Killer Keywords: The Tip of the SEO Iceberg

The blogs just keep coming hot and fast these days. It seems there's more in my mind than usual, which of course results in even more content than usual. Today, I'd like to talk about yet another concept I've just started learning about: Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO. This fascinating process is an excellent example of something that began as a simple technology innovation and has since been leveraged to gain attention for a variety of interests across the web, from businesses to causes to blogs. Now, I preface this article by saying I am a rank beginner in this subject. The intention of this particular blog is not so much showing my expertise, but rather giving others an idea of where they can get started with this daunting analytical practice. There. Now that the tip of the iceberg has been sufficiently mapped, let's begin.

In order to start grasping the philosophy behind SEO, you first need to get the history. The particular echoes from the past informing this technological phenomenon began where many thoughts of its kind do: with engineers. Back when the web was young, it soon became apparent that organization was going to be paramount to its success. What good were all these electronic resources if it was impossible to find them without knowing an exact location? Enter the search engine. Using programs known as crawlers or spiders, engineers gained the ability to map out the giddying peaks and bottomless valleys of the online world. These programs pulled the information into organized indexes, what we now see upon entering a search on sites like Google or Bing.

But what makes it possible to create such an index? Wouldn't you still have to know exact addresses to mount an effective search? Relax, my friends. I present to you the heroes of our time: keywords. By tagging websites with words and phrases related to the content contained within them, we can search in a more general way and receive results from a plethora of sources based on their relevance to our query. This is the beating heart of SEO.

Once businesses realized that it was possible to use keywords in this manner, they took the next step and tried to optimize keywords to get noticed. By using consistent terms, matching the titles and URLs of websites to internal content, and researching the keywords that got the most use, companies became able to predict where their pages would be most successful in shouting their brand to the void. In fact, there is now an entire industry built around creating analytical tools for and performing the functions of SEO. Once again, language at play creates valuable connections.

I've done a simple scratching of SEO's surface here, but if you are interested in more information, I've found SEOmoz to be an unparallelled resource. In addition to creating tools and analytics that help you build a successful SEO strategy, SEOmoz also provides numerous free resources for learning about the subject. I've found their Beginner's Guide to SEO to be quite enlightening. Check it out, and start spreading your echoes to those around you. I hope these resources help you to keep expanding your perspective and to meet many other unique points of contact.

The Business of Imagination

During the beginning of this week, I've begun delving into the depths of yet another dark corner of the business world: Business Intelligence. BI, as those savvy in the terminology of this industry call it, concerns itself with creating an architecture around gathering and using the various customer, financial, and technological data swirling about untamed in a company's infrastructure. Sounds dry as a bone, right? Sure, but have I yet met a topic I failed to spice up? I guess we'll find out.

BI, like so many other practices in the oft-draconian corporate world, has myriad appearances and methods of application, and looks quite intimidating from a high level. Despite this fact, however, I am convinced that with the correct application of a talent unique to our species, we can break down these walls and restore what so often falls by the wayside of progress: accessibility.

What talent could possibly accomplish this herculean feat? What skill could cut a swathe through the seas of endless red tape? The key, my friends, is imagination. True, the previous sentence might seem to contain an overabundance of cheese, but the point stands.  By linking concepts that seem unyielding in their complexity to the creative centers of our brains, we can break them down piece by piece into digestible packets of visual, auditory, and written data. Several examples of these kind of business practices already exist. Once again, as in my last article, I find myself giving a well-deserved tip of the hat to Wistia.

In addition to their innovative video marketing platform, the Wistia team makes BI easy through gathering vital information about the videos they host using analytical tools. This video, taken from the Wistia Learning Center, gives some insight into how this kind of information can help track success without melting the minds of the innocent. As you can see, Wistia presents video stats using a clean, graphical representation that forms an instantaneous imprint on the user's mind. The colors delineate important patterns and draw the eye to the most relevant data points. No longer must we swim through line after line of a spreadsheet to glean insights into performance. Using the resources that modern technology affords us, we can harness the artistic ideas bursting from our brains and speak to others through cornea blasts of content that excite rather than frighten.

This does not simply apply to video, either. Wistia's methodology is extensible. The infographic below, posted on Column Five's site and done with Wistia, moves the scope outward to cover the video marketing industry as a whole and articulates its efficacy with striking grace.

Using an aesthetic mix of colorful imagery and easy-to-decipher text, this page breaks down the applications of video marketing, as well as its key audiences. It accesses the interplay of verbal and visual connections that form the constant backdrop of our mental experience. Through understanding this transience in our language, we can transfer meaning and resonance to objects and establish chains of significance leading from words to pictures to ideas. This is at once a powerful case study for deconstructive philosophy and a boon to business practices. Who says academic and corporate culture can't live in harmony?

I know it seems that I've harped on Wistia a great deal of late, but that's only because they've done such a great deal to deserve it. Companies using the kinds of methods articulated above give me hope for further innovations to come. If we can make business our art and art our business, then nothing will stop the free flow of imagination between the two. No longer will we need to choose between the drudgeries of work and the amusements our hobbies afford us. Instead, we will all simply live in a world at play.

#TweetFiction, Video Marketing, and General Excitement

This week has been one of the most eventful in recent history for me. So much discovery, exploration, and imagination is flooding my mind that I simply have spill such wondrous brain contents here. In terms of authorly-type activities, the ideas have been flowing, and to start I'd like to articulate a concept upon which I've been musing of late: #TweetFiction.

Similar to the flash fiction of luminaries such as Warren Ellis, #TweetFiction further condenses the concept to work within the scant 140-character confines of everyone's favorite social media platform. Thus far, it seems that about two sentences is the average workspace afforded. I've published four or so entries on my Twitter feed as concepts pop into my head. This is a wonderful brainstorming tactic, as it galvanizes the ol' neural connections and, in my case, leads to springboards for longer form fictional endeavors.

Being interested as I am in connection and perspectives, I'd like to extend an invitation. All ye writerly types, flood the Twittersphere with your dazzling creations. Pass it on, share the wealth, and provoke thought in a region of the web so often perceived (unfairly) as a source of irrelevant trivialities. Whether you're a fan of the real, fantastical, or scientific, this format offers a way to send out polished nuggets of verbal excellence to the world. Consider this the beginning of your manifesto: creativity and expansion. After all, isn't life boring if it's all defined for you?

Continuing on the track of creativity, I've recently become acquainted with an industry that has me quite excited: video marketing. Ranging from whimsical to instructional, these pieces of content highlight the importance of the emotional resonance that I spoke of in my last post when it comes to selling products and services. In our Big Data-centric society, the visual content is often of even higher importance than the verbal message. As Eddie Izzard put it, "It's 70 percent how you look, 20 percent how you sound, and only 10 percent what you actually say." Now, this isn't to say that verbal content should go out the window; my point is more that the visuals should match and amplify the message.

One of the best examples I've found of this amplification lately is the work being done by Wistia, a video marketing group out of Somerville, MA. They've managed to push for change in the marketing industry in ways that inspire others and spark conversations about where the industry as whole should head. Most important in my mind, however, is their generosity. Not only do they offer masterful solutions to clients, they also have numerous free resources available to the general public. One of their newer efforts is the Wistia Learning Center, a portal in which the company expounds upon the various aspects of video marketing. Whether it's the nuts and bolts of production techniques, the cerebral process of concept design, or the analytical intricacies of measuring video success, Wistia has it covered. Their easy-to-digest content is enlightening and integral to the building of success in the industry. Additionally, they offer free hosting for three videos to anyone who makes an account so that both the resources and opportunity to learn are within reach. Check them out if you have time.

Well, this brings us to the end of another scintillating installment. I hope to see #TweetFiction and videos popping up across the untamed vastness that is the Internet. Remember, construct your lives one moment at a time, and always broaden your perspective.

Revitalization and Notes Toward a Marketing Career

"How did Gandalf get ahead of us?"
"He comes and goes at will. He is a wizard, you know."
- The Hobbit (1977)

Jobs are much like wizards; they come and go at will, but (hopefully, at least) they always show up when you need them. My recent departure from RSA has caused some contemplation in this regard. The unexpected does not send you a calendar update on Microsoft Outlook, it simply happens. However, while it may be uncomfortable, it opens up a host of new, previously unexplored realms of opportunity. These are the things that, in my humble opinion, it is most productive to focus upon.

The chiefest sin of becoming entrenched in a daily routine is the impulse toward inattention. As my significant other says, "You can't just let life wash over you." This is a sin to which I have fallen prey over the last year in particular. Many of the facets of life that I most enjoy have fallen by the wayside as I encased myself in a firm wrapping of petty day-to-day concerns. One of those facets is this blog. The sounding board has suffered from a failure to resonate for over a year now. It's high time I remedied that situation.

As a first step, rather than keeping it all contained in the grey matter between my ears, I'd like to discuss my plans for the future upon reentering the murky waters of job searching. As I said in "I Swear to God I Can Copywrite" back in prehistoric times, marketing is the career area in which I think I can make the greatest impact. In terms of having a channel for boundless creativity, you can't get much better. The myriad products and services floating around in the ether of our global community all need direction, expansion, and targeting. Whether it's a video game, an automobile, or the latest breakthrough in cancer treatment, the only way for it to become useful is for it to be known.

Now, I know many may accuse me of lionizing a career that is essentially a glorified, electrified form of peddling, but if you look a little deeper, "take the deeper dive" as the managers I've had are fond of saying, you will find a vibrant community of individuals as imaginative as any science fiction writer. After all, marketing is the science of connection, something that has fascinated me since my MA studies. Think of it not as simple selling; that's not the point. The actual motive is a far more complex process involving the interweaving of emotions with people, acts, and objects. Ask yourself: what makes me treat a Roomba like a pet that happens to like eating my dirt? Why is it that the kind of computer I use signifies a certain set of personality traits to others? Marketing at work, folks :).

Now, my intention here is not to have everyone go off in a half-cocked, paranoid state a la the movie Branded thinking "the corporations are eating my brain." True, these powers have been and can be used for nefarious purposes, but there are other ways as well. Caution is called for, yes, but consider this: social and political causes need marketing too, as do products legitimately attempting to progress the well-being of humanity. For instance, despite the fraught nature of the individuals involved in its inception, the Kony 2012 campaign did succeed in highlighting the crimes being committed toward children in Africa and grabbed the attention of the global community in a very tangible way. In fact, three of the four goals established for the project were met in the same year in which it started. That's a pretty solid result any way you look at it.

Another sterling example is Kiva. Realizing that the biggest barrier to philanthropic activities is convenience, the people behind this organization created an online micro-lending platform that allows for instantaneous small donations to various individuals across the world. The best part? It's a loan, so the money will come back to you, and you can use it again to help more. All this from your comfy chair at your first-world computer desk. I can't think of a better use case for market targeting.

In short, marketing can change the world. It's a process that follows the best possible portions of the deconstructionist vision: using the play of language to engage as many points of human connection as possible. Through this enterprise, we can not only create successful businesses, but also expand our perceptions and raise global awareness of the infinite subject positions inhabited across the earth we share. In this spirit, I encourage you to learn about others; learn what they need, what preoccupies them, what they think and feel. It's not about manipulation, it's about actualization and proliferation. In this way, we can all be marketers.

The Perils of the Working World

I give up. I will not even make the pretense of apologizing yet again for the months-long silence that has plagued this blog. The fault is fully mine, and I own up to it. With the reorganization of my life that has taken place since starting my position at RSA, I have found it very difficult to maintain a writing schedule. Despite this, however, I have not been lax in my creative endeavors. Recently, after being struck with a bolt of inspiration in the midst of an otherwise ordinary workday, I began taking notes and making outlines concerning a new novel that I would like to write. It is to be a piece in the cyberpunk tradition, dealing with a (relatively) near-future European dystopia. More will be posted as it develops.

In addition to literary endeavors, I have also decided on the Warhammer 40k army that I would like to construct in the near future. Influenced by the awesome array of modeling and force options available to them, I have decided to create my own division of the Blood Angels, the Frostblood Brethren. This is mainly influenced by the power and versatility of the Baal Predator and Stormraven Gunship, units available specifically to the Blood Angels (pictured below). These vehicles, as well as the insane amount of jump infantry available to the Blood Angels, will allow me to create an extremely fast army that can get into close combat quickly and decimate the enemy. Choppy armies, as they are known in 40k parlance, are by far my favorite, and the Blood Angels are one of the choppiest. I will include pictures and army lists as I build and paint my units.

I am sure, as always, that this journey will allow my creativity to flow and will be profoundly enjoyable. I will post more about the novel and the army as soon as I can. Thank you to any readers who stuck it out through the silence of the past months.

A Job! Huzzah!

Once again I find myself apologizing for the extended silence that has plagued the blog over the past month. What with my work as a freelance journalist for Worcester Magazine and my job search, I have been quite swamped of late. I am happy to report, however, that this particular iteration of stress has now ended: I have a job! I will be beginning employment as an Associate Technical Editor for RSA, the security division of EMC, a software company on October 4th. I'm very excited. My qualifications have finally come through for me, and I'm also happy to note that this blog played a part in my success. The hiring committee for the position took a look at the various musings that I have been posting here and decided to forgo the writing test that is usually a requirement in the application process based on my work in these pages. Thank you, Internet. Anyway, this is meant to serve as the explanation for my hiatus and to let you readers know that I am back in the proverbial saddle and that more posts will follow soon. I've got a few stories that I want to get going, so you will hopefully see those up here relatively quickly. Thanks for the patience.

A Short Story: Comprehension

Let me first begin this post with a thousand apologies for the atrociously extended hiatus that has afflicted the blog over the past two weeks or so. There has been a large amount of uproar in my life of late, what with job applications and moving to new environs and all of those wonderful, time-consuming activities. Now, permit me to cut through the noise of everyday life and return to the art that soothes away the many stressors that grate upon the human conscience: writing.

The story with which I am about to present you is one that I recently dusted off and reread. It deals mainly with human relations on a global scale and is told through the lens of an outsider, an alien observer who has sat for many years patiently observing the works of the human species. I hope that you enjoy it. The piece is entitled "Comprehension."

All species share a connection. Their collective minds shout out into the Great Void. Each planet cries out, "We are alive; we breathe; we feel." No part is separate. All have a place, a purpose, a meaning that many minds define.
Not I.

I am separate, alone, drifting from brightness to brightness amid the endless stars. Endless. Such a strange word. Implying eternal expansion, unending vastness. It is in fact the wrong word, yet you who hear my recounting require it. The fortitude needed to fathom the truth of the matter exists only in those of my species, and I am the last of them.

So there is an end. An end to stars, to space, to all you comprehend. Suffice it to say that should you reach it, and I believe after ten thousand of your years' worth of study that you shall, you will be the first of the Young Ones to do so. I have seen many of my kind pass over the Edge of Endless, flying out into the Beyond, but as you say in one of your many, many expressions, I am "getting ahead of myself." Perhaps I should start from the beginning, or at least the beginning as far as your species is concerned.

Your histories and sciences tell you enough of your evolution and the events that brought your planet into existence. I shall not elaborate further on these points. I have seen the process a thousand times upon a thousand. There is never a great deal of variation. Stars grow and die, along with the planets that they spawn; such is the order of our Universe. You are not unique in that respect, but do not despair. Your physical sameness belies an inner distinctiveness that I have never perceived in any of the other worlds that I have tracked. For this reason I have lingered a full five thousand years beyond my time. You see, you are the last hope. Your race must take up the mantle that mine will soon let fall.

From your dawning, you displayed a heightened awareness. You knew, however instinctually or unconsciously, that there was something beyond yourselves, something greater, a governing force giving meaning to your existence. I have done my best to foster this sensibility in you. I cannot articulate the excitement that ripped like fire through my veins the first time I reached out to you and you felt me. None ever had before. To hear a mind respond again, to feel waves of awakening comprehension…it was a thrill I had not known since the last of my kind passed beyond the Edge.

The other Young Ones I observed never sensed me. Their minds were too concerned with bending the world beneath them to their wills. It was disheartening to see all the species look down at their feet instead of up to the heavens, all failing to realize their potential. All but one. All but you. When I saw this, I began to shape you, to lead you toward the path you must now follow. I admit that my method of teaching has had some adverse effects, but that could not be avoided.

I have tested you, warping your fates, changing probabilities against you, forcing you to ascend above ever-increasing adversity. Always you managed to surprise me with your responses. While none of my manipulations have proceeded as foreseen, all have driven you toward the knowledge I am now imparting. Granted, there have been conflicts, some of horrific magnitude. I would watch saddened as you tore into each other with the same tenacity that you used to overcome my obstacles. These conflicts are solely my responsibility, and I beg your forgiveness for them. Had I but realized the unique power I was trying to mold, I would have approached this situation differently.

You understood that there were other worlds beyond yours, yes. You reached up to tug on the hem of the sky's jeweled robe and ask your questions. Little did I know how many questions you would have, or how many ways you could find to interpret what answers you gained. Myriad explanations for all manner of phenomena began to filter through your ranks as your awareness increased. Ideas and speculations gained form and substance and soon walked unaided, forming the constructs you call "religions." I believe that these creations show with striking accuracy your progress toward the goals that I have tried to instill in you.

You began with somewhat elementary beliefs, equating the different natural processes of your planet and the surrounding galaxy with spiritual figures of great power. Your pantheons grew to encompass all that you encountered. Though you only had the most rudimentary understanding of the Universe, you always left room for the sky in your equations. Whether it rained lightning bolts upon you from a seat on Mount Olympus or comforted you with the warm rays of a flaming chariot, you never turned your eyes from what was above, what you sensed was so vital, so transcendent in its magnitude. You conquered your planet as well, classifying the lower life forms given you by "gods" for your sustenance and progress. Soon you developed your sciences, your theories that explained in more concrete terms what you saw, felt, smelled, heard, tasted around you.

This led to a narrowing of your focus. The old "gods" passed away. Natural phenomena were now within your reach. It was the celestial that continued to baffle and amaze you. "Gods" became "God," a being residing above your planet somewhere within the seemingly infinite cosmos who gave you direction. Science soon elaborated on your understanding of the heavens as well, giving you the ability to see into space, to map your solar system, to view other planets and stars, supernovas, black holes, and all manner of vast, cataclysmic happenings above you. Your findings suggested an order to things that extended even to the stars. This reinforced in some of you the belief that "God" had created all of it according to some massive schematic that "He" devised in the far past. For others, science became deity and "God" faded. Both groups had the same passion, the same need to know, to delve and explore. You wished to meet your "God" face to face, or to disprove that entity's existence altogether. This need drove you ever further heavenward, pulling the veil back farther and with more insistence. Only one obstacle remained: the great, nagging "how."

I was ecstatic on the day you achieved space travel. The little point of light that blossomed toward me, pushing ever upward through your atmosphere, confirmed that all my efforts were not in vain. You ventured further, setting foot on your Moon, planting your flags, looking ever outward, searching the void for the answers to those many questions of yours. This year, upon the successful establishment of the Moon Colony, I decided that the time had come to contact you directly. You stand on the giddying brink of more discoveries than you can possibly grasp. You have trained your eyes and scopes and probes toward the Great Beyond, but an obstacle remains. There is one conflict left to be resolved: the massive threat coming not from the Beyond but from within your own ranks.

I mentioned earlier the unique construct called religion that your race devised. Overwhelming numbers of you have put your faith in a staggering plethora of different doctrines and dogmas. These "cosmic sensibilities" evolved greatly over the years, and now only two remain. In the west of your world reigns Christianity, while in the east Islam has firm control. Such similar belief structures, and yet you manage to find so many reasons why they cannot coexist. The battle lines are drawn across your entire planet, and barring the kind of "spiritual" intervention that both sides claim to monopolize, you will destroy yourselves before your true calling is fulfilled. To enlist another of your quaint phrases, "you want it, you got it." I am your intervention. I do not wish all my effort to go to waste, so I am establishing this direct communication with you in order to relate some of the truths of the Universe before you continue making up your own until destruction becomes imminent. The first may come as a shock, but I promise I will explain.

There is no "God." Well, at least not anymore.

The figure you refer to in your mythologies passed over the Edge long ago, before my people were even a sentient race. Little is known of the Maker, who drew all the myriad materials out of chaos and into order, but it did not spring from nothingness in a spontaneous burst of consciousness as you maintain your "God" did. Instead, it came over the Edge into a place that had no life or shape to speak of and bestowed upon it a gift. It is said the Maker gave the First Maintainer his orders directly, but there is no way of confirming this. I am the Ninetieth Maintainer, the last of a long line of entities who have helped to spin the fate of this Universe and to hold its fabric together. It is my hope that you will not simply become another set of Maintainers. I believe that your potential is far too great for that simple task. In fact, I am confident that your species marks the next step, the first of the Evolvers. You will link all the peoples in this vast Universe together. There will be conflict of course, but you have dealt with your share of that. The survival of all of existence as we know it depends on your ability to take up this task.

My time grows short. I will aid you as long as I can, but soon I must go to seek my own people and leave you to your own devices. I implore you, in light of this new knowledge that I am sending, put aside your foolish bickering. Your religion is trivial in comparison with the magnitude of your mission. Find oneness in the cause with which I charge you. If you cannot, all is lost. Keep your faith, but remove your prejudice and dogmatism. Put your faith where it really belongs: in the Universe itself.

I have always been flattered that you found some way to include me in all of your belief systems. It was the surest sign that you felt me and that you could one day carry out your purpose. I apologize for the fact that, due to the nature of my approach in shaping your species, I always appeared as an adversarial figure in your various theologies. This was the only way to truly drive you to the point that you have now reached. My challenges have made you strong, and I hope that you will take up the cause for which your race is destined. Goodbye, my Evolvers, my children. As a token of my affection, I sign this letter with one of the many names that you have given me over the years. Go forth, and unify the stars.

With All My Love,

Lucifer