The Faustian deal !

The Faustian deal!

The latest get rich quick scheme which has hit the capital are news websites. If you are somebody who can strike fear in the hearts of banias, netas or PSUs , start a website. If you are not lucky enought to wield that kind of power, at least do you have a near relative who can do so ?

Do not wait anymore ! Start a news website and you will be deluged with ads! Never mind if your website is a few hours old !

Website veterans who have been struggling to keep their creations alive have to beg and borrow to keep up their desperate efforts . And I really pity those who run Oriya websites! Nobody bothers to give any kind of support to the language websites though everybody laments publicily that Oriya is in its death throes !

A guy who runs an immensely popular Oriya website which has a very interesting coverage of all issues related to Orissa, including a sizeable space devoted to NROs is yet to break even. The editor has to do everything himself, since he cannot afford to keep staff members to collect or write stories. No PSU or company gives him ads though he is struggling for the last three years!

Ofcourse, there are some quid pro quos involved if you want to start an ad attracting website.

You have to carry a review of the boring poetry written by the dumbass PRO of the PSU who desperately masquerades as a literateur to impress his bosses.

Or you have to carry sickeningly repeated news of how the company is working hard for the prosperity of the state (and ofcourse, bleeding us in the process) and so on and so forth!

And the worst thing is that you have lick the boots of the PR guys before they even agree to give you an ad ! And don't think the ad will come by courier or email. You have to run to them umpteen times before you see the order!

And the worst thing is the Faustian deal! You have to assure your benefactors that your website or your relative's paper or channel will not carry any story which may prick their public image!

By the time the ad is in your hands, you forget that you are a human being with a set of values or self respect!

Better to toil as an unskilled labourer and earn a honest wage. The Queen has thoughtfully raised it to seventy bucks a day now! You can buy a day's food supply with this kind of money.

Wonder how these new websites easily make it to the top of the rating charts!

If you are thinking that the editors must be pouring out megabytes of erudite postings which must be bring in the eyeballs, you are crazy! BS ! Nothing of that kind happens!

I have arrived at an interesting theorem. The amount of ads a website in Orissa attracts is inversely proportional to your content quality! The bottom of the barrel websites are the ones which are the most successful in attracting ads!

You just have to launch it and...

put out baasi khabar as hot news what you read in the morning papers,.... carry feeds from agencies,...have no editorial ever,... carry a photo of the daily demos in front of the Assembly .. and pshh you are done!

So my dear readers, start a website. Do not wait any longer.

But before you do, I hope somebody in your family is a barishta sambadika! Otherwise, you will not even get a gudaku ad!