I’ve Resigned from Google – Why I quit my day job
Posted by yhk on Jul 1, 2010
Its been ages since I last updated this blog, and I do so now because of a huge change in my life. Yes – I’ve quit my Google day job. August 6, 2010 will be my last day in the organization. The reason: I am starting my own company.
I am starting a pay per click management company, with my elder brother Obair Khan, which will be based in Hyderabad, India (where Google’s headquarters in India is). The new company is called PepperClick as a pun for ‘pay per click.’
The decision to quit was inarguably one of the most difficult decisions in my life. I thought about it for more than a year and a half until I finally took the plunge. Outlined below are the reasons why I quit my job:
1) No new learnings:
I’ve spent 4 years at Google now and for the past one year, I have hardly learned anything new. I’ve been repeating the same stuff over and over again and the monotony got to me.
2) Shift in focus
The team I have worked with for the past 2 years started off as an optimization team where we worked aggressively on improving AdWords account performance for hundreds of advertisers every quarter. This is when I joined the team and really loved the work we did. However, the shift slowly moved towards sales where we were supposed to get on the phone and pitch several features related to AdWords which our advertisers were not using. I like being good at Adwords and knowing what to do but sales is not my cup of tea. Personal opinion this.
3) The motivators:
The people that motivated me to do this are the biggest influence in making this move. I list them below:
(i) My dad: he’s been into business for more than a decade now, previously being a service person. Looking at him I always feel that I can manage a business successfully too, inshallah.
(ii) Steve Pavlina: Obair once recommended one of Steve’s articles to me titled ‘10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.’ The writeup gave me the strength necessary to make this decision. I always read it when I get second thoughts and it acts like an excellent motivator. Thanks, Steve!
(iii) Rocket Singh: during the months of contemplation, I saw this movie called Rocket Singh about a salesman who starts his own company and how he does it. I really loved the movie and so did Obair. Is it because we related to it in some way? I’d like to think so… 
(iv) Michael J. Katz: I read one of his articles a few months before quitting. I believe it is definitely worth a read for anyone who is planning to quit and start a business but don’t have the courage to do so. The article is titled ‘10 really good reasons to quit your job and start your own business.’
(v) Michael Fox: a Xoogler (ex-Google employee) from Sydney Australia quit his Google job and started ShoesOfPrey. I really loved his business idea and admired his courage. He puts across his thoughts at each stage of the idea on his blog 22Michaels which I find highly motivating.
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Since this business revolves around search engine marketing and AdWords in particular, it is not possible for me to start off while still being with Google. According to the employment contract with Google, I am not supposed to help any agency outside of work or create my own account management service. It comes under the section called ‘Conflict of Interest.’ Therefore, I’ll be starting from scratch when I leave Google and will start creating a client base then.
Wish me luck!
Younus Khan
Tip: Using Google’s ‘Wonder wheel’
Posted by yhk on Sep 20, 2009
As discussed in the last post, here we are going to talk about how an advertiser can come up with related themes for their products to advertise on Google’s Content Network. We would like to introduce Google’s ‘Wonder wheel’…tada! This tool will help you come up with related themes to what you actually offer. Lets take an example to understand this better. Lets say an advertiser is selling ‘yoga mats’ and he is trying to create and target secondary themes. To access the tool and get suggestions, he should:
First go to Google Search and perform a search for the product ‘yoga mats’. Next, he should click on the little plus sign right below the search box, as seen in the image below.
After that, he should see a navigation panel on the left-hand side of the page which should have the link to the ‘Wonder wheel.’ Once he clicks that link, he should see a diagrammatic representation of the original search query with the related ones. A screenshot below. He can also click any of the related searches and get further related themes like in the second illustration below.
Content Network Tip: Using Secondary/Complimentary Themes
Posted by yhk on Sep 17, 2009
Google’s Content Network is not just limited to targeting those pages on the publisher network that are highly relevant and talk directly about what you offer to sell, as most advertisers think. A really effective strategy for advertising on the Content Network is creating secondary themes that are likely to convert.
Eg: Someone selling flowers online, apart from targeting websites that talk about flowers, might also want to target websites that talk about or sell chocolates. In such cases, their keyword theme would be something like:
chocolate
buy chocolates
chocolates online
send chocolates online
And the ad text should be something like:
Sending Chocolates?
Why Not Send Some Flowers Too?
Same-day Delivery Available Here!
www.flowers.com
Notice how the ad text tries to build a connection between the theme of the Content Network website and the theme of the advertised website. Advertisers who have used this technique have reported a noticeable increase in clicks and conversions coming from the Content Network. This method allows you to broaden your approach on the Content Network while maintaining high quality clicks.
Curious about how to figure out secondary and related themes? Watch out for our next post which will talk about a Google tool that will help you do just that.
Reasons Why People Quit Orkut and Move To Facebook in India
Posted by yhk on Sep 15, 2009
If you live in Brazil or India, you probably still log in to Orkut. Orkut is still the most popular social networking website in these two countries. However, for India, this probably wont be the case a few months down the line. The graph below, from Google’s ‘Insights for Search,’ shows a clear trend.
Facebook, however, has no significant share in the Social Networking market in Brazil. There is also no trend suggesting any change or market share gain. Below are a few reasons (no specific order) why I believe people move to Facebook from Orkut.
- Facebook offers more privacy, and you can be assured that only your friends get to see your complete profile and not any strangers as has happens on Orkut.
- Orkut is perfect for only those people who have got friends only in Brazil or India. Searching for friends in the Middle-east or even the US (where Orkut was created) will rarely give results. Facebook has a far wider reach and is the dominant social networking website in many countries across the world, and people manage to find long lost buddies with ease.
- The Orkut interface looks a lot more spammy than Facebook.
- You rarely receive “b mi frnd” requests from strangers on Facebook like you always do on Orkut
- Facebook has a lot more cooler features to stay in touch with friends and to know whats going on. Facebook’s updates on the home page and email notifications will rarely ever let you miss an update from a friend or a comment. Its easy to miss stuff on Orkut — especially when something is happening within a community, you need to manually check the community page for updates and are not notified automatically.
- Orkut has copied dozens of Facebook features (status updates, photo comments, certain privacy features — to name a few) which has made it pretty evident who the leader in social networking is.
- Facebook has a lot less spam than Orkut (funny how Google hates spam but has failed to tackle this here).
These are just a few of the many reasons why people do it. If you feel there are more, please feel free to add them as a comment to this post.
Personally, my Orkut account is almost dead. I once used to receive around 10 scraps a day, but now, 10 scraps a year would sound amazing.
Reasons to Advertise on Google’s Content Network
Posted by yhk on Sep 12, 2009
Click here for the article on PepperClick‘s Blog
Tip: Use Google’s Ad Planner Tool
Posted by yhk on Sep 11, 2009
With Google’s Ad Planner tool, you can create media plans for your business and find the audience you are looking for on the internet. This is a 
stand-alone tool which is not linked to AdWords, but it will also show you which websites support Google ads. To get a brief introduction to this tool, watch the video below.
Also, for a more detailed look into this tool and how you can use it effectively, see this recorded webinar by an expert at Google. It talks about what the tool is and its features, and also includes a demo of how the tool is used.
To summarize, here are the features:
- Search and categorize websites on the internet by demographic data (allows you to target only those websites for advertising that match your typical customer’s profile)
- Drill down based on potential keywords your customer/user might search on or similar websites they might visit
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For those AdWords advertisers who believe that targeting the Content Network in general has not really worked for them, this is an answer.
8 Reasons to buy an Apple iPhone
Posted by yhk on Sep 9, 2009
Apples’s iPhone is definitely one of the best phones out there today. Even though it was realeased more than 2 years ago ( June 29, 2007), the technology it uses is still way ahead of what the others use. I got a 2G iPhone (used) about a month ago, and am mighty pleased with how it works and performs. It is amazingly user friendly and made for humans
with common sense. A few strong and good reasons to buy this device:
1. It is priced very competitively. I got a used one for INR 11,000 = 225 USD). You can get a new one for a lot more but I guarantee you its worth it!
2. It’s amazing touch technology is something that has dazzled people and it still does. Competitors have tried mocking or coming up with their own touch technology, but to put it plainly, they have done a miserable job. Its either unresponsive or not smooth as the iPhone’s interface.
3. The user-friendliness of this device is what I like the most. The navigation is not something you need to learn but something that you discover naturally. It has got touch physics which means the phone responds to the speed at which you flick and touch the screen.
4. Instantly connects your phone and the internet (WiFi, 3G, GPRS), and does not treat them separately. You can make calls to any number listed on a website by just clicking on it. Using Google Maps on the iPhone is an absolute pleasure. I remember while using my old phone (motoming) I used to note down numbers from the internet and then dial them manually. Such a waste of time!
5. SMS inbox is in a conversational format like gMail. You dont need to struggle looking for that message you received from a friend 3 months ago. All messages are clubbed based on who sent them and what you sent them…again, thats what I call ‘user-friendly.’
6. A host of amazing applications to download from the Apple App Store. This includes paid and free applications that range from games to business software.
7. Its long batterly life is what makes it an amazing device. It lasts for days in standby and you can speak for hours together without worrying about your battery running out.
8. It is a video iPod plus a phone…need I say more?
If you are planning to purchase a phone any time soon, look nowhere else. As always, Apple is way ahead of its competition.
6 Reasons to Buy a Yamaha R15
Posted by yhk on Jun 12, 2009
I thought Obair (my elder bro) was kidding when he said he wanted to buy an R15 that very day. He might have given it a good thought. After all, it is a big ticket purchase. So anyways, we go together to Ramkot (the used bikes bazaar) and have a really hard time spotting one. We managed to find one in r
ed with scratches all over and a dent on its fuel tank.
Also, that morning, Obair saw a used R15 listing online and contacted the owner. This guy calls us up when we were at Ramkot. His was a blue one, and eventually Obair decided to go in for it. I must say, it was very well maintained. The bike is amazing, and here are a few reasons why you should probably buy this monster.
1.) Amazing Looks:
It is the best looking bike in its category, and easily outshines any bikes that came before it in the Indian market (of course keeping the Hayabusa and R1s out of the picture…we’re talking common man here). The moment you ride it, you know you are riding something awesome and Full article »
Tip: Understanding ROI in Google AdWords
Posted by yhk on Jan 29, 2009
One of the most important success metrics in Google AdWords is your return on investment. This will tell you how much of business AdWords got you, and whether it was worth it. The first time I used AdWords, I promoted my dad’s herbal medicines business. I spent less than $1 in AdWords advertising and got him around $200 in revenue. Thats what I call a super Return on Investment. Watch the video below to understand how it is calculated and what it should mean to your business and AdWords.
8 Reasons To Buy A Nintendo Wii
Posted by yhk on Jan 21, 2009
I wanted to buy a Wii ever since it debuted. In my country, it is not officially launched yet, so its not easily available. Around a year ago, a few sellers had Japanese consoles they were offering, but I decided to wait until I get my hands on an English one. Finally, last week,someone was selling 
one at work. A 4 month old US console with an Indian Adapter, extra controller, Wii Play, Nyko rechargeable batteries and charger. The price was a steal! After playing my first game, I knew I made the right choice. This is way better than buying an Xbox 360 or a PS3. Below, are my reasons why you should consider buying the Nintendo Wii Full article »