Make a directory writable by Apache in Mac OS X Maverick

This is something many newbies struggle with (been there).

Here's a quick reference on how to make a directory writable by Apache in Mac OS X without giving full permissions to everyone a.k.a chmod -R 777.

Step 1

Set the ownership of your desired directory/file to the _www user:

sudo chown -R _www:staff path/to/folder

Step 2

Set the permissions so that the _www can write in the directory/file without giving permissions to everyone else:

sudo chmod -R 755 path/to/folder

Problem solved.
Happy coding :-)

Note: Works fine with built-in OSX apache, not tested with apps such as MAMP/XAMPP or Homebrew/MacPorts apache installs.