Jonathan Davies

Tomorrow I set out on my holiday to Canada and more specifically Ottawa. The main goals for me in this holiday is that I: one, explore a bit more into photography - I’ve heard that there are some great areas around Ottawa, especially Parliament Hill to take photos. I’ll be armed with a D80 and snapping everything I can. And secondly to relax: I’ve got a load of things planned for when I get back - some I can’t really talk about and some I just don’t want to yet.

One of my deepest regrets is that I am not spending enough time producing content for this blog. I know I keep saying I will be writing more and not much has come of it…

I have been thinking of branching out a bit; maybe talking about things I wouldn’t normally care to mention. However I will not let this blog simply become a news website - frankly I think a lot of you would prefer a no blog posts than repeated ones that you can find anywhere.

What would you like to see from the blog?

On another note I’ve written an article for Desktop Vibes that I’m quite proud of: Five Reasons Why You Should Use Google Docs. I’ll also be having another article of mine published sometime tomorrow.

Up until recently JonathanDavies.org.uk was the only place that you could really find content from me. Well, from now on, you can find me also creating content for Desktop Vibes, Glenn Wolsey’s new blog which I mentioned in a previous blog post. You can expect an article from me, in different forms about once per week.

I just want to make it clear that this new outlet will be an extra blog post that I write every week and will not affect the writing that you see here. In fact, I hope that the extra writing that I do will only strengthen my ability to create content.

My thanks go to Glenn for giving me this chance to increase the amount of people I will be able to reach on the web - this really is a fantastic opportunity.

My first blog post was published the other day and I covered the free app Dock Library. Check it out and leave a comment on Desktop Vibes telling me what you think!

Since the advent of the blog there has been a new kind of journalism, that in which the words of a nobody can reach thousands of people. Even personal blogs where all they talk about is what they had for lunch seem to have an attraction. Be it family members or random strangers who just want to know that there is still innocent things happening in the world. (FYI: I don’t do this!).

It is for this exact reason that podcasting is such a revolution - you don’t need much, you can even get away with paying nothing for your blog - you can just write. Journalism in the last few years has evolved on the internet, the gap between the old media journalist and new media journalist is closing. But there are still some things that have yet to change, and for the public to realize how similar these two forms of journalism are.

It seems that though internet journalism is encroaching on print journalism, old media are continuing to ignore that fact that soon, they will have a problem on their hands. People won’t go to the newspaper to get their news, or watch TV. Instead they will watch on-demand videos and read the news that interests them in their feed reader. All that currently needs to happen for this to take effect is for RSS to reach a wider audience.

Is this a good thing though? Is choosing the stories that you read limiting the wider stretch of the news that is given to you by having random stories you are at least aware of the current state of affairs - you could become shortsighted. Not something you want to do in a world like this.

Sure, baby steps have been made, they have a website where all the articles are published, but they still lack two things: community and personality.

I don’t think that bloggers get the respect that they should either, do you see Apple giving people who are solely bloggers iPhones early? No, instead the big newspapers. I find this interesting when certain blogs probably get more “readers” than some newspapers.

Will this change? I think it should; the facts are showing us that less and less people are buying newspapers and the only real thing that can be associated with it is the rise of the internet.

Do you think bloggers are given enough respect?

A big teen blogger in the blogosphere has made a massive change to the way his online life operates. Glenn Wolsey has decided to alienate his name from his original blog, GlennWolsey.com and move to a new, impersonal blog DesktopVibes.com. I think it’s a pretty interesting, yet risky move to make - though if pulled off well could have major benefits for both him and his readers.

Why did he do this? In his own words:

…the ability to bring in guest writers into the fold, an easier and more structured path to building a brand, and the ability to write abut things I wouldn’t have normally done with the site attached to the GlennWolsey.com domain name.

It’s true, and these are all valid points, but this may come at a price. A “possible” loss of readers. Lets face it, a lot of Glenn’s readers are going to be more casual. Even lazy and will probably never switch to the new feed. The thing is though, starting a blog for a second time is obviously a lot easier. you do have a following - even if you do have a few losses. And of course, you’ve learnt a lot, less mistakes will be made, I sure know this; there are many changes that I would have otherwise done. You’ve got to way up the pros and cons and see if you feel it will be for the better.

And what will happen to GlennWolsey.com?

Moving to Desktop Vibes for technological content and leaving this weblog for personal based entries

I just hope GlennWolsey.com doesn’t become stagnant, even if it does not remain necessarily technology related it would be nice to see an insight into what Glenn is up to. Would I do this myself? Maybe. If I felt that my blog was getting to the point where to add a new angle I would have to separate my personal branding.

What do you think of Glenn’s choice, and would you do it yourself?

They say content is king, but what if you don’t have anything to write about? Since starting this blog I have developed a few select sources that I use for information that I thought I would share with you. Just remember, the point of these sources is mainly to inspire you, to help you along - most of the heavy lifting should be done by you.

Twitter

If something big is happening, it’s bound to be on Twitter. People are continually posting links to cool stuff. A lot of the time people link to interesting or “outrageous” in some cases articles that you might want to add your opinion to that of the blogosphere. Be warned, if does become very popular, then the chances are the “big blogs” will be covering it and might have a head start over you.

The Archives

Sometimes I read through other blogs’ archives and come across what is now old and not so relevant. There is nothing wrong with taking that basis and rewriting it to suit the changes that have been made since and adding your own opinions to the mix. If it’s good quality and isn’t a total rip-off then you shouldn’t have any trouble.

Life

No matter what you blog about, the topic is very likely to be intertwined with your daily lifestyle. Take your daily experiences and talk about them. What went wrong, what went right. If it happened to you it can happen to others - there may be that one Googler looking for your post. In my case I have done this a few times here, here and here.

Where do you find inspiration for your blog’s content?

Technology is such a large realm. There are so many different paths you can take that can be so different and yet all be under the same title - technology. It is very easy to get caught up in these, especially when you have so many opportunities.

This has been a rather large problem for me, since purchasing my Mac I have delved into audio, video, graphic design, web design and much more. I think I am stretching myself too thin. Not concentrating on the precious few that I enjoy the most; or in some cases just have enough patience for. So now I think it is time to find a focus. Set a few things aside that I can put all my effort into. These are a the sort of topics that you can expect me to base most of my blog conversations around.

Video

I think I’m financially invested enough in the video space to continue. Let alone my interest in it. Video is a great medium to present through, and I think gaining a lot more knowledge in the field will allow me, not only to use my video skills but also slide into other slightly more niche topics. Like motion graphics and also work on sound.

Software

Having software around to enable our computers to do so many things beyond perhaps what they were created to do. I am continually buying and replacing new software as it evolves and I want to document my findings, for better or for worse. To steer you to, or clear of certain software.

You may have noticed that “software picks” have been pretty elusive as late, don’t worry, you’ll be seeing them a lot more in the future; in many different forms.

Wordpress

This is something that I have started to cover only recently, as you probably know this blog runs on Wordpress and lately I have been optimizing the site. I am always on the look out for good themes and awesome plug-ins which I would like to document on the blog.

Internet

Yes, this does cover a large area but you’ll tend to find me talking about web services, websites and just cool stuff that is around there.

One thing you probably won’t find me talking about to much is Apple. I think that there are already to many blogs covering the antics of Apple - I don’t think that I genuinely have to much to ad the the fray. However, never say never - obviously I use a Mac and buy Apple’s hardware all the time; just don’t expect me to talk about the company and itself.

I just want to make it very clear that, these four topics aren’t going to be the only thing I talk about, I just think I need to make it clearer to visitors what they should expect from this blog as lately I don’t think that the blog has had a clear path as to where it is going.

Is there anything you would like to see from the blog?

I used to write all my blog posts the week beforehand so I knew I would have something to publish if something came up. But now my attitude towards this have changed…

I think since I stopped this and started writing them so that they can be published the next morning the quality of my posts has increased in a few ways:

They are more relevant.
The quality is better.
They are more enjoyable to write.
I feel less pressure to produce content.
I spend my time more wisely.

I think the most important of all of these are that I am enjoying blogging a lot more. In the period a couple month or so back I stopped because I felt it a chore to keep churning out these blog posts that I was quite detached about. In all I didn’t think that they were adding anything to the internet.

All in all, I hope that this is the shallow patch that every blogger probably goes through at some time or another - or maybe it’s just me!

What do you think is the best way to write a blog post? All the week’s at once. Or as you think of them.

Lately I have been on the hunt for some good Wordpress plug-ins to enhance my blog, a couple of the results you have probably seen around the site recently. Here are a couple that I thought may be of interest.

What Would Seth Godin Do?

One of them is the message that you get at the bottom of every “single post” page which looks like this:

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also contact me. Thanks for visiting!

This was created using the “What Would Seth Godin Do?” plug-in. What’s with the name of this plugin? Well, it was inspired by blogger Seth Godin who advocates the use of cookies to distinguish whether you have a new or returning visitor.

One opportunity that’s underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies - Seth Godin

One of the features of the plugin is the ability to customize the message, pretty much to what you desire, you can also choose the location of where it pops up and finally, how many time you have to visit before it disappears.

Something that I have considered doing, simply for convenience and customizability (though it does fold the use of the times the message is shown) is using it in conjunction with the Adman plug-in.

You can get the plugin from Richard K Miller’s website. I’d also like to thank Chris Thomson for showing me this plugin. Remember to report back on your experiences with the plugin!

Social Bookmarks

I have been looking for an easy and good looking way to integrate social networking within the site. There was a big emphasis in the easy, I didn’t want to have to go start cutting and pasting code here are there. So I scoured the Wordpress Plugins site and found Social Bookmarks. It is a reasonably simple plugin with banks of options for what pages you want to see them on and in what circumstances.

I am not going to plough through the exaustive list of social networks it offers but a few I have picked out are: Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit. I am now aware that there is a Social Bookmarks RELOADED plugin which simply adds upon the massive list of social networks.

You can find Social Bookmarks here.

Props to Zach Kolleger for designing and coding me a footer which he has coined a “thick footer”. In which it adds the ability for you to add certain items to the bottom of your blog. For instance, I have my Flickr Photos, Blogroll and Tag Cloud.

Zach runs his personal blog where you can find him talking about his thoughts and experiences with technology. Once again Zach thanks for helping me out.

Remember to scroll down and check it out!

Over at Alpha Blog Designs they are having March Madness with loads of crazy competitions, one includes a custom blog theme for free!

If you’re looking for custom theme, entering this competition is probably in your best interest.

If you’re wondering how you enter; it’s simple, do what I’ve just done and write a blog post about the competition and linking back tot he post.