Just Say No To SEO

SEO, Web-Dev

Admittedly a slightly inflammatory title for an article about SEO. The lesson that I hope you can take away from this blog is that it is a mistake to concentrate on SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)  You will be much better served by concentrating on WSO (WebSite Optimization).

To concentrate on WSO (website optimization) requires first that you divide SEO into two distinct and separate areas of endeavor — 1) website development, and 2) website marketing.

All of the discussion around SEO have confused these two. The topics of website development and marketing of one’s website have been mushed together. This has served (either deliberately or accidentally) to confuse the issues of web development and marketing. This has made it possible for certain service companies to create a niche for themselves that allows them to provide a service that is inherently difficult to measure.

Let’s get back to basics. Let’s have those folks that know the products and services represented by the website spearhead the development — with expert technical help where and when necessary. And, let’s have those folks that know marketing spearhead the marketing of the website. If you happen to be running a one man (or one woman) operation, then get yourself two hats and get down to business wearing only one hat at time.

In my next blog, let’s start assigning SEO tasks to each of these hats.

It Takes Passion

Mishmosh

I was speaking with two new clients this evening. A very pleasant couple, both artists with a background in several old school marketing. They know what they are getting into and are well prepared for it.

That’s not what this blog is about. At least not directly. As I was speaking with the couple, asking questions, poking and prodding into their situation and hopes for their website I realized what it was I looking for — I was looking for their passion. Before taking them on as clients I needed to uncover the degree of passion they had for their business.

It is clear to me that passion is the one thing that will help see one through the road ahead of each website owner. Need does not do it. Trying to get from here to there with “need” as your fuel is not the way to go.

Need can be a powerful motivator. But, working from need can be such a struggle.

I’ll give you an example. We all know that social media is an excellent place to make contacts and create buzz about your website. And, we know that if your need is profound enough you can keep your nose to the grindstone without fail. However, if you have a passion then you don’t have to worry about keeping your nose to a grindstone — there is no grind.

If you are passionate about ceramics creating blogs, tweets, and writing on facebook walls about ceramics is no chore — it is your passion. It comes easy AND the process is your reward. Using a need to drive you is so different. A need for sales is not satisfied in the present. The connection between writing yet another blog about ceramics and making a sale is tenuous at best. There is correlation. But it is hardly absolute. Hence, writing  blogs, tweets, and facebook prods will not translate into immediate satisfaction.

Need is good. A need for sales will turn a hobbyist into a pro. But the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine (of day to day work) go down is passion.

When trying to satisfy a need (such as income generation) I believe it is crucial to find a way that allows for the expression of your passion at the same time. This will give you the juice to make it through the humps and hurdles that are sure to come your way in this business.

Search Engine Spam

Web-Dev

Spam is usually associated with email — and for a few folks a pork-based meat cube in a can. We all agree that email spam is a bad thing. And email programs around the world are taking more and more steps every day to exclude spam.

There is such as thing as search engine spam as well. In email spam, the spam is volumes of un-wanted emails. In search engine spam, the spam is volumes of un-wanted content on a web page. If you let this notion of search engines such as google defining something like “un-wanted content on a web page” you might get a little annoyed at the prospect of google (or anyone else) trying to tell me what I can and cannot put on my website. Continue reading →

The subject of Spiritual Gaming is as simple as it is complex

Gaming

Discussion of the how, what, where, why, and when of Spiritual Gaming is easy — when it is framed in a practical, problem-solving context.

It is only when pressed to define “gaming” and “spiritual” in the abstract that the wicket get sicky. Every direction one begins leads to painting the discussion in a corner. Thus, unless there are cogent reasons that dictate otherwise I say “gaming” and “spiritual” to be taken in the widest possible terms. Continue reading →

Why I Do This

Mishmosh

I had a great meeting today with an old friend that I haven’t seen for about a decade.

He is preparing for retirement from a very successful dental laboratory service company that he built from the ground up. Now that he is getting closer to that magical day, he has begun in earnest the process of building a set of websites that will be enjoyable for him to run, exercise his penchant for creative activities, and provide a handy income to supplement his current portfolio.

For his purposes it looks like he will need seven websites. All of the websites involve hobbies or passions he has nurtured over the years. But, he just wasn’t able to make the leap from thinking about doing it to doing it.

What was holding him back? A handful of progress blocking speed bumps — a few web issues beyond his skill set. To him they were monstrous complexities. To me, because of my background in programming and website design, they were interesting challenges to be processed through rather quickly.

It was like a cork screw salesman stumbling upon a group of friends gathered in the park for an outdoor wine tasting event — to which no one had thought to bring a bottle opener.

Through my geekitude and background, I was able to remove a road block that was keeping him from creative expression of his passions.

I didn’t create his passion, I can’t take any credit for the hard work ahead of him. But, I can feel good about helping him get started — and perhaps lending a hand from time to time at need.

To me this is leverage of the best variety.

From Yoyodyne’s Gaming Diary #3

Gaming

A third installment from Yoyodyne’s Gaming Diary. If you appreciate these, let me know. I will bug her for more contributions.

Invisible Work And Other Things We Can’t See

There is a great mirror effect that works in the Bardo Safari environment when working with the group. I think without the group the mirror itself is invisible. The mirror is part of the reflection.

Isn’t it? Or is it? What I noticed is that tendencies that are invisible to me in this realm are visible and undeniable in the Bardo Safari realm.

There is no time to forget what happened because you have a present and very visible view the 3 Vs) of the whole situation. It is true that seasoned voyagers will have a better knowledge of what they are looking at on the screen than a noob and noobs will be more or less knowledgeable of what they are seeing depending on the degree of attention but no matter how much you see or don’t see, exposure to the space gradually sharpens, strengthens and focuses the attention and, other things as well. It seems to happen as if by magic but we know it took many, many BTUs of heat to get that little kernel to pop. When the motivation to change is for the benefit of the group and not for oneself it becomes a whole new bowl of cherries.

Yoyodyne

From Yoyodyne’s Gaming Diary #2

Gaming

This is a second installment from Yoyodyne’s Gaming Diary.

Aloha,

…sometimes the solution to a problem is simply a sacrifice.

We saw this lesson in the Bardo Safari game yesterday.

We were having a hard time getting to the Throne Room in Hell. Our telesoc was really having to work.

Just want to say that the transformation fwas tangable.

I am sure there are many verbally past down analogous stories that would describe this event and, in EJ’s case, it would be a number of different jokes. Like the time…just kidding.

But, yeah, so any, our telesorc seemingly (on my pixel screen, anyway) transformed out of the catapillar mode, spread those teleporting wings and flew to the destination and although I could not see the movement from my post at the time I hold an image of a very quick but gentle vertical ebb and flow of rainbow colored light, well, with lots of bright white mixed in. When a gateway of such magnitude is opened for the group to witness,who cares where your experience bar registers. I am very grateful to have partaken in such an experiment and experience.

gg’s all,
Yoyodyne

From Yoyodyne’s Gaming Diary #1

Gaming

Below is an extract from a friend’s Gaming Diary. We thought her comments my be of interest to our readers. Hence, they have been included for your reading pleasure.

Although, compared to some, I have not worked in Bardo Safaris much at all, however, each time I do, I notice how much the Bardo Safari situations are a mirror to life in this realm where I now sit.. I wanted to share this, most recent observation with you, today. Today, as I was entering a game with a plan to hunt for runes in the Tower (Countess Quest), where runes are guaranteed, it came to my attention that in the Bardo Safaris one is able to observe how “different characters” handle the same situations-differently depending on what kind of “character” type they are. One can choose a number (7) different characters to operate and learn to “voluntarily” operate each one.

In “the game” the NPCs (non player characters, like Akara, Charsi, Flavie … are programed to do what they do, without variation. They respond in a constant to the “character’s'” prompting.achievements…They always say the same things…They will sell pots, weapons, armor, anything the character wants can be had, as long as the character has the gold. The characters (sorc, druid, necro…) are not programed in exactly the way but they do have to abide the rules/laws of that particular environment that were developed by the “game designers” and their actions and behaviors are completely tied to the directions given by “the player/operator” ( you, me, Joe Smith…). If the player/operator directs a level one character into a situation it has not been properly prepared for, it will die, likewise, if the character has been sufficiently prepared it will succeed perhaps in accomplishing one or another of the quests/obstacles on the path toward the shared goals. The player/operator cannot change the laws of the game universe for the character but can assist the character by playing him/her/it. They, the character and player/operator have a relationship in which they “learn” the game together, do the Bardo Run together. The more the operator plays the character and understands the game, the better the character will perform in the game. This is one area where practice, practice, practice makes a big difference, like playing an instrument.The more the player/character “operates the character, the more likely she/he/it will learn how “to play” “the game”.

The character is programed to do certain number actions only. With the vigilance of the operator it can come to perform these actions incredibly well. The operator will learn what skills the character has at his/her/it’s disposal and exploit them in the most advantageous ways. The operator will outfit the character to protect it, make it fast, make it strong or whatever is needed to achieve the aim at hand. The character and the player/operator learn the game together as they play. This brings to mind the ventriloquist act. A good act will convince the audience that there are two entites operating.even though there is the only one.

The character serves the operator in that it is through the character that it is possible for the operator to participate in this particular environment for whatever reason the operator has in mind. It appears to quite a pleasant symbiotic situation since it is my supposition that the character does not have a life without the possession of the operator but I have no proof. I can see it like the “spirit/essence” giving life to a material form/machine. The operator/essence can work on “this” particular plane by taking possession of a character/machine/material form. The player will try to keep the character alive during the given situation in the order to further the mission.

It turned out to be much longer than anticipated but if you care to add to, comment on, with any thoughts or inspirations you have had along these or other lines related to the Bardo Safaris I would be interested to know them.
Yoyodyne

Through The Indulgence Of Strangers

Mishmosh

Your business and productive life is not something you want to trust to the indulgence of strangers.

Unfortunately that is the situation that many of us find ourselves in. This came to me in sharp, unavoidable clarity after my iMac hard drive was toasted this past week.

I purchased my iMac because I needed a system that would provide a hospitable environment for both OS X and for WinXP. The iMac as advertised as doing this. That is not quite true. Sorta true, but not really true.

The iMac is very hospitable to the OS X, but it only tolerates (marginally) the WinXP. Windows is treated like an unwelcome but tolerated guest on the machine. Some Mac users will take exemption to this statements. Most Mac users will wonder what kind of idiot would bother putting WinXP on a Mac when they have a perfectly (and superior) operating system already installed OS X.

Actually I agree that OS X is a superior operating system. I like it. But alas, several key programs that I require for my work are not available in any flavor on the Mac side of bootcamp. Bootcamp is the program that allows me to switch back and forth between the two operating systems. I think of them as two sides of the computer — the mac side and the windows side. But really there is not windows side.

Near as I can figure it, bootcamp works with a huge file area that is set aside for use by the Windows OS and software. So Windows is a guest of the OS X.

Now that my WinXP install is toasted as a result of a hard drive crash I have zero access to my files. If the system was a PC desktop, it would have been easy to remove the hard drive and put it into an external drive case and salvage parts of the file system using any number of software tools.

But since the file system is not really a hard drive file system (it is a pseudo file system) these third-party programs are not capable of accessing the information. Thus I am unable to salvage even bits and pieces of my previous data.

Fortunately most of my data was backed up. I think I may have lost a week of work. Some of which can be redone, some of which is beyond reclamation.

But this got me to thinking about guest systems, or systems that rely upon layers upon layers of drivers and interface.

There was a time when a word document was only readable in the Word program. Many years ago a client sent me a proposal that was in word format — rather than the request rtf interchangeable format. It took me quite some time to find a means to read that file. I finally had to write a program of my own to dump the text data so that I could at least read the ascii portion of the letter. This may sound strange, now that we have so many programs that are capable of importing Word documents. But at the time there was not a competing program that could import the new word format I was sent.

Yes, that is ancient news. But, today there are many examples of similar situations. Try to get access to a 3DS Max model if you do not have the program. Deep Exploration can import and export dozens and dozens of model formats — no problem. But, they are not allowed to import and export Maya or 3DS Max models. Not because they are incapable of writing the plugins. They are not allowed by the manufacturer.

This means that any model saved in a maya or max format requires access to a working copy of the program. If the program stops working — or they upgrade program without allowing for compatibility with older versions — you are sunk. But, they would not do that. That is true. But, they could.

I really like Maya. It is a great program. I would continue to use my copy of Maya forever — even if the company went out of business. But, I can’t use Maya if the company goes out of business. If they go out of business how am I going to get an activation code when it comes time to re-install Maya because yet another hard drive was toasted.

Any program you have that requires internet or phone activation also requires that the mother company continue to do business. We saw recently major financial institutions go belly up. How is it impossible to consider the folks supporting Maya to not go under? Admittedly, they are big enough I don’t worry about them. But what about the folks in Finale that put out PrintMusic. They are not so huge. They could easily call it a day. Then my software, for which I purchased a perpetual license, would not install because there would be no on available to activate it.

Something the hardware and software manufacturers are discovering (much to their chagrin) is the fact that some of us like to keep our working (and expensive) software.

All of this is beside the point. It is germane, but not on direct target. The issue is, we are functioning at the indulgence of strangers. I suggest making audits to make sure you have data backed up on ways that will allow access — should anything go wrong.

The easier it is for me to get my grubby little fingers on the data the better I feel about it. Take this blog for example, if one uses the export feature of blogger the data can be saved in an open xml format. I can totally access to my words. Meaning that if google had a hiccup and wiped my blog clean, I have a backup. AND, that backup can be accessed directly by me — not just by an import filter proprietary to google.

Unfortunately, that is not true of everything. So I am auditing my involvements to see where I am at most risk and see what I can do about minimizing those risks.

Effects of Video Games on the Dead #3

DeadElvis, Gaming

This blog is from my (that’s right my) original posting on DeadElvis.com over a decade ago. It was tempting to re-edit the content to fix typos, spelling, etc. But alas, I was concerned that the etc. would include updating the content to incorporate my new perspectives. I thought it best to leave these as they are.

Wednesday, Jun 17, 1998:

Now for the second event of the two events mentioned in the previous letter. As the second installment on this topic we alluded to two events which occurred in flat 2-dimensional graphic chat environments. One event, previous detailed, was the palpable experience of being-to-being contact through the vehicle of the pixel graphics interface. The second event, which we’ll address in this third installment, relates to group work. Continue reading →