Martin Joiner’s Blog Confessions of a binge thinker

Open Mic Nights in Bristol to get listed first

With many of my web clients snowed-in I have taken some time to work on developing The Open Mic Finder.  As I hone the tool's features and input the data content it is dawning on me how much potential I have to make this into something massive.  There are so many directions to work on.  Reviews, SatNav route maps, slick error reporting features, Image Galleries, Performer Profiles, statistics.  The list of potential additional features is endless.  Also, as I delve deeper into Google's search results I find more and more people who have done - with some degree of success - what I am attempting to do.  But this does not put me off.  Because I am confident that the additional functionality that I can provide will make my site the choice of travelling performers... provided I get the support of the Open Mic community! I don't want to tread on anyone's toes or get competitive, I just want to build and provide a really good information resource.

So, with a brain full of ideas and only a few hours each week to work on this I had to make a plan.  I could see myself easily ending up with a database containing details of 1 Open Mic Event in every town across Britain.  As tidy as that may sound it would never get the support of any single group of people.  This website needs that to become established.  If I concentrate on becoming the No. 1 information source for one town, then I can promote that success and move on to tackle other areas.  I should be able to expand efficiently, leaving stable foundations in place.

So I have chosen to start with one of my favourite cities... Bristol.  Over the next few weeks I want to list all Open Mic Nights in Bristol on The Open Mic Finder and this will of course involve a healthy batch of performing

P.S.  My new years resolution is to really try to memorise my poetry so I can perform sans paper. Expressive arm movements and audience eye-contact here I come!

My new Open Mic Night Finder

I am building a little application that I think will be useful to many people if I manage to get it up the Google ranking.  I love travelling to towns or cities and checking out the local open mic night.  I think it's a good finger on the pulse of a location's culture.  But the amount of reliable information on the net is frustratingly small.  So this is my attempt to provide a tool that works.  A key feature you will notice is dates of when details were edited which should render the tool self-deprecating in the event of info becoming out-dated.  Unlike all the other sources out there who could be sporting 6 year old information and the visitor would be none the wiser. Users of my tool will know how fresh the data is!

There is also functionality built in for address details, venue phone numbers, Google Maps, YouTube videos and photos of the stages.  The pages are optimised for printing and Google ranking so if you like a page please post a link to it from your website or blog.

So please take some time to check out my Open Mic Finder and let me know what you think?