SearchMyCampus: Backstage

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!

SearchMyCampus crossed 10,000 listings today! Not bad for an 8 month old website don’t you think? There are more than 10,000 people out there who think our idea is useful. Whoa. Overwhelming thought.

Had a small celebration with the team today. Already looking to see how we can get the next 10,000!

Well, as my absence probably signifies, we’ve been up to quite a bit since I last updated! We’ve got some new features that should make life so much easier for you, we’ve a got a brand new marketing campaign coming up, and we’ve got a lot of interesting new advertisements on the website that should definitely be useful to all you students out there.

Let’s begin with the new features first.

1. Posting is now A LOT easier since you don’t need to have an e-mail address, just a mobile number will do. All you need to do to post an advertisement is just enter your advertisement details, create your own username and password and enter your mobile number and/or e-mail ID. Your advertisement is on the site almost instantly. Watch out for a Help video that tells you exactly how to go about posting an advertisement coming very soon on the website. (My first attempt at making a video! Well, probably not something I should be bragging about actually seeing the results, so pretend you didn’t read that)

2. You don’t have to keep logging on to SearchMyCampus.com anymore to see the latest updates in all our categories. Just subscribe to our RSS feeds and get the latest advertisements in your feed reader! (Course that doesn’t mean we don’t want you to come visit, we love having you around)

3. Well this one is still in the final stages of planning, but I’ll spill the beans anyway. You can now SMS us to get your advertisement posted on the website, without actually having to be online. How, you ask? Just SMS <SMC> to 56677 and we’ll call you within 24 hours to get your information from you. You don’t have to move a muscle and your advertisement will be live on the site instantly.

Good or what? Give us more feedback about what we can do to make SearchMyCampus.com easier for you to use and we’ll work on it to give you what you want.

We’ve been trying to spread the word about the site for a while now. We were at the Delhi University campus all through the admissions period giving out free copies of our advertisements so that students could find a place to stay easily. While it was a lot of fun, we still need to go just a little bit bigger which is why we’re going to be on radio now! Watch out for advertisements throughout the next couple of weeks! Also, lookout for SearchMyCampus.com stickers on all your friendly neighbourhood autos also starting next week. More about these in the next few posts!

We’re getting some pretty cool advertisements on the site now. We’ve NGOs offering internships, companies offering part time and full time jobs and a score of PGs renting out rooms. Come take a look, I’m sure you’ll find something you need. Post an advertisement for books, carpools, tutors etc. so you can get other students to help you out. We’ve got a lot more new stuff coming up so check in again for more updates on what we’re doing soon!

So its beginning to sink in. You’ve been accepted into Delhi University. You always wanted to go there and now its finally happened. But you’re also realizing you’re going to have to live on your own now. You’ll have to find a room to stay in, you’ll have to hunt for food, do your own laundry, and *gulp* live on a budget!

Never fear, SearchMyCampus.com is here! We’ve created a brand new feature called Tips & Info where you can get all the information you need about where to stay around your campus, what you can expect to pay and what are the facilities you can expect! Useful yes? The information has been collected based on the experiences of senior students and alumni from all the universities, so you know it’ll tell you exactly what you need without any marketing spiels or bias. We’ve done our best to put in everything we thought you’d need when you went house hunting, but in case there’s something we’ve missed out let us know and we’ll put it right in. The information is available for Delhi University, Bangalore University, Hyderabad University and Osmania University at present with new campuses being added every day. Just visit the Tips & Info section under the Housing tab to find out what you need to know!

Look out for similar information for jobs coming soon!

The SearchMyCampus.com team made a royal visit among its users last week . We decided to actually become part of the mad rush that is the Delhi University admissions period to see exactly where we can be of use. We went bearing gifts. Water to be exact. We figured there would be a lot of people standing around for hours without food or water and they could use some help. We were definitely right about that one!

I learnt many things. Being a Delhi University student at North Campus looks like a lot of fun. The Delhi University Students Union puzzles me. The metro is a brilliant invention. People are more interested in getting admissions at this time than they are in getting a place to stay. Hmm. The last one was especially useful. Some of the more far sighted ones welcomed us with open arms when we told them we were saviours come to offer them a room to live in at university. The shorter sighted ones seemed more concerned about finding out about the admissions procedure and filling in their admissions form correctly than talking to us. Hmph.

Oh well, we tried anyway. We have a lot of advertisements from paying guest accomodation owners and hostel owners on SearchMyCampus.com so if you’re looking for a place to stay during term time, definitely look us up! Post an advertisement saying exactly where you’d like to stay and what kind of room you’d like, and you’ll have pg and hostel owners falling over themselves to give you what you need! Now all you need to do it post an ad and even if you can’t check your e-mail regularly, you can receive responses via SMS which should make the whole process a lot easier. Let us know if you have any problems with it, and we’ll do our best to resolve them asap! 

SearchMyCampus.com’s first television appearance! (Well the first appearance that people actually saw anyway). Check out the Video!

Yes. It’s happened. Really. It’s finally out. SearchMyCampus.com Version 2.0 has been launched! 2 months of promising. 2 months of squabbling over which shade of blue (not green!) was better. 2 months of targets. Planning. Rescheduling. But at the end it was all worth it. If you were thought we were good before, look at us now!

Lets take a look at whats different about us now:

The design and layout, of course. A lot more colour, a lot more energy, a lot more ‘pizazz’.

Brand new discussion forums. Want to talk about your latest internship or ask someone how to get the best pg? Use the forums to meet students from your university who’ll know exactly what you’re talking about.

A different post form. Why’d we need to do that? So you can save yourself the bother of having to verify your ad everytime you posted. Just create a username and password once and use it to log in so that your post is automatically saved without having to verify it through your e-mail.

SMS responses. Probably one of my favourite things about the new site. Users can now respond to your ad via SMS so you don’t have to keep checking your e-mail to see if someone’s responded!

Resume Uploads. Think an advertisement just isn’t enough to tell employers about your long list of achievements? Upload your resume so they know exactly what they’re getting if they hire you!

Streamlined categories. We’ve removed all the clutter that you didn’t really use anyway and made the categories simpler to understand!

All powerful Search. Look for exactly what you need using the new search panels! Google couldn’t do better. (Well, almost)

It’s still in the beta stage right now so expect a few bugs but we’re working on getting those fixed asap. Give us feedback! Use the contact information given on the website or leave us a comment here to tell us what you think of it.We’ll even accept criticism as long you aren’t too mean about it

SearchMyCampus.com or Valyoo as we’re now called, has a new home! We’ve moved most of our team into a slightly bigger place, though the old office is still our development centre. It was high time we did, because we were spilling onto the streets already, and we’re still not done expanding!Its only been a week but its been pretty great:) Not only do we have windows now, we have huge bay windows! I managed to fight off everyone else for the seat next to the windows and got a firsthand view of the storm we had yesterday. It was quite fun! Not only did our roof and cable tv satellite dish fly off, but for a minute I thought I saw our neighbour’s annoying pug get blown away with the wind. He had it coming that one. *mutters*

Anyway, that isn’t the only change happening around here. We’ve got a new content writer who is working on research for our new features. If anyone out there can tell us a bit more about housing around various campuses in the country, we’d be eternally grateful. We’ve also got some new developers coming in, as well as more content writers. Our sales team has become stronger with the addition of a new executive so overall our organization is growing quite rapidly. *sentimental sigh*

We’re gearing up for the admissions period and making a lot of changes to the website. I won’t say when they will be live this time, because I’ve realized I jinx it everytime I say something. You’ll just have to be surprised when it actually happens now. I’ll definitely report it here first so keep checking back to see if its happened yet!

On other news, BarCamp Delhi is happening this Saturday and most of our team plans to be there! I’m personally quite excited because I really enjoyed BarCamp Mumbai in March, and I’m sure this will be just as good. There’s just a different kind of energy around start up events that I find very exciting. We’re also hoping to meet software engineers, SEO experts and web designers at the event who would be interested in joining our team so if anyone’s interested leave a comment here or mail me at vidhaj@searchmycampus.com.

We’re also looking into some pretty exciting collaborations with a lot of other student organizations and start ups out there which I’m really looking forward to. Should help us improve our service for our students to a very large extent.   

The new features are going along fine. I’ll be putting up a questionnaire here very soon that I’d really appreciate quick responses to. It would really help us in making the site more useful to students everywhere so spill your guts and tell us all we need to know! Will be back with more updates soon! Mail me with suggestions/feedback/comments/collaboration requests/recruitement opportunities or leave a comment here to get in touch! 

That’s the simple logic behind SearchMyCampus. You have a need, you make it known. 

The term is coming to a close for most universities across India, and this is the time when most people need to get rid of stuff. Your mum isn’t going to want cupboards full of books you don’t need anymore, mobile phones that haven’t been used for months, bicycles you promised yourself you would use but never did, table lamps and furniture you spent a fortune on while you were at college but can’t be bothered to lug back home and so on. That’s when you need SearchMyCampus.com. There are probably several other students who need those books for the coming year, who need furniture when they move to university, students who need used mobile phones and laptops. They need to know you have this stuff to sell, and sell cheap. You post an advertisement, they respond to it, and you have yourself a mutually beneficial transaction. Makes sense doesn’t it? Other alternative-you don’t post an advertisement, they don’t know you have something to sell. They go out and buy something brand new leaving themselves with no money for other essentials such as maybe food or clothes. You lug your stuff back home and add it to the already growing pile of useless junk that could have potentially earned you a quick buck.

This also works the other way around. You know you’re moving to university soon. You’re going to need things that graduating students want to get rid of now. You post an advertisement, you get a response, you get exactly what you’re going to need and at a much cheaper rate than you would if you’d waited till the beginning of the new semester.

Better still, summer’s approaching very fast and you have all this free time on your hands and a desperate need for money. Look for a part time job or an internship! All the ‘cool’ kids are doing it:). Post an advertisement bragging about your brilliance and let companies know that they need you! Think you’re too good to work under someone? Think big! Start your business. Initiate an event. Offer your services as a freelancer. Volunteer with an NGO and make a difference to someone’s life. Post an advertisement letting people know what they’re missing out by not using your services!

My basic point here is that you need to think smart and use your resources carefully. We’re offering a free service here, use it! Every student needs pretty similar things while they are at university and if you just take the initiative to make your need known, the chances of you getting exactly what you want are high.

We’ve done our best to make the process of posting an advertisement on SearchMyCampus.com as simple as possible. You think it’s easier to reply to an existing advertisement than going through the bother of posting a new one? Think again. You just need to know what you need, and you have yourself an advertisement. We won’t judge you on your spelling or your grammar. You just have to be a student or a service provider, you have to have a genuine need to transact with another student or service provider and you need to be able sing the National Anthem 5 times in a row. (Sorry, bad joke) That’s it. See how simple? Still have some queries? Mail us and let us know. Leave us a comment here. We’ll help you resolve them and make the process simpler for other students who come after you. So humour us, go make a post today!

SearchMyCampus has now become part of Valyoo. No, we haven’t sold out to another company. We wouldn’t do that. (Not unless we got a lot of money for it at least. Enough to buy a small country maybe. Nah, I’m just kidding, not even then).We just went and created our own company. Or at least we’re in the process of doing that.  Our website is ready anyway, even if it isn’t totally official yet. You can visit us at Valyoo.in for more details about the range of services and solutions that we offer.

Other than that the design for the new site is finally ready. I know I’ve been saying that for months now, but it really is this time. Apart from an alien invasion or other similar unplanned events that we are not responsible for, we should be able to release it very soon. I know we’re not meant to toot our own trumpet and all, but it really does look very cool. We’ve tried to retain the simplicity of navigation though because that is always our first consideration so if you think it’s difficult to use, just let us know and we’ll rap our designer on the knuckles. We’ve done a lot of testing on it, so we’re pretty sure it should just make the whole process much easier than before. I was looking at Cleartrip.com the other day and I was quite impressed by how simple the navigability was. I’d read about them getting awards for their UI, but I hadn’t really had a chance to experience it (what with never getting to travel and all ). It was exemplary.

Along with the new design, our new features include a discussion forum as I’ve mentioned before, and an option to send an SMS in response to a classifieds post. We’re sure that should make the process a lot simpler for people who don’t have e-mail (yes we’ve met some) and people who text more than they talk. (Well it’s just a lot quicker!)

We’ve also started on some new projects as part of Valyoo, the most exciting of which is an online learning portal where students can take tuitions through the internet. I was a bit unsure about why anyone would prefer a virtual tutor to a real one, but then I realized it would be a big help to students from other parts of the world who are studying for CBSE examinations and don’t have access to regular tuitions. It would also help people like me who feel that 4 AM is the best time to study because they can just get a tutor from say Australia or someplace where the timing is slightly better suited to the tutor as well.  (I suggested 4 AM tuitions to my tutor once, but for some reason she wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as I was).

We’re still looking for software developers, SEO specialists and web designers so if you’re any one of these or know someone who is, then call me now or mail me at vidhaj@valyoo.in.