Shedworking Classifieds launched

Although there was a lot of interest in the idea of a Shedworking Swap Shop, I think it's a project that will have to stay bubbling gently on the back burner for a while. Instead, today - in the spirit of good old traditional journalism - Shedworking launches its own Classifieds service (the rates are exceptionally good value - do email me if you're interested in taking one out). You can see them just under the main panel ads on the right hand column.

The first to take up a spot is Sweeble - which had its own origins in a garden office - which offers online software designed to make it really easy for anyone to produce and print their own newsletter, magazine or brochure. "I launched the first version of sweeble about two years ago," says journalist Sue Greenwood who teaches online journalism at Staffordshire University. "It was a user-generated news website – a great idea at the time but I probably learnt more from what didn’t work! So I spent pretty much all of 2008, pulling the idea apart and completely redesigning sweeble."

Sweeble lets you write and edit articles, upload images and work with design templates to produce great-looking, full-colour printed publications. There’s no software to buy or download, no designers to pay for - everything’s done online in sweeble right through to ordering printing.

Among those using it already are arts groups, sports clubs, local charities, as well as one man/woman businesses looking for a cheaper way to publicise what they do. You can create publications with 4 to 32 pages and print from 25 to 5,000 copies. Print prices are good value (100 copies of an 8-page colour brochure will cost you £78, delivered) because basically you’re doing all the work and sweeble does all the technical stuff.

"My thinking was to make it as easy to print your news as it is to blog it," says Sue. "But I also wanted to build something aimed at those with the least time and money to spend on promoting what they do – the 3.5m businesses in the UK only employing their owner, plus all the people running local charities, sports clubs, arts groups. So far the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re now working on building the next set of templates for sweeblers to use."

For more information, contact Sue Greenwood on 07760 397037
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