There seems to be something deliberate and deceptive about our culture. I love the idea of accidental replication but this is really not one of those cases.

It’s been a while since I have spoken to you my faceless friend (the internet) about much of anything and while I am preparing a post about a couple of recently launched projects that I am quite fond of I would like to quickly catalog something that I found quite interesting. ANAMANAGUCHI which is ironic in its name and production. An 8bit alt-rock group of electric leanings that is apparently quite popular throughout the gamer scene (of which I keep some loose ties with) and actually produces audio landscapes that hearken back to happier times in my somewhat cloudy childhood.

I remember all of the sights, sounds and smells of original NES getting opened with uncontrolled excitement on my 9th Birthday. The cold winter seemed a bit warmer as I traversed the caverns of Metroid and shot flying ducks from the projected skyline. The audio scape of the 90’s in its 8bit and 16bit forms are still fixed in my mind as prime examples of what is possible given available technology and true musical artistry.

ANAMANAGUCHI seems to have a real grasp of both the nostalgia and the sophistication of how to use it. Their site ain’t half bad either. Check em out here

This will be the first in a short series about knowing your development environment and how to make it your bitch! Now I know some of you designers out there, and you know who you are, have not a clue about where to begin when creating virtual instances on your Apache environment. You just downloaded MAMP and suddenly you think that somehow that is enough. Save me your BS encrusted psycho babel about how this is information that only the server wizards need to know. Even if you never become completely proficient in this area, it is worth breaking your install to test these tools and become more fluent in the ways of the Terminal, or shell to the UNIX crowd.

Today we start with MAMP and move to the TERMINAL. In the next article I will go over some cool commands for GIT and SVN as well as setting different editor applications to run in your TERMINAL.

Quick sob story, a few months back I forced my machine into corrupted library purgatory and had only the Install Disks and Terminal access at my command. At 3 in the morning I faced the obliteration of months of work due to my lack of diligence keeping back-ups. After examining the TERMINAL and asking it for simple information like if it could read my file library, I found that I could copy files from my dying drive to the portable entirely in command line.

TERMINAL

Simple commands that you will use day in and day out:

• cd — change directory
• ls -al — list all items in a table that shows ownership and permissions alphabetically ascending
• [control key] + [C key] — cancel the command that you just entered
• sudo ‘command’ — tell the system to overwrite all permissions and authenticate yourself as the admin
• ln -s /path/to/item/you/are/linkingto ‘nameofalias’ — make a relative link to something, can be a folder or a file
• rm -rf ‘filename’ — remove anything with the file name

Another neat thing in TERMINAL is the built in auto-complete feature. When entering in a path or a filename, you need to only enter up to the last unique character and then press TAB to complete the name. (eg /pa TAB results in /path/ or something like that) Also, pressing the UP or DOWN key on your keyboard will cycle through the commands you have used, super handy if you are using a lot of the same ones over and over.

MYSQL

First you need to create the database and user that will be associated with that database in your MAMP phpMyAdmin interface. Then you need to import some data. For smaller db’s you can easily accomplish this through the same web interface but for larger databases (anything over 3mb) you will need to do this entirely from command line. Crack open the terminal and run this command:

mysql -u dbuser -p yourdbname < /path/to/backup.sql

What this command does is tell mysql to use the specified database “-p ‘yourdbname’ ” and associated user “-p ‘dbuser’ ” and import the backup sql file that you have pointed it to.

Freelancers, Artists, Designers and Developers can all agree that the hardest thing to deal with coming out of an Agency environment is how to begin growing your lead or customer base. Word of mouth and connections through friends are usually the first thing that we establish because we are looking for what is familiar. Agencies have an old business ethic that teaches us to treat our clients like transactions, to quote a new friend of mine, and that very thinking is what has destroyed many companies in our country.

What is the first human agreement? It is the relationship.

What creates the need to be ethically and morally fair with your friends, family and customers? Knowing them, empathizing with them.

I would like to present a theory for making connections. Make friends.

Outgoing doesn’t mean “life of the party”

When I say that you need to make friends and allies to attract honest opportunities, I don’t mean you need to be the king of the keg to win people’s affection. I simply mean that you should first pursue groups that are in the same field and dedicate time every month to trying some of these meetups out and seeing if there is a group of people that you identify with.

If you like a particular type of software like Drupal or Wordpress it is quite possible that you can find a user group in your area filled with other people who are interested in either teaching you how to work with the software or possibly work with you.

In Denver DBUG is a place to start or you can peruse the MeetUP website.

Chambers of commerce

Another fantastic resource are small local city chambers of commerce, the reason for going for the local groups will be the familiarity you get with the group that you are apart of. Being in a room with 20 people from other fields that want to talk to you and get to know hwo you are and how you work in the community is great way to not only make friends but find resources that you may also need.

Of course with COC the bar for entry is always cash but, in a smaller city or a suburb of the nearest large city there are plenty of inexpensive and fruitful places to meet other professionals.

Call on your heros

The other thing you can do is email people whom you hold in high regard as professionals or perhaps as role models in your field. I recently emailed craigmod of the Tokyo Art Space and Link Spice fame. He was nice enough to answer some questions that I had about a particular market and took the time to give insight to an area that I had been exploring.

Whenever you email someone that you are a fan of it can be rather strange, like sending fan mail to a musician that you enjoy, the results can really change your perception of them or what you found engaging about them.

I have been met with my own fair share of experiences where the image in my mind was better than the real thing. It will happen. But you have to remember that if someone you respect isn’t gracious with you it’s either because:

1. They are really busy and cannot afford the time for idle chatter OR
2. They are pretentious dicks!

Look for the humanity and feed your creativity from this. Then, you will be the greatest artist in the world!

Sincerely Your Pal,

Zach Attack Meyer
ps. I am sorry if I have every been a dick to you. call me.

Freelance has a lot of interesting barriers to overcome. First you have to find a client, then you must determine what the scope of work will be, then you must determine the price for your work and when all is said and done you have to COLLECT!

It seems like, even when you agree to something with your client,  you may encounter some last minute changes in schedule that weren’t apart of the original deal. Namely, they don’t want to finish paying you because they think that they don’t need to pay you for your work. They don’t remember negotiating your rate, or asking you to perform the work in an unreasonably short amount of time. I’m almost convinced that they don’t care. They used you for what they wanted to accomplish and now suddenly they want out of the deal.

No matter how fairly you have treated someone, they want to take their guarantee back.

So here is how everything happened;

1. A gentleman asked me to create a Wordpress theme in one day for a client of his
2. He agrees, after many back and forth conversations, to the price for the work
3. I complete the work that I could do, and even generated artwork to complete the design
4. I am on call as a consultant modifying theme settings and php templates
5. I send the final payment for the other half of what the total job was priced
6. Customer says that he is waiting for his client to pay him
7. I politely tell him that this is not my problem
8. He doesn’t agree

From my perspective, if you have hired me to do something and you agree to pay a certain price then it doesn’t matter to me what other arrangements you have regarding the same project. I am willing to go a little bit for people, but if you have agreed to pay me for my time, you had better follow through without any condition attached.

I will keep you posted as to whether or not he actually follows through.

Thanks for letting me complain a bit,

Zach “the unpaid” Freelancer

A godfather to the ideas of digital communication and information surfing is Marshall McLuhan. While I was studying communications in college I found myself totally enthralled by McLuhan’s book “The Medium is The Mesage.” After watching him debate other intellectuals of his time it was clear that his premise would be an important thing to review and study as someone who wants to communicate online.

The idea that my words, images, videos and websites would become a medium by which others learn and interact with me would be something that McLuhan would adopt if he were alive today. It’s amazing to think that McLuhan advocated TV’s in the class room and discussed the idea that in a few years books would be an antiquated form of research and reference because visual learning is so much faster and effective. I personally don’t think that we will ever eliminate books as a form of communication or record keeping. The instability of digital memory is far to great to ever totally eliminate paper records of information.

Reading this book is a good way for designers and developers to get an honest idea of what this communication medium should be doing.

Let me know what you think,

Zach “attack” Meyer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

Attention followers of our blog, we moved!

On Friday September 11th we had an opportunity to finally start transitioning away from the old single page site and allow Wordpress to do all of the heavy lifting from now on. Or at least until something flashier and faster comes along to replace it.

There is sort of a strange paradigm in web development and design, you have time to work for everyone accept yourself. This issue often causes company websites to sort of languish in a mire of never progressive soup. Great examples of people who don’t upgrade and don’t really care are cameronmoll and happycog. Both represent amazing minds in the web community and neither one has really changed the theme of their websites in well over 3 years.

This constant self-deprecation can be a sweet kiss of death for many companies. I can personally attest to my constant busy-ness as being the primary cause for my lack of change to the core site. I sincerely wish that I had more time to develop the ideas that have to a slightly more inviting polish. But perhaps my recent move from spineless entrepreneur to full-time web wrangler will grant me some real time to brush my site up.

The other part of the web that is always chasing me is the feeling that my best work is done for clients and not for me. It always feels like my concepts for other people are more well rounded than what I end up assembling for myself. I know that I have a hundred good ideas a day but they are always for others. Perhaps it is my future to be a muse for others and never for myself.

Thank you all for coming by and reading my white noise from time to time.

I believe the car industry tried this trick a while back, and we all know what rave reviews the Taurus received–that’s right consumers, you are all going to pay us to be our beta testers. Long gone are the full years between upgrade. Seems like every January you have the latest release of some awful thing. The software industry appears to be taking business tactics from the music industry, with regards to the timeliness of hot new models being shoved into the public’s face.

Maybe you’re different than I am, but I really don’t want a product, be it hard- or software, that is going to fuck with me for six months before it does what it was supposed to do from the beginning. I’m a “late adopter” for this very reason and, even then, disaster can strike. Enter the latest streak of operating system releases from the leading monopolies.

Snow Leopard is here, and well, I have heard some really great things about the “upgrade” but, for the most part, I am sure there will be kinks to work out, as with any new framework that gets released. Apple’s track record for releasing less buggy OS has been good so far and long gone are the memories of the first incarnation of OSX. But those of us who know better, will wait to upgrade until we get the OS bundled with our new hardware.

Windows 7 likewise, will be released well before the eve of Vista’s third year in the public domain. And due to its fantastic approach of alienating and frustrating users by not having drivers available at launch I am sure that the masses are unlikely to leap all over Bill Gates’ Ken doll luggage.

I think it’s safe to say that anyone would wait for real upgrades. Real honest to goodness changes, improvements and stability bought and paid for by us. Here is the issue I see, with all the tech industry lazily launching whatever they feel is sell able to a public that is so easily distracted by the reputation of brand, there is no real backlash against inferior products. We need to stop buying from these jackasses till they get their act in line. Sony has learned from their mistakes and at least attempt to hold some kind of ethics level with their products.

Lets hope that our consumer future shows a bit more competition and a bit less wang.

Special thanks to the genius at the rantpuppets.com for these little gems of wisdom.

To get a hold of this immaculate little trailer please make your way to the back side of Flynnlives

(if you have link troubles http://www.flynnlives.com/media/video/0xendgame.aspx )

Design-wise it is already really breathtaking ( I THINK ) but to top all of this off, Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack and  Joseph Kosinski is directing the picture. You may remember him from the Gears of War and GOW2 tv campaigns as well as several car commercials. His style reminds me of a less creepy Chris Cunningham, clean, futuristic, ambitious and engaging.

I also decided to put together a little Screen Art for you to download and hopefully use

Hope you like it,

Zach “TRON GEEK” Meyer

All original imagery is the property of Disney.

Obtaining and maintaining rankings in the search engines starts with writing people friendly and therefore search engine friendly content – and writing your content should always start with keyword research.

Keyword research itself isn’t technically a difficult thing to do, but it does take some practice to earn your chops. When starting, you’re basically looking for 3 general criteria:

1. What keywords are most relevant to your offering, without being too specific? (don’t overlook too much at this point)
2. What keywords have the most search demand in your industry? (usually displayed in projected daily, monthly or yearly volumes)
3. What is the level of competition likely to be for these keywords? In other words, how easy is it going to be to rank (organically) for these keywords?

There are certainly other things to consider like, what keywords are currently driving traffic to your site, if you have an existing site with access to such analytical data. But for this article, we’ll assume you’re just starting off.

Compile A Rough Keyword List

To get started I always recommend using a keyword research tool. Today there are many free high-quality keyword research tools to use. Just a couple years ago, it was better to subscribe to a keyword program such as Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery. And while these two programs are still well worth the subscription prices today, the free web tools of today are considerably more detailed and a good place to start. This is because many of them are coming from the major search engines themselves. My personal favorites include:

After using some of the above tools to compile your list, you may notice you don’t really have a clear picture of the competitive landscape for your keywords. Who is the competition? Even if you’re using a paid tool such as Keyword Discovery, or the SEO toolbar, you may feel confused about how to interpret the data. Try asking yourself one question: What are the top ten websites in my industry that rank well?

To help you answer this question, start typing into the search engines the following search parameters. (Replace “keyword” with what you have determined to be your top keywords according to search demand):

• allintitle:keyword (keyword occurrence in the title of the search result)
• allinanchor:keyword (keyword occurrence in the links to the search result)
• allinurl:keyword (keyword occurrence in the URL of the search result)
• allintext:keyword (keyword occurrence in the text of the search result)

Doing the above should help you get a clear idea of the competition that is applying particular SEO tactics to achieve rankings. Try matching the keywords on your list to specific competitors who rank well for them. Doing this should also give you a better idea of what keywords the competition may not be targeting.

You might realize the competition is scarce and/or sporadic. This doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t strong competition for your industry, it may just mean the competition isn’t applying certain SEO tactics very efficiently and this will be something you can take advantage of. On the other hand, if you find a website or two that is clearly in control of the search engine result pages (SERPs), then you should note this on your list as well. Then you’ll want to analyze their website further to see what additional keywords they may be targeting which aren’t on your list.

Organize Your Keyword List

After identifying your keywords using the criteria and tools above, my advice is to then create separate buckets targeting both the keywords you wish to achieve rankings for in the short term (defined by search volume and competition), and the keywords you wish to achieve rankings for in the long term.

In general, there are two “types” of keywords to take note of:

1. short-tail keywords – keyphrases that are single to three words long. Depending on your market, these will typically go into the long-term bucket.
2. long-tail keywords – keyphrases that are four or more words long. Go ahead and place these into your short-term bucket.

Why should you separate these?

There are a couple reasons why. First of all, it’s important to understand what you realistically will and will not rank for immediately. Again, depending on the competition in the SERPs and depending on the content you write, your goal is to get the most traffic you can from the search engines as quickly as possible. Therefore you always want to try to identify the less competitive keywords to target immediately. Secondly, your list of long-tail keywords is likely to deliver topic ideas when it comes time to write content.

One of the best representations I’ve seen that describes the relationship of short-tail and long-tail keywords as they relate to obtaining targeted organic search engine traffic is the following :

As you can see, the best opportunity to maximize potential ROI is to focus on key-phrases 3-4 words long. However, if you are not relying on ROI as one of your key performance indicators (most people are), then you’ll still want to analyze your targeted traffic potential based on the length of the key phrases and how much time it’s potentially going to take to rank well for all of your keywords.

Once you’ve determined all of the above, you should have a pretty good idea of what keywords you should start targeting in your content. look for common themes as you go through your keyword list(s). Chances are, people are looking for the same thing, but saying it in different ways. Semantics can sometimes play a key role in determining what keywords to target. For example, differentiating between using the term lawyer vs attorney – even though they have the same meaning, they may show different results in the SERPs. Also, be careful with accidentally assuming intent. If someone is searching online for “tax help”, this may mean they need tax preparation help, or it could mean they need tax debt help – two completely different services and therefore the traffic would not be as targeted.

Like I said, keyword research is not technically difficult, but it does take a little time to develop a system. Without doing keyword research, you may start targeting keywords with little or no demand. And even though you may obtain good rankings for these keywords, these rankings may not be driving nearly as much targeted traffic as they could. But if you use the tools above and start analyzing your keywords systematically, you should start to see your content begin to form that is both people and search engine friendly.

Happy Rankings. Joynt