Hola,
I have been meditating on and off for approximately three years now. Sometimes for an hour a day, sometimes for 30 minutes a day, sometimes for 10 minutes a day, and sometimes just phases of "being present" while walking etc. I've attempted many different types of meditation, focusing on the visual field, focusing on postive, cultivating loving-kindness, focusing on shakras, focusing on the breath, self-enquiry ("Who am I?" and "To whom are these thoughts?"), focusing on feel (emotional sensations) focusing on the body shape, observing thoughts and noting (image... talk.. image... feel... image...), etc...
I have never done any formal meditation training. Never set foot in a meditation centre, and never gone on a retreat. Right now that is unlikely to happen as well because I'm in Spain and I'm still learning intermediate Spanish so in excess of the usual difficulties of finding a good spiritual teacher I currently have a significant language barrier. Never the less I'm still planning on attending the local centre soon.
Until recently my meditation did not have much direction. By recently, I mean one week.
After reading the famous book by Dan Ingram I have decided to limit my meditation practices to only thought which develop concentration - I think this is the kind of conclusion that most people reach after reading his book for the first time. As much as I love Shinzen Young, he never made clear, as Daniel did, that you pretty much need "access concentration" at least before you can make good insight progress.
I think as well as just being a basic introduction about who I am, in this post I'd like to know where to learn about effective concentration techniques.
I understand the basics... decide on an object... focus on the object as completely and consistantly as possible... if you lose focus notice and refocus on the object... repeat forever.
However I'ved noticed several subtleties in this practice in terms of "efforting"...
1. Effort to "focus heavily" on the object.
2. Effort to "drop distractions" or "drop thoughts" (and feelings etc) as they arise... leaving only the choice object in focus.
3. Effort to "drop" into a more non-descript concentration state... (not really sure what I mean by this... I just sort of know what it means... it's like effort to increase the state of concentration, but not necessarily direct it...)
and I'm unsure as to what my practice needs to improve most effectively.
The extent of my concentration is that my visual field beings to bounce, shake, and flicker (like an out of tune TV), and also there are distortions which pop-up all over the place. I still find the practice frequently annoying, however I now rarely find myself "completely distracted" from my object of choice. A thought may "run in the background" or "run along-side" my concentration, but in an hour sit I'll only get fully distracted (lost in thought) maybe three or four times.
Any guidance appreciated. Particularly to websites or online e-books!

Thanks,
Rich