Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

What Not To Do Web-Wise - The Infographi

A great infographic on what makes people leave a website. A lot of this is common sense, but there's good advice on how to fix it, and illustrations that bring the point home. Good for those of you that do personal websites (that's all of you, right?) and those in web design needing to deliver some smackdown

- Steven Savage

Geek to Geek: Resources

Our geeky question of the week is what is the best geeky resource and why?  Our fantabulous commentators weigh in (and so can you).

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 9 - Crunchtime Continues: Rendering

Okay, can I let you in on a little secret?  Neither Ayne nor I know how to do technical illustration.  What that means is either she or I are trying to draw a helicopter, it tends to look less like a fully armed Apache helicopter and more like a bulbous sausage with a plate above it and snow skis below.  That's not saying that I don't know how to draw, nor does that say anything about Ayne's skills (especially since she's the artist).  What it means is that our skills lie far more in figure drawing, curves vs. lines (or what we here at Megami tend to refer to as "organic" drawing vice the technical "inorganic" drawing).

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, are you ready for the rest?  Neither can anyone else.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 11 - Lrn 2 Advermatize and Market (At Least Better than HP. Ouch, Lawsuit in 3...2...1....)

Aside from merchandising, one thing that you may want to look into is A&M (that's Advertising and Marketing, for those who didn't stay awake during Business Ed.)  If you want your endeavor to be successful, you have to get the word out there; it's rare when they come looking for you from the very start.  So you have to make the effort.

I'll get this right out of the way: advertising and marketing sucks.  It's a specialized skill, and not many have the knack to do it.  There are a very few who are a natural when it comes to it and they usually find new and unique ways of approaching it (my favorite is Scott Stratten's UnMarketing methodology).  Chances are, you're like me and abhor it.  Well, it sucks but it has to be done, and with that in mind, let's get cracking.

(Oh, and forewarning: due to the examples of just sheer wrongness people do, this post is slightly NSFW.  No naughty bits, just lots of language.)

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 17 - Originality is SO Original, Part 2: Composition is Not a Crime

Aaaaaaand we're back.  Yesterday, we talked about the concepts of originality vs. unoriginality, and why unoriginality isn't rated high enough or that originality is overrated; in the end, it's how you treate the unoiriginality in an unoriginal manner.  In a sense, it's like the concept of Fair Use in copyright: it's the transformative and new meaning to the source that counts.

And now it's time to get into that little shibboleth. Hang on to your pens and pencils, boys and girls, because what I'm about to say is probably going to turn a few heads at best and floor people at worst.  Also, because I could go forever on the subject and all its different permutations, I'm only going to stick to how it related to manga and comics; I'll acknowledge that it happens all too often in other media and others can cover that better than I can.  

So with that, let's get started.

Launch or Be Lunch, Day 21 - Fonts, Part 2: Go to Hel(vetica)!

Yesterday, I covered as to why people will never love you if you use Comic Sans.  For those of you who didn't read that, well, shame on you, go bad and read it, before you see monstrosities like this:

Review of "How To Be A Business Superhero" by Sean Wise

Sean Wise is a venture capitalist business expert and a comic book geek.  His book ties these roles together.  As many geeks know, comics are about a lot more than spandex-clad warriors throwing punches.  "How To Be A Business Superhero" is about incorporating those underlying lessons into real life business strategies.  In this book, Wise discusses:

List of Geek Resources

Need to keep up on news for geeky culture, trends, and happenings? We've gone through assorted sites on the internet to find resources you can use to keep up on geeky, fannish, and otaku information!

Last Update 10/20/2010

The Most Important Thing I've Ever Learned

As important as it is to have a big, wild, crazy dream, you have to have a neat, tiny, manageable plan to go with it.  I spent 24 years thinking big dreams needed big plans to bring them to reality.  No.  No no no no no no no.

You’ve got to reframe.  Big plans require a lot of money, special places, and pricey equipment that you won’t be able to afford or won’t have access to.  Perhaps the toughest thing about big plans is that they need a team of skilled and reliable people - yeah, try finding that.

It’s okay for the ultimate goal to match your wildest dreams.  In fact, that’s the inspiration it takes to keep you going.  But your path up the mountain had better involve producing INDEPENDENT and TANGIBLE results.

Professional Associations for Profans, Progeeks, and Protaku

The following is a list of professional associations and related groups that should appeal to most Progeeks, Profans, Creative Class, and other Geekonomic types.

I've also listed what countries the different associations work in.