Rebel Studios is a single-person operation running out of an undisclosed location somewhere on the surface of a rocky planet in orbit around a yellow dwarf star in the Local Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy over in the Virgo Supercluster. Chances are that if you are from Vicksburg, you actually know me or have either heard of me or someone I’m related to.

Below I give a brief summary of my work experience and practical skills (meaning “things I have actually done” as opposed to “things I think I can do”). You may be a little surprised at just how wide a range of skills I have. Don’t be. I learned to read when I was three years old and have been teaching myself to do all kinds of things ever since. I learn new things for fun. Using them to make money is a major bonus, though.

Web Design:

Coding and Scripting

  • I can code in HTML/CSS by hand
  • Same with XML/XSLT (and my HTML is always strict XML compliant)
  • I can script in PHP and do MySQL programming
  • Buggy Javascript? CSS problems? XML errors? I’m great at QA and debugging
  • Touchscreen/Mobile design isn’t an issue — I can help you make a mobile-friendly version of your site quickly and without needing to hire an entire army of programmers

Graphics

  • Need an image resized? Easy! I actually can use Photoshop extremely well for someone who isn’t a graphic design specialist
  • Need an image composed? Not a problem so long as you’re clear on what you want.

Hosting, Domain, and File Management

  • Have you ever wondered what FTP, HTTP, DNS, IMAP, POP, and MX stand for? I actually know.
  • I can help find and advise on web hosting packages — I’ve dealt with a lot of them.
  • FTP configuration, control panel access is not a problem, MySQL database administration through phpmyadmin is no hassle
  • Actually, I could do all of that stuff from the command line of an SSH window
  • Did I mention I worked for a Linux networking start-up while I was in college?

Marketing:

Traditional Online Marketing

  • I was involved in designing and implementing major campaigns for my former employer, a little company named Blizzard Entertainment who made this little thing called World of Warcraft that you might have heard of. Some of the marketing campaigns I handled were worth very big numbers. Numbers that would have more than one comma. As part of this I was involved in developing ideas that went into:
  • Banner ads
  • Print ads
  • Video overlay ads
  • Website interstitial ads
  • World of Warcraft launcher ads
  • Email campaigns
  • And much, much more
  • Post-Blizzard, I worked for a smaller company and became accustomed to operating on a much smaller marketing budget, making every penny count when it came to some of the more traditional avenues in the online marketing area for them.

Social Media Marketing

  • Want to know how to actually use a social networking site to reach your audience? I can do that with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and Tumblr
  • Need help dealing with negative reviews and unruly interactions on your Pages? I can help with that.
  • Confused over the ever-changing rules that Facebook comes up with to decide how many (or rather how few) people will see one of your posts? I know those rules and I knew what the general principles of them would be before they were announced because I hang out with engineers instead of marketers. Engineers are usually much cooler and they have better toys.
  • Have you been trying to figure out which social media avenues are best for you? I can help you with that and I can help you with finding the right tools to organize them so that you don’t have to go to seven different sites
  • Are you drowning in data and analyses that make absolutely no sense? Do you have a lot of “Likes” or a high number of followers but aren’t seeing any rise in sales? I can parse the data and tell you what’s going on and why.

Public Relations

  • Need a press release written and sent out? I can do that. I have done that. Frequently.
  • Are you trying to get the word out about your business or yourself? I have contacts in radio and television as well as across the Internet because I run in some of the strangest circles there are
  • Are you uncertain as to which fork to use with which dish at a formal dinner? I can actually get you that information because guess who studied history in college and just happened to read a rather lengthy article on the history of formal dining a few weeks back…
  • Tangential to the above point, if you need to know if those shoes go with that dress, I will refer you to my cousin, fashion designer Carla Westcott, for her expert advice

Video Production

  • I can shoot 1920 x 1080 HD video from my studio conveniently located in a quiet location just off US Highway 61 N
  • I can also handle (and provide!) a green-screen
  • I provide the lighting and audio equipment as well
  • Post-production? I do that, too!
  • Need images, effects, sounds, songs, titles, lower-thirds, etc for your video? If I can’t make them, I can find them for you from one of my many resource sites!

Content Creation and Editing

  • Fun Fact: I originally stumbled into marketing as an editor because the European office didn’t have a native English editor and needed one
  • I’ve been writing since I figured out the alphabet and editing since I realized that spelling and grammar were rules and not just suggested guidelines
  • To date, I have written (professionally) articles on World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo III, Battle.net, Blizzard, photography, family law, patent law, Internet law, court procedures, video production, camera technology, computers, tablets, consumer electronics, communications, The Walking Dead, Broadchurch, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Gracepoint, speculative topics on artificial intelligence and robotics, the indie writing revolution, the Digital Revolution, human nature, the Myers-Briggs Temperaments, to name a few off the top of my head.
  • Another Fun Fact: I started reading with the Encyclopedia Britannica because it was the only thing I could reach and pull off the shelf easily (and it had pictures). Even now I still spend a lot of time reading random entries on Wikipedia because learning things is fun.
  • If the two points above haven’t made it blindingly obvious — I have no problem doing research on just about anything and I might surprise you with what I already know
  • Oh, and while I can be somewhat casual and lackadaisical in my writing for a blog (when appropriate), I do take my writing very seriously. Otherwise, I wouldn’t currently have three novels in print with a fourth on the way out now

If you still aren’t convinced and feel the need to see my resume or CV, you can view it here.