Technical specifications – are they clear enough?

If I had an online store, I’d look into how the technical specifications are written. There are ways to write specifications, to make them clearer. For example, don’t write: Rez. senzor (Mp):14.2 , but, instead, write: Rezoluția senzorului: 14,2 Megapixeli. (?) Things to do: Avoid abbreviations. Instead of „MP”, write „Megapixels”, or the equivalent word („Megapixeli”). There is a difference between writing one point two in English and in Romanian: 1.2 (En) vs. 1,2 (Ro). Use this difference. I would love to have, at mouseover, an explanation of what a certain word means. I would try to put the most important technical specifications at the top. You do the work of selecting to the user. Avoid translating, and try to explain the specifications to the user.

Keeping a blog – niche or broad?

Keeping a blog - niche or broad?

Friday I went to Webstock 2012.
Two oppositve views:

  • According to Costin COCIOABĂ, you should find our niche and keep it ruthlessly. Find an idea, plan it, stick to the plan. Răzvan PASCU also focuses on niches.
  • Adrian CIUBOTARU has the opposite approach: he writes on just about any subject. Although more targeted, Cristian CHINA-BIRTA also tends to write on a general note.

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On reviews

According to this article:

More to the point, however, is that we can’t really trust early reviews. I always recommend caution when it comes to buying products that have just launched and I rarely take my own advice. Many devices only begin to exhibit problems after lots of use and many faulty devices pop up only after the first batch of highly scrutinized devices runs out.
[…]
In the end, the real reviews are the ones that percolate up out of the forums and blogosphere.

So, what are my thoughts on this?

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Valuing clients

Valuing clients

Two options: Some phone makers launch a product, give some products to beta testers, and then put the products on sale for the general public. Apple launches a product, then only makes the product available for everybody, not favoring the beta testers. Which option is better? The beta testers do spread the word for your products. Giving the product to everybody at the same time shows you value your clients as much as testers. I like Apple’s solution better.

Ce-i, dom’le, cu fontul ăsta!?

Dacă te uiți pe olivian.ro, o să observi că scriu cu un font destul de mare. Iacătă și motivul: 16 Pixels: For Body Copy. Anything Less Is A Costly Mistake | Smashing Magazine The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard | Information Architects Textul meu nu e mare, dimpotrivă, textul meu e cel obișnuit. Majoritatea site-urilor ar trebui să fie cu fonturi de dimensiunea aceasta. Ca idee, când deschid un site pe care citesc mai multe articole, primul lucru e să mă dau mai în spate față de monitor și să dau Ctrl + + de la tastatură, pentru a mări fontul. Poate nu ar trebui să fac eu asta, ci cei care „desenează” site-urile?

Share, reshare, tweet, retweet, like – or not?

Let’s say you’re company X. You’re on Facebook. You have 150 likes, and most of your articles get no comments, but when they do, they’re from your customers you like. You’re also on Twitter, and have 50 followers, who read you, but you don’t interact much with them. Let’s say you’re company Y. On Facebook, you have 2,500 likes, but close to no one interacts with you. On Twitter you have 400 followers, but they’re very passive. Let’s say you’re company Z. You have 200 likes on Facebook, but when you post something, you have interactions. On Twitter you have 100 followers, with whom you communicate quite a lot. In my opinion, a company in X’s position wants to get to Z. More likes, more followers. That’s it. If I were X, I would strive to get to Z. Not more people who „like” you (but are passive), but more people with whom to engage. Much more difficult to view as success, but this is success, in my opinion – an active community.

„The principles on how to develop an application are harder than the development itself”

You look at a web site and you may think – „Hmm, I bet I could have thought of that. But to implement it, boy, now this is hard”. I’ve heard, years ago, at a Internetics events, one guy doing web design for major corporations. He said coming up with fresh & new ideas is much more difficult than implementing it. Quite true. I can look at my blog (OK, not a big corporation, I have to admit) and tell you that it’s much more difficult knowing what to place where, than actually doing it. I can Google things, find out someone else with a similar problem, and – voilà.

Care sunt criteriile după care să cumperi linkuri?

E OK să cumperi linkuri?

Pe scurt, nu.
În detaliu, Google zice similar ca oamenii de mai jos:

Optim ar fi să găsești soluții de obținere de linkuri în white hat.

Pe de altă parte, dacă urmezi toate sfaturile mele de mai jos, e foarte puțin probabil ca linkurile să fie foarte vizibile și să poți „strecura” o cumpărare de linkuri.

De ce am cumpărat, până acum linkuri?
Pentru că metodele complet white hat sunt foarte costisitoare, mai costisitoare decât cumpărarea de linkuri.

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10,000 hours to reach excellency – but how to do it?

You may have heard of this study: Throughout the publication, Gladwell repeatedly mentions the „10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. (source) A slight change to this? You have to deliberately practice on getting better. So not just „OK, we «worked» for 10,000 hours”, but more like „We tried very hard to become better within 10,000 hours”. So, not just work, but focus on becoming better. Also read Seth GODIN’s take on it: Seth’s Blog: 10,000 hours