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3 Simple Secrets to Reducing Your Blogging Stress

This is a guest post by Karl Staib. Thoughts, creativity, and writing should flow freely and without tension. As I was writing an article a few months ago I noticed the strain in my stomach, neck, and jaw. I was straining to get the thoughts out. As if tensing my muscles would actually help me focus or even create something helpful to my readers. My writing was strained because I was uptight through the process. The tension was creating pain and I knew that I needed to fix the way I wrote my blogs. I ignored it in the past because I thought it was normal, sprinting through my thoughts until I began to stumble, hoping that after the first push of energy was over I would have something concrete to work with. And even when I ended up with a minor headache it was okay because I accomplished the work I set out to do. This cycle couldn’t continue and I needed a system. 1. Outline, Outline, Outline Writing was usually a chase for me. I would chase after the perfect sentences. A lot of times I would only have a flicker of a thought and begin writing – no planning, just bulldozing ahead, hoping it would all come out into something readable. Now I write a small outline to make sure I know where I’m going with the topic. The outline has reduced my tension because I can see the larger picture. When I get stuck, I check my outline and find myself getting back on track with minimal stress. Read more

Excellent designers

Here Dzineblog presents you the 10 creative designer portfolio of the month may , they are presented in no particular orde

9 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself Before Posting to Your Blog

HaraldJohnsen asks “As a quality control, what are the most important questions to ask before hitting ’submit’ / posting a blog post?” Great question Harald - I actually think that most of us as bloggers could improve many of our posts by pausing before hitting ’submit/publish’ and asking a few basic questions about the post. Here are a few questions that I ask myself:

• Does this post give something useful and unique to my readers?
• Will it enhance their lives in some way or is it ‘fluff’?
• Is the spelling correct?
• Does the post make sense grammatically?
• What could I cut out of the post to make it more concise?
• How could I make the post easier to ’scan’ for readers (headings, formatting, images etc)?
• Is the title engaging? Does it draw people into the post?
• Could I give this post a little more time before publishing to ‘mature’? Would coming back to it tomorrow help me to add depth to it?
• Have I written on this topic before and can I link to it?

I only had 3 minutes to write this post as part of my SpeedPosting sereis - so I’m interested to hear what questions you’d add to the list? Read more

Write Your Business Book Resources: NAWW Global Telesummit

You might recall that Sheri McConnell joined us a couple of weeks ago for our Biz Growth Live call. Last week she hosted a global event with her organisation The National Association of Women Writers (NAWW). If you are writing your business book or perhaps even a novel, I certainly recommend that you head on over to the web page for the event, as by submitting your name and email address you will get FREE access to a 20 page workbook and audio’s of the seminars:

• Secrets to Getting Celebrity Endorsements: How To Get Fabulous Celebrity Endorsements for Your Business, Your Book and Your Products
• Standing Ovation: How to Own the Platform
• Hire Your Very Own Journal Keeper for Expanding Your Creative Voice
• Copyright And Your Creativity
• Creating Your Memoir
• Creativity on Call-Become a More Productive Writer.

Read more

5 Ideas to Come Up with Blog Content from Your Daily Life

Many bloggers suffer from the daily grind of having to find new posts for their blog - but what if there was an easier way? What if your next post was right before you in the activities that you do each day? One great way to find new content for your blog is to capture things that you do in your daily routine that relate to your topic and then to present them as a blog post. This won’t relate to every blog topic but many of us are living lives that are a gold mine of content - we just need to learn to capture and repurpose it. Let me give you five examples of how to capture and repurpose daily activities for blog content: Read more

How do You Know When You’ve Finished a Post?

Today I’m posting a reader question as a discussion starter. It comes from Richard King: Hey Darren - I blog casually and largely for my own benefit but I read your blog because I occasionally flirt with the idea of “doing things properly” and I think you post some great advice. Recently I’ve come across a problem that I think you and your readers would have some valuable opinions on: how do you know when you’ve finished a post? Let me explain. Often, my draft posts are not much more than a few links to something I want to blog about. As I work, I continually add sentences, revise them, move them around, follow new trains of thought and throw other bits away. Gradually the post takes shape until eventually it’s in a fit state to be published. So far so good, but I can’t seem to stop myself spotting ways to improve the text even after it’s been published, pinged round to both my readers’ RSS feeds, and generally indexed by all and sundry. Read more

60 WP Blog Design

60 Creatively unusual WordPress blog designs that are a little bit more distinctive from the regular ones.

Quickly Build an Abstract Background of Colored Bars

Oftentimes there’s a need for a quick but unique design. In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you a short but attractive way to create a graphic for backgrounds, wallpapers, greeting cards, designs, and all that other good stuff. You will learn a simple photoshop trick that you can easily manipulate for your daily needs.

Step 1

First off let’s start by creating a new document and applying the oh so obligatory clouds (Filter > Render > Clouds). Read more

Adding Flames and Effects to Make an Image with Impact

Instead of riding snow, this boarder is flying through flames. In this tutorial we’ll create fire and smoke without using any photos. You’ll learn how to combine both to create a flaming, dynamic image that jumps right at you.

The Photo

First we need an image to work with. I chose an image of a snowboarder jumping from Stock.xchang, it’s great because he’s quite isolated against a straight blue background which will make cutting him out much easier. Read more

Core Principles for Rapidly Attaining Creative Flow

Consistently achieving a state of focused concentration can be difficult. There are some simple techniques you can employ that will have you rapidly entering this blissful creative and productive zone. Learn the benefits of Flow and how to get into that hyper productive groove.

Rapidly Attaining Creative Flow - Quick Overview

1. Create your optimal environment for working on your creative projects. For me it’s my office, mine is like a cave, or a big closet. It’s as removed as possible. Situated in a far corner of my house. That way external distractions are minimized and I’m able to focus.
2. Each day prioritize your tasks. Arrange them so that you have time to focus on the creative part of a project. Schedule this time of day during your peak performance hours. For me that’s in the morning. Fully commit to this time. Turn off your email, your phone, and your feeds. Don’t allow anything to break your concentration. Lock the door if you have to and turn on some music.
3. Start creating. Fully enjoy this creative time and be in the moment. Allow yourself to ignore your internal needs. Let time and worries drift away from your conscious. Focus deeper and become completely absorbed in your work.
4. Continue to push and challenge yourself in your work. If a problem presents itself that is to complex. Quickly break it down into manageable parts and keep working, keep flowing, and keep creating.

Kaboomb! A bomb just went off or you finished your work. Otherwise, nothing is pulling you out of this zone! Read more

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