The February half-term blues

The RTYD social networking sites have gone a bit quiet lately. Maybe it's the English winter blues? The February half-term blues, even? There's not much new membership. Very little activity on the feeds. I'm not stressing though. After the Xmas/New Year blog posts about my frustration with it all, and me sounding like I was tearing my hair out trying to find ways to monetize the thing, I have been working more at the clinic and at a local secondary school. This on top of the school runs, has left me less hair-tearing time. Which is good 'cos it's really thinning up there. Working has taken the pressure off it a bit. Hobbified it again. I have a more balanced view of RTYD now, which is good.

I will continue to promote the gigs - not too many though, 'cos they're becoming a pain to organise. The more you do the more pain you get. Dates keep getting cancelled, bands pull out at the last minute. It's not worth the stress. And there's no money in it for all the effort.

I'm going to push the new automated musicians ads site, because I think the strength of the network is in it providing a place for mature musicians to connect and advertise. It's not in the amount of entertaining written contributions from members, that's for sure.

Whilst they have a band, mature musicians who work and have a family to care for, can only just find the time - and/or get the permission - to rehearse and gig. They don't have time to support other musicians doing the same. They have no need for a social network for mature musicians. They've got Facebook, anyway. Who needs musicians going on about what strings they use when you can read about, and comment on, what your old school friends are having for breakfast.

When their drummer has a bizarre gardening accident or explodes though, maybe then, they will need RTYD.

So, I'll keep spinning the plates, I'll keep thinking of ideas that would be helpful to mature musicians out there. I'll probably even keep blogging. But I ain't gonna keep stressing about it.