About Landon Poburan

I am a freelance web developer. I build websites and custom web applications for various clients around the world. I build various web apps and run my personal blog and DebugMag.

Steve Jobs – The Revolutionary

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Landon Poburan

While some call him a genius, others knew him as a friend or family member. Steve Jobs was an ordinary guy like you or me, but he had extraordinary vision; this is what separated him from the rest of the world. The father of Apple, Steve Jobs passed away on 5 October 2011, but his memory will forever live on in every iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple products that his visionary brilliance created.

The Early Apple

Collaborating with his geek friend, Steve Wozniak (Woz); Apple became an incorporated company on April 1, 1976 after the two friends had bought out their other partner, Ron Wayne. The name Apple was chosen simply because the pair couldn’t come up with anything else. Who knew it would later be synonymous with awe-inspiring technology and ground-breaking products?

The Apple 1 was the start of this great company; with the Apple 2 following hot on its heels and carrying with it the breakthrough in technology for that time. The Apple 2 is regarded as “…both the start and the symbol of the personal computer revolution of the early 1980s” (allaboutstevejobs.com). This was the introduction of the following incredible computing features that would soon change the way that humans conducted business:

Ability to display color graphics
Built-in BASIC interpreter that made it easier for the writing of compatible software

This included games as well as
The first floppy disk drive, known as Disk II

The ability to run compatible software also allowed for the introduction of the first spreadsheet to be run on Apple

Steve Jobs was a millionaire by 1979 at the age of 24.

The early 1980s saw the Macintosh becoming the main point of focus for Steve Jobs. It was a separate project that Steve’s partner Woz hadn’t been a part of. It soon found him on the cover of Time magazine and became an instant success, but its notoriety was short-lived.

The first Mac seemed to have a few flaws:

It was extremely slow due to the graphical interface that needed to be processed
It was a lot more pricey than the IBM-PC that sold for $1000 less
It wasn’t compatible with other software

The Years Leading Up To The iPod

Steve Jobs was widely criticized for the apparent “failure” of his Mac. He resigned from Apple and founded a company called NeXT that was bought by Apple 11 years later in 1996. Steve Jobs claimed the role of CEO and brought the technology of NeXT back into the company, later defining it as Mac OS X. They simplified their offerings to only the Desktop and Macbook, one of each for consumer and for professional use.

With Steve Jobs back on the team, Apple started to thrive and was soon to bear the seamless beauty of the iMac in 1998. In 2000, his focus became the “Digital Hub”, which was to be a revolutionary expression that would incorporate a range of digital devices with the desktop.

The first item was iMovie, which didn’t prove as successful as he’d anticipated, iDVD followed
Then came the iTunes Store, changing the face of music distribution after gaining some insight from the popularity of “Napster”
iPhoto, iCal, GarageBand and iWeb were next on the menu as part of a spate of iApp releases that took place

These releases were all brought to life by Mac OS X, which also made it possible for one of the most revolutionary Apple products to be produced: the iPod. Inspired by iTunes, this portable music device transformed the world of consumerism, speaking endlessly to Steve Jobs’ digital movement. It was sleek, compatible with Mac, directly linked to iTunes and the cause of many users’ departure from PC to becoming Mac clients. The company made it compatible with Windows to broaden the reach of the iPod, but it still attracted a vast number of digital aficionados who transformed into followers of the Mac Empire.

iPhone Makes History

In 2007, the iPhone did for the telecommunications market what the iPod did for music. Using multi-touch display functionality and the inclusion of the iPod and a browser, the iPhone was a benchmark for what would soon be a flooded market of touch-screen innovation. But somehow, none were or are ever as advanced or as intelligent as the iPhone. Just when a competitor had caught up with Steve Jobs’ advanced ideas, Apple would release a new version with even more intelligent functionality.

The project began in 2003 and picked up huge amounts of pace the year before its release. The touch-screen technology was initially intended for the iPad or a tablet PC, but its use for the iPhone allowed this product to be one of the most innovative digital items to ever be released.

Steve Jobs on the iPhone’s technology in January 2007: “iPhone is five years ahead of what everybody else has got. If we didn’t do one more thing, we’d be set for five years!”

The highly anticipated release of the iPad took place in January of 2010 after many years of working on the project. His “magical device” was initially criticized as being nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch, but the proof is clearly in the pudding, as by September, 7.5 million iPads had been sold to the public; a wordless claim that proves Apple ingenuity is extremely sought after in all regions of the world.

The End Of An Era

Steve Jobs’ health problems with pancreatic cancer were uncovered in October 2003 and eventually took his life in October 2011. While he may have had his life cut extremely short in years, one can only wonder what else he would have come up with if he were to have lived to a ripe old age. Such ingenious ideas were so advanced that perhaps they also pressed the fast forward button on his existence? We all pay homage to this great man; a revolutionary, a visionary and a digital genius. RIP Steve Jobs.

Benefits of Blogging for SEO and Brand Awareness

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Landon Poburan

Blogging has fast become a respected form of communication in the social media sphere. Not only has it become a way to increase site traffic but it also assists in building brand awareness and reputation at the same time. The advantages of a blog are becoming more prevalent with the rise of digital and this is something that’s not likely to change for a long time to come.

Blogging Benefits For SEO

The digital realm has become consumed with the science of search engine optimization (SEO) and in doing so has shed light on the benefits of blogging. This isn’t something that has only recently popped onto the scene, but rather a journey that has been developing and escalating for over a decade. One of the primary advantages of a blog is the fact that you can increase your site traffic using blog posts that are written in accordance with your SEO strategy.

Having blog posts that talk about your product offerings in an informal tone are a great way to encourage people to learn about your services. You can use your blog as the primary point of contact and have links directing back to your main website for more information and conversions. Having these links anchored using your targeted SEO key phrases can only boost your site traffic from those people who are specifically searching for your product or business.

By reaching out to the public through your blog , you’re able to establish yourself as a leader in your market; a pioneer of thought and direction as well as a trusted resource for valuable information. That is, essentially, why people use the web at the end of the day; to absorb information. If you can be the company that provides them with that power, they’ll keep coming back for more… elevating your brand in the process.

Building Brand Awareness Through Blogs

Your brand is the voice that speaks for you when you’re not available, so it’s important to create a solid brand awareness that’s visible to the public eye. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is through your own corporate or company blog. Blogs naturally attract more readership from your clients because they come across as personal and easier to read that standard site content. The benefits of blogging extend towards the fact that you can still subtly promote your brand, products or services, while maintaining that casual, individual appeal that is so prevalent with blog posts.

Advantages of A Blog

Our blog for Debug Magazine is not only an avenue for us to inform you of the latest in development and web design, but it’s also our way of connecting with you; our audience, in an informal, no-strings-attached environment. Through introducing you to our online world, you have access to our thoughts and ideas on certain matters and you’ll hopefully be gaining some insight into our expertise.

What are your opinions on the Debug Magazine blog and what would you like to read about in this space?

Theme Update – WooTheme’s Security Holes

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Landon Poburan

Just thought I would shoot a quick update out there. We have recently had one of our servers comprimised and we narrowed the source down to a security hole / backend located in The Morning After WordPress Theme provided for free by WooThemes.

This costed our business a couple days worth of work getting it sorted out and fixing the damage that was caused. We contacted WooTheme support but they never replied. The theme was up to date and everything!

But we upgrade WordPress and are now using the TwentyEleven theme which is actually nice

Debug Magazine is back and looking better then ever.

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Landon Poburan

Debug Magazine is now back in full swing after a slight break. I was quite busy for a while and was not able to blog but realized how much I missed running it so now we are back. Over the last couple of weeks I have spent time upgrading and rebuilding the website. It was using a much outdated version of WordPress from its launch in 2008. We are now running the (awesome) WordPress 3.0.1 and loving it!

Looking better then ever with WooThemes!

I am experimenting with WooTheme’s WordPress themes. So far it is awesome. There themes come absolulely jam packed with feature sets utilizing some of WordPress’ most recent features such as Custom Post Types. The theme we are trying out is called “The Morning After” and it is free! There is a lot of really cool stuff that comes with it. I am going to be working on re developing a custom theme or working on customizing this sweet theme but whatever happens I just wnat you to know that this site will be continually expirementing with the latest in web trends staying on the cutting edge.

New and better content.

I will be posting new and awesome content as often as possible. I spend my days scouring the internet for the best of the best. Looking at all the new and hot tech toys and all the new and upcoming web apps and startups, staying on top of tech news and I will be bringing this all to you.

I also am an extremely active Web Developer, Marketer and Programmer so we will be keeping you in the loop with new techniques and plugins to great applications like WordPress, ModX, etc.

Please stick around as things are just starting to heat up.

Using Cheat Sheets To Make Your Job Easier

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Landon Poburan

Whether you freelance as a writer, a programmer or a designer, there are certain tasks that you’ll do again and again and some that you’ll do infrequently. Cheat sheets can be a huge help for both those tasks that you do all the time, and the ones you do infrequently enough that the exact way to do them can be a bit hard to remember. Whether it’s formatting a certain type of writing or how to use certain tools in Photoshop or Dreamweaver, cheat sheets can carve minutes to hours off the time it takes to complete a project.

Any kind of a template can be called a cheat sheet, and the beauty of them is that you only have to create them once. You might have a template for press releases or grants, for a website design, or for CSS style sheets to help get you started. There’s no point in rewriting the same code a hundred times for a hundred different projects, so use a cheat sheet template as your basis then make the necessary changes. Just be sure you use your template only as a starting point to avoid having to redo the basics. Then make each project unique. Continue reading →

The Secret to Freelance Success – Overdeliver

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Landon Poburan

It’s not easy to make it as a freelancer in any field, but one proven step toward success is to keep your promises, and then go one step further–overdeliver. Getting started as a freelancer is the hardest part, because lack of experience is so easily equated with lack of skill. And there’s no more important a time in a freelancing career than the beginning to set in stone a work ethic and principles to help you succeed. By giving the client what they want, and more, you’ll get their business again, and you can benefit from referrals they send your way through word of mouth.

Start on projects early. If you know it’ll take you 5 days, don’t want until T-minus 5 days to start the project. You don’t know what unexpected interruptions could slow you down, and you’re risking finishing the project late if you only give yourself enough time to finish it under ordinary circumstances. If it’ll take you 5 days and it’s due in 2 weeks, start now. You might have it done in 5 days, but you’ve gotten an early start and will probably finish it early. And you’ve got a built-in cushion if something should go wrong.

If you start the project earlier, you won’t have to rush, which can cause problems. You’ll be done early enough to be able to revise a little more before turning it in, too. While you might take a certain sense of pride in starting a project at zero hour and getting it done on time, how much better would it be if you’d had a day between writing and revising? Continue reading →

Organization is Key to Freelance Success

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Landon Poburan

Working from home, setting your own hours, taking a day off without filling out paperwork or asking a boss—these are some of the most wonderful benefits of freelancing. But these can also be some of its greatest problems. When there’s no time-clock to punch, it’s easier to push the work aside and do it later. When there’s no office to call for a sick day or a vacation, it’s easier to take that day and tell yourself you’ll work longer tomorrow, or work over the weekend, to make up the time on those projects. It’s also easy to take on too much work, get behind in the bookkeeping, or become so disorganized that every day seems to be nothing more than one frustration after another.

Organizing your freelance life might seem daunting and will take a little time in the beginning, but once you get a system in place, every day will go much more smoothly and you’ll get more done in less time. The more organized you are when it comes to time and money, the more you’re freed up to do the creative work within that frame, and the more successful you’ll be.

Make a schedule and stick to it. Look at your projects, and block out hours of your work day for certain tasks. A common freelancing mistake is underestimating the time a project will take, so in the beginning, make a guess and add a few hours of extra time to your estimate just in case. At worst, you’ll allot too much time and have that left over to do more prospecting or get a head start on another project. Continue reading →

How to Manage Your Clients

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Landon Poburan

When you work a 9 to 5, you have the benefit of learning about your co-workers, your supervisors and your employer and coming to a certain level of understanding about their expectations of you, their likes and dislikes, their skills and their attitudes. But when you freelance, each client starts a brand new learning experience, and each client seems wholly different from the last, which can make managing clients a challenge.

All freelancers have a few easy clients who assign a project, disappear into the background while you do your work, pay promptly and cause few problems. And then there are clients with their peculiar quirks, who are great in one way and more difficult in others, and of course, the downright picky and difficult clients. Chances are good you won’t know which category a client falls into until you’ve already accepted the job. You’ll get some who seem to want to make every decision for you, some who give no direction but then complain that what you’ve done isn’t what they had in mind, some who just don’t understand the technical side of things and make suggestions that would basically undermine everything you do. Continue reading →

How Many Freebies Should You Offer

Posted on November 26, 2008 by Landon Poburan

A trend among new freelancers is to take jobs at extremely low pay, sometimes no pay at all, to get a foot in the door or have something to put on a portfolio. These freebies, they think, are just a way to get started and have work to point to when prospecting for clients. And having something to put on that writing or design resume can make a big difference—you wouldn’t hire a typist, for instance, without some assurance that he or she could actually type, so no one’s going to hire a web designer unless they can see a website you’ve actually designed. So a freebie or two let you create professional work for a client that you can use to get paying work.

The problem with these freebies is that so many people trying to break into freelancing are so willing to do them, that it tends to undermine their entire field. If a client has 20 freelancers willing to do a project for free or for unbelievably low rates because someone wants the experience, and your rates are $50 an hour, your rate is going to look extremely bloated comparatively. Even $20 an hour might seem high if almost everyone else is offering to do the same work for $5. The more freelancers who are willing to do work for slave wages, the less everyone makes as a whole. Continue reading →

Handling Angry Clients – How to Diffuse the Situation

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Landon Poburan

How you handle an angry client probably decide whether you’ll get business from that client again, and whether or not they would recommend or discourage their business contacts from trusting you to do freelance work for them. You don’t want to risk a client being angry and pointing out what he believes to be your shortcomings to everyone in his email address book. Whether the client is angry for a reasonable reason or not, it’s in your best interest to deal with it quickly and professionally. Once the situation is resolved and the client is happy again, then you can decide whether they were unreasonable, and whether you want to work for the client again in the future.

First, take immediate action. If you know your client is upset about something, anything, face it immediately. You’ll look proactive and concerned about your client’s needs. You might be tempted to wait to contact the client after a cooling-down period. But don’t assume that everyone feels anger the same way. The longer you wait to deal with the situation might end up being just a longer amount of time for your client’s blood pressure to rise. Wait too long, and you might find you’ve lost the client completely.

Second, listen to the problem and acknowledge it. The worst thing you can do when the client is trying to tell you what’s wrong is to interrupt or even try to explain that the client’s anger is unjustified. Continue reading →

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