7-29-12 WEEKLY UPDATE

I have been doing a lot of reworking of my remixes. I have 6 to finalize and then the music will be done. That's all that's new other than prepping my websites for the release of the new albums and new intermediate routine.

7-22-12 WEEKLY UPDATE

I went back and listened to the finalized versions of some of my songs through different speakers and ended up revising them. I am still in the process of doing this for my regular album. Bottom line is that I have about half of the first album truly finalized and 2 songs from my remix album truly finalized as well.

I have learned to no longer estimate completion dates. These albums have taken way longer than I thought but my ultimate goal is to make them as good as I can, not to release them by a certain date. Also I have been doing some custom choreography and have more lined up so that eats into the time I can spend on the music and website.

My new intermediate acapella routine called Just Tappin' is almost ready to go. I need to create a promo/sample video for it and that's it. However I'm going to wait to release it simultaneously with my new albums so I'm only doing one update to my websites (since I have a mobile and tablet version of my site it requires updating 3 different sites).

If you've been to my mobile site recently -http://mobile.unitedtaps.com/ - you may have noticed the store page not displaying correctly. That has been fixed so everything should look right now. If you ever find any errors or see something displaying incorrectly please let me know. I have been known to occasionally give free downloads to people who point out problems I have missed.

NEW BEGINNINGS CONCLUSION

So all my redesigns including my mobile site, and the addition of a tablet version of my site have been complete since mid-April 2012.  Looking back it seems it's taken me a full year to get the website where I want it.  Looking ahead it's all about creating new content.  In the pipeline are:


New Album (current working name is Unstoppable but that may change)


Remix of the New Album (current working name is Don't Stop)


Refilming the tap dictionary/syllabus in HD


Beginner Lessons Series for Level 2


New beginner and intermediate tap choreography

WEEKLY UPDATE 5-28-2012

WEEKLY UPDATE: I've written 13 songs for the new album and 7 have been mixed down (ready to sell for the most part). I also have 2 remixes finished. 

I got to (needed to) practice the other day. I spent about 45 minutes just woking on basic stuff like step heels, shuffle steps, and scuffle step heels. I only teach "live" 3 days a week and most of that is watching and cleaning dances not actual tapping so my skills are getting rusty.

I am still considering doing "live" streaming classes online this summer. If you're interested, type the days and times (include time zone) that would be best for you and what level you would like to take. Thanks!

DELAYED NEW BEGINNINGS

I believe in continuous improvement.  I am always trying to make my videos better and my website better.  So I was wrapping up a month long complete website (multi-site actually) redesign and near the end of it I got an idea for a different design.  I tried it out and liked it a lot.  It was clearly better than the redesign I had been working on (I have no formal training in web design) so I am now in the process of going back to apply the new design to all the pages of all my sites.  It's a ton of work and I'm a bit frustrated to be spending so much time on the websites and none on producing new content.  Once the redesigns are done though I will finally be able to get back to content so I'm looking forward to that.  Hang in there, I'll get there.


Rod

NEW BEGINNINGS

Welcome.  I've created this blog to share thoughts, ideas, and updates with you as United Taps continues to grow and evolve.  I'm getting close to wrapping up yet another major redesign (lately they've been happening about every 6 months).  Each time I do a redesign I feel like the site gets better and easier to use.  This site is about serving YOU, and I want to do that as well as I possibly can.  You are always welcome to email me with suggestions or questions of any kind (I get asked about pullbacks a lot:).


One of the biggest changes I'm making for this redesign is to give all the major sections of unitedtaps.com their own website.  I first did this with tapdancelessons.com and got very good results.  The advantage of giving each major section (lessons, dictionary, music, etc.) it's own site is that people who are searching for those specific things are more likely to find it (and more likely to click on a search result) if the site is specifically tailored to their search term.  It's amazing how much power Google has over web design and structure.


I'll keep you posted as things progress and I also want to share with you that starting July 2011 I will be devoting two days a week exclusively to United Taps Projects (filming, writing music, and producing new content).  This will finally allow me to be more consistent with the release of new content.  So look forward to a new round videos and then like starting summer 2011.


In the meantime keep tapping!


Rod