I haven’t written a Blog Post for a month now.  I know it and there were various reasons – which do not warrant a mention now.  But I am back now and promise to slowly get back to my pace.

I made a couple of major changes to my Blog.  One is a Design change – a very minimalist and simple design now decorates my Blog.  And the other is a change in the core topic of the Blog – I will be focusing more on using Social Media and other low-cost techniques for Marketing Small and Medium Business.

Being an Indian Blogger, I will also start focusing more on Indian Market and Business.  And again, a lot of nice content will start flowing through the Email Campaigns.  So make sure to subscribe there!

That’s it for now – but keep watching this space for lots of interesting posts.  Have a great week ahead!

I have a new Twitter Account for Thoughts Unlimited and it is – @tublogger

If you have been following me on @thotsunlimited, feel free to follow on @tublogger (No Spam!)

Why a New Account?

• I am having a few problems with my older account @thotsunlimited
• My Service Requests to Twitter are unheard of!
• I was following a lot of Spammers!

Why I feel good with the New Account?

• Feels Fresh!
• I am able to follow those I love to follow
• Starting from scratch!

So, Look for interest updates from my new @tublogger Twitter account.  Hope to hear you all!

First I thought of putting this into my Google Docs.  Then, I thought of my Personal Diary.  Finally, I decided to go with my Blog, where I tend to do most of these stuff.  I am sure this post is NOT to bore you, but to let you know, what to expect from Thoughts Unlimited over the next year.

Following are the list of items I intend to do

• Create at least 15 Pillar Content that goes with the niche of my Blog
• Release at least 3 eBooks around my Blog’s niche
• Create at least 1 fully-featured customizable Thesis Theme Skin
• Create at least 1 high quality FREE Wordpress Theme for my readers
• Weekly Newsletters to summarize and build up on the weekly updates
• Create a robust Facebook page and build a group around my Blog
• Create a group of people who not only get something out of my Blog, but are happy enough to spread the word around

I want to use this post as a Vision for Thoughts Unlimited, over the next year.  Let me come back to the same post, 1 year from now, to see where I stand then and what were my mistakes!!

All have a wonderful week ahead!

I came across this interesting and thoughtful post from India Uncut (by Amit Verma).  The entire post is based on a wonderful Venn diagram by Bud Caddell.

This diagram hits the nail exactly on what most of us struggle to do.  Everyone wants to be on the ‘Hooray!’ area – but that is just too ideal!

I think this diagram can be used the following way:

• Find out where you are and why do you think so (write down the exact reasons, to the finest level)
• Find out where you want to go and why do you think so (write down the exact reasons, to the finest level)
• Chalk out an action plan to reach from where you are to where you want to go

Though the terms mentioned here like – Learn to Say ‘No’, Learn to do this better – sound simple, they can take ages to achieve.

So now the million-dollar question: Where you are and where you want to go?

You can read Bud Caddell’s original post here - http://whatconsumesme.com/2009/what-im-writing/how-to-be-happy-in-business-venn-diagram/

Thoughts are very powerful – only if they blossom into something tangible.  How many times you came across an innovative or revolutionary idea, just to forget it an hour later? I don’t know about you, but I deal with this situation very often.  That is why, I use the following simple but very powerful tools to manage my thoughts, ideas, pointers and other essential information.

Microsoft OneNote

I fell in love with this wonderful tool from Microsoft, right from the day I started using it.  It helps you keep track of everything – right from the books to read for a month to an idea that can change the world!

I essentially use OneNote for the following:

• Organize Personal information – like travel plans, books and movies, bill payment receipts and so on
• Collection of useful and interesting information -  when I read some interesting stuff on the web and instead of just bookmarking it, I take a glimpse out of the core information to my OneNote
• Blogging Ideas – I get over 20-30 blogging ideas every week but just 2-3 of them turn into my blog posts.  I capture all these ideas on my OneNote, gather more information and finally decide which one to blog on
• To do – I tried so many to-do software but OneNote helps me like nothing else does.  I write down the tasks, assign priorities and sometime use the snapshot as my desktop wallpaper
• For anything else to keep track of…

The only downside with OneNote is that it is NOT free, but putting your money on is well worth it.

FreeMind

As the name suggests, this is a free software available on SourceForge.  You can read about it and download from here – http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Though FreeMind seems redundant together with OneNote, it serves a completely different purpose.  It helps you build on your ideas and tasks.

I use it very much for my Application Development projects.  Once the requirements and specifications are done, I create a “MindMap” out of them using FreeMind.  It gives you a clear picture of the different activities, dependencies, priorities and their status.  I would recommend using FreeMind for building on your ideas and evolution of tasks.

In short, for anyone dealing with many tasks or information everyday, these tools come in really handy.

I would love to hear your thoughts or ideas on the usage of these tools.  Feel free to poke me!!

I learned through my friend Tub (Balajikumara) about a few well known Bitsians making it to the top in the UPSC Civil Services examinations.  Bitsians have left their mark all over and IAS cannot be an exception.

You can read more about this here – http://www.bitsaa.org/news/25913/BITSians-shine-in-UPSC-exams-BITS-to-IAS-google-group-Announcement.htm

It is heartening to see so many great minds coming up to serve the nation, throwing away lucrative corporate offers.  Hats off to them…

P.S. – Bitsians refer to the renowned products (a.k.a. ex-students) of BITS Pilani in India

Hello to all readers of Thoughts Unlimited. We had a wonderful time so far, but somehow I am unhappy about my blogging routine, schedule and topics.

I did some homework and came up with a plan on how take this blog forward. Following is what in store for all you readers, in the coming days…

I have decided on a few categories and almost all of my posts will belong to one of these:

• Technology Tips and Resources
• Blogging, SEO and Twitter Tips
• Personal Finance Tips

There may be one-off posts on other topics but these will form the mainstream.

Also, the posts on these categories will be spread across the week – Technology Sunday/Monday, Blogging Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, Finance Friday and General Saturday…

I am working on redesigning my blog to make it simpler for you to navigate and access the contents.

All I need from you folks at this stage is constant and open feedback on all my experiments.  I would be glad to take in comments like “Your blog sucks as I can’t see my comments”.

I will work my best to provide you the best of contents from all around the web and improve your technology life.

Times are bad and you don’t need a blog post to tell that!

This blog post is all about suggestions for you, to lead a healthy and successful financial life.  By no means this is a comprehensive list, but sure to provide a start.

Beware of Credit Cards !!

Credit Cards are very useful and at the same time, highly misused tools in the financial world.  They are supposed to be used as alternatives to cash, to prevent you from carrying too much of them but not when there is NO cash.  Certain thumb rules of Credit Card usage are:

• Never use Credit Cards when you are out of cash, unless absolutely necessary
• Never, ever withdraw cash with your Credit Card.  It is one of the costliest credits you can ever get…
• Always pay off the entire amount on your Monthly Credit Card Bill.  Defer payment only when it is absolutely impossible to pay it off
• Be extra careful about revealing your Credit Card details on websites or over the phone.  Finally, you and only you will be responsible for any misuse and pay off
• Never use Credit Cards for expenses that are more than 50% of your monthly earnings, unless absolutely necessary
• Final word – Avoid Credit Card usage when possible !!

Follow the 1/3 Rule

It is not just about earning huge sums – it is all about what you do with it.  All of us have commitments and mandatory expenses.  Here is a simple rule on how to better manage your spending:

• Use 1/3 of your monthly earnings for all your expenditure needs
• Use 1/3 of your monthly earnings for all your investment needs
• Use 1/3 of your monthly earnings for all your saving needs

I am sure this is good for a start and you can build on it as you move along.

Foreclose your Loans whenever possible

It is hardly possible for any of us, to live without loans.  Auto Loans and Home Loans are order of the day and you can rarely get out of this virtuous cycle.

Whenever you take a loan, clearly understand the foreclosure norms for that type of loan.  For example, if you plan to repay the entire loan in say 6 months of time, what would be charges levied on you.  And, whenever you have sufficient balance in your savings kitty, the first thing you should consider doing, is to get out of debt.

New Loans to Close existing Loans – A Strict NO NO!!

It may be tempting to go for fresh loans, to close some of your existing loans as you are tired of repaying them.  Avoid this deadly practice, as much as possible.  Sometimes, it may be fruitful if the rates of interest for the new loan are drastically less than the older one.  But many a times, you will end up losing more money than repaying the original loan.

Another similar catch, is to transfer credit card balances from Card A to Card B.  Again, there are lot of loopholes here and ultimately you might stand to lose more money.

If you definitely have to do any one of these, exercise extreme care !!

Maintain a Note of your Daily expenses

I know many of us have it as part of our New Year resolutions!!  But sadly, many of us don’t succeed in putting this into practice, throughout the year.

This primarily serves two purposes:

• Getting a grip on where your hard earned money goes
• Identifying some unnecessary expenditures towards the end of a month and work on avoiding them

Hope you found this post useful.  Feel free to add in additional points, as comments to this post.

Photo Credit:Andres Rueda

First things first – Wish you all the readers, a very happy and productive New Year!

I have a regular habit of coming up with attractive new year resolutions, but find it really tough to achieve them.  So, one of my resolution is always to – Achieve all other resolutions

Here is the list of my Blogging Resolutions for the year of 2009.  I hope to work on these, for the days to come:

• Make my blog and posts, much better!!
• Increase the Subscriber base to at least 100 and Page hits to at least 25000
• Better my Alexa Rank by at least 50%
• Enter Google Page Rank!!
• Start with Guest Blogging
• Start with SEO Services

Wish me good luck on moving towards these targets and Wish you good luck on whatever you do!

Grassroutes is a social venture by a non-profit society, Youth Factor. This is an initiative to “zoom in” on changes that are happening in various places of our country, spearheaded by many organizations not heard of at a larger scale. Grassroutes tries to handle this by forming a group of young minds who travel to the roots of change, meet the people involved, experience the change first-hand and share it with the outside world.

In addition, these people serve as ambassadors of organizations that are responsible for the change and help engage more people to contribute towards these organizations. Following links should help you know more about this venture. Great to know that there are many minds behind this from my alma mater, BITS Pilani.

Grassroutes Home

Grassroutes Program

Grassroutes Q&A

Grassroutes Blog

Grassroutes Team Blog