thought I’d get this instead to spice things up a little too much.

GIRL: You’re getting warmer.

ME: I also have wasabe chips and … oh look here. I do have a Snickers bar. It is in the pumpkin here on the table.

GIRL: Okay (reaching… )

A horrifying hand that is disfigured, oozing with ooze, and very bony with long fingernails sticks out of the pumpkin.

GIRL: (Shrieks) Ahhhhhhhh!

The girl bolted and ran so fast, that all that remained, was a pair of distinctive Ann Handley style black glasses on the ground. Miraculously, they were not broken. They survived this 14 year old marketing virtuoso, and the fall to the ground. And so ends my charming Halloween marketing tale. Until next time!

Twitter & the American Dream: The chance to make it big is possible

September 12, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Social Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I am excited about Twitter, because it has offerings similar in spirit to the American Dream. But, it is different as well. The American dream is that if you work hard, you can make it here. It doesn’t matter where you are from, what you look like, or even if you speak English well. If you work hard and take risks, anyone can make it in America — and have the house with the two-door garage, a wife, two kids, and a dog named fluffy. Twitter’s offering is a little different.

Twitter’s opportunity is similar to the internet’s opportunity. The beauty of the internet is that sites around the world compete for placement on Google and for traffic. Only one site in a particular niche can be the most popular. Twitter is a little bit similar in nature to this. On Twitter, you can come out of nowhere, and go VIRAL immediately and gain a MILLION followers overnight. It is possible, although not likely. People always dream of going viral, and marketing managers always talk about it. But, the realities are something you need to think about.

It takes SKILL to go viral. Being viral means that you tweet something, someone else retweets your content, and one or more people viewing your tweet on the network who retweeted you — will retweet you again. Being viral could land your tweet in the inboxes of millions of viewers overnight. In real life, it takes years to build up the skill necessary to be popular on Twitter. Most people do not develop that skill even if they are social media professionals — at least not to the level necessary to go viral regularly. Remember, that people who do social media for a living make around $20-80,000 per year. If they knew how to go viral, they could make millions per year and wouldn’t be working for that dumb social media company anymore, right?

I have spoken to staff at multiple social media companies. Nobody was willing to help me write tweets as a separate job description at any of the companies. None were even interested or had tips. So, I had to learn myself. I network with others to do tweet writing by the way. After almost four years of writing tweets, my tweets are finally beginning to be popular. I have written a few that got four retweets. But, what if I can learn to write material so hot that it gets a million retweets?

Twitter is wonderful because it identifies and promotes hot content. If you know how to write content that people love, you can go viral. I am at the level where I can write comments on other people’s twitters and get retweeted 30% of the time. Maybe with a few more years of hard tweeting (hard twork) I can tweet my way to stardom (Twitterdom). Wish me luck! I’m not sure I’ll make it, but at least Twitter affords the opportunity and a chance.

Imagine what my businesses would be like if I had a million followers on Twitter. I would be rich and would have more time to write blog entries! Yay!!! (and a yacht with internet connection)

How to find call center clients — 3 basic points

September 12, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How to find call center clients / call centre clients

Our staff talks to call centers in India, call centers in the Philippines, and many other places. The #1 question they ask is how to acquire more call center clients or accounts. The answer is actually simple, yet nobody wants to hear it. Call center managers are looking for fancy sounding schemes to attract clients to their call center. People are looking for a magic pill that they can take that will get them more call centre clients. But, there is no magic pill, and customers don’t grow on trees. YES, there are customers out there by the thousands, but YOU might not be getting them. Why? Because you didn’t take the magic pill which I am going to give you. Take this pill once a week, and clients will miraculously grow on a tree just for you! I promise! Trust me!

People are very resistant to hearing common sense advice. But, the secret to “how to acquire more call center clients” is only common sense. So listen! Points 1, 2 and 3 are very basic. 98% of Indian companies FAIL to do all three points correctly which is why they rarely make much money. They present a bad image of themselves.

(1) If you don’t answer your phone, your prospective clients won’t be able to do business with you even if they want to. Most call centers don’t answer their own business’ business line because they are too busy making calls for their clients. Answer your phone! No excuses. Sure, that is too SIMPLE to possibly be good business advice. But, it is common sense truth. Companies that don’t answer their phone are generally small, and stay small, or crumble alltogether.

(2) Have someone answer the phone professionally. A dull “hullo” doesn’t cut it in the business world. Have them announce their personal name and company name.

(3) Have someone KNOWLEDGEABLE and helpful answer the phone. I talk to people all night who can’t answer the phone properly. then, during the day when I call America, I get people who don’t know a single fact about the service they are selling. Goodness gracious. How can you sell a service, if you don’t know anything about it? I would never become your client if you are so useless!

Here are some additional points on having a knowledgable and helpful salesperson

(a) Your salesperson should be personable and get along well with most people.

(b) The information they give should be accurate and realistic. Nobody likes a liar, or someone who gives incorrect information by mistake. You lose call center clients by giving wrong answers.

(c) Being too pushy scares people away. Be nice! Trying to twist people’s arms into signing a contract is a bad idea at first too. Let people get to know your company before forcing them to be bound to a restrictive contract.

(d) Be flexible! Don’t have rigid terms.

(e) Understand how to introduce the company, how many workers you have, and who does what. Tell people about the history of the company as well, and don’t keep secrets. Many companies will refuse to say anything about their workers because it is private. Prospective clients will not want to use your company if you have too many secrets — tell them about everyone who works there.

(f) Avoid trying to present a false big company image. If you are a big company, then stress how PERSONAL you are. If you are a small company, stress how COZY you are. Small companies have many advantages that big companies don’t have. Stress being GOOD rather than being a particular size.

Thats it for now, but there will be more similar blog posts on how to get more call center clients!

Calcutta City Profile

September 11, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: City Profiles | Tagged | Leave a comment

Calcutta City Profile
 
Calcutta is a famous city located in the Eastern part of India in West Bengal. The local language is Bengali, but Hindi and English are widely spoken.  It is a very poor city, and definately the poorest of India’s top ten cities. Calcutta does not have much of an IT or Software industry, nor does it have many call centers or other outsourcing industries.  Bicycle rick shaws and “human” rick shaws are still in existance, and prices for basics such as bottled water are lower in price than anywhere else in India. Termed “City of Joy”, this city doesn’t have any more joy than any other place in India, but does have its share of poverty and humidity.  There is so little to do here as a visitor that its not even funny.  The airport is located in the Northern part of town.  There are a few good five star hotels offering excellent meals.  Fort William and the Command Museum are  nice places to spend an hour or so. Touring the gardens and the museum is a nice way to spend an afternoon as well.
 
Local Cuisine
Bengali cuisine is unique to India and has dishes that are very different from anywhere else in the country.   They eat many fish and prawn dishes and with flavors that are very different from Goa, Kerela, or anywhere else in India that features seafood. You can not find Bengali food hardly anywhere in India, so it is suggested that you try it while in town.  Its not a cuisine that I would want to eat regularly, but its fun to try. 
 
Local Travel
Distances in the East of India are large, and its a largely impoverished area.  Bihar is the most dangerous part of Eastern India with gangs controlling all aspects of life and the economy.  Bengal is much better in terms of gangs, but is very poor, and will be more of a culture and weather shock to tourists than most other parts of India.  Going out alone at night is discouraged in Calcutta as it is in most parts of India.  Bangalore and Pune are the only parts of India where it is relatively safe for women to travel alone at night.  Calcutta is the one of the gateways to the himalayas if you are flying in.  Many people fly to Calcutta (Kolkata), and then catch an overnight train to Siliguri on their way to Darjeeling which is the jewel of the himalayas in many people’s opinion.  Kolkata is also on the way to many Eastern locations in Assam, Manipur, and other parts of India where people speak languages more resembling Southeast Asian languages, and where people look very East Asian.  The train ride to Assam is long, but its a part of India which is genuinely away from it all. Relaxed people, hills, and a unique cuisine make going to the Eastern part of India an experience.
 
International Travel
Kolkata has many international flights going to Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, and other destinations too. The airport is nowhere near as busy as Delhi or Mumbai, but it is India’s 3rd largest city, so it gets it’s fair share of flights.

A new way of making inventions

September 11, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Innovation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Many people think that great ideas on earth come from heaven. There might be great spirits floating around who transmit great ideas to composers, and inventors. I would bet that Bach had a little help from the folks up in heaven. After all, his music was written for the greater glory of God, so why wouldn’t they help. As a spiritual aspirant, I receive a lot of help from deceased gurus who are so generous in their help towards me. I couldn’t make it without them. As humans, we need to know that even if we don’t perceive spirits, they are there, and they influence our lives more than you can imagine. But, why not take it a step further.

I did some astral travel a few years ago. I projected my astral body into a spaceship while in a trance. I observed that they had some bizarre looking aliens in the ship, but that they had little cubicles in the spaceship with some sort of communication devices. Imagine if someone who was a psychic could be used by large corporations to see what people on other more advanced planets are up to, and try to duplicate some of their inventions down here on humble planet earth. It is a great idea.

I have no idea what these devices could possibly be. Anti-gravity devices and advanced medical technology might be a nice place to start. Better transportation systems might be helpful too. But, what about a machine that can get people to care — now, I would buy that. Unfortunately, caring is not mechanically induced. Someone has to talk you into it. Maybe a machine that can get more people to like you on Facebook. Personally, I want to know what is going on on that spaceship I visited. If they have it, I’ve got to have it.