Arun Thomas KB, Founder and CEO, Bikes4Sale.in

sensation of skydiving or even exploring the underwater landscape while scuba diving. A sports fan would argue that freedom meant snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. But others will tell you that there is no greater joy in life than the sensation of the wind in your hair while riding down the open highway on a cruiser.

Arun Thomas KB, age 24, is a Computer Engineer from Cochin who can put you on the path to biking heaven. He runs an online portal called Bikes4Sale.in which acts as a marketplace for the sale and purchase of motorcycles. Establish in September 2007, powered by the sheer dedication and hard work of its creator alone - Bikes4Sale.in is truly a remarkable enterprise. The site has maintained a healthy growth rate in the number of visitors as it continues to develop its user base.

So does one need to pay to use Bikes4Sale.in? Arun explains - "Buyers can contact the seller through the website. The service is completely free of charge. There is a premium seller option too where the seller has to pay a minimal amount. I can proudly say that Bikes4Sale.in is one of easiest site to use in India.

Right now the revenue is completely from Google Ads. We have started tying up with ad agencies and we are expecting some revenue coming through custom ad campaigns.

We are building up our email database also. Once it reaches a good size we can earn revenue through newsletters etc. And it is a good way to get traffic to the site also."

If haven't as yet heard of this wonderful portal, Arun won't hold any grudges against you but he promises that things will be different in 2010. His dream is to make Bikes4Sale the first word on your mind when you think of buying or selling a bike.

"We want to make this the numero uno in online bike classifieds sites", stated Arun in a bullish tone, "It will soon be a complete online portal for two-wheelers with wallpapers, bike videos, news etc."

However, Bikes4Sale.in is not Arun's first venture as we found out. This dynamic entrepreneur has always been buzzing with great new ideas for the internet. Back in his college days, he went about putting together plans of creating an online movie ticket booking system. However, that idea never came to life but even still given the success of the online movie ticketing business it must be said that Arun had a sound concept which needed further development.

His second idea was again an online portal for buying assembled PCs which he launched with a friend. However, sometimes great ideas need a bit of good fortune to get off the ground and unfortunately this venture came up short on luck. Nevertheless, Arun refused to admit defeat. He never wanted to go back to a regular 9-5 job because he never felt he would get the "same level of pleasure and enthusiasm when working for another company". As always, our entrepreneurs are a misunderstood bunch and Arun is no different. His friends would tell him not to waste his time and energy on such ventures. But there is always an answer to such taunts and Arun has his own -

"Yes, I am wasting my precious bachelor life. But I won't give up and there is no turning back. I have a strong determination. And I won't sleep till I see Bikes4Sale.in become one of the best in India."And that's the attitude that separates the entrepreneur from the rest. But Arun, like most of us, has previously been through the grind of a regular job. However, unlike most of us, he was using his job to learn invaluable new skills and techniques for his later online projects.

"I knew nothing about websites then. Slowly I started learning things. I would spend my weekends coding for Bikes4Sale.in. Then I launched the website with a horrible design and with lots of bugs", explained Arun, "With the help of some social networking sites and our college alumni (XMEC) the website started attracting visitors. My friends and seniors pointed out several bugs and security issues. I was learning from mistakes and it took several months for the site to become stable."

The road at first turned out to be a very bumpy ride for the venture as the site didn't attract any visitors for over 10 months. Something was most certainly wrong and Arun had to get down to the crux of the problem.

An entrepreneur must always be open to criticism from all quarters, especially from himself. Moreover, the first step towards success begins with identifying weaknesses and addressing them immediately. But where was the weakness in a man working simultaneously as a developer, designer, marketing manager and SEO specialist?

"I am not a designer. And I don't have any artistic skills", admitted Arun, "With a heavy heart I decided to outsource the design to one firm in Bangalore. They redesigned our website and logo. And within one month after redesigning the site, the number of visitors increased to 3 times."

But Arun wanted to make sure that the trend continued and so he also invested in paid search results. "Now the results are really good", he beamed.

The future looks bright and sunny as Bikes4Sale.in will soon have new features. There are plans to tie up with various offline bike dealers and insurance firms in order to expand business opportunities. With all these great new additions, Aruns believes that Bikes4Sale will soon need new staff to handle content and sales.

To end, Arun Thomas KB, a man with a wealth of experience in the online marketing business, shares his pointers on getting into the entrepreneurial circuit:

1. A Positive Attitude and Confidence in what you are doing.

2. A Firm Determination

3. Be ready to sacrifice your social life.

4. For those who have starting problems - Don't think too much. Start your business and then think.

5. Don't sleep. You have miles to go!!!!!!!!!

YourStory wishes Arun Thomas KB all the best with his venture Bikes4Sale.in and will keep you up-to-date on all future developments with the enterprise.

To discuss Bikes4Sale.in visit the YourStory forum topic!