Uke Hunt is Seven: My Thoughts

Since I started the site on 12th May 2007 there’ve been 1,858 posts, 20 million visits and over 90 million page views. And I’m still amazed that I get away with writing about ukuleles for a living. It’s such a privilege that I get to do something I love and care about every day. I can’t believe my luck.

This is the self-indulgent ramble post I sometimes allow myself on my blog-birthday – covering my general thoughts, plans for the future and goals. If you want something more useful read the Review of the Year post.

Thanks!

Thank you for reading: It’s such a thrill for me that people find the site useful. I know playing the ukulele helps me relax and – when I really practice a piece – accomplished. And I hope this site helps you feel the same way.

Thanks for commenting and emailing: Makes me feel like I’m not screaming into the void.

Thank you for spreading the word: Telling people about the site is absolutely the best way to support it. I put the success of the site pretty much entirely down to people recommending it to other ukers.

Thank you for buying: It’s my nightmare that one day I might have to get a proper job. So I can’t thank enough those people who spend hard earned money on my stuff. There’s no way the site could exist without your financial support.

Thank you for playing: It’s a huge inspiration to watch people playing and listening to the records. Just watching random YouTube videos gets my brain firing. If you do something cool I’m very likely to steal it.

Coming Up (Or Not)

Will Happen

Another T-Shirt Run: I’ve had enough people complaining that they missed out on the last t-shirt run to run it again this year. It’ll be the same deal: a limited time to pre-order, they all get printed at once then that’s it.

Blues Ebook Update: After updating these three ebooks the blues one is next on the list.

More iPad Friendly: This one is a pain. It’s going to take a lot of video code updating. And audio plugins are causing a few problems. Hopefully I’ll be able to sort something out.

Might Happen

Project Monkey Butter: Every year I try to do one big, top secret project (like Ukulele for Dummies or the Uke Hunt app). I’ve started work on this year’s project (code name: Project Monkey Butter). I’m very excited about it. Some times these projects work out better than others. So we’ll see how it goes.

Chord Progressions Update: I’m not entirely sure what to do with this ebook. I think really it needs splitting into two. One focussed on the practical aspects of chord playing and one on the theoretical aspects.

Coding Projects: I’ve been learning some JavaScript and jQuery recently (as well as brushing up on my CSS and HTML). It’s entirely possible I’ll never make anything good enough to be actually used. But I’m having a lot of fun messing with stuff and have attempted a couple of ukulele related things so far: a strumming metronome that only works in Chrome and a very early stages ukulele-selector.

Won’t Happen

Three things I get asked about regularly but have no intention of doing: ads, video tutorials and looking cheerful in my videos.

Now I Am Seven

According to the child development websites, seven year olds are supposed to display an increased vocabulary and greater attention span. Which is very good news for me because those are two things I struggle with. And I’m looking to improve them in the next year.

Procrastination

I have struggled with motivation and procrastination the whole time I’ve been doing the blog. Particularly when it comes to big writing projects. It’s a constant source of frustration for me. If I knuckled down I could get the day’s work done in the morning and spend the rest of the day staring at mountains and twirling my mustachios very independently.

The problem has been worse since Ukulele for Dummies. I knew I only had one shot at getting it right and that a lot of people would be relying on it to get them playing. So I felt under pressure and put a great deal of work into it. Afterwards I was burned out and I fell into bad habits.

It’s not just laziness – although that certainly helps – it’s based in anxiety. That I’ll screw something up so mightily I’ll have to leave the internet forever. Of the pain of actually making an effort. That I’ll put in the effort for no return, have to ditch it and I’ll have wasted precious time that could’ve been spent watching OSW Review or playing Mini Metro.

Writing

I’d also like to improve my writing. With any luck spending less time procrastinating will mean more time for editing.

Thanks Again!

Thanks again to everyone for their support over the last seven years. I look forward to the next seven years at which point I expect we’ll all be playing futuleles.