I was looking for a really simple non-motorized slider for a shot that would require the camera to move three feet in a horizontal steady movement, after looking around I came a across Proaim’s three feet Linear slider.

ProAim isn’t exactly a high end brand, and doesn’t have the best reputation for reliability and built quality. While I tend to naturally go for more reliable and trusted brands, but I have absolutely no problem trying out new things as long as the purpose is served, in this case all I needed was to get the camera from one end to the other in a steady motion. 

The packaging was perfect; the slider came properly protected with a double layered padding and a plastic cover that covered the entire slider. 

I was very surprised at how heavy the slider was, and immediately understood the reason why it’s recommended the use of two tripods to balance the weight. 

The built feels very robust and professional, the only plastic elements of the slider are the two support pieces that are attached at the end of the rails, and it’s proper plastic, they don’t feel fragile at all.

The platform looks like it’s made of aluminum, and it has the perfect weight to balance out the weight of the camera and lens against the rails. I have not tried to use a Fluid Head on the platform, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

The big issue that I have with this rail system is the four plastic pieces that serve as a connected between the camera platform and the rails. They are very fragile, don’t seem to fit properly in its place holder, and do seem to wear down very quickly. It’s beyond me why a company would go through the trouble of engineering a robust heavy duty slider and then disregard one of the main parts of the unit. 

This also explains why you are given spare plastic connectors, as using the slider for a day with a reasonable load on top of the platform created an obvious wear on the plastic. 

The assembly couldn’t be more straight forward; screw the camera on the platform, assemble it on top of the rails, connect the two plastic supports to the end of the rails and you are done.

The rails and platform provide a smooth and linear movement, but making a steady shot isn’t easy, and it takes time to master a steady consistent camera movement. Unfortunately it’s the case for all manual sliders, moving the camera without dramatic changes in speed takes practice, a lot of it. 

Shifting the lens position to a straight camera movement is simple, but a three feet slider requires a camera elevation so that the rails are not in the field of view. Placing a tripod head on top of the platform should provide enough height to make a shot like this work. 

The unit will set you back 280 USD plus the shipping charges, comparatively with the other sliders out there it’s a giveaway, the build quality is more than reasonable and it does its job properly, so if you’re looking for an affordable slider with very long rails this is definitely a good choice. 

 

The dream of any company is to be perceived as more than a business, to become recognized as something beyond an intangible brand, not just commence….something more, very few companies achieve this.

I first purchased a Zacuto product back in 2009, it was the Z-Finder Pro 2.5x, the built of the product was superb and it served its purpose, other than that I didn’t think much of it. At the time I found it to be extremely pricey, and despite the quality being on par with the price I didn’t plan in making any future purchases. This meant that while Zacuto left me with a positive impression, it had no impact at an emotional level.

A couple of years later I came across two web series called Filmed Fellas and it Film Critics, both produced by Zacuto.

The series were addictive to say the least, there was such a unique chemistry between the presenters that made the show extremely compelling and exciting to watch, but there was one episode of critics in particular that stuck with me and for some reason had a really strong impact on me.

It’s not that there was anything transcendent about the episode itself, but the way Steve Weiss reacted to a short film really impressed me, it was so honest, visceral and emotional (in a manly way of course), it showed so much respect for the film maker. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it doesn’t matter, it really made an impression on me and for some reason started changing the way I looked at Zacuto.

At first glance it doesn’t make much sense, why would it affect the way I felt about a brand? Well, Steve Weiss is not just any film critic; he is one of Zacuto’s founders. The way he gets out there and carries himself with that no BS attitude is a breath of fresh air, he understands that good business is more than selling a good product, it’s about people, it’s about going far beyond what is expected, but most importantly, it’s about becoming everything that a company isn’t supposed to be.

Maybe I’m an easy sell, doesn’t matter, give me a company that delivers a product that is a result of perfect craftsmanship and that at the same time is able to touch me at a deeper  emotional level and I’m sold.   

 

This month I have finally managed to take time to go on a couple of experimental video shooting sessions but ended taking a lot of stills instead.

You wouldn’t believe how good it felt to finally be able to play with a camera.  Fatherhood is the biggest blessing I have ever received but it does not come without its sacrifices.

So we went for a drive in the mountain range area near Lisbon called Sintra, it’s a gorgeous  place that has a bit of everything, from dense vegetation to century old magnificent trees. It’s also on the coast line so when you leave the mountain side you can immediately see the shore. 

The first sets of pictures were taken in the mountain side near a fountain, the light wasn’t too grand but it did provide good contrast between the road and the vegetation. 

This second set was taken in a very special place in the top of the mountain, a couple of minutes away from the fountain. I was a bit disappointed with my work, the lighting was superb but I didn’t take the most out of it.

On the way down was able to find a spot where you could see the entire coast line and the mountains above it, the light was exquisite, really enjoyed shooting there.

Feel free to checkout the entire set here.

One the questions that I keep getting from colleagues who aren’t involved in the Search Engine Optimization arena is how many keywords should they to optimize their website for.

First of all, Web Pages are optimized, not websites. A web site is usually constituted by several web pages that can rank for various terms that have a life of their own.

As you might be aware of, the number of times a specific word is found on a page plays an important role on how that page will rank for with that particular term. However Google has several mechanisms in place that prevent content publishers from abusing the factor. This is where the Keyword Density factor comes in.

An optimal keyword density is a good balance between a specific word and the rest of the content published on a web page. Clustering a page with a keyword will have an adverse affect on how that page ranks for that keyword on Google, as the page will be identified as spam.

Another aspect that should be taken into the account is the less time = ROI.

The less time you spend optimizing your website for good results the better your return of investment is. This is one of the things that I have noted to blog about in the future that I think most SEO specialists tend to forget.

The fact that you achieved the ranks you proposed yourself to achieve isn’t necessarily a victory. Always ask yourself, how much time did this action take from me?

Choosing your keywords carefully is always the best way to go.

Find your market’s niches: Web Market investors always tend to go for the keywords that they would search for, remember that internet user behaviour is completely different from the regular consumer. You will be surprised at the queries that your potential clients are doing. In this industry never assume that you know something without testing it out.

Tools for Research: Although meant to be used for PPC campaigns, the Google Keyword tool provides you with the Google Search Volume information for any particular term that you search for that can be used in your Organic keyword selection. It’s a great tool to find good niches within your market based on the search volume data provided by Google.

Another useful tool that can aid you in your Keyword selection process is Google trends. It gives you a pretty good idea of how a certain search term does in terms of search volume, with the extra bonus is spreading this through out the year. This is extremely important as it allows you to program your investment during the year. Ideally, you should change the keywords you invest in depending on how well they do thought certain periods.

Placing the Keywords in the Meta tags, does it matter? No, at least not for Google, but it doesn’t hurt! How Google treats the Keyword Meta Tag is still not very clear, but what we do know is that as far as relevancy is concerned, they don’t matter. It is also a possibility that Google looks for repetition of keywords in the Meta Tag to look for spammers, so take this into account when building your keyword Meta Tag.

Keyword Density: The Keyword density factor is one of the most disregarded and at the same time abused elements of Google’s algorithm. To put it very blatantly, Keyword density refers to the percentage of a given keyword within a specific web page’s content.

Through a Search Engine’s perspective, it means that repetition means relevancy.

Getting inbound links to benefit specific keywords within web pages: Although the purpose of this post is to provide a few tips on how to chose and where to place your keywords, without really focusing on link building, here are a few tips to optimize your optimized Keywords:

Let’s suppose that you have a web page that talks about Coffee Mugs, and let’s suppose that it is an interesting niche, and that you have an affiliate campaign set and ready to go for this particular branch of products.

If your website is about Coffee Mugs, or if you have more related internal links pointing

So how should I proceed to market that webpage.

1. Make sure the keyword density is right within the page

2. Try and place the keyword in the title of the webpage in the first position of the title tag (it does matter). Ex. Coffee Mugs – Mysite

3. Place the Keyword in a Header tag. If it is an article the ideal structure would be; placing the Keyword in the Title of the article wrapped around h1 tags and in the short description of the article wrapped around header 2 tags.

4. Get properly anchored inbound links from websites related to Coffe Muggs. Google is all about contextualization. If your Web Page is getting links from Web Pages that are in context to what your page is talking about, the importance of that page will logically increase. (Even better if those contextual inbounds have are authoritative).

 

This one might sound a little off, but this needs to be said.

I am the only one who doesn’t think that things are all that bad? Sure the economy is down, but for crying out loud, I’ve been people mentioning and throwing around the word “Depression”… Depression…really?

My Grandmother was English, and she lived through World War I, and I remember listening to her describe how she and her sisters would go down to the addict and stay there for days until the German planes would stop bombarding.

Every time a plane would go by and dropped a bomb they could hear the sound of the Bomb falling down and my great grandmother would tell them to close their eyes and count to ten, if they reached 10, it would mean that the bomb didn’t hit the house.

She would describe to me the feeling of going up the stairs and leaving the addict after a bombing, with that feeling of exciting and overwhelming happiness…yes…it was a good day, they had survived.

Survived my friends, this is the word to be noted here. Most of us have never had to survive a day in our lives. Sure we have all gone through some hard times, working too many hours for too little pay, but that’s what life is all about, it’s supposed to be hard.

So I suggest that all of us make a collective effort to simply ignore the word “crises” for the next year or so, you wouldn’t believe out better all of our lives would be.

Google’s advertising concept simple yet quite ingenuous, if you bid on a keyword that does not have any competition you will have to pay a minimum of $0.01 for that ad to be published.

For your ads to show on Google's Display Network, your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid must equal or exceed your currency's minimum CPC, which is approximately equivalent to US $0.01. To find the exact minimum CPC in your currency, visit the Account Fees and Payment Options page.

The Google Search network publishes at most 11 ads in a single search result, 8 on the right column and at most 3 ads in the quality score area. Now due to a specific criteria that is used to calculate the quality score and to select the ads that can be published in this area, we will not be seeing ads published permanently here, so let’s focus on the right column ad section; In theory if a keywords is only being bided by 7 clients, the 8th client will only pay the minimum CPC of 0.01$ to appear in the last position of the right column ad area.

Naturally if the objective is to appear in a more prominent area of the ad area the 8th will have to “fight” his way into the desired positions by increasing the CPC and hopping the competition does not do the same.

This is Google’s advertising concept, and its this very business logic that has helped so many small business strive and shoulder with large corporations with huge advertising budgets. For a moment consider that you are bidding for the keyword: “azulejos” that is consistently returning 4 results on the right and one on the quality score. Even assuming that the site in the quality score position is moved to the right, we still have three available spots without any competition. Awesome, an 0.01$ advertising spot right?

 Not quite…remove the zeroes on the left and maybe…just maybe you might that last VACANT spot.

Here is an excerpt of a reply to a client that raised the issue in Google Help Center:

Google would actually rather show no ads at all than to show ads not likely to provide a good user experience. The AdWords system was designed from the ground up to protect this user experience by providing many checks and balances, and AdWords might most accurately be thought of as quality based advertising. All that said, please know that the first page bid estimate for a keyword is not highly related to how many (or how few) competitors an advertiser has for the keyword. Instead, minimum bid is more heavily related to the Quality Score of the keyword as it is used in an individual advertiser's account.

By the way, when you encounter keywords for which there are no (or very few) competitors, it does not necessarily mean that no one has thought of using that keyword and it is thus a great opportunity to advertise cheaply. In fact it often means just the opposite: that the advertisers who have used it in the past have found it difficult to keep it running affordably (due perhaps to a lack of 'commercial intent' on the part of those searching on the keyword) and have decided to stop using it.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=3452bff68df2b737&hl=en So let me get this straight…

1. If you find a keyword without any competition it means that advertisers who have bided on it in the past found it to be a poor investment, so they stopped bidding on it and Google made the natural thing… lowered…on no wait… RAISED the minimum cp of that keyword. Wait a minute… so if it’s a bad investment and no one is buying it the market makes it even more expensive to detract potential investment…right…

2. If the Quality Score is dictating the minimum CPC, and if you took care of the relevancy of your keyword VS ad copy VS the actual landing page/site, why is Google enforcing you minimum CPCs based supposedly on the historic performance data of that keyword? And again, if its not performing, why increase the CPC? It simply does not make sense in a business sense…oh wait… it does… on Google’s business sense.

Why doesn’t Google simple put all the cards on the table and stop hiding behind complex algorithms that determine the price that we have to pay for a service? It’s a method that has worked in commerce for 2000 years; you have a service to provide, you state the terms of the service and if I agree to them, I will pay you the agreed amount. No where in the process do I have to pay an undisclosed fee that depends on what salesman's undisclosed data thinks I should pay.

It’s been a while I know, so yes, this is a rant post, so please bare with me… Now, one would think that a company that generates 23.651 billion in gross revenue per month, that does not need to allocate time to attending their clients requests (most of the support requests are handled by automated systems), would at least take the time to get the most basic feature working on their website and that coincidently is responsible for bringing all of the revenue in! Don’t hide our god damn ads Google! For god’s / Sergey’s / Eric’s / Lawence’s sake! 

I tried to stay away from all sources of information about but movie, despite having a very basic understanding of the plot, before I stepped foot in the theater today I had that wonderful rush caused by the anticipation of something that I have been waiting to see for a long time.

It really didn’t matter what the movie was all about, all I knew was that it was Chris Nolan’s work, giving me an absolute confidence that whatever was waiting for me in that screen, it had substance.

And what can I say? Nolan did it again; Inception is just another master piece by a Director that understands that Film Making is all about telling a story, that the story drives the film, and that everything else is secondary.

You get everything you would expect from an amazing well driven production, but as always with Nolan, you get so much more. It was all about twisting your mind and then twisting it a little more…layers and layers of alternative realities interacting with each other in different paces, in different rhythms, and in different times.

Dreams inside dreams and dreams inside other dreams, in an insane maze taking you places that you didn’t know exist, but that somehow seemed familiar. As this adventure progressed, and as the catharses approached in inebriated sequences of partial reality interchanging with dreams, everything managed to come together in a brilliant beautiful finale! I am sorry for getting a tad carried away here, but its simply impossible not to appreciate brilliance when it’s right in front of you.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. If we think about it, truly successful companies are driven by something with far greater significance then profit. Google for example is driven by the the belief that information should be freely accessible to everyone, while Apple is all about designing beautiful accessible pieces of technology that happen to be computers. This is how modern companies operate, this is how every entrepreneur should approach an idea, making profit a natural consequence of a fantastic and powerful idea!

 

Haven't posted for awhile but I couldn't resits sharing you a presentation that was sent to me by a friend of mine. Completely changed the way I look at incentives as a way to boost productivity and performance.