DISQUS

Those comics cracked me up, Sid. Very funny, but so true. :-)

You did a fantastic job of talking about something very normal, in a much more interesting way.

Sorry. That was meant to say 40 hours a week. Doh! :-)

Jamie

If you were stranded on a desert island with nothing but you and nature, you'd have to stop smoking because there would be nothing to smoke. So people *can* stop smoking. They just have to *want it*. I think far too many people set New Years resolutions that they don't really want to achieve. They know they should set them because achieving them would mean a better life (no smoking, better eating etc), but deep down I don't really think they want to stop smoking or eat better because they enjoy both those things.

As for my dissolutions, I'd probably say TV is my biggest time waster. I spent about 40 hours a wake watching the likes of The Simpsons, CSI, NCIS, Sport and cooking programmes. Entertaining and fun, sure. Productive? Nope!

Thanks for the very interesting post, Sid. It's nice to see you back after the holiday break!

Jamie

What a wonderful story, Sid!

Thanks for sharing.

People really are amazing sometimes. I remember when I was organising a camping trip to Kandersteg, Switzerland for 18 Scouts in 2006, we got a random donation of £60 ($120) from a man none of us knew. It came with a note that simply said:

"This is for your trip. I have many fond memories of camping at Kandersteg as a Scout 60 years ago"

Jamie

I tried IntenseDebate and found it far too confusing and bloated for what I want in a comments system. I like threaded comments though, so I'll stick with Brian's Threaded Comments plugin that I've been using for a long time.

Hey Andrew,

Those are some awesome songs.

The ones on my list tend to be the traditionally motivating songs. These tend to be the new age motivation. :-)

Thanks for the link love!

Jamie

Hey Daniel,

Excellent post.

Blogging really does revolve so much around building new relationships, and that's why your points 1, 2 and 4 all discuss that.

I've built my blog solely from talking to other bloggers through comments, emails and social networking Web sites. When I spot a problem on their blog (a broken image, a broken link etc) I email them. I do that, because I know that when people have taken the time to email me about broken links on my blog, I've remembered their name and gone to their blog.

But there are so many ways to build relationships in the blogosphere, and all will pay far more than just more subscribers. Long term friendships are one of the reasons I love blogging. :)

Jamie

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Hey Jim,

I found that Akismet wasn't doing a great job at catching spam, so I installed the Bad Behavior plugin to work alongside Akismet. I now don't get any spam comments making their way to public view. They all get caught by Akismet or Bad Behavior. :)

The other plugin I like is "Odiogo Listen Button". It converts your posts to an audio file so readers can download them as a podcast and listen to them, rather than reading them.

Jamie

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Hey Simon,

So it's been a while since you made this post. How's the speaking going? :)

My own "word" to avoid is "errrm". I remember when I recorded my first video blog. It was five minutes long and there must have been 30 "errms". When it came around to the next video blog, I actively tried to remove them from my speech. Two or three worked their way in there but overall it was much improved.

Jamie

Taking online friendships to the offline world (safely!) is a fantastic experience. The first time I ever did it, I ended up flying from the UK to Canada for a BBQ in a friends garden. Since then I've met a load of online friends and the experience is always excellent.

Just recently, Chris Garrett and I have been organising blogging meetups for bloggers in the North of the UK. There's really nothing better than an offline gathering to motivate and inspire you to keep blogging. :)

I can't say I've ever been to a Tweet-Up, but I'm sure I'll attend one in the future.

Jamie

Taking online friendships to the offline world (safely!) is a fantastic experience. The first time I ever did it, I ended up flying from the UK to Canada for a BBQ in a friends garden. Since then I've met a load of online friends and the experience is always excellent.

Just recently, Chris Garrett and I have been organising blogging meetups for bloggers in the North of the UK. There's really nothing better than an offline gathering to motivate and inspire you to keep blogging. :)

I can't say I've ever been to a Tweet-Up, but I'm sure I'll attend one in the future.

Jamie

Heh. That's awesome, Matt. You should have given her a little bindle too. :)

Fantastic photos aswell. The contrast is excellent!

Jamie

Heh. That's awesome, Matt. You should have given her a little bindle too. :)

Fantastic photos aswell. The contrast is excellent!

Jamie

Another fantastic post, Sid.

I too have recently found that waking up earlier is an excellent way to increase productivity. My realisation actually came out of a desire to be awake when the sun came up every morning. We all see the sun set each day, but most of us rarely see a new day get born. Some people will probably never see a sunrise.

I had a desire to see it every single day, so I started going to bed earlier and getting up at 6am. Because, like you say, most people are still asleep at that time, my productivity and energy levels are huge.

It's generally just a better time of the day, even if you're not a morning person (I'm far from it, like you).

Jamie

Hey Sid,

I spend much of my time trying to find blogs I haven't visited before and then writing comments on those blogs. I attended a blogging meetup last month that I co-organised with Chris Garrett and I asked everybody to give their best tip for blogging success. My tip was, "Comment on blogs, and then comment on the blogs of the bloggers who wrote a comment on the initial blog". (I'm sure that sentence confused you just as much as it did the 15 or so people in the room).

Basically, I have a selection of blogs that I read on a regular basis and comment on a regular basis. Then each day I look at the comments on those blogs and click through to the blogs of those commentators, and then if I like what I see, try to give some constructive comments on those blogs. That's how I found your blog... by coming here through a comment you left on ProBlogger.

It may sound a little too "planned" and structured, but I find it's a great way for bringing in new visitors to my own blog, and more importantly it's a great way to build new relationships.

So writing comments on blogs, and then writing comments of the blogs of those who wrote a comment on the first blog. ;-) That's how I spend much of my time.

Like you, I also spend a lot of my time on blogging forums. I like to spark discussions and answer questions as well as get my own questions answered. Forums provide a nice, different environment to step in to when writing blog comments starts to get old. I often find a lot of discussions that inspire me to write new blog posts. They're a great way to motivate, inspire and make new connections. :-)

Fantastic post, Sid. I'm now subscribed!

Jamie

Hey Sara,

Wow. Have a I missed you!!

I hope you're well.

Those sound like some interesting links. I'll try make time to check them out later.

Thanks for the link love too. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I actually enjoy the story style posts much better than anything else. I always did like writing stories, even back in junior school. :-)

Have a great day!

Jamie

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I couldn't agree with you more, John.

So many people run in to business and other aspects of their life without understanding where they want to run to. As much as I admire their motivation, I cringe when I see it happen. I've done it. I've been there. I'm run in to so many things without knowing where the finish line was, and I've regretted every moment of it.

Define your goals, and define a path to lead you to those goals. You wouldn't set yourself a goal of running 26 miles in a marathon without knowing where you were going to run to reach that goal, so don't do it in business.

One of the best quotes that ever came out of Muhammed Ali's mouth is, "What counts in the ring is what you can do after you’re exhausted. The same is true of life." The same is true in life, and the same is true in business. It's what you do after you hit the wall that really counts.

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Wahoo! I won. :mrgreen:

Thanks John, and thanks for the kind words from the other commentators. :)

I'll be in touch soon, John. Thanks a lot!

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The absolute, ultimate, number one characteristic of a blog that brings me back, gets me hooked and makes me want to read more is the openness of the blogger. Do they show a picture of themselves? Maybe a video? Audio, maybe? Do they give a little insight to their family? Maybe they go in to great detail about their past on their about page? Maybe they show pictures of their lunch?!

If I don't know a bloggers name and don't know what they look like, I'll never become hooked, even if their content is very good quality.

Take this very blog, for example. Despite the persona of "John Cow", I know your name (Hey Bob! /Waves\ :grin: ) and ever since you did the live video casting a few weeks back I've felt a much larger "hooking" or "addiction" to your content because I now know what you look like. Now I know who is behind the words, I feel much more compelled to read your content, comment on your content and link to you.

I've wrestled with the notion of writing personal content on my own blog. I've been blogging in some shape or form since 2005. For most of that time I was blogging from an entirely personal stance. What did I have for lunch? How was my weekend? Which people irritate me the most? I wrote about it all.

Then in 2007 I switched to business blogging, writing about all things entrepreneur and MMO. Suddenly my readership switched from a group of people interested in my personal life, to a group of people who wanted to learn from me and actually had expectations of the content I would write.

But there has to be a medium. Often, your personal life will cross with your business. Are you not going to share the important lessons for your bloggers, just because what your learned and want to share happened at a time when you were eating lunch? I took a trip to New York City earlier this year, so I shared my photos and told a few stories of the time while I was there.

I've said there has to be a medium, and there certainly is. I know this because I read blogs that have found the medium. Ms Danielle puts out some fantastic business advice, but also shares her birthday (and other personal things) with her readers (BTW, her birthday post received a lot more comments than any of her "on topic" posts). Brendon Sinclair over at Tailored.com.au is another person who has found the medium. Almost all his posts are business lessons learned while he was doing something personal, maybe shopping or eating with his family. I feel like I know Brendon better than most bloggers on the Internet and I learn far more from him than most because he has found that medium of personal and business.

I've just recently finished my training to become a kayaking coach. A lot of lessons were shared with us, but one in particular has stuck with me. It was three letters... SEL. Safe. Enjoyable. Learning.

Now discount the safe part for blogging, but the other two are quite related. In the MMO niche, we all want to learn from other bloggers. But we should do that learning in an enjoyable manner. Enjoyment can come from any road, but I personally find that sharing and discussing your weekend is one of the easiest, and most effective ways of building a strong, enjoyable community.

Two people knock on your door, one after the other. One is serious and barely cracks a smile and strictly tells you about the product he is selling. The other quickly asks whether the dog next door is always that scary, and proceeds to tell you how he just got chased... then proceeds to tell you about his product. Which door salesman are you going to feel the most connection to? Which door salesman are you going to remember? Which door salesman are you most likely to buy from? I know which one I would prefer.

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Amen to that, Bob. I couldn't agree more.

I watched Vic's video slagging Caroline, and yes, I agreed with some of his points. In fact, I'd even considered Caroline's motives myself far before Vic had his say (I came to the conclusion that her motives were not an issue for me to worry about) But the way in which Vic has come out and said his things stinks. He lacks social skills. He lacks morals. He lacks respect. He lacks just about everything a human should have.

I'm sorry Vic. I agree with some of the things you say, but the way you say them is totally out of line and eventually it's going to bite you in the ass.

The fact is, if Vic was sat next to Caroline or Marc at a table in a restaurant, there's absolutely no way he would be hurling verbal abuse at them. Vic is making out to be some big shot who says it how it is, when really he's just a challenged, dysfunctional person doing the age old trick of hiding behind a computer screen.

Vic, if you're reading, I'll say it again... I agree with some of the things you say (by all means question the motives and morals of somebody), but the way in which you say it is way out of line. If you wouldn't say it to them face to face at the top of your voice in a packed restaurant, then don't say it from behind a computer.

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I just watched your video for ProBlogger and really enjoyed it. Excellent idea, Sara. Good job! :)

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Hey Sara!

Wow! This post was totally unexpected. Reading it gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside that creates an involuntary smile on my face. Thank you so much! :-)

I'll be entirely honest and say that the Upcoming Posts feature isn't a plugin. I've resorted to updating it each time I need to add a new post to the list. But I'm ok with that, because the value of that feature is worth far more than my two minutes a few times a week to update it.

With that said, I've always wanted to try my hand on writing a WordPress plugin, so maybe this would be a good place to start.

Thanks, once again, for writing this Sara! It was the perfect article to wake up to. :-)

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That's a fantastic video from Jack. Thanks for sharing, Sara.

I can't wait to see your video blogs. They can be hard work to do, but they're also a lot of fun. :)

P.S. It looks like your blog theme went a little crazy again.

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Hey Sara!! :D

Thanks for the mention!

I've spent my fair share of time outside the public eye of the blogosphere, while still working hard in the background. Later today, with motivation in one hand and a desire to rock a world in the other, I'll be re-entering the world of blogging in a big way.

I'll be relaunching my blog with some new, (hopefully) never seen before features, competitions, and good quality content. Most important of all, I'll have a plan, rather than some half-assed finger tapping that it was before. :)

So expect more from me soon. And expect better from me soon. And expect more conversation from me soon (I've hated not talking to the likes of you and other blogging friends. I've missed everybody!).

More soon... I promise. I'm really glad to see you're getting back in to the swing of things again. :)

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I'll drink to that, Sara.

It's no surprise to me that Web hosting companies are having to worry about this. I'm a moderator at a large forum called "Web Hosting Talk". There are hundreds of thread created each day that are negative reviews of hosting companies, and often a lot of them are just awful attempts to degrade a company from somebody with an agenda.

It's a shame this practice is coming outside forums in to blogs.

P.S. It's was nice to see your feed report a new post last night. More!! We want more!! :D

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