July starts a new fiscal year for us and it is a time of goal setting and a look into the future. This has been an exciting year so far and I want to say “Thank You”, to all of you who visit here regularly. This blog has woven its way through some different paths this year. We have explored goal setting and the process of creating new habits. We added downloadable resources with the addition of our Five Minute Solutions series and have explored new business books and even created our first podcast. Back in March we started up “MBA on the Run“, a blog about using audio books to complete a “Personal MBA” program. This new blog has found an interesting niche with a mix of travel, small business entrepreneurship, and a comprehensive audio business learning program.
Behind the scenes I’ve been working on taking my public speaking skills to a new level by joining a speakers bureau. This has been a challenging, but fun experience and I have begun putting together a package of presentation materials and business resources. As part of this process I’ve realized that both blogs have become online resources for a diverse group of people and the current WordPress format is lacking in a good organizational structure.
The standard blog posting format is great for online dialog but it doesn’t work particularly well for online assets as they disappear off of the front page after a short time. This makes it hard to reference different items and almost impossible to tie similar resources together. Over the last few weekends I’ve spent hours tweaking different WordPress templates and trying some different hybrid approaches. WordPress is a great blog engine and I think we have found some new organizational tools which will help us create more usable online resources down the road.
Here is a list of goals.
- Have a quick loading CSS format utilizing 3 columns
- Make sure it works in IE6, Firefox and Safari browsers
- Size it to fit in the common 1024 resolution
- Categorize online resources in the sidebars by subject
- Create “At a Glance” pages for each resource area
- Create a separate page for each resource
- Organize related products in a easy to find product section
We are close to releasing the new site interfaces for both of our blogs. We have been testing different approaches and making sure that everything works as planned. This has been a real challenge with browser differences and the organizational structure of WordPress. The good news is I’ve learned a tremendous amount about XHTML and CSS in the process.
Along the way some creative resources have come to light that have been helpful in helping us structure our work flow and helping to increase our productivity. A great online resource has been the accidental creative which offers a podcast, white board sessions, and general help for creative people.
Author Todd Henry has a great post about innovation that has helped keep this upgrade project alive… He writes…
The great thing is that you will never know whether you have peaked until you have lived your life. So for me this is inspirational, create everyday…be passionate…let your talent shine through and understand that no matter the age…you best work may well be waiting inside you, waiting for the right time to surprise the world.
Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in all of the problems and minute details of a project that we fail to look at the larger picture. Todd’s podcasts have helped me set aside a creative time each day and structure it in a way to minimize distractions. Turning off e-mail and minimizing web browsing have been a big help in actually producing usable outcomes.
Our new structure should be online in the near future. We have some exciting new resources and we look forward to sharing them with you.
Thanks to all of you for providing the inspiration to keep creating.
