Coming Soon: The new, improved SearchMyCampus

July 22nd, 2009

Although the new version of SearchMyCampus is still in progress, we thought we’d give you a sneak preview into the changes you can expect in the new version even before it launches.

1. New Look

Yup, SearchMyCampus is getting a makeover again. While it isn’t different enough that you should be worried, you should definitely expect some changes. Personally I find the new design intuitive, vibrant and very attractive.

2. Service Provider Sections

Employers, coaching centres, PG providers and other service providers get brand new pages on the new website that are dedicated entirely to them. Relevant ads, relevant features, customized user accounts - they get everything they could need and more.

3. New Features

While the first version of the new website won’t have too many of these, over the coming months, we’ve got a host of new features lined up that we won’t reveal just yet. What you can expect in the first version though is the ability to save ads, preview your ad before posting, and post comments on existing ads.

This is just a teaser of all that you can expect over the coming months. We’ve got a lot more up our sleeves that you’ll get to know soon enough. Meanwhile keep the suggestions and feedback coming!

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Posted in Features, Version 3.0 | 2 Comments »

A brand new office, a brand new website

July 13th, 2009

Valyoo’s got a new home. A real office. With windows, doors, workstations, the works. We’re feeling very spoiled right now. It’s definitely a step up from working in a tiny basement where catching mobile phone signal was a luxury. We’ve got ergonomic workstations, big fancy lights, space enough so you don’t have to trip over legs every time you go out. Posh or what?

However, more than the office, what we’re more excited about is SearchMyCampus.com’s new avatar. Yup, SearchMyCampus.com is getting a makeover. As brilliant as our product is, we realized it still had some kinks that needed to be worked out. Tweaks in the user interface, a little process simplification and a new design. We’ve taken time out to speak to a lot of our users, understand what they really need from the website, and do it over in a new language - Rubyonrails. Can’t say too much about it until we’re ready for the release, but definitely keep a watch out for this.

In the meantime, if you’ve got any suggestions or feedback about your experience with the website and how we can make it better, drop us a line at searchmycampus@gmail.com and we’ll take it up in the new version. We aim to please. :)

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Posted in SearchMyCampus.com, Version 3.0 | 1 Comment »

6 Reasons to do an Internship this Summer

February 18th, 2009

 1. It gives you a little more to write on your resume than just your name and phone number; you might even get a recommendation from someone other than your dad’s best friend

2. You can see for yourself whether those long hours spent poring over math and physics were actually worth something

3. Even a stipend is better than having no money at all

4. You can try out a bunch of career options while you’re at college so you have some idea of what you want to do after you graduate

5. You might just land yourself a graduate job if you impress your manager enough  

6. You finally get to tell your dad to leave you alone coz you’ve had a long day at work

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Posted in Miscellaenous | 2 Comments »

5 Reasons to Hire an Intern

February 18th, 2009

1. They don’t need a salary, just a stipend or even just good work experience would do

2. Internships are like extended interviews; you get as long as 2-6 months to decide whether the candidate suits you

3. They’re not afraid of hard work; they’re willing to work even though they don’t have to, they could have been sleeping or partying or whatever it is kids do nowadays

4. They probably don’t even know what PF or Rent Allowance is

5. HR probably won’t let you hire full time employees anyway

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Posted in Miscellaenous | 3 Comments »

CampusConnect

January 28th, 2009

SearchMyCampus is now on Facebook. Well, technically we’ve been for a while. We had a group which many of you were nice enough to join. Then we had a page, which we still need more people to add. But NOW we have our very own application!

Like I mentioned in my last post, we figure that the best way for you to find what you need is by telling more people you need it. I might be able to get you a part time job where I work, but I’d never know you needed one until I told you. You might be able to sell me your old laptop at just the price I’m looking for, but I’d need you to know that I need one. Therefore, we decided we need you to be able to tell people what you want. Even people that aren’t on SearchMyCampus yet!

The first step towards that was the Promote Your Post feature which many of you are already using :) The next step is of course Facebook. It makes perfect sense That’s where all your friends from college are already at. Just give them quick reminders now and then that you need something using CampusConnect.

It’s pretty easy to use. Just add the application, select the university that you are studying in and select your requirement from the list. Add the application to your profile to have a little box there that tells people what you’re looking for. As simple as that. Your friends can view what you need, and message you if they can help. We’ll also see if there are other people in your network or from your campus who can help you find what you’re looking for, and tell you about it.

We’re still in the beta phase and we desperately need feedback. Add the application asap and let us know what you think so we can work some more on it and make it better!

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Posted in Facebook, Features, Promotion | 1 Comment »

Promote your Post

January 7th, 2009

Happy New Year, Seasons Greetings and all the rest of it. We’re cold here in Delhi. Freezing cold. However, we’ve decided to stop whining about it and just brave it out. We’re even getting on with work and rolling out new features on SearchMyCampus. How cool are we! (Pun intended :) )

Anyway, bad jokes aside, we’ve launched some new stuff on SearchMyCampus. We realized that a lot of your requirements could be met just between yourselves. Student requirements i.e. All you need to do is let your friends and contacts know that you’re looking out for something and chances are they can help. So we’ve created a tool that lets you forward your advertisement to all your friends. Say you’ve posted your resume for a job, listed books wanted or for sale, listed your requirement for coaching, requested to join a carpool or whatever, your friends could take a look, and let you know if they can help. The tool is called Promote Post and will be available to you as soon as you verify your listing. We’re also taking this to Facebook and we’ll be launching an application with a similar concept very soon. Watch out for that!

Apart from that, we’re working on improving our existing features. Your ad management systems will be much more comprehensive and user friendly very soon. We’ll also have a more sophisticated search and filtration panel. Plans are also underway for a change in user interface and layout. More about that later.

College fests are finally over, but we’re still looking for other college events across the country that we can attend. We’re also looking for students to help us create awareness about SearchMyCampus so if you’re interested in becoming a campus ambassador for us, drop us a mail at searchmycampus@gmail.com.

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Posted in Features | 1 Comment »

SearchMyCampus: The Year That Was

December 30th, 2008

I hate to sound cliché, but how time does fly! SearchMyCampus just completed its first year of existence, and it is quite amazing how far we’ve come in this time. It’s been a year of hits and near misses and despite all the grey hairs its added to each of our heads, we’ve come out of with far more experience and knowledge than we had when it started.

SearchMyCampus.com was launched in December 2007. The basic concept behind the website was that students had some common needs during their 3-5 years at college which could be resolved by other students, service providers (housing providers, tutors, book sellers, etc) and employers. They needed a means of publicizing their needs to people around their campus who could help them. SearchMyCampus allowed them to post classified advertisements to list their need for jobs, housing, coaching, books, gadgets, transport and more. The additional value we created was establishing different classified websites for each university, effectively creating a portal for each campus e.g. Delhi University classifieds, Bangalore University classifieds, Osmania University classifieds etc. Therefore, students of each university could find what they need within their own campuses, thus making the solution more targeted towards their needs.

The initial goal was to take the product out to the market and let users tell us what they needed from it. We started with a basic prototype of the product with a vague idea about how it could be implemented. The product was first exposed to the public at a fest in Shri Ram College of Commerce, one of the top colleges in Delhi University. The response was far better than we had expected, and it helped us realize that jobs - part time jobs, internships and graduate jobs, seemed to be the most important need faced by every student, with housing and tutoring being close seconds.

Our goal for the next few months was to study product usage and modify the product based on user response. We used feedback from students to launch version 2 of SearchMyCampus.com in May 2008, only 6 months after its initial launch. This version was far more comprehensive in terms of features, and had a better interface and design. We streamlined categories to eliminate those that students weren’t using, added features like discussion forums and basic user accounts, and created better search features than those in the previous version. There was also a complete ugly-duckling-turns-to-swan transformation in terms of website design.

Our initial goal of using feedback from users to enhance value hasn’t changed and we are constantly working on modifying the product to better meet user needs. Over the past 6 months, we have added several features including a comprehensive classified ad management system, the option to receive responses via both e-mail and mobile, information blogs among others. The number of campuses we serve has also increased due to popular demand with several tier 2 and 3 cities and colleges being included in the list.

Apart from a strong product, user participation and content generation was also crucial to generate value. Creating awareness about SearchMyCampus in colleges across the country was therefore essential. We experimented with several promotional techniques over the past year. Besides visiting several college fests, we ran a short campaign on popular radio stations Fever 104 and Hit 95 FM. We also advertised on auto rickshaws around Delhi, focusing especially in the campus areas. The period for admissions in July-August was particularly important for us, with several freshers waiting to be initiated into our community. We were constantly present at campuses in Delhi during this time to publicize our services to students.

SearchMyCampus also enjoyed its 15 minutes of fame with several newspapers writing about us during the past year including the Hindustan Times, Education Times, Indian Express, and Metro Now. We were also featured on news channels like NDTV 24/7, NDTV Metronation and NewsX. This public validation of our product has encouraged us to continue with our efforts.

Our first big milestone was achieved in August 2008, with over 10,000 listings made on SearchMyCampus. The next 10,000 has been far quicker, and we should be achieving that within the next month.

Our biggest learning out of this year has been that communication is the basic problem that students face, and if we manage to create an efficient communication mechanism that serves students, employers and service providers, we can ideally resolve most basic problems including jobs, housing, and coaching. Our focus over the next year is therefore on encouraging user participation to create 2 way communication. This can be done by creating awareness about our services and making our product accessible to all potential users. We have several new ideas in the pipeline to facilitate the same, and the end of 2009 should hopefully see us in a different position than what we are in now.

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Posted in About, SearchMyCampus, SearchMyCampus.com | 2 Comments »

Brand New User Accounts and More

December 6th, 2008

Long overdue update! We’ve made a lot of changes to the website as many of you have hopefully noticed.

One of the most common questions we’d get from people was “Where do I see the responses to my ad?’. Now, besides receiving these through e-mail and SMS, you can also track your responses using your own user account. You can view your ads, edit them, delete them, view responses and respond to people that have responded to you all through your user account. We’ve provided Sign in and Registration links on the top right side of every page so do give it a try.

We’ve also answered many of your requests for new campuses so you’ll now see a longer list of universities available to you including Annamalai University, Andhra University, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chaudhry Charan Singh University, Amity Lucknow and many many more. Ask and you shall receive ;)

Our sign up forms have become just a little bit longer, but that’s only because we wanted you to provide our employers with a little more detail to help them select the right candidates. The more information that is available to them, the easier it is for them to judge your suitability for the posts they are offering so be a sport and fill the forms out fully please!

We’ve got a number of things in the pipeline including user profiles to help users know more about advertisers before they respond to them. Don’t worry, you get to choose how much of your profile can be seen by other users so that your privacy stays protected. A number of other features are also in the offing, but my lips are sealed for the moment so you’ll have to wait a bit to know what they are.

Other than that, many of you might have met some or all of us at various college fests in Delhi. We’ve already been to Gargi and SRCC, and next on the list is Hindu College. That’s right, SearchMyCampus might soon be coming to a fest near you, so do come by and say hello if you’re around!

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Posted in Features, Promotion | 2 Comments »

6 Ways to Earn Money Using SearchMyCampus.com

October 14th, 2008

The way we see it, students need money more than anyone else. You’d need a fortune to be able to afford all the essentials you need to get through college - books, tutors, PG rent, bus fare (or auto fares if you’re all posh), and all the rest. (Well, I can’t exactly say coffee and cigarettes can I. I need to set a good example here) It doesn’t help that your meagre pocket money has the tendency to finish before it even reaches your bank account

So we came up with the perfect solution for you - earn your own pocket money!. Some people get ‘jobs’ *shudder* which isn’t always a bad thing if you’re doing something you actually like. There’s also other ways in which you can earn an extra buck or two to get you through those tough college days. We’ve listed some down for you, and well, surprise surprise, SearchMyCampus can actually help you with a lot of them (ok, all of them):

1. Part Time Jobs: You know we had to put that in. Getting a part time job isn’t all that bad really. You could do something you enjoy like sales or marketing or even finance or software for the brains out there, and get a bit of valuable work experience in the bargain. There a lot of companies that need students to help out part time, and with this brilliant invention called the  internet, sometimes you can even work from home and at flexible timings. Several employers have listed openings for students in our Jobs section, so check it out and see if you find something you’d enjoy.

2. Freelance work: Don’t want to be tied down to a job, try freelancing! Companies are always looking for developers, designers, writers, illustrators and even musicians, so if you’ve got the talent, offer your services to someone who could use your help. The pay’s almost always good, and most people give you the flexibility of working from home and at your own convenience. Advertise your services to companies and individuals on SearchMyCampus.com.

3. Become an entrepreneur: Think you can teach Bill Gates a thing or two about running a business? Start your own! Post an ad in our Job Openings section to find other students who can help you set it up.

4. Sell your stuff: Got piles of rubbish in your cupboards that you never use? The MP3 player you never touched after you got your new iPod, the entire collection of Mills and Boons that you lived on during first year but haven’t even looked at since, the DVD player that’s lying unused since the TV broke? Sell it and get some cash! List what you have on SearchMyCampus and you’ll find other students from your campus who want to buy it from you. (No, you cannot sell your roommate’s stuff while you’re at it. She WILL find out!)

5. Become a tutor: Are you a whizz at subjects that everyone else in your class hates? Tutor  other students doing your course! The pay is sweet and there’s always that warm fuzzy feeling knowing you helped someone out ;) List your services in our Coaching Offered section.

6. Save money: This one’s the easiest really. There’s tons of ways in which you can save money for the more ‘important’ things in college. Initiate a carpool with other people from your campus to save on bus fare or fuel costs; get a roommate to share rent and other expenses; buy your books secondhand from students who have completed the course; get used laptops and mobile phones from other students;and get a secondhand bike or car instead of spending money on a new one. List your requirements in our Roommates, Carpools and Gadgets section.  

These are just some of the more obvious ways. There are a ton of other things you can do to make some money using SearchMyCampus. Will keep listing them as I think of more!

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Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

New Features and More

August 29th, 2008

Sometimes when I enter the office these days, I can almost here the sound of everyone’s brains working.  You go near any person and you almost hear this hmmmmmm…ding……hmmmmm….ding…..hmmm…..lalalala…..hmmm. (hmm= thinking, ding=idea, lala=brief moment of drifting off). Really. There’s all this activity happening, ideas being thrown around, feverish discussions taking place like every new feature we build will change the world as we know it. I’m assuming it’s the same with most good start ups that are at the stage we are at. It’s an exciting place to be. The next big idea to take over the world is probably being thought of at this very moment by a bunch of people holed up in a garage somewhere who haven’t eaten for days,  wearing clothes that haven’t been washed for a while, don’t know what a date means and have forgotten what sunlight looks like.

Anyway, so the updates for this month. New features again! We’ve got this very cool new feature that we’re introducing today. Now every time you post an ad on SearchMyCampus you will automatically receive a list of existing ads that match what you need. So ideally, you could find what you were looking for within minutes! Say for instance, you wanted a PG near North Campus, Delhi University. We’d send you a list of all the advertisements we have on the website for PGs near North Campus and you can just see which ones suit you best and contact them.

We’re also going to have another feature that we call related advertisements on the site very soon, so that every time you look at an ad, you’ll also other similar ads that would be of interest you, which makes it easier to look for exactly what you need.

Other than that, we’ve tried to make posting advertisements easier by adding samples of the kind of text that can go in every field. This saves you the time and effort needed to think about how to write what you need. Just a tip, when you post an advertisement, remember that the other person reading it should find it informative enough to want to respond. The chances of your getting a response are pretty slim if you’ve posted an advertisement that only says ‘tuition’ or ‘I want job’ and doesn’t provide any other information. We don’t expect you to be whizzes at English to compose a decent advertisement. Just a couple of simple sentences that inform people about what exactly you want or offer would be ok.

Replying to advertisements should have become slightly easier with the introduction of one common form to send an SMS and an e-mail to an advertiser. You can upload resumes, images and photos to describe your service or requirement to the advertiser.

Lots of other features in the pipeline, so keep a lookout for that.

Apart from new stuff, we’ve got quite a few kindly auto wallas to advertise for us and you’ll hopefully see lots of auto-rickshaws around Delhi University with SearchMyCampus stickers on them! Which reminds me, you can now post your advertisement on SearchMyCampus without even having to come online. This is the feature I mentioned in my last post. Just SMS <SMC> to <56677> and we’ll call you to help you post your FREE classified advertisement!

P.S: We got a comment from someone in another post about having more personal information about the office and the team on this blog. This post has already become too long, but will devote someposts especially to that very soon!

Posted in Features, Marketing | 1 Comment »

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