WMA Founders Blog

Deer Whistles, Google and SEO Tips

2010-06-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I used to drive home from work on the AC Expressway every evening around dusk. There was always a certain time of year when large groups of deer would be standing on the grass clearing between the asphalt and the trees every evening, without fail. As expected, this always caused people to slow down to almost a crawl since many of the deer were standing right on the edge of the road.

Then one day I was in an auto parts store and found a product called Deer Whistles. They were a pair of small plastic horns that mounted to your car's front bumper with two-sided tape. The package promised that the ultrasonic sound they produced while driving was only audible to deer (magical huh?) and best of all, it would make them flee in horror when they heard your car approaching.

So with visions of thousands of fleeing deer, parting like the red sea on the AC Expressway as I heroically cleared the path for all traffic behind me, I bought a pair. I figured the awe they would produce was worth the money and frustration of trying to get them out of the human proof blister pack they came in. So a few bucks and minor hand injury later, I neatly mounted them according to the instructions.

The next day I could hardly wait to put them to the ultimate test. The weather was warm and clear, prime conditions for deer roadside sunset gatherings. And as I headed over the bridge from Atlantic City at precisely the right time, I knew it would only be a few more minutes until I got far enough inland to witness this new marvel of technology perform a miracle.

Then suddenly, on the distant horizon I saw the first large group of unsuspecting deer casually gathered along the side of the road. Little did they realize that in a few seconds they would all be running for their lives, possibly dying from fear of the horrifying shrill of mankind's newest super weapon.

But as I got closer and eventually passed them, nothing happened. The deer all stood there unphazed. There was zero reaction. No head turning. No wide-eyed horror. No panic. No running for cover. Nothing. They didn't even blink.

So rather than accept the reality that I had gotten ripped-off, I wondered if I had possibly installed them facing the wrong direction. After all, the instructions were in Engrish and never showed exactly which direction they should be facing. So when I got home, I peeled them off, turned them around and stuck them back on the bumper with some two-sided carpet tape.

The next day, I put them to the test again but with the same results. It was then that I finally realized they simply didn't work.

So what this all have to do with Google and SEO Tips?

Well for the past few months we've been trying to increase the WMA's ranking in Google based on SEO Tips by "experts" in the field. All promising miraculous results. First we tried following their instructions to the letter. But just like the Deer Whistle, no results. And just like the Deer Whistle, rather than giving up after the first test, we went back and tried a different direction, this time following Google's tips to the letter. Again, no results.

Moral of the story: SEO Tips, like Deer Whistles promise miracles, but deliver nothing. Unfortunately what we've discovered through it all, is that Google simply ranks sites that run Google Ads higher than those that don't, regardless of how well they are optimized. Since Google makes money from those ads, it only makes sense they would try and drive more traffic to sites that run them. And ironically, the no ad policy for our non-commercial site, which should be a plus, an added benefit, may ultimately be what's causing its decline.

Maybe we should run Google Ads for Deer Whistles.

Giving Comcast The New Jersey Salute = Free HD

2009-09-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

Last January we finally replaced the old TV set in the living room with a large LED flat screen. Unlike the old set, it was capable of receiving both analog and digital signals. So when I hooked it to our existing cable, it received a lot more channels than our old set. The only problem was it took a long time to find the channel you wanted because there was no on-screen guide.

So my wife called Comcast and they said we needed to add one of their boxes to every set in the house. The first box was included in our current bill, but we'd be billed more each month to rent the additional boxes for the other sets. The next day we picked up 3 boxes and hooked them to each TV. As promised there was an on-screen grid-like guide. It made it easier to find channels, but suddenly many of the digital channels we got without the boxes no longer worked.

Then a few months ago I was hooking up a TV for my mother-in-law. She had just moved to a new apartment and didn't want to pay for cable. So I dug out an old pair of rabbit ears and hooked them to the digital converter box she had gotten with her government issued coupon. The set received 16 channels. The first thing I noticed was how amazingly clear the picture quality was, even on her old set. I also noticed she was getting channels we weren't getting on cable. In fact they were the same digital channels we had gotten before paying extra for the Comcast boxes.

My wife called Comcast again to ask why we weren't receiving the digital channels. They said they were only available with extended digital service. So we check our bill and it turns out we had been paying for the extended digital service. When we told Comcast, instead of fixing the problem, their solution was to refund the amount we had overpaid.

Sometimes you don't get what you pay for...

I started to do some research and found an article title "You don't get what you pay for." The signals in the air are 100% pure HD, signals from cable are compressed and only deliver around 70% of the original clarity. I also discovered that many stations began "multi casting" when everything switch over from analog - meaning that each station broadcast several channels. Then it hit me, if an old set of rabbit ears on top of a set can get 16 crystal clear channels, how many more could a top notch outdoor antenna get?

So I called Comcast and told them to cut off service at the end of the month's billing date, which gave me some time to get everything ordered and installed. After a week of research, I ordered a DB8 outdoor antenna, a Motorola signal amplifier, all the necessary installation hardware and 2 Tivax digital converter boxes using the government issued coupons. The total cost for everything was the less than what we'd pay for 2 months of cable.

It took a few hours to mount the antenna, properly ground it, run the antenna cable through the attic, hook up the signal amp and connect the TVs. Once everything was done, I rescanned for channels on each TV. Ends up we get 36 channels, all free, and the picture quality is flawless. Pure HD. And all completely free. But that's not the best part of the story. The one thing that made me reluctant to drop cable was that the few shows and channels my family likes to watch would be gone. But it turns out some of the shows are on channels we still get, and there's an alternative to almost every show that's not.

It's kind of like drinking Sam's Choice Cola instead of Coke. Not the real thing, but close enough and a lot cheaper.

Kip Allan

2008-06-15T11:01:00.001-07:00

Special thanks and a WMA salute to Sachi and Coax. They met with Kip's mom on his birthday Saturday and were kind enough to film this and share it with the rest of us.

Here's to NightBreed, Rest in Peace

2008-03-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

This video tribute to NightBreed was created by WMA Senator Tharikifa. It features member quotes and pics from the 1st and 2nd Annual WMA Executive Summit, the soundtrack was one of Kip's favorite songs.

HUCK EM ALL MUSIC VIDEO

2008-01-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

We released a song on myspace a little over a week ago (see last blog entry for details). And after several all-nighters we finally uploaded a music video of the song on YouTube yesterday. It's only been up for about 24 hours and has already gotten a very positive response.

I wish I had more time to get into specifics, but the description we posted on YouTube gives an overview of what it's about: "A heavy metal music video that takes a satirical look at the presidential election and boldly endorses Mike Huckabee as the candidate of the People."

Click the link below to check it out:
HUCK EM ALL MUSIC VIDEO

HUCK EM ALL

2008-01-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

On January 15, 2008 The World Metal Alliance founders released a new original heavy metal song called "HUCK EM ALL" which is now available for free download on the WMA MySpace Page. It's lyrics are in the style similar to old "Mark Russell" comedic political satire and are even a little "politically incorrect" (after all it's metal). But instead of a piano, the words are stated over an original heavy metal composition. If you like Mike, and want something heavier than the "I Like Mike" folk song which is all over the internet, or a message with a little more bite, than this song's for you.

I also want to make it clear, that although the founders happen to like this candidate for differing reasons, we don't necessarily reflect the views of the World Metal Alliance membership. Our membership is too politically diverse to agree on one candidate and that's one of the reasons we've never officially endorsed any candidate as an organization. It is also one of the reasons this song is only being promoted on the founders' personal sites and not on the World Metal Alliance website.

A Tribute To Alliance Radio... this one's for Kip.

2007-11-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

Alliance Radio. It was known as "The Official Feed Of The World Metal Alliance" and broadcasted a full range of heavy metal music on the web during 3 different eras from March 2004 to May 2007. It has been called the "high water mark of the WMA" and was the realization of one of the earliest goals of the World Metal Alliance - an all metal broadcast. It was, and will always be, and important chapter in the history of the World Metal Alliance that needs to be remembered. But unfortunately, other than a topic on the WMA Heavy Metal Board and a few others buried deep in our old ezboard, very little exists documenting how it evolved through it's 3 different eras on the web.

This void of information has been on my mind a lot lately. I guess this time of year always reminds me of Alliance Radio - since Black Friday was the day of two Founder's shows and several other multiple DJ specials we used to call "Broadcast Events". So for the past few days, I've tried to assemble a visual overview with dates of Alliance Radio history in tribute to those who made it possible and what it meant to those of us who tuned in. I started by finding an old tribute topic that was posted just after the 2nd era had ended. It contained a collection of banners and event dates that covered the 1st and 2nd eras. I then went through the image archives to find banners from the 3rd era. (The only way I could figure out the dates was by looking at the creation dates on each banner.)

My personal thanks to all the members who were involved in it's operation - to all who served as DJs, to RipperJack who was partly responsible for it's initial inception, to Dr. Coldbreed who played a vital role as Webmaster during it's 2nd and 3rd era, and above all to NightBreed aka: Kip. Without his dedication, time and financial support, none of it would have ever happened. So in tribute of Alliance Radio, it's Admins, DJs & listeners, here's a small visual history. I think this will bring back some cool memories, I know it has for me as I was putting it together. And above all, I hope it fills the void for those who were unaware of the role it played in the history of the WMA.

First Era March 2004 - March 2005

March 2004 - Earliest banner I could find, before "Feed Five" became Alliance Radio:

May 2004 - First 2 banners announcing the initial opening of Alliance Radio:

May 2004 - First full size banner put into rotation on the WMA Forum header:

July 2004 - Banner announcing Free AR Bumper Sticker Giveaway:

October 2004 - Banner for the first WMA Founder's Show:

November 2004 - Banner for the first Full Moon Black Friday Multi-DJ Broadcast Event:

March 2005 - Banner for the Good Friday Multi-DJ Broadcast Event:

Second Era April 2005 - November 2005

April 2005 - Banner announcing the Grand Re-Opening of the new and improved Alliance Radio:

November 2005 - Banner for the last Multi-DJ Event/WMA Founder's Xmas Show:

Third Era October 2006 - May 2007

October 2006 - Banner announcing the return of Alliance Radio:

October 2006 - Banner which ran during the return broadcast:

January 2007 - Banner promoting AR during our temporary return to ezboard:

January 2007 - Banner announcing the return of NightBreed's weekly live show:

February 2007 - Banner which ran during NightBreed's live broadcast:

February 2007 - Banner announcing NightBreed's weekly live show:

March 2007 - The last AR banner, promoting the weekly live show and WMA chatroom party:

WMA Site And Forum Restored

2007-09-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

A WMA salute and a ton of personal thanks to the WMA's resident volunteer code guru Chuck (HellMonitor) for once again answering our cry for help at a moment's notice. If it were not for him we'd be eternally stuck at ezboard and probably the only site content we'd have would be a dozen static html pages on metal.20m.com.

Last week he was able to perform a major miracle and somehow repaired the WMA Forum and database which was thought to destroyed. And last night he was kind enough to stop by, install the CMS software and help me add back almost all of the remaining non-forum content.

Essentially he is the WMA's Dr. Frankenstein, using his incredibly skills to bring to life an entire website that otherwise would be a pile of inanimate parts. I can't thank him enough.

WMA SMF FORUM HACKED 9-15-07

2007-09-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

WMA SMF FORUM HACKED 9-15-07, OLD WMA EZBOARD REOPENED

Our host has just confirmed the WMA SMF Forum (http://worldmetalalliance.org/forum) was hacked on Saturday, September 15 at 11:15am EST. According to their tech support "The attack at hand appears to have been a SQL injection attack"

We are waiting to see if they can restore the Forum to an earlier time prior to the attack and also waiting to hear back from HellMonitor to see if he can somehow salvage the Forum if the host is unable to. Last night after we realized there was no quick fix and know way of telling how long the WMA SMF Forum would be down, or if it could be repaired, we redirected the ENTER button on home page (http://worldmetalalliance.org & http://worldmetalalliance.com) to link to the old WMA ezboard rather than the damaged WMA SMF Forum. All WMA communication will be redirected to the WMA ezboard until further notice.

In the meantime, we need your help.

Since it looks like most of the membership has the forum bookmarked rather than the .org splash page and there is no way to replace the error message on the hacked forum page with a message that redirects them to the ezboard, we need everyone who is reading this to e-mail or notify as many members as they can about what happened and that we have been forced to relocate back to ezboard once again. You can either send them to worldmetalalliance.org and have them hit ENTER which will now bring them to the WMA ezboard, or send them to the WMA ezboard url: http://p079.ezboard.com/bworldmetalallianceforums

Thanks!

Are Heavy Metal Websites Good For The Environment?

2007-08-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was thumbing through a magazine and a small headline caught my eye. It said that there was a black version of Google called Blackle.com. Since I use Google almost exclusively, and I prefer websites with black backgrounds, I immediately went over to the PC and typed in the url. There it was, as the magazine said, a black version of Google. My favorite search engine in my favorite color. My first reaction was to post a link to it in the Shout Box on the WMA Heavy Metal Forum, because at first glance I saw it as a metal looking version of Google. Guess I just equate black with heavy metal.

After I posted the link, I wanted to know who made it and why, so I went back to Blackle and clicked the "About" link. I figured somebody just did it because it looked cooler in black. Or maybe because a darker web page is easier on the eyes. But I was surprised to find out neither of those reasons were listed and that the real motive behind it was to save energy.

Seems someone had proposed a large amount of energy could be saved if a high volume site like Google used a darker background. This was based on the fact that a CRT monitor uses about 20% less energy to display a page with a dark background than a light background. The basic concept was that if a high volume site switched to a darker background that savings would be multiplied by the number of users. The more users, the greater the savings.

Anyway, after reading the About page and finishing up some other work on the PC, I returned to the WMA Heavy Metal Forum before logging out. I found that a few members had already commented on the link in the Shout Box. Apparently they had also read the Blackle About page, because they were pointing out that the WMA website also saves energy and is "green" since it also has a black background. I laughed about it at first, there were a few reasons the WMA website is black, but being "green" and saving energy were never on the list. Even though that was never the intention, based on the above theory, it turns out to be true. Every time a member or visitor views the WMA website on a CRT Monitor, the black background and dark page uses less energy.

That's a drop in the bucket compared to Blackle, but what if you multiply it by the millions of other heavy metal websites, forums and blogs on the web. There's almost an unwritten law that heavy metal websites have a black background. In fact I've only seen one heavy metal site that didn't, but it was still a dark color. And although most of them don't realize it, their widespread preference for black backgrounds is actually helping to save the planet. Heavy Metal, good for the environment. I doubt anyone would've ever guessed it was possible, but it apparently it is. Too bad Kermit The Frog wasn't a metal head, then he would have known what we all now know - it is easy being green.

A Headline That Doesn't Mysteriously Tie In With The Article?

2007-08-02T18:53:00.001-07:00

Since I've always been more of an artist than a writer, I've been asking myself - does the World Metal Alliance really need another blog? After all, we already have our own website at worldmetalalliance.org which is custom made for publishing the written word. And as if that wasn't enough, we have a blog on the WMA's myspace page. So why do we need another one? Well, according to the experts of the mysterious science called search engine optimization, if you want your site to rank high, you need to establish a presence on both myspace and here on blogger. In fact it has become expected. Just like a local business that buys ads in newspapers or on television is also expected to also be listed in the yellow pages and local business directories, any respectable website is expected to be on myspace and blogger. At least that's what the experts say.

I'm not going to argue with their logic, but I'm still faced with the dilemma of what to write about. This was the same question I faced when writing the first entry on our myspace blog - "what thoughts about the WMA could I write about that haven't already been published on worldmetalalliance.com ad nauseam? Afterall, who would bother reading a blog that just rehashes info from the WMA website". The solution for the myspace blog was that there are 2 sides to every story and we would use it as the place to shed some light on the "other side of the of the WMA" that few know about, the non-public side. And with the help of my fellow co-founder Brian (DarkOverlord) hopefully that's what we've managed to do there.

While I'm on the subject, Brian's offered to take over the WMA myspace blog so I can take on this one. To be honest it's a huge relief. Writing the myspace blog had quickly become a task that I grew to dread. The problem didn't have anything to do with myspace, (although the changing screen names always confused me) it was the rigid constraints of the subject matter. For anyone who has read the WMA myspace blog, you may have noticed there is a certain tight format it adheres to. Brian would research and choose a headline from The Ancient Text and each entry was then constructed to tie into it in an unexpected way. Rough drafts were written, circulated between all 3 founders, rewritten several times, and finally signed-off on before they were published. Sometimes they were entirely scrapped. I found it difficult, if not impossible, to write about the non-public side of the WMA without blowing holes through the intentional mystique of the website in a way that all 3 of us could agree on. So it's Brian baby now and he's the perfect man for the job.

Which brings us back to the dilemma at hand, what to do with this blog. Since the WMA website covers the public side and the myspace blog covers the other side, if my math is right, that means we're all out of sides. The last thing I want to do is approach this new blog as a required chore. It wouldn't be any fun for me to write, especially since the words don't exactly flow from my fingers. And even worse, it would probably end up being something nobody would want to read. After talking it over with friends and thinking about it for a long time I finally reached the conclusion that it would be better to approach this new blog as an outlet that I enjoy instead of a task that I dread.

Rather than having the tight format and constraints of the myspace blog, this blog should be the opposite. No particular format. No rigid subject constraints. And at the same time, it should be totally free of the uniformed formalities found on the history and informational pages of World Metal Alliance website. Now don't get me wrong, I think the WMA myspace blog and WMA website are both written in a manner that perfectly fits the goals of each. But this blog will be where we can take off the formal black uniform, loosen the studded belt, and take a look at things on a personal level for a change. Simply written as if it were just an e-mail letter to a friend. So maybe not having a predetermined subject is a good thing. For one, I won't be limited in what I can write about. And, you'll never know what to expect other than the random thoughts, observations and ramblings of an artist who's not a writer. Sometimes it may be about the WMA, sometimes it may be about metal, and other times it may be something that has nothing to do with either. And if I ever get writer's block, there's always the option of posting some pics instead.