I’m still figuring this one out, folks. Personally, I am the laziest person when it comes to writing. Designing I can do all day long but writing … that is a completely different story.

So how do I motivate myself to keep at it?

1. Get Motivated By Others
   When I am really out of it and I don’t feel like writing at all, I go and read blogs at random. Not only does that give me ideas and get my creative juices flowing, it gives me the extra push I need. After all if so many people can keep blogging day after day then so can I.
2. Look at my RSS Subscriptions
   Alright so the current number isn’t exactly anything to write home about. But I like to see numbers go up (who doesn’t ). So every time I make a post, there are chances of that number going up. (Psst you can help … go subscribe up there). Anyway that gives me a little push sometimes.
3. Comments are my Fuel
   If anything really, really and I mean really motivates me, it is when people comment. It is great to know that someone is reading my blog (*hint*). So if you got a great discussion going on at your website, let that motivate you.

   On the flip side of the coin, I am going to take the time from now on to leave comments at blogs. It can actually be lots of fun once you start.

4. Relax
   Nothing good ever comes out of being overworked. So if you find yourself not even wanting to look at your blog, just chill. Take a small break. Go read a book, watch TV, cook, wash dishes, do the laundry … ok wait that’s getting on to the wrong list
5. Change the Topic
   I just realized that I have been posting techie stuff for a while. It’s been all about Wordpress plugins and bbPress issues and what not. Writing about the same thing can get to be a bit too much after a while. So take a break and simply change the topic. See my post about the Twilight Saga book. Now that’s changing the topic!
6. Give Yourself Permission to Not Blog
   This one will work if you are not a full time blogger.

   Don’t burden yourself with a post quota per day. Tell yourself that it is ok to skip days. While there will be days with zero posts, there will be days when you might end up writing four to five posts a day.

   Remember it is the quality of the posts that will keep your readers coming back. So being relaxed and writing because you want to and not because you have to will have a huge impact on your posts.

If I come up with more ways I’ll be sure to add them.

What do you do to motivate yourself?

Since I design custom blogs for my clients, I have to keep a lookout for plugins that can achieve any effect under the sun. Following is a list of some of the most used plugins:

1. Akismet: This plug-in helps you in stopping comment spam. It also keeps note of comments you mark as spam for future blocking. This is a part of your Wordpress download. You need to install and set it up, though.
2. Search Everything: This plug-in adds search functionality to include pages, tags, attachments, drafts, comments, excerpts and custom fields. It also lets you exclude categories and posts from search.
3. WP-Contact-Form: Give your visitors the option of contacting you via a simple form. The modified version of this plugin comes with a very useful Spam Protection option. See an example
4. Add This: Social Bookmarks allow your visitors to easily submit your posts to social bookmarking sites. Many plugins are available for this purpose including Social Bookmarks, Gregarious and Sociable. I just recently found Add This and although it adds a link to their site, it is less intrusive and less cluttered than the others. You can see the result at the end of this post.
5. All in One SEO Pack: The name says it all You won’t need another meta title, description or keyword plugin. This finally has it all.
6. Video Plugin: Easily add videos from YouTube and many other websites.
7. Google Sitemap Generator: Generate an xml sitemap for Google. This will help with Google spidering your website.
8. Database Backup: Weekly backup at your server or back up emailed to you.
9. Search Meter: Looking at search logs to find out who’s searching for what can be a valuable tool for figuring out what’s right and what’s wrong with your blog.
10. Permalink Redirect: This plugin ensures that pages and entries are always accessed via the permalink. Otherwise, a 301 redirect will be issued. In other words saves you from the duplicate content penalty in Google.
11. Fuzzy Recent Posts: Displays recent posts
12. Recent Comments: Displays recent comments and/or trackbacks
13. Google Analyticator: No need to dig in the code to add Google Analytics to your blog with this plugin. It does the work for you.
14. Subscribe to Comments: Lets your visitors subscribe to comments for whichever post they want. Try subscribing to the comments for this post to see how it works.
15. Related Posts: Using the Wordpress tags option in Wordpress 2.3.1, this plugin gives a list of related articles/posts next to the currently viewed one.

You can see a lot of these plugins being used at this website alone. I plan on adding more useful plugins as I come accross them so don’t forget to sign up for the RSS feed. There is also an email option once you click the link.

You can also browse thru the Wordpress Plugins Directory. There are loads of great plugins listed there with ratings and other useful info to help you pick the right ones.

…for hopefully a very long time

After having designed multiple blogs for my clients (I’m a website designer - read my bio), I decided to finally start blogging myself. This blog is going to include everything related to selling on the net - this includes, web design, blogging, email marketing, internet marketing … well you get the drift. This is going to become the hub for a lot of resources, tips and techniqus. So check back often. You never know what you may find.