Amazon Kindle Unlimited - eBook Review - SEO 2016

I work for an ecommerce company as a category manager. I am often faced with situation where I see my sales dwindling over a span of days. If I compare the sales of the same product group such as say home safes last month vis-a-vis this month, there would be substantial difference in the total sales. I always use to wonder how this happened?

Google analytics (GA) is the resource I used to trace the problem to its root. I figured the most logical thing for dwindling sales would be either the customers have lost interest in visiting the website i.e. drop in traffic or I am out of stock or over priced.
After going through GA data I figured that a lot of visitors (as much as 60%) come on the website through search.  If the visitors are down, the category is not showing up in the search results correctly. If my category and product group is lost on the search results, the traffic wont reach me at all. Thats when I look at amazon for a book that would show me how to improve my search engine rating. This is called SEO.

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is great resource for solving your unique problems such as parenting advice, car buying advice, Excel tips or anything that you can think of. I searched for SEO related eBooks on Kindle Unlimited and found two such books which I will review below.



1. SEO 2016: The Complete Guide To SEO And Getting Traffic From Google I purchased ( means read for free as I am Kindle Unlimited customer) this eBook first, this ebook is about 246 pages and will take a maximum of two to three days of effort to completely read through. My verdict is that, the content was not really organized in an easy to understand manner. I couldnt get grasp and understanding on a number of topics that are relevant to getting the listings on top such as backlinks, local search optimization, search engine updates. The author has written this book in a hurried manner. Post completing this book, you will not have the confidence is dealing with the regular concepts.

However, the good part about this book was that I got a list of great resources through which I could work on keyword research. Author has compiled a good resource links in the book.
If you are a Kindle Unlimited customer you can still read this book for free at the below link
SEO 2016: The Complete Guide To SEO And Getting Traffic From Google
2. SEO 2016: Learn Search Engine Optimization With Smart Internet Marketing Strategies This eBook was what I was looking for. It was written in a true technical manner, the author has spent considerable time on building the basic concepts such as keyword research, on page SEO, Social Media, LinkBuilding. The author has also detailed what each google update does to what aspect of the search and how Google overall ranks each page. The author has written a chapter on troubleshooting common SEO problems in a detail step by step guide at the end of the book. There is additional bonus chapter on PPC guide, penguin 2.0 and hummingbird update.

From an ecommerce professional perspective, I got a lot of feed through these books on how to improve the overall listing quality and improve site conversions. I recommend these books to those who want to learn and read about SEO.

SEO 2016: Learn Search Engine Optimization With Smart Internet Marketing Strategies

Complete Process of SBI home loans

I decided to write this blog because unlike all other things searchable on the internet there is no information about SBI home loan detailed process. From the day you apply and till the date the loan is really disbursed, one is really in the dark with respect to time and process. SBI is not very vocal about the process they follow to decide on the home loan application. 
The winner in my story is SBI and when my loan got sanctioned, I had the same excitement as that of an ecommerce startup who raises funds for expansion.

The structure of SBI home loan process what I dealt with. 

1. Application and Pre-Authorization -
Docs required here are address proof, salary proof (stamped by HR), visiting card or company id card, passport size photos, your assets and liabilities statement, do ensure to write the total amount of premium paid till date while writing about LIC policies. This forms the base of your assets which decides your loan. If possible do buy your CIBIL score as this will help you understand the likelihood of loan getting sanctioned through the score.


Basis your income and current expenses, you are granted a pre-authorization sanction letter for the amount you applied for, which is valid for about 4 months. Ensure that you get pre-authorization done so that you have a case building up at the branch.You are charged for this by the bank.

2. Purchase agreement and search title - Post your application, the legal empannelled lawyer will review your property agreement and he will also take title search report. This is a very grey area and expect some queries that will be raised by the lawyer and this is the most time consuming part. Whenever you are buying a house, ensure that the housing society where you are buying a house has a deemed conveyance. A general notion is that, a deemed conveyance is assumed post society formation but it is not unless society has applied for it. Most societies have not applied for deemed conveyance and in case the search report shows the society property being mortgaged to the bank, it will delay your application. 
This might happen when the builder of the building mortgages the land to the bank to finance the building cost. Although technically this doesn’t affect your title but its what lawyers raise queries upon. 
If your builder is Lodha Builders then getting a clarification letter itself is really tough. I really do wonder how Lodha builders do not have a simple support line or customer support team which responds at all, adding to this there is no law regulating builders as well to make sure they respond the customer queries in time.

Index II document - This is the most important document and is easy to procure from registration office ( actual expense is Rs. 100 max but through broker it may go to Rs.500). This document is also available online, all you need is agreement registration number (which is stamped on the agreement)
You can get this from the below link.
https://esearchigr.maharashtra.gov.in/testingesearch/wfsearch.aspx

All the documentation so far culminates itself into one big file which actually moves across the organization... For getting online status of your loan application you can visit this link.
https://www.sbi.co.in/user.htm?action=sbilosstatus


This will give you status for the heck of it. 

 


3. Follow up!!! - This is where you will spend a lot of your time. Since SBI is not known to be transparent in their process you will not know where you loan is really stuck.
Follow up is required with RACPC, Branch, Lawyer etc. If possible choose a branch where your relatives or people you know work, this will really provide you with useful insight information about your loan and probable solutions to the queries.

4. Sanction & documentation - This is the stage where you always want to be in from the day you applied for home loan, remember time spent when you reach this stage will be in months. Post sanction you will get an appointment for documentation with RACPC and you may have to revisit the RACPC after this appointment since they would not have told you before hand all the documents that are required.

As a bonus gesture - SBI will offer you credit card, home loan insurance (not really required to buy)

5. Follow up !!! - With branch, RACPC for your disbursal. Once done, then you are part of the few lucky guys who will save money.

There are couple of things to note before you apply to SBI

1. Do open an account with SBI first, ensure not to have any joint account through which you will pay the builder or your seller, unless this account is shared with your co-app. Choose a branch where your relative works or is closer from the society where you are buying the house from. This increases the probability that a similar case is already sanctioned. 
2. Be ready for follow up - Its RACPC which disburses the amount to the seller at the behest of the branch. You need to keep in touch with both POCs. The POCs will be approacheable (remember everybody pressurises them from Bosses to Polititions, they are humble but overburdened)
3.  Time frame - The average time frame is more than 3-4 months, keep your expectation really low when dealing with SBI especially when it comes to documentation. Expect that they will ask you to bring a really non-sensical document. Mine took more than 4 months.
4. If your loan has a women as first applicant, do ensure to make her first owner in your agreement. IT DOESNT MATTER WHO PAYS THE STAMP DUTY, it could be you or your wife.
5. You will always wonder during the whole time that even with this rigourous & time consuming process, the king of good times was able to dupe SBI for 800 cr!!! You loan was still miniscule compared to 800 cr :-)

 Next blog will be dedicated to the loosers  called HDFC Home loans