1. N.Design Studio

2. Noupe

3. Veerle’s Blog

4. Design Disease

5. Vikiworks Studio

6. Web Designer Wall

7. Janko at Warp Speed

8. Abduzeedo

9. Paul Enderson’s Reflections

10. Ten Thousand Things

Make a List of Future Post Topics

I often have periods in which I have huge amounts of ideas that I want to post about, but no time to actually write them. Other times, I really have no idea what to do. A method that I’ve come up with to balance out this imbalance of ideas is to make a list of topics, or titles for future posts. Of course, sometimes this isn’t necessary if your mind is bubbling with ideas 24/7. For some reason, I don’t think that many of you are like this.

There are a few ways to create a list of future post topics, but for me, prefer writing it on paper. I often carry a notebook around me to many places. These places usually give me some inspiration for topics to write about. I made a page devoted to write down the ideas I get from inspiration, and turned it into a sort of check list. When I write a post that comes from the list, I check it off. If you’re around a computer most of the day, then you can make a simple text document with your ideas. Just make sure that you can access it easily.

Write Posts Ahead of Time

This method of mine has become very useful. There are often days, like I mentioned earlier, when I have great ideas to write posts. Don’t just limit yourself to writing one post per day. Write more, but release them later. For example, on this blog, I release 1-2 posts every day consistently. However, I don’t write my posts right before I publish them, unless I have important news to talk about. That would cause inconsistency, which is never fun. I write one or more of them the night before and then I publish them on different days. This way, when those unpredictable circumstances when you can’t write occur, you’re prepared. I’m actually going on vacation pretty soon (I won’t announce it officially when I do). But, I’ll be releasing posts every day even though I won’t have access to a computer. It’s very useful.

Write on Paper, then Type it Up

Writing your articles down on paper before typing them up gives you a few benefits. First of all, your computer can’t distract you as you write. Sure, you can try to stop all of the distractions and close all your other windows and programs, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a computer. They were made simply for the purpose of turning you away from your work.

Another benefit of writing first is that it forces you to proofread your posts. Unless you’re high off drugs when you type up your post, you will find mistakes and you will fix them.

What Software Do I Use?

If you haven’t seen the footer of the page, my blog software is WordPress. I don’t use anything else to improve my blogging experience other than a pen/pencil and a notebook. So far, this has been a very satisfactory way of writing for me.

How Long Does It Take for Each Post?

Depending on what subject I’m writing about, it takes from 10 minutes to a few hours to write my posts. I find that lists of tips (like my popular 50 Ways to Make Us HATE Your Flash Game are the easiest to write and take the least amount of time. My tutorials, however, often take a much longer time to create due to the research and testing that I have to do. Surprisingly, my Link Post Sunday posts also take a while, mostly because I have to search for good links, and often get distracted.

When Do I Write?

I find that I write my best posts at night. Like now, it’s about 10:00 PM and I’m feeling great while I write this (even after 2 posts before this!). I usually create 1-3 posts a night and release them on different later days so my readers aren’t too overwhelmed. As of right now, this post has been published 4 days after I’ve written it. The day after a hard nights work, I type up my posts into WordPress while proofreading them at the same time. Then, I use the handy dandy “Scheduled Posts” feature so I don’t have to think about them again. It’s a pretty efficient process, which explains why I’m able to put out my posts at a consistent rate.

Why Do I Blog?

Other than for the few extra bucks I get from advertisements, I blog to learn. This may seem like a strange idea to you, so let me explain. I find that the best way to learn is to apply new concepts into my life somehow. Usually, this is tough when you’re learning how to program. But, bogging has really done it for me. Why don’t you give it a try?

Almost every part of it is customizable, which I really love. Here’s a list of what you can do all by yourself:

Custom Features for Performancing Ads

• Set how many banners you serve and how many rows and columns you need (1 by 1 to 7 by 7)
• Set the distance each banner is from each other (5px to 10px)
• The weekly price
• Whether or now to use the nofollow attribute in the link
• What kind of ads you don’t want to be displayed
• You can book your own ads (to friend’s sites or affiliates) in your ad spaces
• If you want to advertise your site without paying, they have a traffic exchange system

Also, the minimum revenue share between you and Performancing is 60 to 40 (you get the 60%), which can rise up to 90% depending on how much you earn. This is a bit more than the 50-50 you get from most other banner services.

I’ve been using their service for a few days now and so far I’m pretty satisfied. So, if you want a great way to monetize your site, or you want to advertise on other sites at cheap prices, then check out Performancing Ads.

Although D-Zone doesn’t generate even close to the amount that Digg does for a few pages, there is a much higher chance that you will get traffic if you write a useful article. So far, I’ve gotten over 1,500 unique visitors and over 3,000 page views from them in less than a month. I’m very satisfied with the results.

So, if you have a technology/development themed blog, why not submit one of your posts?

Anyway, I’ve decided to try it out and there will be some ads in the right sidebar (instead of the books I’m currently reading). If I like it, I’ll keep it in the blog, and if I don’t, I’ll throw them out.

Just a heads up.