- CIW Web Foundations Associate Done
- CIW Web Design Specialist
- CIW JavaScript Specialist Testing end of Feb ’13
- CIW Database Design Specialist
- CompTIA A+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA Project+
- CompTIA Security+
- NEXT: Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Windows OS Fundamentals
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Windows Server Admin Fundamentals
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Networking Fundamentals
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Security Fundamentals
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Web Development Fundamentals Done
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Software Development Fundamentals
- Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Database Administration Fundamentals
Well, here’s something that hit me: Use your blog to keep track of successes, accomplishments, lessons-learned, etc. when they happen. I’m not one to remember all the great things I’ve done at work, when it comes to job interviews, and I’ve struggled to remember them.
So, from now on, I’m going to document them here!
What, you already do that? Thanks for telling me.
I work a contract at Amazon in Seattle, with the Kindle publishing section. Based on my previous experience at Ascentium producing graphic novels, I’m familiar with the whacky publishing template Amazon uses for its ebooks. And in my two-months-plus time there, I’ve learned a heck of a lot more.
Most recently, how to alter the flow and layout of a book depending on its orientation. Oriented specifically, that is, depending on the direction the user is holding their Kindle – Portrait or Landscape.
Reflowable books are those that allow the user to change the font settings on their device. Reflowable means that the text flows differently depending upon font settings.
There are two main types of reflowable books. Books like novels that are dominated by text, and cookbooks that have many images.
Reflowable books are the mainstay of Kindle books: the user can increase or decrease the font size. Normally, with text-heavy books like novels, it’s not much of a trick. However: when you include lots of images and specific styling, like art books or cookbooks, things get challenging.
This is a page from an Italian-language art book. The publisher wanted the caption to the piece either underneath the art if in Portrait mode, or to the right if in Landscape mode. As a ‘reflowable’ book, this task hasn’t been tried. However, using device reader in CSS, it’s doable. The image to the left is how the book is expected to appear in Portrait mode. Easy enough. But Landscape. That was tricky.
Here’s the finished product. Normally, with a wide image in Landscape, there’s no room for text, so it would merely be pushed below the image, just as it appears in Portrait mode.
In order to ‘flow’ the caption based on device orientation, we need to make use of media styles.
Usually, it’s just necessary to include changes for one orientation or the other. Build your book as it should appear in either portrait OR landscape. THEN, to alter the appearance for some elements in the OTHER orientation, include the @media screen and (orientation:landscape OR :portrait)
These following few rules caused the appearance for the landscape orientation shown above. Without this rule, the caption would just be placed underneath the image.
/* Landscape */
@media screen and (orientation:landscape) {
/* Landscape styles */
.img-100
{
width:74%;
float:left;
}
.landscapeCaption
{
position:relative;
width:29%;
bottom:5%;
width:24%;
float:right;
}
}
The above set of CSS rules helped produce the Landscape oriented Kindle presentation in the second image above.
CIW Web Foundations Associate Certificate Earned
On Saturday December 15, 2012, I passed the assessment and earned my Web Foundations Associate certificate through Certification Partners!
The certificate is the first of fifteen that I’ll earn in my progress towards my BS in Information Technology through WGU (Western Governors University.)
This particular exam tests on fundamental knowledge and skills in Site Development, Internet Business, and Computer Networks. It is a culmination of CIW’s curriculum of Site Development Associate course, Internet Business Associate course, and Network Technology Associate course.
Thanks to my experience in web building, the Site Development and Internet Business modules were quite easy. Not knowing much about Network Technology made that module challenging. In the coming months, I will earn CompTIA A+ and CompTIA Network+ certifications. This Foundations Associate certification will serve as a solid basis of knowledge for those more demanding certificates.
Picked up (what I hope will be) a great book, HTML5 Games Development by Example by Makzan, published by Packt.
Let’s check in with the first project in Chapter 3. We’re going to build a memory-matching game, but we will be taking small steps with regards to animating in CSS3.
HTML (the guts):
<section id=”game”>
<div id=”cards”>
<div class=”card”>
<div class=”face front”></div>
<div class=”face back cardAK”></div>
</div><!– .card –>
</div><!– #cards –>
</section><!– #game –><footer>
<p>
This is an example of flipping from back to front.
</p>
</footer><script src=”js/jquery-1.7.2.min.js”></script>
SEO Experience
I created a pdf ‘product’ detailing the three best examples of my SEO experience. That is, websites I either took from Day One or sites I helped boost organic search engine ranking results.
The pdf document of my SEO experience is viewable by clicking this link: SEO experience Don Garber
The highlights are given below.
PlusModels.com
- Achieved Google PR3
- #1 SERP ranking for many important KW
MediaLunaAgency.com
Undertook a major SEO engineering campaign; within a few weeks, it drove more business due to improved SERP
BariatricFoodReviews.com
Achieved #2 SERP ranking for ‘bariatric food’ and ‘bariatric food reviews’ KW – within 2 weeks of going live
Tattoo-Ideas-Online.com
Increasing visitor count due to baked-in SEO procedures
Bowling-Rockabilly-Shirts.com
- Attained PR3
- ranked first page on SERP many important KW
Tools used:
Professional Blogging Blueprint
This seems to be the basic skeleton, or professional blogging blueprint one needs to follow in order to make blogging / website ownership profitable.
Phase 1
1) Develop your niche idea. And I mean niche. Not just motorcycles, but early 1980′s Suzuki sportbikes. Not just cell phones, but Android cell phones on Verizon network.
2) Register a domain name, and construct a basic webpage template. Clear usability is the ideal, not flash or aesthetics. If you’re looking to woo an audience with gorgeous graphics, they might not be terribly concerned about the content you write.
3) Write a Main Website Article centered specifically around one keyword phrase that your thorough research indicates has the following traits:
- has low competition,
- is a phrase that is adequately searched for
- is at least 500 words in length
- you can locate a few public domain or royalty free images to post in your article
4) Create the following accounts / entities:
- Squidoo
- Tumblr
- another WordPress site
5) Use an article spinning software tool to spin 5 different versions of that Main Website Article and post them to these 3 content-based entities, and have them link to your Main Website Article. This is backlinking. Along with Search Engine Optimization, backlinking is your lifeline to (free, organic) search traffic and is crucial to this professional blogging blueprint.
6) Create the following social media entities for your Main Website:
7) Write a few microposts to these social media entities to further spread the word about your Main Website Article. Hell, write a few for each: find a few good summary sentences from your Main Website Article and publish Facebook posts/ tweets using these sentences as microposts. Pin the good images you were able to locate and publish on your Main Website Article on Pinterest, perhaps others will click through to your article. This is another example of backlinking.
8) Find blogs that are similarly themed to your Main Website, and offer comments of substance regularly. If you can provide good, regular comments, that blog owner could take notice of you in a positive light. She/he could then be a potential ally to help you publicize your Main Website. Everyone needs content.
Repeat Steps 1 through 7 for every article you write. This is a repetitive step in this professional blogging blueprint.
Also, begin to incorporate Affiliate Marketing into the mix. Promote other people’s products that will earn you a commission. Provide reviews of these products so you’ll be coming from a position of knowledge. Merely throwing up banner links on your Main Website to affiliates will be effective 0.0000002% of the time. Do you click banner ads often? Neither do I, and you shouldn’t expect your audience to either. Instead of occupying valuable website real estate to worthless banner ads, fill that space with a thank you message, or an invitation to subscribe to your blog rss / Facebook / Twitter entity. Also (or instead of) post a clear message to contact you for any help or questions.
You will hopefully gain rank in the Google PageRank system, will see traffic increase slowly but surely. Wait until you make more than a dollar a day from Google AdSense before celebrating vigorously. This could very take 6 months or more. Your goal is to generate income in the 6th month that will equal or exceed income from the previous 5 months.
Create a new niche website, and rinse and repeat.
How to Make The Real Big Bucks
The amount of revenue you can realize using this fundamental structure is somewhat limited, but is necessary in order to begin Phase 2.
Phase 2: Create your own informational product
Based on all your content creation and learning you’ve achieved in this nebulous Phase 1, you’ll become a Subject Matter Expert. To really see the money flow in, you need to create your own info product: Written ebook, workbook, video series, webinar, smartphone application, membership site, et cetera. You will charge anywhere from $19 to $999 for this product, depending on:
- how good it is
- how much it helps people improve their lives
- how much it helps people make more money themselves
In a nutshell, that is what being a webpreneur is about.
Over at my Bariatric Food Reviews website, I like to produce video reviews of bariatric food I try. Some is great, some is not so great. The latest product I tried is complete, and have published my Whey Protein Isolate Video Review.
Whey protein isolate shakes are central to a new bariatric patient’s diet and success, both right before and after surgery.
I ordered a 2 pound tub of Optimum Nutrition’s Gold Standard Whey mix and gave it a shot. My whey protein isolate video review, both blog entry and video, can be seen at the Optimum Nutrition Whey Review page.
BariatricFoodReviews.com, my new baby
My newest online project is BariatricFoodReviews.com. Having gone through lap band surgery in September 2011 and lost 40 pounds so far, I feel uniquely qualified to provide insight for both potential and newly banded, bariatric patients. There’s a lot to learn, and a lifetime to learn it. BFR will concentrate on the fun stuff, however: reviews (written and video) of all the good, bad, and ugly bariatric food choices that are available through merchants.
I’ll probably also feature some helpful video recipe preparations. I make a killer, cheap hummus that happens to be very bariatric-friendly. Hummus is expensive, and can be easily prepared at home for a fraction of the cost. Hummus is a very good food choice for us with weight loss surgery.
My first article, though, involves one of my first bariatric food items: high protein meal replacement shakes! These drinks provide 99% of the nutrition a newly banded patient can consume for the first two weeks, post-surgery. Since the choices you make are very important this early, I’ll provide reviews of the good and horrible shakes I’ve tried.
It is built on a WordPress platform, and it uses a very nice theme by Towfiq I. I will *never* be confused with a designer – I like to produce, manage content, do some coding. I do not draw purty pictures on the intertube. Of course, much customizing/tweaking was done and will continue to be. I’m using MarketSamurai to help me with keyword research, and man, it is proving to be absolutely invaluable. There’s a free 12 day trial period if you are struggling to nail down in-demand yet low competing keywords.
Saw this job listing on indeed.com for an HTML5 developer:
Our local technology client is looking for a developer to convert Flash assets to HTML5 for maximum cross browser and iOS (iPhone/iPad) compatibility. They are looking for someone who can act in a consultative manner and assist with conversion issues and create templates as well as someone who can do the hands on execution and development.
Expert knowledge of Flash, ActionScript, JavaScript and, of course, HTML5 will make you successful in this role.
Our client has over 50,000 Flash assets that need to be converted so this is a sizable project for the right candidate!
Hmmm… I know that Adobe is working to include HTML5 and CSS3 structs into the new versions / updates of their products… Is this job listing a fluke, or a sign of the trend?
