So… I set my Dad up with a shiny new blog over Thanksgiving, where he can share his strange thoughts and stranger drawings.
Go read Hansi’s Hallucinations to get an earful (eyefull?) of it all.
It is le amazing
Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category
Hansi’s Hallucinations Abound
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010How To Find Out When You’re Getting Lucky
Friday, September 18th, 2009This isn’t anything new, it’s pretty old hat, and it’s pretty obvious too, but it is what I am doing.
One thing Eben Pagan pointed out in his Altitude program is that you need to know when you are getting lucky in business, and follow that route.
I’ve been figuring out where I’ve been getting lucky by digging in to the search result keywords for my blogs. Google Analytics has a neat feature that let’s you see what keywords people are searching for to find your site. These keywords make great titles and content for new posts and articles! You have proof that people are looking for this information, and they are finding your site, so you might as well produce this content, or more content, or better content on these subjects.
On one of my blogs, I have a certain keyword search (after my name and the name of the site) that has given me the highest number of hits from search engines. All of this is because of one post I wrote on this subject, which is showing up on the first page of google for that search. I have an opportunity to create more content on this subject and provide it to these people.
This is a win-win situation. I know I can create better content on this subject than the other search results are providing. I also get more people exposed to that blog, with the chance of converting them to ongoing readers.
I am borrowing from my buddy Dr. WordPress who wrote a series of posts with practical blogging tips, and I am going to write a series of practical tips discussing the subject matter of that key word search.
I got lucky by writing an article that has gotten highly ranked by search engines for a search on that subject, now, I need to capitalize on that and be thankful that I got lucky.
Viva Blog Vegas
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009I just found out that I won a pass to Blog World Expo from Mashable.com. Folks entered by leaving a comment about why they wanted to attend Blog World.
I’m hoping to get a lot of good information and inspiration that will help take my websites to the next level of performance. Plus, I might have a little bit of fun in Las Vegas.
Here was my entry:
I’m actually not a very good writer.
I can’t effortlessly whip out a thousand words or two on a subject. I struggle to find the words that will communicate with my readers, and inspire or inform them to make their life better. I write, and re-write, and it sometimes takes hours to craft a post that I think others may think is worth reading.
And I do it anyway.
The things about writing, and specifically blogging, that are a struggle are the things that make me do it. It is a challenge, and because of that challenge, I am drawn to it. I love that writing isn’t easy for me, and because of that, writing is far more rewarding than other things that I have a natural knack for.
Blogs have levelled the playing field and removed the barriers to entry. Anyone can have a blog up and running in just a few minutes these days. People all around the world can read what you and I write seconds after we decide to share it.
I’ve chosen blogs as my primary way of sharing what I have to offer with other people. Now I am faced with the giant task of writing compelling content, and finding ways to show people what I have to offer. Blog World Expo will teach me how I can keep working to do this.
I admit, I am greedy. I don’t want to sit in a cubicle my whole life. I don’t want to work form 9 to 5 every day, and dress up in slacks and a shirt to go in to the office. I want out. Specifically, I want out by communicating and creating value to share with other people. I want to learn how to make my writing, and my blogs, more compelling. I want to improve my life, and I want to do that by making other people’s lives better.
Blog World Expo is right for me.
You can see the comment on the blog post by clicking here.
101 Project: Returning to Art
Monday, August 24th, 2009A few months ago I reflected on my time at UCSC and the art department. Working in the printmaking studio was the most productive and enjoyable time in my life. I loved the work I was doing, and it felt right to be doing it.
In order to get back a little of that breath of life, I have committed to a project: creating 101 prints. Each one will be a unique and individual work of art, using relief printing as the primary medium, with some other mixed media as well.
When I’m done, these prints will go on sale for just a few dollars each, as a shameless self-promotional stunt. The money I will be charging will be no more than I need to pay for shipping costs, my material costs, plus a buck to go towards a nice, expensive brayer for the next round of 100.
I have always been drawn to imagery that combines organic and natural imagery along with images of mechanics and technology. The juxtaposition between these two is the theme of this series.
The other theme of this series is “Sean makes art again”, which is the more important result of this project.
As a special, get my butt in gear bonus, I entered a little competition with my friend, Dr. WordPress. His site, Website In A Weekend, is all about how you can, over a weekend, not only start your blog, but get it firing on all cylinders.
Doc decided that he would write 101 articles on his website, and now we are having a competition to see who can finish first. He’s got a head start on me, but I’ve got a lot of time to spend on this in the next few weeks, and I think I might catch up.
I have 45 of my 101 started, and will finish about 20 of them this week. Next week I hope to get another 25 done, and another 30 the week after. It’s time to crank things up!
When it is all said and done, I will be releasing these on my website, BadDeacon Design. I’ve got a series of articles running on the blog over there about the web as a medium for art. I’m proud of this set of articles, check it out!
Now I’m Pissed
Friday, June 12th, 2009I figured out where my 101 are going, and I am stuck at work. I’d rather be at home, carving up blocks, and firing up my printing press.
I made a bet with my buddy Dr. WordPress that I could finish my 101 pieces of art before he could finish his 101 articles.
(Actually, I was publically called out and challenged, and honor dictates that I must see the challenge)
I was hanging at his house one evening, talking about what we’re up to, as usual, and I told him about my plan to make 101 works of art. I woke up the next morning to find a post on WIAW that he will finish his 101 articles before I finish my 101 art thingies.
My 101 were already started, I had done the first run on 20 of them.
Then I hit a wall, and I had no idea what I was gonna do next. It finally hit me last night, and I figured out my vision for the series.
(I can’t explain it yet, it is better left seen than described)
Anyway, all I would like to be doing now is carving blocks and inking up plates, and I can’t. I’m stuck at work. This is stifling my creativity, and just annoying.
This is why I need to be self-employed, and create my own business, because this is not working for me.
Something to work towards.
adWords To Live By
Friday, June 5th, 2009Sean’s all grown up today.
My first adWords advertisement is live on the internet.
My add shows up in a search for "valiant comics" (click to enlarge)
I got a $50 AdWords credit from some service I used on the internet, and I figured I would see if it was worth it to see if they would do anything to increase listenership to my Only The Valiant podcast. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but is cool to do a Google search for “valiant comics” and see my ad come up.
It was very easy to set up and use, and with the preponderance of adword credits available out there, why not? It might help your website too.
WordPress: How to scrape the Tags from Posts of a certain Category
Saturday, April 4th, 2009This post has been moved over to the Journal at Bad Deacon Design.
OTV Design Considerations
Monday, March 30th, 2009Design thoughts:
I have spent a couple weekends working on the design of OnlyTheValiant.com. I want to put up a post describing and discussing the design issues and decisions that I faced.
This website is the home of a comic book discussion podcast. There are two goals of this website:
- To get a visitor to listen to the show, and
- To get a visitor to subscribe to the show.
Many of the design decisions were the result of a discussion about this site at the last incubation weekend.
My design decisions were largely guided by the following guidelines:
- It should be clear what the point of the website is within the first 3 seconds
- The site should guide the user to complete the intended goals listed above
- The site should be easy to use, and items should be easy to find for both new and returning users
- Extra and/or unnecessary information should be eliminated
The first decision I made concerned page width. When I browse the internet (or do anything else on my computers for that matter), I keep my windows at partial screen, not full screen. A wide site may not all be viewed by users like me. When I am using the entire width of the site for my “sales pitch” for the podcast, this is important. The flipside of this is that websites that are too narrow can look unprofessional, thanks to all of the crap that huge companies put out on the internet.
I started with 45 ems (720 px), but this seemed too narrow to me. I kept increasing the width until I finally settled on 54 ems (864 px). This felt like a good balance between not feeling too narrow (and unprofessional) and being visible in the browser window.
I decided that the front page would be different from the rest of the site in order to highlight the newest podcast episode. I want any user to quickly understand that the point of this website is the podcast, and make it easy for the user to listen to the show right away.
OTV Front Page
I decided on a color scheme of a gray background with red accents. The red was chosen because of the color scheme of the art that was used (the beautiful cover to Rai #1 by David Lapham). The gray was chosen by matching the middle gray color used in many browsers. The attempted effect was to visually push the background back. My hope is that this makes the things that I draw attention to stand out even more.
I created the new podcast box and moved it up so that it overlaps the header and takes up two-thirds of the screen width. I gave it a thick double border and a white background in order to make it seem that it is on top of the other content.
The yellow box in the top left of this new podcast box is meant to draw the eye to this box because of its bright color. I want the contents of this box to be the first thing that the user actually reads. It also evokes a comic book panel, which traditionally has a small caption box at the top.
I included the date of the podcast release in this yellow box. This is reminiscent of Valiant Comics specifically, which would often give the date in that box. I also want people to know that the episode is recent, and that the site is active, not a forgotten internet relic. It felt important to give the date the episode was released, but I felt that it would detract from the flow of the contents if it was in the white box, so this seemed a good solution to me.
The contents of the new podcast box are meant for ease of viewing and flow. The intended flow is a spark of interest from the title, further interest created by the bullet points, then action performed to listen to or download the episode. I tried to enhance everything that created this flow, and eliminate items that distracted from this flow.
The title of the podcast episode is the second largest text on the site, and due to the contrast, the most prominent. I left out the episode number in this title because I thought that it distracts from the title.
The bullet point text automatically alternates between regular and italics to make them easier to read. If the viewer gets to the bullet points, I want them to sell the viewer on listening to the episode.
This leads to the action portion of the box, and I prominently give the user two choices: listen with the built in audio player or download the file to their computer. I also include a few links to discussion sites, and list the file length, so that the viewer knows exactly what they are getting.
The links at the bottom of the new episode box attempt to answer three questions, which I think would be the three common questions a user might have after reading this box:
- How do I get this in the future?
- What else do you have?
- What the hell is this?
The intended purpose of the sidebar on this front page is twofold:
- Direct the user to subscribe to the show
- Give a hint that there is more to this podcast beyond what is presented on this first page, hinting that there may be good reason for the viewer to follow us
In the sidebar I included four buttons. I made these a bold red to match the color of the header. I want these to be the second most important feature for users to see, after the new episode box on the right. Three of these buttons let the user subscribe in one way or another, directly addressing the second goal of the site. The fourth button, a link to past episodes, is there to aid returning users, who may very quickly want to jump to this location. It also lets new users know that there is more than just the contents of this front page.
After the buttons, I have recent announcements listed. I opted to not put a header of “Announcements:” over these items, because a viewer should be able to determine that by the nature of the content. I put a lighter red behind each announcement title, to make them less prominent. The reason I chose to include these at all is that I want a new viewer to get the impression that this is an active site with stuff going on. I hope that this makes for a more engaging, compelling website.
I put the navigation menu at the bottom of the front page so that it is available to users, but does not detract from the rest of the content. This menu is at the top of the rest of the pages of the site to aid navigation and usability.
For pages other than the front page, I returned to a more traditional layout with a header, navigation menu, sidebar, and content area. Once people have clicked into the site from the main page, I believe users have invested a little into the site, and ease of use becomes more important than forcing the user’s eye to the content.
OTV Secondary Page Example
I kept subscription information prominently placed as the first sidebar item, staying focused on the goal. I also included other stuff such as links to related websites to give users who click around the site more to see.
I may add more content to the website, with information about podcasting and Valiant comics, so that it becomes a location people people can click around and waste time. When I do this, the pages will be added as sidebar links.
I kept the content area as clean as possible, and only used the left line to connect a block of content with the title above it. This felt necessary, because without that line, each item in a list seemed to blend with the next. The placement and layout of these lists of episodes or announcements could use some fine tuning, but I haven’t decided yet what will be best. One thing I want to avoid is design for the sake of design.
On my to do list of things to add are:
- expanding/collapsing text for the episode information when viewing past episodes. The user can then read the information about each episode when a title catches their eye. This will make past episode navigation easier because the page won’t be so long
- A menu when viewing past episodes to be able to see only episodes of a certain type. Episode types are noted by tags, so it will need to be a menu of all the tags used
- Remove any mention of comments on pages and posts that are closed to comments. It currently says “comments off” or “comments are closed”. This should be pretty easy to remove.
There is room to add to this site, the possibilities for added features include a forum, newsletter signup and archive of past newsletters, contests, and galleries.
This was a fun site to build!
Going In Circles
Friday, March 20th, 2009The shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line:
Straight Line!
The longest distance from point A to point B is a never-ending circle around point B:
Not so straight...
Why do we end up going in circles around point B when we should go straight to it?
Let me explain.
Often time I find myself, and I see others, not moving straight forward toward their goal. We end up doing other stuff that makes us move laterally to our goal, without making any real progress.
Examples:
- Buying a workout book when our goal is to lose weight
- Reading a blog about how to meet women instead of approaching a woman and meeting her
- Tweaking the design of a website rather than creating a product to sell
I have been guilty of all of these at some point or another.
I see it a lot in the “dating advice” world, men do stuff to get “better with women” that has absolutely nothing to do with actually meeting a woman. If you are great with women, but you aren’t meeting any women, are you really great with women?
If you are planning out your diet, are you really losing weight? If you are building a commercial website, are you really making money?
I am in a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, but is what I am doing actually accomplishing anything? I have been spending most of my stirfry time (free time to work on my personal projects) on OTV.
I enjoy OTV, it feels good to do it, and I am learning about web design, syndication, podcasting, entertainment, and other things that could eventually be applied to projects that will make me money, but they aren’t right now.
From an entrepreneurial sense, I am moving no closer to point B from point A, though I am doing a whole lot of stuff. I am shuffling around, working on this and that, but am not any closer to point B in any way that matters.
Point B, by the way, is making enough money to thrive from active and passive internet sources.
I spent stirfry weekend focusing on website design, and have been spending what tiny amount of free time I have had since then (about 5 minutes) looking into this as well.
I am going in a circle.
I like design, it feels good to learn about design, and I would like to make money from design. Thus, I tell myself that this is a valuable thing to learn. The truth is, though, that if I ever do make money from design, I won’t be making money because of knowledge I have, but because I market and sell a skill I have.
Chances are I have other skills I could be selling to people RIGHT NOW.
I’m just not doing that.
It feels good to be doing something, and it is easy for me to tell myself that this thing I am doing is part of the bigger picture of getting from point A to point B.
But it’s not.
An orbit is not a straight line.
Incubation Recap
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009Everyone pulls up everyone by the bootstraps.
That was a theme of the Stirfry Startup incubation last weekend.
Stirfry Start Ups is a group of like minded individuals working to develop various projects, web-based and not, as a vehicle for success. While our individual projects vary from building a collaborative work space, selling information on the internet, lifestyle commentary, a yoga business, comic books and podcasting, etc, we all seem to enjoy building something that is our own, and seeing where we can take it.
Rowena hosted this weekend at her beautiful place on the hill above Dolores Park. In attendence were myself, Rowena, Dave, Walter, Sarah, and Ben.
I worked on my OnlyTheValiant website for my Valiant Comics podcast. I recently scrapped the old site and reinstalled a new site, based on WordPress instead of Drupal, which is what the old site was built with. WordPress is now the only CMS I use for sites.
One of the most fun, and helpful, portions of the weekend was when we took turns in the “hotseat”, and put our website up on a big monitor for everybody to critique. Questions came up about what the intended use of the site is, how to design the site to facilitate that intended use, how to convey quickly what the site is about, and how to make sites more readable and present better.
I received a lot of comments on OnlyTheValiant.com, and was able to create a pen and paper markup of how I want the site to look. If you look at the site now, it is functional and presentable. I got a lot of comments on how to emphasize what needs to be emphasized, and how to lay out the site to accomplish the goal for the website, which is to get people to listen and subscribe to the podcast.
I have a very clear idea of what changes will be made in the future, and in another week or two, I believe the site will be much better.
I also realized this weekend that I thoroughly enjoy thinking about, discussing, and implementing website design. It was as helpful and rewarding to offer advice and comments to others as it was to receive them.
This leads to the second major result of this weekend, the idea of the groupstrap. Stirfry startups is essentially a groupstrap idea. Instead of each of us pulling ourselves up by our boot straps, we pull each other up by each other’s bootstraps.
This is an interesting concept, and we saw this in practice over the weekend. Each of us has some relative expertise on something within the group, and we can share that with each other. In this way, each of us benefits from the abilities of each other, resulting in better ventures for all of us. It is mutual sharing, it is community as a service, and it works.