We’re nearing the launch of our next media site, Works With U (found at www.workswithu.com). The site, which will debut in early May (very early May … hint, hint), will help academia, businesses and consumers to discover the full power of Ubuntu Linux.

Initially, we didn’t expect the site launch to be too difficult. After all, our launches of MSPmentor and The VAR Guy went relatively smoothly in January because we had clear goals and a good site development partner. We quickly mastered new widgets and ad management systems for both of those sites, which now rank among the fastest-growing blogs in the IT industry. In fact, MSPmentor and The VAR Guy are already ranked within the top three percent of all blogs worldwide, according to Technorati.com.

Still, getting Works With U our the door presented us with some new challenges.

For starters, we have to maintain our focus on our day jobs (running MSPmentor and The VAR Guy) even as we push forward with Works With U in the evening.

So, we have less time and more platforms to manage. Boy, I almost sound like a CIO in that last sentence.

While I continue to build out our content and audience development, Amy Katz has been running our business — the finances, the partnerships — and she’s even been mastering some back-end code. I actually made the mistake of calling Amy a geek today (I think we’re still on speaking terms, though).

Looking ahead, our site development partners seem to be on track with the new site launch. And they’re adding a few new wrinkles to the effort, including next-generation video, podcast and slideshow capabilities.

We’ve got high hopes for the launch. Keep checking www.workswithu.com. We look forward to your feedback as we get set to write the next chapter in our business development.