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"We were just a group of amateurs, a leanly funded media organization with limited resources"- remarked Tarun J Tejpal, Editor-in-chief, Tehelka.com in his remarkable write-up "Sleaze, senseless greed and dirty heroes" on March 13th on the occasion of arms dealing expose in India. Tehelka expose is a unique story of investigative journalism. What Tehelka did is now a much-talked sensation right across the country that led to an untold story of an effective Web strategy.

The intelligent move of Tehelka to become an eye-popping Web site over a period of twelve months is really appreciable, reasonably effective and triggers a lot on an good Webby move. Tehelka did it not with the help of award winning great marketing strategy. They did it with the common sense to look at what the product is and how best it can be put across to a larger audience, perhaps to the largest audience, the mass Indian ‘janata’, who considers Indian defense as the only sacred cow in the world of Indian corruption.

Those who are well versed in Web site promotion and ecommerce say- "it isn’t just a job, It’s an adventure". Says Jimworld.com- one of the most popular Web site promotion advisors- "If you're here (Internet business), you must have a site that needs more traffic." And the second way of 17 most wild ways to promote your business is "News Creation - if you don't have any news to report to the local media, create some", indicates Jimworld.com along with its punch line- "Promote or Die".

There are many rumours in the air now behind the Tehelka scandal - starting from the possibility of West End Operation funded by Hinduja brothers to slap Indian government against its step to shake Hinduja kingdom on Bofors scam and the possibility of diverting government’s attention from January stock-market crash where SEBI propelled an investigation against well-known stock broking firm- First Global that is said to own 15 percent stake in Tehelka.com. Tejpal argues- " We are journalists. The purpose of this exercise was to break a good story…..if this is not legally valid, nothing is". But, it is sure, the entire adventure worked well for the promotion of Tehelka.

A study of US research firm ‘Competitive Media Reporting’ revealed last year that leading portals in the US are still getting low and negative returns. When the US agency worked on how much each site spent on promoting itself as a ratio of advertising it collected for itself from advertisers, a dazzling picture appeared. The findings revealed GO.com, CNET and Altavista, all spent overall 20 cents for each dollar they attracted in revenue whereas MSN spent an astounding USD1.62 per dollar earned. In India, there are only few highly visible Web sites where the figures for Rediff or Indiainfo could be anywhere upwards of Rs 3-10 for every rupee earned.

In these circumstances of competitive market, Tehelka was very sure about it’s move to present news (and create news also) in a different style, to become the ‘India’s most exciting news-views portal’ with a really impressive Board. The Tehelka board includes - VS Naipaul, Amitabh Bachchan and Khushwant Singh. The team includes CEO Tarun, rumored to be a college drop-out with his 18 year journalism expertise, Aniruddha with more that 8 years of journalistic career (one CBI officer remarked on Aniruddha- "Bloody hell, he should have joined an investigating agency!"), Kunwar who is copywriter, reporter and executive producer for Channel V, along with others.

You must have visited Tehelka.com and must have enjoyed the Armsdeal gravy. But have you really experienced a good Web look that demands the integrity of customization, navigation, communication and content presentation? Surely no. Does this site follow technical consciousness on the size of the homepage (where the size of the homepage is 101 KB)? You will say no. Now, take this red-hot chili that makes thousands of people to scratch their gray-matter on a successful Web story. Is Tehelka.com an example of successful Web site? A big yes. Why?

The site is always in the limelight since its inception. The site has proved to be a much talked one atleast twice in a span of twelve months, first time with Match-fixing and the second time with the latest Arms-gate deal exposure. Without following any traditional promotional activities, it insisted on its core competency- pushing the envelope of journalism to the limits and changing the rules of the Net game by forcing its name to appear in every possible media coverage in India for quite long time. The site has made it possible to force media to run after them.

The total West-End operation expense could be somewhere between 10-12 lacks including the cost of the Spycam, feeding the defense people at different stages and forcing the vulnerability of the political establishment to the monetary inducements. What is the return? A stunning coverage of a start-up project called Tehelka.com by media for 24 hours, at-least for a period of 10 days, with an excellent top-of-the-mind awareness right across the country. Additionally, Tehelka.com is quite successful to distinguish itself from any other Dotcom and dig a new way to run a true Web business. What more do you need to promote a Web site, to drive an effective Web strategy by a leanly funded media organization with limited resources? Are Web leaders ready for any ‘sting’ investigative Net game?

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