I should have mentioned this earlier but in case you had your head buried in the sand, it was announced last week that Going Solo, the conference for freelancers held in Lausanne earlier this year and due to be held in Leeds (UK) this coming September 12th, has been cancelled due to low registrations.

Instead, there is now a SoloCamp going to take place.

SoloCamp will run in a BarCamp, unconference-type setting, something which should work quite well and something I also feel would work quite well here in Ireland as a means of connecting freelancers (as in, it has me thinking about a possible Irish event).

It will still take place in Leeds on September 12th, at the Old Broadcasting House, a co-working space in Leeds.

For those operating on a tight budget, especially those who feel the UK and Ireland are running in a recession economy state at the moment, several hundred pounds outside of travel and living expenses for a weekend can represent a serious commitment, one they may not be able to make and as a result, miss out on some fantastic opportunities to learn, network, connect and create.

There were 25 people booked in for the initial event but hopefully the change of approach to the day won’t hinder participation and will actually increase the turnout. Having been involved in organising a number of BarCamp events in the past as well as an upcoming PodCamp due to hit on September 27th, both signups and attendances in Ireland have been excellent throughout the past few years, something I hope is replicated in the UK next weekend.

If you find yourself in the area and have the time (without needing the money) to make it to SoloCamp then do! These events can introduce you to a whole new world of people and open the door to many new potential opportunities (work being just one of them).

Full details available here.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Earlier this morning as part of a podcast show I host weekly we had an interview with Deborah, founder of Tast.ie and Spicendipity a new artisan foods company based in Ireland.

During the interview it was found obvious that a lot of Deborah’s blogging comes from the workplace - her kitchen; blogging, email, Twitter interaction etc.

So that got me thinking - where do you blog from?

Me, I tend to blog mostly from home. I’ve got a bedroom semi-converted to an office space with a desk placed at either side of the room (one for the Mac with the audio equipment and one for the PC, it helps to have both). As I write my blog posts each day I’m able to cast my eye out the window onto an extremely quiet and relatively private housing estate. Rain, hail or shine it usually looks good.

Only recently I’ve picked up a mobile broadband option allowing me to dip into town and get away from the office (my actual office, not the home setup) with the occasional blog post surfacing from one of Kilkenny’s many coffee shops.

So, what about you? Do you blog from anywhere interesting on a regular basis? Another interview I caught recently with a podcast producer had him podcasting from a wardrobe as it was “a bit quieter”. Do you need to lock yourself away or can you podcast from anywhere?

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve got a problem.

Late at night I used to crawl eBay. I could spend hours looking through random listings, watching old ones expire, see new ones creep in, go bargain hunting with or without ever actually buying anything.

That was 2007.

In 2008 I’ve become a domain name junkie, something that hits me when I sit down to do some work on the laptop late at night when I don’t have a heavy workload on. I end up crawling GoDaddy.com looking for domain names thinking to myself “Yes, I’ll do something with that one”.

Last night was no different as the collection of domains I have across two providers passes the 60 mark.

There are some good bargains to be had - .com domains for $9.99 and under (save another few percent with the coupon code “saveten”), .ca domains now for $12.99 if you’re in the market for a Canadian web presence. But this isn’t a sales pitch.

What I find myself doing is buying the domain name, attaching it to a pre-existing hosting account (deluxe accounts all the support of multiple domains to individual directories) and placing a blog there. It keeps me on my toes in terms of setup, delivery, then pushes me to the creative side to come up with a logo for the domain I’ve just picked, a custom blog theme, custom blog features and get everything launched.

With that said, you can expect I’ll be telling you in the not-too-distant future that I’ve gone and launched yet another blog of some form. Whether the blog stays maintained or gets passed over to someone else doesn’t matter so much to me. I think I’m just addicted to blogging in general.

It is a test though and if you’ve ever thought of adding a second blog to your collection why not go my route?

• Choose a blog topic
• Choose a suitable domain name
• Design a logo
• Design a blog theme
• Launch the blog and make your first post

Of course, the flipside to that is with my growing collection of domain names purchase on late-night whims, they’ll eventually have to be renewed, something which can become quite an expensive habit.

But the feeling of getting a new theme out there, a new blog started is quite a good one. In the end, if it gives you ammunition for a portfolio or something you can retail to a prospective client or on the freelance market then you’re on a winner all round.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Being someone who works a lot in the world of music and theatre, I thought I’d offer this tip as part of my ‘post a day’ series for August - know your local press.

Especially when you need to promote interesting things happening in the online and offline world related to the work that you do. Maybe you’re a band manager, booking agent, promoter, actor, freelance writer, reviewer. Maybe you’ve got a new project to launch, a new book, a new site, something of benefit to the local community or to your local press readers or listeners.

Whether you have to ring them, email them, meet them in the street - be forthcoming and introduce yourself. Get to know their requirements, their deadlines, style of writing, audience.

If you get it right, nine times out of ten they’ll print it. Newspapers need news, just know how and when to give it to them. It helps!

Popularity: 9% [?]

One of the staple ingredients of web design through the mid nineties was patterned background wallpaper. Any shape, any size, any colour. You could have neon flashing pink stars on black backgrounds, to wallpaper that would match something you would find in your grandparents’ house.

While the Web 2.0 era kicked off in all its white and clean glory, patterned backgrounds for blogs, MySpace profiles and other websites alike have made a serious comeback in recent times.

This morning I was pointed to a tiled backgrounds designer at bgpatterns.com.

Choose your foreground and background colours, set your pattern design, the type of canvas, scale of your image, opacity, hit “apply background” and you’re all set. The output is a readily downloadable background tile to use on your design project.

There are some nice patterns in the mix, plus you can register for a free account and save any patterns you generate on file.

Popularity: 10% [?]

If there was another reason to encourage me to move towards the iPhone (as a secondary mobile device I might add, not my primary), it would be the release of the iPhone Wordpress application from Automattic.

This, just getting in the door in time for my “post a day”.

While the application has only been recently released (as of July 22), it has already moved on to version 1.1 as of today with updates coming from the Wordpress collective earlier this evening.

This version includes several performance improvements and bug fixes including:
- Proper handling of multi-byte / accented characters
- A fix to the preview system that no longer creates a temporary empty post that interferes with certain plugins
- More helpful and descriptive error messages

If there was a solid Series 60 application for use on the Nokia N95 I would certainly be happy but as a fully web capable device, I’ve been exploring options for using the iPhone, particularly now that 3G support is available (I’m a 3G mobile broadband user).

The Wordpress application for the iPhone will work with Wordpress.com hosted blogs or version 2.5.1+ of Wordpress self-hosted blogs. Of course you don’t expressly need to have a 3G iPhone in order for the application to work as it installs on both the original iPhone and iPod Touch.

Given that I spend so much time working in Wordpress, and on the move, the app really puts the power of mobile blogging straight into your hands. I’ll look forward to getting my hands on an iPod Touch so I can make the test for myself.

If you like, you can track the development of the project here. You can also download the Wordpress app direct from the Apple Store here.

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you’re working in web design, freelance or otherwise, then you might want to take a look at A List Apart’s new Survey For People Who Make Websites.

The survey calls on “all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites” in order to get an idea on how web design and development is carried out on a global scale.

You can download the 2007 survey results by clicking here (1.6mb PDF)

As surveys evolve with time and responses from those taking part, so too has the 2008 survey with

more detailed and numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of (or partners in) small web businesses. There are also better international categories, and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.

I’ve already taken the survey myself - 44 questions spread across 18 pages covering a wide range of topics from income to working conditions, expectations in the workplace, competency and more. I’ll look forward to seeing the results when they’re published later in the year.

If you’re one of the “people who make websites” then take the 2-3 minutes out of your day to fill out the survey and make a contribution aimed at helping us understand our industry that bit better.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’ve long proclaimed I’m a music junkie. Through school age, music was everywhere. Through college, I couldn’t study without music by my side. When I opened the doors of my office over three years ago the only sounds you could hear were coming from Air’s ‘Talkie Walkie“>Talkie Walkie‘ album which saw me through my first two client products.

Of course, musical choice will be dictated by the type of project I’m working on and the time of day or night I’m working on it.

Day time music I tend to jump anywhere from Air to Bruce Springsteen to Newton Faulkner to The Killers. One of my favourite night time pieces of listening for those coding and design projects that take you into the wee hours would be the soundtrack to The Animatrix movie, a great collection of downtempo and off-kilter dance tracks. I’m also known to dabble in a little Yann Tiersen or Michael Giacchino

I’ve worked in places where the only thing to listen to was the local radio or the nagging afternoon agony aunt. Another perk of working for yourself, minor as it may seem, is being able to dictate the music on offer, especially if it such a vital part of your day.

The musician in me also keeps a guitar near my workspace. When Winamp, iTunes or Last.fm just aren’t doing the trick or I’ve hit a rut, I’ll use a guitar to work out kinks in a project. I’ll often take five minutes out to play through a tune, think over the current obstacle and return with a music-based solution.

I know well that music boosts my productivity. I get more done. I can manage more tasks. I’m more at ease with my day. I’m less likely to get bogged down in a project as the music “keeps me going”. How about you?

Popularity: 20% [?]

About ten years ago I was given a brilliant piece of advice…

If you don’t have confidence, fake it

The idea being that if you can’t be confident, at the very least you could pretend you’re confident. If success breeds success then confidence certainly breeds confidence. The more people can see from an outward perspective that you appear visibly confident in the work you do, the more confidence they have in you.

Eventually you’ll realise that you’re no longer faking it and you’re entirely confident in the work you do.

You’re not lying to yourself, you’re simply using other people’s confidence in yourself to build your own self-confidence. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Popularity: 20% [?]

Today marks the fifth birthday of Wordpress, possibly the largest blogging platform on the web.

It all started back on May 27th 2003 with the release of version 0.7. It was about 12 months on from there that I started to use Wordpress on a regular basis myself, running a now-long-forgotten security blog. Having used WP from that early stage, it’s been fantastic to see the blogging platform change and evolve on all points aesthetic, technical and functional.

The Wordpress community continues to grow with more people than ever offering free themes and plugins, Wordpress support, while premium Wordpress development has been able to create steady income streams for many a theme developer.

If you’re new to Wordpress altogether, check Wordpress.com to sign up for a free hosted blog, or visit Wordpress.org to download your own copy to install on a server.

For those of you living in or willing to travel to San Francisco, there’s a 9pm kick off for a party at 111 Minna with more details available here.

Popularity: 49% [?]