New tools & woodshedding

Having alluded to my plans to initiate

“some kind of increased & enhanced online activity”

in this earlier post about my life in 2010, I thought I’d sneak out a little about where I am with this, outline some of the useful resource sites I’ve been frequenting and explain – in case anyone reading this doesn’t know – what “woodshedding” is.

First up, my good friend JD Blundell was kind enough to make mention of me planning to beef up my online activity on his post “10 Kingdom bloggers to watch in 2010”, which in turn has turned up on Darren Rowse’s influential Problogger site.

New tools – resources I’m exploring:

Wordpress

A migration to Wordpress is looking likely for my new main blog. It seems to be it’s going to give me what I’m looking for aesthetically and in terms of the bells & whistles I'm looking for. Thankfully I’m picking the brains of buddies who have the technical nonce and good design taste to help me pull together a smokin’ new look!

Problogger

Problogger has been a regular landing spot for me these last few weeks, as it’s quite probably the best single resource out there for anyone trying to intelligently explore how to create revenue streams through their blog. What I like about Darren is that he’s not a fast buck, “get rich quick” huckster, but rather someone who seems to operate with an impressive level of integrity.

Recently I’ve read a post by respected online buddy Fernando Gros about “Pure Blogging”, transparency and honesty where he asks the question

“How upfront are we about our reasons for being in this game?”

This is a timely reminder for me in this transitional period for me and my blog.

Will my new site have a commercial element? Yes it will.

Web Worker Daily

Another great site for resources, ideas and inspiration is Web Worker Daily – great for someone who has recently migrated from office to home office. It’s rammed with good stuff

Freelance Advisor

At this point, I’m spending a little less time with this than the other sites, but Freelance Advisor’s local – i.e. UK - perspective is helpful, and I suspect may be increasingly so. There were a couple of podcasts that were interesting light relief during those early days of this journey when the UK was on lock down because of the January snow.

If it floats your boat check out “Making a living without a job” Part 1 and Part 2

Woodshedding

...perhaps a little off topic, but it you ever were a jazz aficionado, you’ll be familiar with the concept of “woodshedding”, that preparatory time when a jazzer takes them self away to the “woodshed” – a place of privacy and seclusion; hones their skills, works on their chops, does the ground work, practices like fury, getting ready to come unleashed themselves to the world.

I doubt any “unleashing” is going to go on, but this is the place I’m at right now. I’m woodshedding.

The first time I heard the term, I think it was in relation to the mighty genius that was Jaco Pastorius.

You may not want to check our any of the sites, podcasts or links I’ve suggested above....but you really do need to check out Jaco. For me, there has been no better bassist.