The Royal Webmaster Career: Building the Virtual Empire!

Prince Bhumendra Pal Singh is the son of Maharaja Yadvendra Pal Singh and is a direct descendant of Awagarh royal lineage. Awagarh was once the biggest royal estate of Uttar Pradesh, which waned with the dawn of Independent India. Born on 5th February 1978, Kunwar Bhumendra Pal Singh chose to be a webmaster and build his own virtual empire.

The Director of Brand-mantra.com, Prince Bhumendra Pal Singh, offers online and offline marketing and brand promotion services to his clients. The range of services he offers to his clients includes search engine optimization (SEO), graphic designing, and social media marketing (SMM). "I chose the Webmaster career because I wanted to have a taste of complete devotion of my target audience to myself and what I have to offer to them. I can say that I wanted to test my abilities to command such a respect for myself and my clients," he says with a laugh.

At Shiksha.com, we introduce you to Prince Bhumendra Pal Singh who chose to work independently even when he chose the Webmaster career option.

Shiksha: What is Brand-Mantra.com?

Prince Bhumendra: Brand-Mantra is my brainchild. With my extensive experience as an industry professional as well as a freelancer, I have extensive network of domain experts who are working in renowned IT companies. Just like me, they were raring to have a platform where they could pick up freelance projects for their clients.
About 50 industry professionals are associated with me at the moment and we have been able working for some major clients such as Nisha Jamwal who is a social and interior architect (with clients like Zeenat Aman and Lisa Ray), a Delhi City Portal called DelInfo.in, and Speedcraft India which manufactures rail and road construction machinery in Patna and export it to developing countries in Africa. Speedcraft offers us a good cut on the leads that get converted into sales.

You can compare us to an assembled computer vs a branded computer (the IT giants in the field). IT giants have certain constraints, have lengthy processes to sort out trivial issues, and are more expensive. Whereas we offer instant services, services from best industry experts handpicked from best companies in that particular domain, offer unlimited customizations, and guarantee onsite services.

Shiksha: Tell us something about your family?

Prince Bhumendra: I realize that the present era is not about Kings and Queens. It is about Information Technology. But if I must share the details - we have a fort in Awagarh which is in Etah district and the plans to open it for tourists are underway. I look after the marketing of my elder brother - Kunwar Chandrapal Singh's export business of handicrafts known as Wildcraft. My sister - Mrs. Padmini Singh - who is married in Chhota Udaipur royal family, is a wildlife painter and will soon hold a painting exhibition in Delhi. My father - Maharaja Yadvendra Pal Singh - has a special interest in vintage cars. I am quite active on Facebook too and love to be in touch with the real world.

Shiksha: What does a Webmaster do?

Prince Bhumendra: Career as a Webmaster encompasses a much diversified profile. It includes web engineering, CGI programming, content development, graphics, and knowledge of web packages and software. Webmasters may maintain an existing website or a web portal and focus on modifications to the website that could make it better, more user-friendly, more searchable on Google and other major search engines, and present the products or services of the clients in a better manner. The idea here is to reach out to more and more target audience and find hot leads that can be converted into sales and hence, profits for the client.

Knowledge of project management, development and programming is of course required to ensure that projects are delivered on time and provide full customer satisfaction. Besides, you should be aware about the best practices of SEO and SMO in the markets and have to keep a tab on Google Webmaster Guidelines, which present the best search engine specifications. Being ethical online may mean slower growth and slower results but then, it also means a long-term solution for a client.

As a webmaster, I also have to ensure that the web pages, websites or software applications developed by us are flexible and can be easily customized according to the changing needs of the client. The functionalities on the website should fit in the scheme of the whole site. Besides, server maintenance and release engineering which requires maintaining the source code control systems to prevent bugs are also an important parts of a Webmaster's job.

Shiksha: What are the career prospects for a Webmaster?

Prince Bhumendra: All the major industry giants need services of a Webmaster or a team of Webmasters. I started out as a freelancer because it gives me flexibility of choosing whom I want to be associated with - whether it is a client or a professional. Usually those who choose Webmaster career option, generally start at Rs 3 to 3.5 lakh per annum. There is no maximum limit to what one can make as a Webmaster.
My family was not keen to let me become a Webmaster because they thought it was a common man's job. It was only when I said that working in brand building and management online was much like setting up and running a virtual empire, did they started thinking about it a different perspective. Each machinery produced by Speedcraft India costs Rs 1 crore and for each deal that materializes through us, we get 5% or Rs 5 lakhs...and we are just a small startup company yet. Webmaster as a career is here to stay.

Shiksha: What about your education?

Prince Bhumendra: I did my schooling from DALY College, Indore whose famous alumni include the likes of Mr. Digvijay Singh - Chief Minister of MP, and Colonel Akash Bhanot - the Commanding Officer of President's Bodyguards. I did M.Com from St. John's College, Agra. Apart from it, I did GNIIT program from NIIT. But mostly what I have learnt is through self-study. Various portals online offer a lot of information of what is hot and happening in the field, and in the Webmaster career, you have to keep a tab on it.

I have heard that NIIT is going to launch a course in PHP that can be quite useful for people who want to enter the Webmaster career. PHP is around for about a decade now and is still in demand. Until now, it was largely an open source but the NIIT course would be unique as it will be the only course I know that focuses on PHP.

Discuss about Webmaster career here. Post your queries at Shiksha Café and get answers from education experts.

Source: Ruchi Shrimali (Shiksha Team)

Date: 23^rd June, 2011