He’s changed his online store to promise a $5 donation to the Haiti Relief Fund when you buy any album. 2 are available, entitled “Every Window” and “Stranded”, along with a special “buy both and get them autographed” offer (saving $6!). Whichever you buy, the donation still applies.

And better still – the music’s great!

Get that warm fuzzy feeling by heading over to BillZucker.com and do your bit to help Haiti and independent musicians. If you’re in a band, ask yourself “what are we doing to help?” – as well as helping a good very good cause, you may well gain some great PR in the process!

I’ve been watching Rachel using it, and seeing some of the stuff posted by Pink Princess and Moosical I decided to give it a go myself! I don’t normally take photographs, which is a shame given all the cool stuff going on right now.

So, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to change that. And with the advent of the iPhone (more on that soon) it’s now really easy to take a photo and ‘blip it’!

Take a look at www.blipfoto.com/musosdan (of course).

So, I wrote this post about my 5 Golden Rules For Twitter.

It seems to be getting well received, with lots of retweets, and a few people contacting me directly to discuss their thoughts. It’s a good omen for my social media skills – something I’m increasingly looking to offer to other people/organisations on a consultancy basis (contact me if you’d like to discuss this).

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Jason for the opportunity, and to warn you all that there will be more from me over on the TwitJobs blog soon!

As luck would have it, the raffle I entered at work before Christmas came up in favour of me, and I won a £50 voucher for Ziniz Wine Bar & Restaurant in Bawtry near Doncaster. So we booked it.

Now, as many of my Facebook/Twitter friends will know, I was fishing for recommendations and opinions just before we booked. It wasn’t good to be fair… great food, but dodgy service. That said, all the reviews I found online were pretty old.

So as I say, we took the plunge, and (despite the first snow Rae can ever remember on her birthday) arrived safe and well just in time for our 7.30 table.

On arrival we were seated immediately, menus were handed out, and drinks orders taken.

Ziniz is an Italian restaurant as well as a wine bar. It’s very modern, and aimed squarely at the trendy 30-something demographic (they must have laughed when they saw us lot!). Clean, well presented, very nice.

And very attentive staff. There is enough of them that you never feel they’ve forgotten anyone, quick to notice when you make eye contact, and whatever we needed appeared within a couple of minutes. The only slight grumble would be the innate desire of every staff member to steal the garlic bread we were eating, and the eagerness to clear the table after every course!

The food was delicious, as I’d expect for the price (I’ll not tell you, but if they’re giving out £50 vouchers – you can imagine!) – every course a delight. Even the goat’s cheese was edible (not my fave). The lobster ravioli was indeed delicious, as I’m sure was everyone’s meal. Sadly, no-one managed to get too Godfather-y and “try the veal”.

The time between the starter and main was a little long, but when you’re enjoying yourself you don’t notice.

All in all, a good night. Great company, nice restaurant, lovely food. And to top it all, Rae had a nice evening. Definitely recommended, and we’ll be visiting Ziniz again!

Today, the British Arm unveiled a new section of their website. Called ArmyFit, the site aims to help those aspiring to better fitness with training help and motivational podcasts.

There’s a whole promo campaign with Kriss Akabussi appearing everywhere (along with some guy from the army) to promote the new site/podcast, etc.

Lovely.

Is it just me, or is this kind of annoying given that our troops are out fighting 2 un-winnable wars with old/rubbish/not enough equipment!? Why doesn’t Duncan Bannatyne do this? Or Sir Alan? Surely our armed forces personnel have better things to do. And I daren’t even think about what this is costing our already debt-ridden country…

For gods sake. Someone give me a job in Dubai or something.

After careful consideration of your performance as a friend in 2009, I have decided to extend your friendship for a futher 12 months, Try not to fuck it up!!! All the best for 2010.

Great stuff – thanks Paul!

It’s been a great year… meeting Rachel, starting McLarenFans.org and various other ventures, buying ForumWorks, etc. Very busy, and VERY fun.

Some things din’t go as planned. Last year I promised Musoswire would be rebuilt and I’d pass my driving test, neither of which happened. Driving tests still freak me out to be honest, and as for Musoswire… well, the least said about that the better. It is coming though, honest…

But lots of other cool stuff did… so I think I can safely say the year was a great one.

As you can probably tell from the title, I’m not gonna make any resolutions for 2010, but I am gonna promise myself a few things…

• Relaunch Musoswire
• Start an NMO podcast, and continue to post daily
• Revive ForumWorks and ArtsAroundBritain, which both kind of died for no other reason than they take forever!
• Continue pushing McLarenFans.org
• Launch a couple of other secret websites I have up my sleeve
• Oh, and I’ll probably try and get some sleep too….

Whatever your ambitions / resolutions are, good luck, and Happy New Year!

If you’re into blogging in any serious way, chances are you’ve heard of at least some of these names before. They are just some of the experts interviewed in a new book by Mike CJ and Nathan Hangen.

Called “Beyond Blogging”, the book (which runs to well over 200 pages) contains case studies with 15 of the most A of A-list bloggers, each containing masses of actionable ideas for your very own blog.

The full list of interviewees reads as follows…

• Chris Brogan
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Chris Guillebeau
• David Risley
• Penelope Trunk
• Chris Garrett
• Darren Rowse
• Pete Cashmore
• Jonathan Fields
• Shama Kabani
• Michael Dunlop
• Steve Pavlina
• iJustine
• Brian Clark
• John Chow

Quite a list I think you’ll agree!

The great thing about this book is that Mike and Nathan take the lessons from these A list bloggers, explain the nitty-gritty details and present the solutions and successes in a way which you can mold for your own blog.

It’s one of the best books I’ve seen for actual, useful information. Not on that, but you also get a workbook to help you disseminate all the information and apply it to your own situation.

It costs just $35 for the first 24 hours ($47 thereafter). Find out more and get your copy here.

He’s decided (or is that we’ve decided) to post a photo every day. Sometimes funny, sometimes nonchalant, always new. It’s a bit of fun for me and Rach, and of course Oliver has no idea (or does he?).

The only problem now is… Jewel will probably want one!!

Why not take a look at Oliver’s “It’s A Cats Life”?

Well, I just talked with my friend Mike CJ, who told me about a very interesting free report that he’s created, along with Nathan Hangen, about the future of blogging in 2010 and beyond.

As a blogger, or someone thinking about starting a blog, you should definitely read this report. I’ve read it, and it talks about some of the pitfalls that most bloggers face, and the many more that you’ll face in the near future.

It’s called 2010 and Beyond – The Truth about Blogging in the Next Decade, and it’s a very intriguing and education read.

It’s 15 pages, and reads in about 15 minutes. Considering the time of year, it couldn’t be released at a more perfect time.

So head on over and grab the free report. There’s no opt-in required and you can be reading it within 60 seconds by clicking the link below.

Grab the Free PDF