iD10-T: Priceless

Hidey ho neighbors!

Ok last comic for June. I did some tweaking on the site yesterday, you'll no doubt notice the lovely shade of gray. Don't ask, I was bored and wanted to try something. You will notice that there is a rank now on one of the little banners on the side. Three hundred and thirty eight as of this morning. Not bad considering that there are almost three thousand comics listed on that site and we are just finishing our third full month. Thanks. You guys have had a lot to do with that.
I've got some good comics coming up so make sure you tell the neighbors!
Have a great Fourth of July and I'll see you all next week.

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm

--
www.id10-t.com
Tales From The I.T. Department

www.seraphim7.com

The Three Laws Of Internet Traffic

I woke up this morning and realized that I have discovered three immutable laws to the foundation of Internet traffic generation. One day I will write a book or do a seminar or eat cole slaw...
Anyway.

Here they are in no particular order:

• You must have the site active for at least 6 months on the Internet. Most search engines will not give your site any real consideration until you have been on line at least six months. The longer you remain an active site, the better off you are. Sites that have been on line for several years and follow the other two rules have good traffic flow. Longevity creates credibility as it does in most other business environments.

• You must regularly update the content on the site.What's the use of having a site on the Internet for ten years and you never touch the content? It never changes. Would you watch a TV show if it was the same show day in and day out? No. The same principle applies to websites. The content should be relative to the site's focus and be updated regularly. Sites that tend to do well are those that are updated frequently. They give their audience a reason to return again and again. It's one of the most basic laws of business. Repeat customers are worth their weight in gold.

• You must have inbound links to your site. There is a reason they call it the world wide web. Your site is supposed to be connected to other sites. Isolationism doesn't work on the Internet. You can dramatically increase your performance by sharing links to other sites with relevant content. Relevant. That's a key word there. It's not going to help your forum on cross breeding bovine communes if all your links go to auto parts stores and gamer sites. Target your links and advertisements to the content of your sites. Form partnerships with other sites, trade links and banners. In short, join the web. Become a part of it.

Mind you these are not the only laws of Internet traffic and I am not pretending to be any sort of traffic guru. I have been researching and working hard to get my lovely little web comic off of the ground and without investing in any pay per clicks or other advertising method I have managed to foster substantial grown on my site. That's not to say that I would never pay for advertising.
I would.
But like a lot of people on the web, I can't really afford the extra expense at the moment. So I have to find other ways to generate traffic. That's where these little jewels come in.
The first law takes time. Six months in fact. But if you get something on the web and remember to change the splash page every once in a while during the testing and development of your site, then you are on the right track. The single biggest jump in traffic occurred when I linked my site to another comic and to several "Top 100" websites that cater to web comics. I doubled my unique visitors in one month. Of course we are only talking a jump from 700 to 1400 but I'll take it thank you very much. Especially when the trend seems to be continuing. I used to scoff at those sites but I now realize that they are an invaluable tool to helping increase traffic. In addition to exposing your site to new visitors, they create inbound web links to your site that ultimately help your site improve it's Google Page rank.

One last thing. You really need to pay attention to your traffic numbers. Most good web hosts offer statistics on your sites and have free tools to help your site grow. Use them. Learn to monitor your traffic stats regularly. You will be able to discover what your audience responds to and act accordingly.

Remember to be patient and keep at it. These things don't happen overnight.
Good Luck.

iD10-T: Afterparty

Happy Tuesday People...

The fourth of July will soon be upon us. I hope that you all have something fun planned. I know I do, and depite the incredible load of merriment on the schedule, I don't expect any delays in keeping the id10-t on schedule. By the way I am looking at getting some Tee shirt designs ginned up so if any of you know someone adept at screen printing or is in the trade, drop me a note.

On to today's webisode...

Ok, remember "insecurity"? Well today's comic takes place immediately following Yaz's run in with the new head of security and sheds a little light into the guards sightly aggresive posture. .

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm

--
www.id10-t.com
Tales From The I.T. Department

www.seraphim7.com

I am entitled to my own opinion...

I have often bemoaned the "Instant Gratification" Crowd. As far as I am concerned, these are individuals that expect everything and are willing to work towards nothing. They take and never give back. In short, they are infants. Maybe that's a little harsh. The young folks I have met have been at times, courteous, compassionate, friendly, funny, well informed, arrogant, meanspirited, spoiled, surly, completely clueless and belligerent.
In short, just like every other demographic. Still they get their blurbs in the press about their "plight".
I get more of a sense of conceit when it comes to today's twentysomething. I'm not that old either. I'm only 33, but I can see a distinct difference in someone ten years younger. I still remember that age with some clarity. I'd like to think that I wasn't whiny or arrogant but I know that I had chip on my shoulder then. The thing is though, that I busted my butt to earn promotions. I didn't think that I knew everything. Of course, I didn't grow up with the internet either. We used to use these things called books. They were mostly made of paper and had words printed on them and stuff.
Seriously! I still have a few of them if you don't believe me. Call me old fashioned but I still enjoy physically holding a book or newspaper when I am reading. I'll even go so far as to printing out an online article that I want to read.
So old fashioned.
I should just retire right now.
Put me out to pasture.
GASP! I don't even have a PDA. How do I keep pace with modern society!?!
I get the feeling that society is careening out of control and we are just so busy with keeping up with the frenzied pace of life that we are not realizing that the whole shalelie (is that spelled right?) is just going to hell in a handbasket.
I just love saying Shalelie out loud, don't you? Oh... and shenanigans...
Anyway...
Yeah, crazy fast, gimme gimme gimme, I want it all and I want it now.
Man. Why haven't I finished this blog yet?
Ok. A slight exaggeration? Maybe, but only a slight one. Watch commercials and TV and pay attention to the pace and not the message for a while.
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may all die.
And probably will.
You know what the scary part is?
Life is becoming a reality show and we are all viewers.






http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050626/ap_on_bi_ge/the_entitlement_generation

Whatever they are smoking, I want some too....

Just say no.
That's all they had to do.
What could they have been thinking? Were they thinking at all? How could this have happened in America? In case you are wondering what I am moaning about, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, 5-4, that local governments can forcibly remove a private citizen from their home and or business and sell the property to a private organization or person if they feel that its in the "best interests" of the local community.
WTF?
Why bother buying home now? So someone with more money and bigger political connections can force me out against my will? Where the hell is the ACLU on this? Isn't this sort of thing their bag baby?
This is an ominous development for the citizenry of this country. It sets a precedent and that is how change is really affected in this country.
At least thats how it seems to get done today.
One court ruling at a time.
I really feel badly for the 15 or so people that are going to lose their homes. Here is your homework assignment. Go watch "Batteries Not Included"
Seriously. Go watch it.
Do it.
G' head.
Do it. Do it now...

Beowulf: The Motion Picture

It has to be one of the greatest underappreciated tales of all time. I read Beowulf in High School, lo those many years ago. Have you heard of it? How cool is a hero when he not only defeats a seamonster as a warm up but defeats the first Grendel by ripping off its arm and basically beating it to death with the bloody stump.
I don't know about you, but that pretty freakin hard core.
Anyway, it was written in really really old english and was harder to read than Shakespear.
But that's not why I am writing this.
They are making a movie.
That's right baby, Beowulf is going Hollywood.
Sure they've tried as few versions of the film before. I think that there was this film with Christoher Lambert (The Highlander) and of course Michael Chrighton's The Thirteenth Warrior had more than a few elements of the story woven into it.
This time Robert Zemeckis has signed on to direct and Sir Anthony Hopkins has recently been added to the cast. It's supposed to be using the same motion capture system that was used in the Polar Express, though I don't know if that means it's going to be completely CG or if there will be live action in it.

Either way, I can't wait.

iD10-T: The Last Donut

I speak fluent donut so this one is really more about me. I have battled for the last donut, though not to the extent that Yaz and Dug do. Just a sketch today. Truth be told I simply ran out of time this week. But I like the drawing enough that I am going to do a full color version. I may even consider posters for this one. Who knows.

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm


--
www.id10-t.com
Tales From The I.T. Department

www.seraphim7.com

iD10-T:Crush Groovin 2 : Helping Hand

I hope everyone had a great weekend and for all the father's out there, I hope you had a great fathers day.
I was finally able to get back to creating the comic more alone the lines of where I want to. I will still be playing with the live trace (at least until the trial expires) mainly using it for backgrounds.

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

--
1-800-NOT-1337

The Village Id10-t

When I first read the reviews of Adobe's newest version of Illustrator (CS2) I was really excited. The Live trace and live paint features really seemed like Godsends. Imagine! I could sketch to my hearts content and with the click of a button, voila! Instant comic strip. All I had to do was drop in a little color and BAM!
All done.
The thing of it is, they are coming out a little sloppy now. Not that they were all that sharp to begin with mind you, they just were more crisp.
ID10-T is finally starting to gather some steam and I don't want to lose the momentum so I am going to have to set aside the live trace tool for now. At least until I learn how to use it better. I was looking at the comics I have posted and I can see where I could have done things better, cleaner or added some color or detail to really make it stand out. I think that after a year or so I will have enough to maybe try and get published. It would be nice to see them in print.
Even if it's a coffee table book.
For those of you who have been here since the begining, I want to take a moment to say thanks. Your support has been great. I am really looking forward to seeing exactly where my merry band of id10-ts take me.

iD10-T:Crush Groovin

Ok ok... don't say it.
I know that I said I wasn't going to use the live trace again but I got behind schedule again and ...
well.
I did it.
I am not really happy with the way they are coming out but I am trying to stay on schedule. I have some extra things to take care of this week but I am going to redo them eventually. It would be great if this was my full time job. Then I could spend all day on the comic.
But we are not there just yet.

Anyway, I have rambled enough.

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

I have to tell you, I really enjoy being a man. I'm not prone to prayer but I do find myself thanking the creator that I was born male.
It's cool.
We can pee standing up and everything.
One of my friends emailed me this today and I wanted to share with all the guys. I didn't write it, don't really know who did but it makes perfect sense.

Enjoy!


Men Are Just Happier people-- What do you expect from such simple
creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding
plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.You can be President. You can never
be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can
wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.The world is your urinal. You never
have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is
just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a
bolt. Same work, more pay.Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress
$5000. Tux rental-$100.

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.The
occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected. New shoes
don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

One mood all the time.Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds
flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only
one suitcase. You can open all your own jars.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If
someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are
more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your
face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years,
maybe decades.You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your
big hips. One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your
nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning
growing a mustache..
You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in
25minutes.
No wonder men are happier.

The House Of Seven Shatners

Ok, so a friend of mine (one Daniel Sheldon of 42Monkeys.net - The Unofficial Full Sail forum) sends me this link. You know how MTV does their movie parody thing every year at the MTV movie awards? Well apparently this was a "reimagining" of the ending of the movie Se7en, starring the lovely Brad Pitt and the even more lovely Morgan Freeman. So much Shatner and a healthy dose of Carmen Electra.

It's funny.

Seven Parody

****TROPICAL ALERT****

The National Hurricane Center's latest advisory indicated that there is strong climatological evidence that points to the immediate non formation of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and the Caribbean basins through Wednesday.
So that means...
Nothing.
No storms forming.
Ha ha... Made you look!

NHC Tropical Outlook

iD10-T:Road Kill

This is going to be the last comic I do using live trace for a while. I am not really happy with the way it looks. Sure it saves me a boat load of hours but honestly, is time with friends and family that much more important than getting a good looking comic out?
I don't think so.
By the way, I wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for helping to spread the word about the comic. In the last month traffic to the site in the form of unique visits doubled from the previous month! The pages related to the comic are getting the bulk of the hits from the new visitors.
Thank you.


Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

The sellers Market...

If you have been wondering about the strange skyrocketing of real estate prices in your corner of America, you are not alone. Prices in my corner of Florida have gotten out of control really. Those middle income families that were smart enough (or like me fortunate enought to have someone encourage them) to buy a home sometime before the last year or so are able to turn those homes over at a substantial profit.
I get the feeling that the market can only take so much before it inevitably stalls and I am getting the feeling that it has hit that point. I caught this article on the web this morning and I thought I would share.

It was interesting to see the affordability index for other cities and got me wondering what the index for the Orlando area currently is.

TROPICAL STORM ARLENE

It's the most wonderful time of the year.
When the wind is a-howlin and the rain comes in growlin
and surfers all cheer!
It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!!


I swear I had nothing to do with it!
Last year I got blamed for the slew of hurricanes we recevied during the latter weeks of the summer. I may or may not have contributed to those. (Admit nothing! Deny everything! Make counter accusations!) Truth be told, my sources at Disney have told me that the giant weather control machine once housed inside the giant golf ball (a.k.a. Spaceship earth at EPCOT...) was sold last December to Kim Jong IL. of North Korea in an EBay auction.
What with the devestating drought and resulting famine he apparently wanted to help his struggling agricultural center. And it has NOTHING at all to do with crushing Seoul in a hail of, um, well... hail. Or wiping Japan off the face of the earth with a Super - Duper Typhoon (It's a regular Super Typhoon on Steroids...)
So we can all relax and not blame me for the upcoming meterological disasters that are sure to befall us this coming hurricane season.

iD10-T: Insecurity

Hey people,

Now that I have been doing this for a couple of months, I have been able to see what works for me and what has become a challenge. I really want to start focusing more on the actual content of the strip as opposed to how colorful I can make it . I have gotten more than a few "huh?" responses to some of the comics. I really appreciate the feed back you guys have given me, it will help me refine this comic and hopefully I will be able to create something that people want to read.

You can look forward to more sketch style comics and more story driven strips in the coming weeks. I would love to go to a nice three day rotation (mon, wed, fri) with the last post a color one. We'll see. I am starting to meet other online comic artists and it's a very cool thing. If you are a fan of the Far Side, then take a look at Funkysmell by Adam Bogus. Nice twisted humor and a very unique drawing style. ( http://www.funkysmell.com)

Anyway, I have rambled on.
Enjoy.
Billy

http://id10-t.seraphim7.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

Do you wish to declare the chainsaw?

Ok. This is definitely straight out of the strange and unusual files. Apparently a rather disturbed looking young man crossed into the United States across the Canadian border after US Customs agents confiscated, among other things, a bloody chainsaw.
Oh wait, there is so much more to tell...

Read it for yourself.

I am going to refrain from stating the obvious need for improved border security.
Oh wait. I just stated it.

Billy Martinez: Office Jedi

I found the link to this article on slashdot. It makes some great points about office politicking and the dark side of the force. I have to admit that I never really thought of Star Wars in terms of office politics but now it all makes a weird kind of sense. I've had Obi Wan Kenobi for a boss more often than a Darth Sidius. There was this one boss who was more like a Darth Red Neck but that's another story in and of itself...

Oh yeah... the article. HERE

Tie a yellow ribbon...

I see these ribbons all the time and I find myself wondering about the person they are meant to reflect. There are a lot of men and women in the service of their country and even more family members and loved ones that are left behind. This is a very good note from a mother that had one of her precious ribbons stolen from her car.
The nerve of some people.
Anyway, this is her open letter to the thief. It's called "To the person who took the ribbon"

iD10-T: Enter Sandman

Hey People!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I downloaded a trial version of the new Illustrator. For those of you that don't know what Illustrator is I'll keep it simple. Basically its a drawing program for your computer. Anyway, I wanted to try out the new live trace feature. I have to say that it's pretty impressive. I used the feature to create today's comic and while I really wanted a tighter look for the comic, for a first effort with the tool it's not too shabby. Normally it takes about 6 hours to scan and ink and color in every strip. With the Live Trace tool I cut that time to like 2 1/2 hours.
I will play with it some more.

(Oh yeah.. I noticed a continuity error in the strip which I will try and repair this afternoon.)

Anyway, enough rambling.

Enjoy!

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

--
1-800-NOT-1337

Do you smell something funny?

I miss Gary Larson. Really.
He was one of the greats.
Who's Gary Larson you say? Have you ever had the pleasure of reading the Far Side? Absolutely my favorite comic of all time. Just twisted imagination and a ton of really memorable comics. Larson retired in 1995 and I miss his work. Plenty of Far Side comics out there in book form to enjoy.
So in my researching new ideas for getting my comic some exposure, I came across some sites that promote webcomics and I came across a little gem of a comic created by one Adam Bogus. A little twisted, a lot of funny and a bizarre smell...

Take a peek and enjoy!

Where internet rumors go to die...

Have ever received those ridiculous letters about which Oil company sells Al Queda gas? Or things that Politicians say? How about the one where Starbucks refused to send coffee to our troops.

The next time you receive something in your inbox that seems a little far fetched, chances are that snopes.com has already researched the issue. Search the database and make sure you pass on the info.

Remember, the truth shall set you free (unless of course, you confess to murder in which case you are going to jail and deservedly so...)

iD10-T: Artist's Block

Another sketch. I really did misplace my sketch book. I am very put out at the moment. I should get it back before the weekend hopefully so I am looking forward to posting some new color strips next week.

Enjoy!
Billy

http://www.id10-t.com/current.htm
http://www.id10-t.com

--
1-800-NOT-1337

A horse is a horse of course of course...

Interesting story about Thomas Jefferson, his love slave (literally) and race horses. What could they possibly have in common? Read on people, read on.

A horse named Sally

Chicken Little Seeks To Stop Global Warming...

Last year, during the run up to the 2004 Presidential Election I saw an advertisement over I-4 that said if we wanted more Hurricanes to hit Florida we should vote for George Bush.
Really.
I wish I had taken a picture.
Anyway, I wrote it off as the political garbage that it was. Anyone that studies Hurricanes can tell you that there are cycles to the intensity of the Hurricane seasons that last for decades and have nothing to do with globabl warming.
Yet still we see goofy Global warming advocates tossing out that rising temperatures are causing the surge in storms.
It's hard to get objective information that deals with the issue of global warming because its seems that there is no middle ground for scientists dealing with the issue. They either tell you that the sky is falling or that you're chicken little if you beleive it.
I saw this article and it kinda proves my point.
Click Here
Now, this article is from Netscape and CNN which, in my humble opinion, is slightly left leaning. But it definitely shows that the debate is going to pick up steam in the coming months.