As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently discovered the website Blog Booker, and I made myself a 400+ page, 20MB PDF of every post I’ve ever published on this blog, which has been around for a hair over a year.

Besides exposing me to a few things I didn’t know I even published, it’s been a vital way of summing up the year and taking stock of what I’ve accomplished.

In beginning Jellybean Boom, my objective was very much about creating and sharing a resource I hoped would encourage more people to begin some of the quixotic yet fruitful projects I had undertaken such as building the first co-branded web destination and assorted digital and video media for New Directors/New Films with very little money or resources.

I’m happy to say that with a blog packed to the brim with low-cost digital marketing and outreach ideas, as well as a video lecture on building an awesome site with WordPress, I’m pretty far along in achieving that goal.

But for 2012, I want to do even more, and so here are a few ideas on how I’m going to do that. 

Publish in new forms

After doing a bit of work in both film and publishing (and being somewhat frustrated by how fairly staid and unimaginative those industries remain), I’m now approaching books and storytelling from a whole new vantage point–that of social media and high tech.

I’m writing about my explorations, but I feel like they would be incomplete if I don’t actually turn guinea pig myself, so next year I vow to do a little experimentation of my own in the brave new world of digital publishing and micro-distribution.

Build the sign-ups

Part of what’s been so rewarding in the past year of maintaining Jellybean Boom has been talking to people about their own projects. One particularly fruitful session happened when I put together a brainstorming night for documentary filmmakers.

Where I thought I’d be advising them on Facebook marketing and brand position in the marketplace, the filmmakers taught me something.

It’s all about the email signups.

I think I’ve been remiss this last year in not building more of an email list. That’s something I’m going to rectify in the new year. And if you’re not building a newsletter list right now, I urge you to do the same. There’s literally no greater tool in grass-roots marketing than a strong, engaged list. If you’re looking for a little more inspiration, here’s a really interesting interview with Lewis Howes about an incredible marketing story built on a strong email list.

Keep learning — and teaching

Here’s a not so surprising secret about me. I love learning. I take classes all the time, go to lectures, take advantage of any chance I can to pick up some new skill or knowledge. I learn in both traditional and nontraditional ways — through someone’s blog or newsletter or just talking to someone who’s very knowledgeable about a certain subject.

I also totally love teaching. I taught a couple of classes over the past couple of years at Mediabistro, and had a lot of fun crafting novel ways to teach copywriting to the go-getting students there, such as the time I formed a mini-agency that serviced actual assignments I culled from friends in nonprofits.

I’m absolutely fascinated by how much digital technology is shaping the way we learn, and in 2012, I really want to explore some ways I can transform some of the lessons I’ve learned in the trenches to educational resources for others.

Take the plunge

Have you ever seen Man on Wire? There’s a particularly poignant moment when the highwire artist Phillipe Petit says of his daring walk between the Twin Towers in 1974, “I had to make a decision between shifting my weight from one foot anchored to the building to one foot anchored to the wire.”

That decision, which here is encapsulated so vividly, is one that each of us faces down the road of achieving our dreams: do we hang onto the terrain we know and feel comfortable with or do we step onto the wire?

Last year, in starting this blog, I wrote:

I have a tendency to plunge headlong into things. In the online space, that makes sense. Overnight success is rare and most of the best initiatives I have orchestrated came into the world with a whisper: a tweet or a short first post, and then ratcheted up in visibility incrementally over time. They didn’t start with a press release or a launch party but instead with a vision and maybe a reckless desire to just go for it, go out on a limb even when resources were scarce. Trying, risking and doing just a little bit at a time until one day you wake up and have an extraordinary community of people all around you, amplifying and shaping and supporting your efforts.

This year, I want to make bigger leaps.

How ’bout you?