This website brings out the genius in you

BANGALORE, INDIA: Faced with tough competition, today websites survive entirely on their innovative quotient. New ideas give them the recognition and an edge over competitors.

When Dhananjayan Thekkiam, entrepreneur, founded www.thekkiam.com, he had to start from scratch. But over the years, he has designed new ways to get more people glued to his websites.

In an interaction with Madan Ramvenkatesh of CIOL, he explains his strategy and what keeps him going in the tough Web world.

CIOL: Firstly, what is thekkiam.com all about.

Dhananjayan: Thekkiam started as an online consulting company in November 2007. As Thekkiam is a one-man show, I had to learn PHP programming, MySQL database integration and about Linux server to implement my first idea, an online quiz. ‘IAmAGenius', an online quiz, was the first idea that was implemented in November 2008 through www.thekkiam.com. The first successful implementation gave confidence to implement more ideas. Till date, we have designed, developed and implemented 7 websites (www.thekkiam.com, www.digitalgeniuses.com , www.tReachOut.com, www.tGoAround.com, www.tGetJobs.com, www.tYouDecide.com, www.vaththa.com) in PHP language with MySQL backend, hosted on a Linux server.

CIOL: When did this concept of online quiz strike you?

Dhananjayan: One of the companies that I approached wanted to hire high profile candidates for mid-senior and above positions in their organization on a regular basis, and were willing to spend good money for the same. Since getting high profile people through online marketing or through head hunters was very difficult, I suggested an idea of an innovative quiz targeting the interests of these high profile people. The idea of this quiz was to draw the target out of their confines into the quizzing site where one could easily and effectively communicate to them through this site.

Though the idea was turned down citing infrastructure criteria, I felt the idea was workable and went ahead with ‘IAmAGenius'

 

CIOL: What drives you towards such ideas of games?

Dhananjayan: My drive is mostly the response from the target group that I initially bounced my ideas to and my gut feel. If the result indicates that the outcome of the idea could be a worthy attempt, then nothing stops me from designing, developing and implementing these ideas. After implementation, they get into the mode of constant upgradation as per the target group's liking.

Even if a small number of target group visits the website regularly, I know that I'm in the right direction and strive towards building a large audience for this website.

CIOL: What are various other flavors of thekkiam.com?

Dhananjayan: The questions of ‘IAmAGenius' online quiz is informative, intuitive and intriguing that makes the participants try choosing the correct answer among the options given.

'IAmAGenius' is a month-long contest consisting of five questions in Level 1, Four questions in Level 2 and Three Questions in Level 3. All Levels are equally spaced in time in a month.

Out of the 12 questions asked every month, some questions deal with issues that would interest us in our everyday lives.

Level 1 involves submitting the answers along with the participant's email. A password is then sent to these email IDs that can be used to login to take the further level questions in this month long quiz.

The winners of the month's quiz get their information along with their picture forever in the ‘Hall of Genius' page in www.thekkiam.com

CIOL: What exactly is the aim of www.digitalgeniuses.com ?

Dhananjayan: www.digitalgeniuses.com is a networking site meant only for the ‘IAmAGenius' online quiz participants. Since most participants are quiz lovers, there is a high chance of finding like-minded people. The participants are awarded points as per their answers in the quiz that can be used in www.digitalgeniuses.com.

This website can be used to send and receive mails, create and join companies and groups, make new friends, Tweet, Blog, advertise, etc., all under one roof. Through these points, users can accumulate points. It also has a governing body, which deducts points of users, who remain inactive for long time. This way, spamming is reduced and inactive members are automatically removed.

 

CIOL: Theses days e-commerce is a happening platform, with tough competition in services, so how well is thekkiam.com and other websites with various services prepared to serve the market?

Dhananjayan: All websites developed under Thekkiam umbrella (www.thekkiam.com, www.digitalgeniuses.com, www.treachout.com, www.tgoaround.com, www.tgetjobs.com, www.tyoudecide.com, www.vaththa.com) are unique and have their own niche carved in the online space. Design-wise, these applications have a well thought out architecture to scale up/plug in and handle any future load. Infrastructure-wise, the websites are hosted on high end Linux-based servers that can cater very high bandwidth which if need be can also be moved to private cloud.

CIOL: The services are unfamiliar to many, any special strategy being planned to reach out to people?

Dhananjayan: Currently, we have been cross promoting the websites internally. Have also been travelling to the places of target groups and spreading awareness and knowledge about the products in and around Bangalore and Chennai. We presented the working of the word building game and about ‘IAmAGenius' online quizzing - www.vaththa.com & www.thekkiam.com - on October 21, 2012 to a quizzing group at PS Senior secondary school, Mylapore, Chennai and presented the working of the word building game- www.vaththa.com - on October 28, 2012 to a quizzing group at IIT Madras. We have also been talking to institutions to present the same to them and promoting the websites in relevant blogs, networking websites and quizzing platforms on the internet.

8. Tell us something in brief about the new www.vaththa.com?

Dhananjayan: www.vaththa.com is an online word building game. Like any word building game, you would first think of a particular word length, and pick each letter from sets of letters shown as options, one at a time to make your word. The twist in this game is, when you are playing with your friends, there are two blocks that will show you the sets of letter options where one is completely random and the other will show the last letter that each person has picked to make their word.

To win, one has to form the word sooner than others from the letter options, then, it would totally depend on what word others are forming, what word accordingly one has to form. This would alter at every level of the game and would make the game all the more exciting and racing.

Adding more fuel to this game is the accessibility that can allow the world to watch the game played amongst some individuals and the chat possibility where the players can chat with one another during and after the game.

 

All games can also be stored and can be retrieved later by the players. www.vaththa.com will be an apt game as a Team building, bonding, Ice breaking event. Can also be played with Clients & Prospects to keep oneself on top of their mind always.

CIOL: What is the revenue model of thekkiam.com looking at?

Dhananjayan: Since the websites have started generating interest, more visitors would require more bandwidth and better infrastructure which come with a cost. So the business that Thekkiam would be looking at currently, would be to make profit even with the growing infrastructure cost which till date has been personal money.

CIOL: According to you, how one can benefit through these sites?

Dhananjayan: As all websites cater to different target group, they have their own unique features.

As stated above, www.thekkiam.com and www.digitalgeniuses.com are quite useful for people to keep themselves updated about the latest news and connect with their friends and families.

Friends,2weet: Here, one can blog, advertise, etc. all under one roof.

www.tReachOut.com: Combines work with socializing skills and helps deliver a tailor-made communication to your every target through their acquaintance.

www.tGoAround.com: Online video directory for Eat outs, Festivals, Picnic Spots, Resorts and Shrines. Also has videos with relevant contact details.

www.tGetJobs.com: Online directory for latest job vacancies available across the world.

www.tYouDecide.com: Collaborative tool to solve business problems. Brings the importance of the time into the digital space, to address business problems in a time bound manner.

CIOL: Any upcoming launches?

Currently in the process of promoting www.vaththa.com. Once it attains some traffic, shall think of implementing more ideas.