KookyRocks

I guess it goes to show that Real Life ™ can severly bugger-up your plans when it comes to someone like me wanting to get a foothold in AM… that and I’m a lazy bugger, but this time there really was a genuine reason for my absence.

Basically I still work full time as a Head of Department, but back in March at one point my employer was literally within an hour of dragging the firm into administration (yes 1 hour!). Soon after they announced a company-wide restructure of all departments, which ultimately ended with my having to make two loyal staff redundant – they were two of the nicest guys I had ever worked with, I absolutely didn’t want to make them redundant but was forced to do so by my CEO.

So after doing that I became very bitter, resentful and depressed about my job, felt bad about the two guys, I just didn’t want to do anything at all.

Anyway, after several months of moping around, putting off jobs around the house and being a moody bastard to everyone, I had something of a lightbulb moment and decided to climb back aboard.

I decided I was wasting even more time when I should be getting AM sites running and getting myself established; I was effectively denying myself the opportunities of getting to a position where I won’t ever have to ruin someone else’s life; I will never allow that to happen again, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody nevermind myself!

So, I’m back – though I never actually got going in the first place.

The first thing I did was tear down the theme from this blog; I don’t need themes or fanciness, this is a place for my thoughts, ideas or tricks, and I don’t care what it looks like. Eventually I’ll paint this blog with a decent theme, but right now I have other priorities…

I keep forgetting to post recent stuff that I found useful or that others might find useful too; one such item is a blog I recently came across called UsabilityPost.

Dmitry’s blog is about design, but more specifically what’s good and bad about site implementation, sort of like HCI for websites.  I like his posts because he’s good at identifying weaknesses and potential areas of improvements in designs – it’s well worth having a look at his blog as he has some interesting ideas and views that I feel a lot of people could learn from – myself included.

Also, he recently had the opportunity to review Feedback Army – a site that I’d not heard of until now.  As you’ll see in his review, Feedback Army allows you to pitch your own questions to users of the site and get honest, unbiased answers back. As Dmitry points out, the response quality can vary; some reports are short and to the point, others more descriptive.

The other drawback is your tender for feedback is not targetted, those people that take it on and perform a review of your site may not be “into” whatever your site is about and consequently may not give a relevant feedback, but nonetheless feedback is feedback and I think when I get some of my sites up I’ll probably give Feedback Army a try – if they could introduce a way of targetting who you aim your site at for review, like you can target Facebook ads, then Feedback Army would have something even more useful indeed.

Gathering opinion and feedback can be a powerful “beta” process, and if done right and early enough you can make some positive changes before you spend time, money and effort promoting your site.

Yup, since my post a week or so ago about potentially joining the rest of the UK in joblessness (is that a word!?) things seem to have gone from bad to just plain hopeless at my full time employment.

Me spouting misery and woe at you is hardly constructive; my intention of this blog has always been to spur myself on, to push myself further and make some progress online, and I’m still determined to achieve that – despite the looming spectre of unemployment.

I’ve certainly not done as much as I’d liked, but I have made significant progress in developing my own little platform for launching products/sites, using what is essentially a CodeIgniter-based CMS. I know most people would prefer to take a generic off-the-shelf or pre-packaged CMS system, tweak it, and publish it and make instant money, but unfortunately I lack the traffic, the flair, and the confidence to do that. Maybe I’m wierd, I don’t know, but I just don’t feel comfortable using WP to setup a site, I’d want it to appear and function like a completely “written from scratch” website, without a hint of WP.

One of the other reasons I’m spending some time developing my own is to become more proficient at coding, at the same time I’ll have a better understanding of what my own system can do without having to learn how WP (or a CMS of some kind) works, and most important of all the code would suit me, would suit what I want to achieve with affiliate marketing.  I’m hoping to have a platform that will enable me to launch sites quickly without too much effort, and will look different to the usual WordPress-style offerings.

Don’t get me wrong, WP has it’s uses, and the new version is very impressive; I love the simple plugin management and i can only dream of designing a dashboard like WP 2.7’s for my own half-baked attempts, but it still lacks certain features that I feel are necessary for my particular projects, and I don’t have the time or inclination to develop plugins or mods for WP.

So, I’ll continue to mush on, and I promise to try and post some useful stuff on here instead of my whining drivel.

Well, okay, it’s actually the same office as I’ve had for the past 3 years, but as I was on a quiet late shift I took the chance to shuffle my desk layout, so now I get to look out of the window more often – there’s goes my productivity in 2009, LOL!

Seriously though, reorganising your workspace can give you a positive boost on your attitude, even if it’s just a minor cleanup or a different picture if you don’t have a window nearby. Working environments can negative affect your concentration, especially if you were facing a wall or a corner like I was; now I have an awesome view and more space (I put the PC base unit on the windowsill). Also, by removing all of the clutter, filing away the paperwork and most important of all – giving my monkey a place to sit and frown at me – it feels like I’ve got a new office and as a result I’m now raring to go.

It’s not all bad working a mixture of late shifts and weekends as it’s usually quieter which gives me some time to work on my sites. This time of year also gives rise to some superb views of the Manchester skyline, like these I took on Dec 26th….

…yes that’s right, I was working a late shift on Boxing Day, how sad is that?!

These survey results made me chuckle, mainly because I consider myself a housewife as I’m the one that does all the washing, cooking and cleaning (and no I’m not exaggerating, I do!) and since I spend ten times more hours online during a typical week than Vicky that must mean I am a housewife… or househusband… I’m confused…

Yup, another post, almost what.. 7 weeks after my first post about how little I do. Well, I’ve spent the best part of the last 3 weeks getting Christmas sorted and out of the way, so now I can concentrate on getting some real work done.

I’m also guilty of spending too much time reading other people’s blogs, but that’s only because there’s some interesting stuff to read.

I’ve realised that I spend too much time obsessing over simple things, which delays my projects and puts me off completing them, but, it’s the turn of a new year and as usual I’ll set myself some unrealistic goals like ‘lose weight’, ‘make money’, and ’stop wasting time!’…. we’ll see, eh?

I’ve been lurking online for as long as I can remember, and during my endless pottering around the Internet’s murky depths I’ve often found interesting sites, facts, and tips worth remembering, but as is quite typical of me I’ve never actually made a note…

So, rather than let my life’s experiences fade into obscurity, I thought I’d start doing something useful with my annoying habit of having a good idea but not bothering implement it.

I guess this is my first blog – probably will be my last and only blog – so don’t be surprised to find all kinds of crap littered around here. It’s kind of a giant notepad for for me so I don’t forget good ideas, tips or hints that I come across, but I hope it will be a useful resource for other like-minded people.

I’m an IT “techie” – tho I despise that tag, that is unfortunately what I am. As such it’s built-in to me that I find many things that impress me, especially when it comes to finding shortcuts or ways to live life more efficiently.

In the meantime, I’m off to scratch my head over themes as I’m not too keen on the dodgy default wordpress theme.

Stu.