1000

That is it! I reached 1000 visitors last week (1008 to be precise).  Not surprisingly this happens when re-started to post more often in the blog.

Only last month, and according to Google Analytics, I had visitors from 106 countries or territories. The top countries visiting my blog are:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• India
• Portugal
• Followed by Germany,  Philippines, Australia, Ireland and France

I posted about how to improve a website ranking, internet marketing, cloud computing, effective communication, strategy,  user experience I and II, product management, Sales suggestions,  provided a couple of presentation tips, talked about my native country plus other things that you can check out by either searching or visiting the archive.

If you want to know how many visits I had when I start just ask Google for “what is the loneliest number”. The calculator will answer you.

Thanks to everyone that visited me

EDIT: To honor my Indian visitors I added Hindi as one of the languages where you can translate the blog automatically.

EDIT 2:     As of August I have over 2200 visitors a week . I definitely need to post more often. Thanks everyone for visiting my blog

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Marketing & Misc | 1 Comment »

A few months have passed since I last posted in my blog and I apologize for that.

I’ll come back to this topic later but take this as an introductory post on Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing is a concept that 10 years ago seemed a dream because of very slow internet connections,  today is a very solid reality.  It is amazing to see productivity gains, amazing collaboration potential etc. With cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service) you can take full advantage of a service without having to maintain all the technology behind it. It’s like going to a pub, enjoying a draft beer without having to worry about goes on in the background.

Below, in a glance, the potential that Google Apps can bring to your business…

Did you know that the name “Cloud Computing” is based in the cloud symbol that is used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet | 1 Comment »

“Two heads think better than one”. I truly believe in this saying and I think brainstorms can bring several creative ideas and new ways to approach problems.

It is true that not all brainstorms are successful and they can get very messy and turn into arguments. If you respect some basic rules you can increase the probability of success and avoid unnecessary discussions.

1. Prepare the room. I personally like white boards, post-its and different color pens. Cut all communications to the outside world (that includes notebooks and mobile phones!) and provide water as people need to vocalize their ideas ;
2. Set your expectations clearly and give an introduction of what you plan to achieve.
3. Have a moderator (that is not a contributor). His/her goal is to keep people focused on the problem at hands;
4. Get a heterogeneous group and I always think small groups are better to manage (around 10 people)
5. Give a few minutes for individuals to think on their own ideas and write them in a post-it and explain the purpose of the color pens (good to divide the ideas into groups). After a certain time, the moderator puts them all together in the board. Encourage people to write all their ideas, even if they can foresee roadblocks to their success
6. The golden rule is: Do NOT debate the ideas themselves. You can only in witch group they belong

I thinks these tips would help you get one good and creative idea for your problem.

Posted by João Rufino under Business & Internet & Marketing | 1 Comment »

As you can see, I haven’t been very active in what regards posting on my blog. My time as been split apart between work and a new challenge that I’m taking. My free time has been dedicated to the remote diploma in the University of Oxford that I mentioned previously.

The diploma in “New economic Powers” has been a very nice experience. The course consists in studying the macro-economy and the decisions taken by several countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) that allowed them to grow at a higher rate then developed countries and the expectations raised that they will be the “new economic powers” of the XXI century.

The course itself consists in weekly lessons where you are given a few papers to read. Each week we have to write a few blog posts about the subject in hands and do public posts on the forum about questions that are made. We should also contribute to the discussion by commenting on other posts and raise questions. By the end of the course we will have two longer essays that we need to submit for appreciation by the professor.

Continue Reading »

Posted by João Rufino under Internet & Misc | 2 Comments »

Several people ask me how to improve ranking of their Websites. Often I tend to send them to this Google 101 article. That is what you should have in mind if you are developing a site and want to understand how Google crawls it.

However, when developing it is important that you understand what you should and should not do in order to respect the organic results. Here they are, The Webmaster Guidelines. By following these guidelines, you will help Google to find, index and Rank your Site and avoid unnecessary problems.

Don’t forget your Sitemap and if you want to know more about SEO don’t miss out this article where you can download Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide!

I hope these light articles will help you to understand more about Google WebSearch in particular and SEO.

Have a nice day

Posted by João Rufino under Internet | 1 Comment »