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Dax Herrera Interview
I have been getting a little bored with SEO so I have been studying what programmers and web developers do. As a rule I pretty much do everything myself including setting up my own blogs, websites, directories but there are times when you need to ask someone who is more familiar with code to get things to work. Enter Dax Herrera, (Greg Boser’s go to guy) who understands code and how it can make dreams come true. Below is my interview with Dax - writer, coder and comedian.
Sorry for my slow response in getting this interview done, I guess I have been a little down on myself for screwing up this place by deleting 80% of it’s posts, doh! So how are things, haven’t heard anything from you in a long time, do you ever post to SEO blogs or forums other that WMW? Where is Dax hangin’ out these days?
Hey, that reminds me of the time I deleted 80% of our proxies. And by 80%, I mean 100%. I learned an important lesson about computers and data that day: Never screw up.
No, I don’t post to any SEO blogs or forums. I do check the Threadwatch feed about 800 times a day though. That’s what happens when you have two monitors. You suck down bandwidth like you don’t even know you’re doing it*. F7 to compile; click refresh; F7 to compile; click refresh — all day long. I think our office is actually banned from WMW from browsing as Googlebot.
My last forum activity was the Sugarshack forums. It lasted all of 20 seconds, enough time for me to post twice about Family Guy and get banned. That’s gotta be some kind of internet record.
*(Make your own Ambien joke.)
Greg Boser has referred to you as “My Dax” (implying that everyone should have a Dax), what is you relationship with Greg?
He’s actually not joking. He means that literally. I met Greg in Las Vegas and I had too much to drink, too much luck at the tables, and was completely certain Gary Busey played the role of Biff Tannen in the first Back to the Future movie. Apparently everyone knows that is completely wrong, but I put a number of years on it.
I program. Desktop apps, websites, whatever needs to get programmed. If I had to guess, I would say Greg means every SEO should have a programmer they can explain higher level SEO concepts to and have given back to them a reasonable approximation of said processes in the form of a single button that says ‘Push Me’.
I don’t know if it was just stress, my twisted sense of humor or lack of sleep but I have never laughed so hard while visiting someone else’s blog before. Tell us about your BigNuts.com Blog?
Oh yea. That place. I didn’t actually think anyone but my friends and family would ever see that blog. When I saw a link to it from Greg’s blog I had a ten second panic attack and frantically read like thirty back posts. Biggnuts.com started as an adult hosting site I tried to set up with a friend in `99. The plan was pretty simple: serve a bunch of porno with CPM banners and not pay for hosting by setting the box up on campus. That was the key to profits. I’m pretty sure I didn’t think it would work — because that would be stupid, but it seemed like a good idea. It didn’t work.
In a day when most SEO’s are trying to grab large chunks of internet real estate with their Web v2.0 Blog Evangelism you seem worried about ordinary things like getting that spa fixed, what again is it exactly you do for work Dax?
I code, code, code — and start cool trends like Beer Fridays. SEO evangelism really isn’t my department. Plus there’s tons of good SEO blogs out there. What there isn’t — or is a lot less of these days — is a one stop spot to get things like spa repair advice, where to buy a 3,000 dollar plane, information on how much my neighbors hate me. That’s the kind of stuff the internet was built on. You know…bullshit.
Thanks for sending me a copy of your book, I have to say, you are one insanely complicated human being. When I was thinking of a quick way to describe your book The Death of Aton du’Briyonce I read a line you wrote in your blog, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for girls”, and the amazing part is, that is exactly what image your book portrays when reading it!
Tell us about the book and your other writings, got any more ideas for things that you might want to write about in the future? Where the heck did those people come from in that book?
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. Be careful though, it’s still Willy Wonka for *girls* so if you liked it too much you might want to man it up this week. Maybe some camping or a 24 marathon. I’m just kidding, I was giggling like a jackass while I wrote it.
There’s that book, The Death of Aton du’Briyonce, which is nice and short. I mention on the blog I wrote it in about 27 hours straight from front to back. I hope that comes across in the story — in a good way. I don’t know how something like that would present itself, but it’s gotta be lurking around in there somewhere. Kind of like improv, except with writing. Like rustybrick’s live SES blogging! Exciting.
There’s Edgar N Vective: Paranormal Detective. That’s about a mechanic who can see ghosts. I wanted to write a book about ghosts and zombies and magic and all that kind of Harry Potter save-the-world shit, but with the attitude that it doesn’t need to be taken so friggin seriously. I guess Anne Rice is at one end; the end where you glue prosthetic fangs to your teeth and your parents beat you with a rubber hose. And Edgar Vective is at the other. That’s the end where you chuckle while reading a book on a plane or the toilet. It’s really up to you.
The third book’s a big purple tomb called A Wayward Nocturn3 that no woman has ever read past the third chapter without crying. Actually that’ll be the promotion for the book — like a money back guarantee. If you’re a woman and you made it past the third chapter without crying (and also you’re super hot) then I’ll take you to a Thai food restaurant of your choosing to make up for it. Buy it. Read it. How can you lose? The story’s like a Dante’s Inferno/Labyrinth kind of deal except with shitloads of swearing, some gun play, and a dwarf that gets punched in the face. See, there’s something for everyone.
By the way, if anyone out there knows a publishing agent for God’s sake hook me up. I’ll name my first child after you.
No books in the works right now. I’m trying to get a piano band going.
You seem to understand women pretty well, tell us about where you grew up, your family, your friends?
Pretty much no one has ever told me that or anything like that before — it’s totally, totally true though.
I grew up in Santa Clarita, America. I heard it’s the town that the town in Edward Scissorhands was based on. If that’s not true, it might as well be. I gots two parents and one sister who’s going to be playing left field in the College Softball World Championships next week. My prediction: the UCLA Bruins are going to kick everyone’s asses like they have ass-seeking rockets glued on their feet. My friends are all getting married at the moment. It’s a difficult time. None of them work on the net so it’s taken like two years to explain what exactly it is that I do for work — my family too for that matter. I’m sure it’s the same for everyone else in the industry.
Tell us about any future plans you might have? You almost come across as a mad scientist, got any patents on cool things that will make you millions?
Dude, that’s so weird that you would ask that at this moment. I think I might have invented something last night, but I’m not sure yet. I gotta build it first and see if it works. I’m not going to say what it is, but I will say that a sex toy is involved and that it definitely isn’t a new kind of sex toy.
Stay tuned for my new podcast, Dax’s Million Dollar Podcast, in which I take ideas I think are million dollar ideas and run them by my jackass friends and then various rich dudes I can find walking around. Will it be fun? Will it be crappy? Find out at some point!
What color is your hair currently?
Crimson storm (Red).
What is that picture in you blog of you nursing a bloody gash in you head about, what happened?
I was John McClain for Halloween last year. He’s my hero. The blood is part of the costume.
Is that picture of a guy stretching something over his head a link condom? ;)
Having never seen an actual link condom, I can’t say for sure. But otherwise I would have to say that yes, undoubtedly that is a link condom. It also looks like Howie Mandell has put on a few pounds.
Thanks for the chat Man!
Thank you.
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May 29th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Great chat, i hope we can read more about you.
Steve
May 30th, 2006 at 5:06 am
you are one crazy guy!!!!
May 31st, 2006 at 7:13 pm
May be crazy but certainly not boring eh? :)
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:20 pm
It’s official. Dax, if you’re reading this, you’re a freakin’ crackhead. And thank God for that.