Happy New Year!
In 2015, I published nine whole articles! Nine articles.
I started the year with a New Years resolution post and I wrote about how I use technology at work and for personal development. I also published a guide for learning new technology, and talked about Periscope, a tool that helps social workers to connect with each other.
One year. I’m proud of each one. I throw away more stuff than I publish and I’m constantly fighting against brain drain, mediocrity, and cliché. I consider myself a pretty decent social worker and I leave it all at the office. Sometimes, that includes my energy.
Social Work First
I could be wrong, but I think people are interested in what I have to say about the ways I use technology, get my stuff done, and interests in the gear I use. I’ve been trying to make this blog into a technology and social work blog, where the two are on equal footing. In reality, I’m a social worker that uses technology, social work first.
So this is the deal but I’m making with myself: If I think it’s interesting and that people will like it, I’m going to go for it. If I think it’s interesting and I think a few people will understand it, I’m still going to go for it. My own desire to try to please everyone I think might be reading this blog sure puts up a lot of roadblocks for posting. I’m still looking forward to the challenge of breaking things down into English while making it relatable, understandable, and interesting.
I certainly hope that you’ll continue reading, even if I post other social-work-related-but-not-so-much-technology-oriented posts.
Empowerment
I like making graphics to celebrate our profession and I like posting social-work related pictures to my instagram. I’m going to celebrate things like the World Cup, editorialize, and be myself.
At the end of the day, I am the Social Work Tech. If you’re here, it’s probably because you like something that I did. I hope. I write my articles for me first and I am finicky until I get it right. I hope you like what I’m doing and if you do, please let me know in the comments, like my Facebook, follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, and definitely tell your friends.
A Labor of Love is still Labor
Each post takes me about six hours to do. A lot of it is breaking down an article into the simplest explanation. The bulk of my time includes making pictures and graphics so that you can see what I’m talking about and so that I don’t bore the ever-living hell out of you. I do my best to make something of substance and that has longevity, which is hard when talking technology.
I am a one man show and I love putting up things for my blog.
Selling Out (or I need to put up advertising to pay for this thing)
My blog, which is also my hobby, gives me great joy, but I find that I’m spending a lot of money on upkeep.
I recently upgraded my service to accommodate the traffic I’ve been getting. The theme I’m running (pretty, isn’t it?) is a little resource intensive, but for visitors to have a good experience when they visit, the upgrade helps things to run smoother.
I’ve been forever against advertising, but it’s become a necessity and I wanna keep going with my blog and making things that empowers my colleagues in social work and related fields. So I’m gonna figure out how to put up ads that are not tacky, gaudy, or awful, and use whatever income it generates to offset the costs of my website.
[If you’re using ad-blockers, you’re not going to hurt revenue I never had. And if you’ve read this far, you’re probably reading me on some type of RSS reader.]
I hope you’ll stay with me. I’m going to make 2016 my best year ever on this blog!
Yours,
Ignacio
